One hour passed. It was still the middle of the night with clouds overhead blocking the moonlight from shining down on the land below. After this hour passed, Vain squeezed into the crevice right next to the hulking snakes body. It was extremely intimidating. The scales on the snakes body were mirror like, showing Vain the ripples in the surroundings caused by his camouflage ability. Honestly speaking, he was very glad he couldn't see his own reflection right now because it definitely wouldn't be a good one. Sticking tightly to the wall, Vain managed to squeeze all the way to the back of the crevice without being detected. His plan was now almost complete. Now all that was left was the most dangerous part, actually engaging in combat with the beast. Vain couldn't guess the reaction the serpent beast would have once he started absorbing all of the blood and rot from its enormous body. He assumed the beast would react instantly, but he didn't know the actions it would take. Thinking this, Vain gritted his teeth and focused all of his attention on the tail of the beast that was right in front of him. Vain stuck out both of his hands and started to absorb as much as he could, as fast as he could. Just like Vain thought, the serpent beast reacted almost immediately, swinging its tail and twisting its body madly. After just a few seconds, the half of the snakes body that was in the crevice squeezed completely free of the rock mound, but Vain didn't panic. It was all within his expectations. Vain rushed out of the crevice following the tail of the snake and soon saw the enraged Serpent beasts head rapidly coiling around to swallow Vain whole. This was also within his expectations, actually this is what he hoped for. Yes Vain was still using his camouflage ability, but the serpent beast could still see the radiation like waves moving the surroundings and aimed directly for them. Once the beast got close enough and opened its mouth wide enough to swallow Vain, he took out his trusted dagger made from the Sweet Slumber tree that Uncle Ale had given him. Vain then shot leaf tendrils out of the palm that wasn't holding his dagger, latching the rope like vines around a nearby boulder swinging his body out of the way of the mouth of the beast. Just when Vain dodged, the serpents head rushed passed him entering the crevice in the mound with staggering momentum. Seeing this, Vain took the dagger and went to plunge it as deep as he could into the serpent to spread the blades toxin hoping it would help to slow the beasts movement. However, right when the tip of the dagger touched the mirror like scales on the serpent *KRRTSH* the dagger rebound from the scales unleashing sparks and sending a sharp pain all the way through Vain's left arm. Vain gritted his teeth, quickly sheathed the dagger, and began absorbing again with all of his might. Since half of Vain's plan still worked, he had to take advantage of the current situation despite the pain coursing through his arm. However, the mirror scaled serpent wouldn't make it easy for him. The beast let out a terrifying roar ; thrashing, squirming, and rolling, completely destroying the crevice it was previously staying in. The beast finally broke free after about ten seconds, but it didnt seem even a bit week from the absorbtion of its blood. This did not dissuade Vain. In fact, it just made him more committed. He already started the battle, the mad, corrupted beast probably wouldn't let him run away anyways. The snake twisted its entire body, lunging in the direction it saw its pinkish blood flowing into. Vain dodged, absorbed blood, and dodged again. The mirror scaled snake twisted, bit, and lunged. This went on for a few minutes until the serpent beast let out a large roar, opening its mouth as wide as possible, shooting a purplish black liquid from its top two fangs. Vain knew immediately that this liquid must be an extremely potent venom, so he didn't dare get close to it. Just as he had thought, all of the grass and trees that came into contact with the venom corroded extremely quickly. This ability of the snake didn't change the situation of the battle much at all. Vain kept dodging, ducking, and weaving not allowing any attack of the serpent to hit him. With the serpents maddened state, plus its sheer size, the difficulty for it to hit Vain was very high. The serpent, not being able to hit Vain, grew even more enraged and lost what little reason it had left. The serpent started lunging towards Vain with reckless abandon. In the process of trying to catch Vain, the enormous snake bashed across rock walls, scraped against the bottom of the rivers, and destroyed the trees in the unique space. All of these actions caused the mirror scaled snake to accumulate damage, albeit a little ; a little still leads to a lot over time. Now, the sun was rising. It was indeed morning already. The vitality of this kingsfield realm serpent beast was no joke. It was by far the most vigorous beast Vain has ever encountered. After countless hours of absorbing blood, running away, absorbing blood, and running away, Vain finally saw weakness in the beasts movements. Just now, it had lunged at Vain like normal, but when he dodged it this time, the serpent took a few extra seconds to recover. This gave Vain's exhausted body the energy it needed. He finally saw the hope of killing the beast he's been fighting for what seemed like ages. Vain watched the head of the mirror scaled snake rise up again and lunge at him. He dodged. This time however, instead of absorbing a little blood then retreating, Vain directly leaped towards the back of the serpents head and drew out his dagger made