I ascended one more set of stairs—and immediately came face to face with a large albino snake with gleaming red eyes. That is to say, they were bigger than any snake I knew of from Earth, but smaller than the Lake Serpent from my first summer, though they were probably longer.
The next few seconds were as intense as any I'd experienced in virtual battles, in spite of both sides only being able to use basic moves. It was swift enough that not only was the prospect of me getting distance to use my bow laughable, I was pushed to the limits of my concentration immediately. If I made the slightest misstep, it would be able to coil me, and with no allies to bail me out, that would instantly end the battle.
The one upside was that my Academy Points were proving well-invested. I'd half expected, dealing with an Ascended Beast, that even a Spirit grade sword wouldn't be able to penetrate its scales, so I was heartened when my first counterattack managed a shallow gash on its skin. Giving it minor cuts was one thing, but it wasn't giving me any chances to deliver a more decisive blow.
Still, I had enough control over the pace of the fight that I'd win out if nothing changed. The serpent soon realized that too, changing tactics. It drew back a little, positioning so that it was face to face with me. As soon as it was able to make eye contact with me, its crimson eyes glowed ominously. However, nothing else happened—well, almost. I did get the sense that it was trying to put me in a helpless trance or something, but I didn't feel any different.
I made a snap decision. If I looked away, it was likely to switch tactics again. If I was right about what effect it was trying to achieve, and I faked it right…
As I kept eye contact, it drew back its head and unhinged its jaws, lunging forward to swallow me—completely unguarded. As quick as though I was also a snake, I thrust my blade into the roof of its mouth with all my strength. The sound it made as the tip became visible through the top of its head was strangely satisfying. It died instantly.
Once I had extricated the sword and cleaned it, my eyes fell upon the small box at the far end of the chamber. Small, but not tiny like the box that had contained the 3 pills I'd gotten before. Inside was a round, sparkling clear yellow gem the size of a 7th Realm monster core. Unusually, the yellow color was bisected by a line of what I thought was black, but looking close was an extremely dark shade of blue, making the object as a whole give an eerily beautiful impression of an oversized snake's eye. My System Inventory categorized it as something I hadn't encountered before, something that hadn't been touched on in lessons or materials: a "Cultivating Treasure" called a Serpent Topaz.
I decided it was time to contact Jue Zhu. "It looks like the marked locations are where the area's Ascended Beasts are. It wasn't all fighting magical beasts though—before the 'boss' there was a series of non-fighting challenges instead. I got pretty lucky with the Ascended itself, too. And I think the treasure I got at the end is likely on another order compared to rewards we've gotten so far."
"OK. Um, hang on for just a minute."
For lack of other things to do while I was waiting, I decided to try to start dealing with the Ascended Beast carcass myself. I was surprised to find that my Inventory indicated that the scales had substantial value—they weren't great for armor, but apparently up to a dozen quarter-sized scales at a time could be used for body-tempering, according to the System's description.
No sooner had I read this then Jue Zhu contacted me again. "Okay, the Academy aide had some things he wanted me to pass on to you. You haven't left the building already, have you?"
"No."
"All right, so the first thing he said was that since he's the only staff member on hand, we're expected to deal with the bodies of any Ascended Beasts we find ourselves this time. He recommends we wait until after the Elite Entry Tests to sell the materials, too. Although, he said he'd take lesser materials and sell us supplies."
"Got it, makes sense."
"I'm going to go ahead and go after my own location now. Jong said he was cool with waiting for the others for a bit while I'm gone. I'll let you know what I find, if it's anything different."
It was well into nightfall by the time I finished up in what I decided to call the Snake Room. The vast, empty labyrinth had been eerie before, but in the darkness of night, the effect was increased tenfold. My unease only helped me return to the center faster, and just outside the entrance to the Exit Tower, I saw that Shokoya had arrived as well as Jong, and they'd set up a campfire. "Zuhui," said Shokoya, "good to see you again. I knew this trip wasn't going to be like the last three summers, but it's way more different than I expected."
"I agree," I said, moving to sit with them, "how long you been here?"
"A few hours or so."
"That long? I'd have thought Quan would have been right on your heels."
Shokoya's expression changed. "Yeah…come to think of it, me too. I hope he's not running into trouble. It's not too likely any of us will be able to find him to help him."
I sat and thought silently for a few minutes before speaking up again. "Well then, since we don't seem to have much else to do until Jue Zhu returns, let's pool what we've figured out about this labyrinth so far. Did you both get map data for a section of the maze before you got here, like Jue Zhu and I did?"
Jong and Shokoya both nodded. "Had a heck of a time getting it, too," said Shokoya.
"And you both got a coordinate from the mural, too?"
They nodded again. "Okay let me think…which sections did you come from? It does seem like each of us started in different sections."
"You mean like, the position of the entrance we came from?" said Shokoya, "Mine was…well, if we call the entrance "north" then mine was about southwest—close to due west, I think."
"I started…I guess southeast, close to due east," said Jong.
"Well, I was definitely due south," I said, "hmm…not quite enough to narrow down a pattern. If there's a chance our starting positions weren't random, we might be able to use that to search for Quan. It sounds like so far we started in sections pretty close to one another, but even assuming I'm right that it's not random, it's still too many possibilities to actually mount a search."
Jong stood up. "Well, I already have my communication stone working again. I'm going to go after, well, there should be another zodiac animal room at my coordinate too. Zuhui, you can relay to Jue Zhu if Quan shows up, right?"
I nodded. "Good luck."