Ch.73Reason

“Keck.”

Suddenly, the place I was in flipped over, and I was unceremoniously plunged into stomach acid. As I flailed my arms to lift my head, my entire body was already melting away.

Thanks to that, I had to spend a while bubbling in the stomach acid, fluctuating between solid and liquid states.

After repeating the cycle of melting and regenerating for who knows how long, I finally managed to grab onto a slightly swollen piece of flesh by maximizing my recovery ability with my hand stretched upward.

Ignoring my melting legs and lower body, I pulled up my upper body and restored it in that position. Sitting on the swollen flesh, I stared blankly at the sloshing sea of acid inside the stomach.

The corpses of the horse and coachman that had been swallowed along with me, as well as the fragments of the crushed carriage, had long since dissolved in the stomach acid—everything except me.

Everything except me. That’s really unfair.

The iron sword I had at my waist suffered the same fate. It disappeared with a pungent metallic smell as soon as it touched the acid. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to properly swing it after buying it.

“No different from an ordinary monster.”

I grumbled, kicking the wall of flesh. It was just a way to vent my frustration.

As expected of a monster that crawls underground and devours all kinds of inorganic materials including soil, the speed at which the gastric juice dissolved my body was quite fast, but that was it.

No matter how quickly that acidic solution dissolved my body, I stubbornly returned to my original form. There was no point in being trapped here.

It’s not the speed that matters, but what happens afterward.

Since this damn body’s durability is no different from that of an ordinary human, if you just want to break it somewhere, a roadside stone would be enough.

The question is whether it recovers afterward or not.

Even destruction magic that can vaporize humans in the blink of an eye can’t prevent my ultra-regeneration ability from activating, so it’s meaningless.

There’s no time or frequency limit to the regeneration either.

Still, just to be sure, I swam in the stomach acid for a while, but there were no unusual signs. The only concern was whether the smell would stick to my body.

I brought my nose to the liquid that was still stubbornly clinging to me and sporadically dissolving my skin, then frowned and shook my hands.

It was disgustingly foul, as expected.

‘This is why I hate being eaten by something.’

The gastric juice has a disgustingly foul smell, and if that smell permeates your clothes, you have no choice but to throw them away and buy new ones.

Other adventurers would probably be grateful just to have survived being eaten by a monster, with no time to worry about clothes, but I’m the opposite.

I should be grateful if I get digested and die.

Now that I’ve tried suicide, all that’s left is to wait for Christine to beat this thing up, cut open its belly, and get me out.

Punching a hole in the stomach with bare hands without a knife was practically impossible, and crawling up through the throat doesn’t work.

I tried it before, but the monster just moved its neck a few times and I was pushed back out.

Anyway, the five minutes I mentioned have almost passed, so Christine should have started taking action by now.

With that thought, I was pointlessly debating whether to hold my nose against the smell I couldn’t get used to, when suddenly the monster’s body shook violently and contracted in various places.

A fist burst through the wall of flesh.

“I’m never using this method again.”

“I have sinned, causing God to suffer. How shall I repent for this sin…?”

“It’s not your fault, Christine. I’m the one who decided to get eaten even though I knew from experience it would be pointless. I’m the one without the ability to learn.”

The fist that broke through the flesh belonged to Christine. An obvious outcome. How many humans could punch through the internal organs of such a large monster?

While I was cursing my own stupidity and lack of learning ability, Christine was the one sobbing profusely, even though I was the one being cursed.

After calming her down by patting her head a few times, I waved my hands around to try to dispel the smell. Though I doubted it would help much.

My body was emitting an indescribably disgusting stench—a mixture of stomach acid, monster flesh, fat, and entrails that had stuck to me as I was pulled out.

Rather than smelling this, I’d prefer the familiar scent of blood that I’ve become so accustomed to that it no longer affects me.

And one more thing.

“This thing, did it have black blood?”

I turned my attention to the monster’s flesh that Christine had completely pulverized. The cross-section was black, not red.

When I was inside the stomach, it was too dark to check the color.

Despite the corpse being utterly destroyed, very little blood was flowing out. Christine was beside me, and I could sense a faint holy power from her.

“Christine. Withdraw your holy power for a moment.”

“As you wish.”

At my command, Christine sniffled, wiped her eyes, knelt down, and bowed her head deeply. The holy power spread around us dissipated.

