9 Rewards

So here I am the lowest low in my second life till now, and not even one week in. A piercing ring in my ear, a headache so strong that I want to split my head open, my companion's dead or incapacitated, and humans laughing. Almost like school. Hah!

Even the simple action of turning my head hurt like hell. And the worst part of all? I don´t know if I´m lying in my own blood or pee. And you know what, I don´t even want to know.

I am scared shitless by the tall human in front of me holding a dagger. He was clearly happy seeing me scared, satisfying his disgusting superiority complex or whatever.

Even now I still want to live or at least I want to bite the rogue in the throat and watch him slowly die from my poison. So I coiled myself together while pretending to shiver and be scared. Well, I don´t have to pretend to shiver as it is still cold, but the temperature is slowly rising again, filling me with energy.

He stopped one meter away from me and laughed at me pointing his finger at me while calling the others. Clearly dropping his guard as if he is new to hunting monsters.

I used the change while his head was turned. I flexed my muscles and pushed as hard as I could launching myself like a spring at his throat. Flying straight toward him I opened my mouth and latched onto him. Piercing my two sharp fangs into his throat.

*Bite*

He got careless and clearly didn´t know I could jump that far. With a shocked face, he tried to grab me, but I pumped as much poison into his system as possible. He didn´t manage to grab me and began to stiffen. While shaking and foaming from his mouth, the rogue fell face first down onto the hard floor like a log.

As the man fell down the rush of adrenalin faded, and I realized what I did.

Yup, he is dead.

Before I could overthink that I just killed a human, I heard something that I missed quite a lot.

The sound of system notifications popped into my mind which helped me calm down.

*Ding*

Quite a lot of notifications...

*Ding*

Oh, there are more.

*Ding*

...

Wow, I didn´t expect so many notifications. I couldn´t read or dwell on it as the others got out of their stupor and charged at me.

I looked at Sahra and saw she was slowly getting back on her feet.

But there wasn´t enough time to flee. I began to panic for the I don´t know how many times and frankly looked between the approaching humans and the struggling Sahra.

'I need more time. I need to do something but what!?' Then as if the system heard my distress, my mind cleared. All the stress and pressure just disappeared. Even my vision improved. Full 4k vison, but everything was still grey.

Nevertheless, I quite missed seeing in high quality instead of blurry outlines. My mind was racing replaying everything that happened and thinking of many different scenarios. I could see everything in slow motion as if the whole world slowed down.

When I looked around one thing shined in my eyes. It was the leather bag of the dead rogue. It had a shine to it as if it were holy. I focused my eyes on it and saw an exploding stone in it which I slithered towards in a slow crawl.

I guess I too am in slow motion.

Just as I reached it and turned around, I saw an arrow being shot. It was aimed right between my head. Luckily, I had enough time and leaned backward dogging the arrow by a hair. I used the motion and swung the stone at the approaching humans. As it flew through the air, I could see how the human's eyes widened and tried to turn back or jump away. The faces of shock and panic were great.

It took painstakingly long till it finally hit the leader of the group right at his foot and exploded. I enjoyed every second of it.

Right afterward my vision turned normal and I could hear and feel the explosion and the cries of the monster hunters. I never thought that revenge would feel this good. I could get addicted to that feeling.

No snake, get your shit together, some are still alive!

Just as I expected them to rush and kill me, they stopped as the salt golem collected his salt skin and pierced one human through his stomach with a spiked hand. Killing him instantly. They now panicked as the dirt golem too freed from the trap and bit off another head. Leaving only the feetless leader and an archer who quickly pulled his leader towards the mount and rode away as fast as he could.

We didn´t have the energy to chase or even stand anymore.

I turned towards Sahra who is now standing up and looking at the fleeing duo. She staggered towards me with a lot of effort and picked me up before setting me on her shoulders and walked towards the corps of the fallen comrade.

She looked at the remaining metal pieces and slumped own on her knees. The other sat down next to her. They then touched the corps and absorbed the metal leaving a shattered orb the size of a handball. They then started to make a slow melody, but now without the sound of metal clanking. It was a very sad melody.

Finishing their ritual they touched the ground and made a small pillar of metal.

I looked at her and saw that on her featureless face were now black dots that were falling down, as if she was crying.

I tried to cheer her up and nuzzled her cheek and flicked my tongue a few times.

She turned her face towards me for a brief second and pat my head.

Feeling her warm hand softly patting my head I felt the tiredness and exhaustion overwhelm me. I curled myself up and immediately blacked out.

...

*flick* *flick*

I don´t know how many hours passed, but I woke up more tired than before. My head still hurt like hell but instead of the dry smell, I could now smell something fresh and earthy even hear some vague movements. But before I could lift my head, I passed out again.

...

*flick* *flick*

"Hissssss~"

After I woke up again, I could hear flowing water. But this time instead of being tired and exhausted, I feel refreshed and invigorated.

I then realized that my body is floating in some hot liquid.

Hmmm, it feels quite nice.

My vision slowly returns, and I looked around and saw Sahra holding me in her hands while carefully holding my head above water. We are in steaming hot water, not too hot nor too cold. Her sandy body was now smooth and fleshy, but her face was still featureless. She looked like a fleshy mannequin... But she has a nice figure, not gonna lie.

...

I have so many questions about the situation I am in right now, but for now, I am not even going to question it and just relax in the hot spring while I can.

I then remembered the notifications I got and checked them now that I finally have some peace and quiet.

[You killed your first Human congratulations!]

[You killed a level 49 Scout!]

[You gained 398 Exp!]

[You Leveled up!]

[You gained 100 bonus Exp for your first Human kill!]

[You gained 50 bonus Exp for killing a dungeon enemy!]

[You leveled up!]

[Venom Fang leveled up!]

[Launch Attack leveled up!]

[Racial skill unlocked!]

[You are ready for evolution!]

OH, that is awsome, but it feels weird that the system is congratulating me for killing humans. Hell, it even rewarded me with extra exp.

I am going to worry about that another time.

But first, let's check out my status.

[Status]

Name: ???

Species: Hatchling grey snake (???)

Level: 5

[Stats:]

Strength: 9 --> 13

Agility: 15 --> 21

Intelligence: 20 --> 23

Mentality: 17 --> 23

Hp: 44/55

MP: 0

[Skills: Venom Fang lv2, Launch Attack lv 2, Slither lv 2]

[Racial Skill: Grey Out lv1]

[Evolution Path:]

[Grey Scales]

[Venomous Fangs]

[Movement Sensing Eyes.]

[Danger Smelling Tongue]

[Vibration Sensing Ears]

...

After seeing my stats the only thing I could think was...

Nice!

***

[Author's Note]

Don´t know if you guys want a status chapter to look at his newest stats and skills easily whenever you want, instead of searching for the chapter where I have written it. Some might not want to have a Status auxiliary chapter for I don´t know what reasons.

So please let me know if you want to have an auxiliary chapter with the status of our beloved little snake or not.

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