Chapter 9: Snake food. Food Snake.

Just as they baited the earlier snake, Mark once again baited a snake. He threw a small stone into a venomous red flower and agitated it until it released red, venomous pores. Then, they waited while in hiding.

This time, it was Dona's time to feel anxious, and she kept bugging him to go back, but he didn't relent, and she could only keep growling softly.

She was already exhausted in the demonic tricks (Mind) department, and her Fireballs wouldn't work. Not before she either slept, ate demon meat (with soul), or drank from the black river.

Her only confidence was in her body—which was deadly enough for such a beautiful creature—and when the new snake arrived, slithering through the dark bushes like the predator that it was, she was obviously not her usual self who was always ready to fight.

Dona was scared.

But she didn't turn her back on him.

Mark was not completely calm, but he was not as scared as her either.

When the snake reached close enough, Dona jumped down from her hiding spot, and immediately, their physical brawl began.

Dona had the advantage in this department, and the snake seemed incredibly wary of being strangled by her. But it hissed, and it seemed as if it would use venom.

Slightly nervous, Dona dodged backward and growled, but the venom didn't come.

Mark's eyes shimmered.

[Demonic Snake]

[Mind: 1.5/2]

[Mark]

[Mind: 2.0/2.4]

[Heart Input!]

He used all of his Mental power on the snake, and he felt as if he had passed a flimsy mental barrier. Before he knew it, he was inside his mind. Its thoughts were even more chaotic than Dona's, and he felt as if he could barely read its core.

Survival. Murder. Hunt.

Feeling his head pop with pain, Mark gave the input.

"You love to enjoy the feeling of near-death even though you fear death. You will not fight back unless you are incredibly close to death!"

It just froze and began to sway. The snake almost didn't move an inch, and Dona was too ruthless to lose the chance of such a fatal distraction from her enemy. She slammed down its head on the ground, squeezed its neck, and pushed its mouth close.

Feeling the threat, it began to move, but it was already too late to move.

Mark came beside her and used the rock to finish the snake off. Green blood dripped down from his hand.

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He was excited beyond belief and immediately used the extra souls on his Mind attribute.

A cool sensation once again budded inside his brain, and he took a deep breath.

Unlike the other places in the body, for being the organ that made humans feel all the senses across their body, the brain itself couldn't sense any touch on the brain—it lacked any sensory receptors.

Even if someone pierced your brain, you wouldn't feel pain.

So, to feel such a comforting thing on the brain was such a refreshing sensation. Words couldn't do it justice. His senses also became much crisper.

[Mind: 2/4.4]

Using other demonic tricks made him exhausted but he had indeed been strengthened again.

Mark took a deep breath.

That much was expected, but his heart began to grow incredibly amazed at another sight.

[Resistances (Tier 0): Mental Resistance (Low), Heart Resistance (Medium).]

A new resistance had been added to his stats, and he could feel it. There was some kind of intangible barrier around his mind that protected it from all sorts of invasions. The useless Heart Resistance had also gone from Low to Medium.

How?

He didn't really know, but if he had to guess, it must have been due to his increased Mental state. He would have to check more to clearly understand.

For once, Mark calmly took in his surroundings before anything.

The snake's corpse was bleeding, and its green blood sizzled onto the black ground. Dona was panting while sitting on top of it. Sun had set, and darkness was flooding the lands, and eerily enough, the forest made him feel an intangible pressure.

"Come, Dona, let's go back."

He didn't know why Dona was so worried about the night, but he still carried the soulless corpses of the snakes that he had killed the day and returned back to the treetops.

Dona helped him get those to the top, but when they were both there, she looked at the two soulless snakes with a disappointed face.

They were useless things!

Mark felt his heartstrings being pulled at her slightly moist eyes. She was the one to hunt most of the day—the one who was in the most danger—he had been riding on her coattails. But in return, she still didn't get anything worth her effort.

Mark almost felt bad for her, but he could predict her past from this.

If Dona had been hunting like this for a long time, she must have always been killing with all her effort and losing all her energies before stopping and eating her prey to rejuvenate herself.

That had kept her going, but that was not good.

She was not leveling up but surviving as a lowly creature at the bottom of the rung. In Mark's opinion, if she ate the snake only after she drank the river water to replenish herself, would she see actual growth in her limit.

Otherwise, she was just using souls as food. But she was too dumb to understand that. But still, in her years of survival, she seemed to have eaten souls at some point when she was truly 'full,' and that's why she was at least a bit strong.

Mark took a stick from the side and began an attempt to make fire.

It didn't work as he expected, but he kept trying and trying, and when she came to his side and looked curiously, he was pushed even more to make it succeed. His senses were incredible, and his mind acute; it was not hard to notice what made sparks pop out.

Tss.

Tsss.

Small sparks became a fire, and he immediately fed some leaves to the fire. Then, when the fire actually became quite big, he contained it in a small space after that. He didn't want his good home ground to be burned entirely.

Dona was looking at him with her mouth opened widely.

He smiled and closed her mouth with a gentle hand.

"What are you looking at? I can make fire, too. And, of course, let me cook it for you well—like actual food."

Dona growled in excitement, and he was filled with satisfaction.

Using his claws to cut the snake—which had a surprisingly hard leather—Mark slowly took his time to prepare her decent food.

He cut the snake, removed the blood as much as he could, cleaned the insides, put away the snakeskin, and finally, he fried it using the fire. It was crude, if anything, but still way better than raw flesh.

Somehow, the blood of the snake was spicy, so it also added to the taste.

Then, Mark smiled at the gawking Dona and gave her demonic horns a hornbutt with his own horns. As she looked at him with even more awe, he put a piece of meat into her mouth, and she chewed, at first gently, and then she began to gorge.

She was such a greedy glutton.

Mark caressed her gray blob of a head as she ate directly from the ground. She didn't even know how to use her hands to eat. But sure enough, she was fast, and with her face dripping with drool, she looked at him with greed.

There were more snakes. She wanted more!

Mark shook his head and helped her with his own part of the food. He didn't feel particularly hungry anyway.

Dona gorged it down, too. Happily.