NOVEL NEXT Book 1 – Chapter 4: …Lest you drift away
Jonah shot up with a scream, his breath coming in long, ragged drags. Even in the persistently hot and humid bowels of the Snake, he could feel himself breaking out in a cold sweat. He struggled and twisted in his little alcove, lashing out against the darkness and whatever might reside therein. Slowly, memories of where he was and the predicament he was in returned to his sleep-addled mind. His breathing slowed and his trashing became less violent until he lay back down on his meaty bed and let exhaustion flow over him.
Then came the numbness.
Jonah sat up and put his back against the "wall", folding his legs up to his bare chest and hugged them, before resting his head on his knees. It had been two weeks since he was "eaten". Or at least he assumed it was two weeks; kind of hard to tell time when you were in the belly of a giant snake, one that was getting bigger every day, it seemed.
He'd seen several skills in the shop that might be useful for seeing in the dark, but he assumed that none of them would be very useful for his... unique, situation; most of them involved things like increased sensitivity to light or thermal vision, but none of those would help in the boiling belly of a beast, surrounded by true, absolute darkness (even if he DID have another token to buy anything with).
After a moment of silence to gather his strength, he felt around the wall of his alcove till he made contact with something rough and pitted wedged deep into the flesh. His fingers traced along the shape, and he envisioned in his mind the vicious curving edge, thick and razor-sharp like a sickle and just as large. After moving his finger along the edge to ensure it was still sharp as always, he let out a sigh of relief, then awkwardly gripped the bony knob at the end, he gave it a vicious yank, sending a flood of burning blood into his cubby. He barely noticed it anymore, but still flinched, as if remembering past mistakes.
His "prison" had been steadily increasing in size for the past week at an amazing rate; so much so that he wondered how it was even possible. When he had first gotten here, there had barely been enough room to move, but as of yesterday it took him a full 10 paces to reach the other side of width-wise, and over 80 lengths wise. He didn't know how big this thing was going to get, but if it kept growing at this rate, he wasn't sure there would be anything left even if he did escape. What hell was the Army doing letting this thing run around?!
More importantly, if it kept getting bigger, would they eventually just bomb the thing (and by extension, him) out of existence? He shuddered a bit before tucking the thought to the back of his mind. He couldn't panic, couldn't give up. Not now. Not after what he'd already been through.
The first three days had been the worst. His three skills synergized for his predicament well; [Minor Acid Resistance] stopped him from being digested, [Arcanic Regeneration] healed what his resistance couldn't block, and [Breathless] fueled his regeneration. If he was missing even one part, he'd have been Snake poop already. But in his excitement at finding a way to survive, something had slipped his mind.
The concentration of Acid was increasing.
Not by much, or very fast, but enough for him to notice when just the passive effect of [Arcanic Regeneration] was finally unable to keep up. He spent the next two days, in agony, as he switched between bursts of active [Arcanic Regeneration] and being slowly dissolved again waiting for [Breathless] to restore his mana. Both the length of time between bursts and the agony increased as time dragged on and the effects of his skills lagged behind.
More than once, he had thought about not even bothering anymore, of just stopping and melting into a pile of goo. But a fire burned in his gut each time when he thought about how he got where he was, about the laughter in the back of his head, and most importantly that vile grin on his own stolen face. He'd push through, he had to, no matter what came, even if it was to deny those bastards the satisfaction of seeing him give up, he would push through. And one day? He'd get out of here.
And he'd raze everything they knew to the ground.
That thought kept him going, even as his screams slowly turned into laughter, then back to screams. Over and over, the cycle continued, until his suffering bore fruit. He leveled up.
Or at least, his skill did.
When he saw the blue window flash into existence on the third day, his crazed laughter turned into something real, as he could finally see a light at the end of this long, long Snak-I mean, tunnel.
| [Minor Acid Resistance (lvl-1) -> (lvl-2) |
The effect was immediate. He could "feel" his skin becoming tougher and more resilient, less reactive, and "cleaner" for a clean as he could be in the belly of a Snake. A few hours later, [Breathless] followed suit, while [Arcanic Regeneration] didn't level up until the 5th day. He guessed it made sense that higher rank skills would take longer to level. Even still, it seemed he was keeping a steady pace with the increasing strength of the Acid around him.
On the 7th day, he'd felt something change. The "density" of Mana in his surroundings made a huge leap and he could keep a steady, rhythmic pulsing coming through the flesh he lay on. He then felt a slight acceleration on his body, like you would feel when in a car or train, and it clicked; the Snake was on the move.
After 7 days of dormancy, his warden was finally "awake" and moving. He felt both excitement and trepidation at the thought, however. On one hand, 7 days since "The Game" had started might mean there are powerful people out there now. Someone might be able to rescue him! But on the other hand, why was the Snake dormant for so long? it sure as hell didn't look like a starter mob to him, and he'd personally witnessed its speed and power. He lived in a large apartment building, what would happen if the Snake ran across someone who WASN'T a modern-day Hercules. What if they got trapped here with him? likely without the unique set of skills he bought himself.
Soon, his fears seemed to be confirmed, as the dull, muted sound of combat made its way through feet of solid flesh and the Snake began to violently thrash about. It was at the moment he was thrown into a nearby wall with a solid thud, that his prison had expanded by at least double while be battled with the acid.
The Snake's own fight ended quickly as well, as a sudden burst of speed once more flung him to the far corner, while the Snake gave a loud hiss and seemed to coil around something. Soon, the distinct sound of breaking bones could be heard, and Jonah's blood ran cold. The Snake uncoiled and rhythmic pulsing that Jonah remembered well, began, signaling the Snake had started its meal.
