Chương 168: Tour of the unwanted guest

The Cobra King opened its eyes and looked at the unfamiliar environment in confusion. It tried to recall what happened before it lost consciousness. All it remembered was how the Mother of all Snakes fed him a giant egg. The egg looked rather ordinary aside from its huge size but the Mother of all Snakes insisted that the Cobra King should eat it.

As a result, the Cobra King almost permanently deformed its mouth as it tried to gobble the whole egg at once. It then felt a heatwave flow through its body and fainted.

The Cobra King did not remember coming into this room; it clearly looked like a human habitat. It felt the soft fluffy texture under its body; it was currently lying on a bed. Around it, the Cobra King saw the unfamiliar pieces of furniture. The room was relatively large and sparsely decorated.

Suddenly, a hand appeared out of nowhere, wrapping around the Cobra King's mouth. It panicked and straightened its body.

"Wow! What are you doing? It is me."

A voice sounded and instantly, the Cobra King relaxed. The voice was extremely familiar; it was the Mother of all Snakes.

Elys looked at the snake in front of her and commented. "Not bad. You completed your evolution. Congratulations. You are no longer a Cobra King. Instead, you are now a hamadryad. I believe your poison abilities improved considerably."

It was only then that the snake realized the transformation that took place on its body. It became larger and longer. Its hood also grew in size but more importantly, it learned new skills and leveled up. The hamadryad was now level 35; it jumped a total of five levels in its evolution.

"Hiss hiss!"

"Shhh. Speak quietly. I don't want to get found out. My [Camouflage] can hide our appearance but it cannot muffle the sound you make. So be careful," said Elys.

"You want to know where we are and how we ended up here?"

"You asked me to look for revenge and we came here, to the dungeon that defeated you. I found the harpy queen already but I did not make a move. We are currently in one of the rooms of the dungeon. Most of the rooms are already taken but this one was empty, so I decided to stay here while you evolve."

"Don't worry, during all the time we were here, no one ever entered this room to check and even if they did, they would not have found us."

"Hissss!"

"Yes. It has been a little over ten days since you fainted. Do you not remember anything?"

Elys continued to speak to the hamadryad who hissed to express itself.

"When we arrived, they were having a party and while invisible, we stole their food. You laughed a bit at how annoyed the harpies were that the food was gone so quickly."

"Then, we came across the fat white egg that you ate. I told you to eat it because I knew it would allow you to evolve and I was right. Are you not happy?"

The snake shook its body and wrapped around Elys' arm.

"What we are going to do now? We should leave now that you have evolved. I am not attacking this dungeon."

The hamadryad wiggled around her arm.

"Why? I know I am strong enough to crush them all but if I do, my location will be revealed. The Aries left his mark here. If I reveal myself, the Sacred Beasts will instantly know that I am here. I don't want the Scorpio to come after me."

"What? You want revenge? Then do it yourself. I don't want to be hunted down by the Sacred Beasts. I already helped you in evolving and you obtained a precious item that helped you evolved. Its effects were equivalent to you consuming the dungeon core itself."

"You are too scared to fight yourself? Well, there is nothing I can do. I won't act in a place marked by the Sacred Beasts. We should leave now that you are awake. I have to return to the Marlose Swamp." Elys spoke with a tinge of reluctance.

"Hiss hiss!" The hamadryad became agitated. It was true that he evolved and leveled up but how was he meant to fight against the terrifying harpy queen alone?

"No. Now, I'll take one last look at the dungeon before leaving. It is quite an interesting place. I did not know dungeons changed that much during the last few decades."

Despite the hamadryad's complaints, Elys stepped out of the room and walked toward the common room. She was already familiar with the dungeon, having spent almost ten days in it. She casually walked into the common room and made her way to the counter where all the food was.

She did not care about all the monsters present; they were way too low leveled. They would never be able to see through her [Camouflage].

She unhesitantly grabbed a plate and started filling it with food. With her magic, the food also turned invisible without being noticed by the monsters. Then, she sat down and ate her fill while listening to the conversations around her.

She had been doing so every day since she arrived and had yet to be caught. The monsters around her were of different species but the majority were harpies.

'Delicious! Why don't we have this kind of food in the swamp?'

She ate quickly and after cleaning several plates, she finally decided to leave. The hamadryad also silent ate. Although it wanted to complain, it was afraid it would attract the attention of the monsters.

Elys made her way up the stairs and entered a completely different world. If the previous floor was quite empty as it was essentially a dormitory, this floor was buzzing with life. It was a giant workshop.

There were goblins, gnomes and dwarves walking around, discussing the discoveries of their research. Elys could see several robots carrying loads of material around the workshop. They were the same robots she found in other tunnels carrying food and items to the different floors of the dungeon.

Elys walked past the busy monsters unnoticed. In the distance, she saw an Elder Gnome and an Elder Dwarf arguing with a silver-haired harpy. Elys knew this dungeon also housed a Goblin King but he never showed up in the workshop. Instead, he spent most of his time at the adjacent village.

There was a small village connected to the workshop. It was where the goblins, gnomes, and dwarves slept. While roaming around, Elys learned that the village was called Tinyland.

When she first entered the workshop, Elys was amazed at the robots and machines. It was her first time witnessing objects moving on their own without any magic. But after ten days, the objects now looked rather ordinary. She quickly found the stairs and walked up.

She came out into a large decorated room. The place was well lit and the atmosphere was quite lively; it looked like a reception was taking place. There were large tables of food, musicians standing in a corner of the room and even a large open area for dancers.

