Night 21

I woke up feeling a lot more tired than I had when I had woken up yesterday. I frowned at the newfound weariness, which I beginning to discover each and every night when I woke up, before I remembered my stupidity that had caused the current mess.

I scowled.

'I cannot repeat the same mistake again, not after knowing what a mess the following night will, which will be tonight for my last night's idiocy. I am sure that tonight will be a waste, just because I couldn't be bothered to remember to save a few MP points for a healing spell.'

Not expecting anything good, I checked my HP and MP; my HP read [HP: 114/185] while my MP read, [MP: 60/85].

I grimaced.

Though the 114 points of HP was a good amount, especially considering the amount I had started with when I had been a caterpillar, it was still a little more than half of my current amount of HP. And as I learnt the hard way, it is never a good idea to hunt with an incomplete bar of HP.

I sighed.

'I will have to use {Episkey} twice now to restore my HP completely, which will leave my MP bar almost completely empty which, in turn, will leave me meditating for the rest of the day! Uhh! All this nonsense because of one stupid mistake!'

With a heavy sigh of disappointment –mostly in myself- I used the spell. 'Episkey.'

Ting.

[-20 MP]

'Episkey.'

Ting.

[-20 MP]

I grimaced as the itch from exuviate –which I had due to the use of skill {Molting} last night- made itself known and I began to struggle to get out of my shed shell post haste. Once out of the shell, I checked my MP -it read, unsurprisingly, [MP: 20/85]- causing me to shake my head in disappointment.

With just 20 MP remaining, I headed to the spider hunting ground for the daily ritual of hunting, eating and suffering. Though, tonight, I decided to increase the spider consumption rate from 3 at a time to 4 at once.

This had the exact opposite effect of what I was envisioning.

Instead of pain increasing manifolds, the pain that I felt today was much less excruciating than what I had felt last night. 'Thank goodness that the high sub-skill poison resistance is finally coming into effect.'

Though there still was one thing; with each new poison sub-skill gained, I noticed, that the effect of the next sub-skill began manifesting later than the previous one. For example, when I had been leveling up poison resistance against the plant poison, the resistance had kicked in at around sub-skill level of around 5 or 6 but, this time, it had kicked in at level 8.

'Does this mean that when I gain another sub-skill for poison resistance, it won't kick in until even higher level? Oh this is going to stink.'

Dismissing the thought with a grimace, I continued with my hunting. It was when I was at my 18th spider th-

Ting.

[Skill {Poison: Bug: Resistance Lv. 9} has leveled up to {Poison: Bug: Resistance Lv. 10}. Your resistance to this poison has increased greatly.]

I heaved a sigh of relief before scowling; this was getting tedious. 'Even though I hunted 18 spiders –which consumed a good 5 hours by the way- I only gained 3 levels. 3 fucking levels! Can anyone imagine that! I mean anyone! Even you, you fucking pervert of a blue screen!'

Dismissing the screen I grimaced. I had 45 MP, which was nowhere near enough for what I needed to hunt the frogs. This left me with only one option; meditating the next 4 hours to restore my MP.

I grimaced, again. And because I had nothing else to do, I decided to do just that.

Flapping my wings, I took to the air and flew towards the hideout. Reaching the entrance, I crawled in before settling comfortably to meditate. The next four hours passed comfortably and when I finally opened my eyes, I had 85 points of MP; not a complete bar of MP, but enough for what I needed.

Crawling out, I flew towards the river; I still had three hours and I planned on making an efficient use of them.

Reaching the river, I tried to find a frog that had staggered away from the group, just like last night, but I couldn't find any. There were no frogs that were just wandering around; they were all within an area that, I expected, was their territory. 'Did the last night's hunt cause this? That can't be. Frogs don't have enough intelligence for that sort of thing. '

Still, I lingered patiently, waiting for just one of them to step out of the territory. Unfortunately –or fortunately, from the frogs' perspective- none of them did. And just like that more than 2 hours passed, with me just sitting and waiting.

I scowled; this was useless. And if I continued like this, I wouldn't even be able to use {Observe} tonight. I needed to know when I should cut my losses, and currently, I felt I should do just that; cut my losses. There was no point in wasting all my time waiting, and gaining nothing, when I can use this time to level up {Observe}.

With a purpose in my mind, I flew back to the clearing that I had found a few days ago and landed on the same flower that I always did. 'It's still alive? Shouldn't it have died by now? Observe.'

Ting.

