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Only I Level Up Recollections/After Stories

Part 1: Beru's memories

Inside a certain egg....

Before he was ready to hatch, Beru heard the voice of the Queen through the thick shell of his egg.

[For the sake of the kingdom.]

'For the sake... of the kingdom.'

[Make all the enemies blocking our path shiver in terror.]

'Make all the enemies blocking our path shiver in terror....'

He needed to become strong.

He simply had to be strong.

That was the very first duty bestowed upon Beru, still sleeping in an embryonic state. And then, the obsession of the Ant Queen wishing to build a prosperous kingdom resulted in the birth of a horrifying monster.

[Kkkieeeehhk!!]

The young soldier ant shattered the eggshell, emerged from the confines, and screeched out loudly. The ominous and terrifying murderous intent oozing out from its two eyes didn't permit any comparison to other ant monsters in existence.

The Queen shuddered. It felt a powerful surge of emotions by this creature born from its efforts.

'If it's this child, then certainly, those humans wielding strange powers will be....'

The Queen's eyes sparkled in anticipation, but even before it could issue a new order to the greatest ant soldier that triumphantly emerged from the egg, Beru felt hungry, so he did what he wanted to do.

Grab.

The wrist of one of the worker ants aiding with the hatching process got grabbed by Beru.

'.....?'

Even before the worker ant could understand what was going on, Beru simply began swallowing and chewing on the hapless monster from its head.

Crunch, crunch....

[....!!]

The Queen was greatly taken by surprise at Beru's unexpected behaviour, but it was suppressed by the powerful aura of the future king of the ants and couldn't even dare to stop him.

Beru managed to erase all traces of its kin from this world in the blink of an eye and stood proudly before his queen. The bodily fluid dripping from his mouth looked rather grotesque.

'The terror of our enemies....'

The thing was, the subject of powerful fear would also have the same effect on his own allies, as well. The Queen belatedly realised this fact and took a look around itself. The brave soldiers of the ant kingdom were shivering in fear.

The emotions they felt were transmitted in full to their Queen, the only one capable of exercising absolute control over them.

The newborn soldier definitely passed the test. As expected of the greatest soldier the Queen had produced – he was truly a masterpiece.

[Become even stronger.]

The Queen issued the next order to Beru, with an eye towards a full-scale invasion of the human's lands.

[Stronger, until none can stand in your way.]

***

Beru proceeded to devour everything on the island. When there was a shortage of food, he didn't even hesitate to devour his own kin. From tiny lifeforms on the ground like worms and larvae, all the way to large fish and aquatic mammals of the nearby ocean....

As Beru voraciously devoured every single life in front of his eyes, a new realisation dawned on him. Whether it be lifeforms possessing fatal poison or creatures with huge bodies, they all quaked in fear upon running into him.

'Survival' was the most basic, as well as the ultimate, goal of all living creatures. But, in front of an absolute being that could easily rip apart that goal into millions of pieces, the looks carried in the eyes of other lifeforms were all roughly the same.

'...'

Beru got to confirm over and over again that he was indeed at the top of the food chain, and soon, arrived at a certain conclusion.

'I am....'

I am created to be the greatest predator from the very beginning.

In that case....

Beru, submerged deep within the seawater, pushed his head out of the surface. He could see the land at the far end of the undulating ocean waves. A world different from the sea was waiting for him there.

'Just how powerful will those humans be, those that mother is greatly wary of?'

He grew quite curious – curious about if there really were powerful beings that necessitated even a top predator like him to keep a low profile, curious about if his powers would work against them.

He shifted his gaze towards the mainland several times, but...

[It is still too early.]

The Queen was capable of monitoring Beru's thoughts and its resolute voice would always stop him from acting out on his curiosity without fail.

Left with no choice, he vacantly stared at the distant land before slipping beneath the surface of the ocean again.

Indeed, he'd get to know when the time was right.

'...'

Beru heeded the Queen's orders and waited for the right time to come with bated breath. And eventually, 'they' stepped onto his land.

For the first time ever, Beru was given a chance to test out his true capabilities.

And it....

"What, what the hell are you?!"

"Uwaaaahk!!"

....Wasn't even a fight.

No, it was nothing more than one-sided hunting.

What a familiar sight it was to him.

Beru discovered 'fear' in the eyes of the dying Hunters and couldn't hide his utter disappointment.

'To fight against these weaklings, I...'

I had to wait for such a long time?

There was this smell of fear oozing out from the entire bodies of the prey. Beru got to reconfirm through these human Hunters that he still occupied the top rung in the food chain.

It was a letdown.

And so, as the lifeform standing at the apex of the ecosystem was about to define what he thought of the human race as a whole in his head...

For the first time ever, a human that didn't fear him even when standing face-to-face appeared out of the blue. Beru's heart began viciously pounding away after encountering a situation he had never experienced before.

'This human.... He's not scared of me?'

He felt it'd be somewhat of a loss to kill this human right away, so Beru tried to start a conversation.