Feeling groggy, I opened my eyes to my mother’s iridescent green iris and pitch black slit pupil, staring at me from just outside my hole. Panicking, I squirmed backwards as far as possible (roughly 3 cm), and squeaked out, “Y-y-y-yes, Mother?”
Mother kept staring for a moment, before rearing back and smirking, looking more pleased than I had ever seen her, which wasn’t saying much.
“Looks like you followed my advice on hunting. You even built yourself a tiny home, pathetic as it is. Maybe you won’t die as shit. So, when are you going to go hunt me some rats?”
Gulping, I leaned as far upwards as I could and managed to grind out, “Just tell me where to go, Mother, and I will kill them all! I promise, I won’t disappoint you.”
“Oh, I highly fucking doubt that. But, if you do manage to impress me today, I won’t eat you. Hell, if you do well enough, I may just let you lead your siblings!” She laughs harshly for a moment, then continues, “Anyway, you just need to follow this tunnel until you find the crack in the wall. It’s just big enough for small rats - and snakes - to go through, but much too small for me or that dick, the Rat King. Get going.”
Siblings? So she didn’t eat or kill them all? Good. Hopefully there are enough that she’ll go for them before me if she gets angry.
“Thank you, Mother. I will bring you a feast. Goodbye.”
I slithered just far enough away from Mother that I could feel confident she wouldn’t see me, and dug a small hole in the tunnel. I closed my eyes and thought about Soul Devour’s description, trying to figure out who exactly I killed to obtain the abili
A young boy, barely old enough to leave his mother’s leg, his shoulder-length golden hair shining in the summer sun, running towards a burning village, his azure eyes shining with unshed tears
The boy standing over a mass grave, struggling to hold a sword twice as large as him, vowing vengeance
The boy building a fence around his former village, placing a deformed skull on every spike, the other survivors watching him from afar, fear in their eyes
The boy, now a youth at the peak of adolescence, fighting an elder, both bare chested, slowly gaining power and skill, eventually besting the old man, grinning while walking towards a girl with sparkling red hair
The boy and girl, both adults, dressed all in white, walking down a flower-strewn path, their friends surrounding them, stopping at an altar
The woman’s young sister walking towards them, eyes empty, blood dripping from her thighs and where she once had arms, chained by the neck to a bestial man, larger in width than height
The man fighting shadowy, nightmarish creatures, getting further and further away from the woman
The woman reuniting with her sister, tears streaming down her face as she breaks the neck of her own flesh and blood
The man-beast drawing a black dagger, ominous, drawing in light and emitting darkness, and thrusting it into the woman’s chest
The man screaming, standing in the midst of a sea of blood, no bodies left, just chunks of meat
The man rampaging through thousands of creatures, killing all in his path
The man finally reaching the source of his agony, fighting for hours, desperate to destroy
The man, empty of anger, devoid of sadness, being escorted through a lavish palace, being presented to a kingdom
The king, taking the man’s own sword, slicing his neck like it was air, following with a thrust through the man’s heart, to ensure his death
The crowd being put to death, the king proclaiming his son as the saviour of their world
The man, floating in a white void, screaming at a man in a black robe, being promised a new start, a chance to live at peace
The man, as a white orb, speeding through a vast darkness, colliding with a barely there dim purple speck
I jolted back to consciousness, shocked at what I had seen. I had killed a man who had seen no peace in his life, who had been promised a simple life of peace? Lothrak was right, I was an asshole.
Upgrade!By understanding more of Soul Devour (Passive), you have unlocked more of its power, but also unleashed more of Lothrak's curse
Additional Effects:
* Allows you to obtain information of a species after you kill a member of said species
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
* Any stat points you gain from any source other than Soul Devour are nullified
Fuck.
After that… enlightening experience, I steeled my shattered nerves in order to commit genocide against an unknown race of creatures at the bidding of my possibly psychotic mother. Leaving my temporary cave, I slithered as fast as possible down the tunnel, and almost missed the crack in the wall. Just as Mother said, it was a tiny affair, barely twice as large as me at my full height, but only three times as wide as my body at its thickest. Slipping through, I went forward as slowly and silently as possible, hoping to not draw the attention of any rat sentries. Eventually, I found a nest of tiny, squirming bags of skin, left unattended while the mother replenished herself. Moving quickly, I positioned myself in the middle of the pile of 13 rat pups, and Bit one in the neck, crushing the vertebrae as well as draining the sweet, sweet blood, the first thing I’d drank in my life. After the pup’s convulsions stopped, I paused to stare at another, letting Soul Devour do it’s work.
Rat PupFairly useless, high evolutionary abilitiesExperience100Attack1Defense1Agility1Intelligence1Wisdom1
Storing that information away in case I later found some kind of super-rat, I dispatched the rest of the litter with swift Bites to the neck, being careful not to decapitate the corpses on the off chance Mother wanted the brains. However, I soon ran into a completely separate problem: transportation. I eventually decided to tie the tails of the dead rats together, using my mouth and tongue to ensure tight knots.
