I was in the middle of a strange dream—something about surning into trees and then meowing—when I felt a tongue on my cheek and heard a childish voice shouting in my head. “Food!”

  I was still more asleep than awake, so it didn’t fully register. Then I felt the “tongue arm” again and heard, “Food!”

  My eyes flew open, and Rue stood by my bed.

  “You said it?”

  Again, I heard, “Food!”

  I jumped out of bed, hugging him. “Buddy, you talk!”

  “Food!”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll feed you, hold your horses. But you talk!”

  I gave him a colossal seak to celebrate his new ability. Just then, Lis came dowairs and into the kit. I told him, “Rue talk now!”

  Lis shrugged and said, “Of course, he’s already level five; he got five points in Intelligence.”

  Of course, I fot to use Identify. Why do I keep fetting?!

  I took a pen out of my Ste and wrote ‘Identify’ on the bay hand. Lis saw this and started r with ughter.

  Mahya walked into the kit and asked, “What’s so funny?”

  Lis poio my hand, and she started ughing, too.

  With friends like that, who needs enemies?

  After breakfast, Lis stretched and leaned against the kit ter. “We should process all the scorpi-dogs and quill-bears before we return to Earth.”

  Mahya nodded as she tied her hair back. “I also want more of the trees from this world,” she said, gng out the window.

  We left the house, and as we stepped outside, I noticed small green snakes lying dead oairs. Lis crouched down, picked up one, and scruti, opening its mouth. “Baby burrowers,” he said, tilting his head as he examihe tiny fangs. “I think there’s a somewhere, and it might even have a mother. We should find it.”

  “Why are they dead?” I asked, frowning at the lifeless snakes.

  “House defenses,” Lis replied with a shrug.

  “It kills stuff?!” I asked, my voice rising in arm.

  “Of course,” Lis said, raising an eyebrow as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Otherwise, what’s the point of defenses?”

  “I don’t know... log the house, maybe?” I muttered.

  They started ughing again, and Lis cpped me on the baearly knog me forward. “You’ll learn, my friend, you’ll learn.”

  I just shook my head, feeling a bit out of my depth.

  Mahya stepped forward, her eyes narrowing in thought. “How do you pn to find the ?” she asked, folding her arms.

  Lis turo her with a grin. “That’s what we have John for—to help us locate the .”

  “Me?!” I asked, pointing at myself in disbelief. “How?”

  “The will be located on a ma,” Lis expined, gesturing with his hand. “Use your Mana Seo locate the vent.”

  “Why do we want to find the anyway? What’s so special about it?” I asked, still trying to my head around the whole situation.

  “Snake eggs,” Lis replied, his tone serious. “They’re a very rare ingredient in anti-venom potions.”

  “I’m getting the feeling that all this adventuring business is a lot more plicated than I thought,” I said, shaking my head again.

  They ughed again! Apparently, I was the day’s eai.

  After Lis stored the snakes, he stood up, dusted off his hands, and instructed me, “Close your eyes, expand your mana senses as far as you , and try to locate a dire where the mana feels thicker or richer.”

  I did as he said, closing my eyes and trating, but I felt no difference. I opened my eyes and looked at him, shaking my head. He gripped me by the shoulders and started gently pushing me forward. “Don’t open your eyes; focus on your senses; I’ll lead you,” he said, guiding me along.

  “Why don’t we use our Luck’s active ability to locate the ?” I suggested, a bit frustrated. “That’s how I found an emerald mine.”

  Lis chuckled softly. “Do you sider a big and dangerous snake a lucky find or a fortuitous enter that leads you to a better fate?”

  “Not really,” I admitted, frowning.

  “Exactly,” Lis said with a tone of finality.

  He tinued leading me, his hands steady on my shoulders, and after about twenty minutes, I felt a subtle ge in the surrounding mana. It was very faint, and I wasn’t sure at first, but after a few more meters, I k was the right dire.

  I pointed fidently and said, “It’s that way.”

  “Don’t open your eyes,” Lis reminded me, his voice calm and encing. “I’ll keep leading you. Just keep your hand pointing in the right dire.”

