The lake water was shimmery and cool to touch. And when I tasted it, there was a tingly sensation like ice on my tongue. Drinking it also seemed to refill the HP I lost in the battle and my scales that had been torched, also stopped throbbing.

It took me a moment to process - what mysterious water.

Normally, my regeneration was slow, but it seemed whenever I level up, my status got reset, more so if I was severely injured. And the water only seemed to expedite this process.

I wriggled around more in the shallow end, a tingle spread across my body. My burnt scales began to loosen and soon a large sheet came off in the water to form an exact replica of myself.

It seemed, I had shed again.

The last time it happened was also when I levelled up after taking a lot of damage - perhaps that was the key to resetting physical damage.

I looked at my shiny, new scales and how they glistened prettily over the water and stopped.

Wasn't this bad?

With such eye catching scales, I could see myself attracting all sorts of predators. Even in my old world there was such a thing as rare animal collectors and I didn't want to end up as some big wigs fancy carpet.

I was about to turn back but paused and pocketed my shed skin first - it seemed a waste to leave it lying around.

As long as I was left undisturbed, such practices were none of my concern. As a snake, I didn't demand much except for some peace and quiet. It was a good thing I had [Shadow Shroud] to conceal myself for times like this.

I activated it and watched as multiple tendrils of inky black shadow appeared from seemingly nowhere, to twist and wrap around my shimmering scales. In a second my bright scales were gone, only a dark silhouette remained.

Since my eyes were already dark, there wasn't any noticeable thing to tell it apart, but if you looked hard enough you could make out a slight glint.

What an eerie looking skill!

I activated and deactivated it repeatedly, watching the shadows move with morbid fascination. The effect only got creepier each time! Even the lizard came over to poke his head in the water to see what I was doing. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I suppose it would do until I got something better.

Which reminds me…

I left the water, and took out the corpse of the feline from [Dimensional Box], appraising it again, now that it was dead.

--------------------------

LV19 Verum Aavrox

Specie: Ailith Felinae

HP: 0/212 Defence: 182

MP: 0/164 Intellect: 110

SP: 0/176 Magic: 125

Attack: 296 Agility: 274

Skills:

[Hit:LV10] [Stealth:LV10] [Night Vision: LV10]

[Anger: LV7] [Scent:LV10] [Roar: LV10]

[Flame: LV3] [Bite: LV10] [Overeating: LV7]

[Spatial Manoeuvring: LV3] [Sprint: LV10]

[Olfactory Enhancement:LV6] [Silence: LV10]

[Fire Enhancement:LV3] [Lethal Strike: LV6]

[Predatory Grace: LV3][Crushing Bite: LV4]

[Vision Expansion: LV4] [Stalking: LV10]

[High Speed Movement: LV4]

[Auditory Enhancement: LV7]

[Instantaneous Sprint: LV2]

[Heat Perception: LV5]

Titles:

[Hunter] [Claw Member] [Monster Slaughterer]

Magic:

[Fire Magic]

Attributes:

[Heat Expansion]

Resistances:

[Heat Nullification: LV2]

[Fire Resistance: LV4]

[Heat Resistance: LV10]

[Poison Resistance: LV6]

------------------------

The feline was actually a pretty powerful beast. I was curious what it was doing bullying little snakes, when it clearly wouldn't gain anything from them.

Did it have a noodle craving?

Regardless, I hoped I would get something from its corpse. My eyes glittered from all the possibilities - that [Flame] skill didn't sound too bad. Right now, parts of the forest were still ablaze from where the feline had run amok. As a skill it was quite powerful.

However, halfway through eating, the system dinged.

〚You have consumed medium grade core〛

〚Status: Complete〛

〚Magic Ability: +25〛

〚Agility: +30〛

Oh? Not bad.

I accepted everything and felt my body tingle with the changes. I felt lighter almost immediately and I could move much faster.

I heard a loud splash and looked over to see the lizard had jumped into the lake, to chase the stringy tube-like things inside. They were more like mindless fish than monsters, so I didn't pay much attention to them, but I suppose they were a source of food. Perhaps the lizard was hungry.

The system soon dinged again.

