That time I was reincarnated as a snake (Tensura)

Surprise, extra chapter, praise me

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-KAI POV-

In front of me were the corpses of four dragons, which, to prevent their magicules from dispersing, I had placed in three barriers, separating them by their elements. My attention was focused on the largest of them; in it were the remains of two water-element ArchDragons. Near it, to its left, was the barrier with the remains of the medium wind dragon, and away from the first two, in an unimportant corner, the one containing the remains of a medium fire dragon.

The biggest harvest was definitely getting the two Water Archdragons, not only because of their strength in life, but also because we shared the water element. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get an earth element dragon as a sample. I guess if they're not in the Canaat Mountains they should be underground most of the time, a place difficult for humans to access, so I didn't receive any information about any earth dragons.

It's funny how the dragon race, born from the Chaos Dragon, only comes in four different forms: water, earth, fire, and air, when it's assumed that's when Veldanava created it, using the remaining energy of her body after conceiving Milim.

Shouldn't dragons be born from the eight elements?

Was Veldanava's affinity only with those four elements?

Or is it just because they are the most abundant elements in the world?

Regardless of what the answer is, although for True Dragons the "dragon" race is considered flying dinosaurs rather than dragons, there is no denying the fact that they are the closest thing to the biological children of a True Dragon, apart from Milim obviously.

If we trace the origins of the races as a family tree, the highest or the first should be that first will that was born out of nothingness. It created reality, giving rise to the eight Great Holy Spirits and later Veldanava by giving up its omnipotence and omniscience. So, the Great Holy Spirits and Veldanava can be considered as the second generation.

Veldanava created the angels and the various worlds, including the Cardinal world. This in turn created the demons as a reflection of the angels, while the elementals were born from the Great Holy Spirits. Thus, the worlds, angels, demons and elementals could be considered the third generation.

In turn, Veldanava created Twilight Valentine as a third generation, who using her flesh and elementals, created the Fairy races (High Elves, High Dwarves, Enki and Mermaids), as well as the High Humans and Vampires. They would be the fourth generation, while Luminous Valentine, being an alter ego of Twilight, could be considered as a third generation.

On the other hand, the world itself, through the accumulation of magicules, gave rise to monsters, placing them in the fourth generation. Later, Twilight would use them along with other fourth generation monsters, such as humans, elves, etc., and create multiple mixed races such as werewolves, which I consider the fifth generation.

You can see that, in itself, they all descend from Veldanava's creations, mainly Twilight Valentine, or from the Great Holy Spirits who would be on the same level as Veldanava, in hierarchy of course. I am aware that they have no conscience.

But that's where the last branch of this tree comes in, the one that may be the most obvious and the most discreet, which is the Chaos Dragon branch, which being a creation of Veldanava would be considered a third generation, like Twilight Valentine or the angels. The difference between the Chaos Dragon and the others of its generation, is that, unlike the others that were created by Veldanava, using other means such as the energy of the Great Holy Spirits, with the Chaos Dragon it was not the case. In it he used the energy of his own body, namely his Dragon factor, his pure and unadulterated Dragon factor. Of course, later it would be contaminated by the death and resurrection of the Chaos Dragon.

What I'm getting at is: the dragon race, although they would also be considered fourth generation like humans and are far inferior to demons who are spiritual beings at birth, have the purest path to Veldanava itself, unlike the other branches. Including the monsters born from the magicules of the True Dragons, including myself, since we are created from their residue, but not their very essence, as is the case with the Chaos Dragon.

Typically all branches seek to ascend to spiritual life forms, either as True Saints or Heroes for humans and demihumans or as Demon Lords for monsters.

But the dragon race does not follow that path, for them their ascension is to seek to become like their ancestor, the Chaos Dragon, and in doing so they gain strength.

I don't care much about the dragon race beyond understanding its dragon factor because it is closely related to Veldanava. If I wanted to, I could simply accumulate a large amount of magicules, constantly evolve, and awaken as a Demon Lord.

But I don't just pursue that route, because it has limitations, which is due to the demonic nature of a Demon Lord, far removed from the chaotic nature of True Dragons, which is both holy and demonic. In fact, Rimuru already gave me the solution in the LN. You just need to thoroughly analyze the existence of a True Dragon, like he did... you just need to swallow them.

…

…

…

Yeah, as if that were that easy!

