BANG! BANG! BANG!

Sylas didn't know how long the Basilisk King spent pounding the mammoth's skull, but it was enough that its scales began to fall off and blood seeped through their gaps. Soon, it was difficult to tell whether the blood came from the mammoth or the Basilisk King.

However, its efforts were soon returned with blessings.

CRACK.

The Basilisk King unleashed a howl, its maw opening as wide as Sylas' head as it bit down, shattering the cracked skull. In a single gulp, it swallowed the Gene Core.

Sylas' gaze glowed.

He had begun to grow a bit worried. The Basilisk King was truly hurting itself, but after the first glance back, it didn't look again. He knew that this was the Basilisk King's own personal effort, he couldn't interfere.

In the end, it had worked out.

And now…

Sylas' eyes narrowed. He felt a shuddering aura coming from the Basilisk King, but there also didn't seem to be much change.

—

[Basilisk King (FF+)]

[Level: 5]

[Physical: 80]

>[Strength: 111]

>[Constitution: 123]

>[Dexterity: 42]

>[Speed: 45]

[Mental: 72]

>[Intelligence: 99]

>[Wisdom: 19]

>[Charisma: 97]

[Will: 91]

—

There was indeed no change.

Now that Sylas thought about it, he had given the Basilisk a lot to eat since he had had him. Many of those meals included Gene Cores as well. Logically speaking, if a beast progressed like humans did, then it should have long since grown beyond Level 5. And yet, it hadn't.

Clearly, that meant that it required something else to improve.

But what he questioned was whether he was correct about the reason. After all, the Basilisk King wasn't a normal creature, it was a beast from a Dungeon. It didn't come from Earth's extinct creatures either, but it was instead its own mythology.

In that case, when dealing with it, it was likely that there were many things that he couldn't accurately predict.

Even so, he had thought that by following this intuition of his, he would be able to help it. But why didn't it…?

Sylas didn't hesitate to take out a second mammoth.

"Again," he said calmly.

The Basilisk King's gaze flashed with a hint of despair when it saw a new mammoth replace the first. But soon, the flames inside of it were stoked again. It refused to allow Sylas to see its weakness.

These prey were already dead; if it didn't even dare to collect what was before it, how could it be a King?

The Basilisk King raised a bloodied tail to start once more.

'Hm…?' Sylas' eyes narrowed. 'Its injuries have healed somewhat. At least by 50%… Good.'

Sylas nodded and watched the Basilisk King begin another relentless pursuit, but he remained calm.

Time and time again, the Basilisk King thought the nightmare was over, only for it to start again.

That was when the strongest of the mammoths came out. This was the very same one that the bouncer look-alike had been fighting when Sylas arrived, and it was the last one that Sylas managed to snatch. It also happened to be the one that was the most difficult to clear of its poison.

Even in death, the Basilisk King felt a great amount of pressure facing it, as did Sylas.

Sylas felt that even if he helped, they two of them together might not be able to do anything to this corpse.

The mammoth was so large that it barely fit in the basement at all. If not for the fact that this was a particularly large cottage, then there wouldn't be room to even stand in here with it, let alone attack it.

This time, Sylas didn't urge the Basilisk King. He could feel that it was storing up something deep within its body, gathering up its courage. And then, it burst like a dam.

The Basilisk King felt all sorts of feelings of inferiority while staring at this mammoth.

Sylas never learned the Level of this mammoth because the situation had been too chaotic back then, but the Basilisk King could tell.

It was a Level 10. An FFF+ monster.

Not only was the Basilisk King only a Level 5, but it wasn't even in the triple F's in terms of Grade.

There was a huge dividing line between F+ and FF-, not to mention FF+ and FFF-. On top of that, between FFF-, FFF, and FFF+, there were large chasms between each and every one.

Facing this suppression, a beast felt it more intimately than a human ever could.

Beaten and bloodied, the Basilisk King could only hear the sound of its own hissing breath. Staring at the mammoth corpse, it felt a deep unwillingness inside of it.

It unleashed a hiss that sounded like the howl of a steam engine. Sylas would have covered his ears had he not been so focused on the moment. He could feel that something was coming.

The Basilisk King accelerated forward and raised its tail up high. It twisted its body and slashed down with everything it had.

BOOM!

CRACK.

Sylas' pupils constricted.

For every other mammoth, it took the Basilisk King several moments of effort before the first cracks appeared. But this time…

The Basilisk King roared, raising its tail again. Dull gold light came from the crevices of its black scales, and it looked as though it was ready to destroy the world.

However, its momentum suddenly died.

The gold vanished, and its body swayed, collapsing to the ground.

Sylas rushed forward and caught the Basilisk King, but he felt relieved when he saw that it was only exhausted. That said…

[Quest "Sorrow of the Basilisk King (Bronze)" Completed]

[Clearance Level: Bronze]

[Rewards]

[>…]

Sylas was confused by the reward for a moment until he saw it.

—

[Basilisk King (FFF-)]

[Level: 5]

[Physical: 125]

>[Strength: 176]

>[Constitution: 197]

>[Dexterity: 62]

>[Speed: 65]

[Mental: 113]

>[Intelligence: 151]

>[Wisdom: 41]

>[Charisma: 147]

[Will: 271]

—

Sylas' gaze sharpened when he saw the change to the Basilisk King's stats.

Could it be that the Gene Core was never the key, but it was rather a conduit to awaken this monster's pride?

No, that wasn't all.

There was something else.