Berserk of Gluttony Vol. 3

by Isshiki Ichika

  The Formless Ravager of the Earth

  Ravager of the Earth

  Omega Slime, Lv 440

  Vitality: 13,360,000

  Strength: 8,760,000

  Magic: 11,983,000

  Spirit: 11,248,000

  Agility: 5,347,000

  Skills: Corrosion (Spell), Vitality Boost (High)

  Well, I could now say for sure that when slimes got this big, they stopped being remotely adorable.

  Because slimes were essentially formless, they could shapeshift at will. When this monster swam through the earth, it had taken a cetacean shape for ease of movement.

  The omega slime’s level was exceptionally high, and on top of that, some of its stats surpassed ten million. Even a holy knight would be forced to play defense against a monster like this. The crowned beast loomed above me, emanating doom.

  The omega slime abruptly became aware of me, and its body expanded in the air.

  “The shield, Fate!” Greed roared. “Use it! Use it now!”

  I transformed the bow into the black shield just as the omega slime loosed a flood of sludgy liquid, which cascaded over the shield to the ground. I’d managed to use the shield as an umbrella, but everywhere that rain fell, the earth disintegrated.

  “Whoa, whoa! What the hell?!”

  Greed had saved my life. Even if my stats were higher than the omega slime’s, I would have had no way to escape a direct hit like that. The rain melted through the ground, dissolving whatever it touched into steaming, hissing goop.

  “It’s a strong acid,” said Greed, “and it took me by surprise. I didn’t think the omega slime would belch that crap out as its very first attack.”

  “You’re supposed to tell me about this stuff before the fighting starts.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to already know that a slime’s body is comprised entirely of acid?”

  “Yeah, but who would have guessed it’d just vomit its guts up on me like that? Ugh, what’s that smell?”

  The air around me filled with the stench of waste, like something rotting. I had to hold back the urge to vomit.

  I wonder if this… I peeked out from behind the shield and used Identify on the omega slime’s Corrosion spell.

  Corrosion (Spell): Adds a corrosive effect to all physical attacks. Anything touched by the spell decays.

  The skill was brutal. When the omega slime had belched up its acid, it had been enhanced by the Corrosion spell. Hence the earth melting into deep pits all around me. That better explained how the slime could “swim” through the ground as well. It used its acid to corrode the earth and rocks in its way.

  A battle at close quarters would be impossible. If I cut the omega slime with the black sword or scythe, any resultant spray of acid could melt right through my bones.

  “What an annoying monster,” I said.

  “Some monsters can’t be beat by sheer stat differential. This is probably a good lesson for you.”

  “You condescending scrap of steel…” I muttered.

  I transformed the black shield back to the black bow and aimed at the falling omega slime. I had to take care of this thing quick.

  “Take ten percent of my stats,” I told Greed. “Let’s end this.”

  “Huh? Didn’t you just say you didn’t want to rely on my secret techniques?”

  I could hear the smile in Greed’s voice. It was very, very annoying. “Just shut up and do it!”

  “All right, all right, you’re in a hurry. I get it. Hold tight while I help myself to those stats…”

  The omega slime rolled in the sky, moving directly above me. Its gigantic form was going to crush me. Acid leaked from it. So, yeah. I was in a hurry.

  Greed sapped the stats from my body. It was a feeling I’d experienced over and over, but I could never get used to it. Power was squeezed out from within me. Greed didn’t care.

  He transformed explosively in my hand. The lithe form of the bow grew ominously larger, spikier. Apocalyptic. This, I had grown used to—Greed’s First Level secret technique. I also knew how powerful the recoil could be. I had to stay focused.

  I shoved the heels of my boots hard into the ground, readying myself, and took aim at the writhing blanket of the omega slime falling above me. As I loaded a black arrow on the powered-up bow, I imbued it with the Fireball spell to ensure that it burned even the last splashes of acid into embers and ash.

