NOVEL NEXT Chapter 575: The endless caverns
The two elders gaped in shock as they watched the scene with absolute disbelief. The buzzing ceased as abruptly as it had begun. The sky, once blackened with wings, cleared in seconds, only to be replaced by a crimson drizzle of liquefied insect remains.
The sand hissed as the corpses hit the ground, releasing faint green smoke that curled into the air like incense from a cursed altar. Both the blood essence and the poison essence shot directly towards Damon, who stood casually, completely unaffected.
Meloman's mouth fell open. "Th-this… this shouldn't be possible. The swarm's poison alone…"
"Was weak," Damon interrupted. He flicked his fingers, and the blood mist around him swirled tighter, absorbing the residual venom from the fallen wasps. "They're loud, but not dangerous."
Narsi could only stare at him, his hands trembling slightly. "Of course, my lord."
Hidden amidst the swarm, a man also dropped dead. Damon already absorbed the guy's essence and then bent down to see if he had any interesting items on his body. There was some sort of whistle, but nothing else. He pocketed the whistle and left the body to rot.
Damon did not really particularly care about subduing this order and forming contracts with them like he did with the Venom Sigil. He was just fine eradicating the whole bunch. There was no need to risk things unnecessarily.
While these people indeed possessed a talent for venomous insects and beast taming, there were talented beast tamers everywhere.
He looked toward the horizon where the dunes shimmered faintly. There was only sand and sand everywhere and nothing else.
"My lord, their order should be underground. There would be a lot more deadly venomous insects and swarms. This is their home base. There are countless poisonous beasts inside. This place is as toxic and deadly as our Dune of Graves. It wouldn't be wise to-"
Narsi and Meloman both stopped speaking and looked at Damon with bitter smiles. What were they saying? This was the same person who completely changed the identity of the Dune of Graves in a matter of minutes. So why would this place be any different?
They decided to simply stay quiet and keep their mouths shut, waiting for the orders from the new boss. At this point, they wouldn't be surprised if Damon directly walked into the underground caverns of death.
And precisely had the same plan.
He was looking for more poisonous beasts and more beasts in general to upgrade his many poison skills and his current stats. If someone had gathered all of these poisonous beasts for him and shoved them all in one big underground network, then why would he not enter such a godly leveling place?
"Do you guys know what levels these bugs, beasts and insects would probably be?" Damon asked.
Meloman hesitated, exchanging a nervous glance with Narsi before answering carefully. "It depends on which layer we're talking about, my lord. The upper tunnels hold all sorts of lesser creatures, venomous scorpions, dune serpents, and hive guardians ranging from level forty to eighty. But the deeper you go…" He swallowed.
"The deeper you go, the more unnatural they become. Some of the beasts below have been bred for centuries. I would not be surprised if the strongest among them reach over level hundred."
Damon nodded. "Well, that is to be expected. Aren't you guys all level 200 plus and peak C rank? I am sure the opposite side has similar level. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to survive among the nine orders."
Meloman immediately shook his head on hearing this. "No, my lord. I am confident no beast lord has achieved something like this. If one of their beasts had truly reached level 200, then they would be able to produce truly terrifying venom. That alone would have made them unrivaled."
Narsi added with a nod. "They would have long since toppled all the other orders and claimed dominance over the entire Western Desert region."
"Okay, if you say so." Damon took their words with a grain of salt. It was best not to assume anything before starting a fight. Underestimating an enemy would only result in a loss.
While he was confident, he would be able to handle anything they threw his way, especially because of his poison upgrade, he still decided to use a little strategy first before brute forcing. In fact, these sort of underground encampments made the perfect spot for using this strategy.
The other side was probably aware that he was here and they hadn't made another move yet. He was not planning to wait for them to do something else. He silently walked forward and used his newly obtained earth-type skill.
The ground shuddered as Damon pressed his palm to the sand. The next moment a whirlwind erupted and all the sand in the area started flying away. A sort of drill formed in the ground, revealing a deep gaping hole.
