Becoming an adventurer by copying monster abilities

Chapter 115 The "Stomach" of the Forest

As Luke extended his hand, his five fingers suddenly closed in mid-air.

It has a cool, viscous, and slippery texture when you touch it.

He grabbed it tightly and pulled hard.

"Buzz!"

The seemingly calm air was instantly rippled by this pull.

Immediately afterwards, a blurry mass of flesh appeared out of thin air in his hand, completely exposed to the cold moonlight.

It was a ball of flesh about the size of an adult's palm.

It has an overall sickly gray color, and its surface is covered with sticky, bright purple sap and pulsating granulation tissue.

Its shape resembles a shrunken, deformed human head, with a miniature face filled with resentment squeezed onto its uneven surface.

The moment Luke pulled it out, the strange ball of flesh seemed to feel extreme fear.

It suddenly opened its tiny, bloodshot compound eyes and burst into a mournful cry in the forest.

This venomous cry instantly echoed through the deathly silent forest.

Not far away, Lena and the others, who were preparing to launch another encirclement attack on Luca, suddenly froze, knelt on the ground, and showed pain on their faces.

Clearly, this bizarre mass of flesh with human-like features is the culprit controlling them.

Without hesitation, Luke clenched his fist tightly.

"laugh!"

Under the iron clamp-like compression, the ball of flesh began to twist and deform gradually.

In the end, Luke crushed him into a thick, dark red mist of blood and bits of flesh.

Looking at the mangled piece of meat in his hand, now completely still, juices slowly dripped from between his fingers.

Luke then used his longsword to poke at the bits of flesh, repeatedly cutting them into even smaller pieces.

Ensure that there is absolutely no possibility of its regeneration.

The reason he didn't directly use his longsword to slash, but instead used the brutal method of strangling to death, wasn't because he had any particular penchant for torturing his enemies.

He was just afraid that if he let go, the strange thing would disappear.

Before our eyes, the members of the Undying Heavy Sword Squad, who had been going berserk, collapsed limply to the ground.

His expression was calm, and he seemed to have broken free from the control of the illusion.

The danger seems to have finally passed.

Luke leaned against the trunk of an ancient tree, completely unprepared, his chest heaving, and let out a long sigh of relief.

His face also revealed a relaxed smile, as if he had survived a disaster.

However, although he seemed to be resting with a smile, his expression was so relaxed and honest.

But if you look closely at his face, you'll find...

Luke's constantly shifting eyes betrayed his disguise.

It can only be said that as Luca experiences more and more battles, his fighting ability improves, and his acting skills also improve.

He already has the potential to become an excellent "old fox".

The reason Luke remained vigilant and continued searching for the unusual in the forest was quite simple.

The moment he crushed the fleshy ball, he tried to materialize a projection of that strange fleshy mass, wanting to see what its "scientific name" was.

However, the [Miracle Fantasy], which usually reacts whenever a monster is killed, is now completely silent.

This situation has never occurred before.

Leaving aside those conjectures with extremely low probabilities, Luke believed there were only two possibilities.

The first possibility is that the strange lump of flesh is not a monster but some kind of magical creation, or some strange alchemical item that he has never heard of.

The second possibility is that the true mastermind, hidden deep in the forest, is not dead.

Or rather, the small piece of flesh that was crushed was of no consequence to it; it was not completely dead.

If it's the first scenario, it means that at this very moment, there is another user watching him from the forest.

In the second scenario, the monster might reveal some clues after seeing Luke's current vulnerable state.

Time passed second by second.

Luke pretended to have rested enough and slowly sat up from the ground.

He braced himself on the ground with his hands, bent at the waist, and with his head bowed, looking relaxed and unsuspecting.

His entire back was exposed to the dark void.

In the next instant, his figure had vanished.

In the blink of an eye, Luke was standing on the canopy of the thick, large tree above him.

At this moment, he still had an empty bottle of medicine in his mouth.

He forcibly used [Fleeting Evasion] for the third time, exceeding the current physical limits that his body could withstand.