  In my half-starved state, I could see the flow of magic within the omega slime’s body. I followed that flow to the center of the monster. All the way to its weak point. I adjusted my aim, and I fired.

  The crimson arrow leapt from my bow with a roar like thunder. It left a trail of embers as it transformed into lightning and passed through the omega slime. The area around me erupted into flame and steam from the evaporating monster. I felt the impact, and yet…

  “Did you get it?” Greed prodded.

  “Quit acting like you don’t know. You’ll feel it as soon as I do.”

  Greed laughed. “Yeah, I know. I just wanted to say it!”

  If I’d defeated the omega slime, that monotonous metallic voice would have told me my stat increase and new skills. However, it remained silent.

  The omega slime was still alive.

  I had to move. I kicked off the ground hard, leaping backward. As I did, a giant ball of translucent blue crashed to the earth where I’d just stood. The land under the slime melted instantaneously into a gaping hole. In the next instant, a blast of melted earth fired out around the monster.

  “Is that even allowed?!” I spat through gritted teeth.

  “Ah, I see. It defended against my secret technique by splitting in two and using half of itself as a shield. Pretty clever for a slime.”

  “And now it’s tunneled into the ground again?”

  “Eh, yeah, but the omega slime only has a single core. Just aim for that, and don’t get fooled when it splits again.”

  “You make it sound so easy…”

  To kill this thing, I either had to get closer when I attacked, or I needed the kind of firepower that would burn through core and clone alike.

  “If I’d known about this beforehand, I would have given you twenty percent of my stats.”

  “Well, that’s what you get for being a cheapskate. You get gun-shy at the strangest times.”

  “Oh, shut up.” Now wasn’t the time for arguing. Where did the omega slime go?

  I traced its magical energy to its location. “I don’t know why, but the slime’s ignoring us,” I told Greed. “It’s moving west.”

  “Hm, that means it’s still headed for the army.”

  I nodded. The slime wasn’t running from me. It chased some other goal. Crowned beasts were more intelligent than most monsters, sure, but…to this extent? It was ignoring the threat that just cut it in half and would now hunt it down? That bothered me. It didn’t feel like the slime was fighting on instinct.

  I sensed something calculating in its actions. Something…human.

  I transformed Greed back into the black sword and sheathed him. Then I leapt into the sky and charged the holy sword tech-art Grand Cross, which I aimed directly at the earth below. Three deadly blue bubbles—clones of the omega slime—popped up from the ground. They dissolved in the holy light of the tech-art.

  “A surprise attack, huh?” Greed said thoughtfully.

  “Yeah. It tried to look like it wasn’t interested, but it had a trap waiting for me. Something about this slime’s cunning doesn’t feel right.”

  “Don’t forget what Eris said. Don’t let your guard down.”

  Greed was right, but I had to hurry. I couldn’t let the omega slime get underneath the kingdom’s army. I headed west, incinerating every remaining blob of slime that tried to block my way with the searing holy light of my Grand Cross.

  Chapter 25:

  Black Bullets of Calamity

  EVEN AFTER I CAUGHT UP to the omega slime, there was the question of how to attack it. There was a deep r
avine in the earth running north, which I had passed on the way from the outer walls of Babylon to get to the slime in the first place. The quickest way to reach Lady Roxy’s army was across that ravine. As I followed its trajectory, I guessed it intended to do just that.

  Thus, it would reveal itself as it jumped. That would be my best chance to attack.

  Unless…

  “What’s wrong?” Greed asked.

  “It’s nothing.” I had to be prepared, even if my gut was right.

  Greed saw right through me, and the black sword laughed. “Fate, your pulse quickened.”

  “Running through the desert like this?” I said. “That’d happen to anyone.”

  “That better be all it is.”

  Greed was always like this. At least he had provided a momentary diversion from my anxieties.

  I reached the ravine and kept my eyes on the omega slime as I picked up my pace and dove over the cliff edge. As I fell, I took Greed from his sheath and transformed him into the black bow.

