I had killed enough of the worm creatures to gain an attribute, but somehow their icky worm bodies didn't appeal to me at all.

Of the few skills they had, some like [Echolocation] and [Corrosive Acid] had some appeal, as did [Exoskeleton], but I was pretty sure my inbuilt wasp's exoskeleton combined with [Meteor Scales] was far superior to that of a mere worm, so I didn't really bother.

Others like [Regurgitation] and [Egg Laying] were completely repulsive. Why did I need to lay eggs when I already had enough pesky brats? And I'm pretty sure my snake race already had that 'skill', if not, how else did I come to be…oh.

Did that mean I could also lay eggs? Was I in a horror movie?

I imagined a bunch of little metallic purple snakes, bursting out of a million eggs with their obsidian horns, to bite unsuspecting human faces like those horrible face hugger creatures.

Oh no no no no. Fire was the only solution!

«Stop imagining absurd things.»

"What is the snake clan like?" I asked after a pause. I was curious and Sensei was unusually talkative today.

«In what way?»

"Do they have a single leader or many?"

«They respond to a single sovereign and it is always one with overwhelming power, otherwise it would be impossible to control so many without the clan splitting into factions.»

"Are snakes really that powerful?" I seemed to remember being so incredibly weak when I was born, that even a group of bottom feeders could cause me trouble.

«They are difficult to rule, being a largely solitary and independent species. They may be weak while young, but they are still, out of all the creatures of the Labyrinth, the ones with the strongest poison. Unlike other poisons, it can cripple even the most powerful creature if a bite is left untreated.»

Oh? That definitely changes my impression of the nestlings a little bit.

Once they evolved, they would only grow stronger, but until then, time and poison was their biggest advantage.

I distractedly took a bite out of one of the icky worms.

I had some hopes of getting [Echolocation] but the taste made me regret this immediately. It was bitter. The flesh underneath the exoskeleton of the worm was hot, with a chunky texture reminiscent of vomit. The foul acidic taste burned my tongue, and when I was led by my snake's instinct to swallow, it turned my stomach immediately.

Everything that went down, fought to come back up and my body gave out from sudden weakness. I flopped on the ground grimacing in agony as my stomach did somersaults. My tongue trembled for water as it burned with the bitter acidic taste. Eating this was my worst decision ever.

The system dinged.

〚Skill『Rot Resistance』has been acquired〛

"I don't care! Water! I'm dying!"

I twisted and turned in anguish as my stomach heaved like I'd been punched a million times. And even my HP had taken a dip of 50 points! Just what the heck did I eat?

«Dead snakes don't talk.» Sensei snickered.

"Shut up, you horrible system! Give me a potion quickly!"

The cool liquid of a [Healing Potion] dribbled down my throat and after many horrible seconds of waiting, the terrible pain in my stomach finally subsided.

I was so furious, I stabbed the body of the nearest worm with my tail and hurled it far away with a fling.

To forget the horrible taste, I ate some of the cooked meat from the human's supply bag and after a while, I regained some feeling in my tongue.

What a horrid creature! Never mind collecting their bodies as food – I never wanted to see another worm again!

Earlier, I'd seen the centipedes leave their tunnel as they ventured down into the mangrove forest to hunt, and now I thought they weren't nearly as bad. Occasionally, an airborne insect would fly past the steep rock wall, but my lookout spot from the highest plateau remained largely undisturbed because it was so far up.

I then spent the next few hours practicing my skills. So far I'd already made great progress in the ether rich environment. [Poison Manipulation] had levelled up twice from my training efforts, and the ease at which I created the spheres had improved. I could make very large poison blades and smaller precise ones, as well as increase the speed of their attacks.

I also made sure to practice [Shadow Magic] and had succeeded in gaining [Shadow Manipulation]. Now, I could extend my shadowy tendrils outside of my body and rather than sticking to the darkness to remain active, the darkness of my [Shadow Shroud] had become so dense and thick that I seemed to be creating the shadows this time.

No longer encompassing my figure alone, I could project the tendrils to spread out past my body in a dark mass that could envelop things around me. If I chose to, I could extend it much further, but only to a point before my entire shroud dissipated.

