I moved around the settlement sticking to the cover of the weeds and tall grass. There were hundreds of the beetle men. I finally got my chance to analyze one of them when I saw a farmer moving close to the grass line. Creeping forwards my antenna twitched and I received the information on it.

  I considered attack and killing him but… He hadn’t done anything to me and unlike the Widows I felt no innate hatred towards them. They were working with the spiders, but they weren’t spiders themselves. I moved away and looked over the river. There was new territory to explore there. I flew across the river and landed atop a massive rock near the settlement on the opposite side.

  This side of the brook was out of the shadow of the oak tree I’d been under my entire time in this world. There was a massive fallen tree to the south of where I was, the scale of everything from when I had been human…my memories were blocked again. I shook my head as the strange suppression came over me, things looked like miles away that I felt were only a few dozen yards.

  My new perspective was taking some time to get used to but I stopped trying to fight the suppression and just got back to hunting and exploring. I circled the rock and saw a gap between it and the ground. Swooping down I landed and looked into the darkness. My antenna tasted the air and I moved into the shadowy cavern my Food Sensors telling me there was prey down here.

  Small insects the size of mites ran from me but I wasn’t interested in them. I kept moving until I spotted something I thought might be what I was looking for. A snail the size of a young pill bug moved its mouth chewing on some root beneath the rock.

  “That had better be heavy carapace,” I said to myself.

  I brought up my stinger and fired. My venom hit the soft section of the snail’s body and I expected it to just start buring through but the slime of the snail just sloughed off there and the venom fell to the ground. The snail’s head turned towards me and it spat. I rolled to the size and a ball of acidic goo sizzled where I had just been. Moving surprisingly quick for a snail it charged me spitting another blob of goo. I rolled to the side again and slashed out with my stinger, while my venom hadn’t done much when shot my stinger blade cut deep into the bugs side and I ejected a charge of venom.

  With a bit of my venom deeper in its system the snail seemed to have a harder time ejecting it but its body was still expelling it but I got a few more seconds of damage.

  The snail reared up, its body stretching to tower over me. I jumped back as it slammed down, the impact shaking the ground. My wings buzzed and I took to the air, I couldn’t fly high and the tunnel limited my maneuverability. Pushing off with my legs against the tunnel walls I swooped around the snail. It tracked me with its eyestalks, spitting more globs of acid. I dodged between them rolling on the ground and pushing off its shell and the wall, firing volleys of venom at its shell and soft flesh. My venom did even less against its shell then it did against its soft flesh.

  The venom sizzled against its slime coating but didn't seem to be doing much damage. I needed a new strategy. Landing beside the snail, I darted in close and slashed with my stinger-blade. The sharp edge cut through the slime and into its flesh. The snail writhed in pain, its body contracting before it slammed its side down but I had already dodged to the side.

  I pressed my advantage moving back in and hacking and slashing at its vulnerable underside. My venom pumped into the wounds doing damage for a few seconds before being expelled but steadily bringing down its health. The snail rolled to the side and clipped me with its shell hitting me with the force of speeding car slapping me across the tunnel. My carapace cracked against the dirt and stone and I slumped down dazed for a second.

  The snail charged towards me, its massive body sliding across the tunnel floor with surprising speed. I shook off the daze and rolled to the side just as it slammed into the wall where I had been. Chunks of dirt and stone rained down from the impact.

  My health had taken a significant hit from that shell strike taking off about forty percent of my hit points from that one hit. I needed to end this quickly before the snail got in another lucky hit. As the snail turned to face me again, I activated my camouflage ability, blending into the shadowy tunnel walls and surroundings. Whatever it had put its biomass into it hadn’t been Perception or its eyestocks, I moved around flying up my wings masking their sound with the

  The snail's eyestalks swiveled around, searching for me. I crept along the edge of the tunnel, circling behind it. When I was directly behind its vulnerable tail end, I deactivated camouflage and lunged forward with my stinger extended.

  I drove my stinger deep into the soft flesh where its body met its shell, pumping a massive dose of venom directly into its system. I slashed and hacked it spun its head around and I dove right at its mouth driving my stinger deep into its head. I didn’t know the size of exact location of its brain but the head shot took out a third of its health. On its last legs it spasmed and I slashed hacked until it finally dropped to zero.

