NOVEL WEB Chapter 6: Gate of Serpents
The vortex dropped us in the middle of a desert.
“Pfttt!” I spat out the sand that had entered my mouth. Beside me, Mike did the same.
I stood up to brush off the sand from my clothes. I looked at the sky to see where we had entered from, but the sun overhead burnt my eyes.
‘Ding’
A status screen popped up in front of me.
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=== VRITRA’S PRISON=== Rank: C |
“I guess we are in the Dungeon called ‘Vritra’s Prison’.”, I informed Mike.
“How do you know that?”
“Awakened Beings get a small notification regarding the name of a Dungeon. ”
“Now let’s begin with getting out of this hellish desert.”
I started walking in a random direction.
“Wait. Where are you going? Shouldn’t we make a plan?” Mike asked desperately, as I began to leave.
“In case you didn’t know compasses don’t work in Dungeons. And even if it did work, we don’t have any information about our current location. So right now, the only action we can take is to keep moving. God knows what kind of monster will come for us if we stay in one place.”
Mike gave it a thought but followed me when I started moving. I actually did have some knowledge about the Dungeon. It was vaguely mentioned in the novel what Mikael experienced in the Dungeon, which included constant attacks and a lack of food and water.
I had enough rations to last us for half a year, in my dimensional ring. So what we needed right now was to keep ourselves from being attacked.
We wandered around for hours, finally setting up a tent when the sun completely set. Sci-fi technology really was awesome. I just threw the ball-shaped item on the ground and it instantly inflated into a two-person tent strong enough to fend off at least one C Rank attack. It cost me quite a pretty penny as well.
“Let’s eat before retiring for the night.”, I said, handing Mike an energy bar and a bottle of water. Since he got tired from walking all day, Mike didn't complain about the food. After the light dinner, the two of us went to sleep. The desert was freezing at night so we huddled under the blanket I had brought.
“A-are you sure nothing will happen during the night?”, Mike asked me, trembling.
“Don’t worry, I am sure monsters need their sleep too.”
After half an hour passed, I quietly slid out of the tent, to make sure that Mike didn’t wake up.
I wasn’t able to try this in the morning, since Mike was beside me. I kneeled in the sand and placed my hands on the ground.
“Appraisal.”
A wave of mana spread from my palms before dissipating into the ground. Immediately, half of my magic was gone from my body. Soon after, a 3D model of the desert was assembled in front of me.
I pinched the model and enlarged it, checking the areas near my location. Directly below us, many D Rank snake monsters were sleeping, hiding from the cold. I guess they were following Mike's and mine scent the entire day.
‘Good thing we started moving as soon as we got here. It would have been really dangerous, otherwise.’
I used the map to analyse the desert, which direction the desert was closest to finishing and where the monsters were. After an hour, I went back into the tent and slightly shook Mike awake.
“D-did something happen?”, he asked, rubbing the sand from his eyes.
“It's nothing, but we need to leave right now. In the morning, it will be too late to give them the slip.”
Mike got up and I quickly packed up everything and put them back into my ring. Since I now had an idea of the Dungeon’s terrain, with the help of Appraisal, I knew where we had to go from now.
As the monsters would be more active once the sun comes back up, we decided to quicken our pace. Thankfully, I had brought jackets made from D Rank Salamander leather, widely used for its function to create its own heat, so we didn’t freeze to death.
The two of us reached the end of the desert just as the sun broke through the horizon. Before us, laid a luscious, green forest.
“Let’s hide here.” I quickly dragged Mike into the forest since the Appraisal Map notified me about the seismic movements of the snake monsters underground.
“So what are we going to do, now that we are in the forest?”, Mike asked me.
“What are we gonna do now?” I flashed him a smile. “Well, of course, burn it down.”
‘I mean, who never loved a good arson.’
“Wait, we spent the entire day, and night, yesterday wandering the desert. And now that we finally found a better place, you wanna burn it down?”
Well, his reaction was understandable. Nobody sane would try to burn down their place of refuge with their own hands.
“Tell me, Mike. Do you know who Vritra is?”, I asked him.
Mike shook his head in response. I started explaining to him about the Dungeon we were in.
“Vritra was a snake from Hindu mythology that had captured all the world’s rivers. That same snake is the boss monster of this Dungeon.”
“Ah, that explains why this entire place is a desert. There’s no water here.”
