Chapter 23: Again And Again

  After walking for ten minutes, what felt like an hour, he arrived at a dead end and had to turn back, back to the fork in the cave and take the left direction. He disliked how the rocks seemed to be breathing air, like a living creature. There was a constant dripping from mana stones into puddles that was maddening. “Is anyone here?” He walked forward, he knew that isolation could cause some disturbing mindsets, but didn’t really understand that it could happen so quickly. Usually another living creature, whether a bug or a monster, would be tens of seconds away from him. In here everything was dead, he wished he had kept one of those snakes alive so he could peek into another living creature's soul.

  He walked along the left path which slanted further down, meaning he was not leaving this cave anytime soon. He was annoyed to find that most of those notes about this dungeon were fabrications, unless the person writing them thought those vipers were level three, which might’ve been the case if they never killed any. Either way, this was a let down.

  Fay began to make spitting noises to himself, pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth and then slapping it down to fill the silence, it helped only a little bit. He continued walking forwards and found another fork in the cave, one being much smaller and cramped. He had the serious issue of starving to death if this place turned out to be a maze, so he used his claw to scrape the side of the cramped spot and then went under it, assuming the interesting stuff would be the hardest to get to.

  He squeezed along his stomach and felt the jagged rocks above scratch at his back, catching along his cloak and ripping it. Fay kept on, feeling the sides of the walls squeezing him so hard that he was forced to squash his shoulders inwardly. He was breathing heavily now, cramped spaces were terrifying and he didn’t have the confidence not to get stuck and die in the most pathetic way possible.

  He crawled further and came upon a pit, something that led down into an abyss, it was slanted like a slide, so he decided that he would twist himself around, by moving backwards and going in feet first. He twisted around and slanted against the jagged rocks, then in a fetal position turned completely around, letting his feet dangle off the edge of the pit.

  He then, without much care, let himself slide down, the angle was harsh and he didn't have too much choice but to let his body fall. His boots made small sparks as they scraped against the harsh texture, eventually stopping as the slide turned more into a dull slope that Fay could crawl down.

  So he did, and that's how he ended up in a shortcut to the boss room.

  [Private Event Started]

  [Kill The Snake Queen (LVL 3) 0/1]

  [Solo Bonus Rewards 1.5x]

  Fay found himself in a room all too similar to the original dungeon, but without the holes that would lace the walls. Instead there was one big hole that was blocked off by two big boulders so he couldn't see inside.

  In the middle of the room was the Snake Queen, it was all too familiar to the Snake King except its cloak was a dark purple and seemed to have a more elegant grace to their movements, not the jagged cracking of the original boss. It also had human-like eyes, dark blue with barely existent slits for pupils.

  “Hello!” Fay waved at her, stepping right into the boss room, that cave he crawled through seemed to have cut through a lot of the dungeon and put him neatly at the end. “Can you talk?”

  The creature reached behind itself, shuffling through the purple cloak, it then took out a jagged wooden staff with an orange crystal at the end. Its face certainly had a mouth but it couldn’t speak a word to Fay, so instead the boss waved around the staff until it was pointed right at him.

  “Okay…” Fay slanted his body to the left of the queen, his eyelids kept shutting repeatedly in a bored manner. “Just do whatever.” His lung was still recuperating from all the walking, he found that his brain wasn't getting a lot of oxygen lately and that made him feel drowsy.

  The staff fired out a straight beam of mana, a blue glow with dark ribbons in between, it headed right between Fay’s eyes.

  [Activated Stop Momentum x3]

  Fay froze the air in front of it, making the mana fizzle out and forget its energy, simply becoming one with the air. He stepped to the side, away from the beam and stood again. That took a total of 32 mana, which was incredibly cheap for how well it defused the attack. If he tried to freeze the beam itself he would likely have burns all over his hands so it was lucky that it worked.

  The queen lowered the staff and tried to stand taller, despite being almost double Fay’s height, it seemed that attack made it feel small. “Sorry.” Fay unsheathed the claws on his glove and planned to end this quickly, this thing could probably be considered a snake so he could bash it about a bit.

