Save Me, Holmes
Evolution.
Just hearing the word made my heart pound.
Whether or not I could evolve was extremely important to me.
After all, it determined whether I had to spend my entire life as this tiny white Serpent.
Of course, that didn't mean I wanted to become an ugly giant human-faced Serpent like Medusa Mom.
If possible, I wanted to evolve into something similar to a human.
Or at least into a large and beautiful Serpent.
Right. So what could I evolve into?
There had to be options, right? There had to be.
But I couldn't check the options immediately.
What is this?
It didn't show what I could evolve into.
Instead, there was something like an additional note.
[※Conditions must be met in order to evolve.]
I see. So what conditions are required?
For Pikachu to evolve into Raichu, it needed a Thunder Stone.
Did I need something like that too?
In fact, I did.
Consume a Grade 1 Magic Stone.
…Huh.
So I could only evolve if I consumed a Grade 1 magic stone.
If what I had eaten really was a magic stone, then I could deduce something.
It seemed that the higher the number, the more valuable the magic stone.
Otherwise, Grade 1 would be the highest grade of all—and surely a tiny Serpent like me wouldn't need such an incredible stone just to evolve.
The magic stone of the Horn Jaguar was Grade 3.
Even that creature was a monster I could never defeat in a fair fight.
What a waste.
That meant the magic stone I ate was probably valuable too.
If only I needed a Grade 1 stone… didn't that mean I had eaten a Grade 3 one for nothing?
When I was in elementary school, I once put beef from the fridge into a bowl of ramen.
My mom kicked me in the stomach, yelling that I had wasted expensive Korean beef on ramen.
Yeah… this situation felt pretty similar.
But that ramen tasted unbelievably good.
And now I could evolve.
So that's fine.
Should I start evolving?
Once I do it, I'll probably find out what I evolve into.
But I hesitated again.
I remembered the fate of the Horn Jaguar's corpse earlier.
If I had chosen to sleep inside its body, I would have been dragged underground with it…
and met an unavoidable death.
Yeah. It would be better to find a safe hiding place before attempting evolution.
Besides, once that thought crossed my mind, my body suddenly began to sting.
Was this my survival instinct kicking in?
No… wait.
It really stings.
Ah—!
"Fuck!"
The curse burst out the moment I opened my eyes.
Something was attached to my body.
The creature, about the size of a chestnut burr, had gray fur and a red hairless tail.
It was clearly a rat.
What kind of crazy rat rubs itself against a Serpent without fearing it?
But when I tried to look at its shameless face, I froze in shock.
I had thought it was a rat, but what the hell did it look like?
Its eyes bulged outward like an insect's.
Its snout stretched out like a long spike.
And the tip of that snout was embedded in my body.
Slurp, slurp.
It was sucking my blood.
Without thinking, I checked its name.
[Mosquito Rat Lv.3]
[Traits]
[Vampire]
[Skills]
[Bloodsuck Lv.2], [Poison Stinger Lv.3]
"Aaaaagh!"
What kind of hellish creature was this?!
It was literally a monster that combined a mosquito and a rat.
And that poison stinger was stabbed into my side.
Killing intent surged inside me.
Taste my fangs!
I bit down on it instantly.
Without even chewing, I gulped it straight down my throat.
The blood it had stolen from me was reclaimed just like that.
Come to think of it, I swallowed it so quickly I didn't even properly show it the power of my fangs.
Still, a monster like this was something I could handle.
I couldn't help feeling proud.
Medusa Mom, wherever she was, would probably be proud of me too.
There was another one nearby.
When it saw me glaring at it, it slipped away and ran.
What an irritating creature.
Good thing I didn't evolve immediately.
First, I should find a hiding place where I don't have to worry about those blood-sucking rats.
The Mosquito Rat had become my snack, but the wound it left behind itched.
It did have Poison Stinger Lv.3, but it hurt less than when my brother bit me before.
Since I had poison resistance, I should be fine.
A little blood had flowed, but I endured it and crawled out from the rocks.
By then, dawn was breaking.
Now my home-finding project begins.
In this vast basin, surely there must be a place where I can lay my body.
I crawled along, searching for somewhere to hide from the cold wind.
Long ago, scholars used to sing about a life of contentment with what one had.
They said they could be happy sleeping under the moonlight, using the clouds as blankets.
