Lord: Sequence Master

Jungle Hunter Terry swung his curved blade, slicing through the vines and dense plants blocking their path. There were no ready-made roads in the Natural Rainforest, and in many places, the vegetation was so thick that they had to clear their way forward. This was also the most dangerous time, as many small extraordinary creatures liked to hide in such environments to launch ambushes.

Sensing danger through his connection with the plants, Terry instinctively used his Jungle Flash ability—a skill unique to jungle hunters—and blinked a meter away into thick foliage, narrowly dodging a sword-like tongue that lashed out from his right.

The Elemental Sorcerer walking behind Terry raised his staff and cast a Water Prison spell, but the extraordinary creature hiding among the vines had already escaped. By the time Terry slashed through the vines with his blade, the attacker had vanished, retreating after its failed strike.

However, Rosen's extraordinary senses allowed him to hear the faint croaking of the retreating creature, even in the pouring rain. Without hesitation, Rosen slipped into the shadows, blinking behind the source of the croak. In his hand, the Dragonfang Dagger flashed, and with a bloodthirsty strike learned from the Gray Rat, he lunged at a palm-sized blue Sword-Tongue Poison Frog.

The Dragonfang Dagger was sharp enough to slice through the defenses of almost any Sequence 6 extraordinary being. Against a Sequence 7 creature like the Sword-Tongue Poison Frog, known for its weak defenses, it stood no chance.

This frog had a deadly, sword-like tongue, laced with venom potent enough to kill Sequence 6 beings. Worse, it was a vengeful creature, never giving up after a failed ambush and lurking nearby for another chance to strike.

The dagger pierced the frog's back with ease, and the Beast King's Bloodlust attribute activated, draining the creature's blood. Normally, the frog would have fought back ferociously, but this time, it trembled in fear, its body limp as its blood was drawn, with no signs of struggle even as it neared death.

Rosen realized that the Beast King's Bloodlust ability was more potent than he initially thought. The dagger, infused with the extraordinary essence of the Sea Dragon Beast King, carried the aura of a beast king. The Sequence 7 Sword-Tongue Poison Frog was utterly subdued by the presence of a Sequence 6 Beast King, unable to resist. The limits of this intimidation effect remained unclear.

Rosen blinked back to the group with the frog impaled on his dagger, surprising Terry. Despite its weak defenses, the Sword-Tongue Poison Frog was incredibly agile and difficult to catch, yet Rosen had managed to kill it swiftly with a single strike. It made Terry, a skilled jungle hunter, feel almost inadequate in comparison.

Feeling that their progress was too slow, Rosen suggested that everyone move into the mini-castle atop his Alchemical Dragon. He would handle the travel while Terry directed the route.

Terry instinctively objected, but in the next moment, Rosen vanished without a trace. No matter what methods the team used, they couldn't locate him. Convinced of Rosen's prowess, Terry and the team obediently entered the mini-castle.

Rosen then placed the shrunken Alchemical Dragon on his shoulder and activated the Dragonfang Dagger's abilities. The dagger allowed him to become completely invisible in water and evade detection by anyone below Sequence 3. While the rain wasn't exactly water, it provided enough cover for partial invisibility. In such conditions, very few below Sequence 4 could see through his concealment.

Rosen seemed to merge with the rain, and even as he flew at ten times the speed of sound, skimming the treetops on his Feathered Serpent Wings, he caused no air disturbance and didn't interrupt the falling rain.

Although the Natural Rainforest was drenched in constant rain, there were still moments of clearer skies. Traveling at ten times the speed of sound was ideal, but in practice, he had to move in bursts, with stops in between. This was where Terry's role became crucial.

When the skies cleared and there were no thunderstorms, the magnetic fields in the forest stabilized, allowing the Elemental Sorcerer to open teleportation portals, locking onto a general destination. Each portal leap covered up to a hundred kilometers, making their travel almost as fast as Rosen's stealthy flight.

However, each time they used the portals, they had to be cautious, as spatial disturbances attracted nearby extraordinary creatures. Each time they exited a portal, they ended up hunting a few more of these creatures.

After two weeks of this, the group had traveled over 600,000 kilometers in a straight line, nearing the Muddy Swamp. Half the time had been spent traveling, the other half resting. Unless absolutely necessary, they always stopped to recover once their spiritual energy dropped below thirty percent. In this dangerous environment, running low on energy could mean death.

Even so, reaching the Muddy Swamp in just two weeks was a feat. Normally, such a journey would take at least two months.

