That time I was reincarnated as a snake (Tensura)

As I added a new name to my imaginary DeathNote, I leaned back on the tree branch where I had hidden myself, recovering from both the physical and mental exhaustion of my first battle to the death in this world.

'It seems I'm not the kind of protagonist who always succeeds at everything he sets out to do and gains amazing powers after his first battle with monsters, but I guess this is real life, not the fantasy of some mediocre writer who just wants to cheat his protagonist as quickly as possible.' I got depressed about my situation.

'At least I discovered that I have a regeneration ability, which in retrospect should be the bare minimum necessary for the premise of surviving to become stronger in my Adaptive ability to be fulfilled.' I nodded.

'But feeling so fatigued after healing my wound just reminds me that I can't rely on her completely or I might tip over. While very convenient in a dogfight, it'll only drain my magicula tank before my opponent does.'

'Being without magiculas is the same as being served on a silver platter.' I imagine fighting the direwolf fiercely, only to lose because I couldn't activate my poison bite.

'That would be a miserable outcome, new rule, avoid injury as much as possible.' I roll my eyes at my obvious conclusion.

'Leaving that aside, how could that damn rabbit react to my attack?' I replayed everything that happened at that moment in my mind.

'When I swooped down on him in a short time, he turned his head and aligned it with my flight path, that means he already knew where I was coming from and had a fast enough reaction to aim up like that in a fraction of a second.'

'Since it appears to be a weak monster, it is ruled out that it has abilities like magic sense or sense of presence, that leaves sense of danger, something that weak animals should have sharpened to survive or it detected me by something as simple as hearing.' I remember not paying attention to the sound it made as I moved.

'I'll have to try another rabbit, being careful not to alert him with sound and smell, and hiding from his sight.'

'Let's leave it for later, the subsequent robbery reminded me of another problem in my hunting method, I don't have a hidden place to take my prey. My hideout is fine, but it is very far from my current hunting ground, and having to leave the forest means that I could be seen by something with the ability to fly, since it is out in the open near the river.'

I looked around for a while, searching for a possible solution to my problem, I saw the trees, the ground, the bushes, finally after 10 minutes I made my decision.

'I'll create my own lair underground, that will not only allow me to hide, but also to store prey, in addition to helping me limit the mobility of potential attackers.' I slid down from the tree where I was resting, until I reached its roots.

When I reached the base of the tree, I remembered something I hadn't considered.

'How do snakes dig their dens if they don't have arms?' I was baffled.

'Mmm... screw it, I'll do it my way, I can't just copy everything from snakes, I have to innovate.' I proceeded to use my own head as a makeshift shovel.

An hour later...

'This is harder than I thought, seriously, every time I make a little progress it crashes and I have to start over.' I'm frustrated by the loss of time.

'I better find a hole dug by some other beast.' I turn around and use my tail to throw the dirt I dug up to erase all evidence of my failure.

Using my thermal vision, I continue to slip through the undergrowth, looking for other possible prey, preferably in its home, so it will be a double reward.

Two hours later...

'Why do I have such bad luck, I just ask for another prey, just one!' I rant inside a bush I use to hide.

While I question whether there is a being that dictates my fate by a roll of the dice to know if I will be lucky or unlucky when doing things.

*Crack*

I hear a branch breaking near me.

I turn towards the source of the sound, only to see a cute horned rabbit just like the one I killed earlier hopping around.

*crack crack*

I continue to watch him as he heads off somewhere, proceeding to follow him, this time being careful to make as little noise as possible as I go, to avoid being detected.

'How long do you plan to stop?' I complain after following him for almost 30 minutes.

After my complaint, it seems that Veldanava heard me. The rabbit stopped and approached the base of a rather large tree, at least 2 meters in diameter.

I continue waiting for it to fully enter, I approach the entrance silently, with my thermal vision I check that there are no other beasts nearby that could be attracted by the sounds of the upcoming battle, after confirming that there are none, I prepare for action.

'This time I approached silently, since he didn't run away after getting so close, it's ruled out that he has an ability like danger sense or he would have already warned him about me.' I look at the entrance, after seeing no action on his part, I roll up to shoot.

'Enter, bite, strangle and that's it.' I pray in my mind that this time it will be that easy.

I rush into the den towards the horned rabbit, this time the rabbit didn't seem to notice my presence as it didn't react until I was on top of it. It tried to jump to avoid me but it was too late, with all my strength and my poisonous bite ability activated I bit its back. It panicked as I injected it with my poison.

He tried to struggle to get me to let go, but this time I didn't. Using my body as a rope, I grabbed him and started to squeeze. Little by little he lost his breath, until...

