Sanguine Paradise

Chapter 1: [Day 1] – “Huh…”

"Urgh, what the hell..."

"My body feels all kinds of wrong, did somebody hit me with a truck?"

In the groggy haze that encompassed my mind, I slowly attempted to open my eyes. Wait... that might not be all that correct. For some reason, I couldn't feel my eyelids.

"What in the...?"

Trying to shake the drowsiness from my mind, I instinctively groaned as I usually did when waking up after having had a particularly deep bout of sleep. But to my astonishment, there was no sound produced, or rather there was no feeling of response from my body when tried to use my throat.

"Okay, what is going on here? I'm not in some kinda coma, am I?" I thought despondently.

Luckily, my vision finally came slowly returning back to me, however, it only managed to alleviate a small amount of my worry before giving way to a whole new slew of questions. Something about my field of vision was seriously way off. I was rather confident that my field of vision usually didn't extend to a full 360-degree angle.

"By the way, why do my surroundings seem so... gigantic? Yeah, all of this makes no sense." I pondered cautiously, if not a bit curiously.

As if to answer my befuddlement, a series of prompts all of a sudden invaded both my sight and mind.

[Soul Forging - Completed!]

[Seed Transferrance - Successful!]

[Welcome to Eve]

[Congratulations! you've received 2 traits as blessings from your anonymous sponsor.]

[Skill - Limit Breaker has been added to the skill list]

[Skill - Skill Shop has been added to the skill list]

[Status]

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 0 Skills 3

-Race- Glade Mosquito VIT 0 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 2 Titles 0

-Rank- K- DEX 1 Skillpoints 1

-Level- 1/3 INT 12 Resistances

Health 1/1 CHR 0 Physical Resistance 0

Stamina 1/1 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0

Mana 0/0 MAG 0 Mental Resistance 5

Taking in everything, one step at a time, my mind began running through all the information to slowly form a response of the utmost ability of my twelve points in intelligence.

...

"Huh..."

...

I know, I know. That probably wasn't the most appropriate response to such a situation for any human, oh excuse me, former human. I suppose most people would probably have freaked out or screamed in righteous indignation at the ludicrousness of the situation.

But I honestly couldn't help myself, as instead, all this seemed rather interesting and exciting to me.

For my whole nineteen years of life, I've not really done anything with my life, simply going with the flow of society and lived my days out like any other person. But with an uncommon amount of time spent just drifting about I've begun to lose motivation to do... really anything...

I'm simply a wholly ordinary and average guy, in no way special or impressive which had always been a great regret of mine. Not being particularly handsome, smart, talented, or a hard-worker, I honestly lost all motivation to do pretty much anything worthwhile since I didn't truly find any purpose in living a life that meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Not saying that I'm suicidal or some kind of nihilist, I simply had resigned myself to live out that life of mediocrity, finding whatever interests I could to keep myself going in my utterly boring and uninteresting life.

So instead I ended up being drawn to fantasy like a moth to a flame.

The only escape I found in my previously mundane life was fantasy in any form. Now, seemingly reborn in a brand new world, I honestly couldn't be happier. For the first time in my life, I supposedly had the opportunity to do something I truly found interesting. Sure I was going to miss my mom, dad, and little sisters, but other than that I had no other attachments to my old life than them and wasn't leaving anything else behind.

"I'm... simply going with the flow."

Finishing resolving my thoughts, I looked around to properly take in my surroundings. It was daytime and I looked to be at the entrance of some kind of giant cave - uh, probably normal-sized cave.

"Ugh, I still have to get used to my new size now - I guess..." I cursed inwardly, although appreciative of getting another opportunity to right my regrets, annoyed at the fact of what seemingly lackluster tools I had been given as a start.

Going back to that prompt again, I read that specific line about 'blessings' and 'sponsor'. I doubted that me suddenly being transferred across worlds into the body of a... mosquito, had been by mere coincidence, so it made sense that someone had been behind it.

Then now, it stood to question; just who exactly was this sponsor of mine?

But just as I thought that the sudden surprise of another prompt popping into existence within my mind took me off-guard.

[Message from your Sponsor]

[Okay, listen here kid. I spent no small amount of effort and resources in bringing you here. Especially paying for those damnable safe-guarded Soul Forges. For this small world, I've practically offered you heaven's gifts with those two blessings to give you a leg above anyone on this planet, so don't go off dying and wasting all my hard work.]

[Else, I'll personally damn well travel all the way to the lower planes to simply to re-capture your soul, torment it to eternity, rip it apart into quintessence itself, and disperse your conscious in the plane of despair and madness.]

[Ahem - anyway, all I'm asking of you is to climb to the peak of this world and do so spectacularly - alright?]

[The higher you reach before the deadline, the better rewards will lay in wait for you. With these blessings, you'll find yourself in a rapid rise to power with that innate potential of yours, beyond anything that these natives can achieve in such a short time. However, that in no way shape, or form does that mean that you're invincible so don't you dare go off biting off more than you can chew.]

[Else you know... soul obliteration and all...]

For a long stunned moment, the silence stretched.

"Okay..." I hesitated as I read over the dubious and ominous message of this mysterious sponsor of mine.

"Don't die, noted." Nodded with a small bob of my beady head, not particularly interested in finding out what 'soul obliteration' would feel like.

"But what deadline? Hey - you didn't give me any!" I shouted mentally, in hope of maybe getting another of those prompts, but none came.

I let out a mental sigh, having not even the slightest idea of why I, a beyond ordinary young guy, had been apparently kidnapped by this dubious being. The note spoke of 'innate potential' but what the hell was that supposed to mean? There wasn't really anything to speak home to of when it came to me, but for some reason, I had been picked out to be dropped off in another world and then blessed.

No matter how much I thought about it, nothing made sense, so I quickly stopped trying to reason the actions of being clearly beyond my pay-grade.

Returning to what was at hand, it would seem even though my field of vision has now grown to a full 360-degree angle, my vision had actually been severely shortened in return. I could see about three or four meters out before everything started becoming blurred, and it was only movement that seemed to be easily registered further out than that initial range.

"So... what now?" I wondered curiously.

I supposed that I was in a desperate need of information so I went back to my status. But I wondered how I could even get it to appear again? Going through a number of different possibilities, my mind quickly went back to the prompt that had first greeted me.

-Status!- I shouted in my mind and the very next second my wish came true.

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 0 Skills 3

-Race- Glade Mosquito VIT 0 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 2 Titles 0

-Rank- K- DEX 1 Skillpoints 1

-Level- 1/3 INT 12 Resistances

Health 1/1 CHR 0 Physical Resistance 0

Stamina 1/1 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0

Mana 0/0 MAG 0 Mental Resistance 5

Looking over the information again, I realized that quite a few things that didn't make any sense. How the hell could I have zero strength, vitality, and zero in other stats like that? So I simply decided to prompt the system in hopes of getting a response.

-Hey! I'm why do I have zero strength?- I tried calling out in mind.

[You don't have 0 strength]

Immediately after my question, the prompt answered my question to my immense joy, but it confused me at first.

"Huh? How can that be it says on the- oh..." I suddenly realized.

My attributes that say zero on my status probably are less than one but not less or equal to zero. Taking a few seconds to formulate my next question, I then asked the prompts or whatever entity it was that made the prompts another question.

-Who are you?-

[I'm the system]

"Okay... like a video game?" I wondered curiously.

-Can I customize my status?-

[Yes, to a certain extent]

"Since I'm a mosquito, my stats must be ridiculous low, maybe even below that of whole numbers..."

-Can you please display my statistics that are below one and above zero, with two decimals?-

[Status]

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 0.12 Skills 3

-Race- Glade Mosquito VIT 0.09 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 2 Titles 0

-Rank- K- DEX 1 Skillpoints 1

-Level- 1/3 INT 12 Resistances

Health 1/1 CHR 0.05 Physical Resistance 0.02

Stamina 1/1 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0.00

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.02 Mental Resistance 5

"Success! But... t-those are some depressingly low stats. I'm a mosquito after all and I shouldn't have any high expectations I guess, but damn." I sighed mentally.

"Hmmm... My intellect and will are very high compared to every other stat, the reason most likely because my mind being that of a human." I rationalized.

To be sure though, I asked the system.

-System, why is my will and intellect so high compared to my other stats?-

[Because your soul and mind is that of a human]

It was as I thought. Although I had no idea how my intellect that required the size of a human's brain could be crammed into my current diminutive form of a mosquito, I simply wrote it off as magic being magic and began looking over my status once again.

While I could guess what my attributes meant, I still pulled up the information about them to be completely sure.

STR - Strength: Determines the physical power that can be exerted by the body.

VIT - Vitality: Determines health, toughness, the resilience of the body to things like poison, and other aspects.

AGI - Agility: Determines mostly speed and other similar aspects.

DEX - Dexterity: Determines the flexibility, grace, balance that can be performed by the body.

INT - Intellect: Determines not knowledge, but the brain and the mind's ability to process and comprehend information, such as sensory input and thinking.

CHR - Charisma: Governs the individual's ability to affect another individual's mental state and mind in a multitude of ways.

WILL - Will: Determines the individual's mental fortitude and strength.

MAG - Magic Power: Determines not the mana of the individual but rather the body's ability to conduct mana and the power of said mana.

Physical Resistance: Determines the body's ability to defend against physical damage.

Magical Resistance: Determines the body's ability to defend against magical damage.

Mental Resistance: Determines the mind's ability to defend against mental attacks and influence.

Rank: An estimate of the power level of the individual.

After clearing up on those, I pondered my next question.

-How come I don't have a name listed?-

[Monsters do not have a name until an individual of enough power or significance names them or a greater amount of individuals collectively recognize you by a certain alias. To monsters, names hold both small and great significance.]

"Huh, a bit vague, but interesting to say the least." I acknowledged. "Now to my skills."

-Skills!- I shouted in my mind fervently.

....

Nothing happened.

Feeling rather embarrassed for no apparent reason, I made a mental cough to clear my mind.

-Umm skill list?- Immediately after that though, a list popped up.

Skill list

Name Type LVL

-Flight- Transport 1

Enhanced speed and maneuverability

-Puncture- Attack 1

Increased penetration

-Smell- Sensory 1

Enhanced smell capabilities

"Hmm, nothing amazing, next to the traits."

-Trait list!-

Traits

Name

-Siphon-

A natural ability of monster-type mosquitoes. Consuming blood provides the user with EXP and attribute increases.

-Skill shop- NEW

A unique trait that provides the user with skill points at each level and allows the user to use the system to open a shop, where they can purchase skills with said skill points.

-Limit breaker- NEW

A unique trait that allows the user to be unhindered by the limitations of levels, evolutions, and skills.

"Uhhh..." I droned off.

While I had no reference point to any of these traits, each one seemed powerful or just extremely useful.

Without any accidents of me getting myself blown by a gust of wind and dying a depressing death of insect paste due to my puny one point of health;

I think I might just reach the peak of what this world had to offer...

