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Chapter 113

This place is known as the ‘Forgotten Temple of the Lost Land.’ Only the father of the land served by the wolves of Utopia-02 knows the way to the Forgotten Temple. Or at least, that’s how it was supposed to be.

However, those standing in the Forgotten Temple now are not wolves. Inside and outside the temple, broken stone statues and corpses of humans and cult members were scattered. Inside the temple, a group of individuals moved around, tending to the bodies.

They were cultists with horns on their heads, young humans, but they all had two common features—they were males and exceptionally handsome males at that. These intruders belonged to a formidable pirate group, the Humanity Cartel.

All the pirates, busy with the aftermath of the battle, showed tension and fatigue on their faces, except for one. A cult girl with deer antlers on her temples had a broad smile on her face, holding a golden javelin in her hand.

“Hehe, there’s nothing sweeter than getting the important loot before anyone else.”

A voice as enchanting as her appearance flowed from her lips. Her name was Muriel, the leader of the Humanity Cartel.

Approaching her, a man spoke,

“Leader.”

“What happened brother?”

“Well, there are some injured pirates here.”

Her gaze turned towards the fallen pirates behind her subordinates. They had suffered serious injuries in the battle with the stone statues guarding the temple.

“Brothers, are you hurting a lot?”

“Oh, no! It’s nothing! Just a scratch!”

“It’s okay! Just a little scrape!”

The injured pirates reassured her, emphasizing that they were fine. Muriel approached them and casually scanned each one. Then, she furrowed her eyebrows.

“Brothers, you can’t be ugly.”

“Pl…please spare us! Keuk!”

“Even you, brother.”

“Please… ack!”

Ignoring their pleas, Muriel lethally stabbed each injured pirate with her javelin. Strangely, the golden javelin’s glow intensified with each kill, as if reveling in the blood.

“Thanks to you brothers, the experiment was a great success.”

She nodded satisfactorily while looking at the dazzling javelin that illuminated the inside of the temple brightly. Muriel, having killed all the injured, led her subordinates and left the temple.

In a location away from the temple, there was a temporary camp set up by the Humanity Cartel. As she arrived, her subordinates waiting at the camp greeted her.

“Have you come?”

“How is the Mother of the Sky?”

“As you mentioned, she is in training.”

Muriel entered the camp with her subordinates. In the center of the camp, a beast, 3 meters in size, was chained with iron shackles. The skeletal structure of the beast, with an eagle head on a lion’s body, was truly gruesome. Its entire body was covered in hardened scabs, and the wounds were so severe that maggots were growing out from it.

All four legs had thick iron stakes driven into them, and a spiked iron collar was worn around its neck. Additionally, internal organs protruded from a wound on its side, tied up with a thick wire connected to a wheel.

Speaking in a cheerful voice to the beast in a state that seemed close to death, Muriel said,

“Hey, Choe-seo, ah, no. Mother of the sky. Have you been well?”

｢……｣

When the beast, addressed as the Mother of the Sky, didn’t respond, Muriel gestured to one of the pirates. As the pirate turned the wheel, the wire was pulled, extracting the beast’s internal organs.

｢Kraaaaack! You son of a bitch!｣

“If a person asks you something, you should answer.”

｢Grrr… S…stop!｣

“Why are you cursing when I’m trying to thank you for getting the treasure? Am I still a joke to you?”

｢Aaaargh!｣

In extreme pain as its organs were torn apart, the Mother of the Sky even lost control of its bladder.

“Hehehe, it’s impressive that the transformation hasn’t been undone despite going this far.”

｢Uuuu… You…｣

“But how much more can you endure?”

While Muriel mocked the pathetic sight, a subordinate approached with a communication pad.

“Leader, there’s an urgent message from the cruiser.”

“I’m busy right now.”

“It’s a very urgent matter.”

“…Fine.”

Muriel reluctantly took the pad. The displayed contents were video recordings transmitted from cameras on the reinforced suit.

***

‘Phew.’

After recovering from the aftermath of the ‘Symbol of Hunt’, I looked around. Worried about the possibility of leaving the cave, I realized that it hadn’t happened.’

‘Bit messy, but…’

The cave walls and my body were covered in blood. Fingers hung with leftover entrails, and broken bone fragments and flesh scattered on the floor.

