Became an Evolving Space Monster - Chapter 138



Only Noblemtl

Ep. 138

–

Saintopia 02 What is the most powerful creature on the continent?

Renowned scholars of the cult unanimously agree:

The king of the swamp, ‘Gel Arma’, is called Swamp King in human language.

Innately strong resistance to psychic powers, agile movements for its size, a hard shell, high intelligence, and even the ability to disable armor. It has all the conditions that make it difficult for cults to deal with.

If you are wondering if your abilities are the only thing that are strong, then that is not the case. The swamps where the Swamp King lives are the most dangerous places on this continent. You have to fight that powerful monster while enduring the swamp’s poisonous air that even penetrates your protective suit.

Any visitor in his right mind would never set foot in a swamp.

Fortunately, swampkings are extremely territorial creatures, meaning they don’t really care what happens outside their territory.

That’s what it was.

Now, common sense was being shattered by a mysterious visitor.

–

Swamp King, who was sleeping deep inside the swamp, suddenly heard a sound.

It was the first time he had heard it, but its unique tone was somehow familiar. It was similar to the sound made by the tasty prey he had been lucky enough to catch and eat when he was young.

The creature lifted its four lantern-like eyes above the water and checked its surroundings.

“■■ Give me. Who ■ ■■■… .”

Hearing that sound again, he was sure.

That tasty prey is wandering through his territory.

Normally, they would hide in the swamp and catch and eat approaching enemies by surprise, but not this time.

The intelligent Swamp King remembers. Those prey never travel alone. This time, they will definitely come in groups.

He has to get there first and eat them all before the other competitors do.

The creature, having decided that it was time to go out hunting for food after a long time, raised its huge body.

The creature moved along the sound of its prey, clicking its pincers on the front of its body. Its ten long legs moved diligently, treading on the swamp bottom according to its master’s will.

“No one is there!”

A sound was heard not far away. This time it was clearer than before. All four eyes turned to the direction from which the sound came.

“Please… I don’t want to live like this!”

The sound was coming from a place with a lot of rotten old trees. It was a place where the Swamp King, with its heavy body, did not often go due to the low water level in the swamp.

“Strange”

He thought for a moment, wondering if the food was worth the risk.

After a few minutes, the creature’s legs began to move. The prey he remembered, the four-legged creatures, were tender and nutritious.

In addition, they have the habit of moving in groups of several dozen at a time. They are high-calorie prey that can sleep comfortably for a month after eating one, so they cannot be missed.

Every time the bridges, which were over 10 meters long, moved, the old trees were shattered.

As he was dragging his heavy body, an open swamp appeared before him.

“Someone kill me!”

The person who made the crying sound was there.

However, its form was very different from what Swamp King remembered.

Originally, the prey should have a body and four appendages attached to its head. However, the prey in front of him now had no body and was stuck on a dark purple tree.

“marvelous?”

No, I thought it was an old tree, but I was wrong.

That would be the case, since the old tree does not move. Sharp teeth and two pure white eyes are visible on the tree that was half buried in the mud of the swamp.

In addition, familiar objects were seen next to the old tree.

“Eek! Here we go again! Here we go again!”

They were the corpses of the Swamp King. Three corpses of their kind, their heads and entrails dug out, were piled up next to the old tree.

Only then did Swamp King realize that he had been lured by an unknown enemy.

And then, the thing that resembled a tree opened its mouth.

“This is it.”

Swamp King couldn’t understand what it meant, but he knew one thing.

That sound never meant anything good to him.

–

‘Is this the fourth?’

Swamp Kings are very intelligent animals despite their dull appearance. According to the setting, they never forget the smell, movement, or sound of prey once they remember it.

If so, he probably remembers eating the cult that came to this planet. He must know that the taste of cult is very good.

I decided to experiment with their high intelligence, using the ‘human-faced beast’ trait I acquired two days ago.

And my experiment was successful.

“I came! I did as you told me, so now kill me!”

The face stuck on my back screams.

The face was almost identical to the last MCAE pilot I had caught at the research base, except a bit more pale and worn.

The original, Pale Mask’s parasitic traits and the human-faced beast trait applied to Aimorph have completely different effects. The human-faced beast that has taken over Aimorph’s body cannot use hypnosis waves or shock waves.

‘Instead, there are two effects.’

One is to copy some of the habits and memories of advanced intelligences, such as humans or cult-like beings, that I have eaten.

Even if the predation effect does not occur, the target’s genetic essence is stored in my body. And I use the genes I acquired to create a human-faced beast.

Similar to the mimetic organ, it can only create a human face with the information of the last person to eat it, but there are differences.

If the mimetic organ has the ability to reproduce the target’s state before death using pheromones, the human-faced beast copies the memories contained in the target’s genes.

To put it simply, it is convenient to think of it as a cloned human with only the head remaining.

That’s why the face on my back can be so noisy now as if it has its own ego. Of course, I have control over it, so I can silence it whenever I need to.

‘If you mix it with a parasite colony, it can be quite helpful in espionage warfare.’

The human-faced trait can be quite useful when information is needed, because while a significant portion of memories are lost when acquiring genes, most of the recent memories are preserved.

