The Exiled First-born of the Noble House. Rising to the Top With the Worthless Skill [Null Poison] - Chapter 227

Giant Centipede

[Crimson Eyes][Perception Enhancement][ Perception Range Enhancement][Life Presence Sense] were already active and then I also activated, [Flesh Enhancement][War Dance][Physical ability boost][Ability Unleashed] on top of those.

While almost enjoying the sensation of feeling my stamina getting consumed steadily, I scoped out the Centipede’s movements.

I refused to attack first, and waited for the Centipede to make the first move.

Since just staring each other down was not something I enjoyed, I continued to slowly move backwards to retreat and if the Centipede didn’t attack, I would happily run away but…….

My hopes were dashed pretty quickly as the Centipede left the eggs on the ground and charged at me.

It’s movements seemed a bit slower than a Venom Python’s for comparison’s sake, but that was only for their top speed. When it came to normal movements, this Centipede was much more agile.

That said, it didn’t matter much and as long as the centipede wasn’t smart enough to switch its tempo to catch me off guard, I could quite easily deal with attacks of this speed consistently.

I let it come close to me until it was in range, dodged its biting attack and then lunged with my sword to cut at its neck area.

My timing for activating [Gale] was perfect. As was the downward slash of my sword but——-I didn’t get a clean feedback.

The only thing my sword cut was one of the feeler-like thing that grew on its head.

I had made a perfect counter with my skill but, since the giant centipede had legs across its entire body, it managed to move just at the very last moment to dodge my attack.

It was a pretty narrow cave, so if I pursued it I could potentially seriously wound it but, like with Venom Pythons, if it managed to coil around me, it’ll be all over.

Until I can see through all of its movements, I’ll avoid chasing it too far.

Reminding myself that impatience and panic are the worst things to have during a fight, I once again created a bit of distance between myself and the centipede.

I was still always looking for the escape route just in case, while I continued to also focus on the giant centipede but…….

The monster suddenly turned its back on me and made a move I was never expecting.

Incredibly enough, it began to eat all the eggs it was so desperately protecting until now.

This action caught me so off guard that I ended up freezing on the spot from shock.

Even though it was attacking me to protect the eggs, to now eat those very eggs seemed like a contradiction to its previous actions.

Of course I could never truly understand how a giant centipede would think but, did it perhaps sense that it couldn’t win against me and so would rather eat its own eggs than let someone else misuse them?

……….no, its current appearance as it devoured on its own eggs with the help of its many legs didn’t exactly seem like a mother trying to protect its children.

Being made witness to one of nature’s great oddities I felt a bit sad watching this but, this was also a chance for me to attack, while it was eating.

Judging from how it was still looking straight at me even as it continued to devour its eggs, it’s pretty clear it has no intention of letting me run away from here anymore.

It seems it will be a battle to the death after all.

I gave up on escaping, and activated [Stealth] and [Silent Steps] to completely suppress my presence and then activated [Gale] to instantly launch an attack at the giant centipede.

My aim was——-the right side of where I had already chopped off a feeler.

I’m sure my smell would still give my location away somewhat but, without the use its feeler, it won’t be able to accurately pin my location either.

I came closer to the centipede, and then swung my sword down once again.

Since the centipede was on full alert now, it’s reaction speed was high so, while I was able to chop off a bunch of its many legs, my strike didn’t reach its main body.

The giant centipede opened its sharp mouth, covered with its egg fluid, horizontally wide and immediately counterattacked to bite and devour me.

Against an enemy like this centipede that can easily crawl on the walls as well, a fight inside a narrow cave like this is pretty disadvantageous for me.

Which means rather than constantly have a to and fro, it actually might be better if I just rushed at it head on.

I blocked the Centipede’s bite with my sword, and then drove a kick into its main body.

It felt like I had just kicked at armour made of iron, but I still did clearly feel my leg sink into its body.

The centipede didn’t plan on letting my attacks go unanswered as it sent out its feelers to try and grab my legs but, I used [Skin Strengthen] to protect myself and then used [Leg strength Enhancement] to shake them off forcibly.

