Several earth spikes shot towards the ogres under the magic of the sting scorpions. Even though most of the spikes were deflected by the ogres' tough and dense hides, some of them still managed to break through and inflict tremendous wounds on the bodies of the ogres.
If one were to assess the ogres and the sting scorpions individually, the ogre warriors would be far stronger. In a one-on-one duel, a newborn sting scorpion would never be able to beat an ogre warrior. However, ogre warriors were only ordinary magic-infused creatures, while the young sting scorpions were pure-bred magical creatures.
The ogre warriors were met with two sting scorpions each. The battle was intense, and the situation was chaotic. However, while both sides were enduring grievous wounds, the seventh sting scorpion that abruptly emerged from the ground became the straw that broke the camel's back.
Half an hour later, the battlefield regained its peace.
The three ogres had been injected with too much earth elementium; they finally lost control of their bodies and fell to the ground. They could no longer resist the scorpions.
A strange wave of chittering and scratching sounds rang out.
The three ogres, who had the nerves of their four limbs bitten off, had lost all ability to fight back. They were shocked to find a terrifying black swarm of bugs surging towards them. Just as the ogres were about to scream out of fear, the poison stingers of the sting scorpions immediately stabbed their necks.
The three ogres fell utterly unconscious.
The bug swarm billowed forth and picked up the three ogres and two boars. The horde quickly vanished into the depths of the woods under the escort of the seven sting scorpions.
…………
Maulhill.
The ogres that had gone out hunting didn't start returning to the camp until night had fallen.
They brought back plenty of spoils with them.
The large ones included bulls and massive salamanders, while the smaller catches included boars and rabbits. They had caught all sorts of prey.
The ogres happily gathered together and started a campfire in the middle of the camp, using massive stone pots to cook the delicious meat.
It was probably the only cooking technique that all the ogres in the universe knew.
As the ogres were all muscular yet brainless individuals, they didn't discover the loss of six of their companions from the camp on the first night.
The second day. The same hunt, the same departure from the camp.
This time, they lost nine comrades.
At this point, even the ogres knew something was off, regardless of how dumb they were.
Sometimes there were cases of ogres who went out hunting that only returned after two or three days due to traveling too far away. However, these were rare and unusual events.
But now…
There were about that many ogres who had never returned to camp. No matter how they looked at it, this seemed like a conspiracy and assault designed against them.
The number of ogre warriors that had gone missing was far too many. They had exceeded the number of fingers and toes that an ogre squad leader had. That made it impossible for them to calculate how many had gone missing. That was why the ogre squad leaders could only use the term very very many to describe the loss of their numbers when reporting to Two-Headed Ogre Mage Zac.
Zac was also furious at the disappearance of his subordinate warriors and was unusually violent and angry.
The few ogre squad leaders quickly 'came up with a brilliant plan' in response to Zac's enraged shouting. They all pointed their fingers at the Aba Beemen.
The mad expansion of the Aba Beemen had caused their hunting areas to start overlapping with those of the ogres. Conflicts had erupted between both parties numerous times over the contentious areas. They had already fought several battles. Consequently, the ogres first thought of the Aba Beemen after encountering this unknown wave of assaults.
The Two-Headed Ogre Mage Zac also went berserk in a flash under the influence of those squad leaders.
The moment the sun had gone up on the second day, a large group of ogres charged down Maulhill with Zac in the lead. They boisterously marched towards the territory of the Aba Beemen.
…………
In a damp and dark underground cave.
A dozen bug's nests forged of blood, wooden splinters, and dirt had been erected in the middle of the cave. Holes the size of a fist could be seen everywhere in these holes. One could very clearly see the crawling sting scorpion larvae in these bug's nest through these openings. Of course, they could also see the pile of bloody corpses.
Billis had returned to his human form and was standing in the middle of all the bug's nests. His eyes continually assessed these larvae that were about to become his subordinates.
As the blood in the air thickened, Billis' body hidden beneath his robe was also undergoing subtle changes.
His human skin was now entirely replaced by a layer of black shell. His human hands had also become a pair of giant claws gleaming with a metallic shine. Three scythe-like limbs were curled up on his chest.
What was even more shocking was Billis' head.
The continuously swelling bug's head had split the original face apart. The nose, mouth, and eyes were all slanted to a side, revealing the black and wicked face beneath.
Ghostly green compound-eyes, wicked and frightening mouthparts, two external antennae…
It was evident that Billis was committed and determined to his evolution into a bug person.
There wasn't much more about his body that was still human!
Moreover, with the increasing extent of his bug transformation, Billis had also silently progressed to an advanced apprentice. He had caught up to the height that Acteon spent sixty to seventy years to reach in a matter of two months.
In fact, an advanced apprentice wasn't the endpoint of his evolution this time. As the sting scorpions in the bug's nests continued devouring copious amounts of flesh, Billis' aura started growing even further.
