The dark eyes moved behind the closed eyelids before they blinked awake. As the Malfae woke up, a strange lethargy still lingered within its body. The creature stretched and frowned.

‘I didn’t tire myself that much, did I?’ Its body felt sore, not in any single place, but all over. It was as if the creature hadn’t slept peacefully. Its little fingers lacked strength and there was a faint echo of ache in its wings. The creature checked its Status and everything immediately became clear. Its HP had barely regenerated.

The creature grimaced. Now that its HP was more than 350 points, its HPR of 21 HP/Day seemed a little too low to it. The creature wanted to increase its HPR but, like all other things, it lacked the knowledge to do so. It messaged its forehead and decided to focus on a single thing first, its next evolution.

Thus, the creature decided to practice [Mana Manipulation]. But as time passed, there were no results. Which was not a surprise to the creature given its track record and with a disappointed sigh, the Malfae came out of the tree hollow and then the creature paused to look at it.

While the tree hollow had been a safe place for the creature to evolve, it had mostly been due to the mud and poison wall that the creature had sealed the entrance with. But now that the wall did not exist anymore, the creature did not feel safe leaving its eggs behind.

‘Tch.’ It did not want to erect another wall. For not only would it take a lot of time to do so, but the creature would have to destroy it once it returned. ‘That would be just pointless.’

The creature thought for a moment before it gathered a few leaves and entered the tree hollow again. Inside the hollow, the creature continued to secrete its venom until the liquid had coated the wooden floor in a thin layer.

The Malfae then used the Skill, [Malfae Shield] for the first time and immediately a shimmering and almost transparent, pair of blue moth wings materialised before it. The wings were almost triangular in shape, with one of the wings slightly layering over the other in the middle, distorting the shape of the otherwise perfect triangle. The creature observed the wings and felt the urge to open the shield-like its own wings.

The shield opened.

The overlapping wings slid off each other, revealing another but smaller pair of wings. These wings kept on spreading until they formed an extremely deformed shape of a semi-circle. The creature grinned.

Although the creature knew that shield was just as fragile as it looked, as at Level 1 the shield could only take on the damage of 20 points, it would do for now. After all, the creature wasn’t using it for combat, it was using the shield as a door. It left the shield inside the tree hollow, as it came out, and stuck the leaves in between the entrance of the tree hollow and shield. With that taken care of, the Malfae flew off and began its search for a new home.

It started looking around, searching for crevices and creaks in the trees, plants and massive boulders but there weren't that many of them around. The few that it did find, the Malfae dared not go near as its antennas picked up fresh scents at their periphery. They were, thus, already occupied

The [Reincarnated] flew around for almost all night. Just like it had done the night before. And didn’t find anything worthwhile. It was only on the last leg of its search that it found a crevice in a cliff of some sort, south of where its initial hideout had been. And as the Malfae’s antennas didn’t pick up any scent in the crevice, the creature ventured further to investigated deeply.

The crevice was dark and gloomy and while it wasn’t big enough for most avian and birds, for the Malfae that was barely the size of a mortal’s finger, it was more than enough. Its walls were unnaturally smooth and its depth, surprisingly deep. The floor of the crevice too was odd, as it was thin and ended in a point. If a mortal were to look at it, they would recognise it as stab wound of a sword.

But the creature did not know of it as it assessed the crevice and it found that it liked what it saw. However, before it made its decision, the creature activated its Skill, [Sense].

The Skill activated with a twitch of its antennas and as the scents thickened, it recognised the odours of stone, earth and old dust. The creature didn’t smell anything that could prove that the crevice to be occupied at present. It might be the case that the crevice had been occupied once but the previous had not returned for long enough that their scent had faded.

The Malfae understood that to mean that either the previous owner had died or it had abandoned this place. The creature was still not satisfied though and activated [Sense Essence]. The world instantly seemed to fade away as the haze of the Essences became visible. The Essences were the mess of cloudy haze as always and they were just what the creature had expected. Stone, stone and more stone. There was nothing out of place.

