Pfaaaah… good morning, me. Slept well, have I?

Ugh, it looked like the loneliness was getting to me, I was already asking myself questions. Still, I felt surprisingly good after waking up again. It was a weird state of being, by the way: I had no eyelids to shut over my eyes, but when my body had turned everything down to ‘sleep’, I did not see. Past me would probably have tried to describe it as temporary blindness, but it wasn’t quite that way either. A quick check confirmed that I was in the same place I’d gone to sleep in, so my getting-my-carapace-stuck strategy seemed to have worked out after all. I then noticed that there was a notification waiting for me.

Skill proficiency threshold reached. [Grip] (1) has leveled up to [Grip] (2).

Grip had leveled up overnight, probably because I had been using it to hold on. Very nice! I tested the pressure of my legs against the teeth. I might be imagining it, but it felt like I could hold on a bit better and easier. I did not want to experiment too much though, for fear of losing my hold and dropping down.

Before spending the rest of my morning thinking about stuff, I opted to turn [Mooch] back on, to fill my stomach which felt rather empty in spite of my dinner before I’d gone to sleep. It felt as weird as ever, seeing my claws move around without any input from me, but at the same time, it was strangely calming and let me focus my thoughts inwards while I let the skill do all the work.

First, I looked over my status screen and was happy to see that my restful sleep had done wonders for my health and stamina: I’d gone from 0,58 to 0,79 on health, and from 0,31 stamina to 0,95. I was healing pretty fast, wasn’t I… maybe insects had a fast metabolism like that? That would also explain why my stomach felt empty.

… Come to think of it, wouldn’t that mean that I had a really limited lifespan? Insects didn’t live for long after all! Well, maybe I would have a longer lifespan, being a monster and all. Hopefully. I would hate to find out I’d wasted my limited time on whatever planet I’d landed on, bumbling about not doing anything fun, or that I could be proud looking back at. But then again, my Status still said that I was a hatchling, so I might still be young.

Feeding threshold reached. [Nameless] has acquired 1 Biomass (New total: 1).

A new notification popped into my vision and distracted me from my thoughts. Biomass, the thing that I had seen displayed underneath the Skill points in my Status screen and that I had found out was necessary to purchase racial skills. So this was how I was going to acquire it, by eating enough? That seemed kind of easy… assuming that I had hatched on an empty stomach, I had eaten my fill before my sleep, and now I was… it was hard to say how full I was, but less than half for sure. Wouldn’t that mean that something like a human eating three filling meals a day, they would earn around two Biomass for that? That meant that they would accumulate thousands of points before even reaching their teens, and the skills I had seen all cost just one point! Did I mention yet that this system made no sense sometimes? Or if there were contingencies and tricks, that everything was badly explained?

Sigh.

I decided to turn my thoughts to nicer things. For instance, the beast whose maw I was inhabiting seemed to be sleeping, judging from its steady breathing and a lack of movement. Perhaps I could take this chance to get something done? I shuddered with disgust at the idea of employing [Leech] again, but I was all but certain by now that it was what I had healed with before. It would be nice to top my health off, and wipe out any remaining doubt. However, I couldn’t use it while the beast was awake or it would notice the pain. Not to mention, I had to turn myself around to reach its gums, where I thought would be the best spot to bite down to draw blood.

Skill proficiency threshold reached. [Mooch] (1) has leveled up to [Mooch] (2).

Oh! Yet another notification, this time for [Mooch]. Wonderful! Keep ‘em coming, System! Come to think of it, hadn’t the skill said something like ‘more level more food’... did that maybe mean that I was going to have to eat more to sustain myself? It could be considered a bad thing, but if the quantity of food eaten was directly related to Biomass, it might be useful. Or it could be the other way around, it might mean that with each level I gained more sustenance. Depending on whether this meant that my digestive system was mutating to be more efficient, or the skill somehow made food have more calories in it, Darwin or Einstein would be turning over in their graves. My guess was that the latter applied and that I needed to eat less to be full, since skills in games and such were meant to improve with use. On the other hand I would not put it beyond this chaotic system to break those conventions, if it even knew them.

