*Wiggle wiggle....wiggle... plop*. With the sound of sucking flesh, Jonah gave a sharp tug on his last remaining tooth, tearing it free from its roots.

[Jonah] "SUM OV AH *****!"

A sharp pain shot through his jaw, followed by the metallic taste of blood as it flowed freely into his mouth. A short burst of his skill soon solved both problems. Cold sweat dripped down his back, and he leaned up against the scabbing wall of his alcove. He groped around in the darkness, till his hands made contact with a small pile of sharp, jagged, and broken objects.

His teeth. All of them.

The tension that had built up Jonah's body over the past few days melted away, leaving him limp and tired. At first, he thought the headache was stress; Lord knows he'd enough the last few weeks. But as time dragged on, he came to realize something.

It was his teeth. Specifically, his NEW teeth, growing and trying to burrow out of his jaw right under the shattered stubs of their predecessors. He'd hoped that they would push the olds ones out like when he was a kid, but reality and biology are cruel mistresses. As damaged and dead as his old teeth were, they were still rooted deep in his gums, and the pressure only became worse every time he used his skill. After a day of the worst full mouth "toothache" possible, he'd bit the bullet and started to pull his teeth.

It took him a while to figure out how to do so, however. Between the passive healing of his skill and his weakened (but recovering) state, he had a hell of a time of actually removing the first few. With the help of his new "tool" though, he made slow but steady progress. The following day was filled with bouts of extreme pain, followed by instant relief as one by one, he removed the teeth and the pressure in his jaw steadily decreased. The molars were the hardest to get at. In the end, he had to use the claw to cut open his cheek and work from there.

It was amazing how willing you were to mutilate yourself when you knew you could heal right back up in a few hours.

It looked like [Arcanic Regeneration] was suitable for more than just flesh wounds too. Would it even regrow a limb if he lost it? The knowledge that the skill jammed in his head said, "Maybe? But it would take a long time". That was the insane thing about the ability; he was starting to wonder what the limits of the skill really were. But he was also beginning to see why it was only a D-rank skill as well, instead of a C-rank or even B-rank, for as powerful as it was;

Arcanic Regeneration

Rank-D

Level: 3

Passive State: Convert 6 MP to 3 HP per second.

Active State: Convert 15 MP to 9 HP per second and rapidly regenerate bodily damage.

Rates increase as Skill level Increases

Both the cost and healing seemed to be scaling at a steady pace, but It had only taken him two weeks to get to these levels. He didn't know what the standard in the 100,000 Galaxies were for mages, but something told him that if the skill kept scaling like this with no way to shut off the passive effect, then even the most mana heavy mages would find themselves in a state of constant mana starvation.

When he'd first bought the skill, a vast torrent of information flooded his mind. Even someone without any magical background could understand the sheer insanity of how the skill worked. And when he said "insanity," he meant that literally. It was something that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn't even work. Its very core principle revolved around "rejecting reality and substituting your own."

It seemed Marro the Mad wasn't just a fancy name.

Thankfully(?), he was in the belly of an apex predator with an ever-growing mana pressure. His unique environment allowed [Breathless] to keep up with his expenses. He'd even discovered a neat trick with his new lungs. Since he wasn't breathing in anything with physical mass, he could take a continuous and steady "breath," dramatically increasing the rate at which his mana replenished. He had gotten into the habit of "meditating" in this state when he was running low on mana. Even more surprising, he found out that if he maintained a state of "over-mana" (drawing in more mana he could hold) for long enough, his maximum pool would increase slightly.

Unfortunately, there were a few side-effects.

Firstly, he couldn't endlessly draw in a "breath," eventually, he had to "breath out." What he was breathing out, he wasn't totally sure, but the Snake definitely didn't like it. After one particularly long 'meditation' session, the cloud of 'something' he'd exhaled had struck the wall of his alcove. The effect was instant; the Snake gave a deep, loud rumble, and its stomach began to contract and twist like it had a major cramp. All of the blood instantly drained from the area surrounding his alcove as his surrounding dropped to a (comparatively) freezing temperature.

The Snake had only writhed for a short moment, before its stomach relaxed once more, returning to its previous dimensions, and blood returned to the alcove. He didn't think it was some kind of poison, as it didn't seem to affect him, nor was there any lasting damage to the alcove wall where it stuck. Other than giving the Snake a stomach cramp, it didn't seem to do much. The only thing he could think it could be was maybe something like 'waste' mana, or something similar. Like when you eat something rotten.

Could mana rot? Jonah just added that to his ever growing list of things he didn't know. For now, he just pulled up his status screen.

Name: Jonah Hilannd

Race: Human

Contestant ID: Sol-3-00000000001

Class: N/A

Level: 0

Titles: 1

Viewership Rank: #802,545(⬇ 782,421‬)

Health: 95/100 Mana: 75/132 'Current Status' Bleeding (Minor, Recovering). Malnutrition (Major, Recovering) .

