Once again, I was blinded by the light blinking out into a vast expanse of wilderness. Trees towered over me, and when I say towered, I meant they went so high the details of their branches were blurry from where I stood. No skyscrapers I’d ever heard of even came close to how big they were in comparison to me. I was insect-sized in a massive world.

  Looking around I saw I was standing on a massive flat rock at the edge of what would have been a brook but to me was a river bigger than the Mississippi. I looked down at myself and saw I wasn’t wearing any clothes, luckily, I didn’t see any dangly bits although I could feel my privacy down there. I had some thin carapace guards along my legs and crotch with a mental stretch they opened out and my two best friends were hanging out along with my flagpole. I retracted them again, my crotch plate keeping my boys safe. My feet were weird, they looked more like two knives than what I’d had before, I could grip things with them which was a new experience and I imagined it would hurt something to be kicked by them.

  “Well at least I’m not naked,” I said. “My voice sounded normal to me, it wasn’t base or gravely but was still clearly masculine.

  My new body was around six feet tall if I had to guess or maybe only a few inches depending on the standard measurements in this world. Holding out my two arms I saw the yellow carapace guarding my forearms. The carapace was black and my skin a bright saffron yellow with the occasional yellow markings. My right arm had a strange thing attached to its outside when I focused on it a smooth pointed singer shot out its tip dripping with a dark fluid. Looking behind me I was relieved not to see some massive thorax. I had a pair of two wings extending from my shoulder blades extending down to my ankles.

  I felt something in my back and my wings began to buzz.

  “Whoa there!” I said as I lifted four feet off the ground.

  Managing to land I stumbled for a few feet before coming to a stop.

  I blinked away the words in my vision. I wasn’t sure what it meant for my abilities to level up but hopefully, it would prevent me from falling to a horrible death.

  Feeling up my face, I felt a mouth which was normal apart from the jagged sharp teeth, I had a nose and my eyes felt bigger than what I what a humans were. I couldn’t tell if I saw the world differently than how a human did. I had long hair but no facial hair. Thick fur covered the back of my calves and along the inside of my arms and I could feel the air as the wind blew through it. I had a pair of antennae that felt at the air and I could smell through them which was the weirdest thing I’d ever felt.

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  “Well, I’m level zero in pretty much everything,” I said to myself and felt a rumble in my belly. “And I’m starving and need some biomass. It’s time to see what this world is like.”

  It was nerve-wracking at first but eventually, I psyched myself up enough to jump off the edge of the rock. My wings buzzing, I made a controlled dive slowly approaching the ground. I landed on top of a leaf of a bush.

  Even though I was incredibly small in comparison to the world I was in I was just going to go with measurements in relation to my size. I was about fifteen feet off the ground and looked around. I heard what sounded like a helicopter and ducked down. A bee the size of a Volkswagen buzzed by before flying up to a tulip about fifty yards away. When I looked at the bee words popped into my vision.

  The thing had an entire ten levels on me not to mention its size so fighting it was out of the question. I waited until it left and scanned the ground for more prey. A column of ten ants moved passed me.

  Each of the ants was level three but they still had levels on me as well as numbers and I didn’t fancy a fight will all ten for my first combat in this world. Jumping off the leaf I took to the air buzzing above the ground as I scanned for my first target.

  I spotted two bugs fighting and stopped atop a large rock to watch them from above. A centipede was fighting with a group of four ants like the ones I’d seen before, more lay dead around it, the ants were retreating likely to get reinforcements, but the Centipede was winning for now.

  The Centipede was three times as long as I was tall, and the ants were each around the size of a massif. I watched as the Centipede was tired out but only two ants remained alive, but they’d finish off soon, and if not them, then their reinforcements.

  I had to act now, standing up from my crouched position, I extended my stinger from its sheath on my arm and jumped. I dived my wings guiding me as I slammed into the centipede from behind driving my stinger into the back of its head.

  “Well, that sucked,” I said looking down at my kill, all that experience wasted. Then I looked at the two ants who seemed to be stunned.

  Jumping forward before they could act; I rammed my stinger through the first ant’s head.

  The other ant lunged at me with its mandibles. They clamped down on my left arm and pinched hard, my carapace held barely but I could hear it crack and screamed with pain. I stabbed forward over and over in pain-infused desperation.

  “Get off! Get off!” I screamed as I flailed at it.

  Luckily, I managed to hit the ant in the head and my venomous stinger killed it instantly.

  I didn’t level up from that kill. I cradled my mangled arm but pushed away the pain as I smelled the approach of more ants with my antenna. I didn’t have time to eat the massive centipede of course but I could do something else. Placing my hand on it I tried to think about absorbing it.

  Mentally selecting yes, I felt energy flow through my palm into the creature, it expanded through the whole centipede before flowing back into me. The Centipede was a literal husk looking like it had decayed in the sun for several weeks.

  I didn’t have time to gloat or look over my new gains because the ants would be here soon. I still had three XP left I could spend. I touched the nearest ant and used my trait on it.

  I selected yes mentally and began the process of absorbing.

  Each use of the ability took about ten seconds, and I could smell the ants getting closer, I had maybe a minute at most. Touch the next ant I proceeded to absorb it.

  My body twisted in pain and I spasmed to the ground for a few seconds until it finally ended. There were only three more ants left that I could absorb. Placing my hand on the biggest of them I pushed my energy into and pulled out its life essence.

  I picked up the other two ants under each arm. They were bulky and heavy, but I managed. I couldn’t fly with them, but I could use my wings to give me extra speed as I ran. I kept running until I was a few hundred yards away.

  Panting for breath I looked down at the corner of my vision, there were three bars like in video games, one red, then green and blue. The green bar was flashing empty and the red one was at the halfway mark while the blue one hadn’t even been touched. I waited until the green bar filled a little then jumped/flew to the top of the rock about fifteen feet off the ground. Setting down my two prizes I pulled off a leg and began to eat.