The moment the hole appeared, a swarm of beetles surged upward like a living tide. Their chitin shimmered in shades of black and green. The air turned thick with the stench of decay and acid.
Meloman's expression turned grim. "Burrow sentinels," he muttered. "They guard every entrance. Each one carries a hive core that explodes on death." He waned Damon.
Damon nodded and a black green wave pulsed from his body. Every beetle within a hundred meters froze midair. Their wings locked, their legs curled, and a second later, they fell like obsidian rain.
The detonations that followed were putrid and pungent and they colored the sand green. Their poison simply dissolved into Damon's mist before it could even spread. Beneath their feet, the ground rumbled again. More were coming out.
However, Damon did not step back. Instead he shot forward into the hole and as he did, he sent several blasts of poisonous fumes into the hole.
The moment he plunged into the hole, the world around him turned into a churning maelstrom of toxin and shadow. His poison blasts tore through the tunnels like miniature storms, carving molten paths into the hardened hive walls.
Each explosion released waves of emerald vapor that mixed with his blood mist, turning the underground cavern into a swirling inferno of miasma.
Screeches erupted all around him, horrid, chitinous sounds that made even the elders flinch above. Countless creatures crawled from cracks in the tunnel walls, centipedes with translucent bodies filled with glowing acid, arachnids the size of wolves, and clusters of pulsing cocoons that split open as he passed.
The swarm was endless.
Damon grinned. This was fucking incredible. Now that he had reached C rank, his body felt like an endless abyss that could suck in infinite blood essence and still wouldn't be satisfied.
His figure flickered like a phantom, vanishing and reappearing in rapid bursts of motion. Every step he took left trails of poison that devoured the crawling horde. Venomous ichor dripped from the ceiling like rain, sizzling as it hit the sand-coated floor.
Damon absorbed all of it, his aura growing denser by the second. All sorts of venomous beasts continuously assaulted him, only adding to his growing poison essence and blood essence. Notificatins popped in non-stop.
Damon could feel his body growing stronger by the minute. It was an euphoric feeling.
He completely let himself go and immersed in the feeling. Poison entered every single nook and crany of his body, building him up from the scratch. He could feel himself transforming completely.
The deeper Damon went, the beasts became more vicious. Their levels also became higher. Damon couldn't help but become shocked. Not just that but each beast had an unique venom which counted towards his Nine Million Poison body.
The beast lords had done a really top-notch job with their hideout. Notifications flashed in his mind like fireworks, an endless cascade of system messages he no longer even tried to read. It was all blending together, a symphony of growth and madness.
The hive trembled as Damon advanced. The poison that once served as the Beast Lords' defense now bent to his will, slithering toward him like a loyal servant. Rivers of toxin streamed from cracks in the walls, swirling around his body in slow, reverent orbits.
Every beast that lunged at him, scorpions with crystalline tails, serpents spitting acid, spiders that shimmered with bioluminescent sigils, died before they even reached him, their bodies liquefying midair and flowing into his aura.
Damon continued slaughtering through the entire cavern, venturing far deeper than even the order members themselves dared. The elders from the Venom Sigil had already warned him that all sorts of abominations could be underground.
Only some of the beasts in the monstrous nest were planned experiments. Many were just trial experiments that were allowed to run wild. After coming this far and seeing things with his very own eye, Damon fully believed them.
Whoever had done all of this was an absolute mad scientist. He had achieved something similar to genetic engineering and changed each venomous beast so slightly that it made them spit out an entirely different venom.
Now all of that was benefitting him. His poison aura was becoming stronger and stronger and he could feel his body filling upto the brim with poison. It was as if he was just an inch away from reaching some sort of threshold.
He just needed one more strong push and he would actually complete the second cycle of the Nine Million Poison body.
This time it looked like his luck attribute finally kicked in as the very next moment, a strong aura exploded from the depths of the cavern network.