Chapter 13

Shall I try using my “true power”?

Skill, “Borrowed Horn.”
This is the most versatile skill I possess.
It’s an extraordinary ability that can even grant a Serpent—normally capable of nothing but biting—the power of flight.
Of course, even if another Serpent obtained this skill, its usage would likely be limited.

That’s because there were restrictions on the skills that could be borrowed with Borrowed Horn.
Only skills that a Serpent could use were borrowable.
Things like slithering faster or hardening scales.

However, I had a broken advantage—
the “Diligence” trait I gained thanks to having 20 points in potential.

• [Trait ‘Diligence’ removes all limitations on growth.]

A chance had come for me to become the worst kind of mage imaginable—
a magic Serpent , literally a Serpent.
I could probably learn any skill.

Honestly, there was a different skill I wanted to steal from the interception golem.
Why bother borrowing beginner magic when such a tempting skill existed?

• 「Borrowing Destruction Beam lv6 with Borrowed Horn lv2.」

A Destruction Beam, no less.
Ever since playing Pokémon, it had been a skill I longed for.
To think I could use the same move that only Gyarados could use…
Just imagining turning other monsters into dust made my heart race.
Ah… though then there’d be nothing left to eat.

But it turned out to be a pointless concern.

• 「Insufficient proficiency in Borrowed Horn lv2. Unable to borrow Destruction Beam lv6.」

The problem was that the borrowed skill’s level was far too high.
Since I was only level 2, it couldn’t be helped.
It didn’t seem like the dividing line between borrowable and unborrowable skills depended solely on level, though.

• 「Borrowing Beginner Elemental Magic: Earth lv10 with Borrowed Horn lv2.」
• 「Success. Temporarily acquired Beginner Elemental Magic: Earth lv1.」

Since I could borrow beginner elemental magic.

But there was something to note here as well.
Even though I borrowed a level 10 skill, what I could actually use was only level 1.
Thinking back, even when I borrowed Jump lv6, it came in as Jump lv2…
Maybe basic magic itself is just a much higher-tier skill.
Well, comparing magic to a simple jumping skill is kind of ridiculous anyway.

So what could I do with earth magic?

“Ha!”

I could make the ground softer.
Because the golems had been stomping around so much, the stone floor had cracked, exposing bare earth.
And now, that ground had loosened.

For a Serpent like me, slithering over it wasn’t a problem—
but when a golem stepped on it…

Slip—!

It fell flat.

Boom!

Even though it was a ridiculous fall, the sound was massive.
The one that fell was a dirt golem with legs.
I decided to call the one that used fire magic a fire golem, and the one that used earth magic a dirt golem.

This moment—when the dirt golem had fallen—was my chance.
I slithered up toward its head.
Using acceleration, I moved quite quickly.

The fallen dirt golem swung its remaining arm like it was swatting flies—

Thud!

—but only struck its own head.

At last, I reached the top of its head.
There, a glowing magic stone was embedded.
That had to be its weak point.

I opened my mouth wide and drove in my fangs.

Crunch!

It didn’t go in!
My teeth nearly broke.

And in that brief opening, the fire golem did what it always did.
Flames burst from its mouth.

Fwoooooosh!

A wave of heat swept through the corridor.
It didn’t seem to care at all whether its ally was caught in the flames.
In fact, the dirt golem didn’t seem affected by fire at all—
whether due to Heat Resistance lv10 or simply because it wasn’t a living creature.

Then what about me, with Heat Resistance lv2?

“Hot, hot, hot, hot!”

Like an eel thrown onto a grill, I thrashed and fled.
Retreat.

Fortunately, once I crossed the boundary of the corridor, the golems returned to their original positions.

— Interception confirmed.

Only after seeing them go back did I finally let out a breath.
My back stung with heat.
Judging by the rough, raised scales, I had definitely been burned.

Well, it couldn’t be helped.
Still, I managed to return alive again this time.
On the fourth attempt, I had almost died.

Yeah… this was already my fifth time clashing with the golems.
It hadn’t even been a full day yet.
Thanks to eating plenty of cockatrice meat earlier, I wasn’t hungry.
I was a bit thirsty, though—but I had a solution for that.

