Chapter 113 Isolation
Where could this place be?
I clearly remembered that my body was sucked into the gourd thrown by the Nakhaljo.
Does that mean this is the inside of the gourd?
Or is it just another place I’ve been transported to?
Right now, I couldn’t figure anything out.
“Grooo….”
No, there was one thing I could infer.
The countless eyes glaring at me.
If there was no way for me to escape from here, there would be no reason to place those beasts there.
They were gathered here to kill me.
In other words, if I could defeat all of them, I could escape from this place.
Either I would get out of the gourd, or I could walk back to my original location.
“Gegegek….”
Whatever the case, I had to deal with these creatures.
“Kikikik!”
Starting with the Terror Bird.
“Kwrooo!”
All the way to the Saber-toothed Tiger.
They showed no hesitation in revealing their hostility towards me.
This scene, I had definitely seen it before.
When I fell into the Silver Dragon Cave, fleeing from the Piranha Caiman.
Back when the swarms of countless insects gathered.
Of course, these creatures were incomparably stronger than those back then.
Each of them was at least as formidable as the Terror Bird.
Did they really set up this trap just to catch a mere lizard?
Philbang and Nakhaljo were merely distractions; this was the real trap.
The Snake Queen might have been so enraged by my disappearance that she could have killed them both in an instant.
Even so, the King of Birds took that risk and set up this trap.
Did he value me that highly?
Should I feel grateful?
But there was one thing he didn’t know.
That this kind of human wave tactic wouldn’t be enough to defeat me.
By simply leveling up, I could recover from any condition.
In fact, enemies of this caliber were nothing more than experience points.
“Kwrooo!”
The Saber-toothed Tiger at the front let out a fierce roar and charged at me.
It wouldn’t be fun to get hit by those teeth.
[“Using 「Dragon’s Reverse Scale lv1」.]
I needed to fight efficiently.
[“Temporarily acquiring 「Poison Cloud lv1」.]
I could originally use poison-generating skills, but my proficiency wasn’t that high.
Dragon’s Reverse Scale was to compensate for that.
I borrowed the technique of the Dilophosaurus.
Ssssss…
Hooowooo!
I spewed out a tremendous amount of poisonous gas from my mouth.
Using my Wild Eyes, I confirmed that they had no resistance to petrification or poison.
These weren’t elite troops raised directly by the King of Birds but rather mercenaries obtained through brainwashing.
Although their combat power wasn’t significantly diminished, their lack of poison resistance was good news for me.
The fact that poison worked on them allowed me to devise dozens of strategies.
“Kwooorrr…”
The Saber-toothed Tiger that had been charging at me faltered.
It was because it had sensed the ominous poison gas.
Without missing a beat, I struck first.
I lashed out at the head of the Saber-toothed Tiger, which had failed to respond properly, with my forepaw.
KWAANG!
“Kkeeek!”
The Saber-toothed Tiger screamed, spewing blood.
It seemed that just this wasn’t enough to kill it, as it was the largest of them all.
But it was true that I had inflicted serious damage.
I wanted to follow up with another blow immediately, but I couldn’t.
This wasn’t a one-on-one battle.
As if they had been waiting, all sorts of beasts attacked me from all sides.
Even while vomiting blood from the Poison Cloud, they still tried to attack me.
Even if I broke through one side, I would be attacked from the other.
Gomodo.
The old death with a tail.
Roughly translated, it probably meant ancient butcher or something like that.
But why emphasize that it had a tail?
It’s not like there were any creatures of this kind without a tail.
The reason was simple.
Booooom.
KWAANG!
Because Gomodo’s tail was its most threatening weapon.
Its massive, over four-meter-long tail whipped through the air like a whip.
I hadn’t learned any specific tail-wielding techniques.
But just swinging it produced immense power.
The heads of those struck by my tail exploded instantly.
Even those who managed to endure were sent flying several meters away.
“Kii… Kikikik!”
They might have been brainwashed by the King of Birds, but could they not overcome their instinctual fear?
Some of them were screaming and trying to flee the battlefield.
And of course, it made sense.
A gigantic lizard over seven meters long was spewing poison from its mouth and massacring its enemies.
The tail, with its razor-sharp dragon scales, could be considered a massive sword.
Shaaak!
The same went for my forepaws, which were equipped with sharp claws.
KWAANG!
If hit directly, the head would explode, and even a glancing blow would leave a deep wound.
And in that brief moment of contact, the poison I had dispersed seeped into their wounds.
“Krrr….”
The enemies foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
I slashed them all down without mercy.
To demonstrate overwhelming power and break their will to fight.
And to kill them to level up.
No matter how many enemies swarmed me, it didn’t matter.
As long as I leveled up, I’d return to peak condition.
Yes, if only I could level up.
…
……
The level wasn’t increasing.
*
One hour before the Gomodo’s attack.
“So, you’re saying that Philbang and I should divert the Snake Queen’s attention?”
Nakhaljo spoke as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Just a diversion?
For a creature with the dignity of a divine beast, it was a humiliating proposal.
“That’s the only way to ensure he’s completely killed….”
“That doesn’t sound like you. Isn’t this too much of an investment?”
“Practically… You two won’t be the ones to kill him…. Meaning your full strength will be preserved….”
The mission for Nakhaljo and Philbang was simply to distract the Snake Queen.
There was no need to exert too much force, and if they were careful, they wouldn’t fall prey to her.
The plan was to conceal their power while killing the Snake Queen’s mate.
This was the best decision the King of Birds could make.
It was a move to hide his hand while reducing the enemy’s.
“Do you really think that alone will be enough? I don’t think so. How about Philbang handles the Snake Queen alone, and I take care of the lizard?”
“Woowoo….”
Philbang glared at Nakhaljo.
