I Became an Ancient All-Host Lifeform - Chapter 41

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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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041 Into Darkness

We tore away from the Spider Garden, heading straight northwest toward the Black Forest.
How long we ran, I couldn’t say.
At some point, the trees began to thin, and suddenly we burst into a vast, open plain. Beyond it, an enormous forest loomed into view.
So that must be the Black Forest I’d only heard about in stories.
How did I know?
Because colossal ancient trees thrust skyward like spears, completely blocking out the sunlight that fell upon the forest floor.
A forest where pitch-black darkness pooled beneath towering wood.
It looked as though a vast emerald canopy sheltered a seething mass of shadow beneath it.

‘Bokgu, let’s go in carefully.’
Woof!

Before we stepped into the Black Forest, I ordered Bokgu to slow our pace.
There was no telling what might bolt from that inky darkness. Caution—and more caution—was essential.
We’d crept in about five hundred meters when—

Whine….

Bokgu suddenly stopped dead.
He couldn’t see ahead at all—the darkness had become impassable.

‘Hell. I mean, it’s absolutely pitch-black.’

No sunlight penetrated from above; my vision was nothing but impenetrable shadow.
Even a wolf’s eyes—Bokgu’s eyes—couldn’t pierce such absolute darkness.
That we’d managed to advance even five hundred meters was only because some light still leaked in from the forest’s edge behind us.
But going any deeper was impossible.
Damn. There was no getting around this.
I’d have to spend the Genome Point I’d been saving.
I still had one Genome Point left from when I’d defeated the Holy Knight in Debris Village.

‘Bokgu, hold on just a moment.’
Woof!

I slipped into Bokgu’s body.
Then I grafted the genes of the Glutton Shadow Cat I’d caught at the Feed Storage—implanting the trait into Bokgu.

[Consuming 1 Genome Point, implanting the trait “Dark Vision” into host Bokgu.]
Screech!

The moment the status window announced this, Bokgu’s entire body trembled.
For an instant, my vision blanked—then snapped back online.

Flash!

Bokgu’s eyes gleamed in the darkness.
Now he could see through the lightless gloom as clearly as if night-vision goggles had been switched on.

The Glutton Shadow Cat’s Dark Vision gene was turning out to be surprisingly useful. First Gyushik, now Bokgu—both were reaping its benefits.

‘How’s that, Bokgu? Can you see now?’
Woof!

Bokgu wagged his tail vigorously in answer.
With his vision no longer sealed off, even the tightness in his chest seemed to dissolve.

‘Good. Let’s go in carefully from here.’

We moved forward again.
Deeper into the darkness of the Black Forest.

* * *

At that same moment.
The elite subjugation squad of the Border Defense Unit was heading toward the Spider Garden, following the directions the laborers had given them.
They arrived at the place where the merchant caravan had been attacked.
The spot where thousands of forest rats had swept through like a tsunami was utterly devastating.

“This… this can’t be…”

Those who witnessed the scene were left speechless at the sight before them.
The merchant caravan’s cargo carts were completely shattered beyond recognition, and corpses so mangled they were gruesome to behold lay scattered across the ground.
The rats had picked them clean, stripping the last flesh from bone with methodical thoroughness.
Seeing that even the caravan’s cargo had been completely excavated, it seemed the creatures had devoured every scrap of organic matter in the vicinity.
Even Bern, surveying the scene, furrowed his brow.

“Vicious creatures… they’ve consumed everything edible.”

Scattered about the ground were fragments of various goods and Crone Coins.
Under different circumstances, it would have been possible to claim a considerable sum, but not a single member of the subjugation squad showed interest.
For them, the mission took precedence over the wealth before their eyes.
Knight clenched his fists and shouted.

“These vile monsters! We must capture them before the damage spreads any further!”

Bern, who had been examining the condition of the corpses nearby, nodded in agreement.

“You’re right. They haven’t advanced far, judging by how little the bodies have decomposed. Let’s continue tracking them toward the Spider Garden.”

