Chapter 49: Not worth at all

The dark red veins near her eyes pulsed with a sudden flare of Elite aura.

"Your voice is very loud," Summer said, her voice completely calm and flat.

Olender blinked, taken aback by her cold tone. "What? I am just offering you a chance to survive! A weak girl like you cannot possibly live in this place alone without a strong man to lead the way!"

"Shut up," Summer said simply.

She did not even raise her iron gauntlets. She merely activated her Class Skill, Elite Puppeteer, releasing a tiny sliver of her massive Level 15 pressure into the air around them.

CRACK!

An invisible wave of heavy pressure slammed directly onto Olender’s shoulders like a falling lead block.

His knees buckled instantly under the sudden weight, crashing hard into the wet mud with a loud splash. The iron sword slipped out of his trembling fingers and fell harmlessly into the puddle beside him.

"Gah!" Olender gasped for air, his face turning pale white as cold sweat poured down his cheeks. He felt like a giant mountain was resting directly on his chest, crushing his lungs flat.

Maya and the mature woman screamed in terror, falling backward onto the ground as they scrambled away from Olender as fast as their hands could drag them.

Ophiliya’s blue eyes widened in complete shock. She instantly recognized the sheer difference in power between them.

And her energy...

"She is a zombie!" Ophiliya exclaimed in terror.

This pale girl was not a human awakener at all. The dark, cold energy radiating from her body belonged to a Zombie. And it was even higher than a Feral zombie.

That meant...

"A fuckin Elite Zombie!"

’Finally.’ Summer was inwardly pleased when someone recognized her outstandingness. She liked smart people very much.

[More like you enjoyed showing off.]

Summer ignored the system completely as she motioned for Ophiliya to continue speaking.

"Please stop!" Ophiliya shouted quickly, bowing her head toward Summer in complete submission. "He is an idiot who does not know his place! Please spare our lives!"

Summer looked down at the kneeling Olender, who was currently shivering like a wet rat in the mud, completely unable to lift his head to look at her.

’Zombie? An Elite Zombie?’ Olender peed himself in pure terror as the reality crashed down on him. ’Did I try to flirt with a zombie? But damn... cake is still a cake.’

"Ugh... sorry... sorry..." he cried out desperately, his face buried deep in the squishy black soil.

Her impression of him had officially crossed the final boundary.

He was no longer just an annoying human. He was now officially categorized as food.

’He looks very weak,’ Summer thought, staring down at his trembling back. ’His core will probably taste like plain mud.’

[Indeed,] the system agreed warmly. [A low level human core like his is not even worth the effort of chewing.]

Both of them knew they were making up a reason for Summer’s inability to kill a human. Neither of them accepted that.

Summer retracted her aura with a slight movement of her small shoulder.

The heavy pressure vanishing instantly allowed Olender to collapse flat onto his face in the mud, gasping violently for air as he clutched his aching chest. He did not dare to raise his head or say a single word again.

Summer turned her back on the four humans, no longer interested in wasting her precious time on weak bugs.

"Scram.."

They didn’t even make a sound as she commanded, scrambling up and running for their dear lives. They splashed wildly through the thick puddles without looking back once.

And the direction they were running was where Summer sensed the same type of python she had killed earlier, but in a large group, rushing from.

The heavy vibrations of multiple slithering bodies shook the wet tree roots in the distance.

Since those pythons were literally useless to her, as they were low level and only gave her a small amount of experience points, she decided to ignore them.

She wanted big, rare, and high-grade cores that could give her unique traits and massive level progression. Weak snakes were not worth her precious effort.

But she never considered that this group of pythons might be easy for her, but for those four humans they were literally a death sentence.

Not that she cared anyway.

Humans were fragile creatures, and their foolish actions always invited their own destruction in the wild. If they ran straight into a nest of monsters, that was entirely their own problem.

Three floated down from her collarbone and let out a loud, mocking squeak directed at the backs of the running humans before settling back snugly under Summer’s chin.

The soft green ball purred against her pale neck, fluffing its fur to keep her skin slightly warm against the dripping rain.

She took a solid step forward, marching deeper into the rainy forest as the colossal tree roots stretched out like giant wooden bridges into the misty gloom.

The air grew cooler and thicker with heavy white fog as she walked under a massive arch formed by two intertwining trunks.

Behind her, the faint sound of high-pitched rustling echoed through the canopy, followed by terrified screams and then bodies being shredded to pieces by sharp fangs.

The wet squelching sounds of snapping bones and tearing cloth cut through the sound of falling raindrops for a brief moment before fading into total silence.

Summer did not even turn her head to check the outcome.

She kept her gaze focused straight ahead, her Swift Strider Boots making light tapping noises against the rough bark.

[Never thought you could be this cold....] system joked.

Summer furrowed her brows in confusion, ’I was always cold.’

[Dummy I don’t mean your body temperature.]

’Oh...’

The system didn’t further explain as it understood Summer wasn’t being cold, rather she didn’t get the weight of death of those humans as they weren’t worth anything in her eyes.

In fact, if they had something she sought, just like how Jacob was smart enough to be a bait for her to hunt zombies so she protected his family, she would’ve done reciprocatory action to them too.

But they were too scared to gamble like Jacob.

While walking, Summer reached into her small pouch, feeling a bit disappointed that she did not have any reserved Elite cores left to chew on.

The minty snake core from earlier had hurt her taste buds, no she wanted a zombie core to wash off that stain. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

The special forest dungeon was vast and mysterious. The giant leaves high above blocked out all natural sunlight, making it impossible to tell what time of day it was.

Glowing blue and violet mushrooms grew in larger clusters now, clinging to the giant roots like small natural lanterns.

Summer walked over a massive wooden bridge that spanned across a deep canyon filled with swirling gray mist.

Looking down into the abyss, she could see massive glowing shapes moving slowly through the fog far below.

’Are those big monsters?’ Summer asked, her ruby eyes gleaming with faint interest.

[Those are high level creature signatures,] the system clarified instantly. [However, their depths are currently inaccessible without jumping down into the abyss.]

[It is recommended to clear the upper canopy levels first before diving into unknown terrain.]

Summer nodded her small head in agreement. Slipping down another water slide without knowing where it ended might get her gear completely filthy again.

As she crossed the giant root bridge, the heavy rain suddenly began to lessen, turning into a light, cool drizzle.

The thick foliage above parted slightly, allowing faint rays of silvery light to pierce through the dark green leaves.

Summer stopped in her tracks at the center of the wooden bridge.

Standing on the opposite side of the root bridge was a strange creature that looked completely different from the Jade Vipers.

It was a giant quadrupedal beast covered in thick, dark blue armor plates that resembled solid stone. It had six long legs tipped with sharp razor claws, and a single crystalline horn sprouted from the middle of its forehead.

The beast’s eyes were glowing red, and its heavy breathing released small puffs of freezing cold frost into the damp air.

Summer’s ruby red eyes widened slightly as she stared at the glowing horn on the monster’s head.

The energy on that horn...

It’s corruption!