After a life of mediocrity, I felt a twinge of regret as the knife plunged into my heart. It was only a slight twinge though. I was ready to leave already; this life had been a hassle.
Do you know the light at the end of the tunnel? That’s your past. Your past lives to be exact. The moment the blade pierced me I remembered my past lives, and I realized how mediocre the life I had been leading really was, and then it was gone. I could no longer remember any of my other past lives, only the last one.
----------------------------------------
I was suddenly alive again. I knew this because I could feel once more. I could remember my past life, and I remembered remembering more, but I couldn’t remember them anymore, but I knew that remembering was not something that I was supposed to be able to do. I was supposed to start with a clean slate, an infant.
I shook of such thoughts; they wouldn’t help me now. I tried to move, and succeeded at least partly. My body moved, my neck moved and my legs moved, but they were stuck together somehow. I didn’t think too hard on it, I had probably not always been human anyway, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise. I kept up my struggling, because what else can you call wriggling like a worm? A worm? Wait… I struggled for my life until I figured out a trick, or rather, I figured out I had a tooth, and with it, a mouth. I wasn’t a worm; I was a snake. I felt relief flood me. Being a worm would have sucked.
After some time trying to figure out how to use my newly discovered tooth, I managed to make a crack in my egg. It felt glorious to feel the fresh… something trickle into my egg, it was starting to smell very me in here, or maybe it was just a sort of eggy smell I was smelling. Whatever it was it smelled much worse than the outside so I used my newly perfected trick to hatch myself and after a bit of wriggling I managed it. I was out.
{Congratulations. You have been born as a Coastal Snakeling. As an infant, you will struggle to find food and survive, but thanks to your tenacity and grit you are the first of your siblings to be born and get a bonus.}
[First of many snakes]
// You are the first of your clutch of hundreds to hatch. Whether through luck or strength of will it remains that none of your siblings have you beat in speed. Gain a bonus when your first sibling hatches. The greater your lead, the greater the reward. //
{Coastal Snakeling Infant}
Level: 1
Skill points: 1
Might – 1
Toughness – 1
Cunning – 1(?)
Charm – 1
// The most basic of basic forms when newly hatched, the Coastal Snake, when fully grown, has a variety of advantages over other creatures sharing its environment. From a snakeling barely capable of breaking out of its egg to a powerful adult snake capable of crushing crustaceans for the succulent meat inside, and suffocating baby seals with ease before swallowing them whole, the Coastal Snake is a terror of the shallows. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine them at the top of the shallows food chain if they weren’t so incredibly territorial. So territorial are they in fact, that infighting begins the moment they hatch and out of the hundreds of eggs that a mother Coastal Snake lays, only a few dozen at most can be expected to survive infancy. Those that survive do so in two ways, they either fight and devour their siblings, or flee immediately. //
{Sapience detected. Sapient Coastal Snakeling Infants before now: 0. Congratulations, you are the most intelligent Coastal Snakeling Infant ever to exist. Have a bonus.}
[First signs of intelligent snake life]
// You are the very first of your kind to look inside yourself for the answers. You want more than food and safety, you don’t know what it is you want just yet, but you want something. Do more, get more. When you have everyone else beat, you don’t just win, you dominate. //
Alright. This is getting off the ground nicely, rewarded for being born. I’m going to call myself the one percent from now on, hah.
{Name accepted. You are hereby known as: The One Percent. Number of Coastal Snakeling Infants who chose their own name: 0. Congratulations, you are the first Coastal Snakeling Infant to name itself. Bonus time.}
[Snake names have power]
// Names come with burdens, and none are as ponderous as those we give ourselves. You are The One Percent, envied for your status, the other 99% don’t realize the burdens placed upon you. Be more than them and it will stay that way. //
I just placed a curse on myself. Envied by who though? My siblings are supposed to be just normal baby snakes… Aggressive baby snakes… Are they going to gang up on me now? Oh hell no, I am going to live this life to the fullest after squandering the last one.
I look around myself for the first time and I see exactly what I expected to see. Hundreds of snake eggs littering the ground. I see no baby mama, and perhaps that’s for the best, she might just eat her own children if what I just learned of my species is all correct.
Suddenly I have a realization. I’m floating. I’m underwater. Of course I am, I’m supposed to become a ‘terror of the shallows,’ that means I should be an underwater snake. I wriggle around for a bit to try and get better control of my body, and after some time I feel I have it under fairly good control. I can swim forward, turn, go up and down, and I can even swim backwards a little bit. It’s time to enact my plan, my survival plan. I am going to become a cannibal, or at least a mass murderer of my own siblings.
I don’t give myself more time to think of the wrongness of that statement and just do it. I look around, and thankfully my eyesight seems to have remained relatively the same, though a bit blurry near the edges of my vision, and I can see a greater angle than a human, almost a full circle around myself. I flick my tongue out of my mouth and taste the water. It tastes weird, that’s all I can say for it. I really wish I knew more about sea snakes.
I wriggle up to an egg I can see is shaking a lot, it will probably hatch soon. I had a plan to start squeezing the others eggs one by one and that is what I began to do. After some fiddling, I managed to wrap myself around the egg and began to squeeze. It took some tries and some re-wrapping before I figured out what muscles to use when, but finally the egg cracked and I squeezed it in half. Inside was a tiny little snake. It was smaller than me, and its eyes didn’t seem capable of opening yet. This was news to me, I had thought my siblings would be hatching soon after I did, but apparently this egg that I had thought was just about to hatch still had had a good while to go. Nothing for it then, in you go.
I opened my mouth as wide as it would go and caught my sibling’s tail in my mouth. I had him half inside me when I finally had to start gulping him down. He didn’t resist at all, and I decided not to question my good luck. When I got to his head I bit down as hard as I could and his still maturing skull squished more than cracked as I killed my own sibling.
{You have ingested your first meal. Congratulations, as a sapient you will now have access to skills that you can purchase with your skill points. Non-sapient individuals do not have the required intellect to make their own choices and follow a predetermined path. You have a choice to make.}
There were a lot of choices let me tell you. I had a choice between everything from (Sneak) to (Berserk), and other opposites such as (Compress) and (Enlarge), (Camouflage) and (Overbearing Presence), and these were barely a drop in the bucket. I read as many as I could bear to, but eventually I settled on (Enlarge). It suited my needs perfectly.
(Enlarge)
// Temporarily convert density to size. Increases might and toughness depending on density of musculature and defenses. Allows a creature with more density than size to become larger and stronger at the cost of its swiftness and finesse. This skill causes its user to consume more energy than it can reasonably acquire with its larger size, making it a detriment to stay enlarged for any period of time over a few minutes. Some creatures will be better suited for this skill than others. //
It was perfect… probably. If I could enlarge myself and go on a feeding frenzy as a B I G B O Y then my problems would be solved. I took the skill, felt a tingling in my head and used it immediately. I watched as everything around me got smaller and I wriggled with glee at my genius. Then it stopped and I hadn’t even doubled in size yet. I felt a bit cheated, but it made sense. I was an infant still, barely out of my egg and I probably still needed to put some meat on my bones. I really wanted to check if that list of my abilities woul- Oh there it is.
