“Ever tried starting a game at the middle with no tutorials, equipment and no retries?”

There was a strong feeling of déjà vu.

How did it go again? “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” or something. Was that it? Or was there something else? Oh, yeah, right, she was in a similar situation the night before.

She was running for her life again.

Well not really. She was just walking, following a glowing point above her head. It was Alice’s marble, glowing dimly, just enough to create a bubble of light for her – and her shadow.

She made sure to keep the marble above her head, and took great care to not stray too far. She realized that most of Alice’s instructions were given to do one thing: to prevent her shadow from touching the darkness around her. Why? The sounds of a thousand scuttling noises might be the reason.

She was surrounded. And whatever made those sounds, they were somehow repelled by the dim red light the marble emitted. It meant that if her shadow somehow left the circle of illumination cast on the ground, then those monsters will use it as a bridge to get to her. That was Elaine’s guess, but she was sure as hell not going to test it.

And actually, despite not seeing them she already knew what made the sounds. They were the same leech monsters from the first night, back to make her life... slightly more inconvenient again.

Hopefully she’ll be able to keep her left eye by the end of the night.

There was no time to be affected by her trauma. She had to get out in one piece. Alice’s warnings repeated themselves in her head. Keep her shadow close. Ignore the noise. Don’t make a sound. That was basically it. Why Alice had to spin her words was probably a fairy thing, but whatever.

Walking blind made things complicated, obviously. Her footing was one thing, but randomly coming across half-eaten corpses was another. Fortunately the floating marble slowed down each time she encountered any real obstacle, but it still threw her off every time. There was even one point where she almost tripped over a savaged exoskeleton.

But in the end Alice’s gift guided her true, and she eventually found herself stumbling out of the mountain and into the woods.

She had almost forgotten that the world she was in had two moons. The sight of it calmed her down somewhat. The marble, having finished its job, fell with a weighty thud.

“Yeah she definitely cheated.”

But there was no room for respite. A shocking sight welcomed her as she picked the marble off the ground.

More carcasses surrounded her. Despite being a fan of violent movies, the sight of them in real life still made her squeamish. It only came later when she got out due to being free from the distraction of escaping. But interestingly, or rather fortunately, there was no sign of any of those leech monsters around. What was left to violate her senses was only the devastation they left in their wake.

Ironically, despite being alone at night, with nothing on her but a damp blanket and underwear, she felt relatively safe.

She kept the marble inside her locket; conveniently it was large enough to hold both it and her coin inside.

So what was next? She had no idea. But at the very least she knew where to start.

“I need to look for that snake-person horror-thing.”

Communication problems could be solved... somehow. Regardless instead of aimlessly wandering it was eternally more preferable to have a place to begin. Her chamber was probably compromised, being in the mountain and all, so she couldn't use it as a base of operations anymore. The only thing she could think of was to look for the first one she’d met who didn’t try to eat her.

But where is he? The lake was a good place to start.

Question was, should she wait for the morning to arrive? Roaming a forest at night without any sources of light was definitely dangerous. The marble had stopped working as well. Any way she looked at it, waiting for the sun was definitely more advantageous. In contrast, sunrise was at least sixteen hours away. And where should she stay to pass the time? Up on the trees? But that carpet monster could probably climb those, so who knew what else could.

She suddenly had misgivings about sleeping. She was able to get a good rest last time because the snake-person stood guard. The first time it happened didn’t count because she was knocked out and got lucky.

... Maybe she should just stay awake? Impossible. She’d been awake for over twelve hours already. There was no way she was going to last over ten more hours especially after all the games they played, and the horror gauntlet she had to go through afterwards.

“Looks like a job for—“

She was about to resort to her old habit when something suddenly slipped itself under her arms and carried her up. The feeling of it on her skin was slimy and disgusting. She managed to scream slightly before something went around her head and blocked her mouth. She struggled to free herself until something made a voice right by her ear.

“Ssssshhhh...”

Stricken with fear, she complied to the almost hiss-like command. She was manoeuvred to a thick branch up a tall tree where she tried to sit and balance herself. The thing that wrapped around her torso and head let go without doing anything else. Elaine sighed in relief. Then, something that dangled down from a higher branch stared at her, barely inches from her nose. It was a giant, golden snake.

