After its finger had twitched under the influence of [Domination Resistance], the Malfae had been emboldened. However, even after trying for an entire day, it had only covered a distance equal to its height, the length of a mortal’s finger.

It was pitiful. Utterly pitiful.

Yet, the fact that it had managed to move at all was an achievement. The domination of scents was not something easily overcome, this the [Survivor] had learned.

But now that it had managed to move, the hunger it had ignored till now demanded all its attention. Its belly cramped as bile threatened to come out of its throat. After all, it hadn't eaten since the winds had thrown it in the mana rich place, 3 days ago.

In these three days, its own fear and need to survive had suppressed its need to feed. And after the creature had regained control of its mind, there had been much more pressing matters that had needed its attention. The foremost such matter had been the inability to move. And now that the creature could move again, the hunger could no longer be ignored.

Though, just what could it eat?

It was in a place where the mere scents could overwhelm the [Reincarnated] to point of complete domination. In such a place, hunting was not even an option. This left the creature with just a single option. ‘At least I will not starve.’ The [Hive Monarch] activated [Drone Eggs] but the ache that it had been expecting did not announce itself. Beyond that, its belly that had always bulged with the activation of the Skill did not react. It frowned and waited but the more time passed, the more its heart raced. It feared starvation.

Hastily, it checked its Status and found the MP deduced. ‘…then why?’ It considered using the Skill again for a moment but didn’t follow through. If there was indeed something wrong with the Skill, then the [Survivor] didn’t want the consequences of it to be enhanced. ‘Just what can affect the working of a Skill?’ As it pondered, it finally felt the familiar ache in its stomach and it let out a sigh of relief.

However, all was not same as it should be. The ache that had always rapidly spread, dragged its legs to grow at a snail’s pace. As a result, the Skill which should have ended within a few minutes took hours to finish; a time during which it remained in constant labour to pop one egg out another. By the end of it, the [Hive Monatch] was not only gasping for breath but also profusely sweating and groaning in agony.

The malice attuned immortal eyed the eggs warily as its thought about its grim future. It had to go through that experience every time it had to feed. The thought made it grimace but didn't stop it from eating. And although it was full long before it finished the eggs, the creature dared not leave its scent behind. Thus, even when full it ate until it couldn't and then paused to before eating again.

Thus, the blue monster ate and drank from the nearby puddle that had formed with the last rain. As the creature finished drinking, it scowled. ‘I can make do for the rainy season, but what will I drink when it passes?’ The [Hive Monarch] had no answer to that question. While it had previously survived the horrendous summer on its venom, that had been within the enclosed space of its crevice. It doubted its venom's ability to sustain it during the same summer while under the open sky.

The [Survivor] furrowed its brows and continued to think but it couldn't come up with anything that would work. Of course, if it could move rather than just crawl, the matter would be solved. But if it could move then the problem didn’t exist in the first place. ‘…I can only wait for the rain then.’ That was the only path forward for the Malfae. For when it rained, the water washed away the scents for its duration, allowing it to move. Thus, with a slight twist of distaste on its face, the [Survivor] decided to wait.

0.0

While enduring the pain from its wounded back where its wings had been, the Malfae waited for monsoon showers. Though it didn't have to suffer for long before its HP accumulated sufficient buffer, allowing it to use [Moulting] to replace the wings that it had lost. This not only gave the Malfae its wings back but also raised the Skill to Level 5.

This decision, of course, left the immortal with little more than half its HP. And in a place where mere scents could dominate it, the decision was foolhardy. However, its HP could regenerate whereas its wing could not. Thus, when the monsoon showers arrived three days later to wash away the overpowering scents, the [Survivor] welcomed them with open wings. Yet, it hesitated to fly.

‘I should probably not fly.’ But if the creature didn't fly then the dense grasses would hinder its movement. In the little time the showers lasted, the tree akin grasses would make it impossible for the [Reincarnaed] to cover any sort of meaningful distance. After longingly staring at the sky or several long moments, it decided to cautiously venture our first.

Thus, with a deep breath, it flapped its new wings and cautiously moved past the grass blades tall as a mortal's arm. However, it didn’t dare race past the grass blades, for it hadn’t yet forgotten the dominations that had decreed it a pest and taken the skies away from it.

As the [Reincarnated] continued to fly shakily, it found the endeavour to be much more difficult than what it had imagined. Not only the Malfae had to keep its instincts from collapsing -for it flew against their warnings- but it also had to suffer through the raindrops hammering it from all sides. These raindrops were too small for a mortal but for a creature the size of a mortal’s finger, the raindrops were almost the size of its fist. And although the [Malfae Shield] protected it from quite a lot of rain, the shimmering shield couldn’t block all the rain. Hence, its journey was a turbulent one.