That's why I turned to the dragon race, the ones closest to Veldanava, the ones I could deal with. Though maybe if I befriended Milim, she'd let me analyze her. But… I don't know, I feel like it would be a blow to my pride, to befriend her just for the benefits. Plus my personal pride forbids me.

Sure, pride isn't an indispensable thing, but if I don't even retain my basic pride, how can I stand in front of the strongest beings in this world without feeling ashamed? I don't want to be a clown like Clayman or Kazalim, who care more about their so-called political power than their own strength and who are vain, as well as acting unscrupulously. Those were the reasons why everyone in the council didn't have a good impression of them; practically no one cared about them being killed. Those six only respect strength, without it, you're not qualified to speak with them on equal terms, except for Ramiris, she's very kind as long as you respect her.

I may be a careful planner, but I only do that in order to quietly gain strength, so as not to be drawn into the conflicts that come with having great strength and being public knowledge too soon. I can already imagine myself rising to the Demon Lords Council, only to be underestimated or confronted, as will happen to Luminous in a few decades when the Council is filled with trash fish, and later having to be the target of possible conspiracies or conflicts with others, as will be the case between Roy and Kazalim.

No, it's not that I'm afraid of them, I just don't plan on wasting my time with them, but I know that if I'm too strong and I get Guy Crimson's attention, under his threats I'll surely have to agree to enter the council or he might kill me. That's why I prefer to delay it as much time as possible, time that I would use to increase my strength, as is the case with magic and skills.

With everything I've learned over the past year, I could defeat the me from a year ago with ease, even without my evolutions, because no matter how many magicules you have, if you don't know how to use them, it's just a waste. Just look at Veldora: he's the True Dragon with the highest magicule count among the True Dragons, and he's brutally beaten by the other two.

Because?

Because his magic control is garbage, while both Velzard and Velgrynd master their magic like the back of their hand, in addition to having an ultimate ability.

…

Even though I don't like Veldora, I have to defend him. He is actually the youngest and by a long time. It is known that Velzard confronted Guy Crimson more than twenty thousand years ago, and Velgrynd, although it is not known since when he existed, when he was part of Rudra's group that went to defeat Guy Crimson, he already had a strength similar to Velzard.

Not only did the two have much more time to train their skills, but they were also able to rely on the help of their brother Veldanava to become stronger. The latter even gave each of them an ultimate skill. That's a deal that Veldora couldn't receive due to Veldanava's untimely death.

It's mentioned that Veldora was only slightly older than Milim, meaning he's over two thousand years old, but less than three thousand, when the canon begins. That means that in this time period Veldora is only at most a thousand years old, a negligible amount of time for True Dragons.

Leaving aside the topic of True Dragons.

I'd rather spend my time developing skills or magic, rather than simply increasing my magic reserves and constantly evolving, which would attract a lot of attention, because Guy Crimson can almost sense everything in the world, he's just oblivious to most things.

But if I reach the level of a Demon Lord seed, he will instantly sense it, just like he did with Rimuru. If possible, I would prefer to reach the limit before then and look for opportunities that will allow me to reach the peak of the Demon Lord seed rank in one go, then quickly collect the ten thousand souls and awaken as a Demon Lord.

According to my plan, I should stop at the limit of power before getting the seed and jump straight to the maximum possible, because awakening brings with it a tenfold increase in power upon awakening. Luminous is known to have an EP of five million, being a True Demon Lord, while Roy only has five hundred thousand without awakening, and that's after thousands of years. Although Rimuru created the S rank where the Demon Lord seeds are, with a range of four hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand, it can be seen that after five hundred thousand it is already extremely difficult to increase it without awakening.

So the hard part isn't actually getting to the Demon Lord seed level, but rather increasing strength once there. That's why I need to prepare in advance so that when I get there I don't waste too much time stuck at that strength, while possibly becoming a target for other Demon Lords, Heroes, or Rudra, and I don't have to resort to the harvest festival too early, so that I can maximize the benefits by doing so when I'm at my strongest.

As much as I wish all my plans would work, I realize that no plan is foolproof.

I've already made up my mind about Guy Crimson finding out about my Dragon Slayer operation, especially because of those foolish adventurers who let the Fire ArchDragon escape, as well as blowing up the volcano, attracting too much attention.

With Misery and Rain, I have no doubt that you can find my tracks. I just hope that you see it as something trivial and ignore it, or if you find it entertaining, let me continue acting for your entertainment without intervening.

