Chapter 1: Reborn... As A Caterpillar?!

It has been a whole week since I got this fever and it is just continuing to get worse. I've been living a pretty normal slow life, working at a mini-market close to home, living with my parents, enjoying video games, and Japanese media.

I can't believe how long this fever has lasted! And if I go to the doctor it will waste all my video game money. Ugh, It's not like I can die if I don't, God I can barely think with this headache let alone play any games... Sigh, I guess I'll just go to sleep, I'm pretty sleepy anyway.

That night I had a strange dream, I was in a weird place that looked like a big ocean, but the water was still and unmoving. When I checked if I was ok, I was no more than a glowing floating lump. Shortly after a soothing voice called out to me, telling me to come to him, to just keep moving. While I was floating in the direction of the voice, it started to get louder, slowly increasing in volume. Then suddenly I felt incredible pain all over my lump of a body.

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.

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[Day 1]

When I finally woke up, all I could see was black, I couldn't feel my arms or my legs, or even my mouth for that matter.

I can't move? What's going on? I can't feel anything, my arms, my legs, my head even... There's only my mind... my thoughts... Did I... Did I die?

I tried to move with all my might, to move even an inch of my body. Until finally, I felt something move, a limb behind me. I started hearing cracking noises the more I moved as if I was breaking out of something.

I know I can... do it! I must... move! Let's go!

As I broke free I saw light, an immense amount of light, it showered my whole face and I could finally open my eyes. It felt like whatever was holding me was slowly falling apart and shortly after I fell onto the ground.

Aaah, I'm so tired... Where am I? What is this? Giants leaves? What? Massive rocks? Trees the size of skyscrapers... Why is everything so massive in this forest?

And then I realized how fucked up I was... My entire body was divided into sections, long fatty, green-colored skin with small purple patterns. Small, almost transparent hairs covering the top of my body. I don't have any arms, just chunky little legs on the bottom of my body. I couldn't see what I looked like but I could already imagine what I looked like, I was a Caterpillar.

How could this even happen? Why? Is this a dream? Please be a dream... Oh god, but I felt pain when I fell didn't I? That means this is real, doesn't it? Oh god... that means I really am a caterpillar now... Why me? WAIT! Does that really mean I died from a fever? What the hell... There is no way, it was just a fever! Who the hell dies from a fever!... If I really died doesn't that mean I was reincarnated? Is this a case of people being reincarnated into another world but they ran out of heroes so they just tossed my soul into whatever was nearby at the time? Thanks a lot, Mysterious Voice, you ass.

Suddenly I started to feel extremely hungry so I started eating whatever was near me, from leaves to even rocks.

These rocks are so horrible and bitter... Why can I even eat them and still be fine? I can even munch them into dust inside my mouth. This caterpillar is a monster!

After a while, I finally started to feel sated so I started to analyze my surroundings.

Hmm, it would be funny if there was some kind of status screen that showed up when you shouted STATUS! In your mind or something...

[Name: None

[Class: None

[Race: Common Forest Caterpillar

[Level: 1/10 [XP: 0/100 [Status: Full

[HP: 6/6 [MP: 0/0 [Stamina: 100/100

[Strength: 1

[Defense: 2

[Magic: 0

[Resistance: 0

[Speed: 1

[Charisma: -1

[Luck: -2

[Skills: [Trash Belly] [Forest Caterpillar Weak Body] [Blessing of #########]

[Iron Teeth] [Weak Bite] [Caterpillar Basic Regeneration]

Eeeh?! It's true! But what are these stats? They are complete trash! And what's with these shit skills? Wait a minute, minus two luck? And my Charisma is minus 1! Are you calling me ugly? What an asshole... Sigh.

After calming myself down, I started to check out the details of this forest. It was big and dark, the trees were a dark grey, almost pitch black, the leaves were massive and a dark green. All types of colorful mushrooms decorated the feet of all the trees. There was a bee floating around but it seems to have not noticed me yet.

Is it because of my minus one charisma?

"HEY! Mister bee! Please! You are the first living being I have encountered in this world! Do you want to be my companion? Wait, why do I even have a voice?"

As if provoked by my strange movements, the bee stopped for a moment then flew directly towards my head. Pointing its big stinger towards my beautiful caterpillar face!

"Ugh...! Wait! Please stop! Don't get angry! We are civilized bugs! Fellow brothers! Don't tell me you're a Tsundere?!"

As if taking my words as an insult the bee got even more enraged and increased its speed. Then suddenly a strong stinging pain filled my face.

"UUUAAAGH! Get out! Get out! It hurts! Please stop! It hurts like hell!"

The bee got its stinger stuck in my face, struggling to get it out, which made the stinger go deeper and made the pain get even worse. As the pain increased my whole face started to feel numb.

"I want to live! I want to live! You bastard! Take this! WEAK BITE! NOM!"

