novelThe Dead Mire
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Spirit World, the Marsh Wetlands.
Coilfang Cave.
It was a vast body of water in the northwestern corner of the Wetlands.
Some called it a lake and others called it a sea. However, with his experience, Greem could see that this was an inland sea.
Greem glided about forty meters in the sky, riding on a large sporebat. He flew along the river as they wound down the landscape, making his way into the region where the mist was thickest.
"This is the Niga Waterway. It is mainly merlocs and lobstroks that live here. They don't get along well and are almost always at war with each other." The large sporebat was an intelligent Second Grade creature. As such, he was far more respectful towards Greem than the other sporebats were.
Greem looked around curiously when he heard the sporebat's explanations.
A massive waterway, about a hundred meters wide, was flowing beneath him and between the forests of mushrooms.
Several small streams split off from the waterway every few kilometers, forming small ponds and puddles here and there. The village of the merlocs was built above a shallow pool. They were all simple wooden huts of crude, shoddy work.
When the sporebat flew past the merlocs' village, Greem could see their ugly, dark green figures chasing after each other as they garbled in their strange language.
"What sort of merlocs are they? Mirefins, or Inkspewers?" Blue light flickered in Greem's eyes as he quickly recorded the appearance of these merlocs. The Chip then started comparing them to the information in the database.
The Chip's data revealed that there was a 67% chance they were Mirefins, 25% they were Inkspewers, and a 7% chance they were Tidecallers. The chance that they were any other type of merloc was lower than 1% and was not displayed.
"They are Mirefin merlocs!" The sporebat turned its head and replied as it weaved between several tall mushrooms, "You adepts are truly knowledgeable and powerful individuals. To think you would even know of beings as weak as Mirefin merlocs."
Greem didn't mind the sporebat's reverence. He simply looked into the distance, observing the looming figures standing upon some small isles in the middle of the waterway.
These creatures were like magnified lobsters. They walked upright like humans, walking around with the four limbs extending from their flat abdomens and intimidating their enemies with their two strong claws.
Compared to the merlocs, the lobstroks were larger, more muscular, and more ferocious. A thick shell protected their bodies, and a layer of moss grew on their shells. The crude spears and blades of the merlocs could not break their shells and even simply slipped past the moss, making it very difficult for the merlocs to inflict any serious damage.
It was no wonder the lobstroks had taken up the best hunting positions in the center of the waterway, while the merlocs had been chased away to a relatively remote corner.
The food of the merlocs and lobstroks were the various fish that swam in the waterway.
The merlocs were chasing after the sporebat, garbling as they hurled their javelins into the air, only for the projectiles to fall limply back to the ground, impaling several of their own kind instead.
"They seem to be hostile towards you?" Greem asked.
"My people will sometimes come over and eat a few merlocs when they get bored with mushrooms. That's why we aren't on good terms with the merlocs!" The sporebat gave a simple explanation.
He couldn't help but smile when he recalled the fresh taste of merloc flesh.
"Does the Sage not restrict such acts of 'killing'?"
"Killing? No, no, no. This isn't killing; it's hunting. The merlocs are far too good at reproducing. Without someone to limit their population, they would be able to stuff every inch of the Marsh Wetlands with their green forms. They have no restraint. Thus, we eat the merlocs, the merlocs eat the aquatic creatures, and the aquatic creatures eat the mud. These are the rights bestowed us by the planar laws. Even the revered Sages cannot take these rights away from us!"
Greem couldn't help but nod when he heard the sporebat's reply.
Many of the Second Grade creatures in the World of Adepts were still stuck in a primal, instinctual state of intelligence. Yet, an ordinary Second Grade sporebat of the Spirit World already had such a deep understanding of its world.
It was not just intelligence. It was experience and knowledge only gained after living in the world.
"Sit tight, Lord Adept, we are about to pass through the Dead Mire right now. The creatures there haven't exactly been friendly recently, " As the sporebat warned loudly, it started to fly even faster, diving past several hills and arriving above a strange land.