Chapter 2: [Day 1] – “Taking Flight”

Sorting out my thoughts and steeling my nerves, I start taking full stock of my new but diminutive body, casting away the worries of what my sponsor's word might entail for my future.

Even though I had a 360-degree field of vision, I was still unable to view my entire body. But from what I could see, my body was indeed that of a seemingly ordinary, but larger-than-normal mosquito.

I have a head, thorax, and abdomen. On the sides of my thorax, six spindly legs protruded, two of them I would call my front legs and the other four my hind legs due to their placement being close to each other on the bottom half of my thorax.

On my back were two long transparent wings that ran down the length of both my thorax and abdomen. Reflexively I tried to unfold them, and it was to my pleasant surprise of how easily I was already able to control all of my body parts.

And lastly, what made a mosquito a mosquito, a long needle-like appendage that extended from my face. But I wasn't even sure what the proper name for it was. I think it was called a proboscis, but can't really remember such passing information.

Rousing a thought with that, I tried something.

-System, What is the needle-like appendage of a mosquito called?-

[I cannot answer that question.]

It seemed that the system probably wouldn't answer questions that do not relate to the system itself, so I simply decided to relegate it to needle or proboscis. And no I don't want to think about bad jokes about my 'needle'...

Done taking stock, and making fun of myself, I readied my mind for what I was going to do next.

Mentally prepared after a long tense moment, I started my countdown.

"One... Two... THREE....."

"Oh-OH Aaaahhh"

"Holy shit, holy fuck - I'm actually flying, this feels a lot better than I thought I wou-"

*THUNK*

My train of thought was abruptly cut off as I rather unceremoniously rammed directly into the stone surface of one of the cave walls.

Quickly looking around, as if to check if anybody happened to see my rather pathetic display of aerial performance, I got back on all six of my thin legs and checked my status.

-S-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 0.12 Skills 3

-Race- Glade Mosquito VIT 0.09 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 2 Titles 0

-Rank- K- DEX 1 Skillpoints 1

-Level- 1/3 INT 12 Resistances

Health 1/1 CHR 0.05 Physical Resistance 0.02

Stamina 1/1 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0.00

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.02 Mental Resistance 5

"Phew..." I let out a breath of relief mentally.

My health thankfully hadn't seemed to be affected by my recent embarrassing failure. Recentering myself once again, I took another few minutes to extend and flex all of my limbs and appendages, making sure I had everything under control.

This time though, instead of jumping forward with momentum to take flight, I began rapidly flapping my long and semi-transparent wings.

And before I knew it, I had taken air yet again, this time around with much more stability than before. I made a few rounds flying at the edge of the cave mouth, trying to adapt to the new and wonderous feeling of flying.

It truly was an alien experience to fly. Luckily it seemed that some instinctual knowledge helped me along the way, thankful by the fact I needn't learn flying from the ground up, but I quickly noticed that accompanied by my flight was the slight humming produced by my wings flapping which I duly noted at the back of my mind as something I should probably keep in mind.

On to my next agenda, I had to scout my surroundings, preferably without getting myself killed by whatever this world had in store for me. And secondly, then get me some food and experience or whatever this world's equivalent was, but mostly because I already felt ravenous.

Flying cautiously out of the cavemouth, I began cautiously venturing out. The first thing I noticed around me was the absolutely stunning beauty of the completely alien flora and fauna that colored everything in a wonderous collection of colors and shapes. If I were to describe my surroundings I would say it would be something between a forest, swamp, and glade, but simply all seemed too fantastical and alien to be Earth.

All around me were splotches of luscious green, small and big, plants of all sizes and shapes. Some individual plants also had wildly different colors that screamed in contrast to the rest of the forest- uh, swamp? Urgh, I'll just call it a glade, since it makes sense with my race.

I made sure to steer clear of all the brightly colored plants that I had no idea was just to be sure I wasn't getting myself killed by some venus flytrap or some other carnivorous plants.

Sticking a ten-out-of-ten landing, in my own narcissistic opinion, on a branch I took a break from flying to survey for potential prey - and potential predators.

"Oh wait, didn't I have a skill point that I hadn't used?" I suddenly remembered, curious as to what exactly could be bought with it.

-Skill shop!- I shouted mentally.

Skill shop

Search >

Skills

Name Type Cost Requirement

"Hmm, it appears that I have to search for skills myself. So what do I need right now?" I pondered, rubbing my chin with a spindly leg thoughtfully. Wait did I have a chin? Urgh, nevermind.

Currently, I was a mosquito, a Glade mosquito to be exact. Which was a slightly larger-than-ordinary mosquito to Earth standards from what I gathered. I had only a measly one point of health, so probably any accident with me getting hit by pretty much anything would spell instant death and soul obliteration for me.

Combat skills at this point didn't provide me with anything worthwhile. Due to my trait Limit Breaker, I already knew that I would be able to evolve at some point or another. Meaning I most likely will grow bigger and more powerful, but only if I managed not to die before I became sufficiently strong.

The one thing I was severely in lack of, was information. I knew barely anything about this world and its inhabitants, and my place in it with the threat of my sponsor hanging over me. So a skill that could provide me reconnaissance or information about pretty anything will be a massive boon, even though if I had to forego a potential defensive tool.

I'd much rather avoid danger instead of trying to defend against it right now.

-Skill shop, reconnaissance!-

Skill shop

Search > Reconnaissance

Skills

Name Type Cost Requirement

Scouting Information 5 INT - 9

Basic level of reconnaissance. Allows you to better scout and log the information of the user's surroundings.

Mana buffering Information 15 INT - 30 / MAG - 25 / Mana 10 / Any Core

Buffers up mana within your mana source to release pulses of thin mana waves, to echo-locate the surroundings.

Infrared vision Sensory 5 VIT - 1 / DEX - 1

Develops infrared vision to see heat signatures, allowing you to switch between infrared vision and normal vision.

"Huh..." I thought intelligently.

This was very interesting, especially the Mana Buffering skill which seemed seriously useful. Being able to seemingly create a picture of your surroundings with mana could be extremely handy, allowing oneself to avoid enemies and find opportunities by simply creating a mental map of your area. But it was so damn expensive, and the requirements were crazy high for the current me - not to mention that 'core' requirement, whatever that meant exactly.

"Hmm, what else is there? Oh! Isn't Appraise or Appraisal is like a stable for any game-like system? Let me try that." I suddenly remembered.

If I could gauge an enemies' strength and information or an object's properties from a distance, they would do massively for my deciding of which creatures to prey upon, helping my current predicament of being in wholly unknown waters.

-Skill shop, appraisal!-

Skill shop

Search > Appraisal

Skills

Name Type Cost Requirement

Appraisal Information 10 INT - 8

You can appraise a living target to create a profile on the creature. The amount of information is determined by the skill level of the user and the difference in power between the user and target.

"Boo-ya!" I exclaimed internally until I read the skill's cost.

That was seriously a hefty price, and I only had one skill point. I would have to acquire a whole nine more levels to be able to purchase this skill.

But now that I thought about it, Appraisal was kind of a cheat skill. While for me it would be very handy, having information about your opponents by just activating a skill would quite a powerful advantage later on, and I doubted that this kind of skill was readily available to just anybody.

But then again, the trait Skill Shop was something I was given to rocket beyond my peers, so coming by skills might not be that easy for everyone while I have the advantage of, although limited, being able to select specific skills.

"Hmm, I got it! Lemme try this instead."

-Skill shop, profiling!-

Skill shop

Search > Profiling

Skills

Name Type Cost Requirement

Mana scan Information 3 INT - 10 / MAG - 5 / Mana - 1 / Any Core

Uses mana to send out pulses, and slowly analyze a target's information. The amount and speed of the analysis is tied directly to the amount of mana spent, skill level, and the difference in power between the skill user and target.

Blood profiling Information 1 INT - 8

Consumes the blood of biological creatures to create a profile on the target. The amount of information is directly tied to the amount of blood, skill level, and the difference in power between the skill user and target. (Can only be used on biological organisms)

Archiving Information 4 INT - 10

By studying the target over a period of time will slowly form a profile on the target. The amount and speed of the profiling are directly tied to the amount of time spent, skill level, and the difference in power between the skill user and target.

"There we go..."

There was something I could finally use. The Blood Profiling seemed perfect for me since I was a mosquito. But the low cost of the skill and requirement was probably tied to the fact that I had to consume the blood of the intended target, which would undoubtedly be quite a bit harder and quarrelsome than what the other skills entailed.

But as a mosquito, that's no problem for me! And besides, I would very much like to know about the things I would be eating, to ensure my safety even more. But just to be sure, I went through a number of different keywords to search for anything that might be better.

Unfortunately, I didn't find anything in the range of a single point that would increase the chances of my survival, and although there was a wide variety of skills to choose from, they seemed quite limited. Maybe that would change in the future as I grew stronger, but I couldn't be entirely certain.

But even though this skill might not provide me with much, any information was vital in my current situation. Plus, literally anything could kill me, and any of these few defensive skills with the cost of one skill point, which was only three in total, simply wouldn't change my survivability. I mean, a slightly sturdier mosquito wasn't any better than the baseline.

But if I were to be able to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of whatever I was eating, I would be able to see where I fit into this world at my current level of power.

The more information I had, the surer I could be of my footing.

And as such, I bought the skill.

-Blood Profiling!-

[Skill - Blood Profiling, has been added to the skill list!]

Now I simply had to find some prey, so I decided to stay on the branch for a while in an attempt to try and scout out my possibilities. It was about though minutes later that something happened which immediately caught my attention.

Some thick underbrush right beneath me was rustling, so I started to fervently observe the disturbance with my beady eyes. Only two minutes later, an inconspicuous rabbit hopped out. Well, inconspicuous other than the pointy horn protruding straight out from its forehead.

"Is that a fucking... unicorn rabbit?" I thought to myself, quite bewildered.

"Huh, interesting creature..."

After jumping out of the foliage it simply halted, starting to chomp down on a particularly lush and moist patch of grass.

Seeing this I immediately perked up.

"This is my chance!"

Taking to air from my impromptu resting point, I started slowly making my approach on the unsuspecting rabbit. Luckily it didn't notice me at all, or simply didn't give a rat's ass about me if it did.

Landing on the thin sheet of fur on its back, I steadied myself to make sure no funny business went on while I indulge in my first meal of this world. Standing on the back of the rabbit, I could feel my instincts kick in and I knew immediately how I was supposed to approach this situation.

Before I knew it, my proboscis had penetrated the rabbit's skin, and a warm feeling started flowing into my body. I realized I was unable to taste the blood as I maybe didn't have tastebuds, but I guessed that was probably for the better. I doubted I would enjoy tasting the blood of all the creatures I was going to be drinking off so it didn't bother me really.

Suddenly an errant thought managed to find its way into my head about mosquitoes.

I wasn't an expert on mosquito biology, but I think I heard about the fact that it was primarily just females that drank the blood of living creatures when pregnant, foregoing the safer alternatives of plant nectar for better nutrients.

