TEOCH 95

Acquiring equipment in the second stage is definitely more difficult than in the tutorial. In the tutorial, you could obtain materials by dismantling the corpses of monsters, but that method doesn’t work here. To make a proper sword in this area, you must hunt a monster with bones long and sturdy enough to be used as a sword blade, and then overlay a parasite onto those bones.

Right now, we lacked both a parasite good enough to parasitize a sword and the skill to hunt such a large monster, but I wasn’t too worried about that fact. Rather, what I was worried about was Rikiel and Rehas’s strange lack of sleep. I could somewhat understand Rikiel, given the conversation we had yesterday, but what on earth is wrong with that Rehas fellow?

“Don’t look at me like that. It’s because of seasickness.”

“You were fine for the past five days, and now all of a sudden?”

“Hmm, actually, I couldn’t sleep because I was worried about you. Lately, you can’t even sleep at night and you’re wasting away nursing His Majesty the King, so you look so pitiful…”

“Let’s stop. Let’s go out now.”

Noticing Tristan’s expression gradually darkening, I hastily cut Rehas off. That snake-like man, for a while now, whenever his own excuses become lame, he keeps bringing up Tristan. He’s doing it because he knows I’m sensitive to mentions of Tristan. Seeing him speak so slickly, he’s probably not really losing sleep worrying about Tristan and me.

Well, let’s leave it. Rehas must have his own worries. Whether to speak of them or hide them is up to Rehas himself.

Anyway, after briefly discussing our strategy, we went outside the cave. Since verbal communication is very difficult underwater, it was very important to coordinate our moves in advance. First, I taught them a few basic hand signals used underwater. It wouldn’t be easy to memorize all the hand signals from the start, but if I taught them one by one, they would all be proficient in hand signals by the time we entered the labyrinth.

[Follow me.]

Communicating my intention with a light hand gesture, I swam carefully, parting the water. What I was looking for right now was a monster that uses parasites in a slightly strange way. That monster, which no matter how you look at it seems to have been created for the player’s convenience, is quite a tough opponent for us at our current skill level, but it’s a creature that will definitely give us a parasite if we kill it.

‘I have no choice but to trust the new ability Tristan has acquired. If we can just paralyze its right side, it might get easier from there…’

While swimming for a long time, we discovered a light flickering back and forth in the distance. It was on a different level from the faint light flowing from the plants growing near the sandy bottom. That light looked as warm and cozy as if a fire had been lit in the sea.

Among them, what caught our eye was the bundle of unidentified parasites wriggling at the center of the light. The parasites, which looked to be at least five or six in number, were still writhing fiercely as if they were alive, and if other fish had seen them, they might have considered them an appetizing meal.

But one must not be deceived. What was holding the bundle of parasites was a strange tentacle shaped like a fishing rod, which was waving the parasite bundle back and forth as if to tempt. So that bundle of parasites was, in the end, bait on a fishing rod.

My colleagues looked back at me with rather reluctant expressions, and I silently nodded my head. That’s the one. The monster that, for some reason, uses parasites as bait to catch other fish instead of letting them parasitize its own body.

It seemed to be based on an anglerfish, but it was a massive creature, as if a normal anglerfish had been inflated 10 to 15 times. Of course, its appearance was just as hideous, but its skin color was so dark that it wasn’t very visible anyway.

Why it specifically uses those parasites as bait and not other bugs, and where on earth it gets so many of them, is still unknown. Of course, I wasn’t very curious either. In any case, the only thing important to us was the fact that we could steal the parasites it was using as bait and use them for equipment enhancement.

[Damian, fire.]

When I gestured to Damian, he silently nodded. Damian created several lights at a position just barely out of the anglerfish’s line of sight. He didn’t create a fire as bright and large as the anglerfish’s, but the small lights wriggled as if they were alive and swam about at will. If you didn’t look closely, they could have passed for small fish.

‘As expected, bait is the best for luring prey.’

The anglerfish turned its head nervously to chase the source of the lights that were distracting its vision. But Damian skillfully moved the fire, annoying the anglerfish, and the creature, so preoccupied with identifying the lights, was unaware of what was approaching it.

[Sir Rikiel, a little lower.]

