Chapter 41: Snake (Two-in-One)

With a single step.

Xia Nan felt the temperature of the air around his body plummet abruptly.

His vision suddenly went black.

In the next second, the dense forest and shrubs, once filled with moist mist, were replaced by a bare stone wall.

"Ah..."

Pain, dizziness.

It felt like stepping into thin air while climbing stairs; the momentary panic caused his exhausted body to finally give out.

A pained murmur escaped his lips subconsciously, and he collapsed onto the ground.

Using his last bit of strength, he managed to lift his eyelids just enough to scan his surroundings.

Seeing no obvious danger, he closed his eyes again, sinking into a tide of surging fatigue and pain.

***

How much time had passed?

*Hiss—*

A cold, slimy sensation brushed against his cheek, and he could faintly feel the movement of muscle beneath the hardness.

Xia Nan slowly opened his eyes.

"Holy crap!"

He jumped up violently, flinging the reddish-brown long snake that had crawled onto him at some unknown point onto the ground.

A flash of iron-gray cold light flickered through the dim air.

The snake's head was severed, and its long body writhed and convulsed.

Only after using the tip of his sword to flick the head into a corner did he breathe a slight sigh of relief.

Leaning against the stone wall behind him, Xia Nan gripped his decapitating longsword tightly with both hands.

It was only now, after his frantic escape and brief period of dizziness, that he had the chance to carefully observe his current environment.

This was an enclosed cave.

There was nothing noteworthy to see; bare, featureless gray stone walls filled his entire field of vision.

Occasionally, strange, bioluminescent fungi clung to the rock surfaces. It was only because of the eerie blue glow they emitted that the cave, which should have been pitch black, was in this "dim" state.

For some reason, even though there were no distinct physical features, just staring at the expanse of dead-gray stone walls made Xia Nan feel a deep, visceral sense of unreality, as if it were disconnected from the real world.

It felt as if a small chunk of a mountain from another world had been carved out and forcibly embedded into this one.

It was exactly like the carriages, wooden buildings, and courtyards he had seen along the way...

Coupled with the fact that he had just been in a fierce chase with a Petrifying Lizard in the misty forest, only to be teleported here in an instant as if caught in a trap, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

He did not act rashly.

As his consciousness gradually returned to his body, Xia Nan first confirmed that his current location was temporarily safe.

His first priority was to check his physical condition.

His legs were the least injured; only the sides of his calves had been scraped by thorns in the jungle during his flight—ordinary abrasions that had already stopped bleeding.

A sharp pain radiated from the left side of his mid-chest and abdomen, becoming more pronounced when he breathed, but it was bearable—perhaps a broken rib?

The most serious injury was his right forearm.

Enduring the pain, he lifted the padding beneath his leather armor and found that a large, purplish-blue bruise had swollen near the ulna, close to his wrist.

He had been too focused on escaping to feel much earlier.

Now, however, waves of soreness, numbness, and throbbing pain surged from it; even clenching his fingers or gripping the sword hilt felt exceptionally difficult.

It was worth noting that to regain his mobility, he had gulped down half a bottle of healing potion.

One gulp cost 25 gold!

It hurt his wallet, but he had no regrets.

If not for that life-saving potion, he wouldn't have even made it this far; he would have been turned into a statue by the lizard and swallowed whole long ago.

To trade for a life, forget 25 gold—he would have paid 2500!

While lamenting inwardly, Xia Nan's hands did not stop. He somewhat laboriously retrieved the "Medical Tool Kit" he had purchased before his journey from his backpack.

Common-grade healing potions could sustain life in a crisis and heal most minor injuries or alleviate pain, but they had no immediate effect on injuries like broken bones.

Adventurers had to handle those themselves.

*Rip!*

Unpracticed, he used the splint from the kit to stabilize his forearm, then used his left hand to wrap bandages tightly around it, finally biting off the excess bandage with his teeth.

According to the methods recorded in the [Adventurer's Handbook], if the forearm is injured, one should also use a sling to suspend the arm to prevent further injury.

With limited conditions, this was all he could do.

