The Sweet Taste of Leveling Up

Ah, how sweet it is.

This is the taste of leveling up.

I, who was at level 3, suddenly leveled up seven times.

As I felt last time when my level went up by two at once, there's a strange sense of pleasure when leveling up.

It's similar to the feeling of immersing your body in a hot bath.

But now my level suddenly rose by seven.

If I had to compare it, it's like finding a hot spring after being left naked in the dead of winter.

It's like drinking a cold beer when your body starts to warm up after soaking in a hot spring when you were on the brink of freezing to death.

Thinking about it makes me want to drink a cold beer.

I wonder if there will ever be a day when I can drink beer.

I was about to feel depressed... but I didn't.

I'm a person who knows how to be grateful.

I wasn't before, but I am now.

Luckily, I survived. It's something to be thankful for, just to have been given a second life.

In fact, the impact of the fall was greater than I thought.

I must have broken several bones.

The good thing is that my body is healing at a noticeable rate.

Is it thanks to leveling up?

Come to think of it, after my level went up by two last time, I felt like my body had grown a bit.

It's the same now. The interior of Horn Jaguar's lung is wide enough for me to practice Quick Crawling.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.

「Due to rapid leveling up, physical transformation is delayed.」

Oh.

Indeed, my body's growth has stopped.

It seems that the speed of leveling up was too fast for my body to keep up.

Does this mean that my physical body grows as I level up?

I hope so.

Right now, I'm just a bit long, but too small.

It won't be easy to survive in the wild being this small.

First, I tried to wriggle my body.

It moves well.

I must have hundreds of ribs, and at least dozens of them must have been broken, but the pain is gone.

And my ragged jaw has reattached.

Actually, being sucked into the airway wasn't part of my plan.

Unfortunately, my overworked jaw came off at that moment.

Setting my luck to average seems to have been a good decision.

That being said, it doesn't seem like I misallocated my stats.

...Well, if I hadn't been born as a snake in the first place, I wouldn't have faced this danger.

Growl.

The beggar in my stomach is wailing.

I felt full after swallowing the bat whole, but now I feel like I'm dying of hunger.

It seems I moved too vigorously.

If only I had exercised this much in my previous life.

Well, there's no problem.

I'm inside a jaguar's body now.

That means the ceiling, walls, floor - nothing is inedible.

I swallowed my saliva as if I had entered Hansel and Gretel's gingerbread house.

Let's eat!

Biting!

The taste of flesh is excellent. It's a bit tough, but it has a savory taste.

Maybe it's because I was hanging onto the uvula with all my might.

My Biting skill proficiency has increased significantly.

Even though I'm not an ordinary snake, snakes typically eat by swallowing live animals whole and digesting them.

However, my tooth structure was more pointed, like dinosaur teeth, rather than that of a normal snake.

With the help of skills, it's manageable to tear and eat meat.

Come to think of it, skills are really amazing.

If I could learn a skill like 'Flight', wouldn't I be able to fly around?

Of course, I couldn't imagine it. Even if I tried to fly with all my might, it didn't seem like I could gain the Flight skill.

I continued to fill my stomach while imagining such things.

The Horn Jaguar seemed to be quite strong. The flesh was incredibly tough.

But I didn't stop, continuing to chew and swallow.

It was a difficult and time-consuming task, but it was never boring. Rather, it's delicious.

When I was young, I used to be so picky about side dishes that I got spanked every day. I wonder what my parents would think if they saw me now.

Wouldn't they be happy and say, "Well done, our son"?

They might prefer this to me being holed up in my room living as a NEET.

Hmm, it wasn't my imagination that I found it really delicious.

Considering that even the chunks of meat that Medusa Serpent vomited were edible, my taste might have changed after becoming a snake.

Being a good eater is also a talent. With this level of talent, I could even do mukbang.

I devoured the meat in a trance.

Last time, I was full after eating one bat, but now I've eaten more than three times that amount and it's still going down.

Then my tooth broke.

Crunch!

Ack!

I bit into something hard.

About three teeth came out at once, is this okay?

No, I'm not even two weeks old yet, so these must be baby teeth, right?

I hope they're not permanent teeth that won't grow back once they fall out. I don't think there are dental implants in this world.

...What's this?

What I bit wasn't a bone.

Before I knew it, I had burrowed into the area near Horn Jaguar's heart.

There was something like a shining stone there.

Is it a kidney stone?

No, I'm in the heart now, so it can't be a kidney stone.

Even I lose my appetite at the thought of biting into a stone.

Extraordinarily, an acorn-sized stone emitting light.

I can feel something like a warm heat.

Unless it's a radioactive stone that glows on its own, this must be something fantastical too.

Since it's inside a magical beast, it might be what's called a magic stone.

Moreover, I felt a different kind of appetite than when I ate meat.

If I eat this, I can become stronger.

I had a clear conviction.

If so, hoping it's not a kidney stone.

Nom.

Instead of biting, I swallowed it in one gulp.

Fortunately, a voice confirmed that my choice was correct.

「You have consumed a 3rd grade magic stone.」

It says it's a third-grade magic stone.

