Actually I have no time to write anything, cuz’ the teacher that is In charge of my bachelor thesis told me, that there is something wrong with my thesis, yet she is not sure what she exactly want from me… and I have to start everything from 0… well, I still can use what I already wrote, yet I am so pissed off, that I have to take a break. This is why I am writing the chappy now. I am angry. I am mad, and I have no idea what kind of shit I will write today.

Edited by: KenChi死

The scales of giant snake were sturdy. The pattern was similar to snakes that used to live on dessert. Where do you have a weak spot, you ugly bastard? I could already forget about trying to penetrate those with arrows. Most of my magic would probably slide off his scales… maybe explosion near it? Kaito will be useless too… Maybe o could use him as bait? Yes, I know it sounds terribly, but do I have any other option? Plus he will not die! Well… not permanently.

As I was considering every possible move, the giant snake rolled like cobra, raised its head and freezed in spot waiting for me to get closer… the scales on his bottom side looks to be weaker… yet to strike it I will have to be under him… it… her… whatever it is. And as you probably recall, this asshole is big. It is impossible to get under it, without being trampled to dead.

The beast bared its fang.

You are cheating, you know? Normally snakes are either big and choke their enemy or have venom. And here you are having both. Tsh, we will have to use “that” spell again.

Hey! Codex! Could you please show me one more time this blood magic spell? Equilibrium or whatever was the name?

~I would rather not do that.

The FUCK? You told me you would help me if I would be in life-threatening situation!

~Those beast can use magic too. Now they only want to play with you, and as you know for most of mages I am pretty precious equipment. You are like naïve newbie fencer that was challenged by a pro. They want to toy with you, but if you would use some kind of Excalibur to duel them, they would kill you and take the weapon for themselves. Don’t use me left and right. Actually, you should use me only when there will be no one else to tell about you using me. And I doubt you are able to kill them all. So, the answer is no. You are prohibited to use me. And better prey to all gods in heaven for that snake queen to not “smell” me…

… Great. Sweet. Well, the good thing is that it can’t get any worse in situation like th…

“If you will not move soon, I will consider adding another opponent for you…”

… It just get worse. Didn’t I told you that hunter have to be patient? But… no, it will not work… But maybe… no, it is suicide… but do I have any option left?

I start walking in circle… in same time I was summoning familiars. I looked at my mana bar. Opening connection for the spirits was mana consuming. Way more than simply maintaining them in our realm…

180 of 260 mana. It means I can use up to 80, so I can still use 100 for last move.

First, let us see what is your attack pattern…

Kaito rushed from the side. Giant snake quickly looked at me and the ravens, to see if we were making any co-operative maneuver. But we stayed in same spot as before.

Brood guardian hesitated. Looks like that beast is pretty intelligent, and is disturbed by the lack of meaning in our action. But if one of the opponents can be killed without any casualties… then why should it hesitate?

The head of giant beast hit the ground where Kaito was standing. But Kaito was not there. I looked at Remus. Poor birdie looks exhausted after casting his first illusion magic. I appraised him. 50 mana out of his 200 pool was drained. ¼ of mana in one go… I will have to use remaining 3 uses of this skill wisely.

But what did that situation told me? He can perform attack from his battle pose pretty quickly, but he will need to time to roll back. Nah, he is not especially vulnerable for any kinds of attack, but we will have some time to get into better position… it would be great if we could use those position to improve our battle capabilities…

If I only had a hammer…

“Remus sweet heart, would you mind if I would ask you for another one?”

Remus definitely minded, yet he started to channel the mana in order to create another illusion. This time I moved too. There were plenty strategies to deal with giant snake, but I lacked team mates or magic power. I could bind him to the spot, then remove with of his scales and set him on fire from insides. It would take a lot of time, but could work. Unfortunately such a being is to powerful to let me tie him with my weak chaos magic.

But the idea to burn him from inside… let’s just say I found his insides to be only place to truly injure him. Yes, it means that your beloved hero is going to get into this monster stomach and in order to get back from there I will need those 100 mana.

So, what is a difficulty in just letting him to swallow me?

Fangs. His venom, to be precise. I doubt he will just swallow me without firstly injecting venom. Big, high grade snake with elite title that is almost level 20. It means strong venom. If I would find myself in his stomach, and then the venom would kick in, disturbing my mana flow… I would be dead on the spot.

So first, I will aim for its fang.

I was running toward the beast that was still confused. Looks like calling him intelligent was a bit too much. More like he is smart, he know how to behave in different situation, but such thing like magic is too much for him to understand. Maybe we will fool him a little by performing situation his is more familiar with?

Alongside me Kaito was running and ravens were flying above me. Even as Kaito and I were mostly bait (for now) the raven still may damage his eyes… as long as he will not close his second layer of eyelid…

It will be risky for I will have to be next to the place he will strike. The illusions of Remus are pretty tricky. He can’t control it wholly, so instead of showing illusion just to one particular enemy making him hallucinating, he is playing with light itself, so everyone in vicinity would see a mirage made by raven. It was awkward to see myself running 2 or 3 meters next to me.

The beast one more time open its jaw and dug fangs in ground. The illusion vanished. In a second I jumped to the beast grabbed with both hands the giant fang and transferred magic casting mana shock wave while pulling it to the side.

