After I the bugs consumed the wolfs corpse in a frenzy, I finally got my little foot back. As I am currently sitting here waiting while the bugs slowly patch me up again, I ponder and start to reflect on that messy fight I just had participated in. I notice that I made many mistakes that are easy to prevent.
While it is a necessity to hone my fighting skills it is quite unwise to disregard the bugs inside of me. Neither did I have any kind of weapons on hand nor did I have any plan of what happening around me. I took too many wounds that ended up lowering my fighting capability. Even though I can even heal wounds that are deadly for a normal person, I am not able to do so during combat. Diving headfirst into battle is a fool-prove plan if I want to die without a grave. In the end, my survival was just a simple matter of luck.
All things I just mentioned are the mistakes I made during combat. But even before the fight started I could have scouted the area, seeking a good place to fight. I could have learned the specific behaviour pattern, could have searched for knowledge regarding their fighting style. After all, the most fearful enemy is the one you do not know of. If I want to be able to contend with humans, I have to be able to last against animals that just rely on instinct alone.
On the other hand just punching a tree over and over again is not making me a good fighter, it just enables me to strike harder and more often. Even though my skin is tenacious, I still am too slow, my actions too sloppy and my attack pattern to predictable. I have to train my whole body if I do not want to leave any weaknesses behind. In general, I need to learn more about the limits of my body.
Those were the mistakes I made before the fight even began. Now I am sitting here, rooted to the spot, where my bugs slowly connect my detached limbs. There is no way, I am currently able to fight more than 1 enemy in my human form and even if I barely win the fight, I am totally screwed if another enemy appears. I am just lucky that I am currently in the outskirts of the wolves territory. The one I killed was likely an outcast, that got discarded from the pack after he was too old to hunt. If II had cluelessly marched on, I probably would have ended up as a meal.
After listing up every mistake that came to my mind during the thought process, I start to think about possible solutions to the problems I currently face. To improve my fighting, I need to start with a different training. Instead of punching a tree for eternity, I need to do exercises that strengthen my whole body. So adding to the push-ups and crunches, I will start to run to increase my endurance, squats to strengthen my legs. And to increase the general flexibility and mobility of muscles stretches need to be done as well. And for the finetuning exercises that strengthen my sense of balance are a must.
This should be enough for a balanced training program. Now, for the time being, I will count how many bugs are currently inside of me, to have a good grasp at the number of bugs. It took a while, so I ordered them to hunt me a mouse. I will count how many mice they bring with them. The bugs get stronger and I can count them, though I have to make sure that the bugs only enter and not come out again. Nobody likes skewed data, especially if it could end up costing your life.
While the bugs were busy acting like a pest control, I came to the conclusion that the knowledge of animals in my former world can only remotely compared to this world. After all this one evolved with mana particles, I have no clue what kind of effect this could have had. Judging by the things I fought against, mana influences the growth potential by a wide margin. When even an ant can reach a size close to a human being, then my former knowledge can be considered obsolete. This forces me to conduct several experiments and tests to deduce how much this world differs.
My current options are to watch them from a distance and to categorize their behaviour or scout with them my bugs. But the best way to learn about their underlying nature is to cut them open and see their inner workings. If I can get my hands on a strong sedative, I can operate on a living organism as well. Well, I can do that even without a sedative, but keeping it still seems to be quite a pain once those monsters become much bigger than me. I should have watched some videos about those creatures when I had the chance. Anyway, it's useless to cry over spilt soup,
Even though hand to hand combat is important, it is necessary to train and use weapons as well. The human form is very weak, relying on weaponry to close the gap is a good idea. The question is what to use as a potential weapon. I am unable to make a weapon out of the bones of a normal monster after all those monsters respawn after a certain time period. I could try to create a makeshift weapon, that launches projectiles at the enemy. As ammunition, I could use the rocks that can be found everywhere and the bugs silk can be strong if strengthened enough to function as a slingshot.
Even though string may not be suited to be a melee weapon but it can be used as a garrote wire. Even though it is not based on carbon fibre, I am quite curious what kind of results I can expect.