‘Let’s get ready then.’

Having processed all the prepared food in my stomach, I left the cave. Evolution can’t happen immediately after completing all the evolution conditions. The best time for evolution is when Amorph is most incapacitated, during his recovery in the cave. If attacked during evolution, I wouldn’t be able to resist and would die.

‘The time it took for the last evolution was six hours.’

It would probably be similar or even longer when evolving into a Quasi-Saint. To safely stay in this jungle for at least six hours, preparations were necessary.

‘Let’s seal the cave entrance.’

I went outside and headed to the nearby pirate camp. Since the pirates had already been devoured, there was no one at the camp. Except for the fact that creatures like the Wooddevils had come out and took away the boxes containing Calibaga, the items at the camp remained untouched.

Grabbing a small bomb from the camp, I returned to the cave and installed it at the entrance. When the bomb exploded, the cave entrance collapsed, plunging the cave interior into darkness.

‘Let’s go then.’

Inside the cave, there was a spacious chamber large enough for me to evolve without any issues. I found a suitable spot deep inside the chamber along the wall.

[Pre-Saint > Quasi Saint evolution conditions have been met. Would you like to evolve?]

I had waited a long time. I spoke to the text box waiting for my response.

Yes, I would evolve. Instantly, an enormous amount of slime was secreted from my body. In the sticky sensation that enveloped my entire body, I lay down on the cool cave floor.

The slime spread not only around my body but throughout the entire chamber. Within the slowly solidifying slime taking the form of egg-shaped structures, I closed my eyes quietly.

And then,

‘Huh?’

I opened my eyes in a familiar space.

‘Where am I?’

The place I was standing was someone’s room. A computer, VR headgear on a desk, posters of classic SF movies on the walls, and neatly arranged bedding on the floor.

I knew the identity of this space.

‘My room?’

I looked down at my palm, wondering if I had returned to reality. What I saw there was Amorph’s hand, familiar but now human-sized.

“What happened?”

It was too realistic to be a dream. The distinctive nauseating smell of a one-room apartment, the scent of kimchi stew wafting in from outside—it was hard to believe it was fake.

I approached the computer and turned on the VR headgear connected by a cable.

The screen reflected on the transparent visor inside the device was undoubtedly the login screen of Space Survival.

‘It’s different from when evolving into a Pre-Saint’

At that time, I speculated that the space I was in was a simulated world. It made sense, given that the space itself felt unreal.

But now, the boundary was extremely ambiguous. Judging whether this was reality or not was difficult, considering the weight of the device felt in my hands.

I put down the VR headgear and opened the door.

‘Huh?’

The moment I opened the door, I found myself in another space. It was a home.

‘Where is this?’

A framed picture hanging in the entrance caught my eye. The picture inside the frame was a drawing I had made in kindergarten. Stepping inside, I saw a middle-aged couple arguing on the porch.

Both of them had their faces painted with black paint, and their voices were distorted like machine-modulated noises, making it impossible to understand. They continued arguing as if they didn’t know I was in the same space.

I passed by them and entered the innermost room. It was a room with only a bed, desk, and wardrobe, giving a desolate feeling compared to my apartment seen earlier.

Ignoring the bed and desk, I approached the wardrobe. With both hands, I opened the door.

“…”

Inside the wardrobe was a child with burned scars on half of the face, to be precise.

The child looked at me, tears welling up in round eyes. Without thinking, I reached out towards the child, and the child extended its hand in the same way.

As our hands touched, the child’s expression changed. The moment I realized it was a smile, the environment around me changed into a deep darkness.

‘I’ve returned.’

I extended my “sixth arm” to tear the bloody membrane covering my body. Slime that had filled the membrane poured out, and the cold, damp air of the cave enveloped my body.

It felt like the pleasant coolness after washing with warm water. I exerted strength on the “tail” and slowly stood up.

Since no light entered the cave, I couldn’t see anything with my eyes, but I could feel it. The sensory organs under my jaw, now increased from 2 to 4, vividly conveyed the changes in my body.

‘Is this the Quasi-Saint stage?’

A creature resembling a spider or scorpion, with bipedal locomotion similar to a human or a humanoid.