{Coastal Snakeling Infant}
Level: 1
Skill points: 0
Might – 2
Toughness – 2
Cunning – 1(?)
Charm – 1
An increase of one in both of my Might and Toughness… Well at least I got something out of this, now that I actually put some thought into it, I could have been really screwed if I wasn’t as dense as I am. Well, no ragrets as the saying goes. This turned out just fine after all. I doubled both in might and toughness, so that’s something.
I turn my enlarged head to my left and right, searched for my next meal/sibling. I see one egg is shaking and immediately head over to it. With my new strength it cracks in two with little effort and my little sibling floats out of it. I quickly eat it and move on to the next. There is some yolk or something also floating out of the egg, but I regretfully ignore the nutritious treat in favor of my siblings.
After some more fratricide I get a message.
{Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level: 2. You have matured into a Coastal Snakeling Toddler. For being the first of your clutch to level up you get a bonus.}
[Big sister snake]
// You have become the strongest of your clutch through determination, grit, and sheer force of will (or luck). Your lead is impressive. With two levels over all of your clutch mates you have become the biggest fish by a wide margin. You are lucky you were born in a small pond, as you are now the apex predator in your little cave, but will you stay the mountain’s peak? Become the top of the food chain and you will find it easy to stay there, for a time. //
It looked like a straight bonus, but really, what is with these so-called bonuses? None of them have actually given me anything straight of the bat. When am I going to get some ability boosts? I did just level up. Isn’t that when I’m supposed to get my ability boosts? I think of the list from earlier and find a pleasant surprise.
{Coastal Snakeling Toddler}
Level: 2
Skill points: 1
Might – 2
Toughness – 2
Cunning – 1(?)
Charm – 1
I was kidding, it wasn’t a pleasant surprise, it was horrible. I’m still just as weak as before. Damn it. This sucks. Ok calm down, this isn’t all bad. I have another skill point, so I can get a new skill at least. I let (Enlarge) go and- Woah! I grew again? Wait that’s not how this works. I check my abilities again.
{Coastal Snakeling Toddler}
Level: 2
Skill points: 1
Might – 3
Toughness – 3
Cunning – 1(?)
Charm – 1
Oh, now I get it, I got bigger when I leveled up, and instead of (Enlarge) making me even bigger it just sort of turned off when my natural size caught up with my (Enlarge) size. That’s sort of neat, but what about when I don’t catch up? What happens then? I guess I might find out eventually, but right now I need to eat more of my unborn siblings and level up again. I’ve only eaten 6 up until now, I still have hundreds to go if I want to be completely safe here. Alright, let’s get back to the fratricide.
I ate my siblings much the same as before but with my new strength and size I could just ram into the eggs and they’d break enough for me to bite into my siblings with my toothless maw and gulp them down. I must have eaten a dozen or so before the next message.
{Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level: 3. You have matured into a Coastal Snakeling Child.}
{Coastal Snakeling Child}
Level: 3
Skill points: 2
Might – 4
Toughness – 3
Cunning – 1(?)
Charm – 1
This time as I grew, I noticed it, as I actually outgrew my (Enlarge) state. How did this work? Was (Enlarge) actually a really bad skill with very diminishing returns as I leveled? I had noticed that I only grew by about the same at Level: 2 as I did at Level: 1 but I didn’t give it as much thought as I probably should have. I used (Enlarge) and again, only about as much as before. I had nearly doubled in size at Level: 1, but now I only grew by about a quarter. How did this work? Help?
{Request for help answered. (Enlarge) works by converting density into size. Once a creature has become an adult, they can control whether to grow in size or density, until then they will only grow in size. Exceptions exist.}
Oh, alright, thank you strange voice in my head. That explains it. So maybe (Enlarge) isn’t as good right now as I thought, but it was really useful at level one, I couldn’t have eaten 6 of my siblings otherwise, even if they’re still just fetuses. Well, back to eating.
I gobbled up more snakelings and was feeling pretty good about myself all things considered, but I was getting damn near full at this point. I had killed and eaten around 30 of my siblings when I first started to feel it, and at 40 I had found my limit. I hadn’t leveled up again, which was frustrating, but whatever. The real problem was what I knew would soon happen. I had thought that things matured at the same speed here as in my previous life, but in hindsight that was dumb of me to think what with my own growth rate. The latest embryo I ate had fully open eyes, and it had swum. It swam very poorly but it had swum for a few moments before I devoured it. They would be hatching soon, I knew it. I had tried to eat the most active ones but it would seem that being able to eat 40 did not equate to being able to digest 40, and on top of that I was actually feeling hungry. I had a stomach full to bursting and I was hungry. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was (Enlarge) that was making me so hungry. It’s warning of using more energy or something had been rather clear.
I decided to get more skills, after all I still had two skill points. The list was as long and daunting as before, but I managed to find something I wanted in it, two somethings.
(Devouring Vacuum)
// Create a strong suction force in your throat by forcing water out through your gills. Sucks water and anything in it into your mouth and separates it into your gills to be expelled in the case of water, and your stomach in the case of food. Anything small enough will also by expelled through the gills. //
(Gastric Burst)
// Turn a sizable amount of your bodies energy towards creating gastric acid to more quickly digest the contents of your stomach. Side effects vary. //
The warning about side effects was a little worrisome but with these two and my size I should be able to quickly devour all of my siblings as they hatch. I have scouted the chamber and located the only exit and there I will stay once my siblings start hatching. I won’t be able to eat all of them, but if they’re going to be as aggressive as I’ve been told they will be, then I’ll only need to eat a few dozen at first and the rest will kill each other.
I take my place in the exit tunnel, which now that I think about it, it looks like someone dug this and the cave with the eggs. Did mama snake dig this? Whatever, I need to digest what’s in my stomach. I activate (Gastric Burst). Immediately I feel so drained. What was I doing? Eh, it doesn’t matter, I’ll just… float here for a bit. Mhhhmmhh.
----------------------------------------
I wake up some time later to a strange feeling. It’s like someone’s nibbling on me. I open my eyes and to my surprise I see a tiny little snake using his toothless maw to try and chew on my tail. Oh my god, it’s adorable. It’s trying to swallow me whole. I’m at least 4 times its width and it’s trying to eat me whole. I feel so reinvigorated by the sight that I decide to do something special for this one. I eat it alive. Now it can be cute in my tummy.
[First of many snakes]
// Your lead is impressive. Your first sibling took two days longer than you to hatch. Maybe you had something to do with that? Whatever the reason you hatched days before your siblings, the fact remains that you are unrivaled amongst them. As a cannibal, your bonus has been set. Gain Might upon evolving from devouring the young of your own species. The closer the relation, the more Might you gain.
