Chapter 66: Tricking the giant shark king!
After eliminating the last Mud Demons, I remained motionless for a few moments.
There was no longer any battle.
Only the cold wind sweeping across the swamp.
Before, no matter how silent that swamp seemed, I could always sense countless hidden presences.
Mud Demons buried beneath the surface.
Waiting.
Watching.
Hunting.
At the same time, the Biochip projected small red dots across my vision, indicating their vital signatures.
It was impossible to cross that place without seeing dozens of them scattered everywhere.
Now...
There was absolutely nothing.
I kept watching.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Thirty.
The Biochip repeated several scans.
[Bip!]
[Scan complete.]
[No hostile vital signatures detected within a radius of one hundred and twenty meters.]
My gaze slowly swept across the entire shore.
Not a single red dot appeared.
I smiled faintly.
I turned my attention to the Golem.
It remained motionless beside me.
Awaiting orders.
I raised my hand.
—Return.
The mental link responded immediately.
The Golem’s body began to crack.
First, small fissures appeared.
Then...
Large chunks of mud slowly broke away.
Its chest caved in.
Its arms collapsed.
Its legs completely lost their shape.
That entire mass naturally returned to the swamp itself.
As if it had never existed.
A few seconds later...
Only a small yellowish core remained resting on the mud.
I approached.
I knelt down.
I carefully picked up the crystal.
I could still feel a gentle pulse coming from the four energy nodes engraved on its surface.
—Rest.
—Tomorrow...
—I’ll need you much more.
I carefully placed the core into the inner pocket of my coat.
Then I began the journey back to the Tower.
...
The following morning...
At exactly the same time.
I returned to the swamp.
First...
I inspected the entire area.
I walked slowly along the shore.
Only after finishing the inspection and making sure I was alone did I take out the core once again.
My gaze immediately fell upon its four energy nodes.
All of them were glowing intensely.
The charge was complete.
Four out of four.
Maximum capacity.
Now...
My Golem would fight in its best condition.
Without hesitation...
I threw the core once again onto the shore of the lake.
The instant it touched the mud...
Zuuummm...
A burst of earth energy spread in every direction.
This time, far more intense than the night before.
Large amounts of yellowish smoke began swirling around the core.
The mud responded immediately.
Meanwhile...
Another thought occupied my mind.
Today, I would directly face my true objective for that day.
The Giant Shark King.
I recalled the information previously recorded by the Biochip.
The creature possessed strength comparable to that of a third-level Acolyte.
Its jaws were capable of splitting rocks apart.
Its tail could crush entire trees.
A single direct strike would probably destroy a large portion of my Mud Golem’s body.
Under normal circumstances...
Thinking about facing it would be practically suicidal.
A second-level Acolyte simply should not challenge a monster of that caliber.
But...
I had never fought under normal circumstances.
My gaze remained fixed on the clay creature that was finishing its emergence from the swamp.
.
.
.
.
.
I kept my breathing steady as I observed everything from a distance.
Less than two kilometers separated the Mud Ghosts’ territory from the region dominated by the Giant Land Sharks.
It was a completely different area.
The mud was deeper.
The lakes were larger.
The smell of blood mixed with stagnant water was far stronger.
There, enormous Giant Sharks rested among twisted bushes, partially buried in the damp earth.
Even motionless, they radiated a sense of danger.
While they slept peacefully...
My plan went into motion.
BOOM!
A body shot through the air and crashed violently into one of the lakes.
I smiled faintly.
It was one of the Mud Ghosts I had captured earlier after searching for quite a while.
Its hair was covered in moss.
Its black claws continued thrashing.
Its body was still struggling.
But...
Before throwing it there, I had carefully broken its arms and legs.
It was still alive.
But completely incapable of escaping.
In the Magic Forest, every demonic species possessed its own territory.
Those borders were respected with an almost instinctive seriousness.
Invading another territory meant war.
And I had just engineered exactly that situation.
The result was immediate.
Several Giant Sharks awoke.
They did not roar.
They gave no warning whatsoever.
They simply dove in.
Only the small waves betrayed their swift movement beneath the muddy water.
The next instant...
A gigantic jaw burst through the surface.
CRASH!
Half of the Mud Ghost’s body disappeared between enormous teeth.
The creature did not even have time to scream.
It was dragged into the depths.
Soon, more sharks arrived.
The water turned into a churning mass of mud, blood, and foam.
The moment they tasted flesh...
They entered a frenzy.
I calmly watched that massacre.
Exactly as the Biochip had predicted.
While they all fought over the food...
A much larger figure remained at a distance.
My true target.
The Giant Shark King.
The upper half of its body rose above the shore like a living fortress.
Even standing still, it radiated a terrifying pressure.
Unlike the others...
It did not immediately join the feeding.
It remained watching.
Thinking.
That confirmed my suspicions.
Its intelligence had indeed evolved.
"The Mud Ghosts would never cross the border without a reason..."
That was probably exactly what the creature was trying to understand.
Had Brimy started a war?
Unfortunately for it...
Brimy was already dead.
And I intended to exploit precisely that lack of information.
I ordered the golem to pick up another Mud Ghost.
And it threw it.
BOOM!
The body landed several meters ahead.
Instantly...
The Sharks attacked again.
More blood.
More chaos.
More distraction.
But...
The King remained motionless.
I watched its small black eyes slowly scan the entire area.
Until...
It found exactly what I wanted it to find.
My golem.
Behind a tree, I had left my Mud Golem dressed in a white acolyte’s robe.
Beside it remained the other captured Mud Ghosts.
From a distance...
The scene looked quite convincing.
The Shark King had finally identified someone responsible for all that commotion.
And it began to act.
Instead of attacking immediately...
It decided to circle around the lake.
Concealing itself among the vegetation.
I almost laughed.
The creature truly believed it was being stealthy.
I remained hidden dozens of meters behind it, observing everything through the Biochip’s enhanced vision.
It was an almost comical sight.
Even while crawling...
The King’s colossal body still easily stood over two meters tall.
The grass only concealed part of its fins.
Its back, covered in spikes, remained completely exposed.
As if that were not enough...
Its monstrous weight made the ground tremble with every movement.
Thump...
Thump...
Thump...
And yet...
The stupid creature seemed convinced that no one would be able to notice it.
I slowly shook my head.
It’s still just a demon...
Its intelligence had evolved.
But it remained extremely limited.
It was capable of formulating simple strategies.
It was not capable of judging how effective they were.
It kept advancing.
Moving around trees.
Passing through bushes.
Slowly approaching the bait.
Meanwhile...
The golem remained motionless.
Exactly as I had prepared.
Thanks to my connection through the golem’s mental control, it appeared to move occasionally, as if it were truly throwing new Mud Ghosts toward the lake.
Everything was perfect, and the poor beast completely believed it.
100 meters...
70 meters...
50 meters...
My heart remained calm.
The Biochip tracked every step.
20 meters...
The enormous demon lowered its body even further.
Every muscle in its body began to tense.
It was preparing to leap.
In its mind...
It was probably imagining that it had caught an inattentive acolyte by surprise.
—Weak human...
—Easy prey...
—I’ll crush him in one blow.
It was almost amusing, those strange whispers from the shark.
The muscles of its enormous body contracted.
Then, with a savage roar, it launched itself forward.
—Time to die, human!
—Today, I’ll feast on an acolyte!
WHOOM!
Its colossal body sliced through the air in an explosive leap.
...
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