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Karnage: Enjoy! Sorry for any errors! *bow*
Chapter 19 & 20-
Sol picked up the Fanged Blades and surprisingly the root of the fangs had good length and made decent handles and they fit rather snugly in Sol's hands. He could feel the Queen's beast soul and was elated to know that her soul would always be here with him. The Blades seemed to sing as they were picked up by Sol and it's sharp edges twinkled off the light of the mana veins within the walls.
He immediately did as the Queen instructed and collected the venom that was dripping out from the Queen's jaw and took his utmost care so as to not get poisoned. Sol was just about to finish up when a bit of venom spilled toward his hands-
[-Ahh] -Sol
Sol quickly retracted his arm but it still spilled on his skin. Surprisingly enough there was no damage, the venom fell on his hands like a drop of water and rolled down smoothly to the floor.
The second it hit the floor, steam rose in the air and Sol knew for sure this was the doing of the Queen. Sol once more bowed to the corpse of the Queen and turned to leave. As he was just about to leave he noticed a portion of the scaled leather of the Queen immediately became undone and fell to the floor.
The sheer weight of it smashed into the floor and left a huge dent and raised the dirt, Sol placed his arms on the Fanged Blades affectionately and they hissed excitedly in approval. It seemed when the Queen wriggled around earlier it had caused terrible damage to her skin and a decent sized chunk of undamaged white/gold scaled leather fell to the floor. It was big enough to be crafted into armor and it seemed the Queen wanted him to have it.
She probably would have told him to take it if he could, but Sol was much too weak to even put a dent in her armor much less cut it. However this piece that fell off seemed like a gift from the heavens, he could naturally place it in his runic ring though it took up almost half of the room within his ring.
Sol placed an Explosive Fire Orb right beneath the Queen as he couldn't bury her, he would at least give her a cremation. After taking one more glance at the the corpse, he turned around with determination burning in his eyes.
**
Sol had to find the "mana well" the Queen spoke of and he immediately set out and began heading deeper into the hive with both Fanged Blades in hand. Sol felt much stronger and much faster than before, all of his senses had become much more powerful and heightened than before. He could now hear clearly the beating of the Wasp wings nearby and could determine when he would encounter one.
Sol began using [Spectral Phantom]. In his self made style [Planar Overlord Style] which was inspired by all the different types of martial arts from Earth. Aside from [Tyrannical Illusionist] which was meant to dramatically increase Sol's elusiveness in combat. He also possessed another move for outside of combat which he called [Spectral Phantom].
After fusing the stealth skill [Ninjutsu : Silent Steps] and the balance and control skill [Shaolin : Kung Fu Balance of Good and Evil], he integrated many other minor features from a.s.sa.s.sination type martial arts and meditation type martial arts and finally created this move.
In this state, Sol would use his perfect bodily control to use his muscles to attribute his entire body towards speed and stealth. His physical posture, his senses and even his mind would give priority to the speed and stealth by neglecting every other attribute to boost these specific ones.
In order to counter the terrifying increase of speed without sacrificing stealth, Sol decided to use the methods taught by bhuddists and emptied his mind, conscious. He induced a state of hypnosis to himself programming his body to have a sole and single will of "Staying hidden" thereby reducing his presence considerably.
His steps would be as light as a feather, as quiet as a shadow and the light in his pretty golden eyes would become dim and soulless enough for reflections to show. Even though these effects caused Sol to be slightly dizzy, he was well aware of his surroundings and only found it a little bit discomforting.
This dizziness was a side effect of the different types of mental inducing techniques Sol had applied to himself and could not be removed without the technique failing. Using [Spectral Phantom] Sol's speed and stealth increased as his breathe became quieter and more paced. His head became dizzier and dizzier and if one saw him they would indeed agree this move was aptly named because if one saw Sol's lifeless eyes they would come to the same conclusion.
This time on the way to the 5th pocket Sol hadn't encountered any Wasps at all and smoothly made his way down in only a few minutes. As he approached the 5th pocket, Sol saw another row of coc.o.o.ns.......however, there was nothing inside of them. They were completely empty and judging by the slime on the floor they were recently retrieved.
[Enhanced Vision!] -Sol
Sol immediately became cautious still, he looked around and saw that a few of the coc.o.o.ns were actually human sized! As they were the smallest coc.o.o.ns there they were quite noticeable and their silhouette was exactly that of a humans! Sol instantly turned around and went deeper down the hive at an even faster speed!
The effects of [Spectral Phantom] began showing as he entered and left the room in an almost ghost-like manner, not even the twigs on the floor had moved as Sol pa.s.sed by.
(d.a.m.n!! I have to reach in time!!) -Sol
Sol quickly dashed recklessly downward into the hive, using his new increased hearing from the breakthrough and his incredible new speed he had nothing to fear as he sped downward. Then he saw quite a few more pockets, all with empty coc.o.o.ns none were human sized. It seems that the 5th pocket is where the 2nd Queen Lieren was held.
Sol thinking about this felt relieved, judging by the rest of coc.o.o.ns they had been extracted long before as the slime had already dried and the 5th pocket's extraction was the most recent since it's slime was still fresh. Sol quickly started ignoring the rest of pockets as he understood they were empty and maintained his ludicrous advancement!
*BZZ* *BZZ*
All of a sudden, he started hearing the beating wings of the Wasps and he could pinpoint their location....they were currently coming directly towards him! Judging by the number of them they were probably going to extract the rest of pockets! Sol instantly snapped his fingers and woke up out of his [Spectral Phantom] state and his dizziness instantly cleared.
He placed the Fanged Blades inside his runic ring and immediately began searching for his poison apparatus. Sol quickly fished out two more powdered poison bags and lay them on the floor. He quickly pulled out the medicinal wine and splashed it on them. He took out his Fire Gem and got ready...he waited and sure enough the beating of wings became louder...
Luckily this time the pathway was straight and Sol could see far ahead rather than the twisted bends it had been in before, it felt like the ending of the hive. What he saw buzzing towards him was an entire crowd of Guardian Wasps a hundred at the very least with all eyes on him! It seemed they were the ones doing the extracting and it made sense since they were the only ones with developed eyes. This was a great stroke of luck as Sol could attack without worrying about killing them.
He no longer doused the cloth around his face with water and instead took it off as he lit up the both bags! Sol drew his Fanged Blades from his runic ring and quickly dove into the Guardian Wasps.
Sol had begun experiencing the positive sides of a Sentient Weapon as he tore through the Guardian Wasps like paper! The blades in his hands danced around as they let out ferocious hisses and spat green venom into the air through the hollowed out veins within the Fang! Any who were even slightly cut, fell to the floor and even those who were sprinkled by the venom seemed to be buzzing in pain!
Sol swung his both blades in a rhythmic fas.h.i.+on and the air seemed to be slashed cleanly with every swing. The Guardians quickly fell in less than a minute which was quite astonis.h.i.+ng! When they advanced with too many numbers, Sol would retreat into the poisonous gas, dealing them even greater damage.
As a stinger came piercing towards him, Sol would side step and create an illusion of himself and immediately counter-attack. Two Wasps closed in on him yet he would deflect one stinger and use the momentum to swiftly spin in the air with both blades and slice the other completely in half as well as the surrounding targets!
This sort of terrifying onslaught continued and Wasps fell one by one in seconds under this domineering pressure and tyrannical slaying. Sol seemed to be embarra.s.sed as he realized he lost himself in the fighting and barely let the poison he created do any work when he rushed forward to meet them. However the purple gas still filled the hive and Sol ran directly downward even deeper.
This time the path was straight and not curved and Sol could faintly see ahead of him, a bright light seemed to be emitting at the the ending. There wasn't any sunlight of course and Sol was curious as well as afraid to know what was causing the light! He increased his speed as well as his caution and finally after crossing the boundary and adjusting his eyes to the light, horrible munching sounds filled Sol's ears.
*CRUNCH* *CRUNCH* *CRUNCH
As Sol's eyes adjusted what he saw in front of him, was a huge disgusting worm-like being with tiny slanted vicious looking eyes and an enlarged mouth with yellow-reddish colored jagged teeth and it was being constantly fed by a Guardian Wasp. It was half wrapped in a coc.o.o.n and It gave off a terrible and eerie disgusting aura.
