I looked through the Dragonfly’s eyes as I sprinted through the forest towards my other minions. I had sent the flying bug on ahead so that it could scout out the area and hopefully figure out what was going on. However, all that it could see was more broken bodies of Bugs and torn up dirt where something or a group of somethings had been fighting.

It didn’t take long for me to meet up with my other minions and together we all continued to follow the trail of destroyed Bug carcasses. Several minutes later the Dragonfly finally managed to catch a glimpse of what was actually going on and I felt a pit open up in my stomach.

“Well shit,” I panted as I vaulted over a fallen log. Although I had never actually seen the creatures that were quite literally tearing an entire swarm of Bugs to shreds before, but I had seen something that was similar enough that I was pretty sure that I knew what they were.

The creatures in question resembled a sort of cross between apes and some sort of reptile and were very similar to the Feathered Chimp that I had fought not long after I arrived on Edra. However, there were a few differences as well. They were considerably larger, and their scales didn’t resemble feathers like the Feathered Chimps ones did. My sense of foreboding increased when I saw a Bug trying to attack one of the Scaled Apes.

I say attacked because no matter what the Bug did it wasn’t able to harm its much larger opponent which grabbed it in one of its meaty hands and bit its head off. The other apes in the troop were also killing and eating the Bugs that they were chasing with similar ease.

For a moment I almost turned around and headed back towards Tane. The Apes were heading away from Tane and I wasn’t even really all that confident of being able to defeat them. Then one of the acid spitting Bugs did its thing and the Ape that it hit howled in pain as its tough scales melted away allowing a new type of Bug that was considerably larger than the others with overdeveloped mouth parts to take a massive chunk out of its flesh as it suddenly leapt out at it from the shadows of a large tree.

Several more similarly nasty looking Bugs attacked more of the Apes and the tides of the battle began to turn in the favour of the Bugs. While the Apes were much stronger than most of the Bugs, the Bugs had numbers on their side which allowed them to start to overwhelm their opponents.

The Apes were giving as good as they got but I could tell that they were starting to get tired and I decided that I couldn’t give up this chance to get stronger. The Gel Colony had already split into three smaller Gel and was harvesting the various Bug bodies that we were running past, so I was already building my Essence pool back up after using a significant amount of that incredibly useful resource up when I created the Giant Dragonfly.

It took several more minutes to arrive at the scene of the fight where the Dragonfly was waiting for us. Before doing anything else I decided to use my Observation Skill to check the Levels of the Apes and larger Bugs that had ambushed them. I grimaced as the Levels of the monsters appeared above their heads. Even the weakest Ape was Level 6, and the larger Bugs were about Level 7 on average. These monsters were a step above anything I had really fought before but luckily for me most of them were already injured and still fighting amongst themselves so I was pretty sure that I would be able to win this fight.

Several more of the Apes and at least twenty more Bugs had been killed while we were catching up and I ordered the Dragonfly and the Gel Colony to spread out and surround the area as best they could while keeping the Scorpion close so that it could intercept anything that decided to attack me.

As soon as they were in position, we began our assault. I started firing multiple Caustic Bombs into the crowd of writhing bodies causing multiple loud screams to come forth as the surprise attacks wreaked havoc on both sides. The smaller Gels that the Gel Colony had split into also started firing their smaller globules of acid at the monsters while the Dragonfly started picking off the smaller Bugs that were trying to escape.

As I’d expected the massive flying insect was an incredibly efficient hunter and its jaws were more than capable of chewing through the exoskeleton of its victims to the softer flesh underneath. Once its victim stopped struggling the Dragonfly simply let go of the corpse and snagged another Bug out of the air with impressive ease. Within a couple of minutes, the Dragonfly had killed or gravely injured 6 more Bugs while the Gels and I had been raining acid down on the other monsters.

It was at this point that I decided to switch from using Caustic Bombs since they weren’t really that damaging and used up a significant amount of MP per cast to using Stone Shots instead which used less MP. The stone projectiles were considerably larger than they had been when I first created the spell and this change in size meant that they did considerably more damage to anything that they hit and since everything that I was aiming at had already been damaged by my earlier attacks several of the projectiles punched right through their target.

Several of the monsters that I hit were killed outright and the others were badly injured by this first salvo of Stone Shots. One of the Apes finally decided that it’d had enough of being attacked by us and charged in my direction. The Scorpion immediately moved to intercept the powerful looking beast as I turned my attention towards it. The Ape was a massive specimen but to my surprise the Scorpion was up to the challenge and stopped the Ape in its tracks.

The Ape roared angrily as the Scorpion’s tail slammed into its body several times injecting it with its paralytic venom. The Ape slowed slightly just in time for me to send a Stone Shot through its forehead killing it immediately.

As the Ape slumped over, I noticed one of the larger Bugs heading in my direction and decided to throw one of my kunai in its direction to see if I could get it to back down. I sighed in irritation as my weapon flew almost a meter over the Bug’s head but then the Dragonfly slammed into it with enough force to knock it off course which allowed the Scorpion to catch it in its powerful front claws before finishing it off.