Maybe because of the earthquake, parts of the ceiling had collapsed.
Among them were stalactites dripping water.
I could just drink from there.

“Ah… refreshing.”

The burn on my back slowly healed.
Maybe I really was a monster after all.

I still hadn’t managed to defeat the golems.
But I had learned something.

First, biting the magic stone in its head—impossible.
I thought it was the weak point, but it was protected by something like crystal.
My biting skill wasn’t enough to break it.

Still, using earth magic to make them slip was very effective.
The golems had no learning ability.
A strategy that worked once would work again.

“Effective attack.”

That’s what I needed.

More than 90% of my offensive power came from my venomous fangs.
One bite was enough to poison most monsters.
The remaining 10% was from biting.

But neither worked on golems.
Biting rock would only break my teeth.
And I couldn’t strangle them either.
A frustrating situation.

…And yet, strangely, it was fun.

This wasn’t just about survival anymore.
It was about practicing how to fight enemies stronger than me.
And on top of that, I could gain the interesting ability called magic.

If I used earth magic a bit more, I felt like I could fully master it.
Then I’d be able to use strategies beyond just making them slip.

I wanted to challenge the golems again right away.
But I had to wait until my mana recovered.

Still, there were things I could do here besides resting.

I entered the vault room.
Along with rare treasures, there was also a bookshelf filled with books.
There weren’t many, but they were interesting.

What should I read this time?
Yeah—this one.

[Named Monsters of the Great Forest]

I didn’t know whether this was fairy language or something else.
But one thing was certain—I could read it.
Not only human language, but even the fairy language of Pelerian…
I must have gained some kind of reincarnation bonus.

I bit the book and pulled it out.
It was at least several hundred years old, judging by the smell of mold.
Still, the books in the vault were in better condition.
The ones outside had decayed to the point of being unreadable.

I brought it in front of a faintly glowing crystal orb and began reading.
I used to only read web novels, but as a child, reading itself had been my hobby.
It felt like that hobby had come back to life.

Flipping pages with my tail, I skimmed through the parts that caught my interest.
Named monsters… what kind of creatures were they?
Something like Medusa, perhaps?

***

【Shuemura】

A land-turtle-type monster.
Estimated age: over 1,200 years.
As of observations seven years ago, its size rivals a small castle.
It spends most of the year asleep, but there is a record of it moving 10 km in a single night.
Its temperament is relatively gentle.

***

Ha… there’s a limit to how much nonsense you can write.
If it’s 1,200 years old and still alive, wouldn’t that make it at least 1,500 now?

Hmm… if this is true, then there must be some truly terrifying monsters in this world.
Was my mom actually just a weak mob?

There were plenty of other interesting entries as well.

However, it felt like the book was half a collection of legends.
There were many passages stating that the creatures’ existence wasn’t even certain.

…Ah.

While reading, I dozed off.
It reminded me of my exam-prep days.
When I opened my eyes, I could feel my mana had been restored.

Alright, then… shall I go hunt the golems again?
Time for the hunt.

Thud!

“Guh!”

I was sent flying after being struck by a golem’s arm.
Still, I was lucky. If I’d been crushed underneath, I’d have been flattened like dried fish.
…Or should I say dried Serpent?

I rolled another full turn from the momentum of being thrown.
My survival instinct told me to.

Fwoooosh!

Flames swept across the spot where I had just been.
I thought I had neutralized the fire golem earlier—but I was wrong.
This was my seventh attempt.

I had tried knocking the golem over and breaking the magic stone, but it was ridiculously durable.

— Interception confirmed.

I retreated past the corridor boundary again.
I gulped down the dripping water from the stalactite.
Since drinking it drop by drop was frustrating, I brought a helmet from the vault room and used it as a bowl.

I was starting to get hungry.
I needed to escape soon.

Which meant I had to take those guys down.

Trying to just pass through—failed!

I had tried ignoring the golems and simply walking past them.
And I realized it was impossible.
The dirt golem blocked my path,
and the fire golem summoned a fireball and hurled it.

Good thing I dodged with Jump—otherwise I would’ve been roasted whole.
Honestly, close combat might actually be better.
It’s not like I ran away because I couldn’t beat them.
I was just testing whether it was possible.
Yeah… totally.

