Lu Chen tumbled helplessly in the dark, viscous current. A fresh, eye-watering +1 popped up—not from corrosion this time, but from the brutal friction burn of scraping against the muscular, grooved wall.
"Well," he muttered, as the world spun. "At least the scenery's chang–."
Before he could complete his comment a new overpowering odor assaulted his senses.
"Cough! Ugh,"
"What's this horrible stench? System was it you?"
System: <"_">
[Analysis: Environment transition detected.]
[Primary Corrosive Agent:Gastric Acid —> Digestive Enzymes & Bacterial Metabolites.]
[Welcome to the Small Intestine. Mind the flora.]
"The small intestine?" Lu Chen groaned, another wave of muscle squeezing him along like a 5-7 worker squeezing his toothpaste on a Monday morning. "So I'm… what? Being processed now?"
Before he could retort, another wave of muscle squeezed him.
[Rock body EXP +3]
"…Huh. It increased?" The pain was different. Less of a sharp burn, more of a pervasive, itchy, dissolving feeling, as if billions of tiny, invisible ants were trying to nibble away at his rock hard body's skin.
"Don't you have other vocabulary words aside, 'trash', 'trashy', 'gum', and 'weak'?" Lu Chen couldn't help but snap at the system's constant bullying.
"Why does it sound like you're mocking me?" Lu Chen said.
[Next: Continued transport, compaction, and expulsion.]
[Estimated time of arrival at final destination: Variable.]
[Suggested activity: Passive grinding.]
And so, The Great Grind entered its second, far less dignified phase. Lu Chen stopped fighting the current. Partly because it was biologically impossible. Mostly because arguing with the System was too much to handle for the current him.
He went limp. He became a lumpen raft on the river of digestion a far cry from his predecessor on the River of Reincarnation, who probably would've laughed himself into a new life if he could see this. Talk about instant karma, Lu Chen thought miserably, as a gentle +1s and +3s ticked by.The EXP pops came slower here, but it was from two sources now, the occasional squeezes and bites.
Time as always lost all meaning here. To stave off madness, he talked.
"Hey System. If I'm being absorbed, does that mean parts of me are turning into… beast poop energy?"
< I'll be generous and answer your question. Probably because the beast feels like it swallowed a certain trash it is likely currently experiencing mild diarrhea and regret.>
"Forget I even asked Lu Chen said exasperatedly.
As he drifted in the sluggish, foul current, he began to bump into other things.
Tahe partially digested remains of the beast's meals floated around him like companions in the dark neighborhood.
His knee knocked against a smooth, heavy stone, polished to a weird sheen by stomach acid.
Moments later, his elbow brushed something that crumbled like a bundle of brittle, hollow sticks the bones of some lesser spirit creature, maybe a iron-tooth wolf, picked clean.
"Looks like the neighbors in here are quite welcoming."
Then, his fingers, trailing through the muck, brushed against something different.
"Eh? .... System what's this?"
[Scanning…]
[Artifact Detected:'Frost-Wraith Core Fragment' (Partially Digested).]
[Analysis:Indigestible byproduct. Contains residual patterns of Soul Chill.]
"Can I… use this?" Lu Chen asked, gripping the cold fragment.
"What do you mean?" Lu Chen asked confused.
"Great!" Lu Chen said
The system in response just quietly logged his reaction as a mental instability symptoms.
The environment shifted again. The fluid became thicker, pastier. The absorptive walls gave way to powerful, rhythmic, compacting pressure. The space narrowed.
"Compaction? What does that— WHOA!"
The walls around him convulsed in a slow squeeze. It wasn't about digestion anymore. It was about forming a neat, manageable package. The pressure was immense, threatening to crush his ribs and fuse him with the surrounding sludge into a single, solid brick.
Rock Body Exp + 5
+5
Lu Chen flailed, but in the thick, paste-like environment, his movements were useless. Then, he remembered Mirage Step. He then tried to practice it.
He focused his energy to vibrate in place, while subtly shifting his body just enough to prevent the hardening sludge from locking him into a single shape. Yes that poo shape.
It was an exhausting, humiliating work and a constant drain of energy..
+5....+5.,...
"I hate you," Lu Chen gasped, sweat (or something else wet) beading on his brow.
After an aeon of wriggling, a new sensation. A gathering of immense force downstream. A final, profound wave, summoning everything to the flood gates.
[Final Sequence Detected.]
[Destination: Rectum. Exit Imminent.]
"Exit?" Lu Chen's heart leapt. "We're there? I'm gonna be free?!"
He was swept forward at startling speed. The paste-like environment funneled into a tight, pressurized chamber. And there, at the end, he sensed it not with his nose and it was not just a muscle, but a ring of muscle . A seal. The beast's Anal Guardian Node, a biological lock meant to contain its own potent, essence until the moment of eruption.
The pressure was astronomical, a final, crushing trial.
[Rock Body has reached Lv. 10!]
[Breakthrough! Rock Body has evolved to Iron Hide (Lv. 1)!]
The realization had no time to land.
SPLOOOOSH
He was ejected with tremendous, wet force into the cold, night air.
He flew in a low, ungraceful arc and landed with a heavy SPLAT face flat into a soft, warm, and deeply familiar substance.
And It wasn't mud.
He was lying face-down in a steaming, mountainous pile of the beast's soil.
His robes were gone, and his body was stained beyond recognition. But he was out. He was alive.
A final blue screen popped up, serene and absurd amidst the devastation.
[Achievement Unlocked:'The tough gum.']
At that moment before Lu Chen could even process the insult, let alone the smell. Before he could even draw a breath to rejoice being free he sensed a prickly sensation.
Danger.
He was naked, covered in feces, lying defenseless in a dung heap.
And he was about to be attacked.
"Are you kidding me?!"
"I can't avoid this"
[TO BE CONTINUED…]