WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 122: Chimera Hunt
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Gentler, smaller monsters find it easier to survive.
The more vicious and massive a monster is, the harder it is for it to survive.
Combative monsters do not avoid fights that come to them.
If they lose, they die.
Even if they win, injuries slow them down.
Then, if they encounter another opponent, they will be defeated and become prey themselves.
A large body and great strength are not always advantages for survival, either.
Maintaining such a body requires a great deal of nutrients and Magical Essence.
They feel hunger more often, and they have to fight more.
Smaller creatures that hide well actually find survival easier.
If monsters that survive longer are stronger, then would cockroach monsters clinging to the undersides of rocks be the strongest?
Of course not.
The more combative a monster is, the more chances it has to absorb Magical Essence.
That lets it evolve more often and grow stronger.
Wyverns are representative large carnivorous monsters.
If not for the unique environment of the Mountain Range, even an ordinary wyvern could rule an entire region.
But this place was a Demonic Realm bestowed by the heavens.
Hundreds, thousands of wyverns that were already strong and vicious lived here.
Every wyvern that became a leader here was the real thing.
Seleta was one of them.
Seleta, ruler of southern Delphram.
She had even earned the Epithet Black Queen.
For someone like that, she was not particularly old.
Of course, she was a monster, not a person. There was no way she had counted her age precisely.
Still, it could be estimated.
The fact that she barely knew the Oboe language gave some indication of her generation.
Long ago, humans and wyverns had been close. They lived together and communicated.
Back then, there had been a language through which humans and wyverns could converse.
Human civilization had perished, but wise mothers had passed that language down to later generations.
As time passed, few wyverns remained who knew it. Still, older wyverns could sometimes speak the Oboe language.
Chugota was one of them.
When Seleta was born, Chugota was already the ruler of a region.
She was undoubtedly a wise and powerful wyvern.
Perhaps this was not the right word for it.
But young Seleta might have respected Chugota.
Even after Seleta had grown powerful enough, she never intended to intrude on Chugota's territory.
Back when Chugota had only one head, when she flew with her white body, Seleta would quietly perch on a stone pillar.
That was all in the past, of course.
After Chugota laid her first egg, failed to protect her hatchling, and vanished.
Chugota returned with three heads, completely mad.
Chugota was no longer the wise queen of the eastern Mountain Range.
Seleta had also laid her first clutch.
Among them was a small, weak youngest child, born without wings.
And the mad Chugota had mistaken that youngest child for her own.
“Kugagagagak!”
Seleta had no intention of tolerating that.
Chugota raced across the ground at a terrifying speed.
Seleta dove from the sky as though falling.
Light flashed from both their mouths, and Destruction Beams fired.
Instead of striking each other, the beams struck the golem between them.
Seleta's Destruction Beam hit the golem's face.
Chugota's hit its lower body.
Boom!
The impact contained in the beams sent the golem spinning through the air.
She would pounce just like this.
With that resolve, Seleta launched a physical attack.
Thud.
A cloud of dust burst upward.
The attack should have been enough to damage even the golem.
But at the moment of impact, the golem's body separated into three pieces.
Seleta had only pinned and crushed one of them.
Something like an arm extended from the piece of golem trapped in her talons and stabbed Seleta's leg.
Then the other two separated pieces rushed toward Seleta to attack.
The one who saved her in that crisis was none other than Chugota.
“Guuuu!” “Keeek!” “Grrk, grrk!”
With a strange three-part chorus, Chugota simply latched onto them.
Latched on was the right phrase.
Ignoring the wounds she took, she spread her wings wide and crashed into them as if embracing them.
Even trusting in her self-repair ability, it was clearly madness.
The golems' tremendous strength tore the membranes of her wings and punched holes through her hide.
But Chugota's reckless attack gave Seleta an opening.
The two golems that had been about to attack her were now attacking Chugota.
Thank goodness she had hidden her children nearby.
Otherwise, something terrible would have happened.
Chugota was handling two of them.
Seleta was handling one.
