Chương 575: Chapter 566: Voracious

The moment the mansion finished growing a soul, I sent an image of the mansion to my companions. Before they had time to react, one of the paintings behind us grew a pair of tentacles and a massive set of teeth. It used the tentacles to propel itself towards my face - but its movements were slow. I had plenty of time to duck out of the way before it was even airborne. I frowned, and checked it with my soul sight. The painting had life force and a soul of its own - though it was incredibly weak.

It was only Grade 4 - though based on its movements, it was probably closer to grade 6 or 7 when it came to its agility and strength. Since my current [Perception] was far higher than this painting's physical attributes, it was very easy for me to track and react to its movements - it would need more in order to truly catch me off guard. I hit it with an extinguish, and it died.

Slaughter: Kill a malicious painting for the first time Achievement +50 Endless Hunger of the Ocean has devoured Malicious Painting for the first time. New Skill created. Grow Teeth: you may infuse your mouth with essence in order to grow a larger, sharper set of teeth. The skill was completely useless, and the incredibly low reward confirmed it. These paintings weren't meant to be serious threats - they were just cannon fodder that we could mop up.

I turned back towards the maid that had just transformed into some kind of monster. She was watching us coldly, with an inhuman smile on her lips. I noticed her life force grow slightly stronger, as something flowed out of the dead painting and into her body. Her fortitude was noticeably stronger now - in fact, while I hadn't been paying very much attention to her in the beginning, I realized that her fortitude had started creeping up the moment she had been replaced.

She had around Grade 9 fortitude already, and it would probably reach Grade 10 in moments. I hit her with an extinguish, and she died. I relaxed. Regardless of how scary she might have become if I didn't deal with her quickly, she had been detail with. Another painting came to life and launched itself at us. This time, Anise blasted it to death with a small dart made of flames, killing the painting in seconds.

"We need to get out of here!" she yelled. Sallia nodded and then leapt towards the door leading out to the first hallway. She tore it open, and dashed through it as everyone else followed. I rushed to Sallia's side - at the moment, my reaction speed was even faster than Sallia's although my actual instinctive ability to respond to danger was weaker. The two of us at the front were the best equipped to survive sudden dangers.

The moment we set foot in the next hallway, the floorboards started to tilt and tear themselves apart, and the ceiling started to groan and shudder. In an instant, the floor and ceiling formed themselves into a giant pair of wooden teeth, before they slammed shut right in front of me. Sallia and I managed to leap backwards just in time, but I felt a blast of wind as the teeth snapped shut in front of me. I shuddered. I suspected that bite could have ripped straight through my body as if I were made of wet paper.

One of the sides of the mansion turned into a tendril of wood and vines, and then whipped towards me. It moved much faster than the teeth had. Even with my incredible physical attributes, I barely managed to dodge out of the way. I tried to pull Sallia back as well, but I couldn't quite move her in time. Sallia started to burn essence to enhance her physique and boost her physical stats, right before the tendril smacked into her forehead. I immediately blasted her with a wave of healing magic. Sallia grimaced.

<Be careful! Even with my exceptional [Fortitude], it left a nasty bruise when it hit me. I think it'll punch straight through the rest of you! > She yelled into the communication bracelet, before she swung her sword at the tendril. However, the tendril retracted far faster than Sallia could react to, so she completely missed. Sallia cursed, and then stabbed the floor beneath us, right where one of the jagged wooden teeth had formed. The mansion completely ignored Sallia's ineffectual stab.

A moment later, another maw of wooden teeth nearly clamped down on me, although I managed to duck out of the way just in time. Valeksi, Felix, Anise, and Kexley both moved further away - evidently, they weren't even confident in their ability to survive the aftermath of this fight. That was good - I didn't have the confidence to protect them. Fortunately, the mansion started to ignore them - it seemed far more intent on killing Sallia, since she was the only one who was even semi-effectively fighting back.

While Sallia probably couldn't survive one of the bites, her instinctive reactions seemed just fast enough to keep her alive through each one - and the vine whips, while capable of harming her, were nowhere near strong enough to instantly kill her. Since she didn't die instantly, I could just keep healing her. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. <Anise, do you have any good spells to deal with the mansion? > I asked.

I suspected that if this situation persisted long enough, something would change, and it might result in me losing one of my best friends. We needed to handle this mansion now, or at least find a way to make the situation less dangerous. <I could try setting it on fire, but I don't know how we would escape the blaze afterwards. Sallia and you might be fine, but the rest of us are nowhere near as resilient, and the heat would probably kill us.

Most of my other spells meant for handling large enemies are meant to be used while we aren't in the middle of its body, > said Anise. She thought for a moment. <I could try throwing an illusion at the mansion, and see if that works? I don't have very many good illusion spells, though, since that's more the domain of alteration essence, and in half of the worlds we've been to you've handled illusions for us. > <Try it.

