Title: A Centipede Wants to Live Peacefully.
Summary: I always wished to escape reality, believing in fairy tales, and immersing myself in books to distract myself from the duties of an adult. I wished to live in a cottage somewhere in a forest, free from the bustle of the city. I could never imagine that I would lose my life and then be reincarnated as a monster. Is my wish possible?
The scent of rain filled my burrow, greatly relaxing me. It has been ten days since I laid my eggs and they still were yet to hatch. I grew protective over the eggs that I kept watch over. I promised myself that I wouldn't treat them like how my mother treated me. Even if they were monsters. Still, I hadn't eaten anything in ten days either, for fear that the spider queen would find me.
I inwardly sighed, hoping that my children would be born soon so they could help their tired mother. I had a lot to worry about like getting my level up, helping the forest, living peacefully. I had nothing better to do so I read the description of the skills I hadn't had a chance to check before.
[Plant Magic LV1: Magic that directly calls upon nature. LV1: Entangle– calls upon vines from the forest to control. LV6: Green Surge – causes vegetation(grasses, flowers, bushes, thistles, trees, vines, and so on) to become thick, overgrown, and ripe.]
This skill would be great for escaping but also for attacking enemies using the surrounding forest. Sometimes this world feels so surreal but when I remember all of my near-death experiences and how I became a giant I was human it would have been so much easier. I wonder if I could become human somehow…. I look down at my body. I sighed hopelessly, pushing the depressing thoughts to the back of my mind.
[Pure Water Magic LV1: Magic that calls upon blessed water. LV1: Purify – can use pure water to purify sickness. LV8: Revitalize – can use pure water to revitalize a person, animal, monster, and plant back to a healthy state.]
[Herbalism LV1: The user can use forest vegetation to make plant-based herbal remedies by combining suitable plants to achieve varying effects. Required Tools: Cauldron, Mortar, Pestle]
The only skills I could use at the moment were water magic and plant magic as Herbalism requires tools to even use properly. I probably could steal the but the thought of a giant centipede hovering over the cauldron was ridiculous. Seconds later, I hear the sounds of whispers in my head and my head snapped to my eggs.
"Mother!"
"Mother looks so strong!"
"Mother, I'm hungry!"
"Mother, our queen!"
I heard the voices before my eggs started to hatch. One by one, the eggs hatched, and out came ferects that had the same coloration as me. They crowded around my body, crawling on top of me and I even saw one of them cuddling up. When the last egg finally hatched I spoke to them.
"Hello," I said nervously, "um-how about we get something to eat!"
"Yes mother, eat eat eat!"
"Mother food food food!"
I wanted to laugh at all of them chanting for food. I didn't really want to have to go back into the labyrinth so I traveled to the surface with all 100 of my children. The rain stopped and the forest was perfect conditions for centipedes.
"Remember children, do not attack the forest animals or damage the vegetation. Um-..mother is taking you for food," I said awkwardly through the link, "However, you can use appraisal and detection on everything you see and get familiar with the forest. This will be our home for a long time."
Now that I had 100 children my As One skill could be of use to help build my skills up. I wanted my appraisal skill to get a huge boost so I could see information on my children to see what skills they inherited.
"Yes, Mother. Detection!"
"No worries mother!"
"Appraisal!"
I nodded inwardly, carrying them through the forest towards the area with a vast amount of apple trees. Sometimes we would stop and look at the animals the came near us to see us up close. I intended to teach my children not to be wild and rabid like my family had been.
Skill proficiency has been reached. Skill [Appraisal LV5] has become [Appraisal LV7]
Skill proficiency has been reached. Skill [Detection LV1] has become [Detection LV3]
I was ecstatic at the sudden jump in levels and thought that my patience had paid off tremendously. I appraised myself first to see what information was available.
