A few hours later, Mike and I were secretly observing the new forest from behind the dunes. Well, I was the one doing the observation. Mike was checking out his newly found powers. Sometimes, he would let out giggles, like an infant who just found a new toy to play with.

“Wow, Sir Ray. Did you know, 10 kilometres from here, two Red Snakes are fighting.”

“No, Mike. I don’t have Foresight like you.”

Mike kept fidgeting over his status screen, reading it over and over again, still in awe that he had truly Awakened.

Usually Awakened Beings never revealed the contents of their status screen, but Mike recited his own to me, like an unguarded puppy. Not that it mattered much, with me having ‘Appraisal’. But this small act spoke loads about how much he trusted me.

“Mr. Ray, what is this other skill that I have? It's called Spirit Master. Do you know what it does?”

“That skill is useless right now.” I informed him. His eyes drooped down in sadness, hearing my words.

Spirit Tamer was a very powerful skill but since nobody was able to use it, it was declared useless despite it being S Rank. But what researchers didn’t know was that the user needed a Spirit Egg for the skill, the same way a swordsman needed a sword to display his skill. And in a few months, those Eggs would be discovered all around the world.

I planned on grabbing a few good ones before other people found out their true worth, so that I could make it up to Mike . Once the knowledge about the Eggs gets released, the value of even one Egg would be in hundreds of Millions of R.

“Let's talk about your skills later. We got work in front of us.”

Our gazes turned back to the forest. 3 Red Snakes were patrolling the area.

“Mike, can you check how many monsters are inside the forest?”

Mike zoned out, in the forest’s direction.

“Hmm, there are about 15 Red Snakes with Vritra in the middle of them. But, Mr. Ray, there is something. The crack on Vritra's horn that you attacked , it's gone.”

“Looks like Vritra has a healing ability.”

Well, I already expected this to happen. Vritra’s regeneration was one of the reasons why Mikael spent many months in the Dungeon. Whenever he was close to defeating Vritra, it would run away, later coming back completely new. It must also be the reason, why it hadn't attacked us yet, since he was still healing.

I turned towards Mike.

“Listen, here’s the plan. I want you to stay here and release your Aura, while I go and infiltrate the forest. The small fry would come and attack you, allowing me to attack Vritra.”

En route to the forest, I had explained to Mike the basics to use mana. He should at least be able to release Aura if not completely able to use the mana. With my Lightning Dagger, he should be safe. The monsters patrolling the area were also only E+ Rank.

I handed him the tent bead.

“If you think you are losing, run inside the tent. It should be able to protect you from a bunch of E Ranks.”

Mike nodded as he listened to my instructions. Honestly, I was still worried about letting a 16-year old fight on his own. But since he survived in the novel, I had hope that he would be able to defend himself now.

I quickly sneaked into the forest as soon as the patrolling Red Snakes left. I searched through my map to find Vritra and headed in its direction. Soon I reached the centre of the forest. I hid behind a tree and observed the snakes' nest. Vritra was curled up in the centre. Surrounding it were multiple Red Snakes, each of them being much bigger than the ones Mike fought and the ones that were patrolling around. They slithered about, determined to protect their master.

The Aura they were releasing seemed to be of D Rank, some of them even being D+ Rank. Even as a C Rank, it would be impossible for me to defeat all of them. This time I just intended to fight Vritra.

I took out a blood-red vial from my ring., agonising over what I was going to do. Ray hadn't left many potions in his stash, yet I had already used so many of them. I had no idea whether I would be able to make potions like Ray, even if I had the recipe with me.

But this is an emergency right now. Getting my hands on that reward was well worth the sacrifice of these potions. I took aim and threw it right at Vritra. As soon as the glass cracked, thick crimson gas immediately started to flood the snake nest. Repulsed by it, the Red Snakes quickly slithered into the woods.

‘Appraisal’

Anti-Monster Perfume: Keeps low-Rank monsters away.

Caution: Smell quickly dissipates

I only had a ten-minute time frame to attack Vritra before the Red Snakes returned.

“Hiss!!”

Vritra looked in my direction. The perfume was strong enough to wake it up, if not entirely drive it away. I could see anger in its eyes, waiting to take revenge for the humiliation it faced during our last fight.

Not wasting time, I quickly chugged down a Speed Potion and rushed towards it. Vritra slithered towards me, snapping his fangs at me. It spat a load of poison at my face. I quickly summoned wind on my blade and pushed it away.

Vritra kept snapping at me, trying to bite off my limbs at the slightest opening. I kept switching the mana type on my sword, trying to bring it down.

I burnt it with my embers. I blew it away with my wind. I struck it hard with my rock. I cut it with pressurised water. But each time, I felt it was gonna back away, the wound would heal over.

