CHAPTER 60: OTHERWORLDLY MONSTER

A mass of chaotic energy was hovering in the middle of the cave. From it, a giant, spiky, green arm emerged, as if coming from a spatial gate.

Whatever was on the other side of this gate seemed to be trying to enter the gate, but it was too small to fit anything other than its arm.

The arm was swinging left and right, up and down, as if trying to find something or widen the gate.

And as Dante used his spiritual eye...

"90. Shit, shit, shit! Where the hell is this creature coming from?"

Judging by Elizabeth’s condition, that monster couldn’t be called physically weak—unlike the mist parasite.

From the corner of his eyes, Dante noticed Beth walking slowly toward the arm.

’No you won’t.’

Centipede of Greed — Whip Form!

Instantly, Dante’s tattoo turned into a whip of segmented blades. Without hesitation, he swung the whip toward Beth.

The whip coiled around Beth’s disfigured body like a centipede, cutting in her flesh with its sharp edges. The next second, Dante swung upward, crushing Beth into the ceiling.

BAM!

Before she could recover, he swung downward, crushing her with even more brutal force into the ground.

BAM!

Quickly, Dante swung to the right, sending Beth flying toward the cave wall, far away from the giant arm.

’This should stop that thing for now.’ The whip finally unwound Beth’s body as it shrunk into a shorter length.

While he was fighting the weak goblins, Dante had enough time to practice this form, reaching enough mastery to use it in a fight.

Of course, it wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to grab someone and crush them several times.

As the giant arm continued swinging everywhere, Dante tried to disturb the ritual by burning the animal and human parts and scratching the blood formations.

Unfortunately, nothing worked, and Elizabeth, who had an aspect that could harm black magic, was unconscious.

’Damn this stupid luck and damn that short girl. I’ll do it with brute force then!’

Without hesitation, Dante enhanced his demonic arm with mana and demonic energy, pointing his index finger toward the chaotic gate.

Silver Ether Spell — Ether Bolt!

BAM!

A silver bolt hit the arm, severing its middle finger and crushing a few bones. As for Dante, he was sent a few steps backward due to the recoil, but only his finger was truly affected.

Unlike the first time, he now used his strongest arm, and his control over Ether was better. The damage he received was significantly lower than the first time.

Still, Dante wasn’t satisfied with the result. It barely affected the monster at all.

’Argh, I’ll try just two more attacks. If that thing doesn’t get affected enough, I’ll just take Elizabeth and that old man before running.’

His job was only killing Beth, which he obviously did. Killing that strange thing wasn’t something he had to do.

’Okay, Fafnir, shoot a bullet in the middle of its injury.’ Dante ordered mentally as he linked Misfortune Chain to the monster.

Fafnir nodded as he walked to the front of the arm and aimed his index finger. He didn’t have enough Ether for a bolt, but a bullet was something doable.

Silver Ether Spell — Ether Bullet!

Bang!

A silver bullet immediately pierced the soft flesh of the monster, flying through the monster arm until it reached the shoulder.

’Oh, the flesh is much weaker than the spiky green skin. It should be like natural armor.’

ROAAAR!

All of a sudden, Dante heard a loud roar from the other side of the chaotic gate. The arm began to shake and swing violently, ignoring its injury.

"Is it that hard to just pull your arm back?" Dante quickly aimed his own index finger toward the arm and waited for the perfect chance.

It was hard to aim at it while it was shaking like this, and he wanted his bolt to go through the monster’s flesh.

With his current control, he could only cast two proper spells like a bolt and one small spell like a bullet, which meant he couldn’t just attack randomly.

’Fafnir, help me to make that thing stop.’ Dante ordered before looking at the shadow beneath himself.

Immediately, he crouched and touched it with his left hand, channeling his mana in the shadow. Then it transformed into a spatial shadow that was connected to a shadow under the giant arm, and Fafnir did the same.

Usually, Dante would just need to cover himself with shadow to teleport there, which was the mechanism of Shadow Step. But instead, he cast a spell.

Demonic Shadow Spell — Demonic Shadow Chains!

Instantly, Dante and Fafnir cast several Demonic Shadow Chains simultaneously, all of them entering the spatial shadows and emerging from under the giant arm.

He immediately used all his mana to cast as many chains as possible, but they still weren’t enough. All of a sudden, a small blue crystal appeared in his hand, which he immediately put in his mouth.

It was a mana crystal.

’What a fucking waste for money.’

A single mana crystal could cost anywhere from 5 to 20 gold coins. He was technically eating two platinum coins, but he couldn’t complain now.

The mana crystal dissolved rapidly, restoring half his mana pool and allowing him to cast more chains.

