Lucky to Survive

Challenge Difficulty: A+.

This meant that among all monsters rated Team Challenge Level 6, the snake demon was one of the strongest and hardest to deal with!

Its towering 2.4-meter body gave it a height advantage over many enemies, making its slashing attacks even more devastating. Its weight of over 600 pounds gave it strength far beyond ordinary creatures. A conservative estimate put its Strength close to 20 points, enough to inflict crushing damage on Soren. In other words, even if he successfully parried the snake demon's slash, the damage would still be enough to grievously injure his internal organs.

The Two-Weapon Fighting talent made the snake demon the most dangerous melee monster with the highest burst potential. If its Dexterity and Perception were just a little higher, it could even fight multiple enemies at once without falling behind. Multiple attacks were an extremely powerful combat specialty, allowing the snake demon to unleash a continuous chain of attacks in a short time. Combined with sufficient Strength, it could leave its opponents without even a chance to parry.

Snake demons were relatively low-ranking demonic creatures of The Abyss.

All demons shared one trait: they possessed a layer of demonic skin, equivalent to naturally enchanted Leather Armor. If they were also covered in scales, their protection was comparable to ordinary chainmail. To Soren, that meant ten slashes landing on a snake demon would deal damage equivalent to at most three. Meanwhile, Soren, clothed in little more than a strip of fabric, would be disemboweled by a single attack from it.

"Almost impossible to defeat head-on!"

His extraordinary 20 Dexterity gave Soren reflexes unlike anything he had possessed before. With a twist of his body, he kicked off the wall and rushed into the passage outside. The 18 Constitution granted by the Ascetic Card gave him stamina far greater than before. Though the mental exhaustion remained, it was enough to support his desperate flight.

The snake demon roared and chased after him!

Its upper body was humanoid, with abnormally thick arms. Its face resembled that of a lizard or snake, with obvious scales covering both sides. Its lower body was a snake tail roughly five meters long.

That meant it was a male snake demon, a powerful warrior among its kind!

For Soren, this was probably the best news possible. Snake demons lived in a matriarchal society, where females held higher status, possessed greater combat power, and also had certain spell-like abilities.

The snake demon moved quickly. In an explosive burst, it could perform the lunging hunting movements of a serpent!

That was also one of the key reasons it was rated Challenge Difficulty A+.

With its massive body, it could easily smash through a defensive line, close in on the spellcasting Professionals of an adventuring party, then use Two-Weapon Fighting and its multiple-attack combat specialty to chop a spellcaster below Professional Level 8 into chunks of meat in an instant. Its serpentine body made it immune to most low-level control spells. Grease had no effect on it, Web could not restrain its nearly 20 Strength, and a demon's chaotic evil will was immune to most low-level mental control.

This was a monster that had to be killed in a direct clash!

"I can't get away!"

Soren ran at full speed, easily opening some distance by using the maze-like passages.

But he quickly realized something important. If he wanted to escape, he had to reopen the hidden door outside, and that would take at least three minutes. Three minutes was enough for the snake demon to catch him, chop him into more than thirty pieces, and pick out the tastiest bits to fill its belly.

"I have to fight!"

As Soren passed the place where he had first found the corpse, he swiftly picked up a longsword. After too much time had passed, the blade had become rusted. That meant it was not sharp enough and could not withstand powerful impacts. But he could not worry about that now. It was almost impossible to defeat the snake demon in a frontal battle. If he wanted to beat it, Soren could only gamble on his luck.

Without the slightest hesitation!

Soren ran into another passage that had not been explored at all.

He had to gamble now. Demonic creatures possessed stamina far beyond mortals. Their hundred-plus hit points meant that even after entering a grievously wounded state, they remained highly dangerous. The only method Soren could think of was to use the traps here to kill it. Of course, the one killed by the traps might also be himself.

20 Dexterity!

This was the realm beyond ordinary humans. It meant Soren's footsteps were lighter than a halfling's, his reflexes sharper than an elf's, and his body's resilience beyond that of most ordinary life forms.

He had to gamble!

He had to gamble that this unscouted passage contained a powerful, deadly trap—and that it would not be triggered when he passed through it.

Soren was human.

The surface area of his feet was small, and 20 Dexterity meant he had a fair chance of avoiding a trap's Trigger Device.

But the snake demon was a serpentine demonic creature. Its lower body had a large area in contact with the ground, and its weight of over 600 pounds meant it would trigger most traps as it moved. Any trap set according to human standards and activated by weight would strike it without fail. Because of its size, it would not even be able to dodge.

A broad passage appeared ahead.

Soren did not even have time to inspect the surroundings for signs of artificial trap placement. He immediately launched himself forward in a deep leap, then relied on his powerful resilience and sense of balance to run three steps sideways along the wall. Next, he twisted, flipped, grabbed a hanging stalactite, and forcibly kept his body close to the wall as he moved forward another five meters. Based on his experience, this was the place most likely to contain a trap. Trap mechanisms required enough space to be set up, especially the more concealed ones.

