A Snake's Life Read online

  A Snake’s Life by Kenaren

  Category: Original

  Genre: Anti-Hero Lead, Fantasy, LitRPG, Male Lead, Non-Human lead, Reincarnation, Strong Lead

  Status: Completed

  Published: 2017-08-28

  Updated: 2017-12-30

  Packaged: 2019-04-09 04:10:16

  Warnings: Gore

  Chapters: 40

  Words: 80,938

  Publisher: www.royalroad.com

  Summary: An old man died in his sleep. Upon arriving in a pure white plane. ‘God’ Told him his wife that he had lost years earlier had been chosen to become the Hero a world needed. The man pleaded with the ‘God’ to send him as well. And though the God agreed the man would not be born a human. The man accepted anyways. Now he’s in this new world trying to Evolve into something that can survive until he meets his wife again. Think he can do it?

  Many thanks to Aizen-Sama for the cover!

  This book is complete and all new chapters will be posted here! | http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/15886/a-snakes-rise

  Prologue

  Hello, everyone. My name is Ken and well… I died. Not in some fantastical way, mind you. I simply died in my sleep. I had lived a good, long life. I had children that I loved very much. A wife that passed too soon. And a home in the southern part of America.

  When I finally did die, It was an easy death. It was easy to head into the light because I didn’t have any true regrets. I was old, tired, and ready to see my wife again.

  *Sigh* But fate… it had other plans for me. After I died and went to wherever it is souls go, I met… I hesitate to call it God as they didn’t claim to be such. I can’t think of another way to describe them, though.

  They were composed entirely of golden energy without any distinct features that would denote a gender and they didn’t so much speak, as they did project their thoughts into my head.

  “Your wife isn’t here.” It had said.

  “Did she… She didn’t go to hell, did she!? Because if so, there must be some kind of mistake. My wife was a kind woman, and she never did anything bad, to anyone!” I had yelled. (probably not a good idea to yell at what I thought was God.)

  “No… She isn’t there, either.”

  “Then, where is she? Can I see her?” I begged.

  “She was… Chosen.”

  “Chosen? Chosen for what?”

  “To become the hero another place needed.”

  A hero? It did make sense… in a way. My wife… Sarah was a doctor, and she lived to help people. *Sigh* She also died for that same cause. I didn’t know anything about her death until I got a call from the morgue asking me to come identify her body.

  She had attempted to save a small boy who had ran into traffic. She did manage to get him to safety before the car clipped her hip, and she was knocked back into the street… The truck driver couldn’t stop in time. The other doctors told me it was a quick death. Painless even, they had said. Like that was any consolation for me or our kids.

  That little boy grew up to one day marry our youngest daughter and the rest, as they say, is history.

  “Can… Can you send me there as well?”

  “I cannot.”

  “What!? Why not!?”

  “Only one hero can be sent to the world at a time. For you to go as well. Your wife would have to die, first.”

  I can’t go? This… Thing. Is telling me that I couldn’t see my wife again because of a technicality!?

  “Then I won’t be a Hero. I’ll be something else, anything else. So long as I can meet my wife again. I don’t care!”

  “Anything? Even if you were no longer human?”

  “What will I be, then?”

  “Does it really matter? You said you wouldn’t care.”

  I did say that… But, what if this thing turns me into something my wife is repulsed by. I don’t think I could handle it if she rejected me…. No, If it’s to see her again. Even if I can’t be with her anymore.

  “I’ll do it. Turn me into anything you want. As long as I can see my wife again… As long as I can help make her happy… I’ll gladly accept your offer.”

  “Very well. Your wish has been granted and you will be sent to the same planet your wife will be born on in three hundred years.”

  “What!? You said I would meet my wife!”

  “You will. Provided you can become something capable of living that long.”

  Become something? I thought it was going to decide what I was turned into. Is it now saying that I get to choose?

  “What do you mean ‘become something’? Are you not deciding what I will become?”

  “The world I will send you to is… different. What you are born as doesn’t necessarily dictate what you will die as. Provided you never stop desiring change.”

  So… There is hope that I can see her again one day. How does one change though?

  “After… whatever it is that you do happens. How do I change?”

  “You evolve.”

  “Doesn’t that take an extremely long time and multiple generations, though?”

  “Normally. This world is, as I said, different. A single being in this world can evolve multiple times, as long as they desire to change.”

  It is possible then, but how on earth would that work? How can a creature evolve a single time? And yet, this thing says they can evolve multiple times?

  “How can that be?”

  “Simple… You have to kill and consume. Animals, objects, people, It does not matter. Everything you eat is turned into points. Those points are then used to buy your next evolution.”

  “Isn’t that like a video game?”

  I knew a fair bit about video games. Used to play them a lot as a teenager so I knew this sounded familiar. *Sigh* The kids nowadays were all playing those virtual reality games, so those old games were forgotten about. Sucks, too. Those ‘VR’ games looked like trash compared to the old ones.

