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/Without saying much more, Dale went on his way after the strange snake while the others remained behind…/
And in no time at all, he arrived at his destination, the end of the road where the tracks led to...
"This must be its nest. It's much bigger than I imagined." Dale said as he looked at a hole in the ground
'This hole looks big enough for a kid to crawl into...'
He already knew that the snake would be pretty big, but perhaps it was bigger than he thought.
"Hum..."
'The snake slithered all the way here and I see many tracks coming from this hole, meaning it visits this place often…'
'And it has repeated the same pattern for the last 4 days, meaning it's probably going to do the same today... But I don't have the time nor the patience to wait for nightfall again.'
'The problem is how do I make this snake get out of its hole?'
"Should I just… Crawl inside?"
But he immediately shook his head.
"That's suicide… Or at least, my last resort."
'I don't know how strong it is, nor how potent its venom actually is...'
'I know my body is strong enough to resist Miasma to a certain extent, but what about venoms and poisons?'
'I'll have to research more about that later... I could test it back on Earth, injecting myself with weaker poisons and having their serums at hand would be a nice way to start, though the difference between worlds would have to be accounted for.'
Dale went into deep thought and eventually said:
"How about the classic bait?"
But when Dale looked around him he realized there were no creatures that could be used as bait…
"There is nothing to hunt... Should I hunt some of those spiders? They did say they eat these, just that they can't hunt them..."
'So if I present their mobile bodies, it should be quite a feast for this snake...'
"Hm, I did collect the bodies of the ones we killed previously…"
'I should be thankful that the bodies remain after death, and that they're small enough to be considered an item.'
After thinking for a little while, Dale opened his inventory and placed the spider's bodies in front of the hole before he took a few steps back and stood there, waiting for the snake to resurface.
He thought about setting a trap, but he has no idea how to build one in the first place, so instead of risking it all and making a failed product, it was better to wait and focus.
…
/10 minutes later…/
Feeling extremely bored, Dale continued on his silent watch for any movement coming from the hole…
He was rather patient, but at the same time, he felt this quest was wrong from the get-go.
Was something wrong with his approach?...
/Rustle…/
"!"
Finally, Dale heard some noises coming from the hole, and to his surprise, the pink head of a snake left the hole to observe the surroundings.
It was rather cute as its tongue continued to scout in front of it…
Seeing that there wasn't much to fear, it quickly made its way to the pile of spiders and opened its mouth to feast on them…
Perhaps it was rather hungry as it didn't even care about the state of the bodies, as snakes are sensitive to heat, it would certainly realize those bodies were cold.
"!"
'It doesn't have any fangs?'
'I already thought it was strange for this snake to be pink, but I thought it was normal for this exotic world, but now it has no fangs?'
'How did it manage to survive?... How does it injects venom into its pray?'
'Was that the reason why it came all the way here instead of remaining in the forest?'
Dale shook his head.
"It doesn't matter."
Dale prepared himself, the moment he saw the snake devour its 5th spider and that its belly was now rather fat, he kicked the ground and rushed forward.
He knew there would be no way of approaching the snake without it realizing it, and the last thing he wants is for the snake to go back to its hole.
"?!"
The snake almost choked on the spider it was engulfing, it spat the spider as fast as it could but it was too late…
/HISSS!/
The snake hissed, trying to put fear into Dale, but it was useless as Dale had it by the head.
(I saw it somewhere but the most secure place to hold a snake is by its head…)
"Wow there, calm down, little snake." Dale said with a thin smile
He took a closer look at the creature and smiled in wonder...
"... It's truly a rather incredible creature."
'A snake over 2 M long, and as thick as my arm… If my grip strength wasn't strong, it would be impossible to hold onto it like this…'
As he thought about it, the snake twisted around his arm, trying to snap it... But it was all in vain.
"Annnnnd my arm would've broken by now… Or at least hurt a lot."
'I don't feel much resistance, was I stronger then I imagined?'
"Urg… Should I just kill it?"
Dale contemplated whether or not to kill the snake since as he spoke, the snake actively tried to break his arm by twisting its body around it…
So before anything happened, he tried to check the snake Level…
[Burrowing Anaconda (Young)
Challenge Level: 10-20]
"It's indeed what I've been looking for… But it isn't really as dangerous as I expected it to be."
"Although its Level is quite misleading, it may have a Challenge Level of 10 to 20, but if this thing gets on your neck I can easily say that a player double that Level would die."