Regardless, I would continue on my path to becoming stronger, though I will try to do so discreetly. I no longer care so much if I were to be discovered in the process; my preparations are only to avoid unnecessary trouble.

After spending more than a year in this world, I may still miss my old life, mostly my loved ones. But I also had time to process my emotions about it.

A year is a long time, at least for us mortals. It gave me enough time to get over the shock of having come into this world after dying. I consider my paranoia at that point to be the best I could hope for in myself. At least it was productive, not like crying like a baby and waiting for someone to rescue me.

Not everyone can lose everything they have and have built in their life, from one moment to the next, arrive in a new world where the chances of dying are extremely high, feel firsthand the immensity of the strongest beings in the world and feel your insignificance compared to them and not succumb to despair.

Those MCs who arrive in another world and act as if nothing happened, in my opinion, did not value their old life enough. But also, what can you expect from teenagers who are antisocial, who do not value their parents' efforts to give them a good life, and focus more on their unrealistic dreams, like chasing the most beautiful girl in their school, even though they do not even have the qualities that a girl wants in a partner?

After thinking for a long time, I came to the conclusion that my loved ones would not like me to continue clinging to them either, especially if it affected my new life. Spending so much time with Mira, I came to see her as my new family, and it would not be fair to her to put her in a lower position than my old family.

That doesn't mean I'll stop being careful, that's part of who I am as a person, but I'll enjoy this new life to the fullest, without fear of death, but also without seeking it out like a reckless guy. So even if I were to die, I wouldn't have any regrets.

I may be mostly careful, but that's mostly my logical side at work, which I've grown accustomed to over the course of twenty-plus years. But I've always been one to not settle and be willing to be inferior to others. When my logical side isn't working, if the situation calls for it I'll be an unscrupulous lunatic, and if cornered, like a rat I'll bare my teeth and try to take a piece of meat from my opponent. At least that way I'll walk away with a satisfied smile.

Well, it was time to find out what the dragon factor of these guys in front of me is. My gaze fell on a barrier and when I was about to start my investigation…

"Wait!"

I was interrupted. I turned to look at Mira after her interruption.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Were you thinking of investigating these guys like you did with the werewolf for weeks?"

I nodded with doubt on my face.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

'Did I forget something?'

Using thought acceleration to the max I searched through my memories, both recent and old, and came to the conclusion that this shouldn't be the case.

"I don't think I forgot anything," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

Mira gave me a blank look.

"My human form, Da, shouldn't you help me get a human form?"

I scratched my head at that question.

"Didn't you despise humans? Why would you want a human form?" I asked doubtfully.

"I despise humans because they are mostly weak, but I am not ignorant to the advantages of having a human form to camouflage myself among them. Which I have done a lot since I met you. Sometimes it is boring to stay in the shadows all the time and now that you have a human form, I am sure your interactions with them will increase. I don't want to feel left out, so help me get a human form!" Mira gave me the "you must do this at all costs" look.

I raised both hands in surrender.

"It's not that I didn't plan on helping you, it's just that I thought you wouldn't be interested, I didn't want you to take it as me wanting you to change for me," I said with a pout, which amused Mira.

"I know you don't, I know you well enough. I even know that even though you were a human, you try to shed that side of yourself so as not to make me feel uncomfortable, but it's not necessary. There must be very important things that you don't want to let go of, and I respect that. I've long since gotten used to your way of being. I've even gotten to the point of having fun doing human things that I'd never considered. Part of that is why I want a human form, so I can do more things with you," Mira said while giving me a smile.

I'm not going to lie, that touched my heart.

A wide smile spread across my face.

"Okay, let's get to work! If a human form is what the kitty wants, then let's give it to her," I said with exaggerated expressions with my hands.

"How long are you going to keep calling me kitten?" Mira said helplessly.

"Mmm… How about… never?" I said with a laugh. Mira could only shake her head.

Returning to my serious mode, I said, "Well, although I have previous practice with you, it would be best if you could get a woman, preferably of an appearance you like, so I can analyze her and help you become a mix of you and her.

"That would make it easier to get the skill, since you can't rely on evolution without enough concentration of magicules. The degree of concentration I used for my evolution wouldn't work on you due to your strength. We would need a lot of monsters at the level of the ArchDragon to trigger the evolution on you," I said, thinking about the possibility of helping Mira evolve.

'That reminds me, I'm now in the same situation as Mira. If I want to continue evolving, I'll need monsters stronger than myself, to use their concentration of magicules, superior to mine, to trigger the evolution. Monsters of my level or lower can no longer help me in this.

