Chapter 11 - 10

'The snake injected poison on my system.' As that realization dawned on me, my vision starts to get hazy. I tried to keep my calm by breathing in but even that started to feel painful. It was as if there were a bunch of blades stocked inside my lungs. Every time I took in even just a small amount of air, those blades would stir around inside and shred my lungs in the process. In a word, it was incredibly painful. I even coughed up blood whenever I exhaled.

'Damn… it…'

As time passed, even my vision was dyed in blood. Still, I endured all that pain and stubbornly stood my ground. But simple willpower could only take a person so far. When faced with death, simply being headstrong wasn't enough. And that was a fact and undeniable truth.

And so, I eventually fell to the ground. I tried to stand back up, but my legs were simply too weak. While violently coughing up blood, I felt the snake crawl near me. Then, I felt it as it slowly coiled around my body. Looks like for the snake, the poison was just a means to weaken me so that he could easily crush me to death.

Honestly, I already had a hunch after the snake made that surprise attack. But this action just proved it. Unlike those opponents I had fought before, this snake was definitely a lot more cautious. The proof was that despite having the chance and capability to just swallow me whole, it would rather take the long route and crush me first to die.

It was the first time since coming here that I directly fought a monster this cautious. Despite being on the verge of being a meal, I still felt respect for this cautious snake. It was because this monster understands the fact that simply being strong wasn't enough of a guarantee to survive. This fact was also something I had to learn the hard way not only from my life as a human but also from my time as a simple wolf. But of course, I wasn't going to go down without a fight. Out of respect for this worthy enemy, I would stake my life on a gamble. And being coiled around by the snake just presented the perfect opportunity for that…

As the snake slowly tightened its grip around my body, I mustered all my remaining strength and bit the snake's body over and over again. In my current state, ripping off the snake's flesh until it dies would take too much time and effort. And I simply didn't have the strength and energy to keep it up until the snake died. That was why my plan was quite simple. It was to stock up the effects of my skill Rabid Fangs. If you forgot, my Rabid Fangs' effect was to stock up mental damage that could result in the opponent being inflicted by the status called Madness. And if that Madness was not removed, would result in eventual death.

I knew that it was an incredibly rash and risky strategy. But I had no other choice. To survive this encounter, I had to gamble my life on my skills. And besides, if I emerged victorious against this worthy opponent, there would still eventually come a time that I would have to once again gamble my life on a similarly risky move such as this. It was just like the saying, 'Desperate times, called for desperate measures.'

And so, the battle of endurance began. The snake continued to crush me with all its might while I bit its body over and over again. Some of my bones even broke in the process, but I managed to endure that pain. Probably because of desperation, the snake bit me once again causing more poison to enter my system. But despite all that torture, I continued to bite the snake repeatedly. Until finally, my efforts bore fruit.

It took some time and effort but the snake finally went mad. I could tell because instead of continuing to inject my body with poison, it just thrashed around wildly resulting in the loosening of its grip on me. But despite that, I knew for sure that it would take some time for the snake to die if I just let it be. That was why I continued to bite its body even after I was finally free.

I bit and bit and bit. And before I knew it, the snake was already dead along with the notification that said I leveled up. Normally, this was the time when I should be feeling relieved and then celebrate my level up. But with this situation, I didn't even have time to do that. And it was not simply because I was still poisoned. It was because when I looked at what was displayed in my notification, what I saw was…

[Status: Poisoned, Dying]

Yes. Now I was not only poisoned, I was also dying. And my ever so kind and reliable notification screen was shoving that fact in front of my face. 'Well, this was also within my expectation.' Since I knew that this would happen, I have another plan. And it involved my new skill Devour.

It was my second trump card. 'If my guess is right, that skill will be able to help me survive this crisis.' I planned to use the effect of my Devour skill that let me convert any food that I ingest into energy and then use that energy to recover my health. Of course, even I knew that doing that was just like putting a band-aid on a fatal wound. The Devour skill might be able to help me recover my health, but it wouldn't help me cure the poison. And that was when my second gamble came in.

In this world, there was one thing I noticed. And that was by doing a task over and over again, anyone would be able to acquire a skill that was somewhat related to that task. Based on that fact, I guessed that maybe if I managed to survive long enough with poison coursing through me, I would eventually acquire a skill that would somehow help me cure or resist the poison. Maybe it was called Poison Resist or maybe Cure Poison but it really didn't matter. As long as I acquire any skills that would help me survive this situation, that would be enough.

Of course, there was always the possibility that my deduction was wrong. But for now, this was the best bet I got. And so, I pushed myself up and tried to walk towards my half-finished meal. Namely, the frog's dead body. Unfortunately, it seemed like my body was too weak to even stand and I just fell halfway through standing.

'Well, shit!' Honestly, I still have another option to eat besides the frog's body. But if given the choice, I really didn't want to resort to this. And well, you had probably guessed already. My other choice was to eat the snake's carcass. The problem with that was… 'I'm pretty sure that this snake's flesh is incredibly poisonous too.' This was the reason I didn't want to resort to eating the snake. Hell, I wouldn't even dare eat one if I didn't have to. And to make matters worse, eating this one would definitely reduce my chance of survival. But what choice do I have?

'Damn. It was as if this snake was telling me to gamble everything I have if I want to survive. What a nasty opponent.' At that, I couldn't help but smile wryly. 'Fine then, I would gamble everything and survive this!' And so, I dined on the meal from hell.

I stopped thinking and focused my entire being on literally eating for survival. At first, it seemed like the Devour was incompatible with the snake's meat. Luckily, the skill chose that exact time to rank up. After ranking up, the skill managed to convert the snake's meat into pure energy and I felt as my body regained some strength. The process of conversion was slow, but at least it helped in extending my life.

For me, it was the longest and most stressful meal of my entire life. Even with my past two lives combined, I could safely say that this was the first time I experienced being this stressed because of eating. And every time I saw a part of the snake disappear into my stomach, I felt as if I was running out of time. It was truly a countdown to my death. If I finished eating this snake before acquiring any skill that would help me remove the poison, this would literally be my last supper.

Time flowed at a snail pace and the snake was slowly dwindling along with it. As I watched the snake's body be reduced into nothing, my anxiety and paranoia were reversely increasing. Fortunately, before the snake's corpse completely disappeared, I saw a notification popup at the corner of my eyes.

[Skill gained: Poison Conversion]

[Poison Conversion effect was evoked…]

[Poison Conversion is now at Rank C]

'Thank the heavens I made it in time. And the skill also immediately ranked up. That's a huge help.' I thought, feeling relieved. But once again, everything surpassed my expectations…

[Skill Poison Conversion has ranked up]

[Poison Conversion is now at Rank B]

[Skill Poison Conversion has ranked up]

[Poison Conversion is now at Rank A]

[Skill Poison Conversion has ranked up]

[Poison Conversion is now at Rank S]

[All conditions were satisfied]

'WAIT, WHAT?!' I was left speechless and wide-eyed looking at the notifications that flooded my vision. But before I even managed to question it, I was assaulted by incredible drowsiness. Probably due to all the punishment I had received today, I became unable to resist and just doze off right then and there.