Chapter 30: Snakes in a Barrel

< Quest: The Next Level 2

Difficulty: -

Reach Level 15.

Rewards: Inventory Space, System Rights >

System Rights?

Seth opened the grayed out -The Next Level- and found exactly the same description. What did he unlock then? Maybe it was a window? How would he open it if he had no idea how it was called?

It was then, that Seth remembered that calling out the windows was a shortcut. Like in most games, all windows existed as a tab in the main window, his status.

What he found beside the Skill-, Inventory- and Quest-tab was... Social?

There were party options, like distribution of experience and inviting other players. And there was a friend list. He had expected more from something called "System Rights", but it was literally just the access to more perks.

It did not help a lot. As the only person in town with zero friends, Seth could hardly make a party with anybody.

What really positively surprised him were the titles. Even when some of them were weird, titles seemed always worth collecting!

Seth felt like he had spent enough time on his menu windows. The AP and SP could wait for now.

There were more important things, like looting, right? In his inventory he saw the soul of the big serpent.

<Soul (Large), Crafting Material. Uncommon.

The large Soul of a big beast that experienced its first rank-up>

It was a little underwhelming, but <Blacksmith´s Eyes> also told him that the big carcass held a lot of material he could harvest. It would not be easy to harvest it, though. Aside from its enormous size, more than half its body was still stuck in the lower floor and only about 1/4 was reaching over the edge of the roof.

But big bro-system surprised him once again! He touched the corpse and was able to store the whole body in one item slot!

After storing the body, he checked the situation. His was in a hurry last night and did not check the roof access. There was no door to the staircase up here. Seth only found a hatch!

The bottom below the hatch was filled with snakes, but the ladder up to the hatch was collapsed, so they could not reach the rooftop!

Seth knew exa~ctly what to do, after seeing the squirming mess of snakes below.

"Almost too easy~", Seth smirked.

He felt better now, but he was still filled with resentment. These little vermin had almost cost him his life! So, what if their mommy was a Field Boss?! He would grind all her babies to dust if they dared to come here!

Of course, he could have used his bow to shoot them now, like fish in a barrel. He had even gotten back most of the arrows that were stuck in their big brother when he stored him. But it did not seem worth the ammunition. He had barely one stack, it was probably not enough, anyways.

Seth had a better plan. He summoned the <Spirit Smithy> and started throwing anything metal he found on the roof into the furnace. The weapons in his inventory were the best he had made in the last few weeks. There was no way he would sacrifice them here.

The most he could make with the things he found on the roof was <Medium Iron>. It would suffice.

What he made were the big, mean, and ancient uncles of lawn darts, Plumbata!

They were throwing darts the size of crossbow bolts and similar to weighted arrows. Seth forged 15 plumbata completely from metal and attached a small loop for a rope to retrieve them.

Original they were thrown to disrupt the charge of infantry man, followed by a volley of arrows. Now, Seth chucked them at an army of angry snakes, who were helpless against this merciless reaper from above!

<Ding! You have killed -Baby Titanoboa lv.1- You have earned Experience.>

<Ding! You have killed -Boa lv.7- You have earned Experience.>

<Ding! You have killed -Baby Titanoboa lv.3- You have earned Experience.>

<Ding! You have killed -Baby Titanoboa lv.5- You have earned Experience.>

<Ding! You have killed -Boa lv.2- You have earned Experience.>

Every throw was a hit, but not always a kill. There was also a wide variety in level among the snakes below. Some were also only regular Snakes, while others were babies. The experience he gained from this was ambiguous, but he could see the bar grow in exceedingly small increments.

Similarly, his <Weapons Mastery> inched closer to the next level.

Like a machine, Seth kept throwing the 15 plumbata and reeled them back in. Sometimes with a corpse attached to them. In those moments he felt like a spear fisher or a whaler. The baby Titanoboas found their way into his inventory, as their skin was labeled as crafting material.

Seth kept going all morning, it did not cost him much stamina to throw the darts straight down at his helpless victims. You may think this way cruel, but all of those snakes were enraged and thirsted for his blood! They did not deserve better!

Seth steeled his resolve and kept going all morning.

<Ding! Title: "Snake That" earned. "You have killed over 100 snake-type enemies!" +10% damage to snake-type enemies>

At noon Seth decided, that it was time for a break, to replenish his energy. He had a lot of dead snakes; it was only natural that he skewered them on sword and started roasting them over the forge. He salivated over the lightly salted meat. It had been long since he had fresh meat and these baby snakes smelled better than expected.

Some when in the afternoon he actually leveled up to 13! How many snakes had he killed? If he had not pulled up most to the bodies, they would easily pile up to his hatch.

Kills came a little faster, after <Weapon Mastery> finally overcame the hurdle and reach Lv.3.

Finally, their numbers started to dwindle. And at last, no new snakes appeared below the hatch anymore. And when the last one died-

<Ding! Title: "Master Skywalker?" earned. "-Not even the younglings survived! - You have eradicated a whole generation of a specific tribe/race/organization." Younglings will avoid you; Adults will hate you. Currently applies to: Snakes >

Seth had hoped for this kind of title after gaining the first one! Now the small ones would avoid him and he could get out of here. He just had to avoid meeting another big guy.

It could not be that hard. Seth´s guess was, that the outskirts were the hatching ground or something, so there should be mostly small ones. Otherwise, there would not have been just one juvenile, right? ...right?

In the space below the hatch were only dead snakes left, so Seth deemed it safe to climb down. He almost slipped on the blood and corpse covered floor when he landed. Catching his balance, he came to stand in the middle of the pandemonium he created. The hallway was filled with dead snaked like spaghetti and they were covered in their own "tomato sauce".

Seth felt a little weird, but he hesitated to leave this much fresh meat behind. So, he ended up storing all the snakes, no matter whether they were normal one, or the babies. He ended up with almost two stacks of Titanoboa and one of normal snakes. He also had collected half a stack of Souls (small). Thank the system, that his inventory had been expanded to 5x5!

Going down the staircase Seth saw the devastation the juvenile left behind when it had wreaked havoc the other night. The barricades were crushed and broken. The management floor was wiped out. The babies had left, but the normal snakes that were still in the building attacked him. They obviously counted as adults, even when they were weaker than the babies...

Luckily, his raft was still where he left it! With this Seth left behind the crime scene if his struggle and slaughter.