His fingers twitched slightly against the throbbing ache. Although there were still some grayish-white traces of petrification on his fingertips, the effect of the healing potion had mitigated it significantly, restoring some sensation.

Xia Nan pondered

He seemed to have seen anti-petrification potions in an alchemy shop. Although he couldn't remember the price, at least there was a glimmer of hope for recovery.

There seemed to be a church in River Valley Town that provided healing services to adventurers after missions; he could check it out once he made it back.

Speaking of which, during the battle with the Rust Monster, Xia Nan had saved a half-elf's life, earning a favor. The half-elf had promised to help him contact a combat skill instructor as repayment.

And during the chase just now, the half-elf had returned the favor by stalling the Petrifying Lizard, buying Xia Nan precious time to escape.

Through this exchange, he actually ended up owing the other party once more.

Therefore, if Hai'an needed help in the future and he was able to assist, he wouldn't mind helping out.

Of course, that was on the condition that he could get out of this godforsaken place.

Xia Nan shook his head, clearing his mind of thoughts unrelated to his current situation.

After treating his wounds, he checked the state of his equipment.

Decapitating Longsword—it had barely left its sheath during the escape, so it remained intact.

[Deadline] Ring—the "Deflection Field" had entered its 24-hour cooldown; he was temporarily down one trump card.

Healing Potion—half a bottle remained.

Leather Armor—ruined.

Xia Nan touched the specialized leather armor he had purchased from Barn's shop for the "huge sum" of 10 gold with a heavy heart.

While it looked fine from the front, merely stained with blood and grass, the back had been completely smashed by the impact of the Petrifying Lizard, filled with dents and cracks. It was clearly unusable.

Once he returned to town, this would be another major expense.

"Sigh."

With a sigh, Xia Nan pulled the battered leather armor back on.

He stood up and looked toward the depths of the cave.

Although being teleported here had allowed him to escape the lizard, it did not mean he was safe.

Without the support of his teammates, he could only rely on himself.

His chest rose and fell as his breathing gradually became steady and firm.

Keeping his body slightly pressed against the wall and holding his iron-gray sword, he began to grope his way forward along the only path into the cave.

***

*Crunch.*

A heavy leather boot came down hard, crushing two black scorpions the size of thumbs.

A pale skull, devoid of any flesh, was picked up from the ground by a hand stained with mud and blood.

Xia Nan was currently in a deep, long corridor.

It was unclear how it had been excavated; the stone walls on both sides were rough and uneven, showing no signs of artificial workmanship.

However, compared to the wide-open cavern earlier, there were many more pale bones lining the sides of this tunnel.

Approaching the wall, using the dim blue light emitted by the fungi, he carefully identified the skull in his hand.

Before his transmigration, Xia Nan, who had no medical background, would never have been able to examine a fellow human's skull so casually.

But after experiencing so many life-and-death crises, simple bones no longer reached the threshold required to stir his emotions.

"Humans... more humans," he thought.

Along this path, he had already identified every bone that fell within his current knowledge of species.

They were all human.

In another world, this might not be a surprising discovery.

But he was currently in a fantasy world that possessed special races like Dwarves and Elves, as well as a vast number of half-breeds.

If a place were filled with the corpses of intelligent beings, unless it was a targeted massacre of a specific race, it would be impossible for only one species—humans—to appear.

Combined with the sense of unreality the cave gave him and the numerous strange structures he had seen on the road, Xia Nan had a vague suspicion.

Perhaps... he had been teleported to a region that also originated from another world?

Placing the skull back, he continued to explore forward, step by step, cautiously guided by the faint light.

Then, he hit a dead end.

A cold, pitch-black wall stood directly before him, blocking all paths.

Xia Nan's expression appeared calm and composed, but a slight tremor flickered in his dark eyes.

This was the only path in the entire cave!

If the tunnel did not lead outside, it meant that after finally escaping the monster, he would truly die here.

"Whew..."

Xia Nan took a deep breath, trying his best not to let negative thoughts spiral.

He stepped forward and felt along the wall with both hands, searching for a possible door or switch.

