Chapter 7: Snake event
“So you genuinely think you could beat a bear?” Fay asked, they had been walking through the cave for minutes now, “like… in a fist fight?”
“I think so, I do.” He had brought some berries that Millie foraged a while back and gave it to everyone, so the sounds of lips smacking kept echoing, especially with Lily who couldn't keep her mouth shut when eating, she for some reason had to fully open her jaw and snap it back down.
“Genuinely?”
“Of course.” He nodded and his posture tried to get taller, “can’t you?”
Can I? He took the thought experiment seriously. Bears are smart, smarter than a rat so he couldn’t really use that sand trick to stop an attack, he definitely couldn’t stop a swing or a bite from a bear. “I’d die.”
“Losers' mindset.” He tapped his temple and walked ahead. The cave was beginning to open up, becoming a lot more like a built dungeon with stone brick walls and pillars decorating the sides. It all led to a more open room that was the size of a rich man's ballroom. The walls ahead were layered with holes, small holes and bigger holes. As Jason took another step further Fay came to a halt.
“Wait dont-”
[Day 2 Snake Event started]
[Started two hours early: 1.5x rewards]
[You have two hours to destroy 0/3 snake kings in three separate caves and 0/5000 snakes]
A goddamn event? Fay was the first to grab onto Jason's shoulder and pull him back, a cloaked figure slowly faded into the middle of the room. “We need to run.” Fay said, almost desperate, feeling that same hectic drumming of the heart feeling from seeing the bear eat that corpse.
“No.” Jason pushed forward and ran as fast as he could with the dagger to his side, heading right for the cloaked figure who had only grown wider as time went on. By the time Jason was halfway towards the figure, the cloak melted away and revealed a scaly and boney thing, humanoid in figure but every limb had an extra bone and muscle within it, making it look broken and unnerving. It was as white as the sun, pale and liney with its ribs protruding outwards. Its elbows were fit with sharp edges, along with the balls of its feet.
That didn’t stop Jason, he continued to chase after his dream to become stronger, and it was rubbing off on Fay and Lily, they both tried to charge forward as well, Fay was mostly going to try to pull Jason back again if it happened to be too strong. He watched as Jason reached an arm's length away, he positioned his arm and jousted forward, Fay was cheering for the poor guy, he needed this.
A sickening crunch was brought down upon Jason, one of the creatures arms swung out and backslapped him into a far wall where holes were beginning to spill out snakes. He was dead, he was certainly dead. The air around the punch had lifted up a mist of dust, same with where Jason landed.
A grim realisation hit Fay, they were really not ready for this, for any of it. They had killed boars, sure, but he had forgotten the undeniable truth that they were indeed sacrifices, they were sent here to bleed, not to have fun. The day before was just a distraction. He wanted to reject it, he had rejected it, he had felt safe, comfortable.
Hundreds of snakes poured out from the walls and chased after Lily and Fay, they couldn't go back from where they came from, as the floor was riving with green, so they had to do a dance around the snakes all the while the ‘snake king’ watched them, holding his hand out, palm upwards.
Fay wasn't thinking all too well at the moment, but one thing was clear. This was great. This was great. This was great. This was amazing. He stopped and let Lily clear ahead of him “They’re going after me. You run!” He screamed. Lily didn’t need much convincing to escape, and just like he predicted, the snakes slid right past her as she ran towards Jason, not the door.
No matter, Fay caught the first bout of snakes with his skill.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
As quickly as he could, he sliced through the creatures, taking out seven while three more were injured. They were so clumped up that they acted more like a liquid than individual creatures, and again, this was great.
The king finally made his move, somehow dragging in a clump of snakes into a ball with an unknown gravitational force, pointing it right at Fay as it swayed heavily along his palm. This was great, he hoped, he probably didn't have much mana left.
He grabbed the clump of dirt from his pocket and managed to get it out just in time as the king fired the ball of living animals at him.
[Activated Stop Momentum]
[Activated Stop Momentum]
[Failed Stop Momentum]
Shit. He jumped out of the way as the ball made a high pitched hissing noise, colliding with the solid piece of dirt for a second, which made the uniform ball fall apart and many snakes to be torn apart like paper.
[Profession Level up. Snake Catcher (lvl 3) (UNCOMMON)]
+1 intelligence.
+1 perception.
+1 vitality.
+2 strength against snakes.
He knew it, this was great. This was exactly what he needed, he could already tell something, but the snakes seemed unusually weak, stomping them and slicing them took little effort. That snake strength must be at 6 by now, almost tripling his base strength. It was a ball of snow that was just getting riled up, soon he would become strong enough to kill more snakes, which made him stronger, which made him strong enough to kill more snakes, which made him strong-
“TIMEOUT!” Lily screamed as the king had quickstepped directly beside Fay, about to slam down its hand right into Fay’s jaw. It missed by a sliver and punched through the stone below, cracking it completely, allowing Fay to get a cheeky slice in and retreat as the creature had to follow its timeout rule. Though the blade barely passed the scaly skin. Fay made a note to thank Lily later.
