Ch.60The Forest of Beasts? The Forest of Insects! (2)

“Mmmrgh…”

After going wild for a bit, I felt my stress melt away. Standing over the pulverized scorpion corpse and letting out a roar made me feel even better.

I stepped off the scorpion’s remains and examined its tail in my hand. Despite having smashed its body to pieces, the mace attached to the tail remained perfectly intact.

The spikes showed no signs of damage, and it had good durability, decent length, and a nice grip… Thinking it might be useful for a while, I kept the tail and called Mary.

“Mmrgh? (Mary?)”

“Yes! Great job! This time you defeated the enemy intelligently without getting hurt! Well done!”

I nodded to her as she climbed onto my head and patted it, then left the scorpion’s corpse behind and headed right, hoping to find a demonic beast that could properly fill my stomach.

* * * * *

As I moved right, I noticed that there were so many insect monsters that I couldn’t tell if this was the Forest of Demonic Beasts or a forest of insects. The first scorpion monster I encountered when entering the middle area—Mary called it a Morningstar Scorpion.

It got its name because the mace on its tail looked like a morningstar. It was certainly strange to see a weapon like a morningstar instead of a poisonous stinger, and it was sturdy enough to be useful.

Next, I encountered a Poison Centipede. This creature, which looked like a giant centipede, was a poisonous insect that emitted toxins from its entire body. Of course, poison didn’t affect me, so I smashed its head with the morningstar and moved on.

Mary had used a shield while I gripped it tightly with both hands, and when I opened my hands away from the poison, the shield Mary had deployed was melting away.

According to Mary, it was such a deadly poison that I would have died if she hadn’t continuously used purification magic.

I thought that if my unique trait hadn’t been Predator Ratel, I wouldn’t have been able to traverse this territory, and I felt increasingly grateful that my unique trait was defensive as I moved forward.

The third creature I met was a moth. And not just any moth—a special one whose powder droppings exploded. Called the Explosion Moth, it had a fluffy appearance that made it look quite cute.

Despite being over 6 meters in size.

The way it floated through the air, dancing and undulating, seemed surprisingly cute for its size, but as soon as it noticed my presence, that cuteness turned to terror.

It rose dozens of meters into the air and began sprinkling golden droppings… which exploded with a thunderous boom upon contact with any surface.

The direction from which it flew was completely devastated, and worried about Mary, I tried to quickly catch the creature, but…

The droppings seemed to act as a protective shield, as it paid no attention to the lightning I struck it with and continued to flutter about. When I swung my chain, it easily dodged with a single flap of its wings, soaring higher.

My attacks couldn’t reach it, and just like with the scorpion earlier, the moth was causing me damage simply by moving. I struck a nearby tree, knocking it down, and picked it up.

Thud—

It was rather small for a forest tree at about 10 meters, but it fit perfectly in my hand. I aimed it at the moth as it flew away with its back to me.

And threw.

Whoosh—

The tree flew through the air with that sound. The moth turned around at the sudden noise and panicked when it saw the tree coming, quickly turning its body.

The sight of that massive body spinning once and the droppings scattering in the air was like a painting, but…

Having confirmed that its maneuverability wasn’t that great, I stomped on the ground, shattering the surface, then picked up a rock and aimed at the moth.

Crackle—

The lightning-infused rock flew toward the moth instantly. This time the moth couldn’t properly dodge the rock’s speed, and its wing was torn as the rock grazed it.

…!!!

Perhaps lacking proper vocal cords, it couldn’t even scream as it fell from the sky. Surrounded by golden droppings as it fell, it was like a painting.

But what had been like a painting quickly transformed into a blockbuster movie.

BOOM—!!!!!

A mushroom cloud rose as if carpet-bombed by an aircraft, and a shockwave erupted from where the moth had fallen, shaking the entire area.

I worried about Mary with such an enormous impact, but I figured she would have dodged it well. I ran toward where the moth had fallen, which was obscured by the explosive smoke.

I approached quickly, knowing that if it had regenerative abilities, it might fly back into the sky and start bombing again, even with injured wings.

When I reached where the moth had fallen, it was lying there, flailing its legs. Its wings were half-torn by the rock and seemed unable to fly anymore. Despite the tremendous explosion, its body appeared intact, suggesting it had resistance to explosions, but…

It seemed to have lost consciousness from the impact of falling from over 50 meters and the explosion’s shock, merely flailing its legs.

Somehow, I had thought it would be a monster that flew around quickly, carpet-bombing and disappearing gracefully, but it was actually slow like a real bomber, with only destructive power.

