"I can feel her presence now. I'll meet you later, kid. No, seriously, if I ever meet you again, I'll kill you. That's what I thought. But it seemed you possessed a high affinity for us, beasts. Is the snake I sensed earlier I couldn't control yours? Alright, forget about it."
Kaiju didn't know when to reply as quickly as he could, now falling into puzzlement hearing the endless yapping of the Overlord beast. Out of nowhere, he felt like the telepathy he had with the Overlord beast vanished, but the feeling of intense gaze still lingered above him.
He had a slight idea it did not come from the Overlord beast, but rather, only his subordinate. Perhaps, one of his strongest aides.
Since the Overlord beast said it himself, his life would have to be spared… It depends on how the person the Overlord beast was talking about reacted to his presence.
'Seriously, who is she? He said she is one of my kind, so that means she is human. Are there humans living on the Hellish Trial? It's possible. They must have been stuck here since there was no specific time when the mission would end – the Tower said, the deadline only depended on the awakening of the vampire king, or some sort. If that's the case, then there is really a human here…
But…'
Kaiju's sweat trickled on his forehead.
'How can a participant in a trial become a Pseudo-Ranker? I heard that only once the Trial ended would the player become awakened since the Trial itself served as a trial for obtaining classes that would aid them in their awakening. Is it because this is the Hellish Trial? It would make sense, but not totally.
I mean, why are there even an Overlord beast in a Trial-
Nevermind, this is the Hellish Trial, after all. The difficulty there is, possible. It's difficult to fathom this place since the humans haven't explored a lot about this Trial.'
Kaiju felt a headache coming whenever he tried to grasp the Trial and the information about the person that even made the Overlord feared her. In the end, he had reached many assumptions but not a solid conclusion. Hence, for now, he continued to search for a way to steal fruits under the terrifying watchful eyes of the Overlord beast's strongest aide.
He would not leave empty-handed. He acknowledged he was being greedy now, but it did not mean it would not benefit him anyway.
He slowly tilted his head above, hearing an ear-piercing hiss, but his face remained impassive. He boldly tried to meet the eye of the snake that attempted to terrorize him and had a staring competition with it.
He would not back down against it, as he scrutinized its appearance.
It was three times more massive than Snow, its scales were blackened and, for some reason, emitting a dark green corrupted aura.
Just staring at the oozing dark green glow, seemingly mixed with corrupted aura, Kaiju already knew what rank the beast was.
"It's a Corrupted Rank beast." Kaiju mumbled.
"That's right!" Kaiju was slightly startled by the Overlord's beast voice. "Since she's taking her time, and the fact you're staring at it calmly like how she acted toward me, why won't I begin a thrilling battle, then?
Don't worry, other snakes would not interrupt your duel. Alright, enough talking, it's either you die or he dies.
Now… fight!"
Kaiju's eyes widened.
If it was not for Emotionless skill, he would not have been able to mentally react from the Corrupted serpent's swift attack.
'Not good! It's fast!'
Without hesitation, he activated Swift Dash to retreat from the serpent's assault, yet it appeared their speed was the same… somewhat.
Kaiju only had three more seconds before the serpent was able to land a bite on him.
'What did I expect? That's a Corrupted Rank beast!'
Kaiju was aware that activating another Swift Dash to change direction would be futile as the serpent was more agile than him, but he did not have a choice. He needed to buy more time.
Kaiju bolted towards the trap he created earlier, hoping the serpent could not catch him before he arrived at the trap.
However, when he peeked at the serpent behind him, his eyebrows arched up when he saw the serpent actually blended in its shadows.
Kaiju knew he was done for.
The enemy disappeared, giving him no room for his enemy's current information, and that was the worst thing that could happen. He remained composed however, excessively overworking his mind to come up with a plan.
He only had a single remaining activation of Swift Dash, and the trap he set up was still a bit far. Although he could have set it up nearer on the gargantua tree, he did not want to afford startling other snakes, inevitably abandoning his plan on setting a trap.
He changed direction and his speed terribly declined. His instinct screamed in peril, and he knew he had to change direction once again, going back to the same direction that would lead him to the trap he set.
He activated his remaining activation of Swift Dash and now, he was betting his life on the line.
It's either he would die first or managed to lure the serpent to his trap.
He could not feel despair because the Emotionless skill was still being activated, so without an ounce of emotion, he was running the best he could manage to.
As his mind was in its calm state, narrowing his vision on the massive leap forward, the Gacha System's voice reverberated in his mind.
{The reward has been calculated!
Congratulations! You have been rewarded with 20 Luck Points!
20 Luck Points are being multiplied ten times…
Congratulations! You have been rewarded with 200 Luck Points!
200 Luck Points has been credited to your status!}
Since it was being announced on his thoughts, it only took an instant to hear and process what the Gacha System had said. Kaiju quickly converted 200 Luck Points into 2 Rare tickets, as drawing 20 Common Draws might take ages.
He then ordered the Gacha System to hastily perform 2 Rare draws with his 2 Rare tickets, hoping to receive useful rewards.