She screamed. Almost. She really disliked snakes. A thick something immediately wound itself around her head again to block her mouth right before she did.

“Ssssshhhh!”

More of them came down the tree. They gathered around the golden serpent and formed a horrific imitation of a man.

“Please, keep quiet.”

It spoke! In English, no less! It then made a gesture of covering its mouth with its hands. Elaine’s eye opened wide in realization.

It's him... it!

Finally calm, she nodded her head. It looked relieved somehow. It then pointed downward towards the ground. She followed its ‘finger’ and immediately saw what they were hiding from.

It was one of those leech monsters. It was alone, wandering, looking for something. Her skin crawled from just looking at it. It was the first time Elaine saw one alive while not running away from it. What was it looking for? Something to eat? Probably. Her wound throbbed when she thought about it. They kept watching it for a while until it decided to go. She sighed in relief, prematurely, when she heard the same sound that haunted her inside the mountain.

The sight of them once again running through the forest in a wave of thousands made her stomach churn. She covered her mouth, preventing her gag action from progressing into vomiting. The wave of flesh and teeth hit the tree where they sat, making it shake violently. She lost her balance and almost fell to what may have been certain death when several snakes pushed her back to the trunk.

It lasted for only five agonizing seconds, but for her who had lost her eye to their bite; it was five seconds too long.

“Never thought a dungeon would awaken so close to the city,” it said to itself. Several of its heads scanned their surroundings. Satisfied, they collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

Elaine wasn’t, though. She was trembling. When one of its snakes tapped her on the shoulder she jerked violently, and almost screamed until she saw who it was.

It brought its hand up similar to the time when they had first met. She somewhat calmed down. It then gestured towards the ground and pointed at the both of them. She understood what it meant, but she was hesitant to do it. But then she considered that it probably knew better what to do, so in the end she nodded her head and complied.

She was carried down by the mass of serpents the same way she was carried up the tree. Having her foot down on solid ground wasn’t as assuring as she had wanted it to be when she considered that those monsters were out there somewhere. Her body also felt quite slimy, probably because of sweat. Upon coalescing once again to a rough human form, it stared at her and bowed its head slightly, as if telling her that it was going.

Huh? Strange. It seemed smaller than when they first met.

“Umm! Wait! Thank you!”

She bowed her head deep in response.

Her mother had hammered it into her to always bow her head in appreciation, especially when she was in debt like that. She’d been saved twice already by the same... person. How could she not?

But instead of a flowery, heartwarming scene, awkward silence came instead.

“... Huh? So you can talk?”

“What? No, wasn’t it you who can’t talk?”

“Every country only uses one language, so it was definitely you who couldn’t.”

“Eh?”

“Anyway, please run to safety now, miss. If you see them, run up a tree. They can’t climb. Take care.”

“Oh! Wait!”

She almost grabbed its arm but was threatened off by a particularly agitated hiss. She recoiled back in fear, suddenly quite unsure about her decision.

“... Ah, we apologize. What is it, miss?”

It seemed everyone was still tense. Understandable; Elaine felt like she’d jump and scream from the slightest sudden noise herself. But desperation and fear plus her original purpose drove her into saying something a girl her age shouldn’t, especially to what was essentially a random stranger.

“I... don’t have anywhere else to go. Can I come with you?”

Being in possession of multiple heads allowed it to show a multitude of responses; several of the snakes tilted their heads, some of them reeled their heads back in surprise while a handful of them stared at the mountain beside them. After a short while the snakes seemed to have come to a decision—

—And shook their heads.

“We apologize. We must report back. Please, get yourself to safety. If possible find a tree hollow and hide there until the sun comes out. Then make your way to the nearest human settlement. Goodbye.”

It brandished its spear and set off, leaving the dumbstruck Elaine where she was.

She had banked on its selflessness from when they had first met, but she had never thought that it would definitely help her. But still, being rejected filled her with a horrible feeling.

“Wait!”

It paid her no heed as it sped off through the trees. The sight of its receding back was like hope escaping her grasp. If that was it, then she was back to where she started. Though the mention of a 'human settlement' definitely perked her up, it wasn't an option at that moment especially when she didn't know where it was.

