Ch.185185. Pouring Water into a Snake Pit

When I was young, I used to play a certain game.

It was during a trip to the countryside. While walking along the paths, I would often spot patches of dirt beside the road teeming with ants.

Ant colonies.

The homes of ants.

How are homes created inside the soil?

How can so many ants live in there?

Do they each have their own rooms?

Though I wanted to dismantle an ant colony to see inside, there was no way to do that. So the only mischief my childish mind could come up with was pouring water into the entrance of the ant colony.

What would the ants do when the tunnels filled with water?

It’s funny to think about it in human terms—what would happen if the underground world where you lived suddenly flooded with rising water?

They would die, of course.

But as a child, I found it fascinating.

It was intriguing.

It was just one bottle of water, maybe a 1.5L plastic bottle at most.

I’d pour it in and watch the ants’ world collapse, marveling at how they scurried out in panic.

Looking back now, I realize it was quite cruel to the ants.

That memory gave me an idea.

Snake dens are humid.

Especially since they built this snake den in this place full of corrupt vapor and excessive moisture—it suggests that snakes thrive in humid places where they can absorb more chaotic energy.

You can tell just by looking at the ground.

The Forest of Vapor is already a tropical rainforest biome with perpetually moist soil, but this area was so wet it was like it had been raining constantly. The mud squelched with each step, and it was extremely unpleasant how mud clung to my shoes up to my ankles.

Still, compared to a swamp, this was heavenly, so I hadn’t given it much thought.

So, Guava Snakes like humid places.

The misty humidity that permeates this S-rank dungeon, the Forest of Corrupt Vapor, could be considered the source of the Guava Snakes’ power.

Or rather, they’ve grown powerful by consuming the dense chaotic energy contained in this humid mist.

So I wondered:

If Guava Snakes like humidity, would they dislike water?

It’s like this.

Usually, when you ask people who enjoy rainy days why they like them, they’ll give various reasons, but many enjoy the atmosphere that rain creates.

Many like sitting by the window, enjoying the sound of falling rain.

Some like the distinctive smell of moisture created by rain.

Others find peace in the gentle sound of raindrops hitting the ground, using it as ASMR.

While there are many different types of people who enjoy rainy days, if you ask them all one common question, there’s something they typically dislike: “So, how do you feel about getting rained on?”

Regardless of how much they enjoy rainy days, not many people enjoy getting directly rained on.

Sure, there are exceptions, but getting directly rained on is something you could do by just turning on a shower.

Anyway, that’s the point.

Just as liking rainy days is different from enjoying getting soaked by rain.

Just as liking humid terrain and biomes is different from enjoying water flooding into your home.

What about Guava Snakes?

With this thought in mind, I brought Unir along and turned on water like a faucet at what appeared to be one of the many entrances to the Guava Snake den network before me.

I was worried because my mana was completely depleted just from evaporating the dense chaotic vapor in a certain area, but the difference between evaporating chaos-infused water and creating water was enormous.

The water I sprayed like a sprinkler every day now gathered and poured down through the hole.

This wasn’t just a trickle of water.

An enormous amount of water appeared from nowhere, draining my mana by 300-400 points every 30 seconds.

There was no need to wonder where the water came from.

It wasn’t strange for Unir, the water master, to create water, especially since this place was full of water vapor.

Given the enormous size of Guava Snakes, I honestly had no idea how vast these tunnel-like snake dens might be.

Even ant colonies, home to thousands or tens of thousands of tiny ants, are large from a human perspective—how much larger would a snake den be?

So I kept Unir working for a very long time.

After about five minutes, vibrations began to spread through the snake den, and the ground started to rumble.

That’s when I first realized:

They’re connected.

The stream of water pouring in from somewhere must have startled the Guava Snakes, as if a hole had suddenly opened in their ceiling.

No matter how high a monster’s stats are, they’re often helpless against nature.

How could a Guava Snake stop the tremendous flow of water pushing in?

They would simply be swept away.

Since they’re snakes living in the Forest of Vapor, I wondered if they might drown, but that would only be known after the operation was complete.

