I reincarnated as an Immortal Caterpillar?

A trail of crushed spiders marked the exit of the Malfae from the Spider hunting ground as the [Reincarnated] ended its senseless slaughter and began its search for suitable prey. However, no matter how much effort the creature put in, the Malfae could not find a suitable creature and frustration once again begun creeping within the creature again.

Yet, the creature did not give up on its quest.

As it flew, it reached the clearing once again and after a few moments of pause, the creature landed outside of it and activated [Sense Essence]. The creature would have preferred to use [Sense] too but that Skill had a time limit and the creature wanted to reserve its use for the hunt.

Finding the clearing peaceful and unchanged, the creature flew in and landed near the centre of the clearing. Its eyes once again searched landed on the spot where the plant had been and the creature sighed. It could not shake off the feeling that it had missed an incredible opportunity. After all, an immortal had been guarding that flower!

However, as there was little it could do now, it took off again before softly landing on a branch near ant colony that existed within the clearing. The creature was planning to test one of the stronger treasure hunter ants this time. This did not mean that it planned on getting detected by their soldier ants, however, as the creature didn't believe its skill, [Malfae Shield], would be able to stand against the sturdy defenders of the colony.

It took some time but the creature was finally able to lock in on its next prey. It was a treasure hunter ant that was larger than usual. Having decided on its prey, the creature took off and followed the treasure ant until the ant was out the colony’s reach before it acted.

The Malfae brought the [Malfae shield] forward, from where it had been protecting its back, and guided it in position before bringing it down on the ant. The spread-apart wings snapped back close as they rounded against the neck of its target.

The ant, though, looked up at the last moment and tried to move out of the way, but it was already too late and the jaws closed shut before shattering like glass. The moment, the first shield broke apart, the creature summoned another one and the creature brought the second one down and tried to decapitate the ant. And even though the second shield shattered like a glass too, after performing its task, the ant still lived. It was even able to move.

The Malfae frowned before it flew towards the ant and soared as low as it could without getting in the ant's melee range. The flying creature then pooled the venom in its mouth, ready to spit it in the open wound.

As the Malfae flew down to spit venom, the ant turned to face the flying creature and raised its head. Then, in just a moment, the insectoid’s features shifted and the ant seemed to smirk. The Malfae didn’t notice it though, reading ant features was not a skill that it had picked up.

In the next moment, 2 mandibles rushed towards the Malfae as if they were arrows. The Malfae tried to dodge the attack but as it wasn't expecting any retaliation, it failed. The mandible hit it in the abdomen, hard, and embedded itself. The wind was knocked out of the Malfae, though the pain hadn't set in yet either due to shock and adrenaline. '[Malfae Shield].'

However, it felt its HP decrease by at least a third. Combined with the HP loss that the creature was already suffering due to [Survive], that the creature had done a couple of nights ago, the creature’s HP was now dangerously low.

The Malfae sent the third shield towards the ant as it flew away and landed on a branch nearby. An attack which the ant tried to dodge, but its condition didn't allow fast and jerky movements and as a result, the Malfae’s attack hit home. Using this moment to settle itself, the creature did not attack and instead, waited. For it knew that no matter how tough that ant may be, the chitin covered creature could not survive the blood loss resulting from 3 open neck wounds.

The creature panted and its gaze lowered to look at the mandibles stuck inside its body and it winced at the phantom pain. Slowly, the creature turned away its gaze from its prey and instead observed its own wounds. The Mandibles had stabbed it in the right side of its abdomen and 2 steady trickles of blood leaked from the wounds. For a moment, the Malfae thought about pulling out the mandibles but then the sight of blood reminded it that those mandibles were possibly blocking most of the blood loss.

However, at that moment, the pain became real and hit it like a pile of bricks. The stabs hurt like a bitch and even though the creature was used to the pain due to its poison resistance training, a grunt still escaped from the creature.

The creature gritted its teeth and its blue fists turned purple as it clenched them to suffer through the assault. It let out short breaths faster and faster until it became able to endure the pain. It was only then that its clenched fists loosened and its breathing normalised.

The creature waited a few moments more before it gingerly flapped its wings and sighed in relief. The movement of the wings was not disturbed by the wound and it was the best news that the creature could have asked for. The Malfae immediately took off, without even thinking about the ant corpse even once and returned to the crevice.

As the creature lay down on the grass bed in its crevice, it checked its HP, [HP: 112/356] and its heart almost stopped. A single attack from the ant had brought the creature to the death’s door. Although it had already been at half HP due to due of [Moulting] 2 days before, the ant’s attack had still done damage of 100+ points.

If there had been another such attack, the Malfae would have died.