  “Sort of… Though you won’t be earning skills like you do in a video game. You only have access to the skills your race is able to perform.”

  “This isn’t one of those. ‘Eat everything to become the most powerful’ Deals, then?”

  *Chuckle* “No, though some races are more powerful than others.”

  I suppose that also makes sense. After all, a shark is much more powerful than a tuna. And a Lion is more powerful than a house cat. So certain races being more powerful than others is… reasonable, I guess.

  “Are there levels, as well?”

  “Not exactly. The races are classed in tier’s, not levels. From one star to ten stars. Each star representing a tier.”

  “If it’s classed by tiers and not levels, then… What tier is the Human race?”

  “Humans, are a tier three race.”

  That’s low! I would have thought the Human race would have been much higher on the list. If the dominant race on my world was Humans then… What is the dominant race here?

  “Can you give me an example of a tier ten race?”

  “Not many tier ten races exist. And, of those that do. Only a few of each race still live on the planet. The others have abandoned the planet in hopes of starting a new life elsewhere. One such race. Is the Dragon God race.”

  “Wouldn’t that be a title. And not a race?”

  “No. The Dragon God race is only capable of being earned by the strongest Dragon at any one time. It is Impossible for two Dragon Gods to exist. Any fool, can call themselves a God, but the true Dragon Gods very presence, could incinerate a mortal.”

  *Gulp* “I take it they aren’t on the planet any longer?”

  “You are correct. They left the planet millennia ago.”

  That’s good. It wouldn’t do for her to be born with something like tha
t on the same planet.

  “I see it has started already…”

  “Hmm? What has started?”

  “Your mind has started to alter itself. To fit your new form.”

  “What!? What’s happening to my mind!?”

  “In order for you to completely accept your new body. Your memories must be wiped clean. Otherwise, your mind may reject the body.”

  “…. I take it, that would be a bad thing?”

  “Indeed.”

  “Will I… Will I forget everything?”

  “Not everything. You will remember your wife and your reason for being there. But, you will forget everything else about yourself… It is not too late to turn back, you know? You can still go to your final destination. Where your family will join you when their time comes.”

  “But I’ll never see Sarah again?”

  “That is correct. She will be lost to you.”

  “Then there really isn’t much of a choice, is there? My kids have their own families now. If I did go on to my final destination without her… They would never forgive me… I would never forgive myself for that matter. My goal is set.”

  “So be it. Do you have any more questions? Make them count. We don’t have much time.”

  “Will my wife be a human?”

  I realized that I had yet to ask that question. For all I knew, she could be born as anything. I know it said she was to be a hero. A hero to what though? Humans, Beasts, Maybe the whole planet? I was unsure.

  I don’t know why but… the being seemed to smile.

  “No, your wife will not be born a human.”

  “What will she be then?”

  “Your wife will be born of the elves.”

  My body started to fade away. I knew I only had a few seconds before I was gone so I thought of only two things.

  “What will her name be!? And where will she be born!?”

  “Her name shall be Reina and she will be born on the Continent of Clecia. The home of the world tree.”

  “Thank you!”

  Then I was gone. My body had faded into nothingness and my mind with it.

  “Don’t thank me yet, mortal. You won’t be happy when you get where you’re going.”

  Then the being faded away as well. Leaving the pure white plane they were talking on empty, once again.

  * * *

  That’s how I wound up floating here in the darkness and the being was right. After I got here, the memories of my time back home had faded until nothing remained. All I remembered was what it had told me. And I was here because of my wife, Sarah… er… Reina.

  While floating here. I tried moving my body around. But I couldn’t feel my arms or legs. Everything else, I could feel. Just not my arms or legs. Was I born as something without them? Or did I have a defect? I was unsure. (Though I seriously hoped it wasn’t the latter.)

  “I’m going to be here awhile aren’t I?”

  That was when something popped up in front of me.

  Welcome to Planet Rualea

  Continent of Egroa

  “Damn it, I’m not even on the same continent Reina will be born on! …*sigh* Oh well. That thing said I had three hundred years until she’s born. I’ll worry about getting there when I can finally move again, I guess.”

  Chapter 1: Start of a new life

  I’m unsure of exactly how much time has passed. Could’ve been a few days, or a few weeks. During that time, I came up with a plan. That… thing, said that as long as I wanted to change, I could evolve several times.

  It also said that some creatures on this planet were capable of killing mortals just by existing near them. That lead to another thought. What happens if Sar- Reina, is killed by one of those things? Or maybe something else, something even worse than that.

  What would I do then? I lost her once because some little brat decided to play tag with cars. I’m not going to lose her this time to a hungry beast, or angry person.

  So, my plan was simple… Consume Everything. I don’t care what it is. A person, an animal, or even one of the tier ten beasts. Anything that tries to harm her, gets eaten.

