So I'm a Snake, Who Cares?

Obern's athletic ability.

Frustratingly, it's not bad.

While his stamina isn't great, his long arms and legs move smoothly.

He has big hands and a good build.

When I once asked him, "Shouldn't someone who looks like you avoid sports on principle?" he said he never did sports.

Must be natural talent.

In other words, he's like an isekai T** C*****.

On top of that, when he uses acceleration and lightweight spells, he could put decent ninjas to shame.

This is why battle mages, combat wizards are scary.

A truly skilled mage can move as swiftly and powerfully as most knights.

Of course, they still couldn't beat a truly skilled knight.

Even Obern could scale walls to infiltrate buildings.

Plus, he had...

'Hey, there are two people coming behind that wall.'

Me, with my monster-like senses, attached to him.

'I sense magic from that door, suspicious!'

I can detect doors imbued with magic through magic detection.

You could call this the launch of Snake-igation, following Pel-igation.

'Get closer to the doorknob.'

Obern reached out his hand, and I, wrapped around his wrist, bit down on the doorknob with a chomp.

"Hmm."

The magic on the doorknob was quite complex.

But following Pelerian's instructions on mana manipulation...

Click!

The sound of the lock falling was heard.

The sound was quite loud, startling even Obern.

"What's that?"

Someone is approaching.

Obern, hide!

Obern quickly hid in the bushes and lay down.

Then someone appeared and checked the door.

From the outside it looked fine, so nothing seemed amiss.

"Must have been my imagination..."

The guard muttered the cliché line.

Fortunately, he shook his head and left.

I urged Obern to get up as he lay in the bushes looking at the sky.

'What are you doing, not getting up? Oh, why are you crying?'

'No, the sunlight... it's just bright.'

Obern had tears streaming down his face with leaves stuck to it.

Well, lying on Obern's stomach and looking at the sky was pretty nice.

'Come on, enough lounging around, let's go!'

'...Yes.'

There's no time for crying.

Obern opened the door where we had just disabled the magic lock.

Creeak-

We tried to open it without making noise, but there was a slight sound.

Tensely peering inside, dark stairs led underground.

Obern slightly covered his nose.

'There's a foul smell, not a pleasant one.'

It was definitely not a good smell.

There's the smell of beasts and an unknown acrid scent.

It's terrible for me with my sense of smell being much keener than Obern's.

'Hmm, there seems to be some familiar smell mixed in...'

I couldn't identify exactly what it was.

Obern carefully descended the stairs.

Fortunately, there were no signs of people.

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And unfortunately, there weren't any special traps.

"What's unfortunate about that?"

'Well, when someone comes prepared for something serious but finds nothing...'

"You're a snake."

Right.

Come to think of it, this is just a merchant guild's secret warehouse, not a dungeon - there's no reason for traps and mechanisms.

Having guards and magic locks is more than enough.

'I never thought I'd be doing something like this...'

Obern muttered internally.

What he's doing now is similar to trying to steal college entrance exam papers for his classmates.

While morally questionable, it's somewhat understandable from a bro code perspective.

There were lights inside.

Why would there be lights in what doesn't seem like a frequently used warehouse?Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Usually warehouses are dark. Could someone be here?

'These are magic stone lamps. They're expensive and used in places with high fire risk...'

'Hmm.'

There was no need to stay mounted on Obern here anymore.

I told Obern:

'Obern, wait here and rest a bit.'

"Really?!"

'...'

It hurts a little that he's so happy about it.

I leaped off of Obern.

Following the acrid scent, that smell.

Then I saw a bunch of cargo stacked in one corner.

Boxes piled on wooden pallets.

Peeking into those boxes revealed the source of the smell.

"It's gunpowder."

'It's gunpowder.'

Tightly sealed with yellow paper, it was definitely gunpowder. It had that distinctive smell.

And next to it were unmistakably fireworks.

'Are they planning fireworks or something?'

"That would be quite a show with this much gunpowder."

There was an excessive amount of gunpowder, enough to make Pelerian sarcastic.

"This might not be that gnome's property."

"Right."

All I know is that this is the merchant guild's warehouse.

But what are they planning to do with gunpowder? They're probably not holding a 'Who Can Withstand Fireworks Best' competition.

Plus, gunpowder isn't the only smell here.

'This way.'

There's the smell of beasts.

The smell of monsters and blood.

Could there be dead monster corpses?

Some monster corpses do sell for high prices.

But this is slightly different.

This is the smell of living things.

A large door appeared.

It had a lock.

Hmm.

Well, we already left traces of intrusion when we opened the first lock.

In that case, might as well go all in.

I took out the longsword Twilight and gripped it with my tail.

I can definitely exert more force when swinging with my tail than with Invisible Hand.

Then I used magic to open the lock.

"Saak!" (Alohomora!)

「Using Acceleration lv7」

「Using Slash lv5」

The right combination of skills is no different from magic.

Clang!

With a tremendous noise, the lock broke.

I pushed open the heavy door.

The foul smell that had been present became even stronger.

'Oh.'

What filled the room were none other than 'iron cages'.

And naturally, what was trapped in those cages...

"Grrrr..."

"Guooo."

Were drooling monsters.

The merchant guild had captured and imprisoned monsters here.

'Don't tell me this is...'

Several possibilities immediately came to mind.

'Are they planning a gladiator match?!'

"It's a bestiarium."

What other reason would the merchant guild have for keeping live monsters?

Unless they were planning some huge circus show, this must be the chancellor's intent to stage fights between monsters and students.

'This is wild.'

I was freshly reminded that this world's values are different from my previous life.