Chapter Twelve: The Tentacled Monster and the Terrifying Creature

In truth, he could hardly be blamed for not foreseeing this. After all, the world around him adhered so strictly to the original game’s design, and in the game, one could shoot fireballs underwater. When dealing with a squid, as with a Hammer Turtle, it was safest simply to dispatch it from a distance with fireballs. There was never any real danger.

“Damn it!”

Wang Ling’s heart raced with alarm. Even with his enhanced attributes, he had no confidence facing a giant squid four meters long underwater. What was more, in his enlarged, fireball-flinging state, even the slightest injury would cause him to revert to his original form!

No human could hope to swim faster than a squid. The giant beast closed the distance in an instant, only four tentacles but each two meters in length. Immediately, two tentacles lashed out, their immense strength stirring the water into a violent current.

Wang Ling tried to twist aside, but in the water his movements were sluggish. The first tentacle snared his right leg, the second coiled toward his neck—those smooth, fleshy bands concealed a shocking strength.

Then the other two tentacles wrapped around his waist. This giant squid was a seasoned killer: it first bound his legs to prevent escape, then seized his waist to stop him from struggling, while a final tentacle sought to strangle him.

As the muscle cells within the tentacles contracted, their grip grew ever tighter. Wang Ling’s breath faltered, and he felt himself suffocating. Suddenly, a burst of white light surged from his body, hurling the giant squid away.

Freed from those monstrous limbs, Wang Ling felt no relief—only a cold dread. As he had feared, the white light shrank his body rapidly; his enlarged state vanished, taking with it his ability to launch fireballs...

The single second of invincibility passed in a blink. The repelled squid lunged back immediately. Wang Ling knew he could not escape its pursuit. He abandoned the thought of running, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes, and instead charged toward the beast.

In his hand appeared a cleaver, half a meter long, with a dark spine and a bright silver edge.

He had scavenged this kitchen cleaver from Mario’s house. Though only rated E-class, ordinary white equipment with a mere 1-1 attack value, this world was not quite the same as the game: statistics defined only a weapon’s base assessment—true damage relied on many other factors. The cleaver’s razor edge could not be summed up by a simple 1-1 rating.

What’s more, a weapon in hand bolstered his courage. That was why, even after gaining the mushroom and fire flower, Wang Ling had kept the cleaver. When his badge space was full, he’d hung it at his side; later, after using up one set of mushrooms and flowers, he’d stored it again. Now, in peril, it was at the ready.

Once more, the giant squid’s four tentacles coiled around him. Wang Ling made no attempt to resist as they bound his body and neck—his entire focus was on his eyes and hands.

The tentacles were as tough as ox sinew, their force making his bones creak, and his neck felt as if it might snap at any moment. The squid’s strength was concentrated on constricting him, but not so much that his movements were utterly stifled.

With his free left foot, Wang Ling stomped down on the base of one tentacle. As it writhed, he maneuvered his body closer to the squid’s head.

Gripping the cleaver in both hands, he closed in. The giant squid, though unfamiliar with blades, sensed danger by instinct; it released a tentacle to swipe at the knife. Wang Ling’s face turned crimson, strangled as he was, but he forced his head forward and sank his teeth deep into the tentacle.

The human bite is the body’s most potent weapon—enough for even a child to break an adult’s finger bone if they try hard enough. Wang Ling’s teeth tore through the squid’s flesh; salty liquid flooded his mouth, and the tentacle convulsed violently.

The pain was excruciating for the giant squid. The tentacle at his neck squeezed even harder, and Wang Ling’s body trembled in agony. The other two tentacles, those not bitten, released his waist and, with almost unbelievable force, whipped towards his head.

The blows struck like iron rods, slamming into Wang Ling’s skull. For an ordinary person, such an attack to the head would have meant instant death or at least unconsciousness from a concussion. Yet Wang Ling had the Iron Skull passive skill at level 7—it negated 70% of physical damage and provided an additional 30 points of base resistance.

The savage blows merely shaved about one-seventh off the health bar floating above his head. Taking advantage of this, he drove the cleaver forward with all his might, plunging it into the squid’s dark torso between the head and tentacle base. The half-meter blade sank in to the hilt, leaving only the handle in his grasp.

