After buying several new packets of paper and a new ink well I began on the herb books.

These were much easier than the bug books which, by the way, after reading all of them gave me an interesting skill.

Bug Lore

Basic Level 1

Your understanding of the grand kingdom of the insects that live on the land has granted you the ability to be able to identify different bugs and with a small chance of noticing differences between bugs. Previous research or possession of notes or books about bugs can increase identifying chances.

You can use this skill once per day per bug.

50% chance of identifying a “common” species.

20% chance of identifying an “uncommon” species.

5% chance of identifying a “rare” species.

It is a really convenient skill that works like an identifying skill. Normally players can identify any normal object like a pen or ink but we will get the name and the most bareback info. If you get the identify skill then you can get more information from something.

Now the herb books were easier for sure and in my focused state I read through them the next day after I returned.

I also got a herblore skill which is the same thing as bug lore except for plants. I can now identify some herbs which would be useful later on. I did finish my herb research early so with the extra time I searched for the real identification skill in the books in the library as well as taking up the hint from Thomas and finding a book on taming.

After a while I found the books I wanted and began reading it. First was the Identification skill to improve the information I gather from using this skill.

Just reading the book is enough to learn the skill and with my speed reading skill I could read the identification book before night time and had to work and organize the books again.

Everyday the pile of books is nearly the same size and I organize the books quicker each day since I was getting used to where everything was. If it was anyone else it might have taken days for them to start figuring out where everything went but having experience with this I was adapting much quicker since I wanted more time to spare.

By morning I had read both books which weren’t more than 100 pages each and gained Identify and Taming skills.

With the morning sun coming up a few people moved about.

I walked out of the library once Thomas arrived saying.

“I’m going to spend some time outside today.” I said and left without a care.

I headed to where the corpses were burnt yesterday. There was only ash but I wanted to see if anything survived.

Oh right the identifying skill isn’t like the lore skills. I can spam it as I want though it gains much less Exp as a result.

The area now had a large magic circle drawn on the ground and on top was a pile of cinders and ash.

“Wow, that huge pile was burned completely. That is an impressive mixture they mixed into the pile.” I mutter as I walk into the ash and cinders.

With a stick I move the stuff around trying to see if anything survived. There was only ash and some charred clumps that survived.

Some people looked at me strange but no one thought of any of it for more than a moment. I kept sifting through and finally gave up when I checked the whole expanse of the ash pile spreading it out well. I identified most of the clumps of charcoal to make sure there wasn’t anything on or in them but all I got was ‘Charred rat meat’ so there was nothing I could do so I left.

I entered the slums and spotted a body near the entrance of an alleyway. I walked over and bent over the rat body that had larvae on it.

The body looked no more than 2 days old because the larva started moving around and were moving into the body so that meant they were in the initial stage after hatching.

Taking out my bug notes that interestingly enough boosted my chances of identifying the bug.

With the stick I grabbed a maggot and used the skill on it but failed.

Annoyed, I dropped the maggot and took another and tried with no success.

Several tries even with the notes I failed until I finally succeeded.

Blowfly Larva

Larva found on a rat carcass. This larva is in its first stage of maturing.

“So blowflies exist in this world as well huh. This means the rat died yesterday at least.” I muttered looking down at the large rat body that had maggots squirming around.

I then looked at the maggot on the stick in my hand.

“Taming” I muttered and suddenly the maggot began glowing.

You have tamed Blowfly Larva (female)

“So once I tame something it tells me the sex as well.” I mutter and take out a pen and note that down. “Okay you are Larva BF1” I muttered and a message showed up.

When I noticed people were staring I took out the cover from my cart and wrapped the rat with all the maggots and returned to my cart in the stable.

I drop the body in the cart then thinking of what to do. I then grin as I look at the bugs.

“Yeah, the best way to level a skill is use it.” I mutter and take my stick.

My larva was back on the body after getting ordered to eat.

One by one I tried identifying and those I succeeded in identifying I tamed. I only found the ‘pioneer’ flies on this corpse which were Muscidae family flies and Calliphoridae Family flies. But it was good enough.

I looked at the stats of these two bugs which were mostly all the same.

