Starting the Hard Part

‘Multiple should meant more, than just one bird and a cow… and maybe a dog, EP Shop’

‘Where do I even start…?’ it took me a while to calm down after… my last trait, but I took my time, only hissed about twenty times and took a couple of hours to rest and (finally) start digestion

Peeking out of the hole to the sky I am happy to see that, unless they call it something else, the forest is indeed to the south

‘First: I am “biting blanks” and I need to buy my ammunition before getting out of this crevice. Second: what kind of paralyze? The “Btzz you cannot move for 1DX minutes” kind, or the “Hi, in 30 minutes the muscles of your heart are going to stop” kind? Asking for a friend…’

That line of thought, only happened because the appearance of the “extremely weak” kind of venom in the list, I might not be venom less, but if “very weak” is an upgrade… then what I have is useless

‘Third: seeing muscle and bone strength as two different categories is… painful, that means that if I raise one, then I MUST raise the other, or I risk breaking my neck by sneezing’ the lists that appear when one of the “L” marked options is selected, divide my body into: head and neck as one, while torso and tail are split, for both the muscles and the bones ‘There is a possible item hidden there… or perhaps an evolution? Should I try for a whip like tail…?’

Doing so would meant that I’ll have a weapon on my back, but I also would need to have my enemies to my sides, or behind me, to use it at any time…

‘Nah, I can have, more or less, the same benefit by just being big… realistically I only will be using it against something that… out sneaks me… and that would be awful… at least, since the list is only for muscle and bone strength, without things like elasticity or density, it means that I don't have to min-max, if I maintain my rule of only buying them in pairs, then I will be ok… I hope, now… what is this?’

‘Hello there, sexy!’ this item is different to the others, the rest just gave me a window with a single line, like: Paralyze Venom, is a paralyzing venom ‘Is this how I add poisons to my arsenal…? Probably not, I am carnivorous, I can’t eat plants to absorb their poisons… yet, the moment I can go omnivorous I will, but… where did you come from? And why you tell me more about yourself than the others?’

Mordauntless is the obvious answer… sorry, the too obvious answer. Is not him… he gave me the One Boon when I asked, if he had given me this, then I won’t have been given the intimidate…

‘Snakeguy mentioned one kind of serpent, that added the poison of its prey to themselves, becoming poisonous in the process, but…’ I check again and Absorb is in a separate section from the one with the name of my species… ‘And is cheap… I can buy it easily, before evolving even… how many points will I have by then?’

Doing simple maths, I count 50 from levels plus the 10 from the Deed, I can’t count on completing another Deed that gives EP, so… that is the maximum amount of points I’ll have to work with

‘Right now I will buy… arms, sorry frontal legs and a cheap venom, then is a fang upgrade and then absorb… the last five points… wait, yeah it says eaten prey… I don't know how it will interact with me being a snake, but… increasing my metabolism should make me digest faster, right…? Right?!’

Is eat or be eaten out here, but I can’t go wasting food, that is against what the First Mother taught us. I need to kill to get levels, but waiting for days between meals means… that I will not be strong enough to help her

‘Unacceptable. I got a trait because I figured out that the humans hate anything that flies, they must send adventurers everywhere, just in order to kill all the wild birds they can too. I will protect her! This second life of hers will be a long one!’

I’m being overprotective again…? Maybe, but…

‘This is my path… and now the hard part begins… but before I start buying things, I have to do something else’ I look to the window in front of me ‘I speak now, not to Mordauntless, but to the deity that controls the Status, I apologize for not knowing your name, but I ask you to show me the items that would guide me to the System Helper. With the Boon I was given before I saw it, together with Deathly Venom, so my logic is that: the Helper must be an item that I can get too, I don't care about the price, my human mind should be proof enough, that I deserve to see it in the Shop, please’

…

I keep staring the screen and thanks to that I see it flicker for a moment and then it closes

‘…?’

HISS!!!

‘AAAHHH!!!’

…

It was like someone grabbed a burning hot nail and shoot it into my brain with a nail gun, the pain pinned my head to the ground as the rest of my body thrashed in the hole, until the pain stopped, as abruptly as it started

…

‘Ow… you could… just have said “no” but thanks you for listening, Status, EP Shop’

The new option was actually Weird Mind, but it updated in a moment to the… upgraded form?