My bite got him right in his stupid bee face!

"HAHAHA! This is what you deserve you stupid punk!"

The bee started to struggle in pain to no avail, as his stinger was firmly stuck inside of my face.

"BBZZZZ...!"

"TAKE THIS! NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!"

"BBBZZZZZ!!!"

After having half of his head eaten the bee stopped moving, just a loud dinging sond resounded in my mind.

[You've gained: 124 XP]

[You've gained: 1 level]

[You've obtained a new title: First kill in this New World]

[Your HP has recovered]

"Huh? So it's like this... Ah! When I leveled up I healed? Then why does it still hurt like hell? Ah! I have to get this stinger out of my face, or healing would have been for nothing!"

It seems that as long as the stinger was in my face, the wound would never fully close, and the auto-heal from the level up wouldn't take out objects from my body.

Raising my tiny caterpillar legs I gripped the stinger and used all my strength to slowly pull it out. The intense pain made me pause and take a breath before continuing once again. Suddenly the pain finally started to alleviate and the pressure in my face started to lessen.

"It's out! I did it! Ugh..."

[HP: 3/8]

"Ugeh... I almost died... If I didn't level up even though I killed him I still would have died! Completely gone! Dead! Even before experiencing what this world had to offer this innocent little soul! Sigh."

After resting, I started to eat what was left of the bee, even its stinger. It tasted like shit but for some reason, I was still able to eat everything just fine without puking and my stomach didn't hurt at all.

"Is it because of my Trash Belly skill? Does that mean I can eat almost anything? That's oddly convenient for such a horrible existence."

After resting until I felt a little better, I started to walk around while immersed in my thoughts.

So to recap, I died on Earth from a fever, I had a weird dream about floating over a big ocean and a voice calling to me... I bet that fucker is the one behind all this reincarnation bullshit! This is all his fault! He is probably some bored old god toying with my poor and innocent soul for his own amusement!

Suddenly I heard a loud bang in front of me!

"Huh? W-what is that?! A giant foot? What the..."

Quickly I scurried behind for safety while I watched this ruckus unfold. When I glanced at the powerful titan I found out it was a humanoid being, it had grey skin, a completely bald head and massive fangs poking out from its lower jaw. It had a muscular build and was wearing a loincloth while holding a stick.

"Is that... a troll? But don't they become stone during the day? Oh right, this forest is dark even during the day."

My heart was filled with jealousy towards this troll.

So trolls can wander around freely as if they own the place huh? Who do they think they are? I can't believe even a troll would have been a better reincarnation than a caterpillar... This is unfair I say!

The troll sniffed around for a while then slowly started walking away.

"Someday when I get strong enough I'm going to beat you up real good for scaring me shitless like this! Mark my words troll!"

After that I started to slowly drag my body around the ground, eating rocks and plants until I felt full and went to sleep in a hole near a tree.

[Day 2]

When I woke up I immediately realized that everything I went through yesterday wasn't a dream, well even though I knew deep down that it wasn't I still had hope that I would wake up in my comfy bed. But to no avail, I'm still a pitiful little caterpillar...

"Sigh, I guess I just need to accept this and focus on surviving... Something inside me is telling me to get stronger no matter what, is this inner monster instincts? Weird."

With 'high' spirits, I started to wander around the forest. After one hour of walking around, I didn't feel tired at all, and for some reason. And for some reason, my mind felt refreshed and calm.

Hmm, so there is some kind of road around here with hardly any rocks and no plants blocking the way. This is probably a trail left by the trolls that frequently walkthrough here. To the west there is a massive river, I guess I'll call it... Hmm, West River? Yea that'll do. Towards the east, there are big rocky mountains so I'll just call them East Rocky Mountains for simplicity. Very well, now where do I even go? I'm starting to get hungry, the rocks and plants don't restore my stamina much... Hmm, what should I do?

As I was pondering over what to do I remembered a novel back on Earth that I used to love. It was about someone reincarnated as a goblin and the first thing he did was go and hunt monsters to eat.

"Maybe hunting would be the best option, but what could I even hunt as a stupid caterpillar? The bee situation was a once in a lifetime opportunity! There is no way I would hunt bees! Eh?"

While I was immersed in my thoughts, I didn't even realize that something terrifying was coming towards me. It was a gigantic bird! Black and blue feathers, with a yellow-colored curved beak typical of eagles. It's looking at me with its black beady eyes! I almost shat myself out of fear! I started running (Dragging?) my body as fast as I could but the bird was too fast!

"No way no way no way! How could I have been so careless? This bird could eat me whole and that would be the end of my journey! I didn't even last two days! Are you fucking with me Mysterious Voice?! YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!"

"Squaaark!"

As if telling me to just sit still and wait to be eating the bird shouted at me!

"OH! There's a hole! A HOLE! Right there! My savior!"

