A little over a week has gone by since my reincarnation in this world. I have been just wandering around the forest scape, killing any monster I encountered to try and grow in levels.
Even with my absurdly high stats and such, I still found that levels were sort of important.
I mean, they allowed me to grow even stronger and increase my already absurd stats even more.
Currently I have actually decided to rest inside an old, hollow and fallen tree trunk.
The inside was rather cosy, although it most likely only seemed like that to me, since I was a snake.
'I will not lie.. Just wandering and killing monsters isn't very interesting.'
I thought, sinking into my own coiled up body.
Silence set in as I simply sunk into my own thoughts.
'I guess I'll just look at my stats..'
I thought before exhaling and looking down a bit, just enough to be looking dead infront of me.
"Open Status."
I said and a moment later, a window opened, just like last time.
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Name: Faofa Shin
Species: Inferior Serpentine
Age: 0
Level: 13
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Stats:
HP; 5100
ATK; 780
MAGEN (MAGICAL ENERGY); 900
STAMINA; 890
INTELLIGENCE; 500
OVERALL POWER; 1450
Skills:
-Inspector; Common Skill
-Devourer; Individual Skill
-Hunter; Common Skill
-Venom Pour Down; Rare Skill
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Quite the arsenal of skills so far, if I say so myself.
Even though there weren't a lot of them, I'd say for someone of my species and level, that's quite... A lot, I guess.
I did lose the 'Prefixation' skill I had acquired, since I had encountered a monster with the ability to vanquish skills, so it was a shame I didn't get to use it or find out what it did.
One thing I also realised was that the skill "Devourer" didn't work exactly like the predator skill that I know Rimuru had.
While it did Devour the soul of those I killed, what it didn't do however, is give me the ability to 'mimic' whatever I devoured the soul of. It also didn't give me any skills from those I killed.
What it instead did with granting skills, is create them from the additional Magic Energy that I took together with the souls I devoured.
So in short - every time I acquire a skill through the use of Devourer, I'm not 'stealing' the skill from the thing I devour the soul of.
Instead, I basically create that skill using the additional magical energy I devour.
It honestly was rather simple. Almost too simple if you ask me.
After closing the status window, I sighed again before uncoiling my body and throwing a look around.
"I guess I should keep moving or something. It's not like I have anything better to do."
I commented to myself before sliding out of the tree trunk and back outside into the forest, before looking around.
It was yet another peaceful day.
Mostly because I had killed off every monster near here for exp.
I exhaled before beginning to move out.
'Let's see what I can find today.'
I thought before disappearing into some bushes.
I kept moving forward, looking all around for any signs of any monsters around that I could kill.
To be honest, even though I wanted to complain non-stop when I first awoke as a snake, I have actually gotten quite used to living as a snake now.
If anything, life like this was more interesting and dare I say, fun. Well, maybe not fun... There wasn't much to do for entertainment.
Unless you counted the constant monster slaughter I was doing on a daily basis.
I mean, I killed off around 14 different monsters yesterday alone. Mainly direwolves and slimes.
To be honest, the slimes didn't give much exp so they weren't very worth killing.
And before you ask, no, I couldn't use 'Devourer' on them to gain some bonus exp and magical energy, since upon their death, their bodies completely destroyed themselves.
The direwolves on the otherhand, were sort of my go to exp source right now.
I could kill them with ease before using 'Devourer' on their corpses and gain some extra exp and magical energy.
It was quite a treat, to be honest.
I continued to wander through the forest, my eyes wide open and I kept throwing my gaze up and down, left and right - just searching for anything I could 'battle'.
Although, 'battle' was sort of an exaggeration, since every monster I've found so far, has died to me in one bite.
So I guess the better way to describe it would be - I am a predator, searching for prey.
Eventually I found myself next to a bush of some red fruit. The fruits were large, round and quite appetizing looking.
'It wouldn't hurt to take a break and eat, right?'
