Klaus and the others were puzzled on seeing that Grey stopped just as his mouth was about to touch the head of the snake.
‘Is anything wrong?’ Grey asked while moving the head of the snake away from his mouth.
He was a little frightened by the thought of if there was why mistake with Void’s extraction process, and he accidentally sucks out the poison instead of the healing tonic, so when Void stopped him, he didn’t hesitate in any way.
‘Where would you put the healing tonic after sucking it out?’ Void asked while staring at Grey strangely.
‘Oh that, I forgot about that.’ Grey said truthfully.
He checked his storage ring to see if there was anything inside that could be used to store the healing tonic, but he unfortunately had none. The few healing tonics he brought with him had been used, and the bottles had been discarded by him.
“Does anyone have bottles we can use for storing the healing tonic?” He asked the others.
“Oh, so that’s why he stopped, I thought it was something else.” Klaus mumbled under his breath.
“Well?” Grey asked on seeing that none of them was saying anything, and Klaus seemed to be mumbling to himself.
Klaus and Reynolds shook their heads, just like Grey, they’ve also discarded the bottles after using the tonic, and since they didn’t bring much in the first place, they ran out about a month ago, luckily, they didn’t get into any precarious situation since then.
Grey and the duo turned to look at Alice who was currently going through her bag.
“How many do you need?” She asked Grey while going through the bag.
“Fifteen.” Grey said after counting the number of snakes present in the cave.
“Okay, here you go.” Alice threw a bottle to Grey.
She initially wanted to give him her bag, but since some of her personal belongings were inside, she refrained from doing so, rather, she’ll hand him one any time he needs it.
Grey caught it and looked at the empty bottle, it was unsurprisingly a bottle used for storing tonic.
‘Why is she keeping the bottles after using them?’ Grey asked himself, he was not the only one who thought of this, Klaus, Reynolds, and even Void thought of it.
“What?” Alice asked while glaring at the boys.
The expression in her eyes was clear, ‘If you ask, I’ll beat you up.’
“Nothing.” The boys shook their heads while staring in different directions.
“Hmph!” Alice harrumphed, but left them alone since they didn’t dare to ask.
Grey focused on the snake once again, and he was hit by a pungent smell. He couldn’t help but close his nose.
Void who was previously on his shoulder immediately disappeared and appeared some distance away.
“What’s that smell?” Alice asked while covering her nose.
“I think it’s from the snake.” Reynolds said while pointing at the rear of the snake.
The snake was currently wrapped around Grey’s hands, and the tail was almost at his left shoulder. Presently, fluid could be seen coming out of the snake’s tail and falling on Grey’s hand.
He instinctively wanted to let go, but on sensing that other than the smell, it wasn’t harmful, he held on.
Since the snake was long, it had wrapped its head with its body as well, covering it from sight, luckily, Grey held onto the neck tightly, so there was no way it could escape.
“That’s like an ultimate weapon.” Klaus said while staring at Grey in pity.
The smell coming from the feces of the snake was terrible, giving one the urge to throw up. The others were having a better time since they distanced themselves from Grey, while also covering their noses. But Grey who held it in his hands was having the worst time of his life, the smell was surprisingly stinging. It felt like tiny ants crawled into his eyes and started stinging him repeatedly.
He was on the verge of throwing up, added with his stinging eyes, he felt like killing the snake.
Grey hurriedly used the hand he previously used in holding onto the body of the snake to try and free the head from the body the snake used in wrapping it up.
Although the snake was strong, given Grey’s physical strength, it didn’t take up to two seconds before he caught sight of the head of the snake once again. Without thinking, he brought the head closer to his mouth and sucked on the bud on the top of the snake.
The others held their breaths on seeing Grey suck on the bud at the top of the snake’s head.
Grey who was currently sucking on the bud had completely forgotten about the possibility of there being a poison because all he wanted to do was be done with the snake and then throw it away. It was only after a thick liquid slowly entered his mouth did his mind clear off, and he almost panicked.
