Ch.142142. Corrupted Ancient Blood Eel

Lightning rain pours down on the swampland.

Whoosh—

It’s too fast and wide-ranging to simply stand and watch, thinking “that’s quite a refreshing downpour.”

I dodge by instinctively leaping away, again and again.

I don’t forget to slash at the body of the ancient blood eel, a creature with nothing but a massive mouth.

GROOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!

The enormous scream hurts my ears.

Still, perhaps because I’m wielding the Madness Blade, each time I leap and slash, rough wounds are left on the giant earth dragon’s body.

Has my wish been granted?

It’s as if someone heard my request to bring even a corrupted ogre and miraculously fulfilled it.

The ancient blood eel was incredibly tough.

Tough? To be more precise, it was so fat that even when I cut it, slicing through its thick body in one go wasn’t easy.

I had to carve it bit by bit, but the flesh would quickly regenerate with electrical sparks.

It was a different type of regeneration from the corrupted ogre.

“This isn’t easy.”

With the corrupted ogre, I just had to dodge its attacks and aim to cut its neck in one strike.

Since I had the physical speed advantage, it wasn’t much of a problem.

But this corrupted ancient blood eel primarily uses magical attacks, so even I could get hit if I let my guard down for a moment.

“Ah, hot!!! Fuck!”

I couldn’t even dodge everything.

What’s more infuriating is that these spells aren’t aimed specifically at me—they’re area attacks that feel like “just take one hit” type of magic. Even though my leaping slash is like teleportation, if the magic happens to land exactly where I teleport, there’s no way for me to avoid it.

Good thing I’m wearing the insulated armor set.

Seeing my health drop by 30% with each hit, I’d have lost more than half my health without the insulated armor.

“If you’re going to play like this, I have no choice but to use some buffs.”

Its regeneration speed is slower than the corrupted ogre’s, so I could probably take it down if I focused enough on my slashes, but the electrical rain pouring down on the swamp made it difficult to concentrate.

Magic is a given, but the massive body slams coming at me would crush every bone in my body worse than being hit by a dump truck if they connected.

It’s even bigger than the corrupted ogre, which says it all.

I create as much distance as possible and pull an elixir from my belt.

Thanks to the Madness Blade, I don’t need damage buffs, but I do need to recover my health.

“Tch.”

The bitter taste of the elixir, which I didn’t focus on when making it, slides down my throat.

Even an elixir made from baby ogre blood, not the corrupted ogre, has sufficient health recovery effects.

[Recover 3% health per second for 15 minutes]

[+1 grade to Stamina for 15 minutes]

[Damage reduction +15% for 15 minutes]

[100% Health recovery]

It’s not an absolute safety net.

Still, it’s enough insurance to recover the health that’s being gradually chipped away.

One hit at a time.

Even though I’m dodging, when lightning strikes exactly where I leap to, I’m caught in a vicious cycle—focusing on my decreasing health means I can’t concentrate on dealing damage.

Still, even this ancient blood eel seems to have a limit to its mana, as the electrical rain that had been pouring down for a while momentarily stops.

This is my chance.

It could be a trap, but if I hesitate too much, I’ll never act.

I dive toward its flank and swing my sword.

“Die, you bastard!!”

GROOOOAAARGH!

The giant earth dragon.

The ancient blood eel’s body splits in half and collapses.

———————-

[Quest Complete!]

Though it was a tense fight for a moment, the ancient blood eel was no match for me with my Madness Blade imbued with holy power.

As long as I don’t make stupid mistakes like Lulu’s previous owner, I shouldn’t struggle much against corrupted bosses in the future.

With the corrupted ogre, I countered its close-combat weapons.

With the corrupted ancient blood eel, I chose holy magic to imbue my weapon, dealing additional damage to chaotic energy and widening the gap.

The only thing that made me tense this time was that it perfectly countered the one weakness in my fighting style—using quick reflexes and leaps to dodge all enemy attacks.

That weakness is vulnerability to area attacks.