I thought before using my body to leap up and grab onto one of the fruit. After a bit of a struggle, I got the fruit to snap off of its twig, before falling to the ground with the fruit falling down next to me.
I didn't really know what this fruit was that I had been eating these last few days, however, it tasted good and didn't seem poisonous.
I mean, if it were poisonous, I should have died by now, no?
I slithered up to the red fruit before taking a big bite out of it.
As I slowly ate it, I kept an ear out for any noise that would happen near me - just in case some foolish monster decided to approach me.
I continued to chow down on the fruit and in a couple of seconds, there was pretty much nothing left of it - not even a seed or anything.
The fruit was as tasty and as filling as it has been so far, so I felt pretty full after eating it.
'Well, time to continue my daily movement.'
I thought before looking around, before sliding into some bushes nearby, to continue my search for some monsters to kill.
A rather long time passed and yet, I couldn't find any monsters to kill. I had decided to rest under a tree, coiled up into a small coil, my head sinked into my body.
I sighed heavily.
"Man... This day has been unlucky.."
I exhaled before looking around bored. What was I supposed to do now?
There were no monsters nearby and really didn't want to venture too far into the forest.
Mostly because I was a bit lazy to actually go any further out. And also, I had no way of knowing if I actually was making any progress - after all, there was a high possibility that due to the samey look of the forest, I was just going in circles.
'No way I killed off all the monsters around here.. Right?'
I thought, before sighing again. If I had killed off all the monsters around, then there really wasn't any reason to stick around to be honest.
Unless... I decide to settle down here.
I mean - with no monsters around, this would be the perfect place for me to settle down and live the rest of my serpentine life in.
However.. I couldn't do so.
I made a promise to Arabor to find a suitable host for him and I fully intend to keep that promise.
I just couldn't bring myself to break it by staying in one place.
As I was sinking in my thoughts, the ground suddenly shook beneath my body.
"Huh..?"
I let out a small exhale.
For some reason, I swear I had felt the ground shake beneath my body.
Was it just my imagination?
I was a bit sceptical at first, however then the ground shook lightly again.
'Yeah.. I definitely did not imagine that.'
I thought before uncoiling my body and looking all around, searching for what could possibly be causing the ground to shake.
The ground shook a few more time and then eventually, the sound of trees breaking and cracking started to echo.
'I am going to assume that this means that something enormous is coming this way..'
I thought before sighing.
Eventually the owner of the footsteps came into view. A massive monster, that looked almost humanoid.
"What the hell is that?!"
I practically shouted, in surprise and also slight disgust. The creature was enormous, had washed out grey skin and was wearing some torn up cloth or something as clothes.
After a close examination, I cast my skill 'Inspector' on the massive beast.
Monster - Inferior Troll.
Level: 25
Well I'll be damned.
It's one of those things. If I remember correctly, most stories didn't really include trolls, however as I understood from the old folklore tales, they're kinda barbaric.
'Well... I was complaining about not finding anything to kill. Guess my prey came to me.'
I thought before sighing. Afterwards, I put on a confident smirk, slithering off towards the enormous monster.
The Troll moved forward efficiently, it's footsteps heavy enough to create small craters in the ground every time it stepped forward.
The monster had left quite a trail of destruction behind it. So much so, it would be easy to mistake it for some rampaging monster with ridiculous amount of power.
Upon a closer look, the monster seemed much, much bigger in person than from the distance I had first seen it.
'Even with my absurdly high stat level, can I actually take this thing down?'
I thought, shedding a slight sweat. It was much larger than me and around 12 levels higher than me.
Under normal circumstances and everything, I would most definitely lose in a heart beat if I tried anything against it.
But on the other hand...
The monster seemed very, very weak. Atleast when comparing to the absolutely intimidating aura I felt when face to face with Arabor.
Perhaps it wasn't going to be the death sentence I first imagined it would be.
'Well, only one way to find out I suppose..'