Twelve bug's nests. Once the sting scorpion larvae within them had successfully grown into young sting scorpions, they didn't choose to break out of the nest. Instead, they started tearing at each other.
Young sting scorpions were still too frail for Billis. They were not suitable as a bug army that waged war alongside him. That was why Billis set the goal of this evolution of his bug swarm to be mature sting scorpions after wiping out the few nearby magical creature dens!
The bloody and cruel devouring and evolution process started in each of the twelve nests under his mad and excited gaze.
Each young sting scorpion possessed individual consciousnesses and instincts. Naturally, they were unwilling to allow their barely awakened being to become someone else's stepping stone to evolution just like that. Consequently, the fight in each of the nest was fierce and bloody. It had even reached a level of insanity.
Under Billis' strict orders, only the strongest young scorpion that survived in each nest had the chance to grow and evolve. That was why the scorpions used each part of their bodies to attack every single thing around them that could move insanely.
This battle for evolution that occurred in an unseen corner of the world took two hours to conclude.
As the bug's nests started collapsing, twelve bloody adolescent sting scorpions with incomplete and damaged shells climbed out of the dirt and gathered around Billis.
Billis looked down upon these subordinates of his and finally let out a wild and sharp bug's screech towards the sky!
Chapter 474 Mystical Bug
Greem was busy working in his lab when an insignificant commotion broke out in the Black Forest once again.
His mental space would experience a small-scale collapse every time he completed the tempering of his Spirit. During this period, he would have to gorge on energy substances to sustain the energy being exhausted while his body and mind tried to regenerate rapidly.
Greem couldn't help but fee
l lucky for his current situation.
Magical resources would never be insufficient now that he was in the Black Forest.
There was such a saying spread throughout the ranks of combat adepts– only the adept who best knows how to feast can become the adept who best knows how to fight!
One could understand the attitude of adepts towards food and drink from this saying.
Adepts didn't feast because they were gluttons that enjoyed the debaucherous pleasures of eating and drinking. It because of the frailty of the human body.
Both elementium adepts and body-refining adepts faced the same problem; the human body was not an aid to the adepts. Instead, it was an extremely limiting restraint.
The higher the Grade of the adept, the more terrifying of an elementium torrent that their body needed to endure when casting their high-grade spells. If Greem hadn't elementiumized his body promptly after becoming a fire adept, he would severely damage his body every time he cast a powerful fire spell.
Just imagine; terrifying lava and streams of fire that measured up to several thousands of degrees coursing through the veins in your body. Without a resilient body, the adept's veins and flesh would be reduced to ashes before they could unleash the spell.
And an elementiumized body had to be sustained with even more massive quantities of energy!
That was why adepts had to rely on alternative meals to support the daily functions of their bodies. They were high-energy beings after all.
The so-called 'delicacies' of human society held no benefit for adepts apart from their taste. Magical energy meals prepared with the flesh of magical creatures were the necessary support that was crucial to an adept's improvement.
Fire Throne naturally had a significant advantage when it came to their reserves of magical creature resources from the nearby Black Forest.
In the mission hall on the first level, the mission that hung year-round at the top of the list was a long-term task purchasing magical creature meat.
Ordinary magical creatures with delicious, quality flesh were also reared throughout the year in the nursery room. However, this magical creature meat would be only open to the higher-levels of the adept's tower. The apprentice adepts on the lowest level had almost no opportunity to taste that meat.
As the reign of Fire Throne stabilized, the number of apprentice adepts residing in the tower started to swell. Apart from studies, experiments, and magic training, their daily activities began to include exploration and adventuring outdoors.
With the expansion of the apprentices' field of activity, Fire Throne gained an additional understanding of the nearby geography.
Not long ago, an advanced apprentice had accidentally stumbled upon the tracks of a pack of Underground Fire Dragons while exploring the depths of the underground. Once he sold this information to the adept's tower, a new main course known as 'Fire Dragon Ribs' appeared on Greem's daily menu.
Of course, this name was a little exaggerated!
A crass creature like the underground fire dragon, which was dumb enough to compare with the ogres, could at best be considered a hybrid dragon creature that possessed the blood of real dragons. No one knew for sure their true bloodline connection to the fire dragons, but it was true that there was a trace of fire dragon in their bloodline.
As the underground fire dragons often remained near volcanoes, they especially liked devouring sulfur and fire energy cores. That was why their blood was also soaked in dense fire dragon aura.
Back in the past, in the elite student camp of the Underground World, Greem had only eaten a single meal of underground fire dragon ribs. Yet, that was enough to boost his powers by several levels. However, now that he had become an adept, this auxiliary magical creature flesh could no longer bring about as much of an improvement to him as before.
Still, if Greem continued to eat these ribs, their subtle effects would still be a formidable help to Greem's body.
If all adepts could allow their body and Spirit to improve at a decent rate by just casually eating and drinking every day, no one would be able to resist the temptation to do so!