Greem, who had been sitting silently on the back of the sporebat, abruptly stood up. His sharp eyes looked at the earth before him in shock and surprise.
This place might have been a vast and beautiful lake not too long ago.
However, with the passage of time, the water here had flowed elsewhere due to some unknown reason. The black and slimy bed of the lake was exposed, and the place turned into the terrifying and pungent Dead Mire.
Due to the changes in the environment, the swamp creatures that had lost their homes went berserk. They started to fight for what puddles remained in the area. For the sake of this last bit of water supply, all the swamp creatures descended into a frenzied battle.
Even from afar, Greem could see countless pieces of shells and torn limbs on the black mud. Anyone who could survive such a bloody and cruel battle had to be terrifying individuals. Most of them were Swamp Giants, Fungus Giants, and Hydras.
However, even the victors of this war could not find enough water to nourish their bodies. They dragged their nearly withered bodies across the several kilometers of the Dead Mire, searching for what puddles remained.
The Dead Mire. Truly a mire of death!
"Wait up here for me. I will go collect some samples!" Greem instructed the sporebat and leaped out of the sky.
Forty meters was nothing to Greem. He did not even cast Feather Fall on himself; he simply crashed into the mud like a meteor.
Dong! A muffled boom rang out.
Mud splashed everywhere, and a wave of fire rolled outwards.
The flaming tongues evaporated the mud in the air before it could land.
Greem squatted slightly and negated most of the impact from the fall.
An ordinary person's organs would have been badly damaged even if they had not died from such a fall. Greem's thirty-two points of Physique did its work here. A potentially lethal force had only made his body stall slightly. It did not leave a single injury.
He slowly stood up straight and walked out of the crater, now made of dry earth rather than mud.
His arrival was loud and shocking. Naturally, it drew the attention of several shambling figures nearby.
A withered Swamp Giant close to him immediately roared and charged when it saw Greem's blazing body.
To think a Second Grade Swamp Giant would dare to charge at a Fourth Grade adept. Judging by its suicidal actions, the blight had not only affected its body, but its mind as well.
Greem snorted. He leaned against the staff in his left hand and extended his right palm at the enemy. A barrage of fireballs shot at it.
Greem was only two meters tall, while the withered Swamp Giant stood at around seven meters tall. However, the Swamp Giant could not take a single step further before it was drowned by fire magic. It was slowly blasted backward by the fireball, and its body started to turn dry and crumble.
A Swamp Giant's towering body contained a tremendous and resilient life force. Even if one-third of their body had been removed, they could regenerate with the sheer amount of life force they possessed. It was this resilience that allowed the infected Swamp Giants to survive all these years of drought.
However, it didn't matter how strong their life force was. The Swamp Giant was facing a terrifying fire adept. Nothing could save it now!
With just five seconds and seven fireballs, Greem had blasted the Swamp Giant to pieces, reducing its body into bloodstains on the ground.
Sparks dissipated from the broken body of the Swamp Giant and slowly merged into the mist. Greem frowned and grabbed with his hand, picking out a cluster of faint black smoke from the air.
Greem's fire gathered into a fireball and sealed the black smoke within.
Some black smoke in a hurry to escape crashed against the fire and was turned to dust in an instant. The rest of the smoke seemed to know the terror of the flames now. It didn't dare approach the fire and instead wandered aimlessly inside the fireball.
Aren't the planar laws of the Spirit World a little too powerful? Even smoke has intelligence?
Greem smiled coldly and gathered power in his eyes. Blue light flickered as he quickly identified the nature of the black smoke.
[Beep. Detecting fatal virus. Warning. Said virus has terrifying infectiousness and lethality. It can cause an infection of the third degree to host. suggesting host tactivate Ring of Fire and prevent all possibility of infection. ]
As expected.
Greem had felt the sight of the smoke was familiar the moment he saw it.
As expected, the Chip's scans confirmed his suspicions.
The 'blight' was simply the infection of a strange virus.
The means by which the virus spread and infected its victims resembled Remi's techniques.
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