*crack*

I broke his bones, the rabbit finally let out his last breath.

' Hahahaha , in your face bitch.' I rejoiced at my great victory over nature.

'Now comes the ugly part…' Seeing my prey, I slowly opened my mouth to try and swallow it.

'What I have to do to survive.' Shedding non-existent tears, I continued to shove it into my mouth.

'This is disgusting!' With the last of my will I swallowed the rabbit, horn and all.

'…'

'It wasn't that bad, it may have been raw, but I didn't find it unpleasant.' I am perplexed by this fact.

'Although it didn't taste delicious either, I can only assume that my taste buds don't really work.' I get depressed at the prospect of not being able to enjoy a good meal, not that I have what it takes at the moment to prepare one.

'Anyway, at least eating beasts won't be torture if I can't dislike the way they taste.'

I console myself so I don't get more depressed.

'With a full belly, let's move on to the next thing.'

'From what I could see in these hours, I am in a forest somewhere.' Obviously.

'Seriously, I don't know where this forest is on the continent.'

Why on the continent you might be wondering? Easy, Veldora doesn't have the balls to show up on the frozen continent, though that rules out the existence of forests and the other large land mass known to exist, Leon Cromwell's "El Dorado", has an active volcano constantly releasing ash. Since I haven't noticed any ash in all this time I can assume I'm not in "El Dorado", even though it hasn't even been built yet, since Veldora flies around there's a chance Leon hasn't been summoned yet.

It is also ruled out that I am in the eastern part of the continent, since that is where his sister Velgrynd is.

I am not in the wastelands that Dagruel usually calls home.

I'm not completely surrounded by mountain ranges, that rules out the Cannan Mountains and therefore Dwargon , the dwarf-armed nation.

'That leaves me the Western nations, the sorcerer dynasty Sarion , the countries of the Demon Lords and lastly, the "Jura Forest", Veldora's domain, I try to remember the Tensura power map .

'Since Veldora flew in what I believe to be the western direction, that means I'm in the western part of the forest, but that raises another question.'

'Should I stay here or should I go somewhere else?' I muse to myself.

'Staying has the advantage that, being Veldora's territory, it is full of his magicules , which can promote my evolution, in addition to being a great hunting ground due to the monsters that are constantly born from his magicules .

But there's always the risk that he'll cause destruction and kill me. Apparently, there were many times when humans tried to invade the forest because they didn't believe in Veldora's strength, only to be completely wiped out. I don't want to be caught in the crossfire,' I shuddered at the possibility.

'Leaving may be the safest answer, but there are also risks, such as the church, ironically created by a Demon Lord, which actively kills monsters. Not to mention that it would delay my evolution; monsters are more frequent and stronger in places where magicules are concentrated, which this forest is the largest point on the continent.'

As I weighed the pros and cons, an inexplicable feeling filled my entire body. I turned my head to where the lump of the prey I ate was, only to see nothing.

I moved my body to try to identify what I was feeling. After a few minutes of exploration, I came to a wonderful conclusion.

'I got stronger!' I shake my head in joy.

This presented a change of plans.

'The decision is made, I will stay in this forest, at least until I believe I can survive a group of church paladins or adventurers. If any of these professions exist at this time, I will assume so, just in case.'

That raises another problem: I'm weak now.

'I think that in order to have the best chance of hunting, as well as surviving, I should know what I can and cannot do with this body before the misinformation kills me,' I nod at this thought.

'I already know that I have an offensive ability like Poison Bite, which strengthens the muscles of my mouth, as well as my fangs and, what I assume, the toxicity of my venom.'

'An auxiliary ability is thermal vision, which allows me to change my normal vision to thermal vision, with which I can detect potential prey and avoid possible enemy ambushes.'

' You don't need to be a Sherlock Holmes to know what resistances do; I could see that in my first fight, without the pain resistance I have I'm sure I would have passed out from the horn piercing my body. On top of that, I have resistance to blunt force, poison, and physical damage,' I try to remember my abilities.

'The poison one isn't hard to guess, the question is in the other two. I can only assume that the blunt force resistance refers to blows, whether caused by something or the shockwave that hits, which would make sense since I don't have cracked scales from all the blows I suffered against the ground.'

'But the physical damage one is the one that puzzles me. Does it include all damage caused by physical phenomena? So they should be piercing, cutting and blunt attacks…'

"Hang on a minute!"

'If the damn rabbit managed to pierce me even with resistance to piercing attacks, how would I have done without that resistance?' I felt a chill run down my spine.

