Chapter 17

Chimera Paphnachia

After finishing a fulfilling day’s work~
When I stretch out both legs, it feels like my cozy home.

Humming the melody circling in my head, I worked.
Well, in reality, I was just hissing.

The task itself was simple.
Disassembling the Swamp Alligator I had caught.
Its body was much larger than mine. Swallowing it whole was out of the question.
Normally, I would’ve pierced its soft underbelly, crawled inside, and devoured it from within.

But today, I decided to reward myself for my hard work.
Several days had passed since I escaped Pelerian’s dungeon.
Aside from sleeping, I had focused entirely on leveling up my skills.

At last, following Basic Elemental Magic: Earth, I had also acquired Basic Elemental Magic: Fire.
There were probably water and wind magic too—I hoped I could obtain them someday.

And being able to use fire meant I could cook.
That’s right.
Luxuriously, I decided to roast the alligator.
Even if you call me spoiled, I can’t help it.
I’d been thinking about this ever since I learned fire magic, and I’ve held back until now.
If anything, shouldn’t I be praised?

If there’s someone out there watching me, I hope they praise me.
I even took special care to make sure no smoke rose.

I dug a pit, gathered dry branches, and lit a fire.
Then I wrapped the cut-off alligator tail in mud and threw it into the fire pit.
I’d seen this cooking method on YouTube before.
It was from a foreign YouTuber who made videos about surviving in the wild.
Back then it was chicken, not alligator meat—but they said alligator tastes like chicken anyway.
It should be fine.

Drool started dripping from my mouth.
Yeah, now I’ll rest while the meat cooks.
Maybe I’ll take a short nap.

Over the past few days, my status window had become even more impressive.

【White Horn Serpent Lv10+】
【Traits】

[Indomitable], [Diligence], [Horn]

After reaching level 10, I couldn’t level up anymore.
I had expected this. Since it’s the max level, it can’t be helped until I evolve.
It was a bit disappointing after all that hunting, but I accepted it.
However, as I kept hunting, a strange message appeared.

• “Unabsorbed demonic energy is being stored.”

After that message, a “+” symbol appeared next to my level.
Well, it must be something good.
What really matters isn’t that, but the skill window.

【Skills】
[Borrowed Horn Lv3: Slash Lv1]
[Basic Elemental Magic: Fire Lv3], [Basic Elemental Magic: Earth Lv3], [Venom Fang Lv10], [Devour Lv7], [Bite Lv8], [Stealth Lv6]
[Poison Resistance Lv5], [Bleeding Resistance Lv3], [Pain Resistance Lv6], [Heat Resistance Lv8], [Petrification Resistance Lv1], [Breath Holding Lv4], [Survival Instinct Lv5], [Leap Lv5], [Mana Detection Lv2], [Acceleration Lv3]

Hahaha, not only had the number of skills increased, but their levels had risen a lot too.
Right now, through Borrowed Horn, I had acquired the skill Slash.
I learned it from a mantis the size of a wild dog, with scythe-like claws.
Originally, I didn’t have claws, but thanks to Diligence, I could learn it.
By swinging my tail sharply, I could cut through soft things.
It’s a must-have skill.
I even used it to cut off the alligator’s tail.

The reason I had to keep hunting even without leveling up—
wasn’t just to increase skill proficiency. There was another reason.

Got it!

※ Evolution available:

[Venom Fang Lv10]

The once ambiguous skill “Quick Slither” had evolved into the top-tier skill Acceleration after reaching level 10.
So what would Venom Fang become?
Venom Fang was the alpha and omega of my attack power.

Surprisingly, Basic Elemental Magic: Fire didn’t have very high attack power.
Even when I poured in a huge amount of mana, the fire I could produce was about as strong as five lighters.
If the opponent dodged quickly, it was hard to even inflict burns.

That’s why evolving Venom Fang was my top priority.
And now was the moment to reap the results.

Wait, first I should taste the alligator meat.
Mmm, it’s delicious.
So juicy.

Alright, shall we evolve?

• [Consumes demonic energy to evolve the skill.]

The demonic energy that had accumulated since I couldn’t level up—
now was its moment to shine.

• [Venom Fang Lv10 evolves into a higher-tier skill.]

Alright, let’s go!

• [Venom Fang Lv10 has become Deadly Poison Lv1!]

Yes!
Deadly Poison—what a romantic skill name.
But the excitement didn’t end there.

You can choose the type of poison.

【Neurotoxin】
【Hemotoxin】

Just seeing the options made my heart race.
Maybe because I don’t often get to make choices in life.

Unlike Acceleration, Venom Fang’s evolution had two paths.
“Deadly Poison: Neurotoxin” and “Deadly Poison: Hemotoxin.”

I roughly knew the difference between the two.

Not all venomous Serpents have the same kind of poison.
Sea Serpents or cobras typically have neurotoxin.
As the name suggests, being bitten by a neurotoxic Serpent paralyzes the nervous system.
If it spreads to the central nervous system, the diaphragm becomes paralyzed, making breathing impossible.
In other words, you suffocate to death.
It’s truly terrifying poison.

Hemotoxin is just as horrifying.
If bitten by a Serpent with hemotoxin, that area is basically done for.
I saw this on YouTube too…
…Honestly, about 30% of my knowledge comes from YouTube.

Anyway, there was an experiment where a single drop of viper venom was mixed into human blood.
Just one drop in a decent amount of blood—and the liquid blood turned into a jelly-like mass.
Imagine that happening at the site of a bite.