I read a lot of those poems in textbooks.
But honestly, I don't think I could ever reach their level.
…Actually, now that I think about it, every one of those poets was a high-ranking official.
So all that talk about being happy living in a one-room straw hut was complete bullshit.
Which meant I wanted a good house.
For the dream of owning my own home, I searched tirelessly.
Bzzzzzz—
Just when I thought I'd found a decent rock crevice, a swarm of bees burst out from inside.
If only I had picked a worse crevice instead.
My greed was the problem.
The place I hid from the bees was a wide hole in a patch of bushes.
And inside it—
I met eight red eyes.
Wait… do spiders live underground too?
That was the day I learned that Serpents can move backward.
While slowly retreating, I quietly hummed Für Elise in my mind.
The place where the bee stung me swelled up and burned painfully.
Why are there so many monsters with poison?
My Poison Resistance level increased by one.
Without it, I probably would've swollen up and died already.
…This is a serious problem.
A "safe and good" hiding place was extremely hard to find.
Any decent spot already had an owner.
Just like how beautiful or handsome people always seem to have partners.
Honestly, the best of the best would be a cave.
But caves were exactly where the strongest monsters made their homes.
The terror I felt when a massive Owlbear burst out of one…
The most common and easiest places to find were rock crevices.
But rock crevices weren't safe.
"Ah, damn, there's one here too!"
I opened my mouth and hissed loudly.
At that, a Mosquito Rat that had been lurking nearby fled.
Those bastards were my biggest problem.
Rats were already horrible creatures, and mosquitoes were the worst insects.
But these things combined the worst traits of both.
Whenever I tried to sleep somewhere slightly exposed, they would come and suck my blood.
They had soft fuzz on their feet, so I couldn't even detect them in advance.
And the poison secreted from that snout…
It anesthetized my skin and prevented blood from clotting.
There was a day I got bitten three times.
I almost died from blood loss.
My goal was to find a place where those things didn't exist.
And after three full days, I finally found an incredible location.
This place… isn't bad.
No—actually, it's the best place I've found so far.
It looked like lightning had struck this area sometime in the past.
Several dried-up trees were gathered there.
They were bare without leaves, and I could see hollow knots in their trunks.
Sometimes dead trees have empty spaces inside.
It was moderately humid and warm, and safe from threats that couldn't climb trees.
In other words—
It was safe from those damn Mosquito Rats.
Those stupid Mosquito Rats couldn't climb trees.
Good riddance, you damn Mosquito Rats!
Phew. Calm down.
There was something I had learned from experience so far.
First, I needed to check whether this was truly a good hiding place.
I looked around the dead trees.
Were there nests of dangerous bird-type monsters?
Any hornet nests nearby?
Any claw marks from monsters that climbed trees?
After checking everything on the checklist—
This place really was a top-tier location.
It was practically the luxury villa district of Hannam-dong.
I carefully approached the largest dead tree.
No matter how good the place was, it would be meaningless if some dangerous tenant already lived there.
Hopefully nobody lived here—or at least something I could beat.
There was a large hollow hole halfway up the trunk.
I stuck my head inside to look.
Wow! No one's here.
Inside the dead tree was a spacious and comfortable interior.
Honestly, it looked better than the tiny studio apartment I used to live in.
The problem was that instead of being empty, there was a dead Mosquito Rat lying inside.
If that Mosquito Rat couldn't fly, then someone must have carried it here.
Kkiririk, kkirik.
And then a strange sound came from above the tree.
Ah… I came to look at the house, but it seems the owner was home after all.
The landlord was a huge centipede.
My body was slightly thicker than a jumbo sausage, but that centipede's body was at least as thick as a baby's forearm.
Instinctively, I focused my eyes.
[Red Teeth King Centipede Lv.6]
[Traits]
[Gentle], [Craftsman]
[Skills]
[Poison Fang Lv.8], [Stealth Lv.3], [Fast Crawling Lv.2], [Carapace Lv.4], [Rend Lv.5]
[Status]
[Full], [Newlywed]
I can see it!
Being able to see the status window meant the opponent was within a manageable level.
It looked terrifying, but maybe it was weaker than it seemed.
Maybe because it had a trait like Gentle.
And what's with Craftsman?
The skills look terrifying—like Rend.
Wait. Gentle…?
That was a trait I'd never seen on a monster before.