  Dropping to the ground I looked at the creature’s soft flesh, I was not eating that. I touched its corpse analyzing it and it withered to dust as I paid the XP cost.

  I grimaced and selected no, I was not covering myself in slime regardless of whatever advantages it gave me.

  There was a gurgling from deeper in the cavern and I looked up from the disintegrating corpse to see three more snails approaching. They were each half the size of the snail I had just fought. My antenna twitched as I analyzed them.

  That was just one but the other two were only a few levels higher and lower than that one. These snails had a lot less health then their monstrous brother which made me think there really must be a difference in the amount of hit points a creature gained based on their classification and it wasn’t all just based on Toughness and Level.

  The snails charged me, while they weren’t as big as the monstrous version there were three and they spit their acid in volleys and some of it splashed on my leg as I had to dodge the multiple projectiles. At least my Dodge skill was getting a lot of training and XP. My leg burned as the acid bit into it but luckily it had only been a bit of the stuff but it reinforced how important it was to not get any of it on me.

  I darted between the snails, slashing with my stinger-blade as I passed. My attacks cut through their slime coatings more easily than the larger snail, but they were still tough opponents. I focused on hit-and-run tactics, striking quickly then retreating before they could retaliate but soon most of the ground was covered in those dangerous pools of their acidic bile.

  I activated my camouflage, blending into the shadowy tunnel and used my stealth ability to darken the air around me further reducing visibility in the already dark cavern. The snails' eyestalks swiveled, searching for me. They didn’t group up which would have been the sensible thing lacking the intelligence to think that tactically. I circled behind them, looking for an opening. When I was in position I drove forward my stinger extended and dripping venom from its tip.

  My stinger plunged deep into its soft flesh where body met shell. I pumped venom directly into its system deep into its insides under where its body was protected by its shell. I figured it might have a harder time removing my venom from deeper in its body and sure enough I was right. It did expel the venom eventually, but it had already done a tremendous amount of damage by the time it did so. As the venom did damage I focused my attacks on this single snail, I slashed and hacked. The snail writhed in pain, its health dropping rapidly. The other two turned, spitting more acid and charging me. I used the dying snail as a shield, its shell faring much better against the acid then my carapace did.

  One of the snails just rammed its brother its force launching me like I’d been hit by a catapult. I lost about twenty health and grimaced. The snail died as its wounds did it in.

  I was back on my feet and rolling to the side as the two beast snails spit and charged me rearing up and slamming down. They didn’t have as much force as the monstrous snail had but it was still enough to make the ground shake. I cut at their exposed underbelly as they reared up but the risky attack nearly cost me dearly.

  One of the snails slammed down, nearly crushing me. I barely managed to roll out of the way, feeling the rush of air as its massive body crashed into the ground inches from where I had been. My heart raced as I realized how close I'd come to being flattened.

  Regaining my composure, I pushed off the ground then kicked off the wall buzzing around the snails' heads in a swooping dive to disorient them; I couldn’t really fly in here, but my wings still gave me a bit of extra maneuverability. They tracked me with their eyestalks, spitting globs of acid that I narrowly avoided. I needed to end this quickly before my luck ran out.

  Diving down, I slashed at the soft flesh of one snail's neck as I passed. It recoiled in pain, giving me an opening. I drove my stinger deep into its neck pumping venom directly into its vital organs. The snail thrashed violently, nearly dislodging me, but I held on with grim determination. I cut and hacked and it dropped as the other snail charged me.

  I kicked off the snail’s shell just as the other snail impacted it. I hung suspended in the air for one second before dropping down driving my stinger into the other snail’s head with the full weight of my body pumping in two charges of my venom directly into its brain. It spasmed and went down.

  I was getting better at fighting these snails, but I was still down to twenty-five percent of my health.

  “Wave two complete!” I crowed triumphantly.

  A rumble sounded as another monstrous snail and four of the beast snails came into view.

  “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “I didn’t mean that as a challenge!”

  Fate, karma, the system or whatever was fucking with me right now ignored me as the new threat charged me. I only had thirty-eight hit points left to me right now about thirty percent of their health. I reached into my back and grabbed one of the bottles surprised it hadn’t broken and downed the nectar in it. My health shot back up to about a hundred hit points, not full health but a lot better.

  I rolled to the side dropping the bottle and it was time to fight for my life again.

