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Ch198-Fight And Flight

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“82,” Spring said, as he gently placed the odd-shaped organ into the wooden chest.

Initially, Sylver had used a bag, but after the 50th [Gourd Gizzard] had been subdued, and its internal organ safely harvested, Sylver decided to see if he could grow himself a chest.

Admittedly it wasn’t perfect, he couldn’t get the hinges right, and decided to just make a lid and use a rope to keep it closed. Unlike jade, the collected gizzards weren’t glowing, but Sylver could vaguely feel something Ki related emanating out of them.

Their ability to shape mud into a humanoid form, and sometimes weapons and shields, was similar to what Cory did, in fact, it was nearly identical.

If not for the fact that they were being attacked by an immortal army, the group would have been very difficult to deal with. From a tactical standpoint, they were essentially slimes, with their gourd bodies being their core.

But unlike slimes, their core wasn’t moving around, they couldn’t instantly reabsorb a sliced-off segment, and in exchange were very difficult to cut or pierce. Difficult if you were fighting them one on one, they could harden the part about to be cut, but luckily they couldn’t do it in more than one spot.

The shades worked in pairs, one would swing its weapon towards the head, the mud that made up the head would harden, and while the torso was soft and unguarded, the second shade would stab the small [Gourd Gizzard] floating inside. 

Obviously, the [Gourd Gizzard]s caught on right away, but even if they were well aware of what the shades were doing, it wasn’t like they could do anything to stop it.

To give them some credit, the mud creatures did figure out that the shades were a lot more brittle than they appeared, but with Sylver’s constant influx of mana, the shades’ defeat was temporary.

***

At the end of the “hunt,” if sitting on your ass and watching someone else do everything for you could be called a hunt, Sylver had 148 [Gourd Gizzard] glands. At one point they tried merging into one large mud creature, but that didn’t do much. 

Sure they could solidify multiple points on their enlarged body, but the shade archers just spread themselves out a little, and just kept shooting until they hit one of the gourds inside.

While he waited Sylver practiced his [Chloromancy] and got pretty good at growing boxes. The hard part was estimating how much a piece of wood would shrink after being forced to dry up, but he got the hang of it after just 10 boxes.

He even went as far as to pretty the boxes up. Sylver used his magic to carve an artistic rendering of what the creature, whose organs were inside the box, looked like. He used one of the wolf shades as a mule to carry everything.

After Sylver was finished “hunting” the low-level [Gourd Gizzard]s he had several shades rub their bodies with the creatures’ blood, and sent them in different directions, while Sylver continued walking towards the heart of the swamp. 

Spring handled the combat, shade distribution, logistics, and Sylver mainly focused on making the appropriate boxes, to store the various defeated creatures’ harvested pieces inside.

The swamp was dangerous, Sylver wasn’t denying that. And there were a couple of “challenging” monsters.

But by challenging, Spring meant that it was hard to kill them without damaging whatever it was they needed to take from the monster. The vast majority used some kind of poison, toxin, venom, corrosive, or just tried to bite and scratch the shades to death.

Sylver almost felt bad for the creature’s being hunted, not enough that he was going to stop, but enough that he put extra effort into making their respective boxes look nice, and made sure Spring did his best to not let the poor monsters suffer longer than necessary.

They even found the [Skunk Ape], which turned out to be a giant monkey that walked around while surrounded by “fumes.” Their gas had a hallucinogenic effect on the living and just smelled bad to the undead shades.

The monster caught Sylver off-guard, slightly. Sylver was so focused on getting the carved line the correct depth that he reacted a little slower than he should have. His robe was thankfully more alert than he was and managed to blunt the monster’s swipe before it reached Sylver’s flesh and actually did damage.

Sylver used [Fog Form] and within seconds was standing high above the monster, as the mule shade ran away to hide. Thankfully the monster wasn’t interested in the wolf shade and only had eyes for Sylver.