0.001 Might from distantly related snakes.
0.01 Might from cousins, nieces, nephews, and descendants beyond great-grandchildren
0.02 Might from siblings and great-grandchildren.
0.03 Might from grandchildren.
0.05 Might from children.
X level until adulthood.
Proliferate and grow strong. //
Alright, that’s a bit morbid. I guess I deserve it though, I did already eat 40 of my own siblings after all. 41 after the cute one. I can feel him wriggling around inside me. That sounded wrong, but enough of that. Let’s focus on the problem at hand. My siblings are hatching.
That (Gastric Burst) seems to have put me under for a couple of days as I digested. That could have been bad if my siblings had hatched sooner, but there has only been one so far. I think there has only been one, but maybe some of them just left already? I look over at the eggs, and sure enough, a few eggs near the exit have hatched already. I look around but I see no other cutie-snakes. They must have left.
I am feeling a bit peckish. Might as well use that bonus now.
I eat a few of my siblings as before, but as I’m eating my 45th sibling I heard it.
CRACK.
It echoes around the chamber and at first I’m not sure what is happening, but then it begins. My siblings hatch almost all at once. I panic a bit and freeze from the unexpectedness of this. I didn’t think this was the reason for the infighting.
As I look around, I see my siblings all over fighting each other by just sort of flailing around and hoping to injure each other, a few of them even come after me. I watch in a sort of daze as my adorable siblings gang up on me and try to eat me. They fail so delightfully I can’t help but laugh a little in my head. They have no teeth except the one blunt egg tooth and that can’t pierce my scales in the slightest.
Ara ara. They’re so cute, nibbling on my scales like that. I just want to wrap around them and hug- Oh, I killed them. I was so much stronger than them that they just died the moment I tried to hug them. That was a bit sad, I wanted to play with my little siblings. I wanted to rub them against my scales and cuddle against their cute little snaky bodies. Oh well, there are more where these came from, a lot more.
I activate (Devouring Vacuum) and make my way over to the exit, all the while sucking up as many of my siblings as I can manage. I finally lose count of how many of my siblings I’ve eaten as I’m doing so.
I turn around in the exit and face the rest of my siblings, and it’s a bloodbath. There are snake parts everywhere, and a few of my siblings have matured a little, though I doubt any of them will get past the toddler stage and to the child stage I’m apparently in. I find a little corner in the exit that hides me from the bloodbath and allows me to keep an eye on the exit to make sure no more of my sibling escape.
Over the next few hours – I don’t really know how long it was, but it was longer than when I was eating them out of their eggs – I eat only about a dozen or so snakes that try to make a run for it. All the ones I eat are infants likely running from their toddler siblings, and they’re just so cute I can’t kill them, so I eat them alive and let them wriggle around in my stomach. Who knows, maybe one of them will get lucky and kill enough to become a toddler while in my stomach. Ah, I want to feel their larger forms try to escape my stomach acid… Maybe I shouldn’t be finding pleasure in this. Coastal Snakelings have weird instincts.
I take a peek into the cave. I can see a few toddlers duking it out and infant corpses absolutely everywhere. A few infants are darting around eating their dead siblings. One of them evolves right then and immediately joins the toddler brawl. This would not be tolerated if this were a kindergarten. I should make them play nice… In my stomach. I’m so weirded out by my own instincts. Whatever, I’m just going to go back to my nook and wait for this to blow over.
Some more time passes and then I can’t hear any more fighting, though I suspect this snake form has pretty poor hearing. I take another peek and can only make out two toddlers now. They seem to be too tired to keep fighting, as the only movements they make are lazy tail swipes at each other. It would seem that a lot of infants were waiting for this, as they rise up from among the eggshells and start greedily gulping down their dead infant brethren, and I watch, fascinated, as they mature in droves and the two tired toddlers are quickly killed and eaten by a small hoard of about a dozen other toddlers.
Coastal Snakelings are brutal. They start their life with a cannibalistic bloodbath, and then become a terror of the shallows, eating baby seals and crustaceans and probably everything between those two… No, they eat baby seals whole. How big do they need to be to do that?
I look at my siblings. They look just like land snakes, though maybe a little more… vertical? They have no fins. Their jaws stick to the sides a little bit, meaning if they can squeeze their head into something then the rest of their bodies can follow with ease. If I were to put their body width at an arbitrary 1, then I’d say they were about a 10 in length. Cute little noodles. This stays true for the toddlers as well, though I’d put their length-to-width ratio at about 15:1.
I decide this will be my moment of glory. I exit my nook and enter the cavern. My siblings react in different ways. Most keep doing what they were doing, but a few toddlers and infants swim my way, seemingly intent on ganging up on me. Let them, I am more powerful than they could ever imagine!
I use (Enlarge) and grow by a quarter. None of them seem to notice, or at least they don’t care if they do. They don’t care to surround me, instead they just all charge me and try to squeeze or bite me. Ah, my cute little siblings are hugging me! Ow, actually, those toddlers can squeeze, damn it! Die!
I start flailing around while coiling myself around one of the toddlers that were dumb enough to try and bite me instead if squeezing. I quickly leave him a mess of innards floating in the water and move on to the rest of the ones surrounding me. I leave the infants alone, or rather, I don’t deliberately kill any of them for now. I question whether they could even bite into my eyes they’re so adorable.
I use (Devouring Vacuum) to scoop the toddler goop into my stomach and coil and uncoil to try and get rid of the toddlers wrapped around me. They don’t seem capable of doing any real damage to me, but they do smart though. They’re like a whole-body noogie. After a time, I get one of them in reach of my mouth and quickly bite down into its scales. I don’t quite manage to bite it in half, but I’m close. The toddler lets go, or more likely, loses his grip without the entirety of his body to work with and after another bite I grab one lose end and gulp it down. I hastily devour the other end as well, and continue my struggle with my siblings.
With the toddler around my neck gone I twist around and bite the rest into pieces. I don’t have any teeth, but my jaws are strong enough to crush soft toddler bones, and I have ridges on the outside of my mouth that I can use to crush-cut my siblings. After freeing myself and sucking up the toddler pieces I start to swim around and eat the infants still here. Some of them escaped while I was occupied, but that’s alright, they might make some cute nieces and nephews for me to cuddle and eat.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
After a while of eating, killing, and eating some more I’m rewarded for my wholesome nature as a caring older sibling.
{Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level: 4. You have matured into a Coastal Snakeling Adolescent. venom glands and injector fangs grown to adolescent standards (20% of adult size)}
{Coastal Snakeling Adolescent}
Level: 4
Skill points: 1
Might – 8
Toughness – 5
Cunning – 1(?)
