*Level up x 2*

{All skills level up by two.}

“GWA~!”

I woke up feeling alone and with a mild pulsating headache.

“Ha…ha…ha..”

Taking deep breaths, I looked around to find myself trapped inside a dark, humid dome like structure; with no windows. The air inside was thing which made it difficult for me to breathe and terrified me.

“Where am I?” I thought out loud, but before I could create any kind of commotion, and wake up the owner of the house… a notification appeared in front of me bringing with it the memories of my last moments with the king, after which I had blacked out.

Congratulations! You have successfully evolved into the variant unique species ‘The Silver “Trap Jaw” Ant’.

Please choose a name from all the given names: Anthon sneaked, Crystal heart, Ore Bloomington, Jack Light.

“I am already getting a name? Don’t ants usually get a name on their second evolution? Well who cares about that?

Your status has been adjusted according to your new species.

Stats from all of your passive skills have been accounted for.

Please check your status for further information.

“Umm… Okay. So status it is.” I mumbled feeling delighted and somewhat excited.

I didn’t outright open my status, but first tried to see what I looked like.

“I have changed, right?” But there was no light for me to see anything. Even night vision didn’t work.

Stuck between the thought of breaking out of what was probably my shell, “Same like kings.” And staying inside to relax; I was going to open my status when another notification appeared and took my attention.

You currently have enough mana in your body to try completing the first level of Body cultivation. Would you like to try now?

Yes/No.

“Not now~” I didn’t give it much thought and pressing no went for my status. And swear to God my stats had improved so much from the messily amounts that I had before that I wanted to jump around yelling happily at the top of my voice.

Jack ‘Greedy’ Light

Lv-2/10

Rank - 1

Silver “Trap Jaw” Ant (Unique)

Job- Scavenger

Gender - Male

Health

145.90

Mana

139.10

Stamina

100.90

Health reg

27.10

Mana reg

59.50

Stamina reg

93.90

Attack

34.35

critical rate

1.74

Movt Speed

270%

Attack speed

60%

critical hit

17%

Crit Dmg

69.73

Attack mag

63.26

Defense

23.48

Crit Dmg(mag)

128.43

Stat Tier: ‘F’

Stat gain/Level: +0.3Agility, +0.1Strength, +.1vit/+.1 End

Strength

21.5

Intelligence

19.9

Agility

21.2

Wisdom

39.6

Dexterity

34.7

Endurance

17.4

Charisma

12.1

Vitality

13.2

Luck

7.8

Constitution

13.9

My status actually looked… quite delicious. It was like I had grown into a whole new being.

“Actually I have grown into a unique species, but I have no one to share it with here.”

I tried to move my legs around to feel my growth, but the space was too restricted for me to gain anything.

“Maybe I’ll know once I walked?” And like a sign, another notification arrived.

Okay, it was no sign. Just a message from God saying,

You have 13 special skills and 25 skills waiting for evolution. Would you like to look at them?

“Whoa! That’s a total of thirty eight skills! Damn! How long is it going to take just getting through them?”

Sighing, I decided to wait in my egg and only go out after taking care of the evolutions and the long awaited cultivation.

“Wee~ I’m so excited. Okay, okay, let’s get the party started. Start with the special skills please.”

And like a very long menu, with all the unlocked skills appeared in front of me. While there were some which were okay and nice, others were just… whoa

Like this one,

{Glide has risen to lv 10}

[Special step: Float unlocked]

Float:

With your understanding in gliding over the hot and warm gusts of air, you can now float at one place until a sudden pass makes you tumble down the conflicting flows.

“So, if a sudden change in air flow doesn’t occur then I can keep floating over an area. That’s very useful. Okay next.”

{Slipping steps of the ghosts has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: Ghost form.]

Ghost form:

Makes you invulnerable during the slipping phase.

“Doesn’t that make me half-invincible? Just how great are the skills that I have luckily acquired!”