Name: Mai Yumehiro
Type: Insect/Poison
Species: Queen Ferect
Level: 1
HP:3025/3025
MP:3015/3015
SP:3015/3015 (3015/3015)
Offence: 6705 (Level up bonus 200 + Strength LV7 + evolution bonus)
Defense: 3800 (Level up bonus 100+ Shell LV8 (100 per LV) + evolution bonus)
Magic Power: 3004 (Level up bonus 100 + evolution bonus)
Resistance: 3004 (Level up bonus 100 + evolution bonus)
Speed: 7090 (Level up bonus 300 + Skanda LV10 + evolution bonus)
I got excited looking at my stats and they were actually better than I thought. My higher stats were offenses and speed and with each level up, I would get a bonus to those stats. After thoroughly going through my information I appraised one of my children
Name: Nameless
Type: Insect/Poison
Species: Elroe Ferect
Level: 1
HP:1000/1000
MP:1000/1000
SP:1000/1000 (1000/1000)
Offense: 1700 (Strength LV7: 200×7)
Defense: 1800 (Shell LV8:100 per Lv)
Magic Power: 1000
Resistance: 1000
Speed: 2000
[Skills: Skanda LV10, Strength LV7, HP Auto-Recovery LV1, Poison Attack LV1, Enhanced Paralysis Attack LV1, Poison Enhancement LV1, Paralysis Enhancement LV1, Piercing Enhancement LV1, Expel LV2, Fartalk LV10, Detection LV1, Arithmetic Processing LV1, Magic Power Operation LV1, Shadow Magic LV1, Heretic Magic LV2, Poison Magic LV2, Plant Magic LV1, Pure Water Magic LV1, Paralyzing Evil Eye LV1, Status Condition Nullification, Acid Resistance LV3, Heresy Nullification, Rot Resistance LV2, Fear Resistance LV2, Fire Resistance LV8, Cutting Resistance LV1, Pain Resistance LV6, Faint Resistance LV6, Destruction Resistance LV5, Pain Mitigation LV5, Piercing Resistance LV1, Stealth LV5, Shell LV8, Concealment LV1, As One, Appraisal LV5, Overeating LV1, Burrow LV1]
I noticed that some titles and certain unique skills were missing but what puzzled me was the stats. They were much stronger than the regular Elroe Ferects but I supposed it could be chalked up my unique existence. When we reached the area filled with apple trees, my children started to grow restless.
"Ok, enough. You guys are being very loud," I said through the link with a tinge of annoyance and playfulness. Instead of building up my levels right now, I was going to focus on maxing out as many skills as I can. "Everyone spread out but don't go too far. Use plant magic to capture the red apples in the trees. Whatever you catch, you can eat!"
"Yes, Mother!" My children chorused obediently.
I used my plant magic and called upon vines to snatch apples from the trees around me. This was the first time I ate apples since coming to this world and I felt like crying. It is so delicious! I continued eating, not even hearing that the system spoke. When I was done, all of the apples were gone, including from all the other trees.
"Mother, no more apples!"
"Hungry!"
"Mother! What happened to all of the apples?"
I was shocked at how fast we ate the apples. I raised my upper body and used detection to see if there were any more and to my surprise, there was no more. "I am such a glutton...oh my god," I thought before checking the system. I realized that I had gotten a notification.
Skill proficiency has been reached. Skill [Plant Magic LV1] has become [Plant Magic LV8]
My plant magic reached level 8 and I became excited. That meant I could get more apples. "Come to me, my children!" I happily cheered, calling them all over to me. I would try out 'Green Surge' on a singular tree before letting the others try out. "Now, watch your mother carefully!"
"Yes, Mother!"
I looked at the tree in front of me. "Green Surge!" I yelled in my mind, forgetting I had the link activated.
"Green Surge!" All of my children repeated after.
