After bashing the grub's face with a rock over a dozen times, the pincers finally came loose. At first Felix was worried they'd be damaged by such harsh treatment, but after being delicate did nothing except slice his fingers, he resorted to blunt force trauma.

 

He held up the pincers and examined them in the bright sunlight. They were approximately six inches long, way longer than he'd have expected on a grub that was only two feet long itself. They had a gristly bit at the ends, but were otherwise made of a thick bone like material. Chitin, he assumed. He wasn't really a bug guy.

 

"Hope this works," he muttered. He pulled out the scraps of his tshirt and wrapped them around the bases of the pincers. He had enough torn pieces that he was able to wrap both pincers halfway up their lengths. An icon blinked in the corner of his vision, and he quickly toggled it.

 

 

"Haha!" Felix held his two new knives up in the air. "I shall call you, Grubstickers!"

 

Felix turned, triumphant, and met the eyes of a tree vole sitting on the log. It blinked its large orange eyes at him, slowly chewing a large leaf. Suddenly embarrassed and on edge, Felix put his arms down and shifted his feet. In a flash, the tree vole scurried away.

 

"Phew," he breathed. That vole was level 22, and he was still hurting from the grub fight. He wasn't ready to take on that challenge.

 

Cautiously, Felix packed away his new knives and climbed out of the gully. He retrieved his walking stick from a copse of conifers, and headed back toward the Kingsap.

 

 

Back at the Kingsap, Felix prepped for his journey.

 

He collected all of the remaining yarrow, witchcap, and dewcatcher that was in the glen. It took some doing, but he fashioned a sort of sack out of the wide purple leaves of the Kingsap, binding them all together with some crawling vines called Agatha's Curse.

 

 

What's an Alfein? He supposed they were some of the other people here in the Continent. Something that kept a garden, at least. Maybe that meant they were close by? Or no, invasive species were usually ones that spread far and wide, right? He couldn't remember.

 

Maybe I'll find out once I'm out of this forest. He considered the vast and towering trees before him, too tall to even see beyond. If there was a beyond.

 

Felix had a plan. He was going to find some more Copse Grubs and grind them until he was as high level as possible. The closer to level 20 the better. If need be, he would seek out Emberflies after that. He gathered up a leaf's worth of sap (maybe a couple ounces, max) from his magic tree and headed out.

 

Felix sought out several of the trees he had checked previously. Before, he hadn't found a Copse Grub in any of them, but realized he was looking in the wrong places. He needed to check where the grub got its food. Since he couldn't look inside the trees, he figured he'd put some food on the outside.

 

Using a stick, he spread a small amount of magic tree sap onto the lower trunk of the white arrol tree before him. Then he waited.

 

It didn't take long. Within minutes, the trunk was torn up from the inside as a two foot long gummy worm burrowed its way out. He didn't know how they sensed the sap, but during his fight Felix had noticed that the grubs were exceptionally sensitive to anything impacting their tree. He had guessed that it would sense food, especially something as interesting as Kingsap. In moments the grub had scurried down the tree and started gnawing at the sap coated bark.

 

Taking careful aim, he hurled his walking stick straight at the bugs head. Except it wasn't a walking stick any longer; he had used his Grubstickers to whittle down the point until it resembled the crudest of spears. With a wet sklorch the spear sunk into the back of the Copse Grub.

 

 

Immediately it began to writhe in a panic. Acid jetted out in several arcs, burning sizzling tracks through the underbrush but easily avoidable. Felix picked up the first of a dozen rocks and hurled them as quickly and as accurately as he could manage. Within minutes, the grub was down to dregs of its Health, but his crude spear kept it from burrowing away. He had meant to pin the thing to the ground, but flubbed the shot. Regardless, the ungainly length of wood stuck firmly into the grubs back, keeping it from fitting into any burrowed tunnels.

 

Suddenly, he was out of stones. Quick as he could Felix ran forward, knives out. He reached out to stab into the grub, and that's when it happened.

 

He had forgotten about the AOE.

 

"AHH FUCK!" Acid exploded all around the Copse Grub, inundating Felix in what felt like gallons of green, putrid muck. He felt his skin sizzling even as his Acid Resistance fought back.

 

 

But that was it for the grub. Obviously spent, it fell limply onto the ground. Fighting against the agony of his skin on fire, Felix gripped his knives and dropped to his knees. It was all he could do to not fall on the creature, but he forced his right hand up. His breathing was labored, tight in his chest as the acid peeled back his skin in layers. He shook, but kept his fist up.

 

 

"FUCK YOU!" Felix screamed as he forced his arms down with all the strength he could muster. Over and over again. Seemingly endlessly, until finally it all stopped.

 

The Copse Grub was no more.

 

Felix wiped blue ichor from his face as he shakily took his feet. Red blood dripped from his hands where he gripped the knives too hard.

 

"Who's next?"

 

He didn't realize that he was smiling.

