Chapter 48

Lakeside (3)

The giant crab brought its claw crashing down.

I narrowly dodged the attack.

Its movements were large and surprisingly sluggish, so avoiding it wasn’t particularly difficult.

But the vibration that shook the ground when the claw struck...

That was no joke.

‘F-First, the mana.’

I steadied my startled heart and circulated my mana.

A refreshing stimulation spread through my muscles.

Since I practiced whenever I had spare time, I was able to respond quickly.

“Gururuk.”

In the meantime, the giant crab raised its claw again.

For something that huge, it was surprisingly agile.

The moment I saw it, I moved both legs.

Trying to block that thing head-on was a bad idea.

Thud!

“Ugh?!”

But the unfamiliar terrain caused me to make a mistake.

Something caught my foot as I stepped backward.

For a moment, the world seemed to spin, and then the sky filled my vision.

Even as my body tipped backward, I reacted instinctively.

“Urgh...!”

A considerable impact traveled through my back.

Still, it was bearable.

Just before falling, I curled my body to minimize the impact.

It was the breakfall technique SwordMaster had explained in his post.

Rumble—

Even while I staggered and fell, the giant crab didn’t stop.

Maybe because it had so many legs, it closed the distance quickly despite its enormous body.

Slip—

I tried to force myself back up, but my footing slipped slightly.

In that brief moment, the giant crab slowly raised its claw, casting a shadow over my head.

Getting up in time would be difficult.

Acting on instinct, I raised my shield.

Praying that it would protect me, I drew out as much mana as possible from within my body.

BANG!

A sound like metal colliding with metal rang out.

Then came the impact transmitted through the shield.

My arm went numb, but I could endure it.

It was weaker than the Muscle Mushroom.

Before another blow could come, I hurriedly rolled away.

BOOM!

While I was rolling, the giant crab slammed its claw down again.

Feeling the vibration travel through my entire body, I silently got back to my feet.

The giant crab adjusted its direction by moving its countless legs and approached me again.

‘Forget about blocking and counterattacking.’

If I kept blocking with the shield, my arm would give out first.

I had to exploit an opening somehow, but finding one wasn’t easy.

‘Its attacks are simple, but the problem is that they’re fast.’

I kept moving my legs while thinking.

That was another tip SwordMaster had taught me.

Think while moving.

That way, you wouldn’t give your opponent an opening and could steer the situation in your favor.

BOOM!

And SwordMaster’s advice worked.

The giant crab missed.

Its claw smashed into the spot where I had been standing just moments earlier.

Now.

This was my chance.

I poured mana into the sword and swung with all my strength.

The blade shimmered like a heat haze before slicing straight through the claw.

Slash!

The pincer portion of the claw fell cleanly to the ground.

It wasn’t a particularly major hit.

I had only cut off the pincer itself, not the entire claw.

With something this huge, that couldn’t be helped.

It wasn’t like I could slice the whole thing apart with a single sword strike like someone else could.

‘Just cut it apart piece by piece.’

But this was enough.

If I kept dismantling it little by little, I could kill it.

Whoosh!

The giant crab swung the claw that had lost its pincer.

The limb itself was still basically a gigantic blunt weapon, so it remained more than threatening enough.

I kept my legs moving while searching for a weakness.

‘Wait a second. This thing...’

As I watched, I noticed one weakness.

A very serious one.

Crabs, by nature, could only walk sideways.

Even after growing enormous, that trait hadn’t changed.

In other words, its effective attack range was extremely limited.

No matter how wildly it swung its claws, there was still a clear limit.

‘And especially... it turns incredibly slowly.’

While the giant crab flailed its claws, I quickly moved around and took its rear.

It tried desperately to turn around, but it was far too slow.

It couldn’t hit me with its claws either.

Such was the unfortunate fate of a creature designed only to move sideways.

Slash!

While it struggled to turn, I cut through its legs instead of attacking its claws.

Two legs were severed in a single strike.

It was the combined result of the Heavenly Demon’s sword and aura.

Thud!

Having lost two legs at once, the giant crab lost its balance.

One side of its body tilted awkwardly, making it difficult for the creature to stabilize itself.

My goal was to completely destroy its mobility.

