Revenge of the Serpent

The second half of the first main quest has been unlocked.

-Evolve into a mythical creature. (Lvl.35)

Time Left: 18 Hours.

(After completing the second half of the main quest. Youll be greatly rewarded. Information is hidden by ■■)>>

He still has plenty of time before the deadline, however he didn want to waste precious seconds lying around doing nothing, especially since hed gotten the three times experience points buff from accidentally completing a hidden quest.

After some calculations, he couldn help but feel like commiting mass genocide on the ants again since they could give him a maximum of 300,000 Exp if he were to get lucky. Which means if he finds at least three big colonies, hell be able to level up around four or five times—From his observation, the amount of experience points he would need per level increases randomly, so if the god thatd reincarnated him could bless him with some good luck…

”Then I can probably evolve and kill two birds with one stone. ”

His eyes glanced at his wounds one last time before finalizing his decision, he flicked his tongue before turning left and slithering towards the nearest prey hed detected.

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Species: King Cobra (6 Meters) (Evolutions Available)

Lvl: 34

EXP: 450,000/480,000

Skill Points: 0

HP: 5230/124,000

MP: 530/530

Status Condition: Bleed.

Effects: 3x EXP Gain. (5 Days)

Rank: C

Attack: 26

Speed: 36

Defense: 20

Charm: 5

Intelligence: 12

Magic: 31

Personal Attributes: Gaze of Wisdom (Lvl.3). Thermal Vision (Lvl.MAX). Venom (Lvl.4). Agility (Lvl. 1). Tongue Receptor (Lvl.3). Will to Live (Lvl.1)

Skills: Ice Magic (Lvl.3). Ambitious Snake: Devour (Lvl.1). Master of Poison (Lvl.1). Persistence (Lvl.1). Flames of Pride (Lvl.1)>>

Theodore stared at his attribute window with an annoyed expression, he was specifically looking at the experience point bar. Hed been going around killing things non-stop despite the injuries and pain yet he couldn reach the required threshold? It felt like he just got scammed out of his efforts despite having gained a level to both Gaze of Wisdom and Tongue Receptor when he reached level thirty.

”Damn~ I need one more ant colony and I can finally get rid of this stupid wound! ”

He let out an irritated sigh and laid down on a rock that was overlooking a river while the sun directly hit his body. After Gaze of Wisdom leveled up, the Rank section appeared in everyones status window, this allowed him to calculate the potential threat of a monster which in turn made it a lot safer for him to hunt while injured.

Despite playing it safe each time, he was still afraid that something could go wrong the moment he let his guard down, so he didn want to push his luck by gambling with his life. He tried thinking of some alternative ways to gain experience points during this twenty minutes time limit, but so far he couldn come up with anything worth trying.

But before he could begin to think of anything else, a loud explosion rang out from somewhere in front of him.

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A booming roar echoed throughout the Delphi Forest as a small group of five men surrounded a wolf-like beast. The Direwolf was most likely separated from its group and was now being hunted down by these humans. It has a beautiful white coat and a piercing gaze, an amateur hunter would definitely be intimidated by its features.

A tanned bulky man stood at the front of the group while guarding himself with a large greatsword, its blade was soaked in blood from when itd once struck the direwolfs injured left side. ”Archer! Don just stand there, shoot it! ”

A man standing at the back was surprised by the sudden call. He swiftly knocked an arrow before sending it flying into the beasts head. But it didn go down so easily as it howled in anger before charging towards the humans, not caring about the projectile sticking out of its forehead at all.

The direwolves are several times larger than their regular counterparts, they have great strength and very tough hides, even a mana-infused arrow to the head couldn put it down.

The large man, seemingly the captain of the group, grunted with frustration before lifting his sword. ”Damn it Merlin! You had one job! ”

Merlin, the red haired archer flinched at the sudden reprimand from his boss. He lowered his head and muttered an apology before preparing to shoot another arrow, this time aiming to pierce the wolfs skull. However, the tanned man started attacking the beast, giving the archer very little room to shoot.

”You can even combo with your boss? You
e useless. ” Another man dressed in a fancy robe sneered before he conjured up a purple magic circle. It appeared directly on top of the direwolf and a second later lightning struck down onto it. A pained cry escaped its fanged mouth as it glared at the humans, but nonetheless it didn make the mage stop casting his magic—He instead amplified it, causing a thunderous sound to burst from the magnitude of the spell. Not even the tough direwolf could survive being shocked by such a powerful lightning and it would eventually toppled forward, falling with enough force to slightly shake the ground.