My MP was starting to get pretty low by bow but luckily it looked like the fight was almost over. I ordered the smaller Gels to reform into their larger whole and sent them in to where a tangle of enemies was still fighting. The massive Colony Gel covered their struggling forms with surprising ease and as I continued to attack the remaining enemies with my Stone Shot spell which seemed to have improved again since the start of this fight.

About two minutes later I was finally able to sit down and relax a little when the Gel Colony finished off the last Ape by somehow leaping on it. The Gel Colony leaping on the Ape was quite an impressive sight, but it was also quite terrifying. The previous iterations of the Gel Colony had never shown this ability before but not only was the Gel Colony apparently able to jump somehow but its massive weight quite literally crushed the Ape underneath it before it Devoured its unfortunate victim. I had been worried that I had exchanged strength for utility when it had evolved but apparently that wasn’t the case.

I sent the Dragonfly out to patrol the area just in case the fighting had attracted more predators while the Gel Colony Devoured the corpses. I loaded up some of the meat and one of the least damaged bodies of the Apes onto the back of the Scorpion before using Essence Drain on the rest of the bodies.

I had Levelled Up once again during the fight which had surprised me because I had Levelled Up during the last fight, but I wasn’t going to complain too much about it either. I would’ve preferred not Levelling Up until I had increased my Skills further for the extra Growth Rate, but it was a little late for that now.

However, having a look at that was going to have to wait until we got back to my base since I Tane wasn’t awake to keep predators away which was the whole reason that I was here in the first place. Once we had collected, Devoured or Drained the corpses I quickly looked around for the kunai that I had thrown at the Bug that had attempted to attack me, but I couldn’t find it.

“Oh well,” I sighed as I started to head back in the direction of Tane. “I can just make a better one after all.”

I made sure to use the Dragonfly as a scout to make sure we weren’t going to be ambushed but the trip back to base was thankfully uneventful and once we arrived, I decided to dissect a couple of the more intact corpses that we had collected before doing anything else.

The Ape corpse was similar to the Feathered Chimp corpse that I had dissected back at the safe zone that the Admin had created for me. It was much larger, and its scales were tough enough to actually make it difficult to cut it open even with my shaped knife but other than that I didn’t see anything that I didn’t recognise in its guts.

“So, you’re either closely related to a Feathered Chimp or a fully grown Feathered Chimp,” I muttered to myself as I allowed my hungry minions to start devouring the body.

Moving on to the next corpse which was the corpse of one of the larger Bugs that had been able to actually stand up to the Apes which had been completely overpowering its smaller cousins and even overpower the weaker ones in some cases. Much like the Apes seemed to be larger versions of Feathered Chimps these Bugs were just larger versions of the smaller ones. The Bug’s carapace was much tougher than what I expected, and I ended up having to crack it open with a rock so that I could have a look at its guts.

“Well that was gross,” I sighed once I had finished. As I had expected I hadn’t really found anything that I hadn’t already seen before but since this Bug was larger, I was able to get a better look at some of its guts. Not that I was really able to learn anything new from them. “Alright then, I suppose I should take a look at my Skills now to see what’s changed and then I can check out my Stats.”

Skills increased!

Running increased to Lvl 16

Mana Manipulation increased to Lvl 23

Create Giant Dragonfly increased to Lvl 3

Gel Colony increased to Lvl 11

Growth rate increased by 1 Willpower

Caustic Bomb increased to Lvl 5

Growth Rate increased by 1 Intelligence!

Stone Shot increased to Lvl 8

Create Armoured Scorpion increased to Lvl 8

Swarm Control increased to Lvl 16

Essence Drain increased to Lvl 9

Available Aspect points increased by 13

Total Aspect Points: 17

Now that I had done that I brough up my Aspects Screen and after considering my options briefly decided to add all 17 points into my Aspect of Willpower 2 which hadn’t been an option the last time that I had looked so I was assuming that it had appeared when I had reached 100 Willpower which would explain why I could also choose Aspect of Intelligence 2 and Aspect of Wisdom 2 as well. I had briefly considered my other options since I actually had quite a few of them. But as the previous fight had reminded me my minions were my biggest advantage so I decided completing all of the basic Aspects for the remaining Stats could wait until later. Besides, it still irritated me that my Intelligence was so much higher than my Willpower despite the latter technically being a more important Stat to me.

My inner world appeared around me as I confirmed my decision. I was currently standing in a strange forest with fleshy looking things that resembled giant mushrooms. The mushrooms seemed to be either producing some sort of gas or just copious quantities of spores. I could also see a large number of corpses at the base of these mushroom with some of the smaller ones even growing out of them so I was surprised when I saw a cloud of small bugs fly across right in front of me. I wasn’t sure what made these bugs any different from the dead ones unless it wasn’t the mushrooms that killed them. As I watched them the swarm of bugs landed on one of the corpses and crept closer to see what they were doing. What I discovered didn’t really surprise me all that much, but it was interesting all the same.

