A small while passed before I eventually made it out of the ruins. I breathed heavily, before sighing in exhaustion.
'Man, I knew going back up the stairs was going to be tiring, but I had no clue it'd be that kind of a nightmare..'
I sighed before looking around. It was the same scene as before I had entered the ruins - not much difference at all.
The only thing different really... was me. I exhaled, before slithering off of the ruin platform and moving back up the slight slope of the cliff edge he had headed down before to reach the ruins.
After making his way back into the forest and onto the green and tall grass, I began to move through the dense forest once more.
'It feels a bit bland to be moving through this forest again.. especially after being on those ruins.'
I thought, sighing as I slithered forward. Even though the forest looked and seemed mostly the same, the atmosphere in it was quite different. Almost.. hostile.
Like something had changed about the air in it - but only in feeling as it looked completely unchanged.
The atmosphere of the place, was not the same. It felt a lot more... free.
'Maybe Arabor was exerting an aura or something on the surrounding area.'
I thought before exhaling in slight nervousness.
'Let's hope I didn't screw anything up with him destroying his own physical body..'
I thought before giggling nervously. I was rather stressed out by the thought that I might have screwed up and removed some kind of protection or something from the forest.
Well, whatever it was, I'm sure it would eventually find a way to bite at me. Or not - depending on who you ask.
I kept moving forward, quite unaware of what I could have just brought upon this world.
A while past and eventually I ran into my first real monster. A direwolf.
The creature seemed quite angry and aggressive towards me, most likely because it was nothing but a feral beast. I was a bit nervous when I encountered the monster - after all, it wasn't like a slime which wouldn't fight back - this one very much will do so.
'Maybe one of the skills I acquired could help?'
I thought before recalling the two skills I acquired after taking in Arabor inside my body. Inspector and Devourer.
'I am going to take a guess that inspector is like appraisal.'
I thought before attempting to use it. I stood still for a few seconds, just awkwardly staring at the direwolf, before realising something - I don't even know how to use the skill.
Panicking a bit, I just barely managed to dodge an incoming attack from the wolf.
"God! This thing is not wasting time."
I commented before landing back onto the ground, deciding to take this more seriously. I will figure out how to use the skills later - right now, I had a bit of a different problem in my hands... or on my tail.
I managed to keep dodging the direwolfs attacks, which seemed to only make it even more angry. Can't really blame him though.. I'd be pretty pissed as well if I couldn't catch a single slippery snake.
Oh wait.. I am that slippery snake. So I'M the annoying one right now.
I could feel a slight grin of enjoyment appear on my face as I sort of internally laughed at the direwolfs attempts at trying to hit me with its paws.
'I wonder how I long I can keep going. I don't really feel like I'm getting more tired.'
I thought before landing next to a tree and quickly slithering up its trunk onto the trees branch. The wolf grew even more mad, as it began to scratch the trees trunk and growl at the bottom. It was a rather pitiful sight to be honest.
'I guess I'll just drop onto it and bite into its neck.'
I thought before coiling up and using my own body once again, to propel myself into the air, before falling directly onto the wolfs back, quickly biting into its neck. The direwolf howled in pain, before falling to the ground, flinging me off.
"Woah!"
I let loose an exclaim, before landing on the ground. I then looked at the wolfs supposed lifeless body.
'Did... It die from a single.. bite?'
I thought, a bit surprised by this. How in the world did the wolf die from one attack? Especially when I was supposed to be level 2?
I thought for a moment, before thinking of one way to maybe see why it died so easily.
'So... if this is like one of those isekai stories.. Then I should be able to just..'
I looked a bit down, before taking in a deep breath and exhaling.
"Open Status."
I said calmly. At first, there was nothing and I was already about to sigh in disappointment, however suddenly a floating window popped up in front of me, startling me a bit.
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Name: Faofa Shin
Species: Inferior Serpentine
Age: 0
Level: 2
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Stats:
HP; 4500
ATK; 550
MAGEN (MAGICAL ENERGY); 700
STAMINA; 815
INTELLIGENCE; 500
OVERALL POWER; 1200
Skills;
- Inspector;
-Devourer;
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....What.
What the hell is this? Why the hell am I only level 2, but my stats look like something you'd find on a level 50 or even a max level creature?!
Is this why the direwolf died in one hit..?
Well it would certainly explain that I suppose..
I was a bit dumbfounded, however sighed after a moment. Well, the one thing I couldn't really complain about, is that I'd be an easy target - which I certainly would not be.
'I am quite powerful, so I guess no monster will be really a threat to me..'
I thought before looking at the direwolfs corpse. It was rather horrifying what a single bite did to the wolf.
I then got an idea while looking at the corpse.
'What if I...?'
I thought before approaching the corpse a bit closer and looking at the corpse. I wanted to see what would happen if I used the 'Devourer' skill on it? Would it work the same way as the predator skill which Rimuru possessed in his story?
I thought for a moment onto how to use the skill, however I couldn't really find a way to use it. I kept trying, before eventually another window popped up in front of me again.
