Hearing there was no antidote for the snake venom, Charles despairingly opened his [personal information], and a panel quickly popped up.
[Charles]
[Beast Master Level]: Level 1
[Pet]: The Frost Wolf
[Skill]: Bone-achingly Cold
[Mood]: Terrified
[Health]: Good
After seeing that his health status was 'Good,' Charles finally took a deep breath of relief. Still, he was shaken and roared at Aria, "Could you please not poison people so casually? It's very dangerous, you know? I'm just lucky to have survived!"
"It's not like I poisoned you just because..." Aria, recalling the perilous moment, realized that without Charles, she probably would have died there. She lowered her head, her voice much softer, "I'm sorry... And I don't just go around poisoning people... Wait, where's everyone?"
Charles cautiously approached a nearby dark chamber where dozens of man-faced spiders were eagerly eyeing him. However, when they approached within a few meters of the door, they quickly retreated.
"Good thing I had the foresight to bring the beast-driving wine when I left, giving us a chance to breathe. If I had known, I would have prepared more. At this rate, it won't last more than a few days." Charles took out a bottle of [beast-driving wine] from his [storage space] and poured it on the ground again.
"Felix, when I get out of this tomb, I will return what I suffered today a hundredfold, a thousandfold!"
As a modern person who has transmigrated, Charles did not want to kill anyone. However, if someone tried to harm him, Charles wouldn't mind sending them off in the most painful way possible.
Glancing at the still-sealed secret door, he shrugged helplessly. With his current strength, he couldn't break through the stone door and could only hope that other tomb raiders would discover this chamber.
"Charlie, have you found a way out of the tomb?" Seeing Charles return, Aria looked hopeful.
Charles shook his head, then slumped dejectedly against a corner of the wall.
Seeing his listless appearance, Aria didn't press further, though she had a pretty good idea of their situation.
The two of them occupied a corner of the tomb chamber, each lost in their thoughts. Given their prior disagreements, they naturally didn't feel like talking much.
Hours passed like this, and the door to the chamber remained firmly closed. Aria pondered that continuing this way wasn't a solution.
Now, the two of them were trapped in this chamber, like passengers in the same boat.
Charles seemed to have a way of keeping those man-faced spiders at bay. Aria realized that once Charles was gone, those creatures would run amok, and she would quickly become their prey.
Having understood this, Aria finally convinced herself to accept their current 'partnership' begrudgingly.
Aria stood up, dusting off her skirt, and lightly stepped in front of Charles: "Why do you look so glum? Isn't there a saying in Genosha, 'great calamity brings great fortune'? Since we've survived the jaws of these man-faced spiders, we'll surely make it out of this tomb alive!"
Seeing that Charles still wasn't interested in conversing, Aria felt somewhat disheartened; she really wasn't good at comforting others.
Plus, she was always the one being comforted from a young age, not the other way around.
She rummaged through her small bag and finally found a bit of food left. She broke a small snack in half and handed one piece to Charles: "Here, have something to eat."
Aria laid down a blanket on the ground in front of Charles and knelt on it gently. When Charles looked over, he saw a glimpse of her pale, jade-like legs under her skirt.
He might appear dejected, but he was actually contemplating strategies to escape the tomb, though no viable plans had emerged yet.
However, the good news was that their relationship had eased somewhat.
The human form of Aria was indeed the loveliest in the world, yet in her fury, she was quite another scene.
Recalling the moment Aria had bitten him, Charles felt a twinge of pain in his neck again.
Seeing Aria sitting and eating the snack, Charles's stomach growled audibly.
Having not eaten all day, a small snack was hardly sufficient. Charles took a barbecue grill, a can of fuel, and a large bag of fresh steel-spiked hedgehog meat from his backpack, preparing to impress Aria with his cooking skills.
This spectacle left Aria stunned: "Your backpack is truly magical, fitting so much stuff!"
"Is it?" Charles's face twitched a bit, having hastily grabbed items from his [storage space] without properly calculating the volume.
He skewered the meat and placed it on the grill. Turning to Aria, who was lost in thought, he asked, "Aren't you from Atacama? What brought you all the way to this ferocious beast mountain range?"
Aria snapped back to reality, watching Charles sprinkle various seasonings on the meat: "I came here to visit an old friend."
"An old friend?" Charles looked surprised, noting how much story someone so young could have. Then something clicked in his mind, "Oh, right, do you remember the photo we saw last night?"
Aria nodded, "She's a friend of mine, but I've also been trying to find out where she is."
Mentioning the wooden box and the photo seemed to dampen Aria's mood, and the conversation fell cold again until Charles handed her some grilled meat, which seemed to cheer her up a bit.
Aria took a small bite, her pale gold eyes lighting up: "This is really good, your cooking skills are quite impressive!"