The terrifying tearing sensation and oppressive force caused Luke's bones and muscles to swell and groan in pain, with tiny beads of blood even seeping from his pores.

He could only quickly alleviate the maddening side effects by guzzling down the medicine.

And this price, which is almost self-harm, is of course entirely worthwhile.

Because Luke's hands had already accurately caught the fleeting, eerie spatial fluctuation that he had just captured!

That cold, sticky texture was once again transmitted to his brain through his palm.

He could clearly feel the intense struggle emanating from his hands.

However, now that he had already captured him, how could Luke let go so easily?

Luke gripped the tree trunk beneath him tightly with his legs, and with a sudden burst of strength from his waist and abdomen, he threw his entire weight backward.

The two sides then engaged in a power struggle.

To others, he was like a master of pantomime, wrestling with thin air.

Finally, after a stalemate of more than ten breaths, a strange sound, like a tree trunk being snapped, erupted from the void.

Luca has finally revealed what was hidden in the deep space!

Accompanied by a spray of slime, the thing slammed heavily onto the tree canopy.

It was a cluster of bright red plants, like they had been soaked in blood.

The thick, intertwined roots are like the capillaries of a living organism.

After Luke's brutal tearing, this network of roots has been mostly destroyed.

A thick, indistinct liquid, like real blood, flowed down the fracture.

Hanging from these roots were many fleshy spheres, shaped like human heads, that Luke had just crushed.

It appears to be the fruit of this plant.

As the mother body was pulled out of the space, these fruits opened their tiny eyes and emitted a series of faint, dense cries of despair.

The entire forest seemed to sense the deadly threat and began to tremble violently.

The previously limp, blood-red plant suddenly swelled up.

Like a giant net, it pulled and wrapped up everything nearby, including soil, trees, and rocks.

Immediately afterwards, an irresistible suction force came from underground.

The plant, along with everything it had caught, was instantly pulled into the depths of the forest!

The twitching speed is extremely fast.

Along with Luca, who was still holding on, and Rena and the others who had fallen not far away, they were instantly swept into the darkness of the forest.

Luke felt the scene before him darken, and after a strong feeling of weightlessness, the surrounding scenery changed.

The forest seemed to be the same forest, with little change even in the layout of the surrounding trees and the gullies on the ground.

However, the moon in the sky had disappeared.

Instead, there was only pure blackness, an endless darkness without any stars.

The surrounding trees, once ancient and vigorous, have become withered and thin.

The bark had a deathly gray color, with strands of dark sap flowing from it.

At first glance, they look like human arms, bleeding and protruding from the mud.

The entire space looked as dark and gloomy as it could possibly be.

"Damn it, is this the ninth level of hell?"

Not far from Luca, the members of the Undying Heavy Sword Squad, after experiencing a violent spatial teleportation, finally regained their senses.

Akash, the tough-skinned orc, was the first to stand up. After seeing the bizarre scene before him, he muttered curses under his breath.

"It seems this is where those missing persons finally ended up."

Captain Reina's voice rang out from the side.

She and the warlock Kalan helped each other up from the ground.

As experienced high-level adventurers, they did not panic, but quickly adjusted their formation.

First, he cautiously observed the surrounding environment.

Then, the three of them turned their gazes to Luca, who was squatting on a dead tree trunk not far away, checking his equipment.

His eyes held a hint of awe.

Just now in the forest outside, although they were all controlled by illusions, they did not lose their memories of the battle.

They clearly remembered how Luke had just fought three opponents single-handedly and easily overwhelmed their siege.

Judging from Luke's current calm and unharmed state...

He must have held back when he was attacked by us, and didn't go all out.

"Um... Mr. Luke, how is Latour?"

Lena hesitated for a moment, but decided to ask about the whereabouts of the missing wanderers in the group first.

He was still alive when I left.

Luke answered truthfully.

"Thank you for showing mercy."

Lena breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

This wanderer was someone I had been searching for for a long time before inviting to join the team.

Although in that situation where they couldn't distinguish friend from foe, it wouldn't have been unreasonable for them to be killed by Luke.

