Chương 1: Crawling

When I became aware of my condition, I attempted to scream. However, it quickly became apparent that such a thing was no longer possible for me. As I struggled to move, panic gave way to disbelief when I realized that I no longer possessed arms or legs. There were no hands to clutch at my surroundings, no feet to steady myself, only a strange body that was utterly foreign to me. And so, I arrived at the painful conclusion that I was no longer human.

Long ago, I had entertained wandering monks within my palace halls, and they had spoken of reincarnation, claiming that every soul was destined to inhabit a new body after death. At the time, I had dismissed their teachings as the ramblings of deluded mystics. Yet now, as I grappled with the horrifying reality of my existence, I could not help but wonder if those monks had been correct all along.

I couldn't remember how I died exactly, but if there was any consolation to be found in this absurd situation, it was that I had escaped the fate so many had wished upon me. In my past life, an uncountable number of people had called for my death and proclaimed with absolute certainty that I would burn in the deepest pits of hell for all eternity once death finally claimed me. Heh, little did those idiots know that hell apparently had no room for me.

Sadly, the satisfaction I derived from that thought did little to improve my mood. I was once Empress Irene of House Karazin, ruler of an empire feared across continents. Nations had trembled when my banners appeared on the horizon. Yet all of that power, all of that grandeur, had led me here. Reborn as some tiny, pitiful creature incapable of even screaming in outrage at her own predicament. It was a fate so degrading that I would have laughed at it had it happened to anyone else.

Perhaps a weaker soul would have wallowed in self-pity. I, however, had never been weak, nor did I intend to start now. Throughout my life, I had faced countless assassination attempts and the endless scheming of ambitious fools who believed they could challenge me. Compared to those trials, being reborn as some strange creature wasn't all too bad; at least nobody could betray me now. With that in mind, I turned my attention toward determining exactly what sort of creature I had become.

I attempted to move once more, this time abandoning the instincts of my former human body and instead relying upon whatever strange impulses accompanied this new form. To my surprise, it worked. A moment later, I felt myself inching forward. The sensation was profoundly strange, because instead of walking on two legs, I found myself propelled by several tiny limbs. Combined with my apparent lack of arms and my minuscule size, the evidence pointed towards the likely possibility that I was some kind of insect.

As I continued crawling forward, however, my attention was gradually drawn away from my indignation and toward my surroundings, and in doing so, I discovered just how absurdly small I truly was. What would likely have been ordinary plants to my former human eyes now appeared gigantic. The plant stalks near me appeared like tree trunks, while their leaves stretched like vast green canopies, some of them appearing nearly as large as my entire body, if not larger.

The scale of everything around me was so exaggerated that it took me a moment to fully process what I was seeing, but once I did, the conclusion became obvious. I was in some sort of forest, or at least what could only be described as one from the perspective of a creature as tiny as myself. Through occasional gaps in the canopy, shafts of sunlight filtered downward.

It was difficult to judge the exact time of day from my current perspective, but the brightness suggested that the sun had already climbed well into the sky. If I had to guess, I would have placed the time somewhere in the late morning, perhaps approaching midday. Eventually, after a considerable amount of crawling, I came upon a vibrantly colored flower. I slowly climbed the flower's stem, my tiny legs gripping the surface with surprising ease.

After a lengthy ascent, I finally reached one of the petals and made my way toward its edge. Not wishing to plummet to my death, I kept most of my body anchored firmly against the flower. Then something rather alarming happened. A powerful instinct surged through me, and that instinct told me that I must eat the flower. The urge felt so natural that I found myself obeying before I had fully processed what was happening. I lowered my head, opened my mouth, or rather, my mandibles, and bit into the petal.

Even worse, this flower petal tasted like some exotic delicacy to me. Not long ago, I had dined beneath crystal chandeliers while servants brought forth roasted meats, exotic fruits, and fine wines. Now, I was chewing on a flower. If any of my former subjects could witness this disgraceful spectacle, I would have ordered their executions. Still, disgust did little to suppress my hunger, and so I continued eating. As I moved from petal to petal, I devoted some thought to identifying my species.

