With my excitement at its peak, I decided to set out and confirm my guess.
And after barely squeezing myself out of the tree hole, I slowly made my way down the tree.
While descending, I was thinking about how to go about this.
I absolutely can't be reckless and try to fight a creature that is close to my size, so at first, I'll look for small insects to eat. Only after that will I try to go after something bigger to see if there is any difference depending on the size of the creatures I eat.
Even though I have only been eating tree sap since I reincarnated, that doesn't mean I am not capable of hunting. I am a Hercules beetle, after all. The Hercules beetle is one of the strongest insects in the world, being able to generate strength equal to around 800 times its body weight, if I remember correctly.
And with my two huge horns that function like pincers, I can easily crush most small insects.
Plus, I am now bigger than before. With a rough estimate, I seem to be a bit over half as big as before, from 17cm long to around 25cm, which makes me way more powerful.
So now, with my next course of action clear, I concentrated back on descending down the tree.
After just a few minutes of slowly descending, I arrived at the base of the tree once again. But compared to before, I was now fully healed and a bit stronger.
Looking at the green grass around me, I started moving forward, keeping my attention on every single vibration I was able to perceive to avoid any big animals.
After searching for just a few minutes, I had found my first meal.
Around the base of a strange tree with some red fruits on its crown, I could see a group of small red ants that were gathered around a decaying red fruit, clearly having a nice meal in peace. Sadly, it wouldn't last long, since I immediately made my way towards them at full speed!
I could see them starting to panic once they sensed me approaching because they immediately started abandoning their meal and instead made their way towards a small hole at the base of the tree.
Unluckily for them but luckily for me, I was able to overtake them and block their retreat before too many of them could make their way into the small hole.
Immediately, the few dozen ants that didn't make it in time froze on the spot for a few seconds, a few seconds that I took full advantage of and swiftly made my way towards the first unlucky red ant, opening my mouth for a bit, then biting down and lastly swallowing. That was all it took for my first cold-blooded action to take place in this world where I have actively taken the life of another fellow insect, which I felt no remorse for.
After seeing their comrade get swallowed by a huge black beetle with cold red eyes, the other ants regained their senses and immediately started running in all directions.
Seeing that my meal was getting away, I sped up the pace. In just a few seconds, half of the few dozen ants were gone, now resting in peace inside my stomach.
And soon the rest followed since these stupid ants didn't know how to disperse themselves and instead stuck in groups of 3 or 4, making it easy for me to hunt every single one of them down with my superior speed.
So just under two minutes later, all the ants were gone, never to be seen again, not even as excrements, since I didn't make any, most likely because when I eat, all the food becomes pure energy, leaving no waste to be expelled.
Anyway, now that I had finished my meal, it was time to finally confirm my assumptions.
Looking for a place to rest and observe the changes that were hopefully about to happen, I found a big rock not too far away with tall grass around it, which would provide some good cover. So, wasting no time, I went straight into the tall grass around the rock. After finding a good place to lay down, I started to closely feel any changes happening into my body.
It only took around five minutes to feel a small warmth appearing inside my abdomen, and like before, it started off slow, but as time passed, it got hotter and hotter, with every second growing exponentially!
After just one minute, it became a raging fire, filling my whole body with what felt like boundless strength!
"I knew this was an illusion from my increasing strength, but it came with a incredibly enjoyable feeling.
As I was bathing in this blissful sensation, I could feel my body growing, and with it, my strength!
So my guess was absolutely correct!
And after eating dozens of red ants, the feeling was even more intense than before, so my size increased by half in just a few minutes!
But of course, it wouldn't go so smoothly in a forest packed with animals and magical beasts on every tree and blade of grass. Hoping for peace in such a place was but a foolish dream.
While I was enjoying my growth in peace, the grass before me suddenly parted ways, and behind it appeared a black and scary snake head!!
Come on. Not again!!