But seeing that I was neither pregnant nor female, such things probably didn't relate to fantastical and magical beings. But taking into account that males should still be very much capable of doing so but rather only went after the nectar of flowers on their own volition, I saw no reason why sapient mosquito with the mind of a human couldn't. Besides, I had the trait Siphon that revolved around the blood of creatures, so I simply put the thought away and continued to drink away.

After thirty seconds I felt completely stuffed, so I retracted my needle appendage.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Horned Rabbit]

[2 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Blood Profiling has created a profile of "Horned Rabbit"]

"Well, that seems good I guess."

Now I just needed to get back to my resting spot on the branch to try and digest some of this blood. So checking that everything was in order, and noticing that my abdomen had swollen quite a bit, I took flight.

This time around I could feel that there was a lot more strain put on my wings, most likely because of my increased weight of the blood weighing down my body. Sluggishly, I flew back to the branch and landed unceremoniously.

"Now to so see the rewards for my exploits."

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 0.12 ⇒ 0.15 Skills 4

-Race- Glade Mosquito VIT 0.09 ⇒ 0.15 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 2 Titles 0

-Rank- K- DEX 1 Skillpoints 0

-Level- 1/3 INT 12 Resistances

Health 1/1 CHR 0.05 Physical Resistance 0.02

Stamina 1/1 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0.00

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.02 Mental Resistance 5

I guessed that my stats had probably increased in the direction of the horned rabbit's own stat allocation from looking at my status, although I couldn't be certain.

It wasn't much but it was a start. Before I could do anything else though, I all of a sudden started feeling weary once again, slowly feeling the sensation of my mind slipping away, into a deep sleep.

"I better not wake up in another world again, you hear me!" Was the last thought that escaped just before darkness claimed me.

Chapter 3: [Day 2] – “Shadow”

Returning to consciousness I jolt up. Two thin and spindly legs stretched out before me to support me.

-Ah...

Okay, I'm still a mosquito and nothing happened while I was asleep.

Looking all around me, I noticed that it looked to be nighttime currently, but to me but there was barely any difference. Well, I could definitely perceive it was nighttime compared to the glow of daytime light, but luckily my sight was relatively unaffected by the change.

I didn't know for how exactly long I've slept since I couldn't really make out how dark it was coupled with being unable to accurately pinpoint the position moon due to the rather annoying limitations of my sight. But besides, I wasn't even sure if the planet follows a 24-hours cycle, so I could only try and estimate.

Shaking the sleepiness out, I scouted around for any changes or points of interest in my vicinity from the branch. The horned rabbit was no longer at the patch of gra- Wait!

Just a few meters to the side of the patch of grass where I had previously shared a dinner with the cute rabbit, was a lump of something looking quite a lot like a ball of fur over by the foliage. It seemed that the horned rabbit had also gone to sleep, so it must've not have been too long that I've been asleep.

Feeling that I had surprisingly already digested pretty much all of the blood I had procured, I took off from the branch without any further ado and began flying towards the lump of fur in hopes of another easy meal.

Immediately after taking off, I noticed now after that I've lost the additional weight, that flying is a lot easier and the strength given off by my wings had become more potent. I simply assumed it must be the increase in stats from siphon; before I just couldn't feel it that well because of the encumberment of the blood.

Yup, this siphon trait is pretty damn good.

Making my way down to the lump of fur, I promptly made a swift landing and began to go to town on the innocent creature. This time I took almost a full 40 seconds to fill myself, probably since I had also grown a bit larger as my stats had risen in tandem. After finishing drinking my fill a prompt gave me a most welcome piece of information.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a horned rabbit]

[3 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulations! You've reached level 2]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 2]

Hell yeah! Now to rest up a b-

Before I could even finish my mental sentence I was promptly cut off as my mind jolted and my world turned upside down. Tumbling through the air I tried desperately to right myself in the air, but with the added weight of the blood in my abdomen, it was quite a bit harder.

But with a sudden burst of natural instinct, my body managed to right itself mid-air. Slowly recovering my senses I looked fervently around with panic in my chest, uh-thorax I mean? A few seconds later I finally figured out what the hell had happened. Only a few meters away, stood a big pitch-black feline cat with a horned rabbit dangling in its mouth; seemingly dead.

It would seem that while I was feeding, I had almost died due to carelessness. A shiver went through my body, I almost forgot how easy it would be for me to simply die before could even notice or realize I had been in danger. Studying the black feline a bit more as it was munching on the rabbit, I noticed something weird about this panther looking feline.

It looked almost as if it's whole body was exuding darkness and shadow, obscuring it. If I didn't already know that it was there, I'm pretty I wouldn't even have been able to spot it, even though it isn't even actively hiding.

-Scary...

For a very brief moment of opportunistic greed, I actually thought about stealing some of its blood while it was eating. Since it must be a very powerful creature it must give quite the bonus to stats. But I quickly shook that thought from my head. Not only have I not finished digesting the horned rabbit's blood, but it's also all too risky for my liking.

Or for now at least...

Getting back to my perch on the branch, I rubbed my small spindly legs together in anticipation to see what has changed on my status.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 0.15 ⇒ 0.21 Skills 4

-Race- Glade Mosquito VIT 0.15 ⇒ 0.26 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 2 Titles 0

-Rank- K- DEX 1 Skillpoints 0 ⇒ 1

-Level- 2/3 INT 12 Resistances

Health 1/1 CHR 0.05 ⇒ 0.06 Physical Resistance 0.025 ⇒ 0.035

Stamina 1/1 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0.004 ⇒ 0.006

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.02 ⇒ 0.03 Mental Resistance 5

Hmm, not an enormous change but for my small frame, it's quite a bit. It would seem that leveling also gives me a bit of stat increase, with some further leveling and use of my siphon trait I should be able to become stronger relatively fast - or fast for a mosquito at least.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot that I had just gotten a skill point for reaching level 2, but to be fair it was mostly because of how rudely I was interrupted while eating that rabbit. Stupid thieving cat...

Now, what do I need?

Spending a few minutes I mulled over different ideas and possibilities. I knew I still couldn't make use of any combat-oriented skills at the moment. I could save up this point and wait for something better than a 1-cost skill, but currently, I was severely in need of something that can ensure my survival - however little.

Thinking about various skills that might have a solution for my current dilemma, my mind suddenly wandered back the black feline and remembered about how well it was at hiding.

Hah! I know what I need - stealth!. Yeah sure I might be small right now, and must creatures won't be able to notice me. But right now I don't have the slightest clue of what the animals in this world can do, not to mention all the different kinds of them that I've never even seen. I'd rather find out there exists frogs or other mosquito-eating-critters before they find me...

I already can deduce that there is quite a lot of birds in this glade, due to the consistent bird chirps from when I first woke up in that cave mouth. Accidentally flying past some kind of frog or similar creature, without me noticing it first might just spell death for me. Me discovering the creatures of this world before they discover me would be my biggest advantage in my current diminutive form.

With that in mind, I quickly pulled up the skill shop and searched for some stealth skills.

Skill shop

Search > Stealth

Skills

Name Type Cost Requirement

Stealth Defensive 25 AGI - 50 / DEX - 70 / INT - 30

A skill that allows the user to completely hide their presence and form. Any creature will have trouble finding the user even if the user was standing in front of them, especially if their power is lower than that of the skill user or if they lack any skills to countermeasure the user.

Obscure presence Defensive 10 AGI - 10 / DEX - 20 / INT - 15 / MAG - 10 / Mana - 3

Allows the user to use mana to more effectively hide their presence.

Obscure form Defensive 5 AGI - 10 / DEX - 20 / INT - 10 /MAG - 5 / Mana - 2

Allows the user to use mana to more effectively hide their form.

Hiding Defensive 1 None

The basic level of hiding makes it harder for creatures to notice your presence and form.

For a moment I was completely baffled at the price for stealth, but as I read the description of the skill and then thought about the implications this skill would have for the user I settled down. Stealth was an extremely powerful skill and I already knew that you can level up skills. If I'm not wrong I could possibly even evolve or advance them at a certain point. So with that in mind, I could see why stealth would cost so much.

But to be sure I still asked the system.

-System, can I advance or evolve my skills, and if so when?-

[Yes, most skills can be upgraded, advance, and modified when reaching a certain milestone in said skill. Skills at some point might also be able to turn into other skills]

I see. So if I leveled the hiding skill to a sufficiently high enough level, or advance it enough I might even be able to turn it into the stealth skill without even having to purchase the skill for full price!

I then continued on to read the next 3 skills and their corresponding descriptions. After reading them all I obviously knew which one to pick, so I picked the hiding skill.

-Hiding!-

[Skill - Hiding LVL: 1, has been added to the skill list!]

About an hour later I had surprisingly already digested all the blood again. I don't know if it is because I'm a "monster-type" mosquito or because of my skill, but my rate of digesting blood is abnormally high compared to anything from back home on Earth. Now free from encumberment I decided to go hunt, I couldn't wait to hit level three. Although I wasn't sure but due to my status saying 2/3 on my level, most likely meant that once I hit level three I can evolve into something better.

Man, it would seriously suck ass if I was put on this world simply to live out my years as a fucking mosquito - wait how long are their lifespans even? A week? A month? Fuck I need to get moving...

Flying for about half an hour, I didn't see any animals besides some, particularly dangerous-looking frogs by a puddle, which I steered well away from. I wasn't exactly all that enthusiastic about dying the belly of a frog. All of a sudden, I started to smell something that was oddly enticing, and I couldn't help but head straight in a beeline towards the scent.

It took me only about a minute or two of flying before I found the source of the smell. Upon seeing the source of the smell I was slightly stunned. It was another horned rabbit, but this one was at least three times as big as the previous one. It was sleeping, so I slowly approached it after scouting out the situation and promptly landed on the nape of its neck.

Not seeing any disturbances from my presence in the big animal other than the slight movements of its body as it breathed at a steady pace, I made quick lunch of its blood. It was a minute later that I had finished stuffing myself and was rewarded with a prompt that I was oh-so-hoping for.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of an (Alpha) Horned Rabbit]

[11 points of EXP had been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulations! You've reached level 3]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 3]

[You're currently at the level threshold, you can choose an evolution path!]

[Blood Profiling has reached LVL: 2!]

[Blood Profiling has advanced the profile of "Horned Rabbit"]

[Puncture has reached LVL: 2!]

Holy shit, that's a lot to take in at once. But hell yeah! I can evolve!

Dislodging myself from the alpha horned rabbit I quickly found my way to a safe-looking branch. But on the way to the branch, I was surprised with yet another skill level up, which was more than welcome.

[Flight has reached LVL: 2!]

For the last stretch of the distance to the branch, I felt a noticeable difference in the ease and speed of my flight, which was a clear indication of the skill's improvement. Landing on the branch in giddy excitement, I opened up the possible evolutions.

-Evolutions!-

Available evolution paths

Name Rank Primary ATTR. Req. Description

Lesser Sanguinite K AGI, DEX Bloodsucker race A larger than average mosquito that is usually feared by human peasants due to their tendencies of nesting close to human villages and causing infestations. If they evolve once again they become abnormally big for a mosquito another reason why they're feared by peasants.