[Common Otso – Marsh Warden – 199]
[HP: 50,000 – 100%]
[MP: 0 – 0%]
[Stamina: 49,492 – 99%]
[Corpse – Greater]
[Soul – Unique]

Sylver cocked his head at the monster. It looked like a pale hairless bear, except its front arms were twice as long as a normal bear’s, which gave it a gorilla-like stance. It had a small hump on its back, but it was hard to see amidst the mountains of muscles. 

He could see right away the monster couldn’t look up, but it didn’t seem to need to, as something horrible happened.

The monster grew until it was at least 30 meters tall, and its head was eye level with Sylver’s position on his branch.

Except, the monster itself didn’t grow, some kind of substance came out of its body and grew around it. The bear itself was still the same size, but it was inside this giant see-through material. As the bear inside lifted its left paw, the giant bear mimicked it, and in perfect sync, swiped in Sylver’s general direction.

On instinct, more than anything else, Sylver traveled through the tendril of fog wrapped around the tree trunk and materialized near the base of the tree. As Sylver watched the monster’s giant claws pass harmlessly through the tree, he wondered if this thing was just an illusion to throw him off.

But, as the hail of arrows hit the monster’s face, sides, and backside, he understood that, whatever it may be, the giant bear wasn’t an illusion. The shades’ arrows barely entered half an inch into the beast’s “flesh,” before they were pushed out and fell to the ground. Forget bleeding, after just a second, there wasn’t so much as a nick from where the arrows had hit it.

[Common Otso – Marsh Warden – 199]
[HP: 50,000 – 100%]
[MP: 0 – 0%]
[Stamina: 19,846 – 39%]

As Sylver dodged the monster’s claws again, and once again saw that they passed through the mud and trees without disturbing it, he used his shadow to help him throw a bomb at the beast. As it collided with the creature’s translucent skin, it detonated, and the large bear had to lean into the explosion so as not to fall over. As big as it was, it apparently didn’t weigh that much.

[Common Otso – Marsh Warden – 199]
[HP: 50,000 – 100%]
[MP: 0 – 0%]
[Stamina: 17,473 – 34%]

Sylver jumped away from the creature and created some distance. He was careful to move towards the opposite direction that the mule shade had gone, just in case.

The giant translucent bear followed after him and weighed so little that its paw didn’t even break the thin crust of mud covering the hole Sylver had dug as he was running away. He’s wasted his time and mana on a hole with an ice spike for nothing.

Sylver jumped from tree to tree, and the bear thing followed. It ran on the murky mud water and didn’t so much as disturb the surface, its shoulders harmlessly passed through the tree trunks, and every time a shade tried to stab it, slice it, or touch it, it was as if it was made out of reinforced metal.

When he found a good spot, Sylver used [Greater Undead Armament] to create a large curved shield on his arm. While in midair, he used a thick layer of [Necrotic Mutilation] to cover the inside of the shield with explosives.

Sylver felt his muscles strain from the effort as he pulled his arm back, and launched the circular shield sideways at the creature. As the creature’s head disappeared in the explosion, Sylver used [Fog Form] for a split second to realign himself.

As his feet touched the tree, Sylver glued his feet to it and focused as hard as he could while he used [Arcane Insight] on the cloud.

[Common Otso – Marsh Warden – 199]
[HP: 32,191 – 64%]
[MP: 0 – 0%]
[Stamina: 1,447– 3%]

Sylver didn’t bother waiting, and with a kick that shattered the wood he had been standing on, launched himself at the bear thing. The creature was in the middle of shaking its head, as Sylver flew towards it, and without moving a muscle, a giant clawed paw appeared out of nowhere.

It descended down onto Sylver, and if it was possible, would have knocked the wind out of him. He felt it pass through his robe as if it wasn’t there, and touched his back directly. The pressure should have crushed him, or at least torn his skin. 

Instead, he rolled with it, and was shoved down into the dirt, which softened, parted, and ended up simply pushing his body underground. Sylver didn’t let the momentum the creature provided go to waste, and as his body slid along the mudslide he created inside the earth, he appeared underneath the bear’s stomach.