They left the wreckage behind and pressed forward.
Not long after, they arrived at the entrance of the Spider Garden.
As Bern drew near the Black Forest, an old nightmare suddenly surfaced in his mind.
He bit his dry lips.

“Damn… to return to this place again… it’s been nearly three years, hasn’t it?”
“Sir…”

When Knight looked at him with sympathetic eyes, Bern shook his head sharply.

“Ahem… it’s nothing. I’m fine. Let’s move on.”

They stepped into the entrance of the Spider Garden.
The mage who had been walking ahead approached the webbed wall without hesitation and felt for a hidden mechanism concealed within it.
A panel in the wall slid open, revealing a doorbell beneath.

Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

As the mage pressed the bell, a sweet, feminine voice came through.

“Yes, this is the Spider Garden. How may I help you?”
“Ahem.”

The mage cleared his throat.

“We are a subjugation squad dispatched from the Magic Tower. We have matters to discuss with the Spider Queen regarding the target.”
“Oh, I see? Please wait a moment.”

A moment later.

Shhhhh….

A nearby web-wall peeled open, and an Arachnid Maid emerged from within.
With her hands clasped together, she greeted the extermination unit with formal courtesy.

“Welcome to the Spider Garden. Her Majesty has been expecting you.”

The extermination unit followed the Maid’s guidance toward Belladonna’s mansion.
She led them along a shortcut that opened directly to the residence.
Upon arriving at the grand reception hall of the Spider Garden’s estate, the unit stood before the Spider Queen herself—Belladonna, who reclined in elegant repose.

“Welcome.”

The mage answered her greeting with a slight bow, then cut straight to the point.

“We are an extermination unit dispatched from the Magic Tower. Our quarry is a grey wolf and a rat monster with gems embedded in its skull. Have you seen them?”

Belladonna twirled a strand of her hair around one finger and played dumb.

“Hmm…. Well, I’m not sure? Though many monsters inhabit our garden, I haven’t come across ones like that…?”

It was a passable performance.
As far as she was concerned, she was merely keeping a promise made to an ancient being—but the mages of the Magic Tower were hardly the sort to fall for such a simple deception.
The mage crossed his arms as he spoke.

“Is that so? Then I’ll need to examine the garden’s access control logs. Show me to them.”

At this unilateral demand, Belladonna’s composure visibly wavered.

“Hmm…. There won’t be much to see, will there? Do we really need to—”
“Now. Or I’ll go down and check the records myself.”
“Sigh….”

The mage did not wait for Belladonna’s answer. He strode directly down into the mansion’s basement, the rest of the unit following in his wake.
As they descended the dimly lit stairs, an access control device installed by the Magic Tower came into view.
The mage placed his palm before it, channeling his mana into the apparatus.

Whirrrr….

A register of the Spider Garden’s access logs began spilling out from the device in a continuous stream.
Another mage among their number began scanning through the printed sheets.
His eyes sharpened in an instant as he studied the records.

“Hmm?”

Bern, who stood beside him, spoke up.

“Did you find something?”
“There’s an unauthorized entry. Just three hours ago. A medium-sized monster and two small ones slipped out to the north together.”
“Two small ones? Not one?”

Bern rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought.
Meanwhile, the mage who had uncovered this damning evidence thrust the record forward and began interrogating Belladonna with a sharp edge to his voice.

“You will tell me everything you know about those creatures at once, or I’m reporting this directly to the Master of the Magic Tower!”
“Tch—!”

Faced with irrefutable proof, Belladonna’s carefree expression froze over completely.
A clumsy excuse wouldn’t be enough to slip past this predicament unscathed.

‘Hell, no luck at all. How was I supposed to know they were targets of the Magic Tower? What do I do now….’

She conjured the image of Gyushik, Bokgu, and Dito, then clutched her head in her hands.
Was it a promise to keep the secret, or an obligation born of contract?
Belladonna bit her lip, sinking deep into deliberation.

