Deep underground, in a massive cave structure full of lava, a scene that was equal parts funny and awe-inspiring was taking place.

A massive serpent that was full of holes that were barely healing was swimming in a panic, avoiding the powerful splashes caused by the projectiles aimed to kill it while a massive object that was shaped like a boat but made of Pumice, a form of rock that was light enough to float on the lava but with high enough melting point to not melt in the lava was persuing the serpent.

The only indication that this object once had a different shape was the top half of a humanoid sticking out of the top that was aiming a massive metallic barrel made by combining its arms at the escaping serpent.

Inside the barrel, a massive projectile shaped like a cone and made from tungsten formed from within the body of the stone beast. Then, a thick layer of from behind the projectile turned into what the beast called the LED Crystal but was, in fact, known as Qi Crystals by the natives.

As the beast aimed the barrel at the panicking serpent, It willed the Qi within it to flood the Qi Crystal, an action that would be considered suicidal for any other being on this world due to how much Qi the crystals are capable of storing and the increase of their volatility depending on the amount of Qi stored in them.

Once the crystal reached the critical point, it exploded violently just as the beast planned. The resulting explosive force was directed forward thanks to the shape of the barrel, causing the tungsten projectile to shoot forward at tremendous speeds.

Simply put, the beat had created an otherworldly weapon that is obscenely expensive to use for any other being on the planet except for the beat itself due to its very nature.

Just like the many projectiles from before, the serpent used all of its combat experience and intuition to predict the bullet’s trajectory and twisted its body to avoid being destroyed by the powerful kinetic energy packed within the projectile, even if twisting its body caused it the untold amount of agony due to the dozens of holes spread across its body.

Honestly, if it was any other beast, it would already expired a long time ago due to its injuries alone. It just goes to show the horrifying vitality of a Demonic Beast that was on the verge of turning into a Sacred Beast.

And yet, the stone beast was relentless in its pursuit of the perceived slight against it. At least, that is what the Serpent thought about the situation, unaware that the stone beast had been purposefully lowering the speed of its projectile and allowing the serpent to dodge them.

As this game of cat and mouse went on in the caverns, both of the beings were unaware of the dozens of other beings watching the exchange between them with trepidation and hope.

Hope that the tyrant that had been oppressing them for more than a thousand years would finally meet its end and they would, at last, be free.

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I increased the rate at which my energy was being projected from the makeshift jets of my boat-shaped body to intimidate the fire snake to swim faster.

I don’t intend to waste too much time here when I have many different hypotheses that I came up with during this fight that I need to test out.

As soon as I felt the slight dip in my energy reserves and my body mass returned to normal, I instantly repeated the process that I had done in the past hour. Turning a small amount of my body mass into tungsten and LED crystal and firing it like a bullet, but making sure to reduce the crystal quantity and increase the density of the tungsten so that I didn’t accidentally kill the serpent that was growing weaker and weaker as the chase continued.

Originally, I wanted to kill the serpent immediately due to the embarrassment I felt at being deceived by an overgrown snake of all things. But, as the chase continued, I started to formulate a different plan based on my observations.

From what I observed, the snake seemed to be heading in a specific direction, whether on purpose or instinct, I did not know. As the chase continued, I also observed that the snake was not only sapient but also smart enough to predict the trajectory of my cannon shots. This means that it was at least on the same level as me in terms of intelligence, and given the familiarity of the serpent with its surroundings, if the way it tried to escape into various tunnels connected to the cavern, only to be forced out of those tunnels after I stopped holding back the power of my cannon to blast open those tunnels is anything to go by, this place must be its home.

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This means that just like any other creature that has a den or home, it should be hoarding what it perceives to be valuable within its den.

These supposed valuables could give me insight into its tendencies and nature so that I could predict the existence of creatures like it in my surroundings so that I could avoid them, not to mention the fact that some of these valuables could be of use to me in terms of gaining some level of information about this world.

Worst case scenario, if the snake’s valuables are completely useless to me or I fail to force the serpent to lead me to its den, I could simply kill the snake and absorb it to gain knowledge about its biology which should give me some insight into what kind of life exists in this world.

