263. The beginning (I)

Snow coughed a few more times, trying to clear away her chest full of smoke. When she was finally able to, she noticed Levian next to her.

“Is everything going well?” Snow asked. Levian had arrived a day ago, which she foresaw. Something this big wasn’t something Levian would ever miss.

“The usual,” Levian replied. “I wouldn’t pass it with these fools to understand how serious this dungeon raid is. Some of these idiots think they can clear this by themselves.” he scoffed.

“Well, we know that won’t go well.”

“Exactly,” Levian stressed his words. “Anyways, are you ready for the dungeon dive?”

“Absolutely not.” Snow replied bluntly. Hell, she wasn’t even sure if she would live tomorrow. “You?”

“Yes.” Levian had said with reassurance. “This is the dungeon that will change the world.”

“And you’re not going to tell me what’s going to happen?”

Levian shook his head. “There has been too much inconsistency that I don’t even know anymore what’s going to happen, but I assure you on this. We can not lose against this dungeon.”

“That’s a bit cryptic.” Snow replied. She crossed her hand. “But, you already changing the future as it is should have already caused a large-scale domino effect. How is the situation now in the future?”

Levian thought over for a moment. “Dangerously, bad.”

Snow was confused. “I thought you were changing things as we speak.”

“Made incorrect judgments.”

“That….could do that.” Snow said. “What about this flower thing that came out from the dungeon?”

“I don’t know. I saw something like this before.”

Snow couldn’t help but think that his future reading slowly became pointless if things were drastically changing.

“Anyways, all we’ll know is the few weeks. We’ll need to win, no matter what.”

“We will….” Snow's voice trailed off. “Hopefully.” her voice became quiet. Whatever was waiting for them in that dungeon didn’t seem to like her or the players and hunters that came to challenge it.

Time slowly crawled by, the last of the ship that came to ferry in the last remaining Hunters and Players arrived at the camp. People started packing, getting ready to leave, and enter the gate.

Snow was busy packing up a few containers and folding up her tent. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw something slither by. Placing the container, she got up. Heading toward the direction of the movement.

Reaching over, she pulled back the vines that blocked her view and saw two pairs of eyes staring at her.

“What?!” Startled, she pulled back. The snake inside the vine slithered over and stopped in front of her.

It didn’t attack and stood coiled by her feet, blinking a few times. Snow was confused at the intelligent snake that seems to want something from her.

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She squatted down, reaching over.

“Hey bud, you aren’t going to bite me, are you?” Snow weakly chuckled.

The snake unwinded itself and slithered into her hand.

“I take that as a no.” Snow was piqued by this strange snake. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t like the normal snake that she had seen before, as the scales had the same plant-like texture as the vines around them. “Strange.” She tried to flip the snake around a few times, getting a better view of its odd scales.

The snake slithered and hissed, not liking how it was being handled, and wrapped itself around her fingers. It licked her finger a few times, eventually curling up around her like a bracelet.

“What an odd snake.” Snow replied. “A very familiar friendly snake, you don’t see that very often.” She chuckled, seeing how the snake was curling around her like a bracelet.

“Snow!” Levian waved his hand, trying to get her attention.

Snow turned around. Levain was next to her. He noticed the shiny snake bracelet on her.

“What is that?” Levian asked.

“A snake.”

“A monster?”

“I guess?” Snow wasn’t sure how to explain this odd creature who was acting like a bracelet.

“You guess?”

Snow shrugged her shoulder.

“Never mind, Red had found some clue about the plant.”

“She did?”

“She’s been looking for you.”

Snow followed behind quickly. She found Red, swishing the vial a few times. “Red?”

Red looked over. “Snow?”

“I heard you found something that I needed to know.”

“Ah, yes,” Red said with excitement. “I think you would like this.” She fumbled around, looking around her box of veils. When she finally found what she needed, she handed it to Snow.

“This is?” Snow asked.

“A potion. I suggest you drink this.”

Snow wasn’t sure she wanted to drink it without understanding what it was. It had a weird smell to it.

“It tastes like grapes.”

“But what does it do?”

“Keep monsters away.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep.”

Snow twirled the vial a few more times. “No side effects?”

“Well…”

“I don’t like that….”

“Well, I guess you can say that you might get some animal ear for a week.”

Snow tilted her head. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Yep.” Red shook her head up and down. A tuft of cat ear was shown on her head.

Snow took the vial in her hand and drank it without a second thought. The slimy taste was still tingling down her throat, but it tastes like grape.

“It doesn’t taste that bad as I thought.”

“Right?”

A tingle was felt on her head.

“Um….” Red eyes became wide.

“What?”

“You have cat ears,” Levian spoke, his eyes becoming wide. He then barked out laughing, kneeling over as he pointed at her head.

“I do?” Snow reached up to touch her head. When her finger felt a soft tingle of a cat ear, she froze. In disbelief, her finger ran through her hair a few more times, trying to make sure that she didn’t just imagine this. Her finger locked onto her cat ears, and she tugged it a few times. A sharp pain electrified her head, telling her that the ear was bound to stay on for long periods.

Snow noticed that the more she played with her cat ears, the more she could feel it wiggling it on her head. Few seconds went by, and she could get a good grasp of her cat ear control, allowing her to flick it and make it move to the way she wanted.

The sound around her had amplified, allowing her to hear a lot better than before, giving her extra senses that she never thought she would use so extensively.

When she could do nothing more to her soft ears, her hand dropped to her side. “You said this would last about a week or two?”

“Yep.”

“Well, at least that’s not too terrible.” Snow replied. In all honesty, she thought these new cat ears would actually help her out more in the dungeon. “At least I can hear a lot better than before.”

Levian stopped laughing. He was able to bring himself up. Wiping away his tears, he straightened up.

“Is that so?” Levian asked, a bit curious.

“Yes, I could hear the people across the field talking right now.” Snow pointed off in the distance of a Hunter and Player cracking jokes with one another.

“That might actually be useful.”

“It is,” Red said with pride. “I made sure it wouldn’t affect our body too much. I have enough for everyone.”

“Really? You made that many?”

“Yep,” Red puffed up her chest. She placed her hand on her hips. Proud of her creation. “Most of the materials we had, but the flowers that you brought were just enough. I honestly didn’t have to use much to create it. If I had mixed any more, it would have been a whole different potion.”

“I see.”

“Not only that,” Red leaned in for only her to hear. “I think this plant thing is actually more helpful than harmful to us.”

“Why is that?”

“The seeds that it sent out to actually sent itself to all the major and minor dungeons, creating its own little miniature version of itself. If a break out happens, it sprouts and devours the monsters.”

“Wait, such a thing is possible?”

“Yea, I know. It’s weird something like this plant is helping us. Who knows, but for now, I really think that we don’t have to worry about this plant thingy or whatever it is until we destroy this dungeon.”

Snow had a hard time wrapping this around her mind. To have a plant helping them was lucky. There wasn’t such easy help from a monster that she didn’t know about.

“Look, we can still destroy this plant right after. I have some potions…” Red rummaged through her pocket and pulled out ten small vials. “Theses should do it.”

“Thanks.” Snow took it and put it in the storage. “I’ll make sure to use this if need be.”

“I know you will.” A smile creased on Red’s lips. “Anyways, let’s go kick some butt.” She giggled.

“I assure you, we will do a lot of that,” said Snow.