”See? Its not that hard. ” The mage continued to act boastful, but it was understandable since that lightning magic was at least B-Tier.

The tanned man strapped his sword to his back before turning around with a grumpy frown on his expression. ”Stop it, at least no one died from this fight. ”

”Eh, I mean, its just one direwolf. ” The mage shrugged.

The swordsman sighed. ”Hey, you two! Get to work already! ”

The remaining members of the group had been watching the battle from a safe distance, both men were wearing messy, dirty clothes while each carrying large luggages, its not hard to guess that they were the porters for this hunting group. However, both of them had one more distinguishing feature: The metal collar wrapped tightly around their necks.

Merlin was also wearing the same thing.

The two porters put down the huge bags before taking out several tools used for flaying, they quickly got to skinning the direwolfs large body, which judging from their current speed, it would take around ten minutes to complete the job.

This number seemed to have satisfied the tanned swordsman as he walked up to a nearby tree before sitting down. ”Next we need the fangs of a lesser hydra… ” The man paused as if recalling something. ”Ah, the client said if possible they want actual hydra fangs… ”

”Damn, even if they were willing to pay us triple, its not everyday you stumble across a hydra, even in Delphi. ” The mage joined in on the conversation. The both of them seemed to have forgotten about Merlins presence, which was the preferable option for him.

The archer let out a soft, tired sigh as he turned his focus towards the porters. He didn want to come back to the Delphi Forest, it was the place thatd continued to haunt him even in his dreams, he still couldn forget the bloody scene on hat day.

”What would you have done, Theo? ” Merlin often thinks about his best friend, who had lost his life in this very same forest on hat day. He blamed himself constantly for not being strong enough to protect everyone at that time.

He couldn do anything but watch his teammates get slaughtered by Rhys Griffins, a truly evil man who doesn care for others well-being, a monster in human flesh, who was also the person whod turned him and some others into slaves using the special collar.

”Oh, they
e already done. ” The swordsmans voice pulled Merlin out of his own thoughts and he shifted his attention to the two porters who were carrying beautiful sheets of white fur towards the bags. ”Go pack up quickly, we
e going to go find a lesser hydra. ”

”Hurry up you slowpokes! ” The mage spoke with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice, but despite it being a joke, the porters didn seem to think of it as such and they began to hurriedly pack up, in less than a minute, they were already on their feet while lifting the large backpacks.

The tanned man would lead the group deeper into the forest while the mage followed suit. Merlin stayed at the back while fidgeting with the tight collar around his neck. Its extremely uncomfortable and only water could at least abbreviate the itchiness.

They had just started walking for only five minutes when suddenly they stopped. The swordsman was narrowing his eyes at something in front of him, prompting the curious mage to poke his head out to see as well. ”A cave? ”

”There might be something inside of there. ” The larger man replied, gripping the handle of his greatsword, ready to take it out to battle at any given moment. ”Rhodes, check it out with your magic. ”

Rhodes the mage nodded before he started chanting something under his breath. A ball of electricity appeared in his palms a second later, afterward he released his grip on the sphere and it slowly flew into the cave.

Silence…

But just as everyone thought there was nothing there, multiple series of screeches rang from within the cave. This caused the swordsmans eyes to spark with excitement. ”Great! I hear at least three similar cries…Its definitely a lesser hydra. ”

”Nice. Lets go then. ” Rhodes summoned two magic circles on each of his palms and followed the team captain closer to the cave while the rest of them hurried along from behind.

Merlin already had an arrow in his grip and was ready to fire it at any time, though it seemed that the ime had come a lot sooner than anticipated. Without warning, multiple columns of flames shot forward from within the cave and hit the swordsman straight in the face, though hed swiftly unsheathed his weapon and held his greatsword in a defensive stance. He was relatively unharmed apart from a few burned marks on his arms.

The archer took aim at the entrance of the cave before letting the arrow fly, it struck its target as hinted from a pained screech from the monster within. It would slowly move into the sunlight, revealing its identity.

”Thats… ” Rhodes sounded surprised, he counted the heads of the monster in front of him outloud and his eyes widened when he realized that he didn count it wrong. ”Eight…Eight heads. ”

Merlin along with the rest of the team took a step back nervously while staring at the behemoth in front of them. It stood at roughly around 12 meters tall while being over 20 meters long. It has armor-like grey scales that cover almost every inch of its body and cold menacing red eyes.

This monster had somehow managed to squeeze itself into the small cave entrance and tricked them into thinking that it was only a lesser hydra, luring them—the prey—close before coming out for a free meal.

