Snakes and Scales Snake Lady Akhilea

Slithering towards the exit I started to wonder what the world would look like, normally I would assume it would be like a normal forest but seeing the electric blue grass piqued my interest, maybe it will be colorful like those magic forests in books and movies.

After getting outside and managing to see over the grass, I found out I was on a hill surrounded by green forest, the blue grass slowly melted into green starting from the bottom of the hill. Even though I was a little disappointed, the sight above easily erased any trace of it. It was breathtaking, the tree I apparently lived under was pure white emitting silver light, leaves of midnight blue decorated the crown of this beautiful tree, I knew right away this was the Tree of Wisdom.

Looking at this beautiful tree I suddenly realized something, it was just a little problem, I didn know how to use skills… Maybe it will be natural? That would make sense after all monsters and animals most likely aren going to have high enough intelligence to even think about it, maybe just thinking about using it will work?

With this thought I decided to try it, thinking about using the heat perception and colors shifted to colder tones, it was very different from what I was used to and seeing the world this way made my head hurt. Deciding to turn it off, I tried using my other active skills. Opening my mouth and using my venom fangs skill I felt this comfortable feeling as venom started to slowly drip from fangs, from what I could see it was the same color as my skin, with this I coiled my body together and used the lunge skill. I lunged forward with strength boost gained from the skill, after reaching ground again the boost left me and I deactivated my venom fangs, looking back I noticed that I leapt further than should be possible, while normal snakes are able to leap about third of their length, I leapt over three-quarters.

Having tested my skill I decided to finally hunt something. Honestly speaking I wasn ready to hunt but with my somewhat calm mind I realized I would have to do it one day, it was better to do it with full of energy than starving and weakened.

Slowly slithering down my hill, yes my hill I live there its mine, I noticed my stamina slowly recovering by one every ten seconds, it would most likely recover faster if I just lied down, so I decided to lay down as I just lost sixty SP with this little test.

I will have to make sure I have full stamina before attacking, don wanna die because I got tired. Hmm, it seems when Im not moving my stamina recovers one per second, good to know.

After a minute and recovering I decided to slither towards the forest again, thinking it wasn really safe to go inside, I stayed around the edge. After a few minutes, at least I think I don have a way to tell time, I went full circle around the hill and I found nothing, not even a bug. After this I decided to use the heat perception skill, shifting my vision to the world of cold colors and on my left I saw a blurry image of orange color before it quickly disappeared behind the tree.

Doubting I saw something, I decided to do the snake thing with my tongue and it actually worked and I was able to smell the pine trees, dirt and humidity of morning air. After my short distraction with the nice scent of morning forest I noticed the smell of wet fur from the direction of the thing I saw, it was barely noticeable but was there.

I looked at the tree where it disappeared and started slithering towards it, with a curve obviously, what idiot would go straight for it especially with no way to defend themself. Entering the forest for the first time I quickly looked around while flicking my tongue, not seeing or smelling anything, I continued moving while looking around making sure Im safe.

Closing in on the tree I saw hole at the base that was colored in orange signifying heat, most likely a living place of the same animal I saw before. I thought about going in but quickly dismissed it. I don know what type of animal lives there or their number plus I have a weak body and would most likely die from a single blow. So instead I decided to prepare for ambush, slithering a little further from the hole and laying down in the grass waiting.

I hope it doesn notice me, its most likely a mammal and these guys tend to have at least one of their senses superior to humans, so while humans wouldn see me but this animal has a chance to see me clearly from fifty meters away. So I hid to the right a few meters away from the hole while making sure it would have a problem seeing me. I decided to turn off my heat perception to recover my stamina. As my vision quickly adjusted making it easier to see the hole between the blades of grass, a yellow notification popped up.

[Passive skill High Sight Adaptability has gained level!]

[High Sight Adaptability(1) > High Sight Adaptability(2)]

Oh gods, that scared me. Did it level up because I have it basically always activated? Most likely by using skills I gain proficiency or experience resulting in leveling up, yep that makes sense, its like that in novels too so I shouldn be surprised.

