LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 127
Chapter 127
It wasn’t just that.
Boom!!
As the ground shook, a sound like waves crashing could be heard in the distance.
The sound of waves.
But it wasn’t the type of waves that crashed on a beach.
This was ‘acid.’
The kind of acid you’d find in hydrochloric acid.
And that’s why this place was called the Acid Swamp.
Suho looked around.
There was no place to escape.
There was nowhere to hide his body either.
No matter how fast a person is, they cannot outrun pouring liquid.
And so, the wave of acid engulfed Suho.
Crash!!
The wave filled the entire cavern.
There was nowhere to dodge.
The pouring wave continued for a few seconds, then the depth gradually shallowed, and finally, it receded to the ground.
Silence fell over the surroundings.
And where the acid wave had passed, something that hadn’t been there earlier appeared.
It was a red monolith.
It stood tall like a rock, reaching the height of a human, something that hadn’t been visible until just a moment ago.
At that moment, the red monolith began to wriggle.
It squirmed like Kim Geon’s suit ball, then gradually took on a human shape, transforming into something like the combat suit soldiers wore, the change starting from the toes, moving up through the legs, the abdomen, and past the torso until it reached the head.
Yet, instead of forming a helmet as one might expect, the monolith revealed a human face.
It was Suho.
Suho, now completely wrapped in a red suit except for his face, spoke.
“Ugh, it stinks.”
It was literal.
Suho wrinkled his brow, not because of the massive wave of acid, but because of the peculiar stench of the acid itself.
It was unavoidable.
The acid wave that roamed the Acid Swamp was not hydrochloric acid but stomach acid… essentially, ‘gastric acid.’
Suho then examined the wall he had stabbed earlier with his Blood Sword.
Unlike the typical cracked rock walls found in caves, it resembled biological muscle tissue split open, with blood oozing out, which Suho nodded at as he observed.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen an internal-organ theme.”
An internal-organ theme.
It was just as it sounded.
This place, the ‘Acid Swamp,’ wasn’t an ordinary cave but the interior of a colossal lifeform.
That’s why a wave of gastric acid had washed over him, and why a scream of agony had echoed when he stabbed the wall.
For any living being, enduring pain in the intestines is difficult.
Suho looked up at the ceiling and pondered.
‘This was probably the stomach of a Mega Worm, right?’
Mega Worm, a type of worm monster, was known for its endless growth as it fed.
That was why a gate with such a theme had appeared.
When a creature grows too large, it can be perceived as a battlefield from someone’s perspective.
In that sense, the skill Suho had demonstrated to Jung Chulmin was the Blood Weapon.
The gastric acid of a Mega Worm had such an intense acidity that it could melt any equipment completely.
Many players had died, dissolved not only down to their gear but to their very flesh.
However, Suho’s Blood Weapon wasn’t made of ordinary metal but rather was formed from his blood, influenced by his own mana.
So there was no way the stomach acid of a mere worm-like Mega Worm could affect it.
‘Well, if the stat difference were too great, I might get completely dissolved too.’
However, with mana at the Red rank, he was safe.
Suho knew that the Mega Worm he was dealing with was around a 1-star level.
Having completed his exploration, Suho manipulated the Blood Weapon again, this time covering his entire face.
It wasn’t because he had a preference for wearing helmets.
He simply didn’t want to be directly hit by the smelly gastric acid.
‘Then, let’s move forward.’
Fully armed, Suho began to walk ahead.
***
– Roar!!
Crash!!
The wave of gastric acid poured down.
But Suho didn’t avoid it.
Instead, he continued to walk forward slowly, like the horn of a bull.
– Roar!!
Crash!!
The Mega Worm’s cries grew more frequent.
The gastric acid poured out continuously.
It was inevitable.
Suho deliberately modified the soles of his shoes to be sharp, stepping firmly as he walked.
“Oh, that thing sure knows how to scream.”
Why was Suho doing this?
He was doing it on purpose.
Suho knew that in the Acid Swamp, only after triggering at least several dozen waves of gastric acid would the ‘second phase’ finally start.
‘The first reason why the Acid Swamp is so difficult to conquer is because of the unrelenting waves of gastric acid.’
Moreover, only two could enter.
Many people had tried all kinds of combinations to conquer this place.
Tankers and healers.
Tankers and tankers.
Tankers and mages.
Mages and healers.
Mages and mages.
Even combinations as absurd as healer and healer.
But most of them ultimately gave up, unable to continue.
To withstand the waves of gastric acid, which could dissolve most equipment, one needed high-level magic defenses, but there weren’t many mages or healers who could endure wave after wave of acid.
Then, it happened.
– Screech!!
– Squeal!!
A sound echoed from somewhere.
It was the howl of monsters.
Hearing that sound, Suho finally smiled.
‘They’re finally here.’
It was right after countless waves of gastric acid had passed.
Who knew how far he had walked through this long intestinal passageway, but finally, the guardians of the Acid Swamp—the second phase—appeared.
– Parasite Lv.107
– Parasite Lv.103
– Parasite Lv.105
……
The guardians of the swamp.
