Chapter 90 - Do Or Die Time
Chapter 90 – Do Or Die Time
Beast eggs!
That was what Cabrera stared at as his mind went into overdrive, quickly deriving some answers.
So…the beast was female!
That would definitely explain it. The beast had been laying eggs here when Fredrick came to kill it. It went out of the mountain so that the eggs wouldn’t be affected!
Cabrera nodded to himself. Based on what he knew, or what he thought he knew, this was the most likely scenario.
One thing bugged him about it though.
‘I can’t believe this was here. Even Ezra didn’t tell us about it!’
‘Hmm, or maybe he didn’t know about it in the first place?’
Cabrera thought it was plausible as he smiled.
‘So even that crazy ability has weaknesses. That’s good to know’
With such thoughts out of the way, Cabrera turned his gaze back to the heap of eggs.
They varied in size, but the biggest one was only as big as Cabrera’s head, while the smallest one was one quarter of the size of his fists. And they numbered in the tens!
As he thought about his next line of action, he felt something a bit weird from his body.
‘Hmm…Oh! The mana’s much thicker here’
His body was passively absorbing so much mana that he felt his mana pool being refined, its quality increasing just by being here.
Cabrera’s body felt reenergized, but his bones still ached extensively. So he took out another healing potion and drank it in one go, before cleaning his mouth of residues as he stretched, causing bone snapping sounds to echo once more.
Then Cabrera looked at the heap of eggs and thought…
‘Now, how do I go about this?’
His brain whirred with many thoughts. From what he could see, he was in an expansive cave located under the mountain, and along the walls were mana stones and mana crystals lighting up the place, which was why he could see the white eggs in all their glory.
He briefly thought of running away with such a stock, but he remembered that he had a soul compass binded to his soul by the Admiral.
‘Guess that’s a no then’
If that was the case, then the next line of action was easy.
‘I’ll be taking them with me’
But wait…
‘How am I going to carry them out of here?’
A problem had cropped up.
‘Fredrick should have some ideas, but he’s fighting the beast right now’
‘I could try taking them up to the surface…but that would take an eternity…so that’s also a no’
‘Do I hide them here and then come back later?’
Cabrera facepalmed himself at the last thought.
‘I must be growing senile. The Empire and everyone else is going to be all over this place the moment the existence of a mana stone mine is leaked. So I will most likely never be able to come back here…sigh, so…I have only one chance to take as much as I can…then I have to take the most valuable thing!’
And to do that…
‘I need to scout every inch of this place’
He moved with haste to find the most valuable item and then come back to take the mana stones.
He didn’t know, but not long after he moved into the deeper parts of the cave, vibrations spread across the mountain causing some rocks to fall at his former spot.
Fredrick had begun mining. And while the sound of rocks smashing into the ground echoed out, Cabrera was too focused on his task to care.
As Cabrera walked, he made sure to avoid stepping on the eggs, which made it take over three minutes to go across the eggs and reach the end of the underground cave, only to find a cave the size of a den with an opening barely enough for Cabrera to pass through.
But from this cave, Cabrera could see something shine.
‘I knew it!’ he jubilated inwardly.
‘There’s a treasure around here! And it’s in there!’
Thankfully, the den was a bit above the ground, so Cabrera didn’t need to squirm like a worm on the floor.
Without hesitation, he approached the cave’s entrance, got on all fours and crawled into the cave headfirst.
Sticking his head inside, he turned his head to check the interior, but his eyes almost popped out of its sockets as he felt his blood run cold.
In front of him was a lush tree with thin branches holding a blue fruit that was round with green leaves covering the top.
But wrapped around this lush tree was a snake! One with a body far smaller than its parent, but with the same white scales. Its eye color was unknown at this moment because they were closed shut.
That’s right, it was currently sleeping, and that was why Cabrera’s head hadn’t been chewed up yet.
Now, Cabrera found himself at a crossroad. He needed to make a decision.
‘Should I scout for other places, or should I go in and kill it…or die trying?’
He put his head through the cave’s entrance once more and looked at the snake.
‘It could be tough…but it’s definitely doable’
With that affirmation, Cabrera chose without hesitation and began to move the rest of his body into the cave with minimal movements. He couldn’t afford to lose the element of surprise by letting the snake wake up.
‘I knew the risks when I came here, and besides, it’s not like I was expecting it to be easy. This snake will be perfect for me to test my strength’
‘Running away would make all my training useless. I can’t afford to keep retreating, and I also don’t know if I can find such a tree elsewhere. Passing up chances when I can take them is a fool’s errand’
And…
‘I’m no fool’
The rest of his body entered into the cave, which he found to be bigger than he originally thought. Two of himself standing on top of each other wouldn’t reach the ceiling, but it would be close.
With careful steps, he took his stance as his gauntlets began lighting up.
But before he could finish charging up…
*Break*
A stone crumbled under his feet.
The sound it created wasn’t very loud, but in a place this silent, it might as well be rainfall as it echoed along the walls.
And the next moment, the snake’s eyes snapped open to reveal a black slit running across the yellow sclera.
The gaze alone emanated pressure and Cabrera couldn’t help but curse inwardly.
‘Damn me and my bad luck!’
But there were no ‘if’s in life. The snake was now awake, it was do or die time.