The Half-Butterfly Who Saved a Tree
My EXP is barely budging.
It's been days, and I still need three more levels.
Maybe it's time to switch up my prey.
"Gwaaaek."
Ever since I evolved into a Wing-Bud Blood Butterfly, ordinary things just weren't giving me any EXP.
Bugs smaller than me obviously didn't give a single point, and catching a mouse only gave me about one percent.
Birds were the only things that gave decent EXP, but they were way too hard to catch.
The only ones I'd caught so far were sleeping targets I'd assassinated while hunting at night.
I need to expand my hunting grounds.
For safety's sake, I'd stuck to mice and other tiny creatures, but now I had to change my strategy.
Something bigger. Something stronger.
I needed to go after things like raccoons, water deer, or wild dogs.
They looked dangerous, and I'd actively avoided them before, but now I had to seek them out myself.
If I could take them down, they were guaranteed to yield a ton of EXP.
Based on my experience so far, hunting creatures larger and stronger than me always paid off.
I really don't want to do this. I wish I could just freeload and gain EXP by eating grass.
I knew I had to do it, and I'd resolved to do it, but I couldn't help feeling a bit depressed.
Hunting larger prey meant I might have to pay a steep price.
It wasn't like I hadn't faced danger before, but the targets I was aiming for now were on a completely different scale.
I was still just a hand-sized, flightless half-butterfly, while they were at least ten times my size.
I bet this was how heroes felt when they set off to slay a giant that had kidnapped a princess.
I don't want to, but I have to.
"Gwaaaek."
Why on earth hadn't the world made me a species that could level up just by eating grass?
Let's just do it. Dragging my feet won't accomplish anything.
I spread my half-wings, which now moved naturally at my command, and leaped down from the tree trunk.
I glided smoothly, feeling the air rush past my wings.
My wings lacked the strength to actually fly upward, but just being able to glide like this made traveling so much easier.
Since my body was still basically a caterpillar, crawling was painfully slow.
Once airborne, I skillfully navigated through the trees, heading toward the spot where I'd last seen a water deer.
The forest is practically crawling with water deer. There should be one nearby.
For some reason, this forest was completely untouched by humans, so wild animals thrived here.
Even without actively searching, I'd spot one every three minutes or so.
But the reason I was actively hunting now was that I had a specific target in mind.
A juvenile water deer, just starting to lose its baby features.
I needed to test my limits.
If I win easily, I'll target bigger prey. If it seems too tough, I'll stick to things smaller than water deer.
My strength was a bit peculiar.
My bite was powerful, but my mouth was so small that it didn't make for a proper attack.
Even if I bit something, it would only leave a tiny puncture wound.
While that might work on mice or bugs, there was no way a tiny bite would be fatal to a large creature.
To take down larger prey, I had to inject poison or melt them with acid.
I needed to find out just how effective my poison and acid really were.
Should I try pouring it on them from above?
"Gwaaaek."
To test the waters, I'd spit my blood before the water deer even noticed me.
If I rained it down from right above its head, it wouldn't be able to react.
If it did react to that, it wouldn't be a water deer—it would be a magic beast mimicking one.
Found one.
Having formulated a very simple plan, I climbed up a tall tree.
Just to be safe, I was going to drench it from as high up as possible.
The water deer was fast asleep, completely unaware of my presence.
It didn't look like it would wake up anytime soon, so I took a deep, reassuring breath.
After preparing myself, I spat my blood toward the water deer.
A massive glob of it, to make sure I finished it in one shot.
—Squeeeal!!!
Drenched in my blood, the water deer instantly bolted awake and shrieked.
It was only natural, considering the acid was burning and melting its flesh while the poison seeped into the open wounds.
I'm so glad I stayed up here.
Watching the water deer thrash around, whipping its head left and right to find its attacker, sent a shiver down my spine.
The look in its eyes screamed: I might be dying, but if I find the bastard who did this to me, I'm taking you with me.
If I had been on the ground and got caught, I'd probably be running for my life right now, waiting for the poison to finish the job.
—Squeee...
The water deer, which had been searching for me with murderous intent, soon began to tremble violently before collapsing onto the dirt.
It looked like the poison had finally run its course.
I glided down from the tree to inspect the now-lifeless water deer.
