Ankur_93

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With its translucent milky wings spread out and hands firmly placed at its hips, the Malfae glared down at the twitchy blue caterpillar. The winged immortal's pupil-less dark eyes sought out the empty space where the latest batch of its eggs had been previously and the scowl on its blue face further deepened. However, [Hungry] caterpillar continued to restlessly search the crevice for something -anything- to eat.

Within a mortal consciousness, it would seem akin to a mother admonishing her naughty child that had been caught red-handed. However, there was no mortal present and the Malfae was considering whether or not to kill the caterpillar. It pinched the bridge of its nose. ‘Don’t kill it. It’s not the caterpillar’s fault. It is just an Egoless creature. I should have been careful. I should have forbidden it.’ The [Hive Monarch] sighed.

The Malfae's irritated gaze lingered on the caterpillar as it enjoyed the bug's [Hungry] induced agony before it activated the Skill, [Drone Eggs] to produce a new batch of eggs. ‘I just changed the grass last night.' It clucked its tongue and bundled up the fluid laden grass. Meanwhile, it focused on the caterpillar to prohibit it from consuming the new eggs. Though no sooner had it done so than the [Reincarnated]'s eyes widened and its mouth fell open. ‘It levelled up?’ The feeling it got from the bug clearly conveyed the bug's Level to be somewhere around Level 10.

The Malfae's wide bored into the drone as its mind raced. ‘Isn’t this a bit too absurd?’ While constantly feeding on uncountable leaves for more than a week, the vermin had barely managed to reach Level 7. Yet, it had levelled up 3 times from devouring eggs. What kind of nonsense was that?

‘Should I? Or not?’ The Malfae messaged its temples as it came to a decision. The evolved moth darkly eyed the caterpillar for a moment, only to let out a sigh as it spread the grass back on the floor. It laid down and used [Drone Eggs] to create another batch for the caterpillar. ‘Eat.’ The Malfae ordered.

The drone did not need to be told twice and started gobbling down the eggs with a ferociousness rivalling that of a hungry dog. It didn't show even a single bit of hesitation at eating an egg similar to its own. The Malfae hadn't expected anything else as the drone was just an Egoless creature that had no sense of self. It was merely a package of instincts.

As the Malfae silently observed as the caterpillar ate one egg after the other, the [Hive Monarch] clearly felt each time the vermin levelled up. By the time the caterpillar had made it through the eggs, it had levelled up two times. 'To profit from murdering your siblings.' The [Reincarnated]’s lips twisted in a smile. 'Someone, somewhere, was trying to be a bit too edgy.’  

A dark smile still played on its purple lips as the Malfae left the crevice to later return with more grass to layer the floor of the crevice. If the creature was going to create more eggs, then it did not want its own bodily fluids staining the crevice. Once the floor had been covered in the grass, the creature began to produce more eggs. ‘The sooner the caterpillar evolves, the better.’

Once it had produced 30 eggs by using [Drone Eggs] twice, the Skill levelled up. It now required about 50 MP per usage of the Skill. The Malfae could have continued creating eggs but the creature chose not to. After all, it lived within the Wild and depleting its MP would be incredibly foolish. 

The [Hive Monarch] felt like a glorified maid as it once again bundled up the fluid-soaked grass and flew off to dispose it into the lake, where it collected a new bundle and returned to the crevice. However, its mood only worsened as it found the blue caterpillar already devouring the 3^rd egg. The [Reincarnated] scowled as it reigned its impulse of delivering just punishment.

It was not the caterpillar's fault. The Title [Hungry] forced the bug to eat constantly, as nothing could sate the unending hunger. The Malfae had experienced the same itself thus it could not find fault with the caterpillar for doing the same. However, that didn’t mean that the Malfae had to like it and it clucked its tongue in distaste.

However, despite the [Hive Monarch]'s dislike for the caterpillar, it took care of the vermin's hunger for the caterpillar was its possession. Thus, the [Reincarnated] flew off to collect a large stockpile of leaves for the caterpillar to eat during the night. It then laid down the new grass along the floor before it left the crevice to begin its routine.

Now that the Malfae's [Poison Resistance] had levelled up once again, it doubted the efficiency of little spider’s venom. Though, as it didn't want to take unnecessary risks if that wasn't the case, the creature returned to the spider hunting area. However, given its cowardly nature, it remained on the periphery which turned the hunt into an incredibly time-consuming affair. 

Once the spider had been hunted, the creature did confirm its doubt that the venom’s had lost its efficacy, causing it to grimace. ‘Another search added to the list.’