Is that good?

For meat or college entrance exams, 1st grade is good, but for psionic energy, 12th grade is the highest.

Well, I don't know how great of a magical beast Horn Jaguar is, so I can't tell.

Let's check the status window.

──────────────

[Little White Snake Lv10(-)]

[Traits]

[Indomitable], [Perseverance]

[Skills]

[Venomous Fang Lv3], [Quick Crawling Lv3], [Breath Holding Lv4], [Devouring Lv1], [Biting Lv4], [Poison Resistance Lv2], [Bleeding Resistance Lv2], [Pain Resistance Lv4], [Heat Resistance Lv2], [Survival Instinct Lv3]

[Status]

[Growing], [Magical Power Saturation], [Drowsiness]

──────────────

Ooh, the status window that used to be quite plain has become quite rich.

There's even a new Devouring skill that I hadn't seen before.

My level has finally reached Lv10, but there's a (-) mark next to it.

Well, this seems to be related to the delayed physical transformation mentioned earlier.

But if we think positively, it might be like Lieutenant Colonel (Provisional) or Captain (Provisional).

Still, the status window clearly showed the struggles I've been through.

Look at how much the levels of Breath Holding, Pain Resistance, and Biting have increased.

You can tell how painful the journey has been.

What I like is Survival Instinct Lv3.

I knew nothing about this world.

To survive, I'll need information, but maybe I can somehow navigate through it with this instinct or whatever.

Of course, I don't know if I should really follow the survival instinct.

Most animals have an instinct to fear high places, but sometimes they might need to climb high trees to survive.

[Status], this is something I haven't seen before.

Is the status window updating in real-time?

I was growing and feeling sleepy.

I'm not sure what Magical Power Saturation means. It might be because I ate the magic stone.

Anyway, as soon as I ate the magic stone, mysteriously, the hunger that had been tormenting me subsided.

Ah, I'm getting drowsy.

My adaptability is amazing, and the inside of this Horn Jaguar's body wasn't too bad.

The blood and bodily fluids were a bit sticky and smelly, but there were advantages.

The point is that everything in all directions is food.

And while I'm in this stomach, there's no threat that can bother me.

It might be good to rest a bit here.

As before, I felt that if I slept and woke up, my body would feel refreshed.

Maybe I'll catch a little shut-eye.

So I was about to surrender myself to sleep once again... but I didn't.

I feel a bit uneasy.

I opened my eyes that I had closed.

Is this the right choice?

This warm and dark place gave me an instinctive sense of security.

But that might be my misconception.

What's the environment like outside? What if the place where Horn Jaguar fell is actually dangerous?

Scavengers tend to gather around dead animal carcasses.

It wouldn't be a problem if only insects were attracted, but it would be a big deal if a magical beast as dangerous as Horn Jaguar appeared.

If something swallows Horn Jaguar's carcass whole, I'd become an eating pleasure like the hazelnut in Ferrero Rocher, or the pickled radish in kimbap.

This anxiety might also be the effect of Survival Instinct Lv3.

Let's get out first.

After wriggling around, I finally found a way out.

I stuck out my tongue and slipped out through the dead Horn Jaguar's mouth.

'Wow, this is completely mashed up.'

The cliff from which Horn Jaguar fell was very high.

Looking around, this place is a basin-like depression.

And Horn Jaguar was exposed on flat ground.

I'm a bit confused about whether this is a dangerous situation or not.

It was a bit of a shame to leave that big chunk of meat behind, so I decided to look around first.

I slithered into the nearby bushes.

Thump-

Oh?

I felt a vibration from my belly that was pressed against the ground.

Snakes have ways of perceiving the world other than sight.

Especially, the ability to detect vibrations seemed far superior to humans.

Thump- thump-

I could clearly feel something moving underground.

I quickly climbed onto a solid rock.

Nevertheless, the vibrations grew stronger.

Something was getting closer.

I stopped moving and remained silent.

Ah, it passed right under me.

Whatever passed under the rock headed straight for where Horn Jaguar's carcass was.

And the ground bulged up.

Four leg-like things with shells appeared.

Crack.

It hugged Horn Jaguar's carcass and disappeared into the ground.

Rumble-

And it vanished with its harvest.

...Thank you, Survival Instinct.

I couldn't even see what kind of magical beast it was.

But it certainly looked bigger and more powerful than Horn Jaguar.

To think that such a creature crawls underground, I've fallen into a terrible neighborhood.

I didn't move from the rock for a long time.

Only when I was sure that it had completely left did I leave my spot.

I need to find a place to sleep.

Now, I have no desire to sleep on bare ground even if I die.

Just before sunset, I found a crevice in the rocks where I could hide my body.

After entering it, I camouflaged myself by sprinkling dirt on my body.

That thing, surely it can't swallow a whole rock, right?

I might have nightmares tonight.

I closed my eyes, feeling a bit tense.

==

I didn't have a nightmare.

Because my mental strength is top-notch.

Rather, you could say I had a good dream, because as soon as I fell asleep, I saw a status message.

[You can evolve after reaching Level 10.]

[Do you want to evolve?]

Of course I do!