Nothing I did seemed to have any effect on Vritra. It hissed at me as if mocking me. The potion effect was already starting to fade. I needed to stop the source of its regeneration. I ran towards a tree and started to climb it. Vritra slithered in my direction.

From this height, its forehead could be reached from the top of the tree. As soon as it came close, I lunged at Vritra grabbing hold of one of its horns.

Vritra shook around, trying to throw me off, but I grabbed the horn as support. Keeping myself stable with one hand I took my sword and filled it with earth mana.

“Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!”

I kept hitting the horn until it broke off.

“Hawaa!”

Vritra screamed in pain as its horn fell to the ground. I jumped towards the other horn to quickly break it off. I hacked at it, applying the last burst of my mana, finally snapping the horn in two strikes.

“Thud”

The second horn fell. But surprisingly, instead of blood, molten gold started to drip from the wound. As soon as it hit the ground, the gold began to solidify. I wanted to see what was going to happen, but I had to turn my attention somewhere else now.

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Hearing the agonising screams of their master, Red Snakes began pouring out of the woods. The perfume I had spread was long gone.

I got into a stance, ready to face the Red Snakes that were gonna attack me. But instead of heading my way, they rushed to their master and started dragging its half-dead body away.

I had no mana left, so I let them be.

I hadn’t succeeded in killing Vritra, but since the main source of its powers, its horns, had been snapped off, it was safe now. With the Boss Monster still alive, the Dungeon won’t close but it will probably move away, popping up somewhere else in the world.

I could feel the frigidness of water mana settling into the Dungeon. I am pretty sure in a few days, this entire area would be filled with rainstorms, and turn these barren land back into its original state, hopefully, filled with forests like the one I was currently in.

“Ah right, what was that gold blood about?”

I looked back at the place where the blood had fallen. Now that all the monsters were gone, it looked like a tornado had passed through the area.

Trees had been uprooted and flung everywhere and the soil had been upturned. And a pool of molten gold glistened, neatly settled in the centre of such destruction. Beside the pool, Vritra’s two horns were placed.

“Hmm, this wasn’t the reward I was hoping to expect.”

The reward for completing Vritra’s Dungeon was a special Spirit Egg that could even be used by non-Spiritualists. This pool of gold and two horns wasn’t what I was expecting.

“Appraisal”

Vritra’s Horns: Wearing the horn as an accessory can increase control over water mana.

Crushing the horn into powder and ingesting it can increase the consumer's affinity to water mana.

Formless Spirit Egg

Rank: E

Potential: ???

Status: Unawakened

Inject your mana to awaken the Spirit.

The horns seemed useful so I put them inside the dimensional ring. Now the issue was about the pool which was supposedly the Spirit Egg. As far as I remembered Spirit Eggs were supposed to look like eggs, as big as an ostrich's.

'Oh well. There’s nothing I can do.'

I stuck a finger inside the gold pool. It seemed a lot like the inside of a Jell-o. I shot a spark of mana inside it. Immediately, the pool began to pulsate, like a heart coming to life. I closed my eyes as a blinding poured out.

When I opened them, a snake was staring at me. It was quite small, about 3 feet long and had gold-plated scales. Its bristled scales made it look like it had spiky feathers on its body. Its pearly black eyes stared back at me in curiosity.

“Hey there, Master.”

I scrambled back in shock, landing straight on my butt. The snake in front of me seemed to be talking. The novel never mentioned anything about Spirits talking.

Seeing me like that, the snake giggled.

“Haha. I didn’t know Master would be so shocked to see me talk.”, it spoke again. Its voice sounded like a peppy cheerleader, out to party. Since none of the main characters were in possession of Spirits, the novel really had been uninformative about them.

‘Appraisal’

Arcadeus (Divine Serpent Form)

Title: The Formless Spirit

Rank: E → E+

Stats:

* Strength 2.4

* Stamina 2.4

* Agility 3

* Perception 4.6

* Magic Power 6

* Intelligence 6

Arcadeus is a one-of-a-kind Spirit Egg that has the ability to shapeshift as it Ranks up.

Skills:

* Vitality Venom(A): The venom in its fangs has the ability to heal the body of its target. If sufficient magic is provided, it can even bring back a person from the brink of death.

* Fade(A): Allows the user to completely merge with their surroundings and hide their presence.

Potential: ???

Mana Compatibility:

* Light: 90%

* Earth: 80%

The ‘Vitality Venom’ seemed pretty useful. I had seen it in action during my fight with Vritra, so I knew how effective it was. And ‘Fade’ would allow me to bring it into the Academy without alerting anyone. Even its Rank has upgraded, which was probably because I was a C-Rank. There were instances where Spirits ranked up if their Masters had a much higher Rank than them, since Spirits fed on mana.