Thanks to this trait, I was able to finish preparing the research station, or spaceship, before returning to the continent. As soon as my cooldown is over, I can leave this planet at any time by boarding the spaceship.

Anyway, in addition to the information acquisition function, the human face has an effect directly related to combat.

‘A sonic attack that paralyzes the enemy.’

If Pale Mask’s hypnotic wave is a type of magic that seals some of the enemy’s techniques, the effect of the human face water that I have is very intuitive.

Temporarily paralyzes the enemy using sound waves. The paralysis time ranges from a few seconds to a few minutes. It never exceeds 5 minutes at most.

You may think it’s shorter than you thought, but it’s not.

It’s a technique that prevents the enemy from doing anything for several minutes in a fight against a strong opponent. It seems to have a similar effect to the psychic power technique ‘Binding’, but the human-faced beast’s paralyzing sound wave attack completely ignores the opponent’s psychic resistance.

‘But it doesn’t work on enemies that don’t have ears.’

There is no such thing here. In particular, the Swamp King, a monster resembling a crab standing before me, has very good hearing.

“What the heck?”

The four eyes on the creature wander. The creature must be confused. The mass floating on the water is much smaller than itself, and there are three corpses of its own kind next to it.

‘You’ll be wondering whether to run away or attack.’

Unlike him, I’m not too worried. He’ll probably make the same choice as the three others so far.

I waited leisurely, confident that the bastard would pounce.

“Strange”

And the choice he made was somewhere between attack and retreat: calling in the corpse catfish and having them attack first.

White eels burst out from under the creature’s carapace and splashed onto the swamp.

‘That’s clever.’

The three I’ve fought so far have all either attacked me or turned their backs and fled, but this one seems to be the smartest.

‘The corpse fish created by Swamp King make attacks that ignore defense.’

Now that I’ve become a semi-adult, my shell’s defenses have become much stronger than before, but they’re useless against the digestive juices of a corpse catfish.

I responded by pulling out the erosion tentacles from my back that were sticking out over the swamp. Every time the long tentacles hit the surface, the corpse catfish turned into pieces of flesh.

“Wow, wow”

The bastard must have thought it was worth it since I wasn’t using any other means of attack. The bastard, much larger than my upper body, quickly approached me.

The two prongs on the front of the body rattle menacingly. I’m sure he’s thinking of tearing my head off with those prongs.

But things don’t always go the way he wants.

‘I think this will suffice.’

When I judged that the bastard had come within a reasonable distance, I began a real attack.

“I don’t like it… It’s annoying.”

The human-faced creature under my control opened its mouth wide, making a strange sound. A second, swirling mouth emerged from inside its mouth.

Invisible sound waves were emitted from the second mouth, which had an ugly appearance.

“marvelous?!”

Swamp King stopped in the same position he was running at. He didn’t move at all as he had his legs wide open. After paralyzing him, I launched a second attack.

My lower body and tail, which had been buried under the swamp, twitched violently. My body, which had been hidden underground, burst out, shattering the ground on which Swamp King was standing.

“What the heck?”

The Swamp King, which weighed as much as Pale Mask, was hit by my tail and lifted into the air for a moment. It barely managed to keep its body from flipping over with its hind legs.

But it was already a done deal that my posture had collapsed. My tail and lower body quickly wrapped around the bastard.

The Swamp King is quite large, but not as large as me. Even without the hunting emblem, its body length is well over 20 meters.

I wrapped my tail around the creature’s belly once, then used the muscles in my waist to raise my upper body over it. Then I grabbed all ten of its legs with my erosion tentacles and fighting arms.

“What a weird feeling!”

The leg carapace of the Swamp King is very hard. Even in a semi-adult form, there are only a few ways to break its leg carapace. Currently, the only way is to strengthen its body by using the symbol of hunting and then break it.

You don’t necessarily have to break the leg. You just have to make it so that it can’t move.

After making sure I had a firm grip on its legs with my tentacles and arms, I started to tighten my tail around its carapace.

“Strange”

The part of the Swamp King’s carapace that has the weakest physical defense is its belly. Realizing that its life was in danger, it screamed and struck my back and tail with its pincers.

‘It’s no use.’

If it were before, I would have been seriously injured by the attack now. In fact, when I used the symbol of hunting in my adult days and attacked the thing, my back arm almost broke because of the claws.

But now I’m a semi-adult. This level of attack won’t be able to deal any effective damage to me.

‘That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt though.’

It’s something I can hold out for. I ignored the bastard’s resistance and wrapped my tail around its armor.

“Gee, geeeeee! Gee, geeeek!”

A cracking sound, like a walnut shell breaking, comes from the creature’s carapace. The swampking screams in panic. Never in his life had he dreamed that he would be crushed to death by something larger than himself.

The creature struck me with its claws like a drum, but it was not enough to prevent the death that was engulfing it. After a few minutes, its belly was completely crushed and it died with its entrails scattered.

It was a truly pitiful death for someone with the nickname of the King of the Swamp. After confirming that the bastard had died, I relaxed.

‘I hope it comes out this time.’

This is my fourth Swamp King hunt.

