Climbing the basilisk’s mountain, I reached cliff with the teleportation array in a short time.

The view from this part of the mountain was gorgeous… however, there was clear trail of dead plants leading into the far distance. The deathly trail that marked the path I’d walked to this place.

However, I wasn’t the only thing that noticed this trail of death.

The female adult basilisk stared in my direction with a defensive posture, it was clearly looking straight at me with a strong sense of cautiousness in the female basilisk’s movements.

Moving to the side, I confirmed that the basilisk’s eyes followed my movements.

It has definitely noticed me.

In hindsight, I probably should’ve expected my action to cause some trouble. Even an unperceptive idiot would notice a line of dead plants coming toward you. It simply wasn’t something that my unnoticed ability could cover up. I just hadn’t thought about how it would look from the mountain.

Whilst this basilisk seemed to sleep under normal circumstance, moving on past it whilst it was awake was a different story.

“This is my territory!” The female basilisk hissed loudly and raised its head high in the air in an intimidating posture. Whilst the basilisk remained in its defensive posture, she was clearly ready to strike at any time.

The basilisk hadn’t been speaking English or the universal language, yet I clearly understood its meaning and gender with a mere glance.

To be honest, I hadn’t expected it to be able to communicate.

Although the basilisk was a massive snake-like creature that towered over me in size, her defensive actions in my eyes only seemed a bit adorable.

“I’m just passing through.” I calmly replied, instinct took over and I spoke the same strange language used to communicate with Gromrit.

I really didn’t understand how I knew this language, but I gave up thinking about it and accepted the convenience.

Ignoring the cuteness of this basilisk, I had no reason to be afraid of her. Even if she was in peak condition, I could definitely escape from her attacks and she was clearly in a dangerous situation.

Although there were no clear injuries on the basilisk’s body, I could tell at a glance there wasn’t much energy left within her body.

Without spare energy, a basilisk cannot regenerate from damage and that was one of their most powerful ability to deal with creatures immune to petrifying gaze. Having no energy reserves was no different from being severely injured for a basilisk.

The larger the basilisk the more severe this problem and she was already fifty-meter in length…

Honestly, the realization that the female basilisk had been severely injured and almost depleted of energy made Duke’s feat of killing her far less impressive.

My own energy reserve problem had been already been resolved by implanting the world tree and having it convert mana into nutrients. If I didn’t have a world tree providing me with nutrients, I would have to consume an extremely large amount of nourishing food to keep up with my regeneration.

The female basilisk hesitated, clearly she was unwilling to engage in combat without sufficient reason whilst weakened. “Turn around and leave my territory alone.”

“I need the teleportation array.” I gestured toward the teleportation array on the mountain behind her.

“No! You cannot use it, anyway.” The female basilisk turned cutely defensive and moved her large body in front of it to block my view of the teleportation array.

“I’d like to try.” I calmly replied, standing still to avoid angering her.

While I wasn’t afraid of this female basilisk, she was an intelligent creature that I can communicate with. I don’t mind leave this cute little girl alone if it can be solved peacefully.

Of course... if it cannot be solved peacefully, I don’t mind giving some extra food to God-hunter.

“Absolutely not.” The female basilisk hissed out.

Snorting in annoyance, I slowly moved toward the cliff that led off the mountain and toward the view of the forest stretching into the distance.

While I seemed to be wandering without a purpose, I wasn’t moving around blindly in the slightest.

On the contrary, my steps were extremely purposeful and I was slowly approaching the portion of the cliff that led down to the cave with her baby.

While this little girl might care about protecting the teleportation array, I’m willing to bet that she cares more about her child sleeping in the cave beneath.

“Stop!” The female basilisk shook slightly and moved forward slightly with anxiety.

“It’s a nice view.” I shrugged while coming to a stop, my voice contained a hint of purposeful malice. “Truly the perfect place to raise a child.”

The obvious subtext to my actions was that I knew she had a child nearby and was threatening her child if she didn’t let me use the teleportation array.

She didn’t immediately respond.

The female basilisk’s hostile eyes were locked onto my body, preparing to move and intercept my action at the slightest sign of further hostility.

“Touch my child and I’ll destroy the teleportation array.” The female basilisk steadied her actions and hissed out ominously.

I froze.

The words caught me by surprise.

I’d never even considered that possibility.

In my mind, this teleportation array had always simply been something I written in the novel to travel to the next zone. The idea of these teleportation arrays getting destroyed never occurred to me as the plan of those Redeemers would’ve ended immediately if they were easily destroyed.

Yet, I also knew it was possible to destroy teleportation arrays.

While teleportation arrays had protective function to prevent accidental damage or attacks by weaklings, those protective measures definitely wouldn’t withstand an attack from a fully grown basilisk and the array would be completely ruined in a single strike.