〚Devour has reached maximum satiation for specimen『Verum Aavrox』

Evolution tree of 『Ailith Felinae』has been unlocked. 〛

〚Would you like to acquire skill『Instantaneous Sprint』(Accept | Reject)〛

It wasn't the one I wanted, what a bummer.

Still, it was better than nothing.

When I was sure I would gain nothing more from it, I offered to share the leftovers with the lizard. And in typical fashion, I was snubbed. Rather than take the food, he continued trying to fish.

He was really testing my patience here.

"Surely he knows who I am by now. Why is he still ignoring me?" I sulked.

«Young drakes are extremely arrogant. He probably doesn't like that you're bigger than him now.»

Hah!

«You should try giving him a name. He might change his mind.» Sensei advised and I began to think.

I went over to the lake to observe the lizard's food hunt, so far he'd caught a couple of silvery tube fish that he quickly gobbled down.

The option came up once again.

A name huh?

"Oh I know! I'll call him Sylrin."

The system dinged.

〚Confirmed. 『Pit Member 31』has become 『Sylrin』〛

The new name now appeared above his name.

Woah...how cool.

«What sort of name is that?» I heard Sensei complain. «You're naming potential resources, not pets!»

"I can't keep calling him Lizard. What's wrong with it?"

I was puzzled - was it not a cute name?

Sensei let out an exasperated sigh.

I peered at the lizard to see what he thought of it, but he kept eating like normal, and when he was done, he gave me a look before taking off for the trees.

Was that it? No reaction at all? Did he not like it?

But then I heard the sound of a twig snap and the lizard reappeared from the trees, carrying something between its jaws that was struggling to escape - a hairy something with multiple twitching legs.

My body froze, mouth agape. What was that?

The sight of the hairy green and purple, twitching thing made me shudder and I moved backwards without even realising.

Was that what I thought it was? No!

Wait, why on earth was he bringing it closer!

Eeek! Why was he giving it to me with that happy look on his face?

Suddenly the lizard let go and my worst fears were realised. The huge hairy spider scampered away from him at the speed of light and leapt on me like a spring, eight legs fastening themselves to my midsection like sticky gum.

An unholy screech escaped my snake mouth.

I rolled over the ground to remove the spider, but the damn thing held on fast like it had suckers for legs - while the lizard watched on with a confused look, instead of helping. But on the fifth roll, it finally got squished and died under my weight.

For once I was glad to be big and somewhat fat.

With my heart beating frantically, I shook off the dead spider and straightened myself to regain my dignity.

It was dead! And I was glad nothing more would come of it, but I moved far from it just to make sure.

Ugh! That damn lizard! How dare he look like he did nothing wrong!

«I'll pretend I didn't see that.» Sensei was clearly unimpressed.

I quickly appraised the spider.

--------------

LV5 Novus Karhkkov

Specie: Ailith Aranea

HP: 0/21 Defence: 8

MP: 0/14 Intellect: 5

SP: 0/28 Magic: 16

Attack: 23 Agility: 60

Skills:

[Poison Fang: LV3] [Grip: LV1]

[Bite: LV2] [Stealth: LV1]

[Thread Weaver: LV3]

[Night Vision: LV2]

Title:

[Spiderling]

Resistances:

[Acid Resistance: LV1]

--------------

How weak!

However, I couldn't keep looking at its stats because my attention was drawn towards the noises coming from the forest where Sylrin had come back from.

Don't tell me!

I heard rustling sounds from behind me and I spotted something fast and purpley green moving across the river bank. Then another glimpse of a something fast zipped through my periphery on the left.

When I looked towards the forest, there were multiple yellow lights appearing all around like glow flies.

Wait.

I appraised the trees at random and multiple 〚LV5 Novus Karhkkov〛's appeared.

No way! There had to be more than thirty spiders just casually hanging out in the trees!

Then a large shadow moved and a massive LV12 spider came into full view - a hairy, nasty thing with large snapping mandibles surrounded by smaller LV5 spiderlings. It was easily three times the size of the spider I just killed!

No, please no.

The hairy posse began to surround us, and I felt tremors running through my scales and my soul was ready to leave my body.

I closed my eyes, turned around.

And ran.

I'm sorry for my shameful display, lizard. It was nice knowing you!