Steven himself had no idea how long he had spent in that dark, sunless granary. What he did know for sure was that by the time he emerged, the entire village had been completely transformed.
The stench of entrails mixed with blood was splattered across the entire village. The scene was like something out of hell itself, causing even Steven to cover his nose and shake his head in disgust.
That Collapsal was still as revolting and grotesque as ever.
There wasn't a single living soul to be found in the village. Not even intact corpses remained, though Steven didn't need to search to know what had become of them.
After all, the grotesque mountain of flesh and severed heads in the center of the village—a monstrosity constructed of countless dismembered remains—was impossible to ignore, no matter how hard one tried.
He had to admit, now that the creature had grown larger, its sense of menace had also risen dramatically. The sheer pressure it exuded was enough to make even Steven take it seriously.
What truly confirmed to Steven that the creature had grown stronger, though, was the moment it let out a guttural roar. Suddenly, a large purple boss health bar appeared at the top of his field of vision.
"Well, look at you! It's only been a short while, and now you've gone and turned into a boss? I love creatures like you—always striving for self-improvement," Steven said with a wide grin, his previously heavy mood instantly lifted.
A boss, huh? Bosses were great—they had higher drop rates and a good chance of rewarding valuable loot.
Without hesitation, Steven waved toward the creature, worried it might flee. This was a rare, legendary treasure chest in monster form; there was no way he was going to let it escape a second time.
The creature seemed to cooperate, slowly turning its grotesquely bloated body toward him. Its misshapen form was dotted with villager heads, each still screaming in senseless agony. The horrifying scene was enough to send chills down anyone's spine.
To make matters worse, as the Collapsal turned, a layer of some unknown black substance began to spread from beneath it, seeping across the ground in all directions and rapidly extending toward Steven.
The ground touched by the black substance lost its original color, transforming into a gray-white surface that looked like scorched earth. Just by standing on it, Steven felt a slew of debuffs stacking onto him:
[Pollution II]: While standing in the Collapsal's domain, all attributes are reduced by 50%.
[Weakness III]
[Slowness II]
[Mining Fatigue II]
The sheer number of debuffs was staggering, and even Steven couldn't fully adapt to them right away.
"So this is what Talulah was talking about—those so-called pollution abilities unique to Collapsals," Steven muttered, analyzing the situation.
He must admit, it's quite impressive. Just standing in this area imposes such suppression—so that means it gains buffs within this zone too?
Steven glanced up at the Collapsal. To be honest, these debuffs were little more than minor annoyances to him. As long as it wasn't something truly irritating like nausea, poison, or withering effects, reductions in strength and speed hardly mattered.
He could still kill the creature with one punch. Even if his power output was reduced by 80%, Steven doubted it could survive a single strike from him.
Testing the waters, he casually raised his hand and fired a shot at the Collapsal. The bullet struck its bloated, disgusting body, but instead of piercing through, it only caused a splash of blood before losing momentum and dropping to the ground.
Well, that's inconvenient.
It seemed firearms weren't particularly effective in this domain, as they couldn't benefit from his strength buffs.
A .50-caliber round that would've normally punched a hole clean through the creature's body now barely made a scratch. Expecting his Springfield rifle to be of much help was pointless.
But going in for close combat? That was out of the question. Steven had no intention of engaging such a revolting creature at close range.
With the amount of blood this thing was leaking, one slash would probably leave him drenched in a fresh blood bath. That was just plain disgusting.
Shaking his head decisively, Steven considered drinking a bottle of milk to remove the debuffs but stopped mid-motion.
Wait, these debuffs seem to be tied to the contaminated ground. They're constantly applied as long as he's in this area, so drinking milk won't help at all.
So, what were the options? Either move to an uncontaminated area or endure the debuffs and face this grotesque monstrosity head-on.
Frowning, Steven barely had time to think before the Collapsal took action. Seeing him step into its territory, it swung its grotesque arm—a twisted mass of corpses and flesh—down toward him.
Its speed and power were on a whole new level compared to before. Steven couldn't help but wonder: does this thing grow stronger the more corpses it stitches together?
