Chapter 39: Special Individual
The sky was clear as a blue gem, and a scale vulture soared through the air. Its wingspan was nearly three meters, and its sharp eyes scanned the area below, patrolling its territory.
After circling high in the sky a few times, the semicircular light membrane inside the valley below caught the scale vulture's attention. Just as it prepared to dive downward, it suddenly stopped. It sensed danger—a crisis that made all its scales and feathers bristle.
Seeking benefit and avoiding harm was an animal's instinct, especially for a scale vulture, which was a transcendent creature. Although it didn't detect the insect nest inside the ring-shaped valley, it sensed Su Xiao's aura. So it left the area and wouldn't return anytime soon.
Inside the ring-shaped valley, the surrounding mountain walls were very steep. If the top of the valley were covered, this would be a mountain cave over 2,000 meters wide and more than 230 meters high, with the only exit being the narrow passage ahead.
Su Xiao did intend to do this, but for now, the number of basic insectoids was insufficient to complete such a massive project.
In Su Xiao's view, insectoids could be divided into only two categories: combat insectoids and basic insectoids. The former was easy to understand, while the latter was key to maintaining the insect nest.
Most basic insectoids had no combat ability. The Mantis Armor was one of them, but it was the lowest tier, with very low work efficiency. There were two types of relatively excellent basic insectoids:
Worker Scorpion: Evolved from Mantis Armor, mainly responsible for constructing insectoid buildings, maintaining the fungal carpet, terrain modification, etc.
Spore Tank: A super-giant insectoid with no combat ability, responsible for transportation.
Besides these two types, there were many others, but they weren't suitable for large-scale hatching. The more Worker Scorpions and Spore Tanks, the better.
At this moment, the insect nest had stopped hatching insectoids. Jila inside had fallen into a semi-sleep state, with a layer of translucent light membrane enveloping the insect nest. This was for world assimilation.
In the judgment of Reincarnation Paradise, Jila was Su Xiao's summoned creature. Therefore, when Jila arrived in this world and established the insect nest, world assimilation began. Without this assimilation process, not only would the insect nest have problems, but it would also cause unpredictable effects on this world.
World assimilation had been going on for nearly an hour. The light membrane around the insect nest grew fainter and fainter. After another ten-plus minutes, the inverted bowl-shaped light membrane disappeared.
[The summoned creature of the Hunter has completed world assimilation. Hunter permission level Lv.2 has been consumed.]
A permission level of Lv.2 was completely within acceptable range. Su Xiao's permission level had long exceeded Lv.70, but that had no practical effect. Before passing the Eighth Rank assessment, he could only enjoy a maximum of Lv.70 Hunter permission. With his Lv.66 imprint level, having a permission level four levels higher than his imprint level was sufficient.
As soon as Jila and the insect nest completed assimilation, the surrounding world seemed to change. The constant sense of rejection disappeared.
Su Xiao checked the insect nest's data. Other aspects hadn't changed, but the bio-energy reserve had undergone a major shift, from "81,600/2,700,000 points" to "6,270/570,000 points."
It seemed that the bio-energy required for the insect nest to advance to the sixth stage had decreased, but Su Xiao felt that wasn't the case. The Primordial World was two ranks higher than the Thorn Bug Star. The quality of bio-energy obtained from the two worlds was definitely different.
After checking the cultivation cost of Demon Beasts, Su Xiao understood. Originally, one Demon Beast required 780 points of bio-energy, but now it only required 50 points. Not only the cultivation cost of Demon Beasts but also the cultivation costs of other insectoid units had decreased.
Looking around, the vast area around the insect nest only had the fungal carpet and the Mantis Armor·Blue waiting on it. This was somewhat pitiful.
Regarding the development of the insectoids, Su Xiao wouldn't personally go hunting. He, Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha would stay near the base camp. They wouldn't leave until the number of combat insectoids reached a certain level.
Su Xiao walked toward the entrance of the insect nest. The insect nest was overall dark green, with thick veins covering its surface. After entering, Su Xiao found that it wasn't as dim as he had imagined.
With a height of 120 meters, one could imagine how large the insect nest was inside. Large and small passages crisscrossed. If an outsider entered here, they would definitely get lost. The insect nest had a strong perception-blocking property.
The biological tissue under Su Xiao's feet wasn't soft but was very tough, like stepping on rubber. After touring the insect nest, Su Xiao found Jila. At this moment, Jila was lying in the insect nest's Queen's Warm Room, sleeping soundly. As for her sleeping posture, it was better not to mention it.
