Jaekyung did not judge Cheong-o rashly. Could he trust this little bird? He didn't know.
This creature was a bird, yet it could speak. Being able to speak meant it could also lie, so he couldn't judge anything from just a brief conversation. So how could he know if this creature was trustworthy or not?
But trust was not a prerequisite for cooperation. What was important was whether they could be of help to each other. If both sides could benefit, that alone was reason enough to cooperate.
“As you said, I'm big.
And strong.
I can hunt beasts smaller and weaker than myself. The kind you can't hunt." Jaekyung didn't think Cheong-o was hiding some miraculous power within its small body.
Of course, the mysterious blue light flowing through its body was out of the ordinary, but seeing as it kept a sufficient distance from him even while chattering away, there was a high probability that its actual strength wasn't that great.
“Hunting?”
It was the same now. Cheong-o neither interrupted nor denied his words. It merely showed interest.
“Yes. Hunting. I’m decent at hunting, but it’s not easy to find prey. I can’t fly like you, nor can I look down from high places.”
Cheong-o was not foolish. Its eyes lit up at once. For a moment, Jaekyung even suspected that Cheong-o's naive way of speaking might be an act.
“If you help me hunt, I'll share the prey with you. I think it's a good proposition for both of us. What do you say?"
“Alright!”
Cheong-o, seeming to grasp the concept of cooperation immediately, nodded its head eagerly, like a woodpecker searching for food. A faint smile spread across Jaekyung’s lips. To some, it might have looked grotesque or menacing, but to him, it was a pleasant smile.
And so, a snake and a bird became partners. They didn’t drag things out unnecessarily. Some time had passed since they woke up, and as they were starting to feel hungry, they immediately began to discuss today's hunt.
“Find some prey around here. But it has to be something I can hunt without much difficulty.”
"Huh? What does that mean?"
When Cheong-o tilted its head, Jaekyung realized his explanation had been somewhat vague and chose his words again.
“What I mean is, the prey has to be an ordinary beast.”
Jaekyung recalled the two birds he had seen yesterday. Those birds didn't look very special in appearance, but the strange power dwelling within them was strong enough to ignore the difference in size. He was half-convinced that his obsession with the few drops of blood they had shed was related to that.
“Ordinary? You mean it can’t be a spirit beast?”
“A spirit beast? Were those birds from yesterday spirit beasts?”
"Yes."
Spirit beasts.
So they really weren't ordinary birds.
“What’s the difference between an ordinary beast and a spirit beast? Am I not a spirit beast?”
“You?”
Cheong-o stared at Jaekyung intently before speaking hesitantly. Its tone lacked certainty.
“You’re not.
Yes, you’re probably not. You're smart, but you have no spiritual nature. So you're probably not a spirit beast."
After saying that, Cheong-o quickly added another word.
“I don't know what spiritual nature is. I don't know, but I can feel it. I don't feel in you what I felt from those birds yesterday.”
Jaekyung, who had been about to open his mouth, closed it again and smacked his lips. Was this little bird weary of his insatiable curiosity, or did it truly not know? Swallowing his disappointment, Jaekyung asked once more.
About the few drops of blood that had captivated him yesterday. Fortunately, this time Cheong-o did not avoid the answer.
"That's only natural. They're spirit beasts. Beasts whose spiritual wisdom hasn't opened are drawn to the blood of spirit beasts."
"You mean it's instinct?"
“Instinct? Yes. Instinct. It’s instinct.”
It was another piece of very useful information. Jaekyung no longer tried to understand the knowledge and information of this world. For now, he had to memorize it.
Understanding would come after he had learned enough about this world.
‘That is, if I can stay alive until then.’
Superhumans. Immortals. Spirit beasts.
In this world, no, just in this vicinity, there were too many dangers. Jaekyung didn't know how long he could survive against them.
‘Were my parents also spirit beasts?’
Jaekyung suddenly thought of the parents of this life, whom he hadn't seen in several days. Their enormous size, large enough to be in a monster movie, was certainly impressive, but that was all. They didn't have the same intimidating presence as the two monstrous birds he had seen yesterday.
Was it because they were his kin? Perhaps, but Jaekyung thought his parents were probably not spirit beasts. It was a vague, inexplicable feeling.
A short while later, Cheong-o soared high into the sky. And not long after, it returned with information about suitable prey.