“Oh, wow, what’s this screen that popped up in the air? Ohh, it has my name on it.”

“Huh? You can see the Appraisal screen?”

“Well, of course, I can. You are my master now. I can use your non-combat skills too. Of course, only if you allow it.”

I remembered this part from the novel. Spirits were mainly coveted because of the Skill-Synchronization that took place between a Spirit and its Master. That way a Hero can gain more skills, which can usually only be found in Dungeons after defeating the Boss Monsters.

“Can I use your skills?” I asked the Spirit.

“You can, but only when my Rank has risen a bit. E Ranks really sucks. Anyway, let me introduce myself formally. My name is Arcadeus, but you can call me Deus. From today onwards I am your contracted Spirit Servant. I will be in your care”

Arcadeus bowed down in a subservient manner.

“Well then Deus, I am your new master, Ray Laxon. Let’s help each other out from now on.”

“Well, then where to now, Master.”

“Let’s get out of the forest for now. I got a friend to pick up. He might be in danger right now”

I stood up from my spot and began to pace in the direction I had previously entered from. Deus began to slither behind me.

With our inhuman speed, we soon exited the forest. I could already see Cumulonimbus clouds rolling into the desert sky from the horizon. Pretty soon, heavy rains would fill this land. Now whether it returned to its original state or got completely flooded, only Mother Nature will know. Not that it was any of my concern.

Among the sand hills, a tent was pitched up. Three snake corpses surrounded it. I could see rips and tears in parts of the tent. Mike must have gone into hiding when the Red Snakes got too aggressive. The Red Snakes must have gone to their leader when I broke its horns.

“Hey, Mike. It's safe out. You can come out now.”, I yelled at the tent.

Hearing my voice, the tent zipped open and a head popped out. Seeing me, Mike quickly got out of the tent and rushed towards me.

“Mr. Ray, watch out. There’s a snake behind you.”

“Ah, him. Don’t worry about it. He’s my…er, pet now.”

Mike's eyes lit up with admiration on hearing I made one of the monsters into my pet.

“Wow, nothing less to be expected from Mr. Ray. You got one of those monsters to become your pet. It even looks like a tiny dragon.”

I gave him an awkward smile. It made me uncomfortable hearing such innocent praise, considering the fact that the monster in question was originally supposed to belong to him.

Mike scrunched down to take a closer look at Deus.

“Hello, Master’s friend.”

“Ahh.”, Mike fell back into the sand upon hearing Deus suddenly talk. “That snake just talked.”

“Yes. It's a very special snake.”

I handed him a Healing Potion from my ring. He had small scratches all over his body. His clothes were ripped too. He must have fought as hard as he could. Most Awakened would have run away if they were asked to fight monsters right after Awakening.

I ruffled his hair in approval.

“What was that for?”, Mike started to fix his hair.

“I am just proud of you, kid.”

I turned the damaged tent back into a ball and placed it inside my dimensional ring. I then got down and examined the Red Snakes Mike had killed. Two of them were E Ranks with one being E+ Rank. Mike was growing much faster than expected, as expected from one of the top villains in the novel.

I placed the corpses in my ring too. Too bad, I wasn’t able to kill Vritra. Boss monsters usually dropped special items like monster cores, which were basically a highly condensed ball of mana and sold for hundreds of millions of R depending on their Rank. These cores could even be used as eco-friendly energy sources, the reason why they were so coveted. Boss Monsters sometimes even dropped Skill Beads, a tangible manifestation of one of their Skills. They were the only way one could get new Skills after their Awakening, as thus were mostly monopolised by the top guilds or black markets, and were sold for prices as high as diamonds.

‘Well, better luck next time.’ I sighed in defeat. I wasn't too disappointed either, since I had achieved my main goal for coming here.

I turned to Deus and Mike, who were now casually chatting on the sand.

“Hey, you two. Let’s get out of the Dungeon now.”

“Sure, Master.” Deus slithered towards me and started to crawl up my foot. Soon it was wrapped around my right hand. Slowly it started to melt in my arm, and before I knew it, he was gone, replaced by a tattoo-ed snake.

‘Wow. I never thought I would get my first tattoo in another world.’

“Don’t worry, Master. I can come out any time I want.”, Deus explained.

“It's okay for now.”, I replied. Honestly, I thought the tattoo looked cool on me.

I turned towards Mike.

“Let’s go out and tell Father Jacob the good news.”

“Exit.”, I yelled at the sky. Pretty soon, a portal formed in front of us. I stepped inside it. The familiar feeling of teleportation engulfed me. On the other side, Mike and I stepped onto the boat. The whirlpool that was in the water before had disappeared, indicating the Dungeon was gone now.

“Let’s go back to Venezia Island.”, Mike yelled in excitement, as he started the engine.