Jubokko Seedling K- STR, VIT, DEX Bloodsucker race A Jubokko seedling is the earliest evolution of the Jubokko, a living tree the feeds upon the living to sustain itself. A Jubokko seedling will seed itself in the ground where it will then feed upon unsuspecting critters to nourish itself.

Not many choices, but they were interesting, to say the least. The Jubokko seedling seems like it probably will become quite powerful once it evolves into a real Jubokko. But I had a sneaking suspicion that that evolution path will a hell of a long time, and I wasn't particularly excited to spend the next few years in the ground hoping something delicious will hop by - or some too big wouldn't stomp on me...

So Lesser Sanguinite it is.

-Lesser Sanguinite!- I shouted mentally.

...

Nothing happened

-Lesser Sanguinite!!!- Again... nothing happened.

Am I doing this wrong or wh-

(SNAP)

I was interrupted as a surge of mindboggling pain flared and reverberated throughout my tiny body accompanied by the distinct sound of something snapping. I hurriedly looked around in a panic, thinking something might've attacked me. But nothing was around me, looking down at were waves of radiant pain flared out from I saw that my right front leg had snapped and it looked like it bubbling from the inside.

Realizing that this was probably my evolution beginning, sweet relief flooded my mind, only to be immediately replaced with a creeping dread.

-Ah, fuck this is going to hurt like a motherfucker, isn't it?

Chapter 4: [Day 2] – “Growth”

[Evolution completed]

[Race changed to Lesser Sanguinite!]

[You've acquired two new skills!]

[Skill - Heat Sensitive, has been added to the skill list]

[Skill - Muffled Flying, has been added to the skill list]

Oh god why, why me what did I ever do to yo-

-Oh, it stopped...

T-that... was not fun, to say the least.

For a full minute or two, it had felt like my insides, were on the outside. Yeah, you can probably guess that it was no pleasant experience... Anyways, I shook the last vestiges of pain from my mind and allowed excitement to once again flush my body of the anticipation of how much I'd grown.

Right off the bat, I noticed that I was significantly larger. Before I would've guessed that my approximate size was about that of a rather large mosquito back on earth. Around a 2cm (0.8 inches) in length from head to abdomen. But now I was about a whopping 10cm (4 inches) in length.

Thinking about mosquitoes that size, if I was back on Earth and saw a swarm of mosquitoes each one of such a size, I would probably be shitting bricks by the tons.

It was probably a good idea to buy that hiding skill if I was going to keep growing bigger. With the rate I was going at now, that would be sooner than later. My small size was soon going to stop being an advantage, and it would be a lot harder to feed without being noticed by my prey.

Now, onto my status!

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 0.21 ⇒ 0.50 Skills 4 ⇒ 7

-Race- Lesser Sanguinite VIT 0.26 ⇒ 0.70 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 2 ⇒ 4 Titles 0

-Rank- K DEX 1 ⇒ 2 Skillpoints 0 ⇒ 1

-Level- 1/10 INT 12 Resistances

Health 3/3 CHR 0.06 ⇒ 0.10 Physical Resistance 0.035 ⇒ 0.102

Stamina 4/4 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0.006 ⇒ 0.010

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.02 ⇒ 0.05 Mental Resistance 5

It didn't seem like much, but for me, it was quite an improvement. With my beady eyes glistening in joy, I looked onto my health.

Yay! I have more than 1 health now, maybe now I take on two gusts of wind now. Come at me, Zeus!

Yeah, I know. I still had a long way to before I could even dream of fighting anybody. The life of a mosquito was really quite depressing when literally anything could kill you but you're still a predator.

Mother nature you're one evil bitch!

Anyway, now to my new skills, I just got two new skills and I hadn't even checked it since I first woke up in this world.

-Skill list!-

Skill list

Name Type LVL

Blood Profiling Information 1 ⇒ 2

Consumes the blood of biological creatures to create a profile on the creature.

Flight Transport 1 ⇒ 2

Enhanced speed and maneuverability

Heat Sensitive - NEW Sensory 1

Allows the user to better detect heat sources

Hiding - NEW Defensive 1

The basic level of hiding makes it harder for creatures to notice your presence and form.

Muffled Flying - NEW Defensive 1

Reduces the sound produced by flight

Puncture Attack 1 ⇒ 2

Increased penetration

Smell Sensory 1

Enhanced smell capabilities

These new skills seemed rather useful. Heat Sensitive would allow me to more easily spot prey and danger. Muffled Flying should help me cover the sound produced when I flew through the air, so as to not alert others of my presence.

Done inspecting the new me, I prepared to set off. However, right before I took flight, I noticed the sheer power produced by my wings had now increased many times from that of my previous evolution.

I could feel the growth in my power, however minuscule and inconsequential. But it was an almost intoxicating feeling of success, growth, and power. Those things that I had never experienced back on Earth.

At that moment, all the possibilities that this world offered suddenly became clear, and I couldn't help myself as a mental smile of anticipation for what the future had in store for me.

Taking flight I was slightly shocked by the sound produced by my wings now. It was a lot louder now, even though I had just acquired the Muffled Flying skill.

Severely worried that I might not be able to feed on anybody without noticing now, I started thinking about how I could become more stealthy as soon as possible.

Hmm, I guess I just need to grind my skills. So I'll have to level-up my Muffled Flying skill but am I supposed to go about it?

The skill allows me to fly unnoticed by other creatures, so I supposed that I had to fly close to another creature and try not to be noticed. I mulled over my thoughts for a bit. Finishing the plan on how to approach grinding the Muffled Flying skill, I took off in search of prey worthy of me grinding my skills on.

Only 20 minutes later, my first customer arrived in my sight. An unsuspecting horned rabbit was lazily nibbling on a patch of grass, wholly unaware of my plans to use it for my rise to power! Well, anybody strong had to start somewhere...

Baby steps Micheal, baby steps...

Slowly approaching the rabbit I began to fly about and tried not to cause too much noise while still being in the vicinity of it. But before I knew it, I got a notification. Although, not the one I had been expecting.

[Hiding has reached LVL: 2]

But even though my goal was to level-up my Muffled flying skill, I suddenly noticed as I got the level-up that the sound produced by my wings were slightly reduced.

Oh, it seems that my Hiding skill also masks my sound to make me less noticeable. Good to know...

Less than two minutes later I got the level-up I was looking for.

[Muffled Flying has reached LVL: 2]

With the prompt fading from sight, I could immediately hear a clear difference in the volume of sound being produced from my rapidly flapping wings.

And that! I believe deserves a victory snack.

I trained my gaze on the still, oh-so innocent dumb little rabbit. Snack time! Landing on its back, I promptly stuck my needle-appendage into its skin. Without any further ado, I went to town and began slurping the small creature's life blood.

It was only about two minutes later that I was almost at bursting point by how much I've drunk. To finish off my meal, I took one last furious swig of the rabbit's blood, but that was when something wholly unexpected happened.

[Horned Rabbit takes 1 damage!]

Oh, that can't be good...

Just before I could finish that thought I was almost thrown directly off the rabbit's back as it suddenly bucked and turned around to let out a squeak of furious intensity.

Sitting on its back, completely frozen in shock, was I. Praying to whoever would listen, I wished that the rabbit wouldn't find the perpetrator (me) who so audaciously dared to offend this little furry and innocent animal.

A few more squeaks ensued the next few moments. But without finding any quarry to blame as the guilty one, the rabbit slowly returned to nibbling on the patch of grass, almost as if nothing had even happened.

I let a few minutes go by in muted silence, only broken by the small crunches of the rabbit munching on grass, before I slowly dislodged myself and tríed to take off as silently as possible.

I got a meter or two away before feeling an icy chill of danger run through my body. In my 360-degree field of view, I saw the little lump of fur had turned around at was staring straight at me with a piercing gaze and furious indignation in its eyes.

Immediately making a maneuver that would put even the best fighter pilots to shame (might've skimped on the details a bit) I managed to dodge the lightning-fast lunge of the rabbit who was trying to take a bite out of -ALL OF ME!

Sluggishly flying due to the heavyweight of my blood-filled abdomen, I flew higher and higher to avoid another lunge from the menacing furball.

Now some meters above the trees covering the glades, I desperately tried to get my chaotic emotions back in order. But I didn't have to try for long, as soon as I caught sight of what laid splayed out before my eyes I became almost immediately calmed; panic replaced by awe.

After the evolution, my eyes' field of vision range had increased by quite a lot and I could now see about twenty to thirty meters out before everything started to blur again.

But before me, was a sight that could only be described as beautiful. It had become morning and the sun laid on the horizon lighting up the glades flora and fauna, in all its wonderful glory.

All around me was an explosion of sounds, as the wildlife woke up and chirping birds who flew above.

...

B-birds?!

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.

Get me the hell back down into the trees!

I had forgotten the fact that I was a motherfucking mosquito AKA, "bird snack". Darting back into the cover of the trees I almost splatted myself on the branch I sought as a refuge from this, although beautiful, unforgiving and dangerous world.

Calming my nerves, I spend a whole five minutes to fully gather myself.

Oooookay - That was a bit of a rollercoaster...

Slumping on the tree branch I pulled up a prompt that I had dismissed as fled for small little life.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Horned Rabbit]

[28 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulations! You've reached level 2]

[Congratulations! You've reached level 3]

[You've been rewarded with 2 skill points for reach levels 2 and 3]

[Blood Profiling has reached LVL: 3]

[Blood Profiling has advanced the profile of "Horned Rabbit"]

Damn, that's a good harvest.

Oh, yeah! I almost forgot I haven't even looked at the profile of the horned rabbits I've drunk from.

-Profile, Horned Rabbit!- I shouted mentally hoping that command would work.

Profile: Horned Rabbit

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 3 Skills ???

-Race- Horned rabbit VIT 5 Traits ???

-Sex- Male, Female AGI ??? Titles ???

-Rank- I- DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- 0/15 INT ???

Health 22/22 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ???

Stamina 11/11 WILL ??? Magical Resistance ???

Mana 0/0 MAG ??? Mental Resistance ???

Hmm, it would seem that the profile collects the information from the animals of the same race and then compiles and makes an average of sorts for the creature's I've blood profiled.

Damn, these lumps of fur are an entire rank above me in power.

Note to myself, "Don't drink so fast that you damage whoever is your lunch, or become lunch yourself".

But anyway, holy shit! That's a lot of EXP from just a normal horned rabbit.

I knew that my new size and that the amount of blood I could store in my abdomen had greatly increased. But this was still quite a lot, maybe it had something to do with me being able to draw out more my trait's potential "Siphon" after my evolution?

Something else I noticed was what the amount of EXP that used to easily take me all the way level 3 this time only got me to level 2, even though the amount this time was almost double.

