After going into the sea, I met the witch.

"...Follow it...to the location of the 'Dragon in the Mud'..."

A spirit deer rose from beside the old tree, circled Ryan curiously, and scrutinized him with its bright, lively eyes.

"it is good."

Ryan nodded and turned to leave.

With the "reclusive dragonman" as "guarantee," the spirit deer no longer felt its initial fear of Ryan and happily skipped ahead to lead the way.

The underground space was far larger than Ryan had expected. It consisted of a combination of caves of varying sizes, with many forks in the road. Led by the spirit deer, Ryan meandered through the maze and finally arrived at a large cave with muddy wetlands below.

Upon arriving here, the spirit deer clearly showed fear. It hopped around Ryan once before hiding in a clump of ferns in a corner, looking at him with its large, bright eyes, as if to say, "I've brought you to the place. Go ahead, I'll wait for you here."

Ryan smiled at the spirit deer, then his spatial ring flashed, and a greatsword appeared, which he tucked behind his back.

Walking along the slightly drier ground at the edge of the muddy wetlands, Ryan soon stopped.

In front of him, in a wide wetland, several fish with sharp fins moved slowly above the wetland, while further away, a fish with fins much larger than these moved quietly in the wetland.

"A dragon in the mud?"

"There seem to be other members of the same species around, similar to the relationship between beach crabs and dragonhead crabs?"

Ryan felt a chill run down his spine.

Instead of rushing forward recklessly, he picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it at one of the fish fins floating on the wetland.

His original intention was to lure these small monsters and defeat them first. When facing special species, it would be very troublesome if there were other members of the same race nearby.

To Ryan's surprise, the single pebble he threw triggered a chain reaction.

Not only did all the monsters under the small fins swim rapidly toward where he was, but even the "Dragon in the Mud" further away was alarmed.

In an instant, the mud surged, and the huge fish fins, like sharp blades cutting through the waves, rushed straight towards him.

The "Dragon in the Mud" moved incredibly fast, arriving at Ryan's location not far away. With a "boom," mud flew everywhere, and the enormous black shadow leaped out of the mud, opening its blood-red maw to bite down on Ryan from mid-air.

Having anticipated this, Ryan quickly dodged the attack and watched as the "Mud Dragon" landed back in the wetlands and disappeared into them. As expected, a gray notification appeared before Ryan's eyes.

[Mud Dragon]: Lower-tier apex, Ichthyosaur species!

Seeing this, Ryan smiled.

really!

Even in the Stone Wasteland, there can't be too many monsters of the [High Rank] level.

At least the "mud dragon" in front of us is not!

"Lower-tier peak... Perfect, I'll use you as the final awakening resource for the [Azure Medal]!"

Chapter 103 Awakening, Azure Medal! (Part 1)

-

Mud Dragon: A fish-dragon species, the leader of the underground wetlands of the Stone Wasteland, and a lower-tier apex predator. Normally, the difficulty of defeating a mature Mud Dragon is "lower-tier three stars", but this Mud Dragon has grown to "lower-tier apex" due to its unique opportunities.

The Mudfish Dragon inhabits muddy wetlands, using the wet mud to catch prey and protect itself. When covered in wet mud, its defenses are formidable; however, once its scales dry, they lose strength and become brittle, and its skin's respiration efficiency decreases. The mud that the Mudfish Dragon spits out is extremely sticky; contact with any mud residue left on the ground will restrict its movement, so please proceed with caution.

—You feel immense pressure!

-

Looking at the gray text describing "Mud Dragon" in front of him, Ryan smiled faintly.

At the bottom of the gray text, although it says "You feel heavy pressure," judging from his own feelings, "Mud Dragon's" strength, while at the "lower-level peak," is still somewhat inferior to that of the Rathalos leader.

The panel only has three levels of danger warnings.

First, there are no hints whatsoever. In this case, it means the enemy is weaker than him, or of equal strength.

Secondly, there's the sign that "you feel immense pressure." This requires extreme caution, as it indicates that the enemy's strength surpasses yours significantly.

Third, there's the message, "This person's strength far surpasses yours; you cannot fight them head-on. Please get away as soon as possible." This message is even simpler, indicating that the enemy's strength far exceeds yours, your chances of winning are almost zero, and only escape offers a glimmer of hope.

Judging from Ryan's actual experience, in the third scenario, once the enemy becomes hostile towards him, he has no chance to escape and all his attempts end in death.

For enemies of similar difficulty, the difference between their upper and lower limits is also significant.

Both Mud Dragon and Rathalos bosses are considered "lower-tier" in difficulty, but due to their different races and attack methods, their threat levels vary greatly.

Without a doubt, Rathalos is an exceptionally difficult opponent in the "lower tier," while Muddra is clearly much less formidable.

But this is undoubtedly a good thing for Ryan.

The mud dragon, now back in the wetland mud, had its upper body exposed on the muddy ground. It was about two meters long, approaching three meters. Compared to the massive size of the flying dragon species, this ichthyosaur was undoubtedly much smaller.

But physique is never the only measure of combat effectiveness.

The mud dragon opened its mouth, and the next moment, a large spurt of mud shot out, landing precisely on Ryan.

He stepped back, instantly creating a three-meter distance between himself and the mud that had exploded and formed a large, sticky mass of mud in front of him. Ryan frowned.

Even though he had stepped back three meters, his shoes were still covered in mud.

