Chapter 2

  Emily woke up. Stretching her body, she planned on what to do next. Though her expectations for this game certainly weren’t being a baby snake in the jungle, she knew from the game blurb that this was meant to be a fast-paced ARPG, with advanced combat mechanics.

  The cave she had hatched in seemed to be mostly empty, with no sign of any other monsters around. That meant she would have to go outside, which seemed dangerous.

  In the wild jungle, eagles, raptors, and owls swooped in the sky just waiting for juicy prey to stumble out. One deadly swoop and she would be a goner.

  Hopefully, her ‘Hard Scales’ trait offered a bit of extra protection other than just the +2 to Constitution. Slithering out of the dark cave, her slit pupils dilated to adjust to the light.

  The first thing she noticed was how much softer the ground here was on her scales. Used to the cold, hard stone floor of the cave, the softness of the dirt and ferns felt a bit disconcerting to her underside.

  As she slid through the soil, her first enemy appeared. System? she called in her head. Do I have an appraisal skill?

  [No,] it replied, [but the system has a built-in scanning feature.]

  She used it. The mob’s stats showed up in front of her.

  Name: N/A | Species: Red-Eyed Tree Frog (F-Rank) | Level: 0/5 [23%]

  Strength: 5 | Intelligence: 4 | Constitution: 7 | Agility: 6 | Luck: 2

  HP: 70/70 | MP: 4/4

  Skills

  Tongue Shot (Level 1) | Jump (Level 1)

  Bloodlines

  Red-Eyed Tree Frog (100%)

  Traits

  Strong Legs | Sticky Skin

  Its full status was… stronger than hers, for sure. The frog’s 5 strength compared to Emily’s previous 2 would have meant that she would have been mincemeat without those attribute points.

  But as it stood now, she might actually be able to beat this frog. Hiding her green scales under some ferns, she slithered closer to the unsuspecting amphibian.

  She decided to use Tail Flick, as it was her current strongest attack, along with having a 5% chance to blind her enemy. Since the frog had 2 luck while she had 3, she would probably have a higher chance of inflicting the status effect.

  As Emily slid closer and closer to the frog, she prepared to use her skill. Finally, she was in a perfect position. She activated Tail Flick, facing the target.

  With a quiet whoosh, the flick hit its target. The frog’s HP decreased from 70/70 to 44/70, and its eyes turned cloudy. It was blinded! However, it was still lashing out. One Tongue Shot hit Emily and decreased her health to 35/60.

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  The frog, angered, hopped around, trying to hit the unseen enemy. She dodged around it, relying on her higher Agility to avoid hits. Striking in with a Bite, the frog’s HP decreased to 28/70, and went down by 4 every second.

  It looked like after 7 seconds more of the status debuff, it would die. Her first enemy defeated! The 7 seconds passed quickly, and soon the frog collapsed. Suddenly, she heard a system notification.

  [Congratulations! For defeating an enemy stronger than you, your rewards will be doubled.]

  She earned 10% XP (20% after the doubling). The experience points weren’t the real reward, however. Her other gains were.

  Slithering over to the frog corpse, she unhinged her jaw. By instinct, almost, she slowly swallowed it whole, digesting it in her stomach. Anticipatedly, she waited for the popup to show.

  [Devouring successful! Rewards: 2 Strong Legs Trait Fragments (2/2), 1 Free Attribute Point (already doubled)]

  The rewards were substantial. You usually only got 2 free points per level, so she had basically skipped half of one.

  Looking at the Strong Legs trait, though, she frowned. Erm… I’m pretty sure I don’t have legs. Luckily, though, the system fixed that for her.

  [Detected that acquired trait does not match player anatomy. Reformatting… Strong Legs has been changed to Strong Tail.]

  She viewed her new trait.

  Strong Tail

  Your tail is significantly stronger than your peers. +50% damage to any tail-based attack.

  The trait looked pretty useful, as it would increase her Tail Flick damage to 39, and even a regular tail attack would do 6 damage.

  She attempted to turn around and look at her tail. No luck! Instead, she tried to sense the changes. Her tail definitely felt stronger, and thicker too.

  She had defeated her first enemy, but at the cost of 25 HP. Should she fight some more, or return to her cave? Emily decided to check her status again before choosing.

  Name: Emily | Species: Green Snakelet (F-Rank) | Level: 0/5 [20%/100%]

  Strength: 4 | Intelligence: 11 | Constitution: 4 (2) | Agility: 7 | Luck: 3 (max 10)

  HP: 35/60 | MP: 11/11

  Free Attribute Points: 1

  Skills

  Bite (Level 1) | Tail Flick (Level 1)

  Bloodlines

  Green Snake (50%, in growth stage)

  Traits

  Hard Scales | Mild Poison | Strong Tail

  The free attribute point was an amazing gain. What should she add it to? Strength would boost her attack even more, leaving her Bite at 20 Damage and Tail Flick at 44 Damage rounded up.

  Constitution, though, would increase her HP to 70, and might even fully heal her. Agility, on the other hand, would make her faster and make it easier to dodge attacks. Intelligence? Eh, wasn’t useful for now.

  She looked at the injury the tree frog had left on her. Constitution, for sure. Even if it didn’t fully heal her, she would need to be a lot more durable for longer fights.

  As she added the attribute point, she felt a wave of warmth wash over her injured scales. Emily had made the right bet. With her HP now at 70/70, she was fresh for any new battle coming her way.

  She slithered around. Her scales felt thicker, and stronger now. Should she look for another fight? Luckily, though, she didn’t have to, because a new enemy came crawling her way. She scanned it with the system.

  Name: N/A | Species: Antilles Pink Toe Tarantula (F-Rank) | Level: 0/5 [13%]

  Strength: 3 | Intelligence: 3 | Constitution: 5 | Agility: 4 | Luck: 2

  HP: 50/50 | MP: 3/3

  Skills

  Silk Shoot (Level 1) | Bite (Spider Variant) (Level 1)

  Bloodlines

  Antilles Pink Toe Tarantula (100%)

  Traits

  Agile Legs | Extremely Weak Poison | Efficient Silk Spinning

  The good thing was that digesting the frog had taken roughly 7 minutes, leaving her Tail Flick usable. Emily snuck up on the spider, positioning herself for an attack once again.

  She would have to be quick, so she wouldn’t get tied up with silk. After all, then she would just be the tarantula’s prey!