SSS Rank Chef: Rising In The World Of Magic

Lukas got one of his sheeps to appear right in front of him before he stepped to the right and covered the rest of the distance between him and his attacker. He slammed against the tall man, hoping to push him to the ground but he stood still like a heavy boulder.

Slowly, Lukas looked up to see the man grinning widely with teeth that had a few gems embedded in them. Just as he tried to retreat, he felt an arm wrap around his neck.

It stopped him from extricating himself from the dangerous position and soon, he felt something pierce him directly in his arm.

"Aaaargh!! Fucking bitch!!" he yelled as he used his final trump card in panic. Multiple snakes appeared all around him but there were only two different kinds. One was pitch black and appeared almost matte. The other one was bright red, like it's scales were made of rubies.

In less than a second of them coming out, they moved. The red snakes coiled around the cannibal's limbs and one even got his neck. Lukas stared at the ground below as he felt the grip around his neck weaken while he heard the sounds of bone cracking.

Before he knew it, the cannibal was on the ground. In various areas of his body, especially the limbs, Lukas could see areas that were crushed. Skin, muscles and nerves were destroyed along with the bones that cracked into multiple pieces.

As he stared at the scene in front of him, he felt his vision blur. He knelt on one knee as he brought his hand to his face, 'Sleep?'

He then looked around to see if there were more attackers and once he felt like there weren't more of them, he looked at all his snakes. There were sixty each that were still inside his inventory and silently looking at him in the real world, were 20 snakes. 10 of each breed.

They were the Crimson and Ash Vipers.

Before he had set off to the island, he had done a few tests and through them, he realised that any creature that came out of his farm would be able to listen to every single one of his commands and he could do it mentally too. In a way, they worked like an extension of himself.

Feeling his vision go more and more blurry, he couldn't help but lean against the nearest tree. He leaned against it sideways as he cursed the arrow lodged inside his shoulder.

"I can't risk pulling it out right now." he muttered as he looked around, "Nina?"

There was no response.

Just as he was about to panic, he saw her walk out of the bushes. She looked miserable and he smelled the rabbit he had just eaten from her. The only difference was that it smelled funny.

'Looks like she vomited… well, I can ask her about it later.' he thought as he pointed in the direction of the tribe, "I've been sedated…" he said and then added, "Sleep poison."

Nina nodded and glanced at the snakes as they made way for her. She put his arm around her shoulder and realised that he had fallen asleep already. Pursing her lips, she changed her plans of helping him walk and instead, gave him a piggy back ride.

As she walked she saw the snakes follow behind her like body guards and once she reached their tribe's camp, the people gasped as they ran over to help carry him. they stopped a few meters from her as they saw the snakes. Nina said nothing and nor did she hand Lukas over to them.

Instead, she silently moved past the people around her before placing him on the ground on his belly. She then looked up, "Balo, Tama."

The tribals looked at each other glanced at the snakes helplessly before they headed out into the forest. It was only after two whole hours, that she finally see the faces of Balo and Tama. They wore worried looks as they ran towards their shaman but stopped the moment they saw the snakes.

"Pets." Nina said and the two of them exhaled as they relaxed their stiff bodies before crouching beside their Honorable Shaman.

Hunter Balo grabbed his wrist to check the pulse while Tama placed her fingers on the side of his neck. A few seconds later, they let out a sigh of relief before giving out instructions to the tribe.

Nina silently watched as the people hurriedly rushed out to the forest again, but this time, it was to find specific plants and leaves. This took another few hours but during this time, Balo carefully pulled out the arrow lodged in Lukas's shoulder and applied a mixed pulp of different leaves on it.

Then, he grabbed a handful of it before putting it against the open wound and then, covered it with a cloth that was boiled in hot water.

Once done, he let out a sigh and waited for the ingredients he had ordered. It was only during sunset, that the people walked back to the camp.

"Hunter Balo… we weren't able to find the honey bloom flower or the jumping beetle."

Hearing this, Balo frowned.

"I remember seeing them often during my hunts before…." he said but paused midway as a frown appeared on his face. He had indeed seen them often but that was a few months ago.

Recently, he hadn't seen any of these two.

'Something is going on in our forest and we don't know who is responsible for it…' he thought and let out a soft sigh as he looked at Nina worriedly.

Expecting punishment, he bowed his head as he spoke, "We were unable to find the ingredients needed to make the medicine. The Honorable Shaman will be able to wake up on his own once the poison's effects wear off but it might take a few days."

He didn't dare raise his head, but Nina said nothing either. Instead, she picked Lukas up and walked to the hut.

Balo looked dumbfounded as he watched her close the door behind her.

'Where's the punishment?'