*Stomp!* *Splosh!*

The bordrunt slammed one of his frontal feet in the mud, causing it to separate for a moment before it flowed back like water.

“Grrrul,” it growled as it raised its muddy paw.

“Oh, crap!” I notice something glued to the bottom of its feet. Or paw, I’m really not sure which one. Anyway, there is a part of the plant’s root that got smashed and cleanly cut with that stomp.

“That must’ve hurt, I mean, if the plant feels pain.”

*Thud*

Before the creature can firmly put that leg down, the other emits a small sound and suddenly jumps. That’s when I can see another root that somehow managed to sting and penetrate its leg.

*Stomp* *Stomp*

It tramples on the root and takes a step back, but even that ends badly as a couple more roots were hidden among the grass. With each movement the Bordrunt acts more recklessly and gets more stung by the roots.

“Why the heck is that big guy scared of some roots? They can’t be THAT painful to him, right?”

...Well, I was wrong about two things. First, getting stabbed by a pointy root hurts a little, but being stabbed by a dozen hurts a lot. And second, one elephant bothers many people, two elephants bother even more.

“Hehe,” I chuckle.

Sorry, the second was a joke. There’s only one elephant, or bordrunt, or whatever it is, and that is the poor child who already lost sight of their goal of, probably, eating the murder plant for lunch. And who is now struggling against the roots that stabbed and entangled themselves around its legs.

I mean, I get it, although they can feel the roots approaching, it’s impossible to impede them from emerging, and after getting stabbed there’s no way to get them off except for trying to cut them by stomping. Which isn’t that efficient with only four limbs, and against a dozen or more roots.

“Who knows why I got spared by the murder plant last night,” I turn my eyes to the still immobile plant as I wonder what goes through its mind.

While I had the chance, I took a look at the details of that guy’s species and skill. In summary, they are a sort of blind boar with an elephant nose, that uses a sort of echolocation on the ground to find their way and sense prey, which explains the ‘terrain location’ slightly better than the actual skill description.

“Grruuol!” A pained sound leaves its mouth.

“Oh boy, that looks nasty,” I recoil at the sight.

Several cut off roots continued to hang on to the legs and belly of the bordrunt, blood flowed through them and the ground kept getting more and more red by the second.

“Is it even aware that it lost that much blood?” I ask myself, almost feeling bad for the poor thing. “They may not even be able to think properly anymore...”

My worries are, in fact, right on the money.

*Boom!*

The beast’s front body falls to the ground as if it lost all its strength, causing a tremor stronger than its stomps, and its long nose lets out a bunch of loud breaths successively. Perhaps the last breaths it will take.

*Thud-* *Boom!*

Once the hind legs of that thing finally cede as well, the entire body falls to one side with a lot of injuries visible.

“It’s kinda weird that I don’t feel as disgusted as I should about this,” I look down at my muddy scales. “Guess, I’m really becoming snake-y fast.”

It still took a bit to recollect my thoughts, and then I got droplet-splashed clean by the murder plant.

“Phew... getting to this side without crossing the wetland is a long road,” I breath in and out heavily after having to climb out of the muddy encirclement through the back and slither my way to the corpse.

“The profile doesn’t show up anymore, what about the other one? Show me its profile, system.”

“Remaining... what?” I look away from it to dispel the screen before bringing it up again. “Gosh, I wasn’t seeing things!?”

While I was confused about the new screen, a new root from the murder plant slowly surged from the ground next to me and started to enter the corpse through one of the many holes. Soon after it stopped moving, I could see something big being transferred through the insides of the root, and at the same time a few numbers decreased on the screen.

“Ninety-seven, ninety-five, it’s going down quite steadily... Wait, I shouldn't be watching like this!”

With a little difficulty I climb up the nose of the bordrunt’s corpse and head towards its open mouth. My plan? I will just eat whatever I can get from its insides!

“I’m a snake, I’m a snake,” I keep chanting those words to convince myself that this is not a disgusting and scary situation. “I need food to survive, beggars can’t be losers.”

After jumping, or free-falling, into its mouth, I begin to explore the insides of this thing’s body. And just like last night, my vision still sees everything perfectly fine even without any illumination.

“Uggh,” and I just happen to learn that opening my mouth makes the sense of smell way stronger, regrettably.

Although I’m sure that the murder plant wouldn’t want me to take its hard-worked meal from it, I can’t let all this meat be wasted. Hopefully it will pardon my intrusion.

My slithering stops once I slide down the throat of the beast, it will be hard for me to get back as long as it remains wet, so I’m probably stuck in his stomach for a good while. Not an issue, really, from what I learned at school, it’s surprisingly easy to tear the stomach tissue of certain animals.

If I had a knife or hands with sharp nails, this would be a trifle, but I guess the pointy end of my tail will have to make-do. I slowly slide, because it’s all slippery in here, to the center of the belly.

After a few adjustments to my position I push my tail down as hard as I can... It really doesn’t do much.

I feel rather fooled by my previous life’s teacher now.

Once I catch a better stance, I try to dig into the ‘ground’ from a diagonal, almost like inserting a needle, and luckily this method seems to work out. Slowly but surely I manage to open a small hole in the walls and a lot of things seep through it before I have the chance to.

“Okay, time to get my meal,” I hold the urge to complain about the smell for later and jump into the hole head first.

[Host has ingested enough nutrients. Strength +0.02, Endurance +0.01, Mind +0.01.]

[Host had endured sufficient squeezing. Endurance +0.02, Strength +0.01.]

[Host has ingested enough...]

[Host has endured...]

And from here on, only the system’s voice could be heard.

*Thud* *Wooosh*

As my body falls on the grassy ground, a gust of wind blows the fallen leaves away and sends a refreshing, plus soothing, feeling on my scaly face. The night sky is the second thing that I see upon leaving the insides of that creature.

“Ooh, you grew another leaf!” The first being the new appearance of the murder plant. “And you look a little taller now, good, good.”

And immediately I begin to sing praises about it, even if I’m unsure of whether it can understand me or not, all in hopes that it won’t retaliate against me for stealing a bit of its prey.

“Oh, mighty murder plant, it seems your stats grew as well,” I swiftly bring up its profile. “And you got a... Wait, what!? How did you get a new skill?”

It seems that my safety isn’t guaranteed just yet.