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Vulnerability
An ant was faster than a worm.
This perhaps, was common, obvious knowledge. Ants were insects and were gifted with legs which enabled them to traverse terrain at a much quicker and rapid pace than worms. While my movement consisted of making my lower body grip the soil, coiling and stretching my upper body, then gripping the soil with my upper body, and allowing my lower body to follow, an ant’s movements were steps.
[Skill {Crawl} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Crawl Lv. 3} acquired]
I was scarcely done celebrating my achievement of attaining an increase in my speed and ease of crawling against the dirt, when I ‘sensed’ the presence of a fast – fast moving being rapidly approaching me. My skill to sense vibrations was not fine-tuned or high enough to sense all the details, but my brain was capable of taking note of the number of legs and basic shape to deduce what the unwelcome visitor was. Furthermore, the ‘system’ practically spelled it out to me.
Common Fire Ant
Lv. 4
It was effortlessly at a higher level than me, and the fact that an ant was stronger than me did not particularly grant me any ease. I had a feeling that the ant was not here for a casual inspection of its new “neighbor.”
[You have attained the skill: {Sense Danger} from anticipating a potential threat.]
[Skill {Sense Danger} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Sense Danger Lv. 2} acquired]
Fantastic. How, utterly fantastic.
The ant charged at me, and I attempted, pitifully to escape. Alas, an ant was marginally faster than a worm, and such was a foolish endeavor. The ant charged at my lower body, and I braced myself for the sensation of a tiny ant bite, which would –
–2HP!
Pain! Pain!
Maddening pain!
I thrashed around as pitifully as I could in order to stop the burning, stinging, sensation that poured itself through my entire body.
[You have attained the skill: {Lesser Pain Resistance} from enduring significant pain.]
[You have attained the skill: {Lesser Poison Resistance} from enduring enemy venom.]
[Skill {Lesser Pain Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Poison Resistance} has gained a Level.]
[Skill {Lesser Pain Resistance Lv. 2} acquired]
[Skill {Lesser Poison Resistance Lv. 2} acquired]
The words were meaningless in lieu of the pain – irritating pain – and the ant, the god-forsaken ant responsible had not released me.
[Warning!]
You have attained the Negative Effect: [Minor Poisoning]
You will lose [0.1] HP Every Minute until [Minor Poisoning] is mitigated.
HP: 2.8/5
Ridiculous! I wanted to roar. Ridiculous!
I was fighting against a god-forsaken ant! An ant! I would die if it bit me again. I would die if an ant bit me. Oh, more than that, I would die within twenty-eight minutes from being poisoned by an ant!
Think! Think!
Combat was not an option. What was I supposed to do? Smother it to death? It was too fast to be caught. I lacked combat abilities, and did not believe myself capable of winning against the ant even if I did. I was slow, incapable of defense, lacking offense, lacking durability, lacking everything.
The ant’s mandibles tossed me to the side and I writhed across the dirt. It stayed back, I could tell from the vibrations that its antennae was scanning the air, searching for information on me, its prey, waiting, most certainly, for my death. I was not going to bloody sit back and watch an ant wait for my death!
Think.
I remembered the water. Yes, the water. The droplets. The giant droplets that splashed and vibrated against the ground. I began a desperate, fast paced crawl towards it. My top crawling speed was at least twice as slow as the ant’s rapid strides.
It chased after me, catching up with little effort. It attempted another bite from the side, and I managed, only by luck, to curl my lower body sharply in order to avoid being stung. An idea sprung to me in that instant.
If I can –
I curled my entire body, tightening and compacting it, then, I did my best to move every muscle that I could, and –
[You have attained the skill: {Roll} through concentrated effort.]
I would have cackled with glee if I possessed lips and lungs capable of the action. My rolling speed was not particularly impressive, but it was, however, significantly faster than my crawling speed. I rolled across the soil, now managing to match the pace of my nemesis, the accursed fire ant.
It took me six seconds for my roll to eventually come to a stop upon feeling the familiar cool sensation of liquid moistness.
Water.
[You have attained the skill: {Swimming} through concentrated effort.]
