Today, August and I were going to take shifts in levelling up. One would guard the injured pair who couldn't be moved, while the other would hunt.

After winning a tense coin toss, I got the morning shift and packed some food and water before going off to hunt.

Part of me wanted to level up as quickly as possible to help Kashyap heal... the other part of me wanted to make sure August wouldn't overtake me in levels. Since both were in agreement, I set off motivated.

Sure, it's petty, but have you met August? The guy is a smug prick. I can't lose out to him. If I did, what was the point of all that training?

While I began my hunt, I was quickly made aware of a strange paradox. Unlike what you might expect, the road was more dangerous than the wild and unruly undergrowth that grew beside it.

After all, at least I can fight back if I'm attacked by a monster. A landmine on the other hand... I don't like my chances.

Picking my way through the grass that was now taller than my head, I was made keenly aware of just how small I was in this new world. It's a strange feeling to have to look up to see the top of the grass.

Snaking my way through the fields, I eventually found myself at the base of a huge tree that towered above the ground, reaching towards the heavens in a great pillar of wood. No matter how far back a craned my neck, I couldn't see the crown of the tree.

"Perfect," I muttered to myself.

I walked up to the foot of the tree and placed one hand on its thick grainy bark. It was so solid that it felt like I had placed my hand on a sculpture of a tree and not a living thing.

Closing my eyes, I concentrated inwards. I felt a small flow of energy and released it from within myself in a trickling stream.

(Light as a Feather) had activated.

My body felt weightless and the soles of my feet almost lifted off the ground when I took a deep breath, like a balloon filled with helium, I was forced to hold myself down by grasping onto the bark of the great tree.

After a moment of disorientation, I had gotten a better grasp of my body when this skill was activated and then, after taking a deep breath, I took off up the tree.

With one great leap, I was 10 metres up the side of the trunk. Then, before gravity could even begin to take hold of me, I jumped again. Pushing off the trunk, I bounded higher up the side of the tree. After repeating this process a couple of times, I was so good at it that I could almost run up the side of the tree.

Finally, I came to a stop on one of the plant's giant limbs. I paused there and gazed out at the prehistoric plane that stretched out beneath me.

To the south, the ocean glittered like it was full of gemstones, white froth bubbling up as great waves smashed against each other. Amidst the waves, great sea monsters swam. Occasionally a massive fin would slice the waves apart and alert me to their presence.

"Not there," I thought, crossing the beach off my list of possible hunting spots.

So, I turned my attention inland, to where the rolling fields of the English countryside had transformed into great prehistoric jungles and swamps.

Not far off from where we had spent the night, a herd of enormous cows grazed on the tall grass. From this distance, they almost looked normal-sized. Aside from the massive horns that stretched up from their heads and the long shaggy fur, the cows looked fairly normal.

I thought back to the previous night, whenever that cow had ignored me and realised it made sense. "Once a herbivore, always a herbivore. Just because they got bigger doesn't mean every animal will try to eat me," I told myself.

It was comforting to think that, at the very least, I didn't have to watch out for man-eating caterpillars and sheep.

Now, I needed to find my prey. Immediately, I ruled out the cows that I wasn't even sure I could kill with a rocket launcher, never mind my fists.

I needed something smaller and bigger in number. Something that I could kill 'en masse' to farm EXP.

The giant sheep that roamed near the cows were a no go. They were just too big and had similarly enormous horns that ended in a wickedly sharp hook.

When I caught sight of a rabbit warren, it was tempting, but the thought of killing a bunch of innocent rabbits put me off. That, and their massive teeth. Mostly, it was the massive teeth that put me off. Besides, they would be too fast to catch.

Suddenly, I caught sight of a group of small hills in the distance. There was at least 10 of them and they took up almost an entire field each. Unlike a normal hill, these had a brown muddy exterior and were covered in small holes.

Within half a mile of these small hills, there wasn't a single animal. Even the giant cows that seemed untouchable gave this area a wide birth.

Immediately, I knew I had found my target. "Ants are perfect. I won't even feel bad when I kill them,"

I gathered myself, activated (Light as a Feather) once again and ran off the great stretching limb of the tree. Because of my almost weightless body, my jump carried me hundreds of meters across the stretching grasslands and within a mile of the ant nests.

Little did I know, that this jump was one of, if not the single most stupid decision I had ever made... so far anyway.

I landed softly in the tall grass that cushioned my fall, allowing me to keep both of my legs working and intact despite falling from a height of 100 meters.

Softly, I stole my way through the grass to the nearest nest.

It wasn't long before I came across my first opponent. A small brown Ant... well, it was small compared to the other animals I had seen recently. If you looked at it compared to me, this ant was as tall as my knee and almost a meter long. It was a monster.

Beneath its bulbous compound eyes were a pair of mandibles that looked like they would be able to crush steel. Its whole body was covered in a shiny brown exoskeleton that would give the armoured plating on a tank a run for its money.

The second it caught sight of me, those hideous mandibles clicked together viciously and it skittered through the grass towards me.

I lowered my body to greet the approaching ant and when it was only a few meters away, I leapt up into the air, bringing down my leg like a scythe towards the back of the ant's head, where two pieces of exoskeleton met.

There was a sickening crunch and the ant's head snapped down at a ninety-degree angle towards the ground as the creature went limp.

For a moment, everything was quiet, aside from the notification from the system and a faint gust of wind, the whole world was still, as if waiting in anticipation for something.

[LVL 4 Giant Ant killed - 400 Experience Gained]

"That wasn't so hard," I muttered, I had even managed to get 400 EXP from a single kick. If it continued like this, I would be level 100 in no time.

Not even 20 seconds after the first Ant died, two more showed up. They burst into the clearing and immediately barrelled towards me... almost as if they had known I was going to be here.

And just like the first Ant, I dispatched them with similar ease. One, with a kick to the back of the head, the other, I flipped onto its back and while it struggled to right itself, I stomped on its bulbous thorax crushing the life out of it.

[LVL 4 Giant Ant killed - 400 Experience Gained]

[LVL 4 Giant Ant killed - 400 Experience Gained]

[Level 11 > 12- (4 stats increased)]

After reaching level 12, I had to hold myself back from laughing out loud. 'Levelling up like this is going to be the easiest thing I've ever done,' I exclaimed inwardly.

"If only there were more," I said out loud, and you may be thinking, why did I say this out loud? Are you an idiot?

I was asking for trouble... Well... trouble is exactly what I got.

Something I did not know about ants is that, whenever an Ant dies, it releases a pheromone that attracts nearby ants so that it can be buried in the Ant Hill and used as fertilizer. The more ants die... the stronger the pheromone. The stronger the pheromone, the more ants come. It is a self-fulfilling cycle.

I also did not know what happens whenever you get too much of this pheromone on you. Spoiler alert, the Ants will try and bring you back to the hive to bury you... whether or not you are alive and willing.

Whenever the next group of Ants showed up, there were 7 of them, and I reached level 14 with ease.

The next group came with 12 and after a hard-fought battle, I shot up to level 17.

Before I could even catch my breath, 20 Ants had burst into the clearing and attacked me I barely managed to kill all of them before even more piled in.

It wasn't until I had reached all the way up to Level 25 and was surrounded by hundreds of Ants that I could never hope to kill alone. That I realised something was off.

No matter how many I killed, more would always come.