The Black Snake found her hunt for the final Death Chameleon to complete her second trait acquisition came about sooner than she thought.

  Oh, your luck, Sun Yuying!

  The Black Snake felt herself repeating her human name more frequently lately. Though every hibernation gave her strength and brought about new growth, she also found many of her human memories fading over time.

  Though she retained human-like intelligence, it was in significant conjunction with her snake-like instincts, and her perspective was more like a snake than a human.

  Either way, she enjoyed having a name. The Black Snake felt it made her rather unique, after all, how many of the Forest denizens even have a name?

  I doubt that Death Chamelon I’m about to consume has one. The only thing it has that I want is that Adaptive Camouflage trait, and soon even that will belong to me.

  Sun Yuying continued to slither her way through the dense branches, the scent of the Death Chameleon ever present as she drew close.

  However, she paused momentarily. Something was off.

  The smell of the Death Chamleon is mixed with something else. And it was not the familiar Wicked Tossian Fruits that were usually near their hunting grounds.

  Sun Yuying knew the smell was familiar, and as her tongue continuously flickered, she realised it was from a recent encounter, a Lesser Giant Forest Spider.

  Now that was interesting. Not only that, the scent was strong, and there were many of them.

  The Black Snake felt herself creeping along the branches more sneakily, utilising the darkness of the Forest. Though her natural camouflage was not as effective as a Death Chameleon's, it was challenging to spot her, and soon she came across the largest spider web she had ever seen.

  Although I never had a fear of Spiders as a human, that does look eerie.

  Sun Yuying examined the outcropping of webs that engulfed the area, thick and strong, connecting the trees and branches high up in the Forest. It was daunting to see the quantity of them.

  The Black Snake realised the scent of the Death Chameleon was nearby. As she carefully moved to avoid the webs, she knew spiders from Earth are adept at detecting vibrations from their webs, and thought the Giant Forest variety was likely no different. Shortly, she found the target she was looking for.

  A Death Chameleon was cocooned in webs nearby, and Sun Yuying was able to see its bulbous eyes seeming to be reflecting fear as it tried to break out of its bindings.

  Once again, Sun Yuying found an opportunity to be delivered to her. Though she was confident in her abilities to handle a Death Chameleon, they posed a complicated risk if they were in an advantageous position.

  Thus, seeing her prey so helpless and vulnerable made her instincts drive her in a frenzy to take advantage of the Death Chameleon's precarious position.

  Yet, she felt it peculiar that the spiders that seemingly caught the Death Chameleon were nowhere to be found.

  Is this a trap? That can't be. Spiders are not intelligent enough to realise that I had been targeting Death Chameleon, though these are not the typical Earth variety; she found it unlikely that any native could grasp the profoundities of her system from so little information.

  However, what if it was a simpler reason than that? What if they think my preferred prey is simply Death Chameleon?

  Whatever the reason, the risk became elevated. And Sun Yuying found that her sense of smell was overwhelmed by the many scents in her surroundings, making it challenging to locate the spiders accurately.

  In deep thought, the Black Snake remained still, yet after a period of deep reluctance, she turned, deciding it was not worth it.

  She would have to slither through multitudes of thick webbing to get to it, and found the risk was too high with an undetermined number of spiders.

  The Black Snake found her unexpected desire to dismiss her instincts and leave triggered a surprising reaction.

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  Sun Yuying sensed the loud hissing and chirping of the spiders through vibrational frequency in the air, then something significant moved.

  Large green hairy legs moved freakishly silently, as Sun Yuying realised that, as she turned, a ginormous spider that made the Lesser Giant Forest Spider appear small came from above.

  It had eight menacing red eyes that honed in on her with absolute hatred.

  Why do I think that? Sun Yuying knew that spiders had emotions different from those of humans and mammals, and that such things should be impossible, yet she felt a clear sense of malice from it.

  That thing is not ‘Lesser’ though, the Giant Spider was even larger than the Death Chameleon, and was crawling towards her to prevent her from leaving.

  These things are vengeful. Are they connected in some way? Like a hivemind?

  A few more spiders, though of the lesser variety, began appearing too, and though the Black Snake had grown, she was an ambush predator first and foremost. Fighting a group of hostile creatures like this was unnerving and disadvantageous to her.

  The Black Snake did not have such foolish concepts as pride; it would be beyond ridiculous to stay and stand up against the spiders in their environment.

  Sun Yuying began slithering away quickly, yet she soon found that the smaller, dog-sized spiders were swifter than she, mobilising the trees; they seemed built to move agilely on such complex surfaces and began to gain momentum on her.

  Fortunately, the ginormous spider moved more cuthersombly, meaning the smaller spiders reached her first.

  The Black Snake, knowing they were about to reach her, decided to make the first strike and bit into the one at the front, crushing its head in one forceful chomp as she hurriedly gulped down the spider smoothly.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  She felt a quick burst of spiritual energy, yet another few dog-sized spiders were upon her.

  One bite into her scales, trying to inject her with poison, though, due to her increased size and tough skin, found it more challenging than expected to do real damage.

  Sun Yuying took advantage, dexterously swerving her head to chomp down on it, crushing it in a mish of insect bits, as she expanded her mouth to swallow it swiftly.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  The Black Snake found she could digest creatures like this in moments, an advantage the system brought her; most snakes would find it impossible to survive such a situation, surrounded by giant poisonous insects, at best a pyrrhic victory where they eventually succumb to the poison.

  Yet, every time she chomped down a Lesser Giant Forest Spider, the burst of spiritual energy galvanised and empowered her.

  Sun Yuying felt numerous forceful pricks in her flesh as, with great effort, the spiders punctured her scales slightly, and sharp, burning poison coursed through her veins.

  Having too many spiders to count, crawling around her, taking bites into her, she began lashing out violently, not caring about her energy expenditure.

  Unlike a regular Snake that would quickly become exhausted from such drastic energy-consuming movements, she knew Spiritual energy would keep her going.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  The Black Snake kept swallowing down spiders, yet, cooling her thoughts, her mind wandered to the ginormous spider, the real threat.

  Focusing, she realised it was alarmingly close, watching and waiting.

  You are waiting for me to weaken, aren't you?

  Such a thing would be a clever tactic for a usual member of her species, yet the ginormous spider's best opportunity would be to attack her now.

  The spiritual energy offset the poison from the spiders, and the ginormous spider found, contrary to its expectations, that the Black Snake it had recognised as a slayer of its kin was not weakening.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  The ginormous spider began to realise something was off. Its eight eyes glowed with unnatural intelligence as it felt the orders of its Matriarch. Kill!

  Beginning to move, it began to descend towards the puny Snake that dared not be prey. This was their hunting ground.

  However, the Black Snake, despite facing overwhelming odds, eyed the ginormous spider as she chomped on the last of its lesser kin with defiance.

  You have consumed Lesser Giant Forest Spider, gaining +6 Spiritual Energy.

  Sun Yuying finally decided to make the ginormous spider move and looked directly into its cold red eyes.

  You wanted this.

  Yet as the ginormous spider made its move, it found the Black Snake did not sit there and try to fight it head-on.

  You fought on your terms, now I want to fight on mine.

  Sun Yuying was going to take down this ginormous spider, then she would claim the Death Chameleon from the webs. A sense of resolution filled her. She will be victorious.