{Foresight has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: Shadow steps unlocked]

Shadow steps:

Before you were only able to see the sights. Now you can take the steps to get out of the harm’s way.

You will see steps in front of you which will help you maneuver and plan your attacks, countering your opponent’s attacks.

“So like a tutorial, no like fighting, but only using the moves provided by the system.… But won’t that decrease my personal skills? Taking projected steps won’t really help me against a versatile fighter or a real master of arts either. But it might save my ass from a falling bomb? I hope so. Okay, next one.”

{Bonding has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: Party system unlocked]

Party system:

Now you can form a five men party with the people you have bonded with. Party members won’t be able to hurt each other, and will share their gained experience from the kill with each other.

“This skill is like the perfect skill to help novice ants grow.”

And as if an epiphany had hit me, I now had the perfect way to help Tiny and the others grow and shed their novice casts.

“Okay next one. Man! These skills are so good.”

{Mind read has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: Memory search unlocked]

Memory search:

Reading mind someone’s mind is a dangerous adventure. It can lead to various complications, ranging from headaches to brain damage and even death. But you, who are now proficient in it, can dive a little deeper to read the memories of your opponents.

“Isn’t this like the perfect skill to interrogate someone? Who needs torture when you can directly read their memories? Hell, one can rule the world from all the information they can gather reading other people memories. Though the side effects are a little dangerous… Anyways, let’s see what whisper has in store for me.”

{Whisper has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: Call unlocked.]

Call: Now you can share and hear the thoughts of everyone you whisper.

“Finally! Thanks God for listening to me. Now I can finally talk with that bee queen and extort my honey from her. I hope she hasn’t forgotten about out arrangement. Not like I can do anything about it if she has. Maybe if I call Barry… No, no, no, no, no. I’m definitely not going to call him. No way. Nah eh!”

{Chance has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: Increased drop rate]

Inc. Drop rate:

In this world there are high ranked monsters that drop artifacts, weapons and material upon their deaths. This skill increases the chance of them dropping such materials. With high enough luck, you might chance upon something extremely rare and exotic.

*Sigh*

“Unfortunately this is an effect which has no use for me right now. I haven’t seen any insect dropping anything after all.”

But little did I know how good this skill really was.

“So next up is…”

{Prediction has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: Foresight unlocked]

Foresight: You were able to predict, now you can see.

“Troll.”

But I didn’t get mad. It was just one skill after all and I already had too many of them to count. So next one is high poison.”

{High poison has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: 20% chance of the poison dealing 300% damage to the afflicted.]

“Three hund-hundred percent? That’s too over powered. If any of my opponents had such a skill, I would have cursed the deities who had created this skill and asked them to nerf it down. But damn… Three hundred percent. Oh! I see. It actually has no growth potential. So it will stay at that value until its next evolution. I get it. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is one over powered skill.”

“Okay, next up is soul search.”

{Soul search has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: Proficiency overtaking unlocked.]

Proficiency Overtaking:

You gain some percentage of skill proficiency of the opponents that you kill. Kill enough form one species and you might gain skills which your species otherwise was never supposed to have.

“No fucking way! You are being serious with me? Wait a minute, wait a minute… let me read it again. ‘Gain skill which your species was never supposed to have…’”

I was dumbfounded. It was either that my luck had finally reached the heavens or I was dreaming. Because this was actually too much and too mind numbing.

“Isn’t that like over powered? So will I be able to fire fireballs in the distant future? And fly? I hope that day will come. Okay…”

Feeling excited about my ever growing skills I felt delighted seeing such wonderful surprises trying to knock me out again and again, but I held on to my conscious, and kept on reading forward.

{Stealth has risen to lv 10}

[Skill: Shadow hide unlocked.]

Shadow Hide: Stealth is all about hiding. Trying to stay as silent as possible. Now you can hide in shadows and become invisible to everyone around you. But remember, shadows don’t move on their own, so neither will you.

-100% Agility when I use.

