--------///----Reina's POV----\\\--------

After the whole incident with the mole, we had started the trek to find this basilisk that our quest was for. Though it wasn't a "Go that way and you'll find it right where it's supposed to be" type of quest. We had a general idea on where the basilisk was but it was said that this juevenile kept moving either to hunt or to have a temporary rest. So we had to head over to a mountain range and go through cave after cave to find the right tunnel or cave system that had clues as to where the thing was. And that's not even addressing the mountain trail that we had to hike up and the occasional beast that would just strike out at us for food.

The trip itself was annoying. Though with Mina with us, it was easy to stay clean. The fruit that we gathered along the way and the meat we could get from the beasts that kept jumping out at us was enough to keep us fed. But a month of travelling and searching was enough to make me tired quicker then i normally would be. However Mina and Endis didn't really seem to mind it. So it was just something that i was going to have to get used too just like killing people or beasts, which we've been working on together. 

After a while, we made it to the right cave after tracking it to its hunting grounds. That and finding anything to ask about the basilisk which led us to a cave vulture that kept following the basilisk because it would leave food around that the vulture would happily eat. It told us that the basilisk should be back in its den and even pointed us in the direction of its den. That saved us a few hours of wandering through a cave system that might've had us wandering in circles for a while.

The tunnel we went through was wide enough for us to walk side by side and have enough space for another eight people to walk besides us too. There were a few bones or skeletons the further we went and eventually we came to a room that held our target. At the end of the room, there was a basilisk that was in the middle of eating some kind of lizard but stopped when it noticed us. The thing was atleast three meters high while it was coiled around itself. It stopped eating and spat out the lizard as it raised it's head high and bared its fangs at us. From where we were, i could clearly see bloodstains and minor cuts along its murky green scales. Its brown slitted eyes shrunk as it uncoiled itself and charged at us.

(Mina) " Scatter! On my mark, Endis try to make more cuts on its body that we can exploit, Reina go for blindspots! I'll be aiming for the eyes. "

We split up and started going for what Mina said. Endis took out his new daggers and ran to the left side and started getting ready to tear into it. I ran to the right and coated my Siellas in darkness so i could try to get some cuts into its wounds and corrode it from the inside out. Mina stayed in its path and took out her crossbow and made spiked water needles and coated her loaded bolt in condensed water and air to speed it up. The basilisk didn't seem to care about any of that and just kept charging towards Mina. Though even with that, Mina stayed still and waited for right after the basilisk blinked to shoot everything at its eyes.

(Mina) " Mark! "

The bolt flew faster then the basilisk could blink and found itself in its right eye. The needles were launched at its other eye but the basilisk blinked and protected its other eye. But having lost an eye, it screeched and had its course disrupted. That gave Mina enough time to move out of the way and make the basilisk crash into a nearby wall. When that happened we jumped on Mina's mark and took its sides. Endis coated the back of his daggers in earth and focused on making new wounds while i took advantage of the wounds that were already there as i stabbed at the chipped scales or small cuts.

We managed to get some damage in but then it swipped around with its body and tail and knocked us back. The hit sent us atleast two meters away and gave the basilisk time to coil itself and start to gather acid in its mouth. The basilisk as a species were known for having acid so strong that stone statues would get melted in seconds. We split again and watched for wherever the basilisk was going to spew its acid. The basilisk was keeping its eye on us and just kept pooling acid. When it was ready, it shot its acid upwards and aimed for the stalactites on the top. Its acid ate through the stone and started dropping them down towards us.

The basilisk used that moment where we were distracted to uncoild itself and shot towards Mina and focused a small bit of acid towards her. She dodged it and moved outwards to start loading more arrows while me and Endis went towards its sides. I spread out my Siellas and slid them against the basilisks scales while Endis was dragging his blade against the other side of it. At the start, my Siellas weren't making much of difference, but then when i got to an actually decent wound, my siellas tore into it and made it screech out in pain. Though before i could do more, some stalactites started to fall dangerously close to me.