Skill proficiency has been reached. Skill [Cooperation LV1] has become [Cooperation LV2]
Skill proficiency has been reached. Skill [Leadership LV1] has become [Leadership LV2]
Skill proficiency has been reached. Skill [Plant Magic LV1] has become [Plant Magic LV10]
Skill proficiency has reached the maximum level. Skill [Plant Magic LV10] has become [Harvest Magic LV1]
"What-No-!" I try to say through the link but a gigantic green magic circle erupted underneath me. I watch in horror as the tree that I was taller than, grew, and grew, and grew….
"RUN EVERYONE!" I screamed, as my children quickly boarded my back as I run away from the growing tree. When I was at a safe distance, the tree was 10x bigger than myself. It was now sporting incredibly huge red apples in a large amount.
"Next, please do not do anything until I say, my children..." I muttered through the mental link, hoping that there wouldn't be any mishaps like this in the future but later I would look back at this moment and know how wrong I was.
"Of course, mother!"
"Good, now our task is to gather every single apple from the large tree and take it back to our burrow." I ordered before adding quickly, "and don't use any magic!"
"Don't worry, mother!"
"We got this mother!"
"Food Food Food!"
I sighed, hoping they listen to me. I never knew children were so much work and now I have to try managing 100 of them! I silently cursed and joined my children in the long task of delivering the apples back to the burrow. It was last evening by the time we were finished and I had to create a separate chamber for food.
I started to eat one of the large apples and the moment it went into my mouth, I was instantly full. "What the hell?" I thought as I observed my children where one bit of the large apple made them full.
Skill proficiency has been reached. Skill [Overeating LV1] has become [Overeating LV3]
We were already full and only 5 apples were used out of the 50 apples we managed to get from the tree. I grew excited as the thought of collecting more apples the next day tickles my fancy. While my children were falling asleep, I went back into the egg-laying chamber let out 100 more eggs.
"Let's do this, Mai!" I clapped inwardly, "Time to build up my kingdom!"
Except, how could I have known that the large tree would be the cause of a war against a nearby village and guild? I had no way of knowing that until some months later when I would be forced to defend the forest, MY tree, and MY apples, with my life.
.For her stats I tried my best to calculate what they should be as some of the skills don't have a lot of detail. I really dislike posting level-up prompts or stats tbh and I'm looking for a way to make it easier so I can focus on the story more and give me longer chapters.
Name: Mai Yumehiro
Type: Insect/Poison
Species: Queen Ferect
Level: 1
HP:3025/3025
MP:3015/3015
SP:3015/3015 (3015/3015)
Offense: 6705
Defense: 3800
Magic Power: 3004
Resistance: 3004
Speed: 7090
Stat Skills:
Skanda LV10, Strength LV7, HP Auto-Recovery LV1
Attack Skills:
Poison Attack LV1, Enhanced Paralysis Attack LV1
Enhancement Skills:
Poison Enhancement LV1, Paralysis Enhancement LV1, Piercing Enhancement LV1
Active Skills:
Expel LV2, Herbalism LV1
Leadership Skills:
Fartalk LV10, Egg-Laying LV1, Cooperation LV2, Leadership LV2
Perception Skills:
Detection LV3, Arithmetic Processing LV1
Magic Skills:
Magic Power Operation LV1, Shadow Magic LV1, Heretic Magic LV2, Poison Magic LV2, Harvest Magic LV1, Pure Water Magic LV1
Evil Eyes Skills:
Paralyzing Evil Eye LV1
Resistance Skills:
Status Condition Nullification, Acid Resistance LV3, Heresy Nullification, Rot Resistance LV2, Fear Resistance LV2, Fire Resistance LV8, Cutting Resistance LV1, Pain Resistance LV6, Faint Resistance LV6, Destruction Resistance LV5, Pain Mitigation LV5, Piercing Resistance LV1
Passive Skills:
Stealth LV10, Shell LV8, Concealment LV1,
Other Skills:
Taboo LV6, n% I = W, As One, Appraisal LV7, Toxic Brew, Fertile Nature, Overeating LV3, Burrow LV1
Titles:
Foul Feeder, Assassin, Kin Eater, Hedge Witch, Poison Technique User, Commander