But before she could even begin to contemplate her bad luck, something happened. The running mass of snakes suddenly disappeared as if it fell down a hole. She wondered – it didn’t yell out or anything like that, and it was still too close for it to disappear between the trunks or the horizon. It piqued her curiosity, so she went to take a closer look. The sight shocked her as much as the earlier rejection.

It had collapsed. Most of the snakes lay unmoving, while some were barely able to slither their way onward regardless. As it had collapsed on a relatively well-lit part of the woods she immediately noticed the alarming amount of blood they were covered with.

They all had bite wounds on their bodies as well.

“Are you okay?!”

She knelt down beside it, near the golden serpent that was a size larger than the others. It lifted its head weakly to stare at her before it tried to slither away once again.

“You’re hurt!”

“... We must go. We have a duty...”

“You can’t go anywhere like that!”

It ignored her and continued its slow, painful crawl onward. Only very few other snakes were able to follow it, but they looked like they were only their last legs as well metaphorically speaking.

Elaine had many near-death experiences over the short time she’d been in that world. Each time, she managed to live through luck or by the hand of another. As it turned out, the one bleeding out was the first person to have ever helped her. She might not have half her sight, but she could clearly see what would happen if she let it continue as it did. There was no way she was going to just let it kill itself if she could do anything about it.

“... Miss. You’re in the way.”

“No. How could you go anywhere if you can’t even get past a girl kneeling in front of you? You need to get some rest, tend to your wounds and—“

“Move.”

It was an uncharacteristically deep voice from someone who usually spoke in a slurred, almost hissing sound. Elaine felt her skin crawl from some pressure it exerted through his stare. A few snakes also raised their heads and exposed their fangs threateningly.

The longer she stared at its eyes the more her confidence wavered. She had heard of the myth that snakes could hypnotize their prey, but of course she never believed in it. What about in another world, then?

No, she couldn’t step down. She didn’t want it to die, she didn't want to die, and she needed its help just as much as it needed hers. So she bit her tongue hard to distract herself and angrily glared back at it.

An intense staring contest erupted between a girl and a snake. She wasn’t confrontational in nature, but having a purpose and a promise pushed her onward.

Elaine almost thought she was going to lose when the snake’s golden eyes suddenly broke contact. Its head fell resignedly on the ground and sighed.

“... Alright. We guess... you have a point.”

Hearing that caused Elaine’s face to light up with a smile so wide her wound started to hurt again. She was beginning to think that she was going to have to suffer a few more bites before she got what she asked. Fortunately it didn’t come to that. But more importantly, since it conceded, they needed to get out. They wasted a lot of time. Those monsters might return anytime.

“You are a peculiar one, miss. What’s your name?”

“Ah! Right! Yes, introductions. I’m Elaine Kirika Dawn. It’s nice to meet you!”

“...?”

For some reason it looked almost baffled upon hearing her name. Why?

“We are called Ss’zsl. A pleasure.”

“What.”

“Yes?”

Well with a name like that then hers might actually be the strange kind. Really? Its name was like just a string of hisses. Maybe it was a snake thing. In the end, though, if that was really it’s name then she couldn’t call it out. Maybe hearing her name was surprising exactly because it was weird in that world.

With that out of the way... how can they get a move on, though, when ‘Ss’zsl’ couldn’t even budge anymore?

.

Of course. Yes, of course. That had to happen. There wasn’t much use grumbling, though, as there wasn’t any other choice. They needed to move at a certain speed that their weakened selves couldn’t manage.

It was worthy to mention that she had never been curious about how it felt being completely enveloped by snakes in the first place.

But there she was, walking through the forest with just over ten limp serpents dangling down her body. She kind of looked like a tourist in Hawaii with too many leis placed on her person.

“Just continue forward... our den should be nearby.”

The main snake, or the one that acted as the ‘individual’ as she had come to learn, named Ss’zsl, was wrapped around her neck with its head perched on top of hers. There were a lot of reservations with their arrangement, especially considering she’d seen them break bones and tear limbs off from just constricting really hard, but considering nothing had happened yet, then hopefully nothing will. Again, it should be noted that one of the many things she was scared of were snakes. She really, really didn’t like snakes. But somehow, she wasn’t feeling so terrified of them that time.