Then something unexpected occurred.
The golems' eyes, which had been focused on the battle, suddenly flashed.
Their heads all turned toward the stone tower.
Had something happened inside it?
The golems all began to pull back.
The golem clinging to Seleta and injuring her did the same.
It threw Seleta aside and raced back toward the stone tower.
Horrible things.
Wounded, Seleta panted harshly.
Now free, Seleta hurriedly flew up.
“Peep!”
Her eldest daughter was chirping from behind that stone pillar.
Seleta had told her to hide, but she had come out to cheer instead.
She would get a spanking when they returned.
For a moment, Seleta felt liberated.
Free and relieved that the horrible golem was finally off her.
But...
“Grrrrrrrr!”
Chugota did not feel the same.
The old, mad white queen desperately clung to the fleeing golems.
Her wings had broken again, so she could not fly. Even so, she viciously latched on and blocked their advance.
Only then did Seleta come to her senses.
The youngest.
The youngest had entered the stone tower.
“Kuak!”
Chugota had caught two, so Seleta had to stop the remaining one.
She fired a Destruction Beam, but the golem rolled once and got back up.
Her mana had run dry.
So Seleta simply bit the golem.
Then she rolled across the ground.
Rumble!
The impact was so violent that it felt as though her neck might snap.
Seleta did not know what the golem was made of, but it was incredibly hard.
Her bite could crush rock, but she could not shatter the golem.
In the end, the golem escaped Seleta's jaws.
The same went for the two golems Chugota had grabbed.
In an instant, they merged back into one and spread their heat sinks wide like wings.
Then it prepared Super Acceleration.
“Kwaaak!”
The two wyvern queens had not bought time for nothing.
The holes throughout the stone tower closed all at once.
The golem activated Super Acceleration immediately afterward.
Boom!
In the blink of an eye, the golem had reached the middle of the stone tower.
But even that powerful golem could not force its way into the sealed tower.
Whiiiine!
Then, as if its strings had been cut, the golem suddenly went limp.
It stiffened helplessly like a dead cicada.
“Gugugu...”
At last, Chugota stopped convulsing and dropped her heads onto the ground with a thud.
When Seleta approached, Chugota's condition was extremely serious.
She had two, no, at least three wounds deep enough to expose bone.
She wheezed as she breathed, and bloody foam trickled from the corners of her mouths with every breath.
A terrible obsession.
And that obsession must have come from a desire to protect a child.
Even if that child was not Chugota's own, but Seleta's.
Seleta had felt nothing but hostility toward Chugota.
But at that moment, she felt an old emotion again.
Respect.
For the old queen.
For a mother who had raised children and lost them.
Respect...!
* * *
When I turned around.
“Sssak!”
There was nothing there!
Could there have been something that could make itself invisible like a ghost?
I looked around with that suspicion, but no matter how hard I searched, I could not see anything.
Boom!
Instead, a deafening roar rang out in the distance, as if a meteor had struck.
The entire stone tower seemed to shake.
-Golem's trying to return to the Dungeon. Looks like it's trying to force the door open.
‘That can't happen.’
-It can't. Force it to stop!
It would be a disaster if the door opened and whatever was inside escaped.
I forced the golem to stop, just as Pelerian told me.
-Damn it. If only we'd been a little faster.
If things had lined up just right, we might have been able to use the golem like a subordinate.
But it was trying to tear open the Dungeon's door, so I had no choice but to force it to stop.
Looks like I'll have to catch the Chimeras myself after all.
And all the Magical Essence will be mine.
-Look. There's definitely a life signal right nearby.
A white dot blinked near us on the map displayed on the crystal panel.
But when I turned around, I could not see a Chimera. It was enough to make a ghost howl.
Just in case, I looked around again.
No matter how I looked, there was nothing.
Other than the corpse of that crazy old man who had suddenly shot at me with a crossbow.
The poor old man had died after a Chimera pierced his stomach.
Maybe he saw the Chimera and fired his crossbow while yelling, “You Chimera bastard!”
