Chapter 183: Just Become a Massive Snake
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 183: Just Become a Massive Snake
Abram and the party pursued the fleeing Gorgon with frantic desperation.
It was clear as day that if they failed to catch the Gorgon now, they would eventually be cornered again. As long as the Gorgon retained its sight, they were trapped in a structure where they would inevitably be caught.
"Cough. Urgh..."
"Are you awake?"
"Where... where is everyone going right now...?"
"We're pursuing the Gorgon."
"The Gorgon?"
Upon hearing the situation, Sion brought the group to a halt.
"What is it? I told you, we have to go kill that Gorgon immediately!"
"It’s fine. Let's stop the pursuit and take a rest for now."
"No! I'm telling you, we have to block the Gorgon's gaze or we're finished!"
"I've already prepared a solution for that."
"What?"
Sion looked at the party and smirked.
"I discovered a rather interesting fact during the battle."
"And what would that be?"
"I mentioned it earlier. My connection with Kairan was severed."
"Right. Are you about to tell us that the Gorgon swallowed Kairan and grew stronger?"
"As expected of Chloe. You caught on immediately."
"Once you fight it, you can't help but realize it, whether you want to or not."
"It’s just as Chloe said. By some means, the Gorgon swallowed Kairan and became more powerful."
Sion had felt something was off throughout the battle.
According to Olivia, the Gorgon was a monster that two Platinum Badges should have been more than enough to handle. Even if Medusa had been stronger than expected, it made no sense for the Gorgon to be able to stall for time against the Gladiator Brothers.
He eventually concluded that something strange had intervened, and that was when he thought of the Black-Clothed Saint.
‘There’s something in the Snake Nest with an ability I don’t know about.’
Olivia didn't have proper information regarding the Black-Clothed Saint.
That meant there could be intervention from a third party Olivia was unaware of. Sion reached the conclusion that a being—perhaps from the Empire or elsewhere—might have fused Kairan and the Gorgon together.
As a result, Sion came up with an interesting idea.
"The Gorgon will be significantly weakened soon. I've attached one of my summons to it."
"A summon?"
"Yes. Quite a remarkable fellow. It should have finished the job by now."
Sion smiled as he stared into the darkness.
The Gorgon was about to become nothing more than a massive snake.
*
While Sion and his party stopped their pursuit of Kairan to rest, the three dimwits who had come up from the 7th Floor deduced what had happened by looking at the massive traces of destruction and the dead monsters.
"Looks like there was a fight here."
"That's obvious, you idiot. What matters is who fought whom."
"Hmm. Petrification Curse. Serpent's venom. It looks like all the monsters of the Snake Nest gathered here."
"And the opponents?"
"Judging by the tracks, a group of humans. About seven of them?"
Seven humans had clashed with the bosses of the Snake Nest.
And yet, there was no clear result.
"The humans fled, and Medusa and the Serpent changed direction."
"It looks like the thorn vines blocked their path."
"So, where do we go now?"
Their goal was to enter the Underground City.
In that case, they shouldn't follow the boss monsters of the Snake Nest, but rather head in the direction the humans had fled.
"We track the humans. We'll kill them all and leave just one alive; they'll tell us the location of the exit."
Modic, a subordinate of Demon King Morto, began to reanimate the corpses of the dead monsters.
"Based on the traces, they're definitely Platinum Badge level. We should prepare as much as possible, right?"
Following that, Nihila's subordinate, Nihil, strengthened the monsters resurrected as undead.
The monsters, which had been haphazardly stitched together, were transformed into an immortal army.
"Is everything ready? Can we go now?"
"Let's move. They likely pursued the Gorgon. We just need to follow the trail the Gorgon left behind."
Once Modic and Nihil finished their preparations, En, the undead subordinate of Erphin, took the lead with a grin.
The Demon King's subordinates began to shadow Sion and his party.
*
Kairan, wearing the skin of the Gorgon, realized that the situation had become strangely twisted.
‘I should have killed that crazy Bard first.’
She had expected him to create variables, but she hadn't imagined it would be to this extent.
If she hadn't been pinned down by the Gladiator Brothers, she would have ripped the Bard's throat out first. Because she let that mad Bard live, her plan had crumbled.
‘At this rate... I’ll be hunted.’
No matter how strong she was, if three or more Platinum Badges ganged up on her, she would have no choice but to take a one-sided beating. She would be torn apart without even being able to respond. Furthermore, she couldn't call the Serpent or Medusa to her side right now.
The Serpent had exhausted all its energy, and Medusa had taken more damage than expected after being entangled in the thorn vines.
