DAY 5.

I woke up with an itch running all over my body.

'Uh, molting,' Remembering, I scowled. 'If this itch persists, it will get old real fast.'

I wiggled my body and–

Crack!

-heard a crack reverberate in my little hidey-hole. I frowned and squirmed even more, hearing more and more cracks run across exuviate. 'What is going on? Why are there cracks this time? There were no cracks last time.'

Ignoring the confusion for the moment, I continued my struggle. Soon enough, my struggles bore fruit and I was finally out of my shed skin.

With a sigh of relief –caused by the absence of the insistent itch- I turned around to study the shell that I had just discarded. The exuviate, this time, did not feel like a dried and removed version of my skin, like it had last time, instead, it felt more like those dried leaves that crunched under your feet as you walked along in the months of Autumn.

I frowned once more before turning away from the shed skin; whatever it was that had caused exuviate to harden, I did not have time for it; at the moment, my bursting intestines were my priority. So I decided to take care of it and began my morning ablutions.

After finishing my daily rituals of shitting and dragging the poisonous leaves back to my hideout, I dug into the bitter leaves.

Ting.

[Skill {Mild-Poison: Plant: Resistance Lv.4} has leveled up to {Mild-Poison: Plant: Resistance Lv.5}. The effect of the poison has been decreased. A touch.]

I was surprised, a little, by the familiar noise; I had expected it to take at least 10-15 leaves before the skill leveled up but, for some reason, it only took me a lot less leaves this time.

What followed after that was the usual circus of pain, aches, convolutions, quivers, olfactory hallucinations and nausea. Though, this time I could not hold the bile in and vomited all over the area next to the entrance of my hideout.

I grimaced. 'That would stink up the place.'

Trying to avoid the mess as much as I could, I put a leaf over the mess and began digging next to it so as to dump the resulting mud on the vomit.

Ting.

[Skill {Dig Lv.1} acquired.]

Intrigued, I focused on the skill name, wondering if it was any good.

Ting.

[Digging speed increases with increase in level.]

I scowled. 'Useless. Utterly useless.'

Dismissing the screen without another thought, I returned to burying the mess; after all, I did not want to walk out of my place, every morning, only to be greeted by the stench of vomit.

After making sure that the stink of sickness was thoroughly vanquished, I started crawling back to my usual plant. Though, I grimaced when it finally came into my field of vision. It seemed like I had already eaten most of its leaves and if I ate any more, I was sure that it would die.

I sighed and began crawling as I searched for another plant with the same leaves as the previous one. It took me a little time but I found one quickly enough and it was a good find. The plant that I had found was big enough to qualify as a small tree.

With a small smile, I crawled up the bark to reach the nearest leaf and began munching on the tasteless food. While munching on the leaf, I activated my skill, {Sensor}; or better to say, I started focusing more attentively on my surroundings.

Well, the thing was, it was not like the skill consumed MP or HP to activate, so there was no notification for its usage. And every time I used the skill, I just started feeling my surroundings more attentively and actively; it had little to nothing to do with activation.

But …meh. Activating the skill sounded much better than saying focusing on the surrounding. So I was going to stick with it.

The response from the skill was nothing that I hadn't expected. A little disturbance from the north as the wind changed direction, causing the leaves to ruffle and the like. It was peaceful, soothing even. Thus I continued to munch on the leaf without any care.

It was as I was moving onto my 4th leaf that I felt a disturbance from my back and turned around. There, approximately 2 meters away from me, was a snail, almost thrice my size, sliding towards the same branch as me. Its eyes were fixated on me as if I was a piece of meat; which, to it, I most probably was.

At the moment, it was the predator and I was its prey.

My heartbeat fastened as my mind raced, trying to come with an offensive attack to take out the snail before it could reach me. It came up with nothing.

All the skills that I had were defensive skills and the only offensive skill that I had was the poison creation one. But that skill secreted Poison from the pores on my body and was my last ditch effort to take out the offender alongside me. It was a suicide attack and I didn't fancy dying again.

If I had been human, I would be sweating right now because I had nothing to attack with. Sure I had my teeth but my body was soft, so very soft; one slam from the shell of snail would be all to flatten me like mush.

I gulped. This was dangerous, extremely so.

I was not armed to confront and the snail was blocking my exit. There was no escape. And unlike last time, I couldn't repeat the falling act because last time I had been on a plant but this time I was on a tree. And although it was small tree, it was a fucking tree nonetheless. If I tried to redo my last escaping act, my soft body will splatter on the ground, showcasing my insides to the world.