That done, I went searching for more unprotected nests, dragging the dead pups behind me by pulling the lead’s tail with my mouth. I got lucky and found one more, however with only seven pups. After killing them and adding them to the line, I decided to check on my status.
NameNone (Shit)SpeciesSerpent HatchlingLevel100 (10 experience per level) (Curse effect: 20 Experience per level)Attack8Defense6Agility9Intelligence5Wisdom7AbilitiesSerpent's Tongue, Bite, Soul Devour (Passive)
Feeling incredibly proud to already be level 100 and imagining what I might be able to evolve into, I headed towards the crack with my spoils. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as careful going out as I was going in, as I was caught by a Rat Guard as I was about to begin slithering out of the crack.
Grabbing the tip of my tail with its paw, it yanked back, throwing me into the wall of the tunnel. Stunned, I could only watch as it rammed into me and began clawing at my underside. The sensation of it ripping of the scales above my heart finally brought me back to action, and I desperately Bit at its face, managing to sink both fangs into its left cheek, and pulled back, exposing the rat’s oversized jawbone. Screeching, the rat fell backwards, allowing me to fall off of the wall. Struggling to move, I tried to retreat, only for the rat to pounce on my back and start clawing again. Twisting, I coiled around the rat’s back leg, and somehow got behind it. I immediately Bit the tendons in its back legs, crippling it and severely limiting its speed. The rat, enraged, turned around as fast as it was able and began biting at any part of me it could reach, eventually ripping the tip of my tail off. The fight soon devolved into me trying to get behind it to Bite anything vital that I could, and the rat trying to tear me to shreds while slowly becoming more and more immobile. After repeating this pattern a few times, the rat began to bleed out, and I was finally able to attack from the front, catching the rat by surprise as I Bit into the arteries in its neck and pulled, using the thrashing of my body to tear the rest of the rat’s throat out.
Slowly realizing that I had won, I collapsed for a moment, to assess the damage the rat had managed to deal. I was missing almost an inch of my already diminutive 6 inches, and there were bleeding spots where I once had scales everywhere, but the most concentrated areas of scale loss were the spots directly above my heart and the top of my head, where the rat had tried to gnaw into my brain. I slowly got back up, and looked at the rat carcass. It was by far too large to enter my side of the tunnel, at 8 inches tall and at least half that in width. However, I needed a trophy, a way to prove to Mother that I had killed something so much bigger than me, that I was worth keeping alive, even injured as I was. I finally decided to finish the job I had started during the battle, and decapitated the rat, holding it by an ear and the pup line by a tail as I returned to what was now my home.
It took a while to drag my prizes back to Mother, especially since I got lost multiple times, probably due to confusion from blood loss. However, I was finally able to find her, guarding the entrance to my birthplace.
“Holy fucking shit. You actually did it? You actually fucking hunted successfully? And not just one or two shitpups, no, you brought fucking twenty? And the head of a guard? Brav-fucking-o, son. Fuck. Now I can’t even call you shit. You know what? You get a name.”
Taking all but one of the pups and the head, Mother threw them haphazardly into the birthing hole, before turning back to me and lowering her head to my height.
“You, my son, have impressed me. You are now known as Hain, after the former king of this den. Who I killed, yes, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t respect him. Or you, now. Even if I could still kill you with a fucking breath. Eat that pup, do whatever the fuck you want with that head, and come back to me whenever you wake up. I’m absolutely fucking certain you’re going to evolve after this. Good night, son.”
Done speaking, Mother coiled up at the entrance to the birthing hole, turning away from me. I struggled back to my home in the tunnel, and coiled around the rat pup, slowly shoving it into my unhinged jaw and down my throat. I decided to leave the guard’s head outside my door, to warn anybody that might want to attack me in my sleep that I may be small, but I wouldn’t hesitate to kill.
The pup swallowed and digesting, I began to drift to sleep, when an Information Screen popped up.
Congratulations! For reaching level 100, you have gained the chance to evolve! You will only get one chance to decide, so choose carefully!Python Serpent: Become a Python Serpent, just like your mother. Fast size growth, Attack grows +1 per level. Gain Constrict AbilityViper Serpent: Become a Viper Python, like your (dead) father. Fast Ability growth, Agilitiy +1 per level. Gain Poison Bite AbilitySoul Serpent (Unique): Due to having the Soul Devour Ability, you can evolve into the Soul Serpent. This evolution will not grant any new Abilities, but will allow Soul Devour to transfer 11% of stats to youDo not evolve (Evolution choice screen will reappear within 24 hours)
Barely aware, I pick the third option, and slip into nothingness.
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Just to let you know, this is the last chapter tonight. Tomorrow, I should get out at least two, maybe more if I can write them. Thanks for a great first day.
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