The wall was entirely ink-black and not made of stone. It felt colder than the stone walls, as if made of some kind of metal. Its smooth surface was covered in countless fine, plate-like textures that felt slightly sharp to the touch.

The threat of death made Xia Nan's inspection incredibly meticulous; from top to bottom, from left to right, he traced every single texture with his fingertips.

Finally!

As he crouched down and felt the bottom right corner of the black wall, a very faint fluorescence caught his attention.

It was the same eerie blue light characteristic of the cave's fungi, but the source was a crack in the rock at the corner of the black wall!

"Could it be..."

A flash of joy crossed Xia Nan's eyes.

He lunged forward, using his palms to pry away the loose rocks.

When the gaps were too small, he drew the dagger from his waist and used all his strength to lever the stones up.

After about twenty minutes.

A small hole, about half a person high, appeared in the corner of the black wall before Xia Nan's eyes.

The blue light grew brighter.

Alone and seemingly unconcerned, he used both hands and feet to crawl into the light.

Unexpectedly, the hole was not deep.

After only a few crawls, the narrow passage suddenly opened up.

A vast space large enough to produce multiple echoes appeared before him.

Fungal colonies densely covered the surrounding stone walls, illuminating the entire space.

As he crawled out of the small hole, Xia Nan instinctively turned around to look at the black wall that had blocked the tunnel.

*Hum—*

Time seemed to freeze in that instant.

Sweat dripped from his forehead, leaving a small wet patch on the cold ground.

Xia Nan remained frozen in the act of turning around, his entire body paralyzed in an instant.

Motionless.

His eyes were fixed dead on the direction he had come from.

The black wall?

No, that was not a man-made structure.

The metal-cold touch, the fine plate-like textures...

It was a massive snake body, as thick as a train, large enough to fill the entire tunnel!

It was difficult to describe Xia Nan's experience at that moment.

It was like waking up in the middle of the night and suddenly seeing a section of a snake on your bed by the moonlight.

Your first reaction might be to jump up in terror, but simultaneously, your eyes would instinctively follow the snake's body to find its head, trying to judge whether it had crawled into your covers or was merely circling the bed.

In his shock, Xia Nan's gaze instinctively followed that indescribably massive snake body upward.

The floor, the walls... the ceiling!

"Holy crap!"

He felt a chill rush from his tailbone to the top of his head, and goosebumps erupted all over his body.

A terrifying snake head, large enough to swallow an entire elephant, was positioned directly above him, staring down at him unblinkingly with its cold, violent vertical pupils.

The sheer pressure of the massive size difference made him want to give up resisting; he instinctively closed his eyes.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

Xia Nan stood stiffly in place, the sharp pain in his chest and abdomen with every breath reminding him that he was still alive.

He slowly opened his eyes.

It was still that massive, shocking giant snake.

But... it was also motionless.

*Gulp.*

His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

Xia Nan sensed something was wrong and continued to look up along the long snake body.

Sure enough!

At the very top of the cave's dome, a brown stone spike from an unknown source had pinned the giant snake to the ceiling like a giant thumbtack.

It had struck right in the seven-inch vital spot.

The giant snake's seemingly cold and ferocious eyes had actually long since lost their luster.

Its train-like massive body, much like the countless bones outside the cave, had become a corpse with no possibility of rebirth.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Only then did Xia Nan have the chance—and the ability—to carefully examine the appearance of this giant snake while in a living state.

Its body was pitch black, covered in ink-colored scales that were as cold and hard as metal. Its thick, long body coiled and climbed through the cave, making its exact length impossible to judge.

The scales on its face were snow-white without a trace of impurity, making its emerald-green eyes look even more like jade, with deep, lusterless pupils.

And in the middle of its skull, suspended high in the air, were several pure golden scales that shimmered, looking like a headpiece adorning the back of its head.

For some reason, looking at this terrifying giant snake, images of him cutting off a goblin's ear and gouging out a Rust Monster's venom gland flashed through Xia Nan's mind.

A bold, yet extremely logical thought began to brew in his heart.

As an adventurer, taking a little loot back...

Should be perfectly normal, right?