“Whew….”
Parang sighed after ending the broadcast.
Bubbles of various sizes bubbled up from his mouth.
‘So, I really have to face it….’
It would have been nice if Marian’s corpse had just shown up while exploring the Hive during the broadcast, but alas, that didn’t happen.
Parang was currently positioned about 700m away from the center of the Hive.
The nearby grass waved in one direction, as if there was no breeze at all.
This meant he had entered the territory of Krino.
Sea lilies, or sea stars, got their name because they resemble the native lilies of Korea.
In English, they are called Feather starfish, which translates directly to “feather starfish.”
On this side too, they were named for their resemblance to feathered starfish as well.
Additionally, sea lilies have various nicknames.
The broom of the sea, alien life forms, what the hell is that—among others…
And as is customary for bizarre-looking sea creatures, sea lilies are also docile beings that feed on plankton.
However, when they transform into Monster Fish, their nature changes 180 degrees.
Krino is considered a top-tier predator among the Monster Fish that launch mental attacks.
Generally, stronger Monster Fish, colloquially called tougher monsters, have a certain level of immunity to mental attacks.
Of course, it’s only natural. Everywhere in the deep sea, brightly colored beings try to charm everyone, so they should have at least one countermeasure, right?
Many monsters possess special corneas that take on the form of lenses, limit their own field of vision, or even abandon their eyes entirely to live at the mercy of the water flow.
Thus, the sea can be quite harsh for mental attack-type monsters, placing them lower on the ecological pyramid.
However, there are limits to this as well. If something can enter your line of sight and brainwash its target on a neural level in order to devour it, there’s nothing more terrifying than that.
Add a bit of physical power, and its destructive power could rise to unimaginable levels.
And Krino is precisely that kind of monster.
With top-tier mental attacks, considerable physical strength, along with survivability and speed—
Krino is an utterly broken monster that has it all.
Parang briefly hid behind a tombstone and began to formulate a plan.
When he peeked out, there was Krino.
Upon a closer look, there were one, two, three… about twenty arms in total.
That meant Krino had been here for over two months.
Before the Slayers ascended.
It indicated that when Marian was teleported to the Hive, Krino had been there.
Krino could manipulate water currents to draw various things toward itself.
There was a high possibility that it had also drawn in Marian’s corpse.
Still, if it had been eaten by Krino and not another monster, that was a good sign.
Because it would take a while to digest.
Thinking about it, Parang was incredibly lucky.
He was able to recover Alexandra’s corpse in the East Sea because it was awkwardly wedged between chambers, and he could see a chance to recover Marian’s corpse in the Drake Hive as well.
In truth, if a human corpse fell into the ocean, particularly into the monster layer, recovering it is nearly impossible. Just like the case of Olivia who fell into the Hong Kong Hive.
After Parang’s initial search, Xiao had scoured the entire Hive about three times using a skull, but Olivia’s corpse was never found.
Drifting in the sea, devoured by a monster, then that monster being eaten by another monster. If he were to encounter a monster like Hinus during that chain, the chances of recovering the corpse would drop to zero.
So, Parang couldn’t miss this opportunity.
‘I can’t use the Kraken.’
If he accidentally absorbed Marian, he would have to stay wide awake for days on end.
‘Going inside…’
Not a chance. There had to be another way.
‘Should I just cut off the arms and dismantle it?’
This method seemed the best.
All of Krino’s abilities—mental attacks, mobility, physical strength, etc.—come from its arms. It could be called a core organ, much like Hinus’s propeller.
Just like the terrifying Hinus would die instantly if its propeller’s nerve network were cut, Krino too would lose its power and perish if its arms were cut off.
That is the conventional extermination method for Krino.
The problem is that only six people in the world can carry out that “conventional extermination method.”
And those six people, if they reach that level, wouldn’t even need to cut off Krino’s arms to hunt it.
They could just boil it whole, devour it, stomp on it, or blow it up with an atomic bomb… well, various methods exist.
