With Quinn's newfound discovery, he decided to take advantage of the pool of experience. Although small, it was also easy.
He regained most of his length and now had only a slight debuff to his strength.
[Strength:7(-1)]
Quinn knew that levelling up had a slight healing effect, but he wished that it was like games where he restored back to perfect conditions.
However, Quinn couldn't stop to contemplate the workings of the system. He had maggots to hunt. Eating through the bottom of the arm, Quinn hunted for maggots. When most of them were gone, Quinn used [Pheromone detection] to locate another piece of meat.
[Tremor sense] picking up what felt like a bird picking at the meat. Quinn didn't want to face it.
'I wish this was a whole body full of more maggots.'
Quinn knew how long it took to travel between partial carcasses. He was saddened that the spoils of war were going to determine until there was no more.
After about an hour of tunneling through top soil, Quinn finally made it to what smelt like the biggest piece.
Quinn, however, was tired. He hadn't slept for ages. His thoughts were getting fuzzy, and he needed to pause in between movements.
'I need to get more maggots. I need to level up. But I need to sleep. I definitely need to just close my mind and stop moving.
Why do I even need to get there?? I can just dream about friends. Humans are too mean anyway. Every human I know has been an egotistical intolerant asshole.'
His worm body stooped moving. He was sleeping in the top soil. The most active section of the underground. At a time where decomposers have an abundance of food.
His timing couldn't be worse.
...
He didn't know when or how. But Quinn's surroundings felt crampt. For some reason, the walls of constant pressure grew fivefold. The world was dead black compared to the slightly noticeable penetrating light from above.
Where Quinn did have room it the mucus felt extra slimy. More than that, it burnt.
'Wait, my skin. Ahhhh, it burns. Why why why so much pain. Where am I? Stop moving!!!'
But Quinn wasn't moving. With the combined stimuli of his 3 senses(touch, smell, taste), Quinn activated [Appraisal]. He didn't know what was happening, so he needed information.
[Appraisal:
Species:Worm snake(Lvl:4)
Strength:9
Vitality:2
]
It was odd seeing Vitality first before Agility. Perhaps the added stimuli of taste of bodily fluids had an inverse effect on the appraisal. But you think Quinn noticed this?
'I-I'm in the stomach of a fucking snake. Aghhhh, let me out. Let me out. I'm gonna die. After everything... I'm finally gonna die.
I'm ok with this. I killed myself before. Isn't dying here not the same. It'll finally cure my loneliness.'
Quinn awoke to the idea that it might be better to die here. He just wanted all the struggles, all the pain to end. By letting himself burn to death in acid.
'... Fuck no I'm not going out like this. It's to fucking painful. Hey, mother fucker let me out.'
Taking action into his own hands he wiggles and bashed. Nothing came of it. It was only until he boasted his fangs to administer poison when the snake hissed in pain.
"Hahahhah... checkmate.'
Quinn like the little bitch he is, skill spammed venom with his passive [Copper fangs]. Until he couldn't do it. He had no venom. That didn't stop Quinn from continuously biting on the walls of the snakes stomach.
'Mother fucker how dare you eat me. Feel pain. Feel the consequences of your actions. It's not like you can do anything. What are you gonna do to attack me?'
The snake then proceeded to regurgitate Quinn. Quinn now was face to face to the "mother fucker" that he was belittling for being powerless.
The snake had sharp glowing red eyes that were pinned at Quinn's tail side. It's pointy fangs bit down on the tail. Mauling it to death.
Wriggling in pain, the worm tried to escape, but it was no match for its predator. Segment by segment Quinn's tail was torn apart. The snake was not going to let go.
It was determined to rip Quinn piece by piece until everything was in its stomach. Making it way up the midsection, the trail unexpectedly ended.
'Pfft, you thought this was my first tango.'
With less strength but more agility, Quinn pounced at the snakes eyes. He silently dug into an ambush position and used [Tremor Sense] to time his strike just right to land a killing blow.
But the snake was too strong. But it was enough to make it scurry away. Through the tunnels, off to heal up.
And Quinn was once again fragmented.
'Why does the world keep taking my tail?? It's embarrassing being short.'
Despite his loss of tail, he was happy to be alive. Well, happy not to burn to death by acid. Unbeknownst to Quinn, the venom was working its magic.
[ [Worm snake(Lvl:6)] Slain - Exp:47]
[Level up]
[Exp:3/66]
Note: Exp is scaled through how difficult it is for a particular being. i.e., a wolf(Lvl:5) would reward 50 Exp for a Human(Lvl:1) compared to 1 Exp to a Human(Lvl:100)