Chapter 220: Droskar Dominion.
Lee hated swamps. He hated marshes, wetlands and any body of water that wasn’t a crystal-clear lake or a river.
And it wasn’t only because of the dirty water. The atmosphere here alone was enough to kill the most joyous mood, to not speak of the stinking gasses and the beasts lurking below the water surface.
The carapace covered creatures that resembled a mutation between a tortoise and a crocodile kept ambushing him every couple hundred yards, but fortunately they weren’t as large as the first one he met upon arrival.
Even if they were, they wouldn’t be the worse thing about this place. The true horror were the mosquitoes.
They were about the size of half a sparrow, and their sting had a strange anesthetic effect. If one fell asleep without anyone guarding them, their blood would be sucked dry long before the sunrise. That explained why the beasts had the thick carapaces, but since Lee didn’t have one, after he killed the first insect, he rushed toward the three mountain peaks, towering through the clouds somewhere in the distance.
At first, he killed the mosquitoes as soon as he spotted them. But after walking three or four miles, he noticed his left side getting numb. A walnut-sized insect was latched to it, bloated from feeding. When Lee smacked it dead, blood splattered everywhere, soaking his side, and he immediately wore one of the artifacts from the Celestial Abyss’s collection to protect his upper body.
His skin was mostly covered, but there were few bare spots, and since he couldn’t feel whether he was bitten by mosquito or not, he began to periodically use a weak version of Flame Armor. It did consume a bit of fire elemental energy and hurt every time he used the skill.
Nevertheless, several insects died each time and he was happy to pay the price.
What Lee didn’t realize was that the flashes of fire were attracting even more mosquitoes. He blamed the setting sun for the phenomenon and increased the pace, finally reaching the edge of the swamp by nightfall.