looking around Daniel noticed that the difficulty would be higher in this uneven and steep terrain as it created numerous hiding spots for the boas to hide in ambush
but it was also here that for the first time Daniel started to notice something odd about himself, he knew that he should be agitated or afraid, but instead, at this moment he actually started to get excited, even if soon later he dismissed those thoughts attributing them to the fact that this was just a game, and decided that it was normal for him to not be scared
at the same time though, he started to like playing the game, or maybe the adrenalin rush he got while facing monsters, at first he was playing just to learn how to drive a spaceship, but now he started to want to complete the anomaly tutorial just because the others who tried before failed, for the first time his competitive spirit was ignited
Daniel became very serious about winning, and with the small cricket in hand, he started to walk up the volcano
after walking up for just 400 mt he had already noticed some movements to his left, so Daniel took cover behind a boulder and trying to stay hidden gave a look in the direction of the noises
there he saw it appear for the first time, a massive and mean-looking black snake, much bigger than any creature he ever saw slithering towards the peak from behind a massive boulder
like it was nothing this boss snake was gulping up one of those 5 mt long boas alive in plain disregard of cannibalism, the words 'law of the jungle' Daniel heard in a lesson had surfaced in his mind, as the sheer size of this snake made it so that Daniel couldn't even be considered as an appetizer, he could maybe be a toothpick
as soon as it finished his meal the snake boss resumed slithering up the volcano
Daniel back to his senses decided to take a gamble and started to follow the track created by the passage of the snake boss, which resembled a dried-up canal, believing this would protect him from being ambushed by the other snakes
just as he thought even after 40 minutes of walking Daniel didn't see even one living thing apart from the boss snake he was chasing, every snake, goat, and scorpion was trying its best to hide, and avoid the snake boss attention
without this fear halo that surrounded the snake boss, the unexperienced Daniel, would have taken much longer to reach this far, if he would have been able to survive at all till this point
luckily this volcano wasn't as big and majestic as it seemed from the distance, and after chasing the snake boss for a total of 1 hour, it disappeared in a big crack in the volcano's side
Daniel soon understood that the famous nest that was talked about in those salty comments was actually a burrow because he was right midway to the top, and he hadn't seen any nesting animals around
here a new challenge presented itself, the snake boss was in his lair, and there was no way Daniel could cheese a win against him as he did with the bear he had nowhere to hide, and one chomp was enough to be swallowed whole
first of all, Daniel started looking around for a place he could hide in, maybe he could wait for the snake to go out again, and go in as he did with the bear den, but the terrain around was still very hostile and he didn't know if he was still protected by the fear halo after the boss went home
without any other choices, he approached a little more to peek a look in the crack and noticed that because the snake was so big he could only occupy the middle of the very long crack and the sides seemed empty
outside he wouldn't know where or when a boa would ambush him and the sides of the crack looked empty enough, it was risky as maybe some smaller snake noticed that too and were living there but he could also have found safe heaven in this scalding volcano
torn and with no time to deliberate Daniel choose to take another gamble, and went inside the right extremity of the crack, but what he found was not the little snakes that he expected but a whole lot of snake manure
the big snake seemed to have been living in the crack for a long time, and of course, everybody poops, but this got Daniel thinking "magical orbs and knives appearing from nowhere and this is what you pay attention to realistically program animal poop"
Daniel started to get lost in his theories and thought "this snake doesn't look like a digger, so what made this giant crack? maybe it's a collapsed mine, this would make sense because the mineral extractor should be here according to the comments, but what would there be to gain from digging the side of a volcano"
these thoughts stimulated Daniel's line of thought he couldn't help but ask himself why? as a result, he started looking around, what caused this crack? would the poop hide something? where was the mineral extractor specifically?
but for Daniel, the crack was too big and the time he had was now running short, so he asked the examiner "examiner can I ask a question?"
