Chapter 8 Mother Bug’s Nest
2015-12-27
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
“Is it you?!”
The expression of the Eastern Dance Maiden seemed a bit incredulous, but upon recalling Soren’s identity, she slightly bowed, a hint of tension and excitement in her voice as she said, “I’m sorry! I was being rude.”
“But why are you here, Your Excellency?”
My God!
I’ve encountered a True God!
Perhaps because she had met Soren before, the Eastern Dance Maiden was extremely excited but did not lose her composure. With Soren’s current legendary rank of 150 points, he had nearly reached the limit of the Material Plane, making it difficult to further enhance his reputation even with legendary events. He was virtually a household name in the Material Plane, his fame having spread to every corner, be it the Eastern Kingdom or the Overseas Islands. Otherwise, the Southern Islands would not have been beaten to such a state without daring to retaliate. If he wanted to continue increasing his legendary status, it would likely only come from conflicts involving planar levels.
Compared to other fallen deities, Soren—the mortal who was granted divinity—might leave a more profound impression!
“Do not reveal my identity.”
Soren preferred not to let others know of his divine status. His recent rescue of her was done on a whim; since he had collaborated with the Eastern Dance Maiden once, he had a good impression of the woman before him.
If it were within his capability, Soren wouldn’t mind helping her a bit.
He had received quite a lot of help from her back when he acquired the ‘Anti-Detection Cloak,’ which was comparable to an artifact.
“Understood.”
The Eastern Dance Maiden quickly nodded upon hearing this. To be honest, she had been following any news related to Soren since they had parted after their previous adventure, but the news she collected had exceeded her expectations.
She had always thought the Eastern Empress was the most impressive person she had ever seen, but Soren turned out to be even more impressive than the Eastern Empress!
A mortal granted divinity.
Such a thing was almost beyond her imagination!
Time was limited.
The golems within the underground ruins had been activated on a large scale, and Soren could not waste time; he directly asked, “Why are you here? What’s your purpose in coming here?”
A larger scale battle had already broken out.
Deep within the underground ruins, intense radiation had caused mutations, resulting in a massive scale of the hive. Countless d*ath Bell Beetles appeared one after another, successfully blocking the advance of the Golem Legion. It seemed the intensity of the golem war was reduced because the need to eliminate these insects was a priority, otherwise, with so many golems charging out, destroying a duchy wouldn’t have posed a problem. The alchemical technology from the Arcane Empire period could not be compared to the present; a small squad of iron golems could easily overpower a regular military.
One should note that in Gloria’s Wizard Tower, there had only been a few iron golems as the highest level of guardians, and not a single Diamond Golem.
“The seals of the Wall of Tears Monastery have been broken by some unknown force.”
The Eastern Dance Maiden, aware of the urgency, disclosed information that should not be easily told to outsiders, hurriedly continuing, “It seals a horrifying Ancient Evil Artifact!”
“The Monastery’s monk corps sought help from the Eastern Empress.”
“The Eastern Empress sent me and Ti here to search for something important, hoping to use something from the Arcane Empire to eliminate it!”
Ancient Evil Artifact?
Eastern Empress?
Wall of Tears?
Soren quickly grasped a hint of understanding and muttered, “Could it be that those ghostly things have come out?”
He had traveled through the Eastern Kingdom.
Back then, legendary professionals would usually visit the Eastern Kingdom; otherwise, their conversations would lack gravitas. Moreover, the challenge level in the Eastern Kingdom was obviously higher than here.
The Eastern Empress.
She was an incredibly mysterious and powerful woman.
In terms of occupational characteristics, the Eastern Empress was somewhat akin to a Hell Poet, as both are versatile professions. However, the Eastern Empress was vastly more powerful; she was the top legendary figure in the entire Eastern Kingdom, her profession level definitely above level 30. Moreover, she was one of the few in the Material Plane who had the capability to confront deities and saints directly. The Eastern Empress covertly controlled more than seventy percent of the entertainment venues in the Eastern Kingdom, and her wealth and status were comparable to Soren’s now.
Her influence in the Eastern Kingdom was similar to Soren’s in the Southern Coast— the only difference being that the Eastern Empress was not a deity!
Due to the destruction of the Arcane Empire, the heavily impacted Eastern Kingdom had not received much influence from deities.
The Monastery had always been a core power.
…
“d*e?!”
A somewhat weak female voice suddenly rang out not far away. Soren looked up and saw the female Master of Fist, with whom he had briefly clashed before. Back then, Soren hadn’t had absolute assurance of winning against her. However, now the gap between them had grown significantly.
Ti was injured.
Although the uprising of the Golem Puppets had reduced their pressure, because they were executing some kind of k*ll command, they had also become targets of the golem’s attacks. The situation did not improve much; many members of the adventurer team had been scattered in the large-scale onslaught of golems. At this moment, it was uncertain where the others had retreated to; there were only insects and golems fighting everywhere, and more insects were climbing up from the depths of the underground.
“Follow me!”
Soren hoped for the golem war not to break out; the pressure in the Material Plane was already immense.
If the golem war erupted, the nearby impact would certainly be severe. Moreover, Soren had some thoughts about these golems; he wanted to try to see if he could sever their operational cores. These golems had been infused with special commands during production, but those commands were not entirely immutable. If he could make them stop, Soren planned to transport them back to Modo, where Gloria could disassemble and reassemble them one by one to reset their commands.
