Drake and his party reached their destination in less than two hours.

 

Poison Valley

Fog Zone

 

He could use his appraisal ability even to get details of territories and fog zones.

Ayame drove inside with a slow and steady speed. It was covered in greenery, and true to its name there were poisonous mists at various places.

He checked and found that the mist was poisonous mainly to level 0, and could cause fatal harm to weak ones. It had a negligible effect on level 1 or above.

He exchanged four antidotes from his shop and gave one to each. The twins also had purchased antidotes from the territory but were weak against the mist.

They were greeted with a vast forest. The forest was made of twisted trees, with their gnarled branches reaching skyward like skeletal fingers. There was thick undergrowth that obscured the forest floor with an occasional rustle of unseen creatures.

They were not able to travel far by their vehicle due to the dense vegetation and hence, had to leave it and travel by foot. Ayame walked in the front, with Aria and Drake in the middle and Yumi taking care of the back.

They were occasionally attacked by poisonous snake monsters but those critters were too weak and hence easily dealt with by the group.

Even though the snakes attacked silently by using the foliage as cover, against the Perception Mastery of the twins, they were as clear as day. And Aria, even without Perception Mastery could still counterattack those weak critters with her beastly senses.

Those snakes occasionally dropped Fog Coins. Aria had experience in skinning and helped to gather various materials like skin, teeth, gall bladder, venom glands, etc, from the snakes. All of them were carrying big bags to help carry as many items as possible.

“HISS”

After traveling for some time they heard a loud hissing noise. A huge snake attacked Aria from behind. Until the time her beastly senses warned her, it was already too close.

But before it could bite her neck, an arrow pierced its head and dropped dead instantly. Aria plopped down from fear while sweating profusely. She got up with difficulty, her knees still weak from the shock.

“Thank you, Yumi. You saved me at the end moment, otherwise I might have died”, thanked Aria, still feeling lingering fear.

Yumi only nodded. Of course, she had noticed the snake before it even decided to attack Aria, but she did not need to know that.

After collecting all the materials from the snake, they again continued on their journey.

“Young master, I found it”, said Ayame excitedly while pointing at the Purple-Dotted Ivy plant. After another hour of fighting a continuous onslaught of various poisonous snake monsters, they finally came across their objective.

“Be careful, it may be guarded by a strong poison-type monster”, said Drake. When he was checking the uses for the herb, he found it was the favorite snack for poison-type monsters. It improved not only their toxicity but also their strength. Hence, it was usually guarded by a strong poison-type monster that would occasionally eat its leaves as they grew up.

Just as Drake completed his sentence, a huge ringed snake attacked Ayame. Even before Drake had warned her, she had already discovered its existence. The reason she was so carefree was because she was not afraid of it.

She easily stopped its fangs with her dagger and pushed it back. The snake coiled itself and watched Ayame intensely waiting for an opportunity to attack her.

 

Name: Seven-Ringed Krait  (A/N: Krait is a species of venomous snake.)

Level 0

 

Drake in the meantime checked it. He found that the snake monster was very strong. Normal explorers with a peak Beginner stage Mastery were no match for it.

Just a day ago, Ayame would not be a match for it, but many things had changed in a day. They finally reached the Intermediate stage in their respective Weapon and Stealth Mastery. The difference between both the Beginner and the Intermediate stages was like the difference between day and night. There was no match between the two. Hence, she had absolute confidence in dealing with it alone. Even Yumi didn’t interfere with her sister’s fight, just kept on the lookout for any unexpected dangers.

The snake might not look that big while it was coiled but it was more than three meters long and roughly half a meter wide. When it attacked her again with unimaginable speed, Ayame showed no fear. She once again stopped its fangs with a dagger but the attack was stronger than before so it imbalanced her.

It took advantage of that and attacked again, but she dodged again. She ran towards the snake, the snake also lunged towards her, its mouth open, its sharp fangs showing inside. She side-stepped at the last moment, then jumped on the top of the snake monster.

She quickly impaled her dagger deep inside from the top. The snake started thrashing but she partially controlled its direction with the dagger stuck inside by moving it like moving a joystick.

She made it crash into many trees, while also increasing its wound’s size with her second dagger.

The snake writhed in pain but she didn’t let go and cut more than half of its cross-section such that its head tilted to the side. She removed both daggers and it dropped down. After twitching for a few moments, it stopped forever.

Aria already had stars in her eyes. She didn’t know that Drake’s friends were so strong. It was her dream to become strong enough so that no one would ridicule her for being a fox human.

She helped gather the materials from the snake monster, she thought she should at least make her useful somehow, as from the beginning it was twins who did most of the fighting.

She collected all the materials and handed them to Drake. She never thought she would ever have the chance to gather material from such strong monsters. Drake was excited to get the loot because he finally got Extraordinary materials, and that too more than one. They were the two fangs of the snake and its venom gland.

 

Name: Seven-Ringed Krait Fang

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

Name: Seven-Ringed Krait Venom Gland

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

A good blacksmith could use those fangs to create Sequence 9, Early-Stage Daggers with poison effect. The fist-sized venom gland contained concentrated snake venom. Dangerous even for Sequence 9, Early-Stage Extraordinary.

