I Became an Ancient All-Host Lifeform - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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016 Mindless Fire Show

Hans had his head shaved by force the moment he arrived at this place.
His pride as an elite researcher had been shattered long ago in the Underground Interrogation Chamber, but the humiliation of having his head forcibly shorn was something else entirely.
After that, a Mana Restraint Collar was fastened around his neck as he changed into a foul-smelling Prison Garb.
A guard grinned cruelly, shaking Hans’s nape roughly while jeering at him.

“Listen up, you bastard! This dog collar here is what you’ll wear for the rest of your miserable life. Better take good care of it.”

It looked crude on the surface, but it was a restraint collar of formidable power.
It was designed to deliver an immediate jolt of electricity if the wearer attempted any spell outside those authorized in the facility.
The guard smiled as he explained this.

“Heh heh… If you’re curious whether it’s real, try it yourself. Those who’ve experienced it say it feels like your brains are melting from the inside.”

Seeing the guard’s cruel smile, Hans decided he would never dare test it.
After that, the daily life of the Mage Slaves differed little from any other prison.
Wake in the morning, attend roll call, eat, labor, rest when done….
Yet there was one major difference—the nature of the labor itself.

“Ugh… Hack!”

Hans retched over and over in a foul-reeking pit where blood and entrails lay tangled together.
Their task was nothing less than sifting through the corpses of Magical Beasts slaughtered in the Slaughterhouse.
They tore through piles of disgusting corpses searching for tiny Raw Magical Stones that had crystallized within the animals’ bodies, then collected them and used Magic to filter out impurities, refining them into high-purity Magical Stones.
This was the sole labor assigned to the Mage Slaves.
The Magical Stones won through the blood and sweat of the Mage Slaves were shipped as core components for all manner of Magical Devices and Artifacts distributed across the continent.

“Hah… hah… ugh….”

Having finally extracted a single Raw Magical Stone caked in blood, Hans felt tears of despair welling up in his eyes.
The bleak reality: spending his life in this lightless hellhole beneath the earth, forever raking through beast entrails and rotting remains.
The once-promising elite mage of the Magic Tower had been utterly reduced to a living hell.
In that moment, he clenched his fists and muttered to himself.

‘Damn them all! I’ll kill every last one of them! That worthless senior who abandoned me, that heartless Tower Master—I’ll rip them apart with these bare hands and watch them die! I swear it!’

His fingernails dug into his clenched palms.
Whether the blood flowing from Hans’s hands belonged to the beast or to himself hardly mattered anymore.

* * *

A vast underground Sewers system with murky wastewater cascading in torrents.
Into this foul-stinking place, uninvited guests suddenly emerged.
A pursuit team had traced a trail of vivid crimson footprints deep into the Sewers.
Accounting for the cramped space, they were a lean strike force—just a Hunter, a Mage, and six elite Security Officers.
But as they walked through the narrow, filthy Sewers, the Mage complained endlessly.

Splat.
“Ah, watch where you’re stepping! You’re getting wastewater all over my Robe!”
“I—I’m terribly sorry!”
“Do you have any idea how much this costs?”

The Hunter tried to appease him in response to his peevish attitude.

“Come on, don’t get so worked up. Let’s just finish this quick and get it done. Once we’re back at the village, the drinks are on me!”

But the Mage remained visibly displeased.

“Ha, at this point we’re finished anyway.”

The man sighed deeply, then redirected his arrows toward the security officers.

“If you lot had just managed to catch one rat instead of making such a mess of things… Ugh, how irritating.”
“We’re—we’re terribly sorry.”

The security officers’ faces hardened under the open contempt, but none of them dared talk back to an official mage of the Magic Tower.
The hunter, feeling awkward, cleared his throat to clear the air.

“Ahem… Still, we can’t afford to be careless. I heard that rat also summoned a mushroom monster in the warehouse? If it can use Summoning Magic, we absolutely cannot underestimate it.”

The mage snorted derisively.

“Bah, Summoning Magic from a rat? Summoning Magic requires at least the 4th Circle to perform properly—it’s advanced magic. No beast could possibly use it.”
“Then what were those mushroom monsters that appeared back then?”

At the hunter’s question, the mage snorted again.

“Bah. Obviously some chimera that escaped from a lab. Tch, if an accident like this happens, they should report it immediately instead of covering it up. I swear, the thinking of those white-coated fools… I’m sick of it, truly.”

As the mage’s complaints echoed through the sewers—

“Wait! Look there!”

The security officer at the front stopped dead.
Through a crack in the stone wall of the sewer, a large hole had been burrowed. The red footprints led clearly from the darkness beyond into that gaping mouth.
The hunter who saw this furrowed his brow.

“That’s… awfully big for a rat hole. Everyone, battle stations.”

They drew weapons from their belts.
The large hole was filled with nothing but pitch darkness and silence.

* * *

– They’ve entered the sewers.
‘Yes. I felt them too.’

Through the Fungal Mycelium Network spread across a two-kilometer radius, I detected the humans’ approach.
Soon enough, we’d be clashing with them here—a life-or-death struggle.
I had to prepare thoroughly.

We positioned combat-capable mushrooms in numbers at the entrance leading to the sewers and took up a defensive line.
Primarily the Mist Mushroom Mycelium that wraps around targets and drains their blood, and the Iron-Head Mushroom Monsters armed with thick skulls.
For now, the goal was to block the entrance with the mushrooms and buy time.
Since I still didn’t know the mage’s combat prowess, I intended to gather information by observing how he fought the mushrooms.
After that, I’d ambush them the moment they broke through the entrance and stepped into the cave.
That’s when they’d most likely let their guard down.