Charm – 1
That took a lot longer than the others. I don’t know how much I’ve eaten by now, but it is a lot. Does time matter? Is it just how much I eat? Is it relative to my size or not? Does the number of things matter more than the overall amount? What about levels? Do I get less from lesser leveled creatures? I’ll have ask for help I think. Help?
{Request for help denied. Try again in: 8 days: 18 hours: 54 minutes.}
Crud, I’m on my own it seems. Oh well, I just grew to almost double my previous size, so let’s keep eating these cute, delicious morsels of noodly adorableness.
----------------------------------------
After using (Devouring Vacuum) to eat every last one of my remaining siblings I finally say goodbye to the cave and swim through the exit tunnel to leave. After a little bit of time I finally see the sun! How was I seeing before? I look back and realize that I had completely missed the glowing plants sticking to the cave walls and ceiling. Huh. No matter.
I exit the tunnel into the sun and a fish swims up from beneath me and tries to swim away. I gobble it up and keep going but again a fish swims into my path and I gobble it up too. That’s when I really take a good look around, and holy snaketits, there are a lot of fish around here. I can sea shells and some rocks on the seafloor around me. There is a definite slope, and in the distance, I think I can see where it probably turns into a beach. There are corals and seaweed where the water is a little deeper. There are barbed balls of flesh, and slugs on the seafloor being avoided by crustaceans of all kinds. I can’t see anything bigger than myself around here. Oh yeah. Dinner time.
I swim around and suck every fish I see into my waiting maw with (Devouring Vacuum). I really like (Devouring Vacuum). It leaves all the fish alive. A massage from the inside is really something. I keep it up until I can barely move and I can see I’ve almost tripled in width along most of my body, just from the amount of food in me. It’s getting very hard to swim in fact. This is probably all I can eat for now, but damn it, just you wait fish! I’ll eat all of you!
I head back for the cave where I hatched and while I don’t quite need to squeeze to get inside the tunnel, I do scrape the walls on every turn until I get back to the cave. I look around just to be safe and once I deem it so, I activate (Gastric Burst) and lose consciousness.
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I awake an unknown amount of time later in- Wait! Genius thought. Help?
{Request for help denied. Try again in: 7 days: 2 hours: 13 minutes.}
Alright, so about a day and a half since I began the final cannibal feeding frenzy. I look myself over and I seem to have successfully digested everything I ate. I’m back to my slim, fit and – I wriggle around – curvy figure.
I leave the cave again and this time decide that rather than immediately gorging myself on the lesser beings around me I should explore a bit. Doesn’t mean can’t have a snack on my way there. (Devouring Vacuum)!
I swim towards what I think will be a beach and poke my head out of the water. Yep, decent beach alright. Sand, more sand. Ooh, and sand! I don’t know if it’s just this snaky form, but I am really unenthusiastic about this beach. I dunk my head back underwater a take a breath. Maybe it was the whole not being able to breath thing, but who knows.
I poke my head back out of the water and look around. This time I notice something in the distance. Is that… a pier? I swim towards it and yep, it is indeed a pier. There’s even a small rowboat on the other side of it. Ooh, another genius idea.
I swim until I’m beside the boat and then use it to measure myself. Hmm. I’m about 1 ¾ of a small rowboat in length. Are they 2 meters long? I’m going to say they’re 2 meters long. That makes me… 3 ½ meters? I think that’s right. Nice, I know how long I am now. But what about the people here? Surely they would recognize a ‘terror of the shallows’ if they saw me. Hmm. How would people react to a many meters long venomous snake hanging around their rowboat? With fear? Probably. With violence? If I don’t leave as soon as they see me, probably. They would most likely get something to at least scare me away, and if they know how aggressive my species is, they’ll likely kill me flat out so I can’t grow bigger than I already am and become a danger to them… Do I want to talk to people? Not really. I don’t really feel the need to talk to other people, or other snakes for that matter. Coastal Snakelings are solitary hunters, likely only ever meeting on friendly terms during mating season.
I won’t dwell on it too much, but since I’ve already eaten, and if my speed of digestion without (Gastric Burst) is any indication then I probably only really need to eat a little bit each day, or a big, bloating meal every… week? Month? I didn’t actually know how much I needed compared to how much I had eaten. Anyway, my point is that I’m going to wait here and see if I can hear these humans talking or something. Maybe I’ll learn where I am, and if they have levels too. I look up into the sky and after a little bit of focus I can see the sun is rising, which would make this the middle of the morning, a perfect time to go fishing!
I waited patiently for the fisherman to come and after waiting about an hour – I checked – I was rewarded with the sounds of footsteps on the pier above me.
----------------------------------------
“Samson! You know it’s too dangerous to go fishing now! The Snakelings will hatch any day now!”
“I know that Doris. I’ve got my machete, and they can’t capsize the boat until at least adolescence and that won’t happen for another month. You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’m just going out to the fishery. I’ll throw one net and then come back.”
The speakers where a pair of humans. One was a woman with dark brown hair in a single braid down to her lower back and a thin build. The other was a redheaded man with a full beard, short hair, and a wide but obviously strong frame. She wore a faded light blue dress and an apron. He wore a checkered shirt and loose pants.
“I know all of that already, I just think you’re being silly. You can just wait until your brother comes back, he’s due in no more than two days. There’s no need to risk yourself like this!” The woman was staying relatively calm, her urgency was clear, but she kept from raising her voice more than a little.
“Doris, you know that the toddlers aren’t a risk to me, and even if there is a child, then I have the machete to hack it in half. You know I’ve done this before, why are you so adamant I not leave shore this time?” The man sounded exasperated. He seemed intent on soothing the woman before he left, but he was a little bit annoyed that he had to do it at all.
“I just have a bad feeling about this, Samson. What if there’s a leader among them? Or they have serpent blood in them, or behemoth blood? I have the Gypsy class; I can feel something is going to go wrong today if I don’t do something to stop it and going fishing is the only dangerous thing that either of us is doing today.” The woman was a little worse now. She seemed intent on talking the man out of going to the fishery. “If you go out to that fishery then I won’t put out for a month!”
The man’s eyes widened in horror at the threat and he gaped just like the fish he was going to catch. He looked at the woman in front of him and seemed to consider whether further arguing was worth not getting any for a month. He closed his eyes and mouth, put one closed fist on his hip and stroked his beard. He stayed like that for a moment but sighed at last. “Alright Doris, you’re holding my sanity hostage here, but the fish need to be culled. They’ll get agitated and start leaping out of the fishery or swimming into each other and bruising if I don’t reduce their numbers. Besides, the Gypsy class is barely accurate enough to be considered a seeing class at higher levels and I know you’ve only got 20 levels at most in it.” The man seemed reluctant to argue anymore but apparently, he was really afraid his fish would do something stupid.
The woman looked aghast, as if she couldn’t believe he’d kept trying to sway her. “Samson, it’s two days until your brother gets here and he has a much bigger boat. You can just get him to take you there and back. You’ll be able to get more fish then and you won’t need to go today. I’m telling you; this isn’t a good day to go fishing. We might lose a few fish if you don’t go, but at least you’ll keep your life! That’s what’s important to me. Would you rather keep your fish or your life?”
