Chapter 241 - Killing The Second Scale Snake
After a minute of cautious probing, the head of the Scale Snake finally fully emerged from the water. It looked around cautiously, searching for the being that passed by above the nest earlier. It suspected that it was the same being that killed its partner and took its eggs, and hence wanted to enact its revenge on it.
Ban looked at the Scale Snake that slowly emerged from the water. It was a bit bigger than the Scale Snake he fought earlier so Ban thought that it might be an evolved one. Unfortunately, when he let the System scan it, the System said it wasn't, and that it was just a normal Scale Snake, though a bit bigger than the previous one he fought and killed.
Ban was disappointed to hear that as he was actually hoping that the Scale Snake in front of him was an evolved one, seeing that it was cautious and was a little bit more intelligent than the previous one. If it was evolved, there was a high chance that a Beast Core or a Skill Crystal would appear. Unfortunately, it wasn't.
Ban could only sigh in disappointment.
If only the people or the adventurers at the Eagle City happened to know of his thoughts at the moment, they would surely spank his butt for being arrogant. The Scale Snake was already enough to give them a headache, and yet here he was asking for a stronger one?
Anyways, after confirming that it was 'only' a Scale Snake, Ban no longer wasted any more of his time and immediately jumped from the tree. Using the same method he used earlier, the Scale Snake that acted cautious was killed in no time.
It took longer than expected, as at first, it was a little stronger and faster than the first one. It was able to dodge and block some of Ban's normal attacks, and even counterattacked with some of them.
Second, it actually used a total of three Skills, a rare case as Elite Beasts supposedly only have two active Skills in total. The Scale Snake's Skills are Poison Arrow, and Eye of Deterrence which acted as a passive. It worked just like the Ant Mask's effect, although a bit weaker and would not always work.
The Poison Arrow has a long cooldown of 20 minutes, so it can't be used for more than one battle, as aside from some rare cases, battles won't usually take that long to finish.
The third Skill that the new Scale Snake used was called Scale Body. It acted the same as Ban's Reinforce Skill, only that the Scale Body doesn't cover all of the snake's body but just a portion of it from anywhere it liked.
For example, when Ban used the Fist Penetration earlier, the Scale Snake used the Skill, Scale Body at the last moment on its head, allowing it to block Ban's attack without injuring itself.
The third reason why the battle took longer was because the snake was very cautious. It didn't immediately get out of the water, and only stared at Ban for a few moments cautiously.
If Ban did not store the Ant Mask and his other items inside the earring and acted scared, the snake would surely not dare to attack him first.
Ban even thought that the snake was actually not hiding underneath the nest in ambush, but it might have actually hidden there due to fear.
Ban shook his head and summoned the Unknown Egg to consume it. The Unknown Egg was extremely happy seeing a new meal, while Ban felt conflicted inside.
On one hand, he was losing another good amount of Gold Coins, while on the other losing it meant his mission of feeding the Unknown Egg with 50 Beasts count would be lowered.
Ban could only sigh and thought that it was a worthy sacrifice.
'Alright, let's suffer for today and enjoy tomorrow!'
After the Unknown Egg consumed the snake's body, Ban immediately stored it inside the Beast Tattoo to rest.
He then searched for a place to rest and let the cooldown of each of his Skills finished before they proceeded to the next target location.
Time passed and it was already noon. Including the ones he killed earlier, Ban had now killed a total of 6 Beasts. Three of which have Beast Core, while the remaining three don't as they were only Elite Grade Beasts. One of them has a Skill Crystal, the Drainer Fox from before.
At this moment, Eva has already finished absorbing the Beast Core. Maybe because she became bored or maybe she could no longer absorb any more essence, she did not request another Beast Core from Ban and instead helped him in the last battle.
Ban also did not mind her as he knew that absorbing the Beast Core's essence can also become boring, especially if the rate of absorption was very slow. There was also the fact that some might experience 'blockage' while cultivating, meaning, although they could still cultivate, it will become pointless as they due to that blockage, they would no longer be able to absorb essence, at least, for that hour or for the remainder of the day or week or even months, depending on ones talent.
When she got out, Eva came to know that Tria had been occupying her spot without permission. Eva was mad at that so she flicked Tria's head as a punishment. As a result, there was now a huge bump on Tria's head while she also grew fearful towards Eva.
Fortunately, Ban also reprimanded Eva about it and sothe Tria in return with a pat on her head.
As he was not sure what to do, Ban just told Eva to allow Tria to perch on his head if she was not around, and also told Tria to give way to Eva if she was around and let her use his head.
The two immediately agreed and they became close to each other after that, knowing that they have something they like in common.
Eva also realized her mistake and she even willingly 'shared' Ban's head to Tria- her sister.
Ban could only shake his head as he just didn't know what was on his head that they loved using it as a resting spot.
As the two of them shared his head, Ban on the other hand busied himself by cooking the Scale Snake eggs that he took from before. After cooking them, he then served himself and then his two contracted Beasts until they became full.
After they were done eating, they rested for a bit before they went back towards the crocodile's territory.
There were still over a dozen of Elite Grade Mild Tempered Crocodiles on that territory and Ban thought it would be quite a waste to let them be. He thought that the Unknown Egg would surely love to devour them all.
Fortunately, the Unknown Egg was not picky in terms of Beast variations. As long as they were Elite or Lord Grade, and their strength was on F-Apprentice Rank, then the Unknown Egg would gladly devour it in no time. He confirmed it after he feed the Unknown Egg the Scale Snakes.
Ban and Eva rode Tria's back comfortably and with Tria's speed, they arrived at the crocodile's territory in less than 30 minutes.