The Muddy Swamp was a low-lying area where rainwater from hundreds of kilometers of surrounding rainforest gathered. Originally, this area had been densely forested, but one year, a Demi-God Hydra was struck and killed by lightning here. The vegetation within a hundred kilometers was turned to ash, leaving behind the swamp. The Hydra's death attracted many snakes, which fed on its corpse. Some of these snakes inherited part of the Hydra's bloodline, becoming Hydra Monsters.

Over the following millennia, the Hydra Monsters multiplied and became the dominant species in the area.

Hunting regular Hydra Monsters wasn't too difficult—if done quickly and with caution, it wasn't too dangerous. But hunting mutated Hydras was far more challenging. Hydras often hid in the swamp's mud, making them hard to find, and mutated ones were especially rare. Finding one was mostly a matter of luck.

After two days of hunting regular Hydras with Terry's team, Rosen grew tired of relying on luck.

"I have a way to lure out a mutated Hydra more quickly," Rosen said during a rest.

"Oh? What's your plan?" Terry asked, surprised.

"By killing a large number of regular Hydras, we'll force the mutated one to come out on its own," Rosen explained.

Terry instinctively shook his head. Everyone knew that killing enough Hydras increased the chances of encountering a mutated one. But Hydras were communal creatures. Dealing with ten or twenty was manageable, but hundreds? That could spell the end for the entire team. Despite his reservations, after hearing Rosen's full plan, Terry reluctantly agreed.

After half a day of scouting, Terry found a suitable hunting spot. Rosen then deployed his Trap Space and began setting up fusion traps.

He placed thirty traps, primarily spatial traps that created spatial fog. These were then enhanced with elemental traps imbued with Terry's parasitic spores, and finally, Rosen added time traps that accelerated the parasites with time dust.

Once the traps were in place, Rosen pulled out his Fate Pen and began writing a fate script. Soon enough, a Hydra, influenced by the fate script, was drawn to the struggling cries of a massive Horned Yellow Goat near the swamp's edge.

The Hydra, a Sequence 7 with three functional heads, glided smoothly through the swamp. It lunged at the goat, one head biting into its belly while the other two ripped into its sides, feasting on its flesh.

At that moment, the traps activated. The parasitic spores, which had infected the goat, quickly spread into the Hydra. The time dust accelerated the spores' growth, causing them to parasitize the Hydra at triple speed. The Hydra realized too late that it had walked into a trap, but by then, the spatial fog had disoriented it, forcing it to wander in circles within a limited space.

The Hydra's pained cries soon attracted more of its kin. Dozens of Hydras slithered into the trap zone, only to fall victim to the same parasitic spores.

At first, the spores caused only mild discomfort, but the internal itching and escalating pain soon drove the Hydras into a frenzy. They unleashed their elemental attacks wildly, but with the spatial fog distorting their aim, most of their attacks hit each other.

Each trap had a range of about thirty meters, and with thirty traps set up, they could contain dozens of Hydras at once. The Hydras tore at one another, but none of their attacks could damage the traps. The spores, carried by the air, infected every Hydra in the area, while the spatial traps remained hidden in the spatial layers, impervious to their assault.

One by one, the Hydras succumbed to the parasites. Rosen used his Void Scavenger ability to effortlessly collect their bodies, making space for new Hydras to fall into the trap.

Initially, more Hydras continued to arrive, but as the casualties mounted, the surviving Hydras began to gather outside the trap, reluctant to enter. They circled warily, but eventually, one of them initiated an attack from a distance. Soon, all the Hydras were launching long-range elemental attacks—fireballs, water spheres, ice blasts, and more—at the spatial fog.

Under the concentrated barrage, the trapped Hydras were slaughtered. The surviving Hydras searched the area, tearing the surroundings apart, but found no trace of the culprit behind the massacre.

Of course, they wouldn't find anything. Rosen had hidden in a water-filled hollow beneath a giant tree, completely invisible thanks to the Dragonfang Dagger's ability. No matter how hard the Hydras searched, they couldn't detect him.

Seeing that no mutated Hydra had appeared in this wave, Rosen moved on to another location to set up a new trap.

Over the next few days, the edges of the Muddy Swamp echoed with the dying cries of hundreds of Hydras. With so many slain, the surviving Hydras began to travel in packs, rarely wandering alone anymore.

Rosen had finally located what seemed to be a mutated Hydra, as this particular creature was capable of releasing lightning elemental attacks.

Out of the thousands of Hydras he had encountered, this was the only one that had mastered lightning element abilities. Using Shadow Sneak, Rosen silently trailed the Hydra, waiting for a chance to catch it alone.