An adult underground fire dragon weighed three thousand kilograms. After removing the unnecessary parts and organs, you would have around two thousand kilograms of meat on the ribs. The Chip performed a comprehensive calculation of the approximate energy substance within the fire dragon ribs as well as the needs of Greem's growing powers. It then set Greem up with a necessary amount of fifty kilograms per day.
Fifty kilograms of ribs!
If Greem had been an average person, he would be hard-pressed to eat that much, even if he ended up dying in the end.
However, all this was nothing significant to Greem.
The current Greem looked like he had the appearance and habits of a human. But if one dissected him, they would discover that his muscle structure was far different from an ordinary human's body.
That was something that Greem could do nothing about!
Any human would continuously walk further and further on the path of evolution and change once they become an adept. They would continue until they reached the point of no return. In fact, people like Billis had even discarded their most basic human rationality. He was now bent on the path of bug transformation, sworn never to turn back!
Greem had also tried tasting the blood and flesh of the underground lizards beyond the fire dragon ribs.
Sadly, that sour and pungent taste was comparable to potions that had been randomly mixed by an amateur potions apprentice. They caused Greem to blacklist the dish after one taste immediately.
The next most common thing that Greem did beyond stuffing himself was to soak himself in a tub of herbs.
Currently, Greem's Spirit had steadily risen to eight points. He was almost at the same level as Adept Keoghan, who had progressed for a hundred years. He now belonged to the ranks of the experienced veteran adepts, but his other bodily attributes were all lagging behind.
This deficiency had much to do with the excessively short time since his advancement!
He had been busy with errands ever since he had advanced to adept. He'd found no time to consolidate the new things he learned and make them part of his foundation. If it weren't for all the kinds of auxiliary measures in a battle that he held, Greem would never have been able to reach the height he currently stood.
Greem took advantage of this rare time to commit to his hermit lifestyle and immediately started tempering his body in every aspect. These so-called herb baths were a type of method that low-grade body refining adepts used to strengthen their bodies.
They used herbs with dense energy auras or poison to continuously stimulate their cells and allowed them to achieve a sort of balance between the rapid death and regeneration of the cells. This process continuously stimulated the body's potential and fully realized the effect of drawing out the physical body's power.
Of course, the first problem to deal with when using this method was the prolonged weakness after tempering the body.
That could be mitigated entirely by the consumption of magical energy meals.
However, Greem was simultaneously tempering his Spirit while using herbs to refine his body. Consequently, the two layers of weakness tortured him to no end at times.
It was important to note that, as an adept, Greem was able to know everything happening within the tower through his powerful spiritual senses without ever lifting a finger. In fact, when necessary, he could even manipulate and change the situation around the Black Forest as if it was part of his body.
However, as his body and Spirit were at their worst state, his Spirit couldn't be projected, and his body was unbearably frail at this moment. This feeling of weakness that resembled being a mortal gave him the illusion of being knocked back to his powerless days!
As the leader of a faction, he naturally couldn't allow his enemies or his subordinates to see this weak state of his. Otherwise, unpredictable events were likely to be triggered. That was why Gree
m hadn't left the fifth floor of the tower over the past few days. Even Gargamel, who personally prepared the herb baths for him, never saw Greem with his own eyes.
Since his body and Spirit were so weak that he couldn't display them in front of others, Greem decided just to shut the doors and carefully start research on some projects he had set aside for a long time.
The project that Greem had been keeping up with for the past two days was the strange bug that he had obtained from Spider Cave!
Unlike the mutated Bug Queen, this live bug still evidently possessed its survival abilities.
If the Queen Bug were said to be pursuing parasitic and mutual success with its host, this strange bug would be purely attempting to rob and strip everything of its host.
Greem had removed this strange bug from Medusa's body. The old spider Tula was the one who had personally implanted it. The spider had hoped that this bug would break out of Medusa's body and become one of his strongest aides. The most powerful part of this bug was its capability to take the host's innate ability for its own and convert it into the nutrition it needed to grow.
This robbing of innate abilities could not possibly allow the bug to reconstruct the host's talents with a 100% accuracy, but it still genuinely shocked and surprised Greem.
A person's innate talent had always been decided the day they were born; this was true since ancient times. One might be able to improve these talents at later stages with copious amounts of rare and unique resources, but trying to change one's innate skills entirely was something that was unimaginable.
Greem had flipped through multiple books and historical records after obtaining the strange bug, but he had not managed to find anything on this insect. At least, all of the tomes and documents that Greem had read never mentioned any related incident.
It increasingly demonstrated the value of this strange bug's ability to rob other creature's of their abilities!
That was why Greem had set up an independent lab for this bug alone the moment he got it. He gave the Chip full authority to examine and cultivate this bug. Greem gained both good news and bad news after a series of magical experiments.
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 299