Teresa needed to plan this one out. Not only were the snakes higher level than her, but there were a lot of them. Was this a stupid, risky plan to get a lot of experience? Maybe. Probably. Okay definitely, by all means she should play it safe and attack the level 36 Monster Spawner northwest. Was she still going to attack this high level Portal anyways? Yep.

The trees in this area had a red tinge to them, and they were far thicker. The canopy was much lower to the ground, but Teresa was confident these trees were actually much taller than the ones she was familiar with. Why was she so sure of this? She had tried to climb one to gain a vantage point and scout the area around her better, but beyond the first layer of canopy was some open space followed by another canopy.

Then another canopy. Then another. Then another. The canopies were so thick, she could actually walk on large sections of them. It was like the forest was an elaborate tree house with multiple stories here. Multiple trees supported the canopies, turning them into vast stable regions. The wood seemed to emit a soft glow that felt similar to sunlight, which was extremely confusing to Teresa. Weren't plants supposed to absorb light? There were bioluminescent plants, but she didn't really know how those worked.

When she found the level 40 Portal, she realized a problem. The portal was mass producing snakes every few minutes, while over thirty level 40 snakes patrolled the general area. They were huge, making Teresa think they were closer to basilisks than regular snakes. Hopefully they didn't follow normal basilisk rules and wouldn't turn her into stone from making eye contact. <Identify> didn't say they were basilisks, so surely she was fine.

{Giant Serpent (F) (lv 40)}

Each of these monsters were the same level as Lady Liberty, though thankfully there were some lower leveled serpents in the area for her to warm up on. She wasn't sure how long this was going to take, but she was sure she could grind for experience by killing anything and everything that wasn't able to kill her.

The Portal was on the ground level, though the snakes themselves had spread out among the trees and canopies. All of the level 40s stayed around the Monster Spawner itself, while many lower level serpents had actually climbed the trees and stayed in various tree layers. Teresa would likely start with those, but she needed to think it through.

If she was too loud, she would draw the attention of an entire camp of level 40 monsters. That would mean dying, there was not a chance in hell she would survive that. Maybe if it turned out they were really slow she would be fine, but they were level 40. If a single serpent gained 2 Agility per level, that would mean they'd have at least 80 Agility. That was almost double what Teresa had at 43 Agility.

Teresa began climbing the tree closest to her, still about two kilometers from the Portal. It was kind of weird to think of distance in kilometers for her, but the map had used kilometers instead of miles. How un-American of her, why should she use a system of measurement where conversions made sense? Obviously there should be 5,280 feet in a mile for super easy math. 1,000 meters in a kilometer? How ridiculous, the European mind could not comprehend such American ingenuity. Or Asians. Or Africans. Or pretty much anyone other than the US.

In the first layer of canopy above the ground, most of the snakes were around level 38. She climbed another layer and found they were level 36, then 35, then 33. She stayed as hidden as she could, not wanting to take any unnecessary risks that she wasn't already taking.

What layer should she start at? Also, why were the snakes climbing trees? Did they normally do that? Teresa kept calling them snakes but they were actually serpents, what was the difference? Was there a difference? A lot of dumb questions were mixed in with the actually important ones, but Teresa doubted she would figure out the answer to most of them.

She decided she would start with the level 33 serpents. None of them seemed to have a Perception build considering she hadn't been seen yet, but that was still alarming. It was at these high levels that being specialized really started to pay off, and Teresa was the exact opposite of specialized. Fuck it, level 33 serpents here she comes.

Teresa watched as a group of serpents rested in the canopy, well over fifty of them spread out across a wide area. They were spread thin, so it may actually be possible for Teresa to take them on one at a time. These were not Tutorial monsters, they likely had at least some degree of intelligence. She almost regretted not taking the stealth skill <Silent Step>, but she wasn't sure exactly how well that would go anyways.

<Embers> wasn't exactly a quiet skill. Punching something to death was not quiet either. What was quiet, however, were arrows. Teresa activated <Inventory> and pulled out a crossbow she had looted from a bandit. There had only been three bolts, but she could kind of make do with some arrows instead of bolts. The arrows were longer than the bolts and stuck out from the end of the crossbow, but they worked. Not great, but good enough.

Teresa took aim at a nearby level 33 serpent, lining up her shot. It was much easier to aim a crossbow than a bow, at least in Teresa's opinion. That would probably get mitigated by using the wrong type of ammunition, but <Intuitive Aim> would help with that.

Once she felt she had a clean shot, she fired the crossbow for the first time. The arrow soared through the air and struck the serpent in the head… just to bounce off. What the fuck? The crossbow had been strong enough to shoot Teresa just fine, were these snakes bulletproof or something?

The serpent hissed and looked in her direction, rapidly slithering towards her at highway speeds. Teresa pulled out her kitchen knife and activated <Sturdy Outer Shell>, getting ready for the impact. At the last moment before impact, she used <Dash> to sidestep the serpent and plunged her knife into the body of the creature. The more the beast moved, the worse the damage got, but Teresa wasn't unscathed either.

