Chapter 129 Sentient Monster

The ground below Zick's feet started shaking slowly. At first, it was only a slight tremor but it rapidly developed into shaking intensely like going through an earthquake.

'This...' Zick squinted his eyes feeling an uncountable number of presences heading towards him ferociously.

He had not expected a situation like this, feeling dumbfounded internally. How can he not be? Monsters with intelligence were extremely rare, running into them repeatedly was not a natural thing.

'It's either that a monster with intelligence is controlling them or this snow spider reacts like this when they come across a strong foe.' Zick considered rapidly.

Either way, he had to fight against the monsters coming toward him. He headed back to the place with four passages again rapidly, fighting in a narrow place was very disadvantageous to him.

With the snow spider's small size and rapid moves, they would be able to overwhelm Zick with their sheer numbers if he stayed there.

Reaching the cave room with four passageways, Zick created a big fireball and made it float near the ceiling. He took out the cursed sword from his scabbard and held it in his right hand.

With no hesitation, he sent his mana into the sword and shot the mana blade at the ceiling of three passages from the left.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The three passages collapsed making dust rise. Walking near it, Zick started using magic and making the rock merge with each other including the wall and the ground.

The broken debris merged with their surroundings rapidly. They didn't merge fully having only their corner being joined together but it was more than enough for Zick.

Doing this process three times quickly, Sweat started gathering on Zick's face feeling a little dizzy.

Even in a wide area like this, the chances of him getting overthrown by their number were high so he made the passages cave in to buy some time.

The tremor started becoming more violent, making Zick focus and start using the mana harmonization technique. His body got covered in a dark glow and his eyes shined with a ruthless light.

He took out another sword holding it in his left hand, though he wasn't much skilled in dual wielding, in his current situation being able to kill multiple enemies at once was more beneficial.

Soon, Snow spiders started entering through the undestroyed passage entrance.

Breathing in deeply, Zick revealed a resolute expression and started swinging his sword at the snow spiders ruthlessly.

The snow spiders leaped at him, having a crazy aura around them.

The very next moment, their body was cut in half perfectly in the mid-air.

Having a limited amount of mana, Zick decided to use the minimum amount needed to activate the mana harmonization skill and continued swinging his sword with a swift movement.

Blood spattered everywhere dyeing Zick red.

Performing a perfect arc he cut off three snow spiders horizontally at once and stamped another one from his leg, making his feet covered in blood.

Lifting his feet, the sticky innards of the spider stuck below his feet.

Not bothered by it, Zick continued killing the snow spider bursting out of the passage.

Bam! The show spiders were trying to break through the debris block made by Zick.

Suddenly Zick moved three steps back.

A splash of highly blue corrosive matter fell on the place that Zick stood in before. The ground immediately started to melt coming in contact with it. After making a ten-centimeter-deep hole, the place affected by the blue matter started freezing, creating a layer of frost on the ground.

A middle-rank snow spider had appeared standing behind a dozen of other spiders. It was the one who just shot the blue acid.

Zick's brows furrowed, 'A special ability that got the property of ice....'

An acid attack having the aftereffects of freezing was unheard of by the world. This was gained by the snow spider because they were mutated monsters, there was definitely a mysterious change in their body after living in this environment.

'Not good...'

Zick had been killing the snow spiders rapidly, not letting them gather together and attack at once. But because of his sudden retreat, they gained momentum rapidly. He could also feel one of the passageways going to break at any moment.

Zick's eyes squinted a little, realizing something. He decided to use another one of his knight techniques with a stiff expression. He continued killing the monsters with the normal sword and started preparing to use the technique with his cursed sword.

His chaotic mana started gathering on the sword and started rotating around it like a vortex. The transparent black vortex slowly turned darker and thicker, growing a little wider in size.

Feeling that the vortex had absorbed enough of his mana, Zick moved back by a few steps holding the cursed sword in his right hand horizontally, aiming forward.

Vortex thrust!

This technique was only used by the high-rank knights but it had the heavy demerit of consuming a lot of mana. He didn't care much about this as he was at the peak of high rank and had his mana with characteristics.

Zick thrust the black sword forward directly aiming at the open passage. A stream of rotating black miasma left his sword, expanding into a vortex, and landed on the monsters in front of the passage and within it too.

