Much to my embarrassment it turned out that Tane and I could actually continue our conversation while I walked around the area while I tried to find a place that I could use as shelter. Now that I thought about it that actually made quite a lot of sense since Tane had obviously been able to get me to come to him from a considerable distance away. Soon we had worked out some fairly important details about our little deal, such as the power level of the things that would be allowed to come close to Tane’s main body. To my surprise it turned out that Tane couldn’t actually sense the exact Level of something the way that I could with my Observation Skill. On the other hand, Tane could sense how powerful something was using its psychic abilities. So, after discussing things we worked out that Tane would allow different creatures ranging from slightly weaker than me to slightly stronger to approach within about 100 meters of Tane’s trunk. This would allow to control the number of creatures that were in the area as large numbers of creatures were far more dangerous than a single creature that was slightly more powerful than I was. It would also mean that things that pollinated Tane and the other trees nearby could get close.

I also asked Tane to make sure that no Crawlers at all were allowed anywhere near us after what had happened last time. This had led to me having to explain what I meant by ‘Crawlers’ but once Tane understood what I was talking about the tree readily agreed. It turned out that Crawlers were one of the things that had caused Tane trouble over the years. Sadly, Tane didn’t seem to be convinced that this would work all that well.

“What do you mean?” I asked when Tane mentioned this fact as I continued my walk around the base of the massive tree.

‘Well you see, I can keep most crawlers away, but some of them have a resistance to my abilities,’ Tane explained. ‘They actually caused me so much trouble a couple of hundred years ago that in the end I had to summon other more powerful creatures to drive them off before they did irreparable damage both to me and the surrounding area.’

“Okay,” I nodded. “I think that I understand. I’m guessing that Crawlers are one of the things that you want me to help keep away?”

‘Absolutely, I will do my best to keep them away but if any of them have resistance to my ability then I want you to kill them before they start to multiply,” Tane explained.

“Alright sure I think that I can do that,” I agreed. “I just hope that I won’t have to fight a really powerful Crawler any time soon though.”

‘Agreed, that would be unfortunate.’

As I continued surveying the area surrounding Tane’s massive trunk, I spotted what looked like a fairly small hollow under one of Tane’s roots where the earth had obviously been washed away over time and made my way over towards it. To my surprise the hollow underneath was far larger than I had previously expected. In fact, it was only a little bit smaller than my bedroom back home had been.

“Say Tane?”

‘Yes?’

“Would it be alright if I set up a shelter in this hollow?”

‘I don’t see why not,’ the tree replied before following these words up with a wave of amusement.

“Thanks,” I said trying to send the gratitude that I felt back along the link between us towards the goliath tree. I didn’t know if this would work but I felt that it was worth a try because shelter was one of the three things that you needed to survive in situations like the one that I was in; the other two being food and water. Thankfully I already had access to fresh water using my Condense Water spell and at least some idea of things that I could eat. My Biomass Absorption Skill decreased how much food I needed to survive as well so I didn’t have to worry about that as much as people normally did.

Come to think of it, I had the Cold Resistance Skill which would help me survive if the weather turned but that didn’t mean that shelter wasn’t still important, both for me personally and for when the Yajashian refugees started to arrive.

Now that I had a new base of operations, even one as minimal as it was, I decided to try scouting a bit further out to see if I could find some likely source of food.

Asking Tane about the different creatures in the surrounding area wasn’t very useful because Tane was a tree which meant that it couldn’t actually see the same way that I did. Which meant that describing the few things that I could actually recognise was a pointless exercise. Eventually we did manage to figure out a method that worked by me explaining when I encountered the creatures that I wanted to find since it had turned out that Tane had been able to sense me whenever I had left the safety of the barrier. Unfortunately ,Tane couldn’t find any Feathered Chimps in the vicinity but apparently there were some of the beetle-like creatures I had encountered earlier nearby and I decided that even if I couldn’t eat them then at least I would be able to get some Experience and increase my Amoeba’s power by feeding it their remains once I had dissected them.

