The Forest Was the Same, but the Caterpies Were Not

"Is this the place?"

Mark asked.

After stopping and starting through the forest for over three hours, Caterpie finally arrived at the place it remembered.

Caterpie looked around, then suddenly noticed something. It moved beneath a banyan tree and tore away several clumps of weeds with its forelegs, revealing a blue stone covered in moss beneath them.

Caterpie remembered this blue stone very clearly.

After failing to compete for a position as a Leader's Guard, it had collapsed beside this very stone.

Its head had seemed to strike the stone back then, too.

It had originally planned to return and compete for one of the other Leader's Guard positions after recovering from its injuries. After all, a Caterpie Leader had several Leader's Guards.

Instead, it had been driven away by the victorious Leader's Guard and forced to leave the home where it had grown up...

Caterpie came back to its senses.

Rather than looking at the blue stone again, it scanned its surroundings.

"Hiss, hiss?"

Mark asked in confusion, "You mean there used to be lots of Caterpie here, and you don't know why they disappeared?"

Caterpie nodded.

It had grown up here. It remembered a fruit tree that bore red fruit. The fruit was sweet and spicy, and it had loved that flavor.

Following the direction in its memories, Caterpie quickly found that fruit tree.

It was midsummer, so the fruit should have been fully ripe. Yet when it looked up at the fruit on the tree, nearly all of it was green, and there was very little of it, as if it had been eaten clean.

Eaten clean?

Caterpie suddenly jolted awake. At that moment, the feelers on its forehead caught a scent—the scent of fellow Caterpie.

The feelers on Caterpie's forehead spread farther apart and rotated like antennas.

It caught the scent of even more Caterpie.

Like a startled rabbit, Caterpie darted to Mark's side and warily looked around.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss hiss hiss!"

"You mean those Caterpie are all hiding nearby, and they may be watching us from the shadows right now?"

"Hiss!"

Caterpie nodded repeatedly.

Mark thought for a moment. "No wonder we didn't get any news from the Village Chief. It seems that neither the Village Chief nor those Bug Catching Boys in the village know there's a wild Caterpie Group in the forest. Otherwise, they could have just organized people to come catch them. Do you know why the Caterpie here are hiding from us?"

"Hiss." Caterpie shook its head. It had been away from the Caterpie Group for years, and it could no longer remember many things clearly. But it soon recalled something. "Hiss, hiss."

Mark raised an eyebrow. "You mean the Caterpie Group hates humans? Why do they hate humans?"

Caterpie shook its head.

It did not know why it was supposed to hate humans. It was simply what all the other Caterpie had said.

In fact, when it had first encountered Mark, it had not trusted him either. It had simply had no other choice at the time.

Later, as time passed, it gradually came to understand Mark and met the villagers of Clear Stream Village. Its prejudice against humans slowly disappeared.

By now, if Mark had not deliberately asked about it, it might even have forgotten that it had once hated humans.

Mark frowned and pondered for a while. "It looks like these Caterpie probably won't show themselves while I'm here. I'll leave for a bit, and they might come out. Wait here. I won't go far, and if anything happens, I'll come help right away."

"Hiss?"

Before Caterpie could figure out what was happening, Mark had already burrowed into the grass and run off. Within two breaths, he had vanished from sight.

Mark had left it here?

Caterpie looked around, its body trembling slightly.

For the past few years, it and Mark had been inseparable. In some ways, it had already come to see Mark as someone it could rely on.

Now that Mark had vanished from its sight, Caterpie felt indescribable terror.

For no reason, horrifying images surfaced in its mind: hundreds, thousands of Caterpie attacking it and driving it away.

Then came a rustling sound.

Those Caterpie had really come...

One Caterpie after another crawled out from the distant grass and appeared in Caterpie's sight.

It instinctively backed away, only to discover that some Caterpie had emerged behind it as well.

It wanted to flee, but then it remembered Mark's words.

Mark had told it to stay here. It could not leave.

Caterpie's heart struggled fiercely as it suddenly noticed something.

A Caterpie of abnormally enormous size crawled out of the grass ahead. It was over a meter long, nearly 1.2 meters.

It was the leader of the Caterpie Group.

Yet it was not the leader of the Caterpie Group.

The reason it was a leader was simple: this enormous Caterpie was a true Caterpie Leader.

As for why it was not the Caterpie Leader, it was because this Caterpie Leader looked completely different from the leader in Caterpie's memories.

In its memories, the former Caterpie Leader had two imposing black spots on its forehead, and it had also been somewhat smaller than this one.

The Caterpie Leader that appeared now looked like an ordinary Caterpie. It had no spots on its forehead, and the markings on its body were nothing special. However, sharp blades had grown from the ends of its four spherical forelegs.

Caterpie stopped looking at the Caterpie Leader and instead looked at the several Leader's Guards beside it, which were slightly larger than ordinary Caterpie—the Leader's Lackeys, as Mark called them.

These Leader's Guards were about the same size as Caterpie, roughly sixty to seventy centimeters long, and they stared at it with open hostility.

But that was not the important part.

The important part was that it did not recognize a single one of these Leader's Guards!

Yes, not one of them!

Caterpie's eyes widened, its face full of bewilderment.

The forest was still the same forest, but the Caterpie living within it had already changed through more than two generations over the years.

To the Caterpie Group living in the forest now, this Caterpie that had appeared before them was a traitor who had submitted to humans.

"Hiss!" (Traitor!)

"Hiss, hiss, hiss hiss!" (Human, raised, slave!)

"Hiss, hiss!" (Raised by humans!)

"Hiss!" (Betrayal!)