Endis was still attacking its side. but he had to avoid the tail that was about to slam into him. The basilisk kept going but its speed was starting to get noticably slower and its attacks were starting to get a little more unpredictable as it would randomly throw acid, flick its tail or head to try to get us but with us continuing to damaging it and tearing parts of its scales off, it was getting easier. But after a few more minutes of just repeating that pattern, the basilisk seemed to get deperate and starting pooling acid into its mouth again. Mina tried to stop it but before she could, it gathered enough acid to shoot towards the floor and bore through it and escape.

We had all spread out again just incase the basilisk would try to hit any of us or the ceiling but we didn't expect for it to hit the the floor. Though when it did, it immediatley charged down through the hole and seemed to know that this floor had another area beneath it which the acid spewed by the basilisk opened up. We waited for a second and followed after me and Endis made earth platforms to follow after it. The tunnel was opened by the acid but widened by the basilisk that just charged through even if it had to force itself. We all just stood around the hole in the floor and got ready to head down.

We followed it down and eventually made it to where the basilisk was. Though we had to drop down to the new room. All around us was a massive dome like room that had bones scattered all over the place, the wounded basilisk at the far back end, and egg shells right behind it. The eggs were an emerald green color and almost all of them were cracked open. From where we were, we could see three eggs that hadn't hatched or were dead. The basilisk wasn't running after coming to this room so this was probably its final stand.

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We got into formation again and got ready to take it down. Endis rushed for its blind side while i went to the other while Mina focused on the other eye to blind it. The basilisk reacted to Endis first and snapped towards him to keep him away while it swung its tail towards me. I avoided it and Endis jumped onto its face and sunk his daggers into the damaged eye and poured darkness into it. The basilisk reared up and roared which gave Mina the chance to send water needles into the basilisks other eye and vlind it. With that done, i got my chance to coat my Siellas in darkness and claw into the exposed parts of its side and pour my darkness into it.

It started to shake around and it tried to throw Endis off but we kept pouring our darkness while Mina sent air into its wounds to take off any scales that were going to be in our way. We kept tearing into it and eventually it just started to stop moving and collapsed. The fight had taken a while but i was the only one that looked exhuasted.

(Reina) " Is it over? "

When i asked that, Endis jumped off its head, daggers in hand and kicked the side of its mouth.

(Endis) " Yup. "

(Mina) " Good. Though... What is this place? This was just a juevenile so those eggs can't belong to it. So was this the place it hatched? "

(Endis) " Could be. Though what do we do with those eggs? "

(Reina) " Is there a reward for turning them in? Or can we turn them in as ingredients? "

(Endis) " Don't want to keep em? "

(Reina) " Is that an option? "

(Mina) " If any of them are alive, then yes. Though we'd be responsible for them and if they do anything then we might have to put them down. "

(Endis) " Though that's only if any of them are alive. If they're all dead then we can just sell them for some gold. "

(Reina) " But how do we find out if any of them are alive? "

(Mina) " We just have to bring them to a healer. They'll be able to find out if there's any life in them. "

(Endis) " Then let's do that. I think it'd be pretty cool to raise a basilisk. "

(Mina) " But our parties named after wolves... "

(Endis) " So? Rei has a slime. Last time i checked, slimes aren't wolves. "

(Mina) " Eh... I mean... You're right... But. "

(Reina) " Let's find out if any of them are alive first. "

(Mina) " That works, right Endis? "

(Endis) " Sure. Though what about the big one? Do we take just the head or the whole thing? "

(Reina) " Can we take the whole thing? "

(Endis) " Yea. Just split with me on handling the container. I can make it and we can both focus on moving it. Though what do we do about all these broken scales and bones. "

(Reina) " Umm... Jelly? "

Since we've been on this trip, Jelly's just been riding along in my bag since a stray attack could just kill her. At first it was a little difficult to keep myself positioned in a way that wouldn't get her hurt, but after a month i got used to it. She's still been eating fruits, meats and my magic but she hasn't really had time to just play with me or any of us. Though i don't think she really minded because if she did she would just do something to make sure i knew.

