Chapter 12: Survivors in the Belly of the Snake

The heavy sword on EeDechi's back was blunt on both sides, unable to cut through anything, so when EeDechi swung it, it was more like swinging a flat, oversized iron club.

Barrett once asked EeDechi why she didn't sharpen the blade, and EeDechi told him, "A heavy sword has no edge; true skill needs no fancy tricks." It was yet another weird saying that left Barrett scratching his head.

Titan Python shook its massive head, swaying like it was drunk, clearly dazed from the earlier strike that left its whole skull buzzing. Twisting its body, it turned sideways, jaws gaping wide, and lunged at EeDechi again.

EeDechi gripped the giant sword—way too big for her height—with one hand, dodging the attack with light, cat-like steps.

She then fired off a 2nd-tier magic fireball. The blazing orb exploded against the snake's scales, leaving only a faint black mark. Clearly, the scales of this high-level magical beast weren't just tough—they had some serious magic resistance too.

Seeing her magic attack flop, EeDechi shook her head and swung her sword down on the snake's head again. This strike hit harder than the last, sending the triangular snake head—big as a wild boar—flying like a kicked ball, smashing through one thick tree after another, the whole snake body tumbling over itself a few times in the chaos.

EeDechi leaped toward the still-writhing Titan Python in one swift move, raising her heavy sword like she was swatting a fly and smashing it down on the snake's head, ending the fight clean and quick. The whole snake body shuddered the moment the sword landed, then went still for good.

For an adventurer, a Titan Python that couldn't move anymore was a walking pile of gold coins—especially a grown-up, high-level magical beast like this one that'd been around for decades. Its venomous fangs, poison sac, scales, and bones… all of it could fetch a fat price.

Barrett hummed a little tune, breaking down the giant python under the dim glow of a night lamp. Meanwhile, EeDechi got a campfire going nearby, setting up a pot to boil water for mixing some "health preservation" potion.

Barrett didn't stop her. After seeing this girl fight up close, he was sure even if the lord of Mistwood—the Owlbear—showed up, it'd just be delivering them more cash.

Too bad Owlbears only roamed during the day and wouldn't be lured by the firelight. Barrett couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment over that.

After an hour of work, peeling off a few big, intact chunks of snake scale, Barrett used an obsidian curved knife to slice open the Titan Python's belly. He reached in, rummaging around in the slimy snake stomach, and felt something the size of a human head.

Barrett's whole body jolted, his humming cut off mid-tune. He yanked his hand back and slashed the python's belly open even wider…

…

"Take a look at our haul." Nearly twenty minutes later, Barrett wiped the fat beads of sweat off his forehead and called up to EeDechi, who was lounging with her legs crossed, napping on the treehouse.

EeDechi hopped down from the tree, her eyes scanning the neat lineup of snake fangs, vertebrae, and folded snakeskin spread out on the forest floor. She nodded and said, "Nice dissecting skills, but a skinned snake looks too bloody and is not suitable for minors to view."

She pointed at two slime-covered, human-shaped lumps on the ground and asked, "What snake parts are these? They look pretty weird. How much can we sell them for?"

Barrett shook his head. "Those aren't snake parts. They're two living people. Didn't you hear the distant shouts for help and fighting earlier? Looks like another adventurer crew ran into this Titan Python before us and got swallowed whole. These are the only two survivors I just pulled out of its stomach."

The deep night in Mistwood was dead silent, the mist swirling faintly under the yellow glow of the night lamp, giving everything a hazy vibe. EeDechi stood next to two tidy stacks of black snake scales, her face lit with a mix of disbelief as she let out a soft breath.

In the same stretch of Mistwood, right near where they stood, an entire adventurer team had been wiped out. The Titan Python, which EeDechi took down with just three swings, had swallowed several adventurers alive not long before.

"No way around it—in a dog-eat-dog world like this, being weak is the real crime." Barrett shook his head, eyeing the four slime-coated metal tags in his hand: two silver, one gold, and one platinum.

He'd fished these adventurer tags out of a mess of rotting flesh and broken bones in the snake's stomach. From them, he pieced together that this team was roughly at the Gold-level adventurer tier.

A puny adventurer squad like that, venturing deep into the heart of Mistwood, was basically begging for trouble. But there's always a few clueless fools out there, chasing bigger bounties for tough quests, rolling the dice and ending up with a total party wipe.

EeDechi and Barrett rinsed the slime off the two survivors with warm water, dried them by the campfire, dressed them in clean spare clothes, and fed them healing potions and energy tonics. By the time the sky started to lighten, after all that hustle, the two finally woke up.