The Reincarnator Is A Mystical Worm

Chapter 2: Endless Eating

Eating, moving, and sleeping; Scharl lived with such a routine as a little worm. He didn't even know how much time had passed since he arrived in this new world, and up until now, he still doesn't know what this new world really looks like.

One day, Schral woke up from his sleep and was surprised to discover that he was no longer surrounded by just endless and complete darkness. He saw glowing dots and figures of various shapes and colors everywhere around him.

It was as if the dark void has suddenly given birth to stars.

Of course, Scharl didn't take long to find out that this was actually some sort of vision that allows him to see sources of heat.

Scharl was instantly excited by this progress. Even if there aren't many details aside from temperature that he can obtain from this new sense of vision, he was still quite pleased.

"This is much better than seeing nothing at all. At least now, I'll have a more accurate sense of directions," Scharl thought as he moved his body around, but he suddenly remembered something and a screen of foreign symbols appeared in his vision.

It was the information screen that he has already been accustomed to; he decided to call it "Status Window" because it was very similar to the one from those novels with game elements he had read in his past life.

After browsing through the contents for a minute, he finally spotted what he was searching for.

[..., Creature: 'Mystical Worm', Sub-type: 'Devourer Worm', Stage: 'Juvenile' ..., Self-Identifier: 'Scharl Rogers, ...', ..., Spiritual Power: '12±', Mana: '15±', ..., Innate Physical Abilities: 'Thermal Vision, Spatial Sound Perception', ...', ..., Innate Magic Abilities: 'Devour, Purification, ...', ...]

"Just as I expected," Scharl smiled in his thought.

It seems that this new change was brought by the maturation of his physical body, Scharl hypothesized. Now that he has become a juvenile-stage 'Mystical Worm,' it made sense for him to be able to use his 'Innate Physical Abilities' such as 'Thermal Vision.'

With this in his thoughts, Scharl began getting himself accustomed to his newly acquired abilities.

After some time, Scharl suddenly wondered: "Now that I'm a juvenile-stage worm, I should be able to use my Innate Magic Abilities too, right? How do I use them?"

Truth be told, Scharl has always been intrigued and wondering how to use magic since the time he saw words like "Mana," "Spiritual Power," "Magic Resistance," and "Innate Magic Abilities" on his Status Window. Real magic didn't exist in his previous life, so he naturally wanted to satisfy his curiosity. Somehow, it brought him some excitement and a few expectations for his new life.

Unfortunately, there was no guide on how to use magic in his Status Window — which is his main source of knowledge at this point.

Based on his long observation, it seemed that the "Status Rune" and "Eye of Truth," which Scharl had especially taken note of since the time he heard that mysterious voice in his head, actually does nothing else but show him detailed information about his characteristics and existence as a so-called "Mystical Worm." Through it, Scharl can know the exact size of his body, age in days and hours, and etcetera by just searching through the seemingly endless contents of his Status Window. But it doesn't give him any benefit for just idling.

In fact, Scharl went as far as enduring hunger once in a while, just to see what happens to the information inside his Status Window. In the end, nothing much changed except for a few words appearing: "extremely hungry," "very weak," and "stomach ache."

His bodily states and potentials, which Scharl later freely referred to as "Stats," would only improve whenever he tried his best to move around and eat food as much as possible. Because of this important discovery, he no longer kept himself idle except when resting or sleeping.

Naturally, Scharl had no desire to stay as a weak little worm. He wanted to see what will happen if he continues to grow. Even if he would probably be a worm for a lifetime, at the very least, he wanted to become a powerful worm.

'Hmph! I'm definitely not allowing myself to get caught and turned into fish bait!'

***

"Devour... Hmmm... Isn't it just the same as eating? Perhaps I should just go and eat then. There's certainly nothing to lose but something to gain."

Thus, Scharl decided to squirm in a random direction, eating random things on the soil along the way.

After some time, Scharl noticed a glowing dot nearby his body. The glowing dot appeared in blue in his thermal vision, but he was not certain about its temperature. It was at this moment that he suddenly had a brave and curious thought about the blue glowing dot.

Shortly after, Scharl began squirming around the blue dot, trying to determine whether the tiny object was too hot for him or not. There was an ambrosial scent that provoked his desire to eat coming from the tiny object. It didn't take long before Scharl moved his mouth towards the blue dot and swallowed it whole.

Sure enough, the object was very warm. At the same time, it was also as hard as a rock. As for its taste, it reminded Scharl of the taste of honeyed water from his previous life. But the most astonishing part was that Scharl felt a strange soothing sensation as the object moved towards his stomach.

It was as if Scharl tasted his favorite food after a very long time, yet also different. The strange feeling was unforgettable and gratifying. Perhaps, it was also because he was a worm?

After a little while, Scharl didn't get enough of eating only one blue dot so he eagerly moved around in search of more objects with the exact blue color, swallowing each one he finds. He ate and ate countless tiny grains that he sees blue in his thermal vision, not even bothering about finding out what he was eating.

Scharl would only stop whenever his stomach is full and then sleeps. When he wakes up again, he would be captivated instantly by any blue dots in his sight.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little blue star. Tell me, tell me where you are. Up above or down below, I will go and search for you. Twinkle, twinkle, little blue. I will eat you, where are you?"

An unknown number of days passed, perhaps a month, and Scharl spent his time merrily journeying in the vast underground. He did that with a simple goal in mind, and that is food.

Scharl would only linger in a certain place for as long as he can see glowing objects through his thermal vision there. With that said, he eventually went eating not just the blue dots but also the violet, green, cyan, and yellow ones in his thermal vision. The rest such as pink, purple, orange, and red were simply too hot for him to eat so he directly gave up on eating them.

Although, there was also a time when he carelessly ate an object that appeared green in his thermal vision and earned the taste of extreme suffering for the first time since rebirth: He wriggled in agony for an unknown period that he thought he was already going die.

"Ugh, if I die, that's fine too. At least, I will be freed from this horrendous and disgusting creature such as my body," Scharl calmly said such words in his mind just before he lost consciousness. He didn't die in the end though.

The good thing was that he didn't suffer completely without a good thing. The important thing he ascertained was that the objects that appear with the same color in his thermal vision don't necessarily mean they are similar in composition. It was also the moment he realized that he was an i***t during the entire period he was recklessly eating everything in this sight. What if he had eaten something extremely poisonous and dies instantly? His little life would have been wasted.

'But that would have been fine too, anyway...'

Since then, Scharl always performed with caution when eating the warm objects that he sees. There are still some things to expect in this worthless life after all...