Swallowing Rage
The moment fury boiled over, I bit down on a monster and chewed it whole.
Crunch—crunch—crunch—crunch—crunch!
'Damn it...!'
Hundreds of tiny creatures swarmed over me in a single rush. The assault came twice per second without pause.
Thanks to the damp dungeon environment, Irmana's Blessing was fully active, boosting my health by twenty. On top of that, the Dungeon of Nargul entry effect added another thirty. A massive fifty-point buff in total.
Even under this relentless barrage, my health wasn't dropping at all.
The bats targeted the neck first, but Yeonhee's mysterious substance formed a protective barrier there. My bone armor was even tougher—like trying to scratch a diamond with a kitchen knife. No marks whatsoever.
The real problem was the overwhelming weight of their attacks. They gave me no room to maneuver.
'Ugh... It's getting hard to even move my body. It wasn't this bad before. These bastards have definitely gotten stronger.'
Boom-boom-boom! Whoosh—!
I'd hurled fireballs and acid sprays in every direction, and my mana had plummeted past the halfway mark. Still, thanks to my top-grade mana circuit, the rate of depletion had stabilized.
The real concern wasn't me—it was down below.
"Aaaargh! My arm! My arm!"
One hunter had made the fatal mistake of breaking formation while fending off the bats.
'Even if it feels like you're about to die, you hold the line!'
Did he think the swarm would keep focusing on the center even if he slipped away? If so, that was a grave miscalculation. A lone target separated from the herd was exactly what predators craved most.
Over a thousand bats seized the opportunity. They performed an eerie aerial maneuver, skimming just above the ground, and in an instant they engulfed the man and lifted him into the air.
"Hik! Aaaaaaaaagh!"
Crunch—crack—rip—!
The hunter was torn apart in midair by over ten thousand razor-sharp fangs and claws. In seconds he was reduced to powder and scattered into nothing.
"Woo-hyun!! Damn it...!"
"We shouldn't have come into the cave!"
"It's too hard to hold out like this!"
"Outside is even worse! You saw how many were following us!"
Wherever you went, it was hell. But I could guarantee this place was far safer—so long as no one panicked like that hunter just had.
The massive pillar behind us blocked attacks from the rear and above. The summoned creatures were tanking solidly. If everyone could just endure the pain of having their blood drained, we could maintain a surprisingly stable defensive line.
As if to prove it, our wall held firm through another ten minutes of relentless bat assaults.
"These bastards! They're getting bigger by drinking our blood~!"
"Damn it...! My armor is still holding for now, but I don't know how long the durability will last!"
"Are their numbers actually decreasing?"
"The ones dropping from the ceiling have definitely decreased!"
The situation below was still tense, but people were slowly regaining some composure. Up where I was, however, the atmosphere felt entirely different.
At some point I'd been pushed flush against the wall. Clinging to the pillar with Adhesion, I was swinging my arms like a madman.
'Why aren't their numbers dropping here?!'
My vision was completely filled with hook bats rushing at me, trying to sink their blackened fangs into my bones. It was a truly horrific and disgusting sight.
No matter how much of a skeleton I was, my core was still human. My mental strength was steadily draining.
Cold Mind helped me maintain composure, but my mana had now dropped close to thirty. Once it fell below thirty it would refill completely once, but with unknown variables ahead, that wasn't exactly comforting.
'You fucking pieces of shit!'
Crunch!
My pent-up disgust finally exploded. In a fit of rage, I bit down on one of the hook bats, chewed it viciously, and swallowed it whole.
The target is not in a suitable state for consumption.
Effects will only apply at 50% efficiency.
Huh? It actually worked?
Mana has increased by 5.
'Five! Five is still five!'
I cheered inwardly and began devouring the bats like a machine. Most of them hadn't fed yet, so they were still the size of sparrows—easy to swallow. But if I swallowed them without chewing, Essence Devour wouldn't activate.
'Argh! Can't the system be a little more flexible?!'
I had to chew them thoroughly while burning with rage, just like the first one. It was an absurd situation. But humans are creatures of adaptation, and having lived as one before, I quickly adjusted my behavior accordingly.
Come to think of it, during Irmana's quest, simply submerging my head had been enough to trigger the effect. It felt like the system rewarded sincere effort with leniency.
Maybe the system wasn't as rigid as I thought. After all, a skeleton eating anything at all was ridiculous to begin with.
Another message appeared alongside it.
Analysis of the essence has begun.
Nothing else seemed to have changed yet. I'd just have to wait and see.