“So, then, tell me, how is such a vibrant and lively forest able to survive in a land with no water?”
“Wait, so is this forest where all the rivers are trapped?”
I nodded at his answer.
“And we are going to burn it down, provoking Vritra to come out from wherever he is hiding. We won’t even have to wander aimlessly in the scorching desert, fighting monsters, to find his location.”
In fact, in the novel, Michael only found this method after a month. He originally used the forest as a hideout, but when he still wasn't able to find the Boss Monster, he burned it down in anger.
“Okay, so how are we going to burn an entire forest down?”
“Leave that to me.”
‘Appraisal’
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Name: Ray Laxon Title: The Otherworlder Rank: C Stats:
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The training I had undergone the past two months had finally raised my physical stats to that of an average C Rank Hero. Even my Intelligence had risen a bit after I read all those books on mana and other documents in my office.
I took out a corked test tube from my ring.
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Ray’s Speed Potion: Increases Speed Stat by 1.0 for thirty minutes. |
I chugged down the colourless and tasteless liquid, putting the vial back in the ring
I kneeled in front of Mike, my back facing him.
“Get on top of me now.” He got on without asking any questions, piggybacking me.
Time was of the essence here. Right now, all the snakes were still asleep due to the night's frigid temperature, so I could execute my crime with no interruptions. I took my scabbard out and unsheathed my sword.
‘Brahma Sword Style - First Stage : Fire’
Red mana began to envelop the previously silver blade.
I could feel the potion starting to take effect. My body felt light and energetic as if I had taken a concentrated shot of caffeine. I charged into the forest, my body moving at the speed of a cheetah. As I parkoured around the trees, I slashed their trunks, setting them ablaze. A scarlet path of flames and destruction followed my footsteps. Behind me, I could feel Mike, enjoying the wind. Hell, even I was enjoying this wonderful feeling. In my previous life, nobody would have been able to enjoy running at such speed, not even track athletes.
I ran around the forest. I slashed the trees again. Embers fell from my sword, making it seem as if the blade was surrounded by fireflies.
As the sun rose, so did the flames. I could feel the Aura of monsters surrounding the forest, trying to get in and protect their haven from the maniacal arsonist, but the flames kept them at bay.
After half an hour, my speed slowly started to dwindle. I skittered towards the other edge of the forest, as the last of the Speed Potion left in my system was burnt away.
Mike slowly slid off my back, as his feet landed in the sand. Looks like the desert completely surrounded the forest.
“Well, now we just have to wait for our prey to come to us.” I commented as my feet slowly came to a stop.
Since my body wasn't used to such unthinkable speeds, my leg muscles had been stretched to the limit, and I felt as if someone was pressing a hot iron against them. I quickly chugged down a Stamina potion and Mana Potion from my ring, to get myself healed up and to prepare myself for the upcoming fight. From my ‘Appraisal’, I had realised that Ray was a real genius when it came to making potions. The ones I had found on the market only raised Stats by 0.8, but Ray’s potions raised it by a full 1.0 point.
He had even created potions with such extraordinary effects, to the point that I think it was illogically stupid how Heron Laxon never even considered testing them. Selling the recipe for even one of them would be worth tens of Billions of R.
I took out another potion from my ring. It was one of Ray’s special potions. It was stored in a glass vial with a poison purple hue.
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Monster Repelling Potion (Low Grade) - Makes the consumer emit a pheromone that repels C Rank and below monsters. Caution: It will not affect all monsters equally. |
I handed the vial to Mike.
“You know, that vial is missing a skull and crossbones, right?”
“Just drink it. It’s not poison.”
Mike gave it a long look of disapproval before downing it in a gulp. “Tastes kind of sweet.”
I handed him my black dagger.
“What’s that for?”, he asked.
“Self defence. Just stab as hard as you can, if any monsters approach you. The dagger will hopefully paralyse them.”, I explained. The Lightning Dagger was the best weapon for someone with no mana, since it was already infused with lightning mana. Also, I didn't have any other weapon on hand, since I never really thought someone would be coming here with me.
“Monsters will be heading our way soon. Get ready.”
I could already feel the aura of monsters underground. The strongest one among them had an aura of wrath around it, ready to go on a rampage. It was slithering in our direction at unimaginable speeds.
“It’s here.”, I alerted Mike. We posed ourselves.
Moments later, the ground in front of us erupted. Sand spilled all over us. Once our visions cleared, I almost fell over.