With that, I could at least confirm that now after evolutions each level required even more EXP. Although, this was something I had already been suspecting. Feeling rather dreary from everything, I took one glance at my status before allowing myself to fall into a deep and dreamless sleep.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 0.50 ⇒ 0.65 Skills 7

-Race- Lesser Sanguinite VIT 0.70 ⇒ 1 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 4 ⇒ 5 Titles 0

-Rank- K DEX 2 ⇒ 3 Skillpoints 1 ⇒ 3

-Level- 3/10 INT 12 Resistances

Health 5/5 CHR 0.10 ⇒ 0.15 Physical Resistance 0.102 ⇒ 0.128

Stamina 4/4 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0.010 ⇒ 0.015

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.05 ⇒ 0.07 Mental Resistance 5

Chapter 5: [Day 2] – “Prey”

After once again returning to awareness. I started looking around to survey my surroundings in an attempt to spot any possible opportunity or danger that might have arisen during my slumber.

From my immediate scan, there doesn't seem to be anything of note. I fluttered my wings and gave a silent recognition of my recent size increase. It would seem that each level gives me a substantial increase in the size of this new evolution. From about 10cm in length, I've grown another 2cm because of the stat increase from both leveling and Siphon.

Feeling the heat from the sun warming my body, I drew my attention upwards towards the sky. The sun here in this world is quite bri- wait, that's not a sun.

Those are twin suns...

Now that the suns were high in the sky, I could somewhat differentiate the two suns from each other.

Interesting... I know from back on earth that solar systems exist with multiple suns, so I suppose it's not that crazy.

Beginning to feel rather hungry I set my mind on other things, such as hunting. For the last few times I've fed, I had only done so on horned rabbits. This was mostly because they were really the only animals I've seen that are not frogs and other critters, which are too small for me to go unnoticed if I were to feed on them.

And now with my recent size increases, and the last incident with the horned rabbit, I should probably move onto bigger creatures if I can find any that is. Other than that, only if I find another alpha horned rabbit I could consider it, else I probably won't be feeding on them anymore. To my pleasant surprise, almost immediately after I set off I got a pleasant notification.

[Flight has reached LVL: 3]

Flying with a bit more ease than before, I began slowly traversing through the thicket of the glades, doing my best not to be spotted by any snack hungry animals. On my way, I spot quite a few horned rabbits, making me wonder why there are so many in the area compared to other creatures.

When I thought about it, this area was probably under the territory of a minor herd of these horned rabbits with the alpha as the leader if I were to guess.

Mulling over my thoughts I barely even noticed the slight shift in the vegetation of the glades. Over the next few minutes of flying, everything started to become much more humid, and the vegetation started to look more and more like that of a damp swamp.

A series of baritone grunts alerted me to the presence of something sounding quite large. Almost as soon as I heard those grunts, a strong odor also assaulted my senses.

It was quite a musky smell, and I could somehow slightly tell that the odor was from more than one of the same animal. As soon as I realized that fact, I surprisingly got a notification.

[Smell has reached LVL: 3]

I dismissed the notification as the ones responsible for it enters my vision. For a moment I was a bit stunned. Before me, stood seven giant buffalo-looking animals. But what separated them from being actual buffalos was the fact they had not four but six legs.

On each side were three massively muscled legs lined up. Other than that they also had a wide frame, with a comically wide head. What was not funny though, was the two giant horns protruding on each side of their heads. The horns looked deadly sharp and seeing as they were facing directly forward, they were obviously meant for killing.

The seven buffalo-looking beasts were just milling about, standing knee-deep in the murky swamp water out in a clearing with the treeline encircling it. The more I looked at these giant beasts, the more they seemed like the perfect living lunch boxes for me. Getting excited, I started to fly towards the closest one.

Coming in closer, I noticed a lot of different insects, such as big flies flying about the massive creatures. But I just ignored them as I didn't see any danger posed by them. Landing on the hulking beast's back, I prepared myself for some quality eating.

Stabbing the giant beast I was a bit stunned as I was almost stopped dead in my tracks before I even managed to get my needle-appendage halfway through the skin. It seemed that the beast had some really tough hide, so it took me about twenty full seconds before I could get the rest of the length in.

However, as soon as I started drinking I immediately noticed just how much thicker its blood was compared to that of the horned rabbits, which made me actually exert a no small amount of effort.

Taking an extra long amount of time to fill myself completely, about two or three minutes go by. Almost feeling like being in a drunken state at the end, I slowly tried to wiggle my needle-appendage out of the beast's thick skin. It took me a little work but I managed to get it free, only to be greeted by quite the notification.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Swamp Stowler]

[86 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 4]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 5]

[You've been rewarded with 2 skill points for reaching levels 4 and 5]

[Puncture has reached LVL: 3]

[Blood Profiling has created the profile of "Swamp Stowler"]

Holy crap! These massive chunks of flesh are like gold mines!

Giddy about the raw amount of EXP I had gotten, I prepared myself to take off for a spot where I could digest the blood.

But as I lifted off, I almost immediately crashed due to the sheer amount of weight that my abdomen had taken on. It would appear that I had severely underestimated how heavy the blood of the swamp stowler truly was.

Barely righting myself midair before it got bad, I very slowly flew towards the nearest safe-looking branch. But about halfway from there, I get a surprising, but oh-so-welcome prompt.

[Flight has reached LVL: 4]

It would seem that flying with increased weight helped in the progress of leveling my flight skill.

Good to know...

Landing quite awkwardly on a thick branch, which was the one closest to me, I immediately slumped down with small little legs spread out, and inadvertently creating quite the comical scene.

Urgh... I feel both drunk, and about to burst...

Can Mosquitoes throwup?

Shaking nausea from my head, I decided to check my status.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 0.65 ⇒ 1 Skills 7

-Race- Lesser Sanguinite VIT 1 ⇒ 2 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 5 ⇒ 6 Titles 0

-Rank- K DEX 3 ⇒ 4 Skillpoints 3 ⇒ 5

-Level- 5/10 INT 12 Resistances

Health 8/8 CHR 0.15 ⇒ 0.20 Physical Resistance 0.128 ⇒ 0.155

Stamina 2/5 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0.015 ⇒ 0.030

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.07 ⇒ 0.09 Mental Resistance 5

Phew! Quite the change, I've also grown noticeably once again.

These big beasts are perfect for my purpose, I just need to ke-

I cut myself off, as something caught my attention. Down by the swamp stowler that I had just fed off, the one closest to the tree line, something that scared the ever-living fuck out me happened.

One of the larger insects about half the size of me was suddenly grabbed straight out of the air by a long and pink tongue. Drawing my attention up the length of the tongue to a spot on the tree next to me, I saw on a branch about five meters away from me, a giant lizard.

I could barely see this lizard due to its uncanny ability to blend almost completely in with the surroundings. And I knew, it did sound a lot like a chameleon, but while it had seemingly all the characteristics of a chameleon. Its actual form was that of something similar to a Komodo dragon.

Slowly retreating back out of sight from the giant lizard, I tried to make myself as small as possible behind the tree while looking all around me to make sure no more of these fuckers were in the vicinity. As if to mock me right now I get a notification, although it was very welcome right now.

[Hiding has reached LVL: 3]

I wonder, if that lizard had always been there, why didn't it eat me instead? I was quite a bit larger than the insect it ate, so I wonder if my hiding skill might have saved my life?

If so..... god-fucking-dammit-I-love-you-hiding.

I took another few glances around to check for other lizards. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any other of them in the vicinity. So I just decided huddle down until I had digested all of the blood from the swamp stowler.

I really didn't want to take the chance of flying away from this position while encumbered. Mostly because of the nearby lizard since I would prefer that it wouldn't spot me when I made my escape.

So for the next five whole hours, I sat on the branch listening to a song of grunts, performed by the swamp stowlers. It appeared that the blood of the swamp stowlers was not only heavier and thicker than horned rabbit blood, but it also took quite a bit longer to digest.

Hesitantly preparing myself to take off, I glanced over to where the lizard had been before. Either it wasn't there anymore, or its ability to hide is a lot scarier than I first imagined. Instead of flying directly out into the clearing, I decided instead to get to the top of the tree and then fly out.

Three minutes later of light flying and crawling, I managed to reach the top of the tree. From where I promptly launched off for my next prey, which was one of the stowlers who were standing in the center of the clearing. The reason for me choosing it was because it was the one farthest away from the treeline as possible.

I do not, and I repeat, I do not want to be lizard food...

Reaching the stowler, I landed on the end of its back. With my wings instinctively fluttering in slight anticipation, I was about to plunge my needle into its skin.

But that was apparently not going to be allowed, as a black spot in my field of vision suddenly caught my attention, only moments before hitting me smack in the side; throwing me and my hopes of easy food over the edge of the swamp stowler.

[You've received 1 damage!]

Just barely righting myself before hitting the ground, my danger senses screamed for apparently another reason than the one that just threw me off the back of the stowler.

A tongue lunged out after me. Quickly dodging the attack, before it got another chance to haul me back to whoever felt like I looked like a particularly good snack. Flying high up and out of range before the next attack would be launched at me, I quickly found out which fucker tried to eat me.

This time it wasn't a lizard but a giant frog who was slightly submerged beneath the murky swamp water. Looking around, I for the first time noticed that in the water were actually multiple of these frogs hidden beneath the surface. Before I didn't notice them since they looked exactly like some of the vegetation or rocks in the water.

I should've probably guessed with so many insects here in the clearing, that there would of course be a corresponding amount of predators who prey on them.

By the way, what even threw me off the stowler in the first place?

Glancing back at the stowler I quickly realized the folly of my actions. The goddamn stowler had used its tail to instinctively to slap away insects sitting on it, and since I was on the backend of its body the tail could easily reach me.

Wincing mentally, I noticed two of my legs have become somewhat stiff from the damage done to them. So I looked up my status.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 1 Skills 7

-Race- Lesser Sanguinite VIT 2 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 6 Titles 0

-Rank- K DEX 4 Skillpoints 5

-Level- 5/10 INT 12 Resistances

Health 7/8 CHR 0.20 Physical Resistance 0.155

Stamina 3/5 WILL 11 Magical Resistance 0.030

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.09 Mental Resistance 5

It was quite sad that a single slight tail swipe from an oversized cow was able to take almost 15% of my max health points. If I had been struck before my evolution, that would have straight up killed me.

Sigh... I seriously have to become stronger.

Chapter 6: [Day 2] – “Walking Lunchbox”

Taking almost a full minute to scout out the situation, I flew back to the back of the stowler. But this time I made damn sure that I was appropriately positioned right under the nape of its thick neck.

With the height and wide frame of the stowler, I don't need to worry about the frogs below. Funnily enough, it would seem that the back of these massive beasts was probably the safest place in this swamp for me right now.

Well, I must apologize big fella. I'll be making use of blood and the safety of your back for the time being.

***

For the rest of the day, I leisurely drank the stowler's blood many times over. Only once did I have to swap stowlers because the one I was feeding off trodded over to the tree line to graze a bit, which would've undeniably been quite dangerous with unseen reptiles looking for snacks in the vicinity. But switching stowlers, I discovered something that made me regret not surveying these big creatures a bit more before I settled down.

