Hospitality (1)

As the day passes the person that rescued Raas went back to his room and continued making potions and tended to the herbs outside the house. The oversized bees buzzed around the garden and killed every monster that went too close to the field. All the monster cores and valuable parts are being neatly pilled up in the storage room.

But with the barrier around the house, not many monsters wander around the place, and the bees quickly got bored. They already produce enough honey for three times the size of the population, so most of the time they just messed around the garden or played little games like hide and seek or tag. They even rearranged a flower field so that it looked like a picture of their queen. And why they didn´t just increase the population? Well, the place is limited so they didn´t have a need for offspring and as monsters, they have a long life span and could be potentially live forever if they continued to level up and evolve. So basically they didn´t see a need to bolster up their numbers and inside the barrier, they are well protected from all potential predators.

But enough with that.

During the day the person checked on Raas every few hours to see if something has changed. When the sun started to set, Raas finally began to show signs of waking up. Feeling a small stir the fluffy balls woke up and happily nuzzled with him. Raas who was feeling all the soft fur wanted to continue sleeping, but remembering what happened, his eyes constricted as he sprung up. Confused and disoriented he checked his surrounding, but what he saw made him only more confused.

""""Ni ni ni ni ni~"""" Chirped the bundle of small fluffy monsters.

Hearing all the noise hurt his ears as his mind was still hazy. 'Ugh, what the hell, why do I feel like I have a hangover?'

Seeing the bunch he looked at them confusedly, 'What are these creatures?'

"""Ni ni ni ni~"""

'They look kind of delicious...' though Raas as he licked his lips with his split tongue. A slight hiss escaped his lips as he opened his mouth.

The balls of fluff continued to chirp happily at Raas as he crept near one of them with a wide-open jaw, and drolling slightly.

The cloudiness of his mind plus the hunger made him unable to think correctly.

Just as he was about to swallow the monster the door opened. Raas immediately turned his head towards the noise. He could see an old man holding a staff and a wooden bowl standing in the doorway. The old man had long flowing hair and a majestic beard, his calm blue eyes shone in wisdom and intelligence as he stared at Raas that seemed like a little child who was caught stealing candies by his parents.

As the two stared at each other the room turned almost completely silent. Only a muffled chirping could be heard coming out from Raas's mouth. Despite its dangerous position it continued to chirp happily.

Raas slowly lowered his head and spat out the white ball that was now covered in saliva.

...

Breaking the awkward silence the elderly man coughed. "Ahem, you must be hungry after waking up." spoked the old man in a calm manner and laid the wooden bowl in front of Raas.

Stomping the staff on the floor the white fluffy monsters dissipated into flakes of light that got sucked into the staff.

Smelling the fragrant soup in front of him he unconsciously gulped as his mouth began to water. He was still suspicious about the whole situation, but the hunger overwhelmed his sense of danger as he plunged his head inside the soup. Luckily for him, the soup already cooled down. Inhaling the soup in a matter of seconds his hunger slowly reduced.

....

Wait a minute, his hunger reduced?

Raas eyes widened as he finished slurped the last bit of the creamy soup and didn´t felt hungry anymore.

Not feeling hungry anymore his mind instantly began to race again, but first, he had to check his status.

'System, open my status!' screamed Raas inside his mind. It has been quite some time since he last checked his status.

[Status]

Name: Raas

Species: Menacing grey youngling serpent (???)

Level: 13 --> 14

[Stats:]

Strength: 64 --> 67

Agility: 66 --> 68

Intelligence: 65 --> 70

Mentality: 49 --> 52

Hp: 140/140

MP: 70/70

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, Launch Attack lv 3, Slither lv 4 --> 6, Swimming lv 1, Pain Resistance lv 4, Poison Resistance lv1, Poison Affinity lv 2, Crush lv 1 --> 3, Intimidation lv 1, Poison Whip lv 2 --> 3, Conceal lv 2 --> 3]

[Racial Skill: Grey Out lv1]

[Evolution Path:]

[Grey Scales]

[Venomous Fangs]

[Colorful Movement Sensing Eyes]

[Danger Smelling Tongue]

[Vibration Sensing Ears]

'The curse is gone! Just how long was I unconscious for!? Shit, Sahra must be thinking I died or is searching for me! No scrap that, I don´t even know if she is okay or even alive!' as Raas panicked and thought about all kinds of scenarios the old man just looked at him curiously.

