Chapter 161. Blast! (1)
"Come on, you can do it, right?"
[……]
"Lara, you can do it. Right?"
[……]
"I believe in you, Lara."
[……]
Camilan’s Legendary Sword, Lara, remained silent. Then, she shot a sidelong glance at her new master, Kim Jangcheol, who was gripping her hilt tightly.
Sigh.
A sigh escaped her lips!
Along with it, a creeping wave of regret!
[Um, excuse me, do I really have to eat this?]
"Yeah, that’s right."
[Does it absolutely have to be me?]
"Yup. No one else can."
[……]
Lara’s gaze grew bitter, now falling toward the ground. More precisely, toward the swamp soaking Kim Jangcheol’s knees in a damp squelch.
A deep crimson red.
Bits of floating debris bobbing here and there.
Corpses of unidentifiable insects.
[So basically… I have to suck out nutrients from things that live in this stuff, right?]
"Right. You tried it last time, remember?"
[And I threw up.]
"This time, it'll be different. Our Lara can do it. You’ve gotten stronger."
[Do you really think so?]
"Of course."
Kim Jangcheol nodded his head.
Then, in a casual tone, he asked,
"Still not confident? Want to train a bit more?"
[……!]
Lara’s eyes instantly wavered.
And she remembered.
The past five days.
The hell she had endured—called mint chocolate!
[……]
No. Not again.
She’d rather die than go through that again.
If she had to eat that forcibly once more, she’d rather leap into a boiling furnace.
"I’ve still got lots of mint chocolate left. You can have more. I’ll feed you as much as you want, okay?"
[A-Agh! Nooo! I can do this one…!]
There was no way she was going to eat mint chocolate again.
Lara freaked out, and Kim Jangcheol was satisfied.
"Alright then… here we go?"
[……Okay!]
A droplet, unclear whether it was a tear or condensation, welled up on Lara’s blade. But Kim Jangcheol paid no mind to the emotions of an object(?).
Without hesitation, he thrust Lara deep—
Into the toxic swamp.
‘Nutrient Extraction!’
Ding-dong!
‘Target is… Cochlod-something! Whatever that is!’
Ding-dong-ding!
[Camilan’s Sword Set Active Skill is now activated.]
[Skill Name: Nutrient Extraction]
[Target identified: A massive cluster of Cochlodinium polykrikoides, dinoflagellates within Cochlodinium species.]
That’s when it began.
The entire swamp, spanning dozens of meters from where the sword was stabbed, started trembling. And a whirlpool of energy began swirling into Lara.
…KWAHHHH!
[Camilan’s Sword is extracting nutrients from the target!]
With the message, the toxic red tide plankton filling the swamp began violently shaking.
Naturally, Kim Jangcheol’s Mana Seed reacted as well.
‘Hmph…!’
The moment the skill was activated, a colossal surge of mana was sucked straight into Lara.
‘Just like last time, this is insane.’
The mana consumption was truly massive.
With this much mana?
He could probably cast Bloody Lightning at least thirty times.
‘…Still, the performance is solid!’
A satisfied smile spread across Kim Jangcheol’s lips. Then, he turned to watch the spectacular display, well worth the vast mana expenditure.
Blub-blub-blublub! Rumble!
The swamp was shaking violently.
The red tide plankton Margaral-whatever that had been overflowing the murky waters were now writhing as their nutrients were being drained by Lara.
Of course, Lara was writhing as well.
[……Ugh! Mmmblblb! Ugh!]
As ordered, Lara absorbed the nutrients of the red tide plankton. She gulped it down.
It wasn’t easy.
No, to be honest, it was painful.
[……Still……tastes awful, ugh!]
It was horrifying.
It was slimy.
It was greasy.
It was metallic.
It was like snot!
[……!]
Honestly, she wanted to throw up. But she held it in. Because if she did, she’d be forced to inhale that hellish mint chocolate again. That was the single worst experience of her sword-life—being forced to consume something she had already vomited.
So……
[Compared to mint chocolate… this is nothing…!]
It was practically heavenly in comparison.
Yes.
Lara had become (sort of) stronger.
Five days straight of eating mint chocolate, throwing it up, only for Kim Jangcheol to slurp it right back up, then forcibly feeding it to her again, and repeating it endlessly!
The infernal cycle of mint chocolate!
She never wanted to relive that again!
So she had to endure this, no matter what!
[Eugggh! Ugh!]
Gulp! Gulp-glug!
Lara endured to the bitter end.
She barely managed to suppress her gag reflex, absorbed the nutrients of the red tide plankton, and purified them.
It was a process similar to the digestion and metabolism of a living organism.
Absorbing the nutrients.
Breaking them down.
Utilizing the components.
Expelling the waste.
……Fwoooosh!
At the end of the absorption process, a residue, akin to urine or flatulence, condensed at the tip of the blade.
It consisted of trace moisture, methane gas, nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and a few other trace elements.
And then, the gas mass was launched!
PWAAFF!
A one-meter-wide gas sphere, compressed to high density, was fired at subsonic speed. It shot up into the sky, blasting apart an unlucky(?) cloud that happened to pass by!
“.............”
Kim Jangcheol stared up at the sky, dumbfounded.
And despite not having eaten anything, he felt an overwhelming sense of fullness swelling in his stomach.
A burp followed, as a bonus.
“……Buuurp.”
Ah, that was a good(?) meal.
Then it happened.
Ding-dong!
[Camilan’s Legendary Sword has transferred the absorbed and refined nutrients to you.]
[Fullness: You have entered a state of satisfaction.]
[While in a satisfied state, all stats are increased by 1.2x.]
“.............”
