Chapter 73: A Catastrophe

One hatchling snapped wide and missed; Kael stepped inside the empty bite and drove the stake down through softer scales near the jaw hinge.

Another thrashed and scraped the wall, confused by its own echo; Kael slammed the crowbar’s stake into the back of its skull with both hands, using the weight of his whole body.

The cave filled with wet impacts and the sharp, copper smell of fresh blood.

The last of the awakened hatchlings managed a weak hiss and a desperate snap that nearly caught Kael’s forearm.

The teeth grazed cloth, tugging, and Kael felt the momentary pull, felt how easily it could have been skin. He snarled something under his breath and ended it with a shove of the stake into its throat, pinning it until its movements stopped.

The silence that followed wasn’t peaceful. It was the kind of silence that came after something had screamed and died and left the air heavy with what it couldn’t finish saying.

“That’s some good loot,” he thought as he realized that his inventory was packed full of cores and leather and all sort of material he could sell or use.

The numbers were stacking up fast now, fast enough to make him briefly forget the risk. Briefly.

Just then, he checked his Mini-map.

There was nothing on it, no red dot coming in rushing at him, and no dots inside the dungeon left.

He just killed every creature here. The emptiness on the minimap looked almost wrong, like a room after you’ve stripped it bare.

***

[You have singlehandedly caused the extinction of the Dark Basilisk of Getava on the first floor.]

[You have obtained a title.]

[Exterminator.]

+2 Strength +2 DEX +2 STM

***

The pain came without warning, but it was once again not that powerful, and not that painful as compared to when he obtained [Legend].

It hit like a hard squeeze inside his muscles, a sudden tightness and then release, his body adjusting, accepting, becoming something a little sharper. He winced anyway. Pain was still pain, even when your body started learning to tolerate it.

The only issue, however, was the fact that it said he caused the extinction.

How could that happen when the mother was still alive fetching food for her dead children. Could she be the last remaining one?

’That would make sense, since she can’t breed anymore if she is by herself…’ The thought settled grimly.

Extinction didn’t require killing every single one instantly. It required killing the future. He’d just done that. He didn’t know if he should feel proud or sick.

Kael took his eyes off the status screen and thought about the current situation. He killed a bunch of these creatures but sadly there was no ’weapon’ drop or gear drop, all he got was materials.

Useful, sure, but materials didn’t save you in a fight unless you could turn them into something.

The boss of the sun clan must have had his own means to obtain a dagger in this floor.

Kael felt a flash of annoyance at that. Another reminder that other people had systems, networks, tricks. He had a map and a crowbar and a talent for being unlucky in creative ways.

With nothing else to do in this cave, ’I should go…’ he thought.

He didn’t want to be here when the mother returned. Not after the noise. Not after the smell.

And just as he was about to leave, something caught his eyes.

There was a glowing golden dot on the map. It was deeper into the cavern.

Kael’s pulse quickened again, but this time with greed instead of fear. A golden dot wasn’t “maybe.” It was a treasure. It was the Tower dangling something shiny on a hook.

Kael decided to check it out. He moved quickly.

There were no red dots left in the cave so it meant it was safe, at least safe in the immediate sense, the kind of safety that existed right before something terrible arrived. He followed the minimap deeper, stepping over slick stone and broken scales, passing deeper pockets of moss-light until the cave widened into a chamber that smelled older, heavier.

And just as he reached the place he was being led to thanks to the map, his face twisted.

There was a larger corpse there, though calling it a corpse is an understatement. It was that of a basilisk. A large one. An adult. That only had bones and some of its skin left.

It looked like something had been eaten and then forgotten. Ribs arched like broken beams. A skull lay at an angle, jaw half-open, teeth still wicked even in death. There was dried residue on bone that looked suspiciously like old char and old blood.

This was probably the mate of the basilisk that left.

’Looks like she ate him after mating…The animal kingdom do be ruthless sometimes…’ The dark humor rose automatically, because if he didn’t laugh at it, he’d have to respect it. And respecting it meant fearing it more.

He approached it and placed his hand on the corpse since it was pointing at the golden shiny here. The bone was rough under his palm, cold and chalky. The system responded immediately, like it had been waiting for contact.

[You have obtained, Damaged Black Basilisk Leather x3]

[You have obtained [Hardened Black Basilisk Scale x68]

[You have obtained [Hardened Basilisk Claws x 6]

[You have obtained Damaged Black Basilisk Tendons x20]

[You have obtained 1 Medium Soul Core]

“Oh, this one is different,” Kael thought as he noticed that this core was darker in color and was bigger than the normal ones. It sat in his inventory like a heavier coin, like a promise of more power packed into one piece.

He could almost feel its value without even checking. Medium. Not small. Not the pathetic single cores people bled for above ground.

While he was busy looking at the loot, he failed to notice something important.

A Red Dot was rapidly approaching the perimeter.

Direction… the Open Dungeon where he was currently at.

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