Since he had the element of surprise, and he didn't want a prolonged battle, the best thing was to end the battle as quickly as possible, which was exactly what he moved to do in the next instant.

Cabrera lunged instantaneously towards the snake as his gauntlets lit up brightly. His wrist turned into a fist and, without further ado, smashed into the head of the snake, completely disorienting the already groggy snake.

Like a jackhammer, Cabrera's two fists punched down constantly, pummeling the snake's head further and further into the ground.

The snake couldn't concentrate at all - especially with its brain being pounded - but its instinct of survival kicked in. If it didn't do anything soon, it would surely die.

Cabrera kept at his punches as blood and some scales had already begun to spill from its head, when something happened..

"Uh?"

He saw a line of white around his neck, but before he could comprehend it, the line of white tightened around his neck before pulling it upwards. Cabrera's head grew red as he struggled to free himself from what he found to be the snake's tail.

Only now could the snake pull its head out of the pounded ground and look at its assailant's struggle as suffocation was already beginning to set in.historical

The snake struggled to hold firm onto Cabrera's neck, while Cabrera struggled to pull the tail away.

Both sides were locked in a contest of strength, but we see that, little by little, Cabrera was winning!

But the snake wasn't going to stand there and look forward to it, now was it?

The snake was already groggy after having its head pounded like yam when it had only just woken up. Right now, its senses were a mess.

But its eyes were still very much functional and, using them, it could see and also feel its tail loosening from the neck of its prey.

The snake, unwilling to allow such an outcome, lunged forward head first as it opened its wide mouth to reveal two long and sharp pointed fangs. It intended to impale Cabrera, kill him and swallow him all at once.

Alas, this was where it had been mistaken.

Training with knights and fighting beasts were completely different, but Cabrera had gotten a decent share of experience killing beasts throughout their journey from Kingsmere to Whittown this past week.

Cabrera's reaction was as a result of that, plus the fact that he did read a few things on how to handle snakes.

Instead of panicking, he stretched his legs wide and pushed the mouth of the snake apart by putting them at the lower jaw and in between the fangs.

Now, it had turned into the kind of battle both Cabrera and the snake were trying to avoid, a battle of attrition.

But Cabrera didn't intend to go along with it, there was no need to.

Cabrera removed his hands from the snake's tail, allowing it to wrap around his neck as tight as it could.

Suffocation began to set in within seconds, but before it could do any more damage, a potion in a transparent vial landed into Cabrera's palm from within his space ring.

By now, he was already growing dizzy, so he quickly popped the vial containing transparent liquid into the snake's mouth.

Lo and behold, in the next moment..

*SHRIEK!*

The snake forgot about Cabrera's existence. As the pain hit it, the snake's tail untangled itself from Cabrera's neck as it thrashed about, hitting its body on the tree, the walls, anything.

The pain was just that much. It felt its insides burning with searing heat.

It was unlike anything it had ever felt before.

*Bam*bam*bam*bam*

Repeatedly smashing its already injured head against the walls caused the wounds to quickly amplify.

Cabrera stood at the other end of the cave with a hand on his sore neck as he watched the snake injure itself, until it suddenly stopped moving, and then..

*Bam*

It fell to the ground face first.

The smell of something burning permeated the air soon after as Cabrera walked towards it with caution, and found it to have died.

"Hoo" he exhaled at the sight.

What he had just used was the blood boiling potion that Ezra had the alchemists make in bulk.

Cabrera opened up its mouth to check the effects and they were terrifying to say the least.

Its insides were completely burnt up like it had been roasted from the inside out. The blood had dried up in insane amounts.

Cabrera couldn't help but gulp at the amazing effect. He now understood why Ezra was unperturbed by the Windless Peaks in the first place.

But all that would be for later as he had to take his spoils.

The insides were roasted to a fault, true, but the scales were mostly intact, and there was also something remaining.

With quick hands, Cabrera pulled out a knife from his space ring and cut the snake from the mouth downwards as his hands searched it, before finally grabbing something and pulling it out.

"Yes!"

His face lit up with a smile. In his hands was a very small orb that had green particles swirling within.

It was a beast core!

The reason why people, despite being able to cultivate with just mana, still chose to kill beasts even while putting their lives on the line was this!

One could say it was a balance of nature.

The essence within beast cores was very helpful for cultivating, but it was only found in beasts above a certain threshold.

Most times, they had to be at least C-rank before a core would form in their bodies. The types of essence and the quality also differed from beast to beast, mostly because of affinity.

Depending on what sort of core it was and which beast it came from, one's mana cultivation speed could increase by one to ten times, but only if the beast core is absorbed by a person on a similar level.

If the one who absorbs the core is on a lower level than the beast who owned it, then the effectiveness would be between five and twenty times.

There are also cases of the mana quality being too strong for the one absorbing it, resulting in mana overload, or mana corruption if the affinity had nothing in common.

But there was always the option of selling it, and that's what Cabrera would do once he knew which affinity the snake used.

But that was for later. Cabrera threw the body into his space ring with a thought and turned to the tree behind him. He plucked the unknown fruit, quickly dug the soil around the tree's root, uprooted it and then threw it whole into the space ring.

He dusted his hands and quickly moved to find another place with more treasure.