This thing doesn't spray very fast, but it has a wide range and can create unfavorable terrain. If the mud dragon is allowed to spray continuously, the difficulty of defeating it will increase dramatically.

Seeing that the mud dragon was about to "spray mud" again, Ryan knew he couldn't let it continue.

The spatial ring flashed, and the [Light Crossbow - Ice Shatter] appeared in his hand. Taking advantage of the moment when the mud dragon spewed out another large cloud of mud, Ryan reacted quickly and pulled the trigger.

"Om-"

The crossbow string vibrated continuously, and the ice-blue crossbow bolt shot out, piercing the mud dragon's mouth while it was off guard.

"Ugh——!"

The mud dragon let out a mournful cry. Because its mouth was full of mud and saliva, the crossbow bolt's ice-attribute attack was unexpectedly effective, covering most of the mud dragon's mouth with a layer of frost.

The excruciating pain forced the mud dragon to tumble and burrow into the wetlands, swallowing large mouthfuls of mud.

Ryan suddenly exerted force with both legs and rushed to the side of the mud dragon.

He shouldered the greatsword and began to gather his strength.

The mud dragon, having used the mud to wash away the frost in its mouth, quickly emerged from the wetlands, only to be met with a sword strike from Ryan after he had "charged up" his power.

"Boom-"

The silver-blue greatsword collided with the mud dragon's head, which was covered in "mud armor," producing a low, muffled thud.

The mud dragon, struck hard, leaned back, its entire body smashed into the mud by Ryan.

Ryan's hands went slightly numb, and he stumbled back two steps due to the recoil.

Ryan's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the mud dragon shake its head from the mud like a "nothing happened" fish and then stand up again.

The mud armor on the spot he had just struck with his greatsword had peeled off in large sections, revealing a deep white mark on the surface of fine fish scales underneath.

The mud dragon's scales are not thick, and the defensive performance of the scales alone is not even as good as that of the red tyrannosaurus, but the mud armor has excellent defensive capabilities.

"When protected by wet mud, the mud dragon's defensive capabilities are quite strong."

This is the original text from the gray-text description.

At first glance, Ryan didn't quite understand, but now he finally gets it.

"In other words, to effectively attack the mud dragon, you need to immediately pursue it after breaking through its 'mud armor'."

Ryan thought to himself as he watched the mud dragon leap backward and plunge into the mud, reappearing with its "mud armor" fully replenished.

Unlike the [High Rank] Unicorn Dragon, whose defenses are purely impenetrable, the Mud Dragon's "powerful defense" can be broken.

in this way……

"Then it's not a big problem."

Ryan dashed forward, and as he ran, he took out a piece of meat and put it in his mouth to chew.

Crimson flames appeared on the greatsword, and at the same time, Ryan's speed increased further.

【Food Battle - Rathalos's Lament】Activated.

Faced with Ryan's approach, the mud dragon opened its mouth once again, having learned from the previous attack on its mouth. A large amount of mud churned inside its mouth to prevent external attacks from invading.

After a brief moment of charging up, the mud dragon lowered its head and forcefully sprayed a large amount of mud towards its body.

This was unexpected for Ryan, who had assumed the mud dragon would spray mud at him.

A large amount of mud formed a life-sized, outward-expanding wall of rotten mud around the mud dragon, severely hindering Ryan's approach.

This stuff is very soft and sticky; stepping on it or getting it on your body greatly restricts your movement.

Moreover, it's disgusting.

Ryan dared not let the stuff get on him, so he had no choice but to back away and create some distance.

The massive mud walls obstructed his view, preventing Ryan from seeing any trace of the mud dragon. He could only sense something rapidly approaching him from the trembling wetlands.

"Pfft!"

A sharp, yellowish-brown fin cleaved the mud wall beside Ryan in two, and a huge dragon's mouth lunged at him, large enough to easily swallow him whole.

Despite being startled by the incoming attack, Ryan remained calm and composed, having already assumed a defensive stance.

He stepped back and dodged. With the blessing of "Rathalos's Lament," his speed was quite astonishing. Although he was ambushed, he still managed to dodge to the side of the Mud Dragon.

The greatsword rose from below, the immense force lifting the mud dragon's lunging body upwards by a large margin. The "mud armor" on its abdomen, struck by the heavy blow, shattered and fell off in large areas, revealing the relatively soft abdominal scales.

With the greatsword raised, Ryan casually slung it over his shoulder, took a deep breath, and began to concentrate and tighten his power, while his spirituality was also compressed rapidly.

The mud dragon, having reached its limit, began to fall. At this point, Ryan had completed the first stage of charging. It wasn't that he didn't want to charge the second stage, but that would have made it too late.

The greatsword slashed out, its crimson and ice-blue blade striking the mud dragon's belly, which was unprotected by its "mud armor."

"Thorn--!"

This time, the mud dragon could no longer resist. Its scales were torn apart, its inner muscle fascia was cut open, and a large amount of bright red blood gushed out.

The severely wounded mud dragon collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain. Just as Ryan was about to press his advantage, the sound of wind breaking came from both sides of him.

These are mudfish with much smaller fins than the previous ones.

These mudfish, which have not evolved into a special species, are only two meters long each. When Ryan was fighting the mud dragon, they swam around without intervening. Now that they see their leader in trouble, they immediately offer their help.

Ryan frowned.