Wake up.
I snapped awake—like something had been yanked violently back into my body.
I sucked in a couple rough breaths before I fully came online, heart hammering—though I still wasn't sure this thing even had a heart.
Couldn't you have been a bit more subtle?
No.
I sighed.
Of course not.
I forced my thoughts into a straight line.
How much longer do I have before the Mimic Copy window runs out?
3 minutes.
My focus snapped tight.
That's cutting it close.
I pulled up my stats.
HP: 18 / 32
MP: 3 / 9
Attack: Lv.3
Defense: Lv.2
Speed: Lv.5
Vitality: Lv.2
Perception: Lv.4
Resolve: Lv.3
I stared.
Just my luck.
…It's not enough.
A heavy breath left me.
This world isn't planning on being kind to me, is it?
I glanced at the corpse beside me.
Flies were already swarming it.
The blood had dried dark.
The body was starting to rot.
I peeked out of the cubby hole.
Still dark.
Not even close to sunrise.
I can't stay here with a dead corpse for much longer.
I swallowed.
I need to leave.
I slipped out carefully—slow and deliberate—checking right, left…
…and then up.
My perception was sharper than before.
The darkness felt clearer—edges more defined, shapes easier to separate from shadow.
I moved away from the cubby hole one careful step at a time.
And as I walked, I heard it.
Sounds you don't hear during the day.
It was like the night was whispering.
And I didn't want to know what it was saying.
My focus tightened as I moved through the dark—
Then I froze.
A sound.
Something eating.
I turned back.
A blurry shape hunched in the distance—right where I'd been.
At the cubby hole.
A monster had its face buried in the bird corpse, biting down deep—tearing into it like it had been waiting for the smell to get strong enough.
I gulped.
That was close to being me.
But the creature looked… different.
Not like the things I'd seen during the day.
Long, dark, skinny limbs.
Eyes that glowed white.
It fed without hesitation, without caution—
like the night belonged to it.
And maybe it did.
I stared a half-second too long.
Then my thoughts snapped into one clean decision.
I'm going in the opposite direction of whatever that is.
I shifted my path and moved again—fast, quiet, controlled.
And I prayed it was happy enough with that meal and didn't need another.
I wandered for what felt like a long time.
Never fully stopping.
Never letting my focus slip.
Finding somewhere to rest was harder than I thought.
I searched for caves.
Hollows.
Cracks in stone.
Anything.
Nothing obvious.
Too many open stretches.
Too many places where something could drop on me, rush me, swallow me whole.
Eventually, I chose the least awful option.
A tree.
Its branches weren't high, but they were better than the dirt.
I climbed gently with my sticky limbs, careful not to shake the trunk too hard.
A little higher, the foliage thickened into cover.
I wedged myself into it until leaves and branches wrapped around my shape.
Then I went still.
Light stabbed through the leaves.
It nearly blinded me with how bright it was.
I opened my eyes to daylight and felt a small, shaky relief.
I'd actually made it through the night.
I checked my stats.
HP: 32 / 32
MP: 9 / 9
Attack: Lv.3
Defense: Lv.2
Speed: Lv.5
Vitality: Lv.2
Perception: Lv.4
Resolve: Lv.3
I blinked.
I healed both my HP and MP fully if I rested through the night.
That was good.
Very good.
I stayed in the tree instead of dropping immediately and evaluated the land while I had daylight.
I could see everything better now.
I'd been lucky so far.
Luck wouldn't carry me forever.
I needed strength.
Today, I need to use my MP to kill a few monsters, level up, and maybe gain a new ability.
I climbed down carefully until my sticky feet met the ground.
Claw Slash used 2 MP per swing.
That gave me room for mistakes—
but not many.
And the HP cost…
That was brutal.
I moved through the forest with my senses up, taking in the sights without letting myself relax.
Then I heard something.
I slipped into cover and listened.
Wet tearing—flesh being bitten and pulled apart.
It sounded similar to what I'd heard during the night.
But not the same.
This was rougher.
Sloppier.