Skills Talents Feats Titles

He still didn't know what half the things in these menus meant, though he could make some conjectures based on his novel experience. He'd tried searching for the Manual he'd gotten on the first day, on the off chance it was like the token and unnaturally sturdy but didn't have much luck.

The most interesting bit was the 'Viewership Rank.' That one took him a moment to understand, but when he remembered the Gamemaster's words about "The Game," it clicked. He didn't know by who or what, but he was being 'watched.' Maybe the whole world was? The ranking told him that at least 800,000 other people were already "registered," probably far more, given when he'd first see the ranking he was in the 20k range. It took him almost two weeks to drop down to his current level. He didn't know if that meant more people were joining "The Game" by the day, or if whoever was watching got bored watching a man slowly mutilate himself in the belly of a snake.

With his life out of mortal danger, Jonah began to wonder what was going on out there. Was the whole world going to hell in a hand-basket? Or were things more 'controlled'? From what he remembered in stories like this, the first few weeks or months were always the most chaotic with monsters spawning randomly and millions of people killed or governments collapsing. Did the same thing happen in reality? Or did people manage to put up a united front?

The Gamemaster DID say he wanted entertainment, a challenge, not pointless slaughter.

On the other hand, Jonah could see that psychopath letting cities burn to the ground just for the giggles.

Lost in his thoughts, Jonah failed to notice the strange phenomenon in one corner of the stomach. Like a small gale, slowly picking up speed, the mana in one corner began to swirl and turn, gathering and twisting in place, until it began to glow. The glowing cloud of spinning mana grew brighter and brighter until the pale blue light finally spilled into his alcove. After spending almost a month in pure darkness, Jonah was at first confused at what he was seeing.

The next moment, he got the answers to the questions still forming in his mind.

WARRNING!

Sponsored Quest initiated!

Kodoku

Objective: Eliminate the Leviathan Worm

Reward: 1 Rank-E skill token

Sponsor's Message:

"Seems like the little cockroach is tougher than he looks. Lets see how he does against a REAL parasite". - Slasherlover72

[Jonah] .... ****

Jonah could hear his heartbeat skyrocketing as his eyes darted back and forth between the glowing blue window and the swirling mass of mana still gathering in the far corner. He might not have a much clue about "The Game," but it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what was probably happening. He groped around the darkness, searching for his only protection while a thousand thoughts raced through his head.

He didn't know what a 'Leviathan Worm' was, but he sure as hell knew he didn't want to fight it. More so in the pitch dark. His first thought was to hide; maybe he could stay in the back of his alcove and wait for the thing to dissolve in the Snake's stomach? He quickly discarded the idea; the stomach wasn't the tiny space it once was, but it wasn't massive either. If the creature was smart enough, it would eventually find him, even if it was pitch dark. Also, the 'sponsor'(?) had called the thing a "parasite," which told Jonah it was likely even more resistant to this environment than he was himself.

His next idea was to try and disrupt whatever was going on over there. If he had to venture a guess, that swirling mana vortex was were the Leviathan Worm would spawn. If he could shut it down, or maybe get a surprise attack on it right as it spawned, he would perhaps have a chance.

Or he might get beheaded as soon as it appeared.

His hands wouldn't stop shaking as he grabbed onto the knobby end of his claw sickle and slid out of his nook into the acid below. The acid's depth had increased dramatically as the Snake's size increased, where it was once only a few inches, now it almost reached his waist. Soon he'd have to swim. He hesitated for a moment, before biting down on his claw sickle and making his way over to the remains of the bristly monster. 80% of the creature had digested days ago, but several large, thick, sturdy bones remained. He groped around before pulling out a long-bone the length of his arm. It was pitted with acid, cracked and slippery, but it was still decently solid and very heavy.

He doubted it would make for a great weapon or last long. Still figured if he could knock whatever came out of the vortex on the head (assuming it had a head) even once, he might be able to stun it. That would give him enough time to do some damage with the claw sickle. He could wave the sickle at it as it came out, but he still didn't know what to expect, and the sickle was too small.

As he drew nearer the vortex, Jonah's lungs began to work in overdrive, and he soon found himself in a state of overmana, despite not consciously trying. Whatever this thing was doing, it was drawing vast amounts of mana into it, possibly directly from the Snake itself. Not good, not good. Between having to wade waste deep in acid and the increasing mana pressure from the portal, Jonah's progress was agonizingly slow.

With each step, he drew closer, and with each step, the mana vortex began to solidify. As if sensing his presence, the swirling mana stopped, then blue motes of mana converged towards the center, compressing into a pinpoint of nothingness, like shooting stars falling into a black hole. The pinpoint of nothingness swelled as more and more mana motes fed into it, and soon it grew into a massive black hole in space with a diameter twice as tall as Jonah.