When he saw the venom gland, he remembered one of the uses for the herb. For one of the paths for which it was used as a potion ingredient, a snake venom gland was needed. But it needed other important ingredients too. He didn’t want to conclude anything without any concrete evidence, so he put the thought back in his mind. Though he couldn’t remove the nagging feeling that he might be right.

“These are yours”, said Drake and gifted the fangs to Ayame. It was then Ayame’s headache to find a good blacksmith to create the daggers for her.

“Thank you, young master, for your reward”, thanked Ayame, too excited to receive the reward from Drake as it signified that he was happy with her performance. Yumi was happy for her sister but she was not jealous. Jealousy was not an emotion for Fanatics, especially for Zealots. All they cared about was serving their lord without expecting a reward, hence, would not be jealous that someone else got a reward.

Ayame them moved towards the herb. She carefully cut the four Ivy leaves and put them inside a pre-prepared box.

 

Name: Purple-Dotted Ivy

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

They started moving again after the fight with the snake boss. After some time, they noticed a change of scenery. The forest was less dense with less undergrowth but had occasional bogs and sinkholes. They had to move carefully to not lose their footing as at some places the water came up to their knees.

“CROAK”

“CROAK”

“CROAK”

Suddenly they heard loud croaking sounds. Many toads were jumping and moving towards them. They were brightly colored in blue, green, red, etc, clearly poisonous.

Ayame didn’t get a chance to move and Yumi shot tens of toads down in a matter of seconds. Aria without anyone asking, went to collect the materials. She was very careful with them as even their skin was poisonous and careless handling could poison her.

They traveled for a few hours, killing any toads near them while collecting anything of value on the way.

They finally found the second plant of Purple-Dotted Ivy. It was grown near a tree with a large pond near it too.

None went to collect its leaves even if it looked like there was no one near it. Previously they were attacked by toads regularly, but their attack frequency reduced as they neared that location, and stopped altogether when they reached that place. Moreover, the deafening silence over the pond was screaming at them that something dangerous was near.

Suddenly a long tongue shot out of the pond, aiming straight for Drake’s head. Yumi fired an arrow and nailed the tongue to a nearby tree before it reached him.

She was not pretending to not see the tongue like before with Aria. Whatever was inside the water was not registered by either of the twins despite their peak Beginner Stage Perception Mastery, possibly because the entity was deep inside the water and Beginner Stage Perception Mastery was not enough to detect deep underwater threats.

Only when the entity neared the surface and shot its tongue, did they finally find the perpetrator. The twins vowed to quickly reach the Intermediate Stage in Perception Mastery as soon as possible to not be caught off guard like that again,

“CCRROOOAAAAKKKK”

A loud painful croaking noise came from inside the pond. The monster tried to pull its tongue back but was unable to. Yumi shot a few more arrows to stick the tongue completely to the tree.

The croaking was getting louder. It pulled harder and after too much pulled back its tongue together with the broken tree. The water where the tongue was pulled back started becoming green from the green blood of the monster’s tongue.

After a few minutes, a huge jumped out of the water and landed in front of them. It was a huge toad as tall as an average person. It was brown and unlike its smaller counterparts, its skin was not poisonous, rather its tongue was highly poisonous. Its tongue was outside its mouth and could be seen cut from various places with one arrow still sticking out of it.

 

Name: Brown Hide Dart Toad 

Level 0

 

The toad breathed out a toxic mist. All of them dodged back, feeling lucky that they had consumed the antidote before, otherwise, that mist was strong enough to paralyze even the twins.

The toad didn’t give them time and shot its tongue once again. Its next target was Ayame. Its tongue was pierced by another arrow and it had to recoil its tongue back in pain.

It changed tactics and jumped high. It made Yumi its target for hurting him again and again and fell on her, to crush her with its weight. Ayame held Drake and dodged back together with Yumi who held Aria out of the reach of the monster.

Yumi shot its head but the arrow had no effect as it fell on its thick hide and just bounced off. She shot more arrows but none had any effect on the monster’s thick hide. She shot its eyes next, but it closed its eyes. The arrows bounced off its thick eyelids.

It would close its eyes whenever she shot an arrow in its eyes. She changed tactics. She shot its tongue that was hanging out while dodging its mist again. When its eyes widened because of the pain in its tongue, she shot another arrow.

The arrow pierced its eyes, followed by its brains. It died finally.

‘Wow, both of them are so strong. When can I become as strong as them?’

Aria once again went to skin the monster, while fangirling about the strong twins.

From the monster, among other materials, he got two extraordinary materials.

 

Name: Brown Hide Dart Toad Hide

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

Name: Brown Hide Dart Toad Venom Gland

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

The venom gland was similar to the previous one, while the hide could be used to make Sequence 9, Early-Stage Leather Armor.

“These are yours”, Drake handed the hide to Yumi, who thanked him with even more devotion than Ayame. Though, Drake gave it to Yumi, both twins knew it was for both of them as it was more than enough for a few leather armors and both preferred wearing leather armor. Unfortunately, because it was too heavy, they had to leave it behind. They decided to pick it up later when they returned.

After collecting all the materials, they started their travel again and sometime later, came across a new area.