"If you are so curious about the monster that named you just concentrate on the mark on your chest." said the old man and sat down in front of him.

'What the... can he read my mind and how can I understand him?! I couldn´t understand this world's language when the humans attacked us, but now I can understand him fluently? What wizardry is that? Screw it, for now.' thought Raas as he focused on the hourglass symbol above his heart.

He felt a slight ping in his mind as if he connected to something. He sighed in relief as his body slumped down. 'Puh, at least Sahra is alive. I have to get out as soon as I can and search for her.'

"Seems like the one that named you is still alive, but I would wait till the next day if I were you. It is getting dark and many dangerous monsters will be out hunting for food and a tier 1 monster will not survive the stay outside, especially with all that is happening inside the dungeon right now." said the old man.

Raas looked at the old man again with a shooked expression, 'Hmm makes sense old man... wait he can read my mind!!!'

"No, I can´t read your mind, little one," said the old man with an amused grin.

'You are clearly lying!'

"I´m not lying. If you get as old as me, you would learn to read a person's thoughts by his facial expression and body language alone. Well reading a monster is a little bit harder, but I have been living with monsters for a long time now and you have quite the range of expressions," grinned the old man.

Raas let out an annoyed hiss, 'I guess I have to be careful what I´m thinking about.', but when he looked around he finally realized that he was inside a house. 'Where the heck am I? Why am I inside a house? Am I still inside a dungeon? What is going on here?'

"Don´t worry so much little one. I removed the curse for you. You are inside my home and we are still inside the third floor of the woodland dungeon. You were only out for half a day and the reason why you could understand me is that I have learned the monster tongue or the universal monster language. Now follow me, I will show you my humble abode. It has been quite some time since I got such a unique guest, so excuse me if I didn´t show proper hospitality." Standing up he gestured towards Raas to follow him.

Thinking about what he should do, he decided that it would be a good opportunity to learn more about this world's standard.

As for why Raas was not guarded at the old man, well he has his guard up since he woke up and was prepared to attack any moment, but he knew that the old man could have killed him any time he wanted and there is no reason why he should pep him up just to kill him so he followed his savior out of the room.

To Raas´s surprise, the house was way bigger than he expected, "don´t be so shooked yet, I still have quite some things to show you."

After showing Raas every room and every device that was inside and outside the house the old man sat down on a comfy leather chair in the living room. Raas also sat on a comfy chair but was being swarmed by the hummingbird-sized bees. They are really curious creatures and as they never saw a snake on the third floor they inspected and pocked every inch of his body. Raas who was annoyed by them tried to push them away and to get them off of him, but they stuck to him like honey.

Well, Raas loved bees but getting surrounded by them and seeing their long stinger on their butt, he got a little bit uncomfortable. One even almost pocked his eye out as it flew around him. "I am sorry about that, little one, but as I already mentioned we don´t get many guests and they are just happy to finally have someone they could play with. Other than working they don´t do much, so seeing them like that really lightens this old man's heart." said the old man while sipping a cup of tea.

'Where the heck did he get the cup of tea just now?' was the only question inside Raas's mind.

"Oh, where are my manners? Do you also like something to drink?" asked the old man as he put down his cup on the wooden table.

Giving him a nod the elder stomped his staff as vines sprouted out the table and a wooden cup formed. Another plant grew out the ceiling and dropped some leaves inside the cup before pouring steamy hot water down.

"Be careful it is still hot." said the elder while continuing drinking.

Raas who was awed by the whole thing just looked at the steaming cup of herbal tea in front of him. The fresh fragrance of the tea valved over him and immediately energized him. He flicked his tongue and it smelled blue, just like the fruit he and Sahra ate.

'Hmm, this drink is quite mana rich...'

Grabbing the cup with his tail he blew some air on it to cool it down.

"I guess you really are an Acutra..." mumbled the wise old man while stroking his majestic beard.

Raas took a sip and felt his body burning up slightly. It wasn´t painful but instead, it was pleasant as if drank pure caffeine. He could feel every cell in his body being filled with mana.

*Ding*

[You gained a 10% mana regeneration boost for the next 10 minutes!]

'Oh, this is a surprise...'