WeTried Translations

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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 2: Adapting

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After beginning to live on his own, Jegyeong had not been focused solely on survival.

Only a few days had passed since he hatched. By human standards, he was no different from a newborn, yet he could hunt several kinds of small animals.

Jegyeong assumed it was thanks to his bloodline.

His parent clearly had not been an ordinary snake, so he could not be an ordinary snake either.

Well, really, he just wanted to believe that.

Fortunately, Jegyeong's hopeful assumption was not wrong.

He had no venom capable of killing prey instantly, but his jaws were strong enough to crush an animal's neck bones. Most creatures were finished the moment he bit them.

His body grew larger by the day, yet he remained as nimble as a bird. That, too, was one of Jegyeong's weapons.

And now...

Crunch!

Jegyeong looked at the animal that had died with every bone in its body broken before it could struggle much.

It was so large that he could barely wrap around it once.

Yet the instant he tightened his body, it went limp.

‘Maybe I had it wrong.’

Until now, Jegyeong had believed his greatest weapon was his bite force.

But the power of his constriction was far greater than he had imagined.

He had always felt strength overflowing through his body, but he had not expected this much.

So far, once he wrapped around something, it was over.

‘The problem is that it isn't a weapon I can use whenever I want.’

As he had just confirmed, constriction was certainly powerful, but it was difficult to use.

What slow-witted creature would calmly wait for him to wrap around it?

Unless he began with an ambush and bit the back of its neck, it was difficult to use properly.

‘It's hard to use properly... but a weapon is still a weapon.’

If it was difficult to use, he only needed to practice until he could use it properly.

A weapon was as good as a lifeline. He could not neglect any of them.

Whenever Jegyeong spotted suitable prey, he tried to hone his hunting skills. Instead of tearing out its throat in one bite, he would swiftly coil around it and crush its bones.

Of course, he attempted this only when he was reasonably confident.

Success or failure in hunting was directly tied to survival. He could never take it lightly.

It was a risky attempt, but it worked.

At the very least, the speed at which he launched himself had clearly increased.

That remained true even as his body grew larger through his fulfilling days.

His body, which had felt over three meters long, was now nearing four. Perhaps it was even longer.

Jegyeong could not simply be happy about such explosively rapid growth.

A larger body and greater strength were naturally good things, but the amount he needed to eat increased in proportion, and that was a serious problem.

This place, whether it was a mountain or a forest, was full of animals, but finding suitable prey among them was not easy.

He had to search for prey that might be anywhere while remaining wary of threatening enemies that could appear from anywhere.

Since he could not let down his guard for even a moment, every hunt left him with considerable fatigue.

One day, after continuing his endless hunt for survival, Jegyeong filled his stomach and finally decided to hunt the boar-like creature that had long been a thorn in his side.

It bothered him that the creature would sniff around and follow the scent of blood whenever it pleased. Besides, prey without at least that much meat no longer filled his stomach.

In other words, he had little choice. Of course, he was also confident that he could hunt it.

Otherwise, no matter how difficult it had become to fill his stomach, he would not have tried.

Luring it would not be difficult.

Jegyeong had roughly figured out where it appeared most often, so he thought a few pieces of bloody meat would be enough.

His strategy of luring prey with food, then ambushing it when it let down its guard, had mostly succeeded so far.

The reason it was mostly rather than always was that some creatures were unusually wary and sharp.

But Jegyeong was certain that this boar-like creature was not among those few.

The greedy beast always shoved its head forward first whenever food was in front of it.

Jegyeong caught an armadillo-like animal that happened to be digging in the ground and tore open its soft underbelly.

The smell of blood soon spread in every direction.

Sniff, sniff!

Just as expected, a boar with sheep-like wool appeared before long.

Without disappointing Jegyeong, it immediately buried its head in the free meal.

It was so completely defenseless that it was absurd.

‘Arrogant bastard.’

How could something that had survived in the wild, competing for its life, be so thoughtless?

Its stupidity was certainly the biggest reason, but experience probably came next.

Had it ever fallen into a trap like this even once?

With its naturally tough body and great strength, most animals must have run at the sight of it. Forget traps, few creatures would have dared to deliberately challenge it.

‘But I can't let my guard down.’

Without relaxing his vigilance, Jegyeong silently approached from behind.

Once he was close enough, the creature that had buried its head in the meat seemed to sense something wrong and flinched.

At that moment, Jegyeong launched himself.

The perfectly practiced movement came naturally.

Like a spring compressed to its limit before snapping free, he hurled himself forward and opened his mouth toward the boar-like creature's neck.