[Moon Glow]

[A spirit flower that attracts the creatures affected by moon.]

I frowned. 'What the hell? There are flowers like these in the world? And is it attracting me too? Is this the reason that I always land on it rather than anything else in this clearing? But. No. That can't be it. I would feel if something was affecting my mind. I think.'

I turned to face the moon. I did not feel anything special at night; nor did I feel anything when I faced the moon. I didn't think I was affected by the flower; my landing on it must not be anything else than coincidence.

Without another thought, I dismissed the current line of thinking; I had more important things to worry about.

Focusing on the things around me, I began using {Observe}, to level up the skill. Though this time, I was careful about not repeating the last night's mistake. So when I had 20 MP left, I stopped using the skill and flew back to the hideout.

Crawling in, I settled down and used {Survive}.

Ting.

[-94 HP]

As weariness began claiming me and my body became heavy suddenly, I used the spell, {Episkey}.

Ting.

[-20 MP]

With a sigh, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Night 22

I woke up, feeling a lot more relaxed than I had felt in a long time. Stretching, I checked my HP and MP; my HP read, [HP: 163/188] while my MP read, [MP: 60/88].

Crawling out of the hideout, I flew to the spider hunting ground and began the daily ritual of hunting, eating and suffering. 'Hopefully, I will be doing it for the last time tonight.'

Reaching my destination, I began hunting and just like last night, instead of eating them directly afterwards, I began collecting the corpses. Though, I did one thing different from last night, instead of eating 4 spiders at a time, I began eating 5 spiders at a time.

This did not have any major effect on poison; something which, from what I guessed, was due to the high level of my resistance to it. The pain that poison caused me was nowhere near as strong as it had been just a few days ago and it didn't last very long either.

Thus, I continued to hunt, eat and suffer the spider and their poison. By the time I was panting from the aftereffects of the poison for the 4th time –which was 6 hours since morning- I had leveled up 3 times. As usual, the low utility of spiders was annoyi-

Ting.

[Skill {Poison: Bug: Resistance Lv.10} has leveled up to reach the maximum level and has become {Poison: Bug: Resistance: Lv. Max}]

Ting.

[Sub-skill acquired {Poison Creation Lv.5: Available: Poison: Bug: Willow Spider}]

All my grievances were forgotten as a smile morphed on my face. 'Finally! Finally all my sufferings have borne fruit! I can finally create a poison that didn't have 'weak' or 'mild' or some such nonsense attached to it!'

I laughed.

I was happy, I truly was. I had wished for so long that I had an effective poison; I had not wished for a particularly strong one, just an effective one. And now I had one! I finally had one!

I grinned.

Now I just wished for a good method of injecting my poison, instead of just letting some creature eat me. Getting eaten was not fun, not one bit.

Still smiling, I flapped my wings and flew towards the river where I had setup my trap. I hoped tonight will not be the same as last night because, even though I had 6 hours to hunt, I did not want to waste all that time waiting.

Setting up the trap, I found a place that hid my presence well enough and waited patiently. This time, as I had a new poison at my disposal, I had filled it with two of my best poisons: the bug poison that I had earned from spiders and the plant poison.

Sitting silently, I waited and waited and waited as time began to pass and yet I waited. For some reason, none of the frogs were venturing out of their territory.

4 Hours passed as I kept my silent vigil and yet none of the frogs showed up.

A lot of other animals and creatures passed during my vigil, all new and exotic, but I ignored them with practiced ease; I could not lose focus. Though, it did pain me a little to let them go. They would have been a very good target for leveling up my {Observe}. But I couldn't afford to lose my MP; not when I might need it later.

As I patiently kept my watch, finally a frog stepped out of the territory. With baited breath, I waited for it to move a little farther; just a bit more. I couldn't try to lure it when it was that close to its territory. So with unblinking eyes, I watched.

Warily, the frog jumped, though just a short distance. It tilted head; listening and I checked my skill {Stealth}. It jumped again, as if testing waters, before jumping farther away from the territory of the frogs.

Cautiously, I used the spell, {Lumos}.

Ting.

[-10 MP]

A ball of soft light slowly materialized in front of my face, blinding me and, again, ruining, my night vision. Shaking my head to clear the blind spots, I slowly began to guide the light towards the frog.

I watched as the soft light caught the attention of the frog and how its head tilted. I waited for it to move, to make its move, which it soon did. It jumped, closer to the light and farther away from the rest of its kind.