Or perhaps it's only now regaining its true strength after consuming the innards of so many people?
With these thoughts lingering, Steven effortlessly dodged what should've been a devastating blow, one that could've turned him into a meat patty.
As he'd mentioned earlier, even with reduced speed and weakened stats, his base attributes were overwhelmingly high.
It's like a person with a billion stat points losing 99% of their strength—they'd still have ten million points left, more than enough to crush a boss with only a few hundred points.
Though Steven's stats weren't quite that exaggerated, dodging this attack was still a simple task.
After evading the Collapsal's strike and seeing the splatter of foul-smelling blood and bits of flesh as it hit the ground, Steven's resolve to avoid close combat solidified even further.
If that smell clung to him, it might disgust him to death.
No, dealing with this creature from a distance was definitely the way to go.
With that decision made, Steven reached into his backpack and pulled out a peculiar, long cylindrical object with an oval-shaped green tip.
It's an RPG.
Taking aim at the massive, writhing heap of flesh that was charging at him, Steven didn't hesitate to pull the trigger.
The rear end of the cylindrical object on Steven's shoulder erupted in a burst of flames, and the green-tipped projectile flew straight toward the Collapsal, striking it directly in its grotesque body.
The next moment, a deafening explosion erupted from the creature's body. Flames and blasts engulfed the parts of its body that had made contact with the projectile, sending its foul-smelling blood and shattered limbs flying in all directions, raining down as a grotesque shower of gore.
As Steven always said, there's no problem caliber and firepower can't solve. If there is, it just means the firepower isn't enough.
If bullets couldn't deal with this thing, then surely an RPG could. And if that wasn't enough, he could always handcraft a few missiles if necessary, and if that is still not enough, he would just craft some nuclear bombs.
However, it seems he doesn't need to do any of that.
It turned out that RPGs, designed for anti-vehicle purposes, were incredibly effective against large monsters like this. The results of the first shot were proof enough. Watching the satisfying effects, Steven paused and decided to test an idea that suddenly occurred to him.
He placed a block of End Stone beneath his feet.
When the black miasma that had polluted the entire village tried to creep onto the pale yellow stone, it was as if an invisible force blocked it entirely. The pollution couldn't penetrate the End Stone.
Naturally, standing on uncontaminated ground meant the debuffs on Steven disappeared as well.
"Heh, just as I thought. The pollution can only affect things native to this world. But End Stone? That's from another dimension. In other words, this is now my territory."
Steven's lips curled into a smirk. Without the hindrance of debuffs, his firepower was now unlimited. Glancing at the massive, writhing flesh monster regenerating and charging toward him again, he couldn't help but let out a chuckle.
"Let's see who wins this, then—your regeneration or my firepower."
He pulled out his transmutation table and, with a casual wave of his hand, a line of End Stone extended beneath his feet. With another wave, a row of RPGs appeared neatly arranged on top of the End Stone.
Adjusting the angles of the RPGs to point directly at the hulking mass of flesh creeping toward him, Steven pressed the redstone button in his hand.
In an instant, dozens of RPGs fired simultaneously, their rockets flying straight into the grotesque creature.
A series of explosions erupted, one after another, the blazing flames painting the sky a deep red. Steven, standing below, merely pulled out an umbrella from his backpack, popped it open, and casually held it over his head.
The fire consumed the entire Collapsal, its health bar visibly draining like water rushing out of a broken dam. Steven left it no room to retaliate. As soon as the RPGs exhausted their ammo, he retrieved them into the transmutation table and promptly placed down another row.
His EMC reserves were still plentiful, so he could keep this up all day long, the only question now was how much longer this so-called Collapsal could hold out.
Looking up, Steven estimated the creature couldn't endure more than a few more rounds of this treatment.
However, to his surprise, just as the monster let out a mournful wail, something unexpected happened. While its primary health bar continued depleting rapidly, a smaller, shorter health bar began splitting off from it.
The moment he saw this, Steven immediately guessed what the creature was trying to do. His lips twitched slightly in irritation.
"Really? Running away when you can't win? Who taught you that trick? No sense of honor whatsoever, huh?"
<+>
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