Chapter 178

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Zeon raised his head. The place where he had fallen was a vast underground chamber. It was spacious enough that even dozens of giant spiders could rampage in it and still leave room to spare. In fact, even with the giant spiders that had fallen down with Zeon writhing all around, there was still plenty of space.

“At least it is fortunate that quicksand is flowing through here too.”

Even in the underground chamber, sand was flowing. But its movement was abnormal. Some streams ran like rivers, while others flowed in reverse like waterfalls climbing upward. There were even currents of sand sliding sideways along the walls. It was obvious that some unknown force operating inside this place was bending the flow of sand however it pleased.

“Interesting.”

Zeon smiled.

Kiiiii!

With shrill cries, the giant spiders came to their senses and raised their heads. Having found Zeon, they charged at him.

Kwaaang!

A huge maw slammed down where Zeon had been standing. But by then, Zeon had already moved elsewhere. Other giant spiders chased after him and attacked.

Pak! Kwaang!

Zeon dodged every attack by the narrowest of margins.

The giant spiders shook their heads and screamed, as if frenzied by it.

It was a nauseating sight just to look at.

Zeon sent sand flying toward them.

The way the sand shot through the air looked like a venomous serpent lifting its head.

It was Viper, the evolved form of Sand Blaster.

Puh-buh-buh-buhk!

Viper repeatedly struck the giant spiders’ bodies.

But because they were so large and their shells so thick, it did not inflict much damage.

“Their toughness is considerable.”

It was not surprising. He had already expected it.

After that, Zeon unfolded various other skills.

Kwakwakwak!

Explosions rocked the giant spiders’ bodies here and there.

But again, they showed no sign of taking meaningful damage.

Rather, as if their tempers had been touched, the creatures attacked Zeon even more violently.

Chwihahak!

One giant spider’s torso suddenly extended by dozens of meters and reached Zeon.

Its maw, large enough to swallow Zeon whole, and the tightly packed teeth like blades were clearly visible.

A cold smile appeared at the corner of Zeon’s lips.

“Let’s see whether your insides are as tough as your shell.”

Chwihahak!

From behind Zeon, a huge stream of sand flew in and shot straight into the giant spider’s mouth.

Kwakwakwa!

The sand spun with terrifying force and pierced straight through the giant spider’s insides.

Its jaws, esophagus, and stomach were all shredded away by the sand.

Kwaaang!

With an explosion, the giant spider’s body burst apart.

Spiders sprayed out in every direction.

As the fusion unraveled, it split into thousands and tens of thousands of small spiders.

The sight of tens of thousands of small spiders writhing across the floor was enough to make one retch.

But Zeon did not even blink.

Instead, he attacked the open mouths of the remaining giant spiders.

Pak!

Kwaaang!

Unable to withstand the shock from within, the giant spiders exploded one after another.

The number of small spiders tumbling across the ground increased geometrically.

With their fusion undone, the small spiders blackened the floor as they writhed.

After staggering for only a moment, they rushed at Zeon.

The sea of spiders covering the ground was hideous enough to become a nightmare.

Zeon looked down at the spiders that had come right to his feet with an indifferent gaze.

No emotion at all was visible in his eyes.

That gaze was frightening enough to make anyone shudder.

It was a look he had never shown once in Neo Seoul.

This was Zeon’s original gaze.

For seven years, he had wandered the desert alone.

The beasts had been dangerous, but the greatest danger had been humans just like himself.

Having met far too many people who smiled while stabbing with a knife, Zeon had shut them out emotionally from the start.

He had locked the door of his heart.

Back then, this had been the look in his eyes.

He had softened somewhat after returning to Neo Seoul, but this was his true self.

With no one around him now, that true face appeared naturally.

Zeon raised his right arm and muttered, “There should definitely be a mother body somewhere.”

A swarm beast was bound to have a queen or boss individual serving as its mother body.

That creature was the core of the swarm beast.

A boss strong enough to lead a group this massive would certainly not be an ordinary specimen.

Even now, it was hiding itself thoroughly within the sea of spiders.

There was no way to distinguish which one was the mother body among tens of thousands.

“If I can’t identify it myself, I’ll make it show itself.”

Red light burst from Zeon’s right arm.

“Fire Rain.”

Whoooosh!

A rain of fire poured down across the underground cavern.

Superheated fire rained over the spiders carpeting the floor.

Kiiiii!

The spiders screamed and writhed.

There was nowhere to avoid it and nowhere to hide.

The rain of fire mercilessly incinerated them.

The small spiders, unable to receive the sand’s protection, were helpless.

They tried to burrow back into the sand, but Zeon did not allow it.

He hardened the sand so they had no opening to dig into.

More than thousands of small spiders burned to death.

But the mother body still did not reveal itself.

That meant it still had enough leeway to endure.

Zeon cast Fire Rain once more.

Whoooosh!

Again the scorching rain of fire fell, and many spiders died.

“Huff! Huff!”

Zeon drew a ragged breath.

The mana that had filled the entire floor had been completely consumed by those two attacks.

As his mana ran dry, Zeon staggered from the sense of depletion.

