It has been about two weeks already since I went to the wilderness zone. I only have one week left and my one month in the city is done and I can go outside.

It will be imperative that I go because it has become rather boring inside the city and difficult to train my bugs that have grown into the thousands. Here is a list of all the bugs arranged in a way that shows their growth pattern.

Bug list

Toxic Blowfly

Toxic Blood Sucker

Gale Strider

Lightning Strider

Striped Glitter Moth

*Neural Poison Glitter Moth

*Toxic Poison Glitter Moth

Glitter Wing Dragonfly (Nymph phase)

Brown Spider

Brown Brain Hive Spider

Brown Soldier Hive Spider

Brown Worker Hive Spider

Brown Breeder Hive Spider

Grey Garden Spider

Black Spider

Stealth Spider

Net Spitter Spider

Stripped Garden Spider

Stripped Hive Queen Spider

Stripped Hive Brain Spider

Stripped Solder Hive Spider

Stripped Worker Hive Spider

Stripped Breeder Hive Spider

Flesh Fly

Flesh Hunter Wasp

Scavenger Fly

Scavenger Wasp

Biting Midges

Bug Hunter Midges

Rove Beetle

Deathwatch Beetle

Carcass Beetle

Horned Flesh Beetle

Bombardier Beetle

Flare Fly

This is the current line up for all my bugs. Just from looking you can tell a lot changed. The strider and blood sucker also changed. I have effectively made 6 variants from both of them. Each one consists of one stat that is exactly 1 complete stat point ahead of all the other and that has caused the outward appearance of Str, Agi and Edu bugs to change. Str has made them bulkier and much sturdier though still easy to kill since the shell around it is fragile. Agi made them thin and nimble while the wings evolved and became longer and thicker to push more air. They can maneuver well enough but a simple wind pushes them since they don’t have the strength to go against it. End has made the exoskeleton bulky and hard like a beetle shell. It has become heavy as well and makes flying harder for them and they are reduced to ‘jumping’ off walls and flying a short distance similar to how roaches do it.

The other three stats don’t give noticeable differences. Int bugs don't really change nor do Dex but Wisdom bugs have mucked up minds. I can see that breeding Int and Wis bugs will clear this murky mind and maybe result in a queen figure for each of these species.

As you noticed two spider species have turned into hive breeds. The same way I did the flies I did the spiders but spiders are more efficient than flies. I was rather shocked to find that Brown spiders and Stripped Garden spiders had potential for a personal hive mind. I cultivated the brain spider which was easy because it was a specific gene that increased both Int and Wis making the spiders rapidly grow smarter until the brain spider appeared. In the same way the Striped Garden Queen Spider appeared even more rapidly. The queen is a rare variant of the brain spider which is several times smarter than the brain spider and is the top in the heirary.

The Striped spiders also have brain spiders but now they are in a kind of submissive state towards the queen. Since they would have wasted away if I gave them commands to become like generals towards the spiders. They now command the spiders and thanks to their higher intelligence they know how to build their nest more efficiently and with my instructions have been learning to make more efficient traps.

The other bugs I got later on have also shown growth after I had them rank up once and I have done the same to them what I did to the blow flies and striders.

The last great change was the final two bugs on my list. These are the hardest little fuckers to breed without a doubt.

The Bombardier Beetle is like the one on earth. A small about 1.2-1.8 cm in length and have the unique ability to shoot out hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide mixing them together and using the chemical reaction as a defense mechanism.

The reason they are a pain is because they not only don’t eat corpses, they eat other bugs and larva, that includes when they are larva as well.

The bad part though is that they don’t eat corpses which make up a huge part of my bugs diet to this point and allowed them the possibility to become a higher ranked bug.

Still after some research I found that this type of bug is already a rank higher than normal. In truth they are a variant of Rove Beetles that were burned as larva and survived. I found this out when I experimented with my beetles by grabbing them with two small sticks and putting them over a candle fire and leaving them there while watching their health. I burned them then returned them to a corpse to recover and repeat this.