The ones I had been slowly draining were simply normal stowlers, but when switching to the next one, I noticed that this one, in particular, had a much more build and firm frame. Intrigued by it, I bit into its flesh and immediately figured out why. It was a goddamn alpha, giving me a substantial increase in EXP compared to the ordinary ones.

Well, I couldn't cry over spilled milk, so I continued wallowing in my bloodsucking paradise. Luckily the continued digestion of the blood became faster and faster. Effectively lowering my downtime between feeding. I wasn't sure if it was purely because of the level and stat increases or something else, but it was sure as hell welcome.

By doing that for the rest of the day I easily reached my goal without much trouble.

And here were the fruits of my labor.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Swamp Stowler]

[92 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 6]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 6]

[Blood profiling has advanced the profile of "Swamp Stowler"]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Swamp Stowler]

[89 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of a Swamp Stowler]

[102 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 7]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 7]

[Hiding has reached LVL:4]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]

[168 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 8]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 8]

[Puncture has reached LVL:4]

[Blood Profiling has advanced the profile on "Swamp Stowler"]

[Blood Profiling has reached LVL: 3]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]

[195 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 9]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 9]

[Siphon has unlocked more information]

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]

[202 points of EXP has been acquired and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 10]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 10]

[You're currently at the level threshold, you can choose an evolution path!]

[Blood Profiling has advanced the profile of "Swamp Stowler"]

[Heat Sensitive has reached LVL: 2]

Looking immensely satisfied with my exploits, I first checked my new current size. I had grown to a full 23-ish centimeters (9 inches) in length. I was quite a massive fucking bug when I thought about it, and couldn't help but chuckle mirthfully at the reactions humans back at earth probably would've given me if I suddenly appeared.

Next, I checked my status for the increases in my attributes.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 1 ⇒ 3 Skills 7

-Race- Lesser Sanguinite VIT 2 ⇒ 5 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 6 ⇒ 8 Titles 0

-Rank- K DEX 4 ⇒ 5 Skillpoints 5 ⇒ 10

-Level- 10/10 INT 12 ⇒ 13 Resistances

Health 20/20 CHR 0.20 ⇒ 0.30 Physical Resistance 0.155 ⇒ 0.302

Stamina 9/9 WILL 11 ⇒ 12 Magical Resistance 0.030 ⇒ 0.050

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.09 ⇒ 0.11 Mental Resistance 5

Fuck yeah! That's what I'm talking about!

For a minute or two, I just stretched and inspected my new body a bit more. Once again feeling the intoxicating surge of power and success flooded my mind and body.

I had massive gains this time around, all my stats having been substantially increased. I even managed to finally increase my intellect and will by one point. I was a bit unsure exactly how the stat distribution is from Siphon and leveling worked since they seemed to change direction at times. My guess was that it had something to do with what stats the animal specializes in of whose blood I drink.

Oh yeah, in one of the prompts it said that my Siphon trait had unlocked more information about it. I could already guess, but it seemed that the descriptions for attributes, skills, traits, and so on, didn't fully describe all of the effects and implications that they provided.

-Traits!-

Traits

Name

-Siphon- (+)

A natural ability of monster-type mosquitoes. Consuming blood provides the user with EXP and attribute increases. The stats that are added by siphon are the two highest attributes of the selected creature. A higher difference power will either garner fewer or more stat points to the user depending on which way the difference swings. Drinking the blood of a rare creature or drinking blood a great number of times of the same creature with similar or higher power level to the user provides the user with a very small chance of acquiring a compatible skill from said creature.

-Skill shop-

A unique trait that provides the user with skill points each level and allows the user to use the system to open a shop, where they can purchase skills with said skill points.

-Limit breaker-

A unique trait that allows the user to be unhindered by the limitations of levels, evolutions, and skills.

Aha! It was as I guessed. The Siphon skill only increases the two highest stats of whatever creature I'm slurping on.

Thinking a bit more about the things that might be left out in the descriptions, I suddenly thought of something that showed it quite clearly. If you took into consideration my health points, which were currently at the maximum value of twenty points, that was almost the same as an average horned rabbit's max health value, twenty-two points of health. But that didn't mean I could take as much damage as the rabbit could.

This would be because my stats, resistances, skills, and many other variables probably not even listed on my status, all played into the whole picture. For example, due to my pathetically low resistance, I knew with no doubt that a single strong punch from a grown male adult would be able to make me go splat. The realization while good to have, also inadvertently brought my glee of stats increased down a peg.

I did not want to splat...

With that out of the way, I checked up on my skills and began to figure out what to do with all of these skill points I had saved up for this very moment.

-Skill list!-

Skill list

Name Type LVL

-Blood profiling- Information 2 -> 3

Consumes the blood of biological creatures to create a profile on the creature.

-Flight- Transport 2 -> 4

Enhanced speed and maneuverability

-Heat sensitive- Sensory 1 -> 2

Allows the user to better detect heat sources

-Hiding- Defensive 1 -> 4

The basic level of hiding makes it harder for creatures to notice your presence and form.

-Muffled Flying- Defensive 1 -> 2

Reduces the sound produced by flight

-Puncture- Attack 2 -> 4

Increased penetration

-Smell- Sensory 1 -> 3

Enhanced smell capabilities

During downtimes, I tried to grind some skills while digesting. But it was a bit tricky finding out what exactly could further my skills without putting myself in more danger than needed.

I focused mainly on trying to level both my Heat Sensitive skill and Smell skill. But I only managed to level up Heat Sensitive since I tried various ways of feeling the heat from the stowler and surrounding stowlers.

For Smell, I tried to do something similar, but nothing really seemed to work. My guess was that Smell levels a lot faster when experiencing different smells and actually following scents, and since I've already smelled the scent of these stowlers and followed their odor here, I doubted that I could make more use of them in that department.

Moving on from that, I had to do something about these skill points that I've been saving up.

I at first thought of saving these skill points up to spend them on Appraisal since it was ten points in the skill shop. But now that I found more of my shortcomings in terms of things like defense and resistances, plus I might now have to look at more combat-oriented skills due to my rapid size increase, I might want to look into getting some of those instead.

So do I go with Appraisal or find something that can bolster my defense or attack?

I already had Blood Profiling, but it wasn't doing much for me. When it hits a milestone, I should be able to advance it might become more useful, but right now I don't have the slightest idea.

I should at least take a glance at the defensive and combat-oriented skill at or below the cost of ten points.

Skill shop

Search > Defense, Combat ≤ 10

Skills

Name Type Cost Requirement

-Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton- -Defensive- 5 STR - 2 / VIT - 5

Enhances the exoskeleton of the user. Increased toughness and resistance.

-Weak Headbutt- -Offensive- 10 STR - 12 / VIT - 10

Consumes stamina to steel the user's head as they attack a target with it.

-Lesser Paralyze- -Offensive- 3 -None-

Creates a gland at the user's mouth that produces a weak poison that can be injected into a target.

-Lesser Poison- -Offensive- 3 -None-

Creates a gland at the user's mouth that produces a weak poison that can be injected into a target.

-Weak Charge- -Offensive- 5 STR - 3 / VIT - 4 / AGI - 8

The skill user consumes stamina to gain a boost of speed to charge and ram into a target.

-Lesser Enhanced Organs- -Defensive- 5 VIT - 8

Enhances the inner organs of the skill user, providing them with increased toughness of their insides and also a slight increase in the effectivity of those organs.

Hmm, these skills seemed very useful, excluding the Weak Headbutt and Weak Charge because of my frame, and the fact I'm a very squishy mosquito. Wait... Weak Charge seems to fit the stat points of the horned rabbits, was it that skill the rabbit who lunged after me used when it found me?

It made a lot of sense since the description and stat allocation all matched. Well other than that, we could also exclude the Lesser Enhanced Organs skill since I didn't currently meet the requirement.

Then there was Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton, Lesser Paralyze, Lesser Poison left. I saw a hell of a lot of use in the Paralyze and Poison skills, and for the Lesser Enhanced Exoskeleton skill, it could help me with my problem of having low toughness and resistance.

Urgh! I can't decide.

Defense, combat, or reconnaissance?

If I chose defense I could probably take an extra hit or two by glancing attacks. But being pierced by just a simple Horned Rabbit would still spell a certain end for me as I had no real way of dealing with the wounds. If I chose combat I will probably be able to more effectively feed and maybe even kill smaller prey. But then again, I had no need of combat with these lovely bags of blood with legs that I've found.

And lastly, if I chose reconnaissance I might be able to escape certain death before I even get too close, not even needing to risk my life in the first place. My current situation bartered no need for conflict, so for now, those skills would be useless.

Hmm... It's decided, I'll take Appraisal.

After I get some more skill points, I'll definitely return to Weak Paralyze.

-Skill shop! Buy Appraisal!-

[Skill - Appraisal has been added to the skill list!]

Itching to try my new skill out, I turned to the giant chunk of meat beneath me.

-Appraisal!-

[Existing profile of "Swamp Stowler" has been combined with profile from Appraisal]

Profile: Swamp Stowler

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR ??? Skills ???

-Race- Swamp Stowler VIT ??? Traits ???

-Sex- Male, Female AGI ??? Titles ???

-Rank- F DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- 0/35 INT ???

Health 330/330 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ???

Stamina 295/295 WILL ??? Magical Resistance ???

Mana 0/0 MAG ??? Mental Resistance ???

Damn, even with my Blood Profiling combined with Appraisal could only get this much information in the swamp stowlers. But it is, after all, to be expected since they're massively stronger than me.

Lastly, about my next evolution... I wasn't sure if I should even do it right now. Because the size increase most likely promised in the next stage of my evolutionary path, will probably make me too big and noticeable when feeding on the stowlers and pretty much any other creature.

Although I would lose some EXP, I could still farm my stats a bit more on these swamp stowlers.

I wasn't kidding when I said they were goldmines, so I'm not ready to give them up yet.

Slightly noticing that dusk has almost fallen, I decided the next course of action and I promptly went back to slurping on some overgrown cow blood.

Chapter 7: [Day 3] – “Carnage”

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler twice]

[You're currently at the level threshold, no EXP will be rewarded]

[Stats have been added]

[Due to continuous increase in stats and EXP hitting the level threshold, you've begun to approach forced evolution]

[Puncture has reached LVL: 5 and can now be advanced!]

Hold up for a minute, the hell?

A bunch of things had just happened, but the first thing I wanted to address was the fact that I had customized my notifications. I changed my prompts of Siphon to collectively show my gains in one single prompt, instead of having multiple different prompts to go through.

Secondly, forced evolution? It would appear I couldn't make use of indefinite increases in my stats before going through with my next evolution. And just to be sure about the details, I was going to ask the system.

-System, what is forced evolution?-

[Due to excessively hitting the level threshold with EXP or stat influx, will result in a forced evolution at a certain point. Forced evolution will immediately start the evolution selection progress.]

Huh, guessed as much.

But now I at least didn't have to worry about accidentally hitting the forced evolution and get my evolution picked for me since I was worrying a bit about that.