The fierce battle continued for another thirty minutes. Whenever I found a gap, I moved to a different pillar and used the time to recover mana.
Anyone watching our fight might think we were barely hanging on. In reality, it was closer to a one-sided massacre.
Defeat 10,000 enemies using attribute skills.
Progress: 4603 / 10,000
I alone had killed over three thousand hook bats. The quest was nearly halfway complete.
But we hadn't wiped them all out. After mindlessly hammering us for a while, the bats seemed to realize it was futile. They retreated to the ceiling and simply glared at us while occasionally firing sonic waves.
'They haven't given up...'
Hundreds of them had swollen noticeably. They'd all grown fat on hunters' blood and flesh. What was truly absurd was how little they needed to consume for such rapid growth.
Tap—!
When I finally stopped drawing aggro and descended, Yeonhee was the first to run over.
"Are you okay? It must've been so hard... What do we do..."
"Clack clack!"
It really had felt like I was going to die, but I couldn't show weakness in front of her. I quickly brushed the debris from her hair and face, then pulled out wet wipes from my inventory and carefully cleaned her.
"I'll wipe you too..."
But I gently clasped her hands to tell her to stay still. Yeonhee obediently kept her hands together in front of her, letting me clean her while swaying slightly. She wore a satisfied little smile the whole time.
"Wow~ Yeonhee, you're so lucky~"
"Should we wipe each other too?"
"Ugh... Yeah. Let's do it."
The rest of the party watched us with envious eyes. The other hunters, however, seemed unable to get used to the sight and simply stared in fascination.
But their attention didn't last long. The hunters collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath. I scanned their condition with my senses.
Hmm... A few of them were in pretty bad shape. They were treating external wounds with potions, but internal injuries were the real problem. They might be fine for now, but I doubted they could last a full week like this.
One person had died. Thirty remained.
'Whether I like it or not, I have to drag them along...'
Still, I needed to confirm their true nature at least once. It was currently around 5 p.m. In seven hours, I'd use Mimicry to check which ones harbored dark intentions. After that, I'd decide whether to share Irmana's water with the injured.
"Haa— one hundred sixty-seven hours left. How many more times do we have to do this?"
Jua muttered while lying on the floor, staring at the hook bats clinging darkly to the ceiling.
"But their numbers have gone down, right?"
They had decreased. However, among those I could sense, the ones that had grown larger were hanging upside down from the ceiling, expelling something.
'Offspring, huh...'
These creatures had a unique ability to reproduce using awakened beings' blood and flesh as a medium. Each birth produced five to ten young. Since at least eight hundred of them were currently straining to give birth, that meant at least four thousand more would be added.
They'd returned to the ceiling to breed. I chose not to tell the others. Obviously. Why say something that would destroy morale?
These damn bats gave almost no experience and didn't even drop mana stones. Complete trash.
"Ilwol~ You really reduced their numbers a lot, right?"
A-rin asked with a hint of hope, her rabbit ears twitching alternately as they drooped noticeably. I nodded vigorously to confirm, and only then did her ears perk up slightly in relief.
At that moment, a man from another party walked over, bowed deeply at the waist, and spoke.
"We'll give you everything we have! Please just help us get out of here alive!"
It was the man who had tracked us with his skill. Twenty-three hunters stood behind him, watching our party's reaction. More precisely, they were watching Yeom Tae-seok and Baek A-rin.
It was already well known in D-rank circles that A-rin led our party, and Tae-seok was practically the guardian spirit of this dungeon. Everyone knew that.
Mana stones and runes could be recovered as long as you survived. Pride could be swallowed if it meant staying alive.
A-rin and Tae-seok showed understanding. And just like that, we formed a temporary alliance for this survival run.
"There are a few rules we must follow. You all know the basics, but please read the contents written here once more before stamping your mana seal!"
It was the same oath contract I'd seen recently regarding Heo Min-sol and the Apex Guild. A hunter from the other party held it. It was a high-grade version that allowed multiple people to sign simultaneously.
The contract was simple.
1. Do not attack fellow allies until escaping the Dungeon of Nargul.
2. Do not disclose any information regarding the abilities, equipment, consumables, or artifacts of those present here until death.
3. Do not take another's loot.
There didn't seem to be any special conditions added. Since they were extremely reasonable, everyone signed the contract Tae-seok had proposed.
'Does this apply to me too?'
Yeonhee had signed it, so as her summon I probably should be included... but since I wasn't a direct party, it felt ambiguous. After all, the Summoner class itself hadn't existed before.
'I'll find out once I check.'