  We tinued like this for another half an hour, with Lis carefully guiding me, until we reached an area where the ma rid thick. “We’re above the vent,” I said with certainty.

  Lis nodded, satisfied. “The will be in a cave, so let’s start looking for arance,” he said, releasing my shoulders and sing the surroundings.

  We searched for several hours, expanding the search radius. After four or five hours, I heard Rue’s howl a in that dire. When I got there, I saw arao a dug tuhat went downwards. It was so big that three people could walk side by side and stand straight without a problem.

  That worried me, and I asked, “Will the size of the sch the size of the tunnel?”

  Lis g the tuhen back at me, and replied with a slight shrug, “It’ll be smaller, but not by much.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t go in there?” I suggested.

  Lis gave me a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry; you’ll stay behind and heal us if needed. Don’t fet, Mahya and I have traveled in high-mana worlds, and I’ve eveo very high-mana ones; we’ve faced scarier things. It’s too much for your level but not for ours.”

  With that, we ehe tunnel, and I quickly cast my ball of light. The tunnel wou and right, but sistently downward. After about an hour of walking, we reached a rock wall with a rge opening.

  Lis motioned for me to stay put. “Wait here,” he whispered and became invisible.

  After five minutes, he returned, his expression serious. “She’s inside and huge.”

  He turo Mahya and id out the pn. “I’ll create illusions to fuse her; you stick her to the ground, fuse her, blind her; I’ll try to trol her mind, and then we’ll attack. I’ll strike from below and you from above. She’s enormous, so it’ll take a while to kill her. I’m not sure I trol her mind for long; her level is too high, but I’ll try to capture her mind as much as possible; you cast blindness and fusion stantly.”

  Lis then turo me, his eyes narrowing slightly as he gauged my readiness. “There’s a protruding ro front of the cave; cast invisibility and hide behind it. Even if one of us gets hurt, don’t rush to us; we’ll e to you. Do you have any spells that be cast from a distance?”

  “Mana Dart,” I replied, feeling under-prepared.

  “What level?”

  “One,” I admitted, a little sheepishly.

  “Hmm, won’t be much help,” he said, nodding thoughtfully. “Still, try to shoot it with arrows, a crossbow, or something else. It’s a very high level, so I want you to make some advas from it.”

  “But I won’t advail I raise my Wizard level anyway, so what’s the point?” I asked, w about the logic.

  “You still receive the adva; it’s just not visible yet. It would be a shame to miss out on this adva.”

  Mahya suddenly spoke up, her eyes lighting up. “I have an idea. Do you have wire?” she asked, turning to Lis.

  “I have,” I said.

  “Excellent,” Mahya said with a nod. “Also, give me all the crossbow bolts you have.”

  “I have a ton,” I said, taking some out.

  “Then give me fifty, and hahe wire and something to cut it with,” she instructed, her hands already busy.

  I handed her the bolts, and she took out the quills we had collected from the bears, carefully attag them one by oo the bolts and ing wire around them with deft fingers.

  “These should pee the scales with the bear levels. I just hope they don’t fall apart when you shoot them,” she said, scrutinizing her work.

  Lis grinned, clearly impressed. “Excellent idea. Hand them over.”

  He took out an engraving pen and began engraving a rune on each bolt. After he finished, he examined his handiwork and said, “I believe this will keep them together.”

  He then turo Rue, atg ily. “Wait until the snake is on its st leg, cast Invisibility, and bite it as much as possible. But please be very careful.”

  Rue sent a wave of agreement and nodded.

  I hesitated momentarily before asking, “You’re not casting Invisibility?”

  “No,” Lis said, shaking his head. “Mahya and I o see each other.”

  We crept into the cave, and when I saw the protruding rock he was talking about, Rue and I hid behind it. I peeked from behind the rock, and it was a horror show. The snake was HUGE. The other shey killed were about teers long and about half a meter in diameter; this one was five times rger, and its eyes and scales were glowing. I shuddered, just looking at it. If those are the beasts of high-mana worlds, I’m not going there—no way, no how.