Making my way to the area that Tane had pointed out I looked up to see that there were indeed the same sort of bug-like creatures that I had seen when I had climbed the tree earlier. After picking out a weak one using my Observation Skill, I took aim and fired a Mana Bolt at it. However, as I fired the attack at my target it launched itself into the air making me curse as I spun around to try and figure out where it was going to land. As soon as I figured it out, I fired a Mana Blade at it in the hopes that the area that this attack covered would increase my chances of actually hitting its target. I really needed to develop an area attack spell because at the moment the only damage dealing spells that I had that could do this were Mana Blade and Mana Blast. Mana Blast was a useful spell but in reality all it was just a short ranged attack that was really more meant for creating space between the caster and whatever was attacking them. On the other hand I could use Mana Blade for attacking across an area but because it was a linear cutting attack it was easy to dodge.

As I expected the beetle-like creature saw the attack coming and attempted to twist in mid-air but without wings there was only so much that it could do. As the blade of blue energy struck the unfortunate creature it tore one of its legs clean off and sent it into an uncontrollable spin as it tumbled down towards me while unleashing a piercing screech that set my teeth on edge.

As the beetle thing landed on the ground with a surprisingly juicy crunching sound, I looked up to see more of the things looking down at me. Some of them then leapt away like a frightened family of deer but others started hopping down towards me making me curse loudly. Thinking quickly I sent the amoeba which had been sitting next to me out towards the already wounded creature and started firing Mana Bolts and Blades up at the others.

Luckily thanks to my Observation Skill I knew that Tane had pulled through with its promise to keep more powerful creatures away. Even the strongest of these creatures was only Level three which while being a Level above me shouldn’t be too hard to handle considering the size difference between us.

Sure enough, the sudden barrage of spells proved me right as even my Mana Bolts dealt a reasonable amount of damage to the creatures which ranged in size from about as big as a hedgehog for the Level 1’s to about the size of a terrier for the stronger ones.

The mana Blades were fairly effective against them as well since it was far easier to hit my targets when they were grouped together like this. However, to my surprise the Mana Bolts actually seemed to deal the most damage when they hit as they ripped parts of the strange creature’s exoskeletons clean off when they exploded on contact.

After being injured most of the beetles decided that running away was the smarter option and soon only three badly injured specimens remained. I wasn’t too worried about chasing the others down right now, but I decided to keep an eye out for ambushes later just in case.

As the closest of the creatures dropped down towards me from a branch directly above my head, I decided that it was injured badly enough that I could finish it off with my axe which I quickly drew and swung at the thing as it hurtled towards me.

The blade of my axe struck the thing in the head, splitting it in two even as its sharp proboscis pierced my bicep making me grimace in pain as its momentum then caused it to rip a chunk of flesh from my arm.

But I didn’t have time to worry about that right now as there were another two similar creatures that were also dive bombing me from above. The one that I was most worried about had proper mandibles and sharp looking spines on its legs, this one was obviously a predator and was missing one of its legs. The other was much smaller and brightly coloured in such a way that it reminded me of the danger markings that poisonous animals had back home.

Acting quickly I jumped back just in time to avoid a jet of liquid from the smaller of the two bug-like creatures that started steaming the moment it hit the ground making me swear under my breath and fling a Mana Blade in its direction before drawing my kunai as the other one landed a little bit in front of where the pool of what was apparently acid was still steaming away.

It turned out that my Mana Blade had somehow missed the acid spitting bug despite it being in mid-air when I had had cast the spell as the next jet of acid shot pat where my head had been only mere seconds ago. I don’t know why I had done that, but I was now very glad that I had.

Seeing that I was now off balance the other bug leapt towards me with its jaws wide open but with my recent Level Up my Coordination was high enough that I was able to recover in time to swing my axe at it. Unfortunately for me this thing had even better reaction times than I did and managed to use its spiked legs to latch onto my arm making me scream in pain as it then closed its jaws around my wrist and started biting down.

Still screaming in pain, I started stabbing the thing over and over again as its powerful mandibles began to slice through my wrist. Just as I was starting to think that I was going to lose my hand entirely I noticed a flash of movement and instinctively raised my arm to fend off the spray of acid that I knew was coming.