Surprisingly, they were none other than parasites.
Upon seeing the parasites, Suho thought.
‘The second reason why the Acid Swamp is difficult to conquer is because of the unceasing swarm of parasites after enduring the waves of gastric acid.’
At a glance, these creatures resembled clumps of tangled hair squirming and wriggling.
But upon closer inspection, they couldn’t be dismissed as just that.
As the saying goes, life is a comedy from afar and a tragedy up close; due to the Mega Worm’s massive size, the parasites inside it were also extraordinarily large.
Much like the parasitic worms that could be found in blue whales.
And there were so many of them.
Not only were they large, but they didn’t travel alone.
A minimum of a dozen.
Suho, who had been advancing with bare hands, finally opened his right hand.
Then, the Blood Weapon squirmed and formed into a large blood sword in Suho’s grasp.
Gripping the blood sword, Suho immediately plunged the sword deep into the wall.
– Roar!!
Crash!!
The Mega Worm screamed.
Simultaneously, another wave of gastric acid poured down.
And.
– Squeal!!
Seeing Suho’s actions, the parasites went wild, charging at him.
The wave of gastric acid rolled in from behind.
Witnessing this scene, Suho grinned and assumed his stance.
***
[ Your level has increased. ]
[ All stats have increased by 1. ]
[ You have obtained 1 bonus stat point. ]
How much time had passed?
After continuously stabbing the Mega Worm and fending off the parasites for a long time, Suho’s level finally increased.
With this, Suho’s level was now 99.
Suho invested the bonus stat in his stamina and advanced once more.
‘Now I only need one more level to reach level 100.’
When a player reaches level 100, they go through another period of upheaval.
That’s because upon reaching level 100, a trait undergoes evolution.
This is called the second trait, and Suho was extremely curious about how his New Blood trait would evolve.
New Blood was a completely new type of trait, one that even Suho had never seen before.
‘Still, it’s holding out better than I expected.’
The Acid Swamp was a sealed gate but not an unconquered one.
Since there were no entry-level restrictions, tankers clad in ultra-high-grade equipment had succeeded in conquering it far in the future.
Therefore, Suho also knew how to conquer the Acid Swamp.
‘The key is to provoke the Mega Worm until it can’t stand it and forcibly expels me.’
Who would tolerate a thorn stabbing their intestines?
Ironically, the strategy for conquering the Acid Swamp involved continuously irritating its insides until the Mega Worm expelled the player.
Thus, he sharpened his shoes to poke around relentlessly.
The tankers who conquered this place long ago said it was more effective to wander around poking various spots than to stab one place repeatedly.
Just then, the Mega Worm cried out once more.
– Roar!!
Crash!!
Another wave of gastric acid poured down.
Seeing this, Suho firmly gripped his sword in reverse, wedging the blade into the wall for support.
Another wave of gastric acid engulfed Suho.
But then.
Thud!!
A heavy impact.
Something flew and struck Suho.
He couldn’t see it.
When swept up by a wave of gastric acid, visibility was practically zero due to its murky nature.
So it was almost as if his eyes were closed during the acid wave.
Not even the original vampire effect could mitigate this.
The original vampire ability only granted limited vision in darkness.
‘What is this?’
A parasite?
Sometimes, parasites would get swept up in the acid wave and bump into Suho.
The size seemed similar.
So Suho gripped the fixed Blood Sword with his left hand and summoned a new Blood Sword in his right hand.
[ Severing Steel is activated. ]
Slash!
The blade met resistance.
He definitely cut something.
But there was no notification of having defeated a creature.
System notifications were accessible regardless of vision.
At that moment, as the wave subsided.
“Hm?”
Right after the acid wave receded.
As acid dripped from the ceiling and walls, something was lying before Suho.
A dried-up object.
It was large.
Half of it had been sliced off by Suho, while the other half seemed to have been carried away by the acid wave, making it unidentifiable.
‘What is this?’
Suho stopped moving and examined it closely.
Ordinarily, he would have passed by without a second thought.
But even after exploring this place for a while, he had never seen anything like it.
Then, Suho’s eyes widened.
‘This is!’
The dried-up, hardened object, with half of its shape severed and difficult to recognize.
But Suho knew what it was.
It was none other than a ‘Body Parasite’ residing within the body of the Mega Worm.
‘A Body Parasite? There’s a Body Parasite here too? But why is it in this condition?’
A Body Parasite is exactly as it sounds, a worm living inside a body, which, rather than being a pest, is beneficial—an endosymbiont that coexists with large organisms like the Mega Worm.
Much like the relationship between a crocodile and a crocodile bird.
That’s why Suho had seen Body Parasites before.
In the mid-to-late stages of the Great Cataclysm, creatures with internal-themed gates like this appeared, and they were typically guarded by Body Parasites rather than parasites.
Could it be?
Observing the dried-up Body Parasite and numerous other parasites, Suho finally realized the true strategy for this place.
‘The main target was never the Mega Worm.’
The true main target of this place, the actual conquest strategy, was none other than eliminating the parasites that had overrun the Mega Worm’s internal organs.