The Flare fly was the second species of fire based bug that I found in the ash piles. They are also from the beetles but they took a similar form to a firefly. The main difference is their ability to spit out acid that causes burns. The light on their back signals when they will use its spit. Normally the light is yellow but once it flashes a continuous red you know it will use its attack.

This one also is a pain to breed as it is also a bug eater. Thankfully it doesn’t have the same habits as a firefly where it does after the adult stage and only thinks of breeding. Though I do make it breed, it is slow as they produce only about 10 eggs each.

The time as an egg is 1 day, as a larva 3 days and as a pupa 4. As you can tell it’s not the fastest breeding bug unlike blow flies which are 10 hours as larva, 4 as cocoon and an unknown time for adults since none have died naturally besides when they breed.

Still they have a strong weapon for themselves even though they have a slow breeding speed compared to others. It will be useful in the long run after I have lots of them using it together.

For now I have started mixing the flies that have been totally bred to one stat with another like Str and Agi or Str and End.

Now besides all the bug’s changes I have grown quite a bit in skill levels. My Glaive mastery is now Basic level 4 and thanks to Flor who trained in blacksmithing, with me getting lots of money from the constantly more efficient gathering bodies from the alleyway I have gotten more and more money so I was able to buy her the gear she needed for her blacksmithing and alchemy.

Though she owes me she already said she would prefer travelling with a friend so we have been in party mode since nearly day 1.

Now as skills go, other skills I leveled up, Identify [basic level 3], Taming [Basic level 2], Buglore [Basic level 2], and Hive Portal [Basic level 2].

Identify was good since I spam it on bug parts like the wings and so on. I found that any bugs above the original, had parts that could be used in alchemy which greatly pleased the blossoming alchemist.

Taming came from the simple fact that bugs would naturally be tamed by me if in the hive even if I didn’t manually do it. Buglore was improved as I identified more bugs and Hive portal went up a level by using the portals. The level up to the portal made it stay open 2 more seconds and wasted 1 less mana.

Stats wise I have grown rather well. Though I won’t be winning any championships with it I will be able to hunt on my own if I can’t call my bugs. Since I had money and the diagrams, I had Flor make me a basic Glaive, she learned carpentry to make the wooden parts as well but can’t make the instrument part on the back due to its complex nature. I had to pay an experienced carpenter to make it for me after giving him a copy of the diagram.

The price was rather steep because it seems even though it’s supposed to be an instrument it also had to be usable as a weapon so the wooden casing on the outside had to be hard and the carpenter used special Iron wood to protect the interior.

Still the weapon ended up rather unique and it was hard to use. The blade and instrument were strangely balanced in weight down to the ounce which made it easy to adapt to the weapon after training with a weighted bo-staff for a while.

Gear wise I have purchased basic leather gear since being in farmer clothes made me out as a weakling so it was rather annoying.

Flor bought cloth gear and learned some magic, earth magic specifically, and now carries a staff with her and a book with magic she should train.

Magic for me, during free time at night I tried to find and learn all the types. Mostly the most basic of them. This wasn’t to be overwhelming, no, this was first to have adaptive capability against enemies and to be able to use this magic on my bugs to cause unique bugs to surface through unique conditions like the fire ones did.

I learned more magic enchantment, coating mana on the weapon and making it a specific element, and using it physically. It worked best for me in my opinion since I can leave long range later on to either friends or my bugs.

At this moment I was in the training hall just about finishing my training routine which involved punishing the dummy with thousands of magic attacks while trying to handle the Glaive and trying to use both sides efficiently.

The Trainer had taken a liking to my fighting style and taught me a few Halberd related skills that could be used with a glaive.

Its skills that all polearms can use like 360 spin and so on. I used a few games that had polearms and tried copying the skills. With the instrument side of the Glaive I would try and somersault into the air then spin before bringing either side of the glaive down.

