〚You have consumed a medium grade core〛

〚You have consumed a medium grade core〛

〚You have consumed a medium grade core〛

〚You have consumed a low grade core〛

〚Status: 3 Complete, 1 Inferior〛

〚Magic: +46〛〚Defence: +45〛

〚Agility: +54〛〚Intellect: +47〛

〚Attack: +53〛

What the heck was that last one? Inferior grade?

Some of the creatures contained no core at all, but I continued to eat until I consumed three more medium grade ones and two inferior ones. Before I knew it, the pile of creatures was gone.

None of them was a high grade core. Tch!

I was slightly disappointed, but it was to be expected. The first monster was only level [38], to be high grade, it would have to surpass the Hesperia queen I'd eaten prior. I had some idea of how the cores were graded.

Low grade cores would have to be from newly evolved creatures either LV12 to LV17, medium grade would be LV18 up to LV42, depending on what their skill levels were and maybe, how old they were.

High grade cores were still unknown since I was yet to consume any, but I would keep a lookout for them in the future, as well as monster honey. After eating so many cores, I felt a little sluggish and decided to rest for a while, but suddenly the system dinged.

〚Skill『Overeating: LV1』has been acquired〛

Was that an insult?

It seemed interesting so I appraised it.

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

Overeating – User will not feel sluggish or gain weight after eating copious amounts of food. Excess food intake will be stored as emergency stamina points. When the user's stamina falls to the last bar, this emergency reserve will automatically activate. Subsequent level increments of [Overeating] will increase reserve capacity.

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

Not feel sluggish?

Not gain weight?

Why did it seem like this skill was shaming me for my eating habits by granting me fatty stamina?

Was it saying I would have gained weight without it?

I examined my body cautiously to make sure I didn't have any fat rolls. I did feel surprisingly light after eating 10 times my body weight so maybe it was true.

Hmph! I refused to believe a monster could get fat!

With a new skill gained, I was reminded of the system skills I'd been ignoring for a while.

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

Skills:

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

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

I appraised [Regeneration] because it seemed the most useful and expensive!

But I could afford it because I had more than enough skill points after my recent killing sprees.

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

[Regeneration] – Allows the bearer to restore themselves to optimal health depending on their mana capacity. If the amount of mana is less than what is required, regeneration will cease. Subsequent level increments increase the speed of regenerative abilities.

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

This seemed quite broken too. If I had plenty of mana I could completely restore myself, and unlike [Cure] it would only cost me some mana. So, I purchased it without hesitation.

〚Confirmed:『Regeneration: LV1』has been acquired〛

Woo! It was too bad I wasn't injured or I would have tested it. All in all, my stats were looking pretty impressive, if I say so myself.

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

Name: Aurelia [LV19 Small Cerastes]

Specie: Cerastes Vipera

HP: 440/440 Defence: 454

MP: 397/397 Intellect: 273

SP: 470/470 Magic: 362

Attack: 516 Agility: 605

Skills:

[Meteor Scales:LV5] [Shadow Shroud:LV4]

[Scent: LV8][SP Recovery:LV4][Leap:LV8]

[Rugged Scales:LV10] [Rapid Strike:LV8]

[Poison Fang:LV10] [Bite:LV10] [Grip:LV9]

[Instantaneous Sprint: LV2] [Detox:LV4]

[Mana Sense:LV6] [Overeating: LV1]

[Buoyancy: LV5] [Steel Skin: LV10]

[Appraisal:LV6] [Heat Seeker: LV4]

[MP Recovery: LV5] [Silence:LV10]

[Heat Sense:LV10] [Pain Toxin: LV8]

[Heat Sphere:LV5] [HP Recovery:LV4]

[Stealth:LV10] [Poison Synthesis: LV5]

[Venom Rain: LV4] [Regeneration: LV1]

[Deadly Poison Attack:LV4] [Mark: LV3]

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

Titles:

[Apostle] [Coldblooded]

[Commander] [Hero] [Trickster]

Unique Skills:

[Devour] [Area of Authority]

Magic Items:

[Dimensional Box] [Labyrinth Atlas]

Magic Skills:

[Poison Magic: LV4] [Shadow Magic: LV3]

[Poison Manipulation: LV4] [Shadow Manipulation: LV3]

Attributes:

[Obsidian Horn] [Mind Chain] [Mimic]

[Empowered Stinger] [Coercion]

[Acid Blood] [Death Rattle]

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

Resistances:

[Paralysis Resistance: LV6]

[Impact Resistance: LV9]

[Cutting Resistance: LV5]

[Poison Resistance: LV7]

[Pain Resistance: LV9]

[Heat Resistance: LV2]

[Mental Warfare: LV5]

[Dark Resistance:LV4]

[Wind Resistance: LV6]

[Shock Resistance: LV9]

[Faint Resistance: LV6]

[Pain Mitigation: LV4]

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

Experience Points: [2696]

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

No longer was I a small fragile snake…

I was now a slightly chubby medium snake with her own sound effect. Such progress!

