A Serpent's Tale-Chapter 375: Searching for Loot

When I say kind of, I mean in the sense that it isn’t the actual heart of the realm like that of a Dungeon’s core. It was more so that it tapped into the heart, giving one control over the realm.

Although now that it’s under Lucifer’s influence, I don’t know how true that is anymore. This formation may still hold some sway over the realm, but not nearly as much as before.

Still, it’s drawing power to create the barrier, but that power had seemingly lessened. And I could tell because I could feel it trying to draw more power from the realm itself.

I pulled my arm back and got up slowly. I could’ve tried to influence it to disable the barrier, but I didn’t.

It’s not because I don’t want to, I just don’t necessarily trust the demons. They are still demons after all. Pure demons at that.

The Lust demons I can trust because I am their royalty, they will listen to what I have to say and my orders. It’s the Pride demons I don’t trust.

Altivolus and his companion I could maybe give a little faith, but not the others.

Another reason I was doing this was because I... I was being selfish, okay? I have to admit that my own greed is blinding me to being nice but so what? So what if I take everything before I lower the barrier?

What’re they gonna do? Nothing. That’s all they can do.

I could also claim this as some form of vindication for the suffering that I was put through emotionally, but I would be lying. Whether they could tell such a thing or not, I don’t know, nor did I care. I just wanted the stuff.

But so far, it didn’t seem like there was anything worth taking. It was just a bunch of potions, tomes and dusty old scrolls. I read a few of them but it was all either basic spells, or it was something I couldn’t do in any capacity. Not worth my time in the end.

But that left me with the three doors now. And I was hoping that at least one of them had something worth my time here or else I would feel like all this was for nothing.

I started with the left door, that being the one to my left upon coming in. Just before I opened it though, I braced myself for another surprise attack, just in case this was a fake door, and raised my [Elemental Scales] ability again to protect myself alongside another layer of mana just in case.

My hand wrapped around the round doorknob and turned it inwards and pushed it open, preparing for a surprise attack or even a sneak attack from some hidden corner but nothing happened.

The door swung open as I let go, allowing the light from inside to pour out and reveal a well kempt herb garden of some kind.

Immediately the pungent smell of so many varying kinds of herbs hit my nose and caused me to recoil from the sheer intensity of them all hitting me at once.

I had to pinch my nose as the stench was too powerful for me to bear and hastily closed the door.

’Nope, not going in to that one.’

I quickly moved onto the one opposite the entrance door to my right, ready for any attack that might come from there also, but nothing.

Just a furnished room with rather a plain looking bedroom if not for the fact that the red and blue colour scheme contrasted so much with the many shades of blue that made up the rest of the room or even the realm.

There was a bed, a wardrobe, what I assumed to be a door leading to a bathroom of some kind and a desk and chair. Not all that big, maybe four by three metres if I had to guess. Maybe a little bigger.

Still, I pilfered through the guy’s stuff, but only found regular books and clothes. I even checked the bathroom and found it was filled with normal amenities used for washing.

At this point I was starting to feel a little disappointed and irritated. If I went through all of this and came out with nothing to show for it, I would be furious.

All of that suffering, for nothing.

I was really hoping that this final door wouldn’t just be some kind of empty room or servants’ quarters. That would really suck.

Bracing myself one last time, I grabbed hold of the doors handle, slightly hoping for something actually worthwhile whilst also dreading the worst.

Opening the door only led to some kind of descending hallway.

’Greaaaat... No stairs though, so there’s that at least.’ The fact that there were no stairs, at least none that I could see was about the only plus side to this that I could see.

The hallway was unlit and curved in a spiral manner downwards. To where exactly though, I had no clue. All I could do was head down and explore what lay deep below.

As I was descending though, I had some time to think. And with my body swaying slightly from side to side as I slithered across the floor, my left arm kept on twinging in pain.

And that got me thinking. Why did only my flesh heal initially in that first encounter with the Astral Helixion, but when Serpens had healed me with his semen, it healed all my broken bones I received when I ended up here in this part of the realm specifically.

So then why didn’t this part heal? Why was this arm bone still broken?

It didn’t make any sense.

By all means, it should’ve healed by now, so why hadn’t it? What was keeping it from healing? What about that injury was so different about the other?

...

’Of course! The crystal! It must’ve poisoned my bones somehow, or maybe it left a few shards inside. No, that one doesn’t sound right. Those shards would’ve torn themselves out to become part of that gateway. That means it must’ve left something else behind. Maybe some kind of energy?’

As I descended further into the spiralling passage, I began to focus my internal mana and guided a larger portion of it along with my soul to where the would was specifically to see what exactly was wrong with it.

When my senses arrived, I was proven right as there was some kind of parasitic energy that was burrowing into my bone.

But the moment I found it, it started going berserk and tearing my flesh apart.

"AAGGHH!!" I let out a pained shriek as I began to assault the wild and destructive energy with my own power.

Slowly but surely, I was able to degrade it little by little every second even as it tore me apart from the inside out.

I had to fight it like I was fighting a feral Anthroid, making sure to not leave any room for it to escape elsewhere before dealing the finishing blow.

It wasn’t long before I was able to destroy it completely and finally, finally my arm bone started to heal. I decided to focus my regeneration on that bone specifically, either until it was fully healed, where I would then let it heal the rest of me naturally, or until I got to wherever it is that I’m headed. Whichever came first.

It ended up being the latter as I had arrived at the bottom of the dark spiral ramp, and found myself in a dimly lit corridor, lit by the same blue flames, but instead of being on a large hanging metal tray, allowing it to emit enough light to brighten the central chamber up above, these were just intermittent candles strung along the wall.

At the other end of this corridor was another door. And thanks to my now fully healed arm, I was now able to put all my mental capacity into countering any surprises that might come my way, either as I traversed through this small corridor, or when I opened this door.

Despite my worries though, nothing happened even as I reached the end of the corridor and opend the door at the end of it.

Behind the door itself, was a rather small room, in the middle of which was some kind of altar. Or was it a statue?

... Some kind of sculpture atop a pedestal.

That was all that was in the room. Apart from some candles that were laid out all over the floor sporadically that lit up the room with a slightly ominous glow.

Slithering up to the centrepiece to get a better look, I quickly came to realise that it wasn’t a sculpture at all, it was actually some kind of monolithic carved stone in the shape of a blossoming flower.

Though it was a little odd, since it was made up of several individual white petals and hollow in the middle. Like something was supposed to go in there. Not to mention there was a single petal missing.