There was a powerful energy reaction deep within the underground passages.
Soren suspected there might be something akin to a power plant below. If the energy core of the floating city were likened to a nuclear power plant, then the energy supply devices used in ordinary cities during the Arcane Empire period could be thought of as large-scale power plants. The disparity between the Arcane Empire period and the Stargate era was not as extensive as one would imagine; the differences in civilization might cause some variations, but due to the foundation of energy supply, there were still things similar to electric lights.
Or rather, the crystal fixtures inside those ruins should be called magic lamps.
These things had been completely damaged, but Soren could see the remaining crystal patterns. Before this city was buried, these patterns had undoubtedly needed a stable source of energy supply.
“Go this way!”
The underground ruins featured many light purple crystal pipes, connected like cables, similar to those found in the Golem Factory within the Chess Dimension. Gloria had completed the current laboratory’s magic energy circuit by dismantling them. This was a special synthetic crystal, somewhat akin to artificial crystal, capable of withstanding decent magical energy transmission, used for constructing relatively simple spell circuits. In the larger buildings within the ruins, there would also be a large diamond-shaped light purple crystal, which resembled a transformer or something else.
These crystals had been severely damaged, with residual tiny runes left over from extremely high alchemical craftsmanship.
The Arcane Empire had once extensively explored the Astral Realm, bringing back many peculiar materials from the Multiverse, and combining them created many things not found in the Material Plane.
Simply relying on the resources of the Material Plane could not support such a magnificent civilization!
——“Fossil to Mud!”
The passage ahead was blocked; the underground ruins had collapsed due to the battle, but this was not an issue for a spellcaster.
Melee professions might need to dig through, but Soren’s spellcasting ability had dramatically increased. One cast of ‘Fossil to Mud’ directly melted the wall before him. Based on his past exploration experiences in the underground ruins, Soren had memorized three ‘Fossil to Mud’ spells, and also prepared one scroll of ‘Fossil to Mud’ and one of ‘Mud to Stone.’
Zzzzz!
Some larger d*ath Bell Beetles appeared in the channel ahead, their distorted mutated forms sprouting sharp spines. The patterns on their shells were denser, seemingly affected by severe radiation for many years.
“Forget them!”
Soren looked at the Eastern Dance Maiden and the Master of Fist, who were ready for battle, and directly tore open a spell scroll.
——“Mud to Stone!”
A solid stone wall appeared ahead, sealing off the passage the d*ath Bell Beetles were coming through. The wall reverberated with violent impacts, yet even with their strength, they could not break through in a short time.
These two non-damaging spells were extremely effective within the underground ruins.
“Let’s go directly down from here!”
The battle had intensified. Thousands of insects and golems were in melee, and sharp alarm sounds echoed everywhere.
Soren stomped to test the thickness of the ground, then said to the two beside him, “Be careful! We’re going straight down!”
——“Fossil to Mud!”
——“Fossil to Mud!”
The sparks of the two spells glimmered as Soren turned the more than ten-meter-thick rock layer beneath them into soft mud. Then, with a stomp, their figures plummeted as a crashing sound erupted from below.
Rumbling!
A barrier pushed open, blasting away the falling rocks and mud. When the Eastern Dance Maiden looked up and saw her surroundings, their party had already fallen deeper into the hive of insects.
At this moment, only a few d*ath Bell Beetles could be seen.
Many had been drawn away by the battle above, and the passage below had no insects at all.
“This way!”
Soren furrowed his brows and quickened his pace; the passage dug out by the insects grew larger. As they caught sight of the nauseating slime, countless beetles appeared in a hall up ahead.
They were approaching the Mother Bug’s location.
Ahead, hundreds of d*ath Bell Beetles guarded an entrance to the passage behind them. This place was likely directly beneath the center of the underground ruins. Upon detecting their presence, these large insects surged forward with a sharp trembling cry.
“Too many!”
The Eastern Dance Maiden’s voice trembled as Ti looked exceptionally tense.
Though they were both formidable, the challenge level of the d*ath Bell Beetles was also not low; over a hundred of them could easily overwhelm them. They had no choice but to place all their hope on Soren.
Soren felt a headache coming on.
There were simply too many insects, and his divine perception still sensed even more insects converging to protect the Mother Bug.
He was a deity, indeed.
But the saintly form of a deity had been significantly weakened; otherwise, so many deities wouldn’t have been overwhelmed by sheer numbers. These d*ath Bell Beetles had vitality exceeding 200 points, coupled with their hard shells and tenacious life force, Soren needed at least two strikes to take one down. If they swarmed all at once, Soren might not be in danger of losing his life, but the two women behind him would likely perish.
There was no choice.
In such a situation, he could only unleash his ultimate move!
Soren possessed quite a few powerful spells, and there were also relatively strong area attack spells, but it was unlikely to instantly eliminate so many mutated insects before him; their vitality was simply too resilient. If he drew on his divine power, two divine shock waves would probably suffice, but divine power was too precious, and wasting it here seemed unworthy.
Thus, Soren chose the most efficient and cost-effective ultimate move!
…
“Let the flames purify everything!” (To be continued ~^~)
