The next week passed in a blur as the [Reincarnated] Sorceress did nothing but eat and sleep. Though, as it couldn't justify occupying its old shit infused cesspit anymore, it no longer slept there.

Instead, it had dug out a new home right below the plant it was devouring.

During this time, its consistent consumption had raised the [Hungry] pest's Level to [Level: 27] which had increased its Maximum HP to [HP: 32/32] and HPR to [HPR: 3/Day].

As the azure moon rose in the sky, the [Survivor] paused eating as a thought popped in its tiny head. It grimaced and its numerous stubs squirmed in displeasure.

It was a thought that had occurred to the [Reincarnated] Sorceress soon after it had been poisoned. However, as the memory of the poison had still been fresh at the time, the [Hungry] pest had absolutely refused to entertain the thought.

Now, though, that the memory was no longer fresh, the thought had made its comeback. It even seemed quite promising.

The [Reincarnated] Sorceress knew that lived in a world that had a single rule, Kill or be Killed. In the midst of such an environment, it needed every advantage that it could get.

The thought, that kept on resurfacing, promised to provide an extremely obvious advantage. 'That poison didn't end up harming in the end. I didn't even lose a single point of HP...' The proposition was disgusting but tempting.

After all, [Venom Creation] increased the potency of its poison based on the resistances obtained by [Poison Resistance]. If it could develop a resistance to the poisonous plant, the [Survivor] might be able to add pain and hallucination to its poison.

As it pondered more on the thought, the [Immortal] caterpillar's stubs gave out and it flopped on its belly, resigning itself to the plan.

However, with this simple decision, a monumental change occurred. The war raging within the creature’s fragile mind tilted in the favour of a faction rather than other.

Yet, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress remained ignorant.

Letting out a defeated sigh, it headed towards the poisonous plant. Reaching the thin, long-leaved plant, the [Immortal] caterpillar gave it a stink eye before crawling up the stalk to reach a small, newly budded leaf.

It took a deep breath, slowly let it out, and without any further delay, chomped down on the tiny stalks connecting the leaves to the stem. And then promptly, spat out the pulp within its mouth.

It had no intention of getting poisoned while still within the vicinity of the poisonous plant.

As the leaves fell, one after another, once again a defeated sigh escaped the creature. ‘This is going to be laborious.’ It thought, biting into one of the scattered leaves before dragging it to the nearby pit it had dug previously.

Once it had collected all the bitten leaves, the [Immortal] caterpillar crawled into the pit; but with its ass down the hole and its mouth sticking out. After eyeing the leaves warily for quite a few moments, the [Hungry] pest devoured the leaves.

And then it waited with bated breath.

As it waited, its numerous stubs squirmed uneasily and its bulbous body twitched every other moment. The wait of the inevitable seemed scarier than the actual event itself to the [Survivor].

Then, all of a sudden, the poison exploded.

The [Reincarnated] Sorceress convulsed as the pain ravaged its tiny body. It convulsed and it shrieked. It screamed its non-existent heart out.

Its vision blurred as the world started to dance and its sense of smell went haywire. This time the [Survivor] caught the odour of swamp and rain.

The [Immortal] caterpillar knew that no swamp existed near it and that it hadn't rained since its birth. But the knowledge didn't help it any.

Eventually, the poison ran its course and the convolutions stopped.

Half panting and half gasping, the delirious [Survivor] flopped its body onto the sides of the pit and laid still, exhausted.

Yet, it managed to summon the explanation of its Species and glared at it.

Ting.

[Species allows for different evolution pathways to manifest. Current evolution path available: Insect.]

'If I hadn't been born an insect, I wouldn’t have to go through this agony.' It blamed its Species and despaired; its stubs squirming in distress.

Before it dismissed the notification, its beady eyes landed on the words, 'Evolution path'.

[Evolution paths are a result of Species. They are either granted by Titles or by Skills that can turn a creature completely into another creature through Evolution.]

Of course, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress having no idea of what 'Evolution' was, focused on it.

[Every Immortal has the ability to evolve. Evolution is the ability to change one's Vessel, when one reaches Level 100, to a more powerful one on the evolution pathways granted by one’s Species.]

Dismissing the confusing mess, it tried to calm down. Once the [Reincarnated] Sorcress' breathing settled down, it gazed up at the azure moon peacefully shining up in the sky. 'Why do I suffer like this...? What will I gain...?' The bug couldn't help but think.

Its gaze left the moon, searching the wide, dark sky. But, no matter how long it searched, it couldn't find any piece of its old, familiar sky.

Even the stars were different here.

