One Week Later. . .
It was a rainy morning. I was sleeping soundly inside of a fallen tree trunk, coiled up in a spring and having my head sunk inside of my own body. It was such a peaceful and nice silence all around me, with only the subtle sound of rain drops falling breaking it every moment here and there. I snored lightly as I slept, before a small raindrop fell from a leaf above the trunk, falling through a small, small gap in the trunk above me and hitting my head, startling me and waking me up in an instant.
I shook my head as soon as I woke up, looking around in pure confusion before looking above me. Through a small gap in the trunk I could see the rainy weather that was present right at this moment.
‘Guess I was woken up by the rain..’
I thought, before looking back down and yawning lightly. Uncoiling my body, I quickly stretched it out in a straight line, before slithering over to the trunk entrance I was the most close to and looking outside. Even though it was practically pouring from the sky, the sheer density of the trees around me managed to block pretty much all of the rain, with only a couple of raindrops making through to the ground itself.
The sky was basically all in all invisible and out of my sight, with only snippets of it managing to break through the thick layer of tree branches and leaves. Through these snippets, I managed to deduce that the sky was basically all grey, with the sun nowhere to be seen - shocker.
Who would have thought that when there is rain pouring, the sun is nowhere to be seen huh…
Exhaling, I slithered out of the trunk and off into the forest once more, ready to start off my day. It has been basically a week since I first awoke in this world - and I will not lie, I had actually managed to slowly get used to and adapt to the way this world functions and how my new life will be like.
First, I figured out the core ‘mechanic’ behind this world - or atleast, what seems to be the thing that this whole world is based on. It was ‘Magical Energy’ - something that can only be described as this world's version of atoms and molecules. How did I figure this out? Trial and error. I have been wandering this forest for a while now, avoiding any signs of danger as much as I could, just to stay out of trouble. During that time, I have been using that one skill I got after making the whole ‘Essence Vow’ with Arabor in order to learn about this world.
At first, the skill gave me very little and very basic information about this world, but with time - as I used it more and more, it began giving me a little more detailed information about this world. I’ve reached the point where it gives me a full description about the different things I look at using the skill. That is how I figured out the stuff with Magical Energy - by using ‘Inspector’.
Learning about the world has been a fun experience I’ve got to say. I have been finding out what I can and can’t eat, things that are safe and things that I should avoid like the black plague and even have slowly begun to ‘memorise’ the forests layout… or atleast, as much as you can memorise the layout of a forest as dense and thick as this one.
I moved through the forest with the rain continuing on for a while, before it eventually subsided and I reached a small open area where I decided to take a rest. I had been travelling through this place for a while now and still hadn’t found anything I could kill and eat. Yeah, on the whole food thing, even though I had figured out what I can and can’t eat, there was a small problem tucked onto it - Since I am a snake and technically a ‘carnivore’, the only thing that can realistically ‘feed’ me enough to not feel hunger or that my stomach can actually digest was… meat. More specifically, meat from small rodents or insects.
There is no way in hell I would be able to take down and eat a wolf - especially the kind that I was forced to face after I left Arabors grave and started my ‘journey’. Actually… speaking of that wolf, I have managed to run into more of its kind in this past week - and while every time I was scared out of my mind and was looking for ways to avoid fighting those things, there were times when I was simply forced to fight for my own survival.
And well, doing so I managed to ‘level up’ more as indicated by that strange voice I heard every time I killed one of them. The last time I heard it, I believe that it said that I had risen to level 9 or so, which means that since I left the ruins and began my exploration, which, keep in mind, was a week ago, I had only managed to level up from level 4 to level 9.
I am no expert in RPG games at all, so I didn’t know whether this growth was bad or good, but I imagine that for a week worth of wandering and killing, it wasn’t all that great. But then again - can you blame me? I am a small snake or rather, a human who was reincarnated as a snake, and I had no idea what the hell to do. Plus, seeing wolves that only vaguely resemble wolves and have two tails would send anyone into an immediate state of fright… right?
Whatever…
I was laying down in the open field, more specifically, off to the side, underneath a large plant which gave me some nice cover as I laid there in with my coiled up body. I know that I wasn’t the sharpest when it came to this stuff, but even I wasn’t foolish enough to put myself in the middle of an open field where I was a massive and very obvious target for any other creature that felt like they wanted some snake meat as their next lunch.
Laying down underneath this leaf like this, I was simply sunken inside of my thoughts. I was thinking about the whole thing with my ‘Inspector’ skill, basically creating a game-like menu in my head to display information and that mysterious and strange voice that announced me gaining levels and skills. I know I sound like a broken record, but as someone who isn’t an expert in RPG style games, I was wondering…
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Since all of this seems so similar to those games, then perhaps there was some way for me to view ‘stats’ of some sorts? All the footage I have seen of RPG style games have some sort of ‘stat’ system in them where it displays how powerful an individual is and how high their level is, and whatever else it displays. So, surely, since this world seems to have a system similar to those… there had to be some sort of hidden ‘stat’ menu or something somewhere, right?