Status

Name:

Larva BF#

Race:

Blowfly (larva)

Level:

1

Health

100%

Mana

100%

Stamina

100%

Class:

None

Hunger

100%

Thirst

100%

Strength

0.1

Agility

0.1

Dexterity

0.1

Endurance

0.1

Intelligence

0.1

Wisdom

0.1

Skills

Devour [Basic level 1]

Blood Suck [Basic level 1]

Poison Bite (Rank 2) [Basic level 1]

Status

Name:

Larva HF#

Race:

House Fly

Level:

1

Health

100%

Mana

100%

Stamina

100%

Class:

None

Hunger

100%

Thirst

100%

Strength

0.1

Agility

0.1

Dexterity

0.1

Endurance

0.1

Intelligence

0.1

Wisdom

0.1

Skills

Devour [Basic level 1]

The naming I gave them was Larva H for Muscidae which are house flies and Larva B for blowflies. The F is for female and M is male and the number shows the strength comparing them all. The strength wasn’t stat ways but genetically.

I named them all after going through all the larva so that is what I can come up with.

I gained 20 larva, 5 male and 15 female, which was rather good since I can breed a good number now.

“Now, my larva, kill off competition and eat the other larva.” I say.

Looking at the mass of movement I noticed some maggots popping after dying.

Slowly my own maggots kept killing the other hundreds of others I failed to identify. I laughed as they leveled up from killing their own. Oh right they get 0.1 when they level up making them move a bit faster.

After about a half hour only my own maggots remained but they were about twice as big as before which showed that leveling up causes changes to them.

“Interesting… leveling up makes them grow larger and possibly when they enter adult stage they will be much stronger than normal. Only hypothesis for now.” I mutter. “Eat the corpse completely, when new maggots appear, kill them off.” I tell them as I take the rat body and take it into a nearby alleyway and toss it in. There weren't any thugs but there also weren't any rats here. The one I threw was the only one.

I grab one of my water containers and dump the water onto my hands and clean it up. Then I take the container to the fountain and clean them in the water as I fill it up.

“Now then, with the silver coins I may be able to get some cooking utensils.” I mutter as I walk around until I find a general store on the east side of town and enter.

Inside I find some pots and pans as well as lots of ingredients. Just thinking of what I can make will all this make my mouth water. That said my jaw drops when I see how much meat costs.

“What… rabbit meat cost 1 silver…” I mutter.

“Aye boy. The bulk of travellers have left some time ago so we are low on meat so prices are up. Blasted bug problem driven everyone mad.” The man muttered.

I frowned, it all sums up to the same problem. Bug infestation.

It would take months for all this city to be cleaned out of bodies and the bug population done with or controlled yet in that time a lot can happen and people leave by droves.

If I want this to be resolved I need to do more than every 4 days.

I looked at the quest page for the main quest and found that I increased the time limit by only 2 days.

With a single alleyway having that many bugs the infestation was pushed back only two days.

In other words if I worked a week I could gain 7 extra days. If only there were more people working on this as well.

I’m sure if I return to that alleyway it will be filled with dead rats again.

Unless I continually gather the new bodies and then go into new alleys everyday I can’t transport all the bodies needed to clear the town. For a newbie this mission is truly impossible. My strength is limited and money doesn’t help since the cost for food is high since there are fewer players hunting the monsters and animals nearby.

I need lots of help but how…

After leaving the shop after buying a cook pot, pan and a wok as well as some knives and forks I go and sit on the benches in front of the fountain.

Looking around I saw that there was still the occasional light of a new player but it was at a rate of 1 every 5-20 to ten minutes which is low for a capital. There are also a few times of day when it stays an entire day without anyone appearing.

While I look around I notice that there were a number of bugs all over the place. There were several water barrels around the area and the fountain. I noticed how they were all bugs born in water.

“So these are using the fountains and water barrels that store people’s water to grow their young.” I mutter.

It was while I was looking at something that reminded me of a dragonfly that I saw my solution. The dragonfly worked hard to lift a small pebble off the ground and let it go over another bug before going to eat it.

“Why didn’t I think of that? I already tamed bugs. I only need to train them to lift up the bodies for me. With enough I can easily clear an alleyway faster by transporting them with the bugs.” I said with a smile.

I then looked at the dragonfly bug and noticed it wasn’t the same I knew and so I opened my notes.

I walked as close to it as possible and noted all the characteristics and looked through my book until I found something as close to it as possible. The name was ‘Glitter Wing Dragonfly’.

The name is only like that because the wings have glitter but even then it was strong material.

Looking at the dragonfly I saw it’s thorax but was in the water which meant it was laying its eggs in the corner there.

These were good bugs that were sure to help but they have a long life cycle that I hope is fixed in the game. Normally after hatching they remain from a year to four years as a dragonfly nymph in the water before coming out. I really hope this process is sped up.

I wait for a bit until the dragonfly flies off and then I look where it was. It was hard to spot but I did see small dots which were the eggs.

I thought about gathering them in a water container but since I wanted to drink water I thought it would be bad in case one doesn’t hatch. I like bugs but eating them is crossing the line. Instead I just tried the taming skill and surprisingly I was able to tame them all.