Now then, to the skill advancement! Hell yeah, I can finally advance one of my skills. I wonder if the rest of my skills will also advance once hitting level 5?

-Skill advancement - puncture!-

Skill advancement - Puncture

Choose one advancement

-Greater puncture-

Greatly increased penetration capabilities.

-Enhanced puncture-

Increased penetration. Can consume stamina to increase penetration further.

-Shredding puncture-

Increased penetration. Adds shredding effects to penetrating related attacks or skills.

-Lesser sleep inducting puncture-

Will create a compound that will induce drowsiness in creatures affected. Effects may vary.

Hmm, so I can either advance my ability a rank to Greater Puncture or choose a new effect to the skill.

I could already throw the Shredding Puncture out the window. I had a hard time believing I'll ever be able to feed silently again. As for the Lesser Sleep Inducting Puncture, I supposed it could be very useful. But I doubted I'd ever be able to even put a dent in a stowlers resistance or vitality with simply the lesser version of it.

It was an undeniable fact that I was still just a mosquito, whereas these huge beasts could probably eat elephant tranquilizers like they were snacks. And still, be unaffected.

I might've been able to slightly affect a horned rabbit and cause some drowsiness. But I had no exact idea of all the properties of the sleeping compound. For all I knew, I might be able to cause some drowsiness to my target but once it notices me it will immediately snap out of the effect.

Then it was up to either Enhanced Puncture or Greater Puncture. Enhanced Puncture might've been quite powerful, but there was one crucial flaw. With it turning from a passive skill into that of both an active and passive skill means it has a cost tied with it.

The problem with that is if I want to use the active part of the skill, it would cost stamina. Something I was already in short supply of. If I suddenly overtaxed myself on my stamina use, I could probably meet a rather unglorified end with me dropping out of the sky while flying, or I might not even be able to escape to the sky with one of my skills that provides me with the greatest survivability in my kit, the Flight skill.

Then it was decided. It might be a bit basic not choosing an extra effect. But currently, this was the most reliable and safest option, besides I should be able to advance the skill once more later. Also, I had realized that if I have the Puncture skill and the next rank should be Greater Puncture, did I start out with rank-two Puncture skill by skipping the Lesser Puncture?

Probably by courtesy of me being a mosquito, and hey, I'm wasn't complaining.

[Skill - Puncture has been advanced to Greater Puncture!]

[For advancing a skill you receive 2 skill points!]

Oh, sweet! I get skill points from advancing skills. Another thing not listed in the description of my traits, I hope I soon will get more information about them, so I can use them to their full effect and potential.

Onwards to the next agenda, what the hell am I supposed to do now?

I needed to figure out what I should about this forced evolution thing.

Do I try and drink a few more times or do I just find a hiding spot and start my evolution?

I guessed that I should at least be able to drink one more time before I hit Forced Evolution. Promptly returning to the now monotonous routine of drinking blood and then lazing on the back of the stowler, I inwardly sighed to myself with the lackadaisical nature of my way to power.

Though, halfway through filling myself, something happened...

Since I started my leisurely EXP and stat farming on the backs of these massive beasts, nothing unexpected had happened in quite a while, so I was already starting to grow relatively complacent, much to my own chagrin. So when all of the swamp stowlers' startled grunts all of sudden begun echoing out, increasing in both pitch and intensity, I was a bit thrown off.

Immediately withdrawing from eating the walking lunchbox beneath me, I started surveying the swamp stowlers. In search of whatever is causing them to be so riled up. But for the next three minutes, I couldn't discover what the hell was happening, but the swamp stowlers' panicked states only increased in intensity as time stretched on.

Having a bad premonition I took to the sky and flew over to a nearby branch that I'd scouted multiple times over the last day to make sure I had an escape route if something unexpected like this happened.

Sitting on the branch, I watched the stowlers down below for another minute until something very strange happened. All at once, all of the swamp stowlers abruptly turned to face in the direction of the treeline that was to my left. With rumbling growls and taking a very menacingly defensive stance with their deadly horns facing straight forward, they seemed to ready to face an unseen foe.

One of the stowlers walked into the front of the group, taking front an center, and I immediately recognized it as the alpha of the group of stowlers. It wasn't long after that I found out what had been putting the stowlers so on edge, and I definitely couldn't blame them...

My blood ran cold as I spotted two beet-red eyes within the foliage of the treeline. The two orbs were the unmistakable eyes of predators. The eyes were followed by thick and long grey fur, framing the menacing portrait even more frightening. Stepping out into the clearing was an absolutely massive wolf, completely dwarfing the stowlers, almost doubling the size of one.

What - the - fuck, is that behemoth?!

I had to be around three meters in height and about five-six meters in length, with claws like giant obsidian-like kitchen knives. This wolf was just absurdly monstrous. Shaking myself from my stupor, I immediately used Appraisal on it.

-A-appraisal!- I slightly stuttered from the raw menace radiating off the creature.

Profile: Ebonwood Dire Wolf

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR ??? Skills ???

-Race- Ebonwood Dire Wolf VIT ??? Traits ???

-Sex- Male AGI ??? Titles ???

-Rank- ??? DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- ??? INT ???

Health 733/733 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ???

Stamina ??? WILL ??? Magical Resistance ???

Mana ??? MAG ??? Mental Resistance ???

My god, what a fucking monster...

I got nothing but its health value, sex, and race which were already enough to determine that this was no weak monster. No, this was true monster. I knew back from on Earth that there once lived dire wolves before going extinct, but they sure as hell weren't that fucking massive.

There was one other fact that I didn't need Appraisal to tell me, and that was the dangerously intelligent and ruthless glint in its predatory eyes, which caused me to shudder. Growling with an even deeper tone than the stowlers could manage, causing rimples in the swampy water, it drew back its muzzle to show a set of absolutely deadly razor-sharp teeth.

For a minute they just stood there and fronted each other, not allowing each other to escape their line of gazes. Wondering what the hell they were doing, I was completely taken aback when a blur of motion from the right side of the treeline flew out and charged straight into the backline of the swamp stowlers hiding behind their alpha.

Taking advantage of chaos signaled by the wails and panicked grunts from the ambushed stowlers, the giant dire wolf charged at the alpha swamp stowler who was now left alone without the help of his flock. With a closer glance at what the blur that had caused such distress in the formation of the stowlers, I saw a slightly smaller version of the giant dire wolf, raking its claw across the forehead and down the throat of a stowler, splitting it open from head to chest.

Abruptly, a wail and a fountain of blood spurted from the sliced apart creature. Following that were only a few pitiful shriek-like wails as it couldn't properly form sounds with its torn open throat. Quickly turning on its hind legs, the smaller wolf lept over the closest stowler as it charged at the dire wolf with its deadly horns, hoping to skewer the wolf.

However, it simply landed gracefully behind it. With a surprised grunt from an unsuspecting stowler that had been hiding behind the one the dire wolf had just lept over, the wolf lunged at it with its teeth bare. Clamping its maw around the thick neck of the stowler, it used its momentum and its weight to shove the six-legged creature off balance. It produced a massive thump as the stowler crashed heavily to the ground; the dire wolf on top of it.

The stowler only managed a single panicked wail that went off pitch half-way as the dire wolf gave a strong shake of its head while clamped down on the neck of the stowler beneath it, like a dog with its toy. Completely shredding the neck of the stowler apart, the dire wolf almost entirely ripped off the head of the stowler in one vicious bite.

Staring with muted horror, awe, and amazement, I couldn't draw my eyes from the bloody battlefield before me.

This was pure carnage.

Chapter 8: [Day 3] – “Evolution”

Finally managing to come a bit more out of my stupor, I used appraisal on the smaller of the two dire wolves currently wreaking havoc amongst the stowlers.

-Appraisal!-

Profile: Ebonwood Dire Wolf

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR ??? Skills ???

-Race- Ebonwood Dire Wolf VIT ??? Traits ???

-Sex- Female AGI ??? Titles ???

-Rank- ??? DEX ??? Resistances

-Level- ??? INT ???

Health 620/620 CHR ??? Physical Resistance ???

Stamina ??? WILL ??? Magical Resistance ???

Mana ??? MAG ??? Mental Resistance ???

Oh, a female. Are these two wolves mates?

It seemed they had a lot of coordination in their hunting strategy, and it would make a lot of sense if this is how dire wolves hunted; in pairs that is. I dismissed the prompt as I drew my attention back to the fight between the male dire wolf and the alpha stowler. I was a bit surprised to see the alpha stowler still standing and alive, although completely raked and bloodied.

Looking at the wolf I also noticed that the right leg of the creature seemed to have blood on it, and it wasn't the stowler's since it was slightly flowing and leaking new blood, obviously caused by one of the stowler's attacks.

Damn, it's not an alpha for no reason, being able to take a stand and even wound that monster of a wolf.

But my appreciation didn't help the stowler still very bad situation as the dire wolf performed a series of actions that completely baffled me. As it was charging at the defending alpha, it displayed its intelligence with it suddenly sidestepping the overgrown cow, causing it to be thrown completely off guard.

Reaching the flank of the alpha stowler, the dire wolf used its momentum while clamping down with its massive jaw around the right hind leg of the beast. Coupled with the force of the momentum and swinging motion of the dire wolf's body, the wolf managed to capsize the bulky alpha stowler all the way onto its back.

Laying on its back, the alpha stowler wailed in panic with a torn leg pointing straight upwards as it had become completely immobilized leaving it vulnerable. The male dire wolf didn't waste this opportunity and lunged instantaneously for its exposed throat.

Clamping down with savage ferocity, it growled menacingly as it tore off pieces of flesh with each succinct bite. It didn't take long before the alpha stowler's movements were reduced to slightly spasming its limbs in the after-death-throes as its throat and neck had become utterly shredded; almost decapitated.

Letting out an ear-piercing howl of triumph and domination, the male dire wolf returned to the remaining swamp stowlers already being expertly ripped apart by the female dire wolf.

Holy... fucking... shit...

At that moment I was unsure as to what exactly I felt after seeing such a slaughter fest. Of course, I had been terrified and scared shitless at the raw savagery on display, but upon seeing all of this I also felt something strange welling up inside.

It was a pure and unadulterated lust for power. The scenes of pure domination put on by the dire wolves had awakened something inside me. Clearing my head before any more thoughts of grandeur, power, and conquest invaded my mind, I started to consider what I was going to do now.

Now that my current food source had been destroyed, dismembered, and utterly slaughtered, I had to find something else to feed on. I only considered for a brief moment of unrestrained greed on trying to feed on the dire wolves but immediately shook that inane idea from my head since there is no way in hell that these incredibly intelligent creatures are ever going to let me simply feed off them.

I was currently quite big and very easy to spot for these creatures, the only reason that I could keep feeding off the swamp stowlers was because of how dumb they were. After all, they were just overgrown bovines with pointy horns.

I thought about diving deeper into the swamp and try my luck there, but that would probably end up as my last resort, to be honest. I was only on the outskirts of this monster-infested swamp, and that was already enough for me to encounter these giant wolves and stowlers.

