Chapter 182 - A Paralytic Effect

'That's disgusting.'

Indeed, it was.

Rynold was not in any condition to be calm anymore. Covered in an unknown substance, Rynold felt the need to wretch. Violently, if possible.

That's because not only was he covered in this strange goo, but also an unbearable stench. It was the same stench that covered the entire area. Rynold had been lucky avoiding it so far.

Now, however, couldn't simply be ignored.

'This sucks.'

Inwardly swearing a few more times, Rynold did so to cope and continued for about a minute. After which, Rynold fully recovered his sanity. It was brief, sure, but Rynold had things to do.

'Where did you come from?'

Curiously, Rynold inspected where he first saw the slime. What remained of the creature was just a pool of goo. There were no signs of movement, much to Rynold's relief.

He had won — in the messiest way possible. Regardless, a victory was still a victory.

But something about this didn't feel right to him.

It was odd, he thought, because monsters would give experience upon death. What's more, the monster's corpse wouldn't remain, and it would disappear into black smoke soon after.

So, why doesn't it happen now? Rynold was curious about this and came up with two conclusions. Neither of them was anything that would make people happy.

One possible conclusion was that Rynold didn't manage to kill the thing. Maybe it was currently in a state of recovery. Perhaps, it had mitosis, cell division-type properties. Who knows? Rynold wasn't so keen as to figure it out.

As for the other conclusion, however, Rynold turned to the pool of suspicious brown liquid. Despite the two distinct colors, Rynold couldn't help but think these two were connected.

And, if he were right on the second conclusion, things were about to get weird.

Taking a deep breath, Rynold prepared for the worst. Maxim and Axiom were revolving around him like he had a gravitational pull. With that, he jumped off the rooftop and walked on the ground level.

'It's worse than I thought.'

Each step that he took made the stench worse. As soon as Rynold took a whiff of it, Rynold covered his mouth as he held back the urge to puke. But, soon enough, Rynold made his way to the brown pool of liquid. Albeit with a bit of difficulty.

Now having a much closer look than before, Rynold looked into the pool with a curious eye. The first thing he noticed was something out of the ordinary.

The pool was glowing. No part of a random pool of shit should glow. Ever.

He hadn't noticed it before. From a distance, it wasn't all that obvious, especially not under the sunlight. But, from where Rynold was standing now, the pool was glowing. There was no mistaking it.

Rynold proceeded to analyze the pool, but there wasn't much to see.

Staying for few more seconds, Rynold eventually gave up, mostly because he couldn't handle the stench anymore. It just so happens that there wasn't much to see here, anyway.

With that, Rynold turned to leave. But, when he took his second step out of this place, though, something caught his foot.

Immediately looking down to check, Rynold saw his right leg get tangled up by some brown muck.

For a second, Rynold thought he had finally lost it, that the stench finally managed to make him hallucinate. He only realized soon after when the brown muck suddenly pulled on his leg with great force.

"What the hell!"

Without giving it much thought, Rynold extended his drill to its full length and proceeded to wipe away at the muck. Unfortunately, it was to no effect.

"Fuck off."

With True Caliber in his other hand, Rynold then rapidly fired blue bullets at the muck. However, the Mana bullets just bounced off the thing. It didn't take very long for Rynold to find it annoying.

As the brown liquid-like substance continued to pull on his leg, Rynold turned to the brown pool where the muck originated. And, by some craptastic luck, Rynold didn't want to believe what he was seeing.

"Of course, this thing's fucking alive." Slowly coming to terms with how fucked up all this was, Rynold felt frustrated.

Some shit-like liquid tangled his right leg up. The brown pool of absolute disgust trying to swallow him whole. Rynold didn't know what else to do at this point.

Out of frustration, Rynold turned to the brown muck that had grabbed ahold of his leg. Now was the closest that Rynold's ever looked. And, what he saw shocked him to his very core.

"Is that... bone?"

There was no mistaking it. Rynold knew what bones looked like, and they appeared to be the size of a human one. Turning his head slightly, Rynold then saw so much more fragmented bones and even a human skull.

Terrified of the implications of this, Rynold suddenly felt something wet seeping through his leg. The brown muck had finally broken past his Protecting Light with its corrosion. Then, not long after, he felt a burning pain coming in from his leg.

His senses dulled, and his eyes blurred. The pain seemed to carry a paralytic effect on Rynold. It won't be very long until Rynold losses consciousness.

However, its effects weren't just that.

Rynold felt his heart numb. He couldn't believe that these people died by this thing that was about to consume him as well. Rynold felt something well up within him as his vision started to fade.

It was a strange, eerie feeling of being cold that Rynold had felt before. An emotion that Rynold hadn't felt in quite some time.

Despair.

Tightening his grip on True Caliber, Rynold raised the firearm at the pool. With a darkened expression on his face, Rynold's very will aligned with his emotions at this very moment.

