AuthorPalt
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Tutorial Rewrite 87
🕑 Added 2023-01-25 10:11:01 +0000 UTCMy body fizzles and fuzzles and bubbles and churns. There’s no air in my lungs anymore. There isn’t any air at all. Wherever I look, a status message pops up.
<Snake (Lv.40)>
I can barely move at all. The heat is horrible and enough to melt me. Oh, wait, I really am melting! Haha, isn’t that just silly?
…I think this might be it. My brain isn’t working too good anymore. It’s like my skull’s full of stuffy white cotton and nothing else.
<You have learned:
Acid Resistance Lv.3>
<You have learned:
Acid Resistance Lv.4>
<You have learned:
Acid Resistance Lv.5>
I don’t want to die. I only just made another friend and I didn’t ask him when his birthday was so when it's his turn I won’t even be able to wish him happy birthday and sure it’s not like I can actually buy him anything nice like a lovely cake or anything but I still want to give him something even if it’s only words because even if it’s only words words hold so much power and they can make you so happy despite what everyone says because sure they won’t break your bones and dissolve you into goop but they can make you want such a fate they can make you want to die and it just isn’t fair to think that everyone has the mental strength to shrug off that sort of stuff because most people probably don’t or else there wouldn’t be policies regarding hurtful things so really the saying is superfluous at best and downright cruel at worst but I don’t really want to die at all I don’t want to die because I would miss him and I would miss Simel and I don’t even know if goblins have birthdays so I need to ask him I need to live I need to survive I need to get out of here no matter what because if I don’t then I’ll be dead and I can’t meet them again.
But the darkness is soothing and tempting and alluring and I have never felt more sleepy. I just want to take a nap. I think, just maybe, that would be nice. A little snooze, and then I’ll be off. But first, I should tell him.
My eyes are gone and my face has melted off but I can still see the screen in my head. I type up a message to Moleman.
<PrissyKittyPrincess[F9]: hy hee when ur
brthdy srry i thnk
im die now sry ssry i didn meen 2 im ssry
plz l ssry i wuz mean 2 u
srry sry plz>
Send. Now he’ll know.
Now at least he knows. This means that, now, I can finally go to sleep…
<You have received a message.>
<SuperMoleman[F48]: Kitty, are you alright?!
The ninth floor has snakes, right?
Just try not to get too scared
and face them with courage!
It’s okay, I’ve already forgiven you for
being mean to me, so please try to survive.
Don’t die. You still have so much more you can do.
And don’t give up. We’ll meet soon again, okay?
Maybe we’ll even meet in Purgatory one day!
Please. Don’t die.>
I stare at the message in front of me.
Don’t die.
Survive.
Don’t give up.
I clench my fingers. Most of my skin has melted off. That’s alright. My claws are deeper than that. And I still have most of my sharp teeth. And that’s all I need because right in front of me, I have a perfectly eligible target.
I sink my sharp claws into the darkness in front of me and the harsh burning crushing around me gets even tighter, grinding some of my bones to dust, shifting my cranial plates, but it isn’t enough. I bite. I tear. I chew. I gnaw. I claw. I rip. As the acidic sludge clinging to me is drenched with hot metallic blood, the acidic effects of it slowly weaken.
<You have learned:
Acid Resistance Lv.6>
<You have learned:
Corrosion Tolerance Lv.8>
<You have learned:
Corrosion Tolerance Lv.9>
<You have learned:
Dagger Tooth Lv.4>
<You have learned:
Dagger Nails Lv.2>
Soon the flesh gives way to something far tougher and I claw enough to see that this is the snake’s scaly hide, letting in just the slightest amount of diffused light. I don’t like harming the hide, but I have no choice, and with a thrust of my clawed hand, I finally break through. Dragging myself out of the snake, I suddenly feel that massive scaly body wrap itself around me once more. I hear its hissing breath approach to repeat its folly but I’m wise to its tricks now, and instead of letting myself get eaten, I stab my hands at where I can smell its open mouth to be, grabbing hold of it and pulling and clawing at it until I’m able to pull off its jaw. Warm blood splurts across my half-molten body and the body wrapped around me squeezes in an instinctual death grip, but I’m far from done.
<You have learned:
Fracture Protection Lv.3>
As the snake tries to pull away its head, I instead grapple on harder, scratching and clawing until I’m able to get far inside enough to crush its neck in my grip.
<You have learned:
Clutch Lv.10>
<You have learned:
Crush Lv.1>
<Snake (Lv.40) Defeated.
<[Level Up]>
<You have reached Level 42.>
<Agility has increased by 2.
Strength has increased by 3.
Stamina has increased by 3.
Magic Power has increased by 1.
Dagger Tooth has increased by 1.
Swim has increased by 1.
Crush has increased by 1.
Acid Resistance has increased by 1.
Corrosion Tolerance has increased by 1.
Corrosion Resistance has increased by 1.>
Haah, haah, haah… N—not bad for my first kill of the floor!
Right, I just, I can’t really, um…
I cough and hack up something I can’t really tell what it is. I still can’t see anything, and my tongue is kind of half-dissolved, and I’m not entirely sure what happened to my bowels, but I’ll be alright with just a bit of rest. That’s right, I just need to meditate a little, and…
I feel something bite into my leg. It’s not like I can tell by the pain, or even really by the way it feels. It’s just that there’s a sudden pressure and now something slick and cold is going into my leg. Hm. That might not be very good.
The floor gives way beneath me and I can’t feel my leg at all anymore and I drop to the ground with a wet squelch. Something wraps around my throat but I’m able to grab hold of it and pull it off before it does anything. I can’t do anything else, so I grab what I think might be its head and push it into my mouth, crushing it between my jaws. It tastes bitter. I can feel my mouth start to go numb, which can only mean one thing.
<You have learned:
Paralysis Resistance Lv.3>
Ah, there it is. Of course. Why am I not surprised?
But that’s not the only serpent I can feel. All I have for skin now is jellified flesh and tendons, but I can still feel them coating me like a heavy, scaly blanket. Just how many are there?! I try to pull myself up, but I’m completely covered and I have unfortunately never been too good at push-ups. A couple of snakes is enough to completely immobilise me, huh? Well, how about… this?
I spin myself into a roll, the snake weight on top of me scattering off, and once I’m no longer restrained by their girth, I pull my knees to my chest. This should buy me at least a minute or two to regenerate properly. The floor sure is cold and hard for being carpet, though… Weird.
I close my eyes and meditate.
<A Canto appears to you.>
Hm? Oh, this again. Sure, hand it over.
<[He thrust away the thick air from his face,
waving his left hand frequently before him;
that seemed the only task that wearied him.
I knew well he was Heaven’s messenger,
and I turned toward my master; and he made
a sign that I be still and bow before him.]>
A thick one this time around, huh? It still doesn’t make much of a difference, and being able to understand it also doesn’t really change much. It doesn’t change the fact that I just have to kill all of these snakes and I’ll win, probably.
I just have to keep going.
