Gino wanted to face-palm himself. His plan had spectacularly backfired as he recklessly chose to rely on assumptions instead of carefully planning out his actions against his greatest - and largest - opponent as of yet. In his excitement and hubris, he had forgotten that he couldn’t fly, forcing him to fall like Icarus under the whims of gravity and lack of hindsight.

Currently, he was wedged in between the folds of flesh inside the snake’s esophagus, trying his hardest to remain stationary. Seas of saliva and other viscous liquids enveloped and nearly engulfed him several times. His arms were already plunged deep inside the softer tissues of the snake, attempting to gain purchase and some traction. But he quickly discovered that it wasn’t helping at all - the snake was producing strange secretions that were unexpectedly lubricious and somehow amplifying the surroundings to further reduce friction through unknown means. As Gino’s arms were physically - but slowly - pushed out of the punctures they had made, he widened his eyes in disbelief and immediately understood what was happening. The giant mother snake had long since developed countermeasures against creatures it swallowed by preventing them from latching on to any internal surfaces in the first place; it had done so by creating some type of ingenious, natural combinations of fats, saliva, oils, and other chemicals to gradually pull its victims down its esophagus. He hadn’t dug into flesh at all but rather slick, inflating puffs of blubber.

Gino grasped at the flesh once more, hoping to delay the inevitable. He created another twin set of holes to serve as handholds, which also gave his mind a short respite from the building frustration. Gritting his teeth, Gino contemplated what he could do at the moment. Bursting out of the snake itself was the obvious goal to him, but he wasn’t getting any chances to do so as there literally were waves of foul liquids caressing and wrapping around him. He felt pure disgust as they tugged at him, seemingly alluring him to the depths of the sinister, rotting-gray oceans of muck. Fucking gross. This has got to be a Concept, somehow. He spat before gagging and instantly cutting off his senses to taste and smell.

Gino was starting to slip, and he knew it. He had most a few more minutes before he was whisked away to probably the snake’s stomach acid or another unearthly organ that he definitely didn’t want to experience first-hand. Time seemed to stretch as he hastily jogged his memories for possible opportunities. Gino ran his mind over his status screen, ignoring the hot-red colored number in his level and all other information besides his Concepts. He scanned through them, only to growl in irritation. After all this time, not a single. Fucking. Offensive. Concept. Gino had just been swallowed and, to his chagrin and despite having grown so much over the years, he was still powerless.

I have 5 shitting Concepts of supernatural origin and not a single one could help me. ‘Balance’? ‘Order’? ‘Awareness’? Fuck. All doo-doo in combat. ‘Reflection’? The fuck am I supposed to do with that? Somehow pull out a reverse uno card and swallow the snake instead? This is insane! How have I NOT obtained anything useful in direct combat all this time on this damn planet? No firepower, destruction beams, supersonic screeches, molten spit, no nothing! Nothing!

And ‘Conversion’? What can that even- oh.

Gino would have slapped himself for ignoring such a blatant solution if it weren’t for his predicament. Zipping his mouth completely shut, he clenched the folds of snake fat with both hands and then willed. Gradually, a change occurred deep within the ocean of saliva and slimy fluids. Minutes later, graphite-gray bubbles slowly began rising to its surface, increasing in number and intensity as time continued to pass. The snake’s esophagus shuddered briefly. Gino promptly closed his eyes and hoped for the best as he may have committed himself to another impetuous plan. He sighed mentally.

Some time ago, Gino had transmuted all the liquids around him to something he was painfully familiar with- lava. His thoughts about the Molten Antlions and a certain Concept responsible for his new situation simmered to the top of his mind just when he felt and heard the snake trembling and then roaring in escalating intensity. Bubbles of noxious gas continued to pop.

The Concept of Conversion was an unusual ability, even for Gino. It was one that he rarely used throughout the years because its use was rather limited in scope and effectiveness, making it something that was always put on the back-burners or hidden within the backdrop of his thoughts from time to time. More often than not, Gino’s personal strength and ‘Reflection’ were more than enough to get a task done with decent efficiency. However, ‘Conversion’ was different as it took longer to activate and allowed only one specific capability: converting from one substance to another in extremely unfair amounts- the output would always be less than the input. When Gino discovered what ‘Conversion’ could actually do, to his dismay, he had analyzed that it was awfully cumbersome to activate and only worked when he was in direct contact with non-living substances. But before Gino could delve deeper in his memories, he was suddenly shaken out of his thoughts and wanted to open his eyes out of instinct, nearly forgetting about the lava.