* * *

The Black Forest—where not a single ray of light could penetrate.

Crack! Screech! Snap!

Here, whether night or day, the struggle for survival among monsters never ceased.
Thus the Black Forest was, quite literally, a blood-soaked hunting ground and a battlefield.

Roar!

We advance through the forest, locked in brutal combat with Mutant Monsters that erupt from all sides without warning.
The creatures here looked nothing like their counterparts outside.
Adapted to the darkness, their skin was pallid, nearly hairless, and their faces were utterly grotesque.
To make a comparison, they resembled the kind of monsters you’d see in a science-fiction film.
Creatures with pale, melanic-deficient skin and contorted faces.

Crack! Slash!

Gyushik and Bokgu were handling most of the fighting.
Both of them could fight effectively even in this pitch-black forest thanks to the Glutton Shadow Cat’s trait—Dark Vision.
Ah, all of this is thanks to the true hunter, the Glutton Shadow Cat, that rotten cheese of a beast!
Cheese, old friend! Your noble spirit lives on through us, the Dark Vision duo!
So don’t you worry—live well up there in the heavens above! You must be happy!
Then what exactly am I, the party leader, doing?

‘Dito! Right!’
Whoosh!

I’m flying about frantically with Dito, dodging and evading.
With zero combat power and no Dark Vision, the two of us are nothing but dead weight.

But wait—can’t I use magic?
Of course I can. But casting even a mediocre spell here is essentially suicide.
The only spell I can cast right now is Ignition, and that’s it.
Setting a flame alight in absolute darkness where nothing can be seen? That means ‘only that spark alone’ becomes visible to everything around us.
In other words, the moment that fire ignites, every monster in the vicinity locks onto us. Could we possibly handle that level of aggro?

Crack! Boom!

…Which is precisely why Bokgu and Gyushik are suffering so much right now.
To be honest, I did cast magic once before.
I tried to help by casting Ignition at an enemy charging at me, and we nearly all crossed the river of death together.
How was I supposed to know that creatures would swarm in from all directions the moment they caught sight of that small flame?
But on the flip side, this amounts to a windstorm of leveling time.

[Your level has increased!]
[Your host ‘Gyushik’ has leveled up!]

Moreover, because the monsters were busy tearing into each other, fortunately only the Gyushik-and-Bokgu duo could manage the load.
If the wild monsters recognized each other as allies like in an RPG, we’d already be shredded to pieces and fed to them.

Huff, huff, huff….

A moment later, once the chaos had subsided somewhat, Bokgu gasped for breath, his chest heaving.
In that instant, something nagged at me.

‘Wait. Something’s off about this….’
– What do you mean?

Well, perhaps Morgul would know?

‘Elder, this is supposed to be a forest, but there’s no grass anywhere. The ground is nothing but rotting leaves and soil—I don’t see a single weed. That’s strange, isn’t it?’

When I voiced my concern, Morgul answered curtly.

– The sky is obscured here, so it’s only natural. Without sunlight, how would small plants survive?

Ah, that’s right.
Without light, there’s no photosynthesis.

– Which makes this place a paradise for plant-type Monsters.
‘What?’

Plant-type Monsters?

– They evolved to consume flesh for nutrients since they can’t receive proper sunlight.

Why in the world would he wait until now to mention something so important? This isn’t helpful at all.

‘Wait, you’re only telling us that now—’

The moment I began to reproach Morgul.

Whoosh!

The ground beneath our feet heaved upward all at once.

‘Ahhh!’

But Bokgu and Gyushik, unable to fly, were caught by the creature without a chance to resist.
In an instant, Bokgu and Gyushik had become lettuce wraps.
The plant Monster, finally revealed, thrashed its leaves violently to dislodge them.
Beneath lay a grotesquely shaped plant Monster’s maw.
And then.

Shrieeeek…!

Toward the gaping maw of the plant Monster, dripping with thick digestive fluid.

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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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