Since the bastard turned as slowly as a turtle, I exploited that weakness thoroughly.

Slash! Slash!

Instead of standing in front of it, I continually stayed behind it and cut off its legs.

Once I severed two legs from each side, it completely lost even its ability to turn.

After that, cutting off the remaining legs was easy.

Slash!

Finally, I completely severed its prized claws as well.

The creature collapsed onto the ground with nothing but its torso remaining.

Maybe because it was a crustacean, its body was still twitching even after all of its limbs had been cut off.

Crunch!

I climbed onto the giant crab’s shell and drove my sword down.

I stabbed between its eyes, directly into the center of the upper shell.

Krrrrrk!

Then, as though pulling a lever, I dragged the sword downward.

The Heavenly Demon’s sword could split even solid wood like tofu, so the blade slid through surprisingly easily.

Eventually, the sword reached the very bottom of the shell.

I gripped it tightly and pulled with all my strength.

Slash!

Since all of its legs were already gone, the body didn’t split dramatically in half.

But I was satisfied simply seeing it stop moving entirely.

I lightly shook the bits of innards from the blade.

“Haaah!”

I exhaled heavily.

My heart was pounding violently from the adrenaline surging through me.

If I hadn’t figured out its weakness, that fight would have been much harder.

No.

Forget “harder.”

One wrong move and I could have lost my life.

Strangely enough, it was exhilarating.

“Gururuk.”

“Guruk.”

Before I knew it, the smaller crabs had gathered around and begun picking apart the giant crab’s corpse.

Even the giant ones seemed to faithfully fulfill their role as scavengers.

I watched them for a moment, then made a post on the gallery.

Title: Hunted a Giant Crab

(Photo of an enormous giant crab corpse)

A giant crab way bigger than a person jumped me at the lakeside ;; It used its claws like blunt weapons.

Luckily, it turned ridiculously slowly, so it wasn’t too hard to kill.

What the hell kind of creature is this ;;

I only posted the message and didn’t bother checking the comments.

Getting back to the cave was more urgent.

Not only had I fallen on my ass, I had rolled all over the ground.

If I left myself like this, the smell would be bad enough, but I could also get sick.

‘Next time I come here, I need to bring proper shoes.’

This incident had made me realize just how important footwear was.

Especially when I slipped earlier.

For a second, I genuinely felt like my life flashed before my eyes.

I caught my breath again and started walking back.

‘The fish corpse is... over there.’

I hadn’t forgotten the route back.

There were fish carcasses and partially eaten crab corpses along the way, after all.

Just thinking about walking back through all this filth made me feel sick, but I had no choice but to endure it.

“Gururuk. Guruk.”

“...”

When I spotted a crab along the way, I gently picked it up.

Then I bought a backpack from the auction house.

Not one of those small bags worn at the waist, but a proper backpack worn on the back.

‘I can’t resist.’

The moment I got back to the cave, I was eating this.

I needed to give some to Wonmo and the Sloth too, so I stuffed two more crabs inside.

I considered taking one for the dwarf as well, but unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to trade with him until tomorrow.

Crab was perfect as a drinking snack, so I planned to come back tomorrow anyway.

‘Allfather said they’re edible, so they should taste good, right?’

I wasn’t particularly worried about parasites.

They probably wouldn’t kill each other and spoil inside the bag either.

So far, I had only seen them eat members of their own species after they were already dead.

Rrrrrumble.

Just as I was happily imagining the meal ahead, the ground began to shake.

Nothing good had ever happened to me when the earth started trembling.

The instant that thought crossed my mind, I hurriedly looked around.

Splash! Splash!

One giant crab after another began emerging from deeper inside the lake.

Each was about the same size as the one I had just fought, or slightly larger.

There were at least five of them.

I stared at the sight in disbelief.

I had barely managed to kill one, and now five had appeared.

If I had stayed there any longer, I would have been in serious danger.

‘Is this really a lake? Not an ocean?’

There was no salty sea smell, so it definitely seemed to be a lake.

I moved carefully, worried that the giant crabs might notice me.

Thankfully, not one of them so much as glanced in my direction before I reached the mouth of the river.

They were too busy picking up and eating the corpse of their own kind with their claws.

‘They really are slaves to their instincts.’