I possessed an elongated body supported by numerous tiny legs, and climbing seemed to come naturally to me. Also, my instincts appeared overwhelmingly focused on consuming plant matter. So, perhaps I was some kind of caterpillar. While there remained a possibility that I was some other sort of larval insect, a caterpillar seemed the most probable explanation. Frankly, I struggled to imagine a more undignified form for a former empress, but reality rarely concerned itself with preserving one's dignity.

Eventually, as I continued eating, glowing words suddenly materialized before me. I paused mid-bite and stared for a moment before immediately recognizing that this was the System, and it was a welcome sight indeed. [Experience Awarded] [You have Leveled Up! 1 >> 2] [Vitality +1] The System was created long ago by the gods as a tool intended to help mortals understand, conquer, and shape the world around them. But, to my knowledge, it had never been available to monsters, animals, and certainly not insects.

Whether I was the only caterpillar in existence with access to the System or merely one of many, I could not say. Frankly, the truth did not matter, because what mattered was that I still had access to the System. It represented opportunity, and opportunity meant power. As long as I retained access to it, there remained a path forward for me, a path that might one day allow me to reclaim at least a fraction of the greatness I had possessed as Empress.

My optimism was somewhat dampened when I considered the actual reward I had received from my level up: a single stat point. While it was certainly better than receiving nothing at all, it was difficult not to feel underwhelmed. There was a part of me that dreaded opening my status screen altogether. Ever since awakening in this body, I had been operating under the assumption that my situation was pathetic. Seeing undeniable proof of that suspicion was unlikely to improve my mood.

Yet, ignorance had never been a strategy I respected. If I intended to someday rise above my current circumstances, then I needed an accurate assessment of where I stood. Reluctantly, I focused my thoughts upon the System and willed my status screen to appear. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

[Displaying Status] Name: Irene Species: Kingsbane Caterpillar Level: 2 Strength: 1 Agility: 1 Vitality: 2 Mana: 1 Had I still possessed proper vocal cords, I would have laughed. The numbers before me were so pitiful that they bordered on parody. I had once commanded enough power to quite literally move mountains. Now the System was effectively informing me that I possessed roughly the combat potential equivalent to, well, an insect.

What truly caught my attention, however, was my species, the so-called Kingsbane Caterpillar. The naturalist responsible for naming this creature must have possessed either an exceptional sense of humor or a severe disconnect from reality. I was looking at my own statistics, and there was nothing remotely king-slaying about them. Unless the king in question happened to be suffering from advanced age and a weak heart, I struggled to imagine this species posing a threat to anyone.

Of course, back when I was human, the System offered far more than a simple list of attributes. Skills, abilities, class features, titles, and many other categories could be accessed through separate menus. Hoping that maybe this new body of mine had some hidden abilities, I attempted to open them. I focused upon skills first, then abilities, then every other submenu I could remember from my previous life, but nothing happened. For the time being, it seemed I was simply stuck with the numbers before me.

A small part of me continued to hope that this body possessed some hidden trait that the System was not displaying for whatever reason. Unfortunately, a larger and considerably more cynical part of me suspected the truth was far less generous. Perhaps I really was nothing more than a slightly healthier caterpillar that just happened to have a menacing name. Regardless, if I intended to survive, grow stronger, and someday rise above this pathetic form, then I needed experience.

Experience required levels, and levels, it seemed, required food. With that realization in mind, I returned to my meal with renewed determination. Once I had stripped this flower of everything worth eating, I would move on to the next plant and continue to eat however much I needed to grow.

I spent most of the day doing little besides eating leaves. By the time it was night, I had failed to earn another level. This came as no surprise, since each successive level naturally demanded more experience than the last, and my current options for acquiring that experience were painfully limited. As far as I could tell, my entire existence revolved around devouring leaves, petals, and whatever other greenery happened to cross my path.

The System generally rewarded more difficult and dangerous accomplishments with greater amounts of experience, and had I been reborn as some predatory beast, perhaps I could have progressed far more quickly through hunting. But since I was a caterpillar, that left me with few options. When morning arrived, I resumed my usual routine of crawling from plant to plant and eating whatever greenery crossed my path.

It was while I was peacefully chewing on a particularly unremarkable leaf that something utterly terrifying occurred. Suddenly, the plant beneath me suddenly lurched and began to shake violently. The leaf under my body swung at alarming angles, and I was even convinced that an earthquake was underway. Panic seized me as I clung desperately to the leaf with every ounce of my strength.