It hit him then.
The final destination of the nutrients absorbed by the sword… was himself. And this meant using the sword continuously would be no joke.
‘Tsk… This could be bad?’
Kim Jangcheol’s pupils trembled slightly.
Just once.
He had used the skill only once.
Yet he already felt like he’d single-handedly devoured jumbo-sized black bean noodles with a medium order of sweet and sour pork — completely polished off.
And if he kept using this skill?
And kept gaining this kind of fullness every time?
‘Won’t my stomach explode?’
He wasn’t a food fighter.
He wasn’t even a famous YouTube Mukbang creator.
Could he really handle this?
‘………Well, I have to.’
He’d come this far. What else could he do?
Kim Jangcheol looked around with a strange mix of emotions.
And then he saw it.
A 100-meter radius around him.
The color of the swamp had changed!
[Lara did it!]
In his mind, he heard Lara’s panting voice, yet somehow filled with pride(?).
That’s when it truly hit him.
‘The plankton colony that caused extreme red tide… they’re all starved to death?’
Like a swarm of fruit flies hit with a shower of ultra-concentrated bug spray. Like a swarm of larvae blasted by the 50-megaton Tsar Bomba nuclear bomb.
Annihilated in one strike.
“..........”
DUN DUN.
It felt like a chime of realization echoed in his head.
And what, he wasn’t going to do this again?
‘………I must! I’ll keep doing it!’
KWAK!
Kim Jangcheol moved quickly. He thrust Lara into a new section of the swamp.
And with solemn resolve, he shouted,
‘Nutrient! Extractionnnn!’
Swooshh!
Thus began the glorious campaign of nutrient plundering.
***
The efforts of Kim Jangcheol and Lara.
The full-scale extermination of red tide plankton.
And along with that, the purification and renovation of the swamp began.
"Combat Engineering Corps! Respond!"
"Dig! Trim! Stack!"
"Tbong too! Respond!"
"Tbong!"
The first unit(?) deployed was Tbong.
The plankton colony, drained of nutrients by Kim Jangcheol and Lara, was now on the brink of starvation. As their power faded, they floated to the surface of the swamp, unconscious. That’s when Tbong stepped in.
“Huuuuaaaaaa-↗”
Tbong, with his tiny, plump rear end wiggling this way and that, firmly planted himself into position.
He inhaled to his absolute limit.
And then—
"TBOOOOOOOONG!"
BWOOOFF!
Frost breath fired!
……FWAAASHH, CRACK-KKKT!
Already near death from having their nutrients completely stolen by Kim Jangcheol and Lara, the red tide plankton colony was now slammed by a breath of extreme cold.
Crack-kkkt! Sssnap!
The plankton, sprawled out exhausted on the water’s surface, were instantly frozen.
Then the Combat Engineering Corps was deployed.
“Let’s go! Shovels!”
“Scoop it out! The ice!”
“Eat up! Snack time!”
“…There's a poor soul here who got dragged out to this godforsaken place right before discharge!”
Despite someone’s pitiful(?) comment, the train of work pressed on full steam ahead.
It was a massive operation of division of labor, and a synchronized dance of sweat.
Kim Jangcheol and Lara drained the plankton’s energy. Tbong froze the weakened plankton. The Combat Engineering Corps shoveled out the frozen lumps.
The extracted plankton clumps were sent straight to compost production!
“Once isn’t enough! Ten times each! Let’s go!”
The process was repeated ten times per location. As a result, the plankton causing the red tide were nearly wiped out.
But it didn’t end there.
“Environmental cleanup is only just beginning. We’ve removed the filth — now we must change the environment that allows filth to accumulate.”
Combat Engineering Corps commander Forkray stepped forward.
Under his command, the engineers’ shovels moved in flawless harmony. They scraped the swamp’s floor. They removed all the decaying vegetation and stems piled up at the bottom.
They also adjusted the waterways.
They refined and tuned the channels to ensure the water flow through the swamp wasn’t too slow, yet not too fast.
A spot was selected for an agricultural reservoir for rice farming.
That task was handled by Kim Jangcheol.
‘For rice farming, the reservoir is absolutely crucial.’
Without a reservoir, rice farming itself becomes impossible. It causes countless headaches and disasters, with rice stalks drying up while doing the twist.
All farming is like this, but rice farming, in particular, places the highest importance on water management.
‘There’s a reason why, in East Asia where rice farming is central, the Chinese characters for politics (政治) are what they are.’
Jeong (政): to govern rightly.
Chi (治): to irrigate the paddy.
…Such is the origin of the word politics in Chinese characters.
In other words, deciding who gets how much water in their fields is where politics began.
That’s how important irrigation is for rice fields!
“So, with that in mind, Commander of the Combat Engineering Corps?”
It was the evening after completing the site selection for the reservoir.
Kim Jangcheol approached the Combat Engineering Corps commander.
Then, with a tone of nonchalance, an air of total entitlement, and even a brazen expression and glint in his eye,
He made a request(?).
“For the spot where we’ll build the rice paddies… please bury every last bit of explosive charges the Combat Engineering Corps has in storage. Leave none behind.”
“…Excuse me?"
The commander’s eyes trembled.
He stared at Kim Jangcheol, utterly baffled, waiting for a proper explanation.
Naturally, Kim Jangcheol caught that look.
So he explained.
Perfectly reasonably.
“It’s all for the smooth development of the swamp and the future of our rice farming.”
Kim Jangcheol smiled brightly—no, dangerously.
This one is so exciting! I'm waiting for further interaction between Aged Kimchi and Kim Jangcheol!
I really enjoy reading this, and I adore the loyalty Credos' people held to him!