New Fantasy World: Galeia-Chapter 65

I dismounted Sonya and gave her back a pat. "Go to them."

The Ratnak jogged to the group, Pochi stood behind the tank.

After my mount joined them, Alyssa waved her staff and a silver dome expanded from her position outwards, enveloping everybody around her. The little flying things that had come close enough were pushed away by the barrier and fell to the ground.

That looks cool. I nodded.

I looked back at the approaching bug. It was green, as big as a humming bird, and had compound eyes like a fly. I stepped back and swatted it away with a hand. A disturbing sound came as it burst against my gauntlet.

"FU!" the feeling made my voice come out louder than I intended. "Ugh!"

"HAHA!" Yolin’s laughter resounded in the clearing. "They’re really nasty."

I turned back and saw her walking out of the dome as if it wasn’t there. She had her two extra pair of arms connected to her body, swatting the bugs around.

"The sound... it’s... there’s no word in Common." I shook my head and swatted another one. "Disgusting falls short."

"I get you." she nodded as she swatted six bugs. "Common doesn’t have much variety."

More bugs were gathering around us and throwing their bodies against ours. I kept swatting at them and the sounds kept coming.

"I can’t..." I winced and lifted my pike. "This is too much."

The blade of my weapon cut them in half when they neared, green liquid splashing the ground below. Hundreds flied off from the trees around us, blocking the light coming from the stalactites above.

A cloud of bugs replaced the few we killed. My heart fell down to my feet.

"Think of them as bags of E’er." the Oni’s soothing voice calmed me down a little. "The others will benefit a lot from this. Get over here. I’ll cover one side of the barrier."

I twirled my pike around me as I quickly made my way to the dome. Looking down at my hands, I gagged as the green liquid had covered both gauntlets.

"Can they hear us?" I coughed as a little bile crept up my throat.

"Yes, but we can’t hear them." Yolin’s voice came from the other side of the barrier. "I tried talking to you while inside."

"Lapia, use your fire!" I hissed as more bugs died by my blade. "I don’t give a fuck about the jungle!"

The cloud of bugs grew thicker, more and more joined them as time went by. The loud buzz of the swarm made my skin crawl. I kept moving my arms as fast as Halvenly possible to keep the spawns of hell from getting closer.

Not even Hell had this shit! I whined in my head. I hope...

As the cosmic beings ruling the universe saw fit, my weapon was long and my aim was true. Keeping the nightmarish beings away was easy, but incredibly taxing on my sanity. The little ground that wasn’t grass was colored green by the swarm’s innards.

"Relax, Natasha." the Oni sounded amused for some reason. "By the way, why aren’t they rushing towards us like the Walas?"

"I deactivated the skill before we entered this floor." I managed to get out as more bugs died by my holy and righteous actions. "We need the ores, so I figured rampaging Golems wouldn’t be too useful. How many are there in a swarm? This is taking too long!"

"Good call." she let out a chuckle. "Barely a minute has passed. Chill and kill."

I wanted to laugh. I really did. Reality was different, though. I was fighting for my life.

"I can’t stand the noises."

Loud clapping came from her position. "Right. You don’t like spiders either."

My body went cold. "Please. Don’t tell me there’s s... spiders in this dungeon."

A small cloud approached me, and I swiped my pike a few times to kill them all. Divine relief was graced upon me as my weapon created a vacuum with it’s speed, gathering them and making the herculean task a little easier.

"Don’t worry. There are none."

The red Goddess enlightened me with her answer.

I sighed and firmly planted my feet on the ground. Grabbing the butt of my pike with my right hand and the pole with my left, I activated Endless Rain. The blade of the weapon whistled through the air as I stabbed everything in my vision as fast as possible. My right hand came up to my left armpit with each thrust, killing dozens of bugs in an instant. Before their bodies separated completely, I was already thrusting again and again, repeating the action each time my right hand returned to my hip.

Sneaking a glance back to the dome, I noticed no bugs were on it. They were gathering in front of me, and I assumed around Yolin as well.

I could maybe kill them all with a warcry, but that’ll attract every Golem in... I checked my strength stat. A wide area. Better not do that.

"Do they have a Queen?" I asked after a few minutes of nonstop pest elimination. "I’m not a fan of being covered in green goo."

"They do. It’s more beneficial to kill the Vanguard for a while, more E’er to absorb." she laughed.

My eyes widened. I had forgotten about that.

I focused on the clean smell. A large wave of it entered my core through my lungs along with the stench of the Morthar Vanguard’s innards as they died. I realized it happened passively, rather than something that had to be done consciously.

"So if I kill the Queen, they’d all die?" I asked while killing.

