Chapter 179: Silver Level!
Creed stood with his hands on his hips, blinking at the towering black-and-silver gates of the Infernal Ice Bastion.
The last thing he remembered was stepping through the portal at Base 7—and poof!
Here he was, standing in an open space right outside a heavily guarded fortress-city like someone had just dropped him from the heavens.
He narrowed his eyes at the shimmering spatial dust vanishing behind him.
"Alright, so teleportation portals can bypass geography," Creed muttered, rubbing his chin. "But... they can’t bypass warded zones. Makes sense. Bastions like this one definitely have anti-teleport barriers. Probably got enough defense arrays to cook an elephant."
He started walking toward the gates, marveling again at their sheer size. They weren’t just big. They were stupid big. Like, "someone-had-an-ego-when-they-designed-this" big.
But then it hit him. Not a thought. Not an insight. Not even a villainous monologue about how he’d take over the world one day. No, what hit him was his stomach. Or more accurately, what was inside it.
Creed’s entire torso clenched as something hot—no, scorching—began writhing in his belly like a vengeful sun trying to escape its prison. He let out a wheeze and staggered, clutching his stomach with wide eyes.
’Oh no. No no no. Old man, you did not!’
The pill! That stupid, innocent-looking pill the panda-eyed monk had shoved down his throat. He had said it was "condensed energy," not energy that wanted to turn him into a human pressure cooker!
"AAAAAH, MY ORGANS!!" Creed wheezed, staggering forward with a wobble like a drunk penguin.