After approaching from above the anglerfish’s head, I gestured to Rikiel this time, and Rikiel moved to a position perfect for provoking the anglerfish. I watched Tristan’s position as he approached the anglerfish’s right rear and waited for the right moment. A moment later, as soon as I confirmed that Rikiel and Tristan had covered their eyes, I immediately gestured to Damian.

[Damian, now!]

As soon as I gestured, Damian moved the fire in front of the anglerfish’s eyes. The anglerfish tried to swallow the fire without delay, but Damian combined the several scattered fires to create a fire as intense as a flash of light. We, who had covered our eyes in advance, were unharmed, but the anglerfish, whose eyes were suddenly exposed to the intense light, writhed in pain. And the moment Damian removed the light that had enveloped its eyes.

Stab. Tristan tore its tail fin with a dagger.

A tattoo, instantly glowing bright red, was carved onto the right half of its body.

—…!

The anglerfish’s mouth fell open, and it began to writhe in agony. Tristan immediately retreated, and Rikiel used ‘Taunt’ on the creature to prevent it from paying attention to Tristan or the other colleagues.

I approached the fishing rod-shaped tentacle extending from its back. Because it was thrashing about, it wasn’t easy to grab the bundle of parasites at its end, but how much of a commotion could a creature that couldn’t use its right side make? If this creature had been in a normal state, it would have torn Rikiel’s body to shreds long ago and attacked me.

‘A little more, just a little more!’

Barely managing to grab the middle of the tentacle, I swung my dagger and cut it. It wasn’t easy to cut the tough tentacle with a small dagger, but after a few trials and errors, I was able to get my hands on the tentacle and the bundle of parasites attached to its end. I threw away the tentacle and put the bundle of parasites into the bag at my waist.

I immediately backed away and gestured to Rehas, who was waiting a few meters behind. He released the string of the arrow he had been aiming at the anglerfish’s head. However, the arrow hit its torso instead of its head, because the anglerfish, which had been chasing Rikiel, sensed the danger and twisted its body at the last moment.

But the arrow hit its mark anyway, and a loud explosion erupted from the anglerfish’s torso. Of course, there was no way that massive creature would die from this, so I approached it and began to tear into its body with my dagger and left arm. To kill this thing properly, it’s faster to cut off its head, but its hide was too thick to be cut with a dagger, so for now, I had no choice but to attack its ‘insides.’

The dagger was practically useless, but the ‘Bombardment’ and ‘Luck’ parasites residing in my left arm activated a few times, making a mess of its insides. Every time I clenched my fingers, a loud explosion occurred, and soft flesh burst apart. The entrails and flesh that flowed out of its body made the already murky seawater even more chaotic.

It took a struggle of two or three minutes before I could kill it. The red tattoo melted away from the breathless anglerfish’s body as if dissolving, and at the same time, a black tattoo was overlaid on the right half of Tristan’s body. Tristan grimaced slightly as if in pain, but fortunately, the tattoo faded in an instant and disappeared completely in less than 10 seconds.

[Are you alright?]

I approached Tristan and gestured, but he just smiled as if nothing was wrong and nodded. It seemed to be a side effect that appeared briefly right after using the skill and then disappeared.

Confirming a peculiar sense of relief on his face, I could finally be at ease. It’s understandable to be relieved. He was certainly a great help in this hunt. If Tristan’s skill hadn’t paralyzed its right side, we would not have been able to catch a huge monster several meters long in such a short time.

Besides, this anglerfish is a powerful creature, strong enough not to lose even when fighting against monsters enhanced with parasites… Just looking at the experience points gained after killing the anglerfish is enough to know how powerful this creature is.

Anyway, while my colleagues gathered around us, I took out the parasites and checked their quality. Exactly five parasites were wriggling in my palm, and they were much longer and thicker than the parasites I had obtained in the tutorial stage. They must be of a higher level.

‘Three unidentified parasites, one ‘Appraisal’ parasite, and one ‘Luck’ parasite.’

Since I had an ‘Appraisal’ parasite that could identify the performance of unidentified items, it seemed I could identify at least one parasite. When I twisted the largest parasite and the appraisal parasite together to synthesize them, the ‘Appraisal’ parasite was instantly absorbed by the large parasite and disappeared. I checked the parasite’s performance.

