A Snake That Challenged 'Someone' That It Shouldn’t Have.

I remembered a quote that I had heard before, "If you stare into the Abyss long enough, the Abyss stares back." I hadn't really given it much thought before since I had heard similar quotes many times. However, as I stared into the darkness, long and hard, I felt the presence of a monster lurking in the shadows, which reminded me of the quote.

I knew that the monster wouldn't just sit there and stare at me, but would come after me and kill me. Even with all my strength, which was only 100,001, my weak body wouldn't be able to handle a fight against such a creature. I could end up saying 'Hi, hi' in heaven with one hit like that.

I realized that there was only one suitable thing I could do in this situation. I put all my hope in my body and decided to risk killing two birds with one stone.

With a cough filled with remaining blood, I looked at the Serpent and said another quote with a smile that looked down on others.

"I also heard another quote you know." The serpent hissed at me, intensively. But that couldn't break my confidence.

"The only way to escape the abyss is to look at it, gauge it, sound it out, and descend into it'"

Even if the Serpent is crazy, it is still a living thing and can sense that Sally was looking down on it. Enraged by the cocky attitude of the weak human in front of it, the Serpent lunged at him with its open mouth that can easily swallow a whole human.

I expected it to work and now, to stay alive and kick the bucket another day, I have to move my body. Ignoring all the pain, I leaped from my position onto the coming Serpent with my broken body. The Serpent didn't expect this but nonetheless, came at me.

When I think about snakes, I always see them in a prideful and arrogant manner. When I was a child, I heard a story about a certain snake and somehow, I still remember it and chuckle. That story can also relate to this situation.

---

Once upon a time, deep in the heart of a dense forest, lived a prideful and ferocious snake. It preyed on small animals and poisons anything that dared to cross its path. For years, it roamed the forest without any challenge until one day, it noticed a woodcutter who came into its territory with an axe.

The snake, who thought itself to be the strongest animal in the forest, was shocked to see the woodcutter chop down massive trees with ease. Its pride was hurt, and it felt challenged. So, the snake followed the woodcutter to his house and waited for the perfect moment to strike.

Under the cover of night, when everyone was asleep, the snake snuck into the house and confronted the axe. The snake bit it, threw its poison, and started to coil around it. But to the snake's surprise, the more it attacked, the more cuts started to appear on its body.

Enraged by this, the snake thought it could overpower the axe and tried to strangle it with all its might. However, in the end, the snake's own pride led to its downfall, as it ended up cutting its own head with the sharp blade of the axe.

Moral of the story: No matter how strong the snake is; the axe was still stronger.

---

I leaped with all the strength I could muster towards the Serpent. Just when I was about to make contact with the giant black creature, I threw my already torn armor into its face, making an opening for even just a second.

The Serpent caught the torn armor in its mouth, which was exactly what I wanted. As it closed its mouth, I punched its head with the remaining strength I had and fell down from exhaustion. I hoped that the Serpent was crazy enough to fight the dead slime's acid.

Fortunately, luck was on my side this time. My last-ditch efforts were not in vain, and in front of me, the Serpent was trying to get out from the acid by rolling around and crawling. Its movements only took it further and deeper into the corrosive liquid.

Finally, the acid stopped coming, and I sat there watching the scene unfold like a movie. The giant Cursed Crazed Serpent had challenged someone it shouldn't have, and now it was suffering the consequences. I couldn't help but feel satisfied with a smile on my face.

Soon enough, I heard the long-awaited notification from the System, informing me of my success in killing The Guardian of the Fourth Floor.

"There are six floors in this tower. That must mean I have to kill another two Guardians to clear this tower. I still have 2 hours and 30 minutes remaining until my strength effect runs out. Even if it takes me an hour to clear a floor, two hours is more than enough."

With that in mind, I crawled out of the third floor and started to take my 30-minute break on the staircase leading to the fourth floor. I tried to think about various things to prevent myself from dozing off.

I had killed four incredible monsters, but the System didn't give me a single reward. My ranking was also undefined since the System was stuck installing the update. When the update is installed, I will become an Iron Rank adventurer, and I started to wonder about the faces of all the adventurers in the guild when they see me becoming an Iron Rank adventurer in a single day.

"No! Not just Iron Rank, from the monsters I killed, I'm sure to receive a large amount of EXP, aren't I? That means, by the time I return to the guild, maybe I would have already become a level 30 Silver Rank!"

But even after killing four monsters, I haven't gotten a single monster core that I can sell and become rich. The Iron Golem was purely made of iron and it was a summoned monster that doesn't have a core. The Basilisk was already dead and its core was missing, maybe taken by someone. As for the Slime, I spiked its core. And finally, the Serpent, I made sure it receives a suitable punishment for harming me.

"Tsk. I have to make sure that I kill the next two Guardians with their cores intact."

After 30 minutes have passed, I can now move and feel like I used to. Most of the damage from the Serpent was done inside and my Skill – Self Heal had done a good job sustaining the pain.

"Now, all that's left is to keep my promise to Ms. Rinrin, kick both guardians' asses, steal their cores, and return to the village to brag about my rank."

Mistakes make a man stronger. Now that I have realized my previous mistake, I have a cool head and am prepared for anything to survive. With newfound determination, I arrive at the fourth floor, which has nothing just like the others, and climb the staircase leading to the fifth floor after finding it.

[!]

"Ohh yes, I'm not gonna do the same mistake again."

I opened my system to check the notification.

---

[You have entered the Fifth Floor of the Cursed Forgotten Tower!]

[Guardian of the Fifth Floor – A Fragment of the Hero, Arthur Jade]

[!]

[ERROR: Further analyzing the Fifth Floor and its Guardian has failed.]

> System can detect that only the Fifth Floor contains a hostile entity.

---

"Only this much?"

I viewed the system panel with confused eyes. Even on the previous floor, it had told me some useful information that I wasted. But now that I was prepared, the system seemed to be giving up.

"No matter. Just a Name and a Glance is enough for me to come up with a way to defeat it… probably."

I didn't rush open the door like the last time. I waited there and started to think for myself about all the facts.

This tower had six floors. From the outside, the floors aren't that big, but that was not the case. Inside, each floor is big in length and width and the staircase contains a minimum of 20 steps. Space magic must have been used. That means this world contains other types of magic as well.

Coming to the topic, what the system said can also be interpreted as this will be the last boss of the Tower. That means, taking the fact what the mage said and the carvings on the entrance, the Legendary Sword must be located on the top floor. These guardians aren't only guarding the floors but also preventing anyone from claiming the sword.

That means this tower is created to guard the Legendary Sword. No, not guard, but to prevent anyone from wielding it. But not for long though, I can't miss this god given chance.

My Final opponent, the Fragment of the Hero, Arthur Jade. Even if the system is telling me it is a fragment, I can't underestimate a hero. I have to consider that the fragment will contain more than 10% power of the original hero.

I heard from Rinrin that long ago, he and his party united all the races to fight against the Demon Lord. The clash between them was so intense that everyone present there died and no one knows the result or what happened to them after the clash.

The fact that I'm about to clash with the Hero, even if it was his fragment must mean that they failed in their quest.

Finally, after spending more than 5 minutes forming different plans, I took a deep breath and became serious for the first time after entering the tower. With heavy steps, I opened the door to my final opponent.