I picked up my axe and struck its head, allowing me to leave the Explosion Moth’s territory.

* * * * *

A day had passed since leaving the Explosion Moth’s territory. This forest seemed to be an insect forest rather than a Forest of Demonic Beasts, as I had passed through six territories since entering the middle area, but there were no demonic beasts to be found, only insect monsters.

Besides the Explosion Moth, there was the highly toxic Death Scorpion, and the Wave Locust—hundreds of 2-meter locusts that occupied territory not individually but as a swarm, named for their wave-like appearance.

There was also the Crush Lobster, which occupied the river flowing through the Forest of Demonic Beasts, named for its ability to crush anything with a single punch. I was glad to finally have something to eat after encountering only insects, but…

I wondered why this creature, which wasn’t even an insect, was in this forest. As far as I knew, it was an arthropod.

I wondered if it had settled here as a natural predator of insects, or if they just categorized anything insect-like as an insect monster. With these thoughts, I moved on to the next territory.

There… a spider with eight glowing eyes was waiting.

* * * * *

Hissss—

The eight-eyed spider was drooling from its mouth, watching me from atop a tree.

Its red eyes emitted a strange light that seemed to possess special power, stopping me in my tracks. Despite being a spider, it hadn’t built a web and was simply standing on the tree.

Hissssss

It kept looking at Mary and me, making sounds. As if it wanted to talk…

“Khan, it says it has something to tell us?”

It really was trying to communicate. While I was tense at this unprecedented situation of a spider trying to talk, wondering if it might be a participant…

Hiss

“Yes, I see. So that’s why there are only insect monsters in the Forest of Demonic Beasts.”

“Mrgh? (What’s it saying?)”

The spider and Mary continued their conversation, apparently discussing the abnormal situation in this forest. After talking for a while, Mary finally summarized it for me.

“A new powerful being has appeared near the center of the forest! It has huge black carapace, and all the insect monsters that went near it became its subordinates, offering all kinds of food.”

“Mrgh… Mmrrrgh? (So… the bees that came out of the forest and all the insect monsters I’ve killed so far were under its control?)”

“Yes, that’s right. Originally, the ratio of demonic beasts to insect monsters was about 6:4, but suddenly the insect monsters joined forces and attacked the demonic beasts, wiping out all the demonic beasts living in this area. This spider survived because its strength is hiding its presence.”

An insect that controls all the insects in the forest. Black carapace. It was likely a beetle, stag beetle, or scorpion. Since I had encountered scorpions twice on my way here, it was probably a scorpion…

But if even this spider in the middle area was trembling in fear, it must be a monster stronger than me. The insect monsters here were weaker than me, but not overwhelmingly so.

“So this spider, called a Ruby Eye Spider, says it just wants to live quietly in this territory and will stay hidden until that monster disappears. If you want to fight, it won’t back down, but if you just want to pass through, it asks that you go by quietly.”

A conversation with a monster capable of communication. Goblins, orcs, and trolls had their own languages too, but without Mary as an interpreter, my relationship with them had been simply predator and prey…

Since it told us about what was happening in the forest and didn’t attack Mary despite her being right in front of it, I decided to ignore it and pass through this territory.

“Mrgh— (Let’s just pass through.)”

“Okay! Spider, we’ll just pass through. Goodbye! See you next time!”

Hehehehe—

When Mary waved her hand, the spider also waved its front leg, dripping saliva, and hid back into the tree. We began to pass through its territory.

Swish—!!!

If only it hadn’t ambushed us.

Clang—!!!!

When Mary translated what it said, the spider had said Mary could pass through. This implied that I shouldn’t think about passing through.

I had been expecting an ambush after hearing that, and as soon as we passed the tree where it had hidden, it attacked, either because it had no patience or was very hungry.

If it had attacked as we were about to leave its territory, my trait might have activated, but since I had anticipated its attack, I blocked it with my axe as soon as it ambushed us, then reached out and grabbed its body.

Hissss—!?

It stabbed at me frantically with seven legs as if it would break free at any moment, but creatures that ambush must die when their ambush fails. Its red eyes glowed even redder as it tried to do something.

I gently folded its legs to prevent it from using them, then pressed down on its body with force.

HISSSSS—!!!

The spider’s eyes, which had been glowing red with pain, lost their light as it spat saliva everywhere in resistance. I gave it a lightning strike, which quieted it for a moment, then I swung my fist at its face where those jewel-like eyes were.

BOOM—!!!

With that punch, the eyes that resembled red rubies disappeared, and only the spider’s corpse remained, trembling on the ground.