Flickers of flame still faintly clung to the ruined beast's scales... embers gnawing at what remained of it.
Thin trails of black smoke rose lazily from its charred flesh... filling the entire cave with a choking haze.
Zane could see the scorched claw marks he'd left behind... a dragging trail carved by his new burning arm as he crawled away from the serpent... before he finally blacked out.
"...How powerful was that thing...?"
He wondered, bewildered by its very existence. He was, after all, inside what should be an extremely difficult dungeon... so it had to be a powerful creature, especially given its size.
But... that brought up another important question:
"...How did I even kill it? Was I just... lucky?"
He vividly remembered how, upon acquiring his new Salamander's arm, he'd used its flames to torch everything inside the beast's belly.
He hadn't been thinking much in that moment, other than unleashing his boiling rage...
"...I was damn lucky, huh..."
He was grateful that the beast didn't have much heat resistance inside its own gut.
Furthermore, it seemed that whatever contents had been in the serpent's massive stomach at the time had helped spread and feed the flames he'd unleashed—
Acting like fuel and gas for his fiery carnage...
For a moment, Zane just stared at the charred corpse... contemplating.
"What now...?"
He had survived. Crippled, yes, but nevertheless... he had survived.
Yet, he wasn't exactly sure what to do in order to prolong his survival.
He had a bone to pick with that scheming old priest, and maybe with those 'gods' for giving him some 'heretical' job.
He couldn't die yet—not until he got his revenge on those bastards.
But... in order to get to them...
He would have to escape this place.
"...This is a cave, right? A dungeon, even?" He looked around, surveying his surroundings once more. "Which means..."
He looked up at the ceiling.
"The way out is going up... right?"
From what he remembered, at least, dungeons were usually underground labyrinths, so with that in mind...
"I'll have to crawl my way back up to the surface then."
His plan was set:
Escape the dungeon.
"Alright, here goes nothing—"
He was about to get up, but stopped... realization struck him again.
"...Oh yeah." He looked below his torso... at the nonexistent legs of his. "I don't have them anymore..."
He almost forgot: his mobility was extremely limited now.
Zane grumbled a bit, more annoyed than truly dreading his current predicament.
But... when he looked back at his glowing arm, he realized exactly what he needed to do about this legless problem of his.
"...Looks like I gotta find a 'new pair' to walk on."
A pair of monster legs, of course... and he wasn't sure yet how he'd even find such a thing.
"The easiest would be finding an already severed pair, like this new arm of mine, but..."
He was really, really lucky to find the Salamander's arm inside the beast's belly—thanks to its high vitality nature. Otherwise, it would have long been digested.
Of course, with that being said...
"Those other body parts inside that damn snake's stomach wouldn't be viable to begin with."
He'd thought about it: crawling back inside the dragon serpent to search for something like his arm.
However, that idea was (fortunately) scrapped from his head.
Thus... the next viable thing was:
To find a monster and take their body parts for himself.
And by sheer (mis)fortune—
*Skittering...*
"...!"
—monsters were once more surrounding him...!
Zane looked around him... and found a rather familiar scene of many eyes glinting in the darkness...!
"Heh... you damn bugs are back, huh?"
He instantly recognized them, alright—the vile insects that had caused his greatest misery upon being dumped into this dungeon.
But... he raised an eyebrow; somewhat curious.
"...Not gonna swarm me now, aren'tcha?"
They weren't. Instead, they kept staring at him in the darkness of the cave...
"Hah... so NOW you're afraid of me?"
He couldn't help but chuckle at this turnaround.
To think that just maybe a few hours ago, those things had relentlessly hunted him down without a second thought. But now? They seemed to be reconsidering their life choices.
And it was all thanks to his nifty new glowing arm.
He raised his new arm, feeling the warm sensation radiating from it—along with a smile that almost threatened to form a grin.
For some reason... be it basic knowledge of fantasy narratives, the innate nature of a 'summoned hero,' or maybe even the burning arm's natural instinct affecting him—
FWOOSH—!
He'd channeled mana into the palm of his hand, producing flame that sat comfortably on it...!
"Hahaha~! Now this is fantasy, alright~!"
He was mesmerized by the ember burning bright, before directing his attention back toward the skittish bugs hiding in the darkness.
"Well, if you're not gonna come after me anymore..."
He turned his burning palm toward those insect monsters—!
"How about I pay you back for that earlier rough introduction of ours?"
Zane poured more mana into his palm, slowly swelling the flame into a searing ball of fire...!
And eventually...
"...Fireball!"
He launched the ball of fire into the darkness—!
The flame traveled at high speed—lighting the cave once more—before—!
BOOM—!
It made impact with the swarm of insects—! Causing a massive explosion that shook the cave!
*Shriek—!*
The blast tore through the swarm—! Searing heat and shockwave smashed into their ranks!
Not just debris and smoke, but even shards of bug chitin scattered everywhere by the explosion's force...!
Zane had to shield his eyes with his scaly arm as embers and bits of charred carapace hissed through the air and rained down everywhere...
Eventually... when the smoke cleared—
Chunks of blackened and burned insect littered the cavern floor, their scattered limbs still twitching in the fading glow of the flames...!
"Whistle~♫, now that's some firepower...!"
But he had no time to be impressed—
*SHRIEK—!*
Because many of their surviving brethren were already skittering out from the shadows, all readied to swarm him once more...!
"What's this? Pissed off because I barbecued your friends?"
Zane only grinned at the obvious bloodlust these monstrous insects radiated, before beckoning them with a sly smile.
"Come and get me, then~."