It was a suggestion with impure intentions.
Despite being the strongest of them, Philbang couldn’t withstand a prolonged fight against the Snake Queen.
For him to endure, Nakhaljo needed to succeed in destabilizing the Snake Queen’s psyche.
Telling Philbang to face the Snake Queen alone was no different from asking him to die.
“Don’t worry….”
“Don’t worry? Didn’t you fail to kill him three times?”
“It’s different….”
“How?”
“I’ve uncovered… all of his secrets….”
The King of Birds flapped his large wings.
This was a major operation, involving sending all three of his divine beast subordinates.
Of course, two of them were just distractions, but the fact that they’d be away for some time remained unchanged.
“This is… inevitable death….”
In a way, this was the most vulnerable moment for the King of Birds.
“Trapped in isolation… he’ll succumb to his own weakness… and give up on himself….”
But this kind of sacrifice was necessary.
To kill that detestable Snake Queen’s mate.
“After I sever his life… I will go see the expression on the Queen’s face….”
The King of Birds smiled wickedly.
Nakhaljo shuddered.
That expression was something he would never get used to, no matter how many times he saw it.
No wonder he was rejected by the Snake Queen.
Nakhaljo wanted to say that, but he barely held it back.
*
The level wasn’t increasing.
I knew it would become more difficult to level up as I continued to evolve.
But I had already killed more than a dozen beasts.
One level should have gone up by now.
What on earth was going on?
“Groo….”
A Terror Bird rushed at me.
I swung my forepaw immediately.
This time, I held back my strength slightly.
Bang!
My forepaw struck the Terror Bird’s head.
Booom!
At that moment, the Terror Bird’s head exploded.
Something felt off.
The impact was something it should have been able to withstand at least once.
I had controlled my strength.
Yet, its head exploded.
The durability of the Terror Bird I knew shouldn’t have been this low.
Something was wrong.
Identifying this oddity quickly was of utmost importance.
Sssss.
Whooo.
I used not only Poison Cloud but also my original poison-generating ability, turning the area into what could be called a swamp of poison.
This was to figure out the cause of this bizarre phenomenon.
The enemies continued to swarm endlessly.
I held back on using skills and engaged the beasts in close combat.
Crack.
Boom!
I tried to level up by utilizing Predation, but that wasn’t easy either.
I didn’t have the luxury to devour the corpses.
At best, I could get a taste when finishing off a beast with my sharp teeth.
But I couldn’t eat a sufficient amount of flesh.
Their bodies would burst apart before I could take a few bites.
This was excessive.
The enemies were getting stranger.
Their bodies were collapsing under the slightest impact.
Boom!
Even the body of a Terror Bird that I hadn’t attacked began to burst apart.
To be precise, it was a Terror Bird that had been slowly succumbing to my poison.
Then, I finally realized the reason why my level wasn’t increasing.
When they sustained a certain amount of damage, their bodies exploded due to some unknown mechanism.
Those that died this way didn’t contribute to my experience points.
“Kikikikik!”
The King of Birds had figured out my ability.
He probably hadn’t realized I had a status window.
What he understood was that I gained rewards after defeating an enemy.
That it had to do with leveling up.
“Krararak!”
The beasts swarmed at me again.
No matter how many there were, as long as there wasn’t a particularly strong opponent, I thought I could win.
But the situation changed drastically.
Enemies kept coming endlessly, and there was no way for me to recover my health.
I would die before I could kill him.
Even attacks using poison were ineffective.
Once they sustained a certain amount of damage, their bodies would explode.
It turned the cause of their death into something other than me.
All to prevent me from leveling up.
Realizing that I could no longer recover my body, exhaustion rapidly set in.
The number of beasts whose bodies had burst and died had reached thirty.
The despairing part was that I hadn’t killed a single one of them.
And the number of beasts swarming at me was increasing.
Even if I miraculously defeated them all, nothing would change.
They would continue to swarm until I died.
….
“Gekek.”
Get a grip.
This situation, I’ve definitely experienced something like this before.
Endless enemies.
A situation that worsened with time.
Yes, it was when I encountered Dongchunghacho in the Silver Dragon Cave.
Remember what I did then.
I found its main body and split it apart with the wall.
Someone must be manipulating this suspicious space.
Kwaaang!
Strong Dragon Strike.
I slammed the ground with great force, shattering it.
For a moment, a gap appeared.
Sss.
I drew up my inner energy from deep within my dantian.
The place where the inner energy gathered was in my two eyes.
I focused to activate Wild Eyes.
My inner energy, at its peak, allowed me to see what was previously invisible.
A faint thread.
An invisible thread made of inner energy.
My mind raced.
The despair I had felt earlier melted away like snow.
I found the breakthrough.
“Grooo….”
Tat.
Pah!
I dashed forward at high speed.
Toward the source of the thread.
Slash!
I cut down the enemies that hastily tried to block my way.
Boom!
Their durability was extremely low.
They had been designed to self-destruct after taking moderate damage, to prevent me from gaining experience.
My tail and hands, and my body enhanced with dragon scales, had become weapons.
I literally crushed all the enemies that stood in my way as I charged through.
Pa-pa-pa-bat!
I saw it.
The master of this place.
The one commanding these beasts.
32
【Dimetrodon lv55】
Dimetrodon.
I instinctively knew.
This was the strongest being here.
And that inner energy I could feel radiating from it.
It was different from an ordinary beast.
Even its appearance was unlike the Dimetrodon I knew.
One of its arms was abnormally short.
And it only had one eye.
Its size was larger, but it didn’t seem suited for battle.
That’s why it was controlling the beasts from the rear.
“Grooo….”
It let out a low growl.
Dimetrodon.
A pseudo Spinosaurus.
I’ll make sure to devour you completely.
