Chapter 103: Inside The Serpent
Chapter 103: Inside The Serpent
Pitch blackness... That was all Uhtred could see as he felt himself sliding rapidly down the slippery, mucus-coated throat of the giant serpent.
The fluid was highly corrosive, hissing violently the moment it touched his skin and leaving sharp, biting burns on the exposed parts of his hands that were not fully protected by his black tactical gear.
He ground his teeth against the stinging burn, but his fingers remained locked around the handle of his star-metal battleaxe in a tight grip, ensuring he didn’t lose his only weapon in the descent.
A moment later, the steep incline of the throat vanished, and he dropped heavily into a deep sea of sloshing, bubbling liquid.
A loud splash resounded as a wave of corrosive fluid covered his entire body, the intensity of the burning sensation multiplying across his open skin.
He had finally reached the stomach of the Wonambi Dune Strider Serpent.
While it was not as slimy and claustrophobic as the oesophagus of the snake, it was even worse in a different way.
The air inside here was hot and stifling, filled with noxious gases that made his eyes water instantly. The thick stomach acid sizzled against the gaps in his clothing and against his exposed hands, his flesh reddening as the serpent’s digestive system immediately attempted to dissolve him like a meal.
Uhtred didn’t panic, though. He reached into his spatial storage with his left hand and retrieved a small, basic luminescent orb artifact he had purchased from the multiversal store long before.
The device activated, releasing a pale white light across the interior of the large stomach.
Uhtred blinked, squinting at the contents he could see within. A disgusting lake of dark, bubbling digestive juices surrounded him — chunks of flesh and gory organic substances in various stages of digestion filled the stomach of the serpent.
The grim sight made Uhtred even more thankful for the durability of his Level 23 body. The environment had already begun eating at him, but the rate of degradation was still too slow to pose an immediate threat to his life.
Even so, he couldn’t help but briefly question whether jumping into the stomach of a Level 23 beast had actually been a good idea.
But as quickly as the doubt crossed his mind, he pushed it away immediately.
He had come here for a singular purpose. He needed to understand exactly why this massive serpent did not leak a single trace of cosmic essence into the barren outside world despite holding multiple dense congregations of essence within its cores.
The giant snake was essentially a self-contained, perfect essence battery. Understanding the mechanic behind how it was able to achieve this was vital if Uhtred wanted to survive the current "Age of Hunger" trial, not just for himself alone but for his crew, and also humanity as a whole.
For the moment, though, his immediate priority was to find a spot to haul himself out of the corrosive stomach acid. His skin was incredibly tough, but given enough time, the continuous chemical reactions would eventually dissolve his muscle tissue to the bone.
Uhtred began to swim, clenching his lips tightly shut so as not to let the disgusting stomach juices seep into his mouth.
As he waded through the disgusting liquid, mangled pieces of prehistoric wilderness beasts and half-dissolved carcasses were scattered everywhere, proving that Bradley and his teammates were far from the first victims of the Dune Strider.
Assuming Uhtred didn’t possess the mental fortitude he had forged over the past two weeks, the nauseating stench of the gas paired with the gory sight of floating flesh would have made him vomit on the spot.
Not far from his position, he even spotted what looked like a human leg floating on the surface of the acid pool.
Don’t tell me that’s what’s left of Bradley...
Uhtred recognized the familiar limb and tore his gaze away, his eyes firming with stoic coldness. He focused on his own survival as his eyes locked on to a floating black carapace not too far from his position.
He headed toward it immediately, wading through the disgusting stomach acid as it continued to bite against his open skin.
Uhtred could have easily used his cosmic essence to enhance his durability beyond what his body naturally provided, but he had the Clamp technique active. He needed to stem every leakage and micromanage his reserves as much as possible if he wanted to make it out of here alive.
Finally, he reached the edge of the floating black carapace and hefted his weight upward, his wet boots scrambling onto the rigid surface.
The slick shell tilted violently under his sudden weight, threatening to throw him right back into the stomach acid lake, but he quickly shifted his center of gravity, finding a stable indentation near the center where he could sit cross-legged.
