Book 1: Chapter 45

Alliance Pioneer Central Stadium “Ah, it looks like Blade Dancer is finally making those finishing touches on her blade!” Isaac Caliorga exclaims as the screen at the center of the enormous stadium shows a woman wearing a set of light metal armor in the middle of a blacksmith’s workshop smelting some ore with her weapon sitting next to her. A small and light blade perfectly suiting a woman with her title. But right as Isaac begins to open his mouth to continue, he notices the chat of the livestream going wild asking for him to show the new Bloodliner again. Saying something incredible is happening on her livestream. So he takes a turn and says, “But, of course, watching someone smith is boring. So why don’t we come back to her later after checking on our friendly little Aqua?” Then the main screen changes to show something that shocks even Isaac. Silence reigns in the stadium as everyone watches Aqua quietly going through and killing strange bug-like underwater monsters that are busy trying to ignore her while eating the metal ore visible on the walls. Metal ore that is very obviously adamantium. But what’s most shocking about the situation is how uncaring Aqua seems as she slaughters the monsters. Completely ignoring the adamantium in the process. After that Isaac goes ahead and shows a replay of when she first saw the adamantium. Which immediately makes the watching audience go wild thanks to her absolute nonchalance at the sight. “She may be the most laidback Pioneer I’ve ever seen when it comes to anything but battle...” Isaac finds himself muttering to the laughter of the audience. But he straightens up after saying that, smirks, and says, “But this solidifies it. Little Aqua will without a doubt be flooded with sponsorship requests after this. Everyone is going to want to curry favor with her for that adamantium.” Isaac doesn’t care personally though. All he cares about is the buzz this will create all over the Alliance. A new Bloodliner with an unknown Bloodline, or Bloodlines, who happens to be a Pioneer on a newly initialized world containing adamantium. And the strawberry on the top is how it’s deep underwater on a largely ocean planet. Making it incredibly difficult for people to mine. Isaac glances at the screen with more than a little amusement on his face as he comments, “I’m sure the Ore Association of the Alliance is going to be thrown into chaos at the sight of underwater bugs that can eat adamantium.” The ore is one of very few things in the universe cannot be so much as dented by anything non-magical. Making it so that only magically enhanced or System enhanced people or objects are capable of mining them. And yet, these bugs are eating the ore. “But what happens if these bugs turn their attention towards Aqua?” Isaac asks no one in particular while tapping his chin with his finger. The audience grows quieter as his words sink in. Aqua These bugs are rather easy to kill. Their levels are low, and even though there are hundreds of them across the cavern, they’re pretending like I’m not even here. Which is odd but whatever. So going around slaughtering them kind of feels like exterminating a bunch of bugs from my old apartment building. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It’s just too bad they’re all too low in levels to actually give me even a single point in REGEN. Leaving a lot of waste in their wake. I let out a sigh at that thought as I continue to slaughter the bugs that are currently eating one of the hardest ores in existence. But as I get further into the cavern, I begin to notice something strange. Is it just me, or are the bugs all acting like some sort of ordered unit? Because that’s kind of what they look like. As if all the bugs are going along certain predetermined paths. Strict. Orderly. And clean. Which is just weird for bugs. Unless they’re bugs being ordered around by a queen. The instant that thought crosses my mind, giving me a very bad feeling, all the bugs around the cavern finally slow down in their chomping to turn deeper into the cavern. Looking at something down there. I look at where they’re looking, only to feel the walls trembling a little bit as something big moves this way. So without any hesitation, I begin to slowly move backwards without killing any more of the bugs. Meanwhile said bugs – each of which look like large mixes of beetles and isopods – continue staring at whatever is approaching. And right as I’m getting close to the tunnel leaving this place, a loud screech echoes throughout the cavern. Following which a bright light shines from deeper in the tunnel and the other bugs all begin screeching. Then the sounds of thousands of bugs’ legs running across the stone and through the water enters my ear as all the bugs begin charging at me at once along the cavern walls, floor, and ceiling. But what catches my attention the most as I’m swimming as fast as I can away from them is the sight of the enormous bug behind them all. This one looks just like the others, except with a glowing shell covering most of its body and a vastly larger size compared to the small ones. All on top of glowing green eyes. And the large scythe-like teeth the small ones have look like actual scythes on the massive, four-meter-long one. As for what the creature identifies as? [Deepsea Adisopod Queen – Level 25] It’s actually a lower level than me. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s charging at me with an army of bugs. I flee out of the cavern and through the tunnel until I arrive at my own artificial tunnel. Only for all the bugs to chase me down here without stopping. Including the queen. But it’s fine. The queen is too big to fit through my artificial tunnel. So I continue through my tunnel before stopping on the other side. When I look back though I find the bugs all chomping away at the walls of my tunnel, expanding it on their own for their queen to pass through. Excuse me, what? I grit my teeth before finally giving up on getting away. If I’m going to deal with this problem, and I’m gonna have to by the looks of it, I should deal with it here. When the bugs are all stuck in this cramped location. But more importantly, there’s something I want to try. So I swim back into the tunnel while activating Pressure of the Abyss. And to my pleasant surprise, the moment I get within range of the bugs, they begin getting crushed flat just from the Abyss’s pressure alone. I grin at the brightly glowing queen bug outside of my tunnel as more and more of the small ones keep rushing up to my tunnel. Turning themselves into paste in the process. Unfortunately these things are all around level ten or so. Some even lower level than that. But even with their low levels, killing hundreds of low level monsters is still a decent chunk of EXP. Enough that all of the killing I did back in their cavern on top of the slaughter fest here finally gives me a single level. [Congratulations! You have now reached level 28! As the current First Ranker of Oceana, your total free points have increased by three, and your mana stat has increased by ten. Allocate the free points whenever you please.] Oh, right. There’s that too. After a brief pause, I go ahead and put the three points into strength and constitution. Two into constitution and one into strength. Then I focus on the queen bug, which is just staring at me in an eerie manner. Not doing anything but that. It’s really creepy. Meanwhile the other bugs continue to slaughter themselves, piling up outside of my tunnel and actually gradually blocking the entrance in its entirety. Despite the corpses being nothing but flattened shells with gooey mush inside of them. What I’m more surprised about though is the fact that their shells aren’t being crushed. Just flattened. Maybe it’s because of their diet? You are what you eat is a thing after all... It makes me glad I didn’t try to attack them head-on with cutting attacks. I’ve been stepping on the bugs up until now to kill them. And if their shells are this tough, I’m not sure if my trident will even pierce them. I glance at my chat to find them all having fun after seeing the way I’m handling the monsters. Then I focus on the bugs again as they finally stop trying to get in here. Right when I’m about to let my guard down though, the queen rams into the pile of corpses, scattering them aside and seemingly trying to open her own way through. Shit. And she is chomping down on the walls with even more fervor and power than they were. Why did she just sit back and watch if she could do this all along?!