Chapter 118
After Haruto had advanced a short distance, the light around him faded rapidly.
Although he had already activated En, he still stopped and quietly recited a short spell.
A softly glowing orb rose from his palm and floated overhead.
Its light spread through the cavern, illuminating an area more than twenty meters wide.
The rough patterns in the stone walls, the uneven ground, and even the narrow cracks hidden within the shadows became clearly visible.
With the light orb guiding his way, Haruto continued forward at a steady pace.
Loose stones crunched faintly beneath his feet, the sound carrying with unusual clarity through the silent cavern.
After traveling several hundred meters, he discovered a patch of strangely shaped mushrooms.
Their caps had seven or eight layers, each one deep blue and covered in red spots.
"Crunchy Mushrooms."
Haruto paused before walking over and picking them all.
He placed one in his mouth and bit down.
Crunch. Crunch.
The crisp sound burst through his mouth as juice spilled from the mushroom, carrying a faint sweetness.
Its texture was far more refreshing and crunchy than he had expected.
Haruto raised his eyebrows in pleasant surprise.
He continued deeper into the cavern while casually chewing on the rest.
After walking for an unknown length of time, the path suddenly ended at the edge of a cliff more than ten meters high.
Nothing but darkness waited below.
Haruto directed his light orb downward, then leaped from the ledge.
He dropped through the darkness and landed lightly on the balls of his feet without making a sound.
The moment he steadied himself, however, a dense rustling noise echoed from the depths of the passage ahead.
It rapidly grew louder as it approached.
Haruto’s eyes sharpened. With a gesture, he sent the light orb flying forward.
As soon as the passage was illuminated, his brow furrowed.
A swarm of Scorpion Cockroaches, each more than seven meters long, was rushing toward him.
The creatures possessed the stinging tails of scorpions and the bodies of enormous cockroaches.
Their hard black shells gleamed in the light as their many jointed legs scraped rapidly across the ground.
Their mouthparts repeatedly opened and closed, producing a nauseating grinding sound.
A powerful stench of decay and blood rolled through the tunnel as they drew closer.
Scorpion Cockroaches secreted potent venom through both their mouthparts and tails.
Once injected into their prey, it rapidly liquefied flesh and blood so they could drink it.
Even worse, their own bodies were highly poisonous.
That meant they were completely useless as ingredients.
Haruto had previously paid for several poison-resistant antibodies, but the antibodies developed by the IGO could not be injected repeatedly within a short period.
Only two were currently active in his body, and neither offered meaningful protection against Scorpion Cockroach venom.
If he was poisoned here, the consequences would be troublesome.
Haruto had no intention of fighting them.
"Get lost!"
His shout thundered through the cavern.
At the same time, a vast and razor-sharp presence erupted from his body.
The pressure spread outward almost like a physical force, crashing into the charging swarm.
The Scorpion Cockroaches instantly stopped.
Their many legs trembled, and their earlier aggression vanished.
After only a moment of hesitation, the entire swarm turned around and fled back into the passage, disappearing into the darkness within seconds.
Once the danger had passed, Haruto withdrew his presence and continued deeper underground.
The farther he traveled, the more complicated and uneven the cavern became. The broad passages gradually narrowed, twisting into a maze of confined tunnels.
Haruto wandered through the winding cave system for a long time, turning so often that even his sense of direction began to blur.
Then faint blue points of light drifted toward him from ahead, flickering gently like fireflies.
Haruto’s eyes brightened.
They were Sea Fireflies, bioluminescent creatures found only near shallow coastal beaches.
The only shallow beach inside this underground cavern was the Puffer Whales’ spawning ground.
By following the direction from which the Sea Fireflies had come, he would be able to find it.
Before Haruto could take more than a few steps, however, a rapid beating of wings erupted overhead.
The countless wingbeats merged into a deafening buzz.
A huge swarm of brightly colored bats came flying toward him, their wings as vivid as those of swallowtail butterflies.
These were Butterfly Bats.
Their individual Capture Level was only 2, making each one almost harmless alone. However, their sheer numbers allowed them to overwhelm prey and strip it to the bone.
Haruto’s expression grew serious as he once again unleashed his full presence.
The Butterfly Bats shrieked in alarm and scattered through the air, hurriedly changing direction to avoid him.
Unfortunately, Haruto was already deep inside the underground cavern.
His sudden release of pressure acted like a challenge, alerting the apex predator that ruled the cavern’s food chain.
A cold and savage malice immediately locked onto him, sending a faint chill crawling across his skin.
Haruto’s expression darkened, but he did not panic.
With a light wave of his hand, he directed the glowing orb toward the source of the hostility.
The light moved deeper into the darkness.
Before long, an enormous Devil Serpent appeared beneath its glow.
Its body was two or three meters thick and covered in dark-purple skin.
Unlike an ordinary snake, five or six enormous clawed limbs protruded from either side of its body, each ending in blood-red talons.
Its head was even stranger.
Rather than being set directly into its face, its three scarlet eyes sat at the tips of long feelers growing from its skull, allowing them to rotate independently in every direction.
Blood-red teeth filled its gaping mouth, while a thick mane of fur grew around the back of its head.
Judging by its size, its Capture Level was conservatively estimated to be at least 25.
"So I really did run into a Devil Serpent."
Instead of feeling afraid, Haruto grew excited.
This was a rare, high-quality ingredient.
The Devil Serpent had been drawn by his presence, and the light shining directly upon it only enraged it further.
Its massive body suddenly tensed before launching forward like an arrow released from a bow, bringing a violent rush of wind with it.
At the same time, an incredibly sharp and piercing hiss tore from its throat.
Haruto frowned at the sound, though it remained bearable.
As the Devil Serpent closed in, one of its huge claws stretched outward and slashed toward him.
Every movement remained within the range of Haruto’s En.
He shifted sharply to the side and easily avoided a blow powerful enough to tear through steel.
The Devil Serpent missed.
Its enormous head snapped around, and all three scarlet eyes locked onto Haruto.
The next moment, its jaws opened wide and sprayed a torrent of thick green venom across the passage.
Haruto had already anticipated the attack.
He kicked off the ground repeatedly, his figure flashing backward several times until he escaped the venom’s range.
The poisonous liquid splashed across the stone floor.
The solid rock immediately began dissolving like snow dropped into fire, leaving deep, smoking pits across the ground.
A single glance was enough to reveal how terrifyingly corrosive it was.
Haruto’s eyes turned cold.
He could not withstand the Devil Serpent’s venom.
Even the slightest contact could leave him gravely wounded and unable to fight—or kill him outright.
He could not afford a prolonged battle.
The best option was to finish it in a single strike.
Haruto opened his right hand.
A dense sphere of Nen immediately formed above his palm.
He poured half of his total aura into it, giving the attack tremendous destructive power.
Without hesitation, Haruto flicked his wrist.
The Nen sphere shot toward the Devil Serpent’s head like a cannonball.
If it struck cleanly, it would most likely kill the creature.
Although the Devil Serpent could not see Nen, its sharp animal instincts warned it of the approaching lethal threat.
Without pausing to think, it raised one enormous claw and caught the invisible sphere in its palm.
’Its senses are that sharp?’
Haruto’s brow tightened slightly.
Simply attacking it with Nen would clearly not be enough.
Still, catching the sphere did not mean it was safe.
With a thought, Haruto detonated it.
Boom!
The Nen sphere exploded in the Devil Serpent’s grasp.
A violent shockwave tore through the passage.
The claw holding the sphere was blown apart in a spray of blood and flesh, while the surrounding section of its body was badly mangled.
The force of the explosion hurled the enormous Devil Serpent backward through the cavern.