That meant he might have something his own size to pick on.
Hunting for grubs was harder than Felix expected.
To transform into an Emberfly, which was the size of his head, the grub was likely half that size. That was still huge, so he'd started off confident in finding a big nasty bug in short order. Three hours later and over two hundred trees inspected, he had still come up empty.
The search hadn't been entirely wasted though. Felix had kept an eye out for useful herbs and plants, grinding his Herbalism Skill and stuffing his strained pockets with what he could. Some more Yarrow was the best find, though he also found a small clutch of mushrooms called Witchcaps. The little things purified blood (whatever that meant) and provided a tiny health boost.
By pure luck, near the end of his search Felix spotted a strange pale grub undulating over a rotting log in a dry, shallow gully. The thing was roughly two feet long, mottled burnt umber and fleshy white. Eyes like jelly-filled sacs of blood sat on its face as it munched on the log beneath it. It had to weigh thirty pounds, at least.
Name: Copse Grub
Type: Insect
Level: 13
HP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
Lore: Born of eggs placed in trees, copse grubs spend their lives devouring the tree from the inside out. Once done, they transform into Emberflies.
The grub looked full and fat, having nearly devoured its entire tree at this point. The log was eaten through in several placed, bored out and covered in gnaw marks. It's body was also coated in a liquid that (even at a distance of twenty yards) Felix could guess was unpleasantly goopy. It was, in a word, gross.
Gross or not, this is the lowest level creature I've seen yet. He hefted a sharp rock from the ground. They were littered all around the area, making stealth extremely difficult. Time to squash a bug.
Moving closer carefully, Felix ended up only two dozen feet away behind a rocky outcropping and a few clustered saplings. Breathing quietly and steadily, he hefted his rock and took aim.
Here goes nothing.
He threw.
And the rock landed with a dull thud in the dirt, easily ten feet shy of the grub.
Jesus, that's embarrassing. He wiped his hand across his face, glad no one saw that pathetic throw. Luckily, the grub didn't appear to have great senses; it didn't even react to the impact. Felix quickly gathered up a few more rocks and tried again.
This time, the rock hit the log, but still missed the grub. The weird bug twitched toward the noise, but didn't make any other movements.
With a resigned sigh Felix moved closer. Only ten feet away now, and separated by a stand of thick trees (Beranthia Conifers, he idly Analyzed), he readied another throw.
He had made a point of gathering up maybe thirty rocks, all around the size of a baseball. They were hard and had a few jagged edges, hopefully enough to penetrate the slick flesh of this bug.
C'mon. C'mon.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Felix spun out of cover and whipped the stone as hard and as fast as he could.
SQUELCH.
You Have Learned A New Skill!
Thrown Weapons Mastery (Common), Level 1.
Don't just stand there, throw something! Skill level slightly increases accuracy and power.
Yes! I did it!
Victory never tasted so sweet. A strike and a Skill! Now he just had to pummel the thing until it ran out of Health and kicked it. Felix grabbed two more rocks and turned around to throw them.
That's when the grub exploded.