Chương 36

The massive snake was curled up tightly on a tree branch. Its eyes were closed and it looked like it was completely relaxed, but a large, forked tongue regularly made an appearance, betraying its alertness. Its length remained a mystery to me; the thick body coiled around the branch in multiple layers. It was actually impressive that the branch could support the snake's considerable bulk. It was still intimidating, but at a much lesser intensity than it was a few days ago.

Once again, I was reminded of the fact that it had only been a few days since the tutorial had started. I wondered what would happen when the tutorial ends. Usually, in the stories I had read, the tutorial was a staging ground to showcase one's talents to the wider multiverse. Massive factions ruled by ancient gods would then pick and choose which ones from the tutorial to target for recruitment, based on their respective performances.

I also had a feeling that the system was limited in the tutorial by design, so that we could familiarize ourselves with the basics, after which the system would enable all features. It's all just guessing right now… better focus on what's in front of me. I shifted my attention back towards the snake and thought about how I could attack it. I knew for a fact that it was an elite monster, and that kobold elite had been an extremely dangerous fight that was still fresh in my mind.

Moreover, that kobold had been significantly weaker than what I could sense from this snake. I could just go for a straight-forward approach – go near it with concealed presence and then attack it in a vulnerable spot. The approach had worked for me so far. However, as soon as I thought of that, tactical insight loudly insisted that it was, in fact, not a good idea. Scrapping the idea, I tried to think of another one. Maybe I could approach a tree near it, climb it…

Tactical Insight pinged again, telling me it was not a good idea, again. Wait… that's weird. I didn't even finish my thought. The skill informed me as soon as I thought of approaching the snake. To test it, I once again thought of approaching the snake, and tactical insight did the same thing. It can probably sense me through concealed presence! That was the only thing that made sense. But does that mean it currently knows I'm here? My back tingled and the hair on the back of my neck rose at the thought.

Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself down. Instead of wildly theorizing, why don't I test my assumption to confirm? I thought about going forward two paces, and then throwing a twig on the snake. I needed to think about 'attacking' the snake to trigger tactical insight to work, and luckily, the twig seemed to count as an attack for the skill. It told me that it wasn't a smart idea. However, I had now confirmed that I could move forward two paces, and the snake wouldn't detect me.

Otherwise, tactical insight would have pinged as soon as I had thought about moving near, like it had earlier. Which meant that the snake probably had a sort of 'detection field' around it, and I wanted to know the extent of it. Over the next 10 minutes, with the help of tactical insight, I found out that going anywhere within about 15 feet of the snake would mean my discovery. Outside of that, concealed presence would keep me safe. That meant that the snake would have to be attacked from range.

I had just discovered a ranged attack; however, it was crude, at best – even the system agreed as it hadn't granted a skill to me for my wind bullet. I was thinking about what to do when I had a thought. Can the snake sense everything in a dome-like manner, or is it limited by direction somehow? I immediately put the thought to the test, with the result being much more encouraging. The snake could sense everything within 15 feet at or below its height.

It was probably the reason why it liked to stay high on the trees. However, its sense didn't work from above it, meaning I could climb a tree here and silently make my way through the trees above it, and it would be none the wiser. My mana was getting a bit low at this point, so I retreated and hid high on top of a tree while waiting for my mana to regenerate. Meanwhile, I tried to think of a workable strategy with which to overcome the snake.

A few minutes later, my mana was full again and I had a workable strategy in mind. The snake was too large and presumably too powerful for my ability to be of much help; however, my mana on the other hand could be quite useful if properly used. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. I went under concealed presence again, and started retreating towards the base.

About 10 minutes later, once I was confident I was far enough away from the snake, I climbed high into a tree again and settled down. My aim was to try and perfect the wind bullet spell. If that didn't work, I would at least improve it so that it didn't implode as soon as it hit its target. Time to learn.

