46 A "helping" sting

'Wha- How- Why!?'

My mind couldn´t form any words as it short-circuited upon seeing the enormous monster appeared in front of me, seemingly out of thin air. My instincts flared up, telling me to run away as fast as I could, but my body just froze from the pressure the monster emitted.

The scorpion just stared at me with its eight red glowing eyes, unmoving, unblinking. I didn´t dare to move even an inch as I didn´t want to find out what would happen. Inspecting me for a couple of seconds it turned its eyes around and looked at the battlefield, all the while he was facing me. With a light stomp, dozens of brown, purple, and even a few white monster cores flew out of the corpses and got absorbed into the metal arachnid.

The creature shuddered a little bit and stomped his metal leg again, but this time only one purple crystal flew out, and instead of getting absorbed it flew right in front of me.

'Heh?' didn´t understand what it wanted me to do, I just tilted my head in confusion. The monster in front of me raised its giant metal claw and pointed at me. I flinched back at the gesture and wanted to run away, but somehow managed to stay still. It then pointed at the crystal and then back at its mouth, where many small mandibles clacked and clung together.

Understanding what it wanted me to do, but not why, I just went for it. Slowly opening my mouth I neared the purple monster core, all the while I stared at the giant ass monster in front of me, to see that I didn´t make any mistake or something. Swallowing the crystal I too shuddered slightly in pleasure. The eyes gleamed slightly and the huge pincers clanged together, making loud metallic noises and sparks between the claws.

Confused and frightened by the sudden outburst, I prepared for the worst, but only got a system notification.

*Ding*

[The skill "Inspect" was used on you!]

*Ding*

[Your level is too low to resist the skill "Inspect"!]

*Ding*

[The monster "Metalkill" has a full view of your status!]

'The shit is that! Why does this monster have a name, and who named it in the first place!' just as I finished my thoughts my status board opened for Metalkill to view.

Level: 14 --> 15

[Status]

Name: Raas

Species: Menacing grey youngling serpent (???)

Strength: 67 --> (70) 52.5 (decreased by 25%)

Agility: 66 --> (66) 49,5 (decreased by 25%)

Intelligence: 70 --> (75) 56,25 (decreased by 25%)

Mentality: 52 --> (55) 39 (decreased by 25%)

Hp: 60/140

MP: 60/100

Title:

1. Limit Breaker (Increases your stats gained from evolutions)

2. Teasing death (What didn´t kill you will make you smarter)

3. Royal guard (Gain 30% damage and damage resistance when protecting someone, but betrayals will give you the curse Betrayer leading to a permanent decrease of 10% from your max stats for each betrayal and death after 3 betrayals.)

[Skills: Venom Fang lv 6 --> 7, Launch Attack lv 3, Slither lv 6, Swimming lv 1, Pain Resistance lv 4, Poison Resistance lv 2, Poison Affinity lv 2 --> 3, Crush lv 3, Intimidation lv 1, Poison Whip lv 3 -->4, Conceal lv 3]

[Racial Skill: Grey Out lv1]

[Evolution Path:]

[Grey Scales]

[Venomous Fangs]

[Colorful Movement Sensing Eyes]

[Danger Smelling Tongue]

[Vibration Sensing Ears]

[!You are able to evolve again!]

'I kinda feel exposed right now...'

'Wait a minute, did I reached level 15 and oversaw that could evolve one of my body parts?!!! And why didn´t I get an analyze or inspect skill, like every other reincarnated/transmigrated person in isekais?!' thought I as I looked at the metal behemoth. While glancing at it I saw that it was happy(?) when it looked at my stats.

Out of nowhere the scorpion raised its giant stinger and dropped it on me. It was so fast that I just saw the stinger when my racial skill activated on its own. The world turned grey and slowed down, but the stinger in front of me was still moving as if time ran normally. Well, it was more like my perception increased, but anyway, I couldn´t do anything but watch the stinger descend on me, slowly piercing through my scales, into my flesh right above my core. Unimaginable pain slowly spreads through my body as the singer pierced my core. I cursed my racial skill as I had to feel all that in slow motion, I looked into the monster in front of me with a pained and angry face. It retracted its tail as the world turned colorful again.