“Doris, that’s hardl-“
“Answer the question Samson! Are you going to just leave me on my own here? I’m not going to be able to make a living! I’ll have to move into the city once your brother gets here and join a brothel! Is that what you want!?” She was screaming at the end there, all attempts at staying calm thrown out the window.
“No! That’s not at all what I want and you know it! These fish are our livelihood! I’m trying to prevent exactly what you just told me from happening! I love you Doris!” With his large, calloused hands, he grabbed her waist and pulled her into him. She gave a token resistance of punching his chest, but it wasn’t long before she gave up and hugged him, at which point he hugged her back. “I want to stay on this island with you for the rest of my life, just the two of us and some kids down the line.”
Doris hugged him fiercely, her fingers locked behind his back as if to keep him stuck where he was. “I better be wrong about the but I feel coming. I swear on my mother’s grave, if you say but I’ll-“
----------------------------------------
Well that’s a bust. I have no idea what they’re saying. I angrily flick my tongue. Is that blood? I smell blood in the water. I submerge what little of myself I kept above water to listen to their conversation and slither along the seafloor until I’m sure they can’t see my shadow anymore.
Where is this blood? I can smell it somewhere around that stack. I get close to a wide stack sticking out of the water and make a circle around it. Hmm… I stick my head out of the water and take a look around. Wait. Is that… I think it is!
I leap up onto the stack, which I can now tell is only a stump and flat on the top and dive straight into the pool of water in the middle of it. There are so many fish! I could see them jump out of the water when I took a peek, but I didn’t think there would be so many! I Only need to swim around for a moment with (Devouring Vacuum) and I’m full. I’m already bloated from the abundant amount of fish in here!
I look around the place for a bit after eating my fill, but I can’t find any openings. How have these fish multiplied so much in here without fresh seawater getting in here? Do they have to wait until it floods for new water? Hmm. Well, whatever. I’m taking a nap here anyway. (Gastric Burst).
----------------------------------------
I wake up a day later with an empty stomach and some fish nibbling on my scales. Hey! Don’t you try and eat me! (Devouring Vacuum)! Oh, dear lord that was quick. I’m full again. (Gastric Burst).
----------------------------------------
Another day passed while I digested. I awoke to more nibbling. This is getting old. Maybe I shouldn’t sleep in a cage full of living food. Oh well. (Devouring Vacuum)! Ah, that hits the spot. (Gastric Burst).
----------------------------------------
When I open my eyes this time it’s to a very pleasant surprise.
{Congratulations, you have leveled up to level 5. You have matured into a Coastal Snakeling Adult. Skill levels, Biomass, and Modifications no longer hidden. Evolutions available at level 10. Further Modifications available in the Evolution Menu.}
[Monstrous Snake]
// You have proven to all that you are more than just an animal. Your voracious appetite and incredible speed of maturation have left little doubt about just what you are. You are a monster. Fighting and eating other monsters grants much better rewards than fighting and eating animals. //
{Coastal Snakeling Adult}
Level: 5
Skill points: 2
Biomass: 11
Might – 21
Toughness – 13
Cunning – 2(?)
Charm – 2
[Skills]
(Enlarge) Lvl 3
(Devouring Vacuum) Lvl 4
(Gastric Burst) Lvl 3
[Modifications]
Venom Glands +1: Injector Fangs +1: Scales +3: Eyes +3: Tongue +2: Inners Ears +0
Well, that sure is something. I’m a monster now apparently. I don’t really know what to do with that information. I guess I’ll just… Eat more fish? That sounds good, I’ll do that for now and think about all this other stuff later. Om nom nom. I have a bit of fun with catching the fish without (Devouring Vacuum), even successfully injecting venom into some of them.
I swim in lazy circles inside this strange hole full of fish, admiring my new size. I can even see a small luster on my scales. I wonder if that’s got something to do with Charm getting a point as I leveled up. Would I get really shiny with more points in Charm? Doesn’t matter I guess, there’s food to be eaten!
I keep eating for a while, not enough to bloat myself, but enough to feel fairly full. My curiosity finally wins out over my hunger and I take a look at the modifications.
[Modifications]
Venom Glands +1: Injector Fangs +1: Scales +3: Eyes +3: Tongue +1: Inner Ears +2
Now, how does this work? I have 11 Biomass. 6 things I can modify. What do I use most out of these? I think that would have to be Scales, and then Eyes, but they already have the highest numbers. I really wish I could ask for help with this. Shit! I’m going all in! Increase Scales and Eyes to +5!
{Denied. 11 Biomass available. 7 more Biomass required to upgrade both Scales and Eyes to +5.}
Drat, going with Scales +5 then.
{Scales increased to +5. Mutation available. Please choose a Mutation from the list.}
Oh. Oh. Oh! This list is just as massive as the Skills list! All this just for my scales? Damn, and I can only have one? Well ok, let’s look through this thing.
I spend a good while browsing the list. Most of the things on the list help me resist things, including magic. So, magic exists here, that’s nice. Maybe I can be a snake mage. Hmm, probably not though, my Cunning is only a 2, and that’s the only mind stat I have. The question mark doesn’t open up into a menu or anything, so I guess that just means I’m smarter than I’m supposed to be as a snake.
After some more time reading about resistance after resistance, I try something new.
Sort into offence and defense!
It worked. Before me was a list containing only defenses, and I could switch that out for a list with only offensive uses for my scales. Wait, there’s a 3rd list? The Special list? Hmm, wouldn’t Conductive Scales by in defense? Oh, they can absorb both large quantities of electricity and small quantities of static electricity, and then I can discharge the stored electricity in some kind of attack? Neat, but I think it’s still rather niche. Hmm. Exclude all elemental focused mutations. The Special List shrinks a lot, enough so that I found the end of it! Ah, knowing the end of it makes me feel so much better. Camouflage Scales seems nice, is there something else more interesting here? Hypnotic Scales? Let’s read about that.
Hypnotic Scales Mutation: Make brilliant patterns of shiny colors dance on your scales. Distract and/or confuse easily tricked creatures such as fish, less intelligent birds, insects, the offspring of a variety of creatures, and those too curious for their own good. More effective on creatures with a sense of beauty. Gain +5 to Charm upon choosing this Mutation and +1 Charm every evolution.
I want it. I want it so bad, but there is also one I found earlier that just makes my scales tougher overall and gives me the same stat boosts but to Toughness. I really should get the Toughness one, it’s the smart choice here. Shiny Snake. If I can resist things like another adult snakes biting or constricting me then I live, and hopefully kill the other snake. Shiny Snake. I can… constrict spikey things! If my scales are too strong to penetrate then I don’t have to worry about spikey balls on the seafloor! Shiny Snake!
