The Black Snake woke with renewed vigour.

  She felt the changes straight away, despite her size and physical attributes not being altered much; she instinctively recognised the adaptive camouflage trait and how to utilise it.

  Sun Yuying found that her gleaming black scales could now adopt the colour pigmentation of her environment, and that this could be achieved very swiftly.

  Curiously, she found herself weaker than before she hibernated for the changes, and that was when she began to speculate.

  The Quasi Spirit Giant Forest Spider was weaker than it should have been, or was I just powerful against it due to external factors?

  Sun Yuying did not fully understand the system, yet, based on observation, she predicted that a typical mortal animal would not be able to absorb Spiritual energy as efficiently as she did.

  Yet what if she expanded this further, and even the system could not fully absorb it for her, so where does the rest of it go?

  The Black Snake's addiction to the wondrous nature of Spiritual Energy was not only its taste but also the way it coursed through her body after consuming anything rich in Spiritual Energy; she found it would burn through hostile poisons, enhance her natural healing and leave her feeling energised.

  Perhaps the system would utilise remnant Spiritual Energy that she could not fully absorb to empower her shortly before it desipated; it meant her altercation with the spiders: the ginormous spider had unknowingly given her a significant boost in strength, dooming itself to a pitiful death.

  Though the Black Snake knew there was a limit to the amount of spiritual energy she could contain before evolving and forming a core.

  Instead of wasting time, though, Sun Yuying decided to check her system status to see how close she was to her additional limit.

  ‘Status’, Sun Yuying thought mentally.

  Name: Sun Yuying

  Species: Common krait

  Cultivation: Mortal

  Spiritual Energy: 100/100

  Traits: Venomous, Tough Skin, Adaptive Camouflage

  Age: 177 days

  The Black Snake found much had changed; her age continued to increase significantly after hibernation, and she was now able to view the grade of her traits.

  Adaptive Camouflage, despite being her newest, was the highest, being peak mortal, then Venemous, which had recently become upper mortal and finally Tough Skin, which was intermediate mortal.

  The Black Snake found she could begin her evolution at any time, with her Spiritual energy already at its maximum for her species. However, despite her recent windfall in Spiritual energy, she had yet to complete any of the additional objectives.

  The advanced evolution options were as follows.

  Complete all three or one of the three options: Acquire surplus Spiritual Energy 223/250, Acquire 2/3 additional traits and Acquire a Compatible Spirit Core.

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  She was remarkably close to the two out of three, and now, with Adaptive Camouflage, felt confident she might be able to make a daring attempt at acquiring a Spirit Core.

  The Black Snake was greedy after all. It desired the perfect evolution described by the system. With that, perhaps she could become the ruler of this Forest, and the thought of all the things with delicious Spiritual Energy made her hunger for more.

  Sun Yuying felt another instinctive feeling: the Adaptive Camouflage was more potent than she first thought. The Death Chameleon hardly emitted a scent for most predators, yet the Black Snake found she was susceptible to Spiritual Energy all around her to see what most cannot.

  Not all have such an advantage.

  She knew she was unique and was beginning to figure out how much, flicking her tongue, she slithered out of her dwelling.

  The Black Snake desired to pursue her third acquired trait and become as strong as possible before she targeted a Spirit Core.

  To do that, she needed to find prey that had a compatible trait.

  The Black Snake continued to slither deeper into the Forest searching for interesting scents.

  That was when she picked up something.

  Deciding to investigate, she moved through thick shrubbery, the wildlife of the Forest growing more varied as she entered an uncharted section, with purplish, glowing leaves and other exotic vegetation that grew to outlandish sizes. It reminded her she had barely explored her newfound home.

  The Black Snake encountered many divergent, mammal-like species, including giant, dark-green squirrels with nasty-looking teeth.

  That one looked delicious, yet Sun Yuying found herself drawn to a gigantic, robust lizard with striking, bright grey-green skin, beautiful, glowing patterns, a large head, and prominent green eyes with vertical pupils.

  The lizard must have been almost nine feet and was far bulkier than her.

  The Black Snake eyed the creature with greed because of its ferocious bite; she saw the lizard snap the neck of a huge Coati-like animal with one powerful bite.

  Sun Yuying was smart enough to rein in the instincts that drove her to consume the creature; she did not want to be on the end of its bite, and with her near-perfect camouflage due to her acquired trait, she stalked the large lizard until it was busily chomping into a prey it had recently killed.

  The Black Snake knew her venom was remarkably potent even before the enhancement. A Common krait had one of the most ferocious venoms to begin with, and now it had been enhanced even further.

  The robust lizard was strong and had thick skin, yet she knew she was strong enough to sink her fangs into it to deliver a lethal dose of venom.

  Sneakily, she slithered closer and closer to the robust lizard. She was silent and stealthy to begin with, and as she angled for a strike that put her out of its retaliatory bite, she pounced.

  The Black Snake found the robust lizard as strong as expected. As soon as she sank her fangs and injected her venom, the force the lizard moved was filled with power, and the vibration she heard when its jaws snapped near her in an attempt to grab her was agonisingly forceful.

  Her venom was potent and acted quickly; the robust lizard slackened, feeling its muscles clamp and weaken.

  Sun Yuying decided to avoid the lizard until it eventually collapsed. She pumped a great deal of venom into it, and it was only a matter of time.

  The Black Snake did not want to risk being bitten by its powerful jaws and detached, using her superior mobility to avoid the lizard, which was weakening by the minute.

  Eventually, it collapsed, finding its body failing.

  The Black Snake waited for a period to confirm its death. She did not want to be snapped by its powerful jaws, and after a while, she approached to take a bite out of it to see if it reacted.

  Finding the robust lizard well and truly dead, she took her time and began consuming it; she got the notification she was searching for.

  You have consumed Trokrast Gecko, gaining +18 Spiritual Energy.

  Swiftly followed by a second.

  Compatible trait detected. Current progress: 1/5 in assimilating the trait Robust Jaws from Trokrast Gecko.

  Another trait?

  The Black Snake was delighted. She would hunt more of these geckos; having more powerful jaws will help her pierce prey with thicker flesh. After all, she could not deliver her venom unless she could sink her fangs deep enough to do so, and therefore she continued her search, the scent of the gecko on the tip of her tongue.