A Bug's Life

NOTE: << >>= System/Voice 『 』= Thoughts " " = Dialogue

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The child's red eyes opened and blinked as if it's bewildered by what it sees.

『 E-eh? What… what is this?! 』 [???]

One tiny hand raised and rubbed its eyes, looking in disbelief, and blinked a few more times.

『Woaah…! 』 [???]

Its red eyes darted from one place to another, surveying the surroundings. It stared at the thick lush green foliage, on the trees from the distance, to the clear blue sky and down to the brown earth.

It watched the swaying tall grasses being caressed by the wind, then looked up at the sky again and squinted at the glaring sun.

The child lowered its eyes after getting blinded by the light and touched the dirt its currently sitting onto.

『I felt like I am seeing something new, but why? Hmm…』 [???]

It grasped a few soils and examined it.

<<You have gained observation skills. Initializing optimization… Success.>>

『?!!! 』[???]

The child jolted when it heard the monotonous voice. It looked around, trying to find the source of it.

『What's that? Who spoke just now?! 』 [???]

It then crawled around the place on all fours and narrowed its eyes, looking alert.

"..."

"¢{€¶∆`($(+#);£€{}" [???]

<<Error. You don't have communication skills.>>

<<Error. Language not found.>>

"@+$(#-#:;@¢¢" [???]

<<Error. You don't have communication skills.>>

<<Error. Language not found.>>

The child halted its moves.

『 Who is it?? What are you saying?? 』[???]

<< ... >>

It then sat on the ground and fell into deep thoughts.

『 Wait… Who am I…? 』 [???]

Silence pervaded in the air and the only thing that could be heard is the faraway cries of birds in the sky and some unintelligible sounds from deep within the forest. The voice didn't talk either and the child felt lonely all of a sudden.

<<You are individual <???> A low-level bug type spirit.>>

『Low-level? That's mean!』

*gruuuu*

It looked down on itself and touched its gurgling stomach. It wasn't wearing a single cloth and only a stream of ink-black hair covers itself.

『 I'm hungry...』

Its head swivels around, scanning its surroundings. Long thick black hair swished as it moved. It then crawled to the nearby bush and nibbled on it.

<< ... >>

One hand grasped a handful of grass and pulled it before stuffing it into its mouth. It chewed and chewed, while its eyes darted around again to look for more.

『 Food… Food...』

The child saw the tree from before and gazed at it as it eats on a mouthful of grass and dry leaves.

Its red eyes caught sight of the one lone peach fruit and stopped chewing.

『 Food! 』

It then skittled it's way to the tree, scratched its cheek, and studied the tree's trunk.

The child then tried to climb the tree.

*Fwump*

Its arms slid off and fell to the ground, black hair framed around its small head.

『 Whaa? My legs don't stick? 』

<< ... >>

It squinted at the tree again and hauled itself up. It looked longingly at the fruit. Its stomach gurgled for the second time so it decided to try again.

*Fwump*

『--Heup! O-oww! 』

The child fell on the ground again but it heaved itself upwards and tried for the third time.

*Fwump*

It fell again and again and again. It fell countless times until it stopped trying for the nth time. The child lay there on the dirt, feeling exhausted and annoyed.

It glared at the tree and hissed.

『I'm gonna get you!』

Sitting upright, the child observed the tree's body and went closer. It sniffed the heavenly tree and bit it.

<<… Warning. The tree is poisonous and it might-->>

It chomped on the hard tree trunk, its sharp fang lodge itself within the surface. It latched onto it and pulled back, ripping that part. The child then ate it, gnawing and grinding its molars against the rough bark.

<< Warning. Foreign bodies enter the stream. Initiating quarantine...>>

<<Magicule count is depleting rapidly...>>

『O-oww!! It hurts!』

The child reared back from it, tears trickled down its red eyes, and glowered at the heavenly peach tree even more. Ignoring the pain, it went back to it and chomped on it again.

<<... Success. You have gained a skill <Poison Resistance (Low)> >>

The voice kept giving out a warning but the child still kept gnawing more, ignoring the echoes in its head.

<<... Success. <Poison Resistance (Low)> leveled up to <Poison Resistance (High)> >>

<<Magicule count increases +500>>

After a while, it got tired of the taste and stopped. A burning sensation started from its lower stomach and grew upwards before disappearing.

<<... Success. <Poison Resistance (High)> leveled up to <Poison Nullify> >>

『 Hmm… I'm still hungry』

The child poked its right fang as its red eyes roamed around.