The [Survivor] shook itself. Its old home was gone. Destroyed. Annihilated. Erased.

This was its world now. Its life.

'But what's the point of living like this...' The [Reincarnated] Immortal sighed, but then the embers in its belly reminded why it lived. To eat, its belly seemed to say.

The [Immortal] caterpillar scoffed. 'At least I get rid of this annoying hunger, I will live. I can't die of something as stupid as a Title.'

Shaking itself out of the morose thoughts, the [Survivor] reached out and covered the opening with a dried-out leaf before crawling deeper into the hole.

Its preparation complete, the [Hungry] pest checked its HP, which was full at [HP: 32/32], and nodded to itself. 'Let's see what is this new Skill.'

After the effect that [Moulting] had on its battered and bruised body, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress no longer dared to field test its Skills. It would rather test it while safe and waste its HP, than test under duress and die.

This wasn't the only decision it had recently made, however. The [Immortal] caterpillar had also decided to level up [Moulting], and if [Survive] turned out to be worth it, then it too.

However, the [Hungry] pest's plan faced its first challenge in the form of its abysmal HP regeneration. If it couldn't regenerate enough to max out its HP, then how could it even sacrifice HP to activate any of the two Skills?

Thus, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress sighed, activating the Skill. '[Survive].'

Immediately, it felt weariness take over its mind as its HP decreased by half to [HP: 16/32].

0.0

The [Immortal] caterpillar woke up to the familiar sensation of its insides ready to burst.

Stretching its bulbous body, it ignored the sensation for a moment, as a soft sigh escaped its jaws. '...that felt good.'

Soon after it hurried to its morning rituals as its backside was truly ready to burst.

Finishing its morning ablutions, the [Hungry] pest grimaced as its numerous stubs wiggled in displeasure. It was time it made its way towards the patch of poisonous plants. 'Once I evolve and get my magic back, I wouldn't have to go through all this, would I?'

As it had for the past two weeks, the bug began its day by poisoning itself. The [Reincarnated] Sorceress didn't want the threat of such agony hanging over its head all day long; instead, preferring to be done with it as soon as possible.

Just how intelligent this decision was, it neither knew nor cared; courtesy of its fractured mind.

The [Survivor] bit off a bunch of thin leaves, letting them fall on the ground, before gathering them around its pit and crawling in to begin eating. Soon after, it felt a familiar sensation as the world began to tilt and immediately stopped eating.

Hurriedly covering its hideout with the nearby long leaves, the [Immortal] caterpillar burrowed further into the pit as the poison took hold.

It took a while, a little later than usual, for the quiver, the shakes and the motion sickness to start. But when they did, they were accompanied by hallucinations. Nausea hit the bug a few moments later, causing bitter bile to rise in the back of its throat.

The [Hungry] pest suffered through them all, albeit not silently. It screamed, shrieked and thrashed; its numerous stubs wiggling wildly.

When the torment finally ended, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress was left gasping and panting. Though, now that it was getting used to the poison, the recovering time was beginning to decrease.

With its breathing stabilized and muscles under control, the [Hungry] pest made its way towards the non-poisonous plant with big, flat leaves to satisfy its ever-burning hunger.

The day passed by quickly.

There were no sudden bird attacks and no further poison induced hallucinations. The caterpillar merely devoured the tasteless leaves aimlessly-

Ting.

[You have levelled Up! Level up bonus of +1 HP granted.]

-it reached [Level: 36] which caused its HP to increase to [HP: 41/41] and [HPR to 4 HP/day].

The [Immortal] caterpillar wasn't happy though. For it was, once again, making its way towards the poisonous plant. Its day began with poison and ended with the same.

The ordeal, as usual, was not over soon, seeming to stretch on and on. When it was finally over, the [Hungry] pest sighed in relief and crawled inside the pit under the non-poisonous tree.

Making itself comfortable in its home, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress used [Survive], having used both, [Survive] and [Moulting], once already in the past few weeks.

As weariness seeped in its bulbous body, the [Immortal] caterpillar sighed. The Skill had eaten 21 points of HP.

0.0

A week later, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress awakened to a terrible itch all over its body; the humidity and the heat didn't help its mood either. As its numerous stubs wiggled in displeasure, it stretched its bulbous body and tore the soft exuviate sticking to its green skin.

'Right,' it recalled. 'Using [Moulting] last night had Levelled it up .'

[Skill [Moulting Lv.2] has levelled up to [Moulting Lv.3]. The time required for the skill has been reduced by 4 minutes. Total time required: 5 Hours and 52 Minutes.]