After a moment, I refocus.

'If the rabbit pierced me so easily, it means that resistances, at least as they are at the moment, are not a panacea; if they work like the rest of the skills, they should have a degree of competence and only by raising it can they be truly useful.'

How do you raise resistances? Easy, being a masochist :).

I'm serious.

How else can you increase endurance other than by constantly injuring yourself, healing yourself, and repeating the cycle over and over again? That's being a masochist.

'And last but not least, my unique ability Adaptive, the one that will make me a powerhouse if I use it correctly.' Why? you ask yourself, then you're stupid, really, how can you not know that that's the fundamental ability by which living beings can exist today.

Adaptation is the ability to change yourself to match your environment, what is the environment? Everything around you, in my case, this magical world of shit.

No matter the play, having the ability to adapt makes you an unstoppable beast, of course, if you know how to use it and don't die early, just look at those guys with this ability.

The Shikigami Mahoraga , capable of facing Sukuna and Gojo .

The "villain" also named Shirley, who Jimmy and Timmy created because they were bored of their respective villains, only to be defeated by him when he became an interdimensional being because they gave him the ability to adapt to any threat.

And my personal favorite is the Tyrant , a dangerous beast, extremely powerful, with an unparalleled life force and adaptability that, even after being turned into a Teigu , remained alive and allowed the "Incursio" armor to continue evolving.

Yes, I know you're probably thinking that this isn't the best example of this skill, but for me, no one can beat the epicness that the evolution of the Insursio armor generated in me.

Changing the subject...

'Adaptable, from what I've seen, gives me heightened senses and regeneration that I'll just believe is normal regeneration for now, since I haven't tested its limits and I hope to keep it that way, for my own sake.'

'Leaving aside what should be the most important part, the ability to adapt to survive, which I believe in this world corresponds to the ability to acquire resistance skills and these in turn will evolve into immunities or also called nullifications.'

'If I play my cards right I can become unstoppable, as a good consumer of 'fiction products I know that the greatest weakness of this ability is dying for something before adapting to that something.

'So my short-term goal should be to try to get as many resistances as possible and improve the ones I have, to give myself more coverage, while not forgetting, of course, that no matter how many resistances you have, if you are weaker than the others, you will still die.'

There's no point in having more than 10 stamina, if you get hit with 20 and you only have 5 HP, it's instant death, not to mention if you get hit with 10,000.

'I think I should test how much the resistances improve if used constantly,' I open my mouth and reveal my sharp fangs.

Decisively, I bite my own body, although it hurt a little, the pain is acceptable.

After a few seconds, I proceed to pull out my fangs and watch as my body quickly heals.

'It didn't take much effort to pierce my scales, that could be because they aren't very resistant or because my fangs are very sharp... mmm', I repeat the process, but this time I slowly close my mouth, although this time it hurt more because of prolonging the moment.

After a second, I pull my fangs back as quickly as I can and look at the wound again.

'Focusing my vision I could see that this time the wound healed a little faster,' I compare the two bites in my mind.

'I should try it a few more times to compare,' I kept repeating the process.

20 bites later...

'Yes, it increases the speed at which it closes with each attempt, but it makes almost no difference. This could be because my regeneration skill may be close to max and this could be the fastest it can heal wounds, or it may not improve the skill much with such small wounds. If it's the latter, I could only improve it by suffering near-fatal wounds, which doesn't fill me with excitement,' I shrugged.

'But at least I found that with each attempt I needed to exert more force in my bite to break through my scales. That's good progress, if I keep biting myself I could continue to increase my resistance to piercing, I wouldn't have to worry about the rabbits' horn anymore, but I run a greater risk by doing this: becoming a masochist,' I sweat at that possibility.

' Nah , that's not true, my indomitable will wouldn't allow me to enjoy that.

'The real danger is running out of magiculas, as far as I could see after more than twenty bites, my tank that I just filled with the horned rabbit is almost empty. If I want to implement the training program of hurting and healing me I need a large supply of magiculas or the same, a lot of prey, so you know what time it is.' I get up from the ground.

"It's time to d-d-duel!"

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Author's notes:

Our protagonist is on his way to greatness, will it be easy or incredibly difficult? Only the roulette wheel knows. Let's say a future prayer for the protagonist.

If you're wondering about R18 content ;), as I do when I look for novels with that rating, I read them and I don't find those moments.

Well, I'll tell you: It's a snake! How can I do that?

It depends on your feedback. If you want, I can try to create some Japanese tentacle style scenes, but only if you ask, so I can blame someone for what I wrote :).