Kill the Pythons
A few hours later...
After eating and resting for a few hours, James stepped outside the cave to execute his plan.
His plan was actually simple: let the snake consume the fruit when it was ripe, allowing it to break through to Low Rank 4, and then kill it.
Because he believed that letting the snake eat the fruit and breaking through to Low Rank 4 and letting it become his experience was more worthwhile than killing the snake and harvesting the fruit.
James was also curious to find out how much experience he would gain if he killed a beast with a whole big realm and a small realm beyond his rank.
Because when he killed the lizard, his experience had reached 75%, and he estimated that it should be higher than 25%, although he wasn't sure of the exact percentage.
After running for a bit, James arrived at his previous location and looked in the snake's direction.
The snakes were in a vigilant state as they scanned their surroundings once a minute.
"Little Fluffy, how long is it until the fruit ripens?" James asked.
"It won't be long, at most a few more minutes." Little Fluffy looked at the fruit and answered James's question.
"Okay then, let's wait a little bit more." James mumbled and nodded.
A few minutes later...
James smelled the fragrance of the fruit, and when he looked in the snake's direction, he saw the Fire Python eat the fruit directly, while the Water Python remained cautious.
After a while, he heard the system notification.
[Ding! Detected a Fire Python, Low-level Gold Rank Beast 100 Meters Northeast Ahead]
[Race: Fire Python]
[Attribute: Low-level Fire Attributes]
[Rank: Low-level Gold Rank Beast]
[Qualification: Gold]
[Skills: Fireball, Tail Slap]
[Description: This is a powerful Fire Python that could shoot out a high level fireball that would explode right after it hit the target and a skill (Tail Slap) that could break at least a bone of a beast within the same level if it got a direct hit by it.]
After James heard and looked at the notifications, he returned his attention to the snakes and noticed that the Fire Python's body was rapidly growing until it came to a halt when its length reached nearly 16 meters and its body was around 1.6 times larger than previously.
Looking at it, James was ready to shorten the distance between them since he was afraid that if he attacked them from this distance, the snakes would have enough time to respond and dodge his skill.
James wanted to try to kill the water python first and then attack the fire python when the time was right, so he needed to keep a safe distance because, in terms of physical strength, James was probably only stronger than middle rank 3, whereas the fire python was a genuine low rank 4.
The disparity between rank 3 and 4 was a big one. That's why the Fire Python's size nearly doubled when it reached rank 4.
If James was too close to them, the Fire Python could charge towards him and attack him, while he might not be able to dodge due to the difference in strength and speed. So, he approached them a little closer, around 25 meters away from the pythons.
Subsequently, James unsheathed his sword, swung it three times while using his Fire Sword Skill (Flame Splitting Slash) and aiming at the Water Python.
While looking at the three crescent moon-shaped swords Qi flying towards the snakes at a high speed, James raised his left hand as he was preparing to use his Fire Skill (Fire Vortex).
However, when James launched his Fire Sword Skill, the Fire Python responded quickly by moving in front of the Water Python, as it also instantly opened its mouth and used its skill (Fireball) to intercept the attack.
A big fireball around 1 meter in diameter flew out, colliding with James's sword skills.
"Boom!"
James's sword skills cut through the fireball. However, the power and speed were significantly reduced as a result of the impact.
The Fire Python then reacted quickly by using its skill (Tail Slap) to stop James's sword skills.
When James saw that, he wasn't surprised by this outcome since his cultivation level was still at peak rank 2, whereas the opponent was at low rank 4.
The differences in their strengths were significant enough to reduce James's advantage in his high-ranking skills and attributes.
Looking at the Fire Python as it prepared to use its skill (Tail Slap), James used this chance to use his strongest attack, the Fire Skill (Fire Vortex).
"Woosh!"
The fire pillar appeared from the magic circle above his head, with a diameter of around 75 cm, extending faster than his previous sword skills.
Because the explosion and collision of the Fireball and sword skill had created a lot of smoke, the Fire Python was unaware of the second attack while blocking the remnants of James's sword skills.
When the Fire Python noticed the fire pillar approaching, it was already too late to respond, as the fire pillar pierced through its tail, charged forward to its head, and directly burned its entire head to ashes, leaving only the beast core and its body on the ground.
Looking at her mate's dead body on the ground, the Water Python immediately made a hissing sound and charged at James.
'Well, it's easier for me if she charges stupidly like this.' James smiled and directly unsheathed his sword again and used his skill (Flame Splitting Slashed) again when the snake was close enough so that it couldn't dodge.
"Whoosh!"
His crescent moon-shaped sword Qi directly slashed the water python's head and some of its body into halves.
[Ding! You have killed the Low-level Gold Rank Beast.]
[Ding! The experience at peak rank 2 has greatly increased to 50%.]
[Ding! You have killed the High-level Silver Rank Beast.]
[Ding! The experience at peak rank 2 has greatly increased to 65%.]
James was satisfied enough when his experience was directly increased by 50% when he killed low rank 4 beast while he was still at peak rank 2.
He knew that he could only do it for now and would likely be unable to repeat it in the future, as his advantages would diminish as his rank went higher.
Subsequently, James moved forward to collect the corpses and beast cores before continuing his journey.