A bit of exploring

[ Upgrades available ]

I looked at the panel in front of me and clicked on it.

…

[ Host can receive the following upgrades. ]

[ Strengthen muscles ]

[ Poison resistance ]

[ Increase durability of your Carapace. ]

[ Mild irritation poison evolves in to Slow decaying poison ]

[ Does host wish to merge with modifications YES/NO]

Without even thinking twice I pressed yes, oh how I wish I hadn't because and blinding pain struck my entire body. I wanted to scream but only clicking sounds came from my mandibles.

" God it hurts so much, make it stop! "

After what felt like an eternity the pain subsided and cold relief washed over my body. When I was able to stand in I could feel the increase in power and my Carapace looked sturdier and sharper.

Summoning my interface I saw that my attack force drastically increased to 30 and my exp bar increased to 10/25.

After admiring my new found strength a thought popped into my mind. Shouldn't these monsters have cores like the ones in novels?

I dug around the chest of the scorpion and right under its heart I found a small jagged red stone that pulsated a red hue. Putting the stone between my mandibles I crushed it, a stream of energy flowed into my body and washed away all my fatigue.

[ Attack Force +10, Exp 5+]

I was expecting that there were going to be rewards so I wasn't really surprised. Seeing as though it was getting late I decided to retire for the day.

…

Three days have passed and nothing of great interest has happened. I had done some more scouting and got a decent lay of the land. My base was located close to the middle of the Ashen Forest as I call it. I even discovered areas that were various beast clans who call this land home.

Anyway I decided it was about time I got something to eat. I had finished eating all of the scorpions so I had to go out and hunt but I had found one of the easiest prey to hunt. After stealthy crawling through the white grass covered terrain I came upon a patch of tail grass.

Climbing one of their long stems I gazed at my new prey. Happily munching on the leaves of the plant was a chubby green caterpillar. It paid no attention to my presence as I silently crawled towards it.

Only when I was a few inches behind it did it see me and tried crawling away, I could see the fear in its black eyes. I didn't rush after it and slowly followed it, I don't know why but seeing its fear made me excited. Man this predator thing is getting to my head.

When the caterpillar had been cornered on the tip of the leaf we lock eyes with each other and before it could make any drastic actions I used my appendage to stab straight through its skull.

[ You killed a young caterpillar: 6 Exp ]

"The weak should fear the strong.", is what I would have said but I knew that I would have probably died from cringe so I just grabbed the caterpillar with my mandibles and started making my way home.

Since I had some time I decided it was time to learn how to fly. Thinking about it, a wasp that can't fly is technically just a scary ant, back onto the topic. My wings had dried the other day and it was time to try them out.

Flapping my obsidian colored wings they soon turned into a blur, I rose three centimeters before losing balance and tumbling to the floor.

I continued to repeat the process and after a few hours I was able to hover for a couple seconds without falling, now that's what I call progress. Bet you didn't pick up the sarcasm.

Shaking my head to dispel the negative thought I continued to train until the sun went over the horizon. The next morning I decided to journey northwards. I saw some rocks shaped like swords, some more sword shaped rocks and in the distance I could see a giant sword shaped boulder. With the amount of swords I saw I was wondering how I hadn't noticed so many of them, it looked like a massive war had happened long ago.

After a few more minutes of crawling I saw a large pond with a great polearm sticking out of it.

The water was crystal water and looked very enticing, moving closer to its surface I got to see my reflection . For a wasp I look very cool and menacing, also I was not the brightest at math but I could roughly say that I was around five inches tall which was to be fairly unnatural for a wasp but I guess one doesn't consider that when truck-kun is involved.

Looking around the shore of the lake I saw a group of five ants carrying a wounding insect and heading back into the jungle. From what I noticed over the few days is that ants were pretty weak in this world as well, but they were still very coordinated. Moving closer to this group I got to see the insect they were carrying. It was a white mantis that looked intimidating as its forelegs looked like bloody scythes.