He realized that this bear was a male, and as Sylver deftly moved his head out of the way of the object that made him come to this realization, he simultaneously shoved his [Necrotic Mutilation] claws up into the creature’s stomach. The claws wiggled around inside the creature’s torso, as Sylver forced a vicious cloud of [Draining Blight] inside through the holes he made, and felt a nearly painful warmth travel down his arms, into his chest.

Sylver felt another paw attempt to hit him from the left side, but his [Necrotic Mutilation] tendrils were faster, as they found the creature’s heart, and twisted it until it stopped being connected to anything.

[Common Otso (Marsh Warden) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 50 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]

[Draining Blight (VI) Proficiency increased to 11%!]

[Necrotic Mutilation (III) Proficiency increased to 96%!]

[Arcane Insight (IV) Proficiency increased to 16%!]

[Vigorous Conditioning (III) Proficiency increased to 4%!]

With [Dead Dominion] Sylver floated the thing off him and materialized next to it. During his brief contact with it, while it was still alive, he felt it doing something he couldn’t explain. It felt like a very advanced form of soul magic, but just as that damage Faust had done to those men's souls, it wasn’t right.

Sylver’s attempt to store the creature’s corpse away in one of his bones proved futile, similar to the Ki organs he had been collecting, it was incompatible. As Sylver called his mule wolf shade back and started thinking whether to have the bear corpse tied to a separate wolf, or place it on the mule, he felt a chill run down his inner spine.

The bear’s mouth opened, and a pale green stream of light gently flowed out of it. It split into two, and both streams started to curve, and Sylver watched as they quickly started to fill up into a rough shape. The one on the left seemed to be a large rodent of some kind, while the one on the right seemed to possibly be a wild dog.

Sylver gently tossed a bomb between the two clouds of green and heard a screeching noise that sounded like a feral rat trying to outscream a roaring bear. Sylver didn’t bother waiting to see what was about to come out, and as he used [Dead Dominion] to bring the bear’s corpse with him, he looked around for the tallest tree.

Sylver kept one eye behind him as he ran, and used a mixture of his shadow and [Necrotic Mutilation] to throw himself and the bear corpse as high as he could manage, and then proceeded to jump his way up into the air using his [Bracelet Of The Aurai].

He’d gotten it during his first dive into Arda’s dungeon, and now that he could see a large rodent and large dog getting surrounded by the same translucent material as the bear had been, couldn’t be happier that he could effectively fly. 

He hadn’t bothered with the bracelet since he’d been able to use [Fog Form], but it was perfect for that rare instance when he had to carry something with him while running away.

[Greater Otso – Marsh Guardian – 299]
[HP: 177,241 – 82%]
[MP: 0 – 0%]
[Stamina: 174,997– 94%]
[Corpse – Greater]
[Soul – Unique]

[Greater Otso – Marsh Ranger – 299]
[HP: 93,227 – 93%]
[MP: 0 – 0%]
[Stamina: 374,997– 81%]
[Corpse – Greater]
[Soul – Unique]

While it was slightly worrying to have something twice his level chasing after him, two somethings twice his level, being right in deciding to get the fuck out while it’s an option subsided any negative emotions Sylver may have felt.

Similar to him, both the [Marsh Guardian] dog and the [Marsh Ranger] rodent used invisible platforms as footholds in the air, to climb after Sylver. His headstart was the only reason he managed to go as high as he did, without having one of them bite a chunk off him, or sink their claws into his body.

Just like the bear, both of them were covered by an enormous layer of shimmering material, except now their fangs and claws seemed just a bit more solid than the bear’s had been. Sylver’s head start saved him, but not all of him, as it turned out.

He felt a sharp stinging pain in his left foot, and just as he was about to sever the thing away, Ria swung herself downwards and slashed through the curved claw that had impaled Sylver’s ankle. To Sylver’s surprise, not only did Ria’s action free Sylver’s foot, but it also caused the whole paw to violently diffuse for a second or two.

Apparently, Ria’s anti-magic field worked on whatever this nonsense was.

