A lone centipede lay in a puddle of water, unmoving; the sound of dripping water echoed within the darkness of the caverns.
All of a sudden, the seemingly dead centipede roused awake, silently wriggling as if struggling in a panic. 'Where!? Where am I!?' The centipede's thoughts were loud yet all that came out was the quiet clicking of mandibles.
'Why's it so dark!? Did I die..?' For a moment, the insect froze before shaking its head.
'No..no way. If that's the case, why do I still have consciousness…and why can I move?' the centipede turned its head left and right, trying to make out its surroundings.
'It's too dark-,' a sudden bright light went off in the distance, blurry. The centipede crawled closer, trying to take a better look. Nothing changed other than the light growing brighter.
'Could it be other people?' It turned the corner, the figures of two creatures coming into view. No…not two creatures but one.
It stared blearily into a pair of large, golden eyes that were at least the size of a large hill. It was almost like it was staring into his mind.
The insect fell backwards, scared; an oppressive aura pushed down against it.
What was that!? Just where the hell did it end up!? The centipede turned around, skittering across the mossy floor as fast as he could, away from the light and deeper down the cavern. It wasn't until several minutes passed that it stopped to catch its breath.
Something was very wrong. It noticed it from the beginning as it was 'walking', but that 'thing' had confirmed its suspicions.
It wasn't on Earth. At least, the one it knew. The centipede looked down, trying its best to make out its figure. Of course, it couldn't see. How could it when it was so dark; its sense of sight was currently severely deteriorated. The centipede could barely even make out the pair of eyes that had been staring straight at it earlier.
Still, it could feel what felt like hundreds of limbs, and unconsciously, it flicked its antennae while its mandibles clicked and clacked. Just from this information alone, it could understand it was an insect. A centipede.
It tilted its head in thought. 'Didn't centipede's have at most 100-200 legs or something? It feels like it's around 500…' Its head bobbed, as if shaking its head.
It just saw a giant pair of eyes that probably belong to a ginormous creature at least the size of a skyscraper. Mutated animals and insects shouldn't be that surprising.
Just then, the centipede felt another presence nearby with the help of its antennae. Quickly, it hid behind a large boulder right beside it, fearful. Was the giant monster coming after it? Another mutated beast!? The first option didn't seem plausible.
Something that large would surely make the ground shake just from a single step. Then…a mutated beast? It peaked its head over, flicking its antennae left and right, feeling out its surroundings.
It was small. At least, much smaller than the 'Titan'. The creature's legs skittered across the ground similarly to the centipede, yet quieter with less legs. The centipede could clearly hear snapping claws, the sound reverberating off the walls.
It realized, as it crazily felt out its surroundings, it could see a vague silhouette in the distance. 'A scorpion?' The size difference between them was too large, the arachnid likely not having gone through a mutation.
The centipede instantly felt safer seeing that as it slowly approached the small creature.
The scorpion hissed in defense, afraid of the approaching insect. In its perspective, the centipede was obviously the predator and it was the prey. It snapped its claws at them, using its long, spiked tail to try and intimidate the much bigger being.
The tail hit the centipede's carapace as both parties froze. 'Ahhhhh! I forgot about that! Thank goodness my shell is strong!' Were the thoughts pouring into the centipede's head.
How could it be so careless! It just finally came to terms that it was likely reincarnated as a centipede on some kind of alternate Earth or something, and yet let its guard down so quickly!
The scorpion had different thoughts. Well, not really any thoughts as it had no sentience, but it instinctively felt afraid for its own life. Its best defense and offense had failed it.
The scorpion's legs gave out as it accepted its fate. It was already injured trying to escape a mutated rat. It could never escape the more fearsome rat-eating centipede before it.
Said centipede tilted its head in confusion, practically feeling the creature's resignation. For a moment, it pondered why it didn't run but another realization came to mind.
'Is it injured?' That was a possible explanation. The scorpion's movements had felt unnaturally sluggish since earlier. A sudden screech from behind startled them both.
Unconsciously, the centipede wrapped itself around the scorpion, defensively straightening its body in a way to make itself look bigger than it actually was; it was reminiscent of a snake curling its body in self defense.
'What the hell am I doing…?' It sweat, metaphorically. Why didn't it just hide? Why wrap around the scorpion!? At this point, it seemed to have been enlightened. The previous centipede's consciousness is still there, inside of the current consciousness.
It could instinctively feel if beings are prey or hunters. With that in mind, the centipede became slightly more confident. The screeches became louder and closer. It was sure that if it were a predator, its body would've unconsciously run in the other direction, similarly to its previous situation.