Mutate Hypnotic Scales!
{Mutating Hypnotic Scales. This will be over quickly.}
----------------------------------------
“You’re learning fast, Sammy. The sea is a terrible place. You should always listen to a Seeing Class, even one not known for Seeing, like the Gypsy Class your wife has. It’s obvious a predator got into the fishery, and if I’m not mistaken, you got this island for cheap because of the Coastal Snakeling nests around here,” says a short man.
“I guess she might have been right, but what if the bad feeling she had was that I wasn’t here to stop it from getting in in the first place?” A larger man asked back.
“Sammy, that’s not how the Gypsy Class works. It’s focused around the actions of those having an impact on their life. The closer someone is to a Gypsy the more accurate their Sight. Even if she’s only a level 20 Gypsy, that’s plenty to tell her if her thickheaded husband is going off to his doom.”
“You say that, but she said she had a bad feeling about me going now as well. If what you’re saying is true then why are we even here now?”
“The Sight will get less accurate and more muddled the more often a Seer Sees the same thing. Less accurate Seer’s like Gypsies are especially vulnerable to this. Her Sight is probably still recovering. She’s still a very low level, and Seeing can often leave the Seer with an imprint of the Sight they See. This could last for weeks in less Sight focused Classes like Gypsies.”
“You seem to know a lot about this. Where did you hear all of this?”
“Oh, my naïve brother. I didn’t hear this, I read it. I have recently figured out that my frost magic can store books and scrolls just as well as fish. Meaning I’ve branched out into shipments of literature. You should get out more, visit the capitol and see the things you’re missing.”
“I’m on this island specifically to get away from the nonsense in the capitol. Here I only need to pay my taxes on time and me and my wife can live in peace. No dumb wars with sea creatures, no dungeons popping up out of long forgotten mass graves surrounding my farm, and no kingdoms forcing me off of the land my family has been tending to too long to be remembered!”
“Geez, Sammy, relax. You bought this island with the money you got from that land being taken. I’m not saying you should be thankful, but-“
“Good! Because I’m not!”
“But! But it could have been so much worse. Just be glad you got away before the dungeon killed both of you, yeah? You’ve got a nice life here away from the drama, yes, but you’ll lose track of what’s happening in the world if you don’t go out at least a few times a year.”
“The world can go and rot for all I care. I’ve got my wife, and if the rest of my fisheries haven’t been attacked as well, I’ve got a living. Now let’s just throw a net in there and see if-“
“Sammy, have you been throwing coins into the fishery?”
“What? Of course not. Why are you- Oh. I see. Your books tell you what this is?”
“…”
“Johnny?”
“The sun is right above us. You’re always here midmorning. This looks just like a shallow pond you can find on most flat stumps. Sammy. Do you think maybe someone threw a treasure down there? This could be like the buried treasures I’ve read about!”
“Johnny, we were just talking about a predator getting in there. What if this is some kind of tactic to lure you closer?”
“Relax brother, I’ve got this. See this? I’ll throw this in and wait for a while. If nothing bites, then I’m going in.”
“Well… I guess that should be fine. Just be careful if you go down. You’re the only captain dumb enough to make a detour to this random island.”
“Exactly. Hup! And now we wait.”
----------------------------------------
God this itches so bad! All of my scales itch! Dear lord! Walls! Walls! Scratch me!
It does nothing! I itch everywhere! Undulate! Constrict! Wiggle! Swim in circles! Oh my god! I can’t think of anything to do about this! This better be over quickly! I’ll go mad! This can’t be healthy! I can feel the skin under my scales peeling! This is hell! Gah!
Okay. It’s over? Seems like it. Okay. I’m good, I’m good. All the itching is gone. It’s gone. You’re good now. I’m good now. I check myself over just to be sure.
Woah. I’m so shiny. I glisten in the sunlight that reaches me down here. Do I need sunshine to make this work? Hmm… I look beneath myself and think of making a wave pattern. It happens just as I imagined it, thin waves of ever shifting colors make their way from one side of me, until they ‘crash’ into my other side and dissipate.
I love myself. God damn I love myself! Ain’t no snake shinier than me!
Pwahahaha!
Ah, I could go for a bite to celebrate. Are there any fish left? I look around. A few, but I seem to have eaten the majority of them. Hey, there’s one fish coming right to the bottom to me. Don’t mind if I do! (Devouring Vacuu- Wait! What is this?! This fish is already dead. Did my venom get into the water or something? Hmm…
I look the fish over carefully, even giving it a tentative lick. Is this fish cold? How is this fish colder than the water it’s in? I look the fish over even more carefully, until finally I see it. A line. Thought you were going to fish me out huh? Well, too bad for you. I’m going to stay here until you leave. I’m a snake with a full stomach, I can stay down here for weeks! You can’t trick me, I’m as smart as you! Well, if these are humans. I can’t see anything peeking into the water, and even if I could I wouldn’t be able to tell if they were human or something else.
This world has levels, there are surely elves and things here too. Maybe even mermaids… I want. I want a pet mermaid! That’s it, when this is over, I’m getting out here and I’m going to find a mermaid! Ah, I can imagine it now. The struggle the mermaid will put up as I eat her whole. The feeling of her slowly dissolving in my stomach as she loses the will and energy to fight.
There is something very wrong with me. I think my snake and human desires have gotten mixed up somewhere. I’ll find a mermaid, and not eat her. Okay, with that out of the way I can focus on the issue at hand.
Where’s the fish? Did I eat it while I was fantasizing? I hope not, that might make things a little more complicated. Oh? A silhouette? It’s looking into the water. What is it looking at? I turn my head around until I realize it. Is it looking at me? Am I glittering like gold down here? Does that mean I’ll be able to eat it if I play my cards right? Maybe if I…
I slowly stop the glittering on the head half of my scales, shifting the glittering into smaller patterns on my tail half. I snake my head up the side of the hole, making certain to keep myself as far away from the sun’s rays as I can while I’m at it. The silhouette moves backwards. Damn, I scared it away. Guess I should probably get out of this hole now, there’s little to do here anymore with most of the fish gone.
Alright, let’s go and find a mermai-
SPLASH
Oh, it’s a human. He hasn’t noticed me yet. Well, he hasn’t noticed the non-glittering part of me anyway. He swims with practiced motions down towards the glittering that has so enticed him. It helps that this hole is probably at least 20 meters deep, and 30 meters around. I move my head to follow behind him at about a meter’s distance from his kicking feet when he passes me by. Ooh I can already taste hi-
Maybe I shouldn’t eat a human… That’s probably a line I shouldn’t cross.
SPLASH
What’s this? I turn my head towards the surface. Ah, there was another human. He probably saw me when I moved me head. Is that a machete? They can’t be very useful underwater, surely. I watch him anyway, and he starts swinging his machete while still a good meter away from me. Is he stupid? That can’t hit me. Have you got no depth perception? Actually, that’s a really good point. He probably can’t see as well underwater as I can. I look at the one beneath me. He probably can’t see much either. He’s just following the shinies.
