Chapter 9 - New heights

I have to admit, I was super excited to finally be something that's not completely useless. Being a bug was a pretty pathetic experience. All I could do was eat and eat, and let's not forget, be food for anything that's bigger than me. What an exciting life!

Time passed while I rested inside the cocoon. I could feel my body changing, quickly growing, filling out the big shell that I was engulfed in. Previously I had a lot of space, but now it felt that I was filling it up almost completely. By now I could tell when I will emerge. I felt the energy coursing through me, ready to erupt and shatter my protective cover. In a moment the egg shattered, and I could feel my vision slowly returning.

For the first time in my life I could feel a regular head forming, with its usual accessories: a pair of eyes, a mouth with teeth, and a tongue! No mandibles, no antennas, nothing weird. I had no legs or hands, I was almost the exact same copy as my deceased predator, just slightly bigger. I would say I was about around a meter long.. More or less, hard to be exact.

I had crystal clear vision, and with my boosted Dark Sense, I could clearly see and sense the entire cavern system I was in. It was actually pretty weird, as I could 'see' the entire corridor and the connecting cave as well. I could not see it with my eyes per say, but combined with my vision and my system assisted mapping feature, I knew every single detail in my previous home.

Looking back to it now, that cave was about half the size of this one. How large it felt back then!

My whole body was covered in golden scales. They looked really cool, very shiny. I had 2 large fangs in my mouth that I felt I could use to spray my venomous spit ahead of me. I probably need to practice with it later on, as I have no idea how to aim with it currently. It was just a feeling, and I could remember that my huntress used it against me previously as well.

I probably spent way too much time just slithering around myself and looking at my body at every angle. Just let me enjoy myself a bit, finally I wasn't at the bottom of the food chain. I really just wanted to release a loud roar to let the world know they should get ready because I am coming!

Unfortunately, while I was capable of producing sound finally, it was limited to hissing and similar sounds. Anyways that will not going to ruin my mood, so with that I hissed as loud as I could.

'This feels much better. Okay let's take a look at the Evolution Status now.' I had a feeling it had some incredible additions.

[Evolution Status

Current form: Cave Viper(Tier 1)

Level: 1/25 (0/100 xp) -

Mastery: 0%

Tasks:

*LOCKED*

*LOCKED*]

'Really? Both of them are locked? How will I know what to do?' I complained. First of all, I can only see 2 tasks, and both of them are locked and hidden. What should I do now?!

[Simple Aiden. The system after the fight wants you to go out and explore. It will not give you visible pointers and would like it if you could just go and live your life.]

'Live my life? But… *sigh* You are right, if I just go from task to task that will not accomplish anything at all. It was quite useful so far, but if I have to do my own thing from now on, then I will do just that. Will the tasks unveil themselves at some point?'

I had to admit, that while it annoyed me that the safety net that I was given previously was taken away, this is a liberating feeling as well. I do not need to rely on the tasks solely, I should just live my life to the fullest.

[The tasks will be unlocked if you happen to complete them, or if in any case the system deems it necessary to guide you. Most likely you won't even need them. Your mastery rating will go up as you naturally understand your current form better. ] Answered Enya.

'Also how does the level that I can see here work, and what is the Guided Evolution Path that brought so much change to you?'

[The guided evolution path is a specialized evolution tree that is available to different life forms. Your current form has a complete tree that will be available to you. Once you reach the level requirement for the upgrade, you will be able to evolve into a new species that is one step higher than your current one. As for what those are, unfortunately that is not something I can show you. Once you are strong enough, you will be able to pick and select from the available ones. Also note that with the Absorb ability in most cases you will not get enough life essence from the absorbed life form to be able to evolve into it. So far you absorbed only primitive life forms, so you got it pretty quickly, but most likely from now on, you will just get a very small amount of usable essence, and you might just want to use that and convert them to experience points in the system to use it to strengthen your abilities.]

Enya went into a long-winded explanation, to answer all of my upcoming questions. She was right, I started to think of my Absorb ability as a surefire way to get new forms right out of the bat. That should not be the case.

There was one more thing that kept bothering me. I just could not remember anything since I woke up to how I got to this cavern, who I am, and what I am. I mean, I know that my name is supposed to be Aiden, and the sisterly voice I keep hearing is called Enya, and that there's a unique guide inside me, deep inside my soul that provides me this weird system that Enya keeps referring to… but besides that nothing.

Before I could ask the question, Enya noticed my inner thoughts, and with a pained voice spoke up.

[I'm sorry Aiden, but the questions that concern you… I cannot give you an answer to. That was the price you had to pay for using the Blessing's all-empowering effect to overcome the dangerous situation. I'm really sorry….]

Her voice sounded really pained, like if she was on the verge of crying. I could hear the concern from her voice, that she was full of regrets and pain that she cannot just come out and hug me. It filled my heart with warmth.

