I hate you, sometimes, I thought to Samantha, as I put 50 mana into Physical Defense, quickly unequipping my boots and gloves.

Following Samantha’s combat shadow, I made sure my Interdimensional Pouch was tucked behind my robes.

As I did, I let myself tumble down the Lamia Impression’s throat, curling up into a ball with my arms wrapped around my head and neck, my Interdimensional Pouch tightly protected at my stomach by my curled-up knees and back. The Lamia Impression’s throat gulped, and I felt the walls around me constrict into a human-sized tunnel. Except, it wasn’t the walls that I felt, it was the teeth that lined the inside of the creature’s esophagus like razor blades.

I could tell that the esophagus was undulating, moving the teeth back and forth across my body, calling and recalling waves of teeth to gnash against me and shred me, piece by piece.

It was painful, but not as painful as I had feared. The teeth drew long cuts along my body, and I could feel myself bleeding in a dozen different places, but with my Physical Defense, it didn’t hurt as much compared to when that Earth Magician had caught me in a rock whirlwind.

My bigger concern was that this “esophagus” didn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. I wasn’t falling, but I could tell that I was had been moving slowly for ten seconds, with nothing to show for it.

How long is this going to last?

Samantha said.

Until now, my eyes had been tightly closed. I didn’t want to get an eye poked out, after all.

It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Once again, heightened Perception proved useful.

I watched the teeth and blades as they sliced against my body. I wasn’t really sure what to look for. My Bloodied Battle Robes were almost completely destroyed by this point, so I unequipped them. If they took much more damage, I would lose them permanently.

Was it really necessary to let me get swallowed by this thing? Or is this just to satisfy your sadism?

Samantha replied.

But this is also one of the most dangerous. We have what, a minute and a half? To find its core, in a creature the size of a house? I argued, half-heartedly. It was almost habit now, to second-guess Samantha’s decisions and play devil’s advocate. Or angel’s advocate. But if I had learned anything in the last week, it was that Samantha had an incredible talent for navigating deadly situations.

Samantha said, confidently. “Get both your knives ready.”

I drew my knives from the Interdimensional Pouch—making sure the pouch was as protected by my body as possible—and waited as patiently as I could, while I was literally being shredded by a hundred jagged teeth.

Samantha said.

There wasn’t much air inside the creature’s esophagus, but it was manageable. I’m not even going to mention the smell.

I followed the Combat Shadow, slicing through a section of the esophagus near me.

The moment I punctured the esophagus, the walls and blades around me tightened even further, and blood streamed towards me,

I felt the blood burn my skin slightly as I touched it.

Then, I made the slice in the creature’s skin even greater, until I was able to press against the flood of blood, and cut through the teeth that angled to form a protective barrier between me and the slit flesh.

The walls around me shifted, and I felt the force of a hundred blades biting into me and dragging me down, away from the opening I had created.

But I fought against it, leveraging all my strength to pull myself in by inch, holding tightly on to the teeth that were closest to the bleeding hole I had created.

It was moments like these that made me wish the Mental Power stat would just make my force of will stronger.

With every inch I gained, I felt another, deeper cut. Previously, by going with the flow of the Lamia Impression’s digestive tract, I had avoided deep cuts. But now, I was literally dragging myself along teeth that were intentionally positioned to block my passage.

I suddenly remembered Petra. Just a year ago, when I had been visiting Petra and Justin for Christmas, we went on a hike. When we just started the return hike, Petra slipped on an icy puddle.

She didn’t make a big deal out of it, and we continued walking.

It wasn’t until the next day, when she came home from work with crutches, that we learned she had broken her ankle.

What would have happened, if Petra had been in my shoes? If she had drunk the vial? She would have challenged Hell head-on, in order to protect Justin, and me.

I yanked again, inclining my head slightly so a serrated tooth would miss my eye. I ignored the burning pain caused by the monster’s blood, and slipped into the man-sized hole in the esophagus that I had created.

Immediately, instead of the feeling of being sliced to pieces, I felt like I was being burned alive.