Jonah rushed to the far back end of the Snake's stomach, not wanted to be anywhere near his new "roommate" when they finally arrived. After roughly 30 minutes, Jonah could hear the sound of something plop into the acid at the far end of the stomach. Something was wrong though. He had expected the Snake to be fighting with a Human, maybe one of his neighbors in the large apartment building he lived in. Instead, what joined him here had sounded far, far larger. He stretched his shaking hand out into the darkness, and far sooner than he was hoping to, came into contact with something solid.
Whatever it was, it was huge, easily taking up half of the current space, and it was covered in razor-sharp, bristly fur. So sharp in fact, he immediately found himself bleeding after running his hand the wrong way. The bleeding didn't stop until almost 2 seconds of active [Arcanic Regeneration]. How the Snake had even managed to swallow this thing was a miracle in and of itself. Hopefully, the Snake was content to stay still and digest its newest meal (bad manors to eat before you're done with your first!) and not throwing him around into his new spiky friend.
Suddenly, a low growl could be heard nearby, and Jonah's heart went into overdrive. He quickly backpedaled away from the unknown creature, unfortunately, it seemed the splashing of acid as he did so gave away his position. Jonah only felt a gust of wind, and then a sharp pain in his gut. He reached down to feel an unsettling amount of blood pouring from a sharp, thinly stretched from one side of his gut to the other.
A few inches closer, and he would have been split open.
The scream caught in his throat as he threw himself towards the far wall, desperate to get as much distance between him and the thing as possible, while holding his insides, inside. Luckily, it looked like while the beast was alive, it was barely so. Between the wounds from its fight and the last (literally) crushing attack by the Snake, it was on its last breath. Even the attack on him was most likely a last-ditch reflex than anything deliberate.
Not that it makes him feel any better; a quick glance at his status showed him just how close to death he'd actually been.
| Health: | 57/100 |
| Mana | 83/100 |
He'd lost 43 health from just a grazing attack. What the hell kind of balance was that?! There's no way this thing was a starter mob. That also crushed his hope of being rescued by some rising star MC. If these kinds of things were spawning after only 7 days, he didn't hold how much hope there was anyone left that could beat them, let alone the Snake that DID.
As he stared into the darkness in the direction of the beast, all he could feel was a soul-crushing numbness.
He didn't get any sleep that night, nor did he the following two days, as he spent time watching for signs the beast was recovering, and healing his wounds. On the third night, he couldn't go on any longer and fell into a deep slumber.
He awoke an unknown time later, to the gentle brushing of "something" against his arm. In an instant, he was awake, scrambling up from the small pool of acid he had collapsed in.
That turned out to be a mistake.
As he rose, he felt the sharp pain of something digging into his arm, cutting through his flesh like butter, and only stopping when it hit bone. He swung his arm out wide in an attempt to escape, only to find in horror that the "thing" followed his movement. He reached out with his other hand, trying to push his attacker away, only to feel the distinct feel of cartilage and bone. His confusion gave way to realization and he grabbed only the large sickle-like claw and removed it from his arm, channeling his skill to stop the bleeding.
He traced his finger along the wicked edge of the claw, feeling the bloodlust emanate off it. Well, at least he knew what almost gutted him. Hopefully, this meant his "roommate" was truly gone this time. Holding his new weapon in his uninjured hand, Jonah slowly approached the beast. He stretched out his hand to meet....bone. Jonah gave a sigh and plopped backwards into the pool of acid, not even caring for the pain in his arm as the acid made contact with his open wound. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders and all of the tension in his body suddenly dissipated.
But with the relief came something else... Hunger.
Jonah felt ravenous. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten anything. He assumed the constant use of his skills was draining him in some way as well. Running his hands along his chest, he couldn't help but flinch at how pronounced his ribs felt, and where he had once held a slight bulge, now was a sunken pit.
He figured the only reason he'd not died from dehydration so far was the "acid" around him; while bile and stomach fluids could hardly be called safe for human consumption, they did consist mostly of water. And God knows how much of the vile stuff he swallowed in his less...lucid moments. As for how he avoided the obvious side-effects? He didn't have a clue. He could only think his skills had some part to play in it all.
But that didn't help with his most pressing matter. He felt like he could eat an entire horse at this point.
...... or maybe a bristly Monster?
He didn't know what would come of eating some unknown life-form like this, nor did he think he was immune to any kind of poison that might be present. And if his theory on how he was able to survive on bile was correct, then his skills might be able to counter any harmful problems that do pop up. Not a perfect solution, but at this point, he was out of options.
Mustering what little strength he could, he gripped the claw tightly and made his way through the darkness.
The next few days flew by in a blur. He had used the Beast Claw to carve out a little cubby into the Snake's stomach shortly after finishing his first meal. The claw cut smoothly through the soft flesh, but it was slow going; apparently giant snakes didn't like having a hole cut into their stomach, who'd have guessed?
He planned on trying to tunnel his way out, but the farther he got, the denser and stronger the flesh became. Eventually, he had to stop about three feet deep and seven feet wide, giving him just enough room to lay down out of the acid and store a little bit of beast meat.
That night had been the first night he didn't sleep in a pool of acid in more than a week.
And now here he sat. Feet dangling into a pool of acid, trapped in perpetual, true darkness in the belly of a giant snake he believed no one would be strong enough to kill for years, if ever.
As he contemplated his present situation and his future prospects, Jonah did something he swore to himself he'd never do again...
He wept.