The forest swallowed her whole.
Thorns tore at her legs; branches scratched her face. The only sound was the chaotic pounding of her own heart echoing through the tunnels of her mind. The Hive's shrieks and pheromonal rage still rang in her ears, sharp and aggressive like a swarm of angry wasps. Every instinct told her to keep running—every whisper in the back of her mind begged her not to stop, that to pause would mean death at the jaws of the relentless Hive.
Aya stumbled through a gnarled patch of undergrowth, legs trembling beneath her. Mud caked her exoskeleton, rendering her slippery and vulnerable. Cracks lined the once-smooth sheen of her chitin, evidence of her desperate journey. But it didn't matter; nothing mattered right now but survival. She had to keep pushing forward, deeper into the forest, where few dared to venture, where the Hive could scarcely reach her.
[Appraisal Activated.]
[Subject: Luminescent Moss – Classification: Bio-Fluorescent Plant. Edibility: Low. Toxicity: None. Nutritional Value: Minimal.]
The glowing moss was a beacon in the thick darkness, its light barely cutting through the verdant gloom. Aya didn't hesitate. Her mandibles, sharp and eager, tore a chunk off the glowing moss and stuffed it into her mouth. The taste was unpleasant, reminiscent of damp stone and decay, further amplified by the gnawing hunger in her gut. She gagged but forced herself to swallow, desperate for anything that would fill the aching void within her.
The hunger clawed at her like a second heart—beating, pulsing, consuming. Each new use of Appraisal only made it worse, like her mind was draining her body dry to store every new byte of data, every piece of information that could potentially help her in this warped version of reality she had found herself in.
[Skill Unlocked: Book Worm.]
[You will now remember everything you see with Appraisal. Memory retention is perfect. Caution: High energy consumption. Severe hunger inevitable.]
Aya groaned and collapsed against a rotting log, exhaustion washing over her in waves. Her feelers twitched violently, the overload of sensations crawling up her spine, making her limbs feel unsteady and foreign. "Greedy little skill," she muttered under her breath.
The Book Worm ability burned behind her eyes, scorching details into her brain—moss textures, spore structures, fungal stem widths. She couldn't turn it off. Every second spent conscious brought new data, new hunger.
Her stomach roared like an angry furnace, a constant reminder that her survival depended on more than just knowledge; it required sustenance.
[Appraisal Activated.]
[Subject: Blistercap Fungus – Classification: Toxic Mycoform. Edibility: Dangerous. Toxin Class: Hemotoxic. Death Likelihood: Medium.]
"Medium," she muttered, her voice betraying a trace of defiance against the looming threat of death.
Without thinking too much about the consequences, she bit down on the blistercap. Pain lanced through her system within minutes, sharper than any wound she had ever sustained. Her legs spasmed, rebelling against the poison flooding her veins. Her vision blurred, and her thorax convulsed as bile and black slime spilled from her mouth, pooling beneath her like a dark omen. A dozen minutes passed like a fever dream, her mind wavering on the brink of collapse, teetering between life and death.
Then something changed.
[Toxic Overload Detected.]
[Immune Response Activating.]
[Skill Gained: Poison Tolerance (Lv. 1).]
[Partial immunity to: Neurotoxins. Hemotoxins. Cytotoxins.]
Her next breath came easier, no longer feeling like a desperate grasp at life. The tremors that had wracked her frame stilled, and she lay beneath the twisted trees of the forest, covered in her own fluids, and smiled weakly despite it all. "You tried to kill me," she whispered to the fungus, her voice a mix of gratitude and defiance, "but you made me stronger."
Night fell as the sky darkened, and a chill crept across the damp soil. She was deep now—far from the Hive, far from the steady patrol routes that kept her sisters in line. Even the Queen's reach wouldn't extend this deep. Here, she found a semblance of peace that she had long craved. She found shelter beneath the massive root system of a dead tree, using her mandibles to carve out a small hollow—a nest for her to rest and regain her strength in the eerie quiet.
[Appraisal Activated.]
[Subject: Bark Beetle Larva. Edibility: High. Nutritional Value: Moderate. Toxin Presence: Minimal.]
Crunch. The sound echoed in the stillness as she bit into her prey. It was slimy, protein-rich, disgusting—and absolutely lifesaving. She devoured four before her stomach felt remotely sated, the aching hunger finally abated, if only for a moment.
Then she set traps, her mind beginning to race with new ideas, plans reforming around her as if conjured from thin air. Using sticky secretions from crushed bug glands and sharpened branches, she made rudimentary funnel traps. Layers of her old-world knowledge began whispering ideas—deadfall traps, spike pits, scent markers. Her tiny insect body was a limitation, but her mind? It was human, clever, efficient, and filled with rebellion.
She dubbed her new shelter The Buried Fang, a fitting name for the place that harbored her wrath against a world that had cast her out.
[Appraisal Skill Level Up: Lv. 3]
[New Function Unlocked: Weakness Identification.]
[Appraisal Result: Target – Bark Beetle Warrior]
[HP: 34 | Defense: 18 | Weak Points: Underside, Thoracic Joint. Status: Drowsy.]
Her excitement surged as she processed the information, strategy forming like a delicate string woven through her mind.
[New Skill Unlocked: Hive breaker Mandibles (Lv. 1)]
[Chitin-Piercing bite. Bonus damage to Hive born. Can rupture pheromone nodes.]
Aya felt her mandibles tingle with newfound power, a faint glow of crimson shimmering along their edge. Stronger. Sharper. Hungrier.
She tested them on a rotting root and sliced through it like it was wet paper, reveling in the ease of it. Her mind buzzed with new plans—new possibilities that spread out before her like a vast tapestry, urging her to weave her fate into something greater.
Her thoughts returned to the Hive, to the faces of her sisters, to the imposing figure of the Queen. They had seen her as defective, an anomaly to be discarded. They thought she was a glitch, a weakness in their hive's structure. But now?
She was the glitch in their system. The anomaly that would multiply and devour from within. She pressed her body against the cool soil and whispered into the earth, her voice barely more than a breath. "They thought I ran away to die. No—I ran to remember. To grow. And now… I bite back."
With a fierce resolve blooming within her, Aya prepared for the inevitable confrontation. She would return to the Hive, not as the weakling they had cast aside, but as their reckoning. What they deemed a defect would become their fatal flaw. The world she once knew, filled with servitude and obedience, would find its end at her mandibles.
And as dawn's light began to creep through the thick canopy above, she felt the charge of new beginnings thrumming in her veins. This was just the beginning. She was ready to embrace whatever challenges lay ahead.