Her new defensive skill made it much harder to move quickly, and as a result the serpent was able to whip its head around and bite Teresa, burying its fangs into her midsection. She kept herself from screaming and stabbed the monster in each eye with two quick motions, completely blinding it. The serpent tried to release Teresa, but she held onto it by the eye socket and stabbed repeatedly into its head until it stopped moving.

You Have Slain {Giant Serpent (F) (lv 33)}

Experience Granted

She immediately activated <Healing Touch> and <Purify> as the monster died, making the Restoration Mana target the venom that she felt coursing through her veins. The last time she had used the new healing skill, she hadn't gotten the chance to analyze it closely. As the Restoration Mana made contact with the venom in her body, it seemed to neutralize it by turning it into something else. It left behind a harmless byproduct, a strange grey blob that dissipated in her blood without a problem.

Was that something she should be concerned about? She was pretty sure the human body was able to naturally filter out gunk, was it the endocrine system that did that? No, wait, that was the lymphatic system, the endocrine system was in the brain or something. Damn Teresa sucked at anatomy.

It was obviously the lymphatic system, the gunk collectors were called lymph nodes after all. How long had she gotten the two mixed up in her head? Whatever, she was sure she would be fine. At least, she thought she would be. The venom was much more powerful than Teresa's skill, to the point where she had to cancel <Healing Touch> to use <Purify> twice at the same time.

She had to compensate for the skill's low level with her high Intelligence stat. Her HP was rapidly dropping and she began feeling dizzy, but her <Purify> would pull through. It was a good thing she started out on the weaker serpents, she figured out the crossbow was a bust and her <Purify> would absolutely need some experience grinding before taking on anything stronger.

This was going to take a lot longer than Teresa thought. At this rate, she might not make it back to the settlement before dark, but that would be fine. Honestly, even while getting bit by massive venomous super snakes, she felt a lot calmer than she did at camp. It was a weird mix of emotions.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

On the one hand, she felt an extreme desire to be around people and socialize, she had spent nearly a month alone in a desert fighting for her life. On the other hand, it felt weird to talk to people again. The sound of other people's voices, multiple kids being all over the place, the bustling of people figuring out what to do, it was overwhelming. Sometimes, even the smallest little thing could feel immensely upsetting.

The leader thing didn't help, but she could probably ignore that given enough time. Then there was the bandit attack, and it was hard to stay around people after that. She could talk to people just fine, but she couldn't help but look at everyone differently. How many of them had ever killed someone? Was it supposed to be harder than it actually was? Who knew the extent of what had happened? She had an extremely strong feeling of being an outsider looking in, which was ridiculously upsetting. It felt super stereotypical, like something that people just said to sound edgy.

It was annoyingly real. Somehow, this was easier. It was stupid that fighting for her life had become more comfortable than just being around a lot of people, but that was probably just something that could come up whenever therapy became a thing again.

Her <Purify> and <Sturdy Outer Shell> had both hit level 1, and <Dash> had hit level 9. Now the only skill Teresa had at level 0 was <Totem Of Life>, which was still on cooldown for another three days. It was a hard skill to grind, but once it was ready for use again she would try it out at the camp. She wanted to see how long it lasted, and how the Restoration Mana interacted with other healing spells.

Teresa used her healing magic to replenish her lost blood, feeling herself quickly get back into top shape. Her Mana and Stamina weren't full yet, but they didn't need to be. She stood next to the dead serpent, eyeing its body as she had an idea. <Purify> was activated, and she placed her hands on one of the serpent's fangs, trying to see if she could target the venom to get some free experience out of it.

Thankfully, it worked. Teresa was able to practice her <Purify> on a dead, venomous monster. It gained experience slower than it would during combat, but to counteract this Teresa activated <Sturdy Outer Shell> and <Dash>, although she didn't try to run anywhere. She just let the skills stay active while she practiced, letting all of them gain more experience.

As she did so, she wondered how experience even worked. Most skills required her to be in combat to cross that level up threshold, sometimes no amount of practice could be enough on its own. The issue is that wasn't always the case. <Mana Control> was able to level up outside of combat, as was <Translate>. Other skills, like <Magic Wellspring> or <Facilitated Restoration> could be leveled up if used on someone in combat and if she just stayed close enough, though she hadn't thoroughly tested that much.

How would that work in the long term for society? Like, 40 to 50 years from now when everything is up and running again, will people be expected to level up their skills by entering combat? If you want to be a good doctor, you gotta kill this Giant Serpent first. Med school, what's that? Were the Olympics still going to be a thing again? It would be pretty cool to see what the strongest people on the planet could do, Teresa was only ranked 968 so there had to be some crazy powerful people out there. Out of curiosity, she checked her rank again.

1,740

Holy shit, she dropped a lot in the rankings. Honestly, that was kind of relieving. It was nice to know there were other people out there with their shit together, Teresa being in the top 1,000 made it feel like the world was on her shoulders. She was just a random person, being ranked that high was incredibly alarming.

