《King Cobra》 Ch.1- Incubation When i woke up, everything was black. [automated system message: Due to your soul evolving beyond the capacity of your former body, you have succesfully reincarnated into a higher ranked world.] A translucent window appeared before me, startling me badly. I couldn''t believe it. If the contents in this window were aqurate, not only would i have had been reincarnated into a different world, it would mean that there was an automated system controlling my transition. Being unable to cope with my current situation, i decided that it was likely just all a dream, and that thinking about it now wouldn''t lead anywhere When a second window appeared, displaying what seemed to be my status, i reached my limit, and started to cry from frustration. I was alone in a small, dark area, having my common sense crushed with each new appearing window, and i couldn''t take it anymore. I fainted. An unknown period of time later, i awoke once again. I was sure now that my earlier traumatic experience must have been an unusually realistic dream, and that i would open my eyes to find myself in my room once again. I couldn''t have been more wrong. When i opened my eyes for the second time, i was greeted with the hellish sight of thousands of blinking windows, stacked upon eachother so that they completely covered my field of view, not that i could see anything in the comlete darkness anyway. This time, i handled the situation a little better, and didn''t faint from the stress. [System message: your status has been set to (sentient). However, your soul has reached the minimum requirements for (Entity). To upgrade soul status, press OK. (WARNING: Changing soul status can lead to great alterations in your psyche, proceeding to upgrade might severely affect your personality)] I didn''t even have to think about it. I had no idea about what was going on, and i was not about to become a different person because of some upgrade i didn''t even know the significance of. I clicked "deny", and proceeded to the next window. [System message: settings confirmed, excess soulstrengh has been temporarily sealed. Do you wish to aquire (Entity) privileges in your current world?] This time, i chose to press "accept", since i figured there would be a warning attached to the message if there were any drawbacks to accepting it. Immediately, another message popped up, preventing me from advancing through the stack of messages. [You have new skills!] [ Status: Name: (none) Species: Wyrm (Incubating) Gender: male Affinities(resistances): Wind: 35% Earth: 5% Light: 1% Basic values: Vitality (HP): 300/300 Mana(MP): 450/450 Stamina(SP): 200/200 Strengh: 80 Agility: 250 Intelligence(Magic): 200 Defense:100 Luck: 100 Skills: Innate abilities: (Passive) Poison Magic LV 1: A magic exclusive to the Wyrm species, it specializes in manipulating poisons, and can be used for both curing and inflicting them. (passive) Wyrm Scale LV X: Overlapping scales cover the Wyrms body, acting as a natural armour. The armour grows with the Wyrm, and will get stronger as time passes. +100 Defense. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!(passive) Poison attribute: The Wyrms'' natural poison permeates its entire body, resulting in both its fangs and its saliva containing massive amouts of it. Bites contain a poison attribute. (passive) Poison resistance: Poisons up to the level of the Wyrms'' can be safely ingested due to its natural resistance. (passive) Wind Magic LV 1: Male Wyrms are naturally adept at wind-based magics, which helps them during flight. Ether Rain: MP cost; 50/sec description: a Shower of venom originating from your mouth, deals posion attribute damage (MAX: 500/sec) and may cause paralysis (40%/sec). Wind Blade: MP cost; 10 description: By infusing mana a small amout of air, a powerful gust is created, advanced Wind mages can easly cut through metal with this spell. Damage (150). Bite: a regular bite. Damage (20) (Entity) exclusive skills: (passive) Soul Magic LV 1: One of the (Entity) magics. A powerful magic with the ability to directly interfere with the opponents soul, with no risk to oneself. Entity Gaze: MP cost; 10/sec Description: The immense soulpressure emitted by an Entity makes ordinary souls tremble. Immobilizes target for the duration of the ability, cannot be resisted by souls below the level of (Entity). User cannot move or cast other abilities for the duration of this ability. ] I was stunned. There were so many things which i had problems with, the first thing being that i wasn''t a human! As far as i was concerned, it didn''t matter if i was some godly being with a soul different from mere mortals, but i atleast wanted to be a human. From what i could see, it seemed i was some kind of snake-like creature, called Wyrm. While i had heard of wyrms in my earlier life, i had thought they were something akin to dragons, and not some kind of snake. According to the window i had just dismissed, i was not yet hatched, which would explain the surrounding walls as well as the complete darkness. I didn''t know how far i had developed yet, or how long i''d be trapped inside of the egg i was doubtlessly inside of, so i decided to close my eyes and try to get some sleep. When i awoke, for the third time in this new world, something was different. My body was telling me to move, to break out of the prison in which i had been confined for so long. Without waiting for me to give it the order, my body started moving by itself, and i immediately felt the difference. My body had distinct muscles now, and could move all by itself. My mouth opened, and now that my body was moving, i could tell that it was indeed the body of a snake. Suddenly, i stopped, and i felt fangs emerge from their resting place in the back of my mouth. With a hissing noise, i used my entire body as a spring, lunging towards the shell, from which i could now sense a