While thinking about that I saw movement and quickly dismissed the notification focusing on the creature hopping out of its home. It was a bunny with gray green fur, as far as I could tell it was as big as any other bunny I saw on earth but currently it was huge since I was a tiny snake. What caught my attention were however long claws on its front paws, these claws were long as my body, looking completely out of place on this otherwise cute bunny.

It was looking around and sniffing the air, after that it scratched its cute bunny head. I thought this action was cute until it yawned, opening its mouth that reached to the back of its head, revealing gums with rows of teeth that wouldn look out of place on a shark.

It terrified me, making me doubt that I could kill that thing. It was obviously not a flower muncher but a carnivore that could eat me with a single bite, even if I attacked and injected my venom into its system I would get killed before it could take effect. Maybe I would barely survive but was it worth it? No, it wasn barely surviving in most cases people eventually die without medical help and I doubt I could get it here.

Making up my mind I decided to check if it has babies after it leaves and in case it has I will kill them and drag at least one to my home for me to then eat. With that I remained motionless waiting for the bunny to leave.

After it left I waited for another thirty seconds until I moved towards the home of that abomination. When entering my eyes automatically adjusted to the dark and there I saw five little bunny babies with few patches of their growing fur, these things didn have long claws like their parent, so they
e going to be easier to swallow.

Wasting no time I activated lunge and my venom fangs, moving towards the closest one, although it woke up, my poison acted before it could make sound obviously working faster on their little undeveloped bodies. Seeing it actually worked I moved over to others and did the same thing. After killing the last one notification popped up.

[Individual Midnight Snake has gained 115 XP (5×23)]

[Individual Midnight Snake has gained 1 level, increasing stats accordingly]

NAME: – – – –

RACE: Midnight Snake

LEVEL: 1/10 XP: 15/110

CLASS: – – – –

HP: 10/10

MP: 2/2

SP: 110/110

STRENGTH: 4

DEFENCE: 3

MAGIC: 7

RESISTANCE: 6

SPEED: 12

DEXTERITY: 18

INTELLIGENCE: 160

CHARI**A: 5

LUCK: 2

Ah! My first level up, amazing! And my stats went up by at least one with intelligence gaining most with ten or was it five and it multiplied because of my blessing? Doesn matter. Hmm but why is my SP full? Maybe recovered by level up, Ive seen it used in novels when a character gains level and goes through full status recovery.

When I was ready to drag the babies out my instincts started screaming at me to get out of there, not even questioning it, I bolted out at max speed using lunge skill to get a momentary boost, gaining little more time before the danger arrived. When I was out I slithered for cover of grass moving further and finally stopping in grass under tree roots while slightly burying myself using my head and laid down not moving, scared more than I ever was.

And finally the being that my instincts warned me about arrived, it was the bunny, its previously gray eyes gained a reddish tint, giving it a menacing look. I didn even care how it found out, as I saw it started hopping around with speed that made it seem like blur. I saw as it stopped being displeased with not finding me, frustrated it jumped towards the tree that covered that beings home and kicked with its hind legs ripping the tree out with the roots, uncovering the five babies bunnies.

Still frozen from fear and shock I stayed hidden until the sun reached its peak, then did I finally move, slithering for my home. After reaching the blue grass something about it calmed me down.

Hah… I did well with not fighting it, I would die before knowing what happened. Im strangely calm, does it have something to do with this grass or even the tree? Haah, doesn matter what matters is the fact I managed to survive and know not mess with that bunny again. But Im still hungry, this time Im going to the other side.

Getting everything sorted out I continued moving the same direction being the opposite of where the bunny lived. I activated my heat perception, started flicking my tongue and moved forward inside the forest hoping for at least a bug. And then something hit me.

Snakes take time before actually eating for the first time. Why am I already hungry? Don tell me I will have to eat every day now, that would be really inconvenient, how can I even digest everything in time? Is it work of the [Monster Stomach] skill as it makes digestion easier? Well, this will be troublesome but I planned to level up for my survival so Ill have it as food too, makes me wonder how hard will it be to eat raw, bloody, furred meat… Yeah, sounds appetizing.