Judging by their behavior, corpses seemed to be their first priority.

“Scavenger” really was the perfect word for them.

I slowly backed away, then turned around.

It was about time I headed back to the cave.

RUMBLEEEEE!

That was when I felt a tremor on an entirely different level from before.

It was far stronger than the shaking caused by the giant crabs.

For a moment, I wondered if this was an actual earthquake.

Then a tremendous noise came from the lake, impossible to ignore.

ROOOOAR!

Water surged high into the air before crashing back down.

At the sound, I turned toward the lake.

The moment I looked back, I froze.

I had thought the giant crabs were already absurdly huge.

Apparently, something even worse lived in this lake.

‘...Fuck. What the hell is that?’

If the giant crabs were the size of large trucks, the crab I was looking at now was the size of a building.

In terms of height alone, it was comparable to a small apartment building.

It was so absurdly huge that perspective itself felt meaningless.

Could I even call that thing a crab?

It was basically a walking building.

Title: Find What’s Wrong With This Video

Wild Grylls

(Video of a building-sized crab with giant crabs beside it)

What’s wrong with this picture?

Take a guess!

↳ Heavenly Demon: Hmm? Why does the sky look so small?

↳ Wild Grylls: Right? I wonder why it looks so small.

↳ SwordMaster: I’ve never seen a crab that huge in my life. Does something like that actually exist?

↳ Wild Grylls: Good eye. I’m looking at it myself and still can’t believe it.

↳ Heavenly Demon: Looking again, it truly is enormous. It has piqued this lady’s interest.

↳ Wild Grylls: Want to come over? We can catch it and steam it.

↳ Heavenly Demon: My close aides are desperately stopping me, so I cannot go. My apologies.

↳ Allfather: Oh ;; Ooooh;; Fuck, what is that?

↳ Wild Grylls: Lmaoooo, I don’t know either. First time seeing one too, Allfather?

↳ Allfather: The species is definitely a Gophers Crab... but I do not know whether that should be considered an entirely new species at this point. What on earth is that?

↳ Wild Grylls: I’m amazed too.

↳ Passing Dwarf: Looks like a mountain is walking around ;; Hey, can I ask you for something?

↳ Wild Grylls: You want a crab as drinking snacks? Trade cooldown means I can give you one tomorrow.

↳ Passing Dwarf: Yeah. And while you’re at it, give me that huge one.

↳ Wild Grylls: You fucking lunatic lmao.

↳ Whoa ;; I don’t even know what to say. Isn’t that thing basically a spirit beast at this point?

↳ Yeah, I bet there’s an inner core inside that shell.

↳ If it’s that huge, you could definitely call it a spirit beast lol.

↳ You planning to hunt it?

↳ Wild Grylls: You do it ;; There’s absolutely no way I can kill that thing. I already struggled just taking down one giant crab.

↳ Nothing in this world is impossible. You just have to try.

↳ If you kill that thing, the gallery’s gonna explode lmao.

↳ Wild Grylls: I’ll try if someone comes and helps me lol.

↳ (No replies)

↳ Wild Grylls: Answer me, you bastards.

I kept walking while looking at the gallery.

I wanted to get back as quickly as possible.

The dampness made my entire body feel heavier.

‘Why is the back of my neck so itchy, though?’

Maybe because the tension had finally eased, my senses had become more sensitive.

And because of that, I could clearly feel every itchy spot.

Unable to stand it, I reached behind my neck with my right hand and scratched.

Squish.

Then I felt something soft.

The instant I felt it, I froze.

My instincts were screaming at me.

Whatever this squishy thing was, it was absolutely nothing good.

Worse yet, even when I flicked it with my fingers, it refused to come off.

I swallowed hard and grabbed it.

Then I pulled with force, tearing it off.

It stretched like jelly.

Pop!

Something detached from the back of my neck with a strange sound and a sharp sting.

It was big enough that I had to grip it in my hand.

And it was slippery.

Very slowly, I brought my right hand around in front of my face.

I needed to see what I was holding.

Wriggle. Wriggle.

Something red and slime-like squirmed in my hand—

No.

It was a grotesque brown leech.

An obviously disgusting one.

And it was enormous.

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

I wanted to get out of here as fast as possible.