But hearing that your teammates are still alive is always good news.

"What should we do next?"

They are all high-level professionals; any unnecessary words should be saved for after we are out of danger.

Lena had quickly processed all the information she had received.

She knew very well that if it weren't for Luca, the Undying Heavy Sword Squad would probably have disappeared into the forest just like the others who had gone missing before.

Therefore, she directly relinquished command of the squad and prioritized asking Luca for his opinion.

Luke shook his head decisively.

This was also the first time he had experienced something like this.

The arena known as the Secret Realm that we entered earlier in Sunset Forest is very different from this place.

The warlock Kalan pondered for a moment before offering his guess: "I just tried to sense it. Although the environment here is harsh, the magical particles that can communicate still follow the original ordering rules. This place is most likely still within the material plane, just isolated by some kind of force."

Then, Kalan turned to Luca, who was standing nearby, and asked, "Mr. Luca, you were conscious when you were dragged in here, weren't you? Did you notice anything unusual? Like abnormal magical fluctuations, or any physical discomfort?"

Luke described what had just happened, including the strange plants hidden in the air.

Even now, he has not actually seen the complete face of the guy hiding behind the scenes.

Or rather... the forest itself is the mastermind behind everything?

Luke shared his guess.

"The Will of the Territory...

"7

After listening, Karan nodded thoughtfully: "Under certain extreme and special circumstances, a forest, a lake, or similar terrain may indeed give rise to its own will and control everything within it within a certain range."

If that's the case, then the place we're in now is probably a small, hidden pocket space created by this will.

To put it simply, we can think of ourselves as being "inside" its body, or rather, in its stomach, where it stores and digests its prey.

"Such a big stomach?"

Akash, the orc, suddenly widened his eyes. In an instant, only one simple and brutal thought remained in his not-so-bright mind.

"If we burn this place down, will we be able to kill that treacherous guy?"

This time, Lena, as the team leader, unusually did not deny the seemingly reckless suggestion.

Because that's what she thought too.

Normally, if a small team with a sense of justice enters this space...

Their first priority should be to explore deeper into the area and search for the whereabouts of those who have gone missing.

However, none of the people present would make such a suggestion.

Even Luke, whose original intention was to find the missing Seid, did not plan to venture deep into the forest.

The strangeness of this living forest has far exceeded their control.

Rather than being led by the nose by that mysterious will within this labyrinthine stomach.

They believed that flipping the table was the option that gave them a better chance of winning.

Karan shrugged after hearing the suggestion: "It's crude, but we can give it a try, though I don't think the chances are very high."

They were all highly proactive professional adventurers, and once they had a hypothesis, they immediately put it into practice.

After the fierce battle outside, most of the supplies and alchemy tools that everyone had carried were scattered in the forest.

Therefore, the responsibility of igniting the fire fell on Karan, the only known spellcaster.

Karan took a deep breath, and magic surged within him.

First, he tried releasing two blazing [fire arrows] at the surrounding bleeding, withered trees.

This magic, which was only at the level of a trick, landed on the black tree trunk, but only caused the black sap on the surface to boil for a moment before disappearing completely.

"No, the environmental laws here are extremely incompatible with fire element." Karan's face was grim.

Seeing this, Luke raised his left hand, which was not holding a sword.

In an instant, the Ash Lord's flames condensed in his palm.

He turned to Kalan and said, "Just use Fireball. Don't waste time."

In such a strange place, testing or concealing one's strength is disrespectful to one's own safety.

Therefore, Luke directly enhanced the Ash Lord's abilities.

He planned to try bombarding the forest together with Kalan's fireball spell to see if he could cause any real damage to the forest.

Karan's eyes lit up.

Previously, based on the unusual appearance of the dragon's corpse and the memories of the recent battle, it had been confirmed that Luca possessed the ability to cast spells.

Seeing that his opponent was no longer hiding his fire magic, as a proud spellcaster, he couldn't help but feel a desire to compete.

He wanted to see how the little fireball in the other party's hand could possibly harm that magic-immune dragon.

Right now, it's an opportunity to test our destructive power!

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