The fang was broken and venom splashed from hollow in his upper part of mouth. The pain had to be significant because the beast hissed… and that hiss was pretty close to a roar. When the snake freed himself he started to shake his whole body.

What did I do? I ran, of course. Have you even been near raging elephant? You really would prefer to get away from it. And that beast is bigger than elephant.

His head hit one of many columns, and then another one. Those pillar collapsed entrapping the snake under it.

… what the… keep it cool. Act like you aimed for it.

There is a good side of it. We are back to melt this asshole. We will not jump into his stomach. Are you happy, guyz? Well, I definitely am.

Ravens started to bully snake by trying to peck and scratch his eyes, but two layers of eye-lids where keeping those safe.

I jump on beast back. He tried to shake me off, but his back was restricted by the many parts of the columns.

Note for future me. Never underestimate the possibilities that environment can provide to you. Never.

I put my hands on one of the giant snake scales. Gilbert landed on my shoulder granting me 5% bonus to heat based spell. Not much, but will not complain.

I focused all heat on this one particular scale, restricting even the smallest portion of warmth from leaving this particular object. As the heat will drastically increase, so will the size of the snake. Basic law of the world, the greater is the warmth, the bigger is the distance between molecules, the bigger will get the object. Scale will not pop out, but will be way easier to rip it off. Or it will melt during the process. Both ways are good for me.

But… what about the big snake lady… I doubt that she will be okay to simply watch her child getting killed…

“I think I already prove myself. There is no need for me to…” “Keep going”

What the...

“Strong devours weak. It is a basic law of this world. Feast upon him and get stronger. It was foolish of me to let him keep the job of brood guardian… at the other hand it was the only thing that he was able to do… For now… Kill him. Eat him. Get stronger. Survive.”

Sucks to be you, big boy. But it is creepy, to let your child be killed in front of you just because it failed.

The scale get a bit bigger and was pressing harder on the other scales moving them from their original location. I took whole heat out of the scale. As it rapidly get a bit smaller, some cracks appeared on it. I filled it with mana, and one again I used magic shock wave to remove the sturdy scale.

The slim skin appeared in my vision. Without hesitation I began melting it. The stench of burning skin filled my nose.

The hissing and roaring of agony could be heard. After skin was carbonized the fat start melting. And after fat same fate was shared by flesh and muscles.

I hoped to destroy some of its vital organs as fast as possible. If it was up to me, I would finish it’s suffering. But instead I was doomed to listen to his song of agony.

The voice of the snake was getting weaker and weaker and finally he went silence.

I stopped what I was doing when the notification popped out.

[Acid Spitter - Brood Guardian - Elite] Level 29

You have obtained 1213 exp

Your familiar [Sebastian] has reached maximal exp capability and is ready to evolve.

Your familiar [Sebastian] is now [Dark Garuda]

Nothing changed in Sebastian appearance. I will have to appraise him to understand what exactly happened to him, but there will be a better time and place to do it.

51 exp for me to level up…

“Splendid little one. Even if your victory was a mere matter of luck… of course you will not get his body…” Oh you little lying… “..But as our pact will be finished, you will get from me something more valuable… One more question… why didn’t you used that sweet little Grimoire that is hiding inside of you?”

Fuck. She smelled ya, codex!

~I can tell that much!

“She probably told you to not use her, didn`t she? Let me tell you one thing about her. Don’t trust her. She is never helping out of good will. She has her own business in letting you grow in power. She always does. She grants power to the one she found promising in order to force him or her to finish her goal. She gives more and more power. To the point when user can’t control it. To the point, when he or she will die or lose their sanity. Did she tell you about it? Did she tell you how all of her previous user died? You face says, that she didn’t. Now go, my children will show you the way back.

Codex-chan?

~It is mostly true… But please! Listen to me! It is true that there is something I really want to do, and I wanted to ask your for it as you would became stronger. But not force you to do so! More like a favor for a friend… and it is true that my previous masters were poisoned by power… but it was power they begged for or literally ripped off me! You have to believe me, please! I did everything I could for you to not meet the same end! I am showing you now only the basics! I am restricting usage of certain abilities only to situations when you life is in danger... you…

It is okay codex-chan. You can tell me everything when you will be prepared. I can wait. Collect your thoughts and then tell me your story… well, it is not like I can drop you somewhere like a book and ran away… for now I think we have to keep moving… or the queen may change her mind..

~Zari…

Yes?

~Thank you.

After 20 or so minutes of walking through corridors so complex that without a guide I would have lost my way 5 times at least, I finally was able to breathe fresh forest air once again.

It is nice to be on the surface again.

In same moment I allowed myself to appraise Sebastian. As his stats where nothing different there were 2 skills that caught my attention. Especially “dual form”

Before I was able to read its description, Sebastian started to shift.

He grow tall. Taller than me. His form went a bit closer to humanoid, yet still resembled a monster. Imagine the giant raven that was standing completely upright, moved not by jumping but walking elegantly, that with fluent movement covered most of his chest with it’s right wing while his left wing hide behind his back, bowed deeply and said:

“Greetings, master. It is my greatest pleasure to be able to finally talk with you.”

Big ass talking-bowing raven that has some human traits in his posture.

What… the…

now, tell me, who actually wanted for mc to jump into snakes belly and destory it from inside? huh?