  Not long after my plan was decided upon, I was told what race I was to be reborn as.

  Congratulations on your new life! To go along with your new body. A new name has been assigned to you, as well.

  Name

  Torga

  Race

  Non-Venomous Serpent

  Classification

  Tier 1

  Skills

  Minor Stealth, Heat detection

  Although I didn’t care about the new name. (Wasn’t like I remembered my old one, anyway.) The rest did interest me.

  *sigh* I would have preferred to be a Venomous snake than a Non-Venomous. But, I’ll take what I can get. The tier one classification also made sense. I wasn’t venomous. Nor did I feel as if was I very large. (Maybe seven feet long.) Thus limiting my choice of prey.

  As for my skills. Minor Stealth and Heat Detection were ideal for an ambush predator, I suppose. Which left me with only one question for the moment.

  “How do I get rid of this window?” As if it heard me. The window vanished and I felt a pulling sensation near my tail. I guess my time in the darkness was over…

  A silver portal opened beneath me. And I was dropped to the ground. Thankfully, the portal didn’t open in the sky or that fall would’ve hurt.

  After shaking off my initial surprise of actually being alive again, (I’d thought the darkness was actually hell for a while.) I took my first cursory look around.

  I was in a small clearing surrounded on three sides by trees so tall, they blocked out the sky. And casting the areas beneath them, into darkness.

  Luckily, as I could detect heat, I didn’t need to see that well. It would’ve been more convenient to see though.

  *Splash*

  “Hmm?” I looked around for the source of the sound. Turning my head around behind me, I could ‘sort of’ see the cause of the noise. A tiny river was flowing through the forest.

  “Maybe there’s fish?” I hoped. I could tell my new body was already hungry, which led into.

  “What do I have to eat to unlock an evolution?” A pop-up appeared before my eyes, in response.

  Consume 50lbs of meat to unlock

  Water Boa

  Consume 100lbs of vegetation to unlock

  Tree Boa

  Consume 200lbs of stone/dirt to unlock

  Stone Python

  “That’s… convenient. Can I have a description of each path?” …. Silence this time.

  *Sigh* Figures, it couldn’t have been that easy.

  Going back through the list again. I noticed that it didn’t say what would happen if I unlocked all three paths. This time, a pop-up did answer.

  Fulfilling the requirements for all three evolution paths will unlock

  Titan Boa

  “Titan boa, Huh?” I did like the sound of that. It would also be more beneficial to me. If I unlocked as many paths as possible.

  “I guess, that’s what I’ll aim for. The Titan Boa evolution.”

  I’ll start with the Stone Python evolution, as It seemed to be the easiest to unlock.

  Lowering my head back to the ground. I started scooping dirt into my mouth, then I’d tilt my head back and let it fall down my throat.

  Warning! You have eaten something your body is incapable of digesting.

  “I should probably learn how to digest it, then. Because I’m not stopping.” I continued to swallow dirt and rocks until I received another pop-up. (Even though my stomach was hurting.)

  Due to excessive desire to eat that which is harmful to you. You have gained the ‘Gluttonous’ trait.

  Your body now produces an acid capable of dissolving stone. As a side effect. You must now eat more often.

  While continuing to stuff my stomach with dirt. I read through the pop-up.

  “That’s convenient.” Already, I could feel what I’d eaten being dissolved at a rapid pa
ce. Actually… At the rate it’s being dissolved, I’ll be starving again within an hour. So, I began to eat faster.

  Every time, I would fill myself up. I would simply wait for a few hours for it to be dissolved. During which, I slowly got used to my new body. First, I tried moving around, though I had some difficulties at first as I couldn’t quite figure out how I was supposed to move without legs.

  So, I first tried moving my body back and forth, but all that got me was a stomach ache. Then, I tried pushing off the ground with my lower body, which actually worked, surprisingly.

  I would continue to test out my new body until I felt my stomach was empty enough, then I would continue eating.

  I ate dirt and stone until a pop-up told me it was okay to stop.( When I was done eating. I had managed to eat a four-foot hole into the ground.)

  You have unlocked the following evolutionary path

  Gluttonous Stone Python

  Would you like to Evolve?

  “No (The window disappeared)… The gluttonous part is new. Is it because of the trait I picked up?”

  I wondered if the other paths also gained the trait. A pop-up answered.

  Consume 50lbs of meat to unlock

  Gluttonous Water Boa

  Consume 100lbs of vegetation to unlock

  Gluttonous Tree Boa

  Fulfill the requirements of the other evolutions to unlock

  Gluttonous Titan Boa

  “So they did…” It made me wonder what effect this had on the evolutions. Were they stronger or weaker because of it?

  They were most likely stronger, I decided. As the trait made it so I could eat more than a normal snake. Which led to another thought.

  “I wonder how many creatures have this trait?”

  Deciding to forget about it for now, I crawled across the ground in search of my next meal.

  “Should I go for vegetation or meat next?”