"It's... it's alright," Charles replied, his expression calm but inwardly pleased with the compliment.
It had to be said, Charles's grilled meat was indeed delicious, and Aria enjoyed it immensely.
However, maintaining a girl's reserve, she only nibbled small bites, chewing slowly by the side.
Charles, on the other hand, was less graceful, wolfing down his food and burping loudly afterwards.
After eating their fill, Charles found a corner of the wall to sit and rest. Normally, he could have comfortably lied in a bed, but conjuring a bed out of nowhere was too far-fetched, and he didn't want anyone to know he had a system.
Hours passed again, and Charles glanced across the tomb chamber to see Aria had fallen asleep against the wall corner.
The tomb was cool at night, and seeing her dressed only in a thin skirt, Charles draped a blanket over her before getting up to keep watch over the man-faced spiders.
...
In the tomb, day and night blurred together, time passing in a chaotic stream.
Had it not been for a glance at his phone's calendar, Charles wouldn't have known that five days had passed.
Over these days, their relationship had grown stronger, allowing Charles to see another side of this serpent woman. Once familiar, she shed her reserve, proving to be as talented and bold as rumors suggested.
After lunch one day, Charles was performing his routine in the dark side chamber, spraying [beast-driving wine] on the ground, when he suddenly realized that only five bottles remained.
At this rate, the terrifying group of man-faced spiders would break free tomorrow!
Frowning with concern, Charles was distracted when Aria waved at him, her body damp as if she had just taken a bath: "Charlie, look, I caught some fish in the pool! If our food runs out, we can survive on these fish!"
Charles, initially stunned, then rushed forward excitedly.
"Right, fish! We have fish! How could I have been so dumb!" Charles exclaimed excitedly, impulsively embracing Aria. Realizing her embarrassment, he quickly released her, apologizing, "Sorry, I got a bit too excited!"
These five days had indeed changed Aria's perception of Charles, knowing his actions were unintentional.
Aria asked with some confusion, "What about the fish?"
Charles took Aria's hand and led her back to the pool where she had bathed earlier: "Think about it, if there wasn't a continuous food supply in this tomb, where would all these spiders come from? They must be surviving by eating the fish."
"And if there are fish, then there must be fresh water here, perhaps even an underground river leading somewhere else!" Charles exclaimed and with a 'puff' jumped into the pool.
Three minutes later, just as Aria was starting to worry about Charles's safety, a figure burst from the water!
Charles emerged, face alight with excitement: "There's a passage under the water, an exit! We're saved! We're saved!"
...
In the middle layers of the ferocious beast mountain range, the vegetation was lush and the air misty.
A young girl in white, wielding a graceful long sword, was moving swiftly through the forest and rocks. The continuous roars of beasts echoed around her, yet her face showed no fear.
"Grace, be careful!"
As someone shouted in alarm, a brute force bear hissed and lunged at the lead girl, its violent charge toppling trees in its path. Just as the brute force bear was about to strike the girl in white, her figure vanished like a specter.
With a light tap of her foot, the girl was already in mid-air, and behind her, blue phoenix butterflies gently flapped their wings, stirring up a wild wind through the trees.
Whizz——!
A blade of wind shot out, and before anyone could see what happened, the brute force bear was lying on the ground, completely subdued.
"Amazing! That's a level 9 ferocious beast, and Grace took it down in one move!"
"Grace, your score is unbelievable, we mere rookies can only look up to you!"
"Where's Charles, though? No movement in his score lately, hahaha! Did he get scared and quit halfway?"
Unconcerned by the compliments around her, Grace swung her sword, delivering a fatal blow to the brute force bear. The once fearsome beast instantly lost its life force, turning into 9 points for her.
She checked the current score rankings.
----------------------------
[Ferocious Beast Mountain Range Training Score Leaderboard]
1st Place: Grace [142 points]
2nd Place: David [97 points]
3rd Place: Robert [89 points]
...
----------------------------
Seeing the rankings, a slight smile curled at the corners of the girl's mouth.
She was leading with a substantial margin, and if she continued at this rate, she would win this session of the Ferocious Beast Mountain Range training. Not only would she qualify for one of the three major academies in the Imperial Capital, but she would also have the opportunity to choose a pet egg.
These days, she felt hints of an imminent breakthrough, suggesting she might not even need to wait until the end of the training to become a level two Beast Master!
At this thought, the image of a young man flashed through her mind, and she scrolled through the leaderboard page by page.
Finally, she found at the lower end of the leaderboard:
865th Place: Charles [13 points]
"Charles, at this rate, you won't just fail to beat me; you won't even qualify to fight me," Grace murmured as she sheathed her sword, her voice cold:
"I look forward to the day you kneel before me in defeat. I certainly won't show any mercy."
---