『 Hey you! Is there anything here that I could eat? I want that fruit but I can't climb!』

<< ... Error. Wrong command>>

Its face scrunched up from the voice's words.

『You are useless...』

<< ... >>

It let out a huff and searched the surrounding again. Tilting its head to the side, the child looked back at the heavenly peach tree, and think.

『.. Uhhn! 』

It got close to the tree again, stared at the nibbled part, and chomped on it again, making a dent. It spits out the bits that it gnawed off and started biting on the top right. It stood back for a while and frowned when it saw that the dent wasn't deep enough.

Its eyes wandered on the ground and found a rock between the tree roots

『There!』

The child hunched down and picked the rock up then started smashing it on the tree. It exerted enough force to make a hollow depression and did it a few more times in an upward direction.

It then started climbing from the hollow parts it created, halts for a while to continue biting off barks and striking it after, until it successfully grasped a branch to haul itself up.

<<You have gained a skill <Hammer Strike (Lvl. 1)> >>

『Eh? What is with all these skills she kept on rambling about?』

<< <Hammer Strike (Lvl. 1): A downward force, specifically a melee attack that has low physical penetration. >>

The child scratches its cheeks as it sat hanging on one tree branch.

『Heh~ Sounds lame.』

<< ... >>

It cocked its head to the side.

『Oww!』

A hand went up to its head and grasped the left part where it hurt but found something long and hard protruding from it. Its eyes widened as it touched the seemingly weird thing that got caught within the tree's branches.

『A… horn? I have a horn? Woow』

Its attention had then gotten caught by the peach fruit and it let out a grin. It inched towards it bit by bit, as to not wobble and fall to the ground after.

『I told you I'm going to get you.』

The child plucked it off and chomped down on the fruit's succulence.

<<Warning. The heavenly peach's attributes are incompatible with <???>'s body. I advise you not to eat the whole thing.>>

『Shut up, I am hungry.』

It kept munching, devouring it whole, and ignoring the voice's cautions. It suddenly felt its whole body burning up.

『H-hot! It's hot!』

<<Warning. Magicule count is steadily increasing to higher levels!>>

<<Warning! Meridians are being clogged up by magicules. Expect pain while the system tries to patch it up.>>

[Uhhkkk!!]

『It's so hot! It hurts!』

The child swayed, almost plunging on the ground but kept itself steady as it doubled over from pain and discomfort.

『Make it go away!』

<<Warning! Dantian is about to break-->>

It zoned out whatever the voice was saying and sat there in a lotus position while leaning its back on the tree. It breathed in, then exhale, trying to extinguish its agony.

Its red eyes closed, as it focused on the area where a burning fever is starting. The child tried to suppress the heat, enduring the torment and pushed it down.

<<You have gained a skill: <Heat Resistance (Low)> >>

It ignored the robotic voice and continued suppressing the ebbing fire from its center by repeatedly breathing in and out.

<<Skill: <Heat Resistance (Low)> leveled up to <Heat Resistance (Medium)> >>

After more agonizing minutes, the heat finally died down but the discomfort from its whole body remains. The child felt like its nerves, veins, and arteries are being stretched out. Its energy inside also kept rising, breaking one layer at a time.

<<Skill: <Heat Resistance (Medium)> leveled up to <Heat Resistance (High)> >>

<<Magicule count +500>>

It broke out from the third layer and surged even faster. It passed the fourth and fifth layer and dwindles on the sixth until it broke out to layer 7.

The child didn't stop meditating and kept up with the breathing thing until the discomfort suddenly goes away.

『*sighs* That was tough! I feel sleepy all of a sudden now...』

<<Individual <???> ascends from low-level spirit type bug to high-level spirit.>>

The child blinks in confusion.

『Huh? I don't understand it but it sounds cool.』

<<Individual <???> is now on level 7 of Early Stage Cultivation.>>

『Eh? There's still more?』

<<Individual <???> will now undergo sleep mode.>>

After the voice echoed in its head, the child instantly felt drowsy.

*yawns*

『Hmm… I feel full. I wanna sleep now..』

It looked around but it didn't find a single place that looks comfortable so it jumped down the tall tree and almost smashed itself on the earth. Feeling tired, it huddled back to the place where it first spawned and snuggled itself within the cracks between the tree roots. Not long after that, the child fell into a deep sleep.