The creature was finally satisfied with its inspection and smiled. Now the creature just had to bring its egg here. Though at the thought of the distance that it had to cover to do that, soured its mood almost instantly. The creature looked like it had bit into a sour lemon. ‘I have to fly carrying it…’

The blue creature was not happy with that thought. For even though the eggs might seem light, those eggs were almost the size of the creature’s arm. And even though their weight was not much, the eggs were a bit too heavy for the Malfae to carry it to the new hideout.

However, it had gone through a lot of effort to create them, so it was a bit reluctant to part with them. Thus, with a reluctant sigh, the creature flew out of the crevice and headed back. By the time it returned, the creature’s MP had long since filled back up to its maximum.

Though that was not important to the Malfae, what was important to it was that its antennas were picking up a predatory scent emanating from the tree hollow that was its hideout. The creature immediately tried to use [Sense], but the Skill was still on cooldown and the creature couldn’t pick up more detailed information from the scent alone. 'Those stupid eggs better be safe!’

Without wasting any time on the locked-out Skill, the creature instead activated [Sense Essence], and the world faded away. But the creature paid it no mind as it focused on what was happening within the tree hollow.

The Essence of the [Malfae Shield] was nowhere to be seen while the wispy Essence of the leaves, that had been hiding the tree hollow, were on the floor of the tree hollow. The hazy Essence of the eggs was not as many as they should have been and the one that was present was so dim that it might as well not have been there; just a waif was original was left.

And then there was a foreign tendril of Essence within the tree hollow. This misty Essence of the foreign entity was a haze of brown but, unlike the one of earth and mud, this haze was deeper in colour seemed to contain sharpness within it. This new Essence was hunched over the dim Essence of the egg and with the passage of each moment, the egg’s Essence dimmed further.

The Malfae’s eyes narrowed as it pulled back its pale blue lips to reveal a set of malicious teeth. Its nose flared and its massive ears expanded to their full volume. The hair on its back and head stood up and its wings opened up to their complete wingspan. The Malfae seemed to have expanded up to almost to double its size.

The creature stalked forward. Although the Malfae’s puffed up size made sneaking harder, it did not even think of decreasing its size. It knew that a confrontation was inevitable. And it wanted to make a first appearance that would also be the intruder’s last.

The Malfae dismissed the Skill and sneaked forward, as slowly as it could, until gradually its eyes fell on the intruder.

The trespasser was covered in a shell, which just like its Essence, was a deep brown and shiny. The shell was almost akin to a beetle’s shell that hid wings beneath it. And from where it was slurping on the egg, the Malfae could see two antennas twirling and twitching. Beetles didn't have antennas.

The creature antennas stopped their movement and as the intruder turned around, the Malfae got a good look at it. The creature was the thing of nightmares. From a careless glance, it seemed like a cockroach but when analysed with a more careful eye, its horrifying pincer-like mouth was easily noticeable and so were its scythe-like front legs.

But those were not that had caught the Malfae’s attention. The Malfae’s focus was solely locked onto the goo dripping down the creature's mouth and pincers.

"HHHHHIIIIIISSSS!" The cockroach akin creature threatened, trying to make the Malfae back off of. But that mattered not at all.

"SSSCCCREEECCCCHHH" The Malfae shrieked backed. The noise that erupted from its mouth was loud and high pitched. Yet it shook and modulated like a lion’s roar. ‘How dare this creature eye what is mine!!?’

But then the intruder moved. Fast, way faster than anything the Malfae had ever dealt with. It moved towards the Malfae, with its scythe-like pincers raised and glowing and, in but a moment, the intruder was upon the 2-legged [Survivor].

‘Skill!’ The Malfae didn’t even dodge as it was already too late. Instead, the creature reacted with a Skill of its own. ‘Malfae Shield!’