As the holy power that had been suppressing the heresy disappeared, blood began to flow from the monster’s flesh. It was indeed black.

The black blood immediately began to contaminate the surroundings as it leaked out.

When I inhaled, my lungs stung. My nasal passages corroded instantly, and a stream of blood flowed out. The soil that came into contact with the blood bubbled.

With a cough, I spat out a lump of blood mixed with flesh. The blood clot had streaks of black in it.

I could taste the metallic blood in my mouth. That was confirmation enough. I roughly wiped my mouth and drew on my regenerative power.

The contaminated blood regained its original color and returned to my mouth. My rotting lungs and blackened, mushy tongue returned to their original form.

Seeing this, Christine spread her holy power again with a grim expression. The monster’s corpse was immediately engulfed in white flames.

“It is black blood, alright.”

I confirmed it with my body just to be sure, and it really was black blood. There was nothing more to see.

Why have these things appeared again? We couldn’t find any traces at the place Christine mentioned.

“Damn, this means we have more places to check.”

I organized my complicated thoughts while watching everything around us burn in white flames.

Christine had definitely said there were hundreds of monsters. But not all of those hundreds would be over 30 meters in size like the one that swallowed me.

If they were, the surrounding area wouldn’t be this intact.

In other words, it’s reasonable to assume that the black blood enhanced other monsters and formed some kind of command structure to attack this place.

The problem was:

‘Why?’

We had stayed in one place for three whole days and found nothing. That means this creature deliberately came here from somewhere far away.

With some clear purpose.

If they had only attacked from one specific direction, we could have thought that we unfortunately crossed paths with the monsters’ route, but they came from all directions, so that’s obviously not the case.

“Ugh…”

While I was racking my brain, a groan of pain interrupted my thoughts.

What was that just now? Didn’t it come from beyond the monster’s corpse?

Since it sounded like a woman’s voice, I grabbed Christine’s hand to prevent her from rushing out unpredictably.

It seemed that one of the two female adventurers from the party had somehow survived.

I crossed over through the white flames that were gradually dying down after almost completely burning the monster’s corpse.

And I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.

‘Why are they here?’

The first thing I saw was a female adventurer laid out neatly by the roadside. Judging by the slight movement of her chest, she was still alive.

Next to her was a female knight clutching her arm that had been severed at the shoulder, groaning weakly, surrounded by other female knights.

I recognized the familiar silver armor. I couldn’t mistake it. It was the armor Serena had been wearing until recently.

Plus, I saw a familiar hair color. A burning red. I couldn’t mistake that either.

‘Alesia?’

Alesia Beneviento. The very same female knight who had fought with Serena at the training ground.

I was glad I had held onto Christine’s hand. At least she wouldn’t be torn to pieces by Christine right now.

I wondered why the Royal Knights were here, then remembered that Charlotte had said she would prepare the Royal Knights and Royal Mages.

She had told me to rest assured because she was preparing those two elite forces of the kingdom.

‘But the Royal Knights alone wouldn’t be enough to catch it?’

It’s not a matter of skill but compatibility.

Without holy power, it would be impossible for just a dozen or so Royal Knights to defeat a black blood monster. They would need at least 50 people to even stand a chance.

Especially against a giant monster over 30 meters like this one. I couldn’t guarantee victory even if they brought the entire Royal Knights.

It’s no coincidence that the Holy Order grew explosively during the black blood monster outbreak. The presence or absence of holy power in battle made a heaven and earth difference.

‘Charlotte must know that.’

Charlotte is a mage who can precisely identify a person’s appearance and clothing on the opposite end of the continent even when using detection magic from the edge of the continent.

It’s hard to believe she didn’t know how large the black blood monster was or that she underestimated its danger.

So why did she try to catch a black blood monster with such a composition…? As this question arose, one possibility suddenly occurred to me.

Christine’s mana nullification also blocks Charlotte’s detection magic. Christine wouldn’t allow herself to be scanned by detection magic.

But conversely, that means the place where detection magic doesn’t work is Christine’s location. It’s using her ability to nullify all magic in reverse.

The reason why, despite confirming that the black blood monster was over 30 meters in size and that Christine was nearby, she sent only female Royal Knights.

I think I understood why.

“She sent them to die.”

Whether they died at Christine’s hands because I failed to stop her, or at the hands of the black blood monster.