I came here to get materials with nest-related fusion properties.

The other guys are in the nest I made in the forest.

The reason I hunt alone is because only number 26 can withstand the poison of the swamp. Adhai and the Sky Mother also have resistance to the poison, but not high enough to pass through the swamp.

Number 26 is strong enough to swim through swamps, but he is not suited to fighting Swamp King. Although he has grown strong enough to be close to an adult Sea Demon, he is not strong enough to break Swamp King’s superpower resistance.

In the end, since no one in the group would come with me, I had no choice but to hunt alone.

‘Please, not this time.’

I’ve already gathered up the corpses to give to my family one by one. If this guy has a predator effect, and if it has the trait I need, then today’s hunt is over.

I ripped off the Swamp King’s armor and stuck my head inside.

‘It tastes good, but…’

It’s certainly fun to chew on meat with a flavor reminiscent of king crab, but this is already the fourth time eating the same food. If you eat the same food three times a day, no matter how delicious the food is, you’ll get tired of it.

After forcing myself to eat half of it, the text box I was hoping for finally appeared.

“Predatory effect activated! Claw gene essence acquired successfully.”

“Taking away the ‘crab claws’ from the ‘Swamp King’s’ traits.”

“Would you like to apply ‘Crab Claws’?”

‘ah.’

Claws is a very useful trait in combat, but it wasn’t the result I wanted. I applied the trait with a sigh.

The shape of the two arms attached to the very bottom of the upper body changed as the characteristics of the pincers were reflected. They were large and strong like the pincers of the Swamp King, but they were smaller in size.

This pincer also inherits the superpower resistance effect of the Swamp King. Therefore, it is applied in conjunction with the ‘Superpower Reflective Gloves’ trait that I have. This pincer hand is probably the part of my body with the highest superpower resistance.

‘It’s a pair of anti-superpower pincers.’

I licked my lips and clapped my new claws. It was good news that the predation effect came on the fourth time, but it was only half the success.

Unlike the game, Swamp Kings do not spawn indefinitely here.

‘How many more Swamp Kings are there?’

There will probably be two at most. If the remaining ones don’t come out even after catching them, you should consider eating other creatures to get the fusion trait.

Since we are looking for a nest-related fusion trait to use as a 2nd stage transcendence material, there is no need to create a good trait.

I changed my plan and went inside the swamp, holding onto the corpse of the Swamp King I had secured so far with my erosion tentacles.

And exactly 14 hours later.

I barely managed to get the nest related fusion trait.

–

The ‘Judgment of Damos 08’, one of the cult’s planetary purification weapons and mass-produced mother ships.

The ship, which would normally be as quiet as outer space, was now extremely busy with sailors moving around busily.

“We’ll be leaving in two days, so get ready!”

“How’s the psychic engine tuning going?”

“We have completed the adjustments so that it can be operated in two days.”

“Carrier-based pilots who have completed mock training, don’t forget to do maintenance work!”

“The fleet sent by the Council has agreed to participate in the purge!”

“First, grant permission to join, and then have the captains come to the ship’s office. I have something to tell you.”

“All right!”

The captain looked around the complicated situation room with a satisfied expression.

All the sailors were busy concentrating on their own work, but they had one thing in common: they all had energetic faces.

The captain always felt sorry that these talented people were stuck in such remote places, wasting their time away for nothing. He felt even more sorry because they had voluntarily followed him, a war hero.

‘Tsk. After this Saigil08 purification work is over, I should go to the main castle.’

He is here because he is fed up with the infighting in the council, but his subordinates are not. It is a sin against the empire to let the talents of the empire rot in a place like this.

‘I heard that the priest of the Providence faction is very smart. Should I go see him?’

According to the captain’s memory, before the appearance of the priest, the Providence faction was a faction with a long history but nothing special. The hegemony advocated by the Providence faction was an ideology that did not take into account the rising powers of the universe, such as Megacorp or Star Union, so it was not easy to gain support.

Rather, the reformist faction, which emphasized communication with intellectuals and enlightenment, was much stronger.

That all changed with the emergence of a cult royal family. He instantly turned the Providence faction into the top faction in the council. If you only look at it this way, you might think that he was a cult that was only good at politics, but surprisingly, he was also very talented in the military.

Because he did such a great job of defending against the Outspacer invasion, he was unanimously appointed as a priest by the council.

The captain also had a lot of experience leading imperial ships, so he knew how capable the young priest was.

‘There are rumors that he isn’t good at relationships with women.’

Rumors of sexual abuse of female slaves circulated, but the captain did not believe them. Success is bound to have its share of jealousies.

‘… Hmm. Just in case, I’ll go down and look for a slave before starting work.’

A few days ago, the captain researched information about Saigil 08. On a certain continent of that planet, there live the Wolfs who maintain a primitive level of civilization.

If the rumors about the priest are true, a female wolf would make a good gift to curry favor with him.

‘If the purification operation begins anyway, we’ll all die.’

Rather, becoming slaves may be salvation for them. The civilization they have created will be destroyed, but isn’t it better to live than to die?

‘I should tell my aide.’

The captain pondered how he could win the priest’s favor before the captains of the support fleet arrived.