I moved deeper and further into what was most likely a shallow puddle, however, as a worm, it felt like a lake. Deeper and deeper still I ‘swam’ until I was certain that I was beyond the reach of the ant. Worms were considerably harder to drown than ants, and if it made the foolish mistake of attempting to follow me into water –
It didn’t.
The ant stayed at the edges of the puddle, moving, back and forth, but it did not enter. Eventually, I sensed it leave, scuttling off in the distance, out of the range of my ability to sense vibrations.
I hesitated to rejoice, waiting, watching, for the creature’s familiar vibrations. Thirty full seconds passed with nothing disturbing my stay upon the still water, and I allowed myself to relax.
To think I almost got done in by that ant. Fire ants, now that I remembered, were notorious for being one of the most aggressive species of the insect, and a swarm of them could often take down frogs, snakes and small birds –
A swarm of them.
That realization instantly turned my short lived victory into a moment of dawning horror.
Ants travel in colonies.
They did not move alone. That ant, however, that attacked me, it had been alone. Or, had it? Had it been alone, or was it merely a ‘scout’ sent on ahead? Barring that, it was most likely separated from its colony.
I cannot take down a colony of ants.
I barely managed to survive one lone ant. Against dozens, against hundreds – it was an unmanageable task.
You will lose [0.1] HP Every Minute until [Minor Poisoning] is mitigated.
HP: 2.7/5
I hissed, mentally, as the familiar throbbing pain from where the ant bit me flared. A painful reminder of the fact that I was still poisoned, and if I did not find a cure within the next twenty-seven minutes, then I would not need to worry about facing a colony of ants, because I would be dead.
This could not do.
This could not do!
I could not continue like this. A worm was prey to all and predator to none, and if I were a predator to nothing, I would not be able to become stronger. Already, I was on the verge of dying less than a few hours after being reborn, because this was the nature of the world I found myself in. In nature, the strong preyed on the weak: no exceptions.
I needed to become a predator. I needed to shake up the natural order.
But how? How?
What in this world was potentially weak and defenseless enough for a worm to defeat? In the scale of things that were considered pathetic, a worm was only ranked marginally higher than maggots and –
The answer struck me promptly.
I ‘jerked’ in the water, trying my hardest to feel around me for what I hoped to find. I swam around the shallow puddle, ripples washing against my skin and sending further vibrations out that helped me form a vague outline of the puddle.
You will lose [0.1] HP Every Minute until [Minor Poisoning] is mitigated.
HP: 2.6/5
Fortune smiled on me, as I was able to find that which I was looking for at the shallowest edges of the puddle. I swam, slowly in its direction, spurred by the realization that a solution was finally within my grasp. An answer to my problems, in the shape of a small creature with a well-developed head, a body, formally called a thorax, no legs, and a segmented abdomen. ‘Large’ as it was, it was still smaller than a worm.
Common Mosquito Larva
Level 1
Often found in still waters, the being that would later grow to become a blood-sucking insect was something both small and defenseless, on the surface of the shallow pond, they most likely sensed me coming. They attempted to flee by dipping their heads back into the water, and I let them have the foolish notion of safety. Mosquito larva were incapable of breathing underwater for too long, so they would come up for air. Surely, they would come up, and I would be waiting.
Three seconds.
Six seconds.
I moved into position.
Eight seconds.
The creature emerged and I struck.
It was hard, latching around the larva, it was harder still, focusing and expanding my ‘mouth’ the mouth of an earthworm around the head of the larva. The hardest, perhaps most revolting part, was understanding that I had no ‘teeth’ to chew, and instead, all I could do was swallow the creature whole.
It struggled, however weakly, however vainly, but it could not succeed. It could not escape. I would not let it escape.
Seconds ticked.
The struggling stopped.
[Common Mosquito Larva x1 Killed]
Satisfaction poured through me. No, not just satisfaction, energy flowed through my body as well. I felt it burst around my skin, travel from end to end, and the skin, the skin seemed to be incapable of handling the energy.
[15 Experience Points Gained]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[HP Fully Restored]
[All Negative Status Effects have been mitigated upon level up.]
My skin molted three times, sharply and without warning, I emerged from the remnants of dead skin feeling smoother and better than I was before. Accumulated fatigue and damage vanished, along with the dull throb from where I had been bitten by the fire ant.
I felt like a new worm.