Its back, where my blood had directly landed, was completely melted down to the bone, and its veins were stained black from the poison.
You have leveled up!
As I was examining the effectiveness of my blood, the level-up notification popped up, and the fatigue from spitting my blood instantly vanished.
My theory was correct: hunting larger species was definitely the way to farm EXP.
I had nearly forty percent of my EXP bar left to fill, and it shot up instantly, triggering a level-up.
Just how much EXP did it give me?
Fifty percent?! From a single juvenile water deer?
I was utterly shocked once I did the math on the EXP the water deer had yielded.
Without exaggeration, I had barely lifted a finger to kill it, so I never expected it to give me this much.
Does this mean I only need to hunt four more water deer to evolve?
A fully awake water deer might be a different story, but it probably wouldn't be that much harder.
It wasn't like I was crazy enough to try and hit a running target anyway.
All I had to do was spit my blood onto one while it was peacefully grazing.
This is great.
Efficiency really is key when it comes to hunting.
At this rate, I could reach my next evolution by the end of the day.
The forest was practically overflowing with water deer, after all.
I just needed to find some nice, plump ones to take down.
Why on earth hadn't I thought of hunting them sooner?
Still, I can't let my guard down.
If I got careless and stepped on, my life as a magic beast would end right then and there.
Safety first, always.
Besides, my ultimate goal was still so far away.
Who knew how many evolutions I'd have to go through before I finally became a fairy?
For that matter, was there even a guaranteed way to become a fairy?
There has to be. If fairies were just born naturally, they would have been classified differently.
There was a reason fairies were categorized under insect-type magic beasts.
I trusted my choices.
Seeing how my instinct had screamed at me never to choose the worm path, this had to be the right way.
I knew my instinct was a good kid.
I trusted it wouldn't suddenly evolve me into some giant, glowing, mystical moth, so I hoped it would live up to my expectations.
Let's level up quickly and get to the next evolution.
I began gliding again to search for another water deer.
Since so many of them ran around at night, finding one that was sitting still was a bit of a chore.
What's this?
"Gwaaaek."
After hunting down one more water deer, I was searching for my next target when something bizarre caught my eye.
I knew what it was, but it felt completely out of place.
A brown sack was discarded right next to a tree.
How could it not be strange to find a brand-new sack in a place where humans never set foot?
Is there something inside? There must be, right?
I grew intensely curious about what was inside.
Curiosity reared its head.
I landed softly on the ground and began to approach the sack very, very slowly.
Judging by its shape, it didn't look like a person was stuffed inside.
Who on earth had illegally dumped something here?
—Is anyone there? Help... I'm so hungry...
What?!
"Gwek?!"
As I drew closer, a voice—seemingly coming from inside the sack—echoed out.
Startled, I leaped backward.
That is definitely not the shape of a human, so how is it speaking?!
Calming my racing heart, I slowly approached the sack once more.
Creeping forward inch by inch, I reached the spot where the voice had originated, and it spoke again.
—There's someone out there, right...? Please, help me...!
It must have heard the startled squeak I'd let out.
Though I had no idea how it managed to hear a tiny caterpillar's squeak.
Should I untie this or not?
I wasn't sure if it was wise to free a creature when I had no clue who or what it was.
However, my instinct had been urging me to free it for a while now.
Had it sensed something through its magic beast intuition?
Let's free it.
Listening to my instinct had never steered me wrong, so I decided to let it out.
To be honest, my curiosity about what was inside also played a big part.
I'll get you out.
"Gwaaaek."
—Gnaw, gnaw
Since I had no way of untying the knot, I began to bite through the sack.
The fabric was quite tough, but it was nothing for my Level 9 Strong Bite skill.
After some diligent gnawing, I managed to tear a hole about the width of two fingers.
—This is plenty. Thank you.
The entity inside said that was enough, so I took a few steps back.
What could it be?
As I waited in anticipation, the last thing I saw was a tree root emerging from the hole and burrowing into the ground.
Huh? A magic beast...?
"Gwek?"
Immediately after, my vision went black as I felt the strength drain from my entire body, sucked directly into the tree root.
It felt as though my very life force was being siphoned away.
Am I going to die like this...?
—Huh? Oh, I'm sorry! Please don't die!
You're the one killing me...
With that final voice—presumably belonging to the tree root—echoing in my mind, I lost consciousness.