novelraw Chapter 330: Crawler Broodmother
Chapter 330: Crawler Broodmother
Lin Xun decisively pressed the third option to attack the labyrinth’s rock wall and open a new passage.
[You marshal all your true essence, and the Star-Shifting Celestial Sword in your hand suddenly changes from a three-foot azure blade into a greatsword!]
[Keen sword aura floods the tunnel, the sword’s edge pointing straight upward. The greatsword, sheathed in vast true essence, crashes toward the rock overhead with unstoppable force…]
[A deafening boom erupts!]
[The entire cavern seems to tremble. Shards of stone shoot out as smoke and dust billow…]
[The rock above is pierced by the greatsword, leaving a huge pitch-black hole. You look toward the sunken center, and within the irregular broken stone, flesh-like tissues faintly writhe.]
[Blood keeps dripping down the rock wall, pooling at your feet into a blood pond…]
[You take a deep breath and once more rouse your true essence. The seven stars engraved on the greatsword’s blade gradually light up.]
[It is as if resplendent starlight pierces the barrier of the rock and falls, converging upon the Star-Shifting Celestial Sword.]
[The blade begins to spin rapidly. The greatsword is like a giant top, its tip a sharp drill. The starlight condensed along the blade grows ever more dazzling…][You join two fingers as a sword, forming the sword seal, and point to the sky!]
[Blinding starlight erupts. The greatsword blasts upward in an instant. The rock wall cannot resist as the starlight bores through.]
[Amid a cataract of blood spraying like a waterfall, the greatsword smashes through the rock, reaching deeper flesh.]
[The starlight does not cease, continuing to drive upward with world-rending force. Every rotation grinds the obstructing flesh into slurry, and every inch of advance makes the entire cavern quake and sway.]
[You suddenly hear a shattering, earsplitting shriek, a sound as if right beside your ear yet also far off among the clouds.]
[Your true essence drains away to nothing with the burst of starlight, leaving your body hollow.]
[Your true essence is exhausted. The effect of the Purple Mansion Subtle Starfall Heart Incantation activates!]
[From the Purple Mansion within the shell, torrents of surging true essence well forth. In an instant you recover all true essence, and your fatigue is swept clean away.]
[The starlight overhead still keeps breaking through, piercing into the flesh to an unknown depth.]
[You notice that at the mouth of the passage opened by the greatsword, the flesh keeps writhing, showing signs of closing up.]
[You ride the wind and rise into the air, your figure turning into a streak of light. While the passage has not yet healed shut, you dart into it and fly straight upward…]
[The colossal howls keep sounding, and the entire labyrinth shudders violently.]
[At last, there is no more resistance ahead of the celestial sword. The starlight bores through the entire maze. The greatsword once again becomes a three-foot azure blade and returns to your hand.]
[You rouse your true essence and shoot forward. In a blink you leave the flesh tunnel and reach the outside!]
[You are in an extremely vast underground space. It is oppressive and dark here, with not a trace of glowing fungi.]
[The colossal howls are coming from beneath your feet…]
[The monster is so enormous that its head alone fills your entire field of view!]
[Its head is covered in a shell as thick and hard as a rock wall, with a pair of compound eyes so huge as to defy measure. Its mouthparts and jaws are coarse and razor sharp.]
[Looking at its gigantic head, you think of a ‘Tribe Crawler’ magnified ten million times.]
[You look toward the flesh passage you just crawled out of. The exit is located in the deeply buried abdominal body of the colossal monster. That labyrinth of extreme complexity is its writhing intestines.]
[Of this vast monster, only the head and part of the upper torso protrude from the ground. The rest of its body is buried deep below.]
[In the wide, lightless underground space, the only source of light is the celestial sword in your hand shining with starlight.]
[The colossal monster fixes its gaze on you. Its massive compound eyes are covered with hexagonal ommatidia, and each tiny facet reflects your figure.]
[You have discovered the Ascended Crawler Broodmother!]
Lin Xun felt a surge of dread.
A small body does not mean a weak monster, but if the body is enormous enough, the monster cannot possibly be a mere fodder mob that hands out experience.
The entity before him, named the Ascended Crawler Broodmother, might be a super BOSS.
[The Crawler Broodmother keeps roaring, as if your forcible penetration of its body has caused it immense pain.]
[It twists and struggles nonstop, but the portion of its body buried underground cannot move at all. Only the thick tentacles above can lash about wildly.]
[To you, those tentacles are like sky-piercing pillars, smashing down with a world-collapsing force!]
[The gale they kick up makes even your airborne body waver. Knowing you cannot withstand it, you hastily ride the sword to dodge this fatal blow.]
[But before you get far, a thick tentacle slams into you!]
[You feel an irresistible force crash upon you, and in an instant you are hammered into the ground.]
[Darkness swallows your vision. You cannot help but vomit a mouthful of blood. Pain racks you from head to toe.]
[You have entered a near-fatally injured state!]
[You struggle to rise, but the monster’s thick tentacles coil you tightly, leaving you no power to resist.]
[The tentacle wraps your shell and drags you to the Crawler Broodmother’s ferocious mouthparts…]
[It slowly opens its maw. A blast of fetid wind assaults your nose, while a mature woman’s voice incongruously echoes through the underground space…]
[Lost child, why do you hurt it?]