The beasts the Queen were being fed had all sorts of tough armor and steel like scales Sol was sure some even he wouldn't be able to pierce and they were being tore through like paper as loud crunching sounds rung out.
From the Queen's behind every few minutes or so it would lay an egg and a Guardian Wasp would collect it and roll it towards a nearby room. The reproduction rate of this thing made Sol terrified when he saw how quickly it laid it's eggs. However, this was great news for Sol. The current Queen of the Wasp was a sitting target!!! It obviously couldn't attack and Sol knew just the way to kill it!
Directly in front of Sol was mountains of beasts and human like corpses, however if one looked at them they would notice the creatures were alive. It seemed the Queen liked eating them alive as it greedily ate and all colored juices ran down it's lips with a perverted horrible expression in it's eyes and one could even see a tinge of joy as it ate.
[Enhanced vision!] -Sol
Sol quickly began scanning the mountain of bodies, luckily the view of the mountains of bodies blocked Sol from the Queen as well as the Wasps around her. There were just too many bodies for them to see clearly and they would never be expecting an intruder and as such they acted as normal. The Queen looked so absorbed in eating and paid no attention to anything else.
[Master! This is even better than I expected! She didn't even enter coc.o.o.ned stages!! No wonder the Queen said to get to the mana well! The Queen was probably waiting for the Queen Basilisk to die and then have her subordinates feed her the corpse of the Queen and then enter evolution!
With the nutrients and tissue of an S-rank Queen Basilisk her evolution would have gone quickly and without a hitch but the Wasps didn't have the required strength to slay the Queen and so she waited and delayed her evolution!! This can only be a great strand of luck!] -Mitra
[Master, this means her awareness is at the lowest point ever! She can't even move on her own even if you kill all the Guardian Wasps in here! What you need to be afraid about is if she notices you, she will scream and most likely all the Wasps in the area would come flooding to her] -
Mitra sounded out incredibly excited as he spoke, Sol nodded his head as he listened. This was great news for him after all, It meant the Queen was too weak!! All Sol would truly have to worry about was the swarm of Bloodmana Wasps!
Sol stopped wasting anymore time and begun scanning the corpses for humans. It wasn't hard to do as the only beasts that were piled one on top of another were armored typed beasts. It seems the Wasps had begun categorizing them, Sol patiently waited as he had no time limit and didn't have anything to worry about behind him.
Even if something unexpected happened, Mitra would warn him and Sol was confident in his ability to be able to reach a pocket and hide from the swarm.
The Wasps slowly begun seperating the corpse-like beings that looked almost devoid of any life were it not for their open eyes one would think they were all dead. The Queen was positioned to the back of the main hive pocket, and the captured beasts were sorted out by their type of armor.
In a line from left to right were the highest armored beasts down to the lowest armored beast. It seems the Queen enjoyed eating the crunchy beasts first and had them line up first which was even great news!
He instanty s.h.i.+fted his eyes to the right and within the pile of beast-like bodies a human was not hard to spot, and sure enough to the far left among the fish-like beasts and softer skinned beasts the very last type was humans.
Sol only saw three humans in total, one was a young man and he was already dead as blood leaked from his mouth it seemed he couldn't hold on and died in the extraction phase.
The other two was a middle-aged man, who surprisingly had quite the vigor remained in his eyes and it seemed as though he was conscious as one could see a faint light in his eyes. Sol was surprised and admired the man who could keep his wits through all of what he may have been through.
The middle-aged man tried to unceasingly find some ray of hope as his eyes darted around, it seemed he knew he was about to eaten. He leaned his face downward and scooted over very lightly and weakly and astonis.h.i.+ngly began nibbling on a weak fish-like beast's fins that were close to his face. It seemed he was doing anything possible to survive, Sol thought the man was indeed a survivor and possessed a terrifying will.
Strange enough there was no fear in his eyes, only complete disgust and hatred as if saying "Even if you eat me, I'll tear through your stomach". There was also a sense of helplessness in his eyes, but somehow Sol got the feeling the helplessness wasn't directed towards the middle-aged man but something else...or someone else.
The last one next to him who was barely conscious was a woman with disheveled blue hair and half-opened blue lifeless eyes laying limp and unmoving in the corner of the room. Her eyes stared at the hive walls blankly and seemed to have lost all will to live, her body looked malnourished and her beauty was no where to be found.
Who could blame her? Being trapped in this place for almost a decade and now having to suffer an agonizing death by the hands of such a disgusting creature. Not to mention there was no thought of hope coming because no one would be able to enter a Wasp hive to save her, all she could do was forcefully remain alive and wait out her death sentence.
However, luckily as Sol predicted she was indeed far from the list of being eaten and he hiddenly rejoiced. So far everything had been going in his favor and he had no one else to thank but the G.o.ds.
Sol instantly began his plan, he immediately checked his inventory and decided to once more make the Insecticide poison, this time it would not be diluted. Sol had a great amount of time as the amount of beasts lined up for the Queen was truly quite a huge amount, and it really earned it's name as a Bloodmana Wasp hive.
Sol was curious about the room where the eggs were being rolled into, he knew the mana well was in there and wanted to go as the Queen Basilisk instructed but knew it would cause quite a chaotic scene until he could take care of the Queen Wasp. Not only that but he didn't know how many Wasps were in the egg room. However he had an idea, he quickly searched his runic ring and brought out the Fire Gem.
He quickly drifted across the floors and brought himself nearer to the human captives not making a sound using the piles of beast bodies as shelter. There were only 4 Wasps in the entire room, one stood near the Queen feeding at all time, one moved the eggs and two others were sorting out the bodies and categorizing them.
Sol looked towards the brown-haired middle-aged man whose eyes were glancing around lively even though his body couldn't move, he took out the Fire Gem and cupped it around one of his hands. He immediately sent a tiny bit of mana into the Fire Gem and a tiny small flame issued out within his palm. The flame was weak and small and was mainly used for starting fires.
Within the well lit hive, the hand sheltered flame was barely noticeable to the humans from where they were but completely invisible to the Queen and her subordinates. Like this, Sol turned it off and on and kept doing it over and over.
The middle-aged man was quite vigilant and after about half a minute he saw the tiny flame flickering at the corner of his eyes. Using what little strength he had left, he slightly tilted his head towards the direction and his eyes met Sol's which was visible thanks to the tiny flame.
At first he thought maybe it was a beast, as the eyes were golden in color and near the corpses of beasts but then when he noticed the human-like compa.s.sion within them he instantly understood!
Several emotions pa.s.sed through the man's eyes - Shock, Joy, Sadness but most of all....Hope and shock! The instant the middle-aged man's eyes made contact with Sol's a fire within them began burning with great vigor and he focused solely on Sol's eyes so much so that it was terrifying! Sol never broke eye contact with him and continued turning the Fire Gem on and off rhythmically.
It took only a moment for the middle-aged man to understand what Sol was doing and one thought flashed through his head instantly.
(Warrior's Code!) -middle aged man
Amongst the books Sol had read in Renissa's office, he found one that was t.i.tled "Sign and Sound Code" or commonly called "S&S Code" or "S&S Language".
Humans who ventured out into the wild needed a language to communicate with one another silently without alerting beasts or a method of speaking which only they could understand. The intelligence of beasts had become quite high and they could understand human language and some could even speak it.
Obviously these became the reasons why they developed this free and cost effective method of communication. There was a basic table which one would learn the basic language of both sign and sound language and then some would alter it and make their own language to disguise their actions and make sure no one could eavesdrop on it or decipher their codes.
Naturally people who possessed the basic knowledge of "S&S Code" could understand one another and communicate even if they haven't met before just by using the basic table.
"SS Code" was branched off into two sections. Visible Sign language and Rhythmic sign language. Visible Sign Code language could be done with hands, lights and even smoke.
Rhythmic sign language was done exactly like it sounds and could be done with sounds, mana vibrations or anything that could create and follow a pattern or rhythmic beat loud enough to project to the other party.
This "S&S Code" was compulsory and was learned by almost every warrior that went out to venture with a group. Since mages usually had their own ways of covert communication and the "S&S Code" was mainly used by warriors it slowly became known as "Warrior's Code".
It was quite simple and easy to learn and didn't take Sol long to learn. Naturally this is what he was using to capture the middle-aged man's attention as Sol judged him to be a warrior based on his robust appearance, eyes that were filled with a warrior's vigor and his st.u.r.dy body that was able to have that much energy even after his current situation and Sol absolutely wasn't wrong.