When the Hydra stopped to rest, Rosen set up a fusion trap nearby. The trap combined spatial displacement, shadow stealth from the elemental trap, and time acceleration from time dust. Once the trap was ready, it was stealthily teleported directly beneath the Hydra using the shadow stealth ability.

The time-accelerated spatial transfer gave the Hydra no chance to escape, and it was instantly transported miles away from the Muddy Swamp to a clearing in the forest, far from its usual territory.

By then, Terry and the team had already prepared to ambush the mutated Hydra. The Elemental Sorcerer immediately cast a Water Prison as soon as the Hydra appeared. Instinctively, the Hydra released a surge of lightning, but since the prison was made from saltwater, the electricity only caused the Hydra to convulse, electrocuting itself. It quickly cast stone armor, protecting itself from further electrical damage.

The Hydra thrashed against the Water Prison, its heads striking with whiplike force, each blow exceeding several times the speed of sound. Seeing the Water Prison begin to crack, the thirty Frost Nagas, who had been waiting in formation, cast their own Water Prisons simultaneously. With thirty layers of Water Prisons stacked together, the Hydra was unable to break free, no matter how violently it struggled.

At this point, the Doctor injected paralyzing agents into the water, while the Shadow Assassin used shadow-stealth to slip into the prison, striking the Hydra with a dagger before retreating. Although the attacks didn't cause substantial damage, they slowly wore the Hydra down.

Terry then summoned his Ice Vine companion, which began freezing the water inside the prison. By the time Rosen arrived, the Hydra was encased in a solid block of ice, rendered powerless.

Rosen drew his Dragonfang Dagger and chipped away at the ice, creating an opening before plunging the dagger into the Hydra's back. Despite its death throes, the creature's struggle was futile. It soon became a lifeless husk, drained dry by the Dragonfang Dagger's Beast King Bloodlust.

After storing the Hydra's body in his Scavenger Space, Rosen retrieved its still-beating heart. The Dragonfang Dagger had avoided damaging the heart, so it was still faintly pulsing. He fed it to his Gluttonous Beast, which began digesting it in its Gluttonous Stomach, slowly transferring the Hydra's elemental powers into Rosen's Elemental Trap Crafting Skill. As a final touch, Rosen tossed in some extraordinary essence as well.

This pushed his Elemental Trap Crafting beyond its limits, advancing from LV2 to LV3.

Now feeling more confident, Rosen decided to target a Sequence 6 mutated Hydra. However, this meant venturing deeper into the Muddy Swamp, something that no amount of money could persuade Terry to agree to. "It's good to make money, but only if you live to spend it," Terry said firmly.

Eventually, they reached a compromise. Rosen would venture into the depths of the swamp on his own. If he could transport a Sequence 6 mutated Hydra out of the swamp, Terry's team would assist in its capture. Even with this risk, Rosen was satisfied with the arrangement.

For the next two weeks, Rosen prayed for rain daily. With his Dragonfang Dagger, he could move freely through the Muddy Swamp as long as it was raining. Unfortunately, heavy rain caused the Hydras to retreat into the deeper parts of the swamp, making them harder to find. Without control over the weather, Rosen's progress was slow.

Still, Rosen wasn't idle during this time. While his self-portrait clone hunted for prey in the rain, the real Rosen stayed in his Void Gallery, working on his art. He painted two pieces on his Psychic Canvas: one depicting the swamp during a light rain, and the other showing a beautiful female Hydra from the perspective of the Hydras themselves. If this plan didn't work, Rosen would have to resort to searching the old-fashioned way.

Leaving the gallery, Rosen gazed at the clear sky. He projected the Swamp Rain Scene onto the sky, summoning a localized rain cloud to drizzle over a thousand-meter radius. While Hydras disliked heavy rain, which turned the swamp into a muddy mess, they enjoyed light rain, and soon, many Hydras emerged from their hiding spots.

Rosen remained invisible in the rain and used Psychic Projection to display his second painting to the nearby Hydras. In their minds, a stunning female Hydra appeared, arousing every male Hydra within the area. However, the female Hydra made it clear that she only wanted to mate with mutated Hydras, leaving the regular ones frustrated.

Despite the frenzy, no mutated Hydras appeared. Rosen continued to move deeper into the swamp, using light rain and the alluring female Hydra to lure out a mutated one. After two days, he finally found a mutated Hydra that wielded darkness elemental power.

