Chapter 106: Mineral Hunt

Chapter 106: Mineral Hunt Sensing carefully, there really wasn’t anything under the sand! Its digging speed immediately slowed to a crawl, and for some reason, it felt like this couldn’t be discovered by its master. So it sneakily raised its head, wanting to see if its master had caught it slacking off... "Hmm?" Unfortunately, Carlos had been keeping an eye on the digging progress the whole time. Their eyes met, startling it into quickly ducking its head back down. "Roar!" It deliberately roared loudly to show it was working hard, and its sand-throwing speed picked up again, though there was a gradual slowing trend... "What’s gotten into this one?" Carlos felt like his retainer’s brain was all over the place—he had no clue what it was thinking. ... Time quietly passed, and a deep, massive sand pit appeared on the ground. When the tall shield guards stood upright, they didn’t even reach a quarter of the pit’s height. Twenty-four shield guards and Purple Vortex standing inside only took up less than a third of the space. "That’s about right—this should do it." Carlos clapped his hands, signaling they could stop. The shield guards immediately stopped, standing straight in the sand pit, waiting for Carlos’s next move. Jumping into the sand pit, Carlos recalled most of the shield guards and Purple Vortex, leaving only four behind. Then from his storage space, he pulled out a pile of yellow-brown objects. Each about 4 inches wide, looking like cubic crystals with smooth surfaces, neatly stacked at the bottom of the sand pit. These were the heart flesh cores he’d collected when hunting Sand Worm Monsters not too long ago. "Crush them!" Carlos ordered. Four shield guards immediately swung their greatswords at these cubic crystals. "Bang!" Clearly made of flesh, but when shattered by the greatswords, these yellow-brown crystals made sounds like stone breaking apart. The outer crystal walls cracked open, gushing yellow-brown liquid. As soon as it hit the air, a strange mineral scent began spreading... "This is taking too long." Seeing this, Carlos flew above the sand pit, channeling Psionic Energy within himself, activating his storm power. "Whoosh!" A whirlwind caught the mineral scent, carrying it rapidly toward the Mineral Ant nest hundreds of meters away... Near the entrance closest to the sand pit, a squad of Mineral Soldier Ants that had just crawled out suddenly had their head antennae vibrating like crazy. The whirlwind brought an intoxicating mineral fragrance. "Rustle!" "Rustle!" "..." They all raised their heads, their compound eyes looking longingly toward where the wind came from. "Rustle!" "Rustle!" "..." This Mineral Soldier Ant squad immediately got worked up, their three pairs of legs moving rapidly as they eagerly headed toward where that mineral scent came from... There were excellent minerals perfect for the Queen to absorb! ... Above the large sand hole, Carlos hovered, watching the Mineral Ant nest. Soon, several Mineral Soldier Ant figures appeared, followed by over twenty more... Mineral Soldier Ants: Spirituality 18, Strength 10, Constitution 3, Speed 5. Among same-level monsters, their strength was top-tier. They had powerful mandibles that could easily snap prey’s skulls or even crush hard minerals. Even scarier, they often worked in teams, with twenty-plus forming a hunting squad. What’s more, as dark mist node monsters, Mineral Soldier Ants were controlled by the Mineral Ant Queen. When they ran into strong enemies, they had a chance to actively retreat, head back to base, and call for backup. "Twenty-plus." Carlos figured this was the size of one Mineral Soldier Ant hunting squad, exactly like he’d predicted. The wind died down, but this Mineral Soldier Ant squad was close enough to the sand pit. The intoxicating mineral scent lured them to keep moving forward... "Plop!" One intoxicated Mineral Soldier Ant after another eagerly tumbled into the large sand pit. At the pit’s center, that pile of yellow-brown crystals gave off an intoxicating mineral scent, driving their collection instincts wild. "Rustle!" The Mineral Soldier Ants got even more worked up, mandibles trembling in unison, legs rapidly moving as they charged toward the Sand Worm Monster heart flesh cores! Just as the Mineral Soldier Ants got close, suddenly, four sword lights erupted. "Slash!" Translucent insect blood splashed through the air. The Mineral Soldier Ants charging in front were instantly cut to pieces, their corpses’ cut surfaces giving off a sharp, nasty smell. The stench made these Mineral Soldier Ants, whose minds had been focused only on those yellow-brown crystals, snap back to reality. Only then did they notice that beside the precious crystals, four powerful enemies had appeared! "Rustle!!" The Mineral Soldier Ants’ legs trembled frantically. The Psionic aura coming off the shield guards instinctively triggered their urge to attack. But they could sense the shield guards’ terrifying strength and didn’t immediately attack, instead facing them warily... "Rustle!" Until all Mineral Soldier Ants from this hunting squad had fallen into the sand pit... They moved! Over twenty Mineral Soldier Ants suddenly opened their powerful mandibles in unison, surrounding the shield guards. Facing the sharp mandibles, the shield guards stayed calm, swinging their greatswords. Under the terrifying 18-point Strength boost, one strike cut a Mineral Soldier Ant clean in half from head to abdomen. The greatsword kept swinging, several streams of translucent insect blood splattered, and one Mineral Soldier Ant after another was cut in half! After several moments, of the twenty-plus Mineral Soldier Ants, only five were left! In the sand pit, the sharp smell got stronger. "Rustle!" Facing the terrifying strength the shield guards had shown, the surviving Mineral Soldier Ants finally realized these were definitely not enemies they could handle. They all started retreating, trying to escape and get back to call for backup. But in this deep pit, getting down was easy—getting up was the hard part. The high pit walls cut off their escape route. The shield guards, radiating killing intent, quickly caught up. With a few swift sword strikes, they cut the remaining Mineral Soldier Ants to pieces. And so, the first Mineral Soldier Ant hunting squad lured into the pit trap was completely wiped out. [Spiritual Essence +1.80] [Spiritual Essence +1.80] [Spiritual Essence +1.80] ... As the shield guards slaughtered Mineral Soldier Ants, notifications of Spiritual Essence increases occasionally rang in Carlos’s mind. "Throw these bug corpses out!" The shield guards lifted corpse after corpse, hurling them upward and throwing them to the pit edge far from the Mineral Ant nest. "Perfect. Now you just need to wait! With this first Mineral Soldier Ant squad showing up, more Mineral Soldier Ant squads will keep falling in." Faced with the Sand Worm heart crystal scent’s pull, the first Mineral Soldier Ant squad would inevitably leave scent trails along their path. Used to gather their buddies and guide them in the right direction.