Sol immediately begun using the flickering light and sending codes delightedly the second he realized that the middle-aged man could understand him.
(If-you-can-understand-//-blink-once-yes-//-blink-twice-no) -Sol
The middle-aged man blinked once deeply.
(I-have-plan-to-get-out-//-need-your-help) -Sol
The middle-aged man blinked deeply once more. Sol could see all sorts of emotions building up inside the man's eyes. He took a deep breath and promised to himself that he would definitely save this guy too. Sol seeing the man's compliance begun flickering the Fire Gem once more.
(I-killed-all-Wasps-in-hive-except-here-//-remaining-Wasps-outside-hive) -Sol
The middle-aged man paid attention to the update and wanted to know the current status of the hive and how this plan would work and dared not close his eyes. He blinked once deeply allowing Sol to continue.
(Wasp-new-evolution-happening-//-variant-wasp-dangerous-threat) -Sol
(Variant-wasp-//-mutation-combination-//-Regular-Wasp-//-Guardian-Wasp-//-all-benefits-no-side-effects) -Sol
Sol stopped at this point for the old man to think about what he said and to make sure he understood. As some of the sign language obviously didn't have word equivalents Sol had to throw a few vague lines out but luckily the middle-aged man was intelligent and he had been observing the situation for some time and had noticed this new breed of mutation.
Being in there for at least a decade, he was quite acquainted with the Bloodmana Wasps and the Guardian Wasps and noticed the emergence of this new race before anyone else. What he didn't know, was what their capabilities were as he was almost always attended by Guardian Wasps who had eyes to make sure nothing could try to escape or cause trouble.
When he understood Sol's message, his eyes grew wide and seemed to understand the part with "All benefits and no side effects". Sol seeing this reaction nodded.
(He can't possibly mean Collective conscience as well as intelligence? Indeed I noticed their spear-like arms and the fact that they grew eyes and I could even see the faint sense of Intelligence from those eyes but....a collective conscience as well? If that's the case.... How terrifying. These things absolutely cannot afford to get outside) -middle aged man
(Still, who is this mysterious golden-haired young man? and those golden eyes...never mind that! Now is not the time to be concerned with this kid's personal preferences!) -middle aged man
The middle aged man quickly gathered his thoughts and blinked deeply urging Sol to continue relying information. The latter immediately began flickering the Fire Gem-
(Good-//-I-have-way-destroy-them-//-room-right-side-//Wasps-how-many-//-Blink-amount) -Sol
The middle-aged man didn't even need to look in the room to tell him how many, he had been in here for quite a few hours facing the same direction and naturally knew there was a single Wasp in there moving around eggs and preparing the well.
The middle-aged man blinked deeply once at Sol. Seeing this Sol felt relieved.
(Good-//-Regular-Wasp-Blink once-//-Guardian-Wasp-Blink-Twice) -Sol
The middle-aged man deeply blinked twice.
(Good-//-I-Kill-him-//-I-steal-you-//-deliver-you-there-//-I-revive-you-) -Sol
The middle-aged man deeply blinked once with great joy in his eyes.
(No-Bloodmana-Wasp-close-//-You-dantian-safe-//-Guardian-Wasp-only) -Sol
He blinked once more in confirmation.
(Need-you-to-confirm-//-When-Wasps-opposite-direction-//-Ambush-kill-both) -Sol
(Confirm-or-Deny) -Sol
The middle-aged man immediately understood.
(He wants me to tell him when the back of the Wasps are turned toward the opposite direction. I see, he wants to quietly kill the Wasp that carries the egg in and then kill the Wasp that receives the egg and drag me in there to revive me....He probably has quite a few medical supplies and intends to patch me up) -middle aged man
(This kid...he should be able to kill them quietly right? If he can get in here then he's definitely killed quite a few of them and is not ordinary by any means. Kid if you can pull this off, I'll tell stories about you to my children and their children and carve your name on my a.s.s. Cause no amount of gold is going to repay what you are about to attempt) -middle aged man
He blinked deeply towards Sol confirming he understood. Then he cast his gaze towards the Wasp and paid great attention to it. Sol on the other hand put away his Fire Gem and fell into a dizzy like state as he leaned forward and quickly crawled along the floor almost serpent-like. This was of course the effects of [Spectral Phantom].
The middle-aged man just happened to cast his eyes toward Sol and saw his movement, if he had the power to drop his jaw it would have been sitting on his chest.
(WHAT?! Such absurd movement!! I've never seen anything like it in my entire life!! Is that a warrior's skill? I doubt that for sure there isn't even a single mana fluctuation! His eyes look so dull and lifeless almost like..this movement..A ghost in the forest's night!) -middle aged man
He quickly casted back his gaze towards the Wasps when Sol positioned himself behind a pillar inside the hive. From this position he was only slightly noticeable to the middle-aged man, however Sol's eyes still locked onto him awaiting the order.
The Wasps made quite a few deliveries and almost an hour had pa.s.sed, yet Sol and the middle-aged man remained calm and patient waiting for the opportunity when both Wasps have their backs turned and the perfect time to make the kill.
All of a sudden the middle-aged man furiously blinked quite a few times and A silhouette immediately flew out like a shadow from among the Beast-bodies, however it remained eerily close to the floor so much so that it scared the middle-aged man half to death! Naturally this shadow was Sol under [Spectral Phantom] effects.
The two other Wasps who were busy categorizing the bodies had not even noticed this shadow and continued their duties undisturbed. The amount of bodies were just too good of a cover and Sol was just too skilled at concealment.
In a flash he immediately entered the room, both Wasps had their backs turned and did not even notice the presence entering the room. Sol with a quick motion in his wrists immediately drew the two Fanged Blades, a layer of dust could be seen on the edges of the blades.
Sol's head cleared up as he left the [Spectral Phantom] state and approached the both Wasps from behind much less faster but still very quietly! In a single instant Sol had already approached the first Wasp!
He took the first blade in his hand and after reaching close enough, bent his back in an arch like a bow and immediately garnered all the strength in his body to his arm! His hand shot forward like a released steel cable and threw the Fanged blade toward the furthest Wasp!
*PUCHI*
Before the closest Wasp could turn around the other Fanged Blade was already inside it's head. The timing of both the kills were incredibly accurate, so much so that only one penetration sound was heard. The middle-aged man seeing all this had his eyes bulged with shock, also clearly joy was dancing and ever present in his heart.
(So formidable!! People called me a genius, I was no where near as powerful as that when I was his age!! Such shocking battle prowess! We might really be able to pull this off! Now just time to find Mina and we can get out of here!
Once I get revived I can immediately cause trouble for this Queen, something tells me this kid intends to wipe out the entire nest I'll make sure to give him as much help as needed to carry this out. This sort of nest should never exist and everyone of them should die in here) -middle aged man
Once Sol killed these two, he immediately picked them up and dragged them to the corner out of plain view. When Sol finally took a clear good look at the room, what he saw was incredibly shocking!
All of the veins inside of the hive led to one single point on the ceiling of this single large room, and the veins fused into a single stalact.i.te that continuously leaked translucent blue droplets within a artificially carved out pool.
(This must be the mana well....but that mana looks weird) -Sol
From the mana veins in the ceiling, drops of translucent blue mana drops fell one by one from them and into this pool. The color of this mana was something Sol had never even seen before, rather than it's usual intermediate blue appearance, it was translucent blue!
It gave off the feeling of extreme purity and Sol put it together and knew that this was refined mana. Judging by the process the Bloodmana Wasps used, it was obvious their control of mana had far succeeded humans.
The sheer amount of this purified translucent blue mana pool caused Sol to sigh with praise. It was clearly quite a sight to see, but what Sol noticed near the pools were that all the eggs were being placed nearby to the well to receive secondary benefits from it.
Sol didn't waste time and immediately began slicing those eggs apart, it wouldn't be good if a Bloodmana Wasp or the variant was born while they were carrying out their plans. Surprisingly the underdeveloped eggs seemed to attract the attention of the two tiny basilisks as they poked their head out from Sol's arm and began feeling around.
