I Am a Villain, So What?-Chapter 169: Floor 19

As the closest mantis lunged at me, sweeping its scythe in a decapitating arc, I channeled mana into my legs. My newly synchronized agility kicked in. The creature’s lightning-fast strike looked agonizingly slow.

I ducked smoothly under the claw, stepped right into the beast’s guard, and grabbed its thick armored thorax with my free hand.

My grip crushed the chitin. My raw physical strength easily overpowered the massive insect. I hauled the shrieking beast upward, completely breaking its balance, and shoved the barrel of the Reaver directly under its jaw.

BANG! An armor-piercing slug tore through its head, blowing green ichor into the swamp.

I didn’t stop moving. A mud-spider dropped from a branch directly above me. I pivoted, swinging the heavy stock of the shotgun like a baseball bat. The reinforced steel smashed into the spider’s skull, shattering its exoskeleton and sending it skidding across the water.

I racked the pump of the Reaver, aimed from the hip, and blew a hole through a third monster charging from the left.

I stood up straight, shaking the mud off my coat. I wasn’t out of breath. My muscles didn’t ache. The physical synchronization was flawless. I was finally moving exactly how I wanted to.

"Keep the fire coming, Alicia," I ordered, reloading a shell into the chamber. "Don’t leave a single bug alive."

"With extreme prejudice, Master," Alicia growled, a terrifying wall of flames already forming around her.

***

We moved deeper into the marshland. The thick mud sucked at our boots, making every step a chore.

I looked down at the Reaver shotgun in my hands, then slung it over my shoulder and secured it to my back.

"Master? Are we out of ammo already?" Alicia asked, glancing back while keeping a wary eye on the canopy.

"No," I said, rolling my shoulders and cracking my knuckles. "If I just shoot everything, I won’t actually learn how to fight. I need to test my physical limits and my mana control. I’ll take the next wave barehanded."

My mana control was still highly immature. I could channel it internally to boost my speed and strength, but extending it outside my body to form a proper aura or spell was a struggle. The swamp was the perfect place to force that growth.

A low, guttural hiss echoed from the weeping trees ahead. Three giant swamp-lizards dropped from the branches, their dark green scales slick with a foul, venomous slime.

I stepped forward, pushing raw mana into my fists. A faint, unstable blue light wrapped around my knuckles.

The first lizard lunged, its jaws snapping at my neck. I ducked under the bite, pivoted, and drove my fist directly into its ribs.

Crack. The impact shattered its ribcage, sending the heavy beast flying backward into a tree trunk. The raw physical strength was definitely there, but the mana coating on my hand flickered and died immediately upon impact. I grimaced. My output was too jagged; I needed better focus.

The second lizard whipped its heavy, spiked tail at my head. I raised my arms and caught it. The spikes dug into my forearms, but the Rune of Vitality in my chest hummed, immediately stitching the shallow cuts closed. I gritted my teeth, spun on my heel, and used the beast’s own momentum to hurl it violently into the murky water.

Before the third lizard could even hiss, a localized pillar of crimson fire erupted from the mud directly beneath it. The beast was incinerated instantly, leaving nothing but a scorch mark on the water’s bubbling surface.

I looked back. Alicia was walking forward, her hand outstretched, her face twisted in absolute disgust.

"Don’t let them get close," she muttered, snapping her fingers again.

A swarm of fist-sized blood-mosquitoes buzzed out from a hollow log to our right. They didn’t make it two feet. Alicia cast a wide-sweeping arc of flames, instantly turning the entire swarm into falling ash. She wasn’t just fighting; she was aggressively sanitizing the area.

"You’re using a lot of mana for basic mobs," I pointed out. I sidestepped a leaping mud-spider and punched it out of the air.

"I do not care," Alicia snapped, her eyes frantically tracking every shadow in the trees. "If one of those multi-legged freaks touches me, I will lose my mind."

Splooosh.

The mud-spider I had just punched hit the swamp water hard. The heavy impact sent a massive wave of thick, foul-smelling black sludge flying backward.

It splashed directly onto Alicia’s boots and splattered across the hem of her gray cloak.

Alicia froze completely.

She looked down at the dripping, foul-smelling gunk soaking into her clothes. Her shoulders started to tremble.

"Master," she said, her voice dropping to a terrifyingly calm whisper.

"My bad," I said, taking a cautious step back.

"This entire floor needs to be purged."

The ambient temperature around her skyrocketed. The swamp water at her feet began to boil, letting off thick clouds of steam.

For the next hour, I barely had to throw a punch. Any monster foolish enough to peek out from the mud or drop from the trees was instantly met with a catastrophic, oversized barrage of fire.

****

We waded further into the center of the marsh.