It is a very difficult thing to do since the pole needs to be flexible. I kind of lost count how many times I had Flor switch the shaft. We used the best most flexible wood available but it needed flexibility and durability or it would fail. Metal was out of the picture since it didn’t bend enough to allow the needed power to throw me into the air since the shaft needed to bend a bit.

After a while and lots of my money we ended with Ash wood which isn’t that good but the flexibility and strength were okay for what we needed.

With this, though I need to be careful, I can do several somersaults with this one before I need it repaired so that it doesn’t break.

“Okay, Droso. That’s good enough for today!” The training instructor shouted.

After having spent so long using a strange weapon he has taken a liking to me for my dedication with the weapon.

“You have gotten good, soon the training hall would become worthless to you.” He said.

This made me tilt my head wondering what he meant.

“Oh you must not know. The training hall is only useful until your stats are 40 points after training here. Also weapon mastery skills will only rise to Basic level 5 in here. Any more higher will be cultivated out in the world.” He said with a laugh.

I understood what he meant. This was to keep diligent trainees from remaining in the training halls forever.

“Well, I am still level 4 in my weapon skill and I’m only a little far from the stats limit. I still got a week before I can leave the town anyway.” I replied.

“That is good, we have been needing more strong warriors like you. The number of animal attacks on the farmers have increased and the city guards are stretched thin trying to cull their numbers.” He said.

I thought about it. I didn’t really want to go hunting before I killed my nightmare. I needed that area to be cleared early on or it would become a pain. Even now it was getting stronger because the series of body gathering side quests has constantly given me Exp and I have risen to level 4 already. If it is 7 levels above me then the nightmare was already level 11.

“Teacher, if your worst nightmare, your biggest fear, was given a body and you had to fight against it, how would you feel about that? What would you do to prepare for such a traumatizing fight?” I asked him

He looked at me strange then looked upwards for a bit.

“I have already fought my worst nightmare. It was seeing my wife and son almost killed by a monster. The rage boiled inside me so intensely that when I came out of my state of berserk the guards that saw me said I was like a demon.” He said. “Everyone has different fears, the fear of losing people propelled me to use 120% of my power but someone else's fear could leave them mentally deranged. Having courage to face the fear isn’t about improving oneself but finding a reason for you to surpass your own fear and move forward with those people.” He said.

He walked over and put his hand on my shoulder.

“If you need to face your fear, find a reason to do so. Only when you have a reason for a bright shining sun inside you to guide you will you be able to surpass it if you have the strength.” He said and patted me on the shoulder before walking towards a door and entering his office which was in the back part of the training hall.

“Finding a reason, a bright sun…” I mutter.

What reasons do I have for fighting? I like my bugs but it’s not a reason to risk fighting the manifestation of my fears for.

As I leave the training hall I look out to the streets. It was filled with players. The reason is my constant cleaning. In the three weeks that I have been playing the timer has gone from 4 months to 1 year. I have randomly gone around the town collecting and killing bugs all around so the town had been cleansed continuously, greatly decreasing the number of bugs while my own got more numerous. With the decrease of bugs, players also began appearing since the problem was getting resolved by an ‘unknown’ person that constantly gathered animal bodies every 4 days to be burned.

Even though new players were appearing all the old strong ones were gone so until a month passes the uncontrollable animal population outside would be hard to deal with for a while.

I walked towards the slums. All the while I was passing I had released a few bugs to search the area for bugs that grow in water that I had ignored for the most part of this time. It was about time I started getting that part cleaned up.

I found several barrels with lots inside. They were private property but after watching the owner I knew he was breeding them to cause trouble for others. I have found several dozens of these people all around the city. I watched them and marked their house on my minimap.

Seeing several barrels, I wait for the man to leave as usual then I sneak over.

I put my hand on top of the barrel then open a portal inside and release a single dragonfly nymph and order for it to eat all the bugs inside. I do it to all 10 barrels. I leave and wait sitting on a nearby bench while remaining connected to the ten dragonfly nymphs through the hive mind.

