Chapter 36 Akasha’s Snake (4) (1/2)

After leaving Galliard’s cottage, Yeon-woo hurried to the spot where Akasha’s Snake was supposed to appear.

According to the scenery he saw in the diary, the place should have been filled with several tall rocks standing like trees in a forest.

“….”

But when Yeon-woo arrived, the whole place was in complete ruins.

‘How the hell did they know about this place? Nobody should know about it except for Arthia.’

I could only explain our encounter with Akasha’s Snake as a lucky encounter. We had just happened to be passing through that place during the time when it would show itself, and we were lucky Galliard was there to help us.

However, I can say for certain that the experience from that time tied us together and helped us become who we are.

As far as he knew, Akasha’s Snake should only have appeared in the past three days. But the traces left here pointed to at least a week ago.

Yeon-woo scanned through the nearby area just in case the snake that Phante and Edora had fought could have been a similar fake.

However,

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‘Damn it. You’ve shattered my expectations.’

Yeon-woo was able to find the body of the nearly torn apart Akasha’s Snake beyond the collapsed rocks. A snake as big as a few rocky mountains combined was now lying dead in front of him. Each scale was as big as Yeon-woo himself. Its body was also so long that it seemed to be endless. Despite being death, its ferocity still lingered on its body. The mere sight of it overwhelmed him greatly.

Yeon-woo meticulously examined Akasha’s Snake’s carcass with the last hope that Phante and Edora might have left something important behind.

But even his effort was futile. They had already taken the most important parts of Akasha’s Snake, such as the essence and the venom gland.

It was the evidence pointing that Phante and Edora had hunted Akasha’s Snake with a ‘purpose’ in mind, just like Yeon-woo.

‘But how the hell did they kill it?’

Yeon-woo clicked his tongue as he stepped a few meters away from the carcass. Even then, he still couldn’t capture its entire body within his field of view.

And the more he looked, the more he wondered.

Akasha’s Snake wasn’t a monster that could be so easily hunted. Its strength was as great as its size, so usually it was difficult to even approach it. In particular, the venom that oozed out from its fangs was strong enough to melt rocks. Not even ten or twenty players would be enough to kill this monster.

But how did the two of them kill it?

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Did that mean that their power was unmeasurable? Or was there something else he didn’t know?

‘I don’t understand how they managed to summon Akasha’s Snake in the first place.’

Even if they used Undine’s Goblet, how did they summon Akasha’s Snake so soon? Could it be a magic? Or maybe another way he didn’t know of?

All sorts of thoughts were crossing through Yeon-woo’s head. And after a period of pondering, only one thought was left in his mind.

‘What do I do now?’

Yeon-woo took off his mask for a moment and swept up his bare face with his hand. It was almost the first time he had taken off the mask since entering the tutorial.

That’s how messy things were now in his head. He felt the need to feel the wind in order to get his thoughts organized.

The hidden piece that he had been aiming for ever since the start of the tutorial had now vanished into thin air. The sole reason as to why he was so confident in catching up with the front runners was because of Akasha’s Snake.

But on a second thought, he felt he had been too complacent. Now he could understand how Phante and Edora were able to stack up such unbelievable amount of Karma points.

But there was no use in crying over spilt milk. All his efforts had already been wasted,

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so he had to do something to make up for it.

Yeon-woo quickly opened the tutorial ranking window.

[Tutorial Ranking]

1. Edora (64,571 Points)

2. Phante (58,774 Points)

3. Kahn (57,300 Points)

···

40. Unknown (40,980 Points) (You)

···

“There’s a 20,000-point gap between me and Edora. The gap is still steadily shrinking.’

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Yeon-woo narrowed his eyes.

‘What if I hoard as many Tokens as possible in Section E, clear all the hidden pieces left in Section F, and make a turnaround in section G?’

Yeon-woo racked his brain and tried to hypothesize various situations, but none of them seemed possible.

‘Time’s too tight. At best, I’ll end up overtaking the 11th rank. Maybe 8th if I get lucky. There’s no way I can reach first.’

Yeon-woo had to finish the tutorial in first place. Only in that way he would be one step closer towards the day of his revenge. It was all in vain if he couldn’t be first.

Besides, to complete the succession process he needed the essence of Akasha’s Snake. So now that he couldn’t get his hands on it, everything had been messed up.

At this point, he had to revise his plan altogether. But for now, there was nothing he could do but to do his best to gather up Karma points until the last minute of the tutorial.

In the end, Yeon-woo decided to leave the place thinking that he should be spending his time on getting more points.

But then,

‘Wait a second… What is that?’

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Yeon-woo saw something just before walking away.

It was on the other side that he hadn’t searched properly. Several footprints were found along the head of the snake, and there were traces of strong impacts on its skull.

At first, he thought it had been done by Phante and Edora during their fight with the snake.

‘No. This wound was definitely made after its death. It’s even recent.’

It was evidence that there were other people who had come here before Yeon-woo besides Phante and Edora.

‘There must be something to it.’

Yeon-woo’s instinct was telling him there was something. On the other hand, he thought he should be moving on in order to stack up more Karma points.

However,

‘Let’s go check it out.’

Yeon-woo decided to trust his ‘instincts’ this time.

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On the battlefield, following this kind of animal instinct often brought unintended results.

*Pat*

Yeon-woo’s body shot up into the air as his feet struck the ground. His movements were now much lighter thanks to the change followed by learning Shunpo. They were definitely more polished and quicker.

[You have learned how to handle your body movements freely.]

[‘Shunpo’ skill proficiency has increased. 1.2%]

*Tak*

Yeon-woo was able to reach the head of the snake after stepping on its body a couple of times. Near the top of its skull, there were several marks, as if it had been struck with a large axe over and over again.

‘Whoever they were, they tried to get something out of the skull. What could it be? The brain?’

As far as he knew, the only useful parts of Akasha’s Snake were its essence and venom gland.

The rest were large pieces of body parts but of little use.

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And they had taken the brain. But why?

By looking at the size of the footprints left behind, Yeon-woo could easily infer the identity of the group that took the brain.

‘They are Orcs.’