Not a scenario that I wanted to recreate.

But then an idea struck me; an incredibly stupid and brilliant idea. It would require me to time the act just correctly or I would turn into snail feed real soon.

With no other option available, I executed the idea and started moving in the direction of the snail. After crawling a few inches, I stopped and activated the skill, {Poison Creation}.

Poison began to pour out of my pores until the hairs, on my body, were dripping with it. Satisfied, I rolled around, trying to make a line of poison as I rolled. I rolled and rolled and I rolled. I rolled as if my life defended on it; which, it actually did. So I kept rolling. The poison, from my body, was soon all on the branch but I kept on using the skill to secrete more and more of the –hopefully- lethal liquid.

I continued on rolling until branch had a thick line of poison stretching across its width. My plan was simple; I just had to create a thick line of poison so that when the snail slid over it, to reach me, the creature would absorb maximum amount of poison and hopefully die.

I just hoped that it was stupid enough to not try to bypass the line.

I grimaced when another thought struck me; a lot of this plan was based on just hoping. 'I am going to die, aren't I?'

Shaking my head to clear it of the negative thoughts, I crawled back and again began secreting poison but this time, instead of rolling around, I bend down until my mouth was touching my body and sucked; taking in a mouthful of poison. I planned on spitting the poison on the snail when it came in my range.

By now the creature had reached my way too visible trap and thankfully, it was stupid enough to cross it over without a second thought.

I knew the exact moment my poison began to work as the snail's face twisted in pain. I took that chance and spat the poison that I had in my mouth.

I missed. 'Just my freaking luck!'

I bend down and sucked again before turning to face the snail and spitting. I hit it this time and the creature hissed in pain. I smiled. 'This just might work.'

I bend down again and spat at the creature as it crossed over my poison line; wincing and flinching all the while.

My heart beat fastened as I became desperate and repeated the process again and again with mediocre result, as sometimes, I missed while, other times, I hit it. I spat again and, this time, I got lucky; my poison hit the creature in one its eye and it began thrashing wildly.

Knowing I did not have much option, I crawled over to the thrashing creature and bit at the stalk of the creature's good eye, the one that I hadn't hit with my poison. It thrashed even more and tried to hit me with its shell but, at that very moment, I pulled with all my might.

The eyestalk broke off and the creature recoiled in pain, causing the attack to just grace me, yet, the pain was enormous.

Ting.

[-15 HP]

I backed off a little and then thrashed the creature with my poison covered body. I hit it again but at the same time, it lunged forward and bit me.

Ting.

[-3 HP]

I winced and thrashed the creature with renewed vigor. This was 'do or die' after all, and I did not want to die. I winced as the creature ripped off my flesh but I continued to hit it with my poison covered body.

Ting.

[-7 HP]

I hit it again and again until it stopped moving.

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[Skill {Poison Creation Lv.2} has leveled up to {Poison Creation Lv.3}. You can create up to 3 poisons.]

Ting.

[Skill {Poison Resistance Lv.5} has leveled up to {Poison Resistance Lv.6}. Your Resistance to poisons has increased.]

I gaped. My level read, [Level: 42] while my HP read, [HP: 22/47]! 6 Levels! 6 freaking Levels and two skill level ups from just one fight! 'Why am I wasting my time eating those stupid leaves, when I can just kill these snails?'

Though this did beg the question, why did the snail gave me so much experience that it transcended into multiple levels? When, at the same time, I had to eat tons of leaves just to gain one level. What was the difference? Why were the snails so much more profitable to me?

Was it because I was its prey and it was my predator? Was it because I was supposed to be hunted by it and not hunt it? Was it because I was supposed to be killed by it but I killed it instead? Was it because the predator became the prey?

Dear Merlin on a stick! Jus-

I shook my head. If it was because of the prey and the predator thing, then I could surely exploit this in future.

A smile morphed slowly itself on my face and I shivered in excitement but immediately flinched.

Though the Snail's attack had just graced me, where it had hit me, my flesh had tuned to pulp. Not to forget the flesh that the thrice damned snail had ripped off. 'Yep. That's why I have been avoiding confrontation. Because I am a freaking caterpillar!'

I grimaced and checked my status to get the reading of my HP, it read [HP: 22/47]. I had lost 25 Points.

I sighed. I couldn't remain here anymore, not in the condition I was in. But I also couldn't go back to my hideout without eating as that would just come back to bother me tomorrow.

Shaking my head to clear it, I decided to go back to the plant that had been feeding me until now; even though that was the last thing I wanted to do.

