Feeding

It was strange. I had not realised it before due to having been taken by surprise over the fact that I was a snake, but I had just discovered a little strange inconsistency regarding my current form. And that was my eyesight.

Snakes, at least in my world, were notorious for their poor eyesight. And some even evolved to have no eyes at all.

However, my current serpentine body had incredible eyesight and could see with perfect clarity even in dim lighting.

Which meant I had eyes capable of seeing in low light conditions with superb clarity. Something that was unbelievable to me.

One other to note is my tongue, to test it out I had it lift into the air. And immediately I had caught something, they were scents. I don't know what it was, but I do know that if I followed it, I might get an insight as to where I was.

Especially considering that Ophiuchus doesn't help out much other than giving me my status.

Which reminds me, that I haven't had the time to check my status out yet, so with a refreshed mind and new knowledge of my current situation, I called out to it in my mind.

Ophiuchus understood my intentions and did not dawdle.

[Nameless One

Species: Infant Fairy Serpent

Rank: F

Skills: Ensnare. Venom. Tensility. Enhanced Senses.

Abilities: Asexual Reproduction. Hermaphroditism. Bodily Hacking. Memory Retention.

Titles: Reincarnated One. Corpse Eater.

Grafts: Human Eyes. Human DNA.

Biomass: 0

Mutations: Morphed Human Eyes.]

Oh? How interesting, but, what's up with the Grafts? Why do I have human parts?

[Answer: Fairy Serpents, as stated on the Information Tab are capable of asexual reproduction. However, the way they do so is by biting other living creatures, injecting both their eggs and venom into them.

The venom would weaken the body of the creature and allow the unborn serpent to grow without any resistance from the host's immune system.

Once at a certain level the serpent's egg releases an enzyme that breaks down the host's body and transform it all into nutrients. All that broken down DNA is then absorbed by the embryo for it to use, gathering a select part of its DNA to code itself with in accordance to natural selection.

In your case you have, by pure chance, randomly obtained the gene for eyes as originally your species have generally poor eyesight, in addition you have also retained all of your previous host's DNA compressed into a very small capsule, so that you can pass on those genes to your offspring or alternatively you can use it once you have attained a way to become a human. Enabling a faster way to let you assimilate your human form].

I see. So that means, my species are a parasitic life form that breed and steal from other living beings?

[Correct]. Ophiuchus' answer pleased me.

Not bad. Maybe snakes aren't so bad after all, so, how do I get stronger? After all, I was given another chance at life. At the very least I want to do the things I've never had the chance to do so back then.

Due to laws and the restrictions of a society, I could never fully do as I wished. There were times back then when I did not want to fulfil my duties as a citizen of a society, other times when I wanted to rid the source of my hatred, then there were times were I wanted to take what I wanted but did not want to deal with the consequences.

But now, maybe I can finally be free from the rules. I didn't want rules. I wanted to be free, with no consequences at all!

[Understood. I shall aid you in your quest for freedom. But for now, please kill and eat bugs for Biomass].

I sighed, "As expected. I still have a long way to go."

And by the way, what's Biomass?

...

Slithering around the cave, I used my forked tongue to smell out my prey. As a snake, I was mostly carnivorous. However that did not stop me from being capable of digesting plants.

It was difficult at first, having to tug at it in order to even take one bite of it. This was apparently due to how the plants here evolved, having developed thick cell walls to increase their density. At the very least, I was able to gain some Biomass from it.

Although they were in small increments, what I was more surprised was the fact that Biomass could even come from plants.

But that soon dwindled after having had an explanation from Ophiuchus. Biomass referred to the total of organic matter an organism has consumed including microorganisms.

However, it is difficult to feed on microbes unless one has the specific adaptations required to do so.

Biomass has a lot of uses, such as expediting the rate of mutation, directing its entire development and evolution as well as evolution itself.

Also, once one has gathered a certain amount of Biomass, they are able to piece together remnant DNA into a full DNA strand, replicate it and graft whichever gene you want inside your own DNA.

Complicated, yes, but it is very interesting. At the very least it meant that if I could, I was able to graft myself a pair of arms and legs. Becoming a sort of reptilian humanoid.

Which would probably look a lot more hideous than it looked, but, who cares? At the very least I'd have limbs that enable me to do much more than just slither.

But that would require me to eat a lot more Biomass to fully graft myself with other new features. I'm especially looking forward to evolution, whenever that will happen.

Now, let's see if I can eat more bugs.