Chapter 95

Chapter 95

The six-tailed fox was sunbathing on a boulder when she stared blankly at Merlin as he strode towards her. Before she knew what was happening, Merlin had grabbed her tail. It wasn’t that he was quick; he moved as if it were natural to approach and grasp the six-tailed fox’s tail.

“Oh, it’s so soft, and the hair is pure white without any blemishes.”

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing? L-let go!”

After having her tail grasped, the six-tailed fox struggled in bewilderment. When he saw that the monsters still didn’t attack, Merlin could tell that the mobs here were definitely different from the ones he usually dealt with. On Dynamic Island, attacking was a monster’s priority, but here, it seemed they were pacifists. When he noticed the fox’s much milder response than anticipated, Merlin picked her up and held her. The six-tailed foxes that Merlin saw during the Siege Quest were quite large, but this one was only about 30 centimeters long, so she fit snuggly in his arms.

“Ah, this six-tailed fox is so cute. Whoa…”

“What? Who are you? Go away!"

“It’s nice to hold something so cute. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders….”

“Kyak?!”

Finally, the six-tailed fox became enraged and cast a spell to get away from Merlin. Once she escaped, she hid behind a nearby rock. Since her attack had no killing intent, Merlin didn’t sustain any significant damage.

“Ugh, why are you acting in such a disgusting and perverted manner?”

“Shut it. Ah, it would have been nice if my pet was as cute as that six-tailed fox.”

“What? Do you know how lucky you are to have a pet as cool as me!”

Quiet Heaven was furious, but Merlin didn’t seem to care as he turned his head towards the six-tailed fox, who was on high alert while remaining partially hidden.

“Hehehe. That guy is pretty funny.”

“I’ve never seen Miho so embarrassed.”

As they conversed between themselves, the two goblins who were buried in sand moments ago approached Merlin. Of the two, one of the goblins walked ahead and was quite large, bearing a heavy-looking bat on his shoulder. He was emitting considerable pressure and aura.

“Hmm? Your names are clearly displayed.”

Monsters north of the Noisy Belt typically didn’t have individual, personal names. The only monsters that did were those with a certain level of intelligence, like the Orc Hero Sungmuk or the Naga Knight Kaltroc, and they revealed their names themselves. Users had no methods to discover a monster’s name.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Oh, nothing. Nice to meet you. I’m Merlin.”

“I’m Garam. This girl here is Narin. We’re part of the civilian militia.”

The goblin named Garam was a muscular man, like a modern-day bodybuilder, while Narin was a woman with a relatively slender body. Their skin was bright red as if they’d been painted with red oil, and they both had hand-sized horns on the top of their heads.

“Where did you come from? You don’t look skilled enough to have crossed the sea with spacial movement or flying skills, so that means you traveled here by swimming….”

“That’s correct.”

“…?”

“I swam all the way here.”

“…”

As they heard Merlin’s calm reply, the two goblins looked exasperated.

“What? The nearest island is about 50 kilometers away, and you’re saying you swam that far?”

“It’s much easier for me than flying.”

“Oh, my.”

Narin looked at Merlin suspiciously after hearing Garam gasp in shock.

“Hey, Garam, maybe this guy is a mermaid?”

“A mermaid? He doesn’t have any fins, though, right?”

“I heard that some royal mermaids living in Aqualand can transform into humans. It’s just a rumor, but I think it’s more convincing than a human appearing out of nowhere."

After Narin spoke, Merlin felt the atmosphere slowly become hostile. He didn’t know why, but it seemed the Blue Forest Island monsters had a poor relationship with the Aqualand mermaids.

“No, wait. I’m sorry, but I’m definitely human. Mermaids… even if mermaids can transform into humans, that wouldn’t change their aura, right?”

Though it wasn’t apparent, the two goblins were high-level monsters with a significant level advantage over Merlin. In addition, goblins were known to be tricky customers, as they were skilled with magic and could detect their opponent’s aura.

“What say you, Narin?”

“Certainly… I don’t sense a mermaid’s aura on him or any other signs of being one, but still, the fact that a human swam all the way here….”

Crunch.

Suddenly, a strange sound rang out, causing everyone to stop what they were doing. The noise was like someone grinding their teeth or two hard objects rubbing against each other. And with this sound, a huge shadow shot out from the bushes.