faint light. A ripping sound permeated the inside of my prison as it burst open, and i was finally free. Ch.2- Hatchling While emerging from the tear i¡¯d made, i eagerly took in my surroundings. Rays of light penetrated the lofty crowns of the trees that surrounded me, and the first thing i noticed was the size of them. The gray, massive trees towered over me, continuing up until they branched of nearly 100 meters above my head, where distant leaves could be seen. The undergrowth around me had clearly been very thick, until something -probably my mother- flattened it and left it as a part of the forest floor. Around the area where i had been born, the soil had been dug up and formed into walls, and it was obvious that it was a nest. It looked like the plants formerly growing in the nest had been uprooted to weed out potential hiding predators, or prehaps to make it more comfortable. While i admired the nest, my body had already gone to work. It slithered towards a wall, and when it turned around briefly, i saw a glimpse of several hundred other eggs clustered together, some of which were cleary being broken through. I was glad that my body seemed to know what it was doing, but could¡¯t help but wonder if i¡¯d be stuck like this forever, or if i¡¯d be able to take control later. It was clear that my body didn¡¯t listen to me at the moment, as it had already reached the nearest tree without listening to my orders, and i decided to give up on movement, and focus on the odd window i¡¯d seen earlier. My memory of that time was rather clouded, and i decided that i should see if i could get it to pop up again. Since it had looked like a status window from he game, and had called itself ¡°system message¡±, i tried treating it as a gamemechanic, and attempted ordering it to appear. When i didn¡¯t recieve a response, i gave up, and decided to try controling the snakes body again. I could feel everything the snake felt, and see through its eyes, but trying to move it would always result in failure. It was as though i was stuck in someone elses body, spying on their life through their own eyes, and i hated it. Brooding over what couldn¡¯t be changed wouldn¡¯t help, however. I¡¯d just have to wait until something happened¡­ This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. If i¡¯d been able to, i would have shouted with joy. Just a few minutes earlier, i had controlled my body succesfully, although it had been for just a moment. It had been during my first hunt, where i¡¯d given my body away by making it twitch, alerting the target of my presence. It was a ratlike creature with sinister looking spikes protruding from its back, and when it heard me, it had jumped nearly 10 meters in order to get away. I concluded that the animals of the forest were way stronger than anything in my previous world, and decided to use my newfound control to force my body to avoid bigger creatures in the future. When the day finally neared its end, my body burrowed under a cluster of roots, and stopped moving. I assumed that this meant it was about to fall asleep, and allowed myself to relax. When my thoughts finally started to fade, and the feeling of dirt beneath my plated stomach began to dissapear, a faint voice resounded through the forest. Suddenly curious, i tried to fend of the fatigue, but to no avail. The last thing i registred before i fell asleep was the same voice, much fainter now, laughing. ch.3 Waking up When i woke up, sunrise was upon me, bathing the trees in a deep yellow light. My snakebody slowly rose from its hidingspot, sticking out its tounge to taste the air. I felt very different from before i fell asleep, almost as if i was stronger now, but still failed to take control of my rebellious body. A loud explosion abruptly broke the silence of the woods, and my snakebody quickly slithered in the opposite direction to the source. As i slithered along the uneven forestsuface, my body once again picked up a sound, and my mind went blank. People! the voices i heard were unmistakenly those of my fellow kinsmen! With a burst of willpower, i forced my body to turn around, while supressing my own excitement. Small creatures were still fleeing from the explosions, but even my gnarling hunger was insufficient to keep me from finding my kin. I dodged a fleeing ratlike creature, way to impatient to even atempt to consume it, and almost ran into a small rockformation. The rocks were in fact rather small, but were boulders from my perspective, and took a painfully long amount of time just to get around. When i finally managed to get a glimpse behind the formation, i abruptly stopped. In a large clearing, maybe five meters across, a small camp was situated. A man in dark robes was sitting on a log in front of a small bonfire, which had clearly been burning for a while, and my snake body picked out two more under the pelts which were lying behind him. The man examined a burning patch of forest with a huge grin, and proceeded to snap his fingers. I recoiled back in fear as a fire slowly grew from the mans palm, casting an eerie glow upon his already creepy smile. The mans eyes had locked with mine for a second, and he''d seen me! i shivered in my hidingspot under a bush as i imagined him turning towards my direction. "Show yourself, beast, and submit yourself before me, or face the power of my fire!" A loud voice, imbued with fiery power, rang out. It didn''t seem as if i could escape without being burned to a crisp, and so i obliged. With my body still stiff with fear, its usual resistance was gone, allowing me to freely control it, and i quickly crawled up towards the clearing. When i emerged, i could see the mages suprise in his face, and surmised that i might have made a big mistake. i was ready to turn at any second, but then the mage broke into a big smile. "Girls, wake up!" he shouted, "i''ve got one!" The previously unmoving pelts started