Pandora Unchained B1C12 - Bonecrush Demon Python

It was halfway to noon where Sorin and company crossed the mana shield into Bloodwood Forest. Having learned from their previous experience, the entire group steeled their minds and awaited the onslaught of Violence and Madness.

Stephan was the first to regain his senses while Lawrence was the last of their group to stabilize. “What a pitiful entrance,” said Stephan, looking around. “There’s no graded acclimatization zone? No guards posted to eradicate demons that draw too near?”

“Did you really think a small outpost would be the same as a dungeon?” It was surprisingly Daphne who spoke up.

“Of course not,” said Stephan, a little embarrassed by his snobby comment. “Perhaps this is why my family sent me out here in the first place.”

“What’s a dungeon?” asked Sorin, rubbing his head. Madness didn’t strike him very hard, but Violence was something he was very much struggling against given his change in occupation.

“Is he serious?” Stephan said.

“He’s serious,” said Gareth. “Until less than a week ago, he was just a crippled physician. He’s completely new to the world of adventuring.”

“A physician who uses poison,” muttered Stephan. “Right. You’re the one from the Kepler family that caused this guild branch a lot of trouble a few days ago.”

“I wouldn’t say it was me who cared trouble,” Sorin correct. “But my family, very much so.”

Stephan seemed quite understanding about this explanation. “The ten great families of Olympia are all rather unreasonable in that way. If not for the guilds watching out for others, they’d long since have controlled this entire continent. Even so, their influence, including my York family’s influence, is quite substantial.

“To answer your question, dungeons are located on demonic sources. The seven evils are too powerful for mere humans to defeat, and even the seeds of evil they sew can only be sealed away, and their demon energy harvested periodically. Dungeons were created as an outlet for these evil seeds by Hope himself. We adventurers are responsible for constantly cutting down the demons that spew forth, and we are rewarded with demon cores, which we can submit to the Temple of Hope for rewards.”

“Are there any dungeons near here?” asked Sorin, intrigued at the concept.

“No,” said Stephan, shaking his head. “And there probably never will be. Seeds of Evil are rare, and no new ones have been discovered in over a century. Now let’s stop here and take a break. There’s something I need to do.”

Stephan undid his pack and pulled out a small pouch. He sprinkled the pouch around their group before replacing it in his bag. “Demon repellant,” he explained. “So we don’t have to fight troublesome lesser demons. It’s only useful against demons below one-star rating.”

“I’ll lead the way!” said Lawrence, zooming ahead.

“I’ll keep an eye out on our surroundings,” said Gareth, falling into his usual role. He didn’t seem to mind being demoted from party leader to party scout.

“That just leaves Sorin and Daphne,” said Stephan. “Sorin, I don’t suppose you have special scouting skills?”

“None,” Sorin answered honestly.

“Then your role will be to guard Daphne if something pops up, unless myself or Gareth say otherwise,” said Stephan. “As for Daphne…” his eye twitched as he noticed she wasn’t paying attention. “Daphne?”

“Hm… yes?” said Daphne, not even looking up at him.

“Daphne? Are you seriously reading a book?” asked Stephan.

“It won’t be a problem,” said Daphne, pointing her finger at a tree and shooting out a firebolt. It burned a hole clean through the tree. “See? Spell. Very useful in combat.”

Stephan shut his eyes. “If you were seriously studying, I might allow it, but this?” He yanked the book out of Daphne’s hands and revealed it to the rest of the group. “The outside cover is a magic text, but this is clearly a trashy romance novel.”

Daphne fumed. “I’m studying human physiology. There’s nothing wrong with studying!”

“Well I’ll be confiscating this book on human physiology, as well as any others that you take out,” said Stephan. “Unless you have a problem with that?”

Daphne glared at him. “Fine. Keep the book. I’ll be expecting it back later.” She let out a loud humph and followed Gareth, who’d wisely chosen to distance himself from the situation.

Stephan was quite pleased with how the interaction turned out, but his smug smile soon faded. “That’s…” The moment she was out of earshot, Daphne had summoned what looked to be a cubic puzzle made of magic runes.