  “Greed!” I shouted. “Twenty percent!”

  The black bow devoured my stats. It once again morphed in size as it strangled the power from my body. I wasn’t done, though. I wanted insurance. I added the modified tech-art Spiral Charge Shot to the nocked arrow for good measure. It was the first time I had ever tried adding a skill to Greed’s secret technique, but I trusted that he could control it. If the sword wanted to talk a big game, then I’d have him back up his words with big plays in battle.

  “Fate?!” the black sword shouted. “What the hell?!”

  My sudden supplement took him by surprise. I brushed off his yelp. With this addition, it didn’t matter whether the omega slime divided itself to make a shield. Let it try. The piercing power of this arrow would skewer both halves.

  The omega slime’s magical energy grew as it neared the cliff face, its shape just breaking through the rock wall. I waited for it to reveal itself. I had to make the timing count.

  Now!

  The omega slime burst through the melting rock wall like a blue whale breaching. I took aim directly at the crowned beast’s core and poured the entirety of my magical energy into the black bow. Then I fired.

  The whiplash was stronger than ever before, and because my feet had nowhere to stand, it sent me flying downward. But my aim was on point. As long as the arrow kept on course, it would hit. And then…

  “Damn it. Talk about bad timing!” I spat.

  Something fired from above, and it traced a black line between the omega slime and I as we parted. Three small shapes streaked through the air, equally fast. Even in my half-starved state, with my physical abilities magnified, I couldn’t follow their movement. All I saw were black streaks whipping by.

  Then a different shape traced a line of red, blending with the arrow I’d fired at the omega slime. The red shape and my arrow landed simultaneously. Though usually my attack would have opened a gaping hole in both the earth and the omega slime, at this moment, a completely different sight greeted my eyes.

  The core of the omega slime had eaten my attack, but the slime was still alive, complete with a gaping hole through its center.

  Are you for real…?

  Gluttony Skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +13,360,000, Strength +8,760,000, Magic +11,983,000, Spirit +11,248,000, Agility +5,347,000. Skills added: Corrosion (Spell).

  I heard the metallic voice ring through my head, letting me know I’d eaten the soul of the omega slime. So why was the slime’s body still moving in front of me? Having lost its main form, it writhed haphazardly, spraying acid across the ravine.

  I had just consumed more than ten million stats. It had been a long time since I made a meal of such a high-quality soul, and Gluttony went wild with bliss, numbing my brain. It thrust me back into my sated, normal state, but the ride wasn’t over.

  Not that I was in any position to relax in the first place.

  “Fate! It’s dangerous here! Move!”

  “I-I’m on it.”

  Still disoriented, I jumped from wall to wall, climbing the ravine to the surface.

  “Finally, our foe makes their grand entrance,” Greed mused. “From the feel of it, it’s another Weapon of Mortal Sin like me.”

  “Just like Eris said. Are they dangerous?”

  “Unlike anything you’ve ever faced.”

  I was almost back to the surface. Whoever was up there with their Weapon of Mortal Sin still hadn’t attacked me, even though they’d had the perfect opportunity. And not just now. They had another perfect opportunity before, while I was attacking the omega slime. What did they want?

  “Be ready when you get to the surface,” Greed warned.

  “Yeah…”

  I leaped from the ravine back to the wide expanse of wasteland. Immediately, I spotted the man in black standing nearby. He wore a hood, and a skull mask eerily similar to my own covered his face. I had the strange sensation of being unable to recognize the man wearing it.

  “His mask does the same thing mine does. That dirty copycat!”

  The man held a black sword. He stood, unmoving, as he watched me. His sword was a very different shape from Greed. Its blade included a cylinder-like attachment.

  “The weapon he wields,” said Greed, sensing my curiosity, “is Envy. A special weapon type called a gunblade. That cylindrical barrel fires magic bullets, and those bullets have tracing capabilities.”

  “But that means…”

  “Yep. That particular Weapon of Mortal Sin is an all-ranger, capable of both long and short-range combat.”

