A few days later...
After the strange encounter with a gorgon, Minos' group continued investigating Titus' whereabouts in the area without owners near the Nine-Tailed Fox territory.
Nothing much had happened in the past few days, and they had not encountered any other gorgons or other powerful beings common to this continent.
As for their search, they had found several traces of Titus and were on his trail. However, they didn't know for sure how close they were to the fox, only that they were getting closer to him with each passing day.
The group didn't want to give up the search for the moment. Minos felt that he could use Titus, not only in the exploration of the North Sea but also for some experiments after he reached level 90.
For now, he didn't want to give up on finding this beast and inviting it to join his group. But with time, that might change.
Minos wondered how long he could stay in this place before returning to his search for allies on the continent. It wouldn't be worth spending months searching for a level 89 fox.
But without thinking too much about giving up now, Minos and his group were closer to Titus than they thought.
...
At a certain point in the southernmost forest of the Continent of Beasts, not far from the Nine-Tailed Fox Tribe, an old-looking being, currently in humanoid form, was slowly moving around in one of the trees on a plain.
In this area, tens of thousands of square kilometers were irregularly scattered with several trees that could reach hundreds of meters in height, many of them high-ranking plant beings.
But no matter how defensive they were, even sentient plant beings had their limits. When they died, they left behind high-level structures perfect for humanoid beings to hide or even live in.
Just inside the corpse of a magnificent tree that was still standing, there was a place that looked like a laboratory, built halfway up the tree, where one would find it difficult to find even if you scanned the surroundings.
There, a white-haired man with wrinkles around his eyes had a strange smile on his face as he walked over to where a half-humanoid, half-snake-like creature was bent over a table with several chains attached to her.
On her head was an eye patch over her eyes, while the snakes on her head were constantly trying to attack that old man.
Unfortunately, they weren't big enough to reach him.
"Damned old fox! You'll pay for this!" The creature said as he felt intense pain in his abdomen, where a deep cut had opened.
The old man ignored it, used to the threats he always received from his guinea pigs.
He looked at her face and laughed.
How many could tell what a gorgon looked like? Very few!
But he was one of them!
As he looked at her face again, he couldn't help but feel good about himself for 'overcoming' the taboo of looking at a gorgon.
For him, looking at her and not turning to stone was like slapping her in the face!
But when he took his eyes off this creature, he looked around, where there were pieces of corpses of beings from various other races, but also some beings still alive, waiting for him to work with them.
"Miss gorgon, can't you see that what I'm doing for you is good?" He said as he used a cane to walk around his lab. "You were supposed to die weeks ago. Dunyxa gave you to me to dispose of your body. But I'm keeping you alive. Not only that but if you survive my experiments, you may make a significant breakthrough!"
As he said this, he had an unprecedented passion in his words, almost to the point of performing in front of this and the other captive beings in his laboratory.
"You should all thank me! I am your salvation! Without me, you'd all be dead! What's a little pain next to the nothingness of death?" He asked aloud as he picked up a tube of some substance.
"Why don't you do it to yourself, you bastard?" The gorgon asked, smelling the poison the bastard had used to attack her body.
"If I did that, who would be doing my experiments?" He laughed before pushing a tube into the creature's mouth that could go down to her stomach, forcing his special poison into her.
"Stop complaining, gorgon. I'll soon finish my experiments on you."
...
Meanwhile, a few miles away from the large tree, Minos and his group stood still.
They weren't resting but scanning their surroundings for clues about where to go next.
As capable as he was, Titus was at the end of his life and had even less time to live than Bella. While this might make him less cautious in some places, the fact that there were level 91 Demigods in Minos' group greatly helped him investigate this level 89 fox.
It was only a matter of time before they found the place where Titus had been hiding from Dunyxa!
But while they were standing in that area, with the mercenaries of the group working to find new clues that would lead to Titus, the level 91 woman of the Sea Folk suddenly sensed something strange and looked to the north.
"Several beasts are approaching our position. Raise your guard. We have less than 20 seconds before they arrive." She said as she looked to the north.
Immediately after her words, Minos' entire group changed their posture and turned towards the north, his women quickly standing in the middle of his people as they circulated their energies.
As the humans there activated their Soul Avatars, a group of 10th-stage snakes appeared from the direction that the bluish-skinned woman had alerted them to.
'Snakes?' Gloria looked at the creatures approaching them in formation.
They clearly weren't just passing through! These creatures were there for them!
Seeing how they made their way to their position with no intention of stopping, Minos realized that this was not an attempt at dialog but an attack.
"It's been a long time since I've tasted snake meat... It looks like some fools are here to help me change that today". Minos commented for everyone in the area to hear as he looked at the two types of snakes arriving there, one from a race limited to level 89, next to another that could reach the 10th stage.
...
