Chapter 400: Meeting a Talkative Beast

The door was larger than the entrances to all of the caves that Joshua had found the snakes in throughout the canyon. It was about twice the size of one of the trapdoors that the spiders used along the cliff side. It loomed over him as the dust cleared away and the grey metallic frame took up his entire view. "Lilly I think I've found something interesting here." Joshua yelled down to Lilly who was waiting as Cinder cocooned the body of the trapdoor spider that Joshua had just killed.

"I'll be right up." She shouted back. It didn't take long for her to put away the giant cocoon that Cinder had made so that she could eat it later. Cinder climbed up clinging on to the side of the cliff as she let Lilly down so that she would land right next to Joshua. The doors were more than big enough for Cinder to go through so she just waited for them to head in if they were going to. "What do you think is beyond the doors?"

Joshua thought about it for a moment as there was only one other time when he had run into something similar to the situation they were in now. At the time he thought it might have just been a dream since it happened back during the first phase and all signs of the place had disappeared the following day. At that time he had found a cave that lead down to a door hidden away. All he could see inside of the window on the door was a large eye that flooded him with so much killing intent that he nearly had a heart attack. This door reminded him of that situation. The door even had a window on it like the last one.

"Cinder can you see through the window on the door? It's too high up for either of us to look through." Joshua said as he looked towards the friendly spider. Cinder nodded before raising up on her legs so that she could peer through the window.

"All I can see on the inside is a long tunnel that seems to be tinged a sickly green, but whatever is beyond the doors is far more powerful than I can sense. I feel like I'll die if I go inside." Cinder said as she slowly backed away, but stayed next to Lilly to protect her at all cost. From those actions alone Joshua could tell the spider was gearing up for a fight, but he knew that it would be foolish for them to challenge whatever was inside the door. It was when Joshua was preparing to climb back down the cliff and away from the door that a voice rang out from beyond the doors that caused them all to turn their attention back to the door.

"You may enter…I bid you welcome." A voice rang out from beyond the door. The voice had a powerful aura behind it and seemed to ring in all of their minds as if it was empowered, but it didn't have any enchanting effect to it. The voice sounded feminine although it was deep and a bit raspy with a hissing tone to it. It was clearly the voice of a beast and at first Joshua didn't plan on going in. He didn't know if the creature was luring them to their deaths, but then a system message popped up for them to all read.

[You have been given guest rights by the beast of this domain. While under guest rights you cannot be attacked or put in danger by the creature that is giving the guest rights. Still be careful in their presence, they still are powerful beings and can harm you unknowingly with their environments alone if not treated carefully. Do you except the guest rights? Yes/No]

Joshua was surprised by this since this was the first time he had seen anything like this even after he has come across beast like Tank and his friend in the past. "Well do you think we should go in? It can't harm us directly and we can always just leave if we feel threatened." Joshua asked as he turned to look at Lilly.

"Might as well. It's always nice to make more friends." Lilly said with a smile. Joshua just shook his head in disbelief at her casual attitude with the current circumstances before selecting yes on the message. The moment he clicked yes the giant doors started to slide open letting out a lot of dirt and dust. Joshua had to hold his breath as all of the dust passed by before heading inside.

The first thing he noticed about the tunnel that they were walking down was the fact that it had a deep green tinge to it as if it had been coated in poison. From this alone Joshua understood what the system meant when it said that they could still be harmed by entering the place. The environment itself was dangerous if they weren't careful. Joshua made sure not to touch any of the rocks inside of the place directly. Cinder seemed to notice this fact as well as she coated her legs in ice so that when they dug into the rock the poison wouldn't have any chance of affecting her. Even though she was a poisonous creature herself she was certain that the poison of the beast that they were about to meet was well out of her league.

The next thing Joshua noticed about the tunnel was the fact that it was exactly like the tunnels they had seen the snakes in the canyon come out of all the time. Those tunnels weren't as spaced out but that just made Joshua think that the beast that they were about to meet was just a far bigger snake in the end. It took a while for them to travel all the way down the tunnel at the casual pace that they were moving, but they didn't hear the creature speak a single time since they entered the room. The tunnel got pretty dark the further they got away from the entrance, but in such a poisonous location Joshua didn't want to bring out a torch or anything since if they came across any fumes it might put them all in danger.

