Will fell into a new routine as he continued to grow into his new body. First, he would wake up, “meditate”, as he’d dubbed it, then he’d explore around his cave and the forest, before returning to his cave to sleep. Considering he slept for inhuman amounts of time, sometime almost a full day based on the sun’s location in the sky, he tried to spend his time awake effectively.

The most effective way he felt he spent his time was through meditation, drawing in the energy in his environment. When he’d first started drawing the energy in, he’d quickly gotten frustrated with the small amount that he gained. Though over time he learned the more he meditated the more energy he could draw in. Currently he felt as though he could draw in around thirty percent more of the energy than when normally breathing, that didn’t seem like much, but it was an improvement.

Part of him was cautious when pulling in the energy, as he didn’t really know a lot about the ambient power in the first place. For all he knew he could be crippling himself, but for some reason he didn’t think that was the case. As drawing in the energy was already proving helpful in ways he hadn’t expected.

The biggest way the energy helped him was by increasing the growth rate of his body. Even before he’d drawn in the energy he had been growing quickly, as was usual for newborn animals. When he’d discovered the energy, he’d already been a foot longer and a good bit thicker than when he’d hatched. Now, after meditating every day for over a week he was almost six feet long and around twice the width he’d been when born.

Of course, compared to the hog and the feline he was still tiny, but he was hopeful that he’d grow much larger in the future. After all, Will had only been alive in this body for a little over two and a half weeks. How large would he be in two and a half years?

While he was pleased with his new developments, they also came with their own issues. Namely, Will had to hunt more often to keep up with his new growth. In his first week of being alive he’d hunted twice to sustain himself, yet now he was in the midst of his third week here and he’d already hunted four times. Mostly because the small mice that he’d been catching weren’t enough to sustain him for long. He needed larger prey, and while he’d spotted larger animals, there were none he thought he was wide enough to eat.

So instead of hunting larger prey, Will was forced to settle for the smaller mice, which meant he had to hunt more often lest he starve. It wasn’t fun, and it quickly became a nuisance when he had to stop his exploring to hunt down a creature. Though there was a thrill in the hunt that he couldn’t deny enjoying, he did have the instincts of an animal.

Will suspected the thrill had something to do with the challenge of the hunt, along with an inborn desire to kill his prey. That bothered him somewhat, as just the thought of possessing a desire to kill brought back memories from his last life. Memories of documentaries, and interviews with serial killers, there’d been a time he’d had a morbid curiosity regarding the monstrous men. He remembered one in particular where a man had insisted that he’d been born a monster, born to kill. Now, in a way Will was born to kill, born in a body designed to hunt down other living beings, to kill and eat them.

There was some sort of grim excitement about the prospect, after all the ability to take another life was a form of power, and everyone craved power to some degree. However, a majority of him was saddened by the fact, even more so after his hunts when he’d had time to reflect on his kills. With each death he caused he could almost see his grandmother looking at him with the same sadness in her eyes that she’d had on the day he’d been sent home for fighting all those years ago.

That sadness was running through his mind once more, as he was returning to his cave after a hunt. The trip for food had been more successful than it usually was, with him having managed to kill two of the mice-like creatures rather than just one. Hopefully, the meal would sustain him for long enough to finish off the week without food.

To find the two mice he’d ventured further into the forest than he ever had. Moving around what he believed to be half a mile or more away from his cave. Luckily, he could still feel the energy of the two swords from the distance, so he didn’t need to worry about losing his way.

There was the question of when he would finally leave the cave and his swords to venture out into the world, though he’d been putting off the thought. Despite his new size, which was relatively large for a snake in his opinion, he was still far too small for his liking. If he truly was in another world, he had no idea of what predators he would encounter on his travels, and while he didn’t know how large he would get. Will figured he would give himself more time to grow, both in size and in his own understanding of his body. Part of him was also reluctant to give up the two swords that he’d grown to rely on.

Will knew it was foolish, as he had no hands or arms to carry the swords, but he was reluctant to give them up. Not only because they were immensely useful, not to mention cool, but also because a part of him felt… connected to the blades. It was one of the reasons he’d started thinking of them as his blades, because they truly felt like they were his.

This was running through his mind as he took in his surroundings, he’d been attempting to grow more familiar with the forest he’d found himself in. The part of the forest he was in now was more of an upwards slope rather than the normal hilly terrain he often found himself in. While the part Will was slithering across was less steep, it led down to a bit of a drop, followed by a steep slide to a flatter part of the forest. Will didn’t have legs, and had found that helped him immensely with the hilly terrain as there was little chance of him falling. But he could imagine what a fall would do to someone, likely they’d either die or be critically injured.

‘I guess not having limbs can be a good thing’, he thought wryly.

Will continued through the forest slowly, careful on the slope despite his ease with moving across it, when suddenly he froze. Distantly he heard the sound of cracking leaves and footsteps moving through the forest. From what he could tell, the sound was coming from down the slope to his left.

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Curious, Will turned his head and looked deeply into the distant trees, hoping his heat sensing ability would pick up on the source of the noise. It took him a moment, and several tongue flicks before he managed to see the origin of the sound. Immediately upon recognizing the shape of the heat, Will couldn’t help but feel a level of excitement.

‘Humans’, he thought.

To Will, seeing the humans brought him hope that he wouldn’t have to be alone any longer. Yet, more than that, it brought him hope that he could figure out his situation with some greater detail. Perhaps he could even find a way back to earth if he chose to return, and at the very least he could find a teacher to tell him about cultivation and possibly give him guidance.

