Cygnus became the first nestling to pass my training, followed quickly by Galahad.

Both showed a surprising level of determination to surpass others.

Even after raising their skills to LV5, they went after other snakes, challenging them to perfect their skills in exchange for their share of food. This led to more nestlings burning out to keep up with them.

However, this competitive streak wasn't all bad, as two more snakes from Ophelia's group also took inspiration from them.

One of the two, a sprinkled snake, with a surprisingly high intelligence was also one of the few named snakes.

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Name: Artemis [LV6 Neonate Cerastes]

Specie: Ailith Vipera

HP: 57/57 Defence: 55

MP: 40/40 Intellect: 76

SP: 45/45 Magic: 38

Attack: 44 Agility: 42

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And a pale snake with wavy patterns, whose skills were very similar to Ophelia's, favouring magic and agility while neglecting defence.

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Name: Morgana LV7 Neonate Cerastes]

Specie: Ailith Vipera

HP: 70/70 Defence: 38

MP: 72/72 Intellect: 54

SP: 64/64 Magic: 69

Attack: 68 Agility: 92

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Those two were always together, so I reckoned she was influenced by her.

For the next stage I hoped they would correct the divide between their stats and shape their individual progress to form their own skills. But for now, I thought they would make good captains.

Aside from their personalities, there were many things surprising about the nestlings. I would be a blind if I didn't notice they could communicate very well with each other.

But the problem was – why couldn't I understand them? Was I a fake snake?

Whenever I spoke it came out as a hiss much like them, but only my two guards could understand the meaning.

I wondered whether the [Commander] skill was restricting my voice to only those that had a corresponding leadership role. It would explain how my two guards could understand me when no one else could.

But then, before I got [Commander], my guards couldn't understand me either – so that ruled out that idea.

It was more likely that I wasn't actually speaking, but channelling my intentions across through [Commander], like a minor form of [Coercion] that only relayed orders. So, the main issue would be my own lack of knowledge of the 'snake tongue', seeing as I wasn't actually around to learn it with them all.

Regardless, I didn't think it mattered much since I would be getting [Telepathy] soon, since all the higher level monsters she appraised have it. But if it becomes an issue, I suppose I could try to learn the language.

But wait, didn't I have a cheat system?

"Sensei I need the answers to the language test. Is there a snake language skill?" I asked hopefully and a bit eagerly. "A 'hiss' skill? Or a Parseltongue maybe?"

«As a teacher, I don't condone cheating.» as usual, sensei decided not to be helpful.

"Oh, shut it! You stopped being my teacher when I came out of a damn egg!" I retorted angrily.

Sensei remained silent.

"Come on… be useful for once." I sobbed.

What if the nestlings thought I wasn't one of them – or worse that I was mute?

«Learning the language properly will be a good experience for you.» Sensei replied with a mocking tone. «Who knows, it might even fix that empty space between your eyes.»

I gasped. "Don't be an ass!"

"I've already passed my snake developmental stage! It will be much harder to learn anything now."

Why did I have to grow up so fast?

«The best the system can do is, provide a conversion skill that works on every language. I can't improve your ability to understand the language or help you speak it, without one.»

I frowned. A skill like that would likely be too expensive! But If he could understand elves, snakes shouldn't be a problem. "You can understand them, right?"

«Of course. I know everything.» Sensei replied proudly

I smirked. "So why not translate for me?"

«It's bothersome...»

"A good teacher supports their student's endeavours – now what are they saying?"

I gestured two the two nestlings chattering away in front of me.

«…they're saying 'Apollo' feels cold to touch.»

At his words, I got up immediately and left the training grounds – how could I forget?

Everything was going well in the cave, except for one minor issue – the injured snake who was yet to wake up.

I rushed towards the back of the cave as Ophelia and Morgana followed behind, along with the two snakes who had been chatting.

I remembered seeing them from before. The two were prone to sneaking away from the training grounds to watch me feed him potions, and whenever they took their breaks, they would be around to help me watch over him. They may have been friends with the bullied snake from before, so I let them continue.

