The snake approached more slowly than Alex’s last few opponents. Even the slower snakes had all come at them in a rush, attempting to gain the advantage of surprise. This monster was an exception, absolutely unhurried as it faced Alex.

Its behavior was that of an apex predator, completely confident in its victory because it had never lost before. It likely hadn’t faced a serious challenge in years or even decades. Monsters like this one couldn’t be common in a Tier 1 world.

The aperture that protruded slightly from its head was evidence of that dominance. No beast with peers would leave something so important so unprotected. The serpent leaving the aperture in its prominent position told Alex that it operated through intimidation in its day-to-day life.

The snake’s slow approach supported that hunch. It wanted him afraid, it was waiting for him to realize he was outmatched and try to flee.

Assuming sadism from a likely non-sapient monster might be a bit dramatic, but it seemed to fit.

Of course, Alex wouldn’t waste the time offered. His gaze took in the Mana Body of his enemy, attempting to find strengths and weaknesses.

The purple haze that seemed to flow around the monster’s aperture was clearly a mana type. Alex’s primary goal was to determine its exact effects, but he looked for anything else that could give him an advantage before the fight.

Despite the serpent’s seeming lack of care for protecting its aperture, it still invested heavily in defense. When he’d examined other snakes, Alex hadn’t been able to get a clear indication of their Mana Bodies’ precise effects.

This was mostly because of his own lack of specialization in that field, which made it all the more impressive that he could tell exactly what the runes that covered the snake from head to tail were doing. The design had a clear purpose, preventing penetration of its scales.

The design was specialized, making it nearly impossible to pierce the scales. This made its effects far worse against blunt force trauma but was likely incredible against fellow snakes and other monsters that used fangs as a primary weapon. It was a decision that someone like Alex who planned to fight a diverse group of monsters would never make, but was actually quite smart if you could be confident you would only fight a specific group.

Some adventurers in New Chicago did similar. Specializing their builds for a specific subset of trials. They would effectively run a loop, clearing each of the trials that fit their specialty weekly or monthly, depending on their tier.

Defense Forces personnel weren’t allowed to limit themselves like that, and Alex disdained the idea, but it was undoubtedly effective. Adventurers, instead of the Defense Forces, handled all of the most dangerous Tier 2 trials. When one considered the potential for those trials to kill high-level members of New Chicago society if delved without significant preparation, the value of specialization was obvious.

As for how the snake’s Enhancement would fair against Alex? Well, it didn’t look great for the Aspirant swordsman. He could tell at a glance that he would not be piercing those scales, which left him with blunt force as his only option.

Considering the snake’s relatively small size, its greatest weakness was almost certainly being crushed by a hammer or a similar weapon. Actually hitting it with a hammer would be difficult, but Alex was pretty sure it would only take a single solid hit for some problems to arise for the serpent. It wouldn’t die that easily, not with the power it radiated, but serious injuries would slow it down.

Alex’s sword wasn’t quite on the opposite end of the weapon spectrum, but it wasn’t particularly close to a hammer either. The scales being so resistant to his cuts wouldn’t do much against the force he could put against those cuts. If the snake was around his level, even an Enhancement this well-made and powered wouldn’t be enough to take the snake far.

The problem was that this serpent wasn’t around Alex’s level. In fact, it was almost certainly close to or at the peak of Tier 1. The attributes it would’ve gained on the way there definitely outmatched what Alex had gained in Tier 0.

If the serpent had a decent amount of Toughness for a peak Neophyte, Alex’s blows wouldn’t do much.

The realization that it was almost impossible for him to kill his foe was a serious mood killer. Alex had chopped straight through high Tier 1 snake hide several times by now, and he’d grown confident in his attributes. Clearly, that was a mistake. If he’d designed a Heart Rune and an Ability to empower his strikes, he would be confident in beating this monster.

Instead, his raw attributes would be pitted against the snake’s higher attributes in a situation where the monster gained more from its Mana Body than he did from his.

The monster’s mana type also seemed to be more immediately impactful than Alex’s. He was almost certain that the mana type was related to poison, thanks to an Enhancement coating its fangs.

The conclusion was obvious. Alex was quite outmatched. If this serpent shared the general stupidity of previous monsters, he would have an advantage in skill, but that would have to be enough.