“I mean are you kidding me? I can even hide in shadows now! That’s so fucking cool. A ninja ant! Though I haven’t used stealth much, but who knows, there might come one day when it will save my life. Just thinking about hiding in the shadows… I’m definitely going to try it after getting out. Okay next one up are High Stamina, High Health and Intermediate mandible mastery.”

{High Stamina has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: +1 to End. every level]

{High health has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: +1 to vitality every level]

{Intermediate mandible mastery has risen to lv 10}

[Skill: Detach unlocked.]

Detach/Attach: Now you can detach your mandibles and use them as throw able objects.

“Detach?” I subconsciously spoke and felt my face becoming a little lighter. A lot lighter actually, and the next moment my mandibles fell into my arms.

“What!” I panicked and started moving around. My arms almost struck the shell and broke it, ending my vacation right there and then. Thankfully, I understood that I had probably spoken the command needed for the skill to work and calmed myself down.

After feeling my smooth face for five minute, I finally attached the mandibles back before growing comfortable.

I placed my mandibles at their place and spoke the command, “Attach.” And marveled at the sight of them attaching back at the place they were supposed to be.

“Phew. Hell, I’m never doing that again.”

I was lying to myself.

And the system mocked me and poked at my self esteem by unlocking ‘Lying’ from lie detector.

{Lie detector has risen to lv 10}

[Special effect: Lying unlocked.]

Lying: You have studied and detected so many lies that you have grown proficient in lying yourself. Until it is someone who dabbles in this field, no one will be able to find out that you are lying.

The control over your expressions, heart rate, brain activity and thoughts increases with every level.

And that was the last of them. I had finally gotten over the hurdle that was my unlocked skills, but then I remembered, “I still have skills left to evolve… Fuck!”

But the notification didn’t stop coming and I let them be.

{Curl has risen to lv 10}

Curl has reached its maximum level

and has evolved into Fortress.

Fortress:

What do you do when you are encircled by enemies from all the sides and have spells coming toward you from every direction? You Clench you ass, grit your jaws and tough it up.

+100% Defense & Skill: Reflect, but makes you immobile.

[Reflect: reflect 50% Physical damage and magical damage.]

The percentage defense improves by 50% every level.

Duration: 1 minute

Cost: 20Mp

Cool down: 1hr.

“Aww~”

“A tasty skill, but very costly. Thankfully, my mana pool grew with my stats. Otherwise, how could I have used it?”

But the next notification appeared before I could comment about the skill.

*Ting*

[Title: Ant Hero gained.]

Title: Ant Hero

You used to be famous amongst the ants, but now you are revered by your fellows.

Rewards: +50% experience, + 10 stat points.

Bonus reward: All light element skills gain 5 levels.

Your affinity with light element has reached the boiling point.

*Ting*

[Skill: Light manipulation obtained.]

[Skill: Light ball (Tier 1) obtained]

{Light manipulation has reached lv 5}

[Skill: Purify gained.]

Light Manipulation: You can now harness the energy and positivity of light.

Light ball: A glowing ball of light which can drive darkness away.

Purify: Cures curses and poison effects.

“OH!” But that wasn’t the end of it. Turned out [Heal] which was sitting comfortably at level 22 was also a light elemental skill and the 5 sudden level ups from the title directly made it rise to the heavens.

And believe me, it definitely rose to heaven.

{Heal has risen to lv 25}

Heal has reached its maximum level.

{+.6 to HP regeneration}

Heal(2) has combined with Purify(1)

Heal(Tier 2) has evolved to become Heal (Tier 3)

Heal (Tier 3):

- Heal can now regenerate cut off limbs.

-Heal can now cure status effects; Poisoned and Burned.

-Heal can now cure curses.

Effect: +100Hp, +100SP

level up: +.1Vit/lv, +.2HP reg./lv Sp.

Cost: 50Mp

Group heal now covers 30% of Heals effect.

“Holy~ Fucking~ shit~”

The reaction was understandable because what I had gotten wasn’t just an upgrade, but also a sneak-peak into the realm of skills that was the Third Tier.