  The monstrous snail charged forward, its massive body dwarfing the beast snails around it. I took to the air, my wings buzzing as I dodged acid spit and slashing attacks from the smaller snails. The confined space of the tunnel made maneuvering difficult, but it also limited the snails' ability to surround me.

  I focused my attacks on the beast snails first, knowing from experience they were easier to take down. Darting in close, I slashed with my stinger-blade, cutting deep into the soft flesh of one snail's neck. It recoiled in pain, giving me an opening to pump venom directly into its system and I did so gripping the edge of its shell as I used it as a living shield to block the acid of the other snails. The concept of friendly fire didn’t seem to exist to the snails, and it took damage from them as well as me. The snail thrashed violently, but I held on, continuing to slash into its neck conserving my venom until it finally collapsed.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  One down four to go. I jumped up as the body of the beast snail was pulverized by the monstrous snail. I gripped the stone of the ceiling camouflage myself. I kicked off the ceiling swooping down using my momentum and speed from the kick and my wings to drive my stinger through another beast snail’s head, I got a minor bonus from my semi sneak attack but the damage was doubled due to moving at my full speed courtesy of my Stinger-Knight skill. I dropped the beast snail in that single hit, but it had been the weakest of the bunch.

  The remaining two beast snails and the monster snail were left. I dodged the globs of goo that were incoming and sprung at the next snail, it swiped with its head to bludgeon me but I pulled up and its attack missed then I struck forwards my stinger slashing up down left right into its head dropping its health to half. I jumped away unable to finish it off just yet as the monstrous snail reared up and crashed down. Its body splashed into the pools of acid across the cavern ground spraying it in a fine mist everywhere.

  I was unsure if that had been intentional, but the end result was still me getting a thick coating of acid over my entire body. It burned and ticked my hit points down. I retreated and downed another ‘health potion’ but my health was at seventy even with that healing.

  The acid burned as it ate away at my carapace, but I couldn't afford to focus on the pain or wipe if off. I had to end this fight quickly before the damage overwhelmed me. I darted towards the wounded beast snail, determined to take it out of the fight.

  As I approached, the snail reared up, preparing to slam down on me. At the last second, I veered to the side, letting its massive body crash into the ground beside me. In that moment of vulnerability, I struck. My stinger plunged deep into the soft flesh of its neck, pumping venom directly into its system then I gave it a few slashes, putting it out of its misery as it took out its bit of remaining health.

  I charged the last remaining beast snail dodging its spit then tore into its face. I sliced off an eye stalk and moved in close using my daggers to add to the damage. While my secondary limbs were weak, and I had specialized into parrying and not doing damage with them but still every point counted. I cut and used three venom charges leaving me with only eight remaining and those I’d need for the monstrous snail.

  I jumped up dodging the swipe of the monstrous snail’s shell and it sent the corpse of its fallen friend flying. I slashed at the snail taking off an eye stalk, but it retracted its other eye stalk leaving just its eyeball poking out as it protected its remaining eye stalk. The snail and I stopped surveying each other for a moment. I couldn’t read snail body language and truthfully didn’t even know if these creatures were capable of feeling emotion, but it seemed to me as if the snail exuded hatred for me.

  I knew I had to end this quickly. My venom charges were running low, and my health was steadily decreasing from the acid damage. The snail seemed to sense my desperation, its massive body tensing as it prepared to attack.

  We moved simultaneously. The snail reared up, its body rising to tower over me as it prepared to slam down with crushing force. At the same time, I launched myself forward, wings buzzing as I aimed for the soft underbelly exposed by its attack.

  Time seemed to slow as we both committed to our attacks. I saw the snail's body beginning to descend, knew that if it hit me I’d go down in one hit. I rolled through the air performing an aerial dodge. Its body hit the ground filling the air with acid spray but I used its own shell to shield me from most of the corrosive rain. I flipped up over its neck onto its shell. It began to thrash rolling but I held on and slashed at its neck driving my stinger deep with each attack and expending another charge of poison.

  One attack, it rolled and shook. Three attacks it slammed into the wall trying to dislodge me nearly succeeding. Six attacks it thrashed as agony overwhelmed it. Eight attacks and my venom was gone. Its spasmed and then went down and I slid to the ground being careful to land in a non acid covered section of ground.

