The cave was silent… too silent.
Darkness pooled in every corner, thick and unmoving.
No sunlight ever reached this place—only cold, airless quiet.
Then—
A pair of pearly eyes snapped open.
Arin blinked slowly.
"Ahh…"
A full-body sigh escaped him, the kind that came after long, draining cultivation.
He stretched his body—not gracefully, more like a sleepy noodle—but joy still flickered across his face.
Once he was done stretching, he muttered,
"Hey, System… what stage am I now?"
The reply came with pure disgust:
[Ugh, I swear your talent is so mediocre.]
A beep followed.
[Cultivation: Body Tempering — Stage 7
Status: Still Extremely Pathetic]
[Stats:
• Strength: 5.9 — (Congrats, you can beat a toddler.)
• Agility: 4 — (Can you even run? Oh wait… no legs. Just slither faster?)
• Endurance: 6 — (A durable disappointment.)
• HP: 19/19
• Cultivation Speed: 3 — (Pathetic.)]
[Evolution Potential: 9/10 — (Still not a single evolution.)
Bloodline: 0.1% (???)]
[Skills:
Basic Bite (Lv.5) — You finally learned how to bite. Yay.
Fear Sense (Lv.5) — Your species' instinct to panic and escape.
Basic Slither (Lv.5) — Your first proper wiggle-wiggle. Congratulations.]
**[Quests:
1. Reach Qi Condensation
2. Step outside your birthplace, you stupid NEET
3. Defeat another species]**
…
"Just look at the positives… the positives…" he muttered again and again.
But as he kept moving, Arin's hunger suddenly spiked.
He opened the shop—
and disappointment immediately punched him in the face.
[Karma: 12]
"…Seriously?"
Expression dead, he bought two pieces of rotten meat and set out to hunt.
On the way back toward his cannibalistic family, something felt off.
Too off.
No movement.
No rustling.
Not even the usual bloody smell.
His heartbeat quickened the closer he got.
What he finally saw made him freeze.
Every serpent—well, the few that were still alive—was curled up together, sleeping.
Just… sleeping.
"What happened to them?" Arin narrowed his eyes.
The system sighed.
[I know you're dumb, but that doesn't mean you ask me EVERYTHING.
But fine—just this once: they're brumating. Asleep but kinda awake. Be grateful.]
Arin swallowed his irritation.
"I'm NOT eating something that looks like me…" he muttered, forcing himself to move deeper into the cave.
As he slithered forward, his senses sharpened.
Eventually, he reached two paths—one left, one right—both pitch-black.
The right path tugged at him.
Something about it whispered to him.
He turned toward it—
And a violent instinct slammed into him.
WARNING.
DANGER.
LEAVE.
His entire body froze, then whipped around as if he had never thought about going in that direction.
"Nope. Not going there," he whispered, cold sweat sliding down his scales.
Once he calmed down, he happily chose the left path.
After what felt like an eternity of slithering through the same darkness, a new scent finally touched his nose…
Fresh. Clean. Untainted.
It wiped away the metallic, bloody smell he had lived with since birth.
Arin sped up.
A faint glow shimmered ahead.
His heartbeat soared.
Step by step, the darkness thinned—
And then he emerged outside.
Warm sunlight poured onto his scales.
Real warmth.
It spread across him like a blessing.
He lifted his head.
Light filtered through the trees, scattering into golden shards.
Butterflies drifted lazily, wings fluttering like pieces of the sky.
It was nature—pure, untouched, beautiful.
A small tear slid down his face.
"It feels soooo good…" he whispered.
He lay there soaking in the warmth—until a system screen suddenly flickered to life.
[Go back inside the cave. You are not strong enough.]
Arin didn't even lift his head.
"Where is my reward?" he asked flatly.
A small symbol twitched on the panel like a vein popping.
[Oh yes, yes—your damn reward. MOVE your ass right now, you f*g worm.]
Arin puffed his cheeks like an annoyed kid but slowly dragged himself back into the cave.
Another message appeared—
[Reward — Secret Pathway Map Unlocked]
Arin froze.
"A… secret path? Where is it?"
The system responded instantly, cold and flat:
[Approximately 800 meters ahead. Dig 5 meters downward.]
Arin's eyes widened, a tremor running through his scales.
"Five meters… down?" he muttered, excitement and fear twisting together.
He slithered back down the familiar path, humming nervously as he went.
After a short while, he reached the marked spot.
He looked around.
"Huff… huff… This is it, right?" Arin asked, slightly out of breath.
Silence.
No reply from the system at all.
Arin stared at the empty panel.
"…Hello?"
Still nothing.
A tiny spark of irritation flickered in his eyes.
"Don't tell me you're doing that 'I'm ignoring you because you're dumb' thing again…"