It seemed like, my attempts at summoning were more than a little rusty.

For some reason, how many times I tried to summon, all I would get were those serpents, who instead of behaving, decided to bully their own summoner by acting silly.

Why on earth they insisted on climbing my body remained a mystery, but I kept calm, trying over and over again until it became so bad, I was nearly buried under the weight of more than fifty of the twirly creatures.

Such a collection should have been equal to one medium sized serpent by now. Yet, even when [Summon] became LV2, they didn't change. I was beginning to think I'd been given a worthless skill.

I hissed in outrage - even if it was only LV2, shouldn't there be some variance in their form or size? Or at least one different creature?

Watching all these tiny noodles slithering all over me was becoming too annoying!

So, I gave up and cancelled my summons as the more than sixty snakes I accumulated were beginning to get very enthusiastic with their hisses and bites.

After they disappeared into smoke, I left the ballroom to map out the different areas of the strange lair.

«You're supposed to give them instructions, not have them waiting around.» Sensei tutted disapprovingly.

"I was waiting for something different to appear." I replied with a huff, as I entered a new room. How could he, who watched my pitiful performance without saying a word, try to chastise me now?

«They were bored. I'm not surprised they tried to eat you.» Sensei casually said. «Call them out the next time you need to kill something.»

I stopped in my tracks. Was that what that was?

They actually wanted to e-eat me?

"How can my own summons see me as food?" I cried out in horror.

«Don't forget you called them out from the Abyss.» Sensei warned. «They need to feed on something to remain here, so you should not treat this skill lightly. Still, it wasn't bad for your first attempt, I'm surprised so many answered your call.»

My startled face turned to shock.

What was the Abyss? Wasn't it the thing currently trying to swallow up this world?

And yet, its creatures answered me.

I wanted to sob. Just why did I get such a dangerous ability?

It was bad enough that every Abyssal monster I encountered inside the lair, cowered away from me in fear, like they were seeing a terrifying monster. But weren't they the truly scary monsters here?

I was slithering around on eggshells, careful not to look any of them in the eyes. So, for the Abyssal monsters to behave like they were afraid of me, just seemed a bit strange.

They could kill me right now if they attacked all together in a group, after all, I was just one snake while they numbered in hundreds or maybe more. When I thought about it, it was actually quite scary.

I ducked into a quiet room away from prying monster eyes, refusing to let them see me sweating.

They were part of my Pit now, but I was puzzled at what to do with them. Wasn't being responsible for monsters I despised, asking too much of me?

I didn't need more scary monsters around me. Besides, I couldn't exactly stop them from devouring endlessly, nor did I want to command them. So, just what was I supposed to do?

Kill them?

I shook my head.

The Nymph's kiss hadn't disappeared after I evolved, and although the circlet's leaves had greatly shrunk in size, their presence was still a threat. If anything I needed these monsters to leverage my power.

In reality, the valley and this lair wouldn't be such a problem, if the abundant ether here wasn't luring more creatures to their deaths. Without it, perhaps the Abyssal monsters would disperse on their own, without me needing to do anything.

I already had an idea, I just needed to prove the abundant ether was coming from below.

Rather than go through the Abyssal monsters, I blinked several floors down to the underground room where I left the shadow creature's corpse. Upon arriving, the room was empty, and the dismembered parts were gone, causing me to nervously swallow - it seemed the shadow became the first victim of my unconscious rampage.

There wasn't even a scrap of bone left.

With three layers of dungeons above this hidden underground room, stumbling upon it was merely by chance. But this combined with the dense amount of poisonous ether that made it difficult to breathe, led me to believe this hidden room had something more to do with the mystery.

Yet, for something this important, it was rather bland in appearance. Much like the dungeon, the space was entirely covered in grey stone, with no windows or adornments in sight, apart from a layer of dust and a rusty torch holder in the corner. Why it's entrance was sealed off from access to everything was even more puzzling.