Feeling pleased with myself, I left my comfortable perch and moved further into the cave, a distance away from where the nestlings trained, in order not to interrupt them. Here the walls were filled with markings from where I tested out my poison attacks.

For a while I'd been trying to create a [Poison Blade], similar to the scary wasp's wind blade. However, my technique was not quite perfect. While they worked on creatures with weaker defences like the mimics and the Adavaaks, I wasn't sure it would work on creatures with much tougher shells.

I needed something that cut deeper. Although I could change their composition to equal parts [Pain Toxin] and my [Deadly Poison], it didn't help much if they had high defensive skills. I needed to make the spheres move faster to hit moving targets, and increase their power to improve their deadliness!

I generated more poison spheres with [Poison Synthesis] and fired them repeatedly at the wall. Multiple scrape marks appeared across it, but when I came closer, the dents were no more than five inches deep. I repeated this again, compressing the spheres to even thinner discs this time.

The thinner they got, the faster they began to spin and the compressed spheres grew to nearly twice their size. I could feel the great force of their movement and it became much harder to keep myself from losing control.

I activated [Mana Sense], focusing on the pathway of energy contained within each sphere.

A hazy cyan mist surrounded each poison sphere, and I could see it dissipating into the air, the more I tried to maintain their shape. Before it completely scattered I fired it at the wall and there was a bang as the rock split. A tear ten inches deep had appeared across the cave wall.

The system dinged as I examined the cut.

〚Skill『Poison Manipulation: LV1』has been acquired〛

I wanted to scream with happiness. Take that wall! Soon you will be nothing but rubble!

«Not bad.» Sensei said after a pause. «You've taken the first step to grasping [Mana Control]. You'll need more practice in the future...preferably on moving targets. That wall did nothing to you.»

I pouted. Did he just make a joke?

«Shaping your poison should be easier now.»

I tried creating my poison spheres again and this time I was able to maintain its thinner, compressed form without much trouble. But there was still some resistance, like I was training a muscle I'd never used before and the thin spheres could only take shape for a few minutes before dissipating.

«You should practice somewhere with more magical ether in the atmosphere, to improve the effectiveness of your magic, until you're good enough to do it on your own.»

That sounded like a good tip, but where exactly would I find somewhere like that?

As I observed the cracks across the wall, I remembered an important detail. Sensei had mentioned before that the lower levels of the Labyrinth had higher concentrations of ether, high enough to be poisonous.

Since I was only on the first layer, I ought to consider going lower. Going a step lower should be enough to meet those requirements.

The only known entrance was the tiny tunnel inside my very own cave. But there was the obvious problem of my size which had increased since then!

I was no longer small and cute. Just how could I fit into that crack now? Was the mangrove forest of the Labyrinth's lower stratum forever out of reach?

I opened up the atlas and it showed in colours only the part of the forest i'd been in. New places like Sylrin's cave had lit up and even the underground Crystal cave was clear, but there was no area that showed a connecting ladder from the top plane to the lower one.

This poor quality map! It never showed anything useful!

There had to be another way to get down that I didn't know about. A large deep hole, or maybe a geyser leading to the bottom!

But why despair, when I could dig!

With my [Dimensional Box] all things were possible! I moved over to the spot I discovered the crack and was pleased to see it was still there. While the nestlings trained, I began my digging adventure using its devouring capabilities, opening a rectangular sized holes of a slightly larger width than myself, before sticking my head inside.

From there I was able to wriggle through, widening the hole further, the deeper I went. It was long and difficult because the little crack went so far, it must have spanned miles and the claustrophobic space was deeply uncomfortable.

It was always a concern that the tunnel I was digging could collapse and crush me, but luckily that didn't happen.

Eventually I reached the end of the tunnel and slithered out onto a platform overlooking a deep chasm below.