He didn’t much like the feeling.

This snake wasn’t even particularly special, compared to monsters back on Earth. More difficult Normal Mode Neophyte trials could have a monster like this, with an aperture and mana type, serve as a boss. Those boss monsters might even be more powerful than a serpent only as long as Alex’s arm, though the danger of mana type-empowered poison couldn’t be discounted.

Poison made this snake a foe anyone would have to take seriously, but only possessing two Enhancements left it behind the enemies Alex would have to fight when he started delving as a Neophyte himself.

On Earth itself, tribes, clans, and packs led by Imprinted monsters would have several Neophytes more powerful than this snake. All Imprinted beasts were sapient, after all. Most who decided to stay in place and lead a cadre of lower-tier followers would be capable of training their subordinates.

Staring down the snake was a reminder. Alex had grown a lot over the past few weeks, but that didn’t mean he was ready for the real higher-tier foes. He’d been impressed with his performance against weak monsters on a broken world, but he was an Aspirant with a Mythic Mana Body and the highest level of Achievement.

Normal monsters weren’t worth measuring himself against. He’d have to see just how far he’d come by fighting this snake.

The feeling of apprehension broke at the thought. The snake was now only fifteen feet away, and Alex’s mouth curved upwards into a smile as eye contact was made. He heard shuffling behind him as Jess and Anthony both moved into combat-ready positions.

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“You’re not taking this one alone,” Jess stated. Her tone brooked no argument, but Alex wasn’t about to disagree with her.

His initial assessment had been wrong, skill wasn’t his only advantage. He had friends as well. His smile grew into a grin.

The serpent, clearly used to its foes running in terror, didn’t like that much. It accelerated into a leap, going straight for Alex’s chest.

As his level had increased, Alex had fought his fair share of monsters that were faster than him. Ghouls and serpents that forced him into poor positions through sheer Agility, cutting off his best choices before he could even make them.

This was like that, but far, far worse.

Alex started dodging as soon as the snake sped up, well aware that he would almost certainly need the extra split-second.

His instinct served him well. The snake sped up almost to the point of blurring in mid-air. His early dodge let him get out of the way with a few inches to spare, and the serpent rocketed past him.

Sure enough, this snake was not used to enemies that could match it. Clearly, it hadn’t expected to miss. With the velocity it had built up, the snake just kept going after it missed Alex.

Alex was undoubtedly a quite lucky man. He wouldn’t deny that he’d gotten lucky in the past, and he hoped to get lucky again. As he watched the snake rocket past him while doing its best Superman impression, an idea formed in his mind. His gaze followed the serpent towards the massive metal structures that stood a few yards behind him.

The snake was pretty weak to blunt force trauma, and that would be a hilarious way to win a fight.

Sadly, it wasn’t to be. The snake’s trajectory took it in between two of the graves, and Alex lost sight of it in the grass as he frowned unhappily.

“I really thought it was going to smash into the stone,” he sighed. Even as he spoke, he was moving closer to the huts. The snake’s near-miss gave him an idea, and the space in between each building was enough for Jess and him to both face the snake.

“We’re not that lucky,” Anthony replied, “I saw fangs and scales, anything else to be careful of?”

They must have noticed that Alex hadn’t immediately called out to them. when he saw the snake. He’d chosen not to immediately notify them because he hadn’t wanted to provoke it into attacking early when it was content to let him analyze it. He’d managed to get a detailed look at the snake’s Mana Body thanks to his choice, but his friends had been robbed of the same opportunity.

“No,” Alex replied, “Scales are very tough. Not sure if I can get through them.”

Anthony winced, “The poison looked pretty brutal as well. Should we try to flee?”

While the healer’s emotions were obvious, he didn’t let them slow him down. They’d been speaking in short, quick tones, hurrying to convey any important information quickly.

The snake returned before Alex could answer the question. Skimming along the ground so smoothly that Alex might not have noticed without its obvious mana signature betraying its position.

The snake shot at Alex again, surprising the swordsman. He’d expected some ability to learn from its mistake, but instead, it just repeated the error.

His dodge was slower this time. He could feel the wind generated by the snake as it passed despite its small, thin body.

“We don’t run,” Jess spoke after the snake passed them. They all pivoted to face the new direction as she talked. “It’ll just chase us down.” That had been Alex’s thought as well. They were obviously far slower than the snake.