This was the first time Parang was trying to catch Krino without the Kraken.
Honestly, it seemed a bit fun.
Was this what seasoned pros felt when clearing games deliberately under difficult circumstances?
Having sketched a rough plan, Parang dashed out from behind the tombstone.
And.
Krino appeared in Parang’s sight.
The disk-shaped body was obscured by countless arms surrounding it.
About twenty long arms, resembling bird feathers, waved around, creating confusion and clouding his consciousness. Its movements resembled…
‘Ugh….’
His vision swayed, and his stomach churned.
Krino didn’t attack with ‘light,’ but with ‘movement.’
That was also the reason it was able to survive in the Drake Hive.
So, it was fine to look at Krino’s photos or drawings, but video footage was a no-go.
Parang lowered his head briefly to avoid the disorienting movements before him.
He felt nauseous. He was about to vomit.
What unfolded before his eyes was a moving festival, a dance of heaven, a heavy haze.
It felt like the entire space was undulating toward Krino.
Correction. It wasn’t just a feeling; it was indeed happening.
Krino was moving its arms, from ten to as many as thirty, causing the currents to swirl in the water.
The twisted water flow accentuated Krino’s movements, intensifying its mental attacks, eventually directing the flow of water toward its mouth, as it gulped down defenseless prey.
For this reason, even though Parang was completely immune to mental attacks, facing Krino still posed a significant challenge.
Krino’s attacks didn’t merely result in “mental damage due to skills,” but were accompanied by physical actions.
While Parang could remain unaffected by divine-level mental attacks as long as he was submerged, there was no way to escape the physical distortion before his eyes.
Nonetheless, since he was immune to mental damage from skills, it only left him feeling a bit dizzy.
Given this situation, both Parang and other Oceanos consider it a best practice to attack without looking directly at Krino. They would rather turn away and summon the Kraken.
But under the current circumstances, what could be done?
Clenching his teeth, Parang charged toward Krino.
The surrounding scenery grew increasingly bizarre as he approached.
His immediate surroundings wobbled as if a filter had been applied, and the nearby monsters either twisted their bodies into knots or were entangled together if they were too short.
Without skills, Parang would have been utterly consumed by Krino with joy, while bound up himself.
Parang fiercely charged at Krino, even infused with emotion.
‘Why did it have to be you causing me such trouble?’
Whether Krino felt Parang’s frustration or not, it merely continued to writhe.
“Uaaaah!!!”
With a determined shout, Parang swung the harpoon mightily.
Fundamentally, Krino was large.
Therefore, no matter how hard Parang swung the harpoon, he could at best shear off an arm.
Still, about nineteen arms, spanning approximately 200m, remained.
Not to mention, Krino had tremendous regeneration.
Just like the many-armed or multi-headed monsters popping up in classical mythology, if one arm was cut off, two would grow back from the severed spot.
In classical myths, or modern works inspired by them, the cliché would be to cauterize the wounds to resolve this dilemma, but unfortunately for Parang, lighting a fire underwater isn’t an easy task.
So instead, with the mindset of “better than nothing,” he surrounded a droplet in his hand and wildly exploded the severed limbs.
Remarkably, it’s a verified method. While nothing can stop regeneration as definitively as caution, doing this can dramatically slow down the process.
Thus, Parang continued to snip away at Krino’s arms one by one until finally, he had severed all twenty arms.
What remained were only the pitifully twitching stumps and the central disk-shaped body.
Parang, sneaking up to find Marian’s corpse, carefully stabbed into Krino’s belly with the harpoon.
And there it was, just as expected. A golden-haired girl with a gentle smile was curled up, her body free from any injuries, as if she were peacefully asleep.
‘Thank goodness. She’s still in good condition.’
And just as Parang was about to lift her up and head toward the surface.
‘Wait a minute.’
How could her condition be so intact?
Feeling a sense of unease, Parang yanked his arm back, just as—
Snap.
Marian opened her eyes.
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