WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈

Chapter 5: The Sweet Taste of Leveling Up

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Ah, sweet.

This was the taste of leveling up.

I was level 3, yet I had just leveled up seven times at once.

I had felt it when I gained two levels at once before, but leveling up came with a strange thrill.

It felt like sinking into a hot bath.

Except I had suddenly gained seven levels.

If I had to compare it to something, it was like being left naked in the freezing cold, then finding a hot spring. Like soaking in the steaming water just before freezing to death, then downing a cold beer as my body finally warmed up.

Thinking about it made me want a cold beer.

Would the day ever come when I could drink beer again?

It didn't make me sad...

No, it didn't.

I was someone who knew how to be grateful.

I hadn't been before, but I was now.

I had survived by sheer luck. Getting a second life alone was something to be grateful for.

The impact from the fall had actually been worse than I expected.

A few bones had definitely broken.

Fortunately, my body was healing at a speed I could feel.

Was that because of the level-ups?

Come to think of it, I had felt a little bigger after gaining two levels last time.

It was the same now. The inside of the Horn Jaguar's lung was spacious enough for me to practice Quick Crawling.

That was a slight exaggeration.

*「Physical transformation has been delayed due to rapid level-ups.」

Huh?

Sure enough, my growth had stopped.

It seemed my body couldn't keep up with how quickly I was leveling.

Then that meant my body grew whenever I leveled up, right?

I really hoped so.

I might be a little long now, but I was still way too small.

At this size, surviving in the wild wouldn't be easy.

I wriggled my body for now.

It moved fine.

I probably had hundreds of ribs, and at least dozens of them seemed to have broken, but the pain was gone.

My battered jaw had also reattached itself.

Honestly, getting sucked into its airway hadn't been part of my plan.

My overworked jaw had dislocated at exactly the wrong moment.

Setting my Luck to average had apparently been a good choice.

Looking at it that way, maybe I hadn't distributed my stats so badly after all.

...Then again, was this danger I would never have faced if I hadn't been born a snake in the first place?

Grrrrrr.

The beggar in my stomach was raising hell.

I had swallowed an entire bat and felt full, but now I felt like I was starving to death.

I must have moved around too hard.

It would've been nice if I had exercised this much in my previous life.

Well, there was no problem.

I was inside the Horn Jaguar's body.

That meant the ceiling, walls, and floor were all edible.

As if I had entered Hansel and Gretel's candy house, I swallowed my drool.

Thanks for the meal!

Tear Apart!

The meat tasted fantastic. It was a little tough, but it had plenty of savory flavor.

Maybe because I had desperately hung from its uvula, Tear Apart proficiency rose sharply.

Even if I wasn't an ordinary snake, snakes normally ate by swallowing living animals whole and digesting them.

My teeth, though, were pointed more like a dinosaur's than an ordinary snake's.

With the skill helping me, tearing meat apart was manageable.

Skills really were amazing when I thought about it.

If I could learn a skill like Flight, wouldn't I be able to soar through the sky too?

Of course, I couldn't imagine it. Even if I tried to fly with all my strength, I didn't think I would gain a Flight skill.

I kept filling my stomach while entertaining that fantasy.

The Horn Jaguar really did seem strong. Its flesh was unbelievably tough.

Still, I didn't stop chewing and swallowing.

It was difficult and time-consuming work, but it wasn't boring at all.

It was delicious, if anything.

Apparently, I had been so picky about side dishes as a child that I got spanked every day. What would my parents think if they saw me now?

Would they be happy and say, "Good job, our son"?

At the very least, they might like this better than me locking myself in my room and living as an unemployed bum.

Hmm, I definitely hadn't imagined that it tasted good.

Considering the chunk of meat Medusa Mom had vomited up was edible too, maybe my tastes had changed after becoming a snake.

Being a good eater was a talent too. At this level, I could have hosted an eating show.

I devoured the meat in a trance.

Last time, one bat had filled me up. Now I had eaten more than three times that much, and I could still keep going.

Then one of my teeth broke.

Crunch!

Agh!

I had bitten something hard.

About three teeth had come out at once. Was that okay?

No, I wasn't even two weeks old yet. Maybe these were baby teeth.

I hoped they weren't permanent teeth that would never grow back. There probably weren't any dental implants in this world.

...What was this?

It wasn't a bone.

At some point, I had burrowed close to the Horn Jaguar's heart.

There was something like a glowing stone there.

A kidney stone?

No, I was inside its heart right now, so it couldn't be a kidney stone.

The thought of biting a stone from its urinary tract was enough to ruin even my appetite.

It was an acorn-sized stone that scattered an extraordinary light.

I could feel a gentle warmth from it as well.

Unless it was some naturally glowing radioactive stone, this had to be something fantastical.

Since it had come from a monster's body, perhaps it was a Magic Stone.

What was more, it stirred an appetite different from the hunger I felt for meat.

If I ate this, I could become stronger.

I felt certain of it.

Then I could only hope it wasn't a kidney stone.

Gulp.

Instead of tearing into it, I swallowed it whole.

Fortunately, the voice confirmed that I had made the right choice.

