TROA) Once The Hunter Now The Prey (Patreon)

Three days passed, and I was currently in a basement eating some food. Normally, I would head home for a bit, but I decided to just stick around. The area I was in was a city south of my base. The reason I was sticking around was because I could see many spiders in the area, and I did not want to lose track of them. They were easy experience points, which I lacked greatly.

I have no idea why they were all congregating here, but they were tearing apart the cars as if frantically making new spiders. I have no idea how they acted between the start of the apocalypse to the two years I was in the lab. I only know they were more spread out when I first ventured out into the unknown.

I popped the last bit of my ham and cheese sandwich into my mouth before standing up. “The only good thing about this heat is I can toast my sandwich while I eat.”  I stretched and readied my gun. 

I made my way to the front step of the house I was in. There was no sign of life anywhere except the spiders, but they were not truly alive in a sense. Maybe if they were like that humanoid robot, things would be different. I still do not know if she was truly alive or not. At least her intelligence was at or greater than a human’s. But this still did not tell me exactly what the ones behind these robots looked like.

I raised my gun and fired it at the first spider I saw blasting its eye out. I walked over and picked up the drops from it. As I did, a thought came to mind. What if I used these robots to build more and then just farmed the ones they built? My eyes glowed just thinking about it, but I would need to make a spider breeding ground so I could farm as much as I wanted. I could build a solid room with a side room for me to teleport into and an area above that I could use for a sniper point. 

I clapped my hands together at such a thought. “Looks like I have a means of getting myself free experience.”

My current stats were not much to look at.

[Host]: Inoue Ai

[Age]: 16

[Race]: Human

[Realm] Mortal

[Level]: 4

[Health]: 600/600

[Nano]: 450/450

[Strength]: 25

[Vitality]: 25

[Intelligence]: 25

[Agility]: 25

[Skill Points]: 20

{Mechanical Engineering (Lvl 3)} {Robotics (Lvl 3)} {Artificial Intelligence (Lvl 3)} {Martial Arts (Lvl 3)} {Close Combat Weapons (Lvl 2)} {Ranged Weapons (Lvl 4)} {Metal Manipulation (Lvl 1)} {Quantum Creation (Lvl 1)} {Earth Manipulation (Lvl 1)}

But if I were able to farm as many spiders as I wanted, I could easily level up a few times. With this thought in mind, I decided to go ahead and do just that. I quickly retreated to the basement I was just in and began digging down with my earth manipulation. While I worked, I kept an eye on the area around me to make sure my prey was not going to escape. 

After a few hours, I had a huge room along with a balcony for me to shoot from, as well as a small room off to the side that I marked as a teleportation point. With this set, I decided to go through my list of skills because there was one thing I knew, and that was a stone room would not hold them. I was worried they would try to escape.

“Oh!” I found a perfect skill after scrolling for almost ten minutes. “Astral Barrier.”

[Astral Barrier]

[A barrier made of pure ions. Nothing can pass through it, no matter what kind of particle it is. Can only be applied to none biological objects.]

“Fifteen skill points, but should do the job I want.” I went ahead and spent the points.

The thing about this skill was that it had no levels. Once you buy it, that was it. It only had one function, and to be honest, I wished I had noticed it sooner. I can use it on the base, and it would be protected from anything. This could also be used on a shield and maybe even weapons. The possibilities were crazy!

I had a greedy grin on my face just thinking about it. If I were to somehow mix this in with my phase swords, I wonder how it would work? Of course, now was not the time for testing, but the ideas were there. I should also let my mother and father study it as well. They might even come up with other uses for it.

I applied the barrier to the spider kennel and went out to go get my new pets. One thing I just realized was that I could not put things alive into my inventory, but technically, a spider was not alive. I snuck up behind one to test this theory out. I placed my hand on it and shoved it into my inventory!

[Acquired:  Hexa-Scavenger Bot]

[Warning: Only non hostile while in inventory. Once removed will attack the host on sight.]

I smiled and quickly went to work. Hunting my prey. I do wonder, though, did these robots ever think they would become the prey one day? Instead of them hunting humans, humans hunt them to make use of their natural programming to the humans’ advantage.