As they enter the dungeon, they're hit by a surprisingly fresh smell. While the dungeon itself is placed into the wall of a small canyon, the inside is completely filled with greenery.
The roof is covered with a glowing moss that puts out a surprising amount of light, and the floor is covered in plants that look similar to ferns which curl up whenever one of the group touches them.
Even the walls are covered in flowering vines, their dark green bodies contrasting beautifully with their pale purple flowers. The group simply looks around in wonder for a while, before starting into the dungeon.
The entire group is a bit negligent at this point, more busy admiring the plants rather than actually paying attention to any possible monsters. Sen notices this after a bit, but then realizes that he has yet to see a small high ranked monster, so they should have advanced warning.
As they continue, Sen feels something brush his hand, and jumps a little before noticing it's just Xue's hand. As dense as he is, he still manages takes the hint and grabs her hand for the walk in this lovely dungeon.
They continue for a while, the dungeon as seemingly empty as the other B rank dungeon they'd been to. They stop after a while when they spot what looks to be a trail in the greenery on the floor, the crushed plants letting out a fragrant scent similar to pine needles.
They turn to each other, and take out their weapons, Sen lingering a bit with the hand holding Xue's before letting her go, unshouldering his sword sheath from his back, and drawing it from the ground.
He quickly throws the sheath in his inventory, and the group continues. They follow the path for a good five minutes before they start to hear a rhythmic hissing sound. As they approach, they see what seems to be a large white snake with a small pair of horns on its head.
The snake itself is a massive two meters thick, but much shorter than it should be, making it look a bit stubby. It turns to them and lets out an actual roar rather than a loud hiss, and Sen can see that rather than the fangs he'd expected, it has a row of sharp teeth lining its jaw.
Immediately after its roar, all the plants in the vicinity start to wither, a deep mist appearing from their husks. As the mist rises, Sen instantly starts to blow it away, Julie heats up the area around her so the water is evaporated, and the other girls simply use their control over water to send it splashing to the ground.
Kang quickly copies Sen, sending wind around to blow it away, but no matter what the group tries, they can't affect the mist within a meter or so of the snake. The group eventually decides to ignore it, and simply starts attacking towards the body of the snake, each of them except Julie having a way to detect the body of it, the boys through the movement of air, the girls using the mist itself to sense where it is.
Julie doesn't seem to mind though, as once she sets up her first array, which for some reason only makes two images, she simply starts sending fire flying towards the snake with each of her sword swings.
The snake, even though it should be able to sense that the images are fake so long as they're within the mist, still goes to bite at them. The group takes the opportunity to get in some solid hits, and the snake lets out a scream.
Thankfully, this one isn't as loud as the roar from the boss wind bear, and the group simply ignores it. The group and Sen are occasionally forced to dodge bites and swings of the tail, but it's regularly distracted by the images Julie has made, which keep trying to stab it in the eyes.
Eventually, the snake curls up a bit, then launches itself with unnatural speed towards Jennifer, its mouth opened wide. Jennifer's shield is too small to block the mouth that has expanded to a good three meters tall, and so she dives to the side, barely dodging the attack as everyone lets out a bit of cold sweat. If she'd been a fraction of a second slower, she would have ended up entirely swallowed.
The snake manages to have its head slam into one of the tall walls of the cave, dislodging some vines and stunning itself a bit, and the group takes advantage of its disoriented state to cut deeply into it with their more powerful skills, though Sen is reserving his new skill, as it puts him in a state of mind that he doesn't want to be in.
The snake only manages to give out a few more half hearted chomps towards the group before collapsing entirely, the mist slowly dissipating now that the controller is gone.
"Tir, what was that?"
"That monster is called a giant mist snake."
Sen can practically feel black lines forming on his face. Does everything in this game have to be named so literally? He shrugs it off after a bit, and the group continues. The group all puts their weapons away for now, seeing as how it is pretty hard to miss a gigantic white snake.
Xue cheerfully grabs his hand this time, and he gets a smirk from Lynna as she notices. He sighs, she's never going to get sick of teasing him. He actually smiles a bit at that. As Damien, he'd never had anyone tease him, only fear him or respect him. He pauses a bit at that, his lady had teased him occasionally, maybe he hadn't been quite so alone as he'd thought.
The group continues their dungeon dive, taking out their weapons whenever they would find one of the trails in the ferns. One of the times, they find the snake before they find the trail, and everyone has to rush to get their weapons out in time, Sen having to roll to the side before he can dislodge his sheathe from his back to draw his sword.
Eventually, they come to a cavern that stretches above them lit by the glowing moss, a snake lounging in a shallow pool of water in the middle of it.