Pain

(Raas POV)

Being pinned down by a giant tarantula that could even top one of Lovecraft's monsters in ugliness isn´t really a good experience... A thick pungent droll dropped on me as its sharp leg pinned me down. Looking into its many glowing eyes I internally cried to myself, wondering why I deserved such a fate. The mandibles clicked in delight seeing me struggle and in pain, and slowly closed in with its 2 venomous fangs ready to liquify my internals. I hissed back in last resort, but the spider was 10 times bigger, and definitely not intimidated by a small snake.

Just when the fangs were about to touch me I heard an unfamiliar voice. "Ahhh, finally a worthy prey! Stop playing around and fight me!"

Also noticing the voice, the spider flung me aside and crashing into a dead tree. Lying on the ground I wondered how I got into such a situation...

(A few hours before)

Waking up in a dark and gloomy place, made me anxious... but that was only the first problem. As I breathed in the stale and polluted air, I felt my senses distort and my life shorten. But that wasn´t all, the crimson, brown, and black ground burned my scales and every fiber that touched the ground, while it got worse by the second.

I was worried that I reincarnated again, but seeing my scales melt made me realize that I was still a snake. Wait... my scales melt...

`Shit shit shit shit shit!!!!`

Having no time to think other than how to get off the hellish ground I looked far and wide, only to see a wasteland that was far worse than anything that I could imagine. Half rotten corpses, creepy monsters gushing around, dead trees, puddles of blood, and cries of pain and misery everywhere.

Spotting one rock not far away I slithered as far as I could. Dragging my body through the ground made my scales melt quicker, and slowly eating through it. In a last sprint, I got into range for my [Launch attack] and jumped on the rock.

Felling my underside bleeding I quickly bit myself with [Healing Fang] and tried to patch myself up, only to find out that it didn´t work. Luckily my natural regeneration still worked so I had to wait till I fully recovered to find a way to escape this place.

Opening my status screen I was shocked that I was ready to evolve already. I was kinda not watching my notification when we fought, so I completely missed it...

[Status]

Name: Raas

Species: Menacing bright youngling Serpent (Sun-Eater/???)

Level: 16 --> 20

Strength: 98 --> 120

Agility: 75 ---> 103

Intelligence: 86 --> 90

Mentality: 72 ---> 111

Hp: 300/300 ---> 84/410

MP: 180/180 --> 0!/220

Title:

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

2. The Survivor (25% increased resistance to all kinds of debuffs!)

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 7 --> 8, Launch Attack lv 3 -->4, Slither lv 6 --> 7, Swimming lv 1, Pain Resistance lv 5 --> 6, Poison Resistance lv 4, Poison Affinity lv 4, Healing Affinity lv 1 --> 2, Healing Fang lv 1 --> 3, Crush lv 3, Intimidation lv 1 --> 2, Poison Whip lv 4, Conceal lv 3 --> 4, Harden lv 1 --> 2, Sun Breath lv 1 --> 3, Fire Resistance lv 5]

[Racial Skill: Grey Out lv1, Solistic Venom, Ash Field lv 1 (new!)]

[Evolution Path:]

[Solar Scales]

[Venomous Fangs]

[Colorful Movement Sensing Eyes]

[Danger Smelling Tongue]

[Vibration Sensing Ears]

[Healing Glance]

[Crystal Core Shield]

[Sol´s gem]

The first thing I noticed was that I didn´t have any mana, probably due to having a cracked core... but why wasn´t I able to use [Healing Fang] on me? It didn´t even use mana... pushing the thought aside I saw that quite a lot of skills leveled up... but I couldn´t even use my main attack, [Sun Breath]... I am in some serious shit right now... the only good thing is that I can choose an evolution, hoping to get something that helps me survive this place.

Sadly reaching tier 3 doesn´t allow me to change my species again... but I take what I get.

So opening my notifications I read,

[Choose Evolution:]

[1. Solar Scales --> Mana gathering Solar Scales, Bruning Solar Scales, Random, Regenerating Solar Scales]

[2. Venomous Fangs --> Potent Venomous Fangs, Corrupting Venomous Fangs, Regenerating Venomous Fangs, Random]

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

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

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

[6. Healing Glance --> Fast Healing Glance, Strong Healing Glance, Random]

[7. Crystal Core Shield --> Sturdy Crystal Core Shield, Mana Storing Crystal Core Shield]

The choices increased gain... but I rooted out all things with mana and the Crystl Core Shield as my mana core is shattered and I am still somehow alive, so gathering mana isn´t a problem for now. My main problem is resisting the ground, so I had to evolve my scales again... but which to choose?