Right now, it was acting as if it were a king. A bit ironic, but who would be dumb enough to reprimand an insect? It seemed it wanted to protect its prey from whatever courageous being wanted to come forward and take its food.
Not that it..he, intended to eat them. Becoming an insect was tolerable but eating one? He felt like puking at the thought. No way in hell. Nuh uh.
Soon enough, he could make out the silhouette of a rat, its body covered in what seemed like sharp rocks. 'A mutated rat?' He hissed, hitting his mandibles against each other.
If there was any light, one could see the foamy saliva dripping down the rodents maw, likely from dehydration, its body not in any better condition. The rat stepped back, intimidated, but its desperation took over, primal instincts over fear.
The rodent lunged forward, opening its mouth wide as it bit down hard. The centipede couldn't dodge with the scorpion in tow, feeling a wild burst of pain as purple blood began to pour from the fresh wounds.
'Dammit!' He thought his shell would have enough defense but it seems he overestimated himself. A gargled screech soon echoed off the walls. Surprisingly not his own, but the rats.
Purple vapors rose to the air as the rats' saliva turned a shade of lilac, falling to the ground. Its body twitched, its brain malfunctioning from the pain as its body was rocked with seizures.
The centipede took a step back, feeling several potholes as he did. Was his blood acidic? He looked down, flicking his antennae to no avail. As he thought. His sensory abilities still weren't perfect.
Still, from what he could tell, his blood was likely a potent poison; poisonous enough to melt the ground.
Several seconds passed as the small whines of the rat began to fade away into nothing. The cavern grew quiet once more as he unwrapped himself from the scorpion.
"Ding!" A sudden notification sound echoed within his mind, causing him to jump. 'The hell!?' What was it now!? The scorpion also jerked back with his movements, scared that it would be next.
[Congratulations, host! Synchronization rate has reached 100%!]
[You have killed 1x Prehistoric Obsidian Rodent]
[You have gained 1 Evolution Point]
[For killing your first mob, you have obtained access to the inventory!]
[You have have been given x3 Enhanced Obsidian Shards]
The flood of notifications filled his eyes…mind? He couldn't see so he assumed it was in his head?
It was confusing but he could easily understand what was happening. Reincarnation, a system, evolution points. This was his golden finger, was it not? At least, that's the term for cheats, right?
He turned his head slowly towards the scorpion. 'Maybe I should kill it too?'
[Prerequisites for gathering: Mutated creatures]
He clicked his tongue. So it seems that scorpion would be of no help. He crawled a bit closer, observing the shaking arachnid.
Well, it doesn't seem so bad? Maybe he could keep it as a companion while he tries to find a way out of here? Emergency food? Ugh...
Just as he was about to move on, he finally noticed a certain word on the screen that made his mood drop to the negatives.
'Wait…prehistoric?' What…timeline was he in? He sighed mentally. Thinking about that wasn't going to get him anywhere. What would be, is to keep exploring. He was determined to find a way out of here.
Ignoring the arachnid, he was once more about to move on when another notification screen popped up.
[Tip: Eating the corpses of mutated creatures may have a low chance to gather extra materials, points, and skills]
He turned around with a ferociousness in his eyes like no other. It was just a rat…nothing like a bug! Steak..he'll just think of it as steak!
With a solid mind, he dove in. The scorpion watched in hunger as the centipede devoured the corpse. It looked delicious in its eyes despite the fact it still had acid blood in its system and melted organs.
There was a crunch and the creature finally came back to its senses. It needed to get out of here first! What if it's next!? Instead of running, it instead followed its instincts, reaching out a claw from behind the centipede.
Said insect was unaware of the approaching figure, only looking up when he felt the claw tap his carapace delicately.
He turned around, his face full of a strange mix of purple and red blood. The scorpion tapped his carapace again before longingly looking at the rat.
For a moment, he was concerned about the acid, and another, he didn't exactly want to share…but if he wanted a pe-...a companion, the least he could do was feed it.
He crawled aside, unbothered as he checked out the new notification.
[You have gained +0.1 Evolution Point]
[You have gained the skill Bite]
A new skill. It didn't seem that impressive at first glance but reading the description, he realized maybe it wasn't so bad after all.
[Bite]
[Desc: 5% chance that your next bite attack will have a 50% increase in damage. 25% if you are on the verge of death]
[Lvl. 1]
The chance was low but a 50% increase in damage was nice. It may save him in a moment of need. It was likely what the rat used in order to break through his hard shell.
He subconsciously knew there was no way an attack like that would've gotten through without it either.
A screech made it's way into his practically non-existent ears as he quickly looked behind him.
'The scorpion-!?'
To be continued…