the examiner in his usual cold voice said "I won't answer any questions regarding the tutorial"
Daniel said "I just want to know if I can only save at the safe zone wall"
the examiner said "like in-game you can save only in a safe zone or inside a lawfully parked ship, if you leave the game while 'outside' your body would remain in a sleeping state the water and food won't decrease, but you could be killed by a passing animal or player, and even if the player decides not to kill you he could still loot your items, except for a few special items like skins, mission-related item, and ss class legendary items like the rewards of this tutorial"
Daniel said "but you said time stops when I'm not playing in the tutorial, doesn't that mean I can save anywhere while in the tutorial"
the examiner laughed coldly and said "wouldn't that be too easy, no if you save the time stops, but if you leave, the instance would keep running even if you aren't present here"
Daniel nodded and said "I understand so I can leave here, but can't cheat with it, good enough"
after finding a solution to his timetable problem, Daniel decided to prepare a secure hiding spot here, before exploring, even if he found the mineral extractor right now he wouldn't have the time to go down the volcano
so Daniel started to dig a crawl space inside the wall of the crack, and made a hole big enough for his body, before preparing the rocks that would cover the entrance, it would be almost impossible for the rocks to block the air supply completely, and he thought that since the snakes were supersized here a little hole like this would be secure as it would be like trying to fit a hot dog through a pinhole
after finishing what could only be described as a tomb, daniel looked around for a while and noticed that even if this was a small place where the big snake would never be able to enter it didn't contain anything other than snake poop
bummed and bored Daniel went back to his hole and after making sure he wasn't suffocating he left the game
coming down the stairs he saw Vincent playing chess with Joseph like usual, this sure wasn't the first time but today Daniel seemed to be looking at the game differently, he silently went to the side of the chessboard and sat down watching them play, of course, the duo immediately noticed something was different but had no idea what was different
Vincent tried asking "how is it going?"
Daniel responded thinking of the game "it's going well, I killed a big white bear, found the backpack, then chased a giant boss snake up the volcano to his burrow, and dug a temporary shelter because I'm hungry and it's time for dinner"
the duo laughed and joseph said "didn't expect anything less from my son, sleeping in the snake den"
Vincent nodded and said "ballsy"
Daniel nodded then said "what I don't understand is how that crack came to be, I thought it could be a mine but it doesn't make much sense"
Joseph asked "what do you mean?"
Daniel explained "that snake eats the 5 mt long boas like snacks, but the crack it's too big to be made by him, I was curious how it was formed"
Vincent responded "it's not unheard of for a volcano to be mined, many fire element and earth element minerals are found in volcanoes"
Daniel said "maybe you are right, for now, I would like to think of a way to kill that snake, maybe it drops something good, the white bear disappointed me apart for the fur and meat it just dropped a skin for the spacesuit"
Joseph said "skins are good stuff, they are synonyms of status, the rarest the better"
Vincent said "I didn't even meet the bear he wasn't home and I just grabbed the backpack in the cave, but since it's the anomaly tutorial must be a cool and rare skin"
Daniel then said "I don't know I left it in the backpack and didn't even look at it" and asked "did you meet the snake?"
Vincent said "yes but I didn't kill it, or better I had no idea how to do it, so I sneaked around till I found the mineral extractor"
Daniel said "it seems that we have the same plan, I want to know what it drops, but one bite it's all it takes to fail the tutorial, with the bear I hid in a tree, but here I can only attack from the side of the crack and would probably end up buried alive"
then Daniel froze for a few seconds and exclaimed "I had an idea!"
Phoebe arrived at this moment and hearing what Daniel said asked "what idea?"
afterward, Daniel spent a few minutes explaining his idea to the family
Joseph after listening to his bold idea said "it sounds like something your mother would do"
Phoebe was already glaring at Joseph but couldn't deny it, she used crazier exploits in real life, it would totally be something she would do
Vincent said "are you sure you want to try it? you can still win if you get the mineral extractor while the snake is out, but if you fail and die, there are no second chances, the tutorial will be over"
Daniel thought for a while then said "I really want to know, and without that snake around I can search the crack better and maybe discover what caused it"
Phoebe shook her head and said "you get curious about the strangest things, no one will ever accuse you of not being a Specter"
even she who just got married into the family got infected with their quirks, and Daniel was demonstrating to be no different from his ancestors
during this conversation, they also had dinner, of course, the almighty cultivators didn't really need to have regular meals but to keep company to Daniel, they were eating at least 2 meals a day according to who was home
as they finished Daniel went back up to his room, he was bummed that he didn't get to tan today, and decided that it was better to play at night, and sleep in the sun during the day
trying to remain awake, Daniel went back downstairs and entered the library, deciding to read one of those sci-fi stories he liked a lot
while reading a strange sound started to come from the bookshelf at the very center of the library, or maybe he only noticed it now that the house was eerily silent, anyway, Daniel walked over to it, and again he heard the strange sound, it was muffled, but it sounded like a leaky faucet, like a little drop of water was falling, it was definitely there