But there was one massive variable here.
The mage’s companion.
I had no intelligence on that one yet.
Don’t tell me… he’s not a Knight, is he? The kind that radiates Aura and flies around carelessly in the air? If so, I’m truly in trouble.
Well, if worst comes to worst, I’ll just bolt in the opposite direction.
There’s another cave entrance that leads to the river.
Though it’s submerged, so I’d have to swim, but that’s far better than losing my head to a Knight’s blade.
In the midst of these final preparations, they finally stepped into the cave entrance.
At that moment, I heard their cries of alarm echoing from afar.

“What—what in the world is all this?!”

Why does he sound exactly like I did? The moment I stepped into this fungal cavern, I had the same reaction.
Though I suppose it’s inevitable when you’re staring at hundreds of grotesque mushroom monsters swarming in the darkness.
Just then, the voice of the Mage in his robe echoed through the cavern.

“Wait, you said only five mushroom monsters appeared last time? Are there really only five here now?”
“I-I’m terribly sorry!”
“Never mind, just get out of the way!”

Morgul’s urgent shout cut through the chaos.

– Get down! He’s concentrating his mana!

In that instant, a torrent of fierce flame erupted from the Staff raised in the Mage’s hands.

Whoosh—!

It swept forward like a flamethrower, incinerating everything in its path.
The mushrooms clustered near the entrance were instantly reduced to roasted specimens.

Sizzle—screech!

The smell of charring mushrooms reverberated throughout the cavern.
I found myself craving grilled pork belly and soju all of a sudden.
No—that’s not the time for this kind of thinking.
In any case, that Mage is clearly a Flame Magic specialist.
The matchup against a fungal army is decidedly unfavorable. Before those searing flames, mushrooms are nothing but prime cooking material.
Meanwhile, Morgul fell into despair at the sight.

– Ahhh… my precious servants, painstakingly gathered one by one over three thousand years….

This mad mushroom-obsessed old fool…!
With enemies bearing down on us, and he’s worrying about that?
I shouted internally.

‘Snap out of it! If you want to save even one more, stop clustering like idiots and scatter in all directions right now!’
– Krrgh…!

Along with Morgul’s groan, the mushroom monsters in the rear that hadn’t yet been caught by the flames immediately dispersed.
The surviving fungi all seeped into the damp ground beneath them.
Thanks to Morgul’s quick recovery, we were able to avert a complete, pointless annihilation of the fungal army.

But this situation wasn’t entirely disadvantageous for us.
The Mage’s reckless action had thrown his human allies into panic as well.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

The Mage’s indiscriminate flame assault had filled the cavern interior with thick, acrid smoke.
Two guards were shining magical lights, but the cave interior was now shrouded in a smoke screen so dense you couldn’t see more than an inch ahead.
The Mage’s companion, coughing violently, voiced his protest.

“Cough, cough! Damn it! What on earth are you doing? The entire cavern is covered in smoke! It’s already so dark we can’t see past our noses—at this rate, proper combat is impossible!”

But the Mage replied without the slightest concern.

“Why? Why think about combat? No need for a tedious incursion—we just roast everything here whole. They’re trapped mice in a jar, after all. We’ll collect the bodies slowly later.”

His companion, however, objected.

“Don’t let your guard down! That creature slipped through a cordon even with a dozen security officers bearing down on it! One moment of carelessness now, and we’re finished.”

Hmm, I’ll need to be careful with that one. This creature is remarkably cautious.
The fact that it could make such a judgment is proof of extensive combat experience and cunning.
But the Mage never wavered in his arrogance.

“Tch. Stop nagging and just watch.”

Despite his companion’s warnings, the Mage raised his staff again and unleashed another torrent of flames.
Wait. Where have I seen something like this before?
Oh, right. It’s like my younger sister in summer, cracking open the door just enough to spray insect killer everywhere in the living room because she’s after a mosquito.
As if that kind of spraying ever works.
But from our perspective, we’re grateful. He’s burning through Mana on his own—no need to refuse a gift like that.
Even a Mage’s Mana isn’t infinite, after all.

‘Let’s go, Gyushik.’
Squeak!

Gyushik and I withdrew to a spot where the flames couldn’t reach us.
Fresh air from outside was pouring in through the riverside entrance, so there was no danger of suffocation.
For a while, we settled in comfortably and watched the spectacular fire show.

Crackle-whoosh—!
Wow… the flames are something else. Beautiful…!
Squeak…!

Ahh. It’s just like a bonfire at a training camp.
The smell of roasted mushrooms is drifting over too—if we had some grilled meat to go with this and a bottle of soju, it’d be perfect. What a shame.
After savoring that small regret, Gyushik and I had been staring at the flames for some time.
Judging that this much was sufficient, the Mage’s mindless fire display finally came to an end.

“That should be enough, yes? Finish them off yourselves. I’ll be in the back.”
“Yes, sir! Understood!”

Soon the humans pushed through the acrid smoke, raising their lamps as they began moving into the Cave.
The thick haze had blanketed the Underground Prison Facility, blocking vision completely.
As long as they didn’t get too close, they wouldn’t notice the crimson footprints on the ground either.
I immediately took control of Gyushik and advanced silently toward them.

With Invisible Presence concealing my presence,
And Vibration Detection letting me read the exact positions of my prey,
I am, quite simply, the perfect assassin.

Whoosh!

I charged toward the humans at the front of their column.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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