Status
Name: [Unnamed]
Race: [Lesser Annelid]
Specie(s): [Common Earthworm]
Level: 4
HP: 8/8
MP: N/A
HP Regen: 0.8/Day
MP Regen: N/A
Negative Effects: [N/A]
Positive Effects: [N/A]
Title(s): [Reincarnated] [User]
All this experience... from killing a single larva?
Perhaps it was because no one expected a worm to be a predator. No one anticipated that a worm could do anything other than eat leafs and burrow in the dirt. So, every accomplishment I did would grant me more experience than if it were done by a stronger creature, a creature that was expected to be capable of performing such feats. This meant...
My growth rate would be higher.
Hah.
If I had lips, I knew they would be so wide it would hurt.
Lacking lips however, I instead settled for displaying my satisfaction to the world in a far more entertaining way. I turned my ‘head’ in the direction of the shallow puddle where I could sense the vibrations of at least a dozen other tiny creatures.
Poor, poor, pitiful larvae....
The hunt began.
[Common Mosquito Larva x3 Killed]
[Common Mosquito Larva x3 Killed]
[Common Mosquito Larva x4 Killed]
[You have attained the Title: [Gorger] from overeating past your body’s limits]
[You have attained the title: [Larvae Slayer] from constant decimation of a specific enemy.]
[140 Experience Points Gained]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have attained the Maximum Level (10) for your current species]
[You have unlocked the suitable conditions for evolution.]
[Would you like to Evolve?]
[Yes]
[No]
Yes! The thrums of success were ever sweet.
[As this is your first evolution, you are granted the privilege of choosing what you evolve into. All further evolutions will be based on your actions, endeavors, achievements and other hidden criteria.]
I could only choose what I became, once? If such was the case, I needed to make this one choice count.
You can evolve into:
[Large Earthworm]
[Small Predator Earthworm]
That... that was it? I would still remain as an earthworm?! How – how could –
No. No – I would not be deterred. This – this was just the first step. There were still significant many more evolutions to come. Clearly, I would not be able to emerge from being a common earthworm into suddenly becoming something else entirely. It did not stop the sting from the realization that I would remain a worm for far longer than I was comfortable with, but I took it in stride. I would not give Oblivion any satisfaction in witnessing my despair.
Instead, I checked the information on my evolutions. Attempting to see if I could find something on either of them.
[Large Earthworm]
The Large Earthworm is three times larger than the common earthworm. With greater size comes a greater sense of hunger and a reduction in its overall mobility. However, it makes up for its slowness by being capable of healing from harm faster than the common earthworm.
[Small Predator Earthworm]
The Small Predator Earthworm is a type of earthworm that has adapted to consuming larvae and insect eggs. It is slightly sturdier than a normal earthworm, and can survive in aquatic environments.
The decision on the evolutionary path I would follow was not agonizing. One was big and slow, and the other was small and predatory. Admittedly, the ability to heal from harm faster was indeed useful, but it came with the mindset that you expected to get harmed and thus, could lead to me become complacent in that aspect.
[You have selected Small Predator Earthworm]
[Is this correct?]
[Yes]
[No]
There was no room for second thoughts.
[Selection Confirmed]
[Calibrating...]
[Installing Title Effects...]
Title effects?
[You consumed: x11 Mosquito Larvae as a Common Earthworm]
[Due to the title {User} you can attain the cumulative skills of these creatures as you evolve.]
[Do you wish to install the skills of the creatures you have consumed?]
[Yes]
[No]
The abilities of mosquito larvae? Creatures weak enough that even I, as a meagre earthworm was capable of consuming? What potential skills could they possess that would be of any use to me?
I nearly, nearly refused the offer. However... I knew, that there was truly nothing in this world that possessed absolutely no value. Even a human who was absolute garbage could still be useful as a guinea pig or a moral lesson.
[You have chosen to install the skills.]
[Evolution Commencing]
The closest equivalent of going to sleep as a worm that I could compare to human, was to being wrapped in a latex bag in a soundless room and submerged into water. Considering I was inside of a puddle, it was not entirely a wrong comparison. My perception of the world through vibrations muted, softly, vanishing, as I found myself sinking deeper into the depths of the murky waters.