The [Immortal] caterpillar listened to the sound of tears and squirmed even more, causing even more cracks to resonate across its tiny pit. ‘Huh? What is this cracking sound? This thing is being torn, not crushed...'

Pondering on the matter, the [Hungry] pest struggled out of its shed skin before turning around to study it with utmost focus. The Exuviate didn't feel like the semi-dry skin like it usually did; instead, its texture resembled that of fallen autumn leaves.

The [Immortal] caterpillar hummed in thought, but the sound came out as a low hiss, shocking the bug and snapping it out of its thoughts.

Shaking its head, the [Hungry] pest turned away, dismissing the matter.

After finishing its morning ablutions, it poisoned itself with the long, thin leaves. What followed after was the usual circus of agony, aches, convolutions, quivers, olfactory hallucinations and nausea.

Though, this time, the [Reincarnated] Sorceress couldn't hold the bile back and vomited next to the entrance of its hideout. 'That would stink up the place.' It thought, stubs squirming in distaste.

The [Hungry] bug covered the puke with a thin leaf while trying to avoid the mess as much as it could. Finishing that, it dug nearby before covering the vomit with the resulting mud.

'It's odd,' the [Immortal] caterpillar observed. 'I was fine sleeping within a cesspit, but a bit of vomit made me squirm.' Recalling the day, it still didn't any find disgust, whatsoever, for what it had done.

'Just what is different with that shit and this sick?' The [Immortal] caterpillar pondered as it made its way up the nearby, huge-leaved plant.

The only difference, that it could think of, had been the risk to its survival. 'Could that be it? It couldn't be that simple, could it?' The [Survivor] scoffed and dismissed the thought.

Crawling up the plant, the bug found only a couple of newly sprouted leaves; the rest it had eaten. And if it ate any more, the plant would die for sure.

The thought of the plant’s death brought up the [Reincarnated] Sorceress' dwindling lifespan.

The [Immortal] caterpillar originally had a lifespan of 90 days but, now, merely 48 days remained. The [Survivor] had lived through almost half its life and yet, it had only reached Level 40.

'Where had the time gone? When had it just slipped by?' The [Hungry] pest asked itself, ignorant of the answers itself. 'I ate, devoured and consumed all my life. But it wasn't enough.'

Despite all its best efforts, it had merely reached Level 40. 'If things remained the same, I wouldn't even reach Level 80. How can I when the difficulty of each Level keeps increasing?'

However, what did the [Reincarnated] Sorceress care about living? It had nothing to live for. Everything it cared about no longer existed, destroyed beyond redemption. Its world, annihilated. Its research, erased. Its magic, gone.

The [Hungry] pest shivered in grief before it shook its head to clear it of such thoughts.

'I'll get my magic back once I evolve, won't I? And I promised to get rid of [Hungry], didn't I?' It remembered, staring at the rays of sunlight filtering through the thick canopy above. 'I should keep the promises I made to myself.'

The [Reincarnated] Sorceress sighed before crawling down to search for another plant with the familiar, flat and huge leaves.

Ting.

[Skill [Crawl Lv.2] has levelled up to [Crawl Lv.3]. Crawling speed has been increased.]

Eyeing the notification with disdain, the bug dismissed it and scoffed. 'As if I'd be happy to know I can crawl better. Hmmph.'

By the time it found its next food source, the Sun was high up in the sky; not that the [Hungry] pest personally experienced it, the canopy above saved it from most of the heat.

The [Immortal] caterpillar observed its find which was big enough to qualify as a young tree. Its trunk had begun to darken and harden, but the process seemed to have begun only recently as it still held the softness and the green look of a plant.

With a joyous chitter of its jaws, the [Hungry] pest crawled up the soft bark to munch on its favourite tasteless food.

However, as was its habit, the [Survivor] kept its senses hyper-aware. Having suffered a bird attack early in its life, it had learned to keep track of its surrounding.

Thus, it regularly scanned the higher branches when it ate.

This habit hadn't been needed much when it had been eating the young plants, given that it didn't have many branches, to begin with. But now that it was on a young tree, the habit was quite needed.

The habit proved to be a lifesaver when the [Reincarnated] caterpillar's vigilance caught movement to the side, where its branch separated from the trunk.

There, the bug saw a snail, almost the size of a grown mortal's finger. Slimy and bright pink, the creature carried a brown shell on its back, which swayed as the slime slid, leaving behind a thick layer of mucus.

The snail's two eyes rose from its head on two thin stalks, fixated on the [Immortal] caterpillar with utmost focus. The most disturbing thing about it, however, was its mouth.

