I took notice that Pest must’ve made a dent in my free EXP too, though not that big. I still had more than enough to level up ‘Flight’ and ‘Stinger’ to the levels where they were usable for my current species. It only took 32 thousand EXP for each of them, rounded up, to increase their levels to 14. After that I added 15 thousand more to level up ‘Steel Web Spinning’ to 14 too.

I still had 37 thousand EXP to spend, but I left them free to negate damages that Pest continued to make. ​​

‘I still can’t make sense of your abilities. You are a fucking weirdo, you know that, Voren? Well, besides all that Lord of Hell stuff.’ Speak about the devil. ‘Just going around, growing out parts like that. Transforming into fucking different species! Damn, I wish I could just take control over you. I’d be fucking unstoppable!’

‘Dream on,’ I snorted, examining my further evolution options. I had two ability upgrades to pick. ‘Flight’ offered me a choice between ‘Faster Flight’ and ‘Dexterous Flight’, while ‘Stinger’ offered ‘Venomous Stinger’ and ‘Piercing Stinger’. All hard choices.

Speed allowed me to approach and escape future fights with more ease. Picking one’s fights was one of the most important rules of survival, and therefore, the upgrade appeared to be of the utmost priority, too… Except that in the forest, my speed was limited by the trees around, and to increase it, I actually needed manoeuvrability first. Agility, in other words, if I understood the upgrade right.

I won’t be in the forest forever, but what in the future? From what I knew of the mortal world and souls’ tales, the scariest, strongest (tastiest) enemies usually lived in lairs and dungeons and sometimes palaces. These all weren’t open spaces either.

So here it was, my choice.

[‘Flight’ successfully evolves into ‘Agile Flight’.]

It scalded my wings with a sharp bout of pain, but besides that, I noticed few differences until I tried to take off. My wings felt different. They seemed to be a little shorter and wider than before, but I found that the form allowed me to turn in the air easier. It was the only thing that allowed me to avoid getting stuck in my own webs, the passages in them made with my bird-size in mind, not with my current one.

“Damn it,” I swore under my breath and spread my lizard lips in a grin. My voice was squeaky and consonants were a little too soft, but it still felt great to speak aloud again.

I returned to my nest and looked at my stinger. It grew in length with levels, but still came from the inner side of my wrist. All but the very tip, though, was hidden under my skin until I flexed my hand, letting it out of the skin pocket like a snake’s venomous fang. Only then its full length, as long as my palm, became visible. The stinger, straight and sharp, looked black as onyx in the dim starlight.

It looked like a weapon in its own right, like a hidden dagger that would always be with me. I imagined the piercing upgrade will make it sharper somehow, or maybe sturdier. But I couldn’t deny the power of venom it offered. In the past, it was the best part of the ability. Even if the stinger in itself was tiny, its bites made creatures many times my size suffer.

I could find or even make many daggers. Venom was harder to come by. I could evolve venomous fangs, but sticking my teeth into the enemy was dangerous. If I could avoid putting my best weapons on my most vulnerable parts of the body, I should.

[‘Stinger’ successfully evolves into ‘Venomous Stinger’.]

“Oh wow, for once it gave the same exact ability it offered,” I muttered to distract myself from the scalding pain in my wrist. My stinger itself felt fine, but what I imagined was a venom pouch in my hand felt awful. Thankfully, not for long.

‘So what now, big guy? Got yourself all these fancy upgrades… Don’t wanna try to chat with other kobolds? Eh? I can be your translator if you don’t know their language. It’s fucking simple, too. They are dumb as rocks,’ Pest spoke in my head.

I narrowed my eyes. The idea of visiting other kobolds came to my head, yes, but… ‘Since when you are being so charitable, parasite?’ I asked him suspiciously.

‘Well, it’s obvious you aren’t going to die here and now, and I’m fucking bored watching you just eat shit left and right. I have intellectual needs too, and even these dumb as rocks lizards are better than nothing, you know? You don’t count, Hell-boy. I still hate you.’

I hummed, my suspicions eased not a littlest bit. I had a feeling that if kobolds were ever to see me, winged, walk into their village… they won’t be happy. It was pure common sense. People didn’t like different. The fact that Pest advised me to go to the kobold village most probably meant that he hoped they would kill me.

Good luck to him there.

I hid my stinger, got out of my nest and clawed and chew my way out of the web fortress. ‘Maybe I will, Pest,’ I said in my head. ‘But it won’t be because you told me so.’

Until then, I had another destination. The place I had left long ago, covered in more webs and safe from any scavengers, hopefully. Now only to find it in the dark… maybe I should’ve slept first.