Going by Greek Mythology, people had speculated that a nine-headed hydra is the strongest, so by that logic, the monster they were facing right now was close to being the most powerful of its kind.

The Hydra let out a blood curdling roar with all of its heads, Merlin could feel himself tensed up on reflex, he tried moving his hands but found that they were frozen in place, fear gripping every inch of his body.

”I know the Delphi Forest is dangerous…But this! ” Rhodes managed to utter, it seemed that only he and the swordsman were able to move, although their movements were sluggish and shaky.

”Don worry. ” The captain spoke, his voice cracking slightly as he took two more steps back, glancing behind him and looked to where the porters were standing. ”We can just use the slaves as bait while we get out of here. ”

The two collared men wanted to protest, however they were still under the effects of the Hydras roar and couldn speak. Merlin concluded that it was a skill since anyones first instinct when faced with danger would be to move through the fear, not freeze in place like this.

”What about Merlin? ” Rhodes glanced towards him.

”Just let him— ”

Crunch!

Merlin flinched when suddenly something wet started spraying everywhere, staining his face and clothes. It took him a few more seconds to realize that the swordsman was missing half of his upper body while one of the Hydras heads was happily chewing something into a bloody meat paste.

Rhodes stared with disbelief at his bosss body thats now fallen onto the ground, causing more blood to spill out of the wound and dyeing the ground red.

The mages legs were shaking uncontrollably along with the rest of his body. ”Ah…Ah…Boss… ” He muttered to himself as if hed lost his mind to the fear. He suddenly let out a terrified scream and turned towards the Hydra with his palms extended. ”Ah!!! Don f*ck with me! I can die like this!! ” Bolts of lightning struck from the magic circles on his hands and went straight for the Hydras body. It let out synchronized screeches as if it was feeling pain.

The mage laughed hysterically. ”Ha! Haha! You can beat me! I am Rhodes, the greatest magician of all! Not even the Winter Frost Mage can fair against me! ”

Rhodes wasn even there when the Winter Frost Mage was murdered, Merlin wouldve insulted his inteligence if it weren for the fact that he was faced with a life or death situation right now. ”I can move…! ” He could feel his muscles slightly relaxed as if they had been released. He didn immediately run away though since Rhodes was given temporary access to the slave collar hes wearing, he might just end up dead if he makes one wrong move.

”Ill wait until his mana runs out. ”

While lightning is a very powerful element, it consumes an ungodly amount of energy and physical stamina to cast, the electricity could also run through the caster instead of out if they
e not proficient enough with their craft. For Rhodes, while he had the skill of a B rank mage, he still has that mana problem like any other lightning mage.

And Merlin was right, soon enough the lightning gradually became weaker and weaker until the once paralyzed Hydra could move freely again. It roared and glared at Rhodes whose chuckle was slowly dying down as well. ”No…This can be…I can still go on! No! ” He extended his hands again but this time only the magic circle was cast, nothing came out of them and this only confirmed the mages lack of mana. ”No way…I ran out? ”

The arrogant mage, now reduced to nothing but a scared and pathetic normal human turned towards Merlin and the porters with a look of pure terror on his face. ”You…Merlin, you have to fight that thing while I escape, and…And you two. Go die for me. Go distract the Hydra. Die for— ” The monster seemed to have gotten bored of listening to Rhodes and decided to shut him up by swallowing him in one go.

However, the effects of the slave collar was already activated. Though Merlins order was to fight, meaning he could still move his body as he wanted, the porters weren so lucky since their order was to die, their collar glowed a soft red as their legs moved on their own. ”Ah, no! Why am I moving!? ”

”I don want to die! Please save me! ”

”Save m— ”

Crunch!

The Hydra killed both of the men, leaving only the large, bloody backpacks on where they used to stand. The monster turned its many heads to the last survivor and opened its mouths, preparing to breathe fire at him.

Merlin thought about running, but after seeing that all eight heads could simply stop him with this single attack, his legs grew weak and he fell on his knees, staring at death right in the eyes. He let out a chuckle, already accepting his fate. ”It seems Ill get to meet you soon… ”

”You
e meeting who? ”

A familiar voice spoke behind him while a blast of cold air brushed past his face, hitting the Hydra with enough force to knock it backwards.

Frost began to spread around its chest, causing it to roar in anger and glared at its attacker, seemingly in pain from getting frozen down to its skin.

Merlin immediately recognize the spell and voice of this person, his hope for survival was restored once again and he turned around to meet with his long lost—

Friend?

Instead of finding a face he could recognize, his gaze shifted downwards until it landed on a dark green king cobra that was staring at him with its piercing, green eyes.

”What the f*ck? ”