“Agreed,” Anthony nodded, “I can handle the poison, but try not to get bit.”

The snake had apparently managed to turn around quicker this time, but that was the only lesson it seemed to have learned. It shot past Alex a third time, missing him by almost a foot thanks to his preemptive dodge.

“Should we stand in front of the huts?” Alex asked, “I’m happy to let it pulp its own head.”

Even if the serpent had the Toughness to match its Agility, smashing headfirst into a stone wall at top speed would stretch its limits.

“Try it if it does that again,” Jess replied. It was a bit of an obvious statement since Alex wouldn’t be able to reach the other side of the huts before the snake returned even if he tried.

The point was proven moot, regardless, as the snake took a more measured approach for its next attack. Slower, of course, was not the same as slow.

It slithered straight at Alex, who pushed it back with a sweep of his sword. The attack was awkward, with the snake so low to the ground that he was almost skimming the dirt as he tried to hold it off.

Jess thrust at it as well, but the snake easily avoided her attack.

The thrust let the snake dart past Jess’s guard, attacking her leg. Alex’s worry faded as the monster failed to penetrate her leg armor.

Digging holes in her armor must’ve been miserable, but the results of her vigilance were obvious.

Also obvious was the snake’s level of specialization. A fang Enhancement should’ve allowed it to pierce Jess’s armor, but instead it just left shallow furrows behind.

The snake was completely focused on its venom. Not even bothering to empower the bite itself, just the payload.

Jess tried to stomp on the beast to repay it for the damaged shin guard but was avoided again.

Alex followed up, keeping the snake on the defensive. It weaved and slithered away from any attacks, but its ineffective offensive against Jess seemed to have shaken it.

Alex couldn’t help but wonder how a beast like this had managed to grow to become an apex predator but shoved the thought to the side. It was powerful, even if it wasn’t a good fighter. A single mistake might be all it took if the Enhancement and mana type backing up its poison proved too much for Anthony to heal.

The snake only focused on Alex now, and even with Jess pushing it alongside him it eventually got around their probing weapons to attack him again.

Alex dodged but had to leap to cover enough ground fast enough to get away. Having lower attributes than an opponent really did suck.

The snake came back after him, taking advantage of the brief window of time where he hadn’t fully recovered his balance from the frantic dodge. Jess tried to knock it away and missed by inches as the snake latched onto Alex’s calf.

Immediately, Alex could feel the venom. It didn’t hurt, not yet, but the puncture wounds in his leg did.

Before the poison could kick in or the snake could pull its fangs out of him, Alex reached down and grabbed it with his left hand.

The snake replied by sinking its fangs into his forearm, but Alex had his grip. He slammed his arm, snake included, into the side of the nearest grave.

That didn’t convince the snake to let go of his arm, but he hadn’t let go of it either. His sword crashing into the lower half of its body was enough to get the snake to detach.

It started to thrash around, mouth wide open as it tried to force him to drop it. Alex took a few more cuts in the process, but refused to release the powerful enemy as his sword hit it into the wall again.

It was difficult to get a good angle with how much it was moving, but he didn’t have any better ideas for killing this snake than bashing it into the wall. He was honestly considering holding it closer to the base and swinging it against the wall like a baseball bat.

It probably wouldn’t work, but it would be funny.

Anthony’s hand was suddenly pressed against the back of his neck, and healing energy poured in to combat the poison. The brain fog Alex had been feeling cleared up, and he realized that he’d been on the verge of collapsing to his knees from the numbness in his legs.

Jess came to help him, and together they managed to hold the snake’s head in place so Alex stopped suffering additional cuts. Blow after blow rained down on the snake’s body, focused on its head. The snake’s struggles weakened, and then they stopped.

Alex staggered back as he heard the notification tell him it was dead, but Anthony caught him well before he could fall.

“I really hope that was enough to get you to Tier 1, Alex,” Anthony said, “Because that was very stupid otherwise.”

Alex wasn’t in any pain from the poison, thanks to his friend’s efforts, so he was able to grin at the worried tone.

Well, the worried tone and the words that appeared in his field of vision. Mainly the latter.

You have defeated several free monsters. Level up granted.

You have reached Tier 1.