They seemed to know which one was close to hatching and they immediately ignored those and stretched from Sol's arms bas.h.i.+ng a hole each for themselves into the newly laid eggs. A gooey substance leaked out and those little guys immediately begun eating. Sol didn't know what to say, he just followed their leads allowing them to eat and killed the eggs that were close to hatching.
Sol noticed they had become larger and their eyes became more lively as they ate and it seemed they thoroughly had needed nutrition. The Wasp sh.e.l.ls were too hard for them to consume and they were already lacking in energy and dared not try. Just like that they ate all the underdeveloped eggs and after rubbing heads with Sol they entered slumber once more in Sol's arms.
Just like that all the eggs had been rid of, Sol then once more decided to focus on his plan. He walked toward the entrance of this mana well room and peered around the corner. Sure enough the middle-aged man's eyes were filled with vigor and a tinge of worry, he hadn't seen Sol for a while just now and worried if something may have gone wrong but seeing him now had erased all doubts. How could he know that Sol was feeding his children?
Sol picked up a few tiny pebbles within the hive and watched the two Wasps who were categorizing. One was deep in the mountain of corpses sorting them out and moving them around making them accessible to the other Wasp; while the other was receiving them and placing them in their designed category.
He just had to wait while the Wasp who was busy categorizing came closer to the humans. He waited and waited and finally in it's hand it held a serpent-like creature that didn't seem tough at all and was only big in size. It dropped it right near the humans and then-
*Tak*
It had gotten hit by a pebble, the curious Wasp immediately followed the direction towards the egg chamber and calmly flew in. Guardian Wasps were different from Bloodmana Wasps in the fact that they had intelligence and were p.r.o.ne to be curious and also because Guardian Wasps were able to identify abnormal things like what just currently happened.
It was precisely why they were named Guardian Wasps in the first place, not only did they have eyes but they usually investigated any abnormal occurrences within the hive. This was knowledge Sol had learned within Renissa's Bestiary, he had learned that the Wasp species in general didn't have much difference to Bloodmana Wasps and guessed that the Guardian Wasps here also had the ability to recognize abnormalities within the hive just like the Guardian Wasps of the Poison Wasp species.
The una.s.suming Guardian Wasp did not let Sol down and immediately entered the mana well chamber looking for the disturbance and it only saw a sliver of light afterward-
*PUCHI*
The second it had entered it was pierced at the side of it's head which was accurately aimed between the meetings of two sh.e.l.ls and a grave weak point. It was easily taken down by a Fanged Blade and not given a single second to make any noise to alert it's comrades. Sol dragged it's corpse to the side and hid it. He sat and watched the middle-aged man who rejoiced when he saw it went without a hitch.
Now there were two Wasps within the room. One tending to the Queen at all times, and another sorting out the corpses, however both were very far from Sol and the middle-aged man. Sol's eyes went lifeless and reflected the surface back within their golden s.h.i.+ne, this was obviously the effects of using [Spectral Phantom].
He slid across the floor quietly and quickly and slithered right up to a pillar near the middle-aged man, and without any flashy moves he quickly pulled him and 2nd Queen Lieren across the floor using the mountain of bodies as a s.h.i.+eld. Low growls and other such cries were heard among the bodies of beasts that were still very much alive and so masked any sound of the dragging bodies.
**
When the 2nd Queen had felt her body being dragged, she quickly focused and she could see the golden eyes and golden hair and shortly pa.s.sed out afterward. The middle-aged man was still as lively as ever as Sol leaned him up against the wall. Sol took out his runic ring and begun taking out nutrient pills which were given to him by Renissa, she knew that such circ.u.mstances would happen and directly gave the pills to the Former King to give to Sol.
Sol quickly took them out and began feeding it to the middle-aged man, who quickly swallowed them. A rush of energy rushed out from the pills and surged into his body, little by little his strength began returning, after waiting a few minutes for the middle-aged man to acquire some more energy. Sol quickly gave him some water and some dried meat from his ring and the middle aged man did not hesitate and ate wildly as his energy returned.
Sol forcefully fed the 2nd Queen, and as she was a mage her body wasn't as powerful and had a much harder time recuperating. Sol decided to let the pills do their job before he fed her any food and waited. Her eyes gradually started gaining light and her will to live had returned tenfold upon realizing there was a chance out of here.
[My name is Aereis friend,Tell me...*munch* *munch* young man *munch* what's your name?] -Aereis
The middle-aged man began to talk loudly which startled Sol.
[My name is Sol'ixus Hyperius, Sol is fine...talk softer..let's not die] -Sol
Aereis resisted the urge to laugh out when he heard Sol's annoyed voice. He was much too happy and hadn't spoken to anyone for years and he himself wasn't much of a chatter bug which made it even more funny. This one sentence was more than enough chatter for now, the middle-aged man's face then became serious as he looked at Sol and quietly but sincerely spoke.
[My friend Sol, thank you very much. You've saved this warrior's life!] -Aereis
[No need to mention it, you were in the same exact spot as the person I came here to save] -Sol
As Sol spoke he s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the 2nd Queen and the Aereis seemed to understand.
[Friend...I'm curious...how did you get in here...? No need to answer if it's a secret. Just, what you're doing right now could be considered the impossible] -Aereis
The middle-aged brown-haired man was quite curious about this but didn't want to pry into Sol's personal affairs as he could tell Sol was much different. Surprisingly the old man had a runic ring, which drew Sol's attention. He knew just how costly one was and only n.o.bles would possess one however Sol didn't want to ask the man his personal business. He thought for a moment and decided this kind of person wasn't bad and told him plainly.
[I....don't have a Dantian, so they couldn't track me completely] -Sol
[You...What?] -Aereis
Aereis seemed to be struck by a lightning bolt as he looked at Sol, part of him didn't want to believe it..but he didn't think Sol was the kind to lie, he might refuse to speak but he didn't believe Sol would lie. Then as he thought about it, it made more sense and then as if he finally remembered something placed one hand on his chin and then showed an exclamation.
[No wonder I haven't seen you use any warrior moves to cut down those Wasps! Y-You was that just your raw strength?] -Aereis
[Yeah...] -Sol
[Haha! I Aereis thought I had seen it all! But someone with a body blessed by the heavens is certainly the type I have never met before! Aye!] -Aereis
Sol laughed at this fellow who didn't seem to be too bad and chatted quietly for a while as they regained their energy and a voice finally interrupted them-
[W-Who...are you..? Dear savior] -Lieren
[I am Sol, a friend of Liore and a friend to the King Ironspine of Earthernvale] -Sol
Lieren upon hearing these words had her face go moist with tears and a great fire burned within her eyes. The fire to get home to her family. She looked at Sol as if judging him and smiled, she seemed to understand he was a good person and smiled even though it obviously pained her to do so. Her beautiful and soft skin had become damaged and the slightest movements caused her pain.
[H-how is....my... daughter?] -Liore
[She's waiting for you] -Sol
Liore smiled once more and the picture of it gave Sol a heart ache, she was surely in pain.
Sol seeing this quickly fed her some food as well as a special pill Renissa gave Sol for the Queen. He placed it in her mouth and immediately Sol could see mana rus.h.i.+ng through her body. Lieren whispered a few words and water formed on top of her covering her completely and it gave out the same medical scent as Renissa which surprised Sol.
After a few minutes, Lieren had quickly regained her beautiful appearance and her hair no longer was filled with dirt and mud and her skin had regained it's soft and warm texture.
She then used wind magic to blow the filth off her body and clothes and appeared as though she was never in here in the first place.
[Haha you give a woman a bit of power and immediately everything changes...This must be the skills of a n.o.ble lady...Bwahahah] -Aereis
Aereis laughed out rather rudely but Sol just shook his head bitterly with a laugh, indeed it was done too quickly. Lieren seeing this became slightly red and embarra.s.sed. Sol and Aereis were covered in filth and mud but she smelled like roses, a pain only warriors would understand.
[That was....Dual elemental magic?!] -Sol
It was then Sol paid close attention to Lieren's actions and was stupefied! She used two different magics!! Sol made a mental note to ask her about it later down, then he s.h.i.+fted his gaze to both Aereis and Lieren.
[I have a plan to get you both out. Listen up] -Sol
[You got it! Anything you say!] -Lieren
[This life is owed to you, give an order] -Aereis
Lieren was pumped up and seemed to be full of energy! Aereis was solemn as he looked at Sol and decided not to treat him as a child.