Before choosing, I quickly looked around to see if any kind of monsters are around, but I only heard pained cries and wails in the distance.

Now for real, the choice is between, Bruning Solar Scales, Random and Regenerating Solar Scales...

Don´t know how burning scales should help me traverse this plain and Random seemed too risky. So it wasn´t very difficult on what I should decide.

Pressing on Regenerating Solar Scales, my body burned up and I could feel my scales falling off. One by one they fell off while new ones grew back. The process was painful and long, but I had to endure.

After an unknown amount of time, I got up and inspected my new fresh scales. I thought they would look the same, but the new ones are bigger, more spiked and the colors more striking.

I liked them quite a lot and seeing my Hp being topped off my mood sored again.

Mentally reading myself I took a random direction and leaped through the air, wanting to avoid touching the ground as much as I could.

I slithered around aimlessly, while my scales constantly melted and regenerated. It felt like my skin was being ripped off constantly, but at least my scales kept up so that I could find a stone in time where I could regenerate. I found out not every stone was safe, which I found odd.

"Tik tik tik tik tik tik tik tik..."

Hearing a weird clicking sound I stopped and looked around, but couldn´t spot anything. Having a bad feeling about this situation I speeded up.

"Tik tik tik tik tik tik tik tik..."

No matter how fast I ran, the sound followed me, like it was right next to me. My danger-smelling tongue was telling me that danger was around, but it was always telling me that since coming here.

My eyes didn´t pick up anything either, and my only choice was to continue slaughtering.

*Pierce*

Out of nowhere, I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen... pinning me to the corrupted ground. I turned my head and saw a thin barbed spider leg in my back. Looking up I saw the ugliest monster I have seen in my two lives. The spider monster had many humanoid faces plastered around its head with random arms and legs from all kinds of creatures randomly moving around. The main face was of a gorgeous woman, but without teeth and eyes and half of its face rotten away. The two giant pincers dripped venom right next to me, avoiding me only by a hair length.

...

(Back to the present)

So that is how I got myself in this kind of situation. I quickly tried to raise myself up, but the damage was too much, and I think that monster broke my spine.

I was truly helpless right now. My face faced the other way so I couldn´t even see who was fighting the spider right now, but from the sounds alone I could tell that it was a one-sided beatdown from the newcomer.

I wasn´t really happy about it, I hoped they would kill each other and I would survive long enough to be able to move again, but I heart a growl.

"Grrrrr, it is you! How the flying Nagirus did you end up here! Hahahaha, you look so pathetic right now! I don´t understand why Scorge is so fixated on you, but meh, don´t want to anger that old fart. Heh, always making me do the dirty job while he plays with the lesser monsters! But hahahahaa, I have to thank you. Thanks to you he was allowed to get here."

I was confused, but I had bigger problems, "emm, can you maybe help me up... I am slowly dying here."

"Ah right, right." said a female voice.

I could feel a hand grip around me while filling me with energy.

"Hmm seems like your core is broken, so that is why she send you here. Tough luck there little one."

turning me around I came face to face with a giant deer skull, with ominous glowing red eyes behind. I looked at her(?) and noticed that it was a monster that I knew of... a giant Wendigo was holding me up in her palm like I was a little earthworm in the palms of a human. The wendigo looked like she was out of rotten wood and flesh.

"You scared little one!" said the giant wendigo with a grin. "Don´t worry I won't eat you. You aren´t worthy enough, and Scorge would make my life worse than living here."

I nodded and looked around spotting a squashed spider with green liquid oozing out while the ground around it sizzled. I could piece the information together and ask.

"Is there a way out of here?"

"Yes, but in your condition, you would die the moment you stepped out. You first need to fix your core. Scorge will tell you more when he arrives."

I nodded again.

We sit down in silence and my back slowly healed, also thanks to the wendigo.

After 10 minutes of silence, she finally said.

"Argh, he is taking too long! This is so boring!!" cried the wendigo, but then turned towards me with her skull face only inches away from me. Huffing a breath at me she asked, "Want to go hunting while we wait for Scorge?"

Free exp? Count me in! "Yes, why not!" responded I to her delight.

She let out a maniac laugh and put me on her head, saying I should hold tight. Wrapping my tail around her antlers she crouched down on all four and sprinted away.

Feeling the toxic air swish in my face was not a nice experience, and the view of the creepy monsters tearing each other to pieces was insane. Not to mention a 300 meter big skinny humanoid monster walking in the vast distance.