The creature’s scalp tingled and it all the hair on its head and back stood up on their ends. Its massive ears flattened against its skull, its eyes widened and its wings overlapped themselves to become smaller.

But how could the attack of a mere ant do so much damage to the twice evolved, Tier 2, Malfae? It could do so because, much like the Malfae, the ant too was a twice evolved creature. It was a Tier 2 monster. It had evolved from a Larva to the Worker Ant and now to the soldier ant. It was the same Guard Red Ant that the Malfae had wanted to avoid.

Unfortunately for the Malfae, as this ant had recently evolved, its size was small in comparison to the other guard ants and thus, Malfae had mistaken it for a normal treasure hunter ant.

Now only that, but as it was a Guard Red An, it had evolved to fight for the colony, rather than gathering food for the colony. This evolution had not only raised the Skill Level Limit of the creature to Level 15 but, at the same time, granted to the ant, the Skill [Mandible Strike] at Level 5. Much like how the Malfae had possessed skills [Poison Resistance], [Flight] and [Drone Eggs] at Level 5.

And at Level 5, [Mandible Strike] did 50 points of damage, for each mandible. Thus, the damage was not as impossible as the creature had assumed. The rest of the damage had been from bleeding and from flying while hurt.

The creature of course didn’t know this. ‘This fucking world. Out there to kill me. An ant does 60+ points of damage with a single Skill. 60+! While I struggle to do 10 points of damage over a minute! What bullshit.’

The creature grumbled at the unfairness of it all as it eyed the 2 mandibles still stuck in its flesh.

The creature hesitated.

It wanted to remove the mandibles but feared that doing so would result in HP loss and then the creature would not be able to use [Moulting] to heal. But leaving them in also did not suit the creature. It feared them getting stuck in its flesh.

However, as it lacked even the simplest method to provide first aid, the creature decided to let the mandible remain where they were. It decided to remove them only when it had accumulated enough HP to use [Moulting].

Thus, the creature began its solitary confinement once again. Though, its plan was challenged on the third day itself when hunger burned its belly. The creature had been drinking its own venom to stave off thirst, but there was little it could do for hunger.

Meanwhile, its wounds become infected and shot bolts every time the creature even so much as twitched. In such a condition, the creature could barely walk, let alone fly and fight. As the days passed, the hunger and the bolts of pain increased. And by the time the fifth day arrived, the creature had even begun to run a slight fever and its body urgently needed nutrients to consume and heal.

In such a state, even though its Skills [Pain resistance] and [Night Vision], levelled up, the creature could not focus on them as its hunger and pain consumed all its waking thoughts.

Hence, when the creature’s gaze fell on its half-developed eggs and an idea materialised in its desperate mind, it did not hesitate. No sooner had the idea finished forming than the Malfae crawled up to the eggs, fighting off the pain as it did, and consumed an egg whole.

The egg was salty, crunchy, gooey and mushy within the creature’s mouth but the Malfae cared not for it as it swallowed and fire in its belly instantly dimmed. Barely had the [Survivor] swallowed the first egg before it picked up another and consumed it without a second thought before it stopped to drink its venom.

It was, thus, on a diet of its own eggs and venom that the [Survivor] survived for the next two days until its HP once again crossed the safe limit for the usage of [Moulting]. The moment it did, however, the Malfae pulled the mandibles out mercilessly and activated its Skill before the resulting pain could ravage its mind. ‘[Moulting]! [Moulting]!! [Moulting]!!!’

Almost immediately the creature’s HP fell once again into the dangerous territory. Its HP read, [HP: 34/356].

0.0

The Malfae woke up the next night due to the now-familiar itch of the exuviate and started squirming. It did not take much time to free itself of its own shed skin. The creature’s eyes then fell on the 2 mandibles lying next to it and it immediately touched its flat stomach, finding it smooth as ever.

‘Thank the heavens.’ The creature smiled as it kept on poking the spot where the mandibles had stabbed it. And each time, the flesh bounced back painlessly, the creature’s smile widened and it giggled.

0.0

The creature spent the next week resting within its shelter as it ate and drank venom while it regenerated its HP. By the end of the week, its HP had regenerated to half its maximum and its eggs had dwindled to 5. As a result, the creature decided to hunt the spiders for the next week as it rested, which passed smoothly.

Within this last week, the creature had continued its search for suitable prey but its search remained fruitless. Thus, after almost 3 weeks, the creature once again returned to the ant colony to get the feel of the ants in the clearing. But this time, it came at full health.

The creature observed the ants milling about, from a branch at a suitable distance. It noted the presence of treasure hunter ants and then the guard ants that the creature had dealt with some difficulty. But they were not the only ones.