The bugs only really seemed interested in the fresher looking bodies that didn’t have mushrooms growing on them. When they landed, they stabbed their surprisingly long proboscises into the bodies and injected them with something before flying off and landing on one of the other bodies and doing the same. I watched the bodies that they had injected for a few moments and saw that they were decomposing at a rate that I could literally see. A few minutes later the swarm returned to the first body that I had seen them land on and start sucking up the decomposed goo that the body had started to turn into.

Not long after that the scene in front of me faded away and was replaced by something that I was much more familiar with. Not that being familiar with it made it any less creepy. I was currently near the centre of a large spiderweb and staring a spider that was almost as large as I was right in its many eyed face.

“Oh boy am I glad that I’m not really here and you can’t see me,” I muttered. Other than its size the spider was a pretty plain looking creature. No bright colours or odd patterns that would suggest that it was particularly venomous. What was more interesting was the web that was surrounding us. It was incredibly intricate looking, and each strand was about as thick as my arm. If I assumed that tis spider silk was made of the same material as normal spider silk, then each strand must be able to hold a massive amount of weight which means that this whole web must be able to hold several tons of weight.

Just as I realised how strong the web that I was currently standing on was several Giant Dragonflies flew straight into it and the giant spider sprung into motion wrapping them up in its strong web before biting them. I was actually quite surprised by these actions because as far as I recalled most spiders didn’t like eating dragonflies though I didn’t really know why but I supposed that it wasn’t like there were that many other things that were large enough for a spider this big to be bothered with eating.

Not long after that I was returned to my real body with a pair of new notifications waiting for me that I was looking forward to reading.

Aspect of the Willpower 2 has reached 17/50

Your Willpower is beginning to reach a point where your very presence is overwhelming to a normal member of your species but as befitting someone with high Willpower you aren’t showing any signs of slowing down any time soon.

+ 5 Willpower

Aspect of Evolution (World of the Swarm) has reached Lvl 317!

A species of small flying insects has entered into a symbiotic relationship with a species of large mushrooms that produce toxic spores. These insects produce a liquid that increases the speed at which corpses decompose which allows the mushrooms to reproduce at a much faster rate than they could normally.

+2 Charisma. +2 Intelligence.

Growth Rate increased by 1 Charisma!

A new species of spider has improved its ability to make webs to the point where it can capture all but the largest insects in your inner world within the strands of its web. While its poison isn’t very powerful it is still one of the most dangerous predators in your inner world and shouldn’t be underestimated.

Create Giant Webspinner Unlocked!

Willpower increased by 3!

Growth Rate increased by 1 Willpower!

“Wow, that’s pretty good,” I muttered as I before bringing up the information on my new Skill.

Create Giant Webspinner (Primordial) Unlocked!

This Skill allows you to create a Giant Webspinner that specialises in creating traps for your enemies.

Cost: 70 Essence.

Upkeep: 40 Control Points.

Growth Rate increased by 1 Unassigned Stat Point.

Now that I had done everything else, I could finally take a look at my Stats which had swelled dramatically since the last time I had looked. I now had over 1000 MP which was an absolutely obscene amount that left me wondering just how powerful I would be once I reached the higher Levels. I was still unsure how my current Growth Rate compared to other people who had grown up with the System but for now I felt powerful which was good enough for me.

“Alright what am I going to do with the Unassigned Stat Points that I have,” I sighed. After a few moments I decided to place 9 points into my Willpower which I mostly decided to do this because of the sheer amount of Essence that I had right now. Then I placed 10 points into Constitution to increase my HP another 5 into my Endurance and the final 5 into my Agility.

Once I’d done that, I looked over my Stats one more time.

Status

Level 5

Exp: 17%

HP: 507/507

MP: 1222/1222

HP Regen: 40.9 per minute (+1)

MP Regen: 73.8 per minute

SP: 279/393

Essence: 107

SP Regen: 37.4 per minute

Control Points: 97.7 (27.7)

Str: 61 (+14/Lvl)

Agi: 78 (+15/Lvl)

Con: 76 (+8/Lvl)

End: 66 (+10/Lvl)

Tou: 73 (+12/Lvl)

Int: 168 (+43/Lvl)

Coor: 59 (+11/Lvl)

Vit: 58 (+10/Lvl)

Wis: 108 (+28/Lvl)

Will: 146 (+45/Lvl)

Per: 97 (+28/Lvl)

Cha: 51 (+12/Lvl)

Additional Growth Rate: +30 Unassigned Stat Points/Lvl. +40 MP/Lvl. MP regen increased by 1.4/min per Lvl +5 Control Points/Lvl.

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

“Seriously though,” I muttered. “Just how powerful are is it possible to get if I’m this much stronger than I used to be and I’m not even Level 10 yet.”

It was quite a terrifying thought and I really hoped that the Yajash had implemented some sort of system where people under a certain age just weren’t allowed to increase their Level. The last thing any society needed was a superpowered moody teen running around.

“Alright time to make some food,” I said after contemplating that horrifying thought.