to shake, and within a moment, two more humans emerged. They were both beautiful, with short hair clearly cut for convinience rather than beauty, and slender, muscular bodies matching the leather armour they wore. As a snake, i obviously didn''t react to their alluring appearances, with my new preferences involving large bodies and fearsome fangs, but my formerly human spirit could still evaluate them fairly. They were fairly similar, and i directly concluded that they were twins. One was slightly shorter, with a slightly more round face, while the other was tall and willowy, with sharper features and a gaze that seemed to register even the most minute details in her surroundings. "what is it, Bergand? did you scorch your own hand again?" the shorted one muttered, while the willowy one just glared at him. "Very funny, witch, i''ll make sure to be more careful when i burn you at the stake!" the man named Bergand replied angrily, lifting his left hand which still held the ball of fire, and pointing it towards the girl. "Stop it, both of you! you''ll scare it!" the willowy girl suddenly shouted, silencing both her sister and Bergand. "come here, little guy, we wont hurt you" she then said in a much softer voice, now focusing her attention on me. I slowly approached the girl, who had taken a chunk of fresh meat out from her satchel, and she smiled. When i came close enough to snatch the meat away from her, she visibly tensed up, waiting for me to lunge at it and then quickly retreat. Betraying her expectations, i made my way towards her arm, and put my head on it. She watched with an incredulous expression as i slowly coiled around it, stretching my neck towards her satchel, and when my head eventually emerged from the opening, still gulping down pieces of meat, she laughed. It was a beautiful laugh, pearly and pure, and as i laid my head to rest on her shoulder, my body around her arm, a window appeared once again. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
A sapient being has requested a contract be made. (Type: Familiar) Do you wish to accept? Y/N
I stared at the window for a moment, and then chose Yes, tightening my grip on the girls arm. The girl stared at me for a moment, shocked, and then burst out in tears. "He accepted!" she screamed, seemingly dilirious in her joy. "we wont have to leave the academy!" The girls sister and Bergand quickly joined in, laughing and crying amongst themselves, while alternating between hugging each other and myself. I couldn''t help but feel happy for them, despite not having any idea of what was happening, and licked my new masters'' ear to get her attention. She squealed in suprise and delight, taking my prodding lick as a show of affection, and i sighed inwardly. There was no way they''d understand me, and a glance at the writing on the scroll the other girl was tucking away told me that written language was very different in this place. "Aww" the other girl pouted, "i wanted to be the one to make the contract". "We aquired a familiar, and that should be enough for you, Adalia" My master said with a sigh. "Not only that, snaketypes are rare around these parts, and those that are found here are often above D-rank. Our new friend here might even be a Galeviper or an Eldergrass snake!" When speaking about me, she looked towards the shoulder on which my head rested on and affectionately patted it. Having found both physical and emotional safety with my fellow humans, i could afford to relax. My bet had paid off, i''d been taken in as a pet instead of being killed for my hide, and i''d be safe from the many predators i knew were lurking in the forest. Now i''d just have to wait and see how it played out. As the day progressed, i learned much about my new master, her friends, and the world i had found myself in. The three friends spoke of a war in the east, where humans had invaded dwarf territory, of the academy, which i learned was a sort of military academy focusing on teaching magic, and of the assignment they almost failed. Appearently they were first year students on their very first field mission, to contract a familiar. Each group needed to contract at least one familiar within the span of a week, and Bergand had scared away all the fauna in proximity by hurling fire at everything until i came along. I quickly learned that Bergand was a very competent pyromancer, and a severe case of pyromania, which was the reason for him still being a first year student despite being two years older than the girls. The girls mentioned an incident where he''d set fire to his teachers robe, forcing him to strip in front of the class, and sending Bergand straight back to year one. My masters name was Ariena, and as i''d guessed she was the twin sister of Adalia. They were both spiritmages unlike Bergand, who was an elemental summoner. As i understood it, elemental summoners were humans that were capable of hosting elementals within themselves, wielding their powers in exchange for feeding them mana. Spiritmages however, wielded magic related to life, such as healing, illusion and binding. When night finally fell, Bergand upprooted several big trees, piled them on top of each other, and set fire to them. The result was a splendid, flaming tower which lit up the surroundings like a beacon, and i couldn''t help but admire Bergands power. The girls set up their odd pile of pelts again, put up a barrier to keep Bergand out, and then promptly went to sleep, clutching each other. I stuck my head out from in between the girls, looking out towards Bergand who was lying down on the ground. The poor sod had been forced to sleep directly on the ground ever since he set fire to the pelts, and was probably even now regretting it. Turning back towards my beautiful master and her sister, i stuck my head back in between them. There, basking in the intense heat coming from both girls, i finally fell asleep.