After traveling a fair amount of distance across the area on their mounts, Miri and Anne had finally arrived at an underground dungeon where the basilisk was likely holed up in. However, before they actually went into the dungeon itself, Anne decided to search the surrounding area in order to gather a mixture of herbal ingredients, which she would then use to synthesize some poison-resistance potions.
The process of making these poison-resistance potions took nearly half an hour and was quite labor-intensive. However, Anne had reassured Miri that it was necessary to do so. The venom of a basilisk was known to be quite potent and dangerous, to the point where one could be dead from it within a matter of seconds if they weren’t adequately prepared.
By drinking the poison-resistance potion right before they face the basilisk, it would decrease the effective potency of the poison damage they received for a limited duration—usually around 10 to 15 minutes depending on the person. That way, before they could be killed by the poison, Anne could then follow up with a “Cleanse Poison” spell to cure the poison entirely.
The benefit that the poison-resistance potion provided was not that drastic, but it was still better than nothing. Facing against a strong monster such as a basilisk, they were going to need all the help they could get. Better to be safe than sorry.
Once they’d done enough preparation, Miri and Anne began entering the dungeon—traversing through the dark, grimy, gray-stoned corridors that were lit by only a sparse scattering of candles and torches. As they went deeper and deeper into the dungeon, they could feel the eerie, ominous aura of the place pressing down on them, sending shivers down their spines.
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The experience of traversing through this particular dungeon was unlike what they went through when finding the riddle rune from earlier. Here, the area appeared darker, quieter, and colder. Perhaps the difference here was that instead of having a dungeon designed solely to house star runes from a riddle, this was a dungeon designed solely to house star runes from a monster.
While wandering through the dungeon, Miri and Anne took extra care to not walk too loudly or make any unnecessary noise in order to avoid the risk of alerting the basilisk of their presence. However, after wandering around for some time through the quiet darkness, the two of them started growing impatient.
“Hmm, this is weird,” Miri said softly. “We’ve been walking around for quite a while now and we still haven’t seen the basilisk. In fact, we haven’t seen any other types of monsters anywhere. Where could they have gone?”
“Do you think the other contestants may have gotten to the basilisk before we did?” Anne asked with a hint of concern. “Do you think that is why we cannot find it?”
“That might be possible,” Miri speculated. “We won’t know for sure until we’ve searched every corner of this dungeon. We gotta be as thorough as possible—”
All of a sudden, they’d heard some sort of noise in the far distance—a wet, slithering sound followed by a low, drawn-out hiss. As soon as both women heard that noise, their faces went pale and their blood ran cold. Judging from the sound of that noise, there’s pretty much no doubt in their mind as to the creature it had originated from—the basilisk.