That was when it happened.

Crunch!

From among the burnt dead spiders, one specimen lifted its head.

It was a spider markedly blacker than the rest.

It stared at Zeon as if closely observing his condition.

‘That’s the one.’

Zeon recognized it as the mother body of the swarm.

The mother body emitted a powerful wave of mana.

And the direction of that wave was Zeon himself.

‘It’s checking whether I still have mana left.’

It was a frighteningly cunning creature.

Even though it had so many underlings, it did not blindly rush in with force.

If Zeon had even a little mana remaining, it had intended to hide itself within the swarm again.

The mother body possessed a skill that allowed it to sense mana.

That was why it could be certain Zeon had no mana left.

In truth, there was not a single drop of mana remaining in Zeon’s body.

Then a bizarre sound flowed from the mother body.

Kriiiik!

It sounded like crying, but also like laughter.

At the mother body’s cry, the other spiders reacted and converged.

They were trying to merge into a giant spider again.

This time, however, the scale was different.

Instead of dispersing into several bodies like before, they joined into a single one centered around the mother body.

A giant spider of an entirely different size was born.

The mother body protruded from the crown of the giant spider’s head.

Having confirmed that Zeon had no mana left, it had finally revealed itself.

A red force field wrapped around the giant spider’s entire body.

It was a force field on a completely different level from before.

The mother body looked down at Zeon from atop the giant spider’s forehead.

It seemed to be mocking him with a bent stare.

Zeon’s eyes turned cold.

“Arrogant…”

The mockery itself was proof that the mother body possessed emotions.

And the more varied emotions a beast possessed, the higher its rank tended to be.

The giant spider with the mother body as its core had become A-rank in its own right.

Meanwhile, Zeon was in a state where every drop of mana had been exhausted.

To anyone watching, Zeon was at an absolute disadvantage.

But Zeon still had a card he trusted.

Puhwahak!

Suddenly, a powerful light burst from around Zeon’s neck.

Elura’s Tear.

A miraculous item that completely restored mana once a day.

It was the Elura’s Tear he had kept hidden under his clothes until now.

In an instant, Zeon’s mana was fully restored.

There was no sign of the aftereffects of mana exhaustion on him.

Sensing this, the mother body wriggled in apparent shock.

Its unusually keen senses had detected that all of Zeon’s mana had recovered.

Now it could no longer undo the fusion.

The only thing left for it to do was attack Zeon.

Kiiiii!

With a shriek, the enormous body stretched toward Zeon.

Like elastic, its mass extended and struck where Zeon had been.

But Zeon was not there.

He was floating in midair on a platform of sand.

With an expressionless face, he said, “Let’s start light. Claymore.”

Kwaaaaaang!

The sand near the giant spider exploded all at once.

Every grain of sand became a deadly blade and pounded the giant spider’s body without mercy.

Kieeeee!

The giant spider’s scream rang through the underground cavern.

Thanks to its force field, it had not taken a fatal wound, but it had suffered tremendous shock.

That shock brought great pain both to the giant spider and to the mother body.

Experiencing pain unlike anything it had known before, the mother body thrashed and then flew into a rage.

Pubububung!

Bombardment burst from the giant spider’s body.

It had fired condensed small spiders like artillery shells.

Zeon immediately gathered sand in front of him and formed a wall.

The spider shells struck the sand wall.

Pak! Kwaang!

With explosions, the spider shells burst in midair.

The impact made the sand wall undulate, but it did not break through completely.

Pubububung!

The giant spider continued to bombard him.

Its body was so massive that the number of small spiders was enormous as well.

No matter how much it fired, there was no sign the supply diminished.

Zeon rode the sand through the air.

The spider shells chased after him.

Pak! Kwakwakwang!

Spider bombs exploded one after another.

Within the smoke, Zeon waved his hand.

At once, the flow of sand changed.

The sands that had been coursing through the underground chamber at will all shot upward into the air under the intervention of a greater force.

Sand particles filled the cavern in a thick cloud.

Within it, Zeon muttered, “Sand is my battlefield. Let me show you how foolish it was to challenge me here.”

Zeon stretched out his hand.

The sand that filled the underground chamber began rotating around the giant spider.

Gaaaaaaaa!

A sound like massive grinding gears echoed through the cavern.

It was Sand Mixer, one of Zeon’s main skills.

The sand particles spinning at terrifying speed began grinding away the giant spider’s force field.

The giant spider tried to strengthen the force field to the utmost and protect itself, but it was useless.

Ordinary sand could not affect a force field.

But the moment Zeon’s control intervened, sand ceased to be ordinary.

Like the skills of a magic-type Awakened, it gained powerful influence over force fields.

Kieeeee!

For the first time in its life, the giant spider convulsed in horrible pain.

Its force field was forcibly stripped away, and the small spiders making up its outer shell were mercilessly torn off.

As the hard shell disintegrated and gaps opened, the sand invaded inside.

And once inside, the sand spun violently through the giant spider’s interior.

Gaaaaaa!

Sand particles rotated inside and outside the giant spider at the same time.

Kwaaang!

Centered on the mother body, the giant spider exploded.