The ethereal wings had barely materialised before they were met with the glowing limbs and a crack resounded in the air as the winged shield shattered and the limbs stopped in their tracks. Though the glow signifying the Skill did not fade and remained as strong as ever.

‘Malfae Shield! Malfae Shield! Malfae Shield!’ The Malfae used this moment to retreat as it tried to activate more and more shields. However, only a single pair of wings manifested and the rest of the commands failed to activate. At that moment, the cockroach akin creature opened its shell and from it, a pair of translucent but powerful wings emerged. Flapping the wings, the bladed intruder rushed out of the tree hollow and spat something at the Malfae.

The [Survivor] dodged but the cockroach creature was already homing onto the Malfae. It seemed that after having the taste of its eggs, the cockroach creature wanted to have a taste of the Malfae too. As the cockroach honed in on the blue-skinned creature, all thoughts of revenge left the Malfae as it could think of nothing to attack its assailant with. None of its Skills would help as none of them were suitable for a confrontation. The Malfae was an ambusher after all.

The cockroach’s glowing limbs once again shattered the shield that caused the intruder to momentarily pause and the Malfae used that moment of stillness to instantly turn and flee. The Malfae was no match for this creature that resembled a cockroach.

The cockroach pursued, however. First, its meal had been disturbed and then a puny thing had dared to challenge it!

The Malfae activated [Sense Essence] in bursts and placed the [Malfae Shield] on its back as it repeated its evasion strategy and fled towards the canopy rather than through the trees.

The cockroach immediately realised the intent of its prey and used its Skill [Poison Shot] to stop the fleeing creature. The shot collided with the [Malfae Shield] and the shield held under the assault. After all, the power of [Poison Shot] lay not in its projectile power but its poison. The Malfae continued to fly up and up and the poison, that had hit the [Malfae Shield], became one with the wind as the ex-moth continued to fly higher.

The cockroach creature, being heavier due to its defensive chitin shell, glared belligerently at the escaping prey. But that did not stop it from shooting out more and more [Poison Shots] at the Malfae. Not that they did any good. The cockroach creature finally stopped the chase when the Malfae almost reached the canopy and returned to what was left of its dinner.

The Malfae, in the meanwhile, landed on a nearby branch as it huffed. The hair on its back and head was stuck to its body. Its gigantic ears were flattened against its skull and its pupil-less eyes were wide. The creature then folded its wings and even overlapped them to make them seem even smaller.

‘I…I could have died.’ The creature panted. ‘Over eggs!’

The creature’s back hit the trunk of the tree and it slowly slid down. ‘I…I…I-’

The Malfae couldn’t finish the thought.

Ever since she had been reborn in this world, the creature had stared death in the eyes numerous times. The creature had gazed and the death had gazed back. But the creature had always managed to dance out of death’s clutches.

There had been even times when the creature had accepted the fact that it would die. There had been times that its body had been so mangled that even twitching had hurt. There had been times where it had to cover itself in its own faeces. And while, in this encounter, the creature hadn’t even lost a single HP, yet this was the time that had shaken the Malfae the most.

In all those cases, the creature had always faced death with the belief that at least it had done everything in its power to save itself. In all those cases it had used its smarts and applied its brain. In all those times, even if it had died, the creature wouldn’t regret that it could have done more.

But not this time.

This time, the creature had faced death with regret. The regret that this was completely avoidable. This was utterly unnecessary. The creature had not used its brain. The creature had not used its smarts. It had, instead, just relied on its instincts and given in.

Why had the creature done it?

It knew the answer, of course. The creature hadn’t done it for anger. If that eggs had been lost, it could just create another batch. The creature hadn’t done it out of stupidity. It had been a willing decision. The creature had done it for pride. How could anyone else take was its? Even if it was trash, it was its trash and no one else was entitled to it. That had been his thinking. That had been its arrogance. That had been its pride. And that had been its fall.

And this arrogance had just one source. Its new Vessel.