Suddenly I had an epiphany, there it was the perfect weapons that can be used for short or medium ranged combat. But if this kind of design really is feasible, I might have to train really hard to be able to control this kind of weapon. A wolf would be the perfect target for testing out the limits of such a makeshift weapon.
So I began to prepare my weapons for my rematch with the wolf. Searching for rocks all over the place, I began to search for rocks until I had enough to launch many attacks. Afterwards, I began to search for the biggest rock I could lift. Sadly there was not even a single rock to be found in this forest. I mean if I could lift a boulder I would have done so. Well seems like I will die first before I could find a suitable rock. So I have to somehow get a perfect fit for me out of this giant boulder.
Waiting for it to erode, would take way too much time. High expanding cement, would totally work for me, still, I don't have any of it. Seems like I am powerless to do this on my own. I will have to gamble whether my bugs can bite through this stone. Touch the uneven surface of the boulder, I began to search for the biggest crevice.
But then I noticed it, the one thing I forgot. When I began my search, not even a single bug had returned to me and I did not even teach them to return to me. I have always been at the same place during my practice with them- I just hope they not get caught by other creatures or players, they are not yet ready for the big stage.
How should I even try to find them again, I have no clue where the hell I am, it is not like I can just call them by name like dogs. And even if they come to me by recognizing my smell, it can not have an effective range of several kilometres. Especially if we have been moving in opposite directions.
I ordered any buy inside of me to come out again and again but not a single bug came. I kept on repeating the order, I did not want to admit that there was not a single bug left inside of my body. After nearly losing my sanity, a single bug came out of my mouth and began to crawl onto my left hand. It was silver and nearly twice the size of a normal bug. It looked at me with curiosity as if it is demanding to know why I was in such a panic.
Pointing at the rock I ordered it to start digging. It just stared at me with big eyes questioning whether I seriously just demanded such a dumb thing. After making sure I was really not joking, it did not hesitate and turned around to walk back into my mouth, like nothing ever happened.
I was left baffled, till now there was not a single bug who blatantly refused my order and was intelligent enough to understand me without any problem. Besides this is the first time I have seen a bug as big as that. So this means that most likely this is the queen that nested inside my body. But they are supposed to be my subordinates. After the newborn hope was crushed in its infancy, I began to think about all the options I currently have and had to realize, that there was nothing I could do besides staying here training and hoping for my bugs to return to me.
While I was training, I began to furiously berate myself for being such a dunce and why the hell I had such a severe case of idiocy and about the queens refusal to dig in the boulder, All I need to secure my survival, is a strong silk and 2 heavy rocks I can lift, It is not like I asked for world peace. I am her host and my survival should be the highest priority. But no, that's beneath my dear queen. How does her subject even dare to bring up such a task?
As if the queen noticed being berated she reappeared at once standing on my hand looking furiously into my eyes. It was like she was ordering me to stop sulling her name, otherwise, I would have to suffer the consequences. But It is just a little bug, why should I be considerate of her, I killed a wolf even without the help of the bugs.
My first misconception was to overestimate my fighting capabilities after winning the fight against the wolf.
The second misconception was to severely underestimate the anger of a prideful queen that got insulted.
Just as I was about to speak another word, the queen began to sting into my body without any kind of warning and a muscle relaxant began to spread in my whole body. I did not expect her to start with such a serious attack, without waiting for the results to settle in the queen began to bite me all over the body to further spread the venom. The queen was looking at me with a gloating gaze. Waiting for the anger to appear in my eyes. But the queen would end up waiting for a long time because her enemy fell asleep.
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How does her host dare to sully her name, does he not know how high of an honour it is to carry her and her colony around and yet he even was dreaming of her being his subordinate. Yet I could not t rejoice, as he was about to realize his dependence on us, he just fell asleep. This is so infuriating.
I hate to agree with him, but I am not yet strong enough myself to ensure my and his survival. Seems like I have to ask my newborn children to dig 2 suitable heavy rocks for him. With all the silk that was needed for building such a stupid weapon, she felt that she can say goodbye to any energy she had saved.
So my dear children started digging and find my food. I am in dire need of energy if I want to make this moron's dream a reality.
That marked the start of a project that would end up creating a very messy situation and create lots and lots of unwanted attention.