Chapter 10 - Murdering Bats

She slaughtered them all.

It took maybe an hour or two, but within this time she had ripped and torn through all the bats that got in her way, even going as far as hunting down the ones that tried to flee and killing them as well.

She had spared none of them, as they would be her growth.

After all of this had finished she was covered in blood, a mixture of her own and that of the bats. Her own because she underestimated just how troublesome they would be.

While one bat posed her no trouble, hundreds swarming her at once with their sharp teeth and claws were bothersome— she couldn't avoid them in the small space.

They ended up getting some scratches and bites in before she could get them all dead, littering her clothingless body with small wounds.

Wounds that bleed black blood, pitch black as the darkest of nights.

Like ink dripping out of her body, the blood made a clear contrast to the normal blood of the black, and her pale white skin— yet, the wounds themselves visible starting to heal faster with time.

Yet another proof she wasn't normal.

Proof she wasn't human.

But this didn't matter to her anymore— not that it had to begin with— once the slaughter was over she felt a sense of relief that she had never felt before in her past life.

It was like she had just finished a great battle, and even though she knew she wouldn't have died from it, her body and mind couldn't help but be glad she won.

It was great— she longed for more— but now all that was left was the reward for this great battle.

Hundreds of bats to eat— yet another thing her body and mind looked forward to.

Eating the bats took longer than fighting them— hundreds of bats eaten over the period of hours with little break in between them— all raw since she had nothing to cook them with.

Yet the taste didn't matter to her if she gained more power to aid her— and gained she did.

Getting multiple new skills from all the bats she had eaten, especially a very useful one for the situation she was currently in.

Namely, night vision, which combined with her already adjusting eyes to allow her to see in the dark cave as if she was in bright daylight.

Proving to be rather useful in seeing the layout of the cave, and finding out it was much larger than she had expected, with yet another part of the cave that was blocked by large rocks.

Another skill she gained was Echolocation, which was to be expected with how many bats she ate.

The skill worked in a rather odd way, allowing her to produce a high pitch sound that would bounce off objects that it hit and return to her.

Once these sound waves returned her brain would create a map of sorts of the area that it covered, which allowed her to see the things.

See being used loosely because it wasn't sights but rather, geographic mapping.

So if she did it often enough, she would have a way to map a 20-meter rather around her easily and catch anything trying to sneak up on her.

Because currently, 20 meters was the max range of the sound. But she had ways to increase that as time went on and she got more powerful.

Plus, it's not like she would forget the already mapped area once she moved to a new place, no, it would slowly fill in and create a large map for her to use as she pleased in her mind.

The final skill she was able to decode so far from all the bats she ate was their ability to climb flat surfaces and hang upside down without issues, and while this wasn't very useful for her currently, it would be very useful for her hive.

Speaking of hive, she currently had a ton of mass saved up from all the bats she finished eating, along with the animal from before.

So if she wanted to she could make a ton of units for her hive, or she could use the mass to enhance her capabilities so that she could do stuff herself.

'What should I do?'

She thought to herself as she sat down and looked at her status screen, checking the number of mass points she had on it.

7500.

It was a lot, but it would burn out quickly once she started making hive units.

Or she could spend it all on herself and become a lot more powerful than she currently is.

'Currently I think im already pretty strong, I don't think any animal in the forest will be able to hurt me, so I don't need to worry about my own strength currently.'

She wasn't wrong, as far as she knew she was the strongest creature in this forest, and being much stronger than the average human— she also thought she would be fine outside with her current strength.

But she didn't know the truth about that just yet.

'So instead I should focus on making the hive bigger, if I can make some workers and hunters then it would provide a steady stream of mass to make more.'

Deciding that going the mimic route would be wiser, she nodded her head and sat down, ready to create the greatest hive this planet has ever seen— that is to say, she was the only hive this planet has ever seen.