16 Overconfidence
Cursing at my misfortune I looked at Sahra who was already grabbing the backpack.
She ran towards me, swooped me up, and set me on her shoulder, while also covering me with a layer of sand.
Running in the opposite direction of the war drums, we ignored every monster on our way. Not having enough time to deal with them we just killed those who are blocking our patch. Well, it was mostly Sahra who stabbed them.
So for the next 30 minutes, we were just running through the mysterious woods. We long stopped hearing the drums and horns. The forest is filled with many different monsters that I kind of have seen in manga and novels and we killed every one of them coming in our path. There were goblins, moving trees, brown wolves, bees that were made out of leaves, and many more unique monsters that I have never seen before. Seeing all those different monsters I couldn´t help but be a little bit excited to explore this new fantasy world I have been reborn into.
As time goes on, I noticed that the vegetation is getting thicker and the forest denser the further we ran, even a slight fog can be seen. Covering the ground like a carped, making moving at a fast pace dangerous as the floor is covered with roots.
But while we were running, I was feeling slightly jealous of her gaining all the exp from the kills. After a while, she even stopped killing them altogether. She just runs past them, leaving them injured and easy prey for other monsters. Seeing all the waisted experience, a sudden ingenious idea ran through my brain.
What if I coat her dagger with my venom so that I gain all that exp that will be wasted anyway?
Grinning like a mad snake I slithered from her shoulder down onto her right arm, where she was holding her weapon. Sahra who noticed me moving towards her hand stopped running and watched me opening my mouth and softly bit on her knife a couple of times, leaving enough droplets of venom on it that the blade is fully covered with my yellow-colored venom.
After finishing nibbling on her weapon I slithered back on her shoulder and flashed her a satisfied smile.
Seeing me happy she just shrugged her shoulder and continued to jog.
I still don´t know if my venom is potent enough to kill the monsters, but it is worth a shot. Oh, by the way, I still don´t know where we are running to, but she clearly has an idea...
Well, I hope she has a plan, if not also okay as I don´t have a clue where I am right now. At least I have someone accompanying me and am not alone anymore.
Getting a little anxious if my plan works, a pack of brown wolves ran towards us in an arc.
Sahra already spotted the approaching monsters stopped in her tracks and simply stood still, as she was in constant combat mode.
The wolves who are now walking in a circle around us growled to intimidate us.
Counting 8 brown wolves that are as big as a husky encircling us, I prepared myself to finally gain some exp.
Till now this is the biggest group of monsters we encountered.
Not even 3 seconds pass, as one of the brown wolves pounces at us from behind.
Sahra who was staying still as a statue sidestepped at the last moment and lunged her dagger into its head, pinning it into the ground.
*Ding*
[You helped kill an adult Ground Wolf!]
[38 Exp gained!]
Hoho it worked... kinda.
It was less than killing that fat rat, but I don´t have to fight to the death or even move a muscle for the juice-free experience.
Breaking my happy thought was a combined howl from the wolves.
It sounded like a sad grieving cry, mourning their fallen comrade. Hearing the sound, I got dizzy and my vision blurred a little.
Even Sahra was now swaying a little bit... Oh wait, it is only me who is being affected by the howl.
Finishing their howling two of them rapidly charged us from the left and right, as the remaining 5 began to run in circles around us again.
Tackling us at the same time Sahra made an uppercut move and killed one of the wolves. The other one was deflected by a sand shield between his mouth. Not letting go of Sahras arm, I used the chance and bit it right in the neck pouring one-fourth of my poison into him.
Felling the sharp pain on the wolf's neck it immediately let go and backed off, just to stumble and fall to the side.
*Ding*
[You killed a youngling Ground Wolf!]
[67 Exp gained!]
Sweet! Heh, they are weaker than I expected.
While we were killing the two wolves, the rest of them rushed us one after the other, doing a chain attack.