He had never intended to tear out its throat in one bite.

His teeth were sharp, but not large. He doubted they could pierce the creature's thick wool and hide in the first place. Even if they did, its neck was nearly as thick as its body, so he knew it would amount to little more than a painful sting.

"Squeeeal!"

His teeth were only anchors.

Jegyeong's body, over four meters long, swiftly wrapped around the boar's body.

The creature was so thick that he could not even coil around it once, so he could not use all his strength. At most, seventy or eighty percent?

Thud!

The suddenly ambushed boar squealed viciously and slammed its body into a tree.

It was trying to throw off Jegyeong, who was wrapped around it, but it barely affected him. It only hurt a little.

Surprised anew by how tough his body was, Jegyeong tightened his coils.

As the boar struggled and exhausted itself, constricting it became easier.

Thud! Thud!

The wildly excited boar rammed itself into trees and rocks again and again, but Jegyeong endured.

At some point, its fierce resistance and savage squeals began to weaken.

Still, Jegyeong did not let down his guard. He maintained his grip.

He knew that calmness and patience were the most important things in this fight.

"Squeee..."

The boar, drained of all strength, finally collapsed.

The strength left its body, which had resisted so desperately.

At that moment, Jegyeong poured every bit of his remaining strength into it as if he had been waiting.

With a crunch, bones broke, followed by the exhausted boar's final scream.

Even after confirming that the limp boar was no longer breathing, Jegyeong did not relax or loosen his coils for several minutes.

It was fear more than caution.

How much anxiety had this damned creature caused him?

He was happy, yet could hardly believe that the creature that had acted like the local bully had become his food.

Once his unsettled feelings calmed somewhat, Jegyeong slowly and carefully loosened his coils.

Then he bit the boar's cooling neck again and again.

His saw-like teeth were not large, but they were sharp.

After repeatedly putting strength into his jaws, even its thick, tough neck became sufficiently mangled.

He wanted to safely carry the entire body up a tree, but unfortunately, there were no trees sturdy enough nearby.

Jegyeong had no choice but to begin filling his stomach right there.

The hunt itself had been brief, but he had been tense and expended a great deal of strength during that short time, leaving him terribly hungry. Everything he chewed and swallowed went down with ease.

By the time he came to his senses, only about half of the large carcass remained.

Even so, it still seemed too much to carry up a tree.

‘What should I do?’

His body already felt heavy.

If he forced himself to eat more, indigestion was not what worried him. He was concerned that he might not be able to climb a tree.

But he could not bring himself to settle down somewhere suitable without climbing one, either.

He had caught the creature that had swaggered around this area, but that did not mean he could lie down anywhere now.

Who knew what unexpected thing might appear, and from where?

Was this deformed pig not proof enough? Would it have expected its neck to be torn apart by the snake it had casually driven away until recently?

‘It can't be helped.’

A reserve of food for one meal or a safe nest. Once he set aside his regret, it was a simple choice.

Jegyeong carried his heavier body and skillfully climbed a tree.

Not long after he left, all kinds of animals drawn by the scent of blood began sizing each other up over the meat of the creature that had once made them tremble in fear.

* * *

After successfully hunting the boar that had been the greatest immediate threat to him, Jegyeong naturally grew lax.

His mind knew he needed to remain vigilant at all times, but his heart, now filled with confidence, did not.

At some point, when he could not find a suitable tree to rest in and began to think that perhaps he could simply burrow into a tree trunk and spend a day there, Jegyeong remembered his parents in this life.

He recalled how the monster that seemed capable of withstanding a self-propelled artillery shell had been brought down by only two people.

This world was that strange.

If he foolishly let down his guard and lived however he pleased, he would never know when or where he might lose his life.

‘Get a grip. Get a grip.’

After reining in his careless thoughts, a practical problem reared its head again.

It was not because he had grown lazy and wanted to find any old tree trunk.

There truly were no more trees in this area that could support his large body.

‘I need to find a way.’

He needed to find a larger, sturdier tree that could bear his weight, or somewhere he could rest more permanently.

For example, a place like the cave where he had first been born.

‘As far as the location goes, that cave really was good...’

There were not many threatening animals nearby, and the cave was a suitable size. There was no better place to sleep.

That was likely why his parents had laid their eggs there.

‘But... I'm still uneasy.’

That cave had already been discovered.

They were unlikely to return to a nest they had already raided, but one never knew.

Jegyeong did not want to entrust his survival to luck.

‘Whatever it takes, I need to move.’

At the very least, there was nowhere in this area where he could rest without worry.