It may sound obvious to those that know how this stuff works, but to me, this was like learning a new language. I just laid there in a coil and brainstormed how I could possibly access a ‘stat’ menu, IF there even was such a thing in this world. I was unsure how you would usually access this type of menu in any RPG, so I had no idea what to even try. It wasn’t like I was next to a keyboard or a controller that had buttons I could press.
As I was thinking about it, I suddenly felt a light tremble through the ground. At first, I didn’t think much of it and simply ignored it. But then - the ground trembled again, only more violently. That startled me a bit, causing me to uncoil myself and look at the ground in deadpan confusion and dumbfoundedness. There wasn’t an earthquake about to happen… right?
I hope not - I have had enough experience with earthquakes by living in Japan, the place where in my old life, the most amount of earthquakes would happen every year. For a bit, no other trembles happened and I was almost tempted to write off the previous trembles I felt as nothing more but pigments of my own imagination. However, the ground then suddenly began to shake more and more, which was followed by the horrific sound of trees snapping in the distance and birds flailing away as if running from something.
The ground was shaking more and more with every snapping tree I heard, which indicated to me that whatever was causing the ground to shake, it was… getting closer to my location. In a slight panic, I quickly slithered off into some nearby bushes, before spotting a hollow dobe within a tree, which I entered quickly, hiding myself inside of the shadows of the hollow tree and only poking my head out slightly to see what was causing the violent, aggressive shaking of the ground. As the ground shaking became more violent and the snapping of trees grew louder, I suddenly saw a very large foot stomp into the small open field that I was just resting in moments earlier.
The foot was in a very washed out, dark grey colour and almost took up the whole space of the slightly open field - which nearly gave me a heart attack. Going up from the foot to the rest of the creatures body, this thing had a thick leather skin wrapped around its waist to seemingly mimic pants or something that humans would wear. It was rather pudgy and fat looking and also had thick, heavy looking lower arms, which didn’t seem to even have any joints in them, with only three fingers being visible on each arm.
Lastly, I managed to catch a view of the things head, which appeared to be somewhat human, but with an abnormally large nose and large tusk-like teeth coming from its lower jaw. It had no hair and pointed, long ears which complemented the small, pitch black eyes.
Overall, this thing looked… horrendous - I suppose is the word I would use to describe it. In my shock, I almost slid out of the hollow tree I was using as a hiding spot, before quickly flailing back inside and poking my head up again to look at it. At that moment I narrowed my eyes and sharpened my gaze on the creature, using my ‘Inspector’ skill on it.
It didn’t even take a moment for the description box to appear after I ‘activated’ it.
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- Inferior Troll -
Level; 21
A juvenile version of the common ‘Troll’ species. This creature possesses great physical prowess, however lacks intelligence and speed.
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See? I told you I had become a lot better and more skilled at using this skill to gain information and an actual rundown of what a creature is about. Anyway… Looking past the description alone, what popped out the most for me was the things level.
21…
That is way out of my league. I had only faced around level 8 as my highest level enemy up until now, and that enemy was a Direwolf - but this creature… it not only towered me in size, but it also was a whopping 12 levels higher. Surely taking it on at my current level and state would more or less be like sentencing myself to death, right?
The Troll stopped in this field, looking around before letting out a horrifically loud roar and continuing to move forward, its rather large feet leaving indents in the ground and shaking it violently with every step it took forward. I slid slightly more out of my hiding spot, watching as the Troll moved away and disappeared amongst the tree lines, still snapping them as it moved away. Once it was completely out of sight, I exhaled in relief and slithered out of my hiding spot and back into the slight open area, which now had a giant indent of a foot in the middle of it as well as all the bushes and other greenery around it being stomped.
That thing is like a tank… destroying everything that comes in its way. Plus, being at level 21, it must have a very easy time killing other monsters and creatures that it may come across in its path. A couple more moments passed, until eventually the ground completely ceased to shake and I felt at ease again - feeling as though I had managed to escape alive from a potentially death sentence of a scenario.
However, with the feeling of relief, another feeling also hit me. The feeling of… well.. Slight fear. It was level 21 - I was only level 9. I made a promise to Arabor that I would set him free and help him walk this land again, but how am I supposed to do that when a single Troll that is 12 levels higher than me, is enough to send me into a state of fear and running for my life? Seeing it had sort of opened my eyes.
There was only one way I would manage to progress in this world and make it farther - and that was by levelling up. And to level up… I needed to stop avoiding things and start fighting more.
I now had a goal in mind - I had basically gotten used to how things work in this world and now was the time I put that knowledge to use. I needed to grow stronger. Strong enough to perhaps kill that Troll sometime. I exhaled lightly, turning in the direction that the Troll had come from and slithering off into it, hiding myself among the bushes and plants that surrounded me, a much more serious expression plastered across my face.
It was time to hunt down some other creatures.