A scary smile crept over Dante’s face for a brief moment as he watched the chains coiling around the arm and fixing it in its place.

’Now!’

Silver Ether Spell — Ether Bolt!

BAM!

A silver bolt entered through the arm and destroyed all the bones inside. As it reached the shoulder bone, it passed through with ease and continued forward. Then a loud scream echoed throughout the cave.

Unfortunately, the monster wasn’t dead yet. Its Wheel of Luck was still visible.

However, through the pierced arm, Dante saw it.

’The monster’s core.’

Apparently, the bolts made a path through the monster’s body and reached its core. Now, Dante only needed an attack strong enough to shatter the core and kill it.

"More chains! And punch me if I get corrupted!!" Dante shouted to Fafnir as he changed his Centipede’s form.

Centipede of Greed — Sword Drill Form!

The centipede immediately turned into a drill made of segmented blades with a handle. Suddenly, the drill began to spin and glow while Dante aimed it at the core.

More chains erupted from the shadow under the giant arm, ensuring that it wouldn’t move.

Centipede of Greed — Abyssal Slash!

A spiral crimson-black slash shot into the arm with incredible speed. From the drill form, it had less width and more penetration power.

CRACK!

A glassy sound rang in the cave, then some runes appeared in Dante’s vision.

[Your Greed Knows No Bounds]

You have slain a Rank 2 Otherworldly Being. Spirit absorbed: +1.8

• Spirit: 42 → 44

• Mind: 31 → 32

"Hehehe, AHA HA HA HA!" Dante’s laughs resounded in the cave.

He killed a monster of a higher rank, increased his stats, and decreased his misfortune.

’But I need more.’

His gaze immediately fell on the unconscious saintess at the wall. Her Spirit stat was close to his, which meant he could absorb it.

And who knows, he might even gain a relic.

The drill immediately turned into a longsword, which Dante raised upward. But before he could charge it...

CRACK!

Fafnir immediately punched his nose, pushing him a few steps backward.

"You damn—" Dante shook his head, regaining his conscious, and touched his broken nose: "I wanted a simple punch, not breaking my fucking nose!"

Fafnir fell to his knees and lowered his head immediately, looking at the ground in shame and apology.

Dante smiled, suppressing a laugh: "It’s okay, buddy. That short saintess will heal me anyway."

"Oh, by the way, go burn Beth’s body. For some reason, this thing isn’t dying." Dante said as he pointed at Beth. Her bones were crushed, but she was using the tentacles at her head to crawl toward the gate.

Fafnir’s eyes shone in gratitude. He immediately stood up and rushed toward the crawling living corpse.

The next moment, he aimed his palm toward her. Then black flames erupted out of it and covered the corpse.

’That’s really strange...’

What was black magic exactly? How could it turn that woman into such a being after her death?

And most importantly, how was that thing moving if it was dead?

’No luck nor soul. What kind of crap did she do to herself in order to become like that? Even the woman we found in the forest had a similar tentacle.’

Dante sighed in frustration before using Shadow Step, appearing right behind Elizabeth.

He quickly checked her body, and other than a hit to the head and a broken arm, she was completely fine. So he just wrapped a piece of cloth around her head.

As for the man behind her, he was in a far worse condition. He immediately wrapped all his bleeding injuries, but whether he’d survive or not would depend on when Elizabeth regained her consciousness.

’Now, what should I do with this thing?’ Dante’s gaze fell on the hanging arm.

Just now, he realized that it wasn’t like the monster didn’t want to pull its arm back—it literally couldn’t! That arm was stuck!

Apparently, the chaotic gate was trying to close itself, but the arm was in its way, causing it to hold the arm firmly.

’Maybe I should cut that arm before anything could use it to come into this world.’

The runes of his relic called that thing an otherworldly creature, which meant that this gate led to another world that the relic’s runes couldn’t recognise.

The black magic could lead to another world...

’I think the ritual the original Fafnir used was also black magic...’

For a moment, Dante had the urge to pass through the arm to see what existed on the other side of the gate, but he immediately dismissed these thoughts. Why would he do such a dangerous thing?

Dante walked to the arm, transforming his relic into a drill, but as he was about to dig into it, thousands of shining particles came out of the gate, flying toward Beth’s bag.

’No way!’

Dante ignored the arm and went toward the bag. He opened it, and then he saw a green dagger there.

Once he touched the dagger, it shattered into shining particles and flew toward Dante’s soul.

’Finally, finally, finally!’

His happiness couldn’t be described. He had killed a lot of living beings, yet only Beatrice gave him a relic.

And now, he gained his second one.