Instead of using this information to his advantage, such as asking Ria to make a hole through the beast’s armor, and then shove a couple of bombs inside and detonate them for direct damage, Sylver decided to once again follow his gut, and simply continued running up into the air.

As he summoned Will out of his shadow and forced the shade to flap its wings to build enough momentum to fly, Sylver made the mistake of peering down and saw the dog and rodent staring at him. As Will exploded with speed and flew away from the two monsters, Sylver flipped them off.

After they were a certain distance away, Sylver had Will get a little closer to the ground, and used the [Necrotic Mutilation] on the mule wolf shade, to float the boxes up towards Will. It burned through the rest of Sylver’s mana and nearly made him fall off the wyvern, but the important thing was that he wasn't leaving this swamp empty-handed.

As Spring materialized near the boxes and started looking through them to make sure nothing had been destroyed during transit, Ria spoke up. She was sitting with the boxes, in her Chrys-shaped form.

“What was that thing?” Ria asked calmly, but with a very understandable note of confusion and disbelief.

Sylver’s robe moved up his leg so he could inspect the wound in his ankle. The hole was relatively smooth as if someone had shoved a triangle through his flesh and bone. It wasn’t great, but definitely not life-threatening.

It was annoying, is what it was, and a little humiliating.

“Was it a swamp spirit?” Ria asked, as Sylver carefully forced his skin to cover up the hole, and used a bit of [Necrotic Mutilation] to create a reinforced splint, so it wouldn’t buckle under his weight while it was healing.

“What?” Sylver asked as he shifted his attention away from his leg.

“Was that bear, rat, and dog, a swamp spirit?” Ria repeated.

“A swamp spirit?” Sylver asked.

“Are you alright?” Ria asked, as Sylver chose to take her advice seriously, and discovered that he wasn’t alright.

His soul had been shaken. Not enough to hurt him, but enough to disorient him.

Amidst the chaos, he didn’t even feel it, but now he realized what that uneasy feeling had been. He was fine because of how well anchored his soul was to his body, but anyone else would have died from the slightest scratch.

Sylver turned to look at the bear’s corpse, but at Spring’s reminder, answered Ria’s question.

“It’s not a swamp spirit. They wouldn’t show themselves like that… I’ll ask Faust, he might know. Did you get a look at their eyes?” Sylver asked, just to confirm.

There was a brief pause before Ria answered.

“The bear’s eyes were blood red, and with vertical pupils, like a snake’s. The dog’s and rodent’s were bright green, but also vertical. Does it mean something?” Ria asked, as Sylver moved to his favorite spot and sat down between two of Will’s spikes. 

Sylver bent his knees until they were underneath his chin, and he then wrapped his arms around them.

“It’s nothing good… Soul shenanigans are never good… That thing was guarding something or someone… We came from the south and were going north, the heart of the swamp was still hours away, so there’s something there…” Sylver half answered half mumbled to himself.

As an undead, there was a very small list of things that Sylver was truly afraid of. There were poisons and toxins that, for some reason, worked on undead. Silver, holy magic, all that stuff, being trapped deep underwater, perfectly normal fears for an undead creature.

“Is everything ok?” Ria asked, as Sylver’s hood moved itself protectively over his head, and lowered until it covered his eyes.

“I’m fine, I just… I got cocky. I was in a rush to get the hunting over with, and that thing… I wouldn’t have died, but it could have destroyed months of progress. If you weren’t there, and it managed to actually pull at my soul…” Sylver said.

His voice was uncharacteristically subdued. Enough so that Sylver could feel Ria’s soul practically shaking alongside his, if his fear had been the soul-shaking kind.

Sylver wasn’t afraid. He didn’t like being afraid, even when it was necessary and useful.

As usual, he was angry.

Not with his usual calm and controlled white-hot anger, this one was a lot colder, sinister, the anger one might feel at tripping over nothing with the finish line in sight.

He was angry that this one stupid expedition, this one idiotic hunt, that another second of that rat touching his soul, would have put him out of commission for months. Months that he could have spent looking for Edmund.

Sylver lowered his head and rested his forehead on his knees.