As the Mana imbued with his intent transferred to his firearm, Rynold let out a cold breath. His concentration piqued to the highest it's ever been, blurry eyes focusing on its target. But Rynold's heart has never been so sure.

Bang!

A blue bullet exited from the firearm. This time around, though, the bullet's color was slightly different compared to the previous ones. The shade of blue became ice-like as it zoomed to its target with a cold-like aura.

And, soon enough, the bullet landed on the pool of brown goo.

As it reached its target, Rynold's serious expression slowly faded as the paralysis kicked in. He had successfully fired his last shot. There was no denying that. But, it appeared as though he was a moment too late.

'I guess this is it.'

Perhaps, it was.

The overwhelmingly numbing effect of the toxin entering his system had reached his brain. He was going to pass out and soon be digested alive. It was funny, he thought, as his consciousness started to fade. He never expected that he would go out like this. Getting burnt alive by a brown pool of shit was a sad way to go.

As the effects took over Rynold, he unintentionally took a step forward. His left leg moved on its own as his body reflexively tried to hold itself up.

'This is pointless,' Rynold's fading consciousness thought. He was going to die. What's the point of trying to fight back? However, his bodily actions seemed to convey a different thought.

Regardless, none of that seemed to matter anymore as Rynold toppled down. He fell face-first onto the ground, making his front side dirtier than before.

He didn't care, though. Because, in the next few moments, he would soon blackout. The stinging pain in his leg kept on going, and going, and going.

Until it suddenly stopped.

'Eh?'

Turning his head towards his leg, Rynold could've sworn he saw something glistening. Perhaps, his mind was playing tricks on him as his blurred vision stared at his leg.

But, the longer he stared, the more he was sure that the glistening was real.

Mustering whatever strength he had left, Rynold moved his leg ever so slightly. And, from what he could tell, his leg wasn't trapped by some viscous liquid anymore. It was solid. Rock hard to the point that it needed an external force to break.

Tilting his head further, Rynold then saw the pool where he had shot his final bullet. And, as soon as he saw it, doubt seemed to fill his dulled mind.

That's because the entire thing was frozen solid.

At this very moment, Rynold wasn't in any condition to move. Hell, the paralysis effect from the goo made that impossible. However, he gave his best to do so. Unfortunately, it was to no avail. Rynold was as limp as a dead tree.

'Play this smart,' he thought to himself as he closed his eyes. Concentrating, Rynold willed his Mana to life. It ran through the Mana Channels in his body as he focused on removing the toxins from his body.

It was an attempt. And, a difficult one at that.

However, with his understanding of Mana and its properties, Rynold accomplished what he sought. Not without many difficulties, of course. Still, he managed to succeed. The result of which made him cough up some black-colored ooze.

From what he could only assume to be the toxins, Rynold smiled.

He never expected it to work, not especially since his mind felt foggy. But, sure enough, his Mana played a large part in all of this. Rynold could only be grateful for it at this point.

Struggling to sit up, Rynold decided to take a better look at what happened. He had yet another close brush with death, after all. Taking a look at how he overcame this challenge was the least he could do.

'That's cool. That's just — really cool.'

Partly surprised at what he saw, Rynold's mouth turned to a smile. He had defeated his opponent, sure. But, how he did so was truly impressive. Even he was impressed by his own handiwork.

The pool of brown muck was frozen solid. From a well of viscous and dangerous liquid had turned into frozen brown ice. Self-praise aside, it was still pretty damned cool.

As he sat and stared at the ice, Rynold wondered if he could recreate something like that in the future. He had successfully made a Fire-infused bullet before, so the ice was certainly something new. He had only managed to make an Ice-attributed bullet because of the situation.

Would he need to replicate the same conditions to make another one? Or, would just thinking about it be enough? These were questions that Rynold had to ask himself. Otherwise, the next attempt in making another one would fail.

Anyway, now that he had succeeded, Rynold tried to get out of its grasp. The brown muck still wrapped around his right leg. Fortunately, now that it was solid, Rynold could easily break free. All he had to do was to do it.

'This should be enough,' Rynold thought to himself as he extended his drill to its full glory.

The struggles to move around were still there. It was only natural for lingering effects of the toxin to remain. Rynold's movements were sloppy because of it.

Nonetheless, the drill whirred to life as soon as Rynold made it so. He then pointed the tip to where the ice had formed around his leg and got to work.

In the next few moments, Rynold concentrated on breaking himself free. Moving his drill with great accuracy, Rynold made sure that it wouldn't accidentally strike his leg. And, soon enough, Rynold succeeded.

Letting out a quick breath of air, Rynold felt relieved that this troubling challenge had gone to pass. But then, he suddenly realized something. It was the same something that had made him feel despair.

Now that he was thinking clearly, Rynold forced himself to process the information from the battle. The fact that this pool of shit had swallowed the residents came to mind.