I ultimately decided that like so many other questions I would not be able to get my answers right away. I didn’t feel any different, there was no burning feeling inside me from my intestines rearranging or anything like that, and I didn’t notice anything special when observing my claws putting more food in my mouth either. But then I remembered I wanted to try out [Leech] again, so I toggled [Mooch] off before my stomach could get too full.

Alright, careful now. Wrapping my front claws around the tooth to my right, I let my left legs go and swung around until my whole body was vertical, and gripped onto the tooth. Next, I scooted along sideways until I was on the inside of the maw, the big slimy tongue below me. Well I still couldn’t see it, but I knew it was there. Finally, I climbed up until my claws touched soft flesh rather than hard… enamel? Was that the thing that teeth were made of? Just… don’t think about what I’m about to do. Don’t think about it. Clear your head, imagine yourself anywhere but this rhinoceros-monster’s unwashed maw, maybe in a high-class steakhouse about to dig into a delicious rib-eye…

Chomp!

Uuuuuugh. It was no use, I couldn’t force my brain to think of other stuff, and this stupid body had no eyelids to shut out the barely-visible flesh wall I had right in front of me. I begged my insectoid mind to at least spare me the mental imagery of me sucking out its blood.

Shlllrp.

Restored 0,01 HP. Restored 0,01 HP. Restored 0,01 HP.

… so much for that. The muscle tensing and applying suction, pulling out minute amounts of blood from my host which passed through the area above my mouth like I was getting hot water poured through my nose, all of it was far too present for me to shut out. I briefly relaxed the tension, felt the hot liquid run its course, then ‘inhaled’ again.

I repeated this twice more, restoring a total of 0,12 HP and bringing me up to 0,91. After that, my stomach felt like it could take nothing more, and I decided to not push myself and risk bloating out to a point where I couldn’t move. So I inched my way back down with great care, did the splits until my legs reached the tooth on the opposite side and lastly wedged myself back into place.

Once more, I now had a lot of time on my hands, and very little that I could do with it. In a way, it was great - I had food and drink provided for me, I had relative safety so long as I didn’t drop from my little hidey-hole, I didn’t have to worry about other predators lapping me up… but it was bound to get boring, just sitting here. I didn’t even have a book to read in here, never mind that these claws of mine couldn’t even turn a page.

Hm, maybe this system had some kind of… instruction manual? Guidebook? Quick-start tips? A tutorial? Anything I could read to pass the time and learn while at it?

…

Yeah, it was too much to hope for, that this system would just open a booklet explaining everything. I might be missing the keyword I had to say, like ‘Status’ or ‘Skills’, but I didn’t exactly have a smartphone with Thesaurus on hand to try out every synonym until I got it right. In which case, I’d have to go out if I wanted my answers. But that was no problem, since, while this place might be comfy, relatively speaking of course, it had been my plan all along to only stay here for a short time, then to move on instead of wasting my life away without at least getting to see the sights a bit.

On an unrelated note, the breathing of the beast was getting deeper and if I wasn’t mistaken, I could hear its heart beating a little stronger. Guess it was waking up, which meant more activity! Maybe I’d get lucky again and be able to kill some or another insect it scooped up for breakfast. I needed to take every chance I could get to raise my level, after all.

Ugh, even my thought patterns were beginning to sound like a parasite’s.

Hm, come to think of it, why was I, a parasite, hatched from an ant egg that was located underground? Didn’t parasites usually plant their eggs right around the host they were on? Or even inside them? Yuck! Why’d I have to pick the insectoid randomizer of all things? I knew that bugs did all sorts of disgusting stuff! I could’ve wound up as a dung beetle, or as a mayfly, imagine that! Damn you, Past Me, for your shortsightedness! Just why did I have to pick the randomized Insectoid option? Actually, I knew exactly why but it was easier to blame my past self after the fact.

