Ep. In 112
Space Survival, places where the ecosystem is not as extreme as rocky planets or ocean planets and where various environmental elements are evenly distributed are classified as terrestrial planets.
PH-101, like a terrestrial planet, has a large amount of water and a variety of abundant animals and plants.
If you look at it up to this point, it seems like a really good place to live, but there is a catch.
PH-101 has a livable ecosystem, but the creatures living throughout the planet are not weak.
There are Plantrizards, which are weak but form groups of hundreds or thousands of them, or Horned Gigantras, whose physical specifications are comparable to those of most high-level players.
Not only is there no creature that is easy to deal with, but there are many environmental factors and events that make it difficult for humans to survive on this planet.
There is a rare chance that a magnetic field storm will sweep across the planet, or a super-volcano eruption event on Seintopia 01, a continent different from the one I am on, etc.
The swampy area of the Seintopia 02 continent where I am now would also be in the top ten if asked to name the most dangerous environmental element on this planet.
Mushrooms that constantly spew out terrifyingly toxic spores. Toxic gas produced when poisoned dead animals decompose. Animals living in the swamp area absorb the poison and become more toxic, creating a vicious cycle that continues for 5 minutes even when wearing protective clothing. It has become a devil that I cannot bear.
'If it were a game, he would have come after he became a semi-adult.'
In reality, on the contrary, it ended up becoming a semi-adult.
"Squeak!"
A 4m man-eating millipede struggles, caught in my tentacles.
His name is Smogpad. Although it is at the bottom of the swamp food chain, it is a dangerous creature that cannot be underestimated.
The smog pad has the ability to spray acidic body fluids like fog. The acidic fog it sprays can melt gas masks, so it has great synergy in swampy areas where the air is full of poison.
'It has nothing to do with me.'
The erosion tentacle strongly sucked the smog pad that it was holding with its six appendages. The hard carapace covering its back broke, its long body collapsed, and it was sucked into my tentacles.
Toxic blood and bodily fluids flowed from its body, but the other tentacles waiting below caught every drop.
Even while the tentacles were eating, the body worked diligently. I swatted away the bugs rushing towards me with my fighting arms and tail.
'This is convenient because there is a nightmare horizon.'
Although Aimorph has many arms, it only has one mouth, so its predatory activities were inevitably limited.
But now that it had seven mouths, eating was faster than hunting.
「Infection Enhancement Type (7/8) Special Defense Enhancement Type (4/4) Nest Enhancement Type (6/4)」
「There are two 'types' that can be specialized.」
After entering the swamp area, a large number of characteristics have been secured. Thanks to this, the number of types that can be specialized has increased to two.
'From now on, if you collect just one more infection-related trait and two more nest-related traits, you can fill the number of types required for evolution.'
When you acquire one type of Amorph, the number required to acquire another type doubles.
Therefore, I originally planned to get the infection-enhanced type first and then the special defense-enhanced type.
Since there were more nest-related characteristics than I expected, I changed my direction to acquiring the nest-strengthening type after the pre-infection strengthening type.
After checking the text box once, I entered the swamp area.
This is to obtain rare characteristics that can only be obtained here.
As the water level in the swamp deepened, the number of creatures visible nearby gradually decreased. Instead, the bones of huge creatures were seen left here and there.
The toxicity of the fog over the swamp became even more dense, so much so that it could be said that the air itself was poisonous.
If I hadn't been strengthened by the symbols and characteristics of hunting, I would have become addicted and died a long time ago.
'It's about time.'
Before I knew it, the water level in the swamp had risen to the point where it reached my chest. Nevertheless, my body felt as natural as if I were on land, thanks to the new characteristics I gained here.
'I never thought I'd get webbed feet and fins here.'
As its name suggests, it had claws on its hands and feet, and thin but wide fins sprouted near the wrists of its fighting arms and on its tail.
It is usually in an inactive state because it is tightly folded on land, but when it enters the water, it opens wide like it does now and helps in underwater activities.
'Swimming in this condition will be difficult.'
Because my body weighs so much, swimming in deep water is impossible, and I can only use it when moving quickly in a swamp like now.
While I was swimming halfway through the swamp, my auxiliary organ detected something moving in the swamp.
A small lantern light popped out in the middle of a quiet swamp. The pale, glowing lantern light swayed gently, then spotted me and stopped.
'come.'
The eyes of the giant creature hiding under the lantern, or rather, the swamp, went back in.
And as the waves began to churn loudly, the creature began to appear.
First, ten long legs similar to spiders emerged from the swamp. Each leg was covered with a hard shell and was nearly 10 meters long.
Then, the two claws rose to the surface along with the legs.
No, can that really be called a tongs?
Each pincer was a whopping 2m long, so it looked so vicious that even I would not be able to withstand it easily if I were hit by it.
The legs and claws alone were enormous, but the body was much larger and wider than the legs. While its legs were similar to those of a spider, its body was oval-shaped and had a thick carapace similar to that of a crab.
Of course, no one would think of a crab when they see a thing with a 15m-wide carapace.