Who knew a third tier skill could be so over powered that it would allow me to donate my legs like they meant nothing to me.

“This is only the third tier and I can already regenerate limbs. Don’t tell me I’ll be able to revive beings at the Fourth Tier.

“Okay onto the next skill, which is… umm… yes, Inspection.”

{Inspection has risen to lv 10}

Inspection has reached its maximum level.

and is presenting you with the option to:

Know or Find

It was an interesting option, but the options were too much of a hassle. They were boring and dull.

“I hoped that one day I will get a skill that will allow me to directly see the skills behind those options.”

And thinking about my dream which was never going to come true, I choose the option ‘Know’.

*Ting*

[Skill: Reveal gained.]

Reveal:

Allows you to see the names of the skills hiding behind your skill evolution options.

Reveals the names of all Tier-1 skills during evolution.

And the result shocked me.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

I looked up at the dark dome and thanked to whoever was listening to me, because not only had they helped me out of the tiring process that was evolving skill, but also saved me from somehow getting the wrong end of the deal.

Evolving a skill and getting the worst of the two skills, who wanted that. Leveling skills wasn’t an easy affair after all.

Okay, no need to curse. I was just joking. And the next notification appeared.

{Reading has risen to lv 10}

Reading has reached its maximum level

And is presenting you with the option to evolve into:

Photogenic memory / Fast reading

“Isn’t photogenic memory one where I’ll be able to remember everything, just by looking at it once?”

The skill was hype, among hypes. Though I had no use for it now, as there wasn’t anything to use it on, but remembering everything just by looking at it once, no matter how complex the thing was, what could be more over powered than that!

“Photogenic memory, I chose you!”

*Ting*

[Skill: Photogenic memory obtained.]

Photogenic memory: Just one look and you will never forget. But remember, the number of things you can store and remember depends upon the skill level and the images complexity.

+.2 Intelligence every level.

{Narrator has risen to lv 10}

Narrator has reached its maximum level

and is presenting you with the option to evolve into:

Mystify/---

“Where is the other option?” I asked myself and the answer appeared without any delay.

This skill has only one branch to evolve toward. Remember, not every skill will evolve into something. Some skills can only grow so much.

“Ah… okay. Then, Mystify it is.”

*Ting*

[Skill: Mystify obtained.]

Mystify:

Your voice has the power to charm anyone. Please use with caution, as someone stronger than you won’t be charmed and instead will notice your magic and become aggressive.

Only works against the opponents of your rank and skill level.

+.2 charisma per level.

“So a charm magic huh. Don’t usually ladies have this kind of magic? Like the witches and charmers? Well, anyways, let’s see what others have in store for me.”

Rubbing my hands in anticipation, I looked at the next skill in list to see what it had to offer, but… things didn’t go as I wanted them to.

{Scribe has risen to lv10}

Scribe has reached its maximum level

and is presenting you with the option to evolve the skill into:

Draw/Sculpt

My anticipations were wasted on the result. As one could see, the evolutions in question were production skills. And I had no time to use them anywhere. Heck, I hadn’t been able to cultivate much, which was one of my main paths to get out of this messily life of an ant!

“Anyways…”

It was one or the other so I became content choosing to sculpt. I hoped that it would help me in the long run, and little did I know the future my sculptures will have in store for me.

Sculpt:

The history of sculpting is as ancient as life itself. Intelligent beings have been sculpting to pass time and to leave behind the objects showing their presence from long ago. Sculpting is a mysterious and deep root. Venture deeper than the inner most levels and you might find the treasure of souls itself.

Stat: Art points created.

+1 Dexterity every level.

“Well… that’s kinds interesting. The mystery of souls huh? No worries, its only 25 levels away. Then we’ll see what it’s all about.”

“Okay… then the next one is… umm… pull? Now, don’t you give me a useless skill too, okay? Give me an attack skill please!” I begged the almighty and my guardian in hopes that a miracle would happen and I would get an attack skill.