0.0

As the flowers began to die and the temperature began to rise over the course of the next week, its useless search indeed began all over again. During this time, the creature hunted quite a variety of new critters that it hadn't eaten before but none of the crickets, grasshoppers, centipedes, millipedes and many others managed to inflict even a single point HP loss on the Malfae. 

This was not an anomaly of course. Neither was this a result of the Malfae’s Skill reaching some unknown level of power. This result was simply a product of the [Reincarnated]'s cowardice. All the critters that the Malfae had hunted over the week were truly just that, critters. They had either been Tier 0 or Tier 1 creatures while the Malfae was a Tier 2 creature with its [Poison Resistance] at Level 10. How could any of their poison’s hurt the Malfae? It would have been a small miracle if the poison of any those creatures had worked. 

Not that the Malfae realized this of course. While its newfound realization did tell the creature that it was a coward, the creature still confused caution with cowardice and exchanged one for the other. Yet, the past week had not been all that bad the [Hive Monarch] as the blue caterpillar had continued its streak of levelling up. Though, with each level, the creature had needed more and more eggs for the next one.

As a result of constant use, the Malfae's [Drone Egg] had levelled up to reach Level 6. The Skill now produced 21 eggs per usage for 60 MP. Meanwhile, the caterpillar had continued to level up and now comfortably sat at Level 53. The creature did not know how it felt about this development.

0.0

After another night of fruitless search, the frustrated [Hive Monarch] flew back to the crevice with its purple lips pulled back in a snarl. In its frustration, the [Reincarnated] was quite tempted to visit the spider hunting ground. However, after its last experience, the creature didn't dare to go deep into that territory. Thus, all hot and bothered, the creature flew until it spotted a scorpion and landed on the nearby branch to observe.

It activated the Skill [Sense], causing its antennas to pick up a sharp and bitter scent which lacked the dangerous edge the Malfae associated with danger. ‘Let’s see.’ With a thought, the creature directed the [Malfae Shield] towards the ignorant scorpion and chopped off the scorpion's tail without much difficulty. The evolved moth then used the shield as a badgering ram and slammed it onto the shrieking insect.

The scorpion died before could even understand who attacked it and why. This scorpion, much like the Malfae’s other preys, had been nothing more than critter. It was a recently evolved Tier 1 immortal and if Malfae thought it could get anything out of the creature other than flesh, then it was dreaming.

The [Reincarnated] landed near the chopped off stinger and carefully picked it up before flying up to a thick branch and smashing the stinger down. The venom splashed on the wood and the creature carefully dipped its finger in the liquid before tasting it. After that, the creature waited. And it waited for some time more before it repeated the process. When nothing happened even then, the blue creature scowled. ‘Useless! Absolutely useless.’

The [Hive Monarch] flew off and arrived back at the crevice with the scowl still etched onto its face. Its eyes landed on the caterpillar carelessly munching on some leaves and then on the empty bed of grass. The eggs had already been eaten.

The Malfae heavily landed on the grass and activated its Skill to produce eggs again. This was the routine that it had come up with to maximize the production of eggs. Every night, after waking up and before sleeping, the creature would use 120 MP to create eggs. This would leave the creature with enough MP to work with for the rest of the night. At the same time, with its regeneration of 11 MP/Hour, the Malfae could regenerate the MP during the night and the following day when it slept.

With the eggs done, the [Reincarnated] waited for them dry off before disposing of the grass-bed in the lake. Meanwhile, it collected new grass for the same process tomorrow. As the creature lay in the pile of grass, its problems haunted its thoughts.‘Should I?’

‘No! Am I crazy or what?’ The creature refuted immediately. It hadn’t levelled up yet because of this reason. ‘Why would I do that now for a Skill? Yes, let’s wait for the perfect prey.’ The creature retreated into its shell of cowardice. ‘I have waited this long to Level up. I can wait for Skill Level up too.’

‘Umm… When was the last time I levelled up?’ The creature’s brows scrunched up as it tried to recall. It had last levelled when it evolved and had consumed its own shell. It clucked its tongue.‘That was almost 2 months ago. This… can’t go on.’ The creature shivered unexpectedly. ‘Something needs to change. But what…?’

‘Should I hunt stronger creatures? But that’s just courting disaster.’

‘What else can I do though…?’

0.0

While the Malfae vacillated in between its option, the caterpillar levelled up to Level 71 over the course of the week as the temperature continued to gradually rise. Nights began losing its coolness and the dawn started becoming warmer.

During this time, the Malfae had thought about giving up on the Skill [Poison Resistance] a few times. But each time it ended up deciding against it. After all, its venom was the thing that had allowed the evolved moth to survive until now within the Wild. And even though it was not using its venom these days, it was mostly due to a lack of suitable prey. Once the creature found a suitable prey to hunt, it knew it would depend on [Venom Creation] once again.

