Reisinling

On last episode of “Deslizándose por los sueños”, our hero Snakcesco and his Madre, Snakejandra were...

Spoiler

MC practiced magic, he ended up hurting himself and getting mana poisoning. He wanted to continue his rest, only to sense unfriendly thoughts coming from the underground. Worried, he both continued practicing his martial art, while also trying to find out what mother snake was doing. And at the end of his practice he discovered that mana poisoning wasn’t the only thing he got. Something weird was happening with his wounds.

At the same time as that was happening, mother snake got into a fight with a bunch of Undercones, an army of creatures coming from underground. After thinking she won against a whole herd, and defeated its leader… she found it was an elaborate trap, real boss waiting in ambush. It managed to poison her, and then hid again, waiting. After coming back to the nest, mother went to see what happened to MC, only to accidentally walk into the dream about the Ancient snake- and shockingly, drinking its blood in the dream had an effect on her in real life!

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As usual, when something is wrong with my body, there seems to be only one thing I can do, only one reliable friend I can ask for help and know he will do his best! Has he ever disappointed me? It’s time to scope! 

(“Should I rely on this skill so much when I know he doesn’t always say the truth.. Or the full story at least?”)

(“Are you accusing our best friend of something?”)

(“Big skill, fake stat-news, want to control how we live our lives! They want to get to us! Where is our egg hat!”)

Unknown you say! Thank you captain scope! You were GREAT help. Friendship over, now my schizophrenic mind is my best friend.

I should have known that in this world nothing comes to you easily. It seems I need to discover more information about this unexpected glittering, before the status will give me any more information. (“I hope it’s not vampiric glittering!”)

I couldn't help but notice some unexpected skill upgrades. Where did they come from?!

Minds open plane? I haven’t used the skill since I last checked, same with dream world! Will of the snakes is a mystery, so whatever (though knowing what caused its level to raise would be helpful). But the soul ignition, I am CERTAIN I’ve never used that suicidal skill! Unless.. For some reason I did it unconsciously in my sleep? ******. Can't a snake get a bit of rest?!

(“There is only one way to deal wit this”)
(“Indeed”)

And so, I decided to ignore it. Instead, I moved my head closer to the tail. Seriously, my tail is the part of my body I seem to know the most about. (“Hehe. Like in previous life”)(“Wait, we had no tail… ooooh I ssseee.. (¬‿¬ )”) . Mostly due It being the only part of me I can actually see- since snake civilisation doesn’t have mirrors and such (“... yet!”).

There seems to be a scar behind my scales-a glowing-with-mana scar. That must be why I didn’t notice it before- scales block me from seeing it, unless I look at it from the right angle,… stupid snake body! 

To get a closer look I had to move them away- first I tried doing so using my teeth alone… and it worked! I could even get something useful out of it, if only THE REST OF MY SKULL was not in the way. I released them feeling stupid, relief  washing over my body. It’s a weird sensation, moving your scales.. A bit like having your fingernails pulled - though less painful. Stil, very unpleasant (“huf.. in the good way.. huff.. huehue..”)(“*bonk*”). 

Okay I need to find something to prop them up, after raising them up with my teeth. Fortunately, I can already see something that could help! I got closer to the tree roots surrounding the nest, once again moving my scales, this time trying to stop them from falling back by using the protruding branches. Finally I could look closer at the source of this weird glow. I never expected there could be any disadvantages to the super quick regeneration of this body, and yet here we are.

Back to the scar- if that’s what I should still call it. It still looked like one to the “normal” light sensitive senses… but mana sight, and even the soul sight, told another story. It seemed a bit like some kind of a.. abstract mana tattoo? A vein of mana-color slightly below skin. I patiently waited to see how it reacts with outside mana radiation. Most of it seemed to reflect off the skin, but occasionally, what I have to presume a very small amount, got through, causing ripples on the already accumulated energy. It didn’t penetrate deeper into the bloodstream, as it did during the previous.. experiments, due to some kind of layer just under it.

The filtering process didn’t seem to be random. At least that’s what I deduced from the fact that the color of mana was different from anything I saw before - pink glow, clearly different from previous purple. Another reason why I didn’t notice it before I guess, as it blended with surrounding blood and skin. Finally I checked if this mana was also reactive to my will- it was! I could see it moving around as I willed!

No longer wanting to feel the pain, I moved my tail away, letting its scales go back totheir natural position. It didn’t seem anything was permanently damaged- still looking young and supple. Shiny. Fresh. Especially in this mysterious glow, seeming so… precioussss… myy preciousss… oh sorry, I forgot myself.

Finally, some good news! With a conveniently appearing source of mana, I can become a snakezard after all! 

I tried the pebble-moving magic again… and I failed. Is this due to scales interference? I tried again, this time closer to the ground. And again, moving even closer. And again. Was I wrong? I twisted my body so that the tattoo would be no further than a few milimeters away from the peebles. Finally! Yey! 

Useless. The effect also seemed much weaker than before. The scales themselves most likely blocking part of it (“how about.. Getting rid of them?”) (“Do I seem crazy to you? Wait, don’t answer”). But I suspect that wasn’t all. I could manipulate it alright, but when it came to trying to use it in a “spell”, something felt wrong. As if trying to put an USB stick the wrong way in.

I swung my tail absentmindedly while thinking what to do with this discovery… maybe I could use some form of mana strengthening? No, according to the fish memories, you need more mana, and you need to use it around your body.. Not sure if i want to risk it. Maybe some kind of heat attack? Lighting my tail on fire and hitting? But wouldn’t I hurt myself as well? Also, I would need mana tattoos all along the length of tail (due to lack of better word). Also wouldn’t that make me a char**ard?  Also, can I even create more tattoos? 

(“What’s this noise?”) 

I just realised, when swinging my tail next to my head I could hear a quite loud hum.

(“See! Training already paid off. Training is our best friend! The might of drunken snout allows my tail to break the sound barrier!”)

Yeah, no. It’s not that loud. But seriously what is this noise? It does stop when I stop moving my tail… Wait it’s not that the noise stops. The hum is always there. It’s the other way around! Moving the tail closer to my head makes the hum quiet! Yeah, that hum of background thoughts!

Reisinling

1. Wow! We were on trending last friday, #1! Thank you to all of you, and welcome to new readers! Feel free to comment, we don’t bite here… usually. SSss Sss sss.
2.  two or three more chapters coming today, some announcements in the next one.
3.  The question of whether moving away scale is even possible, or if they should be treated like skin with bumps was a harder question to answer than I expected. But it does seem some snakes have scales that are more.. Brushy, and so most likely could be moved as described. Just in case however, assume it’s a fantasy thing, and don’t do this to any wild snakes you find. Even if you ask them first.
4. Making chapter 50% longer, makes it take 150% more time to write.
5.  I'm considering creating a twitter account for the novel with updates and some polls maybe.. but do normal people even use it? It's not really in among my friends/family/acquaintances