Not having a clock sucked. Even orienting yourself by the sun was impossible here. When I woke up, it was broad daylight, yet the area was still dark, due to the dense foliage and the depth of the canyon.
Well, it wasn't a problem for me, it's not like I'm human and I'm going to get sick because of it. But living in a reptile body with a human mind was confusing.
And it was even more so, that despite the size of my meal, it only took me a day to digest it. I suspect it would have taken less time if I wasn't so injured. Normally, a normal snake would have taken several days to digest prey of this size. I was an intelligent mutant snake with almost magical abilities, I guess that had something to do with it.
Now that I had a bit of a break, I had to analyze the mess I was in. I've been in another world for about 2 days, in the body of a monster, and I have abilities that seem to be due to my old life.
It was cool and all, but being a healer in an inhospitable biome populated by monsters seemed counterproductive… From a practical standpoint, it made no sense.
"Wait," I said out loud to myself, "I wasn't a simple healer, but one who could adapt." If I were to draw a parallel with my old world, I would say it was like a war medic (I know the comparison is lame). "If I wanted to even delve into the concept, I could even twist healing techniques for lethal purposes.
As a rudimentary plan formed in my mind. I invoked the system to see my options. As I thought, I could invoke it whenever I wanted.
Name: [Choose]
Race: Intelligent Mutated Serpent
Height: 5 meters
Weight: 70 kg
Level: 1
Class: Adaptive Healer
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Base Stats:
Strength (STR): 16 – The snake's physical ability, represents its muscular power to coil, bite, or crush its enemies.
Endurance (END): 18 – Reflects the snake's resilience, endurance for prolonged combat, and ability to resist damage.
Agility (AGI): 20 – The snake's speed and flexibility, allow it to strike quickly and dodge.
Intelligence (INT): 12 – The snake's newly acquired cognitive ability to think, learn, and adapt to situations.
Perception (PER): 14 – Ability to detect threats or opportunities in the environment.
Vitality (VIT): 17 – Indicator of overall health and hit points, influenced by passive regeneration.
Charisma (CHA): 6 – Given its reptilian form, Charisma is low, but can be compensated by other strengths in Intelligence and Manipulation.
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Passive Skills:
Minor Regeneration: Recovers a small percentage of hit points every minute, promoting the natural healing of minor injuries over time. (Example: 0.5% of max HP/minute)
Natural Poison: Each bite injects a paralyzing venom that deals damage over time and slows targets hit. Toxicity increases with levels.
Player Spirit: Protects the snake from the madness caused by its awakening to consciousness. Strengthen mental resilience in the face of psychological challenges or prolonged isolation.
Genetic Harvesting: Allows the extraction of DNA from creatures consumed. Higher levels allow the player to collect more complete genetic fragments, reducing the time and energy required for analysis. At advanced levels, rare or hidden genetic traits can be extracted.
Genetic Analysis: Improves the speed and accuracy of analyzing collected DNA. With higher levels, the player can identify complex traits, ensuring compatibility with their body and unlocking advanced mutations.
Alchemical Instinct: Enhances the detection and collection of active components from plants, animals, and minerals. Upgrades increase the yield of usable ingredients and reveal previously undetectable properties in rare resources.
Alchemical Synthesis: Allows the combination of active components into effective poisons or elixirs. Higher levels allow the creation of more powerful mixtures and reduce the risk of failure during synthesis.
Enhanced Senses:
Thermoreception (heat sensation): The ability to detect changes in heat in the environment, allowing the location of prey or enemies even in the dark.
Vibration (Motion Detection): Sensitivity to vibrations in the ground or air, allowing it to anticipate the movements of nearby living things.
Olfaction (Smell): Ability to perceive pheromones and odors from great distances.
Night Vision: Sensitivity to low light, allowing it to move in the dark.
Snake Anatomy: All the natural characteristics of a snake, including the ability to slither silently, coil prey, and navigate difficult environments.
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Combat Stats:
Hit Points (HP): 200/200
Mana Points (MP): 0 (N/A)
Residual Poison: 10/10 (poison available for attacks)
Movement Speed: Average (for its size and weight)
Equipment:
None (being a snake, it does not need equipment).
Active Skills
Observe (can evolve into a passive at high levels): Allows the player to gather detailed information on creatures, plants or objects. By activating this skill, the player can analyze specific characteristics such as weaknesses, genetic properties or chemical components. The data obtained varies depending on the level of the skill.
Limitation: Requires attention and can consume a small amount of energy or concentration, especially for complex analyses.
Evolution: As the skill develops, it can become more intuitive, offering general information automatically (base statistics, danger, etc.), and allowing precise analyses without additional effort.
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Biomass Gathering
Description: Biomass represents the raw energy needed to feed and evolve. It is collected by ingesting creatures or plants, and then stored in the player's body. This energy is essential to initiate molts, which trigger the integration of genetic mutations and level-ups.
How it works: The amount of biomass obtained depends on the size, biological quality and rarity of the target.
Excess biomass is stored, but the storage capacity is limited at the beginning and increases with evolution.
Molting requires a specific amount of biomass, combined with understanding the genes incorporated.
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"Oh! That wasn't there," I said mentally as I scrolled through my status page.
Indeed, there were four new passive skills, an active one that I had unlocked in the skies, and a biomass collection system.
Even though I wasn't a big gamer, it was a pretty generous start, I thought. However, the system being quite complex, the difficulty I would encounter to be able to evolve somewhat counterbalanced this generosity. It was a lot of research work, coupled with survivalism. It's quite cruel, I sighed in disappointment.
"System, how much biomass did I harvest from my meal and how much will I need to evolve?" I asked.
"I don't think I'll get used to this thing anytime soon," I gasped, reading the response on the status screen.
You have collected exactly 1 Biomass and 1 Gene Fragment for the Camouflage mutation. You will need 200 Biomass, a Denimum from two separate genes, and a successful Alchemical Synthesis to trigger the mutation and level up.
"Fuck it!" I cursed. If I didn't have the Player's Mind skill, I would probably be hyperventilating. This whole thing is bullshit. If I wanted to have any chance of surviving, I had to constantly put myself in danger by risking my life.
"Two hundred units of biomass, two complete genes. And an alchemical synthesis, seriously? I was just a damn snake, not a walking experiment lab. Who are we kidding here?"
If that's how it was, obtaining active skills was going to take a long time, as well as consuming biomass to increase my size and weight.
Well, it seemed that to survive, I had to match my animal instincts with my human, and especially scientific, intellect.
As much as I hated my situation, I couldn't just sit here feeling sorry for myself. I needed short- and medium-term goals.
"System, will I have skill points to allocate?" I asked, although I already knew the answer, given the situation.
No, your passive skills will evolve according to your motivations; your active skills, except for observing, will always evolve by mutation. Once they reach a certain ceiling, they will stop evolving, unless you can incorporate magic into them.
"More and more joyful," I breathed, with a sneer that was meant to be disdainful.
"Starting hunting now is the right thing to do," I hissed, climbing down from the tree, while carefully observing my surroundings, looking for any threat.
With no suspects within meters of me, I began to sneak as silently as I could through the canopy. All the while mentally formulating my medium-term objectives.
Which boiled down to:
Survive at all costs
Master the system before it kills me.
Climb the food chain one meal at a time.
Get out of this hellish zone
Get in touch with civilization, to measure the extent of the mess I find myself in.