'I'll go back and ask those old men what they think…'
…
/A few minutes later…/
"So yeah, this is what I caught." Dale said as he looked at Testros, Misgurd, and Edimund
The trio, on the other hand, looked at the snake with curiosity.
"This… It isn't what I expected." Edimund said with a helpless smile as he scratched his chin
"It's definitely our target, its size perfectly matches the trail, but… Its appearance is a bit flamboyant, to say the least."
"How do they usually look?" Asked Dale
"Well… Normally something like a mix of green, brown, and yellow. The usual colors you would see in the forest, and considering its size, it's definitely an infant."
"These snakes can go over 6M long pretty easily." Edimund said with a reassuring nod
"... Why would such a big snake need fangs in the first place?" Dale asked as he looked at the still snake, it looked a bit calmer now after wasting it strength trying to break free
"Isn't it obvious? Because it needs to defend itself against its predators." Testros replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world
"..."
'What kind of creature hunts down a 6 M-long venomous snake?...'
"I told you Dale, the forest is much more dangerous than you think, these big creatures are the least of our worries."
Misgurd then said:
"Not only is its color not fit for camouflage in the forest, it doesn't have any fangs, upon a closer analysis it seems that this snake has no venom glands…"
"This may very well be another species... A mutated variant."
"It's only weapon is its strength but… Even that was useless against you."
"I can see that..
'I'm pretty sure it's not another species, this is only a rare snake with some abnormal gene, pink snakes aren't impossible, just very rare.'
'Even more son in nature, and it's a feat in itself this one managed to grow into this size despite being born without teeth.'
'The world itself wanted it to die by removing its two defensive and offensive mechanisms, its camouflage, and its fangs.'
"So… What now? Do I put it back or…" Dale asked
"What do you mean by that? Kill it." Misgurd said without any hesitation as he crossed his arms
"..."
"Did you grow attached to it? This isn't good Dale…"
"I didn't grow attached to it… I was just asking."
'It's a pretty dope creature though…'
"He's right Dale, even if we wanted to, wild animals can't just be turned into pets, most just die due to stress and hence, it would just be a painful death for them." Edimund said he touched his shoulder
"A shame then." Dale said as he shook his head
"Hum… There may be a solution to this." Testros said
"What do you mean?" Edimund asked
"For 4 days straight, the snake did nothing but come and go, but it's clearly not skinny, meaning, it has been hunting something for food…"
"You don't mean…" Misgurd said as he thought
"Yes, I say we release the snake and leave it far from our farms, at the very least, it should be able to grow just by eating these pesky spiders. And if it ever grows a bit too dangerous, it by no means poses a threat to us."
"It doesn't even have fangs, the most it can do is hunt our chickens..."
"And if something does go wrong, we can always just end it."
Everyone remained silent until Edimund said:
"I am in between allowing that just because these spiders are damn annoying, but it's still dangerous."
"It's a sole creature, but having anything eating these pests would already make a world of a difference for us, especially if we could breed it."
"And on the other side, a fully grown Anaconda can pose a danger to even some of the adults if they're caught at a bad time, most can just free themselves from its grasp, but teenagers and some of the younger kids working in the fields?..."
"They can't."
"It may be unfortunate, but I say we end its life right now as compared to a little bit of convenience, the safety of everyone else takes precedence."
"I understand."
Dale let out a sigh of disappointment.
In the first place, he wasn't really attached to it, but his collection compulsion told him to collect this rare animal and have it as a pet.
Perhaps he could grow it and start exploring the pet system if there were one.
But if he can't have it as one, then so be it.
/Crack!/
Dale closed his hand, crushing the creature's neck in one swift motion.
[+ 0.6%*2=1.2% XP]
The pink snake drew its last breath, giving him a feeble amount of XP, still, may it be happier in the afterlife...
In a world where it could grow into a grand Dragon.
…
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Notes
This chapter was more of a joke on my part.
I always hated how in these sorts of stories, the Mc would always have some sort of magical pet that appeared in some sort of weirdly coincidental way.
Like going to the starter village and finding a mythical Fenrir... Like, what?
So yeah, I introduced a weird snake, one that simply had no future apart from being killed and made into a boot...
Would you all like for Dale to have a pet or a friend to accompany him on his journeys?
Perhaps if not now later?...
Peace.