Sol began speaking.
Chapter 19 & 20-
Sol picked up the Fanged Blades and surprisingly the root of the fangs had good length and made decent handles and they fit rather snugly in Sol's hands. He could feel the Queen's beast soul and was elated to know that her soul would always be here with him. The Blades seemed to sing as they were picked up by Sol and it's sharp edges twinkled off the light of the mana veins within the walls.
He immediately did as the Queen instructed and collected the venom that was dripping out from the Queen's jaw and took his utmost care so as to not get poisoned. Sol was just about to finish up when a bit of venom spilled toward his hands-
[-Ahh] -Sol
Sol quickly retracted his arm but it still spilled on his skin. Surprisingly enough there was no damage, the venom fell on his hands like a drop of water and rolled down smoothly to the floor.
The second it hit the floor, steam rose in the air and Sol knew for sure this was the doing of the Queen. Sol once more bowed to the corpse of the Queen and turned to leave. As he was just about to leave he noticed a portion of the scaled leather of the Queen immediately became undone and fell to the floor.
The sheer weight of it smashed into the floor and left a huge dent and raised the dirt, Sol placed his arms on the Fanged Blades affectionately and they hissed excitedly in approval. It seemed when the Queen wriggled around earlier it had caused terrible damage to her skin and a decent sized chunk of undamaged white/gold scaled leather fell to the floor. It was big enough to be crafted into armor and it seemed the Queen wanted him to have it.
She probably would have told him to take it if he could, but Sol was much too weak to even put a dent in her armor much less cut it. However this piece that fell off seemed like a gift from the heavens, he could naturally place it in his runic ring though it took up almost half of the room within his ring.
Sol placed an Explosive Fire Orb right beneath the Queen as he couldn't bury her, he would at least give her a cremation. After taking one more glance at the the corpse, he turned around with determination burning in his eyes.
**
Sol had to find the "mana well" the Queen spoke of and he immediately set out and began heading deeper into the hive with both Fanged Blades in hand. Sol felt much stronger and much faster than before, all of his senses had become much more powerful and heightened than before. He could now hear clearly the beating of the Wasp wings nearby and could determine when he would encounter one.
Sol began using [Spectral Phantom]. In his self made style [Planar Overlord Style] which was inspired by all the different types of martial arts from Earth. Aside from [Tyrannical Illusionist] which was meant to dramatically increase Sol's elusiveness in combat. He also possessed another move for outside of combat which he called [Spectral Phantom].
After fusing the stealth skill [Ninjutsu : Silent Steps] and the balance and control skill [Shaolin : Kung Fu Balance of Good and Evil], he integrated many other minor features from a.s.sa.s.sination type martial arts and meditation type martial arts and finally created this move.
In this state, Sol would use his perfect bodily control to use his muscles to attribute his entire body towards speed and stealth. His physical posture, his senses and even his mind would give priority to the speed and stealth by neglecting every other attribute to boost these specific ones.
In order to counter the terrifying increase of speed without sacrificing stealth, Sol decided to use the methods taught by bhuddists and emptied his mind, conscious. He induced a state of hypnosis to himself programming his body to have a sole and single will of "Staying hidden" thereby reducing his presence considerably.
His steps would be as light as a feather, as quiet as a shadow and the light in his pretty golden eyes would become dim and soulless enough for reflections to show. Even though these effects caused Sol to be slightly dizzy, he was well aware of his surroundings and only found it a little bit discomforting.
This dizziness was a side effect of the different types of mental inducing techniques Sol had applied to himself and could not be removed without the technique failing. Using [Spectral Phantom] Sol's speed and stealth increased as his breathe became quieter and more paced. His head became dizzier and dizzier and if one saw him they would indeed agree this move was aptly named because if one saw Sol's lifeless eyes they would come to the same conclusion.
This time on the way to the 5th pocket Sol hadn't encountered any Wasps at all and smoothly made his way down in only a few minutes. As he approached the 5th pocket, Sol saw another row of coc.o.o.ns.......however, there was nothing inside of them. They were completely empty and judging by the slime on the floor they were recently retrieved.
[Enhanced Vision!] -Sol
Sol immediately became cautious still, he looked around and saw that a few of the coc.o.o.ns were actually human sized! As they were the smallest coc.o.o.ns there they were quite noticeable and their silhouette was exactly that of a humans! Sol instantly turned around and went deeper down the hive at an even faster speed!
The effects of [Spectral Phantom] began showing as he entered and left the room in an almost ghost-like manner, not even the twigs on the floor had moved as Sol pa.s.sed by.
(d.a.m.n!! I have to reach in time!!) -Sol
Sol quickly dashed recklessly downward into the hive, using his new increased hearing from the breakthrough and his incredible new speed he had nothing to fear as he sped downward. Then he saw quite a few more pockets, all with empty coc.o.o.ns none were human sized. It seems that the 5th pocket is where the 2nd Queen Lieren was held.
Sol thinking about this felt relieved, judging by the rest of coc.o.o.ns they had been extracted long before as the slime had already dried and the 5th pocket's extraction was the most recent since it's slime was still fresh. Sol quickly started ignoring the rest of pockets as he understood they were empty and maintained his ludicrous advancement!
*BZZ* *BZZ*
All of a sudden, he started hearing the beating wings of the Wasps and he could pinpoint their location....they were currently coming directly towards him! Judging by the number of them they were probably going to extract the rest of pockets! Sol instantly snapped his fingers and woke up out of his [Spectral Phantom] state and his dizziness instantly cleared.
He placed the Fanged Blades inside his runic ring and immediately began searching for his poison apparatus. Sol quickly fished out two more powdered poison bags and lay them on the floor. He quickly pulled out the medicinal wine and splashed it on them. He took out his Fire Gem and got ready...he waited and sure enough the beating of wings became louder...
Luckily this time the pathway was straight and Sol could see far ahead rather than the twisted bends it had been in before, it felt like the ending of the hive. What he saw buzzing towards him was an entire crowd of Guardian Wasps a hundred at the very least with all eyes on him! It seemed they were the ones doing the extracting and it made sense since they were the only ones with developed eyes. This was a great stroke of luck as Sol could attack without worrying about killing them.
He no longer doused the cloth around his face with water and instead took it off as he lit up the both bags! Sol drew his Fanged Blades from his runic ring and quickly dove into the Guardian Wasps.
Sol had begun experiencing the positive sides of a Sentient Weapon as he tore through the Guardian Wasps like paper! The blades in his hands danced around as they let out ferocious hisses and spat green venom into the air through the hollowed out veins within the Fang! Any who were even slightly cut, fell to the floor and even those who were sprinkled by the venom seemed to be buzzing in pain!
Sol swung his both blades in a rhythmic fas.h.i.+on and the air seemed to be slashed cleanly with every swing. The Guardians quickly fell in less than a minute which was quite astonis.h.i.+ng! When they advanced with too many numbers, Sol would retreat into the poisonous gas, dealing them even greater damage.
As a stinger came piercing towards him, Sol would side step and create an illusion of himself and immediately counter-attack. Two Wasps closed in on him yet he would deflect one stinger and use the momentum to swiftly spin in the air with both blades and slice the other completely in half as well as the surrounding targets!
This sort of terrifying onslaught continued and Wasps fell one by one in seconds under this domineering pressure and tyrannical slaying. Sol seemed to be embarra.s.sed as he realized he lost himself in the fighting and barely let the poison he created do any work when he rushed forward to meet them. However the purple gas still filled the hive and Sol ran directly downward even deeper.
This time the path was straight and not curved and Sol could faintly see ahead of him, a bright light seemed to be emitting at the the ending. There wasn't any sunlight of course and Sol was curious as well as afraid to know what was causing the light! He increased his speed as well as his caution and finally after crossing the boundary and adjusting his eyes to the light, horrible munching sounds filled Sol's ears.
*CRUNCH* *CRUNCH* *CRUNCH
As Sol's eyes adjusted what he saw in front of him, was a huge disgusting worm-like being with tiny slanted vicious looking eyes and an enlarged mouth with yellow-reddish colored jagged teeth and it was being constantly fed by a Guardian Wasp. It was half wrapped in a coc.o.o.n and It gave off a terrible and eerie disgusting aura.
