Little Worm

Dying wasn't an option for Soren. 

He wanted to reach his maximum stats in this world or else he would forever be at a lower strength than the others. That was already the case after World 1's incident.

Under the beautiful sun that was letting darkness take over, Soren was seen rolling down his last few bowling rocks that were stacked from earlier.

'This is honestly just a waste of time.'

He took the largest deep breath he'd ever taken in all his lives and released.

'Better get started then.'

He quickly ran to the very end of the cliff which wasn't far to begin with and started thinking about committing suicide.

Peering into the deep expanse below he thought, 'It would save me so much trouble.'

However, that line of thinking didn't stay long. This would help him recover and set him forward. Only bringing him on par with other people, but as he was now, that was all he could ask for.

He lay on the ground, his head hanging off the ledge, careful not to let any of the Stats roll out of his shirt. 

With one swift motion, he grabbed the blade in the middle causing his hand to bleed slightly.

Not caring one bit, Soren carried the sword over the edge and under, stabbing right into the hardened dirt and stone that was beneath him.

However, the sword bounced off, further cutting into his hand, and almost forcing him to stop the sword into the void.

The ants were getting closer—the rumbling was less severe than at the start of the chase, but still prominent on the mountain.

Soren was stressed and utterly done with this situation.

"Please let me live." He said quietly with annoyance.

Feeling the same rejuvenating experience, he ignored it and immediately swung his sword at the stone underneath the cliffside again.

The sword pierced into the stone like an arrow to its target, the sword went in no more.

'This is one sturdy mountain.' He thought surprised to see it working.

Truthfully this plan wasn't set in stone until he got to the top and this was also why he hated the idea. It was based on a whim that if it worked, he would be safe. If it didn't only death awaited.

The ants were only a few feet behind him now, their mandibles opening with a destructive aura. 

Looking back briefly, Soren decided it was time to go.

'GO ALREADY.'

Yelling internally at himself, his body moved forward off the edge of the cliff. The ants were rather confused as to why this prey was committing suicide instead of trying to fight. 

No matter, they would still try to reach him.

Soren slid off the cliff like a worm. Should any human see this they'd probably laugh. It was a comical sight, where one laughed at another's misfortune.

Messed up as it was, it remained present anyway.

'This better work.'

As he was falling off, Soren slowed his momentum by pressing his body to the mountain. 

And then, his entire body fell off and swung far to the side, his feet slamming into the mountain. However, the sword stayed lodged in and didn't fall out.

His strength wouldn't cause him to fall as it was lifted again 5 times. 

The angle at which he stabbed the sword into the mountain made it to where it wasn't just a straight cut in. No, the sword was in the mountain cliff slanted, further reducing the chance for it to fail him.

Realizing he wasn't going to fall to his death, Soren released his grip for only a single second and as his hand got to the handle, he grabbed.

Now his hand wouldn't uncomfortably be on the blade anymore.

The ants tried stopping, realizing they weren't fast enough but the front two still ended up falling. Their limbs ran amok in the air and then they locked eyes, if you could call them that, with Soren.

They couldn't show emotion, but there was clear hatred burning within.

"Oh stop acting so mad, you tried ganging up on me."

After that, he hung there. Hanging by his one hand. Staring into the forest that had nothing for miles. 

The ants that were still above hadn't moved yet, still wondering if he would pop back up or not. To their dismay, nothing happened. 

They had heard something coming from over the cliff sounding something like. "Please let me live."

It occurred a few times with all the ants just waiting. 

15 minutes passed and they decided they could find better prey. Their numbers were reduced which was going to hurt them, but they'd live.

Soren could hear the rumbling of the army ants descending the mountain. When they passed their dead comrades, he could hear a wooshing sound.

'They're pushing off the dead ants? What is that, some kind of memorial?'

The sound of the bodies slowly got quieter as they fell further. Eventually, the whooshs stopped completely.

'Stupid bastards. Thankfully I got some Stats beforehand. Though it's too bad I can't use them yet. '

He had begged for his life a few times while hanging from his sword. The words he spoke held no meaning to him anymore. 

If anything it was an annoyance. However, if he was by himself, there would be no problem gaining 5x strength.

He couldn't allow himself to say those words around other people as they should never hear about him being for his life. 

'I just want their abilities and everything they have.' Soren thought solemnly. 

He didn't dare move yet. The ants may have left and gone down, but who's to say they won't settle at the bottom of it for the night? 

'Surely they wouldn't do that, right? Well from what I know, some army ant species sleep at night and some sleep in the day. Although they were sleeping when I first saw them that means they should hunt at night.' 

This is what he concluded.

Surprisingly, his environmental science degree was coming in handy in this world. While not everything aligned with Earth, he could still use some of the information in these situations. 

Soren decided to stay there as long as he could. He was tired and wanted to sleep. His muscles burned and his lungs were still strained since he was holding his entire body in one hand.

He waited 30 minutes. That was when he could feel that he would start to lose his concentration. 

Deciding to go back up, he hesitated.

The way up, was by no means easier than it was getting down. It required him to not mess up and to be fast. 

'I never really had good coordination. Well, maybe it's different now that my stats are higher. '

With that, he started judging his likelihood of surviving.