*「You have consumed a Grade 3 Magic Stone.」

A Grade 3 Magic Stone, huh.

Was that good?

Grade 1 was the best for meat and college entrance exam scores, but Grade 12 was the highest for psionic energy.

Well, I had no idea how impressive a monster the Horn Jaguar was, so I couldn't tell.

Let's check my status window.

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【Little White Snake lv10(-)】

【Traits】

[Indomitable], [Relentless Growth]

【Skills】

[Poison Fang lv3], [Quick Crawling lv3], [Breath Holding lv4], [Predation lv1], [Tear Apart lv4], [Venom Resistance lv2], [Bleeding Resistance lv2], [Pain Resistance lv4], [Heat Resistance lv2], [Survival Instinct lv3]

【Status】

[Growing], [Mana Saturation], [Drowsy]

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Oh, my status window had become pretty full when it used to have almost nothing in it.

I had even gained a skill called Predation.

I had finally reached lv10, but there was a (-) beside it.

That must have been what it meant by delayed physical transformation.

Still, if I thought positively, maybe it was like Acting Major or Acting Captain.

The status window clearly showed the struggle I had endured.

Just look at Breath Holding, Pain Resistance, and Tear Apart. Their levels had risen especially high.

That showed how painful my journey had been.

What I liked most was Survival Instinct lv3.

I knew nothing about this world.

I would need information to survive, so maybe I could somehow muddle through using this instinct thing.

Of course, I didn't know if I should really follow Survival Instinct.

Most animals instinctively fear high places, but sometimes they have to climb a tall tree to survive.

What was this 【Status】 section? I hadn't seen it before.

Did the status window update in real time?

I was growing and feeling drowsy.

I didn't know what Mana Saturation meant. Maybe it was because I had eaten the Magic Stone.

Either way, the hunger that had tormented me mysteriously subsided as soon as I ate it.

Ah, I was getting sleepy.

My adaptability was incredible. The inside of this Horn Jaguar wasn't such a bad place.

The blood and bodily fluids were a little sticky and smelly, but it had its advantages.

Every direction was food.

And as long as I stayed in this belly, there was nothing that could threaten me.

It might be nice to rest here for a while.

Like before, I felt like I would wake up refreshed after sleeping.

Should I get some sleep?

And so, I surrendered myself to sleep once more...

No, I didn't.

I felt a little uneasy.

I opened my eyes.

Was this really the right choice?

This warm, dark place gave me an instinctive sense of security.

But maybe that was just an illusion.

What kind of place was it outside? What if the place where the Horn Jaguar had fallen was actually dangerous?

Scavengers always gathered around dead animals.

A few bugs wouldn't be a problem, but what if a monster as dangerous as the Horn Jaguar appeared?

If something swallowed the Horn Jaguar's entire corpse, I would become a hazelnut inside a Ferrero Rocher, or pickled radish inside a kimbap roll. A little treat to enjoy.

Maybe this anxiety was the work of Survival Instinct lv3 too.

I should get out for now.

After wriggling around for a while, I found the way out.

I stuck out my tongue and slipped through the dead Horn Jaguar's mouth.

'Wow, this thing's completely mangled.'

The cliff the Horn Jaguar had fallen from was incredibly high.

Looking around, I saw that this place was a basin between cliffs.

The Horn Jaguar lay exposed on level ground.

I wasn't sure whether the situation was dangerous or not.

It felt like a waste to leave that huge chunk of meat behind, so I decided to look around first.

I slithered into some nearby bushes.

Thump.

Huh?

I felt a vibration through the underside of my body pressed against the ground.

Snakes had ways of sensing the world besides sight.

They seemed much better than humans at detecting vibrations.

Thud... thud...

I could clearly feel something moving underground.

I quickly climbed onto a solid rock.

Even then, the vibrations grew stronger.

Something was getting closer.

I stopped moving and stayed silent.

Ah, it passed right beneath me.

Whatever had gone under the rock was heading straight for the Horn Jaguar's corpse.

Then the ground suddenly bulged upward.

Four carapace-covered, leg-like things thrust out.

Crunch.

They wrapped around the Horn Jaguar's corpse and vanished underground with it.

Rumbleeeee.

Then it left with its harvest.

...Thank you, Survival Instinct.

I hadn't even seen what kind of monster it was.

Still, it was clearly bigger and stronger than the Horn Jaguar.

A place where something like that crawled through the ground was horrifying.

I stayed motionless on the rock for a long time.

Only after I was certain it had completely left did I move away.

I needed to find somewhere to sleep.

I never wanted to sleep on bare ground again, not even if it killed me.

Just before sunset, I found a crack between rocks large enough to hide my body.

After crawling inside, I covered myself with dirt for camouflage.

That thing couldn't swallow the whole rock, could it?

I might have nightmares tonight.

A little tense, I closed my eyes.

* * *

I didn't have a nightmare.

My Mental Strength was ridiculously sturdy, after all.

You could say I had a good dream instead, because a status message appeared as soon as I fell asleep.

[You have reached level 10 and can evolve.]

[Would you like to evolve?]

You bet!

Footnotes:

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