‘Ok, I… have a long term goal now, but I don't know how to feel about having the first part of the “Helper” calling me names…’ I begin to lift my head from the ground, but stop and rest my whole body down ‘Lets buy the things, while laying down, if adding something to the shop was that painful, adding things to my body could be worse… buy Very Weak Venom for 5 EP’

A warm feeling starts to spread on the top of my head, upon reaching my right fang it begins itching as if I had placed alcohol in a scratch, but compared to the helper, it is a mild annoyance and its over quickly, the item was replaced by Weak Venom for the staggering prize of 30 EP

‘Is it because, is that much better…? Or because I am not supposed to have it yet?’ my species is both Lesser and Insignificant after all ‘What is the point of having those two words at the same time anyways?’

Now that the warm is gone I can feel something… “filling” in the back of my head… similar as starting to salivate as a human

‘Makes sense, snake venom is specialized saliva… if I evolve and the venom gets cheaper… would that mean that I would get the very weak version for free…? Mental note, before evolving it cost 30 EP!’ nothing else changed, thankfully. The reason why I bought the venom first, was in case the cost of everything scaled by items purchased, or something like that ‘Is the paralyze kind going to be cheaper than the standard one…? Don't get distracted! Buy Frontal Weak Reptile Legs for 10 EP!’

The warm starts in my head like before, but it quickly covers my entire body… it moves and begins focusing in a small part of my torso, between it and my neck. Then it pushes out-!

‘Ugh! Not… looking! Aaahhh! Ugh! Why?!’

Still, less painful than the update to the shop… the snapping sounds really scared me though…

‘Ugh! Now I am scared of getting wings-!’

Ding

‘What-?’

I go to my Status and select Species, two of the options are unknowns but the third is visible

‘Ok, that is bad… not the evolution, even if it is my first lunch. What is bad, is the fact that I can get a surprise Species change, again, by buying things that I need to survive…! Wait… this is worse… it says nothing about EP… if I trigger one of these, I will waste levels and EP…? Ugh… the answer feels like a yes…’ my arms feel tender and weak, but I still lift my head from the ground and look at them

My arms (Yes, I am calling them that, because that is what I am going to use them for) are short, and covered in the same white scales as the rest of my body and they have four small frontal facing digits with claws, they are currently in the area between my neck and torso, with my head like this the tip of my claws can be touching the ground, or I can just flatten my arms against my body… I don't have to focus particularly hard on keeping them there

Opening the Shop again, I see that the item was removed, but no upgrade for it appears… they do appear in the list for bones and muscle as separated items, but I don't know if they are… of the same strength as my other bones and muscles

‘That could become, yet another, problem… but lets see what the future holds, I wanted these to be able to buy thumbs later and since they are the biggest tool ever, I’ll get them, wherever they appear in the store naturally, or by killing and eating bandits after getting Absorb’

My attention goes to the evolution, that I am not gonna take and notice something

‘Nox… those letters appear in both my current Species and in my lunch… is that a way of saying my class or my order? As in, does nox, identifies me and my lunch, as reptiles and the rest are… stuff…? Mental note, pay attention to the names of my evolution(s) no matter how unpronounceable they look AND to the local language… it may give me a clue’

Hopefully the languages will appear in the Shop, without me getting nailed in the head again…

‘I am sad, that “regrow fangs” is not an item… but enough stalling’ I stretch my body, hitting the bag a few times and get out the hole towards the forest, enjoying the sunlight against my scales as I move ‘Wait… if muscles and bones are a thing in the Shop, does that means that “punch wizards” are common here…? Nah, humans probably have access to different things in the store… I hope I meet a catgirl in the future, I want to know how many ears they have…’

The dirt road properly ends a fair distance from the first sparse trees, that are before the forest, but the way the grass is flattened before I reach over it and more dirt patches after the end of the road, I can take that as evidence of humans going to the forest, probably adventurers

‘I’ll try to avoid animal trails as much as I can, because they will go look for them… if I can recognize them at all…! Perhaps I should have gone to that camping trip after all…? Nah, Jess needed my help more’ I stop on the south side of a tree stump, I don't want to admit it, but I am nervous