From there, it began moving around me trying to not let me fall back again, and tried to constrict me but I used that exact timing as my chance and thrust my sword into one of the joints in its big body to deal some damage.

Blue liquid spurt out from the wound I gave, and I had chopped off a third of its legs at this point, so I could see that the giant centipede’s movements were beginning to dull.

I have had to block against multiple bite attacks as well, but thanks to [Skin Strengthen], I had only taken a few scratches in terms of damage, and whatever poison this centipede may have had would never work on me anyway.

If anything, my body felt a bit lighter more than anything………Perhaps, this giant centipede’s poison also has ability boosting properties like the Venom Python.

Even though I originally had no intention of even attacking it, it was this centipede that decided to launch an attack at me.

I felt a bit bad, but I need it to die already.

I began walking closer to the heavily wounded centipede again, and after dodging its one last ditch effort to bite me once again——-this time finally, I chopped its head off.

Its head flew in air for a while before it crashed back into the ground, and its remaining body was still squirming and crashing about in pain.

But, without the proper brain, the body was not getting any proper orders and it just continued to wriggle about without actually taking any action.

After a while, slowly the centipede’s headless body’s movements dulled and finally fully died.

After re-confirming its death again, I deactivated all of my skills.

On top of the battle being in a narrow cave, this centipede’s body was also as hard as iron.

Perhaps because of its eerie actions, I took heavy precautions and had ended up using all sorts of skills which also meant that my stamina consumption was harsh.

I took a seat near the dead centipede’s corpse, and rested my body as I thought of what to do about my base.

Inside the cave, due to the intense battle with the Centipede, there was all sorts of feelers, legs and monster fluids spread all over the place. And then there were also the remaining eggs that the Centipede had failed to eat.

As I observed the place while I rested, I noticed that this cave was very moist and there was moss growing all over the place.

While it’d keep me safe from the wind and rain, to get this base to be suitable for living will take a lot of work.

Considering it had eggs, this Centipede was probably a female, and there is even a chance that its male partner might return later.

Thinking calmly, I knew that this cave wasn’t fit to be my base and I should probably leave to search for a better place but……..

If I do that, this entire fight would turn out to be for absolutely nothing.

If there was a way to gain something out of this fight, it was to take this Centipede to the Ongneer but, I don’t think Ongneer would take root properly in this weird Centipede, and even if it could, it would definitely struggle to sprout out of its hard shell body.

I put my hand on my chin and pondered for a while as to what to do but, I guess I have to just turn this place into my base after all.

And if the male partner returned, I guess I might as well try and use it for Ongneer as well.

With that decided, I began cleaning up the cave.

After wrapping the corpse of the giant centipede around the remaining eggs, I throw both of them out together.

Once that was done, now it was time for me to show the results of my training.

I had already succeeded in using [Anti Magic] against Mielle but, I had yet to get practical use out of [Fire Ball] since my time in [Magic Cave].

Or rather, since I had mostly focused on mastering [Anti Magic], I haven’t even practiced using [Fire Ball] since like the first day.

I was unsure if I would be able to even activate it properly, even though it was obviously much easier to do than Anti Magic.

I released mana from inside me, locked it within my body and then covered myself in it.

And then, I concentrated it within my palm and—-

“[Fire Ball]”

I spoke of the name of the magic, and a spherical ball of fire appeared from my hand.

I released it straight towards the Centipede’s body, and it burnt up and exploded in a pillar of flames.

I could feel my mana being shaved off from the use of magic, and judging from the destructive force of the magic, I realized I had failed in properly tuning the power of the spell but………

It did do the job and completely set the body and eggs on fire, and by the time the flames dissipated, there were no signs of either the corpse or the eggs anymore.

It was a lot of work to learn it but, once again, I was glad that I had learnt magic after all.

I couldn’t even imagine how much work it would have been to dig a hole and bury these things now.

Feeling satisfied from my [Fire Ball], I returned back into the cave and continued working on my new base.