The creature slowly approached me.
Then it stopped at a reasonable distance and began twitching its antennae, as if examining me.
Hello.
I slowly waved my tail like a greeting.
In response, the centipede started waving its antennae in rhythm with the movement of my tail.
I stopped wagging my tail.
The centipede stopped moving its antennae as well.
Hmm. It really might deserve that "gentle" trait.
At least it wasn't trying to eat me like other monsters.
So… does that make us friends now?
When I stayed still, the king centipede seemed to lose interest.
It slowly returned into its home inside the tree.
For a moment, I considered biting my new friend's side and launching a surprise attack.
Since it didn't have poison resistance, it might actually be doable.
That house looked way too nice.
Maybe my traits secretly included something like cowardice.
But I gave up on that idea.
Because of the word written in its status: Newlywed.
Now I understood what it meant.
Another centipede, slightly bigger than the first one, suddenly appeared from higher up in the tree.
[Red Teeth King Centipede Lv.7]
[Traits]
[Gentle]
Looks like the couple has a great relationship.
Come to think of it, centipedes were said to live in male–female pairs.
I climbed down from their tree for now.
Then something suddenly crossed my mind.
Ah… so that's why.
Around here, I hadn't seen a single one of those Mosquito Rats.
Maybe it was thanks to that centipede couple.
I hesitated for a moment.
Should I search somewhere else, or stay around here?
It wasn't an easy choice.
Rumble—
An ominous thunderclap pushed me toward a decision.
When I looked up at the sky, it was covered in heavy dark clouds.
This is bad.
I can't get caught in the rain.
Cold-blooded animals like me could literally freeze to death.
Looks like leaving isn't an option.
Besides the centipede couple's tree, there were plenty of other decent dead trees here.
Among them, I found a suitable hollow.
There was a knot-hole just small enough for me to barely squeeze through.
Inside was enough space for me to coil up and lie down, but the entrance was too small for those centipedes to enter.
This should work.
Still, moving in next door without saying hello felt a bit rude.
Instead of rice cakes, I went out and caught a Mosquito Rat nearby.
Then I placed it under the tree where the centipede couple lived.
Think of it as a moving-in gift.
After climbing up to my new home and looking down, I saw the husband centipede busily carrying away the Mosquito Rat.
It made me feel strangely warm inside.
Isn't this what neighborly kindness is about?
…Not that I was hoping the centipede couple would never go hungry.
Rumble—!
Thunder roared and rain began pouring down.
I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
The sound of the rain made it easy to drift off.
And now—
It's time to evolve!
The moment I had been waiting for.
When asked if I wanted to evolve, I proudly answered yes.
Maybe I could evolve into something big.
It would be nice if there were options to choose from.
From [Little White Serpent Lv.10]
You can evolve into:
[Little Green Serpent]
…What the hell is this?
There were no choices.
And the problem was what the evolution actually said.
Since I was a Little White Serpent, I thought I might evolve into just a White Serpent.
Getting bigger was important.
After all, size was the foundation of combat.
Right now, I was way too small.
At the very least, I needed to be big enough to swallow something larger than a Mosquito Rat in one bite.
But what was this Little Green Serpent?
That was the species name of my siblings.
Which meant—
Was I actually a less-evolved breed compared to them?
No way.
That's a lie!
I firmly believed the fact that I was the only white one meant I was special.
My excitement about evolution collapsed instantly.
Then a voice gave me hope.
"You have fulfilled the special conditions for evolution. A new evolution tree has been unlocked."
Yes!
Special conditions!
I knew it—I must have accomplished something.
※ Special Condition: Consumed a Magic Stone of Grade 3 or higher
Ah… Mr. Jaguar.
Only now do I realize the greatness of your kindness.
One of the conditions for evolution was consuming a magic stone.
I only needed a Grade 1 stone, but I had eaten a Grade 3!
And then a new option appeared.
From [Little White Serpent Lv.1–10]
[Little Green Serpent][White Horn Serpent]
Wow! I get a horn!
Since the Horn Jaguar had horns, a Horn Serpent must mean a Serpent with a horn.
…Wait.
What exactly would a Serpent even do with a horn?
Still, Little Green Serpent wasn't even a real option for me from the start.
In that case, there was nothing to hesitate about.
"You have selected [White Horn Serpent]."
"Evolution has begun."
Special Evolution!