Sorin shook his head. “There’s no helping it,” said Sorin. “She did the same thing during our assessment, and Assessor York passed her despite the bad habit.” Seeing Stephan’s disappointment, he added an extra detail. “She blew up three one-star demons with a single spell.”

“I suppose that counts for something,” Stephan grumbled. “Oh well. I have to play with the cards I’m dealt.”

Having used the demon repellant, they encountered only a few lesser demons, and those they did fled the moment they realized they were outmatched.

But that didn’t mean their trip was entirely peaceful. Stephan was having an increasingly difficult time, courtesy of Lawrence. “That’s it!” yelled Stephan as he crawled out of a pit. “You do this one more time, and I’m cutting you out of the team, Lawrence!”

“I didn’t do anything,” said Lawrence, popping out from behind a tree. “Honest! Gareth, you tell him!” Gareth looked away and pretended he hadn’t heard him.

“Listen, Lawrence,” said Stephan. “In town, I’m game. In the outskirts, I’m also game.” He yanked off a beetle that had bitten into his arm. “But this deep in the woods, it comes to stop. One small prank could kill off the entire team.”

“Fine, fine,” said Lawrence. “I guess we’re sort of even for the gold shliter incident now?”

“If you think we’re even, you’re dreaming,” snapped Stephan. “But alas, revenge will have to wait until we get back. Understood?”

“Fine,” said Lawrence.

“Great. Now look over there,” said Stephan, pointing to a tree that had appeared around a hundred meters away. Thick mana surrounded the emerald-leafed tree, and not a blade of grass grew within 30 meters of it. Plump red fruits hung from its branches, and some had even condensed violet runes, indicating that they were ripe for picking.

“Manasurge Persimmons,” said Sorin. “I see at least 30 ripe ones. If I recall correctly, those sell for about 10 gold apiece.”

“Twelve if you have the right connections,” corrected Stephan. “Conveniently, this tree should have guardians. We’re in need of a good opponent right now to test out our group’s cohesion before completing an actual mission together. Gareth?”

Gareth’s eyes had turned azure from the mana he was channeled through them. “I see it. A single one-star demon, sleeping on a branch not far up.”

“Monkey or snake type?” asked Stephan.

“Snake type,” said Gareth. “Has plates all over its body. It’s roughly twenty feet long and about a foot thick. Should we come up with a game plan before engaging?”

Stephan shook his head. “No need. It’s probably just a Bonecrush Python. It’s a higher tier one-star demon. But with me around, it can dream about hurting anyone. Let’s see how everybody does in this encounter. Daphne? Put away that damned puzzle!”

“Fine,” said Daphne, putting away the cube and lazily taking out a wand.

“Gareth? On my mark,” said Stephan. “One. Two. Three!”

Gareth pulled an arrow back and poured azure mana into his arrow. The arrow let loose at several times its original speed. Blood splashed onto the ground, and moments later, an enraged thirty-foot demon snake descended from the tree and headed straight for them.

“I’ll hold it back,” Stephan said to them. “As for the rest of you, go wild.” He pulled his hands back and roared as fur covered his entire body. He grew two feet in less than a second, and his arms, chest, and legs were all at least 50% bigger.

The python was quick, and Stephan had just finished his transformation by the time it arrived. It bit at Stephan with venomous fangs, but Stephan ignored it and grabbed onto its neck. The python reflexively bit into Stephan’s collarbone, further trapping itself in place.

“What are you all waiting for?” Stephan called out. “Kill it!”

Lawrence appeared behind the snake less than a second later. He stabbed into it and retreated as the snake’s tail violently whipped about. An arrow struck the snake’s long body just as Sorin moved in and slapped a poisonous palm onto the snake’s skin, injecting it with a strong dose of his personal poison.

Unfortunately, Sorin wasn’t as agile as Lawrence. The python whipped its tail at him, and seeing that he couldn’t dodge, Sorin gripped his poisoned dagger and prepared to trade blows.