{Pull has risen to lv 10}

Pull has reached its maximum level

and is presenting you with the option to evolve the skill into:

Mana Rope/Mr. Charming

I choose mana chain so fast that the notification appeared and closed as if it had malfunctioned. I simply didn’t want to become a gigolo. Though the thought of having ladies attracted toward me was a very pleasing one, but the same shit happening toward men wasn’t what I wanted.

I remembered Barry the hornet and thought what would have happened if I had this skill active in his presence.

“The thought itself is cancerous.”

*Ting*

[Skill: Mana rope obtained]

Mana Rope:

A rope made of mana which can be used to bind to, hang, or pull someone or something toward you.

Cost: 5Mp per rope of 10 cm’s.

+10 cm’s maximum length per level.

Ropes strength and maximum length will depend upon its level.

Feeling the butterflies in my stomach I used the skill, giving it just a fraction of my mana to see what kind of rope would appear and slowly with the feeling of mana leaving my body a blue glowing about .05 millimeter wide rope appeared at the end of my front leg.

I stopped giving it mana when I saw that there wasn’t much space in my shell for a rope longer than a quarter centimeter and marveled at its appearance. The blue glow it was emitting was very nice. It was subtle enough to not hurt my eyes, but strong enough to let me see my new body and the inside of the egg I was in.

I placed the rope at the side, as it didn’t consume any mana after its construction, and moved onto the next skill in line waiting for its evolution.

Though the urge to check my body did arose inside my heart when I saw my abdomen shone a metallic brilliance, but I let my curiosity sit around and willed my mind toward my next skill up.

Which was, Values.

“Values? When did I get this one? Alright, doesn’t matter. All that matters is… no, let’s not hope anything from this one.”

{Values has risen to lv 10}

Values has reached its maximum level.

This skill can’t evolve any further.

And for the first time in my life I saw what that statement, ‘Some skills can’t evolve’ really meant. Until then, I had never met a single skill which had reached its maximum potential at Tier 1.

Yes, I had seen a skill that had only given me one option to evolve into, but never had I met a skill which… couldn’t evolve any further.

“Tch! Tough luck my friend.”

I pitied the skill which got left alone in the evolution race and let the next skill up notification arrive with a new fear clutching my heart.

Skillnoevolutionia, the fear of skills not evolving.

Okay, Jokes apart, the next skill was Dig and I kind of knew what it would evolve into. And the result showed that I truly was miles away from knowing anything about skills.

{Dig has risen to lv 10}

Dig has reached its maximum level

and is presenting you with the option to evolve the skill into:

Defense–less / Excavate

Defense-less seemed to me like a defense negation skill, which would allow me to neglect the defense of my opponents, which sounded and appeared to be cool and violent, but was actually a useless skill because it wouldn’t work on enemies above my level. And seeing how I mostly only fought against opponents who were far above and beyond my pay grade, it ultimately meant that this skill was… useless.

“So, Excavate it is, I suppose.”

*Ting*

[Skill: Excavate obtained.]

Excavate:

You dig around into and out of the ground as fun, but working over the years you found many different objects which you weren’t able to dig through. Those objects although intrigued your curiosity, but weren’t of much use to you. So you let them be and continued enjoy digging, going around such objects whenever they came in your way.

But no more.

Having dug for so long, you have sharpened your claws, and finally mastered the technique of finding that long hidden crack, the impurities and their weakness. Now, no mere metal ore can stop you.

Your claws have become metallic. You can dig through soft metals like they were simple dirt.

Your digging speed doubles every level for dirt and by 10% every level for metal.

+1strength, +1Endurance every level.

You can now see the name and that point of weakness in a metal.

Affinity with Earth element has increased.

*Gulp*

“Thank you God for your blessing and for showing me the path.”

While the skill information overwhelmed my senses enough to pray to the lord, the second part of the notification made me think that I had lucked up from this evolution.

