Flesh Golem of the Labyrinth City - Chapter 52



51. An Inevitable Event

“Sss…!”

After changing into her workout clothes, Theodora and I exchanged a few moves, and I got the feeling. To use my tail in combat, I need to know the range of motion required and how to move so that my hands and attack paths don’t overlap.

It’s a bit strange to say this since I was a complete novice just a few days ago. Theodora’s combat skills aren’t bad, but I’m not sure how well they’ll hold up in the labyrinth.

—Swoosh!

Ping—!

“Ahh?!”

“Oops.”

When I struck the sword blocked by my arm with my tail, the long two-handed sword flew far away and fell to the ground. The attendant who was waiting nearby ran over, wiped the sword, and handed it back to Theodora, but it seemed difficult to continue the fight.

Theodora’s two-handed swordsmanship is a combat style acquired with human opponents in mind. While most of her two-handed attacks are blocked or dodged, she is defenseless against tail attacks and stiffens before she can react.

“Shall we stop?”

“Phew, are you really a silver rank? My wrist hurts a lot.”

“They say they’ll promote me to gold if I reach the 11th floor.”

“I have some confidence in my fighting skills too.”

Although her solid swordsmanship was systematically built under a good teacher, it seems that my current abilities are not suitable for facing Theodora.

The eyes of the Umbra Valkyrie constantly identify gaps in Theodora’s posture, demanding attacks, while the senses of the Direwolf leader sharply catch the attacks coming at me.

Above all, having a shield that can reliably block attacks provides a significant advantage in battle.

“This is quite something.”

The drake scale gauntlet is useful for offense, but it also has no problem blocking attacks. Due to the overall increase in body weight, even deflecting a heavy two-handed sword with a hand is not an issue.

“When are you planning to enter the labyrinth?”

“As I said yesterday, I have plans until tomorrow.”

“Take it easy. Is it okay if I go to the workshop tomorrow?”

“Is there no limit to your ability? Like, if you eat too much, you can’t use it anymore?”

Come to think of it, I’ve never considered the upper limit of my ability. It’s only been a short time since I started using my ability properly, but if I calculate the weight of everything I’ve eaten, it would be around several hundred kilograms.

“I don’t really know.”

“Do as you please. But I won’t be at the workshop tomorrow.”

From noble mtl dot com

“What should I do then?”

“I’ll contact the workshop. Unfortunately, I can’t just give you anything. There’s a manager at the workshop, so if you talk to them properly, they’ll take care of it.”

“Alright, I’m not asking for anything expensive.”

By the time I finished eating the drake tail, it was already dusk. The sun had long set, and Theo said he had plans for the evening as well.

Anyway, it must be annoying, being called here and there like that. Isn’t it tiring?

“Are you doing this while resting?”

“Well… just enough not to collapse.”

“Take care of your condition.”

“Uh, okay…”

“Thanks for your hard work. I’ll go to the workshop early tomorrow morning. Please talk to them for me.”

“Got it.”

I gave a quick greeting and stepped outside. It occurred to me that this was the northwestern outskirts. It would take some time to get to the southwest.

‘Let’s move quickly.’

* * * * *

After swiftly hopping over a few roofs, I reached the southwest in no time. I wondered if this was okay, but whatever. This is how the labyrinth city works.

*Knock knock*

“Ravi? Are you inside, Ravi?”

It was still around 8 PM, but there was no response from Ravi. As usual, I tried to open the door and go in, but it was locked. Wasn’t Ravi living here? He was sleeping soundly on the bed even at dawn, so what’s going on?

Just as I was about to leave due to the lack of response, I heard a familiar voice from behind.

“Oh! I’m here! Don’t go back!”

“Oh, Ravi.”

He was dressed in outdoor clothes with a robe draped over him, as if he had been out somewhere.

“Were you out?”

“Yes! I just had dinner at the restaurant over there.”

“I see.”

So, Ravi does eat out sometimes. He doesn’t just sit in the emotion lab all day staring at papers.

“Come on in! There are so many experiments I want to try this time!”

“What new idea did you come up with?”

“Yes!”

The inside of the emotion lab was, as always, quite cozy and compact. To put it nicely, it was cozy; to put it bluntly, it was small and cramped. Since Ravi himself was small, it wasn’t much of a problem, but still.

“Yoo-eon, have you made any progress with your skills?”

“Yes. Would you like to take a look?”

“Sure! Did you go to the labyrinth?”

“No. I got connected with a monster dismantling workshop. I got something to eat there.”

“Wow, really? What did you eat?”

Ravi’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. Unable to contain her excitement, she threw her robe onto the chair and sat on the bed.

Drake’s tail was so long that it could mess up the interior of the appraisal room. Slowly lowering his tail, he pulled it out, and Ravi’s face gradually turned to shock.

“Gasp! A D-Dragonian!! You’re a dragonkin!!”

“Of course not. I ate a bit of a Cave Drake’s tail.”

“Cave Drake! I’ve heard of it! It’s a monster that appears on the 25th floor!”

Ravi quickly scurried behind the curtain, grabbed a book, and sat on the bed.

—Thud thud

“Here! Sit next to me! Oh, can you not sit because of your tail?”

“I can put it away, no problem.”

After retracting his tail and sitting next to Ravi, she beamed with joy. Flipping through a few pages of the book, she began to explain the characteristics of the Cave Drake.