  The queen raised its staff up into the air, holding it so its fingers would be at the lowest point of the hilt so it could reach as high as possible. Then with a simple spell activation the staff sparkled a bright light, dimming out after three seconds. It didn’t do a thing except make Fay slightly confused. He rubbed his eyes a couple times before hearing a deep cracking sound that permeated throughout the room. The sound quickly split into an explosion as the boulders holding that giant hole back exploded into rubble.

  [Activated Stop Momentum]

  Fay stopped a piece of rubble that threatened to slam into his shoulder, it dropped down kindly onto his toes. “Ow…” He moved back and saw the dust settle. Two yellow eyes were gyrating circularly in the cloud, looking directly at him. It was double the size of those midnight snakes, Fay saw a slither of a body teasing visibility as its tail clung onto the wall, its body could reach both ends of the room and then loop back four more times.

  The queen lowered its staff, then gave out a faint hiss sound from its mouth. The creature from the hole bounded out, hitting the walls and causing them to shake as it completely changed the architecture of the room. The creature was a room within itself, its body filled up all four corners as Fay had to jump out of the way from its giant mouth. Its body was grey which didn’t help with telling apart what was a wall and what wasn't.

  Everything moved around Fay and before he knew it he was surrounded by sounds and dust and its elongated body. Its head slapped down from a perch it made of itself, Fay wanted to get a clean punch in on the creature but couldn't quite find the angle, especially without falling directly into the maw of the snake.

  Fay tried taking a step to his left but got scraped by the side of the snake, he tried to punch it out of the way but the strength didn’t do anything but push it back. The body kept moving and twisting around the walls and the floor, it wouldn’t stop so the constant grinding sound against the stone made the sounds unbearable.

  Another magic beam was fired from above, the Snake Queen was floating and had its hand on the roof as it attacked.

  [Activated Stop Momentum x3]

  This is tricky… Fay’s eyes shut again and were forced open as his body was whacked by the snakes, he was repelled backwards and then slapped again as the snake tried to box him into a tighter and tighter space. Fay tried to use the claws on the constantly shifting body but they couldn’t find any leverage.

  The snake’s head found its way back to Fay and tried to strike forward, instead of moving Fay leapt right into the gaping mouth of the creature, getting lacerated by its tiny teeth along its mouth and tongue. It instantly slammed its mouth shut once Fay was fully devoured and began to use its tongue to crush Fay against its mouth. It was wet and gross and felt like he was being born but he persisted and held on.

  [You have been poisoned x1]

  Luckily, even though it was uncomfortable, the insides of the snake were much more malleable than the outsides, so Fay could scratch and rip apart the Snake’s mouth. The gloves made quick work of the roof of the snake's mouth while Fay had to use his brute strength to pull on the tongue until it ripped and popped out with a springy sound. The snake tried to spit Fay out but couldn’t do it in time as Fay dropped onto his back and kicked upward repeatedly, each kick striking the beast with what probably felt like a boulder.

  It died and Fay simply crawled out, smelling like rotting meat, “sorry.” Fay saw the Snake Queen's face and felt rather sorry for it, it aimed another magic beam, which should have been a formidable attack if it was fighting anyone else.

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  [Activated Stop Momentum x3]

  “Get down from there.” Fay slid the tongue out of the snake's mouth and slung it toward the Snake Queen with minimal effort, it hit the creature’s side and it bounced off the roof, into the wall, then into another wall before landing on the body of the snake. “I know this is probably unfair, I’m basically your perfect enemy, in a way.” Fay struggled to climb up onto the snake's body to get a good look at the groaning Snake Queen. “I don’t like hurting things… I don’t take pleasure in it… I just need to get stronger or whatever… for some reason, you know? And since I’m not very clever or strong I just find the easy way out… maybe that's a bit mean to say… Well, you don't understand a word of what I'm telling you either way, so… yeah.” Fay hopped from one snake part to another, what must've been the tail.

  [Higher Uncommon Venom Extracted x1]

  “Anyways…” Fay saw the queen gag on the floor, the staff was all the way in the corner of the room. “I don’t even know if I want to go home, is that weird? I mean, I’d like to get some rest, and be fed, but I guess I can do that here… I don’t take pleasure in… nevermind I said that already.” Fay picked up the snake tongue, it was made of very dense muscles so it could be used as a reusable weapon. “When this is all over I’ll probably have you and all these memories keep me up at night when I’m eating scraps in my stable, so.” Fay slammed the tongue onto the keeling creature, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, then again, until it was nothing.