[It must be that you have not yet thrown yourself into the Wet Nurse’s embrace, have not yet found the correct faith, and thus cannot distinguish friend from foe.]
[It can forgive your unwitting mistake. As long as you make an oath and throw yourself into the Wet Nurse’s embrace…]
[Loyal Apostle, will you betray your oath to the Primordial Firefly and instead make an oath to the Desire Wet Nurse?]
[Note! You have signed the oath of the Primordial Firefly. If you betray it, you will never rejoin this oath and will incur permanent enmity from that oath’s faction!]
Lin Xun gnashed his teeth.
“Damn, Kim really didn’t lie to me. The Crawler Tribe really is an extremely dangerous map.”
At first he had thought the danger lay in the labyrinth’s complexity for explorers. Before entering he had never imagined the labyrinth itself was a gigantic BOSS.
In truth, the terror of the Courier Mole Cricket already showed that the Crawler Tribe must harbor an irresistible threat.
The BOSS’s power was absurd. A single hit had driven the Greedy Wolf Star Lord to the brink of death, clearly out of line with an early-map difficulty.
“Could this not be a BOSS?”
The Firefly faction has a powerful story character like Oathbreaker Flanda, so the Wet Nurse faction should have a similar story character as well.
Though the strength of this monster may not match Flanda’s, he guessed this was the hidden story character for joining the Wet Nurse faction.
[Your hesitation makes the tentacle around you tighten further. Your bones creak under the unbearable strain.]
[With another blast of fetid wind, the mature woman’s voice echoes again through the underground…]
[Stubborn child, what are you still hesitating about?]
[Can it be that the great Wet Nurse still cannot make you firm in faith and choose the right path?]
[The tentacle binding you tightens further, constricting your breath. You know that if you do not choose now, this crushing force will grind you into pulp!]
“Damn it, this is forced coercion, bullying the innocent!”
Lin Xun clenched his fists.
If the Desire Wet Nurse had not freeloaded one of his shells, he might have considered joining that oath’s faction.
But he had the camp’s deity cheating him out of a shell, and now a story character threatening his life.
This made him realize that eight out of ten within the Wet Nurse’s faction were no good sorts.
No wonder Flanda would rather break the oath than remain bound to the Wet Nurse’s faction.
Facing this situation, even if it meant dying once, Lin Xun would not yield.
He decisively pressed ‘No.’
[You possess the shell of the Corrupted Earth Giant!]
[Your human-sized shell swells in an instant into a towering giant, but the tentacle binding you is thicker even than your giant form. Though deep underground where your earth power surges, you still cannot struggle free.]
[The Crawler Broodmother opens its mouth again and sighs. The reeking gust makes it almost impossible to keep your eyes open…]
[Since you will not repent, then die!]
[With a flick of the thick tentacle, you are hurled into that ferocious, terrifying maw…]
[Your vision goes black…]
[…]
[You died!]
[…]
[The powerful wandering soul is reborn within a mucus-filled sac…]
[You are on the second floor of the Ancient Nest…]
Lin Xun narrowed his eyes and reviewed the previous game text.
The Crawler Broodmother should be an oath character of the hostile faction. From the Firefly faction’s viewpoint, the Broodmother is a super BOSS.
To join the oath from the Crawler Broodmother, an Apostle must possess a certain level of strength, at least enough to break open the labyrinth…
“Huh, break open the labyrinth…”
A flash of insight struck Lin Xun, and he instantly thought of a way to kill the Crawler Broodmother.
The strongest fortress is often taken from within. If he could not defeat the BOSS outside, then inside its belly would it still be so strong?
As long as he did not leave the labyrinth, could he not do as he pleased and attack the BOSS at will?
Lin Xun could not help recalling the tale of Sun Wukong and the Princess Iron Fan: “Sister-in-law, open your mouth. I am coming out.”
“So be it. Since you dared threaten me, you will pay the price!”
He left the respawn point without hesitation, boarded the Courier Mole Cricket, and once again headed for the Crawler Tribe!
[…]
[The Courier Mole Cricket delivers you to the destination, lets out a panicked chirp, and immediately burrows away.]
[In the cramped underground space, only a pitch-black cave remains not far ahead.]
[Do you wish to enter the Crawler Tribe?]
[You step into the cave…]
[…]
Following the tunnels, Lin Xun entered the Crawler Broodmother’s abdomen. After choosing left and right multiple times, he confirmed he had reached deep within the BOSS’s body.
“Next comes the showtime!”
[You possess the shell of the Corrupted Earth Giant!]
[Your body surges in size, becoming a burly giant. You keep growing until your head presses against the tunnel’s ceiling and your feet brace against the floor, and only then do you stop enlarging.]
[With the Ancient Dragonfang Greatclub in one hand and Tachi: Eight Views Welcome Evil in the other, you launch a frenzied assault on the stone wall before you!]
[Because you are deep underground, inexhaustible earth power fills your body. You feel stronger than ever before!]
[Under your attacks the rock soon collapses into rubble, revealing the flesh within…]
[You drive the greatclub into the tender flesh and thrust in the blade…]
[You hear another earsplitting, heart-rending scream, at once near your ear and far above the clouds.]
[You know this is the Crawler Broodmother’s cry of pain!]
[The more you listen to the wails, the more excited you become. Crimson eyes blazing with madness, you rain down blows with club and blade again and again!]
[…]