That time I was reincarnated as a snake (Tensura)

"Subtle strategy can defeat legions; a sharp mind will always be the sharpest tool on the battlefield." - Sun Tzu .

As I continued to look at the sheltered village, I considered my next plans carefully. A single victory didn't mean I was now invincible.

'While I would like to continue resting while the goblins panic, that would only allow them to gain the upper hand in future confrontations. I must continue to harass them, that will tire their minds, make them nervous, causing them to make mistakes. That is when I will hit them the hardest.'

Looking at my body, I could see the changes brought about by the consumption of so many goblins. My body, which had previously been less than 3 meters tall, was now almost 4 meters tall. This size, although large on land, was insignificant in this forest filled with giant monsters. That was not to mention the rest of the world.

In addition to beings known for their size, such as dragons measuring dozens of meters, it was said that the world's oceans were full of gigantic monsters that destroyed any ship that set sail. In comparison, a noodle measuring just 4 meters was not enough to fill the gap between their teeth.

'It may not be a big deal right now, but I'm sure my next evolutions will allow me to continue growing. By that time, one hit from my body will kill countless monsters.' My eyes shone with determination.

Back to the topic

'The best option for me right now is to continue attacking their hunting parties.' With that said, I headed after one of the groups that set off deeper into the forest.

My thermal vision, which had undergone an upgrade compared to when I first got it, allowed me to see further away, not to the level of seeing prey hundreds of meters away, but enough to track them from a distance without problems.

After dozens of minutes following the group's tracks, I found them near a cave. Keeping my distance so as not to be noticed by them, I hid in some dense bushes to observe them.

Apparently, while on their hunting mission, they came across traces left by some monster and, not afraid of death, they decided to follow them. That led them here.

The group consisted of five goblins with stone axes, three with knives in their hands, and surprisingly, two with bows. Although the bows were of poor quality, they could play a role in group attacks.

They slowly made their way into the dark cave. To make it easier for them to see, they turned on torches. Poor fools, if there's a monster in the cave, that light will only alert and anger it. Creatures that live in dark places don't particularly like light, especially if it's accompanied by intruders.

As expected, just a minute after entering I heard the sound of fighting inside. To avoid any potential problems, I decided to change my hiding place to the top of a tall tree. As double insurance, I activated invisibility.

After a few seconds, I could see a goblin with a bow running out of the cave. It must have been lucky, probably because it was at the rear of the formation.

When the last surviving goblin thought he had successfully escaped, with more than five meters between him and the cave, a shadow rushed out of the darkness and, with one movement, swallowed the little goblin.

With my instincts screaming at me to get away from that place as fast as possible, I saw the one responsible for the death of the group of goblins. With an imposing size of more than 20 meters, thick scales of a deep jet black with spines on them, long and sharp fangs that drip liquid that corrodes the ground just by coming into contact, a forked tongue longer than my own body, ruthless eyes, with a presence that screams "don't mess with me".

I could only think of something that matched what was in front of me:

A Tempest Serpent!

A monster equivalent in strength to a great demon, one of the apex predators in the Jura Forest. The fact that Rimuru only defeated it with a water blade was because Rimuru is a huge cheater. This guy in front of me is considered an A- rank monster, that's higher than the B+ rank lesser dragons.

Meeting him so early in my adventure can be considered bad luck. To avoid being noticed, I quickly looked away, as well as staying still as a branch, although I knew this was useless.

The storm serpent has heat perception, similar to my thermal vision, which allows it to pick up on hidden individuals. Luckily for me, after eating the goblin, it proceeded to return to its cave. It may not have noticed me or ignored me because I wasn't a threat. Whatever the reason, I was grateful to Veldanava for not having to face it.

Not wanting to push my luck, I quickly made my way off towards the goblin village. Returning to my humble hiding place amongst the trees, I allowed myself a well-deserved rest.

'Are these goblins idiots? How could they live so close to the territory of a storm serpent?' I complained at their stupidity. 'So much forest to live in and they settle near such a strong monster. Didn't they check their surroundings before creating the village or are they not afraid of death?'

What our protagonist didn't know was that the hobgoblin leader was aware of the presence of the storm serpent, but regardless of this, he settled in that place due to the abundance of prey in the surroundings. Although it was a risk, it was not without benefits.

And without realizing it, our protagonist had gone deeper and deeper into the forest, where the concentration of magiculas was greater and, consequently, a place where strong monsters lived.

Returning to the protagonist

'That can count as failure on the first try. Hopefully I'll have better luck on the next one.' After taking some time to relax my mind, I proceeded to search for another group, which didn't take me long. While the goblins weren't as dumb as many believe, they aren't very bright.