Confusedly, he heard multiple, reverberating howls that were so loud, they drowned out the sounds made by the sizzling, superheated secretions he was being stewed in. Gino wasn’t sure which roar was whose, but he thought he heard the voice of his companion somewhere in there. Hope Archie’s doing okay. Not much time passed, I think, and I’m pretty sure that the snake is much slower, so Archie should have an easy time escaping. But why were there more than two voices? Did something else come?! Who the fuck would attack this thing?!?

Not wanting to join a bigger mess than he was currently in, Gino decided the time was now to escape. He had made several mistakes already and now desired to retreat for the time being; he could always come back for the snake when his preparations were ready as he had concluded that killing it was still possible if ‘Reflection’ was used properly. Dense smoke and burnt meat permeated the enclosed space while lava boiled everything in its path- with the exception of Gino, who simply reflected any damage on himself to the tissues surrounding him. The walls of flesh and fat lining the esophagus melted at a steady pace, all its liquids vaporized by the heat and kindly facilitated by Gino.

He managed to grapple with a loosely hanging part of the snake’s esophagus and swung a fist at it, feeling the spot blackened and dry. A slight tremor rang out but Gino ignored it as he rammed his fists at the same location repeatedly until a large tear was formed. He quickly entered it and continued his rampage, aiming for the outside of the snake. Another tremor coalesced before a distressed roar followed it. Gino could feel that the snake was desperate and in dire straits. He genuinely hoped that the snake didn’t have any way to deal with him right now as there wasn’t much he could do if it actually did. Still, he trudged onwards, knowing that he was going to break free soon and would rather deal with the consequences until then. And when he did, Gino promised that the snake would not have a happy ending. If he didn’t kill it, most likely the lava would over time.

Time unknowingly trickled by until a drastic development occurred. He suddenly felt the snake’s flesh becoming harder and more brittle in nature, leading him to realize that he was most likely hitting scales or some type of biologically defensive armor. Gino clenched his teeth in anticipation and started to punch out even harder, yearning for fresh oxygen or whatever gases the outside atmosphere contained. He didn’t really need them to live, but he couldn’t stand the snake’s internal atmosphere any longer; it smelled terribly and made him want to have a gag reflex just so he could vomit in revulsion. To him, the experience was almost as bad as that time with the Antlions; the primary difference was that Gino could actually escape by himself inside the snake.

Numerous rigid scales cracked and shattered to pieces as he lashed out with increasing ferocity. By this point, Gino couldn’t see flesh anymore. It was a good indication he was nearly out, serving as positive reinforcement to his mental and physical states. He eventually reached a scale much larger and more sturdier than all the ones he had broken. Gino’s hands quivered in excitement as he knew what that meant. With one final blow, Gino finally saw what he was waiting for: multicolored, glistening stars and drifting clouds of wispy grey pictured on a midnight-blue backdrop just outside the hole he made.

Restlessly, Gino made the hole a little larger so he could exit, and promptly left. I’m free, finally!

That took so long, and- and I never, ever want to do that again and-

He didn’t get to finish his joyful rambling as an unfathomably massive, obsidian-black tail laced with intricate patterns of ruby slammed into Gino, caught unaware, and hurled him at meteoric speed towards the incredibly distant ground far, far below. There was no time to scream or even register what had happened before he found himself deeply immersed into the earth. A pinprick of light up above made him realize how deep he was from surface level. Widening his eyes in shock, Gino quickly snapped out of his stupor, spat out dessicated dirt, and frantically dug towards the light. He did not want to be trapped again.

Gino bursted out of the ground, debris rocketing away from his point of exit and falling like rain back down to the scorched earth. He spat out even more dirt and some rocks, and furiously glowered at his surroundings. However, before he could identify the perpetrator, a notification encapsulated by a very familiar blue box appeared in his vision.

!!

Gino Faulkner

Of Insight [T] {obtained}

What the…? ‘Insight’? The heck is…

Another notification presented itself again, immediately accompanied by another one.

Achievements Unlocked

Achievement 'Witness of Taled Fables' {obtained}

>> Few have witnessed creatures of signficant achievements

Achievement 'Survivor of Evolved Goliath' {obtained}

>> Fewer have lived to tell the tale of withstanding an attack from the Evolved Goliath

Descriptions Unlocked

Gino Faulkner

Of Insight [T] → [X]

Too surprised to react, Gino silently looked up from his status screen. He internally gasped with sheer alarm and incredulity. Towering hundreds of feet in front of him lay a gargantuan entity whose heads eclipsed the sun. Eyes as glossy as the surface of a garnet lake and boasting a presence that could dwarf a mountain range, the humongous, serpentine entity narrowed its collective five eyes on its two heads at the tiny figure of Gino. A much smaller snake next to it glared at him with burning hatred.

Evolved Goliath Serpent

Level: 2867

Lesser Goliath Serpent

Level: 1331

You have got to be kidding me. They had levels the entire time?!