I, slowly, guided the light away from it and towards the trap that I had earlier set up. The frog jumped up and followed it. At the same time, my antennas and the skill {Scent} picked up the overwhelming scent of frogs and just more frogs due to the wind being downhill, which caused the scent from the frog territory to be all around me.

I continued to guide the light towards the trap and watched with rapt attention as the frog kept following. My skill, {Sensor} picked up disturbance from the direction opposite to the frog and I turned to face the new threat. 'Is it more frogs searching for this wandering soul?' I did not know.

My eyes searched for something, anything, but I spotted nothing out of ordinary. My antennas picked up scent of more frogs but that was just wind changing directions; I dismissed that thought.

Focusing my attention back to the target, I watched as my prey contemplated following the light even more. I stilled the moving light, enticing the creature; yet, it didn't move. Frowning, I guided the light back in the range of the frog and immediately, faster than lightning, its tongue lashed out.

I was ready though, and guided the light out of the way and began guiding it back to the trap, hoping that the frog had been tempted. I turned back to the frog and, sure enough, it jumped as it followed the light.

Slowly, I maneuvered the light closer and closer to the trap with my prey following it carefully. Knowing the range of the frog, I positioned the light just so that the frog had to jump on the trap.

I watched eagerly as the frog jumped and landed on the pile of leaves covering the trap before promptly falling in. I smiled and flied down to the trap as the shrieks of pain echoed from down the hole.

HP/MP: 183/78

As I reached the trap, I sensed the disturbance from earlier and immediately turned around. But it was already too late and a pink fleshy thing was racing towards me at a speed I could not avoid.

Ting.

[-20 HP]

Wha-!

What!

How?!

There were three frogs -all the size of an adult human's feet- with their eyes fixated on me. And with one down the trap, this made up a total of 4 frogs.

'Wh-where had all these new frogs come from!? W-why hadn't I sensed them!?' I panicked before a realization hit me in the face with all the strength of a rampaging truck. 'Where these those frogs that I had sensed but dismissed as wind changing directions? OH. MY. GOD. They were, weren't they! How did I fuck up again!? Oh I did fuck up again! I so fucked up!'

But this was not the time. This was not the time for panicking and cursing myself. Time for that would be later, when I had escaped these slimy things! Now I had to save myself before I became frog chow! Which was just as disgusting as it sounded!

I tried to use {Slide} to unstick myself, but to no effect and, in the meantime, the tongue began to retract. 'OH NO. I was NOT going in that mouth. If I did, I will NOT escape alive. Which I just can't do!'

I will survive.

With my mind reeling, I used {Incendio}.

Ting.

[-30 MP]

HP/MP: 163/48

A ball of fire formed in front of my face before a flame raced down the tongue holding onto me. I was immediately released but I did not let go, I flew towards the frog whose tongue had been sticking onto me and forced my advantage with flames pouring down onto the frog.

It jumped back, trying to escape me, but I pursued. If I wanted to escape alive, I would have to make a point and I was going to make that point by roasting this frog.

Ting.

[-20 HP]

HP/MP: 143/48

Another tongue hit me then and I immediately whirled around, but it didn't stick to me; it was like a slap to back of my head. By the time I could redirect the flames, the tongue was long gone and so was the frog that I had been pursuing.

Ting.

[-20 HP]

Ting.

[-20 HP]

Ting.

[-20 HP]

HP/MP: 83/48

I whirled around, trying to escape the tongues hitting me again and again. And I did so, the flame that were in front of me, whirled around with me.

'I wish I had wand; I wish it so damn hard! If I had a wand I would have directed the flames however I wished! I would have guided the flames into forming a protective shield around me! I would have done so much more!'

'Instead I was stuck in this body of a moth fighting frogs! Frogs! I was fighting frogs, and not even toads, for my fucking life! What good was {Incendio} if I couldn't use it as I had used to! What good was it being a level 9 spe-'

Wai-

It was level 9 spell.

Nowhere had it been said that my control had been compromised.

Just that the cost was decreased and that a focus wasn't needed.

With a glimmer of hope shining in my chest, I directed the flames to encircle me to from a protective sphere. To my utter joy, I felt the flames move and obey my command as they began to spin and form a sphere around me.

I closed my eyes as I saw the sphere go up and felt the tongue attacks stop. Slowly, I opened the top of the sphere and expanded it until my head was out of the sphere. I tried to look for the frogs but my night vision was ruined from all the light from the fire.