A successful test run was a successful test run nonetheless and the [Reincarnated] earnestly began searching for a river. In the Malfae’s uninformed opinion, for a grass field this dense and lush, there must exist a river nearby. ‘If I find that river, water will not be a problem. I can just follow it out of here.’ But the search proved to be a miserable and fruitless exercise as the [Hive Monarch] didn't find even a single trace of any river. It had searched with all its might but with the limitations it had to work, the tiny immortal could only cover so much distance.

0.0

As time marched on, the abundant but short bouts of monsoon showers didn't allow the Malfae to properly search the region it was in. During this period, it had taken to hiding beneath grass blades while crawling to provide itself with some visual cover. It had also taken to lathering itself in mud to hide its scent. But this method didn't seem to have been particularly effective as its own antennas had constantly picked its scent.

As the [Hive Monarch] had kept up with its efforts, almost week had passed. Over this week, the Malfae had continuously been alert and always on edge. As despite the effect of [Domination Resistance], the scents didn't allow it to relax even a little bit. Hence, a few of its Skills had levelled up. The first to Level up was [Domination Resistance], which rose to Level 2. It was soon followed by [Night Vision], as it levelled up and became the [Hive Monarch]’s third Skill to reach double digits at Level 10. Even [Drone Eggs] rose to Level 8 from the constant use and began to create 36 eggs at the cost of 80 MP.

It was, however, the Level up of the [Crawl] to Level 6 that left the [Reincarnated] dumbfounded. The Malfae had completely forgotten that it still possessed [Crawl]. Which was not surprising given the fact that it hadn't used this Skill, even once, since it had evolved from being a caterpillar. And that had been more than a year ago. Not only that, but it had been baffled that its movement by dragging its body had been considered the same as a caterpillar crawling. That particular realisation had been like unexpectedly biting into a particularly sour lemon.

This sudden increase in Skill Levels was, obviously, not the result of Malfae’s efforts. Rather it was the result of the domination exerted by the region it was in. With its existence being directly in conflict with its very environment, any Skill it used gained experience at an exacerbated pace.

Not that the creature knew any of this. With its limited knowledge about the working of the Skills, half-formed conclusions and no previous interaction with any sort of system interface, it couldn’t even begin to imagine the reason for the increased pace. The [Survivor], thus, developed a sense of paranoia that continued to multiply with each passing day. It had begun to flinch at every passing wind and had gone stiff at every movement of grass blades. Its situation had been exacerbated by the giant creatures had it seen pass by.

The Malfae had seen a bird so large that it had almost seemed to cover the green moon behind it. In the darkness of the night, the malice influenced monster hadn’t been able to see much of the bird except its shape, but the shadow cast by the passing avian had been huge enough to darken the night for a few considerable moments.

It had not just been the mammoth bird that had shocked the [Reincarnated] to its core. It had even felt the ground shiver and the air tremble. The shuddering had been so all-encompassing that it had seemed as if an earthquake had risen from the depths unknown to punish the world itself. It had not been the nature’s fury that it had experienced, however, it had merely been the aftershocks of a fight between the immortals that called this place home.

While the Malfae had not been close enough to experience the fight itself, it had been close enough to experience the consequences. It had felt the movement of the earth and the air, and it had been blown away by the travelling roar, much like a leaf in a typhoon.

These incidents had been the main reasons driving its paranoia. The grass-blade cover had helped the creature’s situation but it hadn't completely dealt with the problem. As a result, when the creature’s antennas picked up the rancid stench of faeces and flinched, it didn't shy away from the smell. Instead, the Malfae crawled towards it with its eyes shining in excitement.

The stench that it was moving towards was not only absolutely putrid but it also contained the same domination that the other scents in this place had. The [Survivor] thus had to resist being dominated by literal faeces. If the creature had been a mortal with a rather dark sense of humour, then it would have been tickled at the thought. But as it was not a mortal, it crawled to resist the domination.

Yet, this domination and its resistance assuaged the creature. As this domination aspect of the stench allowed the Malfae to surmise that this pile of refuse had been from something extremely powerful. Thus, the creature resisted and continued to crawl forward, facing ever-increasing domination. As a result of resisting the domination of literal shit, the Malfae’s Skill [Domination Resistance] levelled up to reach Level 3.

The [Hive Monarhc] was not amused by this turn of events.

However, who cared for its amusement? Certainly not the unfathomable Beings that observed every single movement of the Malfae.

After a full night of crawling, when the [Survivor] finally reached the moist and fetid piece of sludge, it puked right then and there because of the stench's strength. The stink was so strong that even eroded a bit of the creature’s will and its paranoia. When the [Survivor] stopped puking, it then sat beside the literal piece of crap and, hesitantly, breathed deeply. Each breath that the creature took in caused bile to rise in its throat and stomach to lurch but the creature persisted. The Malfae had a plan.

