2.13 Snake Labyrinth
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With curses freely slipping off her lips, Alice fled through the narrow labyrinth. A simple name had sent her running. Monster names were given by the system, and the system was utilitarian to the extreme. Soldiers had natural weapons, hunters shot acid, armored were protected, the widow spider was very poisonous.

Hounds? The girl might doubt monsters' ability to actually track her, giving the lack of smells and sounds, but no way in hell she would stay and test it with thirty ants sticking around.

The eerie silence was badgering Alice's nerves. Bones grinding along each other as she ran, blood rushing through veins, her ears listened to her own body too closely. The girl had never been in an anechoic chamber1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anechoic_chamber, but she could swear her current experience was very close to it.

"Ha, ha"

Alice was breathing extra loudly just to hear micro-echoes from surrounding rocks.

When the girl discovered a wolfy abomination with mandibles above its jaws, she was almost glad to draw her sword. It was a big one, too, level 9 in fact. The wolf clacked with mandibles and jumped at her. Not having space for a counter-attack, Alice dived into a side passage, strode behind a rock.

With low roars, the wolf gave a chase. Not willing to contend with the creature head-on, the girl evaded it, looking for a suitable place. Soon, she found a wide enough junction, hid behind a corner. The wolf rushed out and she slashed at its neck with the blade containing a hint of scarlet. Blood spilled out of deep, but not deadly wound, the monster howled, lashed out for her.

"Burn."

With the order, the wolf's head was nearly torn off from its body by a blast. An effective move created a quite ugly scene.

"It works," Alice nodded anyway and inspected her sword closely. The edge was not as sharp as new, there was a small dent here and there. The girl had only noticed a decline in performance because of her inhuman perception, and it was indeed small. Yet. One of the many things I didn't prepare for.

All of a sudden, Alice span around and slashed upside-down with her sword, hacking a long, legless body into halves. It was definitely not a spider.

"...close. You thought I don't learn?"

Grinning with a strange mix of relief and discontent, the girl lunged at another large grey snake. The reptile curved backward, Alice stepped after, the blade cut into its neck and the snake jerked in agony, thick rings of flesh smashed stones.

Hiss! Another snake whisked into a chasm as Alice charged at it. The girl carved out a chunk of its tail before the monster was gone.

With closed eyes, Alice heeded to withdrawing vibrations, something she was really sensible to. An inadvertent helpful hand from the dungeon and its sound jammer.

"Earth trembles have a big range," she noticed with a helpless expression. The girl had to move, and the Stealth skill had no way around the necessity to actually walk in the process aka create pressure and vibrations in the otherwise motionless ground.

> Level up!
> Hunter lvl. 7 -> lvl. 8
> +5 Skill Points
> Attributes being adjusted…

"Just in time!"

Two not-evolved snakes barely pushed her to level 8, and Alice inhaled deeply the invigorating energy before it vanished inside. Yet it wasn't enough to defeat the piled up fatigue. In fact, the girl felt vague resistance: even supernatural doping had its limits, and today was too of a roller-coaster between draining her strength and regaining it.

"Status."

Spoiler

Alice Sung-Hyun Branson

GENERAL

ATTRIBUTES

TEMPLATES

EXP

Age: 16 Strength: 8.8->9.3
Hunter Level 8 63,800/92,000
Race: Human Agility: 9.999... ... -/1,000
Status: Anxious, Tired Dexterity: 12
... ...
Total Level: 8 Endurance: 9.0->9.5
... ...
Skill Points: 7->12 Perception: 12
... ...
Battle Points: 6,880   ... ...

SKILL LIST

COMMON

Observation: 3 Stealth: 3 Butchering: 2

MASTERY

Hunt: 4 Bow↑: 5 Spear: 4
[collapse]

Low attribute gains jumped out first along with strikingly accurate health status. Next, the absolutely unfair amount of grind the system was demanding from her for level 9. Alice could already foresee the audacious path to the max level, if it was a thing.