Most Hydras only controlled the basic elements—metal, wood, water, fire, earth, and poison. Any Hydra with control over other elements was likely a mutated one. Rosen set up another trap and used his Psychic Canvas to project the alluring female Hydra, fully manifesting her form.

The mutated Hydra, drooling, rushed toward the image, but before it could make contact, Rosen's time-accelerated Sequence 6-level Spatial Transfer sent it to a prearranged battlefield. This time, Rosen's self-portrait clone activated the traps, and Rosen himself joined in the ambush.

The Water Prison was ineffective against a Sequence 6 mutated Hydra, so the moment the spatial transfer completed, Rosen fired a Nightmare Elemental Quadruple Shell from his God-Slaying Crossbow, directly targeting the Hydra's spirit and pulling it into a nightmare.

If it had been a regular Hydra, this would have ended the battle. However, this mutated Hydra had undergone atavistic evolution, splitting its consciousness across its four heads, just like a true Hydra. While one head was trapped in a nightmare, the other three still had some resistance, though they were somewhat dazed.

Seizing the opportunity, the Doctor threw three syringes like darts, each embedding into one of the remaining heads. The syringes contained a potent anesthetic, numbing the Hydra to pain.

The Shadow Assassin then appeared with three shadow clones, each wielding twin daggers. They worked in unison, expertly cutting away the scales from the second head, and with a final effort, severed it completely.

Meanwhile, Terry, using his Vines of Frost, entangled the third head. His Elemental Sorcerer ally cast Fireburst, igniting the oil within the vines and scorching the Hydra's scales. Once the scales were charred, Terry delivered the finishing blow, decapitating the third head.

At that moment, the fourth head regained full consciousness and released a powerful flame ring from its jaws. The Shadow Assassin, exhausted from the previous attack, couldn't dodge in time, but the Paladin stepped in, raising his shield to block the flames. Terry and the Elemental Sorcerer continued to dodge and support the Shadow Assassin's retreat.

Rosen transformed into his Feathered Serpent God form, unleashing a Nightmare Shackle from his mouth. Normally, the shackles were made of psychic energy, designed for subjugation, sharing, and sealing. However, Rosen had enhanced them with light and gold elemental power, turning them into a more physical restraint.

The Nightmare Shackle moved with the speed of light, binding the Hydra's fourth head before it could evade. The shackle continued to extend, wrapping around the Hydra's body with perfect precision. Despite the creature's violent thrashing, the more it struggled, the more tightly it was bound.

Rosen had activated his Time Sight, using a vision of three seconds into the future to anticipate the Hydra's every move. The Nightmare Shackle's visible portion forced the Hydra to dodge, while hidden parts waited for the creature to run into them.

Now fully bound, the Hydra's struggles were futile. Rosen integrated his Gluttonous Beast power into the shackles, causing them to sprout small mouths. Instead of devouring the Hydra's body, these mouths began to sap its stamina.

As Rosen's mastery over Gluttony grew, he discovered that he could now consume intangible things, such as energy and stamina. In the future, with further refinement, he might even be able to devour souls and pain.

As the Hydra weakened, Rosen released his Gluttonous Beast, which swelled in size and swallowed the incapacitated creature whole, imprisoning it within the Gluttonous Stomach. Rosen planned to slaughter it once his Elemental Trap Crafting reached its maximum LV3 capacity.

Terry looked at Rosen with a hint of wariness. Both were Sequence 7 hunters, yet this Lynn Wells, a trap hunter, was terrifying. Terry suspected that even without their help, Lynn might have been able to capture the Sequence 6 Hydra on his own.

Having successfully completed the mission, Terry led his team away after a short rest. Rosen, however, remained behind. The Natural Rainforest was filled with countless extraordinary life forms and treasures. He didn't know the way to the Muddy Swamp, but he could certainly find his way back.

With the team gone, he no longer needed to pretend to be a hunter. Now, he could see just how far he could push himself at full power.

Rosen summoned his Mechanical Mount, which transformed into its Shadow-Stealth form as they plunged deeper into the swamp.

Just a few days ago, his left eye's Virtual Realm had successfully merged with his Photographic Space. Now, whether objects had spiritual energy or not, his left eye could effortlessly scan everything within a 30,000-meter radius, clearly distinguishing between spiritual and non-spiritual materials. In the Virtual Realm, it could replicate everything scanned as if in a simulation.

From his current location in the Muddy Swamp, Rosen scanned the area and detected a region deep within the swamp where spiritual energy was highly concentrated. Without a doubt, a significant extraordinary resource was hidden there.