She walked slowly but steadily, careful not to drop any of the serpents that were draped around her arms and body. She only had so many body parts for a certain amount of snakes that couldn't move to hang on to. They had no choice but to leave the ones that could move to follow at their own pace.

“Uuu...”

“... We apologize.”

“It’s okay. I can take it.”

Her body felt gross all over. The blood from their bodies had almost completely covered Elaine’s, causing a disgusting, slimy feeling whenever her skin rubbed against her own or on theirs. It was particularly bad between her legs and under her arms...

Anyway, at least she was able to use its spear as a walking stick.

... And she had just taken a dip in Alice’s cavern, too...

“Turn to your left slightly.”

“Got it.”

They had travelled quite far already, occasionally encountering bare corpses and half-eaten beasts. Those leech monsters had devastated the region much more than they have during the previous night. Though Elaine had recommended that they rest somewhere nearby, mostly because of herself, Ss’zsl insisted that they instead head towards its den for safety.

After a while of walking she saw a clearing in the distance. If she wasn’t mistaken, they were near or at the lake area. The thought encouraged her legs to walk faster, eager to take what was essentially her third swim of the day. However all hope drained from her face when she saw the state of the area.

There were bodies everywhere, more than the amount they had encountered as they travelled through the woods. It looked like a battlefield fresh off of war. The bodies of different animals littered the ground at random. Thankfully the stench wasn’t that bad, as the winds regularly carried off the scent of rot. She even saw one of those carpet-like monsters that had tried to eat her bitten to death. Among the corpses she saw more of the leech-monsters, dead from different kinds of wounds. Some of them had bite marks on their bodies; some were crushed to death, while some even looked like they were sliced by something sharp or burned. It looked like the forest animals took a united stand against those monsters; an admirable thing.

Then she saw the corpses of snakes.

“... We were cornered. The lake is surrounded by tall ledges on all but one side and they came at us from the only way out. All we could do was fight.”

Some of the snakes that were wrapped around her moved and slithered around, causing an extremely uncomfortable feeling throughout her body. But she understood why they reacted that way. They had lost some of their own, so it was natural that they also felt disquieted enough to move.

“Our den is up ahead, not much further.”

She nodded and walked through the field, careful to avoid any of the bodies. The ground had become a sheet of gory mud from all the blood that it had absorbed. Each step she took was a test of her psychological fortitude. Once, she missed a step and almost fell over. Fortunately the spear’s shaft managed to hit solid rock when she used it to catch her fall, saving her from another traumatic experience.

“Please be careful.”

“Yeah thanks, sorry.”

Her body ached. She was exhausted both physically and mentally. All she wanted to do was to take a bath and go to sleep, but upon laying eyes on the lake she immediately had second thoughts.

There was no way she was going to swim on a lake with floating corpses...

After a while they had cleared the area and arrived at the other side. By that time she was breathing heavily, almost panting from the prolonged exertion. But she couldn’t allow herself to drop to the floor just yet. There was a weight placed on her shoulders. Literally.

“It’s there.”

The tip of Ss’zsl’s golden tail extended out from under her chin, pointing towards what looked like a mound surrounded by trees. There wasn’t anything that looked like an entrance nearby, but she followed obediently regardless.

“Wait there,” Ss’zsl said, and slowly slithered down her body. The feeling of it crawling on her skin almost made her already exhausted knees buckle from the unneeded sensations.

It crawled onward and stopped near the root of the tree. Then its eyes glowed slightly. She stared in wonder and curiosity. When its eyes returned to its original, somehow natural eyeshine, Elaine felt a small quake rock her feet. Slowly the ground at the base of the hill receded and revealed a hole large enough for a human to duck into.

“Woah... was that magic?”

Her question went unanswered as she was beckoned inside the den.

The inside absolutely blew her mind.

Not to be judgmental or anything but she expected the den of a pit of snakes to be featureless and contain the occasional waste and animal limbs. The last thing she expected, as much as she was ashamed to admit it, were chairs, a table, a lamp and even a bookshelf and a weapon rack.

It looked like a typical bunker-style home!

“Is there something wrong?”

“Ah! Sorry! I didn’t mean to be insensitive!”

“Huh?”

"... Anyway, there."

Ss'zsl pointed her towards a pile of what looked like cloth. She immediately realized what she needed to do next.

It looked like the night was only getting started.