Thus, giving up on either [Venom Creation] or [Poison Resistance] was equivalent to giving up on its life. And if there was one thing that the creature had that could win over its cowardice, then that was the creature’s self-preservation. 

As a result, after another week of dilly-dallying, the [Reincarnated] hesitantly decided to hunt a creature that was not just a critter and flew out of the cave to begin its search. Meanwhile, the temperature had continued to rise as even the darkest of nights had now gone from pleasantly warm to mildly hot. 

As the creature flew under the azure moon, it came across a hornet nest and immediately retreated without even taking a moment to investigate. There was no way it was going to go into another territory claimed by insects such as these. Not after the incident with the ants.

Though, now that the Malfae had gained the Skill [Hive Mind], some of the mystery regarding the behaviour of the ants had dissipated. However, this did not mean that the creature was interested in finding more about how the things worked with creatures such as ants, bees and hornets.

As the evolved moth made its way across its portion of the forest, the creature came across the various critters but the Malfae didn’t stop to hunt any of them. Instead, it kept on flying until it reached the area where it had been hatched.

The [Survivor] tried to look for things it recognised but couldn’t find anything even remotely familiar as the year that had passed had changed the region quite thoroughly. The plants it had once eagerly devoured had not made it past the winter. Even the poisonous plant no longer existed. Though none of it was particularly shocking given the damage the Malfae had done to them as a caterpillar.

The [Hive Monarch] continued to fly until it came across the area where it had fought the snails. That tree too was, unfortunately, dead and in its place new plants were growing now. Though the creature doubted they would make it through the year, given the existing heat and the ceaseless rise in temperature.

The creature continued to fly in the direction that it remembered the other scorpion coming from and finally landed when its antennas picked up the faint scent that seemed sharp, bitter and dangerous. It activated its Skill, [Sense] and immediately the scents in the area thickened, allowing the Malfae to pick up the one it was after.

As the Skill would last for only 4 minutes, the creature instantly flew up and started tracking the scent back to its source. The Malfae flew fast as it tried to cover as much area as it could. Thus, it didn't take the [Survivor] much time to find an area which seemed positively saturated in the sharp fragrance, causing the [Reaincarnated]'s dark eyes to gleam as it carefully landed while its pupil-less eyes sought the creature that had once seemed liked like an undefeatable entity. The Malfae still remembered just hoe easily the scorpion had shrugged off its venom as if the liquid had been nothing but spice. ‘Huh. It’s just like how I do it these days.’

Ting.

‘Of all the time!’ The creature cursed as it dismissed the notification to observe its prey. The scorpion had dull brown chitin that covered its entire body and its stinger was long and sturdy. Its two front claws were huge and almost thrice the size of the creature’s face which was quite something for it had two massive pincers in front of its mouth, right below its dark beady eyes.

The Malfae grimaced for it didn't want to hunt the creature. After all, the [Hive Monarch] knew that this insect had a pretty strong [Poison Resistance] which would nullify its venom. Meanwhile, the [Reincarnated]'s experience with fighting the ant and other scorpions warned the Malfae of a possible chitin Skill which would nullify the cutting attack of its [Malfae Shield]. Thus, blocking all possible damage-dealing methods the [Hive Monarch] possessed.

Yet, this scorpion was also the best option available to the winged creature for a couple of reasons. The first of which was that the scorpion was the only possible prey the [Survivor] felt knowledgable about while for the rest, it would have to go in blind. The second and more important reason was that the scorpion couldn't fly while the Malfae could, allowing it a safe method to retreat. 

The Malfae had also considered fighting the Tier 2 spider immortal but it had given up on that idea when it had remembered their ability to shoot web which had almost cost the [Survivor] its life once. The creature had no intention of repeating the scenario.

However, despite deciding on its prey, the Malfae was not sure of its ability to actually hunt down the scorpion. After all, the Scorpion was at least Tier 2 and it had survived the previous year without any problem, which implied that it had been alive long enough to expect and get used to the drastic change in temperatures. This in turn meant that the scorpion was an old creature and also a survivor, much like the Malfae itself. Hunting it would not be easy. Thus, the Malfae decided to wait and observe its prey for the next few days and only then it would decide if it would even make a move or not.

-X-

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

-X-

Ankur_93

You can read up to Chapter 49 and Bonus 10 on Patreon. If you liked the chapter, give it a like below!

My heartfelt thanks to Caterpillar Immortals: AV, RichWalrus, Dolph and the Malfae Immortal, Arterion for supporting the story on Patreon. 

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