“A fat mole. It’s too fat, so it’s slow.”
It was good prey that perfectly matched the conditions he had requested. Jaekyung moved silently, following Cheong-o's guidance. Before long, he could see the 'fat mole' with his own eyes.
The creature was diligently digging the earth. From a distance, it seemed to have four legs in addition to the two front paws it was using to dig so fervently. Also, unlike the moles of his previous life, its body was quite large.
Since it was as plump as Cheong-o had said, if he had seen it without being told it was a mole, he would have doubted it.
“Draw its attention.”
“Attention? How?”
“Just fly around in front of it, and make sure it doesn't look my way.”
The mole seemed to be busy digging, but there was no way it was completely defenseless. It must be maintaining some level of vigilance against enemies that could appear from anywhere. Jaekyung, who prided himself on being a skilled hunter, was confident he could approach it without a sound, but it was always better to be thorough.
"Got it."
Without a second word, Cheong-o flew towards the mole. Keeping a certain distance, it began to chirp loudly. After a few seconds of this, the mole, which had been digging excitedly, reacted.
When its head lifted and its gaze turned towards Cheong-o, Jaekyung quietly approached from behind as smoothly as flowing water.
Chomp!
When there was about a meter of distance left. Jaekyung flung his whole body forward and bit the back of the mole's neck. The mole tried to convulse, but Jaekyung instantly coiled his entire body around it.
When he squeezed once, with a “crunch!” sound, the mole's bones were crushed, and that was the end of it. The first hunt by the snake and bird partnership was not just successful, it was almost laughably easy. Jaekyung squeezed his body once more.
The mole, already half-dead and trembling, went completely limp. At this point, it wasn't just its bones; its internal organs must have all ruptured. Jaekyung carried the limp mole in his mouth and climbed a tree.
Then, actively using his sawtooth-like teeth, he tore off a piece of the mole's flesh and tossed it some distance away. It was a considerate gesture for his small partner. Cheong-o snatched the meat that had fallen far away and flew up to a higher branch to begin its meal.
Seeing this, Jaekyung also began to eat in earnest. * The partnership with Cheong-o was a wise decision, one he could confidently say was among the top three wisest decisions he had made not only since starting his second life, but in his first life as well.
Before, just finding suitable prey for a hunt took ages, and even when he found it, he had to be extremely cautious, which was exhausting. But now, with Cheong-o finding the prey and even distracting it, hunting had become much easier than before. If he had his way, he felt like he could hunt five or six times a day.
Of course, just because he felt he could, didn't mean he actually did. What would be the point of hunting so much when he couldn't even eat it all? He had no hands to preserve the prey he caught for long, so whatever he caught had to be eaten that day or the next.
Therefore, hunting once or twice a day was sufficient. If he caught a large one, once was enough, and if it was a bit small or an ambiguous size, he needed to hunt one more time to feel full. With the time spent on hunting drastically reduced, he naturally found himself with a considerable amount of free time.
Jaekyung pondered how to use this free time. Any other beast would have simply napped or idled away the time meaninglessly, but Jaekyung was different. He was no different from a beast when he was hungry, but once his belly was full, he exercised a reason that set him apart from them.
Although it was lacking compared to his time as a human in his past life, he was clearly different from an ordinary beast. He felt he had to do something constructive with this spare time. Now, living his second life as a snake, Jaekyung had only one goal.
To survive.
It was a natural instinct for a living being to want to protect its life, but Jaekyung's will to live far surpassed that instinct. He had already experienced death once, so he knew how terrifying it was. Would there be another, a third life, after this second one?
He couldn't know. But even if there was, he did not want to die. Though it now remained only as a distant, vague memory, its horror remained like a large scar on his soul, making him feel extreme fear whenever he recalled it.
He did not want to die. Therefore, he had to develop. He had to increase his chances of continuing to live.
In other words, he had to become stronger. Then how was he to become stronger? For now, only one method came to mind.
To become a spirit beast. According to Cheong-o, a spirit beast was the result of an ordinary beast changing. Judging from the scant explanation and the two monstrous birds he had seen the day before, it seemed the word evolution was more fitting than a simple change.
It felt like the species itself was changing, not just a matter of gaining spiritual wisdom and becoming smarter. If a beast that gained spiritual wisdom was a spirit beast, was Cheong-o a spirit beast too? It was not.