When i said her name, she peaked out of the bag and looked at me unsure of why i called her. So instead of repeating it, i waked over to a broken scaled and held it up to her to see if she'd want it. She seemed to be debating trying it out but eventually she tried it. Though she spit it out right after. Which was new since she's never spit anything out. Then she made little tendrils and crossed them in an X shape, which Mina taught her to do to help with our communication since she couldn't talk. Yet.

(Endis) " Well that was new. I thought slimes ate everything. "

(Mina) " They're supposed too. Though she has a personality so maybe she's got some taste. "

Jelly bobbed up and down in Mina's dirrection confirming what she just said.

(Mina) " Wasn't expecting to be right. "

(Endis) " Oh we.. We can just leave the broken scales here. Let's put it in a container and grab the eggs. "

And that's what we did. Me and Endis made a container and coiled the basilisk so it went in without much trouble. After that we made a side compartment for the eggs and put them in it. We looked around for anything else but after a few minutes of not finding anything, we started to head out. Though for a second i thought i felt something make my insticts flare up. I looked around but all i thought i saw was some air shimmering but i just thought i was imagining it since i didn't feel anything anymore.

After we left the den, we had to find our way out which took us a good hour since me and Endis were focusing on keeping the container together so we couldn't make another platform to take us back up. All along the way i was checking with Jelly about what things she would and wouldn't eat. She would still eat raw stuff but if it was just cut apart from battle damage, she wouldn't eat it. That was weird but it was fine.

After we found our way out, we started making our way to the nearest guild outpost so we could turn in this request and get paid and take a small break. There was a town a day away that should've had a guild so we just started to go that way and find out what we would do with the eggs. It was only a day away but the trip was definetly going to be easier then a month long trip.

The trip was actually nice since we didn't run into many beasts and actually got to the town quicker then we thought. When we got there, Mina got the town guards to let us in and we went stright towards the guild. Though we had a small problem. The container holding the basilisk and the eggs was a little to big for the guild doors so we had to wait for the local resource and material teams to come and inspect the basilisk and eggs. When that was all done, we were able to turn in the request and get our payment. Fifty silvers were good enough for us and was a nice start to our capital.

When we got the healers to show up, we found out that all of the eggs were alive they just hadn't hatched yet. So now we had to decide what we were going to do with them. We were allowed to try to raise them if we agreed to take responsiblilty for them, or we could sell them of. We had a discussion on that and we decided we would try to raise them to try to make up for our numbers without having to recruit more people into the party.That and we were sure that our emblems would make it easier to raise them since they should be scared of Ms.Losine and Martiq's power. 

When that was decided, a blood mage came over to us and got us to sign the agreement that we would take responsibility for them and connected us to our respective eggs. The process just needed us to prick our finger on something then put our fingers on the egg while the blood mage connected us to them. Thanks to that we would know when our eggs were close to hatching and then we could plan accordingly. We talked about who would take what eggs before when were wanted to raise them, and eventually finished with rock paper scissors since Mina and Endis both wanted the same egg.

Endis took the biggest one that was half a meter tall, while me and Mina took the normal third of a meter tall eggs. With thier size, we would need something good to carry them in while we went out on quests. Though we decided to look for things like that after we started to relax for a bit and look around the town. The place was called Wuldon and they were supposed to have nice milk and ice cream since they raised a healthy amount of cows and had some domesticated Lalens, which were a type of goat that had really tasty milk. Though they were apparently difficultto tame since they could ram though a steel pillar and not be inconvenienced in the slightest.

With all of that done, we went out to a bath house and cleaned ourselves off properly and get something to eat afterwards. The bath house itself was refreshing after spending a month just out there. Though with everything seeminglly done with, i wasn't able to expect what was going to happen tomorrow. I wasn't able to expect that the feeling i had earlier and the shimmering air in the basilisks den was something that would give us such a difficult time.