Chương 2: Poison

When the bird flew towards me, I had already resigned myself to my fate. This second life had proven embarrassingly brief, and while I would have preferred not to end it as an afternoon snack, I could only hope the creature possessed the decency to make my death swift. Yet when the bird finally stood before me, it did not drive its beak into my frail body, nor did it tear me apart as I had imagined.

Instead, it lowered its head until one eye hovered mere inches from me, studying me while never making the slightest attempt to touch me. We remained frozen in that peculiar standoff for several seconds before it lost interest, spread its wings, and flew away. The relief I felt was difficult to put into words. However, after that relief came confusion. Birds were not mindless beasts as far as I could remember.

Compared to many creatures, they possessed a respectable degree of intelligence, at least enough to recognize an easy meal when one presented itself. There was simply no conceivable reason for a healthy bird to ignore a defenseless caterpillar unless something about that caterpillar warned it away. Then I thought of an exciting possibility, that perhaps, I was poisonous. It was not impossible to imagine that my body may have signalled my potentially poisonous nature through vivid coloration.

Said colors might have served as a bold warning to every would-be predator that sampling me would be an unfortunate mistake. If I truly carried venom or poison, it would be an extraordinary advantage. A creature as defenseless as a caterpillar could hardly hope to survive through strength or speed, but the ability to deter predators simply by existing was another matter entirely.

Such a gift would compensate for countless shortcomings and might very well prove the difference between surviving or suffering a premature second death. Better still, poisonous creatures were often incredibly beautiful. Nature, for all its brutality, seemed to delight in adorning its deadliest creations with remarkable beauty, and I sincerely hoped I had inherited the same privilege. After all, when I had ruled as Empress, I had been celebrated as the most beautiful woman in the entire Empire.

It would have been an unforgivable insult if fate had chosen to reincarnate me as an insect only to deprive me of that distinction. If I was destined to crawl and eat leaves, then I hoped to remain the most exquisite caterpillar the forest had ever been privileged to behold. Yet, wishful thinking had never been a substitute for knowledge.

I could speculate endlessly about the reason for the bird's sudden loss of interest, but if I wished to know whether my survival had truly been the result of some poisonous warning coloration, then I first needed to see what I looked like. Since mirrors were not a common feature of forest life, after some consideration, I concluded that my best option would be to locate a body of still water. A pond or a slow-moving stream should allow me the ability to finally examine my appearance.

With that objective in mind, I returned to my meal. There was little sense in abandoning a perfectly good food source before I had finished exploiting it. Once I had eaten my fill, however, I would begin searching for water.

The journey to find a body of water proved considerably more difficult than I had anticipated. While perched upon plants, I at least enjoyed a degree of separation from the countless dangers lurking below. On the ground, however, I felt much more vulnerable. At any moment, some passing animal might crush me beneath an unwitting footstep without ever realizing I had existed. Frankly, being stepped on was not even the worst possibility.

What concerned me far more was the prospect of encountering ants, as I wasn't sure if I'd survive being attacked by them. During my previous life, I had observed ant colonies in the imperial gardens on numerous occasions. Despite their size, they possessed an efficiency that I could not help but respect. I had seen swarms of them overwhelm insects many times larger than themselves, reducing their victims to little more than scattered remains through sheer numbers.

More than once during my reign, I had privately wished that my own soldiers possessed even a fraction of their unwavering loyalty and determination. Despite my worries though, continuing to move was still the best option if I wanted to progress. After a considerable amount of crawling, and after taking great care to avoid any loud noises or suspicious disturbances, I eventually succeeded in locating a small stream.

It was hardly an impressive body of water by ordinary standards, little more than a narrow ribbon winding through the forest, but to me it appeared almost majestic. I hurried towards it. Or rather, I moved as quickly as my current body allowed. After what felt like far too much effort, I finally reached the water's edge and gazed into the stream. What I saw staring back at me was nothing short of delightful, because as far as caterpillars were concerned, I was magnificent.

My body was primarily a bright shade of purple. Running across that purple were patterns of black and white stripes that created an almost regal appearance. In short, I was quite the stunning looking creature. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Fate might have reduced me to a leaf-eating insect, but at least it had not forced me to endure the indignity of being an ugly one. More importantly, my appearance strongly supported my previous hypothesis.

