Chapter 5: The Black Snake.

They ventured north for what seemed like hours, only coming across a single knoll raider, which they swiftly dispatched. Finally, mountains started appearing in the clear blue sky on the horizon. Alora jumped into a jog and Carter followed. They glided swiftly over the plateau scanning the surroundings for potential attackers. The mountains were close now, and they could see a sea of trees covering the bottom of the mountain like a skirt up to a point where the cliffs were too steep for seedlings to find a holding point.

They arrived at the edge of the forest and he could see her looking for something. “What is it?” it sounded aggressive when it left his mouth. “I'm looking for the circle of trees on the mountain. It is my landmark. Right below it, is the entrance. “Ah, I see,” and he started searching the mountainside with her. “There!” She said, “Come, we don’t want to be caught in the open so close to a dungeon entrance.” They ran through the forest trying to be as noiseless as possible and with his new tight fitting snakeskin armor it was easier to control his movements.

Ahead of them two snake heads towered out against the mountain top. They looked menacing, a warning to all adventurers who dare enter. In between the two snakes was the entrance to the cave system. But Carter didn’t care, he was shivering with excitement to finally be at a point where he can enter boss fights.

Alora took a torch out of her backpack and lit it on one of the torches on the inside. “Alright, Good luck and hope you get some good drops. Stick close.” They moved silently into the cave. Fire dancing on the cave walls. It had a humid smell and there was heat coming from somewhere in the cave. That explains why the Snake wants to live here, he thought. The sound of them shuffling echoed silently in the cave, and sometimes he swung around because it sounded like a hiss. He did not want to be surprised from behind.

What felt like an eternity passing through the cave tunnels came to a sudden stand still when Aloras arm shot up signaling Carter to halt. She pointed with two fingers to her eyes and then straight ahead. He looked past and saw two snakelings coiled up and sleeping. Alora let out a warcry which sent echoes in all directions. “Well if they didn’t know we were here, they definitely do now!” Carter drew his sword and charged after her.

Alora nocked and fired two arrows in quick succession, both headshots killing the snakelings instantly. They must have had really low hit points, Carter thought. He charged past her as she looted them and came face to face with a larger snakeling. Without a moment to spare the snake struck at him, barely missing him as he strafed to the left. He stabbed with his blade breaking the skin in the middle of the snake's body. An arrow wizzed over head, hitting the snake in the body and it hissed angrily. Carter regained his balance and threw himself at the snake, stabbing and slashing for all his worth. The snake struck but it was never quick enough to hit the nimble gnome. And for every hit that he missed, an arrow was there to fill its place.

The snake coiled to attempt a last desperate strike, it reached out towards Carter but he darted to the side and brought his blade down on its neck, severing its head completely. He stood in a cloud of black smoke as the snake dissolved into the cave walls.

You gained 220xp for killing 1 snake. Congratulations! You’ve gained 1 combat level.

Loot

Snakeskin

A long straight piece of skinned snakeskin.

Bones

Bones. Just bones.

“Phew! That was a toughy,” Alora said as she wiped her brow. “You good? No bites or anything?” She checked him thoroughly up and down. “Good let’s go.”

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The gnome and human pushed on. They fought long and hard against the waves of snakes The Black Snake threw at them, but it never dampened their spirits. After 2 long hours of battle they arrived at the final gate. Carter’s backpack was full to the brim with snake skins and he had still left a few behind. Today is going to be a big pay day. A large archway made with two stone snakes forming a crescent in the middle stood in front of them. Straining his eyes to see further in the dark he could make out a large snake pacing back and forth in the large cavern. He made an audible gulp. “Relax,” She dragged the -lax bit out a tad bit too long. “We’ve got this.”

She stepped through the archway and the snake immediately smelled the air with its giant tong and swung its head towards where she was standing. “We meet again, Yeikojut,” She said with a grim smile. The strong body scraped pebbles against the cave’s rocky floor as it was charging straight at her. Alora stepped forward and raised her bow, she activated her double shot ability which fires 2 shots in quick succession and then immediately a focused fire shot which takes longer to fire but does more damage. All three arrows embedded themselves into the large scaly body. “Quick flank it on its right!”