Without stopping for even a moment!

Soren slowed down, but continued forward cautiously.

The snake demon appeared behind him. This monster from The Abyss had been thoroughly enraged by the earlier repeated heavy crossbow shots. The moment it saw Soren, it charged over without hesitation.

Its enormous body did not affect its movement speed at all!

Most serpentine life forms possessed a speed bonus more than twice that of an ordinary person running at full force.

But just as it was about to charge up to Soren, the ground suddenly shook. Its long snake tail directly triggered the trap buried underground, and a barrage of crossbow bolts shot out from both sides.

"Aoo!"

A pained howl rang out.

Six crossbow bolts were embedded in the snake demon's flanks, blood dripping continuously. Its crimson pupils were consumed by slaughter and rage. Seeing Soren so close at hand, it let out an enraged roar.

Twelve heavy crossbow bolts!

They could deal more than 120 damage to a human.

Enough to instantly kill most warriors below Level 10, yet when they struck the snake demon, they were still not enough to grievously wound it.

That meant its physical toughness was already close to that of a low-grade Sub-dragon, and its own hit points very likely exceeded 150—five or six times Soren's.

"There should be another trap!"

Soren's pupils contracted slightly. Without hesitation, he quickened his pace, even though that meant he might trigger a trap himself.

The layout of this tunnel felt somewhat familiar to him.

Because the place where he had first found the corpse had possessed a similar terrain. In other words, there was a chance that another Acid Trap lay ahead.

That would be fatal to Soren,

But it was also something capable of threatening the snake demon's life!

A winding passage appeared ahead.

Soren's expression changed. He immediately took a deep breath and began accelerating into a running start. The terrain before him resembled the place where he had found the thief's corpse. Most Acid Traps were set near walls, which meant he could not use his extraordinary Dexterity to run sideways along the wall and cross it. He could only try to clear it in one leap with his jumping ability.

This was a distance of over ten meters!

He possessed no spell-like abilities, and Dexterity was the only attribute that had entered the extraordinary realm.

For Soren, this was a challenge at the limit.

"I can do it!"

"This won't stop me!"

Soren took another deep breath. In his previous life, the human record for a running long jump had reached 10.6 meters. With his current physical condition, he was not far behind the world's top athletes. Even if his Strength was somewhat lacking, the coordination brought by Dexterity was enough to let him perfectly unleash his explosive power. Clearing the distance before him was not impossible.

Bang!

Soren's body soared forward.

He crossed more than ten meters in an instant, flying over the area in a rather awkward posture.

Soren did not dare hesitate in the slightest.

Because he could not be sure there was truly an Acid Trap here, he continued fleeing forward after catching his breath.

"Whoosh!"

Soren's body suddenly stiffened.

Just as he rounded a bend, an iron spear suddenly thrust up from the ground. It pierced up past the edge of his foot and instantly punched through his thigh. If he had not reflexively shifted his body at the last moment, the iron spear might have pierced straight through his groin and into his intestines.

Blood gushed out!

Soren gritted his teeth, rolled his clothes into a ball, and bit down on them. Then he grabbed his thigh with both hands and slowly pulled himself free from the iron spear.

Large amounts of blood sprayed everywhere.

The barbs tore away a strip of flesh, making the wound even more severe.

Soren's entire body trembled. After the trembling came stiffness. In less than one or two seconds, sweat had soaked his whole body.

"Hah!"

When he finally pulled his thigh free from the iron spear, Soren was almost completely drained.

He hastily wrapped the wound with a rag, tightened it directly around his muscles, and tied a dead knot. Then he limped toward the edge of the stone wall.

He could no longer escape.

If he continued running with this wound, he would bleed to death without the snake demon needing to do anything.

As blood drained from him, his physical strength also declined rapidly!

The only possibility left for his survival was that there truly was an Acid Trap around the bend ahead.

If it was merely another heavy crossbow trap, it was probably still not enough to kill the snake demon.

Time dragged on endlessly!

When the snake demon appeared, Soren felt as though he were facing his final fate.

Fortunately, fate stood on his side.

Soren's judgment had not been wrong. A trap really had been set at the entrance to that passage. But it was not an Acid Trap. As the snake demon passed through, a violent explosion suddenly erupted.

—Explosive Trap!

That passage had been rigged with explosives, or perhaps a Fireball spell Trigger Device.

"Thud!"

A faint sound came from ahead.

The trace of relief that had just appeared on Soren's face instantly froze. Nearly furious, he said, "It didn't die even after that!"

He tightened his grip on the longsword, and a trace of violence gradually appeared in his expression.

He was going to fight for his life!