It took quite some time until its stomach stopped revolting with each of its breath. But it perseverance had been rewarded with acclimation to the stench, allowing it to move onto the next phase of its plan. The [Reincarnated] eyed the pile of faeces and hardened its heart as it pushed its hand into the dung and scooped a handful. The Malfae then proceeded to lather its chest with the literal crap. Its goal here was simple; the creature wanted to hide its scent.

The [Survivor] didn't stop with just that and continued to cover its body until the only thing remaining free of shit was its face. In that instant, the Malfae hesitated for only a moment before it scooped another handful of excreta and slapped it on its face.

Its nose burned and antennas twitched but it had already gotten acclimated to the stench. Thus, it persisted. ‘What is a bit of shit if I make it out of here alive.’ Once its face and even the soles of its feet had been smothered in faeces, the tiny immortal finally moved away from the pile of refuse. It maintained the cover of grass-blades as it crawled covered in excreta.

Ting.

[Skill [Fade] granted.]

The [Hive Monarch] almost flinched at the sudden sound but it managed to control itself. The concealment of its scent had helped its paranoia a great deal and the effect showed almost instantly. After it summoned the details of the Skill, it raised an eyebrow.

Ting.

[Ability to decrease your presence and conceal yourself from the senses of the other creatures. Cost: 10 times the level of the Skill per minute.]

It laughed and activated the Skill without waiting for even a moment more.

Instantly, the malice attuned monster felt the world enlarge as the grasses grew taller, the land stretched, the sky went farther away and the world itself just seemed to grow bigger. Yet, the immortal didn't feel as if anything had changed. It picked up the nearby pebble. And despite seemingly having grown larger previously with the world, the pebble remained the same size in its palm. Though when it let the pebble fall, it seemed to enlarge instantly.

‘But that shouldn't be possible. To enlarge and shrink the rest of the world in response to a mere Skill, and that too at Level 1…it doesn't seem right.’ The [Reincarnated] furrowed its brows and picked the pebble again. It seemed to be the same size as usual but when the creature let it fall again, it seemed to enlarge in response. ‘Am I the one shrinking and enlarging? But then…when picking the pebble, why does it seem to be the same size? Shouldn’t it shrink when I pick it up?’ It continued to ponder as it crawled with its new Skill active.

It paid particular attention to its surrounding to observe the effect but, much to its amazement, there didn’t to be any change due to the activation of Skill. ‘Is this all…just my perception?’ Indeed, the creature was correct. The Skill neither enlarged the rest of the world nor did it shrink the creature. The enlargement of the world was just a change in the perception due to the effect of the Skill and nothing more.

The [Hive Monarch] sighed before a reluctant smile formed on its lips. With its new Skill, the paranoia haunting it withered even further. Though, it did not die. It could not die. For the Malfae was still within this high mana zone and this place never stopped its effort to dominate the creature.

0.0

With the lack of rain over the next few days, the Malfae's search came to a sudden halt. Its only respite had been the light drizzles keeping the puddles intact but they had failed to wash away the disturbing scents. As a result, the [Survivor] had covered little distance while longing for heavy rains.

Its wish was soon granted and raindrops descended like the fury of the heavens. Drops the size of its fists fell and the [Reincarnated] flew up to meet them as if accepting a divine punishment. The [Reincarnated] welcomed the punishing rain yet didn't dare to fly off into the sky and maintained its flight to remain just above the canopy of the grass field. It opened its arms to twirl and the tiny droplets flew off of it to scatter.

It laughed in jubilance.

These torrents of heavy rain had become the only moments that it could be free. Hence, it was little surprise that it used these moments to express its momentary freedom. Still, the [Reincarnated] didn't tarry for long for it didn't know just how long the showers would last. Thus, it flew off but it had no goal, no direction. It just randomly chose a direction and investigated it.

This was obviously not a strategy that would work.

The malicious monster had originally wanted to follow the other creatures of the region. It had believed that following them will lead it to the river. But after having witnessed the bird whose enormous size had covered up the sky and being blown away by a simple roar, it had given up on that route.

‘Eh?’ It was as it kept on flying that it noticed that the water on the ground didn’t seem to be still. Instead, it flowed as if it had a direction and a destination. ‘Could it be…?’ The Malfae immediately changed its path and followed the flowing water but the shower stopped before it could reach the destination that the rainwater had sought. With the absence of rain, the scents returned with vengeance and slammed it into the ground.

The Malfae, on the other hand, stared at the water seeping off into the distance with dead eyes. It could not fight the dominance asserted on it by its environment. It could only resist it and that too just marginally to be able to crawl. It stared for a few moments before it covered itself with another leaf and started crawling. The excreta lathered on its body had long since been washed away by the rain and it had not found another mound since then.

Ting.

[Skill [Fade Lv.1] has levelled up to [Fade Lv.2]. Concealment and decrease in presence have been marginally improved.]

The smile that graced the Malfae’s lips was a hollow one.

-X-

Within a desolate desert, inside a dilapidated shop, on a simple chair, a youth seemingly slept.

-X-