They were turned to minced meat in no time falling on the ground and creating blood puddles.

The black vortex also killed the middle-rank snow spider and many others behind it. It continued to expand for an unknown amount of time before vanishing in thin air.

Zick's figure was also bathed in red just like the room. He dashed forward entering the bloodied passages.

Zick was sure of one thing right at the moment.

p1ease visi(t) n0ve1b(in).ne)t

The monsters were sent just to waste his energy!

This enlightenment made his assumption of a high-intelligence monster existing here gain more credibility. And this monster also had intelligence equal to a human, only such a monster could plot like this. He had thought of it with just a little intelligence but he was gravely mistaken.

He was played by a monster!

No one liked being played by others, Zick was the same, he was furious at whoever this sentient monster was. But he didn't let himself be controlled by it and continued completing his goal of coming here.

He could have killed all those weak snow spiders within ten minutes, he was confident in himself. He could have traveled without any hindrance then but now he had to take a long way.

'Sigh...I really can't look down on this monster...'

He had planned on killing all the snow monsters in the beginning but now he decided against it. It would be the same as him playing directly into the hands of this sentient monster.

'That would be like offering myself in silver plating. I just wanted to gather mana crystals and get out of this place but another problem appeared now.' Zick's eyes twitched thinking this.

Bang! Zick broke the ground below him with a simple stamp of his leg and made a shortcut for himself to move forward. He didn't want to do such a brutish thing before as there was a chance the whole place would collapse but he didn't care about it anymore.

Let the whole place collapse!

As he entered deeper, he realized that there were many passages so even if some of them collapsed it didn't matter.

Zick's eyes shone in a resolute light. He continued to create holes and moved toward the place with the highest concentration of mana.

'I should get out of this place immediately after collecting enough mana crystal.' Feeling his instinct warning, Zick was sure that whoever controlled this snow spider was around the same level as the snow cyclops.

He put all the mana crystals which appeared in front of him and moved forwards. He also found the snow-white crystal but let them be.

He sensed the snow spider following him but he ignored them.

After another hour.

'I should have collected enough mana crystal to earn around 8000 platinum coins.' Zick nodded to himself deciding to retreat, for now, he could come and take more mana crystal when he was stronger!

His figure was still covered in blood and had a metallic smell wafting around him.

'But before leaving I should check out the room in front of me.'

Cold energy was released by the room at some distance from Zick. This made him curious, heading toward it with stealthy steps.

He had already shaken off the snow spiders and hidden his presence carefully. All the snow spiders he encountered were killed swiftly so they were not able to alert others about his location.

The ground Zick walked upon had a thin layer of frost on it. The breath leaving his mouth was turned into white fog.

The inside of the room was covered in a thin layer of frost and in the middle, a serene pond rested, it was the same as the one seen in the room of the Queen of this snow spider but its size was smaller.

Zick moved in front of the pond with quick steps. The pond gave out chilling energy which made even him shiver. This was a surprising fact as he currently had a layer of mana protecting him and hiding his presence.

Zick's expression turned solemn the moment he was able to get a proper look at the pond. It was filled with milky white liquid, but within it, a high-rank show spider also slept.

The presence of this show white liquid had made the snow spiders' presence to be hidden, disabling Zick to sense it. But he was able to see its presence with the dragon's eyes.

'This is my chance.'

Just like how Zick couldn't sense the snow spider, it was also not able to sense him as he hid his presence with mana.

He hid his killing intent deep within him and extended his right hand. Monsters were being with strong instincts and would be able to sense their killing intent immediately if not controlled.

Zick decided to use the space ring property of not being able to store living beings. He pulled out his sword and placed the whole white liquid from the pond within his space ring.

At once the snow-white liquid was sucked into the space ring exposing the high-rank snow spider within it.

This spider's body was covered in ice armor and had a height of two meters. Its legs were pointy and sturdy, being able to pierce iron like butter.

The spider opened its eyes feeling the power enhancing its body vanishing. But the moment it opened its eyes, A black entered right through its skull!

Blood spurted out like a fountain covering Zick's body in fresh blood. He stood on the body of the snow spider holding the hilt of the sword.

'Well let's get going now. I can buy Varine after returning.'

Varine was a very good chess piece to add to his group of meatshields. Though she had matured fast she was still young, he could craft her mindset the way he wanted.