“Screech. Again, you guys are gathered here. Screech. Are you guys fooling around… screech… again?”

The shadow’s face spoke, perfectly resembling a human being. The man had sharp eyes, so he felt like someone that was always angry and frustrated.

Yet, the only human aspect was his face; the rest of his body was entirely different. The male monster had dozens of legs and a hard shell. Much to Merlin’s surprise, its body was that of a centipede while its head was human.

‘It’s a Human-Faced Centipede.’

Although he’d never seen this monster before, Merlin instantly recognized it from the descriptions he’d read and the illustrations he saw in a relatively popular martial arts fantasy novel. In that novel, however, the Human-Faced Centipede was depicted as a poor creature whose only purpose was to be defeated by the protagonist for its qi core to be used later. Within DIO, this monster was extraordinarily dangerous and spat a potent poison. Moreover, members of its species would be Level 8 or higher. They were stronger than the more widely-known Ogre, a typical high-level monster.

“Screech. A h-human?”

And as soon as the monster saw Merlin, it began to salivate. Though there was no killing intent, Merlin couldn’t help but feel a sense of crisis. This new monster seemed to have gained an appetite after looking at Merlin!

“Inyup, wait. Did you forget Ms. Heavenly Flower’s order not to fight on the island?”

“Screech. That was an order for you foxes. Why do I need to follow it?”

The Human-Faced Centipede named Inyup responded with a smirk and looked at Merlin with its bright red eyes. Its mouth, which was a normal size initially, soon tore from side to side and split apart grotesquely. And at that moment, the white background of Inyup’s username bubble turned red.

/The Human-Faced Centipede, Inyup (Level 9), is showing hostility towards you!/

“Watch out!”

Whoosh!

As Quiet Heaven shouted a warning, a fierce heat wave fell from the sky, brushing past Merlin’s head and landing on Inyup’s face. Still feeling the heat radiating on his face, Merlin wanted to yell at Quiet Heaven and ask why his pet had suddenly taken action, but at that moment, a green liquid that had survived the heat wave fell near his feet.

Sss.

Merlin was standing on a rock on the beach. Surprisingly, the green liquid melted through the rock like water disintegrating cotton candy. Quiet Heaven’s attack burned up most of the green liquid that Inyup had spat toward Merlin, so only a few drops were near his feet. Nonetheless, a hole the size of a human head was carved into the rock.

“Inyup, don’t…!”

“Kyak!”

Garam, the male red goblin, grabbed his bat and moved as if to intervene, but when Inyup roared, the goblin was forced back by the overwhelming aura. Garam’s abilities and skills were formidable for a goblin, which was why he was given a bat, but he and Narin were only Level 6. And although the six-tailed fox Miho was stronger at Level 7, Inyup was a matured monster who possessed significantly superior combat power. Amongst monsters, level denotations didn’t exist, so levels weren’t relied on to understand who was more powerful. Instead, they knew based on combat strength.

“Stand back, Merlin!”

“It’s not like I don’t want to stand back….”

Quiet Heaven called out to Merlin, unable to help for now as it had just used its skill. Merlin smiled bitterly and looked at Inyup as the monster stared at him and clutched its distorted face.

Most of the flames from Quiet Heaven’s attack burned Inyup’s venom, but some of the fire had hit Inyup’s face. Although Inyup didn’t face the brunt of the attack, it still suffered severe injuries since the energy from the heat wave was so immense. Over half of his face had been burned.

‘Damn it. Why does that guy resent me so much? He’s injured to such an extent, but he’s still spewing out so much killing intent.’

As expected, Merlin tried to flee the moment Inyup was hit. Despite being taken aback by the unfolding scene, Merlin was smart enough not to panic. His analytical and critical thinking abilities were so rapid that, before others grasped the situation, he could predict and act based on every option and consequence. Alas, although Inyup was suffering after being burned, Merlin couldn’t retreat.

‘This doesn’t feel like it’s going to go my way. My current movement skills will probably only allow me to take a few steps away before that guy kills me.’

Rather than a logical deduction, Merlin intuitively knew he couldn’t escape. His feelings weren’t based on any facts or substantive evidence, but he just knew. While Inyup was holding his face, Merlin knew that the monster would do ‘something’ if he tried to escape, and Merlin knew that nothing good would come from that scenario.