Circling back to my original thought, did that mean that my body had been conceived as a Myrmidon ant, but then the mutation randomizer had made me into the Parasite that I was now? Honestly it was too big of a jump for a ‘mutation’, I was basically a completely different creature. I looked different, my size was different, my diet was different, I was parasitic... Hmm, unless the Myrmidon ants were somehow different from the common ant from back home? Perhaps I could put that on my to-do list: find out more about my supposed origin species.

I pondered my next steps, while feeling the beast shake itself awake. Morning, big guy. Where are you going today then? Gonna find more worms and bugs to eat? I’ll be right here and ready to steal a few kills right under your snout, mwahaha!

---Elsewhere---

Fen passed his hand along the ground, but even without [Huntsman’s Instinct] he could tell that the Ironback Charger had moved away from the shores. A smart one. The Green Lake’s waters were teeming with life, thanks to the relatively high concentration of ambient mana, and by extension they also spewed out all manner of dangerous creatures. To venture to the ponds around the lake for a short time to have a meal or a mana-infused soak was usually okay, but to linger for too long or to get too close to the lake proper was a death sentence.

The time where he had witnessed that Staglord being eaten alive by a giant snake once would forever remain etched into his memory as a reminder to just how dangerous those innocent-looking waters were. He’d been chasing after the Staglord for a while and it had taken to running along the lakeshore to get away from him. It was then that a scaled snake-like monster, so big it could swallow a horse whole, had broken through the surface, snapped the animal up and dragged it back into the water, all in a span of three seconds. The shock he’d felt that day had not left any room for him to get angry that his quarry had been snatched away from him.

It seemed that this specimen he was tracking knew about the dangers in the lake and only came close for brief periods, probably to eat, then retreated back to a safer area again. Or at least safe from the aquatic predators, but less so from the terrestrial ones that roamed the general area. But there were huntsmen just like Fen, whose job it was to cull just those terrestrial predators. The few sneaky or lucky ones that managed to slip through the cracks, just like this Ironback Charger, did not have much competition as a result. And judging by the size of its footprints, this one had been able to eat, grow and gain levels from fighting creatures that could not stand up to it for a while now: it was a large one.

As far as the Hunters could tell, the Ironback species was a Rare, maybe even Epic one. There was no way to tell without the high-level skills needed to view that, and the individuals that did have that skill, had no time to waste inspecting the lifeforms of a backwater town like this. Of course, the rarity level wasn’t very important either: all they needed to know was that Ironbacks were fortunately a rare phenomenon on Greenlake. They weren’t too aggressive, but if provoked they could go on destructive rampages unparalleled by the usual top predators - not to mention, they had some very nasty evolutions. It was no wonder that the barony paid a hefty bounty for each Charger twin-horn handed in as proof of a kill: Baron von Silverrock did not want another disaster involving an Ironback Tyrant on his hands.

“I’ve got it”, he said as he stood back up and turned to face the two individuals that accompanied him. Looking back at him was a tall male who would have to be in his early twenties - Fen always had a hard time telling a human’s age - clad head to toe in heavy plate armor and with one greatshield and a small buckler strapped to his forearms. The other one was a petite woman, a half-elf like himself, just over eighty years of age, wearing a green hooded robe and with a gnarled wooden staff slung over her back. They both eyed him intently as he pointed into the forest behind him and explained: “Judging from the footprint, it’s one that got fairly big.”

“Big enough to evolve?” asked the half-elf. Fen glanced towards her as he weighed the words in his mind, before replying. She looked back unflinchingly with eyes that betrayed her age, even though most humans would have believed her to be twenty at the very most.

“By my estimate, Miss Essa, it might be getting ready to, but it’s not there yet”, he finally said. “It may also just have a high level [Thick Skin], which adds a lot of weight to-”

“Any elemental affinities?” Essa interrupted him. Fen grimaced. He knew what was coming next.

“Probably not.”

“‘Probably’ is not good enough, huntsman”, grunted Ser Rovik, the armor-clad human. Even though he was speaking in a low tone, as Fen had instructed them both before they’d set out on this hunt, his words had a way of drawing attention. It probably was a side effect of one of his tank-class skills. “I need to slot the appropriate gems in or my shield will not guard properly.”

