I concentrated on the skill points and a list of skills popped up.
[You can use skill points to purchase skills. List of skills available to be bought;
Stealth: Improves your ability to remain unseen while moving or being still. 1SP
Venomous Fang: Grows venom glands and fangs. 1SP
Dash: Increases speed over short distance 1SP
Body Slam: Slam your body into your opponent in order to stun or injure them. 1SP
Burrowing: Drill down into soft earth in order to create a home or travel or tunnels.]
These five skills are those that I could learn right now. The skills I choose now could determine how fast I level up and who knows maybe an evolution will give me a more humanoid form.
Alright from what I know snakes are ambush predators, they watch and study their prey and wait until the perfect moment to strike that means [Stealth] is definitely gonna be there. I think [Body Slam] and [Dash] can be learnt without using skill points so that means I'll get [Venomous Fang], [Burrowing] and [Stealth].
Alright gimme those three skills mysterious voice-sama.
[Skills; [Venomous Fang], [Burrowing] and [Stealth] have been acquired]
Alright lets get on to that unique skill of mine.
[Self-Modification]: [Bio Points: 4]
[Modifications Available:
>Skin +1: Harden your skin to protect against damage.
>Teeth +1: Toughen your teeth to improve biting ability.
>Fangs +1: Harden your fangs to improve piercing ability
>Eyes +1: Improve eyesight
>Tongue +1: Improve sensory ability.
>Venom Gland +1: Improve potency of venom and amount capable of being produced and stored.
Damn so many choices but I think I know what I want. Select; >Fangs, >Skin, >Eyes and >Venom Gland.
[Selected]
Huh? That easy? I thought it would be har-Gah!! What the hell is this!? It feels like someone put a hot iron to my body!
Fortunately after two minutes it stops. So this is [Self Modification huh]? Not gonna it's pretty cool. I can tell that my vision definitely got better at first it was like wearing glasses when your not supposed to but now it's not blurry anymore. My scales are better too at first they were like cloth but now they're like cardboard. I can't tell if my fangs and venom glands have improved yet until I fight.
I need more of those points, and to do that I need to hunt prey and eat them. But first I need a home base. Using the [Burrowing] skill I dug a hole under the tree and began to carve out the dirt underneath, soon I had a nice sized space underneath and the hole to enter was covered by the shade of the tree. At the end of the the [Burrowing] skill levelled up.
[The skill [Burrowing LV 1] has become [Burrowing LV 2]
Ah so continued use of skills will cause them to level up huh. Alright time to go forth and hut prey. Slithering out of my hidey hole I began to follow the glowing silver lines. Soon I came upon a slightly narrow passage., on the ground were foot tracks that looked like some sort of rodent.
I wonder what passes throu-.
I was cut off by the sound of multiple feet skittering on the ground. I quickly went to the side and burrowed into the ground. Poking my head out I saw something strange running towards me were a herd of rats, each of them were as big as an adult British Short Hair cat. They were all covered in dark brown fur. Soon they all passed me by. I was about to continue searching however a gut feeling told me to stay, about ten minutes passed and soon a familiar scuttle was heard,
Two of the rats seem to be sniffing something on the floor, one of them came right over my hidey hole with it's back turned to me.
This is it Ryu, this is the moment there isn't gonna be another chance for this. I coiled up my body in preparation to attack. On three, one...two....three.
*Whoosh*
In the bling of an eye my fangs were inside of the rats side.
[Venomous Fang]!
I had no clue how potent my venom was so this would be kind of like a test.
* Squeak squeak*
It's high pitch squeals alerted it's companion to the attack as it tried to throw me off.
*Glurrge*
The other rat spat out some foul smelling liquid that landed on both of us.
OW OW OW!!
Is this stuff acidic?! Detaching my fangs from the first rat I launched myself at the second one my fangs found it's way into it's throat. Acid came flooding out of his mouth and unto my body however even though it hurts I can't let go now!
[The conditions have been met. Skill [Acid Resistance] has been generated]
The monotone voice announcing that a skill has been created invigorated my body and with one final tug the rat's throat came out. It collapsed onto the floor writing and gasping for air.