[Parasite of Mana Distortion (Equipment Synthesis Type)]

[Mana Distortion IV: When the equipment comes into contact with an opponent’s body, it distorts the mana staying within and around the opponent’s body to a certain level. Through this, magic that is currently being cast can be nullified.

Nullifies magic using 300 or less mana with a 100% probability, nullifies magic using over 300 and 500 or less mana with a 75% probability, and nullifies magic using over 500 and 1000 or less mana with a 50% probability. For magic using more mana than that, the probability is unconditionally fixed at 10%.]

[This parasite cannot parasitize a body. Attempting to parasitize a body will result in mana becoming 0 and death.]

I was inwardly surprised because its performance was much better than I thought. It has virtually no effect in the early stages when most monsters push through with physical attacks, but in the mid-to-late stages, when small, magic-attack-type monsters frequently appear, there is no better parasite than this.

The only drawback is that it cannot parasitize a body, but this parasite is one that can show sufficient effect whether it parasitizes a weapon or armor. If it parasitizes a weapon, you can efficiently deal with monsters that have a magic barrier, and if it parasitizes armor, it has the effect of blocking the opponent’s magic attacks.

Of course, since we need a sword right now, this parasite will have to parasitize a sword. I don’t know what the performance of the remaining parasites is yet, but I can just get more ‘Appraisal’ parasites later and check their performance. By the time I was putting the parasites into my bag with a pleased heart, Rehas approached my side and waved his hand. It was a signal that he wanted to talk, so I fixed my gaze on his lips.

[That thing, the bones or meat, should I carve them out?]

[No, they’re useless.]

Anglerfish are not edible fish, and their bones are not as strong as one might think, so they are insufficient for making good equipment. The ‘Mana Distortion’ parasite is a truly precious item, so it can’t be made to inhabit just any sword. I decided to leave the anglerfish and depart for another place. If left alone, other monsters would eat it on their own.

[Let’s go.]

Now that we had obtained the parasites, it was time to get the materials for the sword. There were no suitable monsters in the areas we had explored so far, so it seemed we would have to go quite a bit further. Relying on the map fixed on the upper left of my vision, I pushed forward through the pitch-black darkness, and my colleagues swam in a line behind me, relying on me.

A monster strong enough to become material for a sword was not found as easily as I thought. We wandered around for an hour, expanding the map, but the only useful monster was the one anglerfish we had caught earlier. Of course, we caught two conches for lunch, but you can’t make a sword with their shells. You can’t even make a single piece of armor with a conch shell.

‘Perhaps because it’s the deep sea, the density of monsters is sparse. It’s a relief in terms of safety, but…’

It seemed I had used up all my morning’s luck by catching that one anglerfish. We had already been swimming for an hour and hadn’t gotten anything, so it was about time to head back to the temporary shelter. It would be best to grill and eat the conches we hunted, let the colleagues rest a bit, and then explore in a different direction.

As I thought that and turned my body, Damian, who was behind me, tapped my shoulder with wide, rabbit-like eyes. What is it? Could there be a useful monster?

[Over there, monsters, strangely a lot.]

[Really? Let’s go see.]

Damian pointed into the distant darkness, and I nodded and began to swim in that direction. The fact that there is an area where monsters are gathered in this deep sea is proof that there is something special in that area. For example, hydrothermal vents are one such case.

Of course, there are some areas that are dangerous if you get close, but even if it is dangerous, checking what makes it dangerous is quite an important task. As I led my colleagues and moved in the direction Damian pointed, a fairly large-scale light was indeed flowing from that direction.

After identifying the source of that light, I faintly frowned.

‘Ah, it’s that.’

My colleagues stood with their mouths agape, as if amazed by the enchanting light and beautiful scenery. I suppose anyone would be. Anyone would be in awe at the sight of sparkling coral reefs in this dark deep sea, and the colorful fish frolicking in their midst.

But I, who already knew the true nature of that coral reef cluster, could not be impressed at all. That coral reef, well… it was connected to the most bewildering memory I had experienced in the demon world.

[…?]

Forcibly tearing my gaze away from Damian, who was tilting his head as if to ask why I was looking at him like that, I desperately shook my head to erase the worst memory of my life. Every time I see that, I can’t bring myself to look Damian in the face.