Short, aggressive bursts instead of steady feeding—
like something smaller, hungrier, and far less patient.
I crept toward it.
The terrain started to feel… strange.
I peeked through a bush.
At first it looked like a crater.
But the longer I stared—
…it looked more like a footprint.
A massive one.
Too big to imagine fighting.
That thought tried to hijack my brain, but I forced myself back to the immediate problem.
I repositioned near a tree at the edge and looked down.
Three dead monsters lay inside.
I took in the bodies—their size, their shape, the blood smeared across the ground.
Bulky and low to the earth, built like living boulders.
Broad, flattened backs were covered in dull gray plates that looked more like stone than flesh, chipped and cracked where something had torn through them.
Short legs bent at wrong angles.
Heavy heads lay twisted aside, thick horns broken or snapped.
I glanced up at the ridge across from me.
Maybe they'd been running from something and fell in.
Then I saw what was eating them.
Rats.
But bigger.
Dog-sized.
Bigger teeth.
Bigger claws.
I counted carefully.
One…
Three…
Five…
Six…
Eight.
And maybe more nearby.
This could be good EXP…
But I'm not sure how strong they are.
And I don't have much MP to handle them if this goes wrong.
I needed a funnel.
A way to kill many with one slash.
I watched them.
One rat bumped another as it tried to steal a better bite.
The other shrieked.
The meat-filled rat snarled back.
Then both went right back to eating like nothing happened.
I scanned the crater edge again—trees nearby, roots squashed, like something had struck the ground with massive force.
Then I spotted them.
Four trees close together on the far side.
An idea formed.
I circled around the crater, staying low and quiet, avoiding branches and sticks.
When I reached the other side, I looked down again.
This time I only saw six rats.
Two missing.
My eyes flicked across the brush.
Couldn't find them.
But I can't hesitate now.
I backed up behind the trees—ten, maybe fifteen meters—
raised my stubby hand,
and steadied my breathing.
Claw Slash.
The air split.
Three claw-shaped arcs ripped forward—angled—
and shredded through the trunks.
The trees groaned, shuddered—
then fell inward.
A massive crash.
Shrieks.
Scrabbling.
Panic.
The recoil hit me instantly.
HP: 24 / 32
A few seconds passed.
You gained 15 EXP
You gained 18 EXP
You gained 11 EXP
You gained 22 EXP
You gained 24 EXP
Level Up
You are now Level 11
A small, grim satisfaction settled in my chest.
That plan worked.
Then my focus snapped back.
Only five?
That means there are three more.
I moved to the ridge and looked down.
One rat was pinned under fallen logs, scrambling and screeching.
There's one.
Still two missing.
I scanned the opposite ridge.
Nothing.
Then I turned—
—and saw them.
Two rats slipped out of the bushes behind me.
There you are.
They locked onto me instantly—teeth bared, claws digging into the dirt.
Then they charged.
One from the left.
One from the right.
At the last second they crossed paths—left cutting right, right cutting left.
Trying to confuse me.
I picked one and committed—darting at the left rat.
It looked surprised for a flicker, then surged harder.
It leaped, claw raised—
—and a single claw-line ripped through the air.
A thin, pale arc—similar to mine.
Just one line instead of three.
I ducked beneath it.
The slash carved into the tree behind me with a sharp crack.
Bark exploded as the trunk split halfway through before the energy dissipated.
The rat lunged again, mouth wide.
I saw its jaw stretch farther than it should have.
For a split second, I couldn't understand what it was trying to bite—
Then the air snapped.
I twisted aside just in time.
A biting shape tore through the space I'd occupied—
a phantom jaw, all force and pressure.
Not flesh.
Not truly real.
It slammed into the ground behind me and detonated, the impact chewing into dirt and stone as if something invisible had taken a massive bite out of the earth.
…It was the same concept as Claw Slash.
Just cruder.
Just teeth.
I jumped right to clear it—
—and the other rat struck from my blind spot, claws raking across my back.
Pain flared.
HP: 15 / 35
Dammit.