> A few waves of manifestation essence emanated from Anise, before they ineffectually scattered into the air around us. <No good. Let me try mist instead, > she said. A wave of mist soared out from her body, and quickly rose to cover our entire group. Unlike the illusions, this seemed quite effective. The vine whips stopped focusing on Sallia, and started to become more haphazard and undirected.

The living mansion stopped trying to use bite attacks entirely, perhaps because it couldn't located Sallia accurately enough to try to chew on her. I took a step forward, and the floorboard beneath me shifted. I leapt backwards again, and a vine whip nearly hit me - but it was far less accurate than before. <The mansion has some ability to feel us when we move around, but its sense of touch is much weaker than its vision, > I said. <I also think its perception is unusually low in comparison to its life force.

> I heard one of the doors on the other end of the hall crash open. Through my soul sight, I saw several more servants stumble into the hall - and they all had the same strange, amplified life force as the maid I had slain earlier, as well as the concept of 'replacement' swirling around them. The servants jerked and stumbled towards us like zombies. I immediately notified the group, and then backed away. Had all of the servants in this mansion been replaced?

Before I had further time to think about it, I heard several pained cries from further in the building. I recognized the voice - it was Morton and his wife, Jamira. A moment later, I saw both of them stumble out of their own bedrooms and into the halls. Unlike the servants, they were still normal. Their life force was identical to what I had seen earlier, and they didn't have the concept of replacement anywhere near their bodies.

"This place has gone mad!" Yelled Morton.

"Follow me! We need to escape from here!" Then, he started sprinting through the horde of inhuman maids and butlers with astonishing agility and strength, pushing through the crowd of monstrous people as if he had suddenly become Sallia. I frowned. Based on my assessment of Morton's physical abilities, his ability to survive this horde of monsters, as well as his ability to dodge nearby attacks, seemed improbable. The question was whether this was a dangerous anomaly or one we were supposed to lean into.

After all, this Market-manufactured adventure had already shown that it would try to cover up 'plot holes' in each instance and make sure that we took a specific, intended route through the adventure. I had no idea whether we were supposed to spot the anomaly in Morton and attack him, or whether we were supposed to follow him. The horde of replaced servants charged after Morton, although several stragglers instead charged Sallia.

As Sallia continued to weave through vines and teeth, I quickly used the communication bracelet and described the source of my worries. Meanwhile, our group began to position itself closer to the staircase. <Let's follow him. I think this might be what this 'stage' wants from us, and in any case, getting out of this creature's body would make it far easier to keep fighting, > Felix said. As he spoke, the first of the replaced butlers reached Sallia, only to instantly drop dead from an extinguish.

Anise followed up with a fireball to kill two more. <I think we should kill Morton with some projectiles, and then flee the mansion on our own, > said Valeksi. <He seems nothing like the way he was earlier in this adventure, and with several other people having obviously been replaced with monsters, he's suspicious. > <But Miria's conceptual vision doesn't show him as having been replaced, > argued Felix. <Miria's ability to see anomalies is one of our best assets.

I think following him is the 'intended' way for us to progress. > I extinguished another two maids. The mansion, finally fed up with Sallia's antics, sent several vines towards her legs. Sallia dodged a few of them, before a few of the other vines managed to curl around her ankle. Then, one of them dragged her towards the ceiling. Sallia managed to cut into the vine, which left her hurtling through midair at an unbelievable speed.

I opened a portal, used hope to expand it, and managed to teleport Sallia back to my side right before a giant set of wooden teeth snapped shut. <We need to move now! > I said. Then, without waiting for anyone else's opinion, I charged down the stairs after Morton. Following him might be a mistake, but I trusted my conceptual vision. Furthermore, while following him might be a mistake, sitting around arguing was an even bigger mistake. <Fine, > said Valeksi, before he followed me.

The others quickly joined us, while Anise used her mist to keep us concealed from accurate mansion attacks. The last few butlers and maids fell to a few cuts from Sallia. We made it to a staircase to the first floor, which was flooded with replaced servants. Sallia quickly cut them down, before we dashed to the first floor.

"This way!" Yelled Morton, right near the entrance. A moment later, a giant set of wooden teeth snapped shut right over him, killing him, but missing Jamira. She shrieked in horror, before she clawed open the door and stumbled out of the mansion. My companions followed behind me as I dashed right behind her. I felt a wave of vines nearly hit me, but I managed to duck and roll through them and out the entrance.

I used a few extinguishes to fend off some of the vines as my companions followed me, and then I breathed a sigh of relief when the slowest person, Kexley, made it through the entrance. A moment later, a screen of light appeared right beneath our feet and swallowed us.