“I believe you’re overthinking it, Ser Rovik. We’re dealing with a singular Charger”, Fen remarked calmly. What was the giant man’s deal again, overcautiousness as a result of a near-death experience in his early years? He had never seen him without his armor on, not even without his helmet. But if one experience like that left him so afraid, he shouldn’t have gone for a frontline-style defensive build. Something about nobles and their single-minded fixation on getting their skills high… then again it was his decision what to do with his skills. What others chose to do with their builds was none of his concern. “After the beast has spent its energy on the initial charging attack”, he went on to explain, “it’s a lot less dangerous. Plus, if all goes as planned it will not have the room to charge any of us. As for affinities... its mind isn’t evolved enough to use elemental skills. Your shields should protect you just fine, and even in the unlikely event that something makes it through, your aide can heal you.” He nodded his head towards Essa as he made that last remark.

“For the sake of argument”, the half-elven woman interjected, “let us say that by some chance this particular Ironback has developed the capacity to use mana, what would you believe to be the element it will most likely use?”

“Earth, but I want to emphasize just how unlikely that is”, Fen said. He was going to elaborate a bit, but closed his mouth when he saw Ser Rovik already opening the leather pouch on his belt. He watched silently as the knight produced a half dozen earth-brown-colored gems, each one the size of a raspberry, which he began to slot into the sockets on the back of his shield.

Sure, those gems raised the shield’s Earth affinity, and since he was using this many on a Greatshield he would probably be able to block just about anything, including an Ironback Tyrant’s [Seismic Fist], without so much as a dent. But the mana cost was staggering, and recharging this many gems would be very expensive, if Ser Rovik commissioned an Enchanter to do so. Not to mention, the gems did nothing against physical attacks, which was what they would expect from a Charger. But again, it was not his coinpurse that was going to suffer. He looked over at Essa, who simply shrugged at him.

“I am prepared now”, Ser Rovik said after he’d fit the last gem in. “So, huntsman, what is your plan of action?”

“I will whittle down our quarry’s health with my bow”, Fen explained. “Once it is within a tenth of its health or so, I will cease my attacks so that you may land the finishing blow. We are not in a group, so credit for the kill will be entirely yours, as per your wish. The body will also be yours, save for the horns.”

“I care not for the bounty, I just want the EXP”, Ser Rovik said. “More importantly: one tenth of health is a low amount. What if you accidentally hit too hard and kill it?”

“My [Huntsman’s Instincts] allow me to see my quarry’s approximate health, and my arrows are not so powerful that they can deal that amount of damage through its [Thick Skin]. I’m quite confident that I will not accidentally slay the beast. Besides, this is not the first Ironback Charger that I have leashed for a powerleveling contract, Sire. I assure you I know its weak points, and how to avoid hitting them by accident.”

The knight looked unconvinced still. “You put a lot of confidence in your bowmanship, huntsman. How are you certain that you will hit your shots as you intend? Your target is a moving one.”

“With all due respect, Sire, but I have been handling the bow for five decades”, Fen said carefully. He did not want to risk insulting a man of nobility, even if Ser Rovik was ‘only’ a lesser noble. A word from him and Fen Draelgar the huntsman would soon be Fen Draelgar the inmate, rotting away in a damp Silverrock jail cell. “And if I remember correctly, your aide is capable of casting the druidic [Vine Snare] ability to entangle the monster without hurting it? It should be no issue to keep it in place as I loose the final arrows.”

Though Ser Rovik did not look wholly convinced by these arguments, he did not voice his further skepticism immediately. Fen took this chance to begin walking forward again before the discussion could drag on. “From here, please remain alert”, he said. “We are likely to see more dangerous creatures once we enter the periphery of Green Lake. We try to keep the monster population low, but occasionally one slips through the cracks for a while. Try treading as lightly as you can. And I’m sure I needn’t remind you, but no matter what…”

“Stay away from the water?” asked Essa. “We know.”