The angry hissing of the Caterpie continued without end.

These curses were very disjointed.

For some reason, Caterpie felt that these Caterpie were not very intelligent. They did not seem very capable of communicating and gave it a rather foolish impression.

Although it had often failed to understand Mark's words over the past two days and felt a little foolish itself, Caterpie thought these Caterpie were even more foolish than it was.

There was no time for much thought.

"Hiss!" (Quiet!)

The Caterpie Leader let out a low roar, and the entire group immediately fell silent.

It emerged from the group and looked down from above.

This Caterpie was very close to that human, but it did not carry the scent of one that had been raised. It was not a human's slave, nor was it a traitor. However, its scent clearly did not belong here.

"Hiss, hiss hiss!" (Outsider, leave!)

The group leader's authoritative voice rang out. Caterpie instinctively took several steps back, but it quickly realized something—it was not an outsider!

"Hiss hiss, hiss, hiss hiss, hiss hiss, hiss hiss hiss, hiss, hiss hiss..."

Caterpie tried hard to explain.

It was not an outsider. It had been born here and had grown up here. It had only been gone for too long, so its scent had changed a little. It still remembered the fruit from that tree. That fruit was not only sweet, but also—

Caterpie's explanation came to an abrupt stop.

Because what greeted it was the Caterpie Leader's incomparably cold gaze.

"Hiss, hiss hiss!" (Outsider, leave!)

At the Caterpie Leader's next words, the entire Caterpie Group erupted with cries from every direction.

"Hiss, hiss!" (Outsider, not welcome!)

"Hiss!" (Leave!)

"Hiss!" (Get lost!)

"Hiss, hiss!" (Outsider, get lost!)

"Hiss, hiss!" (Not welcome, leave!)

The hostile stares and words made Caterpie retreat again and again without realizing it. Then it saw the Caterpie Leader wave its foreleg, and countless Caterpie surged at it from all directions!

Caterpie stood frozen in confusion, only to see a blue-and-white figure dart out. A hand scooped it up and tucked it under an arm—it was Mark, who had told it to remain where it was only moments ago.

Mark ran rapidly through the forest with Caterpie, while behind him, a mass of Caterpie launched Tackle and Bite attacks against his back.

Overall, Tackle and Bite were not particularly powerful.

Mark felt that he could endure them. As for Wimpod's backpack, he had slung it across his chest, so he did not need to worry about it being attacked.

Seeing that the situation was manageable, Mark turned his gaze to the Caterpie tucked beneath his arm.

Mark said helplessly, "Things have come to this, so fight back and break through!"

"Hiss?"

"That's right, you need to fight back. How can you not resist when you're in danger?

"And this is only the first step. Use the Tackle techniques you usually practice and use them to hone your Tackle.

"Don't be afraid. There's nothing to be afraid of. Didn't I say before? At worst, the two of us will get beaten up badly. It's no big deal—we can just escape!

"Trust me, we can get away. Look, aren't we getting away right now?"

Caterpie looked up at Mark.

Even as Mark spoke, his back and legs were still suffering relentless attacks.

In Caterpie's sight, a Leader's Guard clamped its jaws onto Mark's arm.

Mark frowned slightly.

When Mark reached out and pulled it away, bright red blood splashed out and happened to drip into Caterpie's eye.

Mark was hurt!?

It was all its fault...

Memories of living with Mark and practicing Tackle against the dead tree stump with him flashed through its mind like a lantern show...

Caterpie suddenly understood something.

It was no longer the powerless Caterpie it once had been. It was time for it to help Mark!

By the time Caterpie realized this, it had already twisted free from Mark's arms.

Tackle (Power-Up Tackle)!

Boom!!

In an instant, Caterpie shot out like a cannonball, blasting more than a dozen Caterpie into the air...

Caterpie did not stop. After landing, it found the right angle and prepared to launch another attack at the densest part of the Caterpie Group. It would make those who had hurt Mark pay the price!!

However, just as Caterpie was about to attack again, Mark's voice came from the distance.

"Caterpie, don't let anger and hatred cloud your mind. I know you attacked in anger because I was hurt, but that isn't our reason for fighting here.

"We were attacked after coming here because we brought it upon ourselves. We provoked the Caterpie here, so even if they attack us, we can't blame them.

"Don't forget our goal.

"We need to accumulate experience through real combat more quickly, grow faster, and become stronger!

"Recall and use the Tackle techniques we practiced together, then adjust them again and again, refine them again and again..."

Mark's voice grew quieter and quieter, as if he had moved farther away.

Yet Caterpie's heart gradually calmed.

That was right—hone its skills, build up its Experience Bar, and keep growing.

Mark had said similar things many times before. Caterpie had simply never completely understood them. But now, it seemed to understand.

In an instant, everything was completely different.

It was no longer angry because its master had been hurt, nor was it afraid because its master was out of sight.

In a daze, Caterpie seemed to return to those three and a half years of constantly Tackling the dead tree stump...

Caterpie raised its foreleg and unconsciously imitated Mark's movement, lightly pinching its chin.

The Tackle (Power-Up Tackle) it had just launched in anger had looked impressive, but its actual power had only been average. Its excessive anger had caused some errors in how it exerted force, while its energy expenditure had nearly doubled.

It had actually made such a basic mistake. It really should not have...

As it thought, Caterpie twisted its head and nimbly dodged the attacks of two Caterpie, then looked toward an area where the Caterpie Group was more densely gathered.

Whoosh—

Tackle (Power-Up Tackle)!

Caterpie adjusted the muscles in its body and that warm current. After a brief buildup, it shot out once more...

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