CHAPTER 53: CHAPTER 53: LEAK BOSS

The remaining verdlecks were dispatched quickly. The element of surprise helped the monsters first, but as soon as the Heroes settled and started coordinating their attacks, it was over.

And when the last snake fell, the silence that fell over the swamp was deafening—only the heavy breaths of the creeps could be heard.

The result of the battle?

Three creeps, dead. Ten remaining, including Adam.

Most of the creeps were tending to their wounds, while the others had already begun harvesting the parts from the verdlecks—scales, fangs, and anything they could get from the corpses.

Only Adam, however, waded through the swamp to collect the bodies of their fallen. No one else seemed concerned with the dead, too busy collecting their spoils.

Half of the spoils they gathered, however, belonged to the guild. But none complained, as they would still also be compensated based on their contributions in the exploration.

The guilds also had their own expenses—fees for the rights of the Leak, and they also had to pay 20% taxes for the treasures they received.

The world was dead, and humanity had turned it into business.

Adam arranged the three corpses side by side on a large root, straightening their limbs and closing their eyes when possible, or just covering their heads with fabric from their clothes.

He stared at the corpses for a moment, and then whispered to himself,

"We survive... and then we ask for forgiveness."

"The IBAA’s famous line."

A voice came from behind him. Adam turned to see who it was, and it was the veteran creep that was under the Nightraptor guild, Rick.

Rick approached with an awkward smile, blood spattered across his cheek.

"Thanks for saving me back there. Chris, right?"

"Saving...?" Adam glanced at Rick’s face, finally recognizing him as the creep who had been strangled by the second snake he killed. "Oh... it’s you."

Rick laughed, shaking his head.

"I thought it was weird that you didn’t bring any weapons," he said, his gaze drifting to the bodies Adam had arranged. "But... I guess a veteran like you already knew there’d be casualties, huh?"

Adam didn’t respond, only offering Rick a brief glance before turning away.

It seemed Rick had completely misunderstood—Adam hadn’t brought weapons because he didn’t know where to legally, or illegally, buy them. He had searched online but discovered that only creeps registered with the IBAA were permitted to purchase them.

Unfortunately, Adam had no papers. And besides, he was still trying to avoid the Hospital. Registering with the government would only make it easier for them to track him down.

Rick didn’t mind his silence, however, as he stood beside Adam and offered a silent prayer of his own to the fallen.

Adam was about to leave him alone, but Rick spoke before he could.

"I’ll be sure to tell them to give you a lot," he gestured to the Heroes, "You can have some of my loot too, that’s the least I could do for saving me."

Adam looked at him, slightly confused at his words. "We’re...a group. I just did what I had to."

"Huh..." Rick looked him in the eyes, nodding his head at him with a small smile on his face, "...would be nice if everyone thought like you."

And with those words, Rick walked away and joined the others in looting the verdlecks corpses. Adam watched them for a while before grabbing a knife from one of the corpses and heading to the first snake he shot dead.

But someone else was already looting it.

"Oh..." Adam blinked. He was about to turn away again, but as soon as the creep who was looting the corpse saw him approach, an awkward laugh escaped his mouth.

"We...we weren’t trying to steal from you!" the man hurriedly said, placing the pair of fangs he had already carved out on the snake’s head before scampering away.

Adam watched him run away and stumble, confused as to what had just happened. There were a lot more monster corpses he could loot, so he didn’t actually mind someone else scavenging his kill.

Was there a silent rule about explorers he didn’t know about?

"Huh..." But whatever it was, it worked out for him. He grabbed the two fangs and placed them in a large pouch. He then watched the others carve the monsters, following their lead and copying what they were doing.

And after a few more minutes, Vincent clapped his hands.

"Listen up!" Vincent shouted, "I think we scouted enough and decided to return outside! This Leak is more unpredictable than we thought because the verdlecks could easily camouflage themselves on the terrain!"

"What!? But we barely explored anything!"

"Shut up, man! We barely explored anything, and we’ve already lost three! We’re way in over our heads here!"

Some of the creeps complained, but all of them agreed as soon as they heard Vincent’s next words,

"We won’t know where the Boss is located since it would also be camouflaged—we do not want to be caught off-guard. We will also not protect any of you if the Boss appears, we just paid for this Leak—we’re not accidentally killing the Boss until we looted everything. So, pack up your things and all the loot you can get, we’ll be leaving in three minutes! We’ll rest outside for a few hours, and then return once we’re more prepared!"

Some of the creeps still groaned, but all they could really do was rush in looting everything, and follow the Heroes.

Once again, Adam found himself at the back of the group as he was still not used to trekking such terrain. He was a lot faster than before, however, as he was within reach of the next creep in front of him.

He could have been a lot faster if he had looted the boots of one of the fallen creeps, but the pairs were too big for him.

"Ha..." And so, Adam could only sigh as he followed everyone else. But he heard something that made him stop—it wasn’t only him, everyone else heard it too.

Adam quickly looked to the side, only to see the trees being pushed away.

He narrowed his eyes at the sudden rumble at first, but then they immediately widened when he realized what it was.

[Verdrakill, Lv. 1 | HP: 100%]

It was a larger variant of the verdlecks. No, perhaps larger was an understatement.

The verdlecks’ head was the same size as the head of a small hippopotamus. But a Verdrakill’s head?

The Verdrakill’s head was the same size as an entire hippopotamus by itself—and its wide jaws were heading straight for Adam. And it was very, very fast.

"Ah..." Adam didn’t even bother to move out of the way; all he could really do was whisper and utter, "...Not again."

And as soon as he said those words, the massive serpent crashed into him like a truck, swept away, and mowed him down completely.