Slow but steady progress
On a certain day, about a month after Kyle summoned me into this world. We're walking through the academy hallways.
As usual, I'm hanging out on top of him, coiled around his shoulders. I'm around 1 meter long, so I can comfortably coil myself on top of this human.
He walks towards his room, while deep in thought and carrying a bunch of books. But suddenly, his walk is interrupted by a group of students.
"Well look what we have here. The great loser mage Kyle..." A tall boy appears in front of us. Behind him are a small group of boys and girls, his age.
Are these the brats friends?
I lazyly gaze at the distraction in front of us. Meanwhile Kyle, my summoner, furrows his brows.
"What do you want Richard?" Kyle questions, with an annoyed tone.
"Oh nothing much." The guy, Richard, walks theatrically closer to us. "I just wanted to come and check up on how you're doing, you know? Because I care about you." He sarcastically speaks.
"Ssssssss." I flick my forked tongue out and hiss slightly at the guy, making him flinch back.
"What an ugly familiar." He frowns while looking at me.
My loyal summoner seems to be offended by this and he steps forwards while glaring at Richard. "Atleast I don't have a stupid mutt as a familiar. Unlike yours, mine is infinitely superiour in intelligence." He boasts. His vocabulary is as boring as his flat face.
"Hoh? Why don't we put them to the test then? A fair duel between mine and your familiar." Richard proposes, with an insidious looking smile.
"You really think your mutt can best my snake? Bring it on." Kyle answers confidently.
"Heh. Let's shake on it." Richard says and extends his hand. My summoner proceeds to shake his hand, cementing the duel.
After that we part from the group of kids, with a future duel to prepare for.
The next days, Kyle spends trying to make me stronger. We run around the forest, while I kill all sorts of beasts. With all that killing and eating, I manage to rank up from mid to high D rank.
Soon the fated day comes.
We stand in a big arena. Inside it, is me and my summoner, Kyle. In front of us are Richard and his demonic bulldog.
The 2 people back away from their familiars and look at each other with different expressions. Kyle has a blank expression, while Richard has a grin on his face.
Meanwhile I'm on the ground, staring at the demonic bulldog. A look of absolute indifference on my snake face.
The bulldog familiar is an ugly looking dog, staring at me viciously. It's supposedly stronger than me, around the low C rank.
Soon the command to fight is given and the dog runs at me with speed. He tries to chomp at my head, but I nimbly slide to the left. Then I immediately pounce on him, biting him in the neck.
This happned so swiftly, that the dog doesn't understand anything exept the pain he's feeling. Before he can understand what's going on, I back away and release a small fireball at his face.
"Grah." He grunts a dog grunt, as he eats a flame ball to the face. He then conjures a few fire blades in response and sends them towards me.
I dodge the blades and get closer to him. He bites at me, but his speeds seems to have decreased. He's moving sluggishly. This is due to the venom I pumped into him, when I bit him.
I move under his bite and wrap my tail around his mouth, then I bite at his eye and then bite at his other eye.
He squeals pathetically and thrashes around. I quickly get off him and now that he's blinded, focus on bombarding him with fire magic. I sneer at the stupid dog, but it comes out as a serpentine hiss.
I throw fire at him, until finally RIchard runs between us and throws an attack towards me. The attack is blocked by my own summoner, who looks slightly pleased. Tch, as if a creature without intelligence could compare with me.
"Looks like you lose Richard." Kyle says.
Richard looks at his fucked up familiar and grits his teeth."You damn stupid dog. This isn't over yet." He says and leaves the arena.
My own summoner smiles, picks me up and we leave as well.
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....
2 years pass by.
During those 2 years I witness how the brat goes from an angsty, bullied boy, to a somewhat grown man.
As his skills improve, his bearing turns more serious and professional. He is now an A ranked individual, which makes him quite strong.
Meanwhile I've reached low C rank. My growth speed is much slower than I expected, but it's still within reason.
Kyle has finished his studies at the academy. Now he is interning as a magic researcher. For me, this just means a bigger room to sleep in.
Most of my time is spent sleeping, or coming up with different techniques. Now that Kyle isn't in the academy anymore, he spends less attention on me, since he doesn't need me.
I've grown quite tired of slumbering most of the time, so I usually work on myself. It's a bit difficult, since my power seems to refuse to increase. Gaining skills is also very difficult. During those 2 years, I've only managed to aquire 3 common skills.