The beasts the Queen were being fed had all sorts of tough armor and steel like scales Sol was sure some even he wouldn't be able to pierce and they were being tore through like paper as loud crunching sounds rung out.
From the Queen's behind every few minutes or so it would lay an egg and a Guardian Wasp would collect it and roll it towards a nearby room. The reproduction rate of this thing made Sol terrified when he saw how quickly it laid it's eggs. However, this was great news for Sol. The current Queen of the Wasp was a sitting target!!! It obviously couldn't attack and Sol knew just the way to kill it!
Directly in front of Sol was mountains of beasts and human like corpses, however if one looked at them they would notice the creatures were alive. It seemed the Queen liked eating them alive as it greedily ate and all colored juices ran down it's lips with a perverted horrible expression in it's eyes and one could even see a tinge of joy as it ate.
[Enhanced vision!] -Sol
Sol quickly began scanning the mountain of bodies, luckily the view of the mountains of bodies blocked Sol from the Queen as well as the Wasps around her. There were just too many bodies for them to see clearly and they would never be expecting an intruder and as such they acted as normal. The Queen looked so absorbed in eating and paid no attention to anything else.
[Master! This is even better than I expected! She didn't even enter coc.o.o.ned stages!! No wonder the Queen said to get to the mana well! The Queen was probably waiting for the Queen Basilisk to die and then have her subordinates feed her the corpse of the Queen and then enter evolution!
With the nutrients and tissue of an S-rank Queen Basilisk her evolution would have gone quickly and without a hitch but the Wasps didn't have the required strength to slay the Queen and so she waited and delayed her evolution!! This can only be a great strand of luck!] -Mitra
[Master, this means her awareness is at the lowest point ever! She can't even move on her own even if you kill all the Guardian Wasps in here! What you need to be afraid about is if she notices you, she will scream and most likely all the Wasps in the area would come flooding to her] -
Mitra sounded out incredibly excited as he spoke, Sol nodded his head as he listened. This was great news for him after all, It meant the Queen was too weak!! All Sol would truly have to worry about was the swarm of Bloodmana Wasps!
Sol stopped wasting anymore time and begun scanning the corpses for humans. It wasn't hard to do as the only beasts that were piled one on top of another were armored typed beasts. It seems the Wasps had begun categorizing them, Sol patiently waited as he had no time limit and didn't have anything to worry about behind him.
Even if something unexpected happened, Mitra would warn him and Sol was confident in his ability to be able to reach a pocket and hide from the swarm.
The Wasps slowly begun seperating the corpse-like beings that looked almost devoid of any life were it not for their open eyes one would think they were all dead. The Queen was positioned to the back of the main hive pocket, and the captured beasts were sorted out by their type of armor.
In a line from left to right were the highest armored beasts down to the lowest armored beast. It seems the Queen enjoyed eating the crunchy beasts first and had them line up first which was even great news!
He instanty s.h.i.+fted his eyes to the right and within the pile of beast-like bodies a human was not hard to spot, and sure enough to the far left among the fish-like beasts and softer skinned beasts the very last type was humans.
Sol only saw three humans in total, one was a young man and he was already dead as blood leaked from his mouth it seemed he couldn't hold on and died in the extraction phase.
The other two was a middle-aged man, who surprisingly had quite the vigor remained in his eyes and it seemed as though he was conscious as one could see a faint light in his eyes. Sol was surprised and admired the man who could keep his wits through all of what he may have been through.
The middle-aged man tried to unceasingly find some ray of hope as his eyes darted around, it seemed he knew he was about to eaten. He leaned his face downward and scooted over very lightly and weakly and astonis.h.i.+ngly began nibbling on a weak fish-like beast's fins that were close to his face. It seemed he was doing anything possible to survive, Sol thought the man was indeed a survivor and possessed a terrifying will.
Strange enough there was no fear in his eyes, only complete disgust and hatred as if saying "Even if you eat me, I'll tear through your stomach". There was also a sense of helplessness in his eyes, but somehow Sol got the feeling the helplessness wasn't directed towards the middle-aged man but something else...or someone else.
The last one next to him who was barely conscious was a woman with disheveled blue hair and half-opened blue lifeless eyes laying limp and unmoving in the corner of the room. Her eyes stared at the hive walls blankly and seemed to have lost all will to live, her body looked malnourished and her beauty was no where to be found.
Who could blame her? Being trapped in this place for almost a decade and now having to suffer an agonizing death by the hands of such a disgusting creature. Not to mention there was no thought of hope coming because no one would be able to enter a Wasp hive to save her, all she could do was forcefully remain alive and wait out her death sentence.
However, luckily as Sol predicted she was indeed far from the list of being eaten and he hiddenly rejoiced. So far everything had been going in his favor and he had no one else to thank but the G.o.ds.
Sol instantly began his plan, he immediately checked his inventory and decided to once more make the Insecticide poison, this time it would not be diluted. Sol had a great amount of time as the amount of beasts lined up for the Queen was truly quite a huge amount, and it really earned it's name as a Bloodmana Wasp hive.
Sol was curious about the room where the eggs were being rolled into, he knew the mana well was in there and wanted to go as the Queen Basilisk instructed but knew it would cause quite a chaotic scene until he could take care of the Queen Wasp. Not only that but he didn't know how many Wasps were in the egg room. However he had an idea, he quickly searched his runic ring and brought out the Fire Gem.
He quickly drifted across the floors and brought himself nearer to the human captives not making a sound using the piles of beast bodies as shelter. There were only 4 Wasps in the entire room, one stood near the Queen feeding at all time, one moved the eggs and two others were sorting out the bodies and categorizing them.
Sol looked towards the brown-haired middle-aged man whose eyes were glancing around lively even though his body couldn't move, he took out the Fire Gem and cupped it around one of his hands. He immediately sent a tiny bit of mana into the Fire Gem and a tiny small flame issued out within his palm. The flame was weak and small and was mainly used for starting fires.
Within the well lit hive, the hand sheltered flame was barely noticeable to the humans from where they were but completely invisible to the Queen and her subordinates. Like this, Sol turned it off and on and kept doing it over and over.
The middle-aged man was quite vigilant and after about half a minute he saw the tiny flame flickering at the corner of his eyes. Using what little strength he had left, he slightly tilted his head towards the direction and his eyes met Sol's which was visible thanks to the tiny flame.
At first he thought maybe it was a beast, as the eyes were golden in color and near the corpses of beasts but then when he noticed the human-like compa.s.sion within them he instantly understood!
Several emotions pa.s.sed through the man's eyes - Shock, Joy, Sadness but most of all....Hope and shock! The instant the middle-aged man's eyes made contact with Sol's a fire within them began burning with great vigor and he focused solely on Sol's eyes so much so that it was terrifying! Sol never broke eye contact with him and continued turning the Fire Gem on and off rhythmically.
It took only a moment for the middle-aged man to understand what Sol was doing and one thought flashed through his head instantly.
(Warrior's Code!) -middle aged man
Amongst the books Sol had read in Renissa's office, he found one that was t.i.tled "Sign and Sound Code" or commonly called "S&S Code" or "S&S Language".
Humans who ventured out into the wild needed a language to communicate with one another silently without alerting beasts or a method of speaking which only they could understand. The intelligence of beasts had become quite high and they could understand human language and some could even speak it.
Obviously these became the reasons why they developed this free and cost effective method of communication. There was a basic table which one would learn the basic language of both sign and sound language and then some would alter it and make their own language to disguise their actions and make sure no one could eavesdrop on it or decipher their codes.
Naturally people who possessed the basic knowledge of "S&S Code" could understand one another and communicate even if they haven't met before just by using the basic table.
"SS Code" was branched off into two sections. Visible Sign language and Rhythmic sign language. Visible Sign Code language could be done with hands, lights and even smoke.
Rhythmic sign language was done exactly like it sounds and could be done with sounds, mana vibrations or anything that could create and follow a pattern or rhythmic beat loud enough to project to the other party.
This "S&S Code" was compulsory and was learned by almost every warrior that went out to venture with a group. Since mages usually had their own ways of covert communication and the "S&S Code" was mainly used by warriors it slowly became known as "Warrior's Code".
It was quite simple and easy to learn and didn't take Sol long to learn. Naturally this is what he was using to capture the middle-aged man's attention as Sol judged him to be a warrior based on his robust appearance, eyes that were filled with a warrior's vigor and his st.u.r.dy body that was able to have that much energy even after his current situation and Sol absolutely wasn't wrong.
