Chapter 1 - Don't Play With Fire
The cold night wind blew in the cover of the dark skies which had stars fixed on it like those lights on a Christmas tree. The trail of the wind passed through the clothes hanged on a rope for drying, continuing till it entered a room where a fat man with black hair and eyes sat on a chair while operating his computer.
"Shit, I need to fill out this resignation form so that I can have time to work at LeFronces for $70 per hour. That hellhole called Hewlettes only pays me $57 per hour", the man said as he wrote his name and position on the form.
In a very half-hazard way, the man wrote out his name 'Luke Patrick' and his position of waiter. He continued to fill out the form - date of birth, place of birth, etc. until he reached the end which read that he would be paid pension if he worked for fifteen years. Immediately as he saw this, he threw his computer on the floor from all the stress. He was enraged, his anger seemed to be increasing every second but then he brought out his pills - Lopewin. Lopewin is a pill which was popular for its effect which neutralised the nerves and made one sleepy, one pill was enough for one to consume but Luke put up to seven in his hand before taking the pills. Lopewin had a bitter taste which was said to help neutralise the taste of the consumer and many were advised to take it with water so as to prevent it from neutralising the heart, stopping the pumping of blood into the body. As soon as Luke had taken the pills, he fell down straight with his head first. His posture was weird but after hours of lying motionless, Luke was confirmed dead by the police as they traced the market of drug dealers directly to him.
"The pills had stopped his entire organs from functioning" were the exact words of a doctor. "But the thing that killed him was stress" was the conclusion of the doctor. Many would expect a funeral service to be held for Luke but nothing happened as his death was insignificant to everyone.
On the otherhand, Luke seemed to have survived as he opened his eyes to see bees flying left and right. He was in shock as he couldn't understand what was going on until he saw himself in a mirror, a bee stood in front of him and he realised that he was a bee. Days later after becoming a bee, Luke had completed his education and began working as a honey bee. Bees had different classes - queen bee, army bee, worker bee, honey bee and pollination bee. The queen bee ruled the hives and as well bore the bees, the army bees defended the hive from enemies, the worker bees built structures in the hives and also took care of the queen, the honey bees produced the honey with the nectar gotten by the pollination bees, and the pollination bees gathered pollen grains and pollinated flowers and also brought back nectar for the production of honey. He had easily adjusted to the life of a bee but he realised that he was not living life to the fullest as he had a daily routine which was wake up, make honey and sleep. So that day as he was making the honey, he tasted it violating the 'Bee Code: 127993 - D'. 'Bee Code: 127993 - D' stated that any bee who tasted the honey before the queen shall be hanged to death. Due to the violation of the code, Luke was carried before the queen for her verdict. However, because of Luke being a king candidate he was instead exiled for five hundred and seventy days.
King candidates were bees who were seen as king material because of their knowledge, reputation and hardwork. Luke had become reputable as he climbed up the ranks in the honey making business in hours. To become king meant being eaten by the queen which was a big honour to the male bees. Luke was not interested in becoming king as he didn't want to die because he allowed himself to be eaten up.
Back to his exile, guards escorted Luke outside the hive's walls and watched him as he flew away in great speed. Luke flew above a big lake admiring its beauty before a lizard-like creature emerged from the lake. Luke was in shock but he didn't overreact as he could easily analyse it.
[Appraisal]: That is a Fire Salamander, it is a member of the Reptilia family. From its name, its skills are explained. It possesses the ability to breath out fire and it has both fire and heat resistance.
Luke watched as it stepped closer to him before he used some reserve energy from [Energy Reserve]. [Energy Reserve] is a skill which stores the energy of its user in a subspace which only the user has access to. With the little energy, Luke flew towards the fire salamander which simply used its tail to hit Luke. From just one hit, Luke's HP fell from 100 to 56.
[Status]:
HP - 56/100
Lvl - 2
XP - 23/100
Skills - [Devouring], [Energy Reserve], [Extra Stomach] and [Final Sting]
Luke immediately flew up from the attack after taking in so much damage but he was still prepared to fight. Before he knew it, the salamander began to breath out fire trying to burn Luke. Even though the flames were much, Luke stayed still so that he could attain new skills. While staying still, Luke was digesting some flames moving them to his other stomach created through [Extra Stomach]. After some time of bearing the flames, Luke stopped feeling pain from the salamander's attack and so he counterattacked with the flames in his [Extra Stomach]. Even though the salamander had [Fire Resistance] and [Heat Resistance], it wasn't resistant to burns so Luke roasted it alive in the process of his counterattack
[Status]:
HP - 200/200
Lvl - 3
XP - 156/200
Skill - [Fire Resistance], [Heat Resistance], [Burn Resistance], [Devouring], [Energy Reserve], [Extra Stomach] and [Final Sting]
Luke looked at his meal - roasted salamander and dug in. He tore the flesh of the lizard and began devouring it.
"Notice: The skills of the fire salamander are being transferred into your body due to the effect of [Devouring]"
As soon as the notice ended, the skills of the lizard were transformed into data which were inputed into Luke. These data were later turned back to skills which Luke acquired. This process took place in femtoseconds.