Had the food been appetizing, Elys would not have hesitated to steal it but to her dismay, all the food there was either rotten or poisoned. She disregarded them completely.

There were many monsters on this floor. Elys liked spending time here; she enjoyed the music. The floor consisted of many different rooms with a similar design but the main difference was the style of music playing in each room.

There were Nosferatu walking around, Phantom Musicians playing their own compositions and Ghost Dancers flying around the dancing area. The floor looked like a giant party. However, Elys' favorite room was the Mirror room!

Somewhere on this floor, there was a room filled with mirrors. Despite its appearance, the room was filled with monsters, namely Mirror Spirits. All people needed to do was to look at the Mirror Spirit's mirror to allow it to escape. Even Elys was no exception to this rule but she was able to easily identify which mirrors were safe to look at. She could walk past the room without attracting the spirit's attention and could enter the secret room behind it with ease.

Elys was familiar with this floor and swiftly found the stairs to continue going up. She stepped into a wide-open corridor where completely different monsters could be found. This floor consisted of a series of maze-like corridors like this one. The walls were made of a similar material than that of the reception rooms making it feel like she did not cross any floor.

Contrary to the lively floor below, this one was dead silent. The monsters here consisted of Defacers, Haunting Ghosts, Living armors, and Gargoyles. The corridors were dead silent as there were no visitors.

Elys did not like this floor very much. It was too quiet and felt cold and unwelcoming. She did not waste any time and climbed the next stairs.

The new floor was uninteresting. It consisted of a series of tunnels and caves where beast-like undead creatures could be found. Elys hated this place. She hastened her steps to her favorite floor.

It was the one looking the most like her own house, the Marlose Swamp. It was a humid place looking like a marsh but although it looked very familiar to Elys, she did not really like the inhabitants the floor. There were no living creatures aside from the Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes and the Corpse Eaters which she found repulsive.

When she looked at the marsh, Elys could see several groups of barbarians searching around for rare plants and abandoned eggs.

Elys did not waste any time and continued walking but she did not go toward the stairs and instead walked deeper into the marsh. Slowly, the environment started to change; there was less water and soon, she found a clean dry spot of land near a source of drinkable water.

Elys' senses tingled. She could feel the presence of Alligators and Herons hiding around but was not threatened by them. She felt much better here. She knew the floors above her now consisted only of forests housing different kind of beasts. She no longer felt the ghastly dark energy she felt in the marshland.

She walked to the next floor where many small mammals could be found. This part of the forest was essentially ruled by the Spiked Armadillos. They were quite powerful but cowered in fear in front of the alligators. Elys shook her head when she looked at the Platinum Armadillo. The beast was quite mischievous and liked to steal things but when it came to standing up for its race, the Platinum Armadillo was not up to the task.

From here on, Elys hesitated on the route to take. There were two paths she was comfortable with: going straight up and go through a series of forests or go deeper into the forest until the environment would change to a hotter one. There, Elys would find Flame Scarabs guarding their home.

She preferred warm and dry environments to the humid atmosphere of the forest. In the Marlose Swamp, she lived in a small area which was unaffected by the humidity of the swamp. However, after taking into consideration the Hamadryad wrapped around her arm, she decided to continue climbing the floors to the exit through the forests. The hamadryad was more adapted to environments like forests.

As she climbed the different floors, Elys came across more and more barbarians. She avoided them with ease and soon, she stepped out of the dungeon.

'Finally some fresh air.'

"Hiss hiss."

"What? You don't like cold weather? Too bad you cannot stay inside the dungeon where it is warm. You will have to go into brumation for the rest of the winter. I already spent some time walking around with you, I cannot stay too long away from the Marlose Swamp."

"What I am doing now? I am going to that barbarian village. I need to retrieve something they took from one of my descendants. Once I get it back, I will return to the swamp."

She nonchalantly made her way toward the barbarian village. It was rather large compared to the other barbarian village Elys saw and also more lively. There were a few townsmen loudly arguing with each other.

'Well. They should act as a good distraction.'

Elys could already feel the item she was looking for. It was a small green scale, hidden in a modest tent of the village.

'Hmmp. The owner of this tent really needs to shower more or at least spray some perfume.' Elys internally complained as she stopped just outside the tent. She did not feel the presence of humans inside.

She took a deep breath before pinching her nose and diving into the smelly tent. She came as quickly as she entered, holding a small scale in her hand.

She smiled faintly. 'I've been looking for it for decades. Who would have thought I would find its remnants in such a desolate village.'

Elys left the village quickly. Along the way, she recognized some of the players she encountered while roaming around the area. She did not expect to meet them again. 'Too bad I don't see the pretty boy from last time.'

She finally stopped at the edge of the forest and crouched down. "Here, I need to go now."

"Hiss Hiss!"

"What? You cannot come with me. I am leaving you in your home. The small Cobras should still be here. They did not select a leader yet."

"You cannot come with me. It will be discrimination! I already helped you evolve. If you want to enter the Marlose Swamp, you will have to fight for a place with your own strength. I cannot help you and honestly, unless you reach level 60, you won't survive a day there."

"Hiss hiss."

"No. I've already made my decision. If it was not because I wanted a break from the swamp, I would not even have agreed to accompany you. Now, you are free to do whatever you want. This has always been the rule. Jump down now!"

The hamadryad wiggled around but eventually, it reluctantly left Elys' arm.

"Get stronger by yourself and maybe one day you'll enter the Marlose Swamp. For now, I would suggest leaving this area if you do not want to be forcefully recruited into the dungeon."