Chapter 15: Eat, Eat, Eat
Bubu Wang disappeared into the wild grass. After blending into the environment, it ran directly toward the distant insect nest.
Upon arriving near the insect nest, Bubu Wang saw dozens of Mantis Armors and several types of insectoids it had never seen before. Among them, it didn't see the Stinger-type insectoid soldier, which confirmed Su Xiao's speculation that the genetic memories awakened by the mother bodies were different.
Jila's first-stage combat soldier was the Stinger, while this enemy insect nest's first-stage combat insectoid was called the Ling Liao.
The number of insectoids near the nest was over a hundred, not counting those that had already gone out hunting.
After a rough observation, Bubu Wang walked toward the entrance of the insect nest.
The process of entering the nest went smoothly. Bubu Wang slowed its pace. The interior of this insect nest was about fifty square meters, over ten meters high, with dark green inner walls secreting a kind of mucus that gave the nest a faint apricot scent—not unpleasant, but rather refreshing.
Inside the insect nest, a figure lay within the biological tissue. This was a mother body with a similar appearance to Jila, only slightly taller.
Bubu Wang took out a thermal sensing device and began providing Su Xiao with its location.
Seven hundred meters away from the insect nest, within the wild grass, Su Xiao crouched on a mound, leveling the over-two-meter-long Devouring Annihilation, his finger resting on the trigger.
The sky was clear, with not a cloud in sight. It was a good day, windless.
Bang!
The gunshot rang out. The moment the sound spread, almost instantly, all the combat insectoids near the nest charged toward it. They leaped up, clinging to the nest, using their bodies to block any possible attack.
Without determining the enemy's position, this was a wise move. Unfortunately, at that moment, a hole nearly two meters wide had already appeared in the nest, with emerald-green liquid gushing out along the edges of the breach.
Inside the insect nest, a mother body with only its lower half remaining twitched unconsciously. Its head and upper body had been blasted apart.
Before coming, Su Xiao had checked Jila's attributes. After advancing to the second stage, Jila only had 72 points in Stamina.
For another second-stage mother body, even if its Stamina attribute was higher, it wouldn't be by much. Mother bodies had higher Intelligence and Charm attributes, followed by Stamina. As for Strength and Agility, they were quite weak.
[Prompt: The Hunter has killed a second-stage mother body.]
[You have obtained a Treasure Chest (Gold).]
...
Su Xiao only glanced at the prompt before focusing his attention on the distant insect nest. After the mother body's death, the insectoids near the nest became unusually agitated and confused, scurrying around in all directions.
"Baha."
"Uh, well, cough, I had diarrhea today, really, just this morning."
"..."
"Being able to fly isn't always a good thing."
Baha spread its wings and took off, flying to within a few dozen meters of the nest.
"Hey, over here."
"Roar!!"
"Hiss~"
A series of roars came. All the combat insectoids charged toward Baha, with over a dozen of them swelling their abdomens and spitting out clumps of acidic liquid.
Baha immediately retreated, and the combat insectoids below began to pursue. They had no intelligence; without the mother body's command, they could only act on instinct—hunt, survive, simple as that.
All the combat insectoids were lured away by Baha. Seeing this, Su Xiao decided on one thing: when the next contractor melee began, he must strengthen the protection of Jila.
The combat insectoids all went in pursuit, while the dozens of Mantis Armors milled around the nest in confusion.
Su Xiao put away Devouring Annihilation. D·Assassination appeared in his hand. He tried to approach the nest, and something unexpected happened. Not only did the Mantis Armors not attack him, they even attempted to build a small nest nearby.
Su Xiao looked at the thirty-meter-tall behemoth before him. This thing would be handled by Baha for transport.
The battle went much smoother than imagined, which also exposed the weakness of the insectoids: once the mother body was lost, the combat effectiveness of the insectoids dropped by over 90%.
Bubu Wang walked out of the nest, something in its mouth.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang tossed a crystal resembling a green emerald toward Su Xiao, who caught it casually.
[You have obtained Coagulated Crystal ×1 (Low Purity).]