Carter was still standing still, awestruck at the size of the beast when he was ripped back to reality with the urgent tone of her voice. His grip tightened around his blade, and he dashed to the right side of the snake. Slicing at its scales, the blade struggled to make an impact. “I cant break through its scales!” He yelled as he hacked at the snake. The monstrosity felt him slashing against his body and let out another hissed as it changed its target from Alora to Carter. “Look out!” Carter looked up just in time to see Yeikojut raise its head to strike at him. But there was no time to jump out of the way and the snake struck.

Carter raised his sword and yelled out a warcry. The snake's mouth completely consumed him and he could feel its dry tongue moving around him. His hands now both clenched around the hilt of his blade he drove it upwards into the roof of the mouth searching for the brain. Yeikojut screeched in pain, shaking its mouth trying to toss the intruder out. But the Elven sword clung to the roof of the mouth and Carter hung on for dear life. Alora could hear a muffled scream, “Well that didn’t work, what now?!” She raced around the snake trying to lure its attention to her instead of the pain it was experiencing. “Hold on!” and she shot an arrow into its body again. As she was loading another arrow into her bow, “Wait, It doesn’t have scales in its mouth! Use your fire bolt!”

The gnome didn’t hear much over the screeches erupting from the beast's throat, except for “Firebolt!”. “Time for some real damage,” he yelled as he was being shaken through the air. He could feel his left arm warming up and a red light started illuminating from his hand. He released his own arm, trusting his right hand to hold on to the blade in the wild thrashing and threw the ball of flames down the snake's throat and it connected with a loud bang. The thrashing intensified even more and suddenly stopped as smoke filled the cavities of the mouth. It let out a woeful whimper and fell down to earth, closing its jaws on Carter as his bottom jaw slammed shut against the floor. “No! Carter!” He could hear muffled screams from outside. The mouth smelt like rotten flesh and smoke, its fangs released from their retraction pockets. “I’m alright! Just get me out of here.” But it wasn’t necessary because soon he found himself next to Alora as the snake disappeared up in smoke. With a loud exhale Alora said, “Phew! That was more difficult than I remember! What loot did you get?” He opened his interface which showed two new messages:

Congratulations, you killed Yeikojut, The Black Snake. Your kill count of the Black Snake is now: 1. You have received 700xp and gained 2 Combat levels.

Loot

Health potion x 2

A potion which heals 20% of your health immediately, only one potion can be consumed every 2 minutes.

Venom sac x 2

A sac of venom which can be used with herblore to poison your weapons.

Cowl of the Black snake (Epic)(Unique)

A rare drop from Yeiikojut, The Black Snake. +5% poison resistance. +9 damage to ranged attacks.

“Wow! Congrats! That is a rare item from him! Too bad you aren’t a ranger. Bet you could sell it on the market for quite a bit of gold.” Carter stored all the new loot in his backpack and walked over to where Alora was busy looking at all the walls. “The details in this game always amazes me. I wonder what real caves looked and felt like.” Not one for reminiscing, Carter changed the subject. “Do you have a quick way to get back to Shater, or are we going to Breau?” She opened her inventory interface and a portal stone appeared in her hand. “ Breau. Here, this will take us back to our spawn city.” They went through the portal and walked into the Breau market. It was a particularly busy evening and he could see thousands of pets, mounts and players in armor he has never seen before. “The content of this game is actually insane Alora.” “I know, why do you think it was called the turn of the century?”

Carter bid his farewell and took off his GlassOS. He found his father had gone to the night shift that evening and his mother was sitting on the couch. “Hello, Carter, have you done your homework yet?” she asked as he entered the living room. “Yes mom, but I still need to do some revision for our online test tomorrow.” He started leaving when he noticed tears on her cheek. “Is everything okay?” He asked as he went to sit next to her. “No, your father got notice tonight that this is his last month. We’re going to lose the house.” She started crying again and he put his arm around her, not able to find words to comfort her. If only there was something he could do. “I need to do some revision for tomorrow’s test, mom.” He hugged her and went to his room. He placed the GlassOS into its case and laid it on his bedside table. While reading through his math book, an old advertisement fell out from between the pages.

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