"Bloody hell..." Uhtred breathed out heavily, thankful that he was finally safe... at least for the meantime.
He observed the surface of the carapace he was currently sitting on more carefully. The edges were visibly sizzling as the acid slowly ate into the organic armor, but the rate of dissolution was incredibly slow compared to everything else floating in the pool.
The shell clearly belonged to some high-level, defensively optimized beast that the serpent had swallowed before coming to attack him and his team.
It seems there are several types of powerful beasts roaming these trial grounds...
Uhtred let out an exasperated sigh. "Who am I kidding? It’s fucking Australia... of course there are going to be many more abominations like this one..."
Uhtred had barely even finished his lampoon when the entire stomach churned violently to the side, causing the lake of acid to slosh wildly against the flesh walls.
The carapace capsized, throwing Uhtred straight back into the stinging liquid. The giant snake was clearly engaged with something on the outside, causing the contents of its stomach to tumble violently.
The commotion dragged on for more than a minute, the environment pitching back and forth as Uhtred held onto the rough edges of the carapace with all his physical strength, refusing to let the current drag him into the deeper channels of the digestive tract.
By the time the commotion finally stopped, Uhtred hauled his stinging body out of the acid and crawled back onto the center of the shell, gasping heavily for breath.
Fuck me! I really outdid myself with this one! Uhtred lamented internally.
His entire body was stinging so severely from the prolonged exposure that he realized he couldn’t keep the Clamp active any longer. This went beyond something his body could naturally heal in a short time on its own without cosmic essence.
All of this shit better pay off in the end!
Gritting his teeth, Uhtred released the clamp technique and allowed cosmic essence to flow through his body, aiding in a more rapid healing of the stinging burns across his skin.
He readied himself for the familiar feeling of essence leaking out of his core...
But to his utmost surprise, nothing happened.
Not a single drop of his cosmic essence leaked out of his body.
Uhtred froze, completely stunned by the total lack of resistance. For several long seconds, he simply remained in a kneeling position on the wet shell, his hands resting on the handle of his star-metal battleaxe as he tried to understand what was happening.
From the onset, the moment Uthred had shattered the serpent’s tooth to clear the path for his descent into its stomach, he had immediately locked down his core with the Clamp technique, fully expecting that he would have to micro-manage his cosmic essence to survive.
But with this new development, it would seem the essence leakage outside was completely non-existent inside the belly of this beast!
As Uhtred urged his cosmic essence to aid in his healing, he quickly spread out his perception, shifting his focus to the internal workings of the beast.
Within a few moments of careful observation, the reality became clear. This beast wasn’t just good at trapping its cosmic essence within the boundaries of its core. Rather, it went beyond that. The serpent’s skin and muscular layers themselves also seemed to be part of the whole system!
Uhtred immediately raised the orb of light in his left hand high, trying to observe the upper linings of the beast’s interior, where he could sense the congregation of essence of its five cores from.
However, he found nothing like a protrusion or a core of any sort. He could feel the cosmic energy radiations coming from directly above him, but his eyes could spot no essence core whatsoever.
Uhtred frowned immediately, but he wasn’t particularly surprised.
Thinking back to his fight with the Epicyon Wolves right after Earth had just been integrated, he remembered that he had tried to fish out an essence core from one of the wolves with his bare hands while it was alive, but he had found nothing.
It wasn’t until he had killed all of them that he was able to harvest their cores.
Since that time, Uhtred had already developed a theory: essence cores did not possess a permanent, physical manifestation inside a living body until the host was dead.
During life, the core existed in some sort of weird metaphysical state, only crystallizing into a tangible core upon death.
Looking at the interior of the Dune Strider Serpent, where he could clearly feel cosmic essence emanating from above, but could see nothing with his eyes. He became even more confident that his theory was correct, though he couldn’t entirely be sure.
He lowered the orb, tearing his gaze away from the ceiling, and let out a slow, controlled breath to ground his focus.
It was time to organize his approach...