A spray of inky blood erupted, clouding the water in black. The giant squid convulsed as if jolted with electricity; the tentacle around Wang Ling’s neck gave one last desperate squeeze, then finally, unwillingly, went limp and slid away.

Despite its size, the giant squid’s defenses were weak—otherwise in the game, a single fireball wouldn’t have finished it. Wang Ling’s cleaver had pierced its black trunk, the site of its nerve center; death was instantaneous and certain.

He spat out the tentacle still caught between his teeth, then broke into a fit of violent coughing that brought tears to his eyes. His neck was bruised black and purple, ringed with a clear ligature mark, burning with pain.

Once the coughing fit subsided, Wang Ling made sure to spit out all the salty fluid from his mouth and quickly swam away from the ink-darkened water.

With this hard-won experience, he managed to kill four more giant squids in the next stretch of water. Yet, the squid held the advantage here—he lost six-tenths of his health, and with the previous loss of one-seventh, he was in grave danger.

What gave him the edge in these underwater battles was the cleaver in his hand, the attribute boosts from Level 4 Underwater Breathing, and Iron Skull Level 7’s resistance—these squids instinctively attacked the head, and only because of this did he survive and slay so many fearsome creatures.

It’s worth mentioning that after killing the last squid, he received a wooden key as loot. Wang Ling used it immediately, summoning a wooden chest underwater. Inside lay a two-meter-long, milky-white, slightly thicker than a sausage, soft and tough tentacle.

"Squid tentacle—material-type item. Can be crafted into a whip-type weapon."

The description was simple, just eighteen characters. Judging by the humble wooden chest, this was no rare treasure. Still, as the very first item he’d ever looted from a chest, Wang Ling cherished it and stored it in his badge space.

At the end of this stretch of water was a horizontal pipe. Wang Ling swam inside, feeling again the sensation of spinning down a drain, before being spat out by a vertical white pipe.

Once outside, he did three things immediately:

First, he took from his pocket a potion that could restore fifty health points and used it without hesitation.

This was one of two potions from the newcomer’s gift pack. Now only one item remained: the potion to restore fifty points of spirit, along with the random item, the health potion, and the E-rank skill refresh stone, all used up.

Second, he took from his badge space a growth mushroom and ate it.

Third, he retrieved a fire flower from the badge space and activated it.

With these three actions, Wang Ling was fully healed, enlarged, and once more able to hurl fireballs. He’d now used up his final backup set in the badge space. He transferred the spirit potion, coins, and silver pieces from his pocket into the newly freed slots.

Now, the eight slots in his badge space contained: spirit potion (1), mushroom pouch (3 extra lives), sliding turtle shells (9), homing turtle shells (3), copper coins (62), silver coin (1), gold coins (2), and the squid tentacle.

Wang Ling himself still gripped the cleaver—a weapon that, now that he was three and a half meters tall, resembled a mere dagger in his hand.

All of this was in preparation for facing the Great Demon King Bowser. For after leaving the water, he would reach the heart of the final castle, Bowser’s lair—or rather, a stone chamber that served as his palace, though the term “palace” was somewhat generous. Princess Peach, who had been abducted, was imprisoned there.

Standing atop the pipe, Wang Ling gazed into the distance. The far end of the passageway was still obscured, but several hundred meters away, a Hammer Turtle stood guard. Behind it stretched a ten-meter-wide pool of magma, with swirling clusters of fireballs constantly rising and falling within.

"Good. Once I take out this Hammer Turtle, Bowser himself should be next."

Wang Ling didn’t rush forward. Familiarity with the maze had saved him time, so he was in no hurry. He hopped off the pipe, leaned against it to rest, letting his damp clothes gradually dry and his strength recover from the underwater ordeal.

After resting for over half an hour, Wang Ling stood, advanced along the passage, dispatched the guarding Hammer Turtle, then broke into a sprint. At full speed, he activated a burst of acceleration and, with a super jump, soared over the ten-meter magma pool. The rising fireballs were left far behind.

Landing beyond the lava, Wang Ling’s gaze sharpened. Ahead was a two-hundred-meter-long stone bridge, built of white limestone blocks. Below raged a river of molten gold and red, pouring black smoke and flames.

The bridge itself was narrow—just over three meters wide, without a single handrail. And there, in the center, stood a monster five meters tall...