There was also hardly any prey large enough to make him feel full.

For one reason or another, this area was no longer suitable for him.

Jegyeong decided to relocate, but where to go was the problem.

Even when he climbed as high as he could, he could not get a view of his surroundings.

No matter where he looked, all he saw were endless dense trees and undergrowth.

He could not even tell whether this was a forest or a mountain.

By the standards of his past life, it felt like he was in the middle of an enormous mountain range. But this was a world with snakes as large as buildings, so a forest as vast as a mountain range would not be strange.

Whatever it was, the important thing was that this place was incredibly vast.

Every direction seemed equally daunting, which oddly made his choice easier.

It would be more accurate to say that there was no need to choose.

Jegyeong picked a direction at random and began moving.

Fortunately, he had a good sense of direction, so he could move straight ahead without getting lost.

Darkness fell, but there was no silence.

The regular cries of creatures that might have been birds or insects echoed around him, and the wind rustling through the trees was not quiet either.

Jegyeong continued moving, concealing his presence amid it all.

Then, at some point, he felt that something had changed.

The familiar phrase, “the air had changed,” came to mind.

He did not know why. He simply felt that way.

Jegyeong stopped and looked around.

The trees scattered around him seemed somewhat larger.

And... he was not certain, but their color seemed to have changed slightly as well.

‘Did they become... redder?’

His eyes could distinguish objects easily in the dark, but he could not see as clearly as in broad daylight.

He thought the trees' color had changed a little, but he could not be sure.

As he moved through the subtly changed environment with even greater alertness, a fierce wind suddenly rose, followed by a deafening cry.

‘Above?’

Jegyeong held his breath and hid behind a tree.

Peeking out with only his head, he looked up and saw leaves cascading down.

The branches, spreading like a spiderweb, bent in every direction as though they were about to break.

It looked as if a typhoon had struck, but the monstrous cries that continued to ring out suggested another cause.

‘Two.’

The sounds seemed similar at first, but they were clearly different.

One was desperate and filled with pain, while the other was incomparably fierce.

That cry carried an indescribable force.

Jegyeong remembered the time he had hidden in the cave, trembling.

"Caw!"

A powerful flutter of wings suddenly rang out, and a bird plummeted to the ground.

Even without its folded wings, its body was as large as the boar Jegyeong had hunted before.

It was covered in wounds. It crashed down with enough force to gouge the ground, then trembled violently.

Before the dust kicked up by its fall had dispersed, another bird shrieked, "Screech!" and fell on top of it.

This one had a long, sharp beak like a blade, and it was nearly as large as the bird that had fallen first.

It drove its sharp beak down into the first bird.

Thwack!

The stake-like beak pierced through the fallen bird's body.

The bird convulsed once, twitched several times, then fell still.

The large-beaked bird raised its head.

Blood dripped from its sharp beak.

Flap!

The large-beaked bird seized the nearly dead bird and powerfully took flight.

The victor's proud bearing showed even in the beat of its wings.

One flap was enough to carry it high into the sky from the ground.

Jegyeong remained motionless, holding his breath, until the large-beaked bird finished its hunt and flew away.

Only once he could no longer hear its wings did he finally release the breath he had held.

‘There really isn't a moment when I can relax.’

It had been a brief encounter, but Jegyeong had felt considerable danger from those two birds.

If he had faced them, whether he won or lost, he would have been badly injured.

Especially that one with the strange beak...

The vigilance he had already kept sharp rose to its peak.

Then, an indescribable urge welled up within him.

Every one of his senses was pulled toward a single point as if someone had forcibly tugged them there.

The spot where the two monstrous birds had been.

The spot where one of them had bled so heavily.

Sniff, sniff!

Something enticing from that place drew Jegyeong in.

A scent? Was it a scent?

No.

It was something even more alluring.

‘What is this?’

Without understanding why, Jegyeong headed there.

For this moment, even the vigilance he had raised so high crumbled completely.

He slid over the uneven ground and reached the hollow.

Blood splattered here and there was still wet.

The fresh blood. That was it.

Without realizing it, Jegyeong licked the blood as if entranced.

Soil holding a few drops of blood passed over his long tongue and down his throat.

It was as sweet as a mouthful of water swallowed after suffering from thirst.

It was refreshing as well.

That freshness spread through his entire body in an instant, followed by a strange fullness.

‘This...’

Jegyeong knew instinctively.

He did not know why, but he craved this blood.

He instinctively understood that he needed it.

It was like a thirsty person seeking a well, but far more desperate.

Footnotes:

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