“Ugh… hey, you over there, bird brain. How can you hurt me to help a human? Do you want to die?”

“Hmph. Asking if I want to die… can you even catch me? I can turn you into ash the next time around.”

While stating such brave, courageous words, Quiet Heaven remained high in the air and didn’t descend. Quiet Heaven’s attribute affinity for fire and wind were decent counters to Inyup’s poison, but in terms of size, Quiet Heaven was comparatively tiny. Furthermore, in the end, Quiet Heaven was a living being, so if it were attacked, it would inevitably die.

“Screech. Human. If you take one step, I’ll make sure to melt you with my poison.”

“Hahaha. Isn’t it better if we resolve our differences through more peaceful means?”

“Kikiki! Peace doesn’t exist between a hunter and its prey.”

As Inyup spoke with killing intent, Merlin couldn’t help but start sweating. If he were in the water, he wouldn’t have been in such dire straits. There, it didn’t matter if an arrow was shot in front of his face; Merlin could match its speed while retreating and eventually escape.

Unfortunately, Merlin was on land. Once he left the water, his movement range had greatly diminished. Of course, Merlin knew a few movement skills, but they were commonly known and wouldn’t help him here. If Merlin showed any signs of retreating, he’d succumb to Inyup’s attack.

‘I need to retreat and escape this predicament, though.’

It was stupid not to flee because Inyup told him to. If Merlin moved, he would be attacked, but that didn’t mean that Merlin would be spared if he stayed still.

‘No matter if I’m injured, if I can just make it to the sea….’

Merlin was 30 meters away from the water, so even with his movement skill, he’d have to take five steps to get there. He wasn’t too concerned, though, because if he didn’t entirely avoid the centipede’s poison, the system’s pain control function would limit what he felt from the attack.

Bang!

“Screech! You!”

Inyup had been keeping an eye on Quiet Heaven when he saw Merlin making a run for the water, instantly spitting out a poison attack. Actually, saying that he spit wasn’t correct; it was more appropriate to call it an attack due to its swift speed. Merlin’s quickness ability registered the incoming attack, but he couldn’t grasp what exactly was flying toward him.

‘I can’t see it, but if I want to block or dodge, I need to be able to track it!’

His mind worked as fast as light as it went into overdrive. At the moment, Merlin’s brain was closer to a supercomputer than anything human as he absorbed all the external information and calculated the possible outcomes. Quicker, faster… Twice as fast, up to four times, eight times, 16 times, and then….

Merlin was accelerating his mental processing speed. As his thoughts became faster, time slowed. Obviously, this didn’t actually happen since Merlin was still following the laws of physics, but with his accelerated mental processing skill, he could see and understand the attack heading toward him.

A bullet flew at 990 meters per second or 3,500 kilometers per hour. It didn’t matter if someone used an ability; they would still have trouble recognizing such a swift object. Yet, if that attack was slowed to a tenth of its original speed, most ability users could easily see it. Right now, Merlin was able to see what Inyup had sent toward him.

‘A marble?’

To be specific, Merlin saw compressed poison in the shape of a marble. For whatever reason, the green marble appeared to emit a colorless aura.

‘A colorless attack… once the marble releases and scatters the poison within, I won’t have any chance of evading.’

Moreover, as Merlin saw the marble slowly approaching him, he couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine. Regardless if the marble hit him directly, if it merely grazed him, or if he inhaled the poison within, Merlin was sure that he’d suffer critical damage. This meant that he needed to avoid the oncoming attack completely.

Step.

Merlin took another step, but the marble was already next to his cheek. Merlin hadn’t slowed time but quickened his thought processing, so his physical movements were relatively slow.

‘I need to block it.’

As soon as Merlin thought this, his two Wicalein Ring spirits, Younghwi and Shining, transformed into flat planes and moved between Merlin and the oncoming marble. The two spirits were made of spiritual qi. Hence, unless they took the form of physical objects, they weren’t limited to the laws of physics. Merlin’s skill in controlling the spirits wasn’t developed yet, but theoretically, if Merlin had the capability, his spirits could move at the speed of sound.

Crack!

Younghwi was the first to clash against the marble. Instantly, a hole formed in the middle of the plane that the spirit had become. Unexpectedly, this result meant that the Human-Faced Centipede’s poison could affect spiritual bodies!