[Name]- None
[Threat level]- Low C
[Race]- Toxic snake
[Common skills]- (Poison fang) (Body strengthening) (Spring) (Choke) (Haste) (Steel body) (Self-regeneration)
[Extra skills]- (Steal) (Sense heat source) (Fire manipulation)
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The haste skill makes my movements 50% smoother and increases my movement speed at the same rate. Steel body makes my body tougher, like steel. And self regeneration just boosts my regeneration speed and efficiency a high degree.
These are the only skills I've manage to aquire. To progress faster, I need to somehow leave this place and go to a forest, where I can progress freely. But I haven't had a chance to leave.
I've lived my whole life as the strongest. Now I'm just a weak little snake, that can be crushed with a stomp. It's an exprience that takes time to come to terms with. I want this life to be different than my last one. But because of my powerlessness, I find my mind gravitating towards my old ruthless ways.
I've grown bigger atleast, so that's a start. After finishing my practise, I slump over the table I'm on and close my reptilian eyes to sleep.
One thing I have above everyone though, is my combat experience. Even though I don't have all of my memories, since my soul was damaged, I lived a ridiculously long life. Thanks to that, I have tons of combat experience.
I spent my last life in a humanoid form, but that doesn't matter much. Since I fought all kinds of creatures and monsters, I can predict what they're going to do. After all, a dog creature has only a set of moves it can execute. It's most likely not going to sprout out tentacles and try to rape you with them...
So far I'm actually quite fond of this slow life. I don't know if this is how I truly feel or it's because of my soul damage. Still, I don't mind spending some time here, as I can grow safely and enjoy a stress free rest whenever.
Of course I will still strive for power since the desire for power has been ingrained into my being.
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7 years go by.
My summoner Kyle has finished his internship and is now a competent mage. His rank has increased once again and is now high A.
Our living contitions have also improved. Kyle now owns a house. He finally got another familiar for himself. It's a B ranked eagle monster. This also means he is not paying attention to me any more.
I have painstakingly managed to go from low C to mid C, in those 7 years. My progress is slow and it's getting slower with every improvement I make. Yet I don't feel an ounce of disappointment. It's only been almost a decade.
Something is starting to happen within me. I feel a sort of pressure building inside of me, as I grow stronger. It started a year ago and has been building up as the months go by.
This must be an evolution. I know that monsters in this world can evolve. I don't know what the conditions for that is, but nevertheless I believe I will evolve soon.
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....
A year passes.
Everything is much the same. Kyle is still working as a mage and I'm still at home, resting and getting stronger.
But a big change is coming! I can feel it. I'm finally evolving.
I quickly slither out of the house, alerting Kyle and the big bird. They follow me, as this is uncharacteristic of me. After all I'm usually very quiet and unmoving.
Once I reach the backyard, I start trembling slightly and light starts to radiate off me.
*Voosh* A slight gust also appears.
After about a few seconds, the light fades and my new form is seen.
I have magically become much bigger. I was around 2 meters long before, but now my length reaches around 15 meters. I was slender, but now I'm much beefier and thicker. My body looks like a huge rope of muscle, radiating power.
Kyle comes closer to me and runs his hand on my scales. "Looks like you evolved." He has a small smile on his face.
The boy always has an amazing ability to speak out the obvious. Of course I've evolved. My colour still stays the same matte black, but my eyes change into wine red.
I open up my status.
[Name]- None
[Threat level]- Low B
[Race]- Venomous Serpent
[Common skills]- (Spring) (Choke) (Steel Body) (Self-regeneration) (Venom breath☆)
[Extra skills]- (Sense heat source) (Fire manipulation) (Slither☆) (Physical amplification☆) (Lethal venom☆)
[Unique skill]- (Pilfer☆)
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The skills with the stars in them are either new, or evolved skills. I quickly start reading the descriptions.
(Venom breath)- Spray out your venom in an aerosol form, through your mouth.
(Slither)- Nullifies any kind of resistance on your movement. Allows you to slither anywhere like moving through space. Also increases movement speed 10x.
(Physical amplification)- Amplifies your physical abilities by 10x.
(Lethal venom)- An evolved form of poison. Incredibly toxic venom that threatens even A ranked beings.
(Pilfer)- Unique skill. Allows you to steal magicules from other beings and/or objects, to increase your strength, at a hightened rate. Additionally any attack you recieve can be stolen form your opponent and integrated as a skill. Allows you to take a skill from your vanquished foes.
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A pretty nice increase in power. It's not anything gamechanging, but the me post evolution, is definetly in a completely different league than before...