Sahra who dealt with ground wolves before could easily kill them, but due to their speed, a few attacks landed on her. Injuring her lightly, as more and more scratch marks appeared.
*Ding*
[You helped kill an adult Ground Wolf!]
[31 Exp gained!]
*Ding*
[You helped kill a youngling Ground Wolf!]
[27 Exp gained!]
*Ding*
[You helped kill an adult Ground Wolf!]
[42 Exp gained!]
I saw how easily Sahra cut them with her dagger and thought I could do the same... Oh boy have I been wrong about that.
Overconfident about the first wolf kill I leaped at one of the remaining ground wolves with an open mouth, just to be slapped away with a paw swipe. Leaving 4 slash wounds near my head.
'Agg, I made a mistake!' thought I as I looked into the jaws of the wolf, ready to bite my head off.
Preparing to jump away I realized that there wasn´t enough time and prepared for the worst, just to see him suddenly stopped only millimeters away from me and fell to the side.
*Ding*
[You helped kill a youngling Ground Wolf!]
[24 Exp gained!]
*Ding*
With a small thump, the dog-sized wolf fell to the ground with a dagger in his throat.
Sahra quickly clapped her hands, producing a sand cloud blinding the wolves she ran towards me picked me and the dagger up, and ran away.
Wondering why she ran away instead of killing the remaining two ground wolves, I saw that her body was ridden with small injuries.
The whole time we were running a tense atmosphere was between us. I know I made a big mistake by engaging a wolf by myself.
5 minutes passed as we finally made a stop to rest. The adrenalin in my body long faded as I felt the sharp pain of the wound the wolf gave me. Sahra put down her backpack and took out bandages and some herb cream or something, before smearing my wound with the green past, that numbed the pain a little, before wrapping me into it. While doing that she was constantly glaring at me with her two black dots.
Tightening the bandages on my body I hissed in pain, despite the numbing cream, and looked down in shame. I not only risked my but also her life by jumping off her shoulder and making her throw her weapon to save me.
*Sigh*
Hearing a small sigh I slowly raised my head to see Sahra smile at me and patting my head. Seeing her forgive me I bobbed her cheek with my head.
After finishing putting on the bandages we sat down for a while to rest our tired bodies. I thought it would be easy for Sahra to kill the whole pack but guess the exhaustion of running the whole time while killing everything in our way and carrying me and the huge backpack got to her.
While we were resting, I checked my status.
'Hey, system please show me my status!'
*Ding*
[Status]
Name: ???
Species: Hatchling grey snake (???)
Level: 8 --> 9
[Stats:]
Strength: 20 --> 25
Agility: 26 --> 32
Intelligence: 30 --> 43
Mentality: 30 --> 38
Hp: 37/88
MP: 0
Title:
1. Limit Breaker (Increases stat gain from evolutions)
2. Teasing death (What will not kill you will make you smarter)
[Skills: Venom Fang lv3, Launch Attack lv 2, Slither lv 2, Swimming lv 1, Pain Resistance lv1]
[Racial Skill: Grey Out lv1]
[Evolution Path:]
[Grey Scales]
[Venomous Fangs]
[Colorful Movement Sensing Eyes]
[Danger Smelling Tongue]
[Vibration Sensing Ears]
Oh damn, I lost more than half my health with a single attack from the wolf!
And it was still a youngling... shit I nearly died again and lost my chance to explore this fantasy world.
Hmmm, oh!
I gained the skill pain resistance, leveled up and Venom Fang leveled up to lv 3!
Ah, pain resistance will be so super-duper helpful during my future evolutions! Hehehe, now I kind of get excited about my next evoluti-
…
Wait a minute, what´s up with the new title I gained?
Teasing death!? Isn´t it 'What will not kill you makes you stronger.' Guess I got something out of it for constantly living on the edge. That explains the enormous growth in my intelligence stat.
*Sigh*
I wonder how long I will stay a hatchling.
Closing my status window again I felt my mind darken and slowly fell asleep.