  “I’m so tired…”

  [Congratulations]

  Rewards:

  [Snake Queen Crown (UNCOMMON)]

  Passed down from thousands of generations, chipped and tattered, this Crown is a remnant of what was once a great empire.

  +1 defense.

  +1 agility.

  [Special]

  Make any attack inflict Higher Uncommon poison.

  Oh I can replace this thing Bark made for a better item… Fay removed the snake king crown and threw it on the floor.

  [Snake Queen Eyes(RARE)]

  The eyes of the Snake Queen, absorb into your sockets and leave the old ones behind.

  +5 perception.

  [Special]

  Heat seeking vision.

  Then the rest of the items were boring accessory runes that didn't give anything important. Fay held the eyes in his hand, they were squishy and fun to play around with, like a pickled plum, or something. The pupils were similar to his own except the irises were slits and the colour was a deeper purple.

  [Slain Mountain Snake (LVL 3)]

  +140 XP

  [Slain Snake Queen (LVL 3)]

  +160 XP

  No profession level up yet, which was annoying to him, he wanted to wait until he was in a safer place to slot those eyes in but decided against his better judgement. With his palms he shoved them into his sockets, feeling them turn into a liquid and scurry about his skull like little bugs, they eventually found their way to the back of his sockets and plucked his old eyes out, which fell onto the floor.

  He was left with a massive migraine and blindness for 5 seconds, before vision came back along with a strange fuzzy sensation around his cheeks and fingers. The perception boosts made a ringing in his head much louder, so much so that he had to drop to his knees and place his forehead on the ground and scream. He yelled out until he could hear his voice again, as a distant echo, before everything calibrated and he could hear the sound of his heartbeat again.

  He breathed heavily onto the floor, seeing stripes of red, orange and purple where the blood spilled around the Snake Queen’s corpse, he sat upright and saw more wisps on the snakes body, which were a soft blue around the outer layer but red in the middle, he could see the outline of bones which were cooler than the scales and could also see the last of the blood flow that the snake had. It was overwhelming, and if his perception wasn't already high level then this would probably make him blind completely.

  Fay saw more heat signals deeper into that hole that the mountain snake came from, what looked to be ice vipers from how cold they were in the distance. Fay stepped on his old eyes, squishing them until their heat turned a deep and peaceful blue. He felt tuned into almost every sound that happened within a certain distance, but could shut it all out, same with his heat vision, he could visually disable it by doing something similar to a squint, purposefully blurring his vision so he could see normally.

  Fay climbed over the mountain snake and arrived at the hole it came from. He took the snake's tongue with him as he walked in, dragging it behind him like it was a sledgehammer.

  Stats:

  Vitality: 15 (+3)

  Endurance: 9 (+1)

  Strength: 3

  Defense: 3 (+7)

  Agility: 7 (+5)

  Wisdom: 11 (+2)

  Intelligence: 19 (+2)

  Perception: 21 (+5)

  Luck: 3

  Snake Strength: 18

  Input points: 0

  I’ve come a long way… Fay thought to himself, getting ready to kill more animals for no other reason but to get stronger and then be able to kill even more animals. So much killing, so little reason for it all.

  The snakes saw Fay far too late, by the time they even got to moving their bodies were flung and split apart by the mountain tongue weapon, something that was withstanding a lot of the force that Fay was putting on it. Fay easily took out the first two from the group of five, then as the others tried to make a quick escape, Fay threw the tongue and caused the snake to roll onto its side and knock the other off its pace. Easily allowing him to catch up and smash their scales into pieces. The final one was tricky so Fay decided to leave it be, he was heading that way anyway and he wanted to take a small break.

  [Slain Ice Tooth Viper (LVL 2) x4]

  +80 xp

  He made two small wagers that he would land the next step and gained an additional 2 agility for 2 seconds each, allowing him to walk with a little more speed than he would usually. He knew his class didn’t really have many perks but he at least found one use for it, though if he'd known he would make it out of that original snake dungeon alive, he would have said no instantly, but he would make do with what he had.