Lily finally got out, along with Jason as she was dragging him out with her hands under his armpits. Fay kept his guard up, his perception would hopefully be high enough to recognise his attacks, but he had ran over in a split second, it had to have been a speed skill of some sorts.
Fay used this interval to slide his dagger across the floor, he was getting bitten all over on the feet and legs, trampling on the small creatures. His vitality did a lot to resist whatever poison they may have, and stop the bleeding from their small bite marks.
He killed around 10 more before the king quick-stepped again, arriving right in front of Fay.
[Failed Stop Momentum]
He relied on his perception, the king hesitating and doubting itself from the last strike, moved more carefully and slowly. It clearly didn’t know english from how confused it was about the timeout rules. Fay managed to roll out of the swipe just in time, slicing through a few snakes in the meantime. If it hadn't hesitated, Fay would be in trouble.
[Profession Level up. Snake Catcher (lvl 4) (UNCOMMON)]
+1 intelligence.
+1 perception.
+1 vitality.
+2 strength against snakes.
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This is great. This is great. He could simply run across the snakes now with little trouble, stomping them completely. A static grin appeared on his face as he was already running out of breath, it was an arms race, the king would likely catch onto its opponent growing stronger by now.
It stood still, completely, slowly rising its arms up in a way much like the prophet would. The holes just above the smaller ones began to spill out with hisses, those same rattle snakes made a deafening noise as they spilled out, speeding across the floor of green snakes, straight towards Fay.
This was more troublesome. He was forced to remain around the middle as the rattles alarmed him to danger. His perception ever since being leveled up so drastically began flaring up whenever a rattle snake appeared close enough to bite him, giving him just enough time to cut open the creature with the mole knife.
Speaking of the mole knife, it was breaking, slowly but surely. The handle especially, which was made of simple tree wood. That didn't stop Fay from slashing at a few more rattles before the king made his next move.
Fay had a suspicion before, but it was certain now, his opponent had an interval of ten seconds when it could use a skill. Of course it could probably block and punch, but it was locked to that tempo. Meaning this was definitely supposed to be a group battle. This time it decided to launch snakes right at him, mostly rattle snakes with their mouths open to get a lucky bite in, and lucky they got.
[You have been poisoned]
[You have been poisoned]
[You have been poisoned]
[You have been poisoned]
[You have been poisoned]
He limped away, his face, arms and leg covered in bites from the barrage of snakes, he sliced some more of the green snakes but with exhaustion on the way, it could be over. Another rattle snake struck him and he had to slam his other foot into the creature. He had ten seconds.
[You have been poisoned]
[Profession Level up. Snake Catcher (lvl 5) (UNCOMMON)]
+1 intelligence.
+1 perception.
+1 vitality.
+2 strength against snakes.
[IMPORTANT!]
Profession choices unlocked! Choose one.
Venom Extract (Common)
Sliver (Rare)
Snake Tears (Common)
Rare… Rare… He kept trying to force his brain to think, the timer went down for the next attack by the king, eight seconds, seven seconds, six seconds. He knew this decision would either make or break the fight. He knew rares were indeed rare, it wasn't the short jump from common to uncommon, where uncommon would be about 30%, rares were 0.5% at most. He had to remember that skills, along with being upgradeable, sometimes carried stats with them upon every upgrade, commons were easier to upgrade. That was why.
“Venom Extract…”
[NEWLY OBTAINED]
Venom Extract (COMMON: LVL 1): Extract venoms from the body automatically.
Automatically?
[Common Venom Extracted]
[Common Venom Extracted]
[Venom Extract LVL UP]
Common Venom -> Higher Common venom
+1 endurance
[Common Venom Extracted]
[Common Venom Extracted]
[Common Venom Extracted]
[Common Venom Extracted]
[Venom Extract LVL UP]
Higher Common Venom -> Lower Uncommon Venom
+1 endurance
His head felt like it split and then sewed itself back together, he gasped again, taking in a wad of cool air into his lungs, his eyes became wider, just in time to see that the king was right beside him, ready to strike yet again.
He couldn't do much to stop it, so the strike landed right between his ribs, cracking them and making him land in the far corner of the room where the stone bricks slammed against his back. With his newly found endurance he could just barely pick himself back up, just as he thought, vitality and endurance go hand in hand, very similar in structure, he wasn't sure how just yet, but he knew he felt like the punch he received, while smashing through his defenses and breaking ribs, wasn't a battle ending punch like it probably thought it was.
“I’m catching up...” He spoke to himself, twenty more rattles swam forward, most of the green snakes were either too scared to come close, or were barely holding together. The rattles bit him as he swung his arms around, bashing his fists into the rattles as he lost his knife somewhere when he went flying.
After tearing the rattles apart one by one the king raised his arms above in that same worship motion, the holes just above the ones where the rattles came from were bigger, a lot bigger. Enough to fit his whole body into if he were to crawl.
[You have been poisoned x 4]
[Common Venom Extracted x4]
He hadn’t had a profession upgrade in a while, assuming that after level five there was a steep drop off unless he could get some bigger opponents, luckily about one hundred pythons raced onto the floor, the muscles on their bodies curling against themselves with a rabid intensity. He didn’t have his knife so these meaty creatures were full strength and defense, a bad line up.