‘A creature of pride and malice.’ The blue creature remembered the words that had described this Vessel. But if it was pride, what was the creature proud of? What had it achieved that it the pride of its Vessel had affected it such?

The creature had gained a body that was similar to hers. To it, it had been an accomplishment and an achievement. It had begun to feel invulnerable. It had begun to feel invincible. Hence, it had become vulnerable to the Vessel’s instincts, which used this sense of accomplishment and turned it into pride.

This encounter, however, had been the encounter with the reality that slapped the creature in the face and awakened the Malfae to its own conceit. After all, to her and those like her, Malfae was nothing more than a pest. ‘I…I ran away from a cockroach.’

‘A cockroach.’

‘A Vermin.’

‘A Pest.’

‘Filth.’

‘This is what I am.’ The creature’s hairless face smoothened and its thoughts became clear. ‘What do I have to be proud of?’

0.0

The creature checked the crevice with both [Sense] and [Sense Essence] and only after it had found the crevice to be safe did it enter the crevice.

Within the crevice, the creature cast a glance at the [Malfae Shield] and sighed. Even though the cockroach creature’s spit shots hadn’t broken the shield, under the repeated assaults, cracks had formed and the ethereal wings could only suffer through 8 more points of damage. Thus, the creature dismissed the shield with a single thought and summoned another one.

Ting.

The creature read the notification and dismissed it without a second thought. It then moved the screen towards the entrance of the crevice and blocked it with the shield. The creature then walked closer and observed it for a moment. ‘I’ll have to bring in some leaves next time.’

The ethereal nature of the shield stood out against the solid background of the stone. And while leaves too would stand out in a stone crevice, they wouldn’t do so as much as the [Malfae’s shield]. The creature laid down as it remembered the night's event and grimaced. It stood up and flew out with the shield trailing behind it. ‘I can’t afford to procrastinate.’

It did not take the creature much time to collect enough leaves for covering the entrance and returning. Once all the leaves had been collected, the creature placed the leaves between the entrance and the shield before pushing the shield into the walls of the entrance. Essentially sealing it up.

The creature then fell, exhausted. It had gone out to bring the leaves even when it hadn’t wanted to, just because it couldn’t be arrogant. After all, it was nothing but a pest. It wanted to sleep but it couldn’t. There was something that it still had had to do. ‘You cockroach! Fuck you.’

‘Do I just have a single batch of eggs that I will fight to the death over it?’ The creature activated the Skill [Drone Eggs]. ‘I can create as many as I want!’

‘You, filth! Fuck you.’ It grunted as a familiar ache popped up in its abdomen. And due to familiarity, the creature calmed itself and merely waited patiently as its groin began leaking, wetting its thighs and legs. It watched as the egg passed through its abdomen and its groin until it finally fell on the floor with a wet splash.

One after other eggs popped out of the creature’s crotch until all 15 had popped out once again. The creature panted as it let its body fall on the hard floor of the crevice. ‘Have I even hunted since evolution?’

It had not. And the only thing that the creature had eaten had been its own cocoon. Yet, the hunger was nowhere as strong as it had been when it had been a moth.

‘New Vessel, new bodily needs.’ The creature sighed and hesitated for a moment. ‘Should I just sleep now…’

The Malfae decided against the idea. The night was still young and most of the creature’s exhaustion was mental rather than physical. Thus, it decided to utilize the rest of the night to try and practice [Mana Manipulation]. However, as it continued to lay on the floor, it tossed and turned due to the uncomfortable hardness of the floor. ‘Oh, fuck you floor!’

The floor was stone. What else had the creature expected? Cotton candy? ‘You know what, I am not going out again. No matter what!’

The creature thus ignored the uncomfortable floor and activated [Mana Manipulation]. The night passed quietly and as usual, the creature achieved nothing and it remained as useless with the Skill as ever. Though when it did come out of the influence of the Skill, it back hurt and its body was sore. ‘I am not going out again. No matter what!’

-X-

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

-X-