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Would you like to use the skill "Devourer" devour the soul of the creature?
Yes - No
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..Devour what now?
The soul? Is that what the skill did? It devoured the souls of other creatures?
It really did sound like the predator skill I knewz however at the same time, it sounded a bit... Different. I couldn't really recall what Predator allowed Rimuru to do, but I don't think it allowed him to eat the souls of others.
After a moment of hesitation, I sighed and selected the 'Yes' option in the window.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Confirmed.
Using the skill 'Devourer'.
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After the confirmation window disappeared, a strange aura came from me and engulfed the wolfs dead body.
After a few moments, the aura came back into my body and then a moment later, seemingly the wolfs soul left its body in the same way as my aura and entered my body.
I felt a strange surge of energy swirling within me for a moment before the same strange voice in my head spoke.
Experience threshold has been reached.
You have risen to level 3.
Common skill '' Hunter '' has been acquired.
Well.. that's that I guess. Seems like devourer allows me to devour a creatures soul and take extra exp or something from them.
Although I'm not sure about the skill acquisition - whether this new skill 'Hunter' was taken from the wolf or was obtained through the level up.
Well, whatever way it was acquired, now I knew that I didn't need to fear any monster I came across. If anything, I should probably kill them immediately and then use Devourer to take their soul.
Afterwards, I simply looked around, deciding really quickly where I should head to next, before sliding off into the bushes.
Another while passed as I continued to wander the forest - taking down any monsters I encountered along the way.
Mostly slimes.
I continued moving forward, simply humming a light song to myself.
It was honestly beginning to be quite boring to wander all alone. Especially with no clear destination in mind.
'You know.. I'm surprised that I haven't encountered any humans yet. Given the size of this forest, one would have expected to have encountered one or two humans by now.'
I thought while slithering forward. The 'path' I was on, was one that was slowly becoming more and more rocky as I kept moving forward - Although, I didn't pay much attention to that.
While slithering forward, I suddenly heard something. A noise that sounded like... A battle? I think?
Well, the noises sounded like the clanging of blades and the sounds of some gibberish being shouted.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to investigate the commotion."
I commented to myself, before picking up the upper half of my slender body before looking towards where the sounds came from.
After confirming the direction, I quickly began to slither over to it.
After a small bit, I reached the location where the sounds were the loudest. Looking at the commotion that was creating the sounds.
I saw a what looked to be a rather large wolf monster battling what looked like... Humans?
Right as I was commenting how I haven't ran into some?
Talk about predicting the future.
What the humans were shouting sounded like gibberish to me - probably because I was a monster now and didn't understand human speech.
Wait... How did I understand Arabor back in the ruins? The language he spoke sounded completely understandable to me and a bit like... Japanese, I guess.
Could I understand him because we both are monsters? Well, whatever the case was, it wasn't important now.
'I should probably help that group..'
I thought before sighing.
I would have preferred to not drag any attention towards myself right now, especially from humans, however a little interference from me couldn't hurt, right?
The humans looked completely beaten up and exhausted from fighting the large wolf.
The wolf seemed like it was preparing to run in and finish off the humans as they showed signs of weakness.
Then a moment later, the wolf launched at the humans, who among themselves continued to discuss things in a language I didn't understand.
Right before the wolf managed to reach the group of humans, I leaped from a tree branch onto its back before sinking my fangs deep into its neck.
The wolf howled in pain as it fell to the ground, just in front of the humans, who were completely dumb founded by this sudden turn of events.
A few moments of struggle later, I managed to kill the wolf with my fangs.
Experience threshold has been reached.
You have risen to level 5.
And now for the soul..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Would you like to use the skill "Devourer"
To devour the soul of the monster?
Yes - No
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Of course I do.'
I thought before confirming the window.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Confirmed.
Using the skill 'Devourer'.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A moment after, the same aura came from me before engulfing the dead body of the wolf and then taking out the soul of it, the soul entering my body - the same way as the previous wolfs.
Common skill '' Prefixation " acquired.
Well that's that.
"I should probably get out of here before that group of humans notice me."
I mumbled to myself, before quickly hopping off of the wolfs corpse and slithering off into nearby bushes to hide.
Looking back, I saw as the group of humans stared at the wolfs dead body in complete confusion - probably completely perplexed by the wolfs sudden death.
Once again, I didn't understand anything that the humans were discussing among themselves, but it looked like they were analysing and investigating the wolfs corpse.
'Well.. My job here is done. Gained some levels and a new skill.'
I thought before sighing and smiling.
'You better appreciate my help.'
I thought before turning around and slithering away.
Once back on track, I slowly moving forward through the forest once more.
For some reason, I was really, really excited all of a sudden. Almost like I was looking forward for something.
'This feeling of thrill...'
I thought before smirking lightly. I had one guess onto what this excitement was.
'Time to begin my adventure.'
I thought before using my body to propel myself up into the air.
I wonder, what was going to happen to me next?
Where will this adventure of mine lead me to?
Well,
I suppose there was only one way to know.