The dying Glutton Boas were not silent. Their hisses roused the entire valley, provoking reactions from the numerous occupants of this hidden region.

However, these hissing snakes approaching them took the backseat among their list of concerns as the familiar oversized snakehead surfaced above the dark waters of the pool, its window-sized eyes fixated on the two of them. Its narrow, vertical pupils were of an even heavier shade of black, surrounded by dark brown iris.

As its eyes fell on Mir, he felt a sudden sense of disorientation, as if the balancing mechanism in his brain had been scrambled.

Murray, on the other hand, didn't seem to be as affected as him. He stooped low to grab one of the dead snakes from the mouth of the crevice. Seeing him openly collecting the corpses of its weak compatriots, the draconic grade- 3 boa almost displayed human mirth in its eyes.

A slight ripple spread across the pitch-black water around its neck, and a second later, its visage magnified tenfold in Mir's eyes, because its opened maw was right in front of him, two sets of foot-long curved fangs closing around his body from right and left.

For a very brief fraction of a second, the realization hit Mir. This massive grade- 3 boa could teleport too, just like its compatriots. And its ability to traverse distance was much more powerful than the weaker, smaller snakes in this valley.

A powerful kick from his side sent Mir flying, removing him from the spot where the snake's jaw snapped shut around. But that kick had been too late in its course. One dagger-like fang managed to tear through the flesh of Mir's right leg, digging out a large chunk of meat, blood, and torn muscles.

The pain barely registered in his mind when he heard Murray's desperate yell.

"Hide behind something! Anything! Don't let it find you without an obstruction in between!"

Mir got on all fours and crawled behind a short, but wide tree nearby that had countless thick roots coming out of the soil around its trunk, forming a mound.

Clutching his leg in pain, he peeked behind and watched Murray avoid the second lunge of the boa by using a bush as his cover. With its bite, the snake uprooted half of the bushy plants around the mouth of the crevice in one furious tug.

The previously well-hidden mouth of the valley was now fully visible to anyone who might visit this area.

Fortunately for the two brothers, the crevice through which they had entered and exited the valley was too narrow for the monstrous snake to fit in. Its head could barely reach them while the rest of its body dangled behind on the slanted hillside, crushing dozens of injured boas beneath it.

The failure to take them down only fueled the Glutton Boa's rage. Its head swung around the mouth of the crevice furiously, trying to reach Murray, who was using the entirety of his experience of hunting glutton boas to avoid its jaws.

The searing pain in his leg forgotten, Mir watched with rapt attention as the grade- 3 serpent twisted the space around its head however it wanted to catch Murray. Despite the distance between the two of them increasing gradually, each of its bites managed to reach Murray's body, as if Murray had never left its physical range. However, every time its bites failed, the distance between the two of them reverted back to normal, and then increased due to Murray's constant backtracking.

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The serpent would've succeeded much earlier had it not been for the bees constantly shooting icicles at its face, especially targeting the window-sized eyes. Although its hide was too thick for the icicles to penetrate, the eyes were still quite sensitive spots. After several poison-filled icicles sank by an inch or two inside the golden irises, the snake began to grow agitated, trying to shoo away the swarm while repeatedly blinking.

Due to his proximity to the snakehead, Mir could see the golden irises beginning to grow murky. The poison might not cause it permanent harm, but it was enough to irritate the snake.

Seizing the moments when the snake was distracted by the pain, both Mir and Murray put some more distance between them and the mouth of the valley.

Murray eventually called his bees back after realizing that the snake had swallowed a good chunk of their swarm in a couple of bites. The bees spread out around the area to avoid being targeted by the snake's bites again.

Emitting one last fury-filled hiss, the Grade- 3 Glutton Boa lowered its head into the crevice and slithered down towards the pit at the bottom of the valley.

Mir exchanged a look with Murray, who was hiding almost twenty meters away behind a weird multi-trunk tree.

"Don't move," Murray warned him. "Higher-grade mutants are way smarter than ordinary beasts. That boa is too pissed to leave so casually. These guys are patient hunters. So you need to be even more patient while dealing with them."

"A grade- 3 creature?!" Mir shouted the complaint he had been bottling up for so long. "You knew that there is a grade- 3 creature here and you still brought me here?! What the fuck is wrong with you, asshole?"

"When did I say that?" Murray replied with a terse question.

"Your reaction when that snake came out of the pool did! You weren't even surprised! You immediately knew what grade that monstrous thing was."

With a tense chuckle, Murray tried to placate him.

"Look Mir, I knew this snake's grade because I've seen it before. But not here, though. I've seen the snake deep inside the sacred ground, in an area near the taboo zone. At that time, I took a picture of it and the database told me it was one of the few grade- 3 mutant creatures in this sacred ground. I had no idea that the snake would come here and..."

Murray trailed off, contemplating something. But Mir was too distracted by another detail to care.

"One of the FEW?! You're saying that there are more than one monster like this in this sacred ground?!" he shouted.

"Stop calling it a monster. This is a grade- 3 creature. It's still within the mutant class. Only grade- 4 creatures can be categorized in the monster class," Murray replied, sounding annoyed at his basic mistake in terminology.

"You told me on the train that there's only one grade- 3 creature at the heart of the taboo zone!" Mir hissed.

Murray nodded. "Yep. There's only one grade- 3 creature THERE, according to the rumors! I didn't lie. The other grade- 3 creatures are too elusive and rarely show themselves, only hunting in bulk occasionally when they're hungry. It's not certain how many of them are out here. The usual guess in the explorers' forum is between three to five. And this Glutton Boa is the only one I've seen before of its grade."

Taking a moment to digest the bone-chilling revelation, Mir said, "Then why is that thing here? We've barely entered the sacred ground. This is still considered the peripheral area. Why would a grade- 3 mutant appear so far away from its regular habitat?"

Murray smiled awkwardly in response.

"The answer is simple, is it not?"

"...Mating season?" Mir guessed. But Murray shook his head.

"Then what?"

"What do you think that black pool is, little brother? Normal water?" Murray said in a low voice.

Mir's eyes grew narrow as he considered the possible answers to that question. And the moment he reached the conclusion, his pupils shrank, blood draining away from his face.

"A gene-stimulant matrix? You're saying that...that, this grade- 3 mutant is about to mutate once more?!"