I scan the edge of the tall trees in front of me, but I see nothing, hearing the ground also reveals nothing… well… I can heard something that sounds like a grasshopper’s… the thing they do with their legs, but in the air, not the ground

Taking a moment, again, I open the Deeds sections… but see nothing new in either, there could be a kill X amount of things, but its not visible, or my lunch is too easy to kill, to count towards that kind of feat, its also not showing how many things I made evolve, but it shows the one out of thirty for the savior title, I check the sky

‘Nothing… getting here took a lot more time that I thought… or, I loss my sense of time due to the Shop… I have the feeling that is both… anyways get in, try to not die instantly, find a hole before nightfall and… sleep?’ the temperature was still good, but compared to lunchtime, it is getting colder ‘And I was called a “morning person” before… I just placed a lot of alarms, I hope I don't get attacked while warming up…’

Moving to the forest, I curse the fact that I don't have a way to get coffee and the trees around, scream “this place get winters”

‘Can I get thumbs and a shelter with a lock before winter…? Please…? Fuck’

I enter the forest, the only sound, besides the mating call of that insect, is the occasional rustle of leafs made by the wind, I don't smell anything… fresh, except for chlorophyll, there is some… leather? And either dye or… perfume?, but it feels… either old, or faint, it could be someone that walked this route in the morning, or someone that stayed for a few hours days ago

‘Something to practice… but I am a snake, not a dog, so don't expect a miracle’

A few more minutes of slowly advancing further in, go by, I am surprised by the amount of light that reaches the ground, its surprisingly clear. Some herbs and grasses grow in spots that look perfect to take a sun bath, but I try to fight against that instinct, I have been looking up, but also down, I can see some prints that look like boots, both fresh (sharper edges) and old (just a general shape)

‘A bit further and I’ll go “off road” need to find an empty hole’

As I can smell the chlorophyll becoming stronger, I go closer to a tree and the sound stops. I freeze all the muscles in my body letting my mouth be a little open, but I force my tongue to remain inside

‘Where are you?’

To my right, a green spot under a branch, something that I thought was moss, or leaves, opens to let out a pair of transparent wings, along with long rear legs and flies to the ground

As it moves I reorient myself to aim towards it, but when it lands I stop moving, its wings hide again, but the exoskeleton that covers them remains slightly open, as if it could go flying again at some point

‘Hi giant grasshopper, good camouflage you have there’

Is green, rugged and big, like a plant with legs. It digs its rear legs in the ground, but remains nearly as still as me, its antennae are moving slowly and… its not quite aiming quite at me… its aiming a bit to my left… the space between its eyes looks… hardened?

‘Movement huh? Ok I have the advantage then’ its mandibles have some kind of dry plant matter on them and is slowly opening and closing them, distance… ‘At this height I have problems measuring… about… six times my length? I don't feel like a meter long…’

How do I kill it?, it wants to kill me, that much is obvious. Did Key of Evolution painted a target on me that overcomes my intimidate? Or that doesn't works on arthropods?

‘Ha, that is irrelevant, it tries to kill me? Big mistake. Biting something with armor is stupid, but I have the perfect weapon against you! A Crushing Grapple! So come at me! Blep!’ I stick my tongue out to my left, its exoskeleton closes-!

Slam!

Using all my muscles I dodge to my right, as it launches forward like a projectile, it was so fast that, before I could return my tongue to my mouth I already had it blitzing next to my head, and against the tree behind me

With a dry thud it bounces back, about to land on its legs, but I am already jumping at its neck, my arms may be weak, but they give me a grip that I use to trip it with my body, before its rear legs can dig down and I coil my torso and tail on its neck joint and torso while I am pulling its antennae with my mouth and one of my arms

It fell in top of me, but I don't mind it, or rather, I’m not feeling any pain because of it, yet. If it gets purchase on the ground with its rear legs I am in problems, so I am pulling and crushing the neck joint in my grip, the pulling is to make sure its mandible, now biting wildly, doesn't cuts me in half

Its legs are trying to break the grapple or scratching at my scales, while its “launchers” keep moving wildly, I am barely keeping them away from the ground or a root-!