The thing, though, that I wanted to do the most was to go back to my hideout and Molt but I had less than half of my HP; trying to Molt now would be, hands down, the stupidest thing that I could ever do.

I crawled down the tree, wincing and flinching all the while, and made my way towards my old hangout. It still had just as few leaves as I had seen in the morning.

I understood now why caterpillars were considered pests.

The time passed in blur after that as I kept using the skill, {Sensor}, both to be vigilant and to level it up. By the time moon rose in the sky, I had recovered 20 points of HPso my HP bar was almost back to its full strength and had earned 8 more levels so that now my level read, [Level: 50].

With the full HP, I decided to follow through my daily ritual. But instead of dragging poisoned leaves back with me, I ate them directly from the plant; after all, in my condition, I couldn't drag almost 10 leaves to my hideout.

I consumed the leaves until I heard the familiar sound.

Ting.

[Skill {Mild-Poison: Plant: Resistance Lv.5} has leveled up to {Mild-Poison: Plant: Resistance Lv.6}. Your resistance to this poison has increased. Minutely.]

I dismissed the screen, not bothering to even read it, and began crawling down the tree as fast as I could. I had no intention of being stuck on some random and thin branch of a plant when the convolutions hit; that would be just asking for a repeat of my first ever fall from a tree.

What followed, my arrival back to the ground, was, by now, the regular dose of quivering, nausea, vomit, convolutions, olfactory hallucinations and pain. Though this time, auditory hallucination also joined in and I heard children giggling.

It scared me until I realized that it was all a part of the hallucinations; after all, children -in their curiosity- could be the cruelest of all people. I had lived with my cousin, I would know.

I shuddered as I made my way back to the hideout and settled in before activating the skill, {Molting}.

Ting.

[-27 HP]

Ting.

[Skill {Molting Lv.2} has leveled up to {Molting Lv.3}. Time required for the skill has been reduced by 10 minutes. Total time required: 5 Hours and 40 Minutes.]

Ting.

[Skill {Sensor Lv.2} has leveled up to {Sensor Lv.3}. Depth and Limit of sensing increased.]

Ting.

[Skill {Crawl Lv.4} has leveled up to {Crawl Lv.5}. Crawling speed had increased.]

Ting.

[Skill {Pain Resistance Lv.3} has leveled up to {Pain Resistance Lv.4}. Resistance to pain had increased.]

I sighed. Today had been the night for using the skill, {Survive}, but because of the condition that I had been in, I had to use {Molting} instead; as, even though, my HP had recovered, my bruised and ripped off flesh had remained just as it had been, bruised and ripped off.

As the skill began working, drowsiness overtook me and I fell asleep.

DAY 6

The next day, I followed my usual morning routine of pooping and eating the bitter leaves from the poisonous plant until I heard a familiar sound.

Ting.

[{Mild-Poison: Plant: Resistance Lv.6} has leveled up to {Mild-Poison: Plant: Resistance Lv.7}. Your resistance to this poison has increased.]

The sound was, after a while, followed by the usual rounds of convolutions, quivers, hallucinations, aches and pain. Though, this time, the circus was over a lot sooner than all the previous times.

I smiled. My Poison Resistance had finally begun decreasing the effect of poison. Still smiling, I began crawling towards the new three that I had found. Today, I had a plan.

Reaching my new source of food, I crawled up its bark and began searching for a branch that was rather new and still tender, i.e. it hadn't turned into wood. Soon, I found what I was looking for and began to dig a hole in the middle of the branch.

A while later, I was assaulted by the familiar sound.

Ting.

[{Dig Lv.1} has leveled up to {Dig Lv.2}. Digging speed has increased.]

Dismissing the screen, I went back to work. This skill was still useless as ever.

Once the hole was done, I began to expand it from the sides, so that it covered the entire width of the branch but left it narrow enough that I could hide it by covering it up with a few well placed leaves. So that was what I did, after I had filled it with poison, of course.

Yep, that was my brilliant plan, to trap the route to reach me; so that if another snail tried to make me its lunch –or even breakfast for that matter; I would not discriminate on the basis of eating time- it would have to cross through my puddle of poison and, hopefully, die.

Ting.

[Skill acquired {Trap Lv.1}. Traps made by you are comparatively more efficient.]

Surprised at the notification, I focused on the new skill.

[Your traps do 1% more damage.]

I smiled a sour smile; although I got a new skill; it seemed utterly useless with its 1% extra damage.

Sighing, I checked my handiwork. Satisfied with what I had done, I activated the skill, {Sensor} and began to munch on the ever tasteless leaves.

