…
Broken and burnt trees, crushed rocks, and rubble are all over the place. A huge and gigantic snake of around 20 meters in length is thrashing all over the place while throwing a painful growl. Meanwhile, the people surrounding the snake are taking cover from the flying rubble and debris.
A young woman is currently looking at a man with anger written all over her beautiful face. She is holding her arm where a slight gash could be seen as blood is seeping out from her hand.
"Damn you, Alan! You're crazy!"
The young woman's shout made the rest of the people hiding chuckle. They are already used to this kind of scene when the group is fighting. Once Alan moves, they should be alert and not be taken by surprise. This is because Alan has a special ability to spot monster weakness and, with his attitude, he would not warn anyone and would immediately act on an impulse to prevent that opportunity from slipping.
"Sorry about that, you know that I cannot just let that opportunity slip by. I wonder where your attention was at that time…" Alan said with a mischievous grin on his face.
The young woman blushed as she pouted while shifting her gaze in a certain direction.
However, to her surprise, the person she is expecting to see suddenly disappears.
"Where… where is he?" she muttered.
Alan, who is hiding near her, heard her muttering, then slowly peeks from his hiding spot. Then he squinted as he also found out that Curt was not in his hiding location.
They wanted to go over that area, but they could not as the snake was still thrashing about wildly. Its eyes are still burning, and it will still take a long time before it will stop. Alan is able to create flame grenades and flame bullets using LEP energy. This is his personal ability beyond the standard fireball and flames.
At that time, he used exploding flame bullets to hit the eyes of the iron-scaled python using a timed strike. And he is currently controlling the flame so that it will continuously burn the eyes of the python until it reaches its brain and it will die.
Hence, he could not just move casually. Meanwhile, his other teammates are unable to dish out an attack strong enough to stop the python. Hence, they don't have a choice but to hide and wait.
Meanwhile, the person that they are looking for is already walking deeper inside the cave where the scent of the herb is coming from.
Curt has already prepared his amulets and trinkets before entering the cave. He is not sure what he could find inside it, but being cautious is second nature to him as it has been his original trait ever since he was young.
He uses a flashlight which the military has already prepared for him inside his own military issued rucksack. As he carefully and silently walks inside the damp cave, the scent of the herb is becoming stronger. He also noticed that his dantian was reacting to the smell. It automatically began absorbing the LEP energy in his surroundings.
"This… this scent is really nourishing my body and dantian. Hahaha… this is amazing. I wonder how strong I would be after refining and eating a medicine concocted from the herb of the undying mortal?"
As Curt walks down the tunnel, he discovers some scales on the ground. When he picks them up, he finds out that they are great materials for making a piece of armor.
This is because, even with his strength, he could not even dent the scale. Thinking up to this point, he was a bit worried about the people outside. However, he had already seen what that Alan guy did, so he also felt a bit relieved at the same time.
As he walks deeper into the cave, Curt suddenly discovers a dim yellow light coming from one of the holes at the side of the tunnel. As he drew closer, he suddenly discovered a weird aura yet familiar aura. He didn't know what it was. He was unable to see the object yet.
But he could feel strange energy coming from it. Curt could almost recognize this energy. And when he peeked inside the glowing hole, he saw a palm-sized object the shape of a human kidney.
Upon seeing the stone, he immediately recognizes it and a delighted expression appears on his face. His mind immediately identified the stone. It is one of the needed materials in creating a spatial tool. After all this time, he did not proceed with making a spatial tool as he still needed some material besides the precious gems.
But with that kidney-shaped stone, he is now able to make one in a space of around 5 cubic meters. This is because that kidney-shaped stone is actually not a stone but crystallized tears of a dimensional beast.
Any dimensional beast tears are a very precious material, and it is rare to find one even in the world in Curt's memory. That's why the people in that world rely on their spiritual energy and array to borrow space in the dimension and create a tool that contains its own space.