I also found that when I moved while cloaked, my speed increased by a fraction, although this was only while it remained active. I was really curious about it and wanted to play with it more, but if I stayed here for too long, the nestlings would start to panic.

With that, I dispersed my shadows in favour of [Mimic] and began my climb down the wall. In the brighter surroundings of the Middle Stratum, a shadow on the wall of the cliff would be far too noticeable.

Once down, I uncovered the tunnel I'd concealed and made my way back to the cave, ensuring to seal it from the other end.

Back in the cave, the nestlings were still diligently training and when I checked the system I saw, two more had fulfilled the conditions of the quest.

Could it be my two healer snakes? I was excited to see their progress!

However, Typhon was in a bad mood and Ophelia seemed to have passed on her 'snake-sitting' duties to Morgana, who was also in a hissing mood.

And I could see why, when I appraised the two healer snakes - their training results were abysmal.

They had only managed to level up one of their defensive skills [Rugged Scales] and that was only from constantly falling while trying to climb. Turns out that aside from being difficult to train, they were also accident prone.

I silently cheered on Typhon and Morgana before moving on to see the progress of the rest of the nestlings. And it wasn't long before I spotted Galahad who was chasing after Cygnus along with the water creature that had failed to make an appearance for a while!

Thinking I wouldn't get another chance again, I immediately activated [Mimic], and slowly moved closer to the training area, and Galahad. However, the tricky water creature quickly vanished out of view, as if it sensed it had sensed my arrival.

With my ambush failed, I grew annoyed and cancelled [Mimic].

Galahad was surprised when I suddenly materialised beside him, but he thought I was playing a game so he attempted to sneak up on me next, much to my annoyance.

Like a mouse stalking a cat, his attempts at play were cute but I didn't want to accidentally crush him or stab him with my tail, so I shook him off and went over to the cave's entrance to see the state of the forest outside.

The downpour continued and the forest was alive with the excited calls of creatures. It was chaotic and filled with creatures fighting over meat. There were many of those stinger beasts so I activated my [Shadow Shroud] before I exited the cave.

But I didn't go far. I wasn't out to explore, rather, I was scouting.

If I was going to carve out my own territory, I needed to learn how my neighbours fought. And what better time to observe the creatures I shared the Labyrinth with, than during a time of mass disorder?

The first of the creatures I observed were wolves. A pack of them appeared to be fighting off a group of the rampaging stinger beasts, and from further up the hill I could make out the large glowing fangs of a massive grey wolf that could only be the alpha.

He seemed to be watching the skirmish from above, while he fought one of the larger stinger beasts.

I stared on admiringly. Perhaps he too was training his wolf pack?

I also noticed another group of creatures clashing with the stinger beasts, these ones I'd never seen before. They were smaller feline beasts that resembled panthers with midnight blue fur and bright purple ears, and light blue lightning streaks across their bodies.

Extremely agile and quick with a venomous bite, they attacked the group of stinger creatures, even managing to beat them back where the wolves had not succeeded.

Once they fled, the agile felines took off after the stinger creatures, leaving the wolves behind. The grounds were littered with so many corpses of creatures that had either downed in soft sand or succumbed to the bottom feeders, and in the absence of another predator, the wolves soon dominated the field, seizing all the corpses for their own.

While the wolves pack gathered around, some taking back the dead quarry to their dens, another monster soon appeared to prey on them. I was busy trying to spot the alpha when a pale flying figure flitted through my periphery.

A ghostly looking creature was flying in the air. It looked similar to a moth, if a moth could grow to be the size of a human. Its appearance was mesmerizingly beautiful, with pale translucent wings and a pristine white body that seemed to shimmer. It flew above the wolves, and some sort of dust particles fell off its wings.

And almost instantly, the wolves that inhaled the fine dust, became sleepy. Their heads dropped to the ground and their bodies became limp. That's when the moth swooped down and made off with the catch the wolves were so carefully guarding.

It was pretty to look at, but very sneaky!

The pack of wolves didn't know what hit them. They are only out for a second but by the time they became aware, their hard won prey was gone.

It seemed marking my own territory was going to be more challenging than I initially thought.