By noon, I hadn't had any run in with any snail, like the one I had encountered yesterday, and I was very thankful for that fact. It was not that I didn't want the sudden jump in levels, no, I did; I did very much. It was just that I wasn't sure, despite the new skill, just how effective my trap was.

But that soon changed as the {Sensor} signaled me about a disturbance approaching me. Dreading what I would find, I turned around and sure enough, there was snail, sliding towards me with hunger filled eyes; this one was a little smaller than the previous one, barely thrice my size.

Grimacing, I began walking towards my trap and stopped at a safe distance away from it before activating {Poison Creation} to soak my body completely in poison. I planned on repeating yesterday's strategy if the trap failed; I would spit poison at the creature from afar and, when it finally came near me, I would try to bite off one of its stalks, that holds its eyes.

If it was still alive by that time, then thrash it around until it died.

Not the best plan, I knew that, but at the moment, it would do.

I watched, like a hawk, as the creature slid towards me tirelessly before finally reaching my trap. It ignored the leaves completely; its eyes fixated on me and not wavering even for a second.

And then as it continued to slide, its body didn't find anything solid to hold its wait and it fell in my trap. It shrieked and thrashed around and convoluted as the poison began working. I waited with baited breath before crawling closer to the trap.

The creature was still thrashing and withering in pain when I made it to the trap. I winced; I would not want to be in that situation, ever. But, at the moment, I could not bring myself to feel that bit of guilt; it was 'Do or Die' and I, sure as hell, did not want to die.

The creature, still flinching, tried to make its way out of the puddle but as soon as it was within my range, I hit it, as hard as I could, with my poison covered body, making it fall back in the trap.

It shrieked, again, but it did not give up and, once again, wincing and flinching, it tried to make its way out of the puddle. I was there though, waiting for it, and hit him with the tail end of my body.

But this time, the snail had wizened up, and tried to bite me as my body raced towards it. Its teeth grazed me and I winced.

Ting.

[-3 HP]

I flinched back at the pain and the creature advanced, trying to make it out of the puddle while I was busy licking my wounds. I shook myself and crawled forward, this time aiming for its shell when I tried to hit him.

I struck.

Ting.

[-2 HP]

I winced. That was stupid; incredibly stupid. Why in the world did I think that it was a good idea? The snail's shell was as hard as rock and I when I hit it, with my soft and pulpy body; it was like slamming my face in a wall. 'Ugghh..'

But then, thankfully, the creature went limp as it died.

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[Skill {Poison Creation Lv.3} has leveled up to {Poison Creation Lv.4}. You can create up to 4 poisons.]

I grinned; 5 Level ups and 1 skill level up for the loss of just 5 HP. Awesome! That was like the best deal ever!

I crawled forward and bit the snail before trying to drag the creature out of the puddle. After all, I still had leaves to eat. Gasping from the effort, -that snail was heavy damn you!- I dragged the creature out of the puddle and towards the crook of the branch. There, I turned around and hit the snail, once again, with the tail end of my body causing it fall down.

Thud!

It fell on its shell and got stuck in the ground, upside down. I shook my head before crawling towards the puddle and filled it up again with my poison; the snail, in all its thrashing and quivering, had caused the poison to spill out of it.

I gave the puddle an onceover. It was still in good condition as the snail hadn't managed to damage it much. Nodding, I made my way over to the leaves and began munching with the skill, {Sensor}, active.

It was in the afternoon that I felt the disturbance again, though this time, it wasn't coming from back, but from beneath me; from the ground. I watched, interested, as a large scorpion made its way over to the dead snail.

It looked around carefully before chomping down on the soft meat of the snail. I winced. Was that scorpion an idiot? Couldn't it tell that the snail was poisoned?

I watched in fascination as the moron of a scorpion ate the complete snail and began to walk off. I waited for my poison to kick in, for it surely would.

So I waited.

And the creature walked.

And I waited.

And the creature walked.

And I waited.

And the creature walked until walked out of my sight and my range.

Without any ill effect from my poison.

I gaped!

That snail had been dripping to the brim with my poison –my poison that had killed it!- and that-that scorpion just shrugged the poison off like it was an oriental spice! It was like the biggest Fuck You ever!

'Fuck you too scorpion!' I fumed. 'Fuck you too!'

The rest of the day passed in relative peace, that is, until the sun began to set.

My skill picked up another disturbance and I turned around to face yet another snail. I thanked the gods that enough time had passed that the previous HP loss was recovered and I was at my full health.

