Chương 707: Guardians of the Leviathan

Luke ran through the leviathan's insides, breath ragged, boots sinking into soft tissue and slick things he didn't want to identify. The feel of it against his skin was worse than the smell. His flesh was going soft, giving way in places it absolutely shouldn't. Gas. Bet it's the damn gas in here. I'm going to die and turn into that gray meat sludge. If not for his rank D body, he suspected he would have become part of the monster a long time ago.

The system kept nagging him about evolving his [Arcane Witch] class at level 100, but Luke didn't have room in his brain for that right now. Class evolution was great. Surviving long enough to press the button was better.

"We're close," Cadmus said, floating beside him. Luke let out a dry, humorless laugh.

"Close? You said that two hours ago." A surge of water rushed through the fleshy tunnel, strong enough to drag rocks, algae, and who knew what else with it. Luke jumped onto a stone, his muscles screaming in protest. The water made the corrosion bite deeper. Every touch made his flesh burn and soften even more.

"I'm doing my best, Luke Moon," Cadmus said.

"Every time the water cycles, the beacon gets dragged somewhere else."

"The robot has amnesia, Luke," Artemis said.

"He forgot he was a king."

"I do not have amnesia. And I knew I was a king," Cadmus replied, offended. They followed the current into another cavernous space inside the creature. Piles of algae lay everywhere, or something that might have been algae once. Rotting plant matter had broken down into a dark green sludge spread across the uneven floor. Palace crystals jutted out from the filth, cracked and coated in residue, repeating the same message over and over in an ancient language. The system translated fragments of it.

Luke ignored almost everything. Unless it said "exit this way," Luke didn't care.

"The other Cadmuses the participants have," Luke said, stepping around a puddle.

"Are they more of your people or something? Are you guys like Skynet?"

"I don't know what that means, but all the Guides scattered through this region are me."

"And how the hell did you become a floating ball?"

"I can't talk about that." Luke shot him a sideways look.

"I'm probably dying anyway. Did you drag me to that city to relive the good old days, or did the system screw me again?"

"I did not choose your beacon's location. I imagine the system placed you there because you met certain requirements."

"Requirements, huh? Like having an army after me and a giant whale on my ass?" The place was a mess of dirt, wood, plants, and even rocks, all mashed into the flesh. Luke realized the leviathan was not strictly carnivorous. The thing seemed to swallow anything it could and leech nutrients from whatever ended up inside.

"Luke Moon, you possess a Guide. You also carry a key to the King's Tomb quest, a scarf granted to the Royal Knights, and you were most likely the only participant to kill a [Juvenile Kraken]. That earned you the honor of being assigned to Kataleya's beacon."

"Honor doesn't keep people alive. I'm trying to stay alive. Aren't you?" When they reached a vast lake inside the creature, Luke stopped. The dark surface shifted in slow waves, and the water looked wrong even for this biological nightmare. No way around it. He dove in. The first few times the water had touched his skin, Luke had thought it was boiling. Now he knew better. It wasn't heat. It was chemistry. Acid in the water, eating away at him little by little.

[Aquatic Perception] and [Underwater Sonar] became his eyes, mapping the space around him through vibrations and echoes. Then he sensed something floating ahead. A tremor shook the water. A "heart". Ahead of him, anchored by thick cords of flesh, hung a massive beating heart. A huge Beast Core clung to it like a crystalline tumor, glowing from within. Luke spent the first few minutes trying to destroy the organ, attacking it with everything he had, but nothing worked.

Then he tried cutting the cords of flesh holding it up. That did not work either. A roar spread through the depths. Through sonar, Luke sensed something coming. Sea Guardian. Except it was not one. There were several. Creatures of different sizes surged through the dark water, hungry and fast. Luke dodged the first charge, struck a second one, and dove deeper, searching the flooded chamber for the beacon. A Guardian appeared with its mouth open and dragged him away as they struggled.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. [Burst Throw activated] The blow smashed into the creature's face, sending it recoiling and shaking its head. The Guardians formed a protective ring around the core, swimming in aggressive patterns to keep Luke away. Finding the beacon down here will be a nightmare. Then his hands grew heavy. The kukris began to tremble. What's gotten into you two? The vibration wasn't random. The blades pulled. Pointed. Demanded.

