A bright circle appears in the middle of the jungle leaving behind a dazed woman on the creepy crawly ground. Izo shrieks as she scrambles to her feet and shakes the hungry bugs off her red, damp face. The heat is oppressive as her lungs struggled to breathe, but drowning at the humidity in the air.

Izo bitterly curses out loud as she swats the bugs away from her face and tries to walk through the jungle without tripping over any roots. She could have sworn that a jungle was not one of the mentioned coordinates by the mage technicians. In fact, if her topography didn’t fail her, wolves are not native to the tropics or sub-tropics including wolf monsters. Whether it was a mistake or on purpose, she would swear that fate was laughing at her.

Izo scrambles over a fallen rotting log before emerging into a clearing with ruins. She narrows her eyes and upon further inspection, she spots several large and red-lettered warning signs declaring that the ruins up ahead were a dungeon, Ophidian Wilderness.

Izo sighs through her nose rather than with her mouth as that would lead to inhaling a swarm of nat-like insects. She doesn’t dare push her hoodie back as she wipes her forehead with her sleeve, lest a creepy crawly from above gets any ideas and dares fall onto her uncovered head. She had already crushed a giant spider that had decided to land on her shoulder.

With care, Izo moves to step into the clearing. Frowning, she can hear her own breath in the sudden silence. Even the swarm of insects of flown away or fallen silent. The hairs on her skin stick up as the tree branches creek in a non-existence breeze.

Without hesitation, Izo bolts forward as the tree branches behind her are carelessly crushed. Darting towards the dungeon, the giant shadow on the grows impossibly fast, causing her to leap to her side. A giant greenish, slithery tail slams into the ground leaving a meter-deep dent into the ground. Too busy to glance at her attacker as a giant pink mouth engulfs the area that was just standing it even tearing into the ground just to swallow its prey.

Too late a familiar message gleefully pops up before Izo as everything does slimy and dark.

Young Midgard Serpent (Rare)

Legendary snake able to grow to impossible sizes.

The monster snake clamps its mouth shut with pleasure and swallows. It begins to slither away as it scents another creature nearby. The snake feels a tickling sensation in the back of its throat causing it to have the urge to gag. The snake for the first time in its life chokes and regurgitates a slimy, struggling figure.

Izo lands in a wet plop as saliva just drips off her body. A shiny, almost bronze-like wood colored staff is held in her hand as the top half glints with an ebony, sharp blade. Izo almost slips on her slimy feet, but with the aid of her scythe, she manages to remain propped up straight. A rather cross expression is on her face as uses her slimy hand to wipe away the excess mucus off her face.

The giant snake is rather confused as the itchy feeling in its throat has yet to fully disappear. It stares at its feeble meal covered in wetness as the snake flicks its tongue in the air. Deciding, that it did not like the taste of that stick-like thing, it turns its massive head south towards the source of fine boar meat.

“Oi, where do you think you’re going?” Izo crankily yelled as she spat out snake saliva from her mouth. The sharp ebony end of her scythe glistens menacingly in the light.

The snake doesn’t react as a cold light appears in Izo’s eyes. She rolls her shoulders in a circle loosening them up and doing the same with her neck. Bending her knees forward, she gathers strength in her legs, before pushing off. Suddenly, air-borne, Izo twirls her scythe in the air, creating a shrill whistle in the air, before bringing it down with full force at her target, the giant snakes head.

The snake manages to sense a sudden heat movement and reacts fast enough that it manages to dodge the scythe filled with an unusual amount of bloodthirst. The tip of the scythe slams into the ground causing the earth to crumble underneath it and create a well-sized crater. The slimy, impossibly sticklike creature darts in zig-zag pattern towards the snake as the snake hurriedly spits out bright globs of poison at the figure bounding through the air.

The dark blobs evaporate in thin air as Izo chants something under her breath. In a louder voice, she hisses, “Tiny snakes should stick to their rightful places!” Izo rams the glowing scythe into the monster snake with her full strength.

The giant snake is still for a moment before it’s body splits into pieces as lighting like energy races across its entire length. The snake has a confused expression as it’s body implodes and splatters across the entire clearing. Bits and pieces of the giant snake rain down as Izo places the World Tree Scythe back into her inventory.

A particularly large piece of snake meat hurls towards Izo as she catches it one-handed. Glancing at the piece of snake flesh, her stomach grumbles. Izo makes a disgusted expression, as she hadn’t planned on eating and therefore hadn’t packed a lunch. If she had known, she would have packed lunch and a change of clothes.

Damn, she really was out of shape. She had even forgotten to pack the extra change of clothes and supplies. Well, she had taken little over a year off from hunting. It was to be expected that she had forgotten a couple of crucial details.

Izo gathers some dry wood from nearby and starts a fire. She needn’t fear that animals would be drawn the fire as the scent of the giant snake was literally strewn all around. Having placed the snake meat on a sturdy branch, Izo was calmly turning it until the snake meat was crisp. A dried black goo was present on the cooking meat signaling that the meat was poisonous. Thankfully…. Izo was impervious to such things.

The meat releases a burnt-like smell signaling that the monster snake meat is ready. With a grimace, Izo bites into the snake’s squishy flesh. She grimaces at the foul taste of dried fungus and rotting meat. Izo swallows loudly as her eyes glisten with moisture. Eating monster meat is not for the faint of heart.

Sometime later, having managed to keep the snake meat down, Izo puts out the fire. It is only mid-day when she approaches the dungeon. To the side of the ruins is a carefully set up teleportation ring, that has a sign in very large letters stating, “To return to a guild branch, STEP ON to the ring and speak out loud the branch destination. Warning: once activated, teleportation cannot be canceled.” Izo snorts at the second sign, before walking up the dungeon stairs into the looming darkness and vanishing within.