A 70-metre long viper with dark blue scales was staring at us. Its dark eyes stared at us, red with fury. Its forked tongue darted in and out of its jaws, which looked as if they could snap a car in half. Two long shining silver horns stood erect on top of its head.
Behind it, more snakes popped up. Red and black-scaled serpents stared at us. All 4 snakes were about half the size of their leader, releasing D Rank auras.
“Appraisal”
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Vritra Rank: C+ Its horns imprison the rivers of this Dungeon. |
Appraisal was quite uninformative in this sector.
Vritra hissed at us, poison spitting in our direction. I grabbed Mike and rolled sideways, barely avoiding the projectile. Behind me, the poison hit a few intact trees, which immediately started giving out smoke.
“Run far away from here.”, I pointed Mike away from the battle.
Mike understood his powerlessness in the situation and started running away from the battlefield.
Vritra hissed at his subordinates and two Red Snakes slithered in my direction. I ran towards them and slashed at their skin with a burst of red mana. The cut was shallow, barely going past the skin below their scales, but the scratches immediately started getting blistered as if someone had poured acid on them.
Not wasting time, I quickly jumped on the body of one of the snakes and jabbed my sword inside their skin, releasing mana inside. The snake rocked its body, trying to fling me off but pretty soon it fell to the ground, writhing in pain as its blood boiled from the inside.
The other snake leaned back, wary of the tiny human, after seeing its companion die so cruelly.
But I didn’t give it a chance to escape as I shot forward. I ran up its slithering body, leaving behind more blazing scratches on it.
I finally reached its head. The monster tried to shake me off, but I held on, stabbing it in the eye, piercing its head. The snake fell with a thud.
I looked in the direction of Vritra. Its eyes narrowed on me. Extreme bloodlust emitted from his gaze.
“Hmm, the monsters here really don’t seem to be much.”, I taunted. The other two snakes hissed at me but seemed to be too scared to make a move.
I let those two be and instead prepared to attack the boss monster. I rushed towards Vritra’s long body, attempting to burn it but Vritra slithered out of my range. It seemed to be more intelligent than its former subordinates, so I decided to change tactics.
I used multiple wind mana bursts on my sword to throw myself at its head. Instead of dodging, Vritra head-butted me. I immediately changed my mana property to earth and using all my remaining mana, slammed my sword on its head with enough force to break a boulder, before falling to the ground. Thankfully the sand reduced my momentum, preventing me from getting hurt. I doubt even a C Rank body would have been able to come out unhurt from such a fall.
Above me, Vritra screamed in pain. Despite not doing as much damage as I had hoped, it seemed like my last attack had left a very noticeable crack on its horn. Vritra hissed at me, but instead of attacking me, it decided to retreat, its subordinates following it behind.
I sighed in relief as I lay down on the sand. I was absolutely burnt out from that fight. If Vritra had attacked me at the moment, I doubt I would still be alive.
Mike came out of his hiding spot and scrambled towards my body, once he checked there were no monsters in sight.
“Oh my god, can you move?”, he frantically checked my body to search for any broken bones or wounds. I had several bruises on my chest from that fatal headbutt, but nothing life-threatening. I summoned a Low-Grade healing potion out of my ring, and Mike quickly uncorked its contents into my mouth.
After a few moments, I could feel the potion kicking in, slowly repairing my body from the inside, as the liquid coursed through my veins.
“So, what do we do now?”, Mike asked.
“Nothing we can do. Vritra’s probably already miles away from here, building another forest. Even if we do find it again, it will be heavily guarded. I alone can’t take it on and defend against its subordinates.”
‘Guess being in another world has really inflated my ego.’
After that last attack, the moment I thought I could die, I was afraid. I was really scared of dying.
‘Experiencing it once was enough. I don’t think I can go through that again.’
“Let’s rest here today, Mike. After that, we will leave the Dungeon.”
“But then, what about my home? The Hero League doesn’t care about us. You were our only hope, Sir Ray.”
“Mike, I am sorry. But I, alone, won’t be able to defeat the Boss Monster, while defending myself from the Red Snakes. When I go back to the Human Continent, I will personally tell the Hero League about your situation and ask them to send reinforcements. That’s the most I can do. Let me just rest now.”
I could already feel my body shutting down after exhausting myself in the battle. I slowly drifted to sleep.