Chapter 46: Chapter 40- Operation Green Tide: Abrupt End

Everything was going well.

Keep on shooting while steadily retreating. The enemy is very weak compared to me.

That was the plan. If all went well, I’d easily win this incredibly long war of attrition.

But... life just likes to fuck you over, y’know?

 

The Polhza turtles fighting style drastically improved as soon as they gained the Anger and Vengeance skills.

If they were like an angry mob before, they’re now akin to an army of AI-controlled robots.

Ruthless and calculated... to a frightening level.

I had made the tunnel narrow to limit their access to it while taking advantage of their gregarious nature to slow down their attacks, but all that went out of the window.

Instead of only charging at my visible body through the tunnel opening, they are now digging around the fortified tunnel walls and attacking from all directions.

They even stopped caring about their companions’ bodies and started using those as meat shields to block the opening.

I can’t hurt them anymore and my cover will eventually collapse due to their attacks.

If I try to retreat and flee from the other side of the tunnel, they’d follow me. If I try to fight head-on, I’d be overwhelmed and shredded to pieces in no time.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place. A situation that’s despair-inducing, to say the least.

... But that’s exactly why I’m exceptionally enraptured.

In fact, if I had a human body, I’d probably have an eerie wide grin on my face right now.

This boring fight just became a life-and-death battle and I freaking love it!!

 

What I have to do in order to secure the victory is clear.

Bypass the obstacles and damage the enemy while taking care to end the fight before my cover is gone.

So, what better way is there than to take advantage of my enemies’ attacks? Hehe~

Using my sphere, I accurately lock on to each turtle’s position and movement trajectory, then follow that trajectory to mark their expected collision points with the tunnel walls.

Afterwards, I use Burrow to dig miniature holes at those points while consciously trying to turn off the fortification option.

That decreased system assistance thing is very helpful sometimes.

As the turtles crash into the marked collision locations, the tunnel walls partially collapse, revealing the heads of the turtles.

Without a moment of delay, my regenerated spikes fly through those areas and pierce through my enemies’ heads.

 

{Acquired skill [Magic Barrier LV 1].}

{Experience has reached the required level. Individual laethoul ramae has increased from LV 7 to LV 8}

{All basic attributes have increased.}

{Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Space Perception LV 1].}

{Skill [Space Perception LV 1] has been integrated into skill [Daughter of Space].}

{Conditions satisfied. Skill [Piercing Enhancement LV 10] has evolved into [Piercing Super-Enhancement LV 1].}

{Skill points acquired.}

 

Take that, assholes!

Did you really think you cornered this goddess?! Humph, stop dreaming!

Crash. Chomp.

Hey, bastard! Who allowed you to touch this goddess?!

Thump. Crash. Whoosh.

Well, fuck.

The plan I came up with on the spot worked perfectly, but the safety factor kinda dropped to zero.

Since my target changed from moving creatures to a still point, the required mental capacity dropped by a large margin, but a new problem popped up.

The partially collapsed tunnel sections weaken the entirety of the tunnel section, making it so that even a child could easily break through it.

Now, you see, those angry turtles certainly aren’t giving up any flaws their eyes can capture.

So... As soon as I entered my reloading phase, those guys promptly charged at my body that’s now visible through the cracked walls.

Basically, they started using their brethren as bait to lock onto my location and force me to weaken my own cover...

Luckily though, my defense stat is a good bit higher than their offensive one, so their attacks felt like a finger prick at most.

Pure physical attacks without skills don’t do much and I made sure not to get bitten by them.

Those little beaks can tear off entire chunks of my body when supported by that Solid Jaws skill...

Nonetheless, the damage can’t be ignored. A prick is fine, but I’d undoubtedly die if my entire body is pricked!!

Ugh... Why did this fight suddenly change from shooting range practice to live war...?

Back to reality, I guess...

 

The battle went on for hours without end.

Using Burrow, Expel, and Poison Spike at the same time took a huge toll on my resources, but I was able to manage through precise consumption calculation.

At first, it didn’t really affect me with Satiation’s stock, but the turtles became more and more desperate over time.

From using their brethren as bait in the beginning to trying to crush me with the corpses by now, the tunnel is good for nothing but to decrease their numerical advantage by now.

And accordingly, I didn’t have the liberty to slow down for a moment and breathe.

I’d recover my resources every time I level up while physical fatigue isn’t a thing for me with Exhaustion Nullification.

Mental fatigue however, is another story. The stress was building up like crazy, but I could still handle it for now.

My HP dropped into the red zone a couple of times even with the golden combination of Spatial Awareness, Future Sight, and Thought Super-Acceleration, I couldn’t dodge quickly enough.

However, none of the above-mentioned factors were impossible to cope with in some way. What got me, in the end, was something else.

It was a notification that I got at the 600-kill mark.

 

{Acquired skill [Iron Defense LV 1].}

{Experience has reached the required level. Individual laethoul ramae has increased from LV 14 to LV 15}

{All basic attributes have increased.}

{Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Deadly Poison Attack LV 6] has become [Deadly Poison Attack LV 7].}

{Condition satisfied. Skill [HP Auto-Recovery LV 10] has evolved into [HP Rapid Recovery LV 1].}

{Skill points acquired.}

 

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{Max level reached.}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Taboo LV 6] has become [Taboo LV 7].}

 

As soon as I heard the last two messages, my mind just went blank, giving the turtles a chance to land some free hits.