That hurt—but not as much as it should've.
They must not be very high level.
Still.
I can't gamble on "not that bad" in this world.
I landed with bushes behind me and the rats between me and the crater.
Then the system chimed.
You gained 13 EXP
I blinked.
The one trapped must've died.
Good. One less problem.
The two rats slowed now, circling, watching.
They weren't rushing anymore.
They wanted certainty.
But I had something they didn't understand.
They wouldn't expect a mimic larva to be using the same ability as wolves.
I let them group up.
Let their confidence grow.
Then I backed away and sold it—
movement uneven, body sagging slightly,
letting myself look slower than I was.
Even faked a limp.
Their eyes sharpened.
They darted forward together.
Both fired their single claw-lines at once.
I planted myself.
Then answered.
Claw Slash.
My three arcs slammed into their two.
The collision burst into mist and a sharp pulse of force—
and my third claw cut through the haze a heartbeat later.
It hit them before they could react.
Clean.
Easy.
Both bodies dropped, sliced through.
The recoil hit my body immediately.
HP: 11 / 35
You gained 25 EXP
You gained 27 EXP
Level Up
You are now Level 12
I exhaled hard and checked my stats.
HP: 11 / 37
MP: 5 / 12
Attack: Lv.4
Defense: Lv.2
Speed: Lv.6
Vitality: Lv.2
Perception: Lv.4
Resolve: Lv.3
More attack.
More speed.
Good.
But the side effects…
They made every option feel like a trade.
I looked down at my MP.
MP: 5 / 12
Claw Slash cost 2 MP per use.
So—two more uses today.
I opened my abilities list and checked Mimic Copy's cost for the rats.
Cost: 1 MP
I blinked.
That's… cheap.
They really were low level.
I stared at the corpses for a second, weighing it.
Then I thought—
Even if it's a weak ability,
it's better than having only one.
I stepped to the rat that gave the most EXP, pressed my sticky hand to its fur—
and shut my eyes.
Copy.
Light erupted.
The rat's blood peeled away from its body in thin, twisting streams, lifting into the air like it no longer obeyed gravity.
It spiraled toward me.
The moment it touched my body, it sank inside.
Heat exploded through my core.
My jelly flesh churned violently, internal structures shifting, tearing apart and reforming as something new was forced into place.
The pain wasn't sharp.
It was invasive.
Like my body was being rewritten without my permission.
Copy successful
New Ability Acquired: Blood Frenzy
I breathed through the last wave and stared at the name.
Blood Frenzy?
I pulled up my abilities list.
[Abilities List]
Mimic Copy (Innate – cannot be removed)
Claw Slash
Blood Frenzy
I selected it.
Blood Frenzy
Forces your body into a heightened combat state as HP decreases, amplifying aggression, speed, and power.
Requirement:
HP must be at or below 50% to activate.
Effect:
Attack power and movement speed increase as HP decreases.
Secondary side effects of copied abilities are suppressed while active.
Cost:
Consumes 1 HP every 30 seconds while active.
Safety Limit:
If HP reaches 1, Blood Frenzy will automatically deactivate.
Side Effect:
This ability places extreme strain on your body.
Upon deactivation, all stats are reduced by 75% and MP usage is disabled for an extended duration.
I took it in slowly.
Interesting.
Terrifying.
Not during its use—
but after it ended.
No MP.
Stats crushed.
Helpless.
It meant one simple thing.
If I used it in a fight and didn't win…
…I was accepting my death.
This wasn't an ability you tested.
It was one you survived—
or didn't.
A weapon you pulled only when there was nothing else left.
And if I ever used it with a lot of MP in reserve—
with copied side effects suppressed—
it would be powerful.
I didn't know if it was a good ability.
But I knew what it would cost.
And I didn't regret getting it.
I looked around at the crater, the corpses, the noise I'd made.
The mess.
Predators would come.
I needed to leave before it drew something stronger.
I checked my HP and MP again.
HP: 11 / 35
MP: 4 / 12
Whatever comes next,
I have to be ready.