Aside from the name, there was no description. Su Xiao felt this should be a unique product of the insect nest. Since it hadn't been certified by Reincarnation Paradise, it couldn't be taken out of this world.
Putting away the Coagulated Crystal, Su Xiao grabbed the insect nest with one hand, preparing to uproot the whole thing.
This battle seemed easy, but it was entirely due to an intelligence advantage. This mother body had set up warnings only within 500 meters, but Su Xiao sniped from 700 meters away. Combined with Bubu Wang providing the location, he was able to one-shot the relatively fragile mother body.
If he had launched a frontal assault, it would have taken at least half an hour to kill all the combat insectoids.
As for attacking a third-stage nest head-on, that would be extremely dangerous. One mistake, and Su Xiao could be swallowed by the insect tide.
As for a fourth-stage nest, Su Xiao wouldn't provoke it at all. If he was too slow to run, he would definitely die.
In less than half an hour, Baha returned, landing on the already toppled nest.
"Boss, I know what you're thinking, but this thing can't be lifted."
Baha's claws pierced into the nest, and it flapped its wings with all its might. With a tearing sound, it ripped off a large piece of the nest's outer skin.
"It can be done in five trips."
Su Xiao drew the long blade at his waist, slashing out a few times in quick succession. The nest was cut into five even chunks.
"That makes it much easier."
Baha grabbed a large chunk of the nest, spread its wings, and took off. Watching Baha grow distant, Su Xiao thought that Jila could cultivate a Spore Tank—a creature specifically for transporting supplies.
Su Xiao stayed to guard the spoils, while Bubu Wang tied a rope around itself and dragged away another large chunk of the nest.
Looking at the remaining three chunks, Su Xiao took out steel cables, secured them, and dragged the remaining three chunks toward the base camp.
Along the way, Baha met Su Xiao once to assist. It took about two hours in total for Su Xiao to transport all five chunks of the nest back to the base camp.
Just as he returned to the base camp, Su Xiao found that their own insect nest had already reached twenty-five meters in height. Of the five chunks of nest spoils, their nest had already consumed one, using the biological energy inside to expand itself.
Nine Mantis Armors were laboriously breaking down the nest, while fourteen Stingers acted as porters. None of them had gone out to hunt.
Before long, ten more Mantis Armors ran out of the nest, joining the work of breaking down and transporting the nest chunks.
The consumption speed of their nest grew faster and faster. When the nest reached thirty meters, its eating speed was at least fifty times faster than at the start.
Thirty meters was the maximum height for a second-stage nest. Jila had only advanced to the second stage at noon, but now the second-stage nest had already reached its size limit.
After the nest finished consuming, Su Xiao checked the biological energy reserves.
[Our insect nest's current biological energy: 6179/10000.]
This proved that raiding other insectoids was hundreds of times faster than hunting animals. If they relied solely on Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and the fourteen Stingers to hunt animals, accumulating 6000 points of biological energy would take at least three days. Moreover, the nest's growth had also consumed a fair amount of biological energy.
The nest that had been destroyed earlier had clearly accumulated a lot of biological energy, but disaster struck from the sky, and it was razed to the ground.
"Jila."
"I'm here."
Jila poked her head out from the nest entrance. At that moment, Jila's loyalty reached 95 points, an all-time high. If she were a female plot character, rubbing her against the bed wouldn't be a problem.
"Identify this."
Su Xiao took out the previously obtained [Coagulated Crystal (Low Purity)] and tossed the emerald-like crystal toward Jila.
Unexpectedly, Jila opened her mouth, tilted her head, and caught the "Coagulated Crystal." The walnut-sized crystal was not only in her mouth, but she also seemed inclined to swallow it. This brat really would eat anything.
Su Xiao stepped forward a few paces and grabbed Jila's head, but it was already too late.
Gulp~
Jila's head jerked back as she choked on the green crystal. Su Xiao could clearly see a bulge in her neck, which then traveled downward...
A green glow appeared on Jila. She pressed her hand against the nest, and the biological energy stored in the nest rapidly increased, stopping after rising by about 500 points.