Chapter 302: Taking Shelter, Swallowed

Chapter 302: Chapter 302: Taking Shelter, Swallowed

The acid rain began.

The two of them quickly retreated to the deepest part of the rock face’s recess.

Almost simultaneously, the rain outside suddenly intensified.

It went from a light drizzle to a torrential downpour in an instant!

The acrid-smelling rainwater poured down.

It slammed against the ground and rocks, making a SIZZLING sound of corrosion, and wisps of white smoke rose the next second.

The air quickly filled with a thick, suffocating smell, a mixture of sulfur and chemicals.

Simon Holt’s face was pale as he watched the world outside the recess become a blurry, dangerous place shrouded in acid rain.

His voice trembled. "What... what do we do?! We’re trapped here!"

Seraphina Sullivan gazed grimly at the sudden, torrential acid rain outside the rock wall.

Doubts filled her mind.

’This rain is too strange. How can the weather change so drastically? Has the ecosystem of this instance really deteriorated to this extent?’

’It wasn’t this volatile the past few days.’

Hearing this, as if struck by a terrifying possibility, Simon Holt’s voice continued to tremble. "N-No way, right? Boss Sullivan, you don’t think... this acid rain could have been caused by a monster, do you?"

Seraphina Sullivan turned to look at Simon Holt.

Simon Holt froze under her gaze.

"It couldn’t be...?" He swallowed hard, his face growing even paler.

"Nothing is impossible."

Seraphina Sullivan’s voice sent a chill straight to Simon Holt’s heart.

"Don’t forget, that aberrant toad that nearly killed you before could spray highly corrosive acid. If a single creature can do that, then it’s not so far-fetched to think that a more powerful creature, or a group of them, could influence the local weather and cause acid rain."

Simon Holt’s body began to tremble uncontrollably.

The painful memory of being corroded by the toad’s acid flooded his mind, making him even more terrified of this downpour.

"If... if it really was caused by some creature... how powerful would that creature have to be?! Can we really handle it?"

Seraphina Sullivan didn’t answer, instead focusing her attention once more on the holographic map in her mind.

Her gaze locked onto the marker for the radiation source that was closest to them and had the largest blip.

A hypothesis began to form.

’Perhaps this unusual acid rain is a phenomenon caused by that powerful radiation source directly affecting the environment, or maybe it was triggered by its guardian.’

Just as Seraphina Sullivan was lost in thought, Simon Holt, who had been staring intently at the curtain of rain, suddenly let out a suppressed gasp, his trembling finger pointing diagonally ahead:

"B-Boss Sullivan! Look over there! In the rain... something’s moving!"

Seraphina Sullivan immediately looked in the direction he was pointing.

Through the torrential, grayish-yellow curtain of rain, she could vaguely see some blurry black figures in the distance, darting through the acid rain at incredible speed. They moved with agility, seemingly completely unaffected!

"They... They’re not afraid of the acid rain?!" Simon Holt’s voice was filled with disbelief.

In an environment where even the rocks were smoking from corrosion, what kind of creature could move so freely?

Seraphina Sullivan immediately activated her [Analysis Glasses].

She adjusted the focus, piercing through the obstruction of the rain to lock onto the moving black shadows.

As her vision zoomed in and cleared, she finally got a good look at the creatures.

They were enormous lizards, their entire bodies covered in thick, black, keratinous scales!

Their limbs were thick and powerful, and they crawled and leaped between the streams formed by the acid rain and over the slick rocks as if on solid ground.

And they were extremely fast.

A scan with the Eye of Resume.

[Name: Aberrant Poison Lizard]

[Gender: Male]

[Professional Skills:

Poisonous Tongue Piercing: Can instantly shoot out a ten-meter-long tongue covered in barbs and containing a neurotoxin to accurately capture prey.

Rough Stone Skin: The stratum corneum of the skin has undergone extreme thickening and mutation, forming a hard, rock-like texture with significant physical defense and good resistance to corrosion and water.]

[Weaknesses: Eyes, relatively soft abdomen]

The information was clear at a glance.

Seraphina Sullivan instantly understood why.

"These lizards aren’t immune to the acid rain. It’s their ’Rough Stone Skin’ Talent that provides extremely strong anti-corrosion and waterproof abilities, allowing them to move about in it."

However, this discovery didn’t relax Seraphina Sullivan; instead, her heart grew heavier.

These Aberrant Poison Lizards were clearly local predators adapted to this extreme environment.

Their appearance meant that even amid the acid rain, they weren’t in a safe place. On the contrary, it might conceal even deadlier dangers.

’Near that largest radiation source, there are probably even more, even more terrifying creatures of this kind.’

Simon Holt tightly gripped the [Continuous Bone-breaking Hammer] in his hands.

His knuckles turned white from the force of his grip, as if the hammer could offer him a sliver of security.

He looked at the still-torrential acid rain outside and asked in a hoarse voice, "B-Boss Sullivan, can we only wait here for the acid rain to pass?"

Seraphina Sullivan was about to reply, ’What else? You want to run out into the acid rain and race those poison lizards?’

But the words never left her mouth.

Suddenly!

With a loud BANG!

The light in front of them vanished in an instant.

They were plunged into absolute darkness!

Even the SPLASHING sound of the acid rain hitting the rocks outside became muffled and distant, as if through a thick wall.

Simon Holt was completely bewildered by this sudden turn of events.

He subconsciously looked up, though he couldn’t see a thing.

Simon Holt asked in confusion, "What happened? How did the sky... go completely dark all of a sudden? Are the clouds that thick?"

Seraphina Sullivan: "..."

’Alarm bells were screaming in her head!’

’This wasn’t just the sky turning dark!’

’It was more like... they had been completely swallowed by something!’

’The "rock recess" they were using to shelter from the acid rain probably wasn’t a rock at all, but a disguised living creature.’

As if to confirm her suspicion.

A dull vibration, like massive stones grinding together, started to emanate from their surroundings.

And Seraphina Sullivan could clearly feel a sense of movement and descent beneath her feet.

No matter how slow he was, Simon Holt now completely understood what had happened.

He swallowed, his voice trembling uncontrollably as he fumbled around frantically in the darkness. "B-Boss! What do we do now?! Did we just get... get eaten by something?!"

In contrast to his panic, Seraphina Sullivan seemed unusually calm, even having the presence of mind to make an ill-timed joke. "Hm, we’ll see. If we really get swallowed into a stomach full of digestive juices, I guess you’re just unlucky?"

Simon Holt: "???"

’Why am I the unlucky one?!’

’Shouldn’t we *both* be unlucky?!’

Of course, it’s because Seraphina can hide in her own Space at any time, you idiot!

Of course, Seraphina Sullivan wasn’t about to reveal this trump card.

In the absolute darkness, Seraphina Sullivan calmly activated her [Eye of Resume].

She scanned the hard, yet squirming "wall" around them.