To my surprise however the burning sensation that I was expecting never came instead I realised belatedly that I had used my right arm which was the same arm that the bug had attached itself to, to defend myself and that the holes that I had made in its carapace had allowed the acid to enter its body and soon the it fell off of my arm leaving me clutching my injured limb as blood continued to pump out of my wrist.

Already I could feel my vision turning fuzzy, but it was apparent to me that my regen was slowing my blood loss. Calling out to my amoeba I ordered it to wrap around the wound in the hopes that it would be able to contain some of the blood from my fairly grievous injury. As this happened, I tried to spot the bug that I had somehow managed to miss with my last Mana Blade. My MP was getting pretty low so if I didn’t manage to do at least knock it out of the air then I was going to be in trouble.

Hearing a sudden rustling sound behind me I jumped to one side to avoid the inevitable jet of acid spinning around to see the colourful thing staring at me. Keeping my eye on the thing I sheathed my kunai before quickly bending down and picking up a stone which I quickly hurled at the thing causing it to leap into the air once more before firing a Mana Bolt at it.

This time I saw what had allowed it to avoid the Mana Blade that I had fired at it earlier and my eyes widened as it suddenly changed direction in mid-air to which allowed it to avoid the attack. Like I had noticed earlier none of these bugs had seemed to have any wings, so I was at somewhat of a loss as to how it had managed to avoid the attacks, but the fact of the matter was that it had.

I really had to shake my preconceived notions of how things worked. Yes, these creatures somewhat resembled bugs from back on Earth but the fact of the matter was that they were something very alien and the chances of me ever really understanding them were low. Especially if I died before the Yajash got here.

Taking aim once more I decided to try firing another Mana Bolt at it to see if I could figure out what sort of mechanism it had used to dodge the previous attacks. To my surprise the bug didn’t seem to be able to do the same thing it had done the previous two times and the Mana Bolt sent it spiralling down towards the ground as it screeched in obvious pain which didn’t surprise me since it a large part of its exoskeleton seemed to have been smashed inwards like a pumpkin that had fallen off a bench.

Seeing that it was falling to the ground I charged towards where it was going to land but to my surprise the thing suddenly shot sideways before it hit the ground, managing to bleed off a lot of its momentum. It still cartwheeled across the ground but luckily for it, it managed to avoid hitting anything while doing this. In fact it managed to right itself just in time for me to rush up and kick it into a nearby tree before it had recovered properly. Its shell was hard enough that this didn’t seem to deal any further damage than what it had already sustained but still served to make sure that I kept control of the situation.

The bug thing then slid to the base of the tree and seemed to me to have been stunned by what had just happened. Although the damage that it had taken less than a minute ago might’ve had something to do with it as well. In fact, I had enough time to get within melee range before the bug started to do more than twitch.

Just as I was about to stab it with my kunai the thing flipped to its feet and fired a stream of acid at me and I quickly stepped to one side, managing to avoid most of the foul liquid. Unfortunately, my side did get hit by some of the acid, but I decided to ignore that for a second while I made sure that the bug wasn’t going to be able to jump away.

My Kunai glowed with the light of my Stab Skill as I slammed it down into the thing just as it attempted to jump away causing the blade to bite deeper than it would’ve been able to if either of these things hadn’t happened. The thing screeched again as the point of my kunai pierced the thing all the way through as it tried to leap away from me which also ripped the weapon from my hand but sent the thing spiralling into another tree before it fell to the ground once more.

Quickly I ripped my shirt off with a loud curse as I felt the acid eating into my skin, this wouldn’t help much now but at least it would slow it down until I could dilute the acid with some water. This whole thing really wasn’t going the way that I expected it to, I had been expecting that these bugs would be easy to kill and in reality they were, if I could actually hit them but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t injure me if I made a mistake or forgot to use my defensive spells like an idiot.

This time when the bug fired a shot of acid at me as I charged towards it, I used a Mana Barrier to send it off to one side allowing me to continue running forwards like nothing had happened. The bug was now basically dead and this became even more obvious when it was completely unable to move more than a foot in the ten seconds that it took me to run up to it and send a Stone Shot through its head with the very last of my MP.