Though as these thoughts occurred to him, he quickly realized that those thoughts weren’t viable to him. At the end of the day, he was a snake, and a venomous one at that, and Will didn’t like his odds of encountering a human without them freaking out and possibly even trying to kill him. Worse, was the fact that he was unable to talk to anyone, he didn’t have the organs or the right shape of his tongue to speak. He’d even tried to speak, when he was alone in the cave but all he could manage were a few different tones to his normal hissing.

Then there was the issue of language, even if he could speak, he only knew English. If Will was, as he strongly suspected due to the animals and his knowledge of cultivation novels, on another world. Then it made a lot of sense that the denizens of said world had their own language. Hell, even if he was on earth then there was chance, he was in a non-English speaking country.

Despite all of that, Will couldn’t shake his curiosity towards the distant human-like heat sources. It didn’t take him long to decide to investigate the matter, even if he only got a glimpse of the people that could be enough to teach him a great deal about his environment. Things like their clothing, tools, skin-tone, and their language could give him a bigger picture of where he was.

With that in mind, Will made a decision to view the humans, even if it amounted to nothing more than just a glimpse. With his mind made, he began to move around the steep drop off to where the land flattened out enough for him to descend the hill.

Moving around the hill turned out to be a much more difficult task than he’d originally thought. It took him a few hours just to move to a spot that allowed him to safely descend it. As he’d already slept half the day away, the sky was already darkening when he began to reach flat ground. Luckily the humans hadn’t moved much outside of a small space, and now he could see a couple of them were laying down. As he grew closer the heat signatures grew more vivid and easier to spot, now he could clearly make out the outline of the bodies.

There was more than just a human among them as well, there was a creature on all fours and a surprising height. The shape of its head even reached up to one of the human’s chests, which made Will think it was a horse. Though that didn’t make too much sense to him, as the surrounding trees were too dense for riding. Will supposed it could be used as a pack horse of sorts, though he couldn’t be sure until he laid eyes on the creature.

Seeing the distant figures grow more vivid brought with them questions over the capabilities of his heat sensing ability. Namely it made him wonder at the range of the ability, as he’d been quite some distance from the humans when he’d spotted them. From his own experimentation he knew that if he focused on a distant point the range of his heat sensing range grew. Though he hadn’t truly been able to tell the range, before when he’d just been born, he was sure it hadn’t been as long. Just how much had it grown? And how much would it grow as his body matured?

Normally, with both his area sensing capabilities along with his heat sensing ability he was able to pick up on about a meter of his surroundings. Though he wasn’t completely sure on the scale of his perception, nor what he was truly capable of.

Once he reached flat ground, the journey proved faster than he’d expected. Will reached a line of dense bushes, that blocked his view of the people in question. As he circled around the bushes to the furthest point from the humans, he noticed that the bushes almost didn’t seem natural. They were too dense, denser than the other bushes he’d seen in the forest, and far too close together like a naturally formed wall. It was almost as if the humans had gone out of their way to dig up the bushes and plant them in a perfect circle.

Will found the spot he felt he’d least likely be seen at, and then slowly began to inch through the bushes. It was somewhat difficult at times, but his scales were hard, and he had no trouble getting through the bushes. When he reached the other end, he moved his head down just enough to see through the other side.

Will saw that there were four people in the group, three lying down with one sitting on a large rock, carving a small stick. Though the people captured his attention first, his gaze quickly shifted to the animal that stood in the clearing.

It was one of the largest animals he’d ever seen, a moose-like creature on it was larger than any moose he’d ever heard of. On top of that it didn’t have a round snout but rather a pointed one with a slightly round nose like a deer. Its antlers were huge, two of them sticking above its head and ending in several points. That alone was strange as he had never seen such intricately curled antlers, but equally strange was the creature’s fur. It was silvery grey, with flecks of black mixed within, atop of that its fur was thick and short. Similar to the feline animal he'd seen before, atop of that there seemed to be some sort of natural nobility to the animal. It stood talk, with a muscular body and thick legs that practically spoke of power.

Will took in the creature before forcing himself to look over at the man, it was hard as the creature was a curiosity to him. The man sitting was interesting in his own way, dressed in a what appeared to be a lightweight material. It appeared soft like silk, but Will couldn’t be sure, the attire was made up an old tunic-style shirt and a pair of trousers. The colors of the outfit were a mix of green and brown, with green at the man’s shoulders and waist areas. The man himself was short, with an athletic build and olive skin. He had light brown hair that was tied back in a braid that reached down his back. His face was extremely angular with a slightly pointed chin and dull green eyes. Will couldn’t help but note his features were alien to him, they were more angular and pointed than any he’d ever seen before. Then Will noticed the man’s ears and felt a sense of shock pierce through him. The man’s ears were too wide and large, and bizarrely reached upwards to end in two points just below the dome of the man’s head.

‘An elf?’, Will thought, remembering all the old anime and books he’d read featuring the species.

After a second to take in the revelation, he turned to gaze at the other members of the elf’s party. There was a woman, and two more males, all with angular features and long braided brown hair. While there was some difference in their facial features, and Will couldn’t make out their height they all had the deep olive skin and long pointed ears.

Will wanted to study the elves a bit longer, when the deer-horse let out a loud snort. Almost instantly the man on watch had his bow in hand and pulled an arrow from his quiver. Taking that as his sign to leave, Will turned around and quickly left his spot in the bushes, heading back towards his cave, his mind racing.

‘I’m really not on earth.’