Cheong-o certainly had its special aspects, but it had a distinctly different feel from the monstrous birds he had seen the day before. Above all, Cheong-o itself had denied it.
“I’m not a spirit beast.”
A strong sense of yearning was evident in those words. On the off chance, Jaekyung asked how to become a spirit beast, and Cheong-o, as expected, replied that it didn't know. Jaekyung, with his sharp senses and intuition, noticed the hesitation in the reply but didn't let on.
Everyone had their secrets. They had not yet built enough trust to open up to each other. Jaekyung didn't want to lose the excellent partner he had been lucky enough to find by pushing things unnecessarily.
After finishing his meal and feeling somewhat full, Jaekyung found the smallest tree nearby. Even though it was the smallest, it was still large enough that his body, which was over three meters long, could only just wrap around a little more than half of it.
'Ugh.'
Wrapping his whole body around the tree, Jaekyung began to exert force, albeit awkwardly. He squeezed the tree with all his might, and when he could no longer maintain it, he released his strength. And when some of his strength returned, he did it again.
After repeating this several times, his body felt stiff and his stomach felt a little empty.
“What are you doing?”
Cheong-o flew over and asked with a curious tone. This alone showed it was a perceptive creature. It didn't interrupt while he was concentrating, and only came over to ask when it seemed he was finished, a clear difference from any old birdbrain.
“I’m exercising.”
"Exercising?"
“Yes.”
Cheong-o understood the concept of exercise, but it didn't understand why he had to do it. Jaekyung, growing tired of Cheong-o's chattering questions, simply replied that he was doing it 'to get stronger.'
“Get stronger? You get stronger if you exercise?”
“Of course you get stronger.”
In truth, he didn't know. The hypothesis that exercising builds muscle, improves physical ability, and thus makes one stronger was based on the knowledge and experience of his past life.
That's right.
It was a hypothesis. The laws of physics in this world seemed to be the same or similar to his past life, but having already seen a monster worthy of a monster movie poster and the superhumans who took it down by themselves, Jaekyung couldn't be certain of anything.
He was simply trying it out of desperation, like a drowning man clutching at straws, because he couldn't just do nothing.
“Then I’ll do it too! How do I do it?”
How do you do it? Jaekyung looked over Cheong-o while stretching his sore and stiff body. An exercise this bite-sized little bird could do?
“Just… fly around. Until you're tired." It was a half-hearted answer, but he really couldn't think of anything else.
Still, Cheong-o rejoiced as if it had received some great teaching and immediately soared high into the sky. Jaekyung, watching it with eyes full of slight unease and apology, resumed his exercise. He knew almost nothing about his own species.
Based on appearance alone, aside from its size, it was like the snakes of his past life, but the detailed body structure, habits, and other characteristics were not the same. He didn't know how effective this exercise would be. It might have no effect at all, but even so, it didn't matter.
Jaekyung knew that what he needed right now was psychological stability. Even an uncertain hope was fine. As long as it could calm this uneasy heart.
He started the exercise like that, but joyfully and surprisingly, the effects began to show in just a few days. The tree he was using for practice began to sway after only two days, and a surprised Jaekyung moved to another tree further away.
And a day later, the first tree, which had been swaying from time to time, finally fell with a loud crash. And two days after that, the second tree he was using also fell in a similar fashion. This happened even though the second tree was clearly thicker and sturdier than the first one.
At this point, Jaekyung was certain that his strength had increased. If it were just a feeling without proof, he might have thought it was his imagination, but weren't there two huge pieces of evidence right here? It was certain.
This wasn't a fool's errand! Jaekyung's spirits soared. Motivation was now added to the exercise he had been continuing on sheer willpower alone.
It was a good thing that his resolve was strengthened by such clear results, but nothing in the world is ever only good. The exercise made him stronger, but at the same time, it made him hungry more easily.
In the past, he would have been unable to handle it and would have spent most of the day hunting, reducing his activity as much as possible in his spare time. But it was different now. It was because his reliable partner had raised his hunting efficiency to an absurd level.
In the time it would have taken him to barely manage one hunt before, he could now hunt at least five or six times, so even after spending time exercising and emptying his stomach, he had more abundance and leisure than before. And so, one day, and then another.
Time passed.