Ryker reached into his bag, his fingers brushing against cold iron. He pulled out a small, oil-rubbed lantern and a shortsword with a notched, rusted blade. The flint sparked three times before the wick caught, casting a flickering orange glow against the damp stone walls of the dungeon.
"Don't panic, Ryker," he whispered, his voice echoing too loudly in the hollow silence. "Just keep moving. One step. Then another."
He held the lantern high, the light revealing jagged moss and cracked flooring. He checked every corner, his heart hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs. He expected a swarm of goblins or a pack of starved hounds to leap from the shadows, but the entrance tunnels were eerily empty. The only sound was the steady drip-drop of condensation from the ceiling.
He stopped, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "I have to go further. I can't stay weak forever. Not for Elara. Not for me."
The deeper he descended, the colder the air became. The smell of rot and old scales began to fill his nose. Suddenly, a low, rasping sound vibrated through the floorboards of his boots.
He rounded a massive stone pillar and the lantern light hit something glossy and green. His breath hitched in a sharp, involuntary wheeze.
A giant snake, the size of a small house, was draped over a pile of rubble. Its scales were as thick as armor plating, shimmering with a sickly iridescent sheen.
"What the... what the fuck is that?" Ryker stuttered, his eyes darkening with primal fear.
The creature didn't move, but its presence filled the entire corridor. Ryker had seen drawings in textbooks, but they didn't capture the suffocating pressure of being near a real monster. It was terrifying. It was a god of the dark, and he was just a boy with a piece of junk metal.
(How am I supposed to tame something that could swallow me whole without chewing?)
"Hey, ghost," Ryker whispered, staring at the blue screen that shimmered in the corner of his vision. "Can I tame this? Can I actually make this... this thing my pet?"
The system responded instantly, the text glowing a cold, clinical white.
[Target: Great Rock Python (E-Rank)]
[Contract Status: Possible]
[Requirement: Defeat the target or achieve a high Charm state through submission.]
"Defeat it? I can barely look at it," Ryker hissed, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword.
At that moment, a heavy, cold drop of liquid splashed onto his forehead. He blinked, reaching up to wipe it away, thinking it was just dungeon water. But when he looked at his fingers, the liquid wasn't clear. It was thick, yellow, and smelled like acidic bile.
He slowly tilted his head back, his lantern light shifting upward. Above him, a second, smaller head was hanging from the ceiling, its fangs dripping with saliva, its yellow eyes locked directly onto his.