Only a few minutes had passed since when Leon landed in the swamp when he noticed something strange.
“Hmm, that’s strange…” He muttered to himself as he took note of the sense of oppression that seemed to weigh upon his soul. He had noticed it earlier, but had not taken note of it like he did now.
He did not actually want to land at this point in the swamp, and had tried to fly closer to the tree in the center of the swamp, but a subtle influence had come over his mind, making him want to land farther from the tree.
“I should have done more research…” Leon muttered to himself. He knew little about the swamp except for its name, some of the monsters that appeared here, and that the Despair Dungeon was an A ranked dungeon.
The rank of a dungeon was determined by the difficulty of clearing it, and the rank of the boss monster.
Back when Leon had subjugated the Dark Abyss Dungeon, it had been a Pseudo-B rank dungeon, just short of being called a B rank dungeon. This was because it was still possible for C rank beings to clear the dungeon, and because the boss had still been a bit short of reaching B rank.
Thinking of the Dark Abyss Dungeon reminded Leon of Dibella, who he had decided not to bring with him at this point in time. She was in a crucial stage in her training to raise her skill levels back up, and he did not want to interrupt her. For this operation, Leon was relying solely on himself and his summons.
Concerning the sense of oppression that did not allow Leon to fly above the tree line, after a bit of experimenting, Leon found out that he was only able to fly as long as it was not above the tree line, and even then, he could not maintain his flight for a long period of time without burning too much mana.
Another feature of the Swamp of Despair was that it had an environment that somehow made mana drain even faster than usual.
“How strange…” Leon muttered again.
He continued walking while spreading his summons around. But he did not summon a lot of them to keep his mana in optimal condition.
It was not too long after that when one of his summons was suddenly attacked. Leon immediately shifted his focus to that summon because the attack had been completely sudden. Until it was pounced upon, the summon had not been able to notice the presence of anything.
From the murky water, a giant crocodile burst forth, snatching the thick and long millipede within its gigantic maws and plunging it underwater. A grand scuffle immediately ensued between the two mighty beasts that caused the surrounding area to be thrown into turmoil. The weaker monsters around immediately fled, but some watched from a distance, hoping to snatch an easy kill from whoever emerged from the battle weakened.
Initially, the crocodile, which was known as a Great Crocodile, had the upper hand. It was a High B rank monster, while the millipede was a Mid B rank monster. Its tough scales had made it incredibly difficult for the millipede to injure it, but in a drawn out battle, there was no way it could hold on with the insane regenerative capabilities of Leon’s summon.
As the intensity of the fight continued to rise higher and higher, the Great Crocodile eventually realized that it stood no chance in this battle. It began to try making moves to get away, but the millipede was too ferocious. It refused to allow the swamp creature to get away, constantly twisting its body around the crocodile while stabbing its claws into its back and biting at its neck and limbs.
The muddy water that has been stirred by the battle slowly changed color. From a deep and murky green to an unpleasant and sickly shade of red that instantly clued a person in on the fact that much blood had been shed.
After a minute more of struggle, two figures burst out from beneath the bloodied water. The crocodile tried to crawl away, but was instantly pounced upon by the millipede, whose sharp mandibles instantly snapped around the crocodiles neck, shearing off its head and ending its life.
,m The monsters hiding in the background waited for a few moments to evaluate the strength of the millipede after a battle, but instantly threw the thought of attacking to the back of their minds when they saw that the millipede still radiated a strength that was not much lower than before. A strength that was rapidly peaking with every moment as its injuries were being healed by the moment. They quickly scurried away before the winner of the battle could turn to hunt them down.
Luckily for them, the millipede soon set out on its original course after receiving orders from Leon. Leon had gained a bit of information on what to expect from the Great Crocodiles now that he had seen one in battle. The beast was nothing too serious, and was a purely physical powerhouse. It stood no chance against him in a fight.
After thinking a bit over the fight, he soon continued walking on his way. Ice continued to spread over the water in front of him as he made his way through the swamp. He kept his senses peeled, but he could not be sure that he would be able to pick up the presence of any of the monsters before they popped up. They seemed to be able to hide their presence in the swamp, a feature that was very tricky to deal with.
“Nero.” Leon summoned the Berserker Knight, who had eagerly been awaiting his summon. He wanted to fight against one of the strong monsters in the swamp, and was particularly looking forward to fighting against a Lizardman.
Nero bowed his head and held up his sword and shield in front of him. Behind his visor, red light flashed from within his eye sockets as he was pumped with excitement.
“I am ready, Master.”