Alex's next stop was an old textile warehouse five miles away from the Outer City eastern gates.
It was abandoned decades ago after a sudden monster attack that collapsed half the building.
The place was huge and mostly empty except for some rusted old machines that looked like some dead metal skeletons under layers of dust and cobwebs.
He moved carefully through the broken streets of the outer district, hood pulled low; no one paid him much attention on his way toward the abandoned building.
After reaching it, he circled the warehouse twice, checking all the broken windows and collapsed walls.
No footprints. No recent trash. Which only meant there were no signs of human activity.
The only sounds were the wind whistling through broken glass and the distant cry of some scavenging bird.
"Perfect." Alex slipped inside through a side entrance where the metal door hung half off its hinges.
Inside, the main floor stretched out like a cavern.
Shafts of late-afternoon light cut through holes in the roof, lighting up piles of rotten fabric and the hulking shapes of old looms and spinning machines.
Dust floated in the air.
The far end of the building had caved in years ago, leaving a pile of rubble.
He walked to the center of the open space, boots making soft sounds as he stepped on the concrete.
His heart beat a little faster.
The snakes he released the night before were still resting deep in the coliseum's underground tunnels.
"Leaving them down there any longer risked city guards or cult remnants finding them," Alex muttered to himself as he closed his eyes and focused.
Mana stirred inside him, cold and smooth like liquid ice.
The Yin energy flowed down his arms.
He raised one pale hand, fingers slightly curled, and spoke the summoning spell in his mind, while his enhanced perception tried to lock onto the snakes hidden beneath the coliseum.
[You've successfully activated the skill: Demon Snake Summoning – Level 2, skill proficiency +2]
A small system prompt appeared in front of his eyes, followed by.
A deep, low vibration rolled through the warehouse floor. The air grew colder.
Shadows near the broken walls began to twist and stretch.
One by one, dark shapes slithered out of thin air or from the cracks on the ground.
There were only five of them, some as thick as a man's thigh, others thicker than a large water bucket.
He took a short rest to let his mana recover, and summoned again; this time he was able to summon another eight of them.
They moved with quiet power, coils sliding over the dusty floor until they formed a loose circle around Alex.
Finally, after another two successful summonings, he summoned all of them.
The biggest one, a serpent nearly twenty-five meters long with a slight ridge of bone along its head, raised its upper body until its sharp reptile eyes were level with Alex's face.
It tasted the air with a forked tongue, then lowered its head in clear submission.
Alex felt the bond between him and the surrounding snakes.
"Hisss… Hiss." The first one to respond was still the Silver Armored Snake King.
Even with its strength lower than many of the others, it remained the second largest of the entire group, thanks to being a true King-type mutated beast with higher potential than the rest.
What Alex hadn't expected was that its strength had actually improved significantly. The last time he checked, it had been stuck at peak E-Rank.
Now, with just one glance, he could tell that it had actually reached C Rank.
"Good," he whispered. "You're all here…"
The snakes answered with a low, pleased chorus of hisses that vibrated through the dusty floor.
His dark eyes shifted to the three true B-Rank spirit beasts that towered above the rest.
The largest of them all was a huge mutated python.
Its body stretched nearly thirty meters when fully uncoiled, thicker than a large sink at the midsection and narrowing only slightly toward the tail.
The scales were a deep, oily black through with irregular streaks of blood-red, like dried arteries running under glass.
A heavy bony ridge ran from the crown of its head all the way down its spine, ending in a short, club-like tail tip.
Its head alone was larger than Alex's torso, and when it raised itself, the yellow vertical pupils locked onto him with a cold, predatory gaze.
Beside it coiled two smaller, but no less lethal snakes, each roughly five meters long and as thick as a strong man's thigh; both were mutated from vipers.
The first was a pure yellow from snout to tail tip, like the color of molten gold under the afternoon light.
Its scales were smaller and finer than the python's, almost metallic in sheen, and a pair of long, needle-thin fangs protruded even when its mouth was closed.
A faint heat was released around its body, as though the air itself was slowly burning when touching it.
The second was a vivid emerald green snake covered in bold, irregular black bands that looked like cracked obsidian.
Its head was broader, more triangular, and a short, raised crest of darker green scales ran along the back of its neck.
When it tasted the air, dual forked tongues flickered out, one slightly longer than the other.
Alex focused his will. The Appraisal Eye activated with a soft mental click.
[Name: Crimson-Vein Abyss Python]
[Level: B-Rank (Level 2)]
[Attribute: Earth / Shadow]
[Description: A rare mutated python that has absorbed large quantities of residual abyssal spirit energy. Its body is extremely dense and resilient. The crimson veins running through its scales store and circulate dark mana, allowing it to release short-range shockwaves of heavy force. Highly territorial and ferocious. Extremely high physical defense and regenerative ability.]
[Skills: Demon Coil (Passive): Muscle density and scale hardness increased by 40 %. Constriction damage scales with size.
Shadow Burrow (Active): Can sink into earth or shadows for short-range teleportation up to 30 meters.
Crushing Shockwave (Active): Releases a cone of powerful air pressure from its mouth, slowing and damaging targets.
Bone Ridge Barrage(Active): Hardens the spinal ridge and lashes outward in a wide arc, capable of shattering low-grade enchanted armor.
Rare Skill - Abyssal Devour (Active): Can temporarily swallow a large volume of abyssal mana and convert it into temporary resources for strength amplification for itself.]
—
[Name: Golden Sunscale Viper]
[Level: B-Rank (Level 1)]
[Attribute: Fire / Light]
[Description: An unusual yellow-scaled viper that developed under extreme heat conditions. Despite the bright coloration, its venom and mana are intensely cold. Extremely fast and aggressive. The metallic sheen of its scales can reflect low-level light-based detection spells.]
[Skills: Lightning Strike (Passive): Strike speed increased by 35%. First strike after remaining motionless gains bonus penetration.
Heat Shimmer(Passive): Continuously radiates a thin layer of distorted heat that blurs its outline and slightly raises the ambient temperature.
Venom Mist (Active): Expels a fine yellow mist that paralyzes nerves and slowly drains stamina.
Rare Skill - Solar Eclipse Fang (Active): A high-speed bite that injects a dual-attribute venom capable of both burning internal mana circuits and freezing them, creating chaotic damage that is difficult to heal.]
—
[Name: Emerald Night-Pattern Viper]
[Level: B-Rank (Level 1)]
[Attribute: Wood / Poison]
[Description: A green-and-black patterned viper that has adapted perfectly to forest and underground environments. Its camouflage is nearly perfect in low light. The black diamond patterns on its scales are natural mana conductors that enhance poison potency.]
[Skills: Camouflage Coil (Passive): Near-perfect blending with surroundings when motionless. Detection difficulty greatly increased.
Neurotoxin Bite (Active): Fast-acting venom that targets the nervous system, causing temporary paralysis and loss of body control.
Phantom Coil(Active): Creates a short-lived afterimage of itself that continues moving for several seconds after the real body has shifted position.
Rare Skill – Nightshade Domain (Active): Creates a 15-meter radius zone of intensified poison that continuously weakens enemies and slightly strengthens the surrounding snakes within the area.]
Alex's lips curved into a small, satisfied smile as the three snakes' status windows hovered in the air before him.
Each one of them, even with their individual differences, was as strong as him.
Three genuine B-Rank spirit beasts, each with a rare skill, and now all of them already bound to him through the Demon Snake Summoning.