I gritted my teeth in jealousy. Sensei had too much luck, his ability as a system was far too good.

The hosts I assumed, were the rest of the class who had probably been reborn by now. Which makes eight of us including Sensei.

I wondered where they were now and what they were doing. And whether they were like me, stuck with the fate of becoming a monster.

If their rebirths went according to mine, their races would be chosen according to the words describing them on the perception quiz.

I wasn't able to glimpse anyone's papers so I could only imagine what was written. Everyone in that room had been at odds with each other so I doubted it was anything nice.

The only person to escape unscathed would be the messenger who was purely a spectator and had not offended anyone.

"Are you aware of the location of the fragments?" I asked, trying to probe for more information.

«Not at the moment. I can't sense any nearby. You'd need to explore this area more and reach the surface for me to get a better reading. You have to raise your level and become stronger. Your development is directly linked to my growth as a system, after all.»

Ugh. How could he say that so proudly when he was just a parasite leeching off me? Had he no remorse? He was truly shameless!

Sensei laughed.

«I guess you could say I'm a shameless system. I completely agree.»

Eh? Had I said that out loud? How was he able to hear it?

If we had a mental link, was it 'that' kind of mental link. The type where you could hear all internal thoughts?

Eeeek! A pervert had appeared!

How creepy! Get out of my head right now! Stop spying on my thoughts!

Wasn't this a great invasion of privacy? How could I, a delicate girl, have a man peek inside my mind!

I decided to practice, to see what parts he could read and what parts he couldn't.

I imagined killing Sensei in many gruesome ways in my head to see If he would comment. My personal favourite being necrotic poison.

Watching Sensei's skin peel off and melt into soup, as he keeled over many times gave me a grin of satisfaction. I wonder what my face looked like right now.

Ahh… what face? Right now I was a snake. What did a grinning snake look like anyway?

The visage of something eerie and sinister flooded my mind.

A snake's grin.

Wasn't that just a wide open mouth filled with long jagged fangs and a lolling forked tongue? I immediately shut my mouth and stopped laughing.

Let's not imagine that right now. Moving on.

Why did I immediately think of necrotic poison? Since I was now a snake, was this the effect of my new serpent brain?

Was I being influenced by my new physiology? My brain unconsciously evolving to that of a reptile?

Ahh let's hope not.

Nurture always won against nature in the end. I was born as a human and raised in a good family. There was no way I would become a foul monster just because my body had changed.

And so far Sensei had not reacted to any of my evil thoughts.

Heh, this was something promising. It could mean he could not read all my thoughts as well, unless I voiced them out loud. Lucky him.

If he could hear my thoughts right now he would be so revolted, he'd definitely have to comment.

I asked plainly. "Can you read my thoughts?"

Sensei snorted contemptuously.

«No. It's not that type of mind link. I can only hear your thoughts if you direct them at me and vice versa from my end. If it's a normal thought I can't hear it. Nor do I wish to.»

"You make it sound like I'm thinking dirty things." I complained.

«Are you not? I might not be able to hear your thoughts but I can read your emotions quite clearly. I clearly felt your disgust right now. It's been very vivid for a while, makes me wonder what nonsense is going through your head.»

"Heyy! Pervert! You're not allowed to do that." I yelled, embarrassed.

I wanted to cover my eyes and hide in a hole. How could he have been spying on me all this time in this way and not say a word.

«Like I have a choice.» He grumbled. «If you don't want me to read your emotions stop thinking perverted things! It's so obvious when you do»

This. Unfair. System.

«Its not like I want to read your emotions. I'd be happy to be rid of that extra feature anytime. Your nasty feelings are really creeping me out.»

I wanted to sob. After the great invasion of privacy, he had to go ahead and insult my emotions.

"Why doesn't this work both ways? Why can't I read anything from you?" I asked, a bit annoyed. Being called creepy by him really ticked me off.

«I'm no longer a biological lifeform, do you expect me to have emotions? Those are created by the release of chemicals in the brain. Since I no longer have a brain, it is impossible for me to have them.»

Damn it all. So unfair!

After sulking for a while I ignored him and spent the entire day exploring my new nest. I call it exploring but it was more like sensing and smelling.

Snakes were notorious for their poor eyesight, so they mostly made use of their forked tongues to pick up chemical traces and the heat sensors on their head to judge distance and sense the presence of warm bodies in their surroundings.

I mostly looked around the nest. There were only baby snakes here. I sensed about 30 heat signatures writhing about in a messy pile.

Contrary to my earlier assessment the nest extended quite far. Past the area with dried grass and wood shavings was another tunnel, almost completely hidden from view.

It was only wide enough to accommodate a creature of my size. Anything bigger and it would get stuck.

Venturing away from the nest that contained my brethren I entered into the tunnel.

The further in I got, the more the path seemed to slope and shrink until it became that of a tiny hole. I had to wiggle through to move along, while being thankful to my minuscule size.

The further I went, the more steep the slope became, seeming to delve deeper underground going on for miles without stopping.

The temperature had also increased. While it was not to the extent that it was uncomfortable. The humidity in the hole constantly rose until it had become sweltering, like a particularly hot summer's day.

Totally opposite to the coolness of the upper cave I'd just come from.

But just how deep did this tunnel go?

I could feel the air current flowing up through the sloping hole, which meant there was a source of breeze coming from somewhere.

A fork up ahead in the tunnel, a gap in the hole, or the start of a much wider opening. Soon enough I came across it, the end of the hole.

The tunnel abruptly stopped, coming to a dead end at a wall. I flicked my tongue searching for the direction of the breeze and came across a single crack on the left hand corner.

Hesitant, I did not want to enter it. It could be the den of some creature or a trap with another creature waiting to attack on the other side.

I waited for a while and when nothing came out, my curiosity got the better of me.

Gingerly crawling through the crack it opened up to a short platform at the edge of a steep cliff.

The platform was barely wide enough to take my entire body and I had to coil myself into a tight spiral to fit.

Taking in the scene I was amazed.

Beyond the cliff was a wide open cavern that spanned for miles, full of lush green trees and dense jungle. It was a rain forest.

I could hear the sounds of exotic birds and the calls of various creatures in the greenery below. It was so big I could not see the end of the jungle.

Somehow even though it was underground, it was not dark.

Dotted here and there amongst the green were areas of white light. They looked artificial amongst the greenery like bulbs of electricity. How could there be a rain forest underground?

Looking up at the ceiling of the cavern I saw the same white lights dotted in places. My eyesight was not very clear but from the general shape they seemed to be crystals of some sort.

Looking down from the cave I could see some wider gaps through the trees that were filled with water. It seemed what I initially thought was a rain forest, was actually a mangrove.

I had not been able to spot the water because the surface was mostly covered in the green pads of water lilies.

It was such an impossible landscape to be located underground that I wanted to go down to explore it.

But I quickly got rid of that idea.

I still wasn't fully aware of my environment or status and going ahead when I had so little information would only prove detrimental.

To reach the jungle I would have to scale down the edge of the steep cliff and I wasn't confident I had that ability yet. Besides what If I encountered other monsters?

Scaling down the cliff, not being able to attack as I move, else I lose my footing would make me an easy target.

And besides, I needed a map to track my whereabouts so I wouldn't get lost. I also needed to increase my strength to the level that I was confident of beating any monster I came across.

And so, with that harsh reality, I left the cliff edge and went back to the tunnel, to my snake brethren.