∼ Day 2 ∼

Taking almost a full minute to scout out the situation, I flew back to the back of the stowler. But this time I made damn sure that I was appropriately positioned right under the nape of its thick neck.

With the height and wide frame of the stowler, I don't need to worry about the frogs below. Funnily enough, it would seem that the back of these massive beasts was probably the safest place in this swamp for me right now.

Well, I must apologize big fella. I'll be making use of blood and the safety of your back for the time being.

***

For the rest of the day, I leisurely drank the stowler's blood many times over. Only once did I have to swap stowlers because the one I was feeding off trodded over to the tree line to graze a bit, which would've undeniably been quite dangerous with unseen reptiles looking for snacks in the vicinity. But switching stowlers, I discovered something that made me regret not surveying these big creatures a bit more before I settled down.

The ones I had been slowly draining were simply normal stowlers, but when switching to the next one, I noticed that this one, in particular, had a much more build and firm frame. Intrigued by it, I bit into its flesh and immediately figured out why. It was a goddamn alpha, giving me a substantial increase in EXP compared to the ordinary ones.

Well, I couldn't cry over spilled milk, so I continued wallowing in my bloodsucking paradise. Luckily the continued digestion of the blood became faster and faster. Effectively lowering my downtime between feeding. I wasn't sure if it was purely because of the level and stat increases or something else, but it was sure as hell welcome.

By doing that for the rest of the day I easily reached my goal without much trouble.

And here were the fruits of my labor.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Swamp Stowler]

[92 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 6]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 6]

[Blood profiling has advanced the profile of "Swamp Stowler"]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Swamp Stowler]

[89 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Swamp Stowler]

[102 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 7]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 7]

[Hiding has reached LVL:4]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]

[168 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 8]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 8]

[Puncture has reached LVL:4]

[Blood Profiling has advanced the profile on "Swamp Stowler"]

[Blood Profiling has reached LVL: 3]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]

[195 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 9]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 9]

[Siphon has unlocked more information]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]

[202 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 10]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 10]

[You're currently at the level threshold, you can choose an evolution path!]

[Blood Profiling has advanced the profile of "Swamp Stowler"]

[Heat Sensitive has reached LVL: 2]

Looking immensely satisfied with my exploits, I first checked my new current size. I had grown to a full 23-ish centimeters (9 inches) in length. I was quite a massive fucking bug when I thought about it, and couldn't help but chuckle mirthfully at the reactions humans back at earth probably would've given me if I suddenly appeared.

Next, I checked my status for the increases in my attributes.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR 1 ⇒ 3 Skills 7 -Race- Lesser Sanguinite VIT 2 ⇒ 5 Traits 3 -Sex- Male AGI 6 ⇒ 8 Titles 0 -Rank- K DEX 4 ⇒ 5 Skillpoints 5 ⇒ 10 -Level- 10/10 INT 12 ⇒ 13 Resistances

Health 20/20 CHR 0.20 ⇒ 0.30 Physical Resistance 0.155 ⇒ 0.302 Stamina 9/9 WILL 11 ⇒ 12 Magical Resistance 0.030 ⇒ 0.050 Mana 0/0 MAG 0.09 ⇒ 0.11 Mental Resistance 5

Fuck yeah! That's what I'm talking about!

For a minute or two, I just stretched and inspected my new body a bit more. Once again feeling the intoxicating surge of power and success flooded my mind and body.

I had massive gains this time around, all my stats having been substantially increased. I even managed to finally increase my intellect and will by one point. I was a bit unsure exactly how the stat distribution is from Siphon and leveling worked since they seemed to change direction at times. My guess was that it had something to do with what stats the animal specializes in of whose blood I drink.

Oh yeah, in one of the prompts it said that my Siphon trait had unlocked more information about it. I could already guess, but it seemed that the descriptions for attributes, skills, traits, and so on, didn't fully describe all of the effects and implications that they provided.

-Traits!-

Traits Name -Siphon- (+) A natural ability of monster-type mosquitoes. Consuming blood provides the user with EXP and attribute increases. The stats that are added by siphon are the two highest attributes of the selected creature. A higher difference power will either garner fewer or more stat points to the user depending on which way the difference swings. Drinking the blood of a rare creature or drinking blood a great number of times of the same creature with similar or higher power level to the user provides the user with a very small chance of acquiring a compatible skill from said creature. -Skill shop- A unique trait that provides the user with skill points each level and allows the user to use the system to open a shop, where they can purchase skills with said skill points. -Limit breaker- A unique trait that allows the user to be unhindered by the limitations of levels, evolutions, and skills.

Aha! It was as I guessed. The Siphon skill only increases the two highest stats of whatever creature I'm slurping on.

Thinking a bit more about the things that might be left out in the descriptions, I suddenly thought of something that showed it quite clearly. If you took into consideration my health points, which were currently at the maximum value of twenty points, that was almost the same as an average horned rabbit's max health value, twenty-two points of health. But that didn't mean I could take as much damage as the rabbit could.

This would be because my stats, resistances, skills, and many other variables probably not even listed on my status, all played into the whole picture. For example, due to my pathetically low resistance, I knew with no doubt that a single strong punch from a grown male adult would be able to make me go splat. The realization while good to have, also inadvertently brought my glee of stats increased down a peg.

I did not want to splat...

With that out of the way, I checked up on my skills and began to figure out what to do with all of these skill points I had saved up for this very moment.

