-4th Floor-
By the end of it, I had killed more 45 roaches, 200 ants, 15 flies, and 4 larvae, before I was done with the 4th floor and reached the teleportation pad to the 5th floor as a level 11.
-5th Floor-
In this world, there are a lot of specifics and new terminologies to make it easier to understand and differentiate things, a truly make them unique in a way, so that generalization doesn't end up taking over and meaning is lost. The same thing can be said about fear. There are many fears of many different things and each is more specific than the last one, but even with all that in mind, if we truly want to be honest, at its core, there exists only one true fear that defines them all.
The fear of the unknown.
Some think that it's not the case, but once you stop to think, you realize that all fear stems from some sort of lack of knowledge and or understanding of a concept at some level.
In order to accept things, we must first understand them, though the same can't be said about rejecting those same things. You can reject something you don't understand and you can also reject that same thing after coming to understand it, as maybe it doesn't go in line with your vision of the world or you just can't accept it because of the environment you inhabit. Whatever the reason, the point is that even without understanding something, actually especially when you don't understand something, you will reject it.
Fears work in a similar way, you're afraid of being physically hurt, because you don't know how that might affect you. Yes, pain is part of the fear, but it is so because you don't know how much pain it will be, and whether you can take it. You're afraid of the dark cause who knows what's in there? You're afraid of the future as tomorrow holds only uncertainty. You're afraid of people cause you don't know what they will think of you, which in turn leads to believing in the worst. You're afraid of death as no one knows what lies beyond you or what consequences your fall might truly bring. You're afraid of repetitive patterns because they're outside of your perception of reality and how things should be, alien, and thus unknown.
At the end of the day, that lack of knowledge called the unknown is at the root of all fears.
Was the same true for monsters? That was something I never cared about.
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(Fainith's Pov)
Like on any other day, I would be doing my duty and making sure all the larvae were acting in accordance, and that all the territorial silk was properly kept, to avoid any conflicts between the four Queens, as the real enemies were those pesky, disgusting humans. They would occasionally invade our space and slaughter the lady of silk, which is my position, and the 4 Queens, though most of the time they seemed to stick to destroying any troops positioned on the lower floors as cannon fodder for our preparations.
In time, humans began to appear less and less, so unity between the current four Queens who were mostly only working together because of the constant human attacks was weakening, and the possibility of an internal war breaking off was becoming higher every day, and that was part of t the reason I could not allow myself to slack off at all. If a war was to break off as a servant of all four sides, I would be forced to choose one or die and that too could end with my death, something I did not want.
Even though I despise those inferior beings known as humans, their presence is necessary to avoid the tension and power-hungry nature of the Queens from leading to my death. So I secretly hoped humans would make a major attack, at least bad enough to distract the Queens from their internal strifes, but now as I hid in my house hopping to the makers that I would not be found, the current me wishes to slap my pasted self!
This human we were facing... He was alone! A single man! And yet his power made armies look pathetic on a different level! His every move killed tens if not hundreds! No attacks had any effect whatsoever! Worst of all... No matter how many he killed, there was no killing intent... There was just a cold empty there with a vicious smile, like a child who has no morality killing insects for fun without knowing the implications...
Yes! We are insectoid life! But we are far superior to those earth insects and to humans themselves! So why?! Why is such a monster a human?! No! How is such a thing a human?! It can't be! It looks like an inferior earth human, but it can't be one! I refuse to believe that!
I must tell myself so, otherwise, how can I live in this reality where humans are that powerful?! Not the truth! Not my truth...
All I can help for is that it does not find me... All the cockroaches, ants, flies, larvae, and now the centipedes are all being slaughtered by him! I know it! I can feel it as I lose the connection to my larvae one by one.
Please stay away from me! Please don't find my house! Please just die somehow! My thoughts were messy as I hoped that somehow, someway this being just disappeared, but I knew it didn't as I kept losing more and more larvae by the second.
These fuckin Queens! It's all their fault! If they had surrendered to the humans! This wouldn't be happening now! I don't deserve this! To die! Not yet!
Whatever I did and thought, the situation did not change. Larvae and everything else kept dying in mass, as this one creature was massacring everyone... Why is this happening?! Why are we losing?! We're superior! We are supposed to be winning! Who cursed this monster upon us?!
Aaaagggggrrgghh!! In a fit of rage, I came to destroy many things in my house.
Eventually, I calmed down... It's not the end, right? There's got to be something I can do to survive! Yes! If I pray to the makers hard enough and devotee myself, I'll definitely be able to survive... Please! Just let me live! Take everything else! As long as my life isn't taken I'll make do! Anything! Absolutely anything but death! I'm not like the others who can throw themselves at death without thinking! So if you just let me live I'll prove to be better!
... It's useless, isn't it? No matter what I do, he will kill me. That monster cares not and even goes out of its way to kill every single one of us... I'll die and there's nothing I can do about it... After all, in the end, I am worthless and will die worthless... Tears roamed down my face as I couldn't believe that I was actually going to face my end soon.
Great! I know I can't do anything about it, and it will happen, so let's at least make sure I go out painlessly. If I give myself up, I should at least receive a quick death, after all, I haven't seen the monster torture anyone so far... Yeah, it's at least better than waiting here, until the inevitable.
Just as I was getting up to leave and give myself up, the door to my house was opened, and I saw him again, now looking directly at me.
Though his appearance was human, he looked like no other human I had ever seen before. First of all, he was much shorter than I thought, but that did not change the aura that he excluded. He had long wild blue hair with purple and pink tip stripes, accompanied by blue eyebrows and eyelashes, followed by one eye purple and the other pink, all that on his dark skin complexion that was both smooth and yet so resilient. The clothing he was wearing was almost completely tattered and covered in the body fluids of my kin, but his body and physique were untouched and perfectly toned and compressed, allowing for ease and flexible movement despite his muscular disposition, as his human-looking body made me question if it wasn't instead some sort of perfect exoskeleton.
This being walked towards me, and I kneeled out of pure instinct since the being before I could only be a ruler. The thought process was only further proven right once he was closer, and his scent invaded my nostrils making me question if the pheromones of the Queens could ever smell this good, and feel this appealing. If it wasn't for the fact I was bound by the pressure he exuded to not more than a single bit, I would have already tried to taste him. Outside my control, my anus began secreting silk fluids together with mating pheromones.
"So, you're supposed to be the first boss?... You don't look too much stronger than the rest... But you are acting more intelligently... Unfortunately, that won't be enough for me to spare you." His voice was like that of a demon whispering your desires to use you.