Chapter 13: Despair (3): Motherless Bastard Serpent!

Chapter 13: Despair (3): Motherless Bastard Serpent!

It was dark again.

I was floating in the endless darkness.

I was sure my perception had gotten high enough to detect my enemy.

Heck, I could see its shape and size. Sure, it had grown larger than when that human released it from the pouch… but I could still sense it.

What happened?

How did I end up dying again?

I just—

The serpent… it vanished right in front of my eyes, even after I had increased my perception!

Just what exactly happened?

…

I opened my eyes and sensed the serpent again, but this time, it wasn't so different from before.

Sure, my perception had increased by one, but that barely did anything.

I died again.

Again…

And again…

… and again.

It took a while, but I finally understood what had happened.

The serpent was moving slowly at first, which made me think my perception was high enough to track it completely.

But then the serpent simply sped up and killed me. Its increased speed rendered my perception useless—or rather, even with my high perception, I just couldn't see it.

I opened my eyes again and finally… I could—

『You died.』

"Fuck!"

I was furious.

The deaths were painful, sure, but more than that, they enraged me.

I was weak. Pathetically weak. So weak that I couldn't even notice when I was dying.

Even after so many attempts… I'm… I'm just that bad!

"…"

I was thrown back into the light again.

『Perception: 18』 ↑1

『Stat Point(s): 0』↓1

I stared at Stucky, looking at the stat points that had dropped to zero. I had used up everything.

I sighed.

If I'd at least put those points into strength, maybe I could have done something…

That was my initial thought, but then I noticed—

The cold breath of the serpent.

I dodged the attack, just barely.

My left leg ended up as the serpent's target, but the rest of me was intact.

Blood gushed out as my lips quivered, but I was almost used to the pain by now.

Still, I wondered—how had I dodged the serpent?

Even at eighteen perception points, I could only detect the serpent when it moved slowly. When it sped up, I couldn't. So how?

『You died.』

I realized two things after this death.

First, the serpent got tired. After repeated rapid attacks, it grew exhausted.

Second…

I smirked. Or maybe I didn't—I wasn't sure anymore. But I knew I was smiling.

That was because I had an idea.

…

My eyes opened again, the same old view coming into sight.

I could see the serpent clearly, its massive body twisting and coiling in the dim light. But that clarity only meant one thing—it was moving slowly again.

This wouldn't last. I knew it.

The moment it sped up, my perception would fail me again, and I'd die.

But this time, I wasn't angry.

I wasn't frustrated.

No, this time, I had a plan.

The deaths, the pain, the frustration—they weren't meaningless. They'd taught me something.

There were going to be more deaths.

I specifically looked at one more stat meanwhile — 『Hunger: 23/50』↑1

Just like other stats, once affected, this stat too remained and kept on adding.

The time I spent in darkness didn't count. Only the time in the cave…

'23 minutes only?'

Numerous deaths that felt like eternity only amounted to a mere twenty-three minutes, giving me 23 hunger stat.

Well, I did die almost immediately each time…

Either way, these hunger stats would come in handy.

But he wanted to increase the stat a bit more.

The serpent seemed sluggish at the moment, probably because it had feasted on tons of goblins, but that didn't change anything.

The green blood on it had already started to make it visible and I was going to provoke it even more.

"Little worm, come at me!" I shouted, my voice loud.

A few of my kin were alive behind me and then called me insane.

I didn't care. I just stared at the serpent which lunged towards me.

I felt the cold breath once again and this time, I tried to make sure that the serpent swallowed me.

『You died.』

I failed.

I tried once again.

The entire scenario was the same.

I yelled out once again, "Little worm, come at me you motherless bastard!"

My kin was now sure that I had gone insane. One of them even thought that I was a suicidal maniac.

But I stood my ground and tried my best to execute the plan.

Only half of my body made it inside the serpent's mouth. The rest… well, my waist was stuck in its mouth as the fang had pierced me.

I couldn't go in nor come out on my free will. But that didn't matter, now that my arm seemed to go inside, I decided to execute my plan.

"Mokrs!" I almost screamed at Stucky as I pulled out the flesh-eating worms from the inventory and threw them inside the snake.

"Feed on it!" despite the pain, I made sure my words were heard.

『You died.』

I was once again in darkness… all alone.

A small grin appeared on my face thinking about the plan which worked.

By throwing the flesh-eating worms inside, I was guaranteed to kill the serpent.

The smile widened into a grin as a weird sensation coursed through my body. My eyes widened.

"Fuck yes! It will now be dead! Fuck yea!"

The happiness I felt… oh how good it was. I wanted to jump around and dance, the same dance which I had seen mage Gilbert perform on that beautiful night.

I wanted to let everyone know of my achievement.

I… wanted to show off. I wanted to look cool in front of my kin… so I couldn't help but wait for the respawn.

'Keke, I'll go and stand on top of the corpse of the serpent and then give a cool pose. The goblins will become my followers. Kekeke.'

I will raise my left hand and make a 'V' with my first two fingers. Then, I will place my right hand close to my ear, as if covering it... That would be so cool!

I thought about my followers. They would sing praises left and right. Kekeke…

At least…

That's what I had in mind.

When I respawned, I immediately turned to look for the serpent's corpse with anticipation.

But instead of a lifeless body, I saw my kin—floating, limp in the air.

"My followers!!!"

The serpent was alive.

It had wrapped its massive coils around them, crushing their bones with ease. A few were already being swallowed whole.

I stood frozen, my mind blank with confusion.

'How…?'

The Mokrs should've killed it. They should've—

My gaze snapped to the inventory.

The worms were there.

"No…"

I recalled something Stucky had said in passing:

『The Mokrs have been stored away in your inventory due to your death.』

『Note: It has been auto-set that things used by the host, scattered or thrown, will return to the inventory after the host's death. You may change this setting.』

"…"

I couldn't help but look again at one particular box where the Mokrs worms were stored. I could see a worm, making a cute expression as if asking me not to get angry at my own foolishness.

It almost looked… apologetic.

"…"

From an idiot back to a complete dumbass.