I had levelled up a few times, but I wasn't really concerned about that right now.

I immediately delved into the gigantic worm's spilled guts, searching through them with [Heat Sense] to find the dark fae. It had taken so long to kill the creature that I could only hope she wasn't dissolved in its stomach acid by now.

Typhon joined me to search, but the stench of its body was so foul, he nearly gagged.

The giant worm's body was a mess of oddly shaped, spilled organs, filled with rocks of all kinds, and other organic matter. There were even sparkling metals and colourful gems sprinkled amongst its guts.

Considering it ate rocks constantly, and the nasty stench it gave off, precious metals were perhaps the least horrible things I would find, and I had to resist the overwhelming urge to give up the search and run away.

But then I remembered the moment its stomach had seemed to travel from its neck, all the way down to its lower body, so I shifted my attention to focus my search on its extremities.

"What kind of nasty creature is this?" I complained to Sensei. "Its composition is so weird. How can organs move around inside one body?"

Sensei hesitated, seemingly pondering over what to say, before finally chuckling. «I hate to be the one to break the bad news, but your serpentine form follows the same principle as this worm.»

"What?!"

I stopped searching in horror.

NO WAY!

«I challenge you to pinpoint your heart.» Sensei continued. «I'm confident you won't find it where you expect.»

My thoughts immediately filled with panic.

My heart?

Where was it?

I refused to believe I was anything like this worm.

That would just be...very uncomfortable.

I considered doing what Sensei said but after thinking it over, I started to feel silly. He probably said that to call me heartless in a roundabout way, and so I brushed him off and continued to search.

I wasn't in denial, there was simply no way his statement was true.

Soon enough, I picked up the heat traces of some oddly shaped spheres scattered within a fleshy sac inside the worm's body and I was curious to know what they were.

But after fishing them out I realised they were a cluster of the worm's eggs. Typhon came over to look at them, and I felt slightly regretful, realising I had killed it before it got to lay them.

I put them aside for now, to continue my search, and in the end I found a large rubbery parcel that could only be its stomach, containing all sorts of precious metals and stones among other things.

I sliced open the parcel only for numerous coloured stones to spill out, the parcel akin to a treasure chest with so many jewels that it took a long time to sort through them all. And in the midst of them was a tiny heat trace belonging to the dark fae and I was elated to see she was still alive.

She was unconscious, her legs slightly marred with bruises where the metals had knocked against her skin, and half of her leafy dress had already melted off. Her pale pink hair was wet and limp, and her tiny horns seemed to have skewered some of the smaller metal fragments and now they glittered heavily like bling.

But to my relief she was still breathing.

Her grey skin was a little too pale for comfort but fortunately, she didn't seem to have any heavy injuries. I nudged her with the tip of my wing, hoping to wake her up, but when she didn't react I began to panic.

However, when I tried to withdraw my wings, two tiny arms reached out to grab them, her translucent wings twitching as she rolled over to lie on my wings like they were a blanket. And as soon as she was comfortable, I heard her deep breathing.

I blinked in disbelief.

This brat was just sleeping through everything?!

What a waste of my concern!

I pulled my wing away from her, causing her to roll over onto the pile of jewels and she woke up with a start, sitting up to rub her eyes, before staring confusingly at her surroundings.

[Where am I?] she sleepily murmured.

[Hell.] I smirked in reply, but she only blinked in confusion.

I instructed Typhon to stop searching, and he came over to meet us. But the dark fae was still too groggy to comprehend her current state, so I shielded her body on her behalf.

I had to wonder if modesty was a concept to snakes, but Typhon only tilted his head at me in confusion, before moving away to look at the worm's eggs.

«She's just a child.» Sensei deadpanned. «And so is he.»

"Before you say anything more, she's eighty, that makes her an adult. You shouldn't look either–"

It was then that the dark fae screamed. [What happened to my leaves! Why do I smell so bad?]

Standing on the pile of jewels, her face was filled with terror as she took in all the devastation around her, and soon enough she noticed the worm's massive corpse which made her jump up in fright.

To get away from it she tried to fly away, but her wings were still too wet, so she settled for running behind me to hide.

[It's dead, you know.] I reminded her, but she cowered behind my wing, refusing to come out.

[It's too scary!] She sobbed. [I'm not coming out!]

I sighed in disbelief. [Don't you remember what happened? You got swallowed by that monster, we had to rescue you. But it's harmless now.]

[Really?] Her tear filled face poked out from under my wings. [But my leaves…]

I suppose that was still a problem.

[Can't you make it again?] I asked. Wasn't that how she came to possess clothes in the first place?

But the dark fae shook her head. [The tree spirits helped me make it. And it was my favourite one too!]

So she was not just a freeloader, but she was fully adopted by the spirits?

[You have to take me back.] The dark fae pleaded. [I can't fly like this.]

Hell no!

I planned to return to the cave eventually, but visiting the nymph's forest again was not in my schedule anytime soon.

[Can't you just...you know, make them with your magic?]

She sniffled, her eyes bubbling with tears. [I don't know how.]

The dark fae continued to sob. It seemed I had upset her.

But I had no idea how to fix the problem, so I spread some of my shadows to cover her for the time being. It was only then that she stopped crying.

I was relieved when she shook off the slime from her damp wings and flew over to my head in a truly wretched state.

[Can we go back now?] she asked pleadingly.

I wanted to say yes, but there were still a few things I needed to take care of here.

Between the metals and jewels, the worm's corpse and the eggs, there were too many things I needed to collect, which was now impossible without [Dimensional Box].

Such a large creature had died, and I was sure its body was going to attract other predators. And while I wasn't interested in its foul tasting meat, the gems, and precious metals it contained were another matter.

I considered leaving its corpse behind since the inedible metals would be left alone anyway, but Sensei stopped me.

«These worms are normally very solitary once fully grown, because their slime wards off other creatures of its kind. While you can find the smaller ones in groups, it's very rare to find one this big.»

"Really?"

Sensei continued to explain. «Once they mature their blood changes to contain a powerful repellent against monsters. They detest its smell, and they refuse to eat its meat. Some will even go out of their way to avoid it, even when it's weaker than them.»

That would explain why its scent felt so repulsive to me, but I wondered if this stinky quality was something I could make use of.

I looked over to see what Typhon was doing and saw him staring at the worm's eggs. If he was interested in them, perhaps they were worth taking back to the cave.

I called him over to assist me, and together we pulled the worm's corpse into one of the mucus covered tunnels to hide it.

Considering how foul it smelled and how repulsive its meat was, I didn't think there would be any creature that would be lured into coming here for a while.

But to be on the safe side, I instructed Typhon to collapse the tunnel to conceal the body underground, where it would stay until I could come back for my spoils.

Then we began our climb down from the plateau to return to the cave. Typhon had been obedient throughout and I wondered if he still wished to challenge me.

My plan to scare him had backfired, and made him stronger instead, but I wonder just how much he had improved from the fight.

Since I levelled up three times, I knew he had done so too but unfortunately, I couldn't appraise him so I let it be.

Strangely enough he seemed rather pleased as we went through the cliffside tunnel.

However, on entering the cave, the scene of turmoil before us, left us both shocked.

The cave was in complete disarray, in the aftermath of what looked like an attack.