Another Ambush???

The snake slithered weakly down the long burrowed tunnel. Along the way, he was blessed with more ants... a lot more ants! Although he wasn't all that hungry anymore...

Well, he couldn't help himself seeing the delicious ants walking uniformly in a perfect line. They were much to sweet to resist!

Nom. Nom. Nom...

Ugh... He felt sick he was so stuffed with food, but he ate more. The taste was addictive after all!

Nom. Nom. Nom...

Ugh...

No more...

Well... maybe a few more.

Nom. Nom.

That was it. He was finished now.

Nom.

Now he was finished.

[Creature consumed: Carpenter Ant x48]

[Assimilating highest stat...]

[All stats below the threshold of "1"]

[Combining assimilated energy...]

[+5 Free Stat Points]

He was way too stuffed to care about his archenemy, they barely fit in this burrow anyway. He needed to rest. No worrying about revenge just yet...

It's a dish best served cold after all...

Nonetheless, he continued into the burrow, and finally after what felt like forever:

He found a dead end!

It was perfect! It was nice and cool, and was bone dry thanks to the tree roots absorbing all the moisture. It was time to curl up and take a long nap...

If he were to see himself right now, he would be quite shocked. With each rank up he grew about 10% larger, so he was 20% larger than yesterday! What a feat. Alongside that his scales seemed to have solidified a bit more, now that he was exposed to dry air.

I mean, he had marinated inside a wet egg for most of his life up to this point, so it made sense that his scales would be soft. After last night though, he essentially hung himself up to dry like laundry! Whether that was intentional or not we'll never know...

Yeah, it was unintentional. He's not the brightest snake in world, give him a break.

The second most shocking thing was not his size, but the size of his most recent meal. It could be seen clearly in the form of gigantic bulges relative to the size of our little reptilian friend. Four large swollen lumps were on the length of the snake, one for each egg (obviously) and the fourth lump, which was slightly smaller than the others, was his dessert.

Delicious nutritious ants.

Now that he was curled up, dry, and comfortable, the little reptile drifted into a deep slumber as its small tongue slowly halted movement.

...

He dreamt.

He imagined he was a massive winged snake, soaring through the clouds. His red and green feathery wings carried his steely-scaled self above the clouds, to where he and his family could live in peace.

He flew quickly, slowly, and sometimes plummeted straight towards the ground only to pull up at the last moment. He watched as the world flew by beneath him. Millions of trees blended together as if it were a single blanket of green. Rivers and streams dotted the ground beneath him and he saw them below.

An evil green creature.

[Fully recovered!]

It tried so hard to reach him but he was much too high!

Haha! Those creatures will never bother him again! He was free, so free! Oh, another enemy below! It is the bird that nearly slew him this morning!

Haha! The winds created by his giant wings prevented the bird from reaching him. It fell to the ground, defeated!

Oh? More green creatures appeared below him...

[-3 HP]

[Paralytic venom detected: SP Slowly decreases!]

They couldn't reach him up here! He would never-...

Wait...

Why did his side hurt? It was uncomfortable, he had never felt the feeling of numbness before. It was very strange.

The majestic flying snake looked to try and find the wound, but he couldn't see anything.

Wait a minute... why couldn't he move his lower half? He needed to wake up fast! What was happening!?!

His sleeping eyes regained their light as he quickly awoke! He remembered! He was no flying snake, he was a ground snake! His family was in the tree, not in the clouds (though he would like it if they were), he didn't want to die when there were so many tasty things he hadn't eaten yet!

He looked around to try and find what sort of mean creature had no qualms attacking someone in their sleep!

A furry monstrosity was standing on top of him, wrapping his lower half in some sticky threads. Feeling the snake move, the giant spider turned to face the snake's head.

They locked eyes.

Now this was a certainly a pickle for our reptilian friend. There was a spider on top of him that was the same size as him. He was numbing fast. His lower half was wrapped in thread. Now this sucked.

And to rub it all in his face, the rude spider bit him again!

OW!

[-3 HP]

[Paralytic venom detected: SP Slowly decreases!]

Now the green creatures showed themselves too! This was the worst day ever!