Other than that I didn't doubt for a second that the rest of the swamp would be filled to the brim with those lizards and frogs, not also to mention other bug-eating creatures. So diving deeper into the swamp is pretty much a no-go for now.

Hmm, I could find a place back in the glade and evolve. If I do that I might be able to take on some smaller critters or maybe even a horned rabbit.

Yup - it's decided, let's do that.

Following that, I only gave one last glance at the blood-soaked dire wolves indulging in devouring the dead stowlers before I took off for the glade.

Tracking my way back the glade took me about half an hour, and I spent about another twenty minutes of flying deeper to be sure I wouldn't have any more surprise visits from other swamp-dwelling creatures. Spotting one rabbit and a few critters and the way, I got both a notification and also exactly what I had been searching for.

[Flight has reached LVL: 5 and can now be advanced!]

Fuck, yeah! One of my most important skills, plus more skill points! I'm going to look at this more after I evolve since circumstances about what I would be needing might change once I evolve.

As for the thing I had found, it was a large and very compact acacia-like tree. In the top of the tree where the branches split out to the sides, was a relatively big hole in between the parting branches. The splitting of the branches created a natural-made hiding place with walls all around; the perfect place for me to evolve without getting disturbed.

After checking for any unwanted creatures and not seeing any in or around the hole, I landed within it.

Taking a breather from all that had happened over the last day I somewhat slumped onto the tree, resting on abdomen and thorax while checking a notification I had been putting off from back when I had managed to drink a bit of the alpha stowler's blood, and also a skill level-up I had gotten from appraising the female wolf.

[Siphon]

[You've consumed the blood of an (Alpha) Swamp Stowler]

[You're currently at the level threshold, no EXP will be rewarded]

[Stats have been added]

[Appraisal has reached LVL: 2]

Now to check my status before evolving.

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 3 Skills 7

-Race- Lesser Sanguinite VIT 5 ⇒ 6 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 8 Titles 0

-Rank- K DEX 5 Skillpoints 10 ⇒ 2

-Level- 10/10 INT 13 Resistances

Health 23/23 CHR 0.30 Physical Resistance 0.302

Stamina 10/10 WILL 12 Magical Resistance 0.050

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.11 Mental Resistance 5

Hmm, good I managed to top off my vitality with that last slurp.

Everything seemed to be in order, so I quickly went onto the evolutions.

-Evolutions!-

Available evolution paths

Name Rank Primary ATTR. Req. Description

Sanguinite (Rare) I- INT / AGI / DEX Bloodsucker race / Sanguinite species / STR - 2 / VIT - 2 / AGI - 6 / DEX - 5 INT - 8 The rare and raw form of the Sanguinite race. Not specialized in any particular role within a sanguinite nest. Provides better evolutionary paths, such as being the only evolution of the sanguinite race that can turn into a Sanguinite Queen. Due to the high requirements, this is a rare race with additional benefits.

Sanguinite Drone J+ AGI Bloodsucker race / Sanguinite species The main fighting force and gatherers of a sanguinite nest. Specializes in swarming and gathering sustenance.

Sanguinite Defender I+ STR / VIT Bloodsucker race / Sanguinite species / STR - 3 / VIT - 5 The muscle of the sanguinite nests. Decked out with sharp bladed protrusions on their legs, included with their hardened carapace and superior strength, they defend the nest and their queen.

Sanguinite Laborer J DEX Bloodsucker race / Sanguinite species / DEX - 4 Constructures and caretakers of both the nest and the brood. Extremely weak in combat, but is able to construct hives with their molting gland located in their abdomen.

Wow, that's a lot of choices and I even got a rare one!

First and foremost the rare sanguinite seemed extremely enticing right off the bat. Not only did it seem pretty good in terms of power ranking, sitting at a solid I- rank, but it also provided supposedly better evolutions and/or increased options later on. The only reason I met the requirements was probably due to my human mind coupled with me taking advantage of the stat farm that was the swamp stowlers.

For the sanguinite drone and the sanguinite laborer, I could essentially already put kick them out of the race due to their subpar and lackluster descriptions; at least compared to the two other evolutions.

The last one, the sanguinite defender, also seemed extremely enticing with its promise of both power and increased combat-capabilities. But I realized quickly that ultimately if I chose this evolution I would be cutting myself short in the long run.

I was playing for the end game here, and I had decided to make something out of this new life I've been given. So I wasn't going to go with some quick and easy power in exchange for my potential. That being said, I chose the rare sanguinite evolution, but not before preparing myself mentally for the pain sure to come.

....

Stop shaking! goddamit... uh- I mean, I'm totally not scared of feeling that pain again...

Yeah... definitely not...

-SANGUINITE!!!- I practically shouted the command so fast it was basically a mumble rather than a coherent word.

...

...

Nothing happened, but oh-no, this time it wasn't going to fool me again, so I kept my mental eyelids shut tightly in anticipation as continued waiting.

...

...

Nothing still happened.

Huh? did I really do the command wron- AHHHHH!

MOTHERFUCKER. SHIT. AHH. WHY. WHY DOES IT NEED TO HURT SO MUCH-!

-FUCKITY FUCK-

...

...

‹ 15 minutes later ›

(Mental sobbing)...

...

(Sobbing)...

...

(Sob) (Sob)...

[Evolution completed]

[Race changed to Sanguinite]

[You've acquired two new skills!]

[Skill - Weak Slash, has been added to the skill list]

[ALERT - Due to your trait "Limit Breaker" and your evolution into a "Rare" race one of your new skills have been modified]

[Unique Skill - Blood Plague, has been added to the skill list]

Urgh, please. No more. No more. I can't handle another minute of this tortu- oh it's done.

Immediately jumping back up my legs, all traces of previous agony and pitiful embarrassment simply wiped clean from my mind as if it never happened. Instead, it was replaced with the greedy machinations of my mind starting to churn in anticipation of the prospect of my new skills and increases to my attributes.

Two new skills- whoop! And one of them is a unique skill!

-Although I don't know what that necessarily means for a skill...

Before delving into my skills, I wanted to first take stock of my new body, so I began twisting and turning to get a better look at my new and improved self.

I was slightly stunned by realizing my growth, as my body has changed quite a bit. First of all, my size had changed from a good 25-cm in length, from head to the end of my abdomen, to a full 40-cm! I was almost a half meter long mosquito - Fuck that's scary when you think about it.

Next, each of my limbs had grown significantly in bulk - plus my exoskeleton had also grown much more sturdy and thick.

On each of my two frontal legs, I had grown small claw-like appendages. On the bottom side of each claw, there were three small but pointy spikes that were also bladed on the sides. I could deduce from just looking at them, that I could use them for not only slashing things but also hooking myself into objects, or people...

Lastly, it would seem that my shade of color had also changed quite a bit. From when I had been a glade mosquito, I was simply black while my body being somewhat transparent in certain places. When I had changed into a lesser sanguinite I had adopted a more solid and pitch-black shading in some places, with a bit of a blood-red tinge to the mix.

But now my whole body had turned a balanced blend of a blood-red crimson-ish color and solid black, with the opacity of shading changing in certain places. For my abdomen, it was a bit more light and transparent compared to elsewhere, and when I stretched it a bit, I saw some lines that glow a faint red, reminding me somewhat of runic patterns.

The rest of my body followed mostly a black-red scheme. I looked a lot scarier now, but I wouldn't deny that it did look kinda cool. Anyways, now done with the physical inspection of myself I went on to the more juicy parts of my evolution - my stats!

-Status!-

Status

Information Attributes

Traits. Titles. and Skills

-Name- "???" STR 3 ⇒ 6 Skills 7 ⇒ 10

-Race- Sanguinite VIT 6 ⇒ 9 Traits 3

-Sex- Male AGI 8 ⇒ 12 Titles 0

-Rank- I- DEX 5 ⇒ 8 Skillpoints 2

-Level- 1/20 INT 13 ⇒ 14 Resistances

Health 39/39 CHR 0.30 ⇒ 0.60 Physical Resistance 0.302 ⇒ 0.855

Stamina 15/15 WILL 12 ⇒ 13 Magical Resistance 0.050 ⇒ 0.139

Mana 0/0 MAG 0.11 ⇒ 0.30 Mental Resistance 5 ⇒ 6

Fuck yeah! that's what I'm talking about.

All my stats had gained a substantial increase.

Huh, how come my magic power attribute rose so much? Before it seemed like it was rising abnormally slowly, even when I had evolved the first time. Eh, doesn't matter right now, magic seems to be a little different in the world - at least from what I would have imagined it to be.

Seeing all this made me giddy, as for the first time since coming to this world I finally felt like I could fight something and not be turned to bug-splat in the process. The last thing on the list of things I needed to check was my skills, so I quickly pulled them up.

-Skill list!-

Skill list

Name Type LVL

-Appraisal- NEW Information 2

Appraises a target and creates a profile. The amount of information is determined by the skill level of the user and the difference in power between the user and target.

-Blood Plague- NEW Unique 1

<----------------------------------------???---------------------------------------->

-Blood Profiling- Information 3

Consumes the blood of biological creatures to create a profile on the creature.

-Flight- Transport 5 - MAX (Advance)

Enhanced speed and maneuverability.

-Heat Sensitive- Sensory 2

Allows the user to better detect heat sources.

-Hiding- Defensive 4

The basic level of hiding makes it harder for creatures to notice your presence and form.

-Muffled Flying- Defensive 2

Reduces the sound produced by flight.

-Greater Puncture- Offensive 1

Increased penetration.

-Smell- Sensory 3

Enhanced smell capabilities.

-Weak Slash- NEW

Offensive 1

Slashes the targets with the bladed appendage of the user.

Huh? My new unique skill has no description, or rather it's hidden for now.

Seems like I'll have to figure it out on my own.

Let's advance my flight skill n-

I cut myself off as a very pungent odor assaulted my senses all of a sudden.

[Smell has reached LVL: 4]

The scent seemed strangely familiar in two ways. The first way that it seemed familiar was that definitely from the blood horned rabbits.

But hmm... what else is making this scent so familiar? My mind began to wander and suddenly stopped when thinking back to the slaughter of the swamp stowlers.

The second familiarity was - carnage.

Putting the skill advancement on hold, I began flying towards the scent to investigate. The closer I got, the more pungent the smell became. With my new flying speed having increased by a lot, it took me only ten minutes to arrive at the origin of the scent, even though I could tell that it was quite far away.

Upon arriving at the scene, a somewhat familiar sight entered my eyes.

Slaughtered horned rabbits everywhere.

If I were to guess, there would have been about twenty dead and bloody rabbits strewn about the thickets and bushes, while also coating the ground. Taking a closer look I noticed something strange about the carcasses of the horned rabbits. All of them were missing their horns, seemingly cut off. Some of them had even been split open, leaving not much left.

Flying closer to one of the corpses, but not too close in case whatever did this was still in the vicinity, I started to feel a sneaking suspicion crawl up the back of my mind. My suspicion was almost immediately verified as I looked onto the next corpse.

Embedded within the little furry creature's body - was a broken arrow.

People...