— Interception confirmed.

Barely, I managed to return to the crystal orb room again.

I have to try again.
Ah… this time, I almost really died.
My tail nearly got cut off.
The dirt golem had stepped on it—if not for something, it would’ve been completely flattened.

There was only one reason my tail wasn’t crushed.

I trusted you, magic ring!

That ring was ridiculously sturdy.
Even though the golem stepped on it, the ring on my tail didn’t bend at all.
Thanks to that, I got away with just a throbbing tail.

I approached the bowl of water I had made with earth magic and gulped it down.
I stopped using the helmet as a bowl.
Hmm… maybe I should make the bowl deeper.

That was when I used earth magic.

• 「Beginner Elemental Magic: Earth lv1 has become lv2.」
• 「Skill ‘Beginner Elemental Magic: Earth’ has been fully acquired.」

Ah.

Finally.
I had been waiting for this moment.

After waiting for my mana to refill, I slowly raised my body.

Now then…
shall I finally get serious?

Until now, I hadn’t been serious.
No joke—really.
If you don’t believe me, I’ll just show you.

I slowly moved into the corridor.
How many attempts had it been now?
After twenty, I stopped counting.
I was seriously starving.

— Intrusion of a monster detected. Activating interception golems.

As if they never got tired of it, the golems positioned on both sides stood up again.
Ah… I was the one getting tired of this.

I moved forward.
Boldly, as if I wasn’t even paying attention to them.

Then, as expected, the dirt golem on the right moved first.
I paused for a moment.

BOOM!

The ground in front of me folded upward, slamming into the space right before my face.
Ignoring the shockwave, I circled right and took slight cover.

Now it was the fire golem’s turn.

Fwoooosh!

Flames swept across the ground.
It was hot, but if I hid behind a rock wall created with earth magic, I could endure it.

• [Proficiency of Heat Resistance increases.]
• 「Heat Resistance lv7 has become lv8.」

Heh, I can handle heat pretty well now.

But the golems weren’t about to let me stand still.
The dirt golem, whose legs were still intact, tried to kick me.

This is where my now-familiar earth magic came in.
I softened the ground beneath the foot it used to step forward.

The dirt golem immediately fell backward.

Now came the part that required my physical ability.
Using acceleration, I quickly climbed over its body.
It swung one arm like it was swatting flies, but I wasn’t someone who’d get hit.

Reaching its shoulder as it tried to get up, I flicked my tail.

Ring, dear ring—give this golem a present.

And from my subspace, the “bowl”—no, the helmet—dropped from midair.
It perfectly covered the golem’s head.
The helmet fell upside down, completely blocking its vision.

At that moment, the dirt golem’s movement stopped.
I had confirmed this back on my twentieth attempt.

Without hesitation, I leapt upward.
Flames shot toward the dirt golem’s head.
Of course—the fire golem had no sense of allies.

And after it fired, there was a brief opening.
Climbing onto the head of the legless fire golem was much easier.

I swung the ring on my tail again.

This time, it was a tattered robe from the vault.
That moldy cloth wrapped around the fire golem’s head.
It was much easier to cover it with a robe than to fit a helmet.

But if I had put the robe on the dirt golem first,
there was a high chance it would’ve been burned away by the fire golem.

A plan that finally succeeded after countless struggles.

And my hypothesis turned out to be exactly right.

— Interception confirmed.

Both golems completely stopped.
With a helmet and a robe covering their heads.

Yes!

There are no CCTV cameras here.
Well, there could be magical devices, but it seemed their vision acted as surveillance.
And once both of their sight was blocked, it was as if I had disappeared from the corridor.

Now then…
shall I finish off these neutralized golems?

Ah—wait.

Gotta prepare properly.

• 「Borrowing Beginner Elemental Magic: Fire lv10 with Borrowed Horn lv2.」
• 「Success. Temporarily acquired Beginner Elemental Magic: Fire lv1.」

I’ve fully mastered earth magic—
now I’ll become a fire-breathing Serpent.

• 「Proficiency of Borrowed Horn increases.」
• 「Borrowed Horn lv2 has become lv3.」

Oh—bonus, too!