Its scales have a unique property of increasing in strength when magic circulates through them. Because of this, they have high resistance to magic-infused attacks and show a momentary increase in strength when they receive magical attacks on their scales.

Normally, they are dark black and hard to see in the dark caves, but after being killed, the magic gradually drains away, and they take on a bluish-gray hue.

The scales that fall off as they age lose their strength, so they can be crushed even by the Cave Drake’s bite force. Because of this, they have a habit of picking up and eating the scales that fall off their bodies. This helps them replenish nutrients and gain the energy needed to produce new scales.

“Hmm, I see.”

“So, do you eat your scales when they fall off too, Yoo-eon?”

“I haven’t lost them yet, so I’m not sure. Do I really have to eat the scales again for new ones to grow?”

“That’s not necessarily the case. It seems like this trait developed because there’s a lack of food inside the cave.”

There are quite a few defensive traits. It looks a bit like a dumb Tyrannosaurus, with short forearms, thick and long hind legs, and significant muscle strength to support its heavy body. The power of the Drake’s swinging tail is said to be strong enough to break a rare metal sword.

“You’ve eaten something incredibly good!”

“Indeed. So, Ravi, what experiment are you going to conduct this time?”

“Oh, that! Just a moment.”

Ravi picked up one of the scattered sheets of paper on the table and showed it to me. The paper depicted the human body’s structure, showing a detailed and intricate internal structure that was hard to believe belonged to the medieval era.

“What is Euan’s skill?”

“What do you mean? Well, it’s a skill that allows me to use what I’ve eaten in my body, right?”

“Wait, wait! It’s a bit different!”

Ravi shook his head vigorously in strong denial.

“Then what is it?”

“Euan’s skill is to ‘store’ the body parts of other creatures that enter the ‘stomach’ through the skill, and then take out and use the stored organs again! Right?”

“Well, yes.”

“And Euan’s skill has a wide versatility that allows him to create organs that didn’t exist before!”

“That’s true.”

“Then here’s the question!”

Ravi said, raising his index finger confidently.

“What if Euan creates a ‘stomach’ in another place?!”

“Creating a stomach in another place. What do you mean?”

“Like, uhm… ah! Yuhan, give me your hand!”

Ravi stretched out both hands, reaching for me. I placed my right hand on top of them, and Ravi’s tiny hands began to wriggle and fidget busily.

“Like, doing this…?”

Ravi made a circle by pinching her index finger and thumb together, showing it to me.

“Tada, a circle.”

“Yeah. It’s a circle.”

“This is the esophagus! And under it, the stomach grows!”

“Oh, I see.”

“So then, instead of going through the mouth, you put it directly in the stomach! The organs of other creatures, I mean!”

Ravi made glasses with her hands and held them up to her eyes, saying this. Bypass the mouth and create a stomach elsewhere to put it directly in…

“That’s….”

“H-how is it…?”

No way.

“That’s really amazing, Ravi.”

“Right!?”

“If that were possible, it would definitely be easier. If you ate a large stomach, you wouldn’t have to cut it down into smaller pieces either.”

“That’s right! That’s it! Remember last time you had so much trouble eating Ursus’s bones? Right?”

“Uhm, definitely.”

I suppose, aside from thick, chunky masses, organs that are thin and elongated like bones could be eaten much more easily using this method.

More than anything, the biggest advantage is that the esophagus wouldn’t get hurt and you wouldn’t have to taste that shitty taste. This is a truly remarkable discovery.

“Shall we give it a try and see if it works?”

“I think I can definitely create a stomach in my hand… The problem is whether the stomach I create will have the ‘storage’ function.”

Indeed, my ability allows me to swallow things through my mouth and esophagus, and when they reach my stomach, they disappear. I’ve eaten quite a few things so far, and I could feel everything passing through my esophagus.

I don’t know how long it needs to stay in the stomach, or if there’s another condition for storing it through a skill.

Let’s give it a try. I cut off the upper part of my wrist to fix the circular hole in place.

“Gasp, your hand disappeared!!”

“Why are you so surprised by this?”

Ravi fussed beside me. Using the tailbone and leather of a lizardman that I no longer needed, I made a circular frame like a basketball hoop, and summoned the stomach of a direwolf that I had eaten before underneath it.

It looked like I had cut off my wrist and stuck a lizardman-made net on it, and it couldn’t look more grotesque. Watching the stomach wriggle, Ravi looked nauseous and made a grimace.

“Oh dear, don’t look at the hideous thing, turn around.”

“Ugh… I can see it too!”

Ravi boldly opened her eyes wide and examined my hand here and there, then covered her mouth and ran out of the emotional center.

Not long after, Ravi walked back in with a gloomy expression.

“Did you empty it out?”

“I feel a bit better after getting some fresh air…”

I restored my hand to its original state. I roughly got the shape I wanted, but I need to actually put something in it.

“Ravi, do you want to go in here?”

“Are you trying to eat me?!”

“I’m just kidding, don’t be so surprised.”

“Geez.”

Is there anything to eat around here?

“Hmm, should we really eat Ravi?”

“Y-you’re joking, right..?”

“Hmm.”

“Last words..?!”

“It can’t be helped.”

Ravi’s complexion turned a deep blue, contrasting sharply with his red hair. This is why I love teasing him.

“Shall we head to the guild for a bit?”

“Ah.”

Thud.

That’s the sound of Ravi hitting my side.