"They make it so easy in novels... One boss and hop! Several level-ups. Also a magic sword. And a skill book. Where are my skill books, I ask you?"

Grumpily Alice dismantled the wolf for the only none-disgusting piece of loot: its inferior magic core. The girl noticed some traces of red in the small gem, not as notable as in the tiger's big core.

I need to go, she shook her head to keep drowsiness out. Ants behind, and maybe more snakes on their way to her. Can they follow my heat signature? They can, don't they?

 

Deeper in the stone jungles.

Swish! The sword nimbly beheaded a leaping snake. The body hit Alice powerlessly as she stepped away from another snake lunging for her legs, right into the range of the third reptile behind. Fangs scratched her thigh armor, not a threat. The threat was rings of flesh twinning round the girl, forcing her down.

Kinda. Strong as a world champion in heavy lifting Alice had no problems with the snake's weight, but it did shackle her in a wide sense. With her free hand, the girl caught the snake's head, squashed. Its lengthy curves twisted around her.

Not seeing; feeling the other reptile launching for her legs again, the girl instinctively backstepped, slipped on blood covering the floor pretty much everywhere, waved her foot seeking support, almost tripped over a corpse, one of many. In a literally supernatural feat of dexterity, Alice jumped instead of falling and crashed into a stalagmite.

The enlacing her snake worked as a cushion pretty well and its head got hammered into the rock and into an unrecognizable shape. Still without any eye contact, the girl chopped at the incoming reptile once, twice, thrice.

One of the strikes or maybe all sufficed to slay the creature.

Alice swayed inside the wall of flesh and slowly untangled herself.

Amusedly, the battle happened at the same square the girl had fought with a pack of tigers. Only now it was covered with corpses of snakes.

Many corpses. Alice felt so much frustration she wanted to puke. Of more than ten snakes killed by her, none was evolved, yet each brought her more trouble than two ants. Angry, the girl spat on the closest messily dead body.

After the battle, Alice was dead tired. Moreso, to shorter the snakes' numbers half of her blood energy had been used up on blasts. The most annoying, the girl knew that blood boost would have made the battle several times simpler... by wasting twice more stamina.

I won't last long.

Walking off, the girl kept her mind sober. The labyrinth was so full of snakes her average speed was limited to crawl. And that on the premise Alice was hiding, not fighting.

A quiet place, a quiet place...

Her hand squeezed a magic stone. On the move and always tense, the girl was cultivating with a tenth of her normal pace, it was not a solution. Alice preferred to risk her life with meaning, not just to tire herself to death by pushing forward.

Fortunately, she had explored the stone jungles before and had a foggy image of a place.

 

Water was running down the wall of the giant cave before disappearing in the fissures. Not as a waterfall or any thick stream, but it was wide enough to keep the spot wet and cold. Alice breathed out huskily, took off her gloves, sat down and closed her eyes.

The girl had slaughtered her way here through more snakes and two mutated wolves and therefore really, really wanted to make sure no monsters were left in the vicinity. She placed her palms down and silently burned blood to intensify her sense of touch to the limit.

Drops falling down, the heartbeats and breaths from her own knees, for a few moments Alice was grasping everything with fantastical precision.

After, the girl gave out an exhausted sigh, having sensed no monster. It wasn't a full guarantee, but the best she could do.

Well... Alice first pushed her staff into a fitting fissure. Next, she found a big enough boulder and blocked a small beside the water source after crawling inside. There was a niche in the wall, dark and damp. Honestly, better then the girl was expected. At least she could sit while hunching over and hugging her bag.

Status.

TEMPLATES

EXP

Hunter Level 8 77,500/92,000
...
-/1000

> Battle Points: 6,880->9,620

"He-he. And I was worried about the grind."

"Nevermind. Cultivation. I have many ideas to try."

"Dying... will be a good start."

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