  I remembered Lis mentioning its level, so I identified it.

  Tuone Burrower MotherLevel 81

  SHIT!!

  In an instant, the air in the cave shimmered, and suddenly, illusions of Lis and Mahya flickered ienear the distant wall. The snake, sensing movement, reared bad hurled her massive head forward with terrifying speed. The sheer force of her attack sent tremors through the ground as she collided headfirst with the wall. But before she could recover from the impact, Lis darted forward, his speed so incredible that he left ghostly afterimages in his wake. His bde fshed in the dim light as he sshed across the shieck, drawing a deep, dark line of blood.

  Mahya, not missing a beat, defied gravity as she ran up the wall, her movements fluid and precise. With a powerful leap, she unched herself onto the snake’s head, her sword poised. She ruthlessly drove the bde into one of the snake’s glowing eyes. The snake recoiled, her hiss of pain reverberating through the cavern, but Mahya didn’t let up. She slid down the length of the snake’s body as if on a deadly pyground slide, her movements trolled and graceful.

  The snake froze mid-motion, and Lis struck again. His bde found its mark, cutting deep into her nece more. The creature thrashed, her tail whipping. But Mahya was already on the move, sprinting up another wall with effortless agility. She unched herself into the air again, her sword aimed at another eye. She plunged her bde into the sed eye with a swift, calcuted strike, partially blinding the beast.

  But the sill had twlowing eyes burning with fury. Mahya and Lis exged a gnd each other. Lis attacked from below, driving the snake back while Mahya scaled the cavern walls again. She leaped across the cave, aiming for the remaining eyes. With two more precise strikes, she plunged her sword into the st of the snake’s eyes, extinguishing the glowing orbs one by one.

  I stood there, transfixed, my heart pounding as I watched the deadly danfold. Lis and Mahya moved with a level of skill and acrobatics that I could never have imagiheir coordination was fwless, and their attacks were relentless. They worked together like a well-oiled mae, exploiting every weakness and anticipating the snake’s move. For two minutes, which felt like ay, they kept up their assault—Lis striking from below, Mahya from above—until the snake was a bloodied, blinded wreck of its former self.

  I shook my head, snapping myself out of the trance. I had a job to do, too.

  I started shooting the sh the crossbow. Not wanting to hit them, I didn’t aim for the head, but the snake’s massive size made it irrelevant. I just shot her wherever.

  Lis called out, “Rue!”

  Rue ran to the snake and started biting her iail area. She hit him with her tail a him flying several meters. My heart stopped, and I almost ran to him, but he rolled back to his feet, ran at her again, a biting her. I shot her with three more bolts, and the snake finally died.

  Phew!

  My heart ounding so fast I thought it might burst out of my chest, and I was shaking from the adrenaline. I sat there and took deep, calming breaths until I felt stable again. This kind of fighting was not my thing.

  Once I felt in trol again, I joihem. While I was freaking out, Lis opehe snake’s belly and collected two crates full of snake eggs. Mahya removed one fang and worked oher.

  Curious, I asked her, watg as she carefully cut into the snake’s mouth, “Why are you cutting out the fangs?”

  Without pausing her work, Mahya gnced up briefly aurned her focus to the task at hand. “They make excellent knives,” she said, her toter-of-fact.

  “Then why didn’t you cut the fangs out of the other snakes?” I asked.

  She shrugged, her hands steady as she tio extract the fang. “Too small,” she replied before returning her full attention to the delicate process.

  I wondered how long it would take me to know all the cool stuff they’d learned.

  Lis stored the eggs and said, “I think we should take her outside for processing; there’s not enough room to move here.”

  We agreed with him; the snake disappeared, and now we could see what she was lying on. There was another pile of eggs and a lot of mana crystals.

  Lis gave a huge smile. “Nice!”

  Mahya said, “We should check the bones; maybe we’ll find something iing.”

  I looked around for the bones she mentioned and discovered an enormous pile in one er.

