22 The port city

It was getting dark in the jungle and as the sun dipped below the horizon, the last rays of light tinged the sky with a reddish-orange tint. This was a truly beautiful and peaceful sight that would make anyone forget about the dangers that remained hidden in the calm sea of trees waiting for the night to come.

But this evening the atmosphere in the jungle was much more raucous than usual.

*Tremble tremble tremble*

"HIIISSAAAAA!!!"

The colossal horned snake over 20 meters (65ft) long hissed in pain as it destroyed everything in its path. Whether it was bushes, trees, rocks, or other animals and monsters that were crushed and destroyed by the passage of the huge creature whose mere presence made the earth tremble.

Normally nothing could stop his advance, after all, he was the king of this area. But today things were different

"HIIISSAAAAA!!!"

The king was suffering, agonizing in pain as huge amounts of scarlet blood dripped from his mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth impregnated with poison.

"HIIISssaa..."

*THUD*

Finally, as it breathed its last breath, the snake dropped its gigantic body with a thud that spread throughout the jungle and caused the surrounding trees to tremble. Slowly the snake's amber eyes took on a glassy look, losing their last glimmer of life.

But at that moment, in the stomach of the gigantic creature, a lump was visible and began to move. Slowly the lump moved from the stomach to the neck and soon reached the snake's mouth.

The maw of the huge snake would have revealed an arm that appeared to be formed of calcified muscles. Soon, a skeletal figure covered in saliva and blood emerged from the creature's corpse, dropping to the ground as if it wanted to vomit.

...

{The user has defeated a [Horned Basilisk] for the first time, 2,535 additional experience points will be awarded.}

...

{You earned 25,351 xp}

...

'Oh MY GOD!! How f**king disgusting! There are really people who have this kind of fetishes?!... uuuh, I'm going to need a lot of therapy to forget this... how disgusting... And I had just taken a bath!!'

Naturally, that skeletal figure was Marcus, who a couple of hours ago had been attacked by the horned basilisk while he was off guard. As a result, he had been devoured and imprisoned in the creature's stomach.

Normally Marcus could have used some of his spells or skills to escape from the snake's large stomach, but just at that moment, the solar energy had begun to take effect, causing all of his magical skills to weaken.

On top of that, the basilisk possessed an incredible regenerative ability and ridiculously high stats so shadow weapons and low-level spells were ineffective against it.

In this situation, the only thing Marcus could do was to use [Negative Touch], a level 1 necromancy spell that served to drain the vitality of all living things while poisoning them with necrotic energy.

In this way, Marcus was able to reduce the basilisk's HP steadily and continuously while preventing the creature from regenerating.

Even if the efficiency of the spell was affected by the solar energy, its MP consumption was very low so Marcus was able to keep it active all the time. And so, after almost 15 hours the basilisk died.

...

{The [Monarch of the eternal garden] laughs at your misfortune}

....

'But what a son of a... Doesn't this guy have anything better to do besides spying on me?' thought Marcus as he struggled to stand up. Although this was normal since he had been inside the stomach of a giant snake most of the day, so he was feeling a bit disoriented. 'Seriously, who is this guy?'

Aside from his skills and stats, one of the things that changed the most in the last three months that Marcus spent in the jungle was the fact that he was now receiving notifications from the [Eternal Garden Monarch] on a regular basis.

Marcus didn't like the fact that someone else was spying on him all the time. But since there was nothing he could do about it, he just ignored it as much as possible.

After wiping the horned Basilisk's fluids from his body, Marcus started walking through the jungle while trying to figure out where exactly he was. He walked for a couple of minutes until he passed through some bushes, when he finally passed them, he saw something that filled him with joy.

Marcus was on a small hill at the end of the dense sea of trees that made up the jungle. But beyond the jungle, to the east, an area free of trees with tall green grasses stretched down to a blue-water beach.

Between the middle of the beach and the tall grass, next to a river that flowed into the sea, a city surrounded by an imposing gray rock wall over 6 meters (20 ft) high, stood imposingly as dozens of carriages and people entered through its massive iron gates.

I finally did it! I found a city! .... Now, how am I supposed to get in?'

****

"Tch... Damn, there's no end to this. "Astor complained.

He honestly didn't like the afternoon shift because it was always when all the clan groups and merchants arrived at the last minute before the city closed.

The only good thing about the afternoon shift was that his metal armor didn't get hot from the sun's rays so he would suffer less heat. Especially since it was summer.

Astor adjusted his metal helmet and approached a carriage that was loaded to the brim with corpses of insect monsters and reptiles.

"Hello Astor, everything okay?" The man driving the carriage saw him approaching and gave him a friendly wave.

"Hello Tomas, good to see you're still alive. And it looks like you've been doing quite well today." Astor said as he looked at the contents of the wagon.

"Haha, well my group had a couple of injuries but other than that, today's hunt was pretty good. A total of 5 insect beasts and 7 reptilian monsters. I'm sure I'll get good money for them."

"Tch, you lucky bastard. You better not waste it all at the tavern this time."

"Hahaha... Relax, this time I plan to replace my equipment and buy some potions. But who knows, there might still be some left for enjoyment. You too should come to Dalia's bar to relax once in a while."

Astor and Tomas chatted for a few more minutes, after agreeing to meet for a drink sometime they said goodbye, and each continued with their business.