The black hole was ringed with the eerie blue glow of mana as it hung in space, casting the Snake's stomach in the first dim light it had ever seen. Jonah froze at the sight, only a few meters away, mouth agape as his brain told him to turn and run. Even as his instincts told him if he tried it, he wouldn't even know what killed him.

As he stared, four blue orbs the size of his head lit up in the darkness of the hole as a massive silhouette rose from its depths. The spheres suddenly accelerated through the black hole (portal?) stretching it's colossal frame up and over its edges. In the dim light of mana, Jonah could now see the figure of his opponent. Even with half of its body still on the other side of the portal, the Leviathan Worm was massive, quickly reaching the ceiling.

The thing looked like someone had crossed a centipede with a tapeworm, its flat, armored body divided into dozens of shield-like segments, covered in clicking, wiggling spear-like legs. Its head looked like someone had taken a tapeworm and bred it with Lovecraft's worst nightmare, an unholy amalgamation of teeth, hooks, and bladed tentacles. On each side of its head, where a normal tapeworm's suckers would be, sat four massive glowing blue orbs he could only assume were eyes.

The Leviathan Worm proceeded to jam its hooked head into the top of the Snake's stomach. It then used its tentacles to wedge itself deep into the fleshy ceiling as it dragged more and more of its body out of the portal. The whole while, Jonah stood there, legs shaking and mind blank. Was he supposed to fight THIS? What the hell?!

Something in Jonah's head snapped at that moment, and his thoughts went white before he gave a primordial scream filled with both fear and rage. He mustered all of the strength he could and hurled the large long bone in his hands towards the portal. He doubted the half-digested bone could even make a scratch on this thing, but he was desperate.

The bone flipped through the air at speeds surprising even Jonah, before slamming into one of the joints between the Worm's segments. As he predicted, It did absolutely nothing to hurt the Worm itself. What it DID do, however, was set off a series of events that scholars would debate about for centuries to come.

Was it just reflex on the Leviathan Worm's part, or maybe the System intervening, or perhaps sheer blind luck? We may never know. But for Jonah, it was a chance. And that was all he needed.

As soon as the bone made contact, the Worm jerked away, as if not expecting an attack. Unfortunately for the Worm, this sudden jerking motion was not appreciated by the Snake. As if feeling some unexplained discomfort, the Snake began to shake violently, throwing the contents of its stomach into a mess. Jonah was thrown about like a rag-doll, barely able to keep his head above the acid. Even struggling in the waves, he managed to keep an eye on the Worm.

As the Snake thrashed, the Worm tossed around, trying to keep itself steady. Despite its efforts, however, Jonah's heart filled with hope, when he witnessed the Worm suddenly make contact with the edge of the portal. An ear-splitting scream filled the stomach as the Worm was severed at the joint by the dimensional forces of the portal, leaving a good half of its massive body on the other side. The Worm continued to shriek as its severed body threw a flood of glowing blue blood around the area.

Soon, the Worm's trashing grew weaker and weaker, and before long, it stopped, its severed body hanging from the ceiling as it dripped more glowing blood into the pool below. The portal it came through flickered and dimmed as if the contact had made it unstable, before finally, it plopped out of existence, once more throwing the stomach into darkness.

The only thing Jonah could hear was his heavy breathing and the steady hissing of blood dripping into acid. Was that it? Had he just won like that?....

What kind of Deus ex Machina, Plot Armor twist was THAT?! Give me back my feelings, Universe!!!

Jonah could only laugh and shake his head as the sweat rolled down his neck. Slowly, he made his way to the growing pool of glowing blood. Was the thing dead? All he did was threw a bone at it, and it basically killed itself. He drew closer, keeping his eyes open for any kind of movement. The Worm just hung there, slowly spilling out its blue blood as the four blue orbs grew dimmer. He reached up and touched the smooth, hard exoskeleton of the section he could reach. It was ice cold and smooth as a mirror.

He wondered if he could break it off and use it for something, maybe armor... or a boat. But that would be a project for the future. He assumed the blood was good stuff, too, considering the glow, and the tremendous amount of mana pouring from it. It was a shame it was all going to the Snake now. Right now, he was more worried about how to claim his reward. He could think of several ways a Rank-E skill token could be useful, and he was eager to start shopping.

When he opened his Menus, however, a single blue window caught his eyes, and Jonah's heart froze.

WARNING!

Sponsored Quest In progress

Kodoku

Objective: Eliminate the Leviathan Worm

Reward: 1 Rank-E skill token

[Jonah]"... double ****..."

A gust of wind was all the warning he had, before something slammed into him with the force of a truck. He was sent flying across the pool and slammed into the far wall with the distinct snap of bones, before slowly sliding into the acid below.