  Are you serious? I guess that explains why he’s so calm.

  I tried to use Identify to uncover exactly who I was facing, but it didn’t work. I could sense him smiling under his skull mask. He knew how to nullify the skill; whenever I tried to use it, he released a short burst of magical energy, clouding my vision.

  We stood opposite each other, glaring with bated breath as we each waited for the other to attack. The man in black moved first. He slid his gunblade into its sheath, and with an exaggerated sweep of his arm and slightly quirked smile, he placed his hand on his chest and bowed.

  The earth rumbled beneath my feet.

  No way! Is this—?

  It was just what I thought—and more. Three omega slimes burst from the ground and re-formed before me, their cores intact. Not only that, each was engraved with a seal, one I’d seen before. The monsters that so persistently attacked Lady Roxy’s army in Galia had been marked with the same brand.

  Greed grunted in disapproval, having just realized something he didn’t like.

  “That magic bullet he fired into the slime alongside your attack—it brought out the monster’s latent potential. Now it’s capable of dividing itself into parts with unique cores and exactly the same core stats. You killed one, but before you managed that, it had already cloned itself.”

  “That’s not good, is it?”

  “Well, as long as the effects of that magical bullet last, the slime can multiply an unlimited number of times. But, Fate, this is a bad matchup for you. It might even be the worst.”

  On that point, I had to disagree. I was still hungry.

  I focused my energy and unleashed Gluttony’s power once more. Then I readied the black bow and took aim at the man in black as he stood there, silently watching me like I was some kind of amusement.

  I fired my greeting straight at him.

  Chapter 26:

  The Domain of E

  WITHOUT SO MUCH as blinking, the man in black shot my arrow down from the sky with one of his black bullets. Of course it wouldn’t be so easy, but I wasn’t about to stop. I continued my assault so I could get a read on the gunblade’s abilities.

  “Damn it. These slimes are annoying!”

  The omega slimes multiplied rapidly. There were nearly a hundred now. I didn’t want to waste time on them when I could get to their source, but there were so many that I barely had anywhere to stand without threat of acid rain.r />
  “They’re seriously really, really annoying!”

  The monsters entirely blocked my path to the man in black. I could see him through their massive, translucent blue forms. He had yet to move even a single step. He was so relaxed it was almost frightening. He figured I had no escape. But if he thought this fight over before it had even begun, he was in for a surprise.

  This guy’s taking me too lightly.

  The omega slimes were on the attack. They moved in on me as one. I had nowhere to run. They were going to wrap me up and melt me into mush, drowning me in their corrosive acid.

  “Fate!” Greed cried. “You have to fight back! Fate!”

  My vision blurred with blue, but I shoved everything away and moved forward. My sights were set on the man in black, and I tore through the wall of omega slimes to get to him.

  “Phew,” I said. “That was a bit rough. I couldn’t breathe.”

  “Fate…” Greed sputtered, “you’ve…you’ve mastered it already?”

  “As only a Glutton can.”

  The ground I walked upon turned black and melted. Any omega slime that tried to attack me suffered the same fate. All thanks to the spell Corrosion.

  I annihilated the omega slimes with the spell I’d just stolen from their original. It was a numbers game. My magic stats surpassed theirs, so my magic was stronger.

  “These slimes are nothing to me now.”

  The metallic voice rang in my head, informing me of my new stats.

  Gluttony Skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +133,600,000, Strength +87,600,000, Magic +119,830,000, Spirit +112,480,000, Agility +53,470,000.

  Now the real problem. In total, I’d just consumed more than a hundred million stats, courtesy of ten high-quality souls. This would be ten times more of a shock than eating a single omega slime.

  It was bad. The flood of sensation reminded me of eating my first crowned beast, but this…this was much worse. The vision in my right eye flared bright red as Gluttony was unleashed within me. I clenched my teeth as blood dripped from my eye down my cheek. My own blood fell to the earth in crimson teardrops.