By the end of the night, she was probably going to be back in the top 1,000. As a matter of fact, that was her new goal. This Monster Spawner was the perfect opportunity to grow, and she wasn't going to waste it. She continued using her healing magic on the venom until her skill was back at 99%, which did not take too long. Another thing to note was that <Purify> worked on venom even in dead monsters, but <Healing Touch> and <Facilitated Restoration> both required a target to still be alive.

There were plenty of serpents all around in the canopies, and she would have a lot of opportunities to keep leveling her skills until they were at least decent. She took some time to regenerate most of her Mana, then chose another monster. If they weren't spread so thin and had at least one serpent with good Perception, none of this would work. Thankfully, Teresa had gotten lucky with the perfect enemy to train herself against.

She paced along the canopy, the leaves and branches all sturdy enough to provide stable footing. It was hard to be quiet, and unfortunately that got the attention of three more serpents. Shit, she was hoping to pick them off one at a time.

The group of monsters slithered towards her, but she had a basic understanding of them now. They moved silently through the leaves, the only noise produced by the monsters being angry hisses as they prepared to eat her. The serpent in the lead lunged towards her, trying to bite her in a similar manner to the previous serpent.

Teresa activated <Dash> and sidestepped, but rather than stopping she ran towards the serpent's body, grabbing onto it with her gloves and jumping onto its back in one smooth motion. The serpent was still able to whip its head around and bite her from this position, but it had to snap back farther than the previous serpent. She was also prepared for it this time, and she was able to use <Embers> directly in the monster's mouth.

She only activated it for a split second, not wanting to draw too much attention by blasting a stream of fire through the back of the creature's head into the air. This was enough to severely injure it, and Teresa was able to avoid the monster's attack once more. Another serpent arrived, and she jumped straight at its head with <Sturdy Outer Shell> activated.

It opened its mouth to bite her, and unfortunately it succeeded. The serpent's fangs bit into Teresa's legs, but she didn't stop her motion and instead plunged her kitchen knife into the top of the monster's head again and again. Stabbing stuff in the face was a tried and tested method for killing stuff, and it seemed to work most of the time.

The serpent dropped dead, with Teresa's legs still stuck on its fangs. Her pants had protected her from having the bite go clean through her, but it didn't mean the attack didn't hurt like hell. Unfortunately, Teresa couldn't think of a better way to level up her skills, and she never wanted to be in the same position she had been in during the bandit fight. Whatever it took, she was going to suck it up and deal with it.

She pulled herself off the dead monster and used <Healing Touch> and <Purify>, smiling as she got another notification that it leveled up again. Her healing skill was still struggling with the venom, but not nearly to the same extent that it had been. The fight was not over as the two remaining serpents surrounded her and got ready to attack together.

It was a shame, monsters attacking one at a time was such a great method for her to kill them.

The injured serpent lunged at Teresa once more, making her use <Dash> to avoid the strike. The other serpent waited until she was already moving so it could try to predict where she was going, lunging at Teresa just as she avoided the first attack. She changed direction immediately, avoiding both attacks and keeping her distance.

The injured serpent wasn't moving too quickly, but neither was Teresa. It would take a few more seconds to get rid of the venom in her body that was making her light headed and dizzy. She just played cat and mouse for now, avoiding attacks and staying away until the venom in her body was gone.

The healthy serpent slithered all around her so that there was nowhere to go, tightening its body around her rapidly. Teresa was forced to jump up in the air to avoid being crushed in its coil, which left her vulnerable in the air. Both serpents lunged at her, forcing her to activate <Sturdy Outer Shell> and <Dash> as she kicked her legs.

One metal boot slammed into the healthy serpent's jaw, knocking the attack off course. The injured serpent was able to avoid being kicked, biting down on her leg. Her legs were really taking a beating this fight, thank fuck for the pants she got from the Monster Stronghold.

She stabbed the monster in the head, finishing it off as the final serpent struck again. She activated <Embers> for a brief moment again, sending hot flames down the serpent's throat. Last time, she had canceled the attack spell too quickly, resulting in an injured but still very much alive monster. This time, she let it stay active for just half a second longer.

That was enough, and the serpent's corpse landed on top of Teresa as the last monster in the group died. Teresa rushed to heal herself, using her skills to stop the venom and bleeding as fast as she could. She had taken more damage than she was hoping, and her HP had dropped dramatically. Having a lot of HP meant she could get hurt more before death, it was harder to bleed out and venom needed to do more in the long run.

Thankfully, her 34 Vitality combined with her 34 Fortitude paid off, and she was able to survive long enough for her <Purify> to do its magic. Getting bit by a massive snake was not painless, but that encounter had felt almost comfortable, or at the very least familiar. Here, at least monsters behaved in a way Teresa could expect. Fighting people had really thrown her off, but she would be ready next time.

She was gonna kill some snakes.

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