The weeping trees began to thin out, revealing a massive, circular clearing. The water here wasn’t just murky; it was a bubbling pool of thick, black sludge. The suffocating smell of sulfur and rotting meat was so strong it stung my eyes.

"The minor mobs have stopped spawning," Alicia noted, stepping onto a relatively dry patch of moss. She kept a ring of fire hovering around her boots to keep the mud away. "We must be in the boss room."

"Get ready," I said, rolling my shoulders. I didn’t reach for my shotgun. "It’s coming."

The black sludge in the center of the pool erupted.

A massive creature dragged itself onto the mossy bank. It was a Goliath Mire-Toad, easily the size of a small house. Its skin was covered in thick, hardened warts that pulsed with dark green venom, and its mouth was lined with rows of jagged, razor-sharp teeth.

[Area Guardian: Goliath Mire-Toad] [Rank: B-]

The toad let out a deafening croak. The sheer volume created a shockwave that rippled the swamp water.

"Gross," Alicia muttered.

She didn’t wait for it to attack. She pointed her index finger at the beast.

"Burn."

A massive spear of white-hot fire shot from her hand. It struck the toad directly in the chest.

BOOM!

The explosion sent a shockwave of steam across the clearing. But as the smoke cleared, the toad was still standing. It had secreted a thick layer of wet, dense mud from its pores just before the impact. The Level 8 fire magic had baked the mud into a hardened, ceramic-like armor, but the beast underneath was largely unharmed.

"Physical attacks are needed to shatter the shell," I said. "Keep its attention on you. I’m going in."

"Don’t die, Master," Alicia replied, already casting a barrage of fireballs to blind the creature.

I dashed forward. My Level 7 Agility allowed me to cross the swamp in seconds. I didn’t use spatial magic. I relied purely on the muscles in my legs.

The toad noticed me. Its throat expanded, and it shot its tongue out like a fleshy, venom-coated whip.

The speed was incredible, but my Sixth Sense warned me a fraction of a second early. I ducked. The tongue passed inches over my head, smashing through a thick tree trunk behind me as if it were a twig.

I stepped into the beast’s guard. I channeled my mana, trying to force it to coat my right fist.

Mana Control: Lv. 6. It was difficult. The mana flared wildly around my hand, unstable and jagged. I drove my fist into the toad’s ceramic-baked mud armor.

CRACK.

The impact was heavy. The armor fractured, but my fist didn’t punch through to the flesh. The recoil sent a sharp jolt of pain up my arm, and my unstable mana coating shattered.

The toad let out an angry hiss. It swung its massive, webbed front claw directly at my ribs.

I couldn’t dodge in time. I crossed my arms to block.

SMASH.

The force of a B-Rank boss sent me flying backward. I skipped across the surface of the swamp water like a stone, crashing hard into a muddy embankment.

"Master!" Alicia yelled.

I coughed, spitting out a mouthful of swamp water. My forearms were bruised, and I could feel two cracked ribs.

But a second later, the [Rune of Vitality] carved into my chest hummed. A warm, soothing energy flooded my torso. The cracked ribs knitted back together instantly. The bruising on my arms faded.

I stood up, wiping the mud off my face. A grin spread across my lips.

"The auto-healing works perfectly," I muttered. The pain was real, but the physical damage was negated. My body could handle the stress.

"Alicia! Break its posture!" I yelled, sprinting back into the fray.

Alicia nodded. She slammed both hands onto the muddy ground.

A geyser of fire erupted directly beneath the toad’s left legs. The sudden, explosive heat vaporized the water in the mud, creating a localized steam explosion that flipped the massive beast onto its side.

Its soft, unarmored underbelly was exposed.

I jumped off a nearby log, launching myself into the air.

This time, I didn’t just push mana into my fist blindly. I focused. I tightened the flow, compressing the raw energy until it formed a dense, stable blue glow around my knuckles.

Gravity pulled me down. I drove my mana-coated fist directly into the toad’s pale underbelly.

SQUELCH.

My fist punched cleanly through the tough hide. The concentrated mana detonated inside the beast’s body, completely destroying its internal organs.

The Goliath Mire-Toad let out one final, pathetic croak before its massive body went entirely limp. It crashed back into the mud, dead.

I pulled my arm out of the carcass, shaking the dark blood off my glove. I took a deep breath. My mana reserves were slightly drained, but physically, I felt fine.

"Disgusting," Alicia said, walking up to the corpse. She held her nose. "Are you done playing hand-to-hand combat, Master? You are covered in guts."

"It was necessary training," I said, wiping my boots on the grass.

A heavy rumbling sound echoed through the clearing. At the far edge of the pool, a massive stone archway slowly rose from the mud. The gateway to the next floor.

[You have defeated the Area Guardian!] [Floor 19 Cleared.]

"Let’s go," I said, walking toward the gate. "Floor 20 is where there is hopefully, less mud."