There were a few ants that were almost half the size of a mortal’s finger. These ants, the Malfae had remained clear of, as of yet, as they seemed tougher than the rest of their brethren. To the [Survivor], the larger ants almost seemed like the overseers, guarding even the guard ants.

The Malfae already knew that guard ants would not give it any Levels; it had learnt that the hard way. And given the lack of other suitable prey, the creature decided to try the bigger guard ants. The one that was the overseers. This was an incredibly foolish decision of course.

The creature itself did not know, but its decision to hunt the overseers was less its conscious decision and more it's instinctual. The Malfae had been hurt deeply by an ant. An ant! And no matter how it justified, its pride and malice could not bear it! Even though it had killed the offending ant, the pride could not suffer it!

The creature’s inherent and instinctual pride could not bear. It could only bear being defeated by something that it looked down upon if it was so thoroughly outclassed that its other instincts overcome its pride. Much like how the case with the cockroach monster had been.

Thus, the creature subconsciously acted on its pride as it chose to hunt the overseers and began searching for its prey. Soon enough, its search bore fruit and it found one of the overseers that seemed to be a bit farther away from rest.

The creature did not attack it though. Instead, it landed on the nearby tree and observed the creature to make sure that it was truly alone. Once the creature was sure of its prey’s location, it flew above the creature and guided its shield to the front. The shield spread its wings apart until gaps appeared in between them and the descended.

The large ant sensed the descending winged shield, before it collided with the creature, much like the rest of its brethren had. But unlike them, the creature did not look up to ascertain its attacker, instead, the red chitin of gleamed liked a polished gem

‘A skill.’ The Malfae’s shield descended on the ant and shattered instantly, without even leaving so much a scratch on the brilliantly shining red chitin. The creature blinked in surprise but the ant had already turned around and launched its mandibles at the flying pest. ‘Oh fuck.’

The flying creature did not make the same mistake as the last time and instantly dodged the incoming projectile before flying straight up as fast as it could. With its heart-pounding, it continued to fly and only dared to stop when it had escaped the ant’s range.

Though the moment it turned back to see the ant colony, its eyes widened beyond its control, its massive ears flattened, goosebumps erupted on its head and back as its hair stood up on their ends, blood drained from its face and its heart began to run a mile a minute and its body began trembling.

All the ants, no matter how small or big, no matter if they were lifting a rock or hunting critter, no matter if they were on the ground or climbing up the trees, all of them had stopped mid-work. And all of their heads were locked in the direction of the Malfae. Their gazes fixed on the blue creature as if unwilling to leave the creature even for a moment. ‘How is this even possible?’

The trembling creature gulped and flew even higher before leaving the clearing without any hesitation. None of the ants moved as the creature flew and none of them reacted as the flying pest left the clearing. They merely tracked the creature with their beady eyes.

The creature did not stop flying until it was once again within the safety of its home but even then, the creature couldn’t stop trembling. ‘What was that?!’

Every time the creature thought back to the moment, its heart almost stopped. Never had it felt such a sense of danger. Not when the scorpion had spotted it with the spider still in its pincers. Not even when it had challenged the cockroach in its arrogance. ‘But how?!’

The creature had seen its certain death reflected in those beady eyes. All those eyes that had locked onto it, that had tracked it. They had been awaiting the Malfae’s death. Never had the creature felt like this before. ‘What flower? It’s just death there!’

As the creature heart slowed down and blood returned to its face, it couldn’t help but think about what had just happened. All those ants had turned as one. They had looked at the Malfae as one. They had even tracked it as one. It had been almost as if they had cared about the ant that I had attacked. Like they had wanted to defend the ant, all together. But that was the nature of mortals. Not immortals. Immortals did not care. They could not care.

‘How can they be like that? They had clearly evolved, hadn’t they? They were immortals! How can they care and coexist?’

The creature’s questions were valid of course. An immortal did not care for other immortals. An immortal did not coexist with other immortals. That was not something that immortals did. Not because they didn’t want to but because they simply couldn’t.

Yet these ants seemed to do just the same. The Malfae had not noticed this before, as the ants had been ants and they had been behaving like ants. It had been what it had expected them to do. There had been nothing unordinary about ants behaving like ants.

But how could creature know what was ordinary behaviour and what was unordinary behaviour for the ants? After all, it had never met an ant before. Yet, it had had some expectations. How? Of course, its expectations had been due to the influence of her memories.

Because of her memories, it had not even occurred to the Malfae that the immortal ants shouldn’t be able to behave like ants. For doing so would stand against the very nature of immortals. ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’

The creature shook its head. ‘What is important, now, is not how the ants lived. No, the important thing is that I do not go there. Ever.’

