‘I need to befriend that snake to escape this place.’
How many people in the world could come up with such an idea?
Moreover, it’s not even an ordinary snake, but a monster with a crown on its head and crystal scales.
A terrifying creature that cuts up chimeras and grills them as steaks.
However, Zhanil Fezhe was convinced.
Not just anyone can think of cooperating with monsters.
That alone shows how his mindset differs from ordinary people.
Those who truly understand monsters.
Those who have seen named monsters with intelligence and ability to communicate might judge like Zhanil.
‘That one is a named monster… or if not, certainly an intelligent one.’
He couldn’t think that until their first meeting.
The snake only roared “Saak!” and didn’t speak.
But watching its behavior, he could tell. It clearly had reason and intelligence.
Just look at what it’s doing now.
Why didn’t he notice at first that it was wearing a ring?
It was clearly a ring with subspace magic. When it shook its tail wearing the ring, daggers appeared from thin air.
He’d seen many bags and pouches with subspace magic, but a ring? How could such high-level magic be on something so small?
How could a snake be wearing something precious enough to be in the Emperor’s treasury?
The sword, first that sword was an issue.
What the snake was doing with the sword was clearly ‘dissection’.
First it searches here and there checking for mana stones.
Though monsters do this too, it looks more like a hunter than a monster.
Finally finding an acorn-sized mana stone, it starts dancing.
Yes, dancing.
A monster dancing with joy.
Indeed not ordinary.
Moreover, instead of immediately eating the mana stone, it opens subspace storage.
Quickly gathering edible meat too, the snake starts heading back.
Zhanil held his breath while hiding.
The effect of the ampoule he sprayed to survive the wyverns only lasts a few hours, so the smell should be gone by now.
Even holding his breath to hide his presence, the snake passed by quietly.
Zhanil slowly followed the snake.
Having memorized this dungeon’s structure, he could maintain an appropriate distance.
The serpent claimed the control room, its coils draped across dead monitors.
Zhanil had approached the control room at great risk before.
He saw what the snake was doing there.
‘It was clearly operating those control devices.’
Complex machinery that even the scholar Dr. Robanton couldn’t handle.
A mere snake operated those devices.
It even seemed to use the map to check the locations of other chimeras and Zhanil.
After learning that, he couldn’t approach the control room anymore.
A dangerous and intelligent monster.
Zhanil too could be killed instantly if he wasn’t careful.
‘The Emperor who collects white monsters would drool seeing this.’
Those who should know are aware that the current Emperor collects white monsters.
Such a precious monster would literally sell for “a fortune.”
Zhanil shook his head to clear away such thoughts.
This isn’t the time to think about such things.
Getting out alive is most important, and for that he needs to cooperate with that snake.
‘No matter how intelligent it is, there’s a sure way to befriend monsters.’
Zhanil knew that.
He melted into the darkness with a determined expression.
==
“Saaak!”
Rolling!
「Using Rolling lv10」
Spin-
I spun in mid-air.
Rolling not on the ground but in the air.
Not jumping while spinning.
Must spin after jumping.
Try jumping and spinning right now and you’ll know.
How extremely difficult that is.
It’s all because of conservation of angular momentum.
Of course I saw this on YouTube too – if you try to turn your upper body left in the air, your lower body will turn right.
You can definitely feel it when testing on a spinning chair.
“You know quite a lot.”
‘But cats can do it, right?’
“What?”
‘You know how cats always land on their feet when dropped from above?’
“That’s dangerous if dropped from high up.”
‘Ah.’
Right, that is dangerous.
Pelerian was sensibly taken aback.
Anyway, there clearly are ways to turn your body in mid-air.
Either control moment of inertia like cats or figure skaters.
Or use a Rolling skill like me.
Whirrrl!
I spun fiercely in mid-air.
I could definitely feel the change.
The Rolling level I stole remained at level 10 from start to now.
But the number of mid-air spins was gradually increasing.
Now I can spin nineteen times in one jump.
I could feel the Rolling proficiency increasing in real-time. Initially I could only do five spins.
‘Hup!’
Whirrrrl!
As I spin sideways, Isil spins along too.
Of course Isil couldn’t jump, just flopped and spun on the ground.
Until his strength ran out.
Until Isil lost interest and returned to his pot.
I didn’t stop.
This wasn’t just out of boredom.
First, I saw potential in the ‘Rolling’ skill.
‘Heart-eating Leap’ which is now one of my main skills.
Its original form was just ordinary skills like Biting and Leaping.
Rolling could become such an element too.
And second, I needed to make Rolling my own quickly…
「Completely mastered Rolling lv10」
Like this!
This had to happen so I could use Crown of Steal again.
But something was strange.
Instead of becoming level 11, it wouldn’t go past level 10.
Checking my status window just in case.
──────────────
[Skills]
…
※Evolution possible
[Rolling lv10]…
──────────────
Rolling showed as evolution possible.
Leaping and Biting could evolve too when reaching level 10.
However, they needed to reach the level limit and have magical energy saturated…
──────────────
[Crystal Crown Python lv49]
──────────────
The main snake now was right before that.
After catching Dullahan and One Leg yesterday, I approached max level.
The level for evolution is clearly 50.
I could feel magical energy reaching saturation.
Three chimeras remain.
Numbers 7, 8, and 9.
All three being powerful chimeras, they should provide enough experience for evolution.
I might reach level 50 in a single leap just by catching one of them, given how absurdly powerful they seemed to be.
