The creature actually levelled up once during its fight, even though its advancement proved insufficient against the little snake lady.

Unfortunately, there was no easy level-up for her. She cast her sight towards the grotesque skink.

Another one to go.

The entire pit lay in ruins, with traces of shattered formations spread all around; even the jagged stone splinters had been reduced to grime. Her eyes met the prime offender for all these crimes.

The skink was grotesque and colossal, hardly recognisable in its current form. It had scaly skins of reptiles, but the resemblance ended there. Now, it was nothing more than a repulsive mass of flesh and bone, twisting and contorting dreadfully.

The creature weighed several tons and could only roll around slowly, emitting squeaks that left Shai uncertain whether they were sounds of pain or twisted delight.

Will the same happen with that Chilopod if I leave it alone? That seemed likely to be the case. Regardless, its deranged, rotund condition made her job easier.

All she had to do was approach the creature, create a few holes in its body to let it squirm, and wait. The task would be accomplished without much effort.

[Skink - Corrupt ??? Lvl 46]

Shai paused, eyeing the creature, considering. How did this creature advance two levels during the short time Shai battled the chilopod? The answer was simple. Corruption.

The corruption infesting this dungeon felt inherently wrong to Shai from the moment she entered, but gazing upon this repulsive being, she wondered if she could feel any more disgusted.

Dark, malevolent energy oozed from the creature, surpassing the intensity of any other creature Shai had encountered so far. However, this didn’t necessarily imply that the Skink was stronger than the massive basilisk. It was just that the Skink had bitten off more than it could chew and was suffering the consequences.

The dark, infectious energy leaking out was something it couldn’t contain. Madness had taken hold of it.

Hissing in disgust, Shai descended upon it, channelling cosmic power through her weary body. Her head burned in an impaling sensation as the power surged through her channels, although it was nowhere near the intensity of the mental attack of the Empathic Spiders. A level-up was not enough to refresh her fatigued mind. But what about two?

With that, Shai charged towards the ugly creature.

[Empower] and [Golden Eyes] augmented her raw power and perception, which in turn boosted her essence-weaving capabilities. Shai lunged at the creature from a high position, crashing hard onto its back. With the creature’s immobility, it was effortlessly easy to land a blow. Her teeth dug into its crusty flesh, as she injected deadly toxins into its system.

Abruptly, Shai’s predatory sense screamed of impending danger, but before she could withdraw, her mind whirled and her world tilted. The Corruption of Feast clutched her firm, trying to succumb her to its mercy, but Shai’s resistance was strong.

True, she desired power. But corruption wasn’t the way of it. Shai wanted to be herself at her best, not some deranged, filthy creature that only knew to feast upon disgusting corpses.

Shai was reaching a point of victory against the assault, but at that very moment, the lizard rolled itself and trapped her beneath. With her head buried within the monster’s body, she couldn’t see anything. Her strength dwindled under the weight, making it challenging to free herself.

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Goddamn it, Shai cursed, her body flattened under the immense pressure of the massive rotund lizard. Summoning all her wit and strength, she bit down on the beast’s flesh, activating [Essence Eater].

Blinded, Shai could feel the foul blood flooding into her mouth, putrid and suffocating. Despite the struggle to breathe, she persevered, sensing the repulsive lizard convulsing in agony. It thrashed on the ground, rolling faster than before, as if trying to flatten the entire dungeon.

While the lizard’s attempt to flatten the dungeon didn’t work, it did cause enough havoc to feel tremors in the surrounding areas. Thankfully, that provided an opportunity for her to withdraw from the hole she had dug into its flesh.

Hissing in disgust, Shai slithered farther away from the lizard and threw up all the filthy blood she sucked. She wished she puked it all, but [Essence Eater] already started the digestion process. Shai was doubtful about what kind of side effect she would have digesting tainted blood, but she would have time to figure everything out after she dealt with this Skink.

The lizard screeched in frustration, unable to pursue Shai. Its rotund form undulated uncomfortably, contorting and twisting, trying to catch the white snake, but to no avail. At least not in its current bloated form.

Her initial impression of its capabilities was wrong. Although it was terribly sluggish, and didn’t pose a threat if Shai wanted to disappear from it at this very instance, it still would be hard if she wanted to deal with it.

With her speed, intelligence, and skills, Shai held the advantage, just that she needed to be more persistent.

The lizard displayed far greater resilience than any other beast she had encountered thus far. Regardless of whether it had cheated its way to its current state, it lay like a boulder, an overwhelming amount of dark cosmic energy bleeding out of its body.

Right, I need to be careful of the corruption as well, Shai thought.

It would take at least half an hour for Shai to finish this gruelling battle. Hopefully, the rewards would be worthwhile.

Shai took some test assaults, shooting [Energy Darts] at the contorting creature, but all of them fell short, even though she targeted the same spot.

Shai launched another attack, this time aiming for the neck of the lizard. The creature, more aware this time around, growled in indignation but was unable to halt Shai’s advance. She shot for its neck, ready to take a poisonous bite, but that hardly produced a result. Even though the creature was mostly motionless, it could reinforce its defence as its scales glowed with an innate defensive ability.

Shai kept at it for a time, attacking constantly at the same spot to break its defence. Eventually, she managed to inject all the leftovers of her toxins, though she didn’t see any changes in its state. To be fair, the Skink already looked terribly ill with the sheer amount of corpses it devoured. There was no way for her to tell whether her poison taking effect or not.

Shai decided to wait, but seeing no changes in half an hour, she got back to doing it the hard way again.

She persisted in creating ruptures throughout its body, breaking through its defences. Her job was by no means easy, even though it wasn’t life-threatening like most of the time. It was stressful doing her job while keeping track of the creature’s rolling, or whether the corruption was having any effect on herself.

Her white form was drenched in lizard blood, her eyes weary and her body exhausted. Shai managed to penetrate the lizard’s scales in a couple of places, but each time the beast rolled and hid the wounds, forcing her to start all over again.

Unfortunately for it, those cheap tricks wouldn’t work on her again, as Shai struck where the lizard couldn’t conceal all of its injuries simultaneously. From that point onward, her attacks were unrelenting. Her poison had minimal effect on this reptile, likely due to its venomous nature and corruption.

However, Death would inevitably come for the lizard. Sadly, it would be far from merciful. Slow deaths seldom were.

Shai couldn’t help but feel a hint of pity, but she suppressed those emotions and meditated to replenish her energy. Some Bloodcudding Mushrooms would have helped too, but [Essence Eater] was already busy dealing with the foul blood.

The lizard writhed in agony, its body twisting, contorting and rolling on the fattened ground of the pit.

Shai kept her eye open as she mediated, regaining her lost energy as well as watching over her prey. In a matter of an hour, she would be ready to resume the battle. Let’s hope nothing goes awry before then.

At that very moment System Grandpa’s voice rang in her mind, disrupting her meditation with bad news.

[Emergency Quest: Restore the Balance]

The entire Skysea hovers on the delicate law of balance. No creatures must defile that law without paying a price. The Skink had unintentionally triggered its unmaking, led by the maddening force of Feast. Stop its unmaking.

Criteria of Clearance: Stop the Unmaking of an Abomination.

[Reward: Quest.]