SNAP

Hiss!

‘Fuck you!’ its neck broke and I throw its head away, as its body went limp

I use some of the roots of the tree to get its body off me and leave it there, to slide my body under and away, it smells awful, I am not eating an invertebrate after this

‘First Mother and Huntress, as those are your titles I beg for your forgiveness, this kill was in self defense, I wasn’t gathering for me or mine… may this creature become sustenance to the trees of your forest’ I move away to a shade and place my head in the ground, listening ‘How many times… will I pray to you, I don't know. Please, forgive me’

The forest is silent, I know that I have insect… blood? On me, but I overheated again…

‘Mordauntless please… tell her that, if I can’t reach her from here… I would apologize to the local gods, but I only now your names…’ I stop thinking, and focus on calming down

…

…

‘No sound? Status’

‘No weird name? Is because its not a reptile?’ everything else remained the same too, no new level ‘And no exp numbers… ugh… lets find water, I don't know if its the blood, or this thing had a chemical weapon… too big for me to eat, even without the smell’

While on the ground I can heard a constant “rumble” of vibrations to the… southeast…? I lift my head, look around… yeah, southeast. I start moving going through a bush, feeling the leaves against me

‘Lets not have a crisis of faith… I saw him, with the Cane and the Ever Burning Flame hurting him, and he gave me a Boon here… maybe She is here too…’ I stop and lie down to organize my thoughts, listening around ‘He called this an… opportunity, is not a reward of any kind… he needed to pull me from the mist and… he also pulled her, but couldn't talk to her, just as I barely could understand him. The gods exist, don't give them an insincere prayer, but don't brown nose them, either’

So far I have been sincere though…

‘My siblings and I were the more… pious, in that place… but compared with them, anything is an improvement… calm down, keep going as you are, when I’ll get to a temple, if I can talk by then, we are going to talk and pray a lot afterwards… do they have a sign language in this world…?’ the vibrations around me, only reveal the possible water source… ‘Keep moving, clean yourself, drink… how often do I need water?’

The questions keep increasing in number…

‘Did Snakeguy forgot to tell us that…? Or is me that forgot…?’ I resume moving above the forest ground, under bushes and above roots, not hearing anything but the leaves moving

Passing above a flat rock I see the ground going down to a brook, is not a steep slope, its like a stair step of height to the water, seeing the gravel accumulated here, plus how it has been cleared of plants on both sides and some foot prints, even I can tell this is still “on road” but my focus is the water, for now

‘Is hard to tell… but I think my eyes are green… and my pupils are round, makes sense, I have been acting very “diurnal” so far’

Since is flowing to my left, I go to the right side of the gravel path in the water and move to the middle of the brook, pressing my scales against the small rocks to have them cleaned, the yellowish blood is washed off and dragged by the water, then I do the same with my other side, still in that side of the crossing

I have my arms, but I feel that this is going to be faster, than trying to scrub me everywhere

Done with that, I carefully take a few mouthfuls of water and drink, when I take my third one I swallow less than half and shiver, dropping the rest

‘Um… I don't feel like drinking more than this… is this really enough?’ nevertheless I finish crossing to the other side and look at my scales, I got them clean and now with the water falling of them I see a few scratches, not deep ones, definitively from my fight with the… insect bullet ‘Can’t go full venom in this place, need some secondary ways of fighting, perhaps more, that bug was all about hitting hard, but if you have them away from any leverage and avoid the bite, they become useless…’

To milk the venom of a snake, specialists use a long tool, to keep their heads from moving, before grabbing them and do the extraction… if anything here manages to grab my head…

‘Will buy some scale, muscles and bones upgrades in the future… not in that order’ I look deeper into the forest ‘Lets not go too deep, the edges are going to be both, free of anything, smart enough to stay away from the humans and being cleared regularly, of anything that is not… this “road” moves a bit to the west and forward… I’m going south east, but not along the river, not in the mood to fight right now’

As I move I notice my track in the mud, so I move for a bit following the road, until I don't see it anymore then I go east through a bush… a pro would see through my trick, but lets hope, that this is a newbie zone and a tank goes first

‘Those are the terms right…? It has been a long time since the last time I played a game. Lets look for a hole, keep the S’s…’ I shake my head ‘Bad pun, sorry’

