The morning finds Asumi at the forest's edge, near the lake. Tall trees surround him, their lush canopies providing shade and coolness. The grass above his head sways gently in the breeze as he stares at the system window, contemplating his next move.
Asumi scrolls down the system window, sighing deeply. "It's been four days since I came to this world, and a lot has happened in this short time. And I've come to the conclusion: I don't know enough about this world, and that has to change if I want to get stronger." He clicks the plus icon, increasing his strength stats.
Suddenly, he notices a system message pop up. "A message, huh? What's that about?" He clicks the notification button.
[System message: Host is in grave danger from the next ant confrontation and needs to grow stronger and learn about the world around him before it's too late.]
[System reconstructing Daily Quest...]
[System: Quest Name: The Level Up. 1/3 Details: train your body and reach level 5] Task. [Borrow 10m underground 0/10] [Sprint 15m. 0/15] [Take 200 bites from a food source 0/200] [Obstacle push. 0/20].
Reward: 100 Exp Time limit: 10 hours.
Asumi stares at the system window, his antennae twitching with intrigue. "The Level Up... Quite unexpected. Well, if it's what it takes to progress, then so be it."
Then he turns his head and sees a small tree branch outside the covering trees. He walks close to it and examines its size and thickness, musing, "Hmm, I hope this works."
Then he bends his head and places it next to the branch, then pushes his legs forward, applying force.
He mused, "Come on, move!" Then it slowly starts lifting from the ground and moving, rolling forward. He looks at the quest window.
[Obstacle push. 0/20] He mused, "What, that doesn't count. Ugh, this is gonna be a long day."
Three hours later, [Obstacle push. 19/20], Asumi mused, "Feeling fatigued. Ugh, it's almost done." He grits his mandibles and pushes the tree branch, it rolls, and then the quest number moves up.
He starts panting, being under the afternoon sun, his temperature now above normal. The system prompted, "[System warning: Host temperature has gone above a certain threshold. Host, get into shelter.]"
Asumi looks at the system, nods, and replies, "Yeah, sure." Then he leaves contact and turns back, seeing the trees and shelter he left Gooper in, and starts to head back.
Then suddenly, he hears the screams of a sparrow as it gazed at him from above a tree. He mused, "Wait, that sound. Crap, I've gotta get out of here." He starts sprinting towards the hole.
The sparrow flaps its wings and flies off the tree branch, going after Asumi. Asumi sprinting on the shores sees the shadow of the sparrow looming above him.
He mused, "Crap, it's her." Asumi looks ahead and sees he was close to the shelter entrance of the trees. He mused, "Almost there."
He enters back into the shelter, quickly borrowing underground close to the tree, but that doesn't stop the sparrow.
It puts its beak into the hole, trying to pull Asumi out, then its beak grips onto a small portion of his back. Asumi's antennae twitching in fear, he mused, "Wait, what just happened?"
Then the sparrow starts pulling on his back, slowly bringing Asumi close to the surface. Asumi mused, "Crap, this bastard is persistent."
Then he looks at the edge and sees a nutrient. He bites onto it with mandibles, gripping onto it tightly. He mused, "You aren't getting me that easily."
Then suddenly, he feels his exoskeleton being pulled from right under him. He mused, "Crap, it's reaping me apart!"
Then slowly, his outer exoskeleton is pulled underneath him. Gooper sees what's happening, sneaks up behind, and pulls off one of the sparrow's feathers.
The sparrow, feeling a spike of discomfort, jumps and flies away. Gooper crawls closer to Asumi's hole and looks inside.
Snapping his mandibles, he asks, "Little mouth, are you hurt?" He gazes at Asumi, who had just shed off his previous exoskeleton and was left with a vulnerable body. Asumi looks back at Gooper and replies, "Yeah, I'm fine, just eating."
Asumi, chewing on a root nutrient, mused, "That was close, it almost got me. Well, back to the mission."
He turns to the system window, looking at the quest board. He mused, "Next up, borrowing. I need to sharpen those digging skills if I don't want an incident like that to repeat itself again."
He raises up his head, readying his muscles, then launches it back down, breaking the soil as he pushes it aside, wiggling, going under the hole, chewing whatever food source he can find.
A few hours later, Asumi digging down in a straight line comes across a rock blocking his path.
He tries to break it by slamming his head onto the rock, but he only ends up hurting himself. He mused, "Ouch, that hurts. How hard is this thing?"
Then he opened up his mandibles, musing, "Since my head isn't strong enough, how about I use my mighty jaws? Beetle mandibles are capable of exerting 20 times the bite force of an average human in terms of size. Let's see what happens."
He thrust his mandibles at the rock, hoping to make a crack. The attack made contact with the rock, sliding to the side. Not able to properly utilize it, he mused, "Crap, nothing is working. How am I supposed to proceed?"
Then he rested his back against the rock, looking at the quest window.
[Borrow 10m underground 4.5/10] [Sprint 15m. 2/15] [Take 200 bites from a food source 56/250]
Looking at the moist, rough brown walls of the tunnel he dug, an idea struck him. He mused, "If I can't break through, then I'll just try another route."
Asumi turned left and continued burrowing. Each time he came across an obstacle, he turned left, gradually making a square. After that, he went back into the square, picking an entrance, and continued digging endlessly in different directions inside the square in the pitch darkness underground.
A few hours passed by; it was evening. The sun shone its light rays on the vegetation below as it reached the horizon. Asumi, underground, turned his head to look at the system window to check the progression on the quest again.
The system window dimly lit the form of the tunnel underground.
[System: Host has reached level 4] [Stamina full recovery] [Borrow 10m underground 10/10] [Take 200 bites from a food source 250/250]
Asumi mused, "Finally, it's about time I leveled up. Ugh, it's time I head back." He turned his head, looking at multiple pathways. He mused, "My god, did I just... create a maze?"