'Don't worry about it Enya. I understand, it was my decision. If this is the price, then we will just go forward with it. It is not your fault, please don't be so sad, I much prefer your happy soothing voice then this one.' I tried to console her to the best of my abilities. It might only be just some clumsy attempt, but I really hoped my feelings have gone through. I want her to be happy and not sad. It's as simple as that.

It seems that even if my attempt was mediocre at best, my feelings and my inner thoughts did get through, as shortly after I could hear a short laughter, and a few sweet words from her, accompanied by some giggle. She was still struggling but I could hear her feeling better.

[Thank you Aiden… My, I should be the one giving you the advice, not vice versa... ]

After our very short intermezzo, I closed up all the screens that were still open and focused my vision to the eggs that belonged to the deceased Cave Viper. I wasn't really sure what I should do with them.

Sensing my thoughts, she came up with the answer without me asking it, once again proving how lost I would be without her constant vigil.

[You do not need to bother with them. From all these eggs, there is only 1 that is actually fertilized, the rest are just a diversion. This is one of the defence mechanics that these Vipers utilize to keep them safe. You could either leave it be, as once it hatches, it will instinctively search for food. You could also destroy it, or stash it into your inventory in the system. That will freeze it in time, it will not age, so you can keep it safe until you decide what to do with it.]

Oh yes, my inventory! So far, I haven't even checked it, I had no reason to. It's hard to describe it, it's like a space inside me, like if it was a separate world, that existed only inside my soul. I could, with just my thoughts, delve inside it, place anything there, or even take them out. I didn't know why, but I knew that time had no meaning inside that space, everything I would place there would be kept in the same condition as it was placed in, until I would take it out.

Without her mentioning, I knew I could transform this space. I could use my Power to energize the space and if needed making it a real living world, a subspace, a unique dimension that would only exist inside me. It's weird, and I had no idea why I was so sure about this, but I just instinctively knew. I made a mental note to myself that one day I will explore this idea and see what I could do there.

For now, I decided to place the eggs inside this subspace. With Enya's guidance, I just had to touch the eggs and 'will' them, to be placed inside. They all just vanished into nothing in the real world, one by one, and in my system, I saw 2 new icons appear that represented the eggs.

[Inventory:

1 Cave Viper Egg (fertile)

9 Cave Viper Egg (unfertile)]

My focus was interrupted by a low rumbling noise coming from my stomach. I was hungry, I haven't eaten for more than a day. I was also low on energy as well.

Looking around for food, I noticed a group of Mushroom Bugs around a stalk of Mushroom close by. As usual they had no concern about danger at all even when I was close by. I know I need to feast on them, as now, everything that is weaker than me, is considered prey. I know, but just a day ago, these guys were my silent 'friends'. Okay, friends may be a stretch, but we were the same. Now, I need to kill them to survive? That's just cruel.

[Aiden, do not be worried about these bugs. They are low level life forms that can reproduce at an astonishing rate. They are very rich in essence, which will be helpful to replenish your empty reserves. They feel no pain, or any emotion and as you experienced they do not communicate at all. Don't worry about them, eating a few will not cause any problems in the long run. Right now you are a predator, and you need their essence to restore yourself and be ready for the outside world.] Enya consoled me.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was finally able to not just mentally but physically express my inner turmoil and calm myself down. Being able to express yourself in this way actually helps a lot. The mind works weird ways sometimes, I know.

If anyone would have seen it, they would probably be out of their minds right now. It must have looked funny to see a golden scaled snake, close it's red glowing eyes, then inhale and finally exhale. It might have been an alien reaction from a Viper, but I needed it. I had to calm myself down, and shift my mindset, to be able to fight the inner turmoil I was having.

'I'm really sorry, but I need to do something horrible to you all.' I gave one final note, and with that, I focused my attention to a big and juicy looking bug closest to me. Little fella was chowing on the scalp of the mushroom that a few others were also feasting on. I slithered closer, and while keeping my gaze on it, I slowly opened my mouth to as wide as I could.

Once I felt I was finally ready, I struck down my victim, and while piercing it through its head with my left fang, I ended its life, then swallowed it down in one quick notion. I was so quick the whole process didn't even last a single second. It was just a golden streak struck the insect and then it was gone. The others seemingly didn't give any concern about their deceased friend and just kept chewing the various parts of the lying mushroom.

I hunted down all the bugs that were gathering around the mushroom. At first, I took my time, positioning myself behind the bugs, then aiming and finally striking at my prey. The whole hunting session took at most a few minutes, but probably less, I still had no real sense of time. The individual hunts themselves were a few seconds at most, I was lightning fast with my strikes in each case. It wasn't just me exerting this much force into it, this was my instinct as a snake. It came from within.

While I was slowly digesting their corpses inside my belly, I made my way towards the small passageway that led a few rays of sunshine battling its way inside the darkness that ruled this small cavern system.

It was time to make my exit and see the world.