Creatures that possessed such bright and conspicuous coloration often did so for a reason. Perhaps I truly was poisonous after all. To my disappointment, I was afforded only a few brief moments to admire my admittedly exceptional appearance before an unpleasant sound interrupted my reflections. Croak. The noise shattered my concentration instantly. I turned toward its source and discovered that I was no longer alone. Another visitor had arrived at the stream, and unlike myself, it had come looking for a meal.

A frog sat just across the stream, its eyes fixed directly upon me. While there were certainly beautiful frogs in the world, this creature was not among them. Its skin was a dull yellowish-brown color that reminded me of muddy water, and its body was large by frog standards. Had I been human, I might have considered it merely a curious looking specimen. From my current perspective, however, it appeared colossal.

It was easily two or three times larger than an ordinary garden frog, transforming it into a monstrous predator in my eyes. And once again, what frustrated me most was the complete futility of the situation. Running was not an option for me since I moved quite literally at a snail's pace. With only a few hops, the frog had already closed much of the distance between us. Even if I turned around immediately and crawled with every ounce of speed my body could muster, the creature would still catch me effortlessly.

And so, having survived one predator already, I elected to employ the same strategy once more. I remained still and hoped that my vivid coloration would discourage the creature from pursuing me. After all, the bird had wisely decided that I was not worth the risk, so hopefully, this frog would arrive at the same conclusion and leave me alone. Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that frogs were significantly less intelligent than birds.

The creature hopped closer to me, and at no point did it show the slightest sign of hesitation. Its bulbous eyes remained fixed upon me with hunger, and before I could fully process what was happening, a blur shot toward me. Something sticky wrapped around my body. An instant later, I found myself flying through the air and landing inside the frog's mouth. Everything had happened so quickly that my mind struggled to keep pace with reality.

But judging by the slimy feeling all around me, I was now trapped inside the mouth of an exceptionally ugly amphibian. At the very least, the creature lacked teeth. Had it possessed a mouth full of sharp fangs, I suspected this experience would have been much more painful. But just as I thought I was about to be swallowed whole, something changed. The frog suddenly froze as the shaking became erratic. Then, the creature immediately spat me out.

I flew through the air before landing unceremoniously upon the ground, covered from head to tail in foul-smelling frog saliva. The experience was degrading beyond words, but at least I was alive. Then I turned my head and saw the frog staggering several paces away. At first, I thought the creature was merely attempting to recover from whatever discomfort my poison had caused. Its movements quickly became erratic as violent tremors rippled through its body.

One of its hind legs kicked wildly, then another, and before long the entire creature was thrashing across the ground with all the grace of a fish stranded on dry land. The frog attempted to flee. At least, I assumed that was its intention. A desperate hop carried it only a short distance before its limbs buckled beneath it. The creature crashed onto its side and rolled helplessly through the dirt, scattering leaves as it struggled.

The convulsions grew increasingly violent for several seconds before abruptly weakening. Soon the powerful kicks became feeble twitches. Its throat expanded one final time in a futile attempt to draw breath, and then the light simply vanished from its eyes. [You have killed: Deep Forest Frog (Level 6)] [Experience awarded] [You have Leveled Up! 3 >> 5] [Vitality +2] Hah! The foolish creature had received exactly what it deserved. The audacity of such a filthy animal attempting to eat me was bad enough.

The fact that it had actually succeeded in putting me inside its mouth only made its demise all the more satisfying. More importantly, however, this confirmed something extremely valuable. Not only was I poisonous, but my poison was clearly potent. That frog had been many times larger than I was, and merely placing me inside its mouth had been enough to kill it within seconds. Whatever toxins my body possessed, they were evidently powerful enough to threaten creatures vastly larger than myself.

To make matters even better, the System had awarded me two entire levels. As expected, combat remained one of the most efficient paths toward power. It had always been that way. The System rewarded risk, and surviving an encounter with a creature several levels above me apparently qualified as a significant accomplishment. Now that I knew I could survive brief contact with a frog, perhaps I ought to seek out more of these hideous creatures.

All I would need to do was present myself as an easy meal and allow their natural stupidity to do the rest. Surely at least some of them would be foolish enough to try eating me, they would die, and then I would quickly gain experience. I was so occupied with contemplating the tremendous potential of this discovery that I nearly overlooked the fact that the System had presented me with additional notifications.

Such an oversight would have been unforgivable under ordinary circumstances, but I felt I could be excused for being distracted by the realization that I had just slain a creature many times my size. The moment I turned my attention to the glowing text, however, my enthusiasm only grew. [Trait Menu Unlocked] [1 Trait Point Awarded]