Chapter 280: Crest to Trough

It was dark all around, the air still, suffused with a mild chill. A hollow cone extended to the top, blanketed by a hemispherical dome. The walls were made of sand, slightly hardened with saliva.

It was hardened to the extent capable of maintaining its structural rigidity against the natural phenomenon. The moment anything artificial affected it, the ceiling would collapse, bringing down the cause into it.

Prowling at the bottom, with its body covered by a thin layer of sand was a Crust-Mantle. It was larger than the others, its presence grand. When the ceiling collapsed, it was just about to lunge at its prey when it noticed its brethren falling.

It swiftly climbed up, going above its brethren while inspecting its condition. On seeing that it was perfectly fine, the Crust-Mantle was confused for a moment before deciding to see things for itself. Moreover, unlike the others, it was a Tier 2 being, top of the food chain on the layer it resided.

Every day, it resisted a certain feeling that prompted it to proceed down. It would go down and return the moment the feeling subsided. After all, the layers below were incredibly dangerous for it. But here, it was at the peak.

The Crust-Mantle climbed out and immediately unleashed its aura, preventing any Frenzy Beast from attacking it. It looked around, failing to find any Frenzy Beast in its vicinity. Its brethren lay at the bottom, heaving ragged breaths, looking tired.

The Crust-Mantle was confused, unable to glean the reason as to why it was like that. It activated its Tier 1 Skill, failing to find any abnormal sound that hinted at the presence of a third party.

But suddenly, its instincts warned it, causing it to clamp its mandibles while making a turn. Though, the moment it did was when its body froze in fear, its form hurriedly kneeling on the ground. It even buried its face partway into the sand, expressing utmost subservience.

Its body trembled, the exoskeleton rattling, producing a sound akin to seashells crashing into each other. As time passed, it lifted its trembling head, noticing an image that almost sent it into unconsciousness.

It was a grass stalk, the stem bigger than its body, its form reaching the ceiling. Its front part drooped low, almost approaching half its height while a part of the step touched the ceiling. Hanging on the tip was a flower bud, resembling a hibiscus.

The flower bud was facing a different direction. Only now did the Crust-Mantle notice another of its brethren present in the flower bud's line of sight. It was similarly kneeling, burrowing most of its body into the sand as a sign of respect and devotion, but mostly in fear.

Slowly, the flower bud turned its way, gentle in its approach. The Crust-Mantle immediately tensed up in response. The moment the tip of the flower bud trembled, its body shivered with greater intensities.

Suddenly, it made eye contact with the tip, shuddering in fear. From within the tip emerged a vine, sporting leaves at discrete locations. The vine curved in the air, making its way towards the Crust-Mantle.

The Crust-Mantle felt something pierce its head, its fear surpassing its zenith. Its instincts warned it to escape but its reason prevented it from doing so. It remembered the deepest memory it could recall, something vividly etched in its mind, unable to be forgotten despite everything it tried.

Even with its lacking intelligence, it knew not to defy the vine. The moment it did so would a disaster ensue. It was something it knew, came across, and even witnessed. Therefore, it gazed in silence as the vine drilled into its head.

A couple of moments later, its consciousness blacked out. Pulling out a spindle from its head, Jyorta looked at the dead Crust-Mantle before it. Based on his experience, he triggered its deepest memories using the aura personification of hallucination.

Moreover, he used the memory he had obtained from the first Crust-Mantle he had encountered, using that as a base to null its foe's resistance. Finally, when it died, and its soul started to collapse, he easily invaded it and obtained all its memory fragments.

Of them, he only took in the memory fragments that had been stirred up due to the scene the Crust-Mantle had witnessed. Now he knew for sure that the memory fragments he selected were related to that incident.

'Using that incident, I can easily kill the Crust-Mantles. It is almost too easy; the psychic energy I expended now is less than what I had used against the Tier 1 Floating Spider earlier. Moreover, this is a Tier 2 Crust-Mantle.' Jyorta used his spindle to drill at a certain location under one of the Crust-Mantle's hinge joints.

There, the muscles paved way as his spindle penetrated, soon reaching the heart. After a couple of seconds of drilling, he retracted the spindle and fished out a Heart Crystal. Through the aura the Crust-Mantle had emitted when it surfaced, Jyorta grasped its Sync Rate.

