14 Last Day (1/2)
Over the next four days Valerian and I continued hunting the Grootslang offspring in the cavern system under Lake Lyenas. Sometimes I would use my Snake King Aura to wipe out large groups, but other times I wouldn't activate it so we could get a chance to experience each others combat style.
Valerian was definitely the stab first and ask questions later type. It took a lot of patience and repeated instructions to drill some tactics into his head. He was also reluctant to use his deadliest weapon, his poison vines. It was as if hiding them was a reflex he had developed, only using them in moments of anger or desperation.
One time a Grootslang offspring surprised him and used its fangs to rip open the vines in his leg causing him to fall down. Out of shame and anger he used four poison vines to pierce through it. Within about 30 seconds the offspring was reduced to nothing but scales, fangs, and a skeleton. All of the meat had been completely melted off.
I wanted to give a name to his poison vine ability and we eventually agreed on referring to it as Nightshade, partly because it was his last name and partly because Nightshades on earth were a type of flower that could be highly toxic. We may not be very creative but I thought it was fitting.
The more we hunted the less kills we would get. For one we had to travel further into the cave to find them, and the more we killed off the less were left. After all, the Grootslang wasn't there to produce anymore and we didn't find another Grootslang in the cavern. On the last day we only managed to kill 54 and at this point we didn't even need the Snake King Aura to help us. Our teamwork was flawless and we could hit the offspring's critical point in our sleep.
Over the course of the four days we collected 521 pairs of fangs. 307 came from Adult Grootslang offsprings and 214 came from the young ones. We were able to earn 41 gold coins and 40 silver coins and I gained 2,177 essence. Together with the first days earnings we had a little over 50 gold, since we had spent some on food and necessities. I had exactly 3,408 essence saved up after including the last five days and the leftover amount from my last level up.
Naturally my first stop after getting our rewards at the elders compound was the origin stone. As I placed my hand on the blue crystal my information popped up in my vision.
Name: Troy Williams
Level: 5 (0/1100)
Essence: 3408
Stat Points: 0
STATS
Strength: 8
Constitution: 9
Willpower: 12
Dexterity : 10
SKILLS
Snake King Aura: (Active)
I poured essence into the levels. I was a little disappointed that I didn't gain a chance to learn another ability. I was hoping for something like Snake Eliminator or Butcher of Snakes, but nothing came up.
Level: 5 (1100/1100)
Level: 6 (1500/1500)
Level: 7 (0/1900)
After assigning the stats I looked over my information again.
Name: Troy Williams
Level: 7 (0/1900)
Essence: 808
Stat Points: 0
STATS
Strength: 8 + 1
Constitution: 9
Willpower: 12 + 2
Dexterity : 10 + 1
SKILLS