I charged towards the little hole as fast as I could. The bird beak almost got me but I managed to enter the hole just in time. Sadly the bird didn't want to miss out on the opportunity of eating such a fatty and juicy caterpillar such as myself. It struggled to insert its beak deep enough inside the hole, trying to grab me.

"Haah... That was a close one... HAHA! Keep struggling you, feathered idiot! You won't get me in such a narrow hole!"

"Squaaark! Squaark!"

Finally, the bird gave up and it went flying away somewhere else.

"At least I am safe here in this little hole-"

Then, as if destiny was toying with me, a big and ugly spider revealed itself right behind me! It had 8 black and yellow legs, 8 horrible deep black eyes, and an incredibly sturdy-looking pair of fangs!

"Sigh... Why is life toying with me like this..."

When I tried to start running for my life again I noticed that my entire body was incredibly tired and that I couldn't even move an inch. Then I noticed my stamina stat...

[HP: 7/8 Stamina: 2/100]

"No way! It must have been depleted when I was running for my life! This system is complete bullshit! Now, what am I supposed to do? I'm just destined to die here, just because these numbers say I can't move? Don't fuck with me!"

"Screeechh!"

The big spider jumped towards me, going for the kill. But right at that moment a loud bang resonated above me.

"Squaaark!"

『It's that fucking bird! Are you kidding me? Is he never going to give up? Should I feel flattered or horrified?!』

Right before the spider was about to bite me the bird destroyed the top of the hole exposing all that was inside to the outside world. Then when the bird noticed the spider and me, it compared us. Then having concluded that the spider was a better, meatier catch the bird grabbed it with its beak and flew away. Seeing this unfortunate scene for the spider unfold in front of me I couldn't resist laughing at its bad luck...

But wait, I'm just as unlucky... was he even more unfortunate? Or did two unfortunate events clashed against each other which granted me the possibility to survive?

Bad luck seems to be underrated!

"Goodbye mister spider! Hahahaha!"

"Screeechh...!"

After everything calmed down, I slowly dragged myself around the hole in order to find the spider's nest... There it is, and it's packed with its eggs growing inside of its sticky threads, I managed to squeeze in there and I found quite a few bug carcasses.

"Finders keepers!"

I started devouring these dry bug carcasses, they tasted awful and barely restored any stamina but they were better than nothing.

"Now onto the main dish...!"

I slowly started destroying the threads around the eggs by biting them using my Weak Bite skill and began gulping down the spider eggs. They tasted like trash juice, why do I know what trash juice tastes like? Intuition or something... I don't know!

"These are crunchy and juicy on the inside, but not in a good way... I would kill for some fried meat now... Ooh and beer too! Sigh. Will I be able to replicate these foods in the future? Maybe if I get a strong enough to lead a group of intelligent beings."

After my stupid rambling, I started to eat the threads too, because why not? It's not like I can't eat them so I might as well.

"Gueeh, these are so dry and sticky, they get stuck in my throat but somehow give me a lot of stamina. Are they nutritious? Gulp. Why do I feel like eating in this world is more like torture than relief?"

[You've gained: 86 XP]

[You've obtained a new title: Trash Eater]

[You've learned the following skills]

[Steel Belly]

[Weak Thread Creation]

[Spiders 8 Eyes]

Seeing such incredible news, I almost spit out the thread I was eating.

"What!? This! Did I learn skills for eating this shit? Are you kidding me?"

I remember several novel and anime characters that had similar powers, growing incredibly fast from consuming their enemies and gaining their power.

"To think that I got that kind of power, is this my cheat skill? But it seems heavily nerfed since when I ate the bee I didn't gain anything. Maybe it needs to be a big quantity of the same thing to get the skills? Or maybe the bee was just too trash? Sigh... At least there's something bright about this dark and twisted world... I also got XP for no reason!"

While swallowing the thread in my mouth I remembered the horrible taste of those spider eggs.

"Wait, maybe because the eggs are technically living beings they gave me XP anyways? Aah, that's fucked up. OH! I almost forgot about my new title, Trash eater! What a title, and Steel Belly? Is it because of all the carcasses, threads, and eggs I ate? Maybe my belly will evolve and let me eat even fire in the future! Haha!"

Getting tired of talking to myself I started to play around with my new thread creation skill and made a messy thread bed to sleep on. I also noticed that when I created the thread it cost stamina!

"What robbery! It's around 5 stamina per 10cm, so just making my bed cost me 15 stamina? That's almost half of what I got from eating all this shit... Stamina management is going to be a real pain from now on."

Before going to sleep I tried my Spiders 8 Eyes skill, it cost 10 stamina for every use. It let me have eight spider eyes on my face for a limited amount of time increasing my visual capabilities.

"It could prove useful in the future, but it's too costly to afford using it repeatedly for now... Alright then! Time to sleep!"