The little reptile would not let the spider get cocky! He flashed his small teeth at the spider, and bit him right in the exposed behind!

That's what you get for being cocky Mrs. Spider!

Sadly for the little snake though, the behind was not the best place to bite, as he immediately got a mouthful of sticky thread which welded his big mouth shut for a while...

At least until his saliva dissolved the thread.

But for now, the spider couldn't make any more thread, and the snake couldn't bite!

The snake was at quite a large disadvantage...

His body was already quite numb, but it wasn't getting worse very fast, so he tried his best to wiggle out of the thread that was tying him down.

Accompanied by the sound of tearing thread, was the glorious freedom of the little reptile, and in the process of breaking free he knocked the spider on its back!

Sadly, his mouth was filled with thread.

So he did what any self-respecting snake would do...

He started hitting it with his head!

BAM BAM BAM

[-1 HP]

It hurt a little... but it was hurting the spider! Two of its legs had already been snapped off, so its balance was strange when it stood up.

It was still very fast though, and it jumped right onto his back!

[-3 HP]

[Paralytic venom detected: SP Slowly decreases!]

The green creatures were amused and brought their friends!

It was so frustrating! The spider was right in his blind spot on his back, so he couldn't hit it with his head. Suddenly, he got an idea!

He immediately carried it out, smashing his body as well as the spider against the wall.

[-2 HP]

It hurt his back, but he had sandwiched the spider between the wall and himself so it had to be hurting bad...

Sure enough, another two legs were broken! The spider could barely stand! This is what it gets for attacking him in his sleep!

Perfect timing! His saliva had dissolved just enough of the spider web for him to spit out the wad of thread!

He was back in the game!

Or not...

He couldn't move his lower half. It had gone completely stiff. He needed that half to move!

Now they were evenly matched.

Both had lost a majority of their mobility, and all that was left was a battle of the bites!

Maybe the snake underestimated the spider a bit, its mobility was still pretty good.

It jumped towards him again, this time he had enough time to react though, and he reared his front half preparing to strike!

He struck, and they met halfway.

[-3 HP]

[Paralytic venom detected: SP slowly decreases!]

He was bit!

But the spider was swallowed!

It tasted funny, but the taste of victory was the perfect seasoning!

[Creature consumed: Lesser Venomous Tarantula]

[Analyzing Creature: Data added to Monster Log]

[Compatible Skill detected...]

[Assimilating Skill instead of stat points...]

[Skill Assimilated: Paralytic Venom!]

[Racial Catalyst Detected: Venom]

[Initiating Race Change: Small Lesser Green Viper!]

[Race Change Successful!]

[+30 EXP]

[Rank Up!]

[Distributing previously undistributed stat points...]

[Distribute Stat Points! Any undistributed stat points will be automatically distributed after next Rank Up!]

[Name: N/A]

[Race: Small Lesser Green Viper]

[Titles: World's Vessel, Ovivorous]

[Rank: 3/10, 0/40 EXP]

[HP: 15/50]

[MP: 15/65]

[SP: 2/60]

[Affinities: Nature]

[Attributes:]

[Points to distribute: 10]

[STR: 5 ^]

[DEX: 5 ^]

[AGI: 5 ^]

[INT: 5 ^]

[WIS: 5 ^]

[PER: 5 ^]

[LUC: 5]

[CHA: 4 ^]

[VIT: 5 ^]

[Abilities:]

[Paralytic Venom Lvl. 1/5, Infrared Vision Lvl. 1/5, Assimilation Lvl. MAX]

Ooh... His mouth ached so much! The mutation of his saliva glands to produce venom is what was causing this immense pain (though he didn't know it yet).

Luckily the green creatures appeared! This time, they appeared quickly after his pain, meaning they must have been worried about him! He had just fought a big mean spider after all.

With the last of his energy he rose his head to meet with the leader of the green creatures, his tongue flicked outwards just enough to touch the leader. The tongue moved rapidly up and down, like normal. Before the small snake's stamina finally ran out, and he fell asleep.

The tongue touched the arrows beside two stats:

[INT: 10]

[WIS: 10]

He was going to feel a bit different when he woke up.