How did a monster increase its power?

If I look at it from a broad spectrum, I would say it can be summed up as: "A monster only becomes stronger with the help of another stronger one."

Whether it's through names, defeating stronger monsters and consuming them, or exposing themselves to a high concentration of magicules, which are formed in the presence of very strong monsters.

'Wait a minute… now that I think about it… where do the magicules circulating in the Cardinal World come from? As far as I know, even the True Dragons don't generate magicules out of thin air; they're just huge batteries, which, in the extreme case of running out, are refilled again with ambient magicules. Only Milim can generate more magicules, and that's thanks to the Magicule-Creating Reactor inherited from Veldanava. Now that I think about it, in reality, the largest concentration of magicules isn't the True Dragons, it's the Cardinal World itself! It's the Cardinal World itself that supplies these monsters with energy. Even all of Dagruel's energy in its complete form can only restore the fertility of a portion of the continent, not to mention how many magicules are circulating throughout the entire world.' My pupils dilated at that thought.

'...Forget it, I'll leave that for later. For the time being, I'll help Mira with her human form. I'll finally have my Nekomimi!' I thought excitedly, something Mira noticed.

"Why are you so excited?"

" Cough , cough , nothing, I was just thinking about something I just realized that could help us promote our evolution faster. But ignore it, I'll help you get your human form first."

Mira gave me a dubious look, but refrained from saying anything.

"What kind of look would you like?" I said to change the subject.

"You'll see, it will be a surprise. I'll be back in a while," Mira said and left.

It's not that I'm ashamed to admit what I think about Nekomimi to Mira. I've never been one to care what people say about me; I prefer the opinion I have of myself.

Actually, I don't tell her on purpose. If there's one thing a relationship where I was completely honest with the girl from start to finish taught me, it's that girls, or even guys, don't like to know everything about their partner. It makes the relationship kind of boring. Girls like mysterious guys, because they see an accomplishment in uncovering those mysteries, which makes them happy.

The girl I shared everything about myself with from the beginning, slowly lost interest in me, and ended up going with some Emo guy. I don't know what she saw in him, he was a complete depressive. But hey, who am I to judge the guy? Maybe he had his reasons for being the way he was.

Leaving that line of thought aside...

'I have time before Mira comes back. What was I thinking?' I tapped my chin with my index finger.

…

'True, the Cardinal world could be considered the biggest monster in a certain sense, at least in terms of magicule reserves, ignoring the fact whether the magicules are generated by the world itself or were already there from the beginning when Veldanava created the world.'

'It is undeniable that it supplies an immense amount of beings that inhabit it. Now, it is known that magicules are not affected by something as trivial as the physical phenomenon of gravity, so magicules do not distribute themselves in the world as air does, which is less dense the higher up you are. Without having the ability to analyze a large part of the world at the same time, I can only assume that magicules are distributed from the core to the edges of the sphere that is the world itself and it is only due to the presence of incredibly strong beings, that they attract to themselves a greater concentration.'

'If that hypothesis is partly correct, the best place for me to become stronger is in the oceans, as their depths are closer to the planet's core than the continent's habitable surface, where there are no beings as strong as True Dragons or True Demon Lords to attract the greatest amount of magicules around them. Which partly aligns with a plan I already had, as I was planning a great hunt for the supposedly almost unlimited sea monsters of the seas of human history. But now I know why their numbers are so exaggerated, it's because the oceans of this world occupy a greater volume compared to the habitable surface above the continent. I imagine that, given so many magicules in the water, an incredible amount of monsters are born, which in turn constantly fight and become stronger.'

'But that raises another question: if they have the best place to generate strong beings, why have none of them become Demon Lords, the supposedly strongest monsters? Even if they couldn't collect human souls for the harvest festival, they should be able to reach the strength of Demon Lord Seeds. If Guy was able to recruit Carrion, Frey, and Clayman, why wouldn't he accept them?'

'Don't they develop enough intelligence? It shouldn't be the case. Look, they've already developed it over the centuries, and they're not as strong as they are in theory. With so many millennia that this world has, how is it that the oceans haven't given birth to a monster comparable to Carrión?'

'I have two hypotheses. One, since they are fish, they are not intelligent like a human, so Guy does not take them into consideration. And since they do not have access to human souls, they cannot wake up and become spiritual beings. Since they are born as semi-material beings, they die of old age after centuries or millennia.'