Fen nodded. “Yes. Even the shallow-looking ponds can become death traps.” He then lowered his voice to speak to just the half-elf, while the knight trailed behind a bit. “By the way, if I may ask. Ser Rovik’s build is entirely defensive, is it not? How does he plan on slaying the Charger?”

“You’re old enough to remember the time predating the System, are you not? Then surely you remember that skills aren’t everything and combat training makes up the difference. Besides, the Ser has a plan.”

“Does he aim to whittle it down with brute force? Without a skill to enhance his attacks? It’s very likely that this specimen has a regeneration-type skill, and a battle of attrition is a risky premise.”

“We’re well aware. But if you must know, the Ser has obtained a magic item that he intends to field-test today, which will make the beast’s defense irrelevant.”

“So you intend on using that item on the Charger once I have brought it down to low health, so that Ser Rovik can defeat it swiftly using the magic item, which I presume will deal magical damage or otherwise circumvent the Charger’s defense”, Fen summarized the situation. When Essa confirmed the assessment with a nod, he added: “The use of magic items is risky. It could backfire.”

“You worry about finding the prey, huntsman”, Essa said, shutting down further discussion on the topic.

Fen shrugged. He was going to stay out of the way at any rate, so it was no skin off his back if the Ser’s magic toy blew up in his face. Thinking thus, he returned his attention to the ground and continued to follow the trail. The search was not a difficult one: the Ironback Charger was not trying to hide its tracks, which thanks to its size were very clear. They passed by no fewer than five upturned rocks with exposed leftovers of insect hives, and three spots around the bases of trees where the ground had been upturned in shallow trenches. Both were spots where it had searched for meals. A further search led to a small clearing with a spot of flattened grass where it had slept. And a very fresh trail leading away from it.

“The beast is right ahead, we may run into it any moment”, Fen whispered. “We’re downwind so it hasn’t smelled us yet. Please keep your distance until I have lowered its health”, Fen warned Ser Rovik and Essa, pulled the bow off his back and nocked an arrow. At this distance, [Huntsman’s Instinct] was able to track the beast, and indeed he found it a short walk from its resting spot, chewing on a bushel of wild herbs. As he had guessed, the Ironback Charger was a big and heavy one, at least 500 kilos and likely a few months old, with layers of thick leathery hide acting as natural armor and its signature twin horns on the tip of its elongated snout.

Swift- and light-footed as ever, he climbed onto a nearby tree, silent as a squirrel. As he found himself a good vantage point from which to strike, he wondered why it was eating those herbs. Was it sick or in pain? He sharpened his [Huntsman’s Instincts] and whispered: “[Examine Target].”

[STATUS (???)] Race Ironback Charger [Animal] Level ??? Health Above nine tenths [Information limited due to level difference]

No big surprises, his [Huntsman’s Instincts] weren’t high-level enough to handle prey this big, but it gave him what he needed. It wasn’t at full health, and with no signs of a battle on the trail or visible external injuries he had to assume it was a disease. Still, it was quite healthy.

“[Enchant Pierce]. And... [Enchant Aspect: Wind]”, he whispered out and the metal point of his arrow glimmered with a slight green color as it took on the spells he’d casted from his [Bow Mastery] skill. When he fired, the arrow pierced through the monster’s hide like butter and lodged itself into its back, knocking it down to eight tenths immediately. The Charger gave a fearful and angry roar and reared back while immediately looking around for the one that had dared assault it, but it did not think of looking up. Fen had time to enchant another arrow, noting the rapid drain on his mana. He could not afford to miss a shot or he would run out… luckily he was not worried about that. Thinking thus, he fired again and observed as the Charger took the hit and subsequently rolled over in an attempt to crush the supposed attacker clinging to its back, but all it accomplished was to break the shafts of the arrows and push the points deeper in. It exposed its belly while doing so, but Fen did not take advantage of that: no shot he could place there would just decrease its health, he would also cause it to bleed or injure its organs, making it lose health over time. It was too risky that it would die from that while Ser Rovik pummeled it, and if he failed the contract he was in deep trouble.

Instead, he nocked his next arrow and waited patiently.