The effect seemed quite good, and after about 20 minutes, I finally heard the sound of ground collapsing in the distance, followed by something bursting out.

“Yuu!”

“Yes, keep going. When it’s completely filled with water, stop and come back.”

“Yuuuu!”

Encouraging Unir to continue pouring water, I moved toward the source of the sound.

There was a truly massive Guava Snake that had erupted from the ground.

Its entire body blended with the surroundings, making it look like a giant tree at first glance, but its violent shaking revealed its camouflage.

A huge tree was falling toward me.

No.

It was the boss of the Corrupt Guava Snakes.

THUD—

KYAAAAA—

The snake lunged toward me with a fierce roar, endless water gushing from its mouth.

Like a drunk man overdoing it, the Corrupt Guava Snake boss spewed water for quite some time before charging at me again.

I thought I had kept a good distance, but it seemed to have some way of detecting me.

[Monster]

– Name: Corrupt Big Guava Snake

– Rank: SS(BOSS)

– Level: 60

– Stats: Strength(SS) Agility(SS+) Stamina(SS) Magic Power(SS-)

– Physical: 1141cm / 841kg

– Abilities:

1. Chaos Absorption/Release(SS)(A)

2. Extreme Poison Release(SS)(A)

3. Wound Regeneration(SS)(P)

4. Moisture Detection(SS)(P)

“That’s it.”

Moisture detection.

If it could see me like a thermal camera, distance wouldn’t be much of an issue.

KYAAAK—

As the Big Guava Snake roared at me, this time its saliva sprayed toward me in a wide area.

In this vapor-filled land, the humid air often made it hard to distinguish between spit and rain, so I might have been hit if I wasn’t careful, but I dodged anyway.

With a terrifying skill like “Extreme Poison Release” listed in its monster information, I’d be crazy to just stand there and take it.

Indeed, where the spit landed, it melted and bored through the grass and resources.

Being SS-rank, it must be quite powerful.

Realizing it had missed, the Big Guava Snake let out another fierce roar, and then—

BANG—

Something exploded, and dark energy spread in all directions.

THUD—

In that split second, I heard something collide with me.

“Kuhek.”

I was thrown back with tremendous impact.

[Health: 44%]

“Wow. Damn, that’s insane.”

I can’t remember the last time my health dropped this much here.

If I hadn’t been wrapped in divine energy, I would have taken the full damage.

I quickly used healing and wrapped myself in divine energy again.

The attack came so suddenly I couldn’t prepare, but it seemed to be Chaos Release.

Releasing dense chaotic energy as an attack.

Still, with such a powerful attack, surely it couldn’t use it consecutively…

KYAAAAK—

BANG!

Before I could finish that thought, another wave of darkness was released.

Now that I knew what it was, I could somewhat see the shockwave spreading at that exact moment.

It might have been luck.

This time, instead of taking the hit, I used Leap Slash to close the distance toward the Big Guava Snake.

Like jumping rope.

I didn’t need to wait for the shockwave to reach me.

It was already moving at an incredible speed the moment it was released, and even reacting the instant I saw it was cutting it close.

Fortunately, I managed to jump over it successfully.

I don’t know how many times it could use this attack, but it seemed better to hunt it quickly rather than let it keep using it.

Precisely at the head.

My light demon sword, enhanced with Water Cut, split the Big Guava Snake’s head.

KIEEEE!!!

Level 60.

SS-rank stats with tough, rough scales.

Even with Chaos Absorption making it powerful, nothing could stand in the way of my light demon sword.

It was just slightly tougher and rougher scales.

SWOOSH—

Strong power yields to stronger power.

Despite being cleanly cut, the twitching body and the severed head trying to crawl toward each other were grotesquely creepy, but I poured the poison I got from Lee Ji-hyun directly onto the cut surface of the head.

KIYAAAAK!

Fortunately, while it could release extreme poison, it seemed to have no resistance to poison itself. After struggling for a while, it finally stopped moving.

Meanwhile, I spent the time slicing the body charging at me into about 30 pieces, but that’s just a side note.