Snake or human

But why are you talking to us when you should be resting?

<No need to worry. I merely need to wait for my Mp to recover so talking to you is no issue at all.>

Are you sure this is alright?

<100%, I assure you I take good care of myself.>

If you say so. I look over to Shin wondering why he is so quiet only to find him lying on the floor shivering. What happened to him?

<The last time he told someone something too early there was a big misunderstanding. After hearing about it I got mad and beat him up so now he is terrified of me.>

Am I in trouble for what I know?

<No, dear. What he told you about is no secret but we usually wait until people have become accustomed to this place before telling them. But now that you know about a part Darwin will just have to tell you earlier. The most important thing is that you hear the whole story and not just a part.>

I wonder what the misunderstanding that happened before was. Must have been pretty darn big for Navi to freak out.

<Yeah, let's not talk about that. Anyway, my break is about to end so I'll be leaving you alone with your thoughts. Shin, I want a full report on the test you made.>

"Yes senior!"

I guess there's nothing left for me to do here. Shin doesn't look like he will be able to run any more tests or talk to me. There's nothing else I can do here so I leave and go to do some training.

All services except for the cover VR event that is run have been canceled so I have the entire gym to myself. The thing is, I've never been much of a gym person. Most of my training before was either in the form of sparring or real-life battles. The idea of using a gym to train had always seemed quite decadent to me.

And yet here I stand, in a gym, looking at a bunch of dumbells, and wondering how the hell I am supposed to know which one to use. I look around at the other pieces of sports equipment standing around. I recognize some of them from commercials but I feel like I don't know how to use a single one of them.

Well, I know what the track and the swimming pool are for but... not really in the mood for either.

I mean none of the things here are effective anyway, right? My "real" body is that of a snake so training as a human seems like an inefficient thing to do. I can't even train any of my skills...

Wait a minute! Skills should be applicable at all times as long as they are displayed on the status screen and aren't on a cooldown. Can I train skills that I acquired as a snake in human form?

I'll try it! The first thing that comes is energy fang. I concentrate and activate the skill while opening my mouth. In front of my amazed eyes, a human's jaw with teeth appears and snaps shut. It works the same as when I do it as a snake but I can't help but doubt its power in real combat.

Human teeth aren't meant to bite something that's still alive so the fang skill is of little use but at least I can train it. How can I use my other skills?

A target would be nice so do they have sandbags here? I search around for any kind of combat equipment and find a door at the back that leads to a dojo where there are indeed some sandbags.

I hang one of them on one of the designated hook in the ceiling and step back. Now, how would a human constrict someone? A hug I guess...

There's no other option besides trying so I go in for a hug and wrap my arms around the sandbag. The moment I do so my arms snap into position like guided by muscle memory and start to squeeze the sandbag. The force I generate is quite astounding but the sandbag seems to be made to take much more punishment than I can dish out.

I look for any effect that could represent the blood-stealing aspect of my skill and find that thin red hairs stand up from my skin and pierce the sandbag. I don't feel any energy coming from the use of the skill but considering that a sandbag has no blood I think that's normal.

I stop hugging the sandbag and step back. I could try to bite it and test both my bite and venom skill but the idea of biting into a leathery sandbag makes me nauseous. Sure, biting a monster also isn't particularly appetizing but somehow it bothers me less when I'm not in human form.

What remains is the tail whip skill. However, humans don't have a tail. Or well, they do but it's only the base tail bone and that's too small to even be seen. Can I replace the tail with something else?

I try to just activate my tail whip skill and feel energy converge in one of my legs. Using the leg as a replacement for a tail? I swing out my leg towards the sandbag and shortly before it hits the sandbag the silhouette of a snake tail resembling mine appears. Then the sandbag is blow away only held by the chain connecting it to the sealing.

In whatever form I am this skill sure does pack a punch. I try using the skill a few more times and discover that I can switch between both legs and even use both to execute the skill. Unfortunately, my arms aren't capable to use the skill and I also can't use my legs two launch two separate, simultaneous tail whips.

Having discovered that I can train most of my offensive skills in this dojo, I decide to spend the rest of the day training.