-Skill list!-

Skill list Name Type LVL -Blood profiling- Information 2 -> 3 Consumes the blood of biological creatures to create a profile on the creature. -Flight- Transport 2 -> 4 Enhanced speed and maneuverability -Heat sensitive- Sensory 1 -> 2 Allows the user to better detect heat sources -Hiding- Defensive 1 -> 4 The basic level of hiding makes it harder for creatures to notice your presence and form. -Muffled Flying- Defensive 1 -> 2 Reduces the sound produced by flight -Puncture- Attack 2 -> 4 Increased penetration -Smell- Sensory 1 -> 3 Enhanced smell capabilities

During downtimes, I tried to grind some skills while digesting. But it was a bit tricky finding out what exactly could further my skills without putting myself in more danger than needed.

I focused mainly on trying to level both my Heat Sensitive skill and Smell skill. But I only managed to level up Heat Sensitive since I tried various ways of feeling the heat from the stowler and surrounding stowlers.

For Smell, I tried to do something similar, but nothing really seemed to work. My guess was that Smell levels a lot faster when experiencing different smells and actually following scents, and since I've already smelled the scent of these stowlers and followed their odor here, I doubted that I could make more use of them in that department.

Moving on from that, I had to do something about these skill points that I've been saving up.

I at first thought of saving these skill points up to spend them on Appraisal since it was ten points in the skill shop. But now that I found more of my shortcomings in terms of things like defense and resistances, plus I might now have to look at more combat-oriented skills due to my rapid size increase, I might want to look into getting some of those instead.

So do I go with Appraisal or find something that can bolster my defense or attack?

I already had Blood Profiling, but it wasn't doing much for me. When it hits a milestone, I should be able to advance it might become more useful, but right now I don't have the slightest idea.

I should at least take a glance at the defensive and combat-oriented skill at or below the cost of ten points.

Skill shop Search > Defense, Combat ≤ 10 Skills Name Type Cost Requirement -Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton- -Defensive- 5 STR - 2 / VIT - 5 Enhances the exoskeleton of the user. Increased toughness and resistance. -Weak Headbutt- -Offensive- 10 STR - 12 / VIT - 10 Consumes stamina to steel the user's head as they attack a target with it. -Lesser Paralyze- -Offensive- 3 -None- Creates a gland at the user's mouth that produces a weak poison that can be injected into a target. -Lesser Poison- -Offensive- 3 -None- Creates a gland at the user's mouth that produces a weak poison that can be injected into a target. -Weak Charge- -Offensive- 5 STR - 3 / VIT - 4 / AGI - 8 The skill user consumes stamina to gain a boost of speed to charge and ram into a target. -Lesser Enhanced Organs- -Defensive- 5 VIT - 8 Enhances the inner organs of the skill user, providing them with increased toughness of their insides and also a slight increase in the effectivity of those organs.

Hmm, these skills seemed very useful, excluding the Weak Headbutt and Weak Charge because of my frame, and the fact I'm a very squishy mosquito. Wait... Weak Charge seems to fit the stat points of the horned rabbits, was it that skill the rabbit who lunged after me used when it found me?

It made a lot of sense since the description and stat allocation all matched. Well other than that, we could also exclude the Lesser Enhanced Organs skill since I didn't currently meet the requirement.

Then there was Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton, Lesser Paralyze, Lesser Poison left. I saw a hell of a lot of use in the Paralyze and Poison skills, and for the Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton skill, it could help me with my problem of having low toughness and resistance.

Urgh! I can't decide.

Defense, combat, or reconnaissance?

If I chose defense I could probably take an extra hit or two by glancing attacks. But being pierced by just a simple Horned Rabbit would still spell a certain end for me as I had no real way of dealing with the wounds. If I chose combat I will probably be able to more effectively feed and maybe even kill smaller prey. But then again, I had no need of combat with these lovely bags of blood with legs that I've found.

And lastly, if I chose reconnaissance I might be able to escape certain death before I even get too close, not even needing to risk my life in the first place. My current situation bartered no need for conflict, so for now, those skills would be useless.

Hmm... It's decided, I'll take Appraisal.

After I get some more skill points, I'll definitely return to Weak Paralyze.

-Skill shop! Buy Appraisal!-

[Skill - Appraisal has been added to the skill list!]

Itching to try my new skill out, I turned to the giant chunk of meat beneath me.

-Appraisal!-

[Existing profile of "Swamp Stowler" has been combined with profile from Appraisal] Profile: Swamp Stowler

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills -Name- "???" STR ??? Skills ??? -Race- Swamp Stowler VIT ??? Traits ??? -Sex- Male, Female AGI ??? Titles ??? -Rank- F DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- 0/35 INT ??? Health 330/330 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ??? Stamina 295/295 WILL ??? Magical Resistance ??? Mana 0/0 MAG ??? Mental Resistance ???

Damn, even with my Blood Profiling combined with Appraisal could only get this much information in the swamp stowlers. But it is, after all, to be expected since they're massively stronger than me.

Lastly, about my next evolution... I wasn't sure if I should even do it right now. Because the size increase most likely promised in the next stage of my evolutionary path, will probably make me too big and noticeable when feeding on the stowlers and pretty much any other creature.

Although I would lose some EXP, I could still farm my stats a bit more on these swamp stowlers.

I wasn't kidding when I said they were goldmines, so I'm not ready to give them up yet.

Slightly noticing that dusk has almost fallen, I decided the next course of action and I promptly went back to slurping on some overgrown cow blood.