Sol immediately begun using the flickering light and sending codes delightedly the second he realized that the middle-aged man could understand him.
(If-you-can-understand-//-blink-once-yes-//-blink-twice-no) -Sol
The middle-aged man blinked once deeply.
(I-have-plan-to-get-out-//-need-your-help) -Sol
The middle-aged man blinked deeply once more. Sol could see all sorts of emotions building up inside the man's eyes. He took a deep breath and promised to himself that he would definitely save this guy too. Sol seeing the man's compliance begun flickering the Fire Gem once more.
(I-killed-all-Wasps-in-hive-except-here-//-remaining-Wasps-outside-hive) -Sol
The middle-aged man paid attention to the update and wanted to know the current status of the hive and how this plan would work and dared not close his eyes. He blinked once deeply allowing Sol to continue.
(Wasp-new-evolution-happening-//-variant-wasp-dangerous-threat) -Sol
(Variant-wasp-//-mutation-combination-//-Regular-Wasp-//-Guardian-Wasp-//-all-benefits-no-side-effects) -Sol
Sol stopped at this point for the old man to think about what he said and to make sure he understood. As some of the sign language obviously didn't have word equivalents Sol had to throw a few vague lines out but luckily the middle-aged man was intelligent and he had been observing the situation for some time and had noticed this new breed of mutation.
Being in there for at least a decade, he was quite acquainted with the Bloodmana Wasps and the Guardian Wasps and noticed the emergence of this new race before anyone else. What he didn't know, was what their capabilities were as he was almost always attended by Guardian Wasps who had eyes to make sure nothing could try to escape or cause trouble.
When he understood Sol's message, his eyes grew wide and seemed to understand the part with "All benefits and no side effects". Sol seeing this reaction nodded.
(He can't possibly mean Collective conscience as well as intelligence? Indeed I noticed their spear-like arms and the fact that they grew eyes and I could even see the faint sense of Intelligence from those eyes but....a collective conscience as well? If that's the case.... How terrifying. These things absolutely cannot afford to get outside) -middle aged man
(Still, who is this mysterious golden-haired young man? and those golden eyes...never mind that! Now is not the time to be concerned with this kid's personal preferences!) -middle aged man
The middle aged man quickly gathered his thoughts and blinked deeply urging Sol to continue relying information. The latter immediately began flickering the Fire Gem-
(Good-//-I-have-way-destroy-them-//-room-right-side-//Wasps-how-many-//-Blink-amount) -Sol
The middle-aged man didn't even need to look in the room to tell him how many, he had been in here for quite a few hours facing the same direction and naturally knew there was a single Wasp in there moving around eggs and preparing the well.
The middle-aged man blinked deeply once at Sol. Seeing this Sol felt relieved.
(Good-//-Regular-Wasp-Blink once-//-Guardian-Wasp-Blink-Twice) -Sol
The middle-aged man deeply blinked twice.
(Good-//-I-Kill-him-//-I-steal-you-//-deliver-you-there-//-I-revive-you-) -Sol
The middle-aged man deeply blinked once with great joy in his eyes.
(No-Bloodmana-Wasp-close-//-You-dantian-safe-//-Guardian-Wasp-only) -Sol
He blinked once more in confirmation.
(Need-you-to-confirm-//-When-Wasps-opposite-direction-//-Ambush-kill-both) -Sol
(Confirm-or-Deny) -Sol
The middle-aged man immediately understood.
(He wants me to tell him when the back of the Wasps are turned toward the opposite direction. I see, he wants to quietly kill the Wasp that carries the egg in and then kill the Wasp that receives the egg and drag me in there to revive me....He probably has quite a few medical supplies and intends to patch me up) -middle aged man
(This kid...he should be able to kill them quietly right? If he can get in here then he's definitely killed quite a few of them and is not ordinary by any means. Kid if you can pull this off, I'll tell stories about you to my children and their children and carve your name on my a.s.s. Cause no amount of gold is going to repay what you are about to attempt) -middle aged man
He blinked deeply towards Sol confirming he understood. Then he cast his gaze towards the Wasp and paid great attention to it. Sol on the other hand put away his Fire Gem and fell into a dizzy like state as he leaned forward and quickly crawled along the floor almost serpent-like. This was of course the effects of [Spectral Phantom].
The middle-aged man just happened to cast his eyes toward Sol and saw his movement, if he had the power to drop his jaw it would have been sitting on his chest.
(WHAT?! Such absurd movement!! I've never seen anything like it in my entire life!! Is that a warrior's skill? I doubt that for sure there isn't even a single mana fluctuation! His eyes look so dull and lifeless almost like..this movement..A ghost in the forest's night!) -middle aged man
He quickly casted back his gaze towards the Wasps when Sol positioned himself behind a pillar inside the hive. From this position he was only slightly noticeable to the middle-aged man, however Sol's eyes still locked onto him awaiting the order.
The Wasps made quite a few deliveries and almost an hour had pa.s.sed, yet Sol and the middle-aged man remained calm and patient waiting for the opportunity when both Wasps have their backs turned and the perfect time to make the kill.
All of a sudden the middle-aged man furiously blinked quite a few times and A silhouette immediately flew out like a shadow from among the Beast-bodies, however it remained eerily close to the floor so much so that it scared the middle-aged man half to death! Naturally this shadow was Sol under [Spectral Phantom] effects.
The two other Wasps who were busy categorizing the bodies had not even noticed this shadow and continued their duties undisturbed. The amount of bodies were just too good of a cover and Sol was just too skilled at concealment.
In a flash he immediately entered the room, both Wasps had their backs turned and did not even notice the presence entering the room. Sol with a quick motion in his wrists immediately drew the two Fanged Blades, a layer of dust could be seen on the edges of the blades.
Sol's head cleared up as he left the [Spectral Phantom] state and approached the both Wasps from behind much less faster but still very quietly! In a single instant Sol had already approached the first Wasp!
He took the first blade in his hand and after reaching close enough, bent his back in an arch like a bow and immediately garnered all the strength in his body to his arm! His hand shot forward like a released steel cable and threw the Fanged blade toward the furthest Wasp!
*PUCHI*
Before the closest Wasp could turn around the other Fanged Blade was already inside it's head. The timing of both the kills were incredibly accurate, so much so that only one penetration sound was heard. The middle-aged man seeing all this had his eyes bulged with shock, also clearly joy was dancing and ever present in his heart.
(So formidable!! People called me a genius, I was no where near as powerful as that when I was his age!! Such shocking battle prowess! We might really be able to pull this off! Now just time to find Mina and we can get out of here!
Once I get revived I can immediately cause trouble for this Queen, something tells me this kid intends to wipe out the entire nest I'll make sure to give him as much help as needed to carry this out. This sort of nest should never exist and everyone of them should die in here) -middle aged man
Once Sol killed these two, he immediately picked them up and dragged them to the corner out of plain view. When Sol finally took a clear good look at the room, what he saw was incredibly shocking!
All of the veins inside of the hive led to one single point on the ceiling of this single large room, and the veins fused into a single stalact.i.te that continuously leaked translucent blue droplets within a artificially carved out pool.
(This must be the mana well....but that mana looks weird) -Sol
From the mana veins in the ceiling, drops of translucent blue mana drops fell one by one from them and into this pool. The color of this mana was something Sol had never even seen before, rather than it's usual intermediate blue appearance, it was translucent blue!
It gave off the feeling of extreme purity and Sol put it together and knew that this was refined mana. Judging by the process the Bloodmana Wasps used, it was obvious their control of mana had far succeeded humans.
The sheer amount of this purified translucent blue mana pool caused Sol to sigh with praise. It was clearly quite a sight to see, but what Sol noticed near the pools were that all the eggs were being placed nearby to the well to receive secondary benefits from it.
Sol didn't waste time and immediately began slicing those eggs apart, it wouldn't be good if a Bloodmana Wasp or the variant was born while they were carrying out their plans. Surprisingly the underdeveloped eggs seemed to attract the attention of the two tiny basilisks as they poked their head out from Sol's arm and began feeling around.