Little by little the wagons of the merchants, farmers, and mercenaries were entering the city, while the color of the sky was getting darker and darker and both the city and the wall were filled with the lights of torches and candles.

"Yaaawn" Astor let out a big yawn. He was tired, but at least it was only an hour until the city gates would close.

"Hm?!" But then, a strange man standing in the entrance line caught his attention.

The man was really thin and despite being a little hunched over one could tell he was taller than the average person. But the strangest thing was that the man had his arms wrapped in gauze and was dressed in multiple layers of clothing along with a hooded cloak covering his face.

"You, the hooded one! Come here for a moment!"Astor ordered.

The hooded man seemed to be a bit nervous, but obeyed anyway and walked over to Astor.

'Ugh... but what a horrible stench.' Astor thought as he covered his nose. The hooded man smelled really bad. Like a rotting corpse that had been exposed to the sun for several days.

Astor tried to disguise his disgust towards the hooded man as much as possible and then spoke.

"Is- cough, cough... Is this your first time in Neima?" Astor asked. The hooded man said nothing and thought for a moment before nodding by way of reply.

"So, do you carry any weapons with you?"

The hooded man shook his head in reply.

"If you don't mind me asking. What is your business or reason for coming to town?"

Seconds passed and the hooded man said nothing.

"Tell me, why are you wearing so many layers of clothing when it's the middle of summer? Aren't you hot? And why are you wearing gauze? Did you suffer an injury or is it because of a particular illness?"

Astor continued to ask questions but the hooded man did not answer any of them and as the unanswered questions piled up, his demeanor became more anxious and erratic.

Of course, this did not go unnoticed by Astor who slowly moved his hand to the hilt of the sword at his waist.

"Sir, if you don't mind, I'd like you to come with me to..."

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!"

But just before Astor finished speaking, something caused a commotion among the line of carriages and passersby waiting to enter the city.

A little farther down the road from the entrance, there was a long, large carriage. This was drawn by a dozen war horses and was guarded by at least twenty armed men. On the wagon lay the carcass of a gigantic horned basilisk over 20 meters (65ft) long.

The armed men seemed to be very happy with their booty, as they received the applause and praise of the crowd that looked at the colossal creature, with great astonishment on their faces.

The group was led by a burly bald man over 2 meters (6.5 ft) tall. This one had a huge scar above his left eye and was equipped with leather armor made of some beast which together with his sword, as big as a door, gave him a truly fierce and imposing appearance.

Seeing the burly man approaching, Astor stopped everything he was doing and hurried to greet him.

"Hans! It's good to see you again... "Astor said as he looked at the corpse of the colossal beast "...and from what I see today you've really outdone yourself. There aren't many people who can slay a horned basilisk of this size. But how did you manage to kill it?"

Astor was impressed. Hans was one of the few elite rank mercenaries in the port city of Neima and as the leader of one of the strongest mercenary clans in the area, he had a very good reputation.

"Hmm" Hans did not respond.

At that moment Astor noticed that, unlike the other members of his group, Hans was not celebrating or bragging about his accomplishments, and on the contrary, he was very serious, as if something had him really worried.

"Did something bad happen?"

"Unfortunately yes. Astor, neither I nor any member of my group killed this creature, we just picked up its corpse on our way back."

"What!!" Astor was dumbfounded.

The horned basilisk was a truly dangerous creature. Its scales were harder than steel and, together with its great regenerative ability, made it really hard to cause it an injury.

In addition, the horned basilisk's teeth were incredibly sharp to the point of being able to cut through the best shields and armor as if they were made of paper.

But what was terrifying was the fact that the horned basilisk had a powerful toxic breath, as well as multiple magical skills. Among them was the ability to use [Stealth] and its [Lethal Stare], which was capable of petrifying its opponents just by looking at them.

For all these reasons, the horned basilisk was even stronger than monsters of the same rank.

"Astor, I of all people am aware of my own strength. But even if I were fully prepared, I doubt I could have taken this bastard down without suffering some injury. The same can be said for my leader or the other clan leaders."

Astor was truly shocked. In the entire Neima city, people who could stand up to a creature like the horned basilisk could easily be counted on the fingers of one hand and Hans was one of them!

"But, if you didn't kill it... then who did?"

"Not who, but what. The basilisk's body is almost intact, only its rhei crystal was removed. If a person had done it, they would have at least taken the horns or the eyes."

The body of a monster like the horned basilisk was truly a gold mine. Its horns as well as its scales and teeth were used to make all kinds of weapons and armor. In addition, its blood and eyes were high-quality ingredients used in the manufacture of elixirs and potions of the highest level.

Therefore, no person would be so stupid as to abandon such ingredients worth hundreds, if not thousands of gold coins.

On the other hand, high-ranking monsters were beings that had already surpassed the limits of normal beasts, so they needed a large amount of energy to continue to develop and grow.

Under these circumstances, such high-ranking monsters could only satisfy their developmental needs by consuming the rehi crystals of other creatures. Therefore, they tended to ignore the other parts of their prey because the energy level they provided was very low.

For these reasons, it was normal for Hans to think that the cause of the horned basilisk's death had been a monster and not a person.

"Damn it!... You wouldn't happen to know what could have killed this thing?"

"Honestly, I have no idea."