Chapter 40: Old Fear

With two daggers in hand, Adam cautiously walked into the rainforest, hearing all kinds of animal noises far in the distance.

Adam had his eyes dead set on gaining as much as he could from the Dungeon System and as quickly as he could.

He no longer told himself he had to slowly defeat the Dungeon over time, and the idea of completing the Dungeon floor in a single night was lingering within his mind.

Holding his daggers tightly, that had visible cracks on them after losing a lot of durability, Adam weaved between the trees.

"I wonder what kind beast will I encounter first on the first stage of the floor" mumbled Adam as he continued to scour his surroundings for common threats found within a dungeon.

It was evident that the mysterious and heaven-defying Dungeon System that he gained was very similar to games and had different stages with different levelled beasts with a repeated structure, from what Adam had seen.

However, at the same time, Adam had come across goblins and knew that the system was very random and could come up with unexpected obstacles.

With that knowledge, Adam continued to stay cautious as he travelled a few hundred metres into the dense rainforest.

What surprised Adam was that he had seen birds fly above his head, but they didn't seem to be a part of a stage.

"This must be a dungeon that isn't simply split into stages and I must be prepared for anything that could come up" stated Adam to himself.

As he did so he began to hear noises that bought up old memories, fear and wariness.

There were loud rattling and hissing noises that he could hear from the area before him.

"Obviously the first beast I would have to face are snakes, the animals that I was most scared of" mumbled Adam to himself.

Adam had a severe case of Ophidiophobia when he was younger and would scream and sometimes even faint at the sight of snakes, even seeing them in movies and games made him feel uncomfortable.

It took him a few seconds to regain composure and as he thought about what he had been through and battled against with the Dungeon System, a snake seemed like a measly creature in comparison.

Steeling his will he walked forwards towards what he had speculated was the first stage, as he instantly saw a large yellow snake wrapped around a tree in the distance.

The single snake surprised him by its sheer size that was a few metres long and quite thick, but a single snake in the distance didn't threaten him much.

However, he instantly regretted assuming that it was a lone snake, as he spotted a few more snakes and found that they circled around the central area he was heading towards and he would have to battle against the snake beasts as what seemed to be the easiest beast on Floor 2.

Luckily Adam knew that snakes were not animals that would work together, which gave him some reassurance unlike when he had to battle against groups of Canidae beasts.

Looking closely at the yellow snake as he approached it, Adam gathered that it wasn't a poisonous snake, like he had guessed, from its initial sight and was in fact a python.

It's body structure, size and head shape gave it away to Adam, who had researched continuously about animals in preparation for hunting in the dungeon.

[If it is like this it is good and bad at the same time. It will no longer have venom or poison that a snake could inject into my body and would have been a massive danger. However, it is much stronger, more intelligent, and has much thicker and durable scales] gathered Adam.

But he also knew that the dungeon was unpredictable and didn't assume his observations as fact until he had battled against it first hand.

As he reached a range of 50 metres he began to see the stats of the beast and the closer he got the more he could see and the clearer the stat board became.

Wood Python

LVL 11

HP: 250

Strength: 23

Speed: 17

Intelligence: 19

Resistance: 23

The stats were extremely intimidating to look at and it had the strength level to be able to rival the Boss Beast of Floor 1.

Looking at the beast, the only thing Adam could see that he had over it was his speed.

However, its resistance and strength would be a massive issue and he knew that he couldn't allow it to wrap around him otherwise he would lose to the snake beast.

Additionally, it's intelligence was also high and from what Adam could assume, it wasn't for sensory ability, but for actual mental intelligence.

As he approached closer to the python, hoping to attack it while it wasn't prepared, the python suddenly opened its eyes and glared at Adam.

It glared straight at Adam and began to hiss as it loosens its tight grip around the tree and slithered down the tree to the floor.

Seeing its long thick body and its glaring eyes, Adam was ready to battle as he switched the grip of his daggers to a reverse grip.

Dual Slash

Activating the skill and pouring an additional 2 MP into it, Adam had slashed outwards with both his blades, launching energy blades at the python 20 metres in front of him.

At such a close distance and so suddenly, Adam knew it was a sure hit, but still jumped back in case of a counter-attack.

As the dust, that the energy blades had caused, subsided, Adam saw the python still where it lay with two small gushes on its body.

His attack had barely gotten through the scales of the beast that wasn't injured massively.

Looking at the python's HP, it had only dropped by 20 or so HP, but despite the minimal effects, Adam had a smile and came up with a method to take out the pythons.

"If I used Dual Slash to break through their scales, I can take them out when they attempt to wrap around my body, All I must do is with my daggers dig into the wounds I have caused and will be able to take them out within seconds of confronting them" planned Adam, who confidently walked over to the python who also slithered towards him.