The creature placed its hand on its chest and felt its heart race. ‘Calm down. Calm down.’ It patted its chest until its heart slowed down a bit. ‘It’s over. It’s over.’

As its heart calmed down, its eyes fell on the remaining eggs. ‘How far along are they?’

The creature breathed deeply before it activated [Sense Essence]. ‘Not too long now.’

The shape of the essence within the eggs had begun to solidify. And while the colour of the essence remained the same as the Malfae itself, there was no denying the fact that the shape of the egg’s essence and that of the Malfae were completely different.

The creature sighed and did not bother with the egg anymore. It had long since made peace with fact that it would not receive give it and well-grown Malfaes out of the eggs.

0.0

The creature woke up to the sounds of cracks and wiggles. And no matter how drowsy and confused the creature had been, the presence of sound in its home, shocked it awake. The creature immediately looked at the entrance, only to find the [Malfae Shield] still blocking it.

The creature frowned and followed the sound, only for its yes to land on the eggs, as the sound echoed once again in the crevice.

CRACK!

‘Are they finally hatching?’ Wiggling over to the eggs, the Malfae waited with bated breath for the creature within to emerge out of the shell. This would be the very first creature that would neither be the Malfae’s prey nor be its predator. It seemed like a foreign concept to the creature, despite being aware of it because of her memories.

It began small. As cracks after cracks spread out over the shell, forming a pattern akin to that of the spider webs. Before, all of a sudden, a piece fell off creating an opening. Beneath the opening, something slimy and blue wiggled. The sight was gross, yet, it transfixed the creature for some reason.

And then, lazily -or better to say, tiredly- a slime-covered head poked out of the shell before falling back in. The head fell like it was dead, something which the newborn was obviously not. The tiny and slimy head wiggled around, testing the newfound freedom.

As if satisfied, soon the head pushed itself out again. It flinched at the sudden temperature change and struggled and tiredly tried to move and in between all of that, cracks ensued as the web continued to expand their domain. As the creature continued to wiggle, the rest of the shell fell apart, finally unable to hold itself up, revealing the not so beautiful creature hidden inside.

Truthfully, it was one ugly thing.

The creature was small, covered in slime and barely reached the height of 1/6^th of a mortal’s finger. Its head was its biggest past and the rest of the body seemed like a train of blue spheres. The creature was, much like the Malfae’s past self, a caterpillar. 'Really, what else had I expected?'

The new-born caterpillar wiggled around as if looking for something to eat.

But at that moment, the Malfae felt a strange intrusion in its mind. It was not words or sentences or even speech, per se. It was just a feeling. This feeling was something that the Malfae had not felt in a long time. And it had hoped to never meet it ever again.

‘…the hunger-induced from Title [Hungry].’ The creature’s eyes widened and its heart raced as it immediately called up its Status. With bated breath, the creature looked at its list of Titles but the blue window mentioned nothing of the sort. The Malfae sighed in relied and focused on the feeling itself.

As the creature was intimately familiar with this feeling, as it focused on it, the creature was able to determine that the feeling was different this time around. It didn’t seem like its own. It was almost as if the hunger of another being was being projected onto the creature. ‘Eh?’

The Malfae’s eyes widened and its gaze immediately fell on the caterpillar in front of it. The bug, in the meanwhile, had returned to the shell before devouring it at an impressive speed. The Malfae blinked and waited for the bug to finish eating before the evolved moth picked up the caterpillar and deposited it on the nearest tree.

The Malfae would have preferred to first ensure the safety of the plant but the creature knew that if it left the caterpillar along with the eggs, the bug would eat them without a second thought.

Thus, the creature first placed the caterpillar on the tree and then made sure that the tree was free of predators, like the ones it itself had faced. If these caterpillars had the misfortune of meeting a snail, they could do little but die obediently.

Not finding any snails on the tree, the Malfae once again picked up the caterpillar and placed it one of the better-shaded areas to hide it from the passing birds. The Malfae wasn’t sure if even it could battle a bird, let alone the Egoless drone.

Once the caterpillar had been sufficiently secured, the creature flew off to the spider hunting area and followed its own routine of searching for suitable prey. Which, miraculously, it hadn’t found yet.

In truth, finding prey wasn’t that difficult. The creature was just coward and greedy. It wanted to attain Levels without putting its life in danger. On one hand, it disdained the killing of various critters for slow and steady Level ups. While on the other hand, it wanted to avoid dangerous fights for multiple instantaneous Level ups. But could that be possible for an immortal being such as itself? How could such a good deal exist for an immortal?

Thus, it wasn’t that the creature’s searching methods were lacking. It was just that its search was futile from the very start.

-X-

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

-X-