'Two, someone is in charge of eliminating them when they gain a certain strength. This stagnates the development of other monsters. If there are no A-rank monsters, it is very difficult for B-rank monsters to evolve, let alone S-rank monsters. The question is, who is responsible? Is it Guy? Do the marine races themselves control each other?'

I shrugged indifferently.

'I'll find out when I get into the oceans.'

After a while, Mira came back.

"Here, this woman is how I want to look," Mira said as she pulled a girl out of her shadow. I raised an eyebrow at the girl's appearance.

'I must admit that Mira has good taste.'

Without wasting any time, I took her to my temporary lab to begin the analysis. With my previous experience, it didn't take me long to finish. After all, analyzing something you don't understand anything about is not the same as analyzing something similar to what you already know. In this case, the human body. There aren't many differences between a man and a woman.

Afterwards, it was only a matter of analyzing Mira's body, which required her full cooperation in lowering her defenses so that my analysis could proceed smoothly. This took longer because I had never analyzed Mira before.

When I finished everything, using our connection and the thought communication skill, I transferred all the data of her body and the girl to her, along with the data of her new body. Now it was all up to her, if she could do it.

To help her, I hunted down many monsters from the Jura Forest and put them inside a barrier, just like we did with myself before. While it wouldn't help Mira trigger her evolution, it would help her to be in an environment rich in magicules to replenish them if she needed them while practicing to obtain the transformation skill.

A week later…

As I was in the midst of upgrading the facilities of my underground base, adding living comforts as well as upgrading the instruments in my laboratory and forge, moving from low-grade materials or just magic-made constructs to new items with a large amount of magisteel in them, I'm sure those nobles would cry bitterly if they knew that their beloved magisteel swords were stolen and turned into forging equipment as well as other precision instruments.

Although I discovered the material creation ability a long time ago, which is the intrinsic ability of demons to create matter using only magicules, which I use to create various things after I analyze them, such as my clothes, since transforming into my snake form would destroy them and returning to human form would mean being naked. Therefore, I replicated the set created by the craftsman using my magicules. If I need to transform, I just disperse them. If I need clothes, I just recreate them.

The skill has its flaws, such as the low quality of the items created by it; they are always weaker than items made by careful craftsmanship.

In addition to the above, being magical constructions, they make certain materials sensitive to magicules react, as is the case with explosive stones, so I began to create instruments of various materials for each required situation.

Everything was quiet… until I felt someone behind me with my magic sense, but noticing it was Mira I ignored it. Only to be hugged from behind and feel two large balloons pressing firmly on me, which distracted me from what I was doing and caused me to destroy the object I had been working on for hours.

Seeing the mess, I sighed tiredly.

I turned around and there she was… Mira's new human form.

A beautiful woman in her early twenties, five feet tall, with a slender and toned body, short but stylish midnight-colored hair with dark blue highlights, her eyes with vibrant blue pupils, a delicate face and full lips, her skin as light as jade, with firm buttocks and, how could we forget one of the charms of women, a beautiful pair of breasts. Although not excessively large enough to hinder her movements, they were just the right size to say that they were large.

I found myself rubbing my chin as I admired the beautiful view in front of me.

But something was missing…

I immediately sent her information with thought communication, just a small modification to the transformation. A partial transformation you could say, something I had been working on for myself.

Look, after receiving it, she tried to carry it out. After a few attempts, she succeeded. Now on his head were cute black panther ears.

I nodded repeatedly. It was complete.

"You're done admiring my beauty," Mira said exasperatedly.

"No, a little more!" I said seriously.

To which Mira responded by hitting me on the head with her fist. Although it didn't hurt, I understood that I had to stop.

"Okay, I'll stop now," I said resignedly.

Using material creation, I created a set of clothes for Mira: a pair of tight, but not uncomfortable, black leather pants, lace underwear, a pair of leather boots, a black short-sleeved shirt, and a modern-style black leather jacket. The whole outfit, which, in my opinion, reaffirmed Mira's beautiful figure and made her look like a spy. As final details, I created a headband headset where human ears would be and a hair clip that resembled a snake.

After passing her the outfit, she got dressed in front of me.

'It's like a striptease, but in reverse' which turned me on quite a bit.

"How do I look?" Mira asked expectantly.

"You looked better without clothes," I said firmly.

To which she responded by rolling her eyes and hitting me on the head again.

"I was just kidding, you look beautiful," I said honestly.

She nodded with a smile.