Failing in spotting the frogs, I turned to the skills that would have protected me had I not ignored them; I used {Sensor} and immediately felt the disturbances being caused by the movement of the frogs.

Knowing that I could not guide the fire spell any further, lest I break my protective sphere, I used another {Incendio}. Hoping, no, not hoping, praying; praying that it would work. To whom I was praying, I did not know.

Ting.

[-30 MP]

HP/MP: 83/18

A ball of fire materialized in front of my head and I directed the flames pouring out of it to where I had felt the disturbance that was most sloppy. A shriek reached my ears, as my flames hit their target, before the frog jumped away.

Following the disturbances that it was creating, I pursued with my flames, and again, I heard a shriek as my flames hit their mark. It flailed but didn't jump back so I pushed my advantage. A screech echoed from behind me as a tongue raced towards me before getting burned from the fire sphere and retreating.

Ting.

[-15 HP]

HP/MP: 68/18

'Wha-! What! Nothing had hit me right now! Nothing! Why had I receive the damage! I could not have received damage from anything, anything at all!' I turned to look for anything that could have hit me and my eyes fell on my wings; they were singed. I had received fire damage from my own spell.

'Fuck! I need to finish this fast!'

A bunch of screens popped up in front of me and I felt the disturbances from the frog cease. It was dead. I turned to the rest of the frogs that had raced up to me and poured flames after flames in their direction.

Ting.

[-15 HP]

HP/MP: 53/18

They jumped away but I felt them falter; my flames had managed to sing them. I whirled around to the one closer to me and pursued it as it continued to jump. I heard a hiss and knew that my flames had hit once again. The other frog tried to distract me, as it tried to hit me with its tongue, but I did not let up and continued to pelt the frog that I had earlier with flames after flames of fire.

It shrieked as the flame hit it properly for the first time and it faltered mid jump, falling in pain. Following my advantage, I trailed him with my flames in tow, and poured more and more flames on the creature. It flailed and it shrieked and it tried to jump away but I did not let go and continued to roast it alive.

The third frog, realizing that there was no way of saving the second, jumped away from me and ran. I did not pursue it as I had another one already dying from my fire.

Ting.

[-15 HP]

HP/MP: 38/18

As I continued to barbeque the frog, I felt the disturbances from the frog cease before a bunch of screens popped up.

I ignored the screens and, with my fire trailing behind me, I headed towards the trap. The fourth frog was still in trap, jumping and hissing as it tried to come out of the trap but I had made it deep enough that it couldn't.

Reaching directly above the trap, I turned my flames down and began to burn the fourth frog. An unholy screech echoed from down the hole but I ignored it and continued to pour flames after flames into the trap.

Ting.

[-15 HP]

HP/MP: 23/18

Soon I felt the half dead frog –from the poison- stop making disturbances and a bunch of another screens pop up. It, too, was dead.

I ignored the screens again and called out the cancellation spell. 'Nox.'

Ting.

[-10 MP]

HP/MP: 23/8

The single spell managed to somehow cancel out both my fire spells. How that worked out, I did not know but, at the moment, I couldn't care less.

With all the spells cancelled, I flew out of there as fast as possible.

One of the frogs had escaped and I did not want to wait around to see if it was bringing reinforcements or not. I previously hadn't thought that something like that could be possible but then I, previously, also hadn't thought that frogs could hunt in groups or setup an ambush! It had scared the shit out of me!

Flying as fast I could, I reached my hideout, crawled in, hid the entrance and settled down; shaking. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the realization that I had been almost eaten alive, again, by 4 frogs this time, was settling in. It was an impossible situation that I had made out of alive. Somehow.

I tried a take a deep breath in, but all I could do was shudder, as the aftershocks of what had happened ran through my body. I seized up, unable to move and started hyperventilating as my breath came in short and fast. My heartbeat quickened as my heart began to race.

I tried to control my breathing, I really did, but I just couldn't! No matter how much I tried to calm myself, to stay focused, my mind went back, again and again, to the point when I had been surrounded! I felt contained and bound and unable to move!

My breath hastened further and became incredibly short! My heart raced, trying to break free of my chest! I felt darkness approaching and I tried to fight it but all my efforts fell short! My breaths were incredibly short now! They were so short that I was surprised that I even had air in my lungs!

The darkness approached me faster and faster but I tried to push it away. My heart hammered in my ches-

…

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A/N: The MP/HP stats showcased in the chapter are what the MC thinks he has.