I thought before speeding up, to try and reach the Troll as fast as possible, to try and not miss my chance to take it down and grab some extra levels.
The troll didn't seem to catch wind of my presence just yet, so getting close wasn't very difficult. The difficult part came as I was met with the fact of - how in the hell am I supposed to get onto the thing?
Sure, it's legs would be an obvious option, however they didn't make contact with the ground nearly long enough for me to be able to slide onto one of the two legs.
"What if I propelled myself onto it?"
I noted to myself.
I could just use my technique of using my body luke a spring to leap to high places to attempt and leap onto one of its legs.
But will I be able to hold on..?
I suppose I'll see that when I make contact with its leg.
I then quickly slithered as close as I could to the side of where one of its legs was making contact with the ground.
Timing was everything right now - miss time it and I'll miss its leg and in the worst case scenario, get stomped on by it.
After a small bit of hesitation, I quickly wound my body up into a coil, before propelling myself up into the air, flying right into the leg.
I made contact with the leg not long after - well, just barely made contact with it.
A couple more centimetres to the right and I would have missed.
Surprisingly the moment I got onto its leg, I stuck to it kinda like glue.
'I don't know if a snake should be able to do something like this, but I am not complaining.'
I thought before slithering up its leg, then its back before finally reaching the top of its left shoulder. The moment I reached its left shoulder, the monster stopped.
"It noticed me, didn't it.."
I mumbled to myself, a bit unimpressed.
Like clockwork, the monsters right hand was flying towards the shoulder - most likely in an attempt to try and squash whatever was on its shoulder.
Quickly moving to the side, I slithered onto its neck, before quickly sinking my fangs into its neck.
The troll let out a loud groan of pain, before swinging its right arm towards the side of the neck I was on.
'A shit!'
I thought before quickly letting go of my bite, coiling my body up into a coil and then propelling myself off of the neck, just barely managing to dodge the incoming attempt at squashing me.
It didn't die to me in one hit, so it must be more powerful than the other monsters I've seen so far.
"However..."
I commented, before using my 'Hunter' skill.
The Hunter skill allowed me to view the health and physical weak spots on any creature I looked at - so it came in useful during my monster slaughtering.
Thanks to the skill, I saw how my single bite into its neck had pretty much taken most of its health.
"Aaand it's not even able to tank three attacks.."
I sighed, before deciding to put it out of its misery.
After a quick charge up, I send a barrage of purple teeth towards the monster.
The teeth stopped mid-air for a moment, as if waiting for something.
"Venom Pour Down!"
I shouted, my words echoing through the air. Immediately after I announced the skills name, the barrage of the purple teeth immediately blew up, turning into a massive liquid pour down of poison that fell down onto the monster.
The Troll groaned loudly in pain, however it died quite quickly - only a couple of moments after being hit with my skill.
It fell to the ground, creating a massive crash while also sending a rather massive amount of wind throughout the forest.
Experience threshold has been reached.
You have risen to level 16.
Rare Skill '' Megalomaniac '' acquired.
'A rare skill? Again?'
I thought before landing to the ground. The skill I had acquired from just killing the troll sounded quite powerful - mainly because I associated the word 'megalomaniac' with undertale and its whole thing.
"Well... That worked out nicely."
I commented before sliding over to the monster, using 'Devourer' on it. Once again, the same purplish dark aura came out of my body and engulfed the troll.
A couple moments later, the aura came back into me followed by the soul of the Troll.
Mass amount of Magical Power has been absorbed.
Turning excessive Magical Energy into skills..
Success.
Rare Skill '' Persistent '' acquired.
Persistent? That sounds weird.
Also, I didn't level up even a single level from devouring the soul of this thing... Maybe it gave out a very little amount of bonus exp?
But.. I got enough magical energy from it to acquire a Rare skill.
Well, whatever happened with it and my skill, didn't matter anymore.
'I'll head back now.'
I thought before turning around and slithering off into the dense part of the forest, leaving the massive dead troll laying there.