  He saw the ice viper make a turn in the distance, its tail was shaking as it did so and then completely disappeared from Fay’s vision. “More walking… again and again and again and again…” his steps grew more exhaustive and his mind was tracing memories, he missed how on the island he could spend a whole day doing nothing, and a day would feel like an hour, because his mind would rarely be active.

  It was a great life, he thought, even if he didn’t have many good things to keep to himself, the things he had were enough. Here, death is the only thing he had, dying and killing, the food tasted of nothing, the water wasn't quenching his thirst and the people here talked too much. This place was hell, truly.

  “And again and again and again and again and again and again…” He continued as he made the turn in the hole, seeing the snake trying to squeeze through a small door desperately. Fay slung the tongue at the creature and caused yet another death to add to the list.

  [Slain Ice Tooth Viper (LVL 2) x1]

  +20 xp

  XP 2680/8000

  He wasn’t even close, even after all of this. Fay shoved the snake out of the way and looked around the room he was in, it was just a box, a stone box with mana crystals at the top to give some lighting. It was all the same to him now so he walked over to the door and kicked it open, walking in and seeing yet another living space, this time without a rotting corpse in the bed.

  The room was made of wood, with a framed mattress and a table with some fruit on it that must've been fake, it had some walls made of smooth stone and the roof was tiled with timber, the same as the floor. It was a cozy spot that Fay walked through, not needing any more fake notes that this place might have.

  It all seemed like a recreation of what a house may look like, like someone who wasn’t all too sure designed it and placed it here. Whoever was in control of this dungeon certainly liked notes, however, so out of spite he crunched them up and found a door to the exit, heading out of this space.

  That got him wondering what the purpose of this place's existence was. Fay wasn’t sure anymore if this was all the prophet’s doing, if all the books about the gods were lies, or if they were full of half truths. The goal of the sacrificial platform, as stated in texts, was to send people down to fight a war for the gods, in return the island would be brought prosperity. But that wasn't true, at all, this place wasn’t a war it was more of a training ground.

  Fay walked down some stone steps, finding a door at the bottom that he used his shoulder to push open, seeing even more of the same cave. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaa-” he walked into the cave and saw a fork in the path “-aaaaaaaaaaaa-” He chose a random direction and walked with his shoulders slumped, “-aaaaaaa…”

  So if this place was a training ground, Fay assumed whatever came after that 3-day timer ran out would be the actual war. Which meant sometime between now and then those prophets needed to find a way back to the island. If that’s the case, then either there is a choice to go back to the island after the 3 days are up or maybe there is an exit nobody knows about. Part of him hoped this was the path, that he could leave and go back into that place.

  “Doesn’t matter… they’d track me down and cut my head off… maybe I could swim to the edge of the world but… urgh…” Fay continued to walk, by this point his feet were aching and were yelling at Fay for rest. “Maybe I could… Hey, do you think Millie has a thing for me?” Fay asked the wall of the cave. “Nah… What could their goal be? Do they eat kids? Adults… god I’m an adult aren't I? Didn’t even get a birthday” He made a turn in the cave and felt like he had been going in circles. “Maybe they try to… well obviously Millie wants me to be strong, so maybe she wants a good fight, like that blonde guy… no she isn’t like that… What is she like? Not like that, not…” he made another turn.

  “They killed Bark didn’t they? Yeah… yeah… they did, and now Lily is dead and Jason is probably next… I won! I won!” Fay giggled, “I win, look at me guys!” He made another turn. “Does this cave ever fucking end?”

  He whistled out as he began to sense the coolness of some sort of wind blowing above him, he could see them as little stripes that flowed around the ceiling like fish. Fay was drawn to it, especially the cool air as the cave was incredibly humid. He turned the corner and saw yet another dungeon room.

  “Okay…”

  [Private Event Started]

  [Kill The Snake Prince (LVL 3) 0/1]

  [Kill The Snake Princess (LVL 3) 0/1]

  [Solo Bonus Rewards 1.5x]

  “Oh…” Fay saw two creatures covered in cloaks, the hoods up and hiding their faces, which didn’t do much since Fay could see them clearly even with the shadows covering them, including their internal organs and their breath. “Can you talk?” Fay, more interestingly, could see where all their blood was pumping into. Meaning he could stop it, if he could focus correctly. He could stop their hearts.