“Metallic claws? Growing strength and endurance! Is this a cheat skill or what?”

“Okay, calm down… I still have thirteen more skills to evolve. No need to waste my time and let my luck wash away. So which one was next? Ah, patience.”

{Patience has risen to lv 10}

Patience has reached its maximum level

Your Intelligence and wisdom increases by .5 points each.

*Ting*

[Skill: Meditation (Tier 2) obtained.]

Meditation: Has the effect of calming your nerves and attuning you with the nature.

+100% Health and mana regeneration when you meditate.

It increases by 25% per level.

+.1 (Hp, Sp, Mp regeneration) every level.

Your affinity with nature has increased.

And I got the meditation skill once again, but with an upgrade. I had already seen those affinity increase notices before, though I didn’t know what they did, but I was still happy about them increasing none the less.

“They will show their effect one day or another.”

*Sigh*

“I want to get out now.”

The egg I was in was too tight. No one should be made to spend a long time in such a congested space. This experience was simply horrible.

Moreover the temperature inside was warm and the oxygen content in the egg was slightly low, making it difficult to breath sometime.

Though I wanted to break the egg and get out, but I knew that I wouldn’t get another chance to evolve my skills soon and I wanted to cultivate too.

“The zombies are dead anyways and the scavengers captain is probably waiting for me to come out of the egg.”

We had an agreement after all.

“And I don’t think I can lie to him about my evolution. Though I haven’t reached rank one yet, but this drastic change in my body and species will probably pull wool over his and others eyes and make them think that I have already reached rank one.”

“Well, it’s not like they have appraisal. Well even if they did have it, the level of appraisal is already higher than any insect could ever achieve.”

“Okay… onto the next skill, which is… cartography.”

{Cartography has risen to lv 10}

{Your Dexterity has increased by 1.}

Cartography has reached its maximum level

No further evolution is possible.

“Second one. So my luck has already washed up. No worries.”

{Treasure sense has risen to lv 10}

{Your Luck has increased by 1.}

Treasure sense has reached its maximum level

and is presenting you with the option to evolve skill into:

Metal detection/Crystal detection

It was like this skill was made to go hand in hand with [Excavation]. Or maybe I was getting these options because of the skills that I had. Maybe that really was the reason.

“Anyways, this skill is telling me whether I want to find metal or crystals. And I don’t think the reason is to help me cultivate [Excavate]. Maybe those metals are precious?”

Anyways, knowing that I already had a skill which could help me dig metals, I decided to go with Metal detection.

“I don’t think crystals are precious anyways.”

Yeah, little did I know how valuable diamonds were.

*Ting*

[Skill: Metal Detection obtained.]

Metal Detection: You can detect Metals in ten meter radius of you.

The range will grow by a meter every level.

*Uses 10 Mp/pulse

* +0.2Wisdom/lv.

And I felt something tug at my conscious. Some meters underneath me was a very big block of something. Which probably was the result of metal detection working its charm.

“So this skill is a hard worker. But I won’t move from here until I get everything done. So moving on to the next skill which is… Slippery? Now what should I expect of you Mr. slippery.”

I was enjoying myself. Knowing what the skills would evolve into was a hundred time better than firing at pigeon with a blind fold on.

{Slippery has risen to lv 10}

Slippery has reached its maximum level

and is presenting you with the option to evolve the skill into:

Reflect Physical damage/ Reflect Magical damage.

Steam rose from my head as I saw a glimpse of my bright future ahead of me.

“With Equilibrium handling physical damage and this skill reflecting magical damage, who will be able to stop me now? Though I’ll be needing a barrier skill like the old dead king to keep everything at bay. But this will do until then.”

*Ting*

[Skill: Reflect Magical damage obtained.]

Reflect Magical damage: Reflects 5% magical damage back to the caster.

Cost: Takes 10% Mp every time.

Level up: +1% damage reflection every level.

“Phew… only nine more skills left to go, but let’s change my routine and cultivate first. Who knew evolving skills could be so tiring.”