Moving, not as fast as I would like, the wind is picking up a bit and is becoming cold, the smells are faint, but some reminds me of fur… I can pick the differences… at least three, one is more… intense? Than the others, but is… older… somehow

‘Big and small…? Is that what I am detecting?’ I cannot tell, what I know is that I have no “lizard” sources of smell nearby ‘Did that bug destroyed plants to hide its smell?’ the chlorophyll smell is gone at least

-----

I feel like I have been moving for an hour, the sky is reddish now, I feel the cold deeper in me too

‘Ideal place to find, a sunny clearing with a hole that has a door that only I can open, that is near a crow nest and conveniently close to both water and- Hole!’

Finally I see one, under the gnarled roots of a tree a small gap, placing my head in the ground, clear… or at least not moving, getting closer

‘Empty…! But… yeah, an animal was here… not long ago…? The hole is the only entrance and what dug it, is not that much bigger than me when curled… mine for now!’ as I go in, I consider dropping some venom in the ground to make a smell warning, but decide against it… my production is… slow ‘That is not an upgrade either…’

I finish placing myself inside, with my head facing the entrance, and spent some time preparing my muscles to be in a “Ready for a bite” stance… is mostly pointless shuffling around… I have a lot of postures where I can do a lunge, so I try to relax…

…

…

‘Snakes don't have eyelids… nor do they blink…’ this is going to be a long night

A long, cold, night

-----

Cold… night…

…

Stiff… cold… can’t… sleep…

…

Cold… deep…

…

Still… no… sound… wind…

…

Cold… cold…

…?

Vibration… small…

…

No… smell…

Smell… now…

Move… stiff… pain…

Ready, aim, stiff, closer, closer, mice, closer, sees me-

Launch, bite, left only, test, venom, back, mice, gone… hurts…

Cold… stiff… hurts…

…

Cold… cold…

…

Ding

…

Cold… dark…

…

-----

Light… heat… wait…

…

Sound… loud… far… far…

…

Heat, move, light, move, move…

Bask, light, heat, stiff, relax…

‘AAAAHHHH!!!’ that, was, terrible ‘WHY?!’

Need, to, relax…

‘Status…’

‘Ok the brown mouse wasn't an hallucination… what was that sound just… no, it was a while ago… need to get better with… do I still call them mornings if I don't go to sleep?’

‘No new surprises…? Ok nothing in the store… I’ll keep the points…’ don't want to become a lizard and find out that my fangs don't work anymore, speaking of fangs ‘Why did I killed it…? It was… to… test…’ its hard to remember what I was thinking while… cold… ‘No… I don't want to remember… if I have to go through… that… every night… I will go insane…’

My digestion system resumes working at a good speed, now that is warmer…

‘Winter is… no, no, no, stop. Stop!’ I lift my head and shake my body on top of the flat stone I am right now ‘Winter is FAR away. I will get magic, somehow, or I will make a fire inside a cave. Nuclear option? The city… the barns, in front of the city, hugging a cow, after last night? Please!’ smelling the air for a while has been bothering me… ‘Can’t delay that…’

I move, conflicted as I go between avoiding the light and being more visible, or avoiding the cold. There is one thing, that I smelled for the first time during the night… it makes a trail, that is easy to follow, above dirt, roots, rocks, moss, a small patch of grass, the mouse went east, so I go too

There, in the ground next to a bush full of smallish green fruits, is the mouse. I go closer and see the wound, I hit the left thigh, the wound is a hole in the gray-brown fur, the frontal paws are a bit bigger, I guest they are for digging… but not the hole where I spend the night, the smell is of a different beast

‘I am sorry’ I cannot eat it, is not something my teacher taught me, I am trying to force my body to eat it… but I can’t ‘I am sorry!’

I place my head in the ground… I feel an echo…? I hit the ground with one of my arms and under the bush I heard the echo again, I move and look under and see a small hole with loose dirt under the bush

‘Empty… it smells the same as the mouse…’

I get out grab the little one in my mouth, I place it in the hole and start filling it

‘I am sorry, First Mother I am sorry, I am sorry…’

I want to cry… but can’t