After walking around the insect nest, Su Xiao came out. He had no interest in living in this place covered with active mucus, even though the air inside was exceptionally fresh.
Awakening Jila through mental energy, Su Xiao had Jila control the insect nest to cultivate Demon Beasts. Jila herself didn't have the ability to cultivate insectoids. Or rather, besides controlling insectoids in battle, she basically couldn't do anything else. But that didn't matter.
The hatching tissue inside the insect nest began to work. After cultivating 125 Demon Beast eggs, they started cultivating in the cultivation sacs.
In just two minutes, Demon Beasts crawled out of the cultivation sacs one by one. The Fifth Rank insect nest's cultivation ability was quite formidable, capable of simultaneously cultivating up to 1,950 Demon Beasts in a single batch.
Bio-energy was down to 20 points. Each Spore Tank only required 8 points of bio-energy. Su Xiao chose to cultivate two. The carrying capacity of Spore Tanks was calculated in tons, which could greatly improve hunting efficiency, allowing Demon Beasts to only hunt without wasting time transporting prey.
When the first Demon Beast ran out of the insect nest, Su Xiao saw its appearance. It was completely different from the previous Demon Beasts.
At this moment, the Demon Beast, not counting its tail, was about three meters long. Its two hind legs were bent, and the black carapace on its body had clear lines and was at least a finger thick. Its forelimbs were slightly shorter than its hind legs, and its claws were like razor blades, with a slight curve at the tips. As long as it slightly caught an enemy, it could tear off a piece of flesh.
The most conspicuous part was the Demon Beast's armored tail. The entire armored tail was nearly three meters long. Due to the unique carapace structure on it, this long tail could swing 360° freely. At the tip of the armored tail, at first glance, it looked like a blade-shaped spike, but it could open. After stabbing into a prey's body and opening, the prey couldn't escape.
With the Demon Beast's form, if it were in a narrow terrain, it could even run quickly on walls and ceilings. A sensitive body, hard carapace, sharp claws, and a pointed tail—this was the Demon Beast. Simple and pure, but deadly.
The 125 Demon Beasts quickly assembled. They rushed toward the mountain wall behind, running up it as if on flat ground. Soon, they disappeared from Su Xiao's sight, going to hunt transcendent creatures.
Name: Demon Beast
Strength: 93 (True Attribute)
Agility: 97 (True Attribute)
Stamina: 95 (True Attribute)
Intelligence: 12
Charm: Lower insectoids have no Charm Attribute.
Skill 1, Demon Power (Passive, Lv.40): Attacks deal 52 points of True Damage.
Skill 2, Super Speed Running (Passive, Lv.55): Running speed increased by 150%.
Skill 3, Alien Species (Passive, Lv.40): Carapace defense +70, physical defense +35 points, health +1,500 points.
Skill 4, Combat Instinct (Passive, X): A killing creature born for battle. Combat abilities are engraved in its genes.
...
None of the three True Attributes had broken 100, but that didn't matter. The Demon Beast hadn't evolved to its complete form yet. As the insect nest's rank increased, the Demon Beast's potential would also be developed.
After checking the Demon Beast's data, Su Xiao noticed a line of small text at the bottom, indicating that insectoid data could be simplified. He had encountered this situation on the Thorn Bug Star. After choosing to simplify, the Demon Beast's data immediately changed.
[Demon Beast (Fifth Rank Combat Insectoid)]
Speed: ★★★★★
Destructiveness: ★★★★★
Defense: ★★★★
...
The Demon Beast's overall ability was very strong. Except for defense, everything else was at the top level of the Fifth Rank. No wonder Jila could flatten the Thorn Bug Star.
One thing puzzled Su Xiao: this batch of cultivated Demon Beasts didn't produce any elite individuals. But Jila quickly answered Su Xiao's question.
At this point, the evolution chamber no longer produced elite individuals because every Demon Beast cultivated was already an elite individual. In the Fifth Rank evolution chamber, there was a certain chance of producing leader-level individuals.
According to Jila's description, Su Xiao learned that leader-level individuals were different from elite-level individuals. Leader-level individuals were initially weak, but they could grow. As long as they fought, they could continuously grow and even awaken unique abilities of their own.
More importantly, when a leader-level Demon Beast grew to its limit, it could command Demon Beasts in battle on the spot, greatly relieving Jila's pressure. After all, Jila commanded from inside the insect nest, not on the battlefield.
After hearing Jila's description, Su Xiao looked forward to leader-level Demon Beasts. The most special aspect of leader-level Demon Beasts was their growth potential.