I was tempted to snatch it from the ants so I could merge its abilities and mutations with mine. If I was to do it I would have to move now as I couldn't wait for them to reach back to their nest.

Slowly approaching from the side I waited for the group to carry the mantis closer, just as they were going to pass me I lunged at the two that were in the back and used my forearm like a sword and attacked them right in the eyes.

They died and didn't even know what killed them, the other three ants were now aware of my presence and all charged at me. I used an old strategy that all gamers should know, I started moving in circles around the group while attacking any openings I saw. After a while the ants became tired and confused, that's when they went in for the kill.

Using my mandibles and stinger I quickly ended their short lives, after taking a short break I started eating the ants and their cores.

[ Upgrades available ]

[Requirements for evolution have been met ]

"Nice, I can finally evolve, I hope it's not as painful as the modification process."

After taking a glance at my rewards I decided to go home first. The journey was harder than I thought as carrying the mantis was almost twice my height, was not an easy feat, those ants made it look easy. When I just put the mantis down in my borrow I felt a twitch on my back and my instincts told me to dash away.

Dropping the mantis I quickly went to the other end of the borrow and looked at my prey that was supposed to be dead. The mantis, still wounded from the battle , tried to stand on its hindlegs but was too weak to do so.

The mantis was in a pitiful state, I still wanted the mutations but something was telling me not to kill it. Taking up the fat caterpillar I had saved since yesterday I slowly placed it in front of the mantis, the mantis looked at it and hesitantly started. To eat.

"Eat up, because you're not going to live here for free. When you get healthy I'm going to work you to the bone."

While the mantis was eating I decided to check out my upgrades.

[ Host can merge the following upgrades. ]

[ New skill earth sense can be merged with keen sense to create skill; Eye of the sand eater (Rare): this will help users sense a wide area in the earth around them without the use of sight. 1mp per 30 seconds]

[ Host has unlocked a hidden trait of the Black earth ants; Mental link: the user can establish a mental link with others and can speak telepathically with targeted individual.]

[ Host will gain better mana capacity and increased affinity with earth magic.]

[ Does host wish to merge YES/NO ]

Taking a deep sigh I pressed the yes option, it was a small price to pay for me surviving longer in this world. After enduring the pain I tried out the earth sense skill, my vision turned white and I could see the outlines of the world around me, my field of vision increased as I could even see a rock outcrop outside of my borrow.

After testing the skill out some more I decided to open the evolution window and see my options.

…

[ Available evolution options]

[ Adult Jade Wasp (Class:Beast): The peak maturity of a jade wasp with enhanced stats and abilities. The user will also unlock earth magic]

[ Dark Obelisk Hornet (Class:Tainted): A forgotten race of monsters, these creatures fly in swarms that cover heaven and their presence carries the seven hells. The user will gain a carapace that is resistant against physical and magic attacks. Also the user will also unlock variant magic: Iron.]

…

I was dumbfounded, how the hell did I get such a busted evolution this was practically cheating.

[ The system will assist in the process of evolution to give the host the best options in order to get stronger]

Well what do you know, the system actually replied, I always thought it was just there to show the interface.

[ Well that's because you didn't have enough brain cells to find out all the features of the system]

"Oh a feisty one I like that."

[ -_- ]

Anyways I obviously chose the hornet and the system told me that I would evolve when I fall asleep. My new roommate had finished eating and was just staring at me, "Seeing that we'll be seeing each other often, why don't I give you a name?'

The mantis gave no response and continued to look at me. I had an idea and tried the mental link skill.

"How about Mizūmi seeing that I first saw you at the lake."

There was no response for a few minutes and just as I was starting to wonder if the skill had failed I heard a horse but mature voice.

"I…. accept the name, elder sister"

Just as I was about to say something I felt a weird energy leave my body and my surroundings got blurry but before I completely lost consciousness the system chimed.

[ Soul bound has been established with "Mizumi" ]