I was still trapped between fleshy organs, surrounded by bleeding tissue, and the blood around me seeped into the cuts on my body and burned.

I never had a clear idea, before this moment, what the inside of a creature looked like, from the inside. And I still didn’t. I was surrounded by two pulsing walls of flesh, one on my left, and one on my right, that had previously been pressed flush against each other. Thanks to my presence, these two walls curved slightly, leaving just enough space for my presence, but nothing else.

I gripped something slimy on one of the walls and yanked, pulling myself away from the esophagus behind me.

The only bright side was that there were no more sharp objects around me.

The less bright side was that I only had 5 seconds left on my first round of boosted Physical Defense.

I pushed my way past the two walls. It seemed Samantha was uninterested in damaging them. Likely because the resulting blood would cause me immense pain. But, Samantha clearly didn’t have qualms when it came to causing me pain…

I came upon a third wall, except this one beat with a familiar, heart-like rhythm. Each pulse was like a shockwave that I could feel at my core.

I readied my knife, ready to escape the belly of the beast.

Samantha said. Her combat outline led me around the curved red wall that was presumably a heart, as she explained,

My 50 points of Physical Defense had run out, and so Samantha had me add 20 more points to Physical Defense.

Since I was now using fewer points per minute than my Mana Regeneration, I was now able to regain mana at a slow rate while inside the Lamia Impression. The only thing holding me back now, was that I was still holding my breath.

Moving around the internal organs of the Lamia Impression felt like a grotesque version of a bouncy-house maze—when there are two adjacent inflated walls that you have to climb in between, and as you move through those walls, they reform behind you.

It wasn’t long after passing by the heart that I found what Samantha was looking for: the mana core.

Even though I couldn’t see the core, I could tell with Mana Sensing that it was behind a sphere-shaped organ that had the radius of one foot.

The core was bursting with mana, and I could see that there were several thick “arteries” and “veins” that were carrying mana towards and away from the creature’s core.

Following Samantha’s combat outline, I stabbed into the organ that held the Lamia Impression’s core, and fished around inside the burst organ until I found a jewel that was about an inch in diameter.

I could see very complex mana pathways flowing all around the core, so I drew Ghostbiter from my pouch, slicing through the mana pathways with my blade awkwardly—I was still barely able to move, flush between organs.

Then, I added almost all my remaining points to Luck, and I grabbed the core, placing it in my Interdimensional Pouch.

Then I waited.

I felt intense tremors in the organ-walls around me, and a deep, guttural roar from the monster.

It didn’t take much longer for me to receive the long-awaited notification.

Congratulations for killing a Region Lord. +5 Available Stat Points.

To my disappointment, I didn’t level up right away, which meant I would have to deal with my dozens of cuts and bruises for a while longer.

As I sliced my way out of the now-carcass, I decided to place one point in Luck, 3 points in Mana Regeneration, and 1 point in my Mana pool.

Name:

Jarek

Level:

32

HP:

42/42

Physical Defense:

18

Strength:

31

Mental Power:

14

Dexterity:

10

Agility:

10

Perception:

20

Luck:

20

Mana Pool:

100

Mana Regeneration:

47

Available Points:

0

Coins:

9,869,000

Class:

Mana Modulator (D-rank)

Profession:

Rune Master

(E-rank)

Titles:

Region Lord (E-rank)

Skills and Spells:

Identify (E-rank)

Mana Modulation (D-rank Core)

Death’s Defier (A-rank)

Mana Sensing (E-rank)

Healthy Magic (E-rank)

Don’t Mind Me (D-rank)

Aquatic Respiration (E-rank)

Polyglot (E-rank)

Soul Communion (D-rank)

Cursed Lightning (D-rank)

Affinities:

Internal Mana (D-rank Low), External Unattributed Mana (E-rank Low), Soul Magic (D-rank Low)

Equipment:

Interdimensional Pouch (D-rank):

Missions:

Zone Offense

Renegade Bounty Hunter