*Splurgle*
The disgusting churn of acid came as a warning from behind me, I dodged it and regarded my other adversary. It was wobbling and seem to be dizzy, I seem to have emptied my entire stock of venom into it. That means only one skill remains.
Slithering towards the snake I dodged all of it's acid shots and wrapped myself around its throat.
[Constrict]!
Sqeezing with all my might the rat struggled and struggled until it finally stopped moving.
[Experience cap has been reached. You have reached LV 2!]
[Skill [Venomous Fang] has reached LV 2]
[Skill [Bite] has reached LV 2]
[Skill [Burrowing] has reached LV 3]
[Skill [Constrict] has reached LV 2]
[You have gained four skill points]
*Crackle*
My skin began to have cracks on it like glass, then it started to peel away like a plastic wrapper. When I emerged from the skin my body was about 2 feet longer.
If this is what levelling up feels like I'm all in!
My eyes immediately went to the corpses....the grotesque, rodent looking corpses....
Ugh!! C'mon Ryu if you wanna survive you gotta do this! Just think of them like chicken.
Mental cheering up myself I dug into my food.
*Nom Nom Nom*
[Due to the skill [Self-Modification] you have gained two bio points]
I turned to the next corpse and began to eat.
[Due to the skill [Self-Modification] you have gained two biomass points]
Phlerg!
Disgusting! Truly disgusting!
I need to see my stats to see if this is worth it.
***
[Status]
[Name: None]
[Level: 2] [Rank: F]
[Titles: Reincarnation]
[Species: Hatchling Grey Rat Snake(Colubridae)]
[Strength: 15] [Agility: 18] [Vitality: 25/25] [Willpower: 20]
[Health: 20/20]
[Magic: 0]
[Skills: [Constrict LV 2] [Chemical Sense LV 1] [Poison Resistance LV 1] [Bite LV 2] [Venomous Fang LV 2] [Stealth LV 1] [Burrowing LV 3] [ Acid Resistance LV 1]
[Unique Skills: [Self-modification. Bio Points: 4.]
[Modifications; >Eyes +1, >Skin +1, >Teeth +1, >Fangs +1,>Venom Gland +1]
[Skill Points: 4]
***
Ha! Witness my incredible growth! Despite my rocky start I am on my way to becoming King of the Snakes!!.
It seems that every level up gives ten points to each attribute and four skill points. I also got four bio points from the two corpses. I had a feeling that more rats are gonna pass this area so...you know what that means. It's time to grind baby!!
But first I wanna spend these bio points.
***
[Self-Modification]: [Bio Points: 4]
[Modifications Available:
>Skin +2: Harden your skin to protect against damage.
>Teeth +2: Toughen your teeth to improve biting ability.
>Fangs +2: Harden your fangs to improve piercing ability
>Eyes +2: Improve eyesight
>Tongue +1: Improve sensory ability.
>Venom Gland +2: Improve potency of venom and amount capable of being produced and stored.
***
Hey this is inflation damnit! The poor man is gonna suffer because of this!
Sigh. Gimme the eyes and venom glad.
[Selected]
Then the maddening and excruciating pain comes and all I can do is writhe on the floor. About a minute passes and it's over. My vision is improved to what is was like when I was human so it's alright. I feel that I have more venom now and it's stronger.
Welp time to hunt!
Using my [Burrowing] skill I dug out under the passage way in order to soften the earth, I then left one of the rat's skull out in the open, then activated my [Stealth] skill and waited. During my digging my [Burrowing] skill went up to level four.
While I was waiting I looked at what skills I could purchase and one particular skill caught my eye.
[Analysis; By looking at a target you can view information such as it's specie and level. Cost: 3SP]
Observe is the must have skills in all isekai novels I've read. It's a skill that would have warned me that the fruit was poisonous. It's really expensive though but I'm gonna by it.
[Skill [Analysis LV 1] has been acquired]
I immediately used it on the first thing in my field of vision.
[Bone]
"...."
OI! Is that it!? I wasted three skill points for that!? Well I guess since it's only LV 1, it is to be expected.
Five minutes passed and I used [Analysis] on everything I could look at.
A familiar scuttle was soon caused me to stop and patiently wait for my prey to come.