But I wasn’t in the mood to continue playing around and enjoying the fight anymore.

Consuming extra red SP, I overload my Poison Spike skill to increase the rate of regeneration and set about clearing the remaining enemies in one fell swoop.

It was quite a dangerous move actually.

The extra consumed SP was exponential, not additive. My red SP was flowing out like water.

Also, my regular moving turret strategy was thrown out of the window.

I was both angry and anxious. I had to vent my emotions somehow.

Tens of spikes suddenly emerged from my body. Different from the thin small ones I use as poison carriers while shooting, these spikes are thick and sturdy. (Heh.)

Then I incarnated into a literal living weapon.

Shooting poisonous spikes, tearing through bodies, crushing shells, and biting off heads.

I used every method I had at my disposal to slaughter my enemies.

Since I’m already at the maximum level, I couldn’t rely on level-ups to restore my resources, I had to take bites out of whatever I could get my mouth on and rely on Satiation to recover.

The remains of my foes were left anything but whole.

 

Mangled limbs barely attached to bodies with chunks missing from them everywhere, the scene could be described as nothing less than a beast’s assault—no, a monster’s bloodbath.

Just like that, a fight that had lasted for over twelve hours quickly ended in less than an hour.

The sole victor’s motionless wound-ridden figure could be seen at the center of the massacre as if a mad ghoul had finally finished his mission of spreading death.

 

“So, did ya finally calm down, little girl?”

It’s you, miss Ouri... I guess I did.

“What are ya gonna do now?”

I... don’t know. You should be able to fix this somehow, right?

“Indeed, but how are ya gonna pay me back?”

An errand, I guess.

“Hehehe... Hahaha! An errand it is then, little one!”

 

I didn’t care what she’d ask me to do anymore.

I’d agree to anything as long as I can keep on evolving.

Otherwise I won’t be able to save Aiko and the others. Otherwise I won’t be able to see my parents again before they pass away.

Although I’m guaranteed to ascend someday with the wishes Alkreya bestowed upon me, my loved ones don’t have the time to wait for me.

Also, this planet’s apparently on the verge of collapse as well, and I certainly don’t plan on accompanying it or fully entrusting my future to the mercy of any of its gods.

I’m fine with becoming a servant, even a slave under an administrator in exchange for unblocking my evolution road, but I certainly wouldn’t leave my life and death in their hands.

As long as I become a god, Alkreya will fix everything anyways.

A superior cleaning behind her subordinate is a normal thing, right?

 

“All right then, little fish. Inside the place you call the ‘boneyards’, at the area with the densest collection of bones, there lays an ancient passage to a place that I dislike. Go destroy that place and I shall fix your little problem.”

 

Nodding my head, I start feasting on my spoils of war.

I just realized it, but my HP has dropped down to less than 5% right now while my red SP bar has nothing but an unnoticeable slither in it.

Had I been delayed a couple more seconds, I would’ve probably died.

Also, it seems that I unknowingly let my Anger skill level up too much... It’s actually gone up to level 9.

 

It took me an entire hour to fully restore my resources and re-stock the surplus to full.

Having no more urgent matters to deal with, I check my status to keep tabs to inspect my gains.

The first section I inspect is my stats which surprisingly didn’t change according to my expectations.

I had thought killing a thousand moderately strong enemies would significantly increase my stat numbers, but it seems even Greed has hidden limitations.

Plundering stat numbers seems to have a hidden maximum number, which I currently have no concrete information about.

However, using basic math after removing the multiple level-up increases, I can presume it to be the average of the plundered monster race’s stats.

Well, I guess it’s only fair...

Even I don’t feel like it’s fair to become the strongest creature inside the system’s boundaries by killing a hundred thousand small fries after all.

After I was done with the stats, my eyes shifted to the skills area.

It seems that Sage has conveniently switched the plundered skill during my rage-induced massacre, so I now have three new max-level skills.

Magic Barrier, Tactile Enhancement, and Iron Defense. They were maxed out in this order.

I was quite confused about why Tactical Enhancement was judged as more beneficial than Iron defense, but Manager-san promptly clarifies my doubts.

Since I’m gonna soon descend into even deeper waters, this skill would play a critical role in my survival as it enhances my ability to sense the position of prey, water current directions, and pressure changes.

It also helps with sensing temperature changes so that I can detect underwater vents and similar landmarks in the future.

Hmmm, I guess it’s fine. It’s not like I had much trouble with my defensive aspect anyways.

There were no other significant changes.

Proficiency level-ups are just the usual while acquiring the Space Perception added practically nothing to my repertoire.

Spatial Awareness is a hundred times better and I can already sense the changes in my surrounding space by instinct.

Knowing when someone’s teleporting near me is kinda tasteless.

As for the title section, I only got the Monster Slaughterer title.

Not gonna lie, I half-expected to find something like Lunatic or Berserker in there.

Ahhh, guess there’s nothing else for me to do here then.

It’s a shame all of this turtle meat is gonna be taken by scavengers...

I can’t even taste it properly with my agitated emotions.

Whatever, it’s not like I won’t commit mass species extermination in the future anyways!

Let’s hurry to my new destination now, my emotions won’t calm down unless I get my next evolution.