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Chapter 458 Mutated Queen Bug
Chapter 458 Mutated Queen Bug
Greem was silently examining a black sphere inside the stone tower.
It was the strange object that Mary had left behind along with her note, and Greem hadn't been able to figure out what it was after half a day.
[Beep. Deep scanning process completed. Report being produced….]
After a moment, a stream of data surged into Greem's mind. The black sphere's internal structure displayed in front of him. Greem couldn't help but shout when he saw the familiar cross-section diagram of the biological structure, "The Carrion Beetle Queen!"
This black sphere wasn't an item; it was a living being. Moreover, it was a strange creature that had left a deep impression on Greem– the Carrion Queen Bug!
Acteon's original talent and potential were extremely ordinary. There was no way he would have advanced to adept. However, his luck was reasonably decent. He had succeeded in assimilating a Carrion Queen Bug when he was still an apprentice. It was this unexpected yield that allowed Acteon to break through the limits of his talent and successfully overcome the threshold of becoming an adept.
In all honesty, Acteon was a top-tier adept even among other First Grade adepts.
Even veteran adepts would have had to run away from him if he had managed to raise an army of carcass beetles. After all, not every adept could raise a thousand-man army like Mary. Not every adept could use that army to wear down his beetles, and not every adept could bypass the swarm of bugs to strike at him.
Sometimes, there was no solution against an army of carcass beetles paired together with Acteon's immortal body of bugs!
However, now that the Carrion Queen Bug had landed in Greem's hands, it wasn't hard to imagine what had happened to Evil Bugs. To think that Mary had killed Acteon on her own in the Knight's Plane without any support from himself. Just the thought of how difficult and dangerous that had been sent shivers down Greem's spine.
Now that Mary had left the Queen Bug in his possession, she was hinting that Greem could do as he liked with it.
Just as Greem stared at the black sphere and started releasing a murderous intent, the black sphere moved and slowly opened up.
It wasn't actually a black sphere. It was the Queen Bug curling it's body into a ball. The exposed black layer was only the Queen Bug's tough shell!
Perhaps because it sensed Greem's murderous intent, or maybe it knew it could no longer hide, the Queen Bug had opened up on its own. It once again turned into a black beetle.
It was a peculiar lifeform with a thick black shell. It had a pair of large rainbow-colored eyes on its head. Multiple, smaller compound eyes surrounded those two eyes. A lotus-like mouthpart was at the front of its head, and one could see the pair of knife-shaped jaws on the front.
A dark black shell that gleamed with a particular brilliance was at the beetle's back. The chip's scans indicated that the shell was as tough as magical alloy. This kind of toughness was enough to endure a full-strength blow from a berserk swordsman. In fact, the swordsman wouldn't even be able to leave a scratch. Only blunt weapons could cause enough impact damage to the soft organs under the shell.
Even though the beetle had multiple blade-like limbs on each side, it's tiny size probably made it hard for it to defend itself.
While Greem silently assessed this strange Queen Bug, it raised its head and let out a sharp screech at Greem.
[Beep. Detecting foreign lifeform requesting mental connection. Requesting instructions from host. Connect?]
"Connect!"
Greem's mind filled with innumerable noisy and foreign bug screeches.
The tone and pitch of the screeches slowly morphed and adjusted until a clear stream of consciousness finally made soft contact with Greem's mind. A set of slightly incomprehensible mental projections were transmitted.
"Protect……contract……live……"
The Queen Bug wasn't human. Consequently, the way she thought and communicated was remarkably different from how a human would. Still, both parties were able to communicate via the use of keywords.
"You want to obtain my protection by exchanging contracts?" Greem could only guess at the Queen Bug's meaning through the Chip's 'translation' of specific keywords.
The Queen Bug nodded.
"It's unfortunate. I really care about my human bