Chapter 39 Lizard

It was an enormous lizard nearly five meters long.

Coarse blue-gray scales covered its body from head to tail, each one rough and heavy as stone. Even at a glance, Xia Nan could tell how difficult they would be to penetrate.

Eight thick, short legs, packed with knotted muscle, supported its vast, swollen body.

Brown crystalline spines rose from the tip of its snout and the crown of its skull, continuing down its back all the way to the end of its tail.

Its dark green slit pupils glimmered through the mist like ghostly flames.

A petrifying lizard.

A Basilisk.

In Xia Nan’s previous world, a world without magic or supernatural forces, the size of an animal was usually enough to give a rough idea of how dangerous it might be.

A bigger creature was generally more dangerous.

Simple.

But this was a world with Dragons and magic.

Here, a Flower Fairy no larger than a thumb might be a high-level class holder.

For all anyone knew, she might also possess some high-circle spell capable of flattening a small town.

Size alone meant very little.

That was why another concept existed to measure dangerous creatures:

Challenge Rating.

In simple terms, a monster with a Challenge Rating of 1 was considered an appropriate opponent for a balanced party of four Class Level 1 class holders, assuming the party had proper equipment, sufficient supplies, and enough rest.

Under ideal conditions, they should be able to defeat it without casualties.

Of course, that was only an abstract rule.

A cold numerical standard originally meant to help players in Xia Nan’s previous life understand how dangerous different monsters were.

Reality was far messier.

A monster’s age and development mattered.

So did injuries.

Terrain.

Habits.

Environment.

For monsters with enough intelligence, one also had to consider whether they had experience fighting human adventurers, what equipment they carried, and any number of other variables.

Still, Challenge Rating was useful as a rough measure.

The Rust Monsters Hai’an’s party had faced last night had a Challenge Rating of 0.5.

The Bugbear that had wiped out the Ragtag Party had been around Challenge Rating 1, though slightly below it.

And the Basilisk now dragging its belly toward Xia Nan?

Challenge Rating 3.

Four Class Level 3 class holders.

With proper preparation.

That was the sort of party needed to hunt one down without suffering casualties.

And the Basilisk’s danger did not come only from its size or scales.

Every one of these creatures possessed an innate ability from birth.

[Petrifying Gaze].

When activated, anything caught in the Basilisk’s dark green gaze would be subjected to its petrifying power.

Only those with exceptionally strong bodies or sufficiently firm wills had a chance of resisting.

Everyone else?

Stone.

That single ability allowed Basilisks to dominate the dry regions they inhabited.

An unprepared creature could become a statue from one glance.

Then the naturally lazy Basilisk would simply lumber over, use its powerful jaws to crush the statue apart, and swallow the pieces.

Secretions in its stomach would restore the prey to flesh, making it easier to digest.

There was no need for Xia Nan to test any of that personally.

Whatever condition this particular Basilisk might be in, the difference between their strength was obvious.

If Xia Nan tried to fight it head-on, he would die.

Simple as that.

He had not exchanged a single blow with the creature, but he did not need to.

Larry and Doris had turned to stone in an instant.

Hai’an and Wood had fled without looking back.

The moment Xia Nan’s mind cleared, every survival instinct in his body screamed the same thing.

Run.

He turned and sprinted.

The Decapitating Longsword he had just drawn slid back into its sheath.

Trees and bushes blurred past on both sides.

Xia Nan drove his arms back and forth, his long legs pounding across the leaf-covered meadow as fast as they could carry him.

“Huff… huff…”

He dragged in great breaths of air.

Blood rushed through his body hard enough to make his head swim.

Bushes scraped against his legs.

From within them came warning hisses from snakes and various crawling creatures.

Xia Nan ignored all of it.

He simply ran.

And prayed the Basilisk would not follow.

Unfortunately, he had badly underestimated just how much the greedy monster wanted fresh meat.

The Basilisk watched its prey split in two directions.

Hai’an and Wood fled one way.

Xia Nan fled another.

A strangely thoughtful light appeared in the creature’s dark green eyes.

One path had more prey.

But those two were faster.

Their presences were already becoming faint beneath the cover of the forest, difficult to track.

And there was also that green light that had blocked [Petrifying Gaze]…

The Basilisk’s hunting instincts reached a decision almost immediately.

Its eight thick legs bent.

Muscles coiled.

Bang!

The massive creature launched forward.

Its speed was absurd.

A body that looked heavy enough to crawl suddenly exploded into motion with power completely at odds with its size.

Like a tank wrapped in stone armor.

Thorny bushes and dense undergrowth crumpled beneath it.

Snakes and crawling creatures fleeing through the brush were crushed with them.

Tree canopies shook violently overhead.

Birds startled into flight had barely beaten their wings twice before the Basilisk’s gaze turned them to stone.

They dropped from the sky.

Trees snapped.

Grass disappeared beneath its bulk.

The Basilisk simply smashed straight through everything in its path.

Wood splinters and grass seeds filled the air.

The ground trembled beneath Xia Nan’s feet.

Behind him came a deafening roar of destruction, like a train tearing through the forest.

His heart hammered against his ribs.

He did not dare turn around.

He only ran faster.

But the sound of breaking branches kept getting louder.

Closer.

Closer.

Like death itself walking him down.

Then a blue-gray blur flashed at the edge of his vision.

A violent gust struck his back, carrying the rancid stink of monster saliva.

An enormous mouth capable of crushing iron and stone snapped toward him.

Buzz!

The only magic item Xia Nan possessed activated on its own.

The [Deathline] ring.

[Deflection Field]

The free energy in the air condensed instantly.

It was neither light nor gas, yet a translucent reddish-brown barrier snapped into existence around Xia Nan.

Crack!

The Basilisk’s jaws were thrown off course.

They snapped shut on empty air.

The sound of its upper and lower jaws slamming together made Xia Nan’s teeth ache.

That was all the barrier had done.

Defend him once.

[Deflection Field] had a twenty-four-hour cooldown.

In a close battle between evenly matched opponents, a one-time defense like that might decide victory or defeat.

Here?

Against a gap this enormous?

It bought Xia Nan two more steps.

Then the Basilisk’s tank-like body slammed straight into him.