The top of the carapace was densely studded with thorns the size of an adult's forearm, and the lower part was dotted with holes the size of a palm.
On the front of the shell, a mouth with teeth protruding in a spiral shape like that of a lamprey eel and four eyes resembling lanterns were visible.
The name of the guy who looks like a combination of a crab and a spider is 'Swamp King'.
It is the most dangerous creature in the swamps of the Saintopia 02 continent.
Four eyes resembling lanterns are looking at me.
The moment I felt its gaze, two claws flew toward my head at incredible speed.
Sensing the signs of an attack with my auxiliary organs, I bent my knees and dived into the swamp. A heavy claw grazed the crown-like carapace of my head.
Before he could continue his attack, I kicked up the mud on the bottom of the swamp and jumped up.
It was closer to a swamp than a bottom, so I couldn't jump high, but if I could get on top of it, that was enough.
I climbed on top of it and attacked its armor using the weapons I had.
He opened his mouth wide and bit out the hard creature's eyes, clawed the creature with his fighting arms, and smashed its armor with a bone axe. The thorns growing on the armor were cut off every time I swung my arm.
"Giiiiii"
The guy shook his body as if he was annoyed. My body shook violently as if I was riding a rodeo machine.
To avoid falling, I stabbed its armor with the bone-blade arms that protruded from its back.
Even though he shook it, I was stuck like a leech, so he bent the joints of some of his claws and legs in order to hit me directly.
The target is me on the armor.
The claws at the end of its legs are as hard as pincers, but their penetrating power is so high that they can easily pierce the carapace of my head.
I quickly jumped off its armor before the claws at the end of its legs stabbed me.
However, the attack came at such a fast speed that one of my tentacles was torn off by the attack.
"Pain relief activated!"
A sharp pain hit my head, as if someone had hit my back with a whip.
「Gii?」
The one whose attack failed let out a short cry as if it was unexpected.
'It's strong.'
Perhaps because it is a creature located at the top of the swamp ecosystem, it is not an easy task.
It is completely immune to attack methods such as poisonous parasite viruses. Therefore, all of the new infection-type traits I acquired after entering the swamp area do not work.
And its carapace is resistant to all types of psychic powers.
The reason I didn't use ghost claws when I scratched the guy's armor with my combat arms a little while ago was because it wouldn't work anyway. Even if you shoot the psychic breath, it will only do enough damage to cause cracks.
In other words, there is only one way to attack him.
'You must subdue it only with force.'
It has very fast attack speed and is quite strong.
On top of that, it has thick armor and high psychic resistance, poison and virus immunity.
If you look at it like this, it looks perfect, but it isn't.
'I can win.'
After a round of fighting, the other side's armor was only damaged, while I lost one of my tentacles.
When I only saw this, it seemed like I had suffered a huge loss, but I felt relieved.
'It's as expected. 'If I were the person I am now, I could break through the armor.'
It may be surprising, but that hard and thick-looking carapace is its most vulnerable part.
Creatures living in swamp areas are characterized by hunting enemies in anomalous and unusual ways.
This also applies to Swamp King.
When you see a crab-like appearance and thin legs like a spider, it is easy to think that you need to neutralize parts such as the legs or claws first, but this is a wrong judgment.
Its legs and claws are so strong that they don't even make a scratch even when hit by plasma heat rays.
It's so hard that it's safe to say it's almost indestructible, so there's no point in targeting its claws and legs.
On the other hand, the back shell is relatively less rigid than the legs. If you have strong physical strength, you can break the armor.
And now I have strong physical strength.
「Giiiii」
The guy must have recognized me as someone to be wary of, so he just growled and didn't move quickly.
I also slowly circled around him to look for an opportunity.
As the short standoff continued, it was he who attacked first.
「Giik Gii Gii」
White snake-like things slithered out from the holes in the bottom of the guy's armor. This is a corpse catfish that I once saw in the sewers of the space city.
'To be exact, it's an enhanced version of it.'
The corpse catfish that came out of the Swamp King's body are on a different level from the disgusting creatures seen in the sewers.
In the game, the Corpse Catfish summoned by Swamp King ignores the player's defense and deals fixed damage. This is thanks to the fact that it secretes digestive juices that can dissolve even the hardest substances.
This is reality, so I don't know how it may have changed.
'But I don't plan on getting hit on purpose.'
Hordes of corpse catfish swim by to eat me.
I swung my long tail wide at the bottom of the swamp and struck the carcass catfish. Like the Red Sea splitting, the waves split wide, and the fragments of the carcass catfish that had been smashed by my tail fluttered in the air.
Before the swamp waves returned to their original positions, I crouched down and rushed forward.
My four arms and two legs kick the mud floor and my body leaps forward quickly.
"Geeeeeeek!"
The Swamp King roared and swung his two claws, trying to crush me.
Just as the claw was about to land on my head, an arm with a bone blade caught it.
A cracking sound, hard to believe that the body parts of a living creature collided, echoed across the swamp.