A Chimera that was not as merciful as me had probably punished him immediately and harshly.
The corpse was pale.
Its chest was rising and falling very slowly.
...Huh?
Why was a dead person breathing?
My scales stood on end as danger washed over me.
I jerked my head away.
The dead old man's chest swelled.
Pop!
A strange creature the size of a human forearm burst out of it.
‘Aah! A chestburster!’
Was the Chimera's forearm that had pierced the old man's stomach actually a reproductive organ?
I should probably not bite it if I met it again.
Despite my shock, I reacted on instinct.
I grabbed Sunset with Transparent Hand and swung it.
The leech-like monster was sliced cleanly in two.
Blood splattered.
Thankfully, it was not acidic, but it stank.
Even after being cut apart, the monster wriggled.
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【Test Subject No. 5 Big Belly's Parasite Lv. 1】【Trait】
[Parasitism], [Reinfection], [Division]
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Ugh.
What would have happened if that thing had bitten me?
I had Venom Resistance, but for some reason, this did not seem like an enemy I could relax around.
And this one did not seem likely to give much Magical Essence, either.
Clearing out the Chimeras probably would not be as easy as I had thought.
When I met Big Belly, I would need to make good use of Fire Magic.
-Why the hell did I make such a disgusting Chimera?!
Pelerian shouted in anger.
But since he was angry at himself, it was nothing more than a hollow echo.
‘I’ll burn it, then.’
I was about to breathe fire.
But then Isil suddenly dropped down in front of me.
It was rare for Isil to act like this, so I stopped before casting the spell.
Then Isil began extending vines in a slow creep.
‘Ew, no! No!’
I tried to stop Isil in alarm, but the vines kept extending anyway.
Fine.
If anything dangerous happened, I could scorch Isil clean with fire. Isil had Flame Immunity.
Still, I wanted to know what Isil was thinking, so I placed my tail on Isil's body.
Thankfully, Isil understood my intentions perfectly.
*「Demon Hunter's Vine Isil Lv. 2 uses Communion Lv. 2.」
Isil brought the tips of their vines to the leech, which was still alive and wriggling.
*「Essence is absorbed through the Trait ‘Chimera.’」
*「You acquire Magical Essence.」
*「Essence accumulates.」
Isil, you had it all planned out.
Isil had been absorbing something.
Sure enough, the leech soon shriveled up and dried out.
I told Pelerian that Isil was absorbing essence.
Pelerian gave a hollow laugh.
-You really do everything, don't you?
‘What is essence?’
-You know Chimeras are made by synthesizing the traits of multiple monsters, right? Essence is what makes those monster traits manifest.
Were Chimeras like Primal Zerg?
-But a monster that is already complete absorbing essence from another Chimera...
Isil, lots of talent. Born with a World Tree silver spoon. Absorbs other Chimeras' essence. Evolves on their own.
It was obviously a good thing.
According to Pelerian, when Isil evolved next, they might be able to use the essence they had absorbed beforehand.
Chimeras did not just give lots of experience. They gave essence too.
Feeling even more motivated, I returned to the crystal panel.
We had just confirmed that the map on this panel was accurate.
‘The closest Chimera is...’
As I looked over the map, each Chimera was moving around on its own.
Some raced through the Dungeon at incredible speed, while others moved relatively slowly.
Thankfully, none appeared to be moving in groups.
-There it is.
One was nearby.
I thought I knew why it had not gone far.
‘This one can't climb the stairs.’
-It's the one from the fourth tank.
‘Aha!’
Right. Then I understood why it was stuck and unable to climb the stairs.
‘It'll be easy to catch.’
-Don't underestimate it.
‘Yes, sir.’
Pelerian warned me.
The old Pelerian would have puffed himself up, saying, “Who do you think made these Chimeras? Why are you letting your guard down?”
But honestly, it was difficult to feel tense.
The No. 4 Chimera looked pathetic, from its name to its appearance.
“Sssak!”
Let's go!
We set off toward the place marked on the map.
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