—
Millie was pacing back and forth in front of the cabin, very much planning to kill whatever snakes appeared from the event, though none appeared. Whoever activated it early was an idiot, and likely her teammates were in big trouble. She was planning something for the event which should have happened a couple hours from now, to set up a poison perimeter with those green snake venoms and yellow spined mushrooms, but all of that was lost.
“HELP!” Millie heard a voice, not too familiar, but still.
She watched as Lily, with her back to Millie, dragged a corpse to the foot of the worn cabin, “oh god oh god oh god oh god.” She was crying profusely, more at the situation rather than at the boy who was dead in her grasp, “Magic girl can you save him?”
“Sure.” Millie crouched down and inspected Jason, pressing her fingers onto his neck, lifting his eyelids. “He’s fine, he picked a class. Will probably be up in the morning.” She wasn’t surprised, most pick classes before death, which were the worst type of classes you could get, they are bottom of the barrel, preying on strong emotions to take a bad deal. If you took a bad class it was very hard to get another by transfer. “Get him in the cabin.” She watched as Lily entered with struggle, her MP was low from activating her skill. Bark ran out and helped her bring him in, still very tired from the days worth of crafting.
“Fay Fay Fay.” Millie softly whispered under her tongue, he was likely out there, and since he had brought back a bundle of snakes she wondered if he was a very very lucky boy. She guessed it was about time she helped out, so she headed for a cave she knew was in a far crevice, that the other groups hopefully won't be near as that place usually held stronger monsters like deer that shoot beams.
If Fay had taken the cave closest to them, the snakes would likely have reached the cabin within twenty minutes, which was enough time, considering the other teams were no slackers. She took a rock and cut her palm open, smearing the rock with her blood and placing it back down on the ground as a marker to detect if any monsters came nearby. She kept the blood on the rock flowing like a trip wire to activate, and walked along into the forest with a sway in her movements.
—
“A snake event!?” Marx was burning up a group of snakes that kept flowing through, like an endless flood of animals. He and her support Jacky were the main defenders.
“It said to take the kings out, I wonder.” He was pacing, “Eddy, what about that cave you mentioned? The one near the lake.”
Eddy was sharpening his sword, barely able to parse a word between the constant fireballs and Jacky’s support magic. “Uh, yeah, we going?”
“We going. Before blondie takes those 1.5x rewards.” Joey grabbed his scythe, something he got a lucky rare draw from this morning, a rare scythe that gave out a common poison, it easily made up for his lack of strength, and his endurance and defense and agility were boosted by his chef profession, and don't forget that skill he got at level 5, something that allowed him to fast forward an action one second in half a second, it seemed basic but the mana cost was low and the tempo he gained from it could really throw off an opponent.
They began to walk. Marx was easily disposing of any and all snakes, some rattle snakes appeared but didn't seem like they were any stronger other than having poison. Though with Jacky on their team it didn't matter much, not only were her parents doctors but she also already had a skill stone before all this, one that gave her the uncommon skill of inspection, to check for stuff and find solutions for things. Which played hand in hand with Joey’s cooking, since he could know what was edible.
Alongside Marx and Jacky they had Eddy who had the useless common skill of stickygraft, which allowed him to stick things together and have them connect as if welded. It came useful for weapons making, which is why he was a crafter. He wasn't used to crafting but liked to tinker with already existing gear, which meant he had looted some of the dead. He was tall though, and could handle a sword so he reached level two quickly.
Finally there was the short and blonde Grace, who wouldn’t tell her skill but said she was a healer. She liked to put things into sand holes and mix them together with her blood to make concoctions, most that could save the group. It was incredibly useful, even though Marx for some reason hated her.
The lake wasn’t too far away, they were planning to stay there but saw another group at the end of day one sleeping there, not wanting to bother them or cause an annoyance, they kept their distance. That group was gone now, Joey didn’t know if they were dead or not, they seemed well in spirits so maybe not.
They arrived at the lake, snakes were still pouring in, they got so close to where Joey had to slice at them with the scythe. Jacky was now also using some defense, being fairly competent with a slingshot she made. The cave was around the edge and stuffed into a thicket and was definitely solitary, so their spirits were let down when they saw a certain man's shiny armor, with two of his friends.
“Oh!” Blondie waved, “Lookie here! Mason boys.” He walked over, way too close for comfort. Joey could tell he went to work today, probably not stopping a single time for rest. Endurance, he went endurance.
“Hey.” Joey sighed.
“Hey!” He smiled and scratched the nape of his neck, “sorry to be a downer but we are taking this cave, you can go find another one though, that's all good.” He gave Joey a close thumbs up, “careful, or we will harvest you early.” He whispered, then turned around.
Marx was a bad word away from setting that guy alight, but kept his cool as blondie saw a python leave the cave, all angry and pulsating. With a quick flick of the wrist that python went flying up into the air.
Telekinesis. Joey thought, that's a rare skill.