'Pfft!'
Although the bone blade is quite hard, it is not strong enough to hold the claws for long.
Not only was the blade cracked, but the entire arm on his back was twisted in a bizarre direction.
The back arm was quickly disabled, but thanks to this, it succeeded in correcting the trajectory of the claw. The two claws narrowly grazed my body and hit the floor hard.
And Swamp King became defenseless for a very brief moment.
I focused my rushing force on the head and struck the lower part of its armor. The two horns on my head pierced its armor.
「Squeak!」
He must have not expected this and is greatly embarrassed. Extremely acidic digestive juices pour out from the wound.
'I can hold on!'
The head carapace is the hardest part of my body. Now is the time to believe in it and persevere.
Instead, I used my legs to push the horn deeper. Its red-brown blood mixed with digestive juices and soaked my body.
「Kwiik!」
When I didn't move, the guy unfolded his two tongs and grabbed my waist and legs.
The 2m long press machine is tightening my body.
One leg was broken in an instant, and my back was slowly crushed by the beast's incredible strength.
If I were a normal person, I would have died because I couldn't breathe before the pain.
Instead of increasing the distance between me and the creature, I wrapped my tentacles around its armor and pressed my body close to its armor. Thanks to this, the horn embedded in the creature's body dug deeper and ripped through the creature's organs.
「Giriririk!」
He screams from the pain of his internal organs being torn apart.
The claw that had been pressing on me gradually lost its strength, and I grabbed the claw with my lower fighting arm and pushed it away.
The corpse catfish clung to my body to protect their owner, but I did not waver or retreat.
I put my upper fighting arm inside the shattered creature's armor.
Unlike the hard shell, you can feel the soft internal organs and flesh.
I grabbed them and pulled them out.
「Giiii!」
Some of its legs move to stab me.
I released the tentacles wrapped around its armor and grabbed its legs.
Still, the power contained in his legs was by no means light. It tore off the tangled tentacles and stabbed me in the back with the claws at the end of its legs.
「Squeak!」
「Grrrrrrr」
From now on, it is a fight to see who can last longer.
What if I didn't have the regenerative ability?
Type and Representation of the Hunt If it weren't for his extremely enhanced body due to the Nightmare Horizon effect.
The last person standing may have changed.
「Geeee….」
The Swamp King shed a sigh of relief and fell to the side. After spitting red-brown blood foam out of its mouth a few times, it stopped moving.
I put my foot on its head and roared loudly.
To inform you that the owner of the swamp has died by my hand.
And to announce that his body is mine.
The residents of the swamp area, who were approaching to see if there was anything to be gained, were startled and dispersed.
After chasing away all the thieves, I put my head inside the Swamp King's stomach.
You can eat it with its tentacles, but since you had a hard time catching it, shouldn't you taste it?
I bit the soft flesh inside the shell with my teeth, tore it off, and chewed it slightly.
'oh.'
I just put it in my mouth, but it already feels unusual. I quickly slid the Swamp King's flesh down my throat before it melted on my tongue.
'hmm.'
Among the foods I have eaten so far, the undisputed number one target is Sihyeon Eugene, and it has never changed.
So I thought.
The more well-tuned the large amount of genetic essence is, the better the taste will be.
But I was wrong.
To be honest, before eating it, I thought it would taste like crab meat because it resembled a crab, but I was very wrong.
The taste of Swamp King was so good that I felt guilty for daring to evaluate it with such blasphemous thoughts.
'The best part of all is…'
Sihyeon Eugene's taste was really good, but the portion wasn't that big. Anyway, it's human size.
But the one in front of me is a 15m long luxury king crab.
'I've never had crab dishes before as a human, but I came here and tried them all.'
If I hadn't been pressed for time as a symbol of hunting, they would have grabbed me and ate leisurely for a few days.
'Tsk. I would have loved it if I had kids.'
If I meet No. 26 and Aadhai again later, I will consider coming to the swamp again. It is not aimed at capturing the essence of genes, but purely for gastronomic reasons.
I hurriedly scraped off all the meat and internal organs from the inside of the carapace of the king crab, or rather the swamp king.
Since I couldn't break the carapace of the legs, I inserted the eroding tentacles and blood-sucking tentacles inside and only removed the flesh.
Finally, when I completely ate the eyes of the lantern-like creature, a window indicating the predation effect appeared, just like when I ate another living creature.
'Good.'
Evolution is not far away.
After acquiring the Swamp King's genetic essence, I continued to roam the swamp and kill other creatures.
The injuries are not shallow, but among the remaining creatures, there is no one that can threaten me.
Having safely acquired two types, I escaped out of the swamp with about 3 minutes left for the symbol of hunting effect.
My fighting arms and five eroding tentacles held the corpses of several creatures.
I piled up the food in the cave I had previously checked.
'With this, there will be no need to go out and about due to side effects.'
After that, before the representation ended, I checked the message I had seen in the swamp one last time again.
「'Sub-adult' – >'Semi-adult' evolution conditions have been met. Would you like to evolve?」
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