∼ Day 163 ∼

"Urgh - whew!" I exclaimed, throwing aside the limp carcass of some scaly crocodile-like beast I had just drained.

Dismissing the prompt with a grin, I cast my gaze over the carnage before me.

Hundreds of both small and massive crocodile corpses lay strewn about the thick and dense undergrowth of the jungle. Hanging off massive roots, entrails painting the greenery crimson, and some even dangling limply in the vines of some of the behemoth trees which created what looked like a macabre scene of an outdoor slaughterhouse.

It's been just a bit more than two weeks since I had ventured into the jungle to hunt. As I had essentially seen to almost everything that needed my immediate attention since coming home, it was about time I worked on myself.

After all, I had these 'Trails' or 'Games' coming up someday or another, so I believed it prudent to prepare myself the best way I could think of.

Making myself stronger.

As such, I had gone on a little adventure to cull some of the untamed jungle's endless supply of dangerous wildlife. Although I say that lightly, this jungle truly was no joke. It wasn't any understatement either when I said I could literally spend years exploring its depths before I would have a comprehensive grasp on just the general locations of this paradise of both wildlife and plants.

While it may only take me about ten minutes to cross the jungle's entire expanse by flying over it at my highest speeds, my lonesome self compared to the magnitude of the jungle was like that of a drop to a lake.

Sitting against the trunk of a massive tree whose root lifted me dozens of meters above ground, I pulled up my status to view what I had gained since setting out from the settlement.

-Status!-

Things were definitely looking up for me. Not surprisingly, however, as I had been quite literally bathing myself in blood and killing the last two weeks.

That was not also factoring in that my capabilities had risen substantially since last I went on some experience hunting. Although my levels hadn't gotten any substantial increase during my trek to Ebongrave, I've managed to heighten all of my capabilities to an entirely new level.

Suddenly, my head whipped up, staring into the distance of the gargantuan jungle.

"Found ya," I muttered, a smile creeping up on my face.

In a flash, I disappeared on the perch where I had just rested.

Although I had been mostly mindlessly killing my way through the jungle, seeking out the strongest beasts and monsters to battle, there had been one trail I've been stalking that I found a week ago. I didn't know what it was, or exactly how powerful it was, but three things I knew for sure.

It was colossal, strong enough to leave a scene of battle that had even me amazed with no remains besides blood, and cylindrical in form from what I could see.

I had my suspicions as to what I was chasing, but I wasn't jumping to any conclusions with all the endless kinds of odd monsters living in this world.

It wasn't long before I was right on the beast's tail, however. No, quite literally. I finally laid eyes on the tail-end of the colossal beast slithering their way through the jungle. An albino snake at the size of what I guessed to be no less than a train.

Just before, I had managed to catch its presence on the edge of my senses as it darted through the jungle, and I was surprised to say that it took me quite a while to catch up as it was that fast at traversing the undergrowth.

-Appraisal!-

"Damn... and this thing had been out here the whole time?" I thought chillingly, imagining what if it had wandered closer to the outskirts of the jungle, discovering me before I went to Ebongrave and got stronger.

What if's aside, this wasn't the time to be thinking of that. 

Still chasing after it, I kept my presence hidden to see if the huge snake might be going anywhere specific. And after a while, my patience paid well as we came upon what seemed to be a small lake in the heart of the jungle that led into an open-faced grotto.

"Must be its den..." I pondered.

But as I realized I couldn't let the basilisk go into the grotto as that might provide me with some unwanted complications, I finally unveiled my presence accompanied by a loud whistle to get the overgrown snake's attention.

Abruptly stopping in its tracks, its head whipped around to face me.

Although I could've gone in with a stealth attack, against this large a creature, it would've had quite the limited effect. Besides, I was going in blind without knowing its capabilities, so I wanted to go slowly and feel the situation out.

Closing my eyes, I took no chances. Although this world proved that I could not always rely on the knowledge I had from back on Earth, I definitely wasn't going to tempt fate by going unheeded of the 'basilisk in its race description. Whether or not it could turn me to stone or petrify my limbs without any mana or a core to do so, I had no idea, but even with my eyes closed, I still had the vision of my aura mapping out my general surroundings. The snake included.

What I hadn't expected though, even with my eye closed and face shielded by my arms, I was hit by a sudden wave of fatigue and nausea washing over me, making my body feel like it weighed a ton as I hovered in the air. It was almost enough to make me lose focus and cause me to fall to the ground below.

Everything happened quickly, and I didn't need much more time to recognize that the basilisk was using a skill transmitted through its eye and that it was neither mana nor some unknown force. Rather, it was using a mental attack.

As that had been the last thing I was expecting when confronting this massive beast, my mental defenses had been lowered. It had been like taking a punch to the gut without having tightened your muscles.

But now that I knew, the wave of afflictions rapidly dissipated under the burning flame of A Sovereign Undying Will. However, those few blinks of an eye that it took for me to realize my mistake and correct had been enough for the snake to capitalize on.

The air cracked as the serpent's massive tail whipped at me, hitting me with such force that was I slammed into the tree a few dozen meters away.

"Ah... fuck me..." I coughed around a cloud of splinters and sawdust.

In a small crater created by my untimely meeting within the tree and my body, I could feel my broken and twisted limbs resetting themselves into place with sickening crunching and squelching sounds.

Unfortunately, I hadn't the luxury of waiting and regaining my bearings as the offending white tail of a certain serpent made its presence once again known as it appeared through the cloud of sawdust.

*BOOM!*

Careening through the air as I had barely used Blitz in time, I managed to disappear into the shadow before the basilisk realized its second attack missed.

"The bigger they are, the harder they hit - noted," I intoned self-deprecatingly to myself.

Moving in the darkness, I watched as the vigilant king basilisk scanned the surroundings, every now and then hissing with its tongue slipping out to lick tentatively at the air.

Apprehensively looking at that tail it had unexpectedly weaponized to such great effect, I resigned myself to go about the fight as I usually did.

"Plan-B it is then... ugh, I had so wanted to use 'that' against that dumb snake," I voiced sourly in my mind.

Konge

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