 

 

For the next nine hours, Felix's began a strange routine. He would find dying trees and spread some Kingsap sap on its trunk. The Copse Grubs, as he suspected, found the magical sap to be irresistible. Once they burrowed out of their trees, Felix would hit them with his spear and rocks from a distance until they discharged their AOE Acid Explosion, then moved in close to take it down with his Grubstickers.

 

After his first battle with the Copse Grubs his Acid Resistance had hit level 10, and much like Analyze, it changed in a way he couldn't quite quantify. The damage reduction seemed stronger, but more than that, it felt like his skin replenished faster or corroded slower now. He couldn't quite tell, but it was welcome all the same.

 

Now his Pain Resistance had hit level 10, as well. While he hadn't noticed less pain than before (being burned still hurt just as much), it felt easier to push past it. Coupled with his high Willpower and he felt he could handle a lot more punishment than ever before.

 

If this was the effect of a level 10 Skill, then he planned to get all of his Skills up that high as soon as possible.

 

By the end of the day, Felix's abilities had reached a new peak. He had killed fourteen Copse Grubs in the area, each time sustaining less and less damage due to dodging, increased proficiency with his knives, and acid resistance. That was fortunate, since his stock of yarrow had run out by late afternoon. He was healing exclusively with Meditation and his own innate regeneration.

 

What made it all easier was that after the fifth grub, his Analyze seemed to unlock more information on them.

 

 

All of this seemed based on his own experiences with the grub, but seeing it quantified was something else. Now he could see how much Health they had and made sure to dislodge them from their tree as quickly as possible. The remaining grubs fell much quicker.

 

He managed to salvage another three pincers, wrapping their hilts with Agatha's Curse as he'd run out of tshirt material. He had lost a few using them as ranged weapons at first, but his Throwing Weapons Mastery had gained quite a few levels in the process, so it wasn't a total failure.

 

Sitting back in the Kingsap, Felix toggled open his Status screen, pleased with his growth.

 

 

Felix had gained three levels from the fourteen grubs, which was nice but not nearly as much as he wanted. His usual level up bonuses applied, and also netted him another 15 (!) free stat points to use how he wished.

 

He toggled his notifications:

 

 

His base stats seemed to be getting harder to raise through exertion alone. It took combat and near death to really pump them up, though he found plenty of that in the forest. His greatest gains were in Vitality and Agility, and he assumed that both increased due to dodging streams of acid, and ironically, not dodging streams of acid.

 

Luckily Felix's pants were still whole, more or less. He didn't think he could handle being loose and free in these woods.

 

His Skills had grown as well, proving that doing was the best way to learn. Dodge hit level 6, Acrobatics leveled to 8, Pain Resistance leveled to 12, Thrown Weapon Mastery leveled to 8, Small Blade Mastery leveled to 7, Analyze leveled to 11, Acid Resistance leveled to 12, Physical Conditioning leveled to 5, Improvisation leveled to 4, and Meditation leveled to 9.

 

So close, Felix's eyes widened as he thought about his Meditation Skill hitting level 10. It seemed that the first five levels of Skills usually progressed quickly, slowing down slightly as it hit 5-9, and then again 9-10. After 10 it was difficult to level them at all, at least with his current usage. Analyze had only just hit level 11, and it had been at 10 for more than 24 hours of constant usage. Yet Pain Resistance had hit 12 just as fast as Acid Resistance. It was likely that he was missing something.

 

Questions upon questions. Felix rubbed his eyes, suddenly tired. Nothing is easy.

 

Felix could feel the results of his stat gains, but did not feel the same pain as before when he leveled up. Admittedly, he was only increasing one level at a time now, with the occasional stat bump. Much more gradual, but obviously effective. His Strength, while still low compared to his other stats, was enough that his knives easily punched through the grubs' tough flesh.

 

He wasn't sure how his mental stats were affecting things, but he found it easier to keep going, to push past his pain and fear and worry to ensure he survived. Maybe that was his Willpower in action, or maybe his Skills were working on him, but by the end of that day Felix felt he could do this. He could survive.

 

Now, sitting in the Kingsap and letting the evening winds rock him gently to sleep, Felix was feeling good. It was a dramatic shift from just that morning, but it was amazing what hope could do. Hope and a clear goal.

 

He would be the strongest thing in these woods. He would become a monster, if only to keep the rest at bay.

 

This goal had him contemplating his knife as the light finally faded from the sky. Stars sparkled briefly in the distance, but clouds kept them veiled. The Kingsap beneath him glowed gently, turning the blue blood on his knife black. It was the blood of a Copse Grub, a remnant he hadn't wiped clean.

 

 

It was disgusting. Stomach-turning, really. This thick liquid had come from one of the grossest creatures he had ever seen, one of a species that had burned him with acid so many times he had lost count. But still, the thought persisted.

 

 

The logic was sound, but his tongue twisted at the thought of it. He wasn't even sure if it would work. After all, he had gotten plenty of grub blood in his mouth over the course of the day, and nothing to show for it.

 

 

Without wasting further thought, Felix licked the blue blood off his knife.