However, those kinds of items are impossible to make with his low power. But with the dimensional beast tears, he could now craft an item that holds a far more stable and spacious space.
As he continuously examines the things inside the hole, he already sees a lot of beast bones. Curt knew that those beasts were trying to touch or eat this thing. However, they are unlucky as this dimensional beast's tears are not easy to handle. One should have enough knowledge of arrays to be able to take it without getting killed.
And so, Curt took out some blank talisman papers he had prepared and began drawing arrays on them. After creating three pieces, he drew his own blood from his finger and dripped it on the talismans.
The three pieces of talisman suddenly glowed and flew towards the dimensional beast's tears. Then they wrapped around it and after that, the glow from the object stopped. Curt then easily took the object and put it inside his bag.
He then smilingly continues walking deeper into the tunnel.
Not long later, Curt found what he'd been looking for. At first, there was disbelief in his eyes, then his expression immediately changed into a happy and excited smile.
…
Meanwhile, outside the cave, the iron-scaled python has already stopped moving. One of Alan's companions had suddenly grabbed the opportunity to thrust his long blade towards the beast's head and then directly pierced the beast's brain. Then, using his water ability, he immediately controls the liquid inside the head of the snake, and everything is turned into mush.
The five espers excitedly discuss their next action, while the rest of the soldiers just looks at them with a bit of envy in their eyes.
"Hahaha… this is the greatest harvest we could have had. I never knew that there was a snake in this part… we would sometimes pass by in this place. I guess the reason why this place seems eerie is because of this large thing."
"Yeah, we could get a large reward for this… Let's take this back now… it's not too far, right?"
A tall esper who seemed to be the leader of Alan's group immediately took out his radio and call the base for a large truck.
When the base heard that they had just killed a large 20-meter long iron-scaled python, a gasp of disbelief could be heard from the other end of the radio.
The five had a smug look on their faces upon hearing this.
"Hey, guys… oh… it's already dead." Curt suddenly appeared near the five while looking at the huge snake.
"Hehe… of course. If we didn't decide to escort you guys, we would not have this kind of luck. How about you? Where did you go?" Alan replied, then suddenly asked curiously.
"I just went to take a leak. However, I stumbled upon some herbs with curative effects, so I harvested a lot. Hehehe…" Curt said as he opened his bag and took out a palm-sized stalk and showed it to the group.
"Curative effect?" one of the men asked with a scrunched brow.
The other also could not believe what they were hearing. Who would believe in that kind of ancient mambo jumbo? They only believe in synthesized medicine from the laboratories. As those have a faster effect on their bodies.
"Oh, you guys got wounded. Let me prepare medicine for you guys…" Curt said with a smile, and then proceeded to take out some tools from his bag.
Everyone just showed a sheepish smile on their faces as they didn't want to disrespect the enthusiasm in the young man's eyes.
It didn't take Curt 5 minutes before creating the mud ball-like pills.
"Alright, it's all done… here take one." Curt walked towards Alan, who had some bruises and gashes on his head and arms and handed him a pill.
"Take it…" he said with a smile.
Alan showed an awkward expression while his teammates were looking at him incredulously.
He was a bit hesitant as he didn't know if this thing was a medicine or a poison. However, judging from the expressions of Curt, he feels that it is not. So he doesn't feel conflicted.
"Just take the medicine, I assure you that it is not poisonous." A soldier who is Alan's friend said with a smile.
This soldier already knows who Curt is and his background. Hence, he is confident of the pill that Curt has created.
Alan closed his eyes and was still hesitant. Then suddenly, a dainty hand extended and immediately grabs the pill. Then, without a second word, the young woman who had a deep wound on her arm swallowed the pill.
Everyone was dumbfounded at this scene. The other four men in her group did not expect her to be so decisive as to eat foreign and dubious-looking medicine.
Then she directly removed the bandage on her arm.
What they saw next thoroughly made everyone dumbfounded.