But even that wasn’t too difficult when I covered it with elixirs.

It would be strange if it were difficult.

The timing works out well, and each time I clear a main quest, I’m given SSS+ abilities to prepare for the next boss.

As long as I don’t randomly choose skills like magic or alchemy like Lulu’s previous owner, and instead follow the main quests while adapting my specs to counter each enemy, I should be able to continue like this.

Of course, if I had to pick the MVP that contributed most to conquering this corrupted area, I would definitely choose this Madness Blade made by Kukum.

Without its absurdly high raw attack power, it would have been difficult to split the ancient blood eel’s body in half during that brief moment when its mana dropped.

[Quest Complete!]

Multiple quest completion messages appeared.

I had briefly seen it earlier, but this Black Swamp was also an A+ dungeon and appeared as a sub-quest.

[Sub-Quest]

[A+ Dungeon]

[The forbidden swampland, which once had the only clear lake in the marshes, has become the Black Swamp where blood eels live, condensed from the Forest of Chaos. The swamp, soaked in chaotic energy, is gradually spreading and expanding its territory, eventually covering the entire marshland. If left unchecked, the Black Swamp could eventually turn even solid ground into marsh and ultimately cover the entire Rift Dimension. Find and eliminate the ‘Ancient Blood Eel’ in the lake of the swampland soaked in chaotic energy in the Level 1 biome.]

[Reward: SS- Grade Life Skill Selection Ticket x1, Farming Stat +15, 10,000 Farm, Stronghold Expansion 10P, S-Grade Random Accessory Box x1]

The main quest is so impressive that I skimmed over it, but since it’s a sub-quest dungeon of the main quest, the rewards are amazing.

“How many rewards are there?”

It’s just a Level 1 biome.

Unlike Level 0 biomes, Level 1 biomes can be found in several places across this vast map.

Yet I received 6 quests just from the swampland.

Even though it’s connected to the main quest, when you add up all the sub-quests, it gives several times the satisfaction I got from the Level 0 biome.

Setting aside the quest completion for now, I start butchering to check the rewards.

I also quickly pick the red swamp flowers growing around the lake and put them in my belt.

As the fog lifts, the black swamp, whose bottom was previously invisible, becomes clear water, forming a lake.

The chaotic energy among the dispersing fog doesn’t evaporate into the sky this time but is absorbed into the [Corrupted Ring] on my hand.

Main Quest 2 is also cleared along with it.

They said this was the only lake in the swampland, and indeed it’s filled with clear water that looks quite deep.

And in the middle of the lake.

On a small floating piece of land, there’s a box.

Unfortunately, this time it’s neither legendary, mythical, nor heroic.

“It would be strange if it were heroic or better every time.”

Still, I had some hope that maybe there was a bug due to the chaotic energy or something.

As with before, I decide to take the box home to open it later and gather everything else I can.

Since only the chaotic energy has been purified and the Black Swamp still remains intact, I decide to finish hunting the remaining blood eels at my leisure.

“Phew. This was fulfilling too.”

I concluded my journey of several days.

——————–

Since there’s a lot to organize, I set priorities.

“Chunbong. Prepare to relocate your village. Pack only the essentials—tomorrow you’ll return to the forest where you originally lived.”

“Really?! For real?”

“Yes. The forbidden swampland no longer exists. You should live on solid ground now, and since you’re half-elves, you should live like elves. Even if you can’t return to the elven village, I’ll help you.”

“Thank you… thank you so much…”

“No need for thanks. We’re both partly human, so we should help each other.”

The swampland quests were so centered around the Naru tribe that many were connected to them.

Lier’s hidden quest was also about helping the Naru tribe.

So to properly conclude this main quest, I needed to help the Naru tribe relocate, which would also neatly wrap up the sub-quests.

They didn’t have much to pack.

They lived in tree houses without many possessions, and these primitive natives who covered their bodies with mud and barely clothed themselves didn’t have much to gather.

The next day.

The small community of about 30 Naru tribe members who lived in the trees returned to their homeland after many long years.