Chapter 8: The Skill

"What the..."

Foin thought as he suddenly jolted awake. He was fine; he was not eaten or killed. Carefully looking around, he raised his head off of the ground to see the area. It seemed that he was out for a whole day because his plants once again grew considerably and were ready to be harvested once again. As he sifted his gaze, he could see that the fire he used previously was now put out.

As he tried to move, he felt that something was on his left palm. As he altered his gaze to see what he felt, he was shocked. The ant which had previously bitten him was using the palm it bit as a pillow. Its two front legs were on his wrist, pressing down it slightly.

It was a sight to behold; even Foin was stunned for a few seconds. Since he still felt somewhat numb from the previous bite, he didn't even notice the ant. But now that he knew it was there, he tried to pull his hand away as quietly and as stealthily as possible, but he was not that skilled.

The moment his hand moved, the ant opened its eyes and looked at him while applying slight pressure on his wrist to prevent him from pulling back. Foin was horrified; he didn't know what to do. Just like before, the ant didn't look him in the eye but instead looked at his chest.

What surprised him more was what the ant did. He was expecting it to attack or bite him again, but instead, it shook its head, stepped off of his hand, and lowered its head. As his hand was let go, Foin quickly pulled it back.

Once again, Foin looked around in his tiny area in search of something he could utilise as a defensive tool, but it was to no avail. Although he still had stones and sticks, they were out of his current reach, and the ant was too close for him to get there in time if it wanted to attack. However, as he was about to look back at the ant, he noticed something. The peppers he had harvested previously were all missing.

"You glutton... So that is the reason!"

Foin understuud what had happened. The ant ate his food and decided to let him leave as it was full. This was the most logical conclusion he could come to, as everything seemed so unrealistic, even in his current predicament.

Suddenly, the black ant walked over to him as he was not paying any attention and rubbed its head against his leg. Upon feeling the ant's touch, Foin came back to reality and hurriedly looked down at it. At that moment, a new window popped up before his eyes.

"Congratulations! You have tamed a Black Ant!"

"Tamed a Black Ant?!"

Foin repeated the notification, which soon faded away. He looked down at the injured black ant and then shook his head. He couldn't believe that he had managed to tame this black ant using only food. Foin let out a loud sigh. Although the system stated that the ant was tamed, he still couldn't fully trust it; he still felt threatened. He pondered for a few moments and then finally came up with an idea.

"Could you gather some more sticks?"

Foin asked as he looked at the ant. He couldn't help but laugh at himself for saying such a laughable thing, but he needed to try whether it would work. And just as he spoke, the ant nodded and walked away, leaving Foin speechless. He couldn't believe that the ant just understood him and presumably went gathering wood.

Foin scratched his head and quickly went over to his peppers, and quickly ate the closest one as, for some reason, despite not doing anything the day before, only being knocked out, he was hungrier than ever before. He carefully collected the seeds from the pepper he had just eaten and, in its place, plated two extra plants from the seeds.

He believed that that might be an acceptable amount of seed to not be that weak, like the further row he planted. Also, other than its size and number of yields, Foin also noticed that it had a rich and stronger flavour. So even if he could produce a greater quantity of weaker plants, it wouldn't be worth it because of the weaker taste.

All in all, he ate four extra peppers and, as a result, planted eight extra new plants. As he was finished and his hunger was satisfied, he opened his menu to see his stats. He only needed two more Experience Points to level up.

With a broad smile and full of anticipation, he quickly harvested two extra peppers to see what would happen. Suddenly, a new panel popped up.

"Congratulations! You have levelled up. Required Experience Points increased! All Stats have increased by 1! Ability Points increased by 1!"

"Notice! The system is pleased with your progress, and as a result, you are given a reward. Please choose one of the following skills!"

Under the text, there were three buttons. The first one was called Fertilizer, the second one was called Appraiser, and the third one was called Gatherer.

Foin started at the options before him. he was unable to decide for many long minutes. He believed that the first two could be extremely useful. Looking at the first, the one called Fertilizer, although he was unable to grasp how it would work, he was certain that it would either increase the yield or the speed at which his product grew.

As for the APraiser, he hoped that that skill would allow him to have a broader understanding of the things around him. As for the Gatherer, no matter how much he was thinking about it, he couldn't understand what that could mean.

He wanted to choose the best and greatest option, but no matter how he looked at the skills, he couldn't decide which he would rather choose but then finally he made up his mind and chose.

He confidently pressed the Appraiser skill as he'd rather know more about the stuff around him than grow more, which he could do in due time anyway. Also, later, he realised that even if he had faster growth, he already had enough food production for him to survive without a problem.