He looked at the Heart Crystal floating before him, "This is worth around 63 Credits."

Using his psychic arm, he dropped the Heart Crystal in his pouch, hearing a clanging sound. The sound brought a smile to his face. He had hunted four Tier 2 Crust-Mantles by now, using the same method.

Moreover, he had unearthed a lot of memory fragments from them, storing them all in various soul husks. Thankfully, he had enough, thanks to his accumulations over the past two weeks. During his training—at the path's entrance, under Madam Mila's guidance—before he attempted his first exploration, whenever he killed a Frenzy Beast, he took in their souls.

He used some of them to strengthen his false personas while the rest were made into sacks to store murkiness. Now, it proved its worth as the blue soul dumped lots of murkiness filled with memory fragments into each of them, sealing and storing them when they were full.

'When I comprehend them all, I should be able to make a definite picture.' He thought, subtly changing his aura personification. A moment later, the Crust-Mantle from before climbed up. It was only Tier 1, unable to resist his aura personification.

Jyorta climbed over its back while making it move forward. Not once did he turn visible, maintaining a high level of vigilance.

Suddenly, a Frenzy Beast rushed out of a sand mound, approaching the Crust-Mantle with ferocity. Jyorta jumped aside, watching the Frenzy Beast collide into the Crust-Mantle, pushing its massive body by two metres through sheer force.

Just the impact alone made part of its exoskeleton cave in. Jyorta quickly retracted his aura personification, watching the Crust-Mantle retaliate against the Frenzy Beast. The two tussled, biting and tearing off into each other.

"So, it is a One-Horned Rhino," Jyorta murmured, watching the One-Horned Rhino get overwhelmed by the Crust-Mantle in a matter of seconds. In close combat, the Crust-Mantle was a frightening foe, thanks to its robust defence and its mandibles capable of shredding through its prey.

The One-Horned Rhino's horn pierced through the Crust-Mantle's armour many times, drawing out blood from each attack. But considering its massive size, the injuries weren't severe. Moreover, all the One-Horned Rhino's attacks missed the vital spots.

Eventually, the Crust-Mantle tore off the One-Horned Rhino's head, beginning to feast on it with vicious anger. It then watched something serpentine drill out from the One-Horned Rhino's back, clamping with its mandibles once to sever it into two.

The serpentine being possessed abundant vitality, looking alive despite being severed into two. It was the One-Horned Rhino's Frenzy Parasite. The Crust-Mantle clamped a couple more times, shredding it apart until it could no longer move.

Jyorta looked at it with focus, comparing its similarities and differences with a Wisdom Parasite. "Their behaviour is a bit different. I still need to see more to conclude anything."

The Crust-Mantle chewed the entirety of the One-Horned Rhino, bones included, swallowing everything. Just when Jyorta planned to board it again, numerous Steel Porcupines burrowed out from the ground.

They had appeared before the Crust-Mantle, the distance between them beyond what his senses could reach, hence unable to sense their approach in advance. Moreover, unwilling to waste his aura, he had solely been maintaining his aura personification. Otherwise, he would have been able to sense them through his aura.

The moment they appeared, they rained down spikes upon the Crust-Mantle. Moreover, they had surrounded the Crust-Mantle from all sides, preventing Jyorta from taking cover behind it. He hurriedly protected his vital areas, grunting in pain as three spikes pierced him, with two on his left thigh.

"Ugh," Jyorta grunted, rolling on the ground to dodge the remaining. The three spikes directly penetrated his two layers of barriers, penetrated his guard and armour, and pierced his flesh. Thankfully, he barely managed to adjust his posture, preventing the spikes from hitting the bone. Otherwise, his bone would have cracked at the very least.

Even now, the spikes pierced his body and emerged on the other side, burrowing halfway into the sand. They packed tremendous power, akin to a bullet. Faint poison circulated in his body, making it difficult to breathe. The heat in the layer served to further aggravate the poison, quickly circulating it in his body as his heart pumped faster and faster.

The moment his barriers were pierced through, sections of them collapsed, revealing some areas of his body. His pain affected his mental state, dissipating his aura personification, preventing him from using it again for a short while.

Noticing his presence, the Steel Porcupines were startled, wondering how he suddenly appeared in the area. Soon, they smelled the scent of blood emanating from him, hissing in response before showering him with spikes.