  Lis wiped some sweat from his brow, then looked around the cavern thoughtfully. “We should also check all the tunnels,” he said, eyes sing the dark openings around us. “We might discover additional snake skins that she’s shed and more boo examine.”

  I felt a shiver of unease run down my spi the thought. “ there be more snakes?” I asked, my voice low, trying to hide my .

  Lis shook his head fidently. “No,” he said, meeting my gaze with a reassuring look. “If there were more shey would have e to her aid. Mas are very protective of their brooding females.”

  We split up betweeunnels and started cheg them one by one. Iunnel I examined, I found a snake’s skin and two piles of bones. I had no idea what to look for in them, so I just stored the whole pile.

  Aunnel led to a smaller cave. There, I found a lot of smaller snake skins, probably from the other snakes, and piles of bones. I stored everything again.

  When I returo the main cave, Lis looked up from examining a pile of bones. “Did you find any tunnel branches, or does everythio a dead end?” he asked, his tone brisk.

  “Dead end.”

  Lis nodded, a satisfied smile crossing his face. “Good, we’re done here; let’s leave,” he said, standing up and stretg his back before motioning for us to head out.

  We went back to Lis’s house, and I went to take a bath. I had the spell but his rexation to calm my nervous system. I still felt jumpy.

  After I fihe bath, we met outside the house, and Lis took out the snake. I tried to pick it up with telekinesis, but I had no ce; the snake didn’t move even a millimeter, and my mi like it had spasms.

  “There’s no way I’m pig up that snake,” I told Lis, shaking my head in disbelief as I stared at the enormous creature.

  Lis chuckled softly. “Don’t worry,” he said, patting my shoulder reassuringly. “I have a solution.”

  He dug into the snake’s belly, removed all the internal ans, and threw them away. He turo me and said, “ you peel it?”

  It took me over ten mio build a thin yer of maween the flesh and skin and peel off the skin. Lis took out the biggest sword I’d ever seen, swung it repeatedly, and cut off a fifth of the snake.

  “ you pick this up?” he asked.

  I lifted the piece with some mental effort and silent cursing. I put it back down, took out a pstic sheet, aed the operation like with the other snakes: pick up the snake, cast and Purify on it, and cut it into steaks. Meanwhile, Lis cut the remaining se pieces, which I also cut into steaks.

  Mahya showed us a crystal about the size of a grapefruit and said, “Look at this beast core; it’s one of the biggest I’ve ever seen.”

  Afterward, she pulled out a green sack, roughly the size of a pumpkin, filled with green liquid. “This snake was very lucrative,” she said, her eyes gleaming with satisfa.

  Lis nodded. “We haven’t checked the rest of the loot yet,” he added.

  After processing the snake, we took out the rest of the things we found iunnels and caves. The total loot was over fifty skins, which Lis said were as good as skin taken from a “fresh” shirty-seven mana crystals with various aspects, and eleven ons that looked utterly destroyed.

  They gave me the ons because I could restore them, and Mahya requested one of the restored swords because she was using one of Lis’s and o return it. They told me to keep the rest. We split the skins, and Mahya and Lis wahe crystals for their project. I didn’t mind. After that, they started going through the bones individually, keeping most of them and splitting them three-way.

  Curious, I tilted my head and asked, “What are the bones for?”

  Mahya looked up from her work. “Selling to boisans,” she expiapping one of the rger bones with her finger. “They make good mage ons because of the mana ductivity.”

  After s the snake loot, we processed the dogs and bears from the st time. We set aside the scorpi-dog meat for Rue. It turned out that since scorpi-dogs were also a type of e, they would signifitly be him. They both gave me all the bear meat, telli was excellent for stews and minced meat dishes, while their eyebrows wiggled suggestively.

  I shook my head, resigned. It seemed like our entire group always thought with their stomachs.

  After finishing everything, we went to sleep. In the m, we cut down ahirty trees, turhem into logs, and divided them into three. When I asked why, they informed me that a single log could sustain five to eight hours of fire.

  Finally, we walked back to the Gate. Tuourned out to be a very profitable world.