from the sweet slumber tree. Vain landed on the back of the massive snake, thrusting his dagger directly towards the snakes eyes. *prsh* The eyeball that Vain had aimed for popped like a water balloon being thrown against a rock. After this successful attack, Vain tried to hop off of the snakes head before it reacted, but its reflexes were still just too quick. The gaint snake rolled upside down as soon as it felt the pain coming from its eye, causing Vain to be flung off of the creatures back and almost crushed under the massive weight of the beasts body, but Vain dodged. Now at this point, Vain finally knew that he had won. The towering serpent beast didn't roll over to lay on its belly like normal. It just laid on the ground twitching, curling, and unfurling it's massive body. This was the sign of death. Seeing these signs, Vain went to the bottom of the snakes jaw, where he deemed it to be the safest and started absorbing all of the beasts plagued blood madly. Finally, after thirty more seconds, Vain heard a voice in his mind say, "Rank increased to Kingsfield Rank three from Kingsfield rank two. Kingsfield rank one, Mutated World Swallowing Serpent blood absorbed, blood essence obtained : Mutated World Swallowing Serpent. Ability obtained : Voracity. "Hahahahahahaha!" Vain laughed for a long time. The payoff he got from fighting this beast was indeed worth it. He ranked up, got a new blood essence, and obtained a new ability. Vain was ecstatic. After the pleasure of absorbing the world swallowing serpents blood disappeared, Vain's mind regained its usual clarity. Vain then took his dagger and started searching throughout the colossal Serpents body for its beast core. From head to tail, the serpent was an astonishing forty meters long. Fortunately, he found the beast core in the middle of its head saving him a lot of time and effort. Vain quickly pocketed the beast core and retraced the path of destruction that the world swallowing serpent left behind while it was chasing Vain. Vain followed the signs of destruction for two full hours at a rather high speed. Finally, at about noon, Vain saw the hill in which the serpents den was dug. Vain rushed over the hill and saw the woods where Mira should be staying and breathed a sigh of relief. Vain walked to the tree line slowly, expecting Mira to jump out anytime. As expected, the top of the trees in front of Vain shook violently for a few seconds before a young teenage girl fell out of the trees. Mira landed smoothly and rushed towards Vain in a hurry. She got close to Vain giving him a gentle hug and said in a low voice, "Hahhh you're back. I can finally use the bathroom in peace." The corner of Vain's mouth twitched when he heard this. He was used to how shameless Mira was, or at least he thought so. After hearing Mira's words, Vain figured that she was just joking, but looking at her serious expression, he wanted to cry. Vain said with an exhausted look on his face, "Can't you wait for me to get some rest?" Mira scolded, "You've kept me waiting for a full day already. How long do you think I can hold it?" Vain just ignored Mira, climbed the closest tree all the way to the top, covered himself in the tree sap and leaves and fell asleep. Mira went behind a tree that was relatively close to do her business. Soon after, she returned to the tree Vain was in and climbed up to the thick branch only to see Vain fast asleep. Mira didn't think he would actually fall asleep before she returned. What if she was attacked while peeing? It could've been very dangerous. However, she knew that Vain had just come back from a horrible fight, so she would forgive him this time. Looking at Vain's sleeping figure, Mira pouted a little bit but ultimately decided not to make it a big deal for Vain when he woke up. She huddled close to Vain, covering herself in the tree sap and tree leaves to block out her scent. Like this, a full day passed before Vain woke up. When he woke up, he noticed that Mira was stuck to the tree right next to him, staring at him with a pleading gaze. Vain slowly got up, feeling stiff all over. It can be said that sleeping on tree limbs was not the most comfortable. Mira scooted closer to Vain, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him rigorously pleading, "Food. Vain I need food. I haven't eaten in two days." Vain felt that Mira was being unreasonable but he was hungry as well, plus he learned long ago to not argue with this girl in front of him, so he just nodded. After Mira saw Vain agree, she breathed a sigh of relief and started to go down the tree. Now that she had her goal achieved, she started to ask Vain details about the fight with the Serpent beast. He explained the fight to Mira as the two of them wandered around, looking for some prey. Unfortunately, it was almost certain that all of the creatures that were in the vicinty left because of the fight between Vain and the World Swallowing Seprent. An hour passed without Vain and Mira finding any creature to eat. Mira was constantly complaining about how hungry she is, while Vain was comparing the differences between different beast cores as he walked. Vain was holding two beast cores of the Spirit Refinement realm and noticed that the patterns and colors of the cores were completely different, but thats all he could see. He couldn't sense the energy of the cores, he could only remember the cores by the appearance and blood of the beast that he killed. This is why he usually had Mira dig out the beast cores despite all of her protesting. He couldn't detect which part of the creature the beast core would be in and it would waste too much time if he always did it himself.