As I was in my head I saw a bright yellow image running around, it looked like a mouse and it was tiny so it was edible even for me. Now getting closer I turned off my heat vision and saw a little brown squirrel with pink stripes on its tail and it actually looked normal, except for elephant-like ears.

I looked at it hoping it wasn strong like the bunny. With that thought something in me started telling me I could beat it. So I slithered closer with my head close to the ground and when I was close enough lunged forward with an open jaw and my fangs at ready. The squirrel noticed too late as I was about to bite down and that I did while instinctively coiling around its body. It didn waste any time and tried to break free scratching at my little body and boy did it hard, instead of letting go I tightened my hold and bit down even harder, with this I saw my HP already lowered by four points.

While I struggled the squirrels movement started to slow down until it finally stopped moving and with that emptying my stamina, honestly if this is weak venom then a single bite with strong venom would kill this squirrel. Looking at my status I saw I had 2 last HP points, without the level up I would have either died or used up my pen.

Resting for little I noticed my SP took longer to recover, maybe because I used it all up. After a little breather I decided to actually kill this squirrel, Why you ask? So I can safely drag this thing home and eat it there. Lifting my head and looking at it I noticed it had a horn on the little forehead, probably has horned in its name too. Looking at the neck of this creature I striked and bit down without using my venom. With its dying breath came notification.

[Individual Midnight Snake has gained 264 XP]

[Individual Midnight Snake has gained 2 levels, increasing stats accordingly]

NAME: – – – –

RACE: Midnight Snake

LEVEL: 3/10 XP: 49/130

CLASS: – – – –

HP: 16/16

MP: 4/4

SP: 140/140

STRENGTH: 7

DEFENCE: 6

MAGIC: 9

RESISTANCE: 8

SPEED: 16

DEXTERITY: 24

INTELLIGENCE: 180

CHARI**A: 5

LUCK: 2

Hahh, level ups are the best. It seems my theory with full recovery was correct, my skill also increased differently than before, maybe reward for my struggle? Yeah, no, it has to be related to this fight. Hah, everything so complicated. Hm? Whats this?

Looking at the dead body again I noticed a little gray flame floating above the body. Something told me to bite it, it was this overwhelming feeling of need. I noticed that one particular skill was written in red with bolt letters

[Soul Nibbling(1)]

And so I did what it wanted and bit down. It was a weird but satisfying feeling, as if I was filled with new strength, of course I didn get any stats. Relishing that feeling I was suddenly pulled inwards seeing myself running and jumping on trees, I somehow knew I was a little squirrel, as suddenly as before I was pulled back to my body.

What the hell. Haah, just take deep breaths. Fuu, now what was that? It felt like reliving a memory but it wasn obviously mine, was it the squirrels?

I looked back at the squirrel, the flame I assume was soul disappeared and suddenly notification popped up.

[Natural Tree Runner(6): Passive skill taken from soul of Horned All-Hearing Squirrel, Gives individual ability to move across the trees as if you were born to do so]

[Soul Memory Dive: Gives individual ability to go through memory stored inside a piece of soul that was devoured]

Amazing, I got skill the first time I tried nibbling at soul and even got skill by mistake.

Even though getting skills was amazing I realized where I was, grabbing my food with my jaws and slowly moving towards my home, that I probably wouldn be able to do before the level up. It took me at least half an hour to finally get home.

So how do I eat this thing? Ill just try opening my mouth and eat it, thats all I can do.

With this I opened my jaw and slowly ate the squirrel head first, for some unknown reason it actually tasted good. Getting to wider parts I forced my jaw to open more hearing pop and slowly swallowed it. It felt uncomfortable, especially the part where it stretched my body but I didn stop and continued until nothing remained.

Ugh, I feel stuffed. This was a really weird experience, I hope I will one day be able to eat normally.

Seeing as my jaw popped back to its spot by itself I laid down around my egg and fell asleep.