I tilt my head slightly at the madman coming at me from above. I probably can’t just pass him by. He’ll probably cut me if I try to snake myself out of here. I should probably just kill him. Probably. The one beneath me is getting close to the shinies, but he’s slowing down. Is he apprehensive, or just stunned by my beauty? He stopped. He’s just staring at this point. I think he’s stunned. Machete man is trying to get my attention though. Probably not a good idea to look away from the angry man with the machete. There’s probably a movie about that somewhere. Probably not in this world though.
Swing. Swing. Swing.
He’s kind of slow. These swings are at least a second apart each. That’s more than enough time to immobilize his swinging arm. Yeah, I’ll go with that. A heavy blow to immobilize the danger and then I’m out of here.
Swing. Swing. Swing. Swing.
Strike!
I move forward in a burst of speed with the intention of bashing into the man’s shoulder, but some instinct changes that plan in the heat of the moment and I bite him and inject my venom into him. Oops. At least the machete isn’t a threat anymore. He’ll probably be fine. I mean, the description of my species said baby seals, not full-grown seals. I’m sure the venom isn’t strong enough to-
He’s not moving at all. I just killed a man. Mama! No! No singing! And it’s the other way around idiot, at least panic-sing it right you doofus.
I wait a moment for him to burst into action and tell me it was a prank or something, but nope, he’s still very still. Ooh! Bubbles! Oh wait, that was his dying breath. He’s sinking now. I should probably let go. (Devouring Vacuum)! Ahh! I didn’t mean to eat you! It was an accident! Look, I shut it off before I could swallow your legs! I’m not an evil man-eating snake! Oh. You don’t really seem to care much. Probably has to do with either death or paralysis. For your sake man, I hope it’s the former, cause it’s too late to chew my meal now.
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.
Ahhhhhhhh. That was a damn fine meal. I should really separate my human and snake instincts; they’re making a mess in my head. I feel so satisfied, but also mortified. I’ll deal with that later; I have another human here I need to deal with. Is he… Yep. He’s still staring at my scales in wonder. What is with this guy? I’m starting to feel a bit self-conscious here with how he’s staring at me, I mean, I know I look good but can you at least go up for air or something? You’re going to die if you stay here any longer than this.
The man stares intently at me for a little longer, and I start to feel less self-conscious and more playful. I change the pattern a little bit, making a light appear a bit closer to my head. He doesn’t seem to notice, but when I’ve slowly made lights appear one after another in a pattern reaching half the way to my head his head turns and he seems to snap out of the trance he seems to have been in. He starts swimming down.
Really? Does this man not need to breath?
He swims further down until he can touch my scales. I position myself behind him and just as his hand makes contact, I create thick waves of shimmering lights that emanate from the place he touched. The waves die out as they reach my tail - which he can see – and my head right behind him.
He watches as the waves reach my tail and die away. Then he watches as the waves travel in a line up the wall, then away from it, and end in a dazzling display of colors right in front of his face.
He doesn’t startle. He seems to lose himself in the display before his eyes. He seems none the wiser until he’s suddenly surrounded by darkness and pain radiates out from his chest before he loses all feeling.
He’s a bit on the chilly side. He’s been down here for a few minutes at this point. He should be the same temperature as the water around him. He’s just like that fish. Is that it? He’s half fish? Was that why he didn’t seem to need to breathe? Whatever, he’s dead now, and I feel conflicted about it. I am quite full though, so that’s nice.
Let’s get out of this hole and back into the cave.
I raise my head out of the water and I can immediately see a much larger boat than before. I’d almost call it a ship in fact. I would actually call it a ship. It’s probably about 12 meters long, with three sails, one in the middle like normal, one sideways at the back, and another sideways on the thing that sticks out the front. I could take a small peek before I fill up completely and have another nap.
I slither onto the ship, careful of suffocation, and have a short look around. I find some books and scrolls in boxes that I break open in the cabin. There’s a small staircase going down into the hold I think it’s called. I slither down and look around. I find a lot of weirdly shaped empty boxes. I know they’re empty cause I crush them to see what’s inside. Big snakes are strong. Nothing of value here, oh well, I did get a meal out of it.
I look up at the ceiling of the hold I think for a moment.
Could I… I guess I’d need to try to be sure.
I shimmy around a bit, positioning my tail in the optimal position for penetration. I tense up and ready myself for every outcome. Then I slam my tail against the ceiling.
CRACK
A plank comes loose and a few others crack and splinter.
CRACK
A second slam and I’m rewarded with a hole in the planks.
CRACK
A third slam and my tail exits out the other side.
CRACK
The fourth time was more just to make sure, but after it I stick my head up and slither the rest of myself out and take a dip in the water to catch my breath. It’s weird to not be able to breath air.
After a brief reprieve, I stick my head back out of the water to look the ship over.
It’s not a bad looking ship. It’s probably made for one or two people to crew. Weird squiggles on the side that probably mean something. No barnacles anywhere, so the ship is well maintained. It’s very likely the humans I just ate really liked this ship. Nothing for it then, I just have to destroy it!
Okay, I don’t have to destroy it, but I really want to. I want to really put these snake muscles to the test! How to do it though…
I slither back onto the ship and try to think of how to destroy it. There is the main mast, that’s a thick piece of timber fastened to the bottom of the ship. I did also make a hole down into the hold. Hmm… Let’s do this one piece at a time.
I slither up onto the cabin where a sideways sail sits closed. I wrap my tail around the thin mast and after letting a part of my middle hang down the side of the ship for leverage, I pull as hard as I can.
Come on sailors! Put some effort into it! I know you’re in there! Now, heave!
The mast splinters and breaks apart where I grab it. The force is enough to send it flying a meter away from the ship with my tail in tow. I almost tumble into the sea myself from the sudden shift in weight, before I let go of the mast and let it drift in the ocean, only tied to the ship via a single rope in the back.
Hot diggity, I’m strong! I might not even need to take this one piece at a time. I can probably just crush the ship right through the middle! Well, one more test before I do that. The main mast! But first, oxygen.
I take a dip and breath for a little while playing with my new scales. I manage to trick a few fish to swim all the way up to my nose, where I bite into them and gulp them down. Not many are fooled by an obvious glowing snake in the water, but enough are to make it a worthwhile experiment.
I get back on board the ship and wrap my tail around the main mast. I do the same as before, hanging a part of myself over the side of the ship for leverage, and then I pull it. Unlike before, the mast doesn’t immediately break, put instead it cracks down the middle all the way to the top. I give it another good yank and the ropes holding it to one side snap and it lists to the other side. A third, solid tug, and the base of it breaks apart and the whole thing comes loose. Only the ropes on one side remain.
