Chapter 164: Serpent Union

So a few days have passed and as I figured, my arm did regrow because of the reborn I did two years ago. It's still freaky seeing it grow overnight. I actually took the gamble to just lose my arm in exchange for my life.

That poison was too strong and was actually incredibly dangerous. Its symptoms are blackening the skin and not being able to move while it quickly takes over your body. I have poison resistance so it was slow at spreading but still... At that moment, I couldn't move my arm.

"Hey!" Herold called out to me in the distance.

I waved my hand to let him know that I hear him. It seems that he has arrived. "Hey."

Herold got near me and Helga and looked at her. "Nice to meet you."

Helga shook his hand, "Nice to meet you too."

"I'm Herold's... ally? Well that's basically the gist of it."

"I'm the healer of the Crimson Knights. I was rescued by Zieglind here."

"The raid at the black market? Yeah. It's a well known story now. No one has dared to interfere with black market since all of the black market dealers are retired adventurers. They're all pretty strong according to your standards. But I guess Zieglind here was a bit stronger."

"A bit stronger eh? Heh." Helga let out a single chuckle.

"Well, it was nice meeting you. Let's now focus on the situation at hand. We will be invading one of the Serpent union's base."

"Wait." I stopped Herald from leaving immediately. "There's something that you need to know."

"What is it?" He asked.

"Their poisons are pretty dangerous."

"I have resistance against them. Don't worry."

"No. It's not like any other poison. You've seen the poison in action right?"

"Yeah. One of the members of the Serpent union died because he gave information to me. A snake came out of his neck and bit it."

"Their skin darkened and the poison swarmed all over their body right?"

"Yeah. That's exactly what happened."

"I got bit by the poison of the snake."

"Really!?"

"Yeah."

"Are you fine!?"

"There's nothing to worry about me. But the poison itself is extremely dangerous. When you get bit by the poison, you'll be afflicted with many debuffs."

"Like what?"

"I don't know anything about how painful in it since I don't feel any. But when you get bit, you will not be able to use your arm and it slowly corrodes. The poison itself eats the part that's poisoned slowly. It spreads also incredibly quick. But with my poison resistance, it's slowed by a lot. But if I don't have any resistance, it'd taken over my body in less than thirty seconds."

"You have a high resistance right? I'm pretty sure yours is better than mine. Well anyway, how'd you get rid of the poison?"

"I cut off my arm."

"Ah-" Herold took a look at me and both of my arms. "How long ago was this encounter?"

"Around five or six days ago?"

"And you regrew your arm in that short time?"

"Yeah..."

"But holy crap you just cut off your arm like that? That takes a lot of guts even if you don't feel pain."

"Well... I stopped becoming human when I was reborn and resetted back to level one."

"Understandable. But anyway, how'd you fight a Serpent union when I still haven't shown you their base?"

"I lured one of them out. I remember you talking about them being the behind the scenes of the non player led kingdoms. So I went to Itz. We have a pretty good friendship so I don't know how he feels about my abrupt and insubordinate nature. Anyway, things happened and you were right."

"A member of the Serpent union appeared?"

"Exactly. He activated the curse that was on the king of Itz, a snake came out but good thing that I was there to grab it. I killed the Serpent union member and was bit in the process by the snake. The snake died after biting me and everything I told you before just went there."

"I see... Alright. Their value has gone up again. We aren't letting them grow anymore. They're becoming even far more dangerous that I've imagined. Let's go. To their base. Near the kingdom of Nazrea."

Me and Helga changed into our Gazer form and flew with Herold to the place where one of their bases were located.

After flying for about four hours, we arrived to where he was talking about and it was just a giant lake.

"Here we are." Herold then pointed at the lake.

"This is... their base?" I asked.

"Well yes but no." Herold then raised his hand at the lake, "Dispel!"

Suddenly, the whole lake broke like mirrors and it completely disappeared.

It then revealed a single trapdoor at the very center of it. I couldn't help but be curious. "How exactly did you find this base?"

"I told you, I met a Serpent union member. But it just wasn't one. For the second one that I found, I used a skill that lets me search their memory. Then after I found small bits of clues he immediately died. But he gave us a valuable information of where his base was located which is near Nazrea. That's why I spent the rest of the days using Mana Search to find irregularities in the terrain. And I found several movements under this lake. So that's how I found this."

"I see. So, we'll go in?"

"No. We'll blast in. There's no use talking to them."

"If that's the case then I'll be the one lighting up this place."

"Then I'll leave it to you." Herold stepped aside and let me open the trapdoor.

"Torched Body!" I changed my whole body into an ethereal form of flames. As I touched the trapdoor, it completely melted by my touch. It seems that this skill got stronger. "Hey help me. Do you have a wind skill?"

"Yeah I have a wind skill." Herold went in front of me and we both looked down at the underground base.

"Alright. Just spread this gas."

"Got it. Come, Windtalker." Herold then summoned a dagger. Far different from his other weapon. It has a beautiful green orb of gem above the handle acting as a guard of the dagger connecting the handle and the blade. It glows in the color of green and as he pulled it out of nowhere, the wind around us suddenly changed.

"It's not that weapon... Bright... something?"

"Brightburn? Well I can use it here if you want me to destroy your spell."

"You have multiple weapons?"

"Each one in different elements."

"Damn. Alright then. I'll release my skill and use your wind skill to spread the gas."

"Got it."

"Fumes!" I released down the basement and it spread everything. Everyone down there was panicking and began to cough in pain. "Now."

"Air Containment!" Suddenly all the gas that I released were compressed into a small ball and freed the suffering serpent union from the fumes.

"What are you doing!?"

"I'm not done. Wind Twister!" The ball of air which he compressed suddenly began to shake violently.

"What's happening!?"

"RELEASE!"

The ball of compressed air suddenly exploded and has began to spread even deeper down to where we couldn't see. "...You could've just told me."

"It's a nice surprise."

I let out a sigh. "Fine. Then I'll put this to an end. BURN!" A small fireball came out of my hands and slowly got into the basement. After a few seconds of silence, the entire ground around us is being shaken.

It started with small explosions. We could hear the screams and cries of the Serpent union inside as their whole base crumbles one by one.

It then turned into large scale explosions. The whole area around us were falling into the ground, the small hills a couple hundred of meters away from us began to explode too. This large scale explosion was far too large.

It was like someone dropped a nuke in their own base.

Multiple serpent union members were crawling out of the ground trying to find ways to escape. But Herold simply used his quick steps and incredibly powerful dagger and killed those who were 'unfortonate' enough to be alive.

After a while, all I could see was the crumbling base they have.

[Gained skill, Player Killer, can only be obtained by killing 100 or more players in a short span of time. This skill will allow you to gain EXP from killing other players. You will gain 30% of their EXP needed for their previous level up.]

A kilometer wide base and I don't know how deep was simply destroyed by the spells me and Herold casted. We were powerful but I guess not that powerful.

Several more people crawled out of the ground with their armor intact. It seems that the explosion didn't bother them at all.

I looked at Helga, "Helga, get ready. The bosses have appeared."