They seemed to know which one was close to hatching and they immediately ignored those and stretched from Sol's arms bas.h.i.+ng a hole each for themselves into the newly laid eggs. A gooey substance leaked out and those little guys immediately begun eating. Sol didn't know what to say, he just followed their leads allowing them to eat and killed the eggs that were close to hatching.
Sol noticed they had become larger and their eyes became more lively as they ate and it seemed they thoroughly had needed nutrition. The Wasp sh.e.l.ls were too hard for them to consume and they were already lacking in energy and dared not try. Just like that they ate all the underdeveloped eggs and after rubbing heads with Sol they entered slumber once more in Sol's arms.
Just like that all the eggs had been rid of, Sol then once more decided to focus on his plan. He walked toward the entrance of this mana well room and peered around the corner. Sure enough the middle-aged man's eyes were filled with vigor and a tinge of worry, he hadn't seen Sol for a while just now and worried if something may have gone wrong but seeing him now had erased all doubts. How could he know that Sol was feeding his children?
Sol picked up a few tiny pebbles within the hive and watched the two Wasps who were categorizing. One was deep in the mountain of corpses sorting them out and moving them around making them accessible to the other Wasp; while the other was receiving them and placing them in their designed category.
He just had to wait while the Wasp who was busy categorizing came closer to the humans. He waited and waited and finally in it's hand it held a serpent-like creature that didn't seem tough at all and was only big in size. It dropped it right near the humans and then-
*Tak*
It had gotten hit by a pebble, the curious Wasp immediately followed the direction towards the egg chamber and calmly flew in. Guardian Wasps were different from Bloodmana Wasps in the fact that they had intelligence and were p.r.o.ne to be curious and also because Guardian Wasps were able to identify abnormal things like what just currently happened.
It was precisely why they were named Guardian Wasps in the first place, not only did they have eyes but they usually investigated any abnormal occurrences within the hive. This was knowledge Sol had learned within Renissa's Bestiary, he had learned that the Wasp species in general didn't have much difference to Bloodmana Wasps and guessed that the Guardian Wasps here also had the ability to recognize abnormalities within the hive just like the Guardian Wasps of the Poison Wasp species.
The una.s.suming Guardian Wasp did not let Sol down and immediately entered the mana well chamber looking for the disturbance and it only saw a sliver of light afterward-
*PUCHI*
The second it had entered it was pierced at the side of it's head which was accurately aimed between the meetings of two sh.e.l.ls and a grave weak point. It was easily taken down by a Fanged Blade and not given a single second to make any noise to alert it's comrades. Sol dragged it's corpse to the side and hid it. He sat and watched the middle-aged man who rejoiced when he saw it went without a hitch.
Now there were two Wasps within the room. One tending to the Queen at all times, and another sorting out the corpses, however both were very far from Sol and the middle-aged man. Sol's eyes went lifeless and reflected the surface back within their golden s.h.i.+ne, this was obviously the effects of using [Spectral Phantom].
He slid across the floor quietly and quickly and slithered right up to a pillar near the middle-aged man, and without any flashy moves he quickly pulled him and 2nd Queen Lieren across the floor using the mountain of bodies as a s.h.i.+eld. Low growls and other such cries were heard among the bodies of beasts that were still very much alive and so masked any sound of the dragging bodies.
**
When the 2nd Queen had felt her body being dragged, she quickly focused and she could see the golden eyes and golden hair and shortly pa.s.sed out afterward. The middle-aged man was still as lively as ever as Sol leaned him up against the wall. Sol took out his runic ring and begun taking out nutrient pills which were given to him by Renissa, she knew that such circ.u.mstances would happen and directly gave the pills to the Former King to give to Sol.
Sol quickly took them out and began feeding it to the middle-aged man, who quickly swallowed them. A rush of energy rushed out from the pills and surged into his body, little by little his strength began returning, after waiting a few minutes for the middle-aged man to acquire some more energy. Sol quickly gave him some water and some dried meat from his ring and the middle aged man did not hesitate and ate wildly as his energy returned.
Sol forcefully fed the 2nd Queen, and as she was a mage her body wasn't as powerful and had a much harder time recuperating. Sol decided to let the pills do their job before he fed her any food and waited. Her eyes gradually started gaining light and her will to live had returned tenfold upon realizing there was a chance out of here.
[My name is Aereis friend,Tell me...*munch* *munch* young man *munch* what's your name?] -Aereis
The middle-aged man began to talk loudly which startled Sol.
[My name is Sol'ixus Hyperius, Sol is fine...talk softer..let's not die] -Sol
Aereis resisted the urge to laugh out when he heard Sol's annoyed voice. He was much too happy and hadn't spoken to anyone for years and he himself wasn't much of a chatter bug which made it even more funny. This one sentence was more than enough chatter for now, the middle-aged man's face then became serious as he looked at Sol and quietly but sincerely spoke.
[My friend Sol, thank you very much. You've saved this warrior's life!] -Aereis
[No need to mention it, you were in the same exact spot as the person I came here to save] -Sol
As Sol spoke he s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the 2nd Queen and the Aereis seemed to understand.
[Friend...I'm curious...how did you get in here...? No need to answer if it's a secret. Just, what you're doing right now could be considered the impossible] -Aereis
The middle-aged brown-haired man was quite curious about this but didn't want to pry into Sol's personal affairs as he could tell Sol was much different. Surprisingly the old man had a runic ring, which drew Sol's attention. He knew just how costly one was and only n.o.bles would possess one however Sol didn't want to ask the man his personal business. He thought for a moment and decided this kind of person wasn't bad and told him plainly.
[I....don't have a Dantian, so they couldn't track me completely] -Sol
[You...What?] -Aereis
Aereis seemed to be struck by a lightning bolt as he looked at Sol, part of him didn't want to believe it..but he didn't think Sol was the kind to lie, he might refuse to speak but he didn't believe Sol would lie. Then as he thought about it, it made more sense and then as if he finally remembered something placed one hand on his chin and then showed an exclamation.
[No wonder I haven't seen you use any warrior moves to cut down those Wasps! Y-You was that just your raw strength?] -Aereis
[Yeah...] -Sol
[Haha! I Aereis thought I had seen it all! But someone with a body blessed by the heavens is certainly the type I have never met before! Aye!] -Aereis
Sol laughed at this fellow who didn't seem to be too bad and chatted quietly for a while as they regained their energy and a voice finally interrupted them-
[W-Who...are you..? Dear savior] -Lieren
[I am Sol, a friend of Liore and a friend to the King Ironspine of Earthernvale] -Sol
Lieren upon hearing these words had her face go moist with tears and a great fire burned within her eyes. The fire to get home to her family. She looked at Sol as if judging him and smiled, she seemed to understand he was a good person and smiled even though it obviously pained her to do so. Her beautiful and soft skin had become damaged and the slightest movements caused her pain.
[H-how is....my... daughter?] -Liore
[She's waiting for you] -Sol
Liore smiled once more and the picture of it gave Sol a heart ache, she was surely in pain.
Sol seeing this quickly fed her some food as well as a special pill Renissa gave Sol for the Queen. He placed it in her mouth and immediately Sol could see mana rus.h.i.+ng through her body. Lieren whispered a few words and water formed on top of her covering her completely and it gave out the same medical scent as Renissa which surprised Sol.
After a few minutes, Lieren had quickly regained her beautiful appearance and her hair no longer was filled with dirt and mud and her skin had regained it's soft and warm texture.
She then used wind magic to blow the filth off her body and clothes and appeared as though she was never in here in the first place.
[Haha you give a woman a bit of power and immediately everything changes...This must be the skills of a n.o.ble lady...Bwahahah] -Aereis
Aereis laughed out rather rudely but Sol just shook his head bitterly with a laugh, indeed it was done too quickly. Lieren seeing this became slightly red and embarra.s.sed. Sol and Aereis were covered in filth and mud but she smelled like roses, a pain only warriors would understand.
[That was....Dual elemental magic?!] -Sol
It was then Sol paid close attention to Lieren's actions and was stupefied! She used two different magics!! Sol made a mental note to ask her about it later down, then he s.h.i.+fted his gaze to both Aereis and Lieren.
[I have a plan to get you both out. Listen up] -Sol
[You got it! Anything you say!] -Lieren
[This life is owed to you, give an order] -Aereis
Lieren was pumped up and seemed to be full of energy! Aereis was solemn as he looked at Sol and decided not to treat him as a child.
Sol began speaking.