Although they knew that someone or something was targeting them when they moved through the forest, even though they did so carefully, it didn't occur to them to hide their tracks, which made my search an easy one.

Following the tracks, I found my target. Like me, they were stalking their prey, which appeared to be several deer, but not normal deer. They shared similar traits with cattle. These should be "cattle deer," monsters whose meat is incredibly delicious and their milk incredibly nutritious. One alone could provide food for a small group for over a week, and in front of us were eight of them.

I continued to watch the group of goblins to see what they would do with anticipation. Expectation that went to waste. Those guys just charged like a bunch of fools towards the deer. Sure, they were in the majority, being eleven goblins against eight deer. Besides, the deer cattle aren't particularly strong, but such a reckless charge could cause them injuries.

Something that, as expected, happened. Although panicked at first by seeing so many goblins, the deer regrouped and engaged in combat with the goblins. There were fewer of them, but they were stronger individually. But the goblins already knew that. Although without much order, they avoided acting alone. Thus, little by little, with the use of their simple weapons, the goblins killed three deer, gaining an advantage for themselves.

Seeing their fallen comrades, the deer became enraged. They charged at the goblins with their massive antlers to impale them. Although the goblins noticed, not all of them were able to dodge the charge, costing two goblins their lives.

As the battle raged on, like any good oriole, I stood on the sidelines of the fight between the mantis and the grasshopper, hoping to reap all the benefits of the winner.

It wasn't long before the winner was decided. Although weak, the goblins were not lacking in combat skills. At the cost of several of their comrades' deaths, they managed to kill another three deer, only for the remaining two to take advantage of their opponents' exhaustion and escape deep into the forest.

The surviving goblins were only five in number, and they were all injured to varying degrees. Even so, they celebrated their victory. As a weak race that evolved to have high fertility, the death of a few companions was nothing to worry about. With the meat they obtained today, in no time the number of goblins would be restored or even greater than before.

But in their celebration, they did not notice how the grass near them was moving strangely.

Without much difficulty I approached the group with my invisibility. Starting with the one in the best condition, the massacre began. As always, it only took one poisonous bite and my victims would be out of action. With so much experience accumulated from my previous kills and the use of invisibility, everything was a piece of cake.

Before they could react to the first death of a companion, I had already bitten them all. Although I didn't inject much venom into each one, the pain caused was enough to make them writhe on the ground. I just had to wait for me to take their lives, which didn't take long.

'Eleven goblins, as well as six cattle deer.'

'This harvest is bountiful, hahahahaha' I laughed like crazy.

Without further delay, I ate the goblins. With each body I digested, my body grew a little, and I felt myself getting stronger. By the time I finished with the goblins, my body length was over six meters, which filled me with happiness.

But not everything was good. Looking between the deer and my open mouth several times, I could only give up trying to eat them. Although it would be easy for me to eat an adult human now, I lacked the ability to swallow something comparable to a cow, unless I could cut it up, which is impossible for me.

I could only surrender to my limitations.

Reluctantly, I set off in search of more goblins without ever seeing the deer lying there again.

So my day of hunting continued.

As the sun set on the horizon, I returned to my old hiding place, the branches of the trees near the village, to count the day's earnings.

'Counting the first group, I ate a total of sixteen goblins today.'

It's not that I don't want more, it was entirely because by the time I found other teams, they had either been wiped out like the Tempest Serpent or their reinforcements had come to them to transport the killed prey. While I could kill some, that would only expose my identity, which I don't want right now.

The hobgoblin leader, it seems, is more interested in quality than numbers. He sends out a large number of goblins to hunt. Those who survive, in addition to gaining experience in combat, are generously rewarded with food. And those who die are no longer mouths to feed.

These practices will sooner or later give rise to evolved individuals. With them, the strength of the village would only increase.

'It's a shame that before their plan could succeed, they caught the attention of a very cunning predator,' I smiled to myself.

Tired of hunting, I relaxed until midnight came, when I would try to sneak into their village again.

It may be more difficult with the increased security, but I have a good reason to take the risk. I feel like I'm close to evolving. I can't describe the feeling, but it's something that urges me to consume more monsters.

I don't know how many goblins I need to evolve, but I'm sure there aren't many left.

You might think that I should wait until the next day to evolve, but actually, for me, nighttime is the best time. Because monster activity is more active during the day, especially goblins, I would be easy to be discovered if I stayed still for too long, which will happen because the evolution will force me to sleep.

After hours of waiting, midnight arrived. Luckily for me, today was a new moon night.