But he quickly calmed down after he noticed that the stinging in his eyes, as well as the urge to vomit, was completely gone. Even though the smell was still there, it wasn’t as bad as before.
The liquid had a variety of tastes, Grey was only able to recognize five, but all in all, the liquid had a magnificent taste that he unconsciously wanted to swallow.
When everyone saw Grey’s expression, they thought it was strange. How could someone make such an expression when his nose is being bombarded by that horrifying smell.
‘Don’t swallow!’ Void hastily yelled to Grey when he saw his expression.
Void’s voice came right on time, had he been a second late, then Grey was sure he would have swallowed it, even though he was stopped, he managed to swallow a little bit of it.
He hastily threw the snake to the side while restraining it with a cage made with the earth element, before he opened the small bottle and emptied the contents in his mouth into it.
Just before he closed the lid on the bottle, a strong and sweet floral scent wafted out of it into the air. The scent was soothing and made one’s mind clear after taking in a breath.
Klaus, Alice, and Reynolds all took in a deep breath when the scent passed them.
“I…feel…energized.” Reynolds said slowly.
It was unbelievable that just the scent from the healing tonic could make one feel energized all of a sudden. If the scent was this powerful, how powerful would the liquid be then?
“Amazing, this truly is a treasure.” Alice said with her eyes closed, still savoring the floral scent.
“Yeah, a true treasure.” Klaus nodded.
His mind was exceptionally clear, and he felt since the snake could make something as sweet as this, then it had all the right in the world to also make that horrifying smell it released earlier.
Klaus had the urge to taste it, not just him, Alice and Reynolds felt the same way as well. But unlike the duo, Alice wasn’t drooling.
Grey held the bottle close to his face and observed the liquid properly, it had a greenish and yellowish color, with what looked like tiny touches of red. The dots of red scattered all over the liquid like the stars in the night sky. The liquid had a clear and reflective surface.
After observing it, Grey kept it in his ring before clearing his throat to bring the others back from their daydreams.
Had it not been for something, Grey would have thought the scent could make one hallucinate when he saw the expressions of the trio.
“Can I taste it?” Klaus asked.
“No!” Grey refused.
Klaus felt a little dejected, but then an idea struck him.
“I’ll extract the next one.” He immediately said before anyone could say anything else.
“No!” Grey, Alice, and Reynolds said simultaneously.
“What do you mean no?” Klaus asked hastily.
“Because you’ll swallow it.” Grey said.
“Of course I won’t.”
“Yes, you would.”
After arguing for a while, Klaus was still unable to convince the group to allow him to extract the next one.
“Fine, but I’ll extract the one after this one.” He said, not willing to let go of the opportunity.
“Till then.”
The group went on to capture the next snake, which like the first one, defecated once it saw it couldn’t break free from Grey’s grasp.
But the smell didn’t mean anything to him, although it was horrible, the reward outweighed the smell, so he braced himself and quickly sucked on the head of the snake.
Just like the first time, everything turned better after the liquid flowed into his mouth. After tasting it for the second time, a thought came to his head.
‘How would it taste like if I were to cook with it?’
Grey threw the thought to the back of his head as soon as it came, but since the thought had successfully come to his mind, it was almost impossible to forget about it.
After storing the second one, they went on to catch the third snake, and Klaus finally got the chance to extract the liquid. Although, it was only after the group warned him repeatedly not to swallow it, they didn’t only warn him, but they also threatened to beat him up if he dared to swallow it.
Even though he was warned repeatedly, Klaus still almost swallowed it the moment he tasted the liquid. The taste was just too sweet that he had to keep the liquid in his mouth for almost one minute before putting it in the bottle.
After Klaus sucked on the third one, Alice did the fourth one, and just like the previous two, she also almost swallowed the liquid after tasting it. Reynolds was the one who extracted the fifth one, and he too fell for the same thing, had it not been for the thought of being beaten if he swallowed it, then he would have swallowed it.