Hans was panicking.

“Hey, hey, you don’t want to eat me at all! I don’t taste at all, and there’s is far too little meat on me for you,” Hans yells at the rat as it stood over the corpse of its weaker brethren, hunger in its eyes.

He then points at the corpse with one of his claws. “Look, you got a perfectly good meal right there so, you don’t need to eat me!” Hans yelled. “And you don’t have to worry about me stealing your food because I’m just gonna back away from here.”

And Hans did as he said and began backing away.

The rat stares at him for a moment before it looks down on the corpse, and begins devouring it. Hans kept backing away from it, mentally yelling at himself to move faster.

By the time the monstrous rat finishes eating the entire corpse, Hans has barely moved an inch away from where he previously was and he was panicking. That panic only grew when the rat look up and turn its gaze at him, bits of gore and blood dripping from its jaw, still having that gluttonous hunger in its eyes.

”Fuck, move faster legs, faster damn it, faster,” Hans cried out.

The rat hisses dropped on all fours and lunged at him, jaws open wide. Hans screams and raises both of his claws, opening them wide, right in the direct path of the rat’s open maw.

His claws dug into the inner parts and upper part of the rat’s snout, splashing blood all over Hans, staining his sandy-colored exoskeleton red. It sharp fang inches above his head.

The rat screamed in pain as it scratches Hans’ exoskeleton with its claws, but didn’t it pierce through it at all. Hans proceeds to close his claws tight, feeling it digging through flesh.

The rodent scream of pain grew louder, it desperately tried to wrench its head free of Hans’ grip but failed, the scorpion wanted to vomit but couldn’t do so considering since he was a scorpion.

He angled his stinger straight at the rat’s head and the stinger shot forward, piercing the rodent’s head, releasing toxic venom into its body before slithering back to its original position like a snake.

Hans felt the rat spasm in his grasp, growing weaker and weaker each minute until he saw the light in its eyes dim and went out like a fire in a lamp.

The rat went limp, and Hans remove his claws from it as the body dropped to the ground, he took a look at his claws. They were covered in blood and gore, bits of meat stuck it, and the corpse of the rat itself had two bloody holes on its snouts where blood was leaking out of it, staining its fur's blood, and he felt it staring at him with those lifeless eyes.

He really wanted to vomit.

Congrats, you have slain [Gluttonous Fanged Rat - Lv. 3]

You have Leveled Up! [Common Lesser Sand Scorpion - Lv. 1 ——> Lv. 3!]

[Grapple - Lv. 1] Leveled Up [Grapple - Lv. 2] Leveled Up [Poison Sting - Lv. 1] Leveled Up

“Hehe…” Hans nervously chuckles as he processes what had just happened. He had just been inches away from death and had he been any slower, his life would have just ended. Yet, he felt something, it felt…Excitement?

No no no no, it couldn’t be it, after all, why would he feel excited when he was a mere moment away from death?

Hans sigh and began taking deep breaths, and began slowly calming down. He also felt a bit hungry. He turned toward the dead rat, and then at the crystal-embryo things he was observed earlier, its eye still staring him.

“Umm, keep a lookout for me as I…Eat this dead rat? Alarm if anything comes near?” Hans said, unsure of what he was doing, he doubted it could hear him.

The eye just stares blankly at him.

He shrugs and pulls the dead rat closer to him, opens his mandible wide, and began eating. When he was filling his stomach, there was still over half of the dead rat left.

Hans was now left thinking about what he should do now.

“I should definitely get stronger,” He said. After his encounter with that giant lizard, what did the SYSTEM call it? Gluttonous Fanged Rat? Yeah, that's definitely what they called it. Both it and that lizard showed just how dangerous this world was, and if he wanted to survive.

And to get stronger, he would have to level up.

Hans proceeds to open up his status.

Name: Hans

Species: [Common Lesser Sand Scorpion - Lv. 3]

Status:

Strength : 13

Endurance : 18

Dexterity: 8

Agility: 9

Spirit: 7

Wisdom: 5

Skills:

[Poison Sting - Lv. 2] [Burrow - Lv. 4] [Grapple - Lv. 3] Pain Resistance - Lv. 2] [Heat Resistance - Lv. 5]

“That’s some low numbers,” Hans muttered. Overall, his stats were…Pathetic. His highest stats was endurance, at 18 and his lowest stats was wisdom, which was at 5, and the rest weren’t that much higher.

He was also starting to feel sleepy.

”I’ll start getting tomorrow, once I’m not tired,” Hans muttered, he crawl up to the wall, curl up, and began to sleep

…

…

…

Hans woke up refreshed, still covered in blood, but overall was feeling much better than he did the day before.

He uncurled his tail, and got up, moving all six of his legs.

The scorpion scans his surroundings. He could see nothing dangerous so far, only the moss and the crystal.

He double-check and after he was sure that there wasn’t danger nearby, he start to enact his plan.

Plan Survival amounts to basically three things, kill monsters to level up, level skills, and don’t pick a fight with anything that looks too strong.

Although, he wouldn’t enact the plan, not yet, he just has to greet someone and make a small hole that would be his new home.

“Morning,” Hans greeted the crystal embryo as he dug the hole. The embryo didn’t say anything as the eye on its stomach stared blankly at him.

Hans crawl out of the brand new hole he dug and took a deep breath. “Well, take to go hunting,” He muttered.

And off he goes.