"HISSSSSS!!!!", I cried out and jerked around in pain as I saw my health slowly decreasing and with each passing second, I lost more Hp.

Hp: 30/140

'NO, THIS CAN`T BE HAPPENING!'

Looking up I could see the eight glowing red eyes staring down at me emotionlessly.

Hp: 26/140

'GOD FUCKING DAMNIT! WHY WOULD IT DO THIS, THIS BASTARD!!!' cried I in anger, in pain, in confusion.

Hp: 20/140

'NO NOT LIKE THIS! I CAN`T DIE NOW! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE I WILL DO ANYTHING, PLEASE!!!' but it just ignored my pleading cries and continued to watch.

Hp: 12/140

'NO!!! NO No no... I... I just started out new, why! WHY ME! I wanted to do so much more... and all the suffering I went through, for that... what a pathetic death...'

Hp: 1/140

'I guess I will see Grian sooner than I thought... Bye-bye cruel world...'

Accepting my fate I lied down and waited for the inevitable.

...

*Ding*

'What now! Can´t I just die in peace!' complained I, as the ringing sound of the system, didn´t stop.

'Wait...'

Looking at my stat I could see that my Hp was still at 1/140 and didn´t decrease anymore.

'What...?'

Turning my head up, I saw the monster with an amused gleam in its eyes, while clacking its mandibles as if it was laughing at me.

Still in pain, and seeing its amusement anger flared up inside me, but soon disappeared as a wave of energy spread through my body. Looking back at the wound my eyes widened and my mouth opened as I saw the big gaping wound healing at a rapid speed. In a matter of seconds, the injury closed and my Hp topped off again. As my core reshaped itself I could feel that it is more powerful, larger, and full of energy again. Even my body felt tougher and more compact than before.

In full health again I finally looked at the notifications that I got and once again I was slack-jawed.

[Poison affinity leveled up!]

[Poison resistance leveled up!]

[Pain resistance leveled up!]

[A resonating venom detected!]

[You teased death gaining 3 intelligence!]

[You teased death gaining 5 intelligence!]

[You teased death gaining 4 intelligence!]

[You have teased death too many times!]

[Title "teasing death" will be changed to "The Survivor"!]

[The Survivor: 25% increased resistance to all kinds of debuffs!]

[Solstice Venom awakened!]

[Healing affinity unlocked!]

[Healing Fang unlocked!]

[Healing glance will be generated!]

'Bruh...'

Reading through the long list, I felt slightly dizzy. I was overly happy about all the powerups I gained, but I felt complicated about the solstice venom, as I have never heard of something like that before, and don´t even know what it did. All the time I just poured my venom into an enemy and it died, the end. Now, I wonder what kinds of effects it will have on monsters, and according to the name something will change or happen on the longest and shortest day of the year, maybe something will even happen on equinox.

I was most shocked about the new affinity and new skill that I unlocked. Healing affinity will increase my survival rate and is a huge boon, It is especially useful as I have such a low defense, but I am sad about the fact that my title "teasing death" changed. Now I couldn´t increase my intelligence endlessly anymore, but I am happy that I got something else as a replacement and the new title is nothing to scoff at either.

Getting lost in my thoughts, the metal scorpion clanged his pincers together. Looking up I saw it signing me mutate right now, by pointing at the mutate notification, and as I didn´t want to anger it I just followed its command, well I saw it as a win for me anyway and the monster had no reason to spare me the whole time just to kill me after the evolution.... or so I think at least.

So clicking at the blue panel a new window popped up.

[Choose Evolution:]

[1. Grey Scales --> Menacing Scales, Sand Scales,]

[2. Venomous Fangs --> Improved Venomous Fangs, Random]

[3. [Colorful Movement Sensing Eyes --> Far Colorful Movement Sensing Eyes, Soul Eyes]

[4. Danger Smelling Tongue --> Detailed Danger Smelling Tongue, Random]

[5. Vibration Sensing Ears --> Random, Deep Vibration Sensing Ears]

[6. Get ??? or ???]

[Note: More specific Evolution paths will be unlocked in the future!]

'Wow, so many good options, but only one I can take, and this time there are much fewer Random choices than last time, and what is up with number 6?'

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