Lilly quickly summoned Light and had him jump into Joshua's aura. Light then started to brighten up the area around them so that they had a better view of their surroundings. Joshua didn't pulse out his aura sense he wasn't sure if the poisons in the cave would effect it in a similar manner as the spores did in the garden dungeon. Besides it might come across as rude to the beast that they were about to meet. Cinder also shrunk down in size to where she was big enough for Lilly to comfortably ride on her. She didn't want to come across as aggressive either.

After a little while of walking they finally reached the end of the tunnel and came into a large room. The tunnel opened wide enough for someone like Tank to easily fit through at full size and lead to this large ledge that overlooked this enormous dark room. The light shining around Joshua wasn't strong enough to brighten up much of the room, but they were able to get a decent picture of what type of room they were in. They could see the ceiling above them and by the shape of the walls and ceiling it was like they had entered into a large dome like room. The floor below the ledge however was shrouded in darkness with how deep it went.

From what Joshua could see beneath them it looked as if large clouds of dark green gas filled the area beneath them. Joshua was certain if any of them accidentally fell into it they would die within seconds. Even with his aura Joshua was filling nothing but the threat of absolute death from the poison clouds beneath them. Joshua could also make out something moving within the gas but it was hidden by the darkness. It was as if he was seeing something moving slightly within the dark and he couldn't quite tell what it was.

"Well this looks like the den of a beast if I've ever seen one." Joshua said as he looked over the ledge.

"Well aren't you the clever one." The hissing voice said with a sarcastic undertone. "Welcome to my 'den' as you call it. I'm glad you three found my invitation nice enough to take." Joshua immediately looked down into the clouds of poison since he could tell that was the direction that the voice was coming from.

"It's always nice to make new friends." Lilly said in response to the voice as Cinder moved around a bit nervously. It was moments like these that Joshua realized that the giant spider was still technically a child.

"It's been so long since I've had a talk with anyone. All I've been able to truly do these past few decades is sleep my time away. I guess I should come up so that I can get a good look at you." The voice responded before the room started to shake. While Joshua was peering down into the clouds of gas he could start to make out what was previously hidden from view as the beast started to rise up. Several long portions of what looked like the body of a massive snake started to move through the gas. From what Joshua could see the snake was far bigger than even the one they had fought as a boss in the canyon dungeon by a large margin.

The scales on the snake's body were a dark green color with black markings along its back. The underside seemed to be a beige like color, but it was hard to make out inside of all of the gas. Eventually two large glowing yellow eyes peered through the clouds as the head made its way up next to the ledge they were on. The head was enormous, it alone was around the size of Cinder's entire body at full size if not larger. Joshua could tell right away that this snake would have no trouble swallowing a creature of Tanks size whole for a meal if it wanted to. On the tip of its nose it had these little horns and each scale on its face might as well have been giant shields which told Joshua right away that he had no hope of putting even a scratch on this beast.

When Joshua observed the beast all the system showed were a bunch of question marks and a giant skull near where its rating and level would be. This told him right away that it was well out of their league to even attempt to fight. "Well then Now that I've got a good look at you all I can tell that you're a rather interesting bunch." The snake said as it turned its head so that one of its large eyes could peer at them. Even such a small movement from the snake caused the entire room to shake. "A powerful boy who seems to be marked by the wolf mother, a beast tamer that already has several interesting beast under her control, and a descendant of the latest guardian of the planet an interesting group indeed."

"How do you know so much about us already?" Lilly asked a bit puzzled while Joshua was confused on the whole marked by the wolf mother thing.

"Smell is a sense definitely under used by you humans. I can smell those things on you and can make conclusions from their child, but I wouldn't want to go any further in this conversation before you bring out that old turtle. I haven't seen him in ages." The giant snake said as its long tongue came out and licked its lips. Joshua wasn't certain if it was excited to see an old friend or just looking forward to its next meal at this point.