  “At least its done,” I panted reaching out an analyzing the monstrous snail for the cost of three-hundred-and-forty-two XP.

  “I definitely will,” I muttered to myself. “But not here.”

  “What the hell did he just do?” a voice said behind me.

  I spun around. Two humanoids, more of those ground-beetle humanoids stood there pickaxes on their back and a ground beetle beast behind them its back loaded with wooden crates.

  “He just destroyed that snail with a single touch! Run we need to report this!” the other man, I’m pretty sure it was a male said.

  The ground beetles were allied with the Widows, I couldn’t let them report.

  I didn’t want to fight these guys, they weren’t a threat to me and looked like miners not hunters or warriors but my survival came before theirs. I jumped forwards and drove my stinger into the back of the first humanoid as he turned to flee.

  Their beast of burden charged me clicking its mandibles, it was even lower level and it died as I took off its head.

  “Please no!” the remaining miner said.

  “I’m sorry,” I said and killed him with a lethal strike to his face. The acid finally stopped melting my carapace and the XP for my skills finished tallying.

  I felt a bit somber but knelt down, I wouldn’t waste their deaths. I paid my favorite XP cost for analyzing, zero. With my fresh level up my XP had been reset to zero and ten percent of zero is always zero.

  I began walking from corpse to corpse analyzing each of them not accepting any of them at the moment. From the ground-beetle beast I unlocked something called Periostracum Coating, from the other humanoid I unlocked Shovel Mandibles. I went to the snails analyzing my hard won kills the biomass disappearing as their corpses withered to ash. Each time I hoped for Heavy Carapace and each time I was disappointed.

  Liquid Body (that was an automatic no for me), Aragonite Hardening, Eye Stalk (another no), and Conchiolin Matrix. I checked the rest of the cavern but it was empty. I searched the remains of the two humanoids and the wooden crates there pet had been carrying. I found some rocks that after a minute I recognized as flint and hematite.

  I gathered some of those rocks into my pack and took one of their pickaxes, it wasn’t made of metal but the carapace it was made from might have been harder then iron as I tested it. There was a shovel which I also took and strapped to my pack with a strand of silk from my spinner gland. I flew off to bulb of a flower and rested at its base. I drank some nectar to restore my health. I spent my stat points putting four into Dexterity, four into Toughness and splitting the remaining eight stat points evenly between my other stats.

  While I hadn’t gotten Heavy Carapace, I thought a good number of my options seemed viable, I couldn’t automatically tell what they did but based off where they had come from, but they all had synergy with my Praetorian Guard Carapace being some sort of shell and carapace upgrades. I crossed off Shovel Mandibles and Feeler Hairs, with the options I’d already dismissed from the snails that left Acid Gland, Periostracum Coating, Aragonite Hardening and Conchiolin Matrix.

  I decided to do the single upgrade for my venom gland before going through all those biomorphs for my carapace. I paid the cost for the Acid gland and gritted my teeth enduring as it upgraded.

  The damage was insane and the only reason I was able to take on creatures like those snails alone. I could do a couple hundred damage every few seconds. My new upgrade not only added more damage to my arsenal and a different damage type. My poisoner skill had leveled up to thirty-six and I’d gotten a new skill point, I looked forward to seeing what that would let me do later. The biggest upgrade and also eye opener was the new effect, Acid was a dangerous damage type since not only did it do damage it would also increase the damage I took from subsequent attacks by reducing my damage reduction.

  “Note to self do not make it a habit of fighting acid wielding bugs,” I muttered. “Or get some acid resistance skill.” I wasn’t sure if there was such a skill, I’d taken a lot of acid damage but hadn’t unlocked it yet but maybe it had a super high Toughness requirement in order to unlock it or was just super rare and hard to unlock.

  I paid the biomass cost for each passing out for about an hour between each upgrade as my entire body lit up with fire as the upgrades mutated my carapace. I looked over the changes when it was all done having spent a total of four hundred biomass.

  “Holy shit,” I said looking at the numbers. “One-hundred-and-forty-eight to four-hundred-and-forty-four physical damage reduction.

  I could potentially negate an attack that would one shot me. While my added durability might have made Heavy Carapace somewhat unnecessary it only fueled my desire to unlock it. I was going to become unstoppable, and nothing was going to get in my way of achieving that goal.