So, what animal does the Quasi-Saint Amorph resemble? I’d like to say it’s a giant snake with eight arms. As for me, who has transformed, there’s nothing resembling legs anymore. The arms that originally served as legs have been modified into new combat arms, so now I have a total of six combat arms.

‘The upper arm, middle arm, and lower arm.’

Each combat arm is located around the shoulders, sides, and lower abdomen. With the transformation of the legs into arms, the upper body has become longer than before. And the lower half of my body, where the legs disappeared, has been replaced by a thick tail.

In other words, if we were to simplify my current form, it would be similar to the monster Naga from Indian mythology, which is described as half-human and half-snake. Despite losing legs, I haven’t slowed down.

Now, movement is facilitated by the thick claws tightly embedded in the tail. The power of these tail claws is tremendous, allowing me to run much faster on land than before.

‘And it’s useful when wandering underground or swimming.’

Thanks to these changes, the Quasi-Saint can operate more easily in a variety of environments compared to before, whether burrowing into the ground for ambush or pursuing enemies fleeing into the water, and so on.

Additionally, the tail, now an important means of movement and support, has scales separated like those on the head. While these scales are finely divided for free movement, they are not so low in defense. Probably, swiping an enemy with my tail will yield a force equivalent to a full-on charge.

‘In the past, I killed many enemies by entwining them with this tail.’

Even the Swamp King, whom I devoured before evolving, won’t withstand having its armor tightened by this tail for more than a few minutes. Of course, I won’t leave it in a state where it can easily resist.

With the overall change in body shape, the form of the enlarged armor due to the horizon effect of nightmares has also slightly changed. The robust and heavy armor, suited to the shape of a snake-like body, has transformed into a sleeker and less thick form.

‘Let’s see.’ From now on, I won’t walk on two legs but move while supporting my body with my tail. I moved my tail as a test.

Sssss!

‘Huh?’

Honestly, I thought it would be difficult to adapt, but surprisingly, it wasn’t. The sensation of moving the tail was similar to the feeling of bouncing around by giving strength to the waist.

‘But it has grown a lot.’

The length of my previous body, including the tail, was 12m, and during the manifestation of the hunting emblem, it was 20m. However, now, without using the ‘Symbol of Hunt’, the length has surpassed 25m, possibly because the role of the tail has become more important.

Apart from the fact that reaching the Quasi-Saint stage has made me larger and the lower half of my body has been replaced by a tail, there is another mutation that occurred after I reached the Quasi-Saint stage.

Grrr!

I opened my mouth wide. The lower part of my jaw split into two, causing my mouth to open much wider than before. Inside the split jaw, sharp teeth were densely embedded.

‘While the tail is powerful, the true strength of the Quasi-Saint lies in the newly acquired feature. And that’s the jaws.’

[Essence Harvester’s Jaw: You can activate the predation effect just by consuming the head of a target that possesses genetic essence.]

This means that by having the essence harvester’s jaw, you can activate the predation effect by just eating the head without consuming the entire corpse. With the Jaw of the Genetic Harvester, you can quickly replenish the genetic essence of enemies during combat. This implies much faster growth than before.

‘Because of this, other players tried to kill Amorphs by any means necessary.’

Having confirmed all the changes, there’s no reason to stay in this narrow cave any longer. I lowered my body and crawled towards the cave entrance. As I moved, widening the walls with my six combat arms, the entrance, though narrow, didn’t cause me any discomfort.

After easily breaking through the collapsed entrance, I climbed up the nearby redwood. Coiling my tail and pushing my body upward, along with using the combat arms, made the ascent incredibly fast.

Ssssss!

The best part is that it makes almost no sound. Similar to how a snake moves silently, my movements were equally quiet. As evidence, the Night Stalker, which was lying on a branch, had no awareness that I was right behind it. It yawned, apparently bored of waiting for prey.

I quickly bit off its head with my split jaw.

Kong?!

The Night Stalker’s corpse, with its head lost in an instant, fell below.

“There’s no being on this continent that can restrain me.”

Once I’ve become a Quasi-Saint, even predators like the Hond Gigrant or the Swamp King can’t be my opponents. The only remaining potential threat is the pirate player.

‘As long as she’s gone, there’s no one to prevent my evolution.’

If negotiations break down, she will bear the responsibility. This is thanks to the genetic essence she possesses.