Chapter 82: Harbinger

Words : 1215 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Chapter 82: Harbinger Luca retreated to the safety of his space the moment he met with that dagger-like leg that could’ve swiped to the side of his head had it not been impaled into the seat. There couldn’t have been a faster ’nope’ than that. And while Luca felt sad to let go of the newly scattered corrupted goo, he also knew that he had to rethink his approach. His heart thundered at the memory of being that close to being impaled as he only really practiced taking blows from someone’s fists and not something that resembled a cold weapon! By the time he got back, Xavier was still passed out but was thankfully breathing, and Luca wondered if he had been like that when he first used the pill. "Master, Sir? What happened to your hair?" Sid couldn’t help but ask because, whether he liked it or not, whether the guy was a supervillain or something worse, this person was now his master, too. He would just have to accept that he may no longer be the Empire’s protector. Luca actually didn’t know how bad it was because who would have the time to care about trivial things when a gleaming blade-like leg was so close by? So, when he checked his reflection by the spiritual lake, he was surprised to find that a considerable chunk of his long hair had been chopped off. It was a pity. But when D-29 announced that they had received a whopping 54,000CP just from Xavier and had not yet counted the goo he had just collected, Luca felt like he could do away with the remaining hair. "It’s the giant spider. It pierced through the cockpit and managed to cut off my hair when it failed to impale my head." Luca sighed but didn’t dwell on it. Hair could grow, but money needs to come out of that spider’s body! The oozing goo with the web was easy to deal with from a distance, but the goo from the spider’s mouth came with corrosive venom and could not be treated similarly. "D-29, do we have anything that could possibly deal with such a thing?" The little system got into thinking while checking the Trove for something useful. "Well, Host, what about insecticides?" "!!!" Luca didn’t think about that and now realized it might be a viable way to deal with that creature! What if they were to spike a few fruits with the most potent insecticides they could get? The only part he didn’t like was that he had to pay 10,000CP for all the insecticides he bought to deal with such a creature. Luca hastily carried out their plan, taking precautions as he prepared to infuse a few fruits with the insecticides. And what do you know? Such a method was the most effective among everything they tried. Luca actually feared the insecticide because the ancient creature, with its overbearing and nearly impenetrable armor-like body, crumpled like a worm sprinkled with salt. It was a sight they didn’t expect to see. While they assumed they would be getting a positive reaction, they didn’t expect it to kill the giant insect just like that. He figured he was right to wear protective gear and decided to throw out what he had worn earlier. Luca had a strong feeling that if he used the gear to deal with this, he’d probably send someone to an early grave. What kind of insecticide was being sold in the Trove? It was a good question that, hopefully, they would never need to find out the answer to. But Luca didn’t get to wonder for long because the predator-turned-prey was too lucrative to ignore. Luca enjoyed harvesting the corpse of the spider, taking great pains to extract the corrupted energy core in case the inventory didn’t separate it out for him. Luca even dealt with the remaining goo in the lair, even using the detector to traverse the cave’s depths. Then he noticed that the corruption level still remained even after all that. "Huh? What’s with this?" He tried doing it several times, and the results still turned out the same. Was the detector defective? Luca was worried that they had paid so much for something that was broken, but then he saw it. Rows and rows of spider nests. They lined the area behind where their original cocoon was and continued on as far as his eyes could see. The energy obtained was for these nests. The spider was trying to raise these eggs. At first, Luca wanted to harvest all of them, but when he considered how many would come out of each nest, he realized that doing so would endanger the whole base or probably the planet. He trembled in fear. It had been hard to deal with one giant insect. And these? Thousands, minimum, and millions at best! "D-29. Buy some explosives." Luca rushed as he saw a nest exhibiting movement. They were about to hatch! At the same time, the blimp carrying the rescuers finally made it to the vicinity and decided to enact their plan as soon as possible. It felt like too long of a ride, and the worry they had been feeling since they left kept on eating at them, making it feel like the journey took even longer! The soldiers of the duchy were actually in contact with the military, but they were delayed by the number of injured students they had to rescue who were hurt in their haste to escape the vicinity. Ollie and the people from the duchy made great haste to surround the perimeter. They planned to lure out the giant spider by planting explosives ways away from its lair so that they could come to infiltrate and free his brother and the white wolf! So they diligently placed the explosives that Ollie brought with him. 3... 2... 1... *KABOOM!* Ollie was shocked on two fronts because he was sure he hadn’t pressed it yet—but no one else would know that! Of course, he expected a few booms and bangs, but what was this?! This was not just some explosives?! And then, from the cave’s mouth came a white mecha with its thrusters on high, zooming past all of them who were too dumbfounded to react. Ollie stood there, still holding the detonator, but he was glad to see it was the same mecha his brother had been on earlier! It’s just that where were they going? But there really was no time to think about it because the convenient background of heavy explosions backed Ollie’s visage. It was such a display of power that Ollie looked like a harbinger of death as he walked back to the rest of the crew. Maybe all was well and good had it not been for Kyle and the rest of the arriving soldiers, who saw this exact scene. It was imprinted in their memories. Ollie Mylor just blew up the mine. Of course, they were late and didn’t see the white mecha zooming out into the sky. All they saw was Ollie’s figure as he retreated from the remnants of the cave. And he had a blank look on his face like this was just like any other day.

Chapter 82: Harbinger

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