A few hours later, they were standing beside the corpse of a particularly large spider monkey, with all members of the party, save for Sam, panting heavily. He had barely interfered in the fight at all, simply acting as a meat shield for the others. They were all starting to edge up past the initial levels of the forties by now, and Sam hoped that by the end of another few days, they would all be at max level. None of them would be ranking up anytime soon, but nine levels were still a huge jump in qualitative strength, especially with a class to boost them. They would be far greater assets later on in the quest for the staff in any case.
As Sam waited for them to recover, he heard a rustling noise in the distance. Frowning, he tilted his head towards the noise, and narrowed his eyes. Whatever it was, it was getting closer, and it was quite large. It was too large to be one of the spider monkeys. Even one of the elephantine ones, which meant that it was either a new monster, or some creature of the Legion.
By now, the others heard it was well, and before Sam could say a word, they were all making for a nearby tree. Sam smiled. That had been his idea as well. It would give them a vantage point for them to spot the beast as it approached, and a place to hide if it was too strong. Sam may have been brave, but he wasn’t an idiot. He would rather sacrifice his ego for a minute to preserve an inordinate amount of future moments within his life.
As he leaped up into the lowest branches, the ground started rumbling beneath them. About half a minute later, a vast serpent came slithering across the ground, easily 10 feet in width. As it passed beneath them, its sinuous length just kept on going, for what seemed like hundreds of feet. The earth beneath it was carved into a furrow, the ground compacted from the weight of the thing. They had definitely made the right decision hiding. As the tail end of the titanic monster whipped by, Sam mustered the presence of mind to analyze it.
Mature Stone Anaconda
Level 79
It’s level was quite frankly a lot lower than Sam had been expecting. It was stronger than the Hammerwraith had been, going by levels at least, but Sam doubted that an actual fight would go the same way. This was simply a monster. It might have had four levels of power on the Hammerwraith, but that lightning elemental had been sapient, and had likely possessed at least one title. The only thing the snake had going for it was size, which had led Sam to overestimate the threat. Beside him, Rax shivered, the herpetopede uncharacteristically frightened.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“Rax? What’s wrong?” Sam asked, looking over at the beast.
“I remember seeing one of those on my home planet. It was all a blur, this was before I became sapient, but I can remember the utter terror that I felt. Even now, it still seems insurmountable.”
“Well,” Sam began, bolstered by his reading of the snake’s strength, “how about we have some roasted snake for dinner? I hear it tastes like chicken.”
In defeating this creature, Sam could both possibly gain a level, as well as put Rax’s fears to rest. It was a win-win situation in every sense of the word. As they descended from the tree, Rax stopped shivering, and it seemed as if the herpetopede had gotten over his fear somewhat. Sam had no idea of the hardships that the creature had gone through by transitioning from a dim animal to a sapient monster, but he could guess as to why Rax was acting like this. While in his primal state, he had been ruled solely by instinct, and emotion. And now he was struggling to reconcile his memories with his current rational mind. This was good, as it meant that Rax was growing. Hopefully killing this snake would allow the beast to take another step towards full sapience.
The trail of the monster was easy to follow, as it continued without ending throughout the forest. Even better, no monkeys dared come near the trail of the snake, so they were undisturbed as they walked along it. Some of the trees had been knocked down by the snake’s passage, and the dragons were visible high overhead, but none of them seemed interested in the party below them. Either they really hated the ground, or the System was compelling them to stay up there to prevent any flying crafts of people from entering the area through the skies. The amount of time and effort that must have been put into this was staggering, even if the System was likely able to process billions of such calculations in a second, if not more. Once more, for what seemed like the hundredth time, Sam was reminded of just how pathetic he was compared to the powers of the Boundless Expanse. All that did however was to fan the fires of his ambition, which were burning deep inside him. He would do whatever it took to reach the top, and restore justice to the world.
Sam snapped out of his reverie as he noticed a monkey corpse splattered across the ground in front of them. It was partly digested, and was still relatively fresh, which meant that the snake had already eaten the creature before expelling it. Sam wondered why it had not fully digested it, but then he saw that its flesh was green with decay. The anaconda must have picked up a dead monster by accident, and then excreted it instead of fully digesting it. Further on, there was a trail of black slime, likely the results of the rotting meal. They were getting closer to the snake by now, as the ground was beginning to grow slightly warm. A creature of that size produced a colossal amount of bodily heat, and the earth was made noticeably warmer by it. Sam and the others redoubled their pace, sprinting along the furrow in the ground. Finally, they started to hear the rumbling noise of the snake in the distance.