Chapter 286

286 – Mother Abyss

The wall crumbles, exploding into a cloud of dust. Beyond the dust, there is something emitting an overwhelming presence. Its figure is obscured, from the shadow it projects onto the cloud of dust, it’s a bit bigger than me. A bizarrely long, bluish black tentacle protrudes from the cloud of dust.

There’s no doubt this is the abysses’ boss. If I defeat it, their strange population surge should settle down.

Abysses are swarming around the ground, so below is dangerous. Making that judgement, I extend my tail towards Aro. She jumps onboard, then transfers to my back.

“VeeeEeeeeEEeeeeeh!”

Its high-pitched scream once again echoes throughout the area. The scream clears away the dust instantly.

What appears is a bluish black, longer-than-normal, gigantic abyss. Its eyes shine as it glares at me. In addition to the usual eyes, its got extra eyes on the sides of its head. A mixture of long and short tentacles sprout from around its head, waving in the air.

What’s so repulsive about it is the huge number of abyss larvae crowded onto its back. Squirming, the larvae are wrapped with that soft yellow stuff from earlier. Each of them are wriggling, almost as though they are eating through back of the giant abyss in order to make a place for themselves. I had thought that its back was dented, but it looks like that’s the result of the larvae eating it away.

To be honest, just looking at it is dampening my will to fight. My partner’s also lost for words, staring in mute amazement.

I am grateful from the depths of my heart that I haven’t met that thing up ’till now, and am filled with despair for meeting it now. This thing’s seriously no good.

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Species: Mother

Condition: Enraged (major)

Lv: 81/85

HP: 722/722

MP: 285/325

Attack: 555

Defence: 647

Magic: 364

Speed: 481

Rank: B+

Characteristic Skills:

[Many-legged: Lv-] [Onmitsu: LvMAX] [Dark Attribute: Lv-] [Automatic HP Recovery: Lv7] [Presence Perception: Lv4] [Tentacle: Lv8] [Carapace: Lv8] [Great Reproduction: Lv8] [Food Regeneration: Lv7]

Resistance Skills:

[Physical Resistance: Lv7] [Magic Resistance: Lv6] [Fall Resistance: LvMAX] [Poison Resistance: Lv9] [Paralysis Resistance: Lv5] [Confusion Resistance: Lv5]

Normal Skills:

[Hole Digging: Lv8] [Paralysis Bite: Lv8] [Acidic Saliva: Lv7] [Plague Breath: Lv8] [Clay Wall: Lv6] [Tentacle Whip: Lv6] [Gravity: Lv7] [Gravidon: Lv8] [Physical Barrier: Lv5]

Title Skills:

[Mutation: Lv-] [Mother Abyss: Lv-] [Cannibalism: Lv8] [Many Children: LvMAX] [Final Evolution: Lv-] [Calamity: Lv8]

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Ugeeh… I-I might have been taking this a little lightly. It’s not to the same extent as me, but its stats are stupidly high. This thing is really dangerous.

This monster was hiding at the bottom? I can see in an instant why the abysses were multiplying out of control. This thing has been endlessly producing them under the ground. It might be easier for the Lithovars to just move away.

【[Mother]: B+ rank monster】

【A form reached by an abyss that has lived for several hundred years, a queen of the abyss.】

【It incubates a portion of the eggs it lays inside itself, which go on to parasitise its back and eat away at its flesh.】【The abysses raised this way become elites which protect the [Mother].】

【As an aside, each time its mate dies following mating, it becomes nutrition for the [Mother].】

O-oh… Indeed, arranged around the mother, I see a number of bluish black heavy abysses.

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Species: Mother Guard

Condition: Enraged (major), Defence Correction

Lv: 43/65

HP: 458/458

MP: 143/143

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They’re not heavies, they’re custom-made bodyguards. Their levels are stupidly high, what are these guys, seriously? A whole load of 400 HPs are gathered together and shuffling around. As a plus, there’s that defence correction… Is that the mother’s [Physical Barrier]? With this many here, there’s no end in sight.

The mother moves to beside the dragon-god’s skeleton, bends its legs, and sits down. The mother guards crowd onto the skeleton, causing it to sink into the ground slightly.

Shaking my tail and forelegs to flick away the abysses that came charging, I jump into the air. I’ll hit it with [Wind Slashes] from above.

It’s certainly tougher than any enemy I’ve fought so far, but if I hit it with too many shots from the front for it to recover, it should run out of strength. I have 【Attack: 837】, after all. It might be high level, but I’m a higher rank.

I fire two blades of wind. The moment I do, one of the mother guards that was on the dragon-god’s skeleton leaps up to accept the blades. Its body is cleaved open, scattering body fluids. But it’s posture doesn’t break, and it lands on its legs without falling over. It’s got serious guts. The injured mother guard falls back, and is replaced by another.

“Wind magic, [Gale]!”

Aro fires a tornado. The tornado gouges through the ground as it approaches the mother, but a mother guard intercepts, snuffing it out. It doesn’t look like it took much damage.

Aro only just evolved, after all. Even using my magic power, she doesn’t have the levels to fight a level 40 mother guard. It would have been better if she’d had a chance to hunt some abysses first.

One of the mother’s head tentacles bends towards me at high speed. It seems they can be expanded and contracted at will, because even though I thought I was out of range, it easily whips closer. It doesn’t look like flying will be much of an advantage. I roll to the side to dodge before twisting to bite it.

As I chomp down, the mother’s body fluids soak my mouth. It’s lukewarm, with a peculiar bitterness and foul smell, and more than anything, its flavour is… No, if I pay attention to it, it’s my loss. I need to clear my heart. I can throw up to my heart’s content once this is over, but I need to bear it for now.

I change my trajectory upwards to try and pull the mother away from its guards. Its body floats slightly, but a moment later more tentacles sprout and pull it back to the ground with a thud.

I roll desperately to dodge another tentacle whip, then use that acceleration to dash towards the mother’s head. The tentacle slips from my mouth from the sudden movement, but the guards are unable to keep up and I land a direct hit on the mother’s forehead. A repulsive scream echoes throughout the chasm as its carapace dents and body fluids leak out.

…Great, I was somehow able to damage it. It might have a numbers advantage, but in a direct fight I won’t lose. With this, I should try and score hits while thinking of ways to disrupt the guards’ formation.

It might be forcing my way into a close quarters fight, but the mother guards’ statuses are outstanding, so… With the abysses sticking to it, it’d be fairly hard. I want to chip away at the mother guards from a distance where their attacks won’t reach. If I try attacking they’ll obstruct me, and if I land they’ll surround and bite at me from every angle.

Feeling a strange sensation, I glance at my back. Aro has two new arms sprouting from her back, extending from gaps in her clothes to cling to my body. They’re smaller than the arm she made before and a lot more human-like, so it’s kind of scary.

Meeting my eyes, she hurriedly releases her grip in her extra arms. N-no, if you let go, you’ll fall.