I found it adorable how they were always looking after him, so I made sure to feed him a potion every once in a while to aid him to recover. But now, I was beginning to think he wouldn't make it.

I named him Apollo, because his scales bore a striking resemblance to the white sprinkled snake, Artemis, only in reverse. I thought naming him would speed up his recovery, but now I couldn't help thinking he was going to ruin the quest for me. He was part of the 30 and although he had 11 skills already, most were still under LV5.

"Why isn't the potion working properly?" I asked Sensei.

«How many did you feed him?»

"I don't know, two or three?" I couldn't quite recall how many times I'd gone back and forth.

«You fed him four.» Sensei corrected. «It's not a cure-all option, it's only a low grade potion. Such a low level snake cannot process that many impurities in such a short time. It will act like a poison and compromise his system instead.»

"Impurities? But it worked on the lizard." I asked doubtfully.

«And what level was he?»

It also worked on me…I wanted to say, but then I remembered I had the [Detox] skill and that I always took one potion.

I thought about feeding him a poisonous mushroom and letting him eat the antidote to gain the [Detox] skill, but with the little snake already near death, I didn't want to risk harming him further.

I sighed, accepting defeat. "Is there any way to save him?"

«You'll need to detoxify his system, then apply a higher grade potion.»

Oh… okay. That sounds like a plan.

Then I accessed the store to see what expensive gifts he had for me.

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Skills:

[Floating Ribs: 350XP] [Paralysis Venom: 250XP] [Regeneration: 300XP]

Items:

[HP Recovery Potion: 50XP] [SP Recovery Potion: 50XP] [MP Recovery Potion: 50XP]

[Detoxification Potion: 100XP] [Healing Potion: 100XP] [Sensei's Brew: 150XP]

Experience Points: [1193]

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[Regeneration] as a skill would have been perfect – if I could use it on someone other than myself. Reminding me yet again that the system was fundamentally meant for me alone. And I should be thankful that the items were transferable, and could be used on others.

But what was that last one?

I blinked a couple of times to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

And to my horror it wasn't going away!

I appraised it with hesitation.

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[Sensei's Brew: 150XP] – A potion swirling with undetermined magic, brewed by Sensei.

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Undetermined magic?

Did he make some untested potion to see if snakes could explode?

Did he think I was a guinea pig?

No way I was ever buying that.

Feeling a shiver over my shoulder – I quickly moved on to appraise the next thing that caught my attention.

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[Detoxification Potion] – This potion reduces the effect of Mana Poisoning by 50%.

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Hmm… nice.

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[Healing Potion: 100XP] – This potion refills the existing Health bar by 50%, while negating the effect of stamina loss by 25% for 50 seconds.

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Much better. Normal items I could actually use.

The [Detoxification Potion] seemed the most appropriate, so I purchased it and a pale yellow serum materialized in front of me. I guided the liquid towards the pale snake's mouth and his cold body quickly regained its warmth, and I began to hear a steady heartbeat.

I let out a sigh of relief and was about to get the [Healing Potion] next, but Sensei stopped me.

«The [Detoxification Potion] will put a heavy burden on his body already. Administering the potion on top of it will be too much for him right now. Wait until his system processes the impurities first.»

"How long will that take?" I only had [44] hours left for the quest. Could he blame me for being impatient?

«Give him an hour.» Sensei's droll voice was smug. «You refused to kill off your precious nestlings, I wouldn't want you risking an 'accident'.»

The bas****. Why did he have to say it like that?

It crossed my mind that he was just playing tricks with this detoxification to waste my time. But without a method to prove him wrong, I could only believe him. And there were more pressing things to consider – such as the nestlings eating through my food stores at an incredible rate.

If they continued eating like this, there would be nothing left soon.

As for myself. I already tried to eat the crisp spiders and got nothing aside from a bitter taste. There was no alert from [Devour], instead the system dinged with a new message.

〚Failure to identify consumed biomass. Devour has rejected specimen.〛

And that was the end of that tragic event – all my efforts wasted to nothing. If there was anything I wanted to eat the most, it would be more of that feline beast.

I needed to hunt again and soon.