I was currently high up within the canopy of the forest, making my way carefully towards the snake. It was still in the exact same position as it had been earlier, which I was extremely grateful for. As I neared, I started getting intimidated again at the sheer immensity of the thing. I pushed down the feeling, and slowly made it to the tree the snake was on. I started moving down the tree, getting closer to the snake with each painstakingly slow second that passed by.

I was soon in position on a branch that was about 6 or so feet above the resting snake, and from which I could jump down unobstructed towards its head. The snake's body stretched below me. Its actual length had so far been a mystery to me, but I was certain that it would soon be revealed. Taking a deep breath, and once again confirming through tactical insight that my plan could work, I finally put my thoughts aside and started moving so that I was soon upside down on the branch.

My feet were firmly on the underside of the branch, and my arms were trembling at the exertion of holding my body in this position. Fearing that a drop of sweat could soon alert the snake, I stopped second-guessing and launched. The world slowed down as I sped towards the snake, my sight narrowing down to a point where all I could see was my target – its right eye. Led by my dagger slicing straight into the eye, I crashed into the snake, momentarily knocking the wind out of myself.

A loud, pained hiss sounded out, before the world started shaking. The snake had started buckling under me, hissing furiously, and I was holding onto my dagger for dear life. Its chilling yellow left eye was now open, glaring at me and promising misery. I froze at the sight, mind replaying those eyes chasing me a few days ago; however, I knew I didn't have much time before the snake unwound itself, and I had to attack now!

Tearing my gaze from its slitted eye, and using all that my earlier experimentation had taught me, I moved mana into my left hand and formed a much better wind bullet in record time. Having kept hold of my dagger for this exact reason, I stretched my hand outward and fired the bullet into the monsters second eye in point blank range. This time, the bullet penetrated deeper, and the explosion was much better contained thanks to the effort I had just put in.

On the other hand, the snake had uncoiled itself much more, and the resulting thrashing caused me to lose my balance and slip off, dangling only by the dagger still miraculously inside the snake's eye. Tactical Insight suddenly screamed at me to move! Having no other choice, I let go of my dagger and dropped to the ground as a sudden green cloud burst from the snake's mouth. I was falling to the ground, but my sight was still on the snake.

My eyes widened in horror as anything the cloud touched instantly curled up and died. I crashed to the ground, getting the wind knocked out of me once again, but miraculously still in one piece. I rolled to a crouching position and instantly used quick step, intending to get out of range of the cloud. I was extremely lucky to have chosen to use quick step.

Instead of the cloud being the danger, the tail of the snake smashed into the position I had just vacated, moving faster than even my skill-enhanced perception could follow. Quick step ended and I immediately used it again, choosing to go in a diagonal direction. The tail came crashing once again, kicking up a cloud of dust and spreading dirt all over. I used the skill twice more before I dared to turn around, breathing heavily. A truly horrifying sight coming into view.

A thick green cloud covered a large part of the area I had just run away from obscuring everything within. However, just at the edge of the cloud, a forked tongue appeared, followed by the snake's large head descending, still with my dagger in one eye. My strikes seemed to have caused it no damage as it rapidly moved downwards, its speed defying all logic and its movements normal, despite both eyes being clearly injured.

Its bloody face was turned straight toward me, and I could see that the eye I had hit with the wind bullet was damaged, but not completely gone. I also knew it could sense me even without its eyes. The snake flicked its tail, crashing into the dagger to remove it from its eye. The immense strike caused the dagger to break, the hilt of the now useless weapon flying off into the distance while a piece of the blade remained lodged inside the eye, presumably causing no discomfort to the snake.

The snake had finally landed on the ground, and then started rising again, finally revealing its considerable size to me. It felt as if it had a hold of me somehow, as I couldn't quite seem to move. Instead, I was rooted in place as the snake continued rising. It was soon towering above me from over 15 feet high, its body still curled up on the ground. It was at least 50 feet long, probably even more. It hissed in disdain, and I knew that the situation was extremely bad.

The worst part was; I didn't have a weapon now.