Naturally, there had to be some secret lurking here, so I activated [Mind's Eye] to scan every corner. And it wasn't long before I discovered a hidden stone trapdoor in the middle of the room. There were also several panels in the walls housing some intricate push mechanisms that likely required more than one person to trigger open at the same time.

But that wasn't about to bother me.

I fired on all four panels with dark blades and blinked out of the room right as the ground began to rumble.

Arriving safely in the dungeon above, I watched the walls and floor of the hidden room implode in an array of explosions that reduced everything to rubble, all except the trap door that cracked open in an impressive array of steps leading further down.

Was my pressure off? I was sure I hit every panel at the same time.

To my surprise, the room began to fill with a thick dark mist, similar to the one outside, and the air that was already dense became even more difficult to breathe in.

As soon as the door fully opened, I watched it warily to make sure nothing else came out, like say another scary monster.

But aside from the dark mist, there was nothing.

Sensing my excitement, Sensei asked. «Are you sure you want to go down there?»

"Er…Not really." Hearing him say that made me hesitate. But…just for a moment.

«Then don't go there.» Sensei insisted.

There was neither fear nor worry in his voice, which made me even more curious. Knowing the air was potentially lethal, I took a deep breath before blinking down below, willing [Mind's Eye] to scan ahead for traps as I sped through the trapdoor.

What followed was a lengthy downward spiral of steps leading down into a large cylindrical room. However, I soon realised I was not alone.

Standing in a circle around the room was an array of thirty or more elven figures in dark hooded cloaks. They all stared straight at an elder figure in the middle, who was bent in the action of opening a plain wooden box.

As soon as I saw them all with [Mind's Eye], I stopped still in my tracks. They were all a long way down so, perhaps they hadn't heard the explosions and I could turn around and return before any of the ominous figures noticed a chubby snake intruding on their gathering.

A short while passed as I considered turning tail, but when neither of the figures moved, I became curious and realized something was wrong with the scene below.

Although the room was free of dust, the robes they wore were surprisingly threadbare. The stone ground they stood on was also covered in carved inscriptions of symbols forming concentric markings around each figure.

These smaller circles were linked to form smaller sections of a larger circle, like the numbers in a clock, with the elder elf placed firmly in the middle.

Slithering down the last step, I now realised each figure was actually made out of a cyan crystal, and so detailed, they looked almost alive. There were some more figures gathered away from the circle, and they too were crystallized, although they weren't in the best condition as the rest.

Almost all of these statues were smashed to pieces, as if purposefully broken by something, and it was clear from the many awkward poses, that these figures all perished suddenly. The most suspicious of the figures was the elder that bent to open the wooden box in the middle.

Perhaps they had been killed by its protections?

The box itself was plain and made of dark wood with very little adornments, however the wood itself hadn't rotted away, although it was clear many years had passed. It still looked polished as if not even a day had gone by.

It was clearly suspicious… and dangerous.

There was no way I was setting foot on the ground after seeing all this, so I stayed perched on the steps to scan the carved symbols on the ground, to see if anything would light up with [Mana Sense], before I suffocated from a lack of air.

But then, my view of the room with [Mana Sense] swiftly turned blank, to show just how much every section of the room brimmed with ether. It was like I was facing a huge wall of solid mass that shone a deep cyan blue colour.

The crystal figures inside were no longer discernible among the mass, in fact, they blended into the wall of power, appearing to resemble solid blocks of either, much like a core. It soon became clear none of the symbols had been active for a long time and I was surprised to find such power originating from the box.

Since [Mana Sense] was useless here, I decided to try [Mind's Eye] to see what magic it would discern.

However, with only the slightest of probing, I felt a sharp jab in the jewel in the middle of my skull, forcing me to shut down the skill quickly, before my skull split open with pain.

With seemingly no effective measure, I decided to try [Appraisal], for the slim chance that it would reveal something.

And yet.

〚Appraisal Impossible〛

But just then, I was hit with a searing headache and everything faded to black.