Ting.

[Skill {Sensor Lv.3} has leveled up to {Sensor Lv.4}. Depth and Limit of sensing increased.]

Dismissing the screen, I watched the snail slide towards me and waited, patiently, for it to fall into the trap. As it fell, it screeched but I ignored it and made my way towards the hissing and flinching snail rolling around in my puddle.

Finally, it tried to make its way out the puddle. As it neared me, I bend down as fast as I could and bit at its eye stalk before pulling with all my might.

The snail almost made it out of the puddle when the stalk ripped off of it and it flinched and shrieked in pain. Taking advantage of its distraction, I hit it, carefully this time, sending it back rolling into the puddle.

It hissed and flinched for a moment before again trying to slide out of the puddle. As it neared me, it rushed forward, trying to bite me.

I flinched back when it moved; still, it reached me easily and almost bit me. Trying to avoid its bite, I moved again and bit at the remaining eye stalk before pulling harshly. My pull caused the snail to make it out of the puddle as the eye stalk broke, causing it to shriek and hiss in pain.

My heart raced as I began to panic but, then, common sense kicked in so I spat out the eye and head butted the snail causing it to fall back into the puddle. The creature screeched and thrashed around as it rolled in poison before its movement finally came to halt.

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

Ting.

[You have Leveled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

I grinned manically. 5 Level ups and not a single HP loss! Brilliant! Though, I noticed, none of my skills leveled up this time but, the 8 levels I gained from devouring the leaves, more than made up for it. Over all, it was a good haul.

Still smiling, I once again began dragging the giant ass corpse of the snail as I gasped and did my utter best to make it mo-

Ting.

[Skill acquired, {Ant's Will Lv.1}]

I stopped dragging the snail carcass and focused on the new skill.

Ting.

[Your strength becomes 2x for 1 minute. Cost: 10 HP/Minute.]

I grinned, again; it was a good skill. Though the 10 HP cost was kind of a bummer.

Smiling I dragged the corpse, without activating my new skill, and threw it down. I left the tree soon after that and made my way towards the poisonous tree for my daily routine of leveling up my skills.

I was chewing on the stalk of the leaf, to cause it to break off and fall, when I remembered what I had done yesterday and paused. Yesterday, I had eaten all the leaves directly from the plant and I had been fine.

Maybe I was way too cautious. Paranoid even.

With that thought, I decided to follow the same procedure as yesterday. After all, I did not want to end up like a certain acquaintance of mine that was constantly looking over its shoulder.

Thus I ate the leaves, while on the branch, until I head the distinctive sound.

Ting.

[Skill {Mild-Poison: Plant: Resistance Lv.7} has leveled up to {Mild-Poison: Plant: Resistance Lv.8}. Your resistance to this poison has increased. A little.]

Dismissing the screen, I crawled down and waited for the poison to hit with baited breath. It took the poison longer than usual to hit and when it finally did hit, it not only lasted for a shorter time period but also had far few effects. Hallucinations didn't occur this time and neither did I experience the nausea, result in a vomit-less occurrence.

Tired from the convolutions, I made my way towards the hideout.

Ting.

[Skill {Crawl Lv.5} has leveled up to {Crawl Lv.6}. Your crawl speed has increased.]

Reaching the hole, that had somehow become my home, I settled in and activated the skill, {Survive Lv.1}. 'Survive.'

Ting.

[-37 HP]

Ting.

[Skill {Survive Lv.1} had leveled up to {Survive Lv.2}. Time Limit and HP Limit have both increased by 1. Current Time Limit: 2 minutes. Current HP Limit: 2 HP]

I laughed heartily at the HP loss; that much laugh would have killed me, on my first day here, in just one go. But now, now I was leisurely sacrificing it to just level up a skill.

Smiling I called up my status.

[Name: Unnamed]

[Species: Caterpillar]

[Race(s): Insect]

[Level: 68]

[HP: 36/73]

[MP: -]

[Titles: {Sentient}, {Reincarnated}, {Hungry}, {Survivor}]

[Skills: {Crawl Lv.6}, {Molting Lv.3}, {Poison Resistance Lv.6}, {Poison Creation Lv.4}, {Survive Lv.2}, {Sensor Lv.4}, {Pain Resistance Lv.4}, {Trap Lv.1}, {Dig Lv.2}, {Ant's Will Lv.1}, {Observe Lv.1}]

[Spells:-]

I studied the status with no little amount of satisfaction before tiredness caught up to me and I fell asleep.

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P.S. Unbeta'ed but edited to the best of my ability.