Focusing on my rhythmic breathing helped calm my disgust and focus on the bugs. I felt the clean presence of E’er flow through the Bond towards the others.

Cool. I smiled.

"They’d explode, so no E’er for us." she chuckled. "The Queen should show up in a while, along with the Soldiers."

"Are they bigger?" I asked, my pike blurring with the speed. "I’m just going to one-shot them when they show up."

"A little bigger, yes." a particularly loud clap was followed by a scoff. "They almost latched onto me."

"Come on, these are level two fifty. How can they come close to you with all those extra arms?" I teased her a little.

"Oh? Wanna bet who kills more?" she asked back.

"You’re on." I chuckled. "No attracting them with skills."

"Tch! Fine."

Although she clicked her tongue, she sounded entertained.

1, 2, 3, 4... I counted as more bugs fell to the ground.

For some cosmic reason their corpses dissolved after a few minutes, keeping the ground relatively clear. The green goo stayed, however.

As I counted, I wondered why Lapia wasn’t using her fire. True, we were surrounded by a jungle, but she could control the flames and avoid a wildfire from forming.

When the swarm thinned a good amount, a loud rhythmic clapping came from between the trees and bushes. I looked in the direction of the sound and saw a big one lazily flying in our direction. It was similarly green, the size of a seagull, a stinger on its butt, and big mandibles on its head.

I shivered.

[Floor Guardian – Morthar Soldier Lvl 280]

"Yolin?" I called.

"Yeeah?"

"A soldier is coming. It has mandibles and a stinger." I continued stabbing nonstop.

"Let it approach a little, then kill it." she continued to clap. "That’ll attract the Queen."

Why can’t it be a single monster? I complained.

I killed, counted, and focused on the approaching Soldier. When it was four meters away from me, it pointed its butt in my direction. The chubby abdomen wiggled a little and I saw the stinger tremble slightly.

I deactivated Endless Rain and took two steps forward, cutting it in half with a vertical swipe. Then, I kicked the corpse to where I was standing as I kept stabbing those around me.

"Got one here too!" Yolin cheered. The sound of a watermelon falling on the ground reached me after her words. "Ueee! It’s all over me..."

I laughed and kept stabbing. A couple more Soldiers showed up and ended up being cut by me and squashed by the Oni.

When the swarm was nothing more than a few bugs, the Queen showed up. Equal in size to the Soldiers and similarly green, it had a small coronet on top of its head. It approached through the bushes towards me.

[Floor Guardian – Morthar Queen Lvl 300]

"Got eyes on the Queen. I repeat. Got eyes on the Queen." I killed the last of the Vanguard just in time. "Six hundred and forty two, by the way."

The Oni walked around the dome and I saw her body covered with green goo from top to bottom.

"Five hundred and eighty one." she clicked her tongue. "Your win. Kill it, then."

I tilted my head. "Does it drop items? Like the coronet or something?"

She shook her head. "The green goo is really good for the skin even if it’s repulsive, but it’s almost impossible to collect. The coronet is... pretty useless."

I shrugged. "Alright."

I unceremoniously threw my pike to the bug. It pierced it through the head and got stuck on the ground.

"Prey slaughtered. Victory achieved ~" I sang as I approached the mutilated corpse that resulted from the shock wave.

I picked the coronet and it shrunk to ring size.

[Morthar Queen Coronet (Low)]

-Attracts a Morthar Swarm when worn.

"..." I turned to Yolin.

She crossed her six arms. "Told you."

"But what if I wear it outside the dungeon?" I contemplated. "Would that create a Morthar Swarm?"

"No..." she chuckled. "Only if there’s one nearby. That’s been tested ever since the first dropped."

I nodded. "Yeah, makes sense."

The dome vanished and I saw the four wiping tears away. Lapia was chuckling and Alyssa was flushed deep purple.

"All good?" I asked, taking a step towards them.

They all took a step back. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"Yes, all good." Bromisnar eyed me with a little disgust.

I looked down and winced at the green goo covering me from head to toe. I stored the armor and sighed in relief at seeing my leather garments unblemished.

"What were you laughing at?" I asked while double checking.

Alyssa giggled. "You’re such a wuss with bugs."

"Oh?" I produced my chest plate, green goo dripping from it. "Want a piece?"

The Luzo scowled and shook her head.

"You two need to clean up." Lapia covered her nose. "Is there a stream or something nearby?"

Bonte shrugged. "Never been this deep."

"There is." Yolin once again blessed all life on Galeia with her words. "A few streams cross the entire floor."

I clenched both fists in celebration.

"We should eat first." the healer eyed the ground around us. "Not here, naturally."