I suppressed a shiver at my own thoughts. I don’t know why, but the more time I spend in this world, the more of my humanity I am losing. While it is not that noticeable for now and it is small things for now, like empathy towards other life forms and my sense of disgust and fear, who knows what else I might lose in the future?

I’ll need to keep a close eye on my mindset, I can’t afford to lose the things that differentiate me from my previous self due to this body affecting my mind.

Once again, the fire snake futilely plunged into the lava, unaware that its Infrared signature was through the roof for my senses, making it stand out even in the sea of lava that we are in thanks to the tremendous amounts of heat within it.

Since I needed to make the next shot pass through the thick layer of lava between me and the snake, I increased the layer of LED crystal behind the Tungsten round while morphing the barrel slightly to produce rails and energizing the rails through my internal energy, creating a powerful railgun.

The resulting explosion caused the lava around me to quake as the sound barrier broke and the round passed just a few inches below the snake, spooking it to the surface while the round itself melted the longer it passed through the lava. Soon enough, it sputtered out of existence by melting into the lava.

This cycle continued for another hour. But soon enough, the snake hit its limit, and just in time.

In the distance, I see a massive cave that looks too smooth to have been carved out of the wall by the lava. Combined with the subtle glow that I am able to see from a distance and the various forms of energy that I am picking up from that direction, I have no doubt that it is the den of the snake.

Now that I have found its hiding place, I have no need for the snake to continue living, especially since I know that it would attack me the moment it is given the chance.

Seriously, the only reason I am still alive after its initial ambush is because it underestimated my body’s durability and overestimated its own strength and energy compared to my own.

It is a pity, I had originally wanted to talk with a creature that was sapient, however, it has proven itself to be a threat to me, so it must go.

Once again, I charged the railgun barrel with energy and densely packed the LED crystal before flooding it with my energy, causing the round to shoot toward the serpent.

Just like before, it tried to predict the round to escape its demise. However, its body started to fail at this moment, not to mention the fact that, unlike the bullets from before, this one was traveling at speeds orders of magnitude higher than before.

As predicted, the round obliterated a section of its body, severing it in two and causing it to screech in agony. No longer able to swim due to the majority of its lower body being severed, it slowly started to sink into the lava due to how dense its body was while it maintained a hateful glare on me.

I would have felt pity for it if not for the fact that it attacked me first. So, it is only right that I eliminate any threat to my well-being.

I changed my body back to my humanoid form and increased its density, allowing me to sink into the lava faster than the serpent. Projecting my energy from the back and feet allowed me to maneuver in the lava and head towards the body of the serpent that was no longer moving, most likely on the verge of death.

Now, time to test one of my theories.

I quickly arrived at the head of the snake. Making sure that it was still alive, I placed my palm on its head and started the process of absorbing its body.

I felt another twinge of pity as the beast screamed in clear agony at having its body absorbed while it was still alive, but I needed to do this to test out my theory.

Within seconds, the head disappeared into my body and I felt a rush of energy flow into me as usual. But, unlike everything else that I had absorbed until now, I felt a sliver of something shoot straight to my head, at least I think it is the head since I can only tell that it is going for my ‘mind’ and I don’t know where my mind is located in this body.

Instantly, I felt the same kind of headache I felt when I first woke up in this world, except milder, followed by flashes of images and feelings that I was barely able to make sense of.

However, after the pain passed, I felt some of my memories from my previous self clear up a little, giving me a little bit more information to work with along with a little bit of understanding of what happened in this lava-filled cave and the purpose of the boulder that I absorbed before coming here.

And yet, despite the clear success of my experiment, I felt no joy, especially when I realized why my body was instinctively pushing me towards absorbing those corpses in the chasm.

My body was trying to absorb their minds, or something even more sinister, their souls.

If I don’t learn to control these urges, there is no doubt that I will truly end up turning into a monster that feeds on the souls of every living creature around it. But, now is not the time for these debates.

Thanks to what I am able to decipher from the snake’s memories, there are indeed some treasures inside its den.

Along with a whole host of slaves that take care of its stuff.

Honestly, can my luck get any worse than this?

Suddenly, I felt a spike in the same kind of energy as the one I felt from the snake, albeit several orders of magnitude lower than it, from all across the cavern that were headed straight toward me.

That was not an invitation! Murphy you bastard!