Revenge of the Serpent

Chapter 18

Even though Theodore was in a rush, he wasn't cruel enough to let two starving and tired men dive into an unknown dungeon without preparation.

He volunteered to go hunt for some food while Merlin and Eugene would stay behind and set up camp for the night—or however long it would take for the two of them to regain their stamina—he preferred to only take minimal hours of rest since he wanted to get things done quickly.

Awakened humans usually need less sleep in trade for requiring more sustenance, it was speculated that the humans who'd become "Heroes" need to constantly be aware of monsters, so long rests would only hinder their fighting efficiency.

Theodore was once an Awakened and he could confirm that it was true, at the minimum, he needed to sleep for only four hours a day to function normally.

‘I’m not like that anymore though…actually now that I think about it, the more I level up the less I feel sleepy or hungry...’ He thought to himself while looking around, searching for something the two men back at camp could eat.

The trees weren't as dense as the other areas and their shapes looked crooked and old, giving off an odd vibe, especially when explored during the night and the only light source came from the moon above.

It wasn't a problem for Theodore though, he had thermal vision, and anything that came into his view was clearly visible due to their body heat.

The real problem was the fact that there weren't any regular animals roaming around this part of Delphi Forest, so searching for something that would be edible for the humans back at camp was difficult.

'Can they even eat gate creatures?'

[If a Creature of the Gates closely resembles an earthly animal, awakened humans can consume them without side effects.]

After hearing the System's voice, Theodore's concerns slightly dissipated. 'Okay, good, that makes things a lot easier for me.'

He'd just slithered past something that looked like a boar, so it became his target for the hunt.

The boar was resting in a small cave, giving him an easy opening to rush in and attack, though it was most likely one of the weaker monsters in Deeper Delphi since Theodore only bit it once and smacked it slightly with his body, but it went down in an instant without putting up much of a fight.

[You killed a 'Golden Boar'. Gained 800,000 EXP.]

He would've felt deplored that he couldn't eat the monster if it wasn't so weak, he doubted he could even get any useful skills from it anyway.

'What skills would I get? Something like Charge? I can do that even without a skill.'

The boar was quite big, so he decided to settle with only one and dragged its body with his tail back to camp.

A fire was lit in the middle while the two men sat around it on large rocks, since they didn't expect to stay the night, none of them brought any outdoor supplies.

They were chatting with each other before Theodore arrived.

"Oh! You're back." Merlin's attention immediately shifted towards his friend when he emerged from the dried, short bushes.

"Looks like we're having roasted pork tonight!" Eugene eyed the golden boar gluttonously, despite always having problems with Merlin in the past, he could never deny the fact that his cooking was top-notch.

"Go on chef, this guy's yours." Theodore flicked his tail and sent the boar sliding across the ground before stopping near Merlin.

The ginger got up to check the ingredients before nodding with approval. "Minimal wounds to the good parts, glad you took my advice properly this time."