Germain lowered his hat and dashed into the swirling smoke and
dust, moving like an arrow from a bow.
Suddenly, the large beast in front of him stopped moving, and the rumbling and scraping noises ceased.
"Stopped? Why?" Germain cautiously slowed down and pressed against the wall. "The 'bleeding' from the leech's hidden blade shouldn't stop it so quickly..."
"Then maybe Bisky and Shizuku, or something else, managed to do it."
Germain waited for a moment. After confirming there was no movement ahead, he quickly moved forward to check.
"Pressure +6"
The "En" he released detected the large tail he had injured, causing it to bleed.
As he got closer, the dust in the air began to settle, revealing the wound under the scales of the tail, which was still bleeding.
"Endurance +5, Pressure +5"
Germain noticed a notification from his "Hunter Badge" projection, indicating the big tail's owner was dead.
Because Germain had inflicted significant damage with the leech's hidden blade just before it died, he was credited with helping to kill it and received the "Gift of Resentment."
Germain took a flashlight from his backpack and shined it on the tail's glowing scales.
He moved forward and saw the snake's thick, long body without limbs.
"It really is a snake," Germain confirmed his earlier suspicion. "Its body takes up more than half of the tunnel space."
He continued walking. After about 30 meters, he saw the giant snake's raised head. He shined his flashlight on it and saw its terrifying mouth.
The giant snake's eyes were slightly larger than normal doors and wide open, as if they might fall out of their sockets, but the fierce look was gone.
The bloody mouth was closed, only bubbling blood flowed from the gaps, and the fresh, stenchy smell made it seem like it was still alive.
"Pressure +6"
"Germain?"
A familiar voice came from the side and front. Germain turned the flashlight and shone it over, finding a fork in the cave where a person was sitting against the wall.
The flashlight illuminated her glasses, revealing her slightly torn black sweater. She seemed bothered by the light and instinctively raised her hand to shield her eyes.
It was Shizuku.
"It's me." Germain lowered the flashlight and walked over to Shizuku. He noticed a wound on her torn clothes, oozing blood and purple juice. "Is it snake venom?"
"It probably is." Shizuku didn't pay much attention, summoning "Blinky" and pointing its mouth at her wound. "Suck out all the snake venom." "Blinky" flicked its large tongue a few times, causing Shizuku's wound to squirm and expel a syringe of purple snake venom, which the fish promptly absorbed.
These snake venoms were stored separately and not mixed with previous items.
Under Germain's flashlight, Shizuku took out a small bottle of solution from her backpack, poured it generously over the wound, applied powder, and then bandaged it swiftly.
The whole process was skillful and quick, indicating it wasn't her first time treating wounds this way.
"Can you walk?" Germain extended his gloved hand and helped Shizuku up from the ground. "Or should we rest here for a bit?"
Shizuku shook her head and said, "I'm fine," then took off her glasses, blew off the dust, wiped them with a tissue, and put them back on.
"Have you seen Bisky?" Germain inquired, "How did you get here? What happened after?"
As Shizuku answered, she lifted "Blinky" and systematically began to collect the remains of the monstrous giant snake.
"I haven't seen Little Bisky since we parted ways in the woods. I was suddenly teleported here and encountered this giant snake."
"It ate my flashlight. It's dark here, and I felt uneasy, so I wanted to retrieve the flashlight and ended up fighting with it..."
So that's it... Germain wondered if Shizuku's discomfort was due to human instinct or accumulated stress, or perhaps both.
Shizuku quickly explained the process, and Germain had a few more questions about their surroundings to confirm her observations matched his guesses.
In short, Germain was teleported to the next level, while Shizuku ended up here, suggesting Bisky might be on yet another level.
"Pressure +6"
He inspected a massive venomous snake, starting from its head down to its tail, all swallowed by "Blinky". It was hard to tell which was which for a moment.
After completing their task, "Blinky" licked its tongue as if it had enjoyed a delicious meal, then vanished.
Germain explained to Shizuku that the rats in the walls were responsible for their teleportation here, and urged, "Let's leave quickly, find Bisky, and get out of this cave."
Shizuku retrieved a flashlight from the snake's belly, wiped off the mucus with a tissue, and held it.
"Okay."
Both were seasoned Nen users, remaining calm. They packed up and ventured deeper into the cave.
"This place seems vast," Shizuku remarked, shining the flashlight around. "How do you plan to find the way out?"
"By a straightforward method," Germain replied. "Since this floor is the giant snake's lair, with its size, one entrance and exit isn't enough or convenient."
"If the tunnels intersect each other and have exits in all directions, east, west, south, and north, we just need to find one," he continued confidently.
Germain squatted at a fork in the tunnel, using Cleaver to carve a directional "arrow" on the wall.
These arrows marked their path as they moved deeper into the cave.
He repeated this process at every junction until they found an exit.
While Germain carved, Shizuku illuminated with the flashlight.
"But what about Bisky?" Shizuku asked. "What if she's inside the cave? You mentioned another level below and possibly one above us."
"Let's get outside first and assess our surroundings," Germain reassured him. "Bisky is experienced Hunter; she might be waiting for us out there."
********
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