I try to lift the mast into the air, and I sort of do it. The ropes make it a bit difficult but I manage. I give it a few swings before letting it go and join the other mast in the water.
I probably don’t really need another breath, but better safe than sorry. I jump back into the water and play with the masts a little. I wrap myself around them, snap the roes still holding them, and use them to skirt along beneath the surface of the water with minimal effort.
Well, enough fun, back to work!
I climb onto the ship once more and this time I slither into the hold. I stick my head out of the hole I made and slither half of myself overboard and into the water. I press my body against the outside and inside of the boat and pull my middle towards my tail and head.
The ship creaks, and a few cracks appear in the planks.
I pull again, rubbing my distended, human-filled snake gut against the ship in my effort to break it apart. The ship creaks again, and more cracks slither along the planks. A few boards break apart on the ship’s solid wood railing and I fall a little.
Another pull, and the side of the ship starts leaking water into the hold.
I almost have it now!
CRACK
With a final wrench, I break the side of the ship open and water comes flooding in. I break away from the ship and watch from the water as the ship sucks in water like a sun-dried sponge. It isn’t long before the whole thing leans to the side and lays down on the surface. It looks almost like it’s tired.
Don’t worry ship, you can rest in piece now. I ate the bad humans using you for profit. Go to sleep now little ship. The ocean floor is a relaxing place for ships like yourself. Shhhh, you don’t have to stress anymore. Let Big Sis Snake lay you to rest.
That begs the question; am I female? The bonus said Big Sister Snake, so I’d think so. I have no idea what snake genitals look like, so I’ll have to just wait for some instincts to tell me to mate. Can’t imagine a snake with a penis though, so that’s probably not it.
What gender was I as a human? I can’t remember. Hmmm… I can remember a relationship with a… Woman! I was in a relationship with a woman! So, I was probably a man as a human. Or I was a lesbian. I really can’t seem to remember myself. Oh well, not like this matters anymore. I’m a snake now, so I should probably not try to woo humans anyway, that would just be awkward.
I swim away from the ship, using (Devouring Vacuum) to top myself off before I snuggle back into my birth cave and activate (Gastric Burst) for an instant snakenap.
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“Samson, please be safe…”
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What a nice nap. I wasn’t very keen on the whole passing out thing at first, but it’s really grown on me. I can barely imagine needing to fall asleep the old-fashioned way anymore.
{Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level: 6.}
{Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level: 7.}
{Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level: 8.}
{Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level: 9.}
{Congratulations, you have leveled up to Level: 10. Evolution Menu available}
Woah. How did this happen? Did I get all this from the humans? This seems rigged somehow… Are humans considered monsters? That’s the only thing that makes sense to me, unless humans are something else… Maybe monsters get more for killing and eating sapient creatures. Does that make me a double whammy? A two for one, snake-n-sape, is that it? Damn you voice in my head, if I could ask for unlimited help, I’d have so many questions for you!
Alright, Evolution Menu.
[Current Status]
{Coastal Snakeling Adult}
Level: 10
Skill points: 7
Biomass: 21
Might – 21
Toughness – 13
Cunning – 2(?)
Charm – 7
[Skills]
(Enlarge) Lvl 3
(Devouring Vacuum) Lvl 4
(Gastric Burst) Lvl 4
[Modifications]
Venom Glands +1: Injector Fangs +1: Hypnotic Scales +5: Eyes +3: Tongue +2: Inners Ears +0
[Evolutions Available]
Giant Coastal Snakeling
// Think Coastal Snakeling, but more Coastal Snakeling. The Giant Coastal Snakeling is the most common, and the most generic 1st tier evolution of the Coastal Snakeling. Bigger body, thicker scales, longer fangs, more venom, just bigger and stronger. Most Coastal Snakelings that manage to become a monster, and then evolve, pick this evolution due to their inability to understand anything more complex than ‘big snake strong’ and thus the other 1st tier evolutions are overlooked in over 99% of evolutions. This one does have something the others don’t however, and that is an immediate leap in strength, more often than not doubling in power as soon as the evolution is over. //
+ Might
+ Toughness
Size increase
Wyrm of the Coast
// Sporting sharp teeth, and often horns, the regular Wyrm is a cave-dwelling creature descended from dragons. You would be forgiven for mistaking their bodies for a large snake, as only the head and sometimes the tail retain any distinctly draconic features. The Wyrm of the Coast - named by a Drow Alchemist as he succumbed to the slower acting, hallucinogenic venom of a Wyrm of the Coast – looks even more similar to a snake than its closely related, cave-dwelling cousin. With mostly smooth scales, and only a tiny tail fin, the Wyrm of the Coast is very snakelike in appearance. With most people only spotting them through the water as they pass under ships, the draconic, hornless head is left almost unnoticeable to the surface races. Like all dragon descendants however, the Wyrm of the Coast grows bigger as it grows older, and it can become several centuries old. //
+ Might
+ Toughness
+ Cunning
+ Charm
+ Size per month of life
Additional Modifications
Amphibious Snakeling
// Mostly identical to the Coastal Snakeling, the Amphibious Snakeling has the added benefit of lungs, as well as gills. It is capable if breathing salt water, fresh water, and air. The Amphibious Snakeling would still be a rather sorry excuse for an evolution if not for the addition of several new [Skills] and Modifications, as well as a sizable increase to the Cunning stat. The Amphibious Snakeling stays the same size over the course of its life, neither growing nor shrinking. It should be noted that of all the 1st tier evolutions available to the Coastal Snakeling, the Amphibious Snakeling sports the highest kill to death ratio of same, or higher, tier monsters.
+ Cunning
Additional [Skills]
Additional Modifications
Core Creation
// Revert back to Level: 5, stay a tier 0 monster, and gain a Monster Core. A core is what allows monsters to store and channel Mana. Available anytime a monster evolves, but can only be chosen once. Other, more difficult ways exist to acquire a core. //
+ Cunning
Additional [Skills]
Well, I’ll be damned. These are choices alright. Oh, boy. I’m not good with choices, maybe I should just pick at random… No that’s stupid, I have to weigh these against each other. More power, more everything, more versatility, or more… something, maybe magic.
What would the best choice here be I wonder? My gut tells me food, but that guy has a one-track mind so I guess I’m on my own here. Snakeling instincts are surely pushing for the Giant Coastal Snakeling, so it’s pretty clear where that repeating ‘bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger,’ in my head is coming from. I hope I’m not developing a second personality or something, these snakeling instincts need the single filter that is my consciousness to not do something stupid, like eating a live mermaid whole just to feel her struggle inside my stomach.
Shudder
I need to reign these instincts in somehow.
Actually, evolving into something else, or even just increasing my Cunning might be enough to get rid of these instincts. Every evolution besides the Giant Coastal Snakeling gives me Cunning, so I should be able to more effectively curb my non-human desires once I’ve evolved.
I just wish I didn’t have to make the choice myself!