“Oh, thank god,” I groaned as I stood over the thing’s corpse.

Quickly I cast my Condense Water spell to wash off the acid before it caused any more damage than it already had. Once I had done this, I looked down at my injured right hand and winced once again when I saw the state that it was in. I had long since lost a lot of the sensation in the hand which was probably either to do with blood loss or more likely shock, but I could see that my health regen was working its magic which was a good sign. As for the amoeba which was still covering the wound it was doing an admirable job keeping me from losing any more blood, as its outer layer was waterproof when it wanted it to be and extremely malleable allowing it to almost completely prevent any further blood loss.

As for my shirt it was a complete loss but I had managed to get it off before the acid had completely transferred onto my skin which meant that there was only a patch of skin that was a little bit larger than my hand that had been effected by the acid and I had managed to wash it off before it burned me too badly.

‘Are you alright?’ Tane asked as I bent down to take a closer look at the small body of the bug that I had just killed. ‘You seemed to be pretty badly damaged before, but you seem to be getting better awfully quickly.’

“Ah, yeah I’m fine Tane,” I replied. “Thanks for checking up on me though.”

Now that it wasn’t moving, I could see that this bug had several conical structures on its body that had small holes in the top of them. I was guessing it used these holes to fire jets of compressed air allowing it to change direction suddenly in mid-air, or at least that seemed likely as it would also explain why there had been a delay before it had been able to dodge again. If I was right then it would have to restore the air that it had used up first before it could use this strange ability again.

Deciding that my wrist had healed up enough I started to collect the bodies of the bugs that I had killed. Both the one that had nearly amputated my right hand as well as the one that my amoeba had managed to finish off and another that I had killed in the barrage of spells at the beginning. I would have to come back later for the acid spitting one as without something to carry it with I couldn’t make sure that acid wouldn’t leak all over me while I was carrying it which was a shame because it was the one that I was most interested in dissecting even though it was unlikely that I would actually be able to eat it which was the main goal of this little ‘hunting’ trip. While I was collecting the corpses, I ordered the amoeba to go and absorb any of the other body parts that had been blasted off and soon other than the corpse of the acid spitting bug which I quickly covered in a little bit of earth you could barely tell that there had been a fight here.

Even the amoeba helped me carry one of the bugs back to the hollow that I was going to use as my home from now on making me appreciate it even more than I already did. It still wasn’t that powerful in combat yet but that didn’t mean that there weren’t other ways to use it.

Once we arrived, I placed all of the corpses on the ground and started dissecting them, however I was going to class these creatures it was pretty cleat that they were similar to insects despite the missing pair of legs and the other minor differences. For example, their bodies were only made of two parts more like an arachnid, as opposed to the three parts that insects had. However, they did have exoskeletons like arachnids and insects both did instead of a skeleton and their eyes appeared to be compound as well. Also, instead of breathing with tracheoles like insects did the seemed to have something more along the lines of a book-lung like some species of spider had which made sense considering how large they were. Naturally while I was doing this a very interested Tane started asking me questions about what I was doing which led to me explaining what I had learned about these strange creatures which I had decided to simply classify as ‘bugs’ for now.

These bug things were very interesting creatures and I couldn’t wait to learn more about them but for now I had to figure out if they were edible. So, once I had finished examining them I started carving bits of the strangely gooey ‘meat’ out of some of some of the parts while keeping some as much of the meat inside the shell as possible in others so that I could try different cooking techniques. This might sound gross but there were plenty of examples of people eating insects and spiders back on Earth and that was to say nothing of eating crustaceans like crabs and lobsters which I was actually quite fond of eating myself. Besides beggars couldn’t be choosers and I was definitely a beggar. Hell, I didn’t even have a shirt anymore!

Once I had finished preparing the meat I stood up and stretched, before heading off to find some wood that I could use to make a fire. If I could eat any of these bugs, then it would solve one of the largest problems that I had right now leaving only my ability to actually defend myself from predators now that I had access to both water and shelter.