“Idiot!” yelled Stephan, pulling at the snake. Sorin slashed at it with a poison-filled dagger before rolling away.

Two more arrows zipped past Sorin as he retreated, and Lawrence appeared once again to land a critical hit on the snake. It was now writhing in pain but could do nothing to free itself.

Having nowhere to run, the snake suddenly erupted with great power. “What are you all waiting for?” yelled Stephan. “It’s trying to crush me in a berserk state!”

Just as predicted, the snake used its explosive strength to wrap around Stephan’s enlarged body and squeeze tightly. It had abandoned defence in favor of perishing with its opponent. Madness burned brightly in its demonic eyes.

Unfortunately, being coiled up so tight meant that Gareth no longer dared fire arrows at it. Daphne was likewise hesitating to cast spells at the target.

Sorin could only grit his teeth and jump in. He slashed multiple times at the snake’s skin, and seeing that this wasn’t quick enough, he grabbed onto the skin and poured his poisonous mana directly into the snake.

The sudden influx of mana caused the python to panic. It tightened its grip on Stephan and exerted all its strength to crush every bone in his body. “Damn it! Lawrence! Sorin! Anyone!”

Stephan was turning purple from the python’s crushing pressure, and his bones were starting to creak. Fortunately, it was then that two magic missiles struck the serpent straight in the eyes, destroying its brain in the process. The snake fell limp onto the ground, and so did Stephan.

“What the hell was that?” said Stephan, glaring at all of them.

“In our defence, you’re the one who said we didn’t need a plan,” Gareth pointed out.

“I was trying to conserve my mana,” said Daphne. “But I got `him in the end, didn’t I?”

Stephan raised his arm, but let it fall. “Fine. The fault is mine. But seriously, you guys can’t even handle a single snake when I’ve got him tied down?” He felt at his collarbone. Black veins were spreading from the two bloody points where the python had bitten him. He pulled out an antidote and was just about to apply it when Sorin caught his arm.

“No need to waste a powerful antidote,” said Sorin. “Or a healing potion for that matter.” He touched his arm to the two puncture wounds and sent a surge of poisonous mana into Stephan’s body before pulling it out along with a glob of venom. “Unfortunately, it’s a pretty weak venom. Not even worth drinking.” But money was money, and Sorin dripped the snake’s venom into a vial, then tossed that vial to Lawrence. Do you mind milking that thing?”

“You make it sound so dirty,” said Lawrence. He hummed to himself and went to carve out the creature’s core. “Too bad the leather’s ruined. Maybe we can get enough out of it for a few pairs of boots?”

“It’s not worth the trouble,” said Gareth. Once again, he reached for a potion, but Sorin pushed him down.

“Money is money, and we’re not all rich like you,” said Sorin. “What did that demon repellant pouch cost? Five whole gold pieces? And that healing potion looks strong. Probably a hundred gold. Now hold still while I stitch you up.” A needle and thread appeared in his hands. He stitched up Stephan’s nicked artery in a matter of seconds. As for the rest, he didn’t bother, since the beastshift warrior’s skin flesh was already healing over.

Fifteen minutes later, the battlefield was all cleaned up. The snake had its venom taken, its core extracted, and half its skin removed. As for its flesh, they chose to leave it behind. While demons could be eaten, carrying around their meat could easily draw predatory demons in on their party.

“There’s 35 ripe fruits total,” said Gareth, hopping down from the tree with a bag full of them. Should we mark it?”

“It’s already been marked,” said Stephan, shaking his head. “I have a few more locations marked on here that we can check out. Maybe we’ll be able to find something good there, assuming other adventurers haven’t gone there already.”

Sorin and the rest of the team were quite open to the suggestion. With the exception of Stephan and Daphne, none of them had any magic items. Adventuring was very expensive, and any gold they gained could be used to directly increase their strength.

“Then since everything’s taken care of here, let’s take a short break,” said Stephan. “If we’re going to work as a team, we need to fix our bad habits. Let’s break everything down and see what we can improve upon.”