Under normal circumstances, powerful monsters wouldn’t destroy teleportation arrays because they collected nearby mana and provided a richer mana environment and encouraged their personal growth. Whilst weak monsters simply wouldn’t be able to destroy them due to their protective measures.

If the array was destroyed, I would be trapped here and that was unacceptable.

Running through various mental scenarios to prevent this crisis. My final conclusion was unhelpful.

My petrifying gaze certainly wouldn’t work on another basilisk, a basilisk’s blood prevents and cancels the petrification process.

I wasn’t confident in killing or subduing this female basilisk before she had the opportunity to destroy the teleportation array. While my boots of teleportation could allow me to reach the teleportation array in a short time, there’s no guarantee to succeed in teleporting before she destroys it.

In other words, my only option was to negotiate.

We had reached a deadlock.

If she destroyed the teleportation array, I would definitely take the opportunity to kill her child and vice versa. Neither of us would take action easily.

“Let’s not be hasty. I’m have no intention of conflicting with you if we can go our own ways peacefully.” I chuckled softly to cover my own nervousness and stepped away from the cliff’s edge.

“You can leave this prison by the teleportation array?” The female basilisk’s golden eyes squinted slightly whilst looking over me, her inquisitive gaze and question trying to redirect the conversation.

“Absolutely.” I volunteered the information, more than happy to change the subject away from our deadlock. Keeping her mind occupied on something else and away from the thought of destroying the teleportation array was more than enough for me.

Although I didn’t understand what she was talking about, as long as this basilisk was thinking about something other than destroying the teleportation array I was happy.

“How?” The female basilisk hissed out coldly.

While there was a distinct coldness could be heard in the female basilisk’s voice, hidden beneath that coldness was an undertone of excitement.

“A special ability of mine.” I snorted and remained disinclined to explain further.

I hadn’t bothered hiding my basilisk DNA whilst speaking with this girl.

There was little point in hiding it. This female basilisk would probably try utilizing her own petrifying gaze on me. Pretending to be the same species as her is an advantage in this situation.

“You can use your ability to leave?” The female basilisk’s voice immediately had turned gentler and warmer.

Gesturing toward the teleportation array, I carefully plotted. “Let me examine the teleportation array carefully and I’ll tell you for certain.”

I’d used this teleportation array before and knew it would work, but there was no way I was going to explain that. If she was stupid enough to let me get close without attracting her aggression, I would immediately teleport away.

At that point, there would be little she could do to stop it.

“Fine… wait for a moment.” The female basilisk slowly moved over and reached down the side of the cliff, taking the baby basilisk from the hidden cave below.

I waited.

I had confidence to kill her child despite her protection if this female basilisk broke the agreement. Turning aggressive merely because she retrieved her child wasn’t a good idea.

Shortly after confirming her child’s safety, the female basilisk stood nearby the teleportation array and indicated for me to examine the teleportation array. “Go.”

Walking over to the teleportation array without any hesitation, I utilized my unnoticed ability to hide my basilisk DNA bloodline.

The female basilisk made a slight movement upon noticing the difference in my bloodline.

It was too late for her to stop me, though.

Placing my palm on the mountain side, the light of teleportation overtook my vision and I arrived at the starting village of the second zone.

“Finally safe.” I sighed in relief and feeling slightly overwhelmed, I wiped my brow.

That was close.

While there was no literal life-threatening crisis when escaping this time, life would’ve become extremely troublesome if the teleportation array had been destroyed.

I instinctively reached toward my canteen for solve my parched throat… only to touch soft scales and feel movement around my waist.

Freezing in instinctive shock, I paused and slowly looked down toward my water canteen.

There was a baby basilisk wrapped around my waist.

Its dark golden eyes blinked.

I stared into the basilisk’s eyes with a quizzically expression. “How… did you?”

The baby basilisk didn’t respond in the slightest, merely keeping itself firmly wrapped around my waist.

“When did you wrap around me? Weren’t you wrapped around your mother?” I felt overwhelmed looked at the innocent eyes of the baby basilisk.

I firmly remember the baby basilisk had been wrapped around the tail of its mother after getting picked up by her. There was no time for it to wrap itself around me.

Trying remember the entire event, I quickly figured out what happened.

That slight movement of the female basilisk at the end… she must’ve sent the baby basilisk toward me during that moment. Instead of trying to stop me, the female basilisk simply took advantage of the situation to send her child with me.

Why send it with me? She was extremely protective of her child. There was no reason to send it with me.

…Unless she knew that place will be destroyed by corrupted mana in a short time?

It was a possibility.

“What am I going to do with you?” Looking at the baby basilisk, I sighed and before gazing into the poisonous forest in distance.