I had learned I can get small images of what they see if I concentrate. Inside the barrels was a cesspool of larva which the nymphs were gorging themselves in.

I wait with my eyes closed for over two hours before they finish eating every last one. They had really impressive growth after this.

Making sure no one was around I recall them all and leave for another house.

I go to five houses within the hour and clean up their trouble while feeding the bug that hasn’t grown up yet.

These bugs would be a pain to deal with. Florista herself got a mission to cure the diseases the bugs had and she went and learned how to find out what people had and cure it all from a real alchemist. With me paying for the herbs she constantly works on the proper antidotes and goes to all affected houses dealing with each one. She has it hard since not every person believes she is simply giving away potions for free.

That was at the start, after a while people would personally pay her to come and sell them the potions. Yeah, investment at the start for more profit later on. Shrewd but it works and she created a gentle lady persona which she uses when she is selling the potions or examining people. Only when she is with children does she not need to fake since she genuinely likes kids.

Anyway I have noticed these idiots that have been breeding trouble get pissed off by our actions and I bet they will be even more pissed after they find their hard work gone. Oh right I also find the ration they fed their bugs. I make sure to take those too and make proper use of it as feed for my dragonflies. This was mostly feed for water breed bugs so I do make sure to benefit from morons.

After a quick round around town I return to the library where I find Flor with several people getting potions from her.

There were four laying down on the ground sweating profusely. She was working rapidly crushing and boiling the herbs then diluting it in water and putting it in cups before feeding it to each of them.

“Flor, what is going on?” I asked.

The state of these people were far worse than the others I had seen.

“These are in an advanced stage so I’m really worried about the antidote.” She said while filling several glass vials with the potion and handing it to the family of these four.

“Feed them another vial once the sun sets and one when the sun rises and repeat for two days. If there is no improvement I would suggest looking with the alchemist in the Floral Grove Alchemist shop for a stronger potion. Just show the alchemist what I made for you and he should be able to make a stronger one for what I made or be able to help better than me.” She said

The people thanked her and paid her 3 silver for all the potions before helping their families return home.

“That looked serious.” I said once they left.

“No kidding, I wasn’t lying when I said it was at its late stages. All I told them was the truth so it's up to them to follow my instructions. If they neglect the patients it's their own fault now.” she said.

“...”

I look at her and she stares back before pulling out a small box with inside were many light red and blue potions.

“20 Lesser health that tastes of strawberry and 20 Lesser mana potions that taste of grapes on demand.” She said with a grin.

I chuckled and took the potions and stored it all in my inventory.

“So when are you going to fight your nightmare?” She asked.

“Don’t know. The longer I wait the stronger I get so I think I should go immediately but I don’t know if I’m prepared.” I said.

“If you never go you will never know if you are prepared right.” she said.

I couldn’t help smiling when I heard her talk.

“Spoken like a champ yet from the mouth of someone who hates horror films.” I said with a grin.

Her face turned serious and a frown appeared on her face as I touched her own fear.

Moments later we both started laughing.

“Go on, better get it over with, that place is unique so don’t leave it in darkness.” She said.

I nodded then walked inside the library. I walk towards the back where there are private rooms to read away from possible noise from outside or you are reading something sensitive or in large numbers.

I enter one and flip the lock making it impossible to enter.

Holding my hand forward I invoke Hive Portal.

Intent to enter the hive personally detected. Several regions of the hive are still too small and undeveloped for you fit.

What region would you like to go to?

Queen Palace

Wilderness Zone

Misty Pond (undeveloped)

Forest (undeveloped)

Brown Spider Palace(undeveloped)

Striped Guard Spider Palace (undeveloped)

Dark forest(undeveloped)

I look at the growing list and choose my current destination.

“Wilderness Zone” I say and the black portal opens before me completely dark.

I take one breath and walk into the eerie twilight dark wasteland with only several days of food and my own strength.