The moment you’re bitten, you feel a burning pain.
That’s because the hemotoxin destroys and melts cell membranes.
Then the skin turns purple and begins to necrotize.
Naturally, as the venom spreads through the bloodstream, it can kill the target.
In terms of pain, it surpasses neurotoxin.

Loud and agonizing hemotoxin, silent and deadly neurotoxin.
So what’s my choice?

• [You have selected Neurotoxin.]
• [Venom Fang Lv10 has become Deadly Poison: Neurotoxin Lv1.]

I don’t have any sadistic tendencies that enjoy watching my opponent suffer.

Of course, hemotoxin has its own advantages.
But for me right now, neurotoxin seems more useful.
Like some venomous Serpents, it would be best if I could possess both hemotoxin and neurotoxin.
Maybe that’s possible someday?
Who knows.

Alright, now that I’ve evolved my Venom Fang,
shall I complete today’s to-do list?

Lately, I’ve developed a daily routine.
It’s observing a certain magical beast.
It’s not like I have some kind of voyeuristic hobby, but I don’t really have a choice.
That creature is just too fascinating.
After all, it’s a chimera created by a fairy archmage.

I had encountered it once before.
Back when I fell into this basin along with the Mixed Jaguar.
At the time, I ran away and didn’t even confirm its name, but after learning more about it, I wanted to meet it again.
The problem was, actually finding it wasn’t easy.
How do you find something that crawls underground in such a vast basin?
I thought about it for a long time, but the clue turned out to be close by.
The place where I first saw it—the outskirts of the basin.

I found the spot where the Mixed Jaguar had fallen.
It was a place filled with unpleasant memories, but there was no trace left of that event.
Only a cliff, and bare ground where no trees or grass grew.

Wow, that cliff is really tall.
And the angle is almost vertical—there’s no way to climb it.
Even if I borrowed flight, my mana would probably run out first.
Come to think of it… am I going to spend my whole life trapped in this basin?
…Eh, whatever. I’ll figure something out.

Alright, let’s prepare.

I hid on top of a large tree.
Before, I had stayed on a rock, but for some reason that felt uneasy, so I moved here.

And where the Mixed Jaguar had been—
there now lay a large wild boar corpse.
My handiwork.

Of course, I didn’t drop it from the cliff—I hunted it.
It was easy. I approached quietly using Stealth and bit its rear. It got angry and started jumping around.
Then I lured it right in front of the cliff.
It huffed and puffed, then eventually stopped breathing and collapsed.
Isn’t it underestimating venomous Serpents a bit too much?
And it’s not even a magical beast, just a normal boar.

Someone might think this is cruel, but—
I did one more thing to the dead boar.
Before its body cooled, I tore into its carotid artery.
Thanks to my improved Bite skill, it was possible.
Blood gushed from the boar’s neck.
It pooled on the ground, slowly soaking into the soil.

This recreated the exact same conditions as when the Mixed Jaguar incident happened.
Just because the conditions matched didn’t guarantee it would come, but yesterday it worked.
And today, it worked again.

Thud, thud—

It was coming.
Did it smell the blood that had seeped into the ground?
What is it, a shark?

Thud thud thud—

One thing was certain—it was approaching fast enough to shake the ground.
Yeah, you must be hungry.

Judging by its size, that boar would be just a single bite for it.
Come on. Come and eat the boar.
It’s a feast I prepared just for you.

Thud thud thud thud—

Ah, it passed right by the tree.
The tree shook heavily—I almost got thrown off.

And finally, it burst out of the ground.

BOOM!

It was strong enough to break through the earth as it emerged.
The first thing visible was eight legs.
Maybe because it was mixed with some tarantula-type monster, it looked like a spider.
Its legs, covered in exoskeleton, were lined with sharp spikes.
With those, it tightly embraced the boar’s corpse.
Truly an electrifying kind of hug.

There were things I hadn’t noticed before.
The way it moved was like an upside-down spider.
But while spiders have a head with a mouth, this creature’s mouth was in the center of its body.
Like a starfish, it swallowed the boar whole with the massive mouth on its torso.

Then it crawled back underground.

Good.

Even though it just gulped down the boar I worked hard to catch and disappeared, I wasn’t angry.
Because I had prepared something inside the boar.

Like spiking frozen food with laxatives to punish a thief in a dorm,
I had injected a massive amount of neurotoxin into the boar’s body.
My venom glands were completely drained—it even gave me a headache—so that thing should be in serious trouble.

Sure enough, it didn’t disappear immediately.
Instead, it trembled above ground.
Did the poison work? It looked like it was affected.

Then it started spewing something from its mouth.

“Gweeeek! Gwek!”

I wish it were coughing up blood—but it wasn’t.
Instead, it vomited bones like a fountain.

“Urp.”

Then it let out a thunderous burp and disappeared underground.
Like it was saying, “Thanks for the meal~.”
Looks like it wasn’t poisoned after all.

A bit disappointing, but not entirely unexpected.
Even neurotoxin isn’t Universal.
Since it works through the bloodstream, consuming it through digestion often doesn’t have much effect.

Hmm, it’s a shame my trump card didn’t work, but oh well.
There was a clear reason I became interested in that creature.

【Chimera Paphnachia Lv20+++】
【Traits】
[Chimera], [Subterranean Monster], [Dragon Bloodline], [Molting]

That “Dragon Bloodline” trait.
I think that’s one of the conditions for my special evolution.

But still…
That status window is seriously terrifying.

I couldn’t help but be impressed.