Like the day before, I slowly approached with invisibility, this time being more careful of my tracks because my increased size made it more difficult to stay hidden.

Today was different. I knew that eating the goblins I killed was a risk. If I triggered the evolution, I would have to flee quickly before falling asleep. While it is possible to delay the evolution, that creates the risk of failure.

To avoid those risks, this time instead of attacking those who are resting in houses, my targets were the guards. Although it was certain that I would create a ruckus, I was counting on killing the closest ones, swallowing them and quickly fleeing. By the time the rest of them rushed over, I would have hidden myself in the darkness of the forest.

Using my thermal vision, I looked for the smallest or most distant group of guards from the rest. I ended up settling on a group of more than twenty individuals. Although there were many of them, their surveillance was the most lax.

Waiting for an opportunity, I approached just two meters from them. Although the plan was reckless, I preferred to wait and, when they were tired, it would be my time.

In my observation of them over the past few days, I noticed that the guards only rotated shifts at dawn and dusk. This eliminated the possibility of them changing shifts when they were tired at night.

After hours of waiting for opportunities, my magiculas were starting to reach the bottom. To avoid being discovered, I didn't turn off invisibility, which was taking its toll on me.

Luckily for me, what I had been waiting for had arrived. A few people started yawning and their guard dropped to the limit. I knew this was my best chance.

I built up the strength to jump when one of them looked like he was going to take a nap.

* Swoosh *

I jumped on him and bit his neck. Without wasting any time, I slid to the next one. I repeated the process with two more. At that moment, the rest noticed me.

Using their spears, they tried to pierce me. But, unfortunately for them, I was already practiced at dodging. By sliding, I dodged most of the spears. Some managed to hit me, but I was no longer the weak snake I was when I came into this world.

My body was larger and stronger, including my scales, which, along with my resistance to piercing attacks, allowed me to sustain only minor injuries. If I encountered the horned rabbit, it would not be able to leave any trace on me.

As they continued to attack me with all sorts of weapons, I continued with the killing. They might not damage me much, but my regeneration would continue to drain my magiculas. So I had to finish it quickly.

Every second that passed, a goblin fell by my fangs. But the wounds were piling up. When I sensed more goblins approaching, I knew I was out of time.

I quickly crept towards the village, hoping that these guys would follow me. Luckily, they aren't very bright; they all followed me. When I passed by some houses, I turned around and got out of their sight. I activated invisibility and stood still.

The goblins rushed in the direction they thought I went.

Before they realized I had tricked them, I decided to find my victims and retreat. Going back the same way, I could hear that the whole town was in action. Without looking back, I reached the place where I killed the guards. Without further delay, I swallowed three bodies and fled as far as I could.

With difficulty, due to my swollen stomach, I climbed a tree two hundred meters from the village, it was the safest covered place I could find on the way.

Suddenly something happened in my body, for a moment I felt beyond full, like I was about to burst, the next moment that feeling was gone, but a deep sleep came over me.

'I hope no one finds me in a vulnerable state' and the last of my consciousness went dark.

While our protagonist was evolving, things around him did not stop.

The goblin guards, after searching in the direction where they thought the snake had gone, realized that they had been tricked, and quickly turned around.

Only to find that three corpses had disappeared, this made them furious, once again the entire village was alerted, including the hobgoblin chief, angry that an attack happened in his village again, he took more than 80 goblins and rushed into the forest to look for our protagonist.

Unaware that the direction they had taken was not the route the protagonist took, but rather the route to the territory of the storm serpent.

By the time the angry leader realized where he was, it was too late, the commotion caused by so many goblins caught the attention of the storm serpent, who upon seeing them decided to turn them into his nightly snacks.

Without time to scream, the goblins were devoured mercilessly, the hobgoblin leader knowing that they could not defeat that monster could only make the difficult decision to order the remaining goblins to distract the storm serpent so he could escape.

Obeying their leader, the goblins drew the snake's attention in the opposite direction, knowing that they would die. The leader, without wasting any time, fled as fast as he could. Only when he reached his village did he relax, remembering the work it took to raise so many goblins. With all the pain in his heart, he let out a cry to the heavens.

*Waaaaaa*

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Author's notes: Our protagonist has finally reached his first evolution, he will stop being a simple snake and become something more.

What did he become?

We will only find out in the next chapter, so look forward to it.

PS: Thanks to my colleague who pointed out some mistakes in some paragraphs of the "Souka" chapter. I appreciate it.

As you know, I write in my native language and then have it translated. Sometimes I can make mistakes that I can overlook since I don't read it in English. If something similar happens again, I would appreciate it if you could point it out to me.