Normally taming would have a 30% chance for monsters at your level but an egg is below my level because it is still incubating and larva did take that percentage though.

You have tamed 43 Glitter Wing Dragonfly eggs, 30 female, 13 males, incubation time 1 day

Good, it seems the growth time is much faster than in real life since dragonflies normally hatch after 2-5 weeks instead of 1 day.

All current larvae have begun metamorphosis 4 hours until complete.

Oh, so the other larvae are already ready to grow that means they advanced several stages really quickly.

I looked at the dragonfly eggs.

“Let’s see, don’t know if it works but... Once you hatch, spread through the fountain and stay near the bottom while eating other dragonfly nymphs. Don’t eat any that are mine but only wild ones. Work as a pack if you need to kill larger bugs.” I said and left.

I headed to where I left the carcass of the rat and my jaw dropped when I saw the body almost completely bones and 20 small pebble sized cocoons that were my bugs.

I looked at my notes because and saw the cocoon color was off from what I had in my notes. I pick all twenty up and clean them off. The color of most of them was grey but there were two which were different. Examining them I found they were numbers Larva BF1 and Larva HF1. Both the strongest female bugs were different. The blowfly had three dark red horizontal stripes running along its and the housefly had two vertical yellow lines on its cocoon.

I couldn’t examine them so I left it. I already used buglore on them today so it didn’t matter. I would find out eventually but even in the stats it says Unknown in the race section.

Hmm, interesting, they may be some kind of race leader. Anyway with a quick look at the stats I saw they had all reached level 10 which meant there were a lot of bugs that appeared and they killed them all off. They all had 1 on all stats but as I watched it all suddenly rose up by one point.

“Seems metamorphosis raises stats.” I noted down.

I tried putting them in my inventory and found it worked as they were at this moment so I smile as I return to the library.

“So how was the field trip around town?” Thomas asked, seeing I entered.

“Well I found this problem is much bigger than I ever would have thought.” I said.

“Of course it is, a rat infested town like this and a swarm of bugs that is attacking them when they spot one it’s no wonder that the problems are arising.” Thomas said.

“How weak are rats?” I asked.

“About level 3 with 25 agility but bugs fly and are small, if a few wasps come from behind and sting the leg of the rat it will rapidly fall to their mercy as it is stung to death.” He explained making me pale as I found out the method they killed.

“Wait… wasps don’t give birth on corpses but in nests like honey bees.” I said.

“Precisely but I have witnessed it.” He replied.

“So there is someone controlling the bugs.” I said.

“Like I said yesterday, taming skills do work on them even though they live short lives.” He said.

I nod finally understanding what he was saying. In other words there might be someone controlling the bugs or at least wasps to have them kill for them to cause other bugs to spread disease.

I take out the cocoons I gained today and hold them to Thomas.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Cocoons, Blowfly and Housefly cocoons. I learned taming from one of the books in here and tried it out and left them to kill all the maggots that appeared on the body they were on while they ate the body itself. They ended up six times larger before they began metamorphosis.” I said.

“These are level 10 flies, it would very well appear as a variant because of the size. The lifespan may be larger as well. But why did you gather them in the first place?” He asked.

“At first it was an experiment and I wanted to see how it would go with me guiding them but now I want to tame more bugs to help me gather the bodies. If someone really is killing the rats then even if I clean every day then it would be impossible to keep the city clean by myself.” I said.

He chuckled to himself about something.

Since he didn’t say anything I left and started to work early to keep the pile small while looking around for any book that would interest me.

When I couldn’t find any and the pile was reduced to half the normal size I went to Thomas.

“Hey, you said if I worked here I could access the third floor right?” I asked.

“Yes, you can go up and read books in there.” He said nonchalantly.

“Are there any books up there I could use for this problem?” I asked.

“Books on bugs?” He said looking my way.

I nod looking his way. He tugged on his beard as he thought for a moment before nodding.

“There is a book about bugs but it won’t really do much about the problem.” he said.

“That is fine, where is it?” I asked.

He took a small paper and wrote down a name, number and shelf number.

“Just look for that book.” He said.

I look at the book name, ‘The Bugman Tribe’.

It was a strange title for sure but I shrug it off and thank him.

I head up stairs all the way to the third floor and as soon as I touch the door a magic array appears on the door glowing white for a moment before turning green and the door unlocks.

I open it soon after with nothing there to stop me.

“Magic Security measures are really scary. I fear what would happen otherwise.” I said swallowing hard.

“Well, at least I'm in, time to find that strange book.” I said to myself and walked in and started looking.