When the shaking finally ceased, I remained frozen in place for a few seconds before looking around for the source of the disturbance. The truth proved to be almost insulting. There had been no earthquake, nothing even close. A wild boar had merely wandered past and brushed against the plant I was on while searching for food. The beast was currently rooting through the soil nearby, completely oblivious to the existential crisis it had just inflicted upon me.

To the boar, the contact had likely gone entirely unnoticed. To me, it felt like the end of the world. The experience was equal parts humiliating and horrifying. It was hard to accept that my life could be placed in immediate danger because a passing animal happened to bump into the wrong plant. More than anything else, the incident drove home just how insignificant my current body truly was. I was so small, so fragile. I could only be grateful that the boar wasn't interested in the plant that I was on.

Once the boar had disappeared from sight, I resumed my search for food. The encounter had done little for my nerves, but I still needed to become stronger. After spending some time crawling through the forest floor again, I discovered a plant unlike any I had encountered thus far. It was tall and had many leaves that showed an astonishing array of colors, perhaps a bit… too colorful. I wondered whether such vibrant coloration might indicate poison.

In my former life, brightly colored things often had a tendency to kill the unwary. Yet the instincts of my new body reacted very differently. Every instinct I possessed insisted that those leaves would be exceptionally delicious. Against my better judgment, I decided to trust those instincts. The moment I climbed the plant and bit into one of the leaves, I understood why my body had been so eager. The flavor was rich and strangely satisfying, far superior to anything I ate before this.

Whatever reservations I had possessed vanished immediately, as I became utterly determined to consume every leaf the plant had to offer. For hours, I climbed steadily upward, stripping branch after branch bare as I went. The process became so engrossing that I barely noticed how far I had climbed until I finally reached the very top of the plant. There, perched upon the highest leaf and happily chewing away at my latest prize, I was greeted by a familiar sight. [Experience Awarded] [You have Leveled Up! 2 >> 3] [Vitality +1] I felt a surge of satisfaction as I read the notification. Another level was tangible proof that my efforts were producing results. The reward itself remained underwhelming, but the level up was what mattered. In my former life, mortals who reached certain milestones within the System were granted opportunities to undergo breakthroughs, unlocking classes that provided powerful skills and unique abilities.

I was unsure if animals and monsters possessed classes in quite the same manner, but the fact that I was leveling at all gave me reason for optimism. Surely the System would not allow me to continue advancing forever without offering something of value in return. Whether it came in the form of new abilities or some other reward, I was convinced that greater opportunities awaited me further down this path. However, my newfound optimism did not last long.

A sudden sense of dread washed over me, and before I consciously understood why, my body already knew. I froze atop the leaf, as I soon heard a series of chirps accompanied by the rustling of feathers and the creak of a branch. The sounds filled me with a terror so profound that it eclipsed every concern I had held moments earlier. Slowly, I turned my head. Perched upon a nearby branch was a bird with brilliant blue feathers.

It was a genuinely beautiful creature, and under different circumstances, I might have admired it. In fact, the former me, the Empress who had once commissioned paintings and sculptures worth fortunes, would have considered it a lovely sight. Unfortunately, the former me was not currently sitting upon a leaf in a body scarcely larger than the bird's beak. The bird's gaze settled upon me, and I understood exactly what I was looking at. This bird was a predator, and I was going to be its prey.

Panic gripped me as every instinct in my tiny body shrieked the same horrifying truth. To that bird, I was not the former Empress of a mighty empire. I was simply lunch. A small, conveniently exposed lunch sitting atop a leaf and practically begging to be its next meal. The absurdity of the situation would have been hilarious if it had been happening to someone else. The moment the bird launched itself from the branch, every coherent thought fled my mind.

My body locked up completely as pure instinctive fear overwhelmed me. From my current perspective, it looked less like a bird and more like a flying monster descending from the heavens to claim its prey. What exactly was I supposed to do against such a creature? I was a caterpillar with no ways to defend myself. As far as I understood, my skill set consisted of crawling slowly and eating plants.

Against an opponent whose beak alone looked large enough to bite me cleanly in half, those talents felt woefully inadequate. For perhaps the first time since awakening in this ridiculous body, I was forced to confront the possibility that I might actually die here.