Chapter 7: Shadow-snake valley
Chapter 7: Shadow-snake valley
Because of the bloody smell released by the severed snake, beasts would be attracted soon and Shane decided to store the Shadow-snake carcass before anything could happen.
It wasn’t worth much but he wouldn’t waste the life he took by leaving the corpse on the ground.
At least he could receive some bronze coins for the carcass.
With the bad premonition, tormenting Shane´s mind, he still decided to go down.
His [Hunter’s Mind] seemed exceptionally helpful and he could think rationally about the advantages and disadvantages of going down.
On one side, Shane thought that at the bottom of the valley, hundreds of Shadow-snakes would be waiting for him, but because of his non-existent cultivation, they would underestimate him and most likely die like the first Shadow-snake, which was somewhat reassuring.
As long as he stayed at the outskirts of the valley’s bottom, at most a few shadow snakes would attack him if this valley was really the Shadow-snake’s habitat like he estimated.
On his way down, he found another few bunches of Nightshade flowers, but this time he wouldn’t let himself be surprised by a Shadow-snake attacking him, and as expected, after he plucked all Nightshade flowers, a Shadow snake shoot out of the loosened up soil.
But this time Shane predicted this outcome and severed the snake´s head before it noticed what was going on.
When the lifeless body hit the ground, Shane stored the 25-centimeters long body before he noticed another Shadow-snake, looking at him warily out of the loosened soil.
It seemed as if this snake was only recently hatched, because it was approximately only 10 centimeters long and Shane decided to not kill it, as long as the snake did not attack him.
If his father knew that, he would call him foolish and force him to another few trips through Igra and the few areas with hostile beasts living.
On Igra, there were only a few such places left and they were mostly Islands.
Humans allowed them to stay there and they separated them into different strengths, to let their descendants and the new generation train there before entering the Primordial Dimension, where they couldn’t be protected anymore.
As such, Shane already witnessed the cruelty on both sides, humans, and beasts. Most beasts would attack humans, once they turned their back towards them, but Shane didn´t mind the snake in front of him, as it couldn´t even accurately use its Darkness affinity.
1 hour passed and his potions effect would only last for another hour before the concealment- and Nightsight-effect would dissipate.
But Shane didn´t really care about that as he had already plucked more than 40 Nightshade flowers and killed 8 Shadow-snakes until now.
His hands were dirtied until now and blood painted his pretty face, while his eyes radiated a tranquil calmness looking around carefully.
Considering his gains, Shane estimated that he had enough to purchase a batch of Nightsight and concealment potions on Igra, but leaving the Shadow-snake valley with its thousands of Nightshade flowers would be a waste of time.
Who knew if it was still nighttime, when he came back or if only Shadow-snakes inhabited the valley.
Once it was daytime, other beasts that slept during the night would probably come out and stroll through the valley.
Furthermore, the Nightshade flower would lose its effect once the sun rose, and only during the night, it could be plucked with the highest effect.
As such, Shane made a decisive decision and used a secret perk from the systemm, which his father told him, as he ordered the system to sell the Shadow snake corpses and the Nightshade flowers inside his Spatial ring.
[42x Nightshade flowers |30xTrash//12xCommon|& 8x Shadow-snake carcasses |Low-Wild| can be sold for 82 Silver and 60 bronze coins. Executing selling the stated Items?]
It was a welcome function to let the System do all the hard work by selling everything within the spatial ring but the price it stated was still comparable to being conned.
On Igra, Shane would most likely receive almost 2 gold coins for 42 Nightshade flowers but the system wasn’t as generous and wouldn’t give him a single gold coin.
But that didn’t matter at the moment and he accepted selling the Nightshade flowers and carcasses to empty his Spatial ring that was almost filled to the brim.
Even if he felt the price was low, Shane still had to do it and there was still an hour left for him to accumulate 120 silver coins in order to purchase another patch of potions from the system.
As long as his plucking speed was fast enough, Shane would be able to gain a small fortune, once he goes back to the shelter or rather Igra.
The closer he came to the bottom of the valley, the larger Nightshade flower batches he noticed, and not even 10 minutes passed until he plucked another 30 Nightshade flowers, which grew close to each other.
Only one thing was slightly annoying and it was the number of Shadow-snakes attacking him.
The more Nightshade flowers grew next to each other, the more Shadow-snakes attacked him, and luckily, only a single mid-Wild Shadow snake was among them.
It also underestimated Shane´s strength, caused by his non-existent cultivation in addition to having used a concealment potion which concealed even his aura, causing it to die with a single slash from his shiolite dagger, which gleamed in a dark red color.
Even if Shane´s speed was slower than the Mid-Wild stage shadow-snake, underestimating him couldn’t be considered extremely smart.
Nevertheless, that didn´t mean the imminent threat Shane had to face was not apparent, as he had to adjust himself to the muddy ground he was standing on, and sometimes multiple Shadow snakes attacked him at the same time which caused him to be overwhelmed sometimes.
Fortunately [Hunter´s mind] supported him throughout the whole time and he was barely able to evade the Shadow-snakes attacks before they could bite him.
One time, Shane tripped over a root, that was freed by the heavy rain pouring down the jungle as a pair of Shadow snakes attacked him.
Luckily the two snakes barely entered the mid-Wild stage and he was as fast as them, causing a tiny timespan, which was just enough for him to roll to the side, evading the first attack while standing up in a smooth motion, before the Shadow snakes continued their attacks.
Fortunately, he had a superb dagger that could even shatter the mid-Wild stage shadow-snakes fangs with enough force behind, which allowed him to kill them without any further problems
—
Walking around the outskirts of the valley, Shane continued plucking Nightshade flowers and killing the inhabiting Shadow snakes until he finally accumulated his required amount of 2 gold coins after roughly twenty minutes with half an hour remaining on the potions´ effects
[35 Nightshade flowers |26xTrash/9xCommon|&7xShadow-snake carcasses |6xLow-Wild/1x Mid-Wild| has been sold for 67 Silver and 70 bronze Coins]
….
..
.
[39 Nightshade flowers ||31xTrash/8xCommon|&10xShadow-snake carcasses |8xLow-Wild/2xMid-Wild| has been sold for 72 Silver and 70 bronze coins]
Looking at his wealth, Shane smiled lightly
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Finances: Gold[2], Silver[23], Bronze[0]
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Before he made his purchase to purchase another concealment and nightsight potion, Shane noticed something particular on his status, he already completely forgot, as his thoughts about generating gold coins were more important.
He could only shake his head and call himself stupid.
Right now he was inside a treasure trove and only thought about the profit, but wasn’t there something else he obtain here?