—There it is!
No matter how far she crawled, the pursuit continued.
Maximus refused to let her go.
The Gorgon's body was in no condition to shake off their pursuit and escape.
‘I’m abandoning the Gorgon’s body.’
It was an unavoidable choice.
If she abandoned the Gorgon's body, she would no longer be able to command the monsters, but if she didn't, she wouldn't be able to leave this place alive.
However, Kairan found she couldn't escape the Gorgon's body.
‘Why...? How...?’
Skin Stealing wouldn't activate.
She needed the ability of Skin Stealing to escape the Gorgon's body, just as she had used it to enter.
But it was impossible.
"Kua... No... No...!!!"
Soon, a single spider dropped away from her massive frame.
Kairan still hadn't realized.
That the single spider Sion had released had drained away all of her abilities.
Kairan didn't know why her body had been growing heavier and heavier.
Arad had turned all eight of her abilities into silk and pulled them out.
As a result, Kairan became a person trapped inside the Gorgon's body, stripped of all her power.
Even the Gorgon's own abilities had been drained by Arad.
Now, she was nothing more than a large snake.
Indeed, during the battle, Sion had judged that Kairan might be fused with the Gorgon and confirmed this through Arad.
And he realized that the Gorgon possessed abilities.
Thus, Sion immediately commanded Arad.
To strip away all of Kairan's abilities that the Gorgon held.
From Sion's perspective, Kairan was already a dead woman. He figured he might as well take whatever abilities were left.
As a result, Kairan was left with nothing, trapped inside the body of a snake.
If Kairan had been in her normal state, she would have noticed Arad's presence.
However, Kairan had taken significant damage from the Gladiator Brothers' attacks, and the pain from her wounds was so great that she didn't notice Arad clinging to her body and extracting her abilities.
Because it was the wounded body of the Gorgon, her senses had actually become duller.
"No... No...!!!!"
Kairan wailed.
Everything except the Gorgon's basic traits had vanished.
If she were tracked like this, she would be hunted and killed without a chance to resist.
She had to flee.
She was in a position where she had to escape Sion and his party at any cost.
*
Before Arad arrived, Sion closed his eyes and activated the Bracelet of Growth.
Soon, all the mana in his vicinity vanished, and Mana Adaptation began.
‘I didn't gain an ability this time.’
It ended with just Mana Adaptation, but that was enough.
What mattered now was increasing his soul capacity so he could accept new abilities.
"It's back."
"What is?"
"My summon."
Sion spotted Arad, who had already climbed onto his shoulder.
At this, Ulysses flinched and stepped back.
"An Arachne? To think such a small specimen existed."
"Since it's a summon, it seems to be able to adjust its size."
"Hoho... how fascinating."
Sion placed Arad on his hand.
Then, he requested the abilities Arad had brought back.
"Can you insert all the abilities Kairan had into me?"
"It is possible. Thanks to the Mana Adaptation, there is now vacant space."
Normally, his capacity would have been full after acquiring Moira's Demon Eye, making it impossible to learn Kairan's abilities.
However, through the Mana Adaptation in the Snake Nest, extra space had been created.
If he didn't gain an ability naturally, he could just insert the ones he had stolen.
‘The new abilities are...’
There were a total of eight abilities Arad had brought.
[Night Vision]
[Synesthetic Sight]
[Hermit's Meditation]
[Master of the Dagger]
[Skin Stealing]
[Momentary Acceleration]
[Desperate Resistance]
[Predator's Sight]
Night Vision was, as the name suggested, the ability to see through darkness, and Synesthetic Sight was a detection-type ability that allowed one to see sounds or smells with their eyes.
‘Hermit's Meditation is a self-healing ability for recovering health and mental strength.’
Furthermore, Master of the Dagger was a broken ability that allowed one to call a thrown dagger back to their hand.
‘I already know about Skin Stealing from what I've heard. Momentary Acceleration is also exactly what it sounds like—an ability for increasing speed. The remaining ones are...’
Predator's Sight and Desperate Resistance.
Desperate Resistance was a survival-type ability that allowed one to endure a single fatal blow, and Predator's Sight was the ability that had been blocking the Gorgon's gaze.
If someone detected or observed the user, this ability allowed the user to conversely pinpoint the opponent's location and steal their vision, neutralizing their detection capabilities entirely.
"So this is how she was blocking the Gorgon's sight."
Sion had acquired the Predator's Sight that Kairan once possessed.
Moreover, the moment the Gorgon looked at him, he would now be able to pinpoint her location.