Luke followed their direction and noticed something lodged between the roots of flesh: a swollen, dark sac, faintly pulsing. Blood. The leviathan's blood had pooled there. All around him, the Guardians closed in. One of them, bigger than the rest, rose from the depths like a living wall. Whatever you want, it better be worth it. Luke swam hard. The larger Guardian surged after him, jaws wide, its roar shuddering through the water. Luke reached the blood sac and drove both kukris into it. The monster was too close.

[Cloak of the Arcane Witch activated] Luke used a root of flesh as a foothold and shot upward, the cloak yanking his body violently through the water. The creature chased him all the way to the surface. Luke burst out, crashed onto a dry section of the chamber, and rolled across the ground, coughing.

"Fuck." The cloak deactivated. The huge Guardian thrust its head out of the water, roared, then sank back down.

"Your beacon is at the very bottom of this flooded chamber," Cadmus informed him.

"I don't know the human biological term for this. You don't have anything like it."

"I think we do. Our antibodies just aren't that big." The kukris were still down there, buried in the leviathan's blood sac. Whatever they were doing, it would take some time. Luke sat down and activated [Meditation].

"What are you doing now, Luke Moon?" Cadmus asked.

"My body's dissolving. My calf feels like wet clay. I don't have much time." He sat down and went still, trying to recover mana and stamina without thinking too much about the pain.

"My beacon really is at the bottom of this place?"

"Yes. But I don't understand what you expect to happen once you reach it."

"You'll understand. First, I have to get past those Guardians." Time crawled by, slow and disgusting. Water ran down the fleshy walls, dripping onto the rocks and pooling in places Luke avoided as best he could.

"You know you can't blow up that thing's heart, right?" Artemis asked.

"And even if you did, there's no way out of here." Luke spent the next few hours recovering as much mana and stamina as he could. Flesh peeled from his hands in places, sloughing off, and the acid bath in the lake had only sped up the process. One eye had already gone blind, but he barely cared. With [Demonic Perception], normal vision was a luxury anyway. At last, Luke stood.

"This is my last dive," he said.

"Either those things kill me, or I come back as meat paste. That beacon better be down there, Cadmus." He dove with the cloak active and plunged into the depths. The Guardians roared. There were too many of them. But the real problem was the biggest one, lurking in the depths. The deeper Luke sank, the more the acid felt like it was stripping pieces off him. Fuck. The pressure climbed. So did the burn. The roar came from below. The monster was coming. Just a little closer, you big bastard.

One hand was practically bone. Just a little more. Come on. The creature charged in a zigzag, weaving around the blood roots with absurd agility for something that size. Then Luke saw it. At the bottom of the chamber, the cube pulsed green. Phase 6 Beacon discovered! Beacons scattered throughout the ocean function as dimensional portals created by the System. Each Beacon houses a sealed marine dungeon containing lethal dangers and unknown rewards.

To activate this Beacon, Marine Artifacts must be offered as an energy source. [Marine Artifacts: 0/10] Objective:? Participants allowed: 1 Difficulty:? Reward:??? Recommended level:? [Deposit artifacts into the Beacon?] [YES / NO] That's it! Luke opened his pocket dimension and dumped marine artifacts into the beacon as fast as he could.

[Marine Artifacts: 1/10] [Marine Artifacts: 2/10] [Marine Artifacts: 3/10] [Marine Artifacts: 4/10] [Marine Artifacts: 5/10] [Marine Artifacts: 6/10] [Marine Artifacts: 7/10] [Marine Artifacts: 8/10] [Marine Artifacts: 9/10] The Guardian's jaws spread wide. It dwarfed Luke, a mass of teeth, muscle, and hunger bearing down on him. Go fuck yourself! [Marine Artifacts: 10/10] The creature lunged. [Magnetic Return activated] The kukris ripped free from the blood sac and shot back through the lake like projectiles.

Luke caught them in midwater and charged the beast. Both screamed. [Your Spirit Tool has awakened a new skill!] [Your Spirit Tool has awakened a new skill!] [Your Spirit Tool's rank is evolving!] Luke activated [Crimson Fang] and slashed the monster. The beast recoiled, smashing its head against the flesh roots. A heartbeat later, Luke's body dissolved into particles of light. [You have entered the Phase 6 Beacon Dungeon!]