Situated right beneath its eyestalks, The circular opening was lined with rows upon rows of sharp, yellow teeth, each of which moved independently of the others. The sight was grotesque to looks at, giving the bug goosebumps.

It was a Cracked Mouth Snail, an aggressive species of carnivorous snails. Named after its horrific mouth, the species were mostly caught and sold to farmers as natural pesticides.

But the [Reincarnated] Sorceress had never seen a snail as disturbing as that. It didn't even know that such unnatural creatures existed in this new world, having only seen animals that seemed quite similar to the ones in its previous world.

The [Hungry] bug's beady eyes darkened as all the fine hairs on its body erupted in goosebumps; its instincts warning the bug of its natural predator.

Keeping its eyes fixed on the slowly approaching hideousness, the bug backed away without any reservation. The ugly snail was twice its size, with the [Immortal] caterpillar -despite all its growth- being only half the size of a mortal's finger.

The shelled [Immortal] -for there was no way something that ugly wasn't an [Immortal]- slid towards the caterpillar at such a glacial pace that the [Reincarnated] Sorceress stopped its retreat.

Its numerous stubs squirmed with nervous energy as the bug's beady eyes gleamed; a plan forming in its fragile mind.

The [Immortal] caterpillar hesitated still, its beady eyes lingering on the ugly snail's huge size before it firmed its determination; its body shivered in fear nonetheless.

If the [Reincarnated] Sorceress had still been just another [Mortal], it would have given up in terror; deathly afraid of a vastly superior foe. For the [Mortal] Sorceress had never been a person of strong will.

The woman had gone with the flow, even obediently following orders while growing up locked within a facility, away from the rest of the world. Such had been the woman's lack of spine that the research forced upon her had become her goal in life; the reason for her existence.

But, why had that Being reincarnated such a submissive soul?

Ignorant of the changes within its psyche, the shivering caterpillar enacted its plan. And the war within its fragmenting mind shifted.

Instead of further backing away, the [Hungry] pest crawled towards the slowly sliding [Immortal] snail and activated [Venom Creation].

As venom began to pour out of its pores, dripping down its bulbous body, the [Hungry] bug began rolling across the branch, trying to make a straight patch of venom.

It rolled and rolled and it rolled. It rolled as if its life depended on it; which, it kinda did. So, it kept rolling. Its venom soon formed a patch but the [Reincarnated] Sorceress kept on secreting the –hopefully- lethal liquid.

The [Immortal] caterpillar had a simple plan. It intended to create patches of venom and then biting the ugly snail so that the poison would enter the predator's body through the exposed wounds when it slid across the patches.

As soon as the [Hungry] bug finished the first patch of venom, it retreated and began the process all over again. It did so until it had created five venom patches, each twice the width of a mortal's finger.

By the time the [Immortal] caterpillar was done with the fifth path, the Cracked Mouth Snail had already reached the first path, slowly sliding onto it without a worry in the world.

Not that it had expected it, but the [Reincarnated] Sorceress had been hoping for its venom to work even without an open wound. It had wished to see the ugly snail scream the moment it slid over the patch.

However, the liquid it had secreted was venom, not acid. How could venom work without an open wound? Its hope had been a foolish one, which the reality crushed without any mercy.

The shivering caterpillar steeled its heart -which it wasn't sure it had- and shakily crawled forward. It crossed one venom patch after another before reaching the second patch where the Cracked Mouth Snail was; having crossed the first one without any issue.

'I can do it. I can. It is so slow. I can do it.' The [Reincarnated] Sorceress told itself before finally making its way towards the snail.

As soon as the caterpillar came into range, the snail's eyes shined and its head blurred, moving unnaturally fast, and the green bug felt burning pain.

Hastily retreating, the caterpillar checked its body, only to find blue-green liquid leaking out of where a mass of flesh was missing from its second segment. The snail had bitten off a piece of its flesh!

The [Immortal] caterpillar trembled in fright. It could have died just now!

'Skill! That had to be a Skill!' The green bug realised as it hurriedly checked its Status and its breath hitched. It had just 18 points of HP left out of 45!

0.0

Name: Unnamed

Race: Immortal

Species: Insect

Vessel: Caterpillar

Level: 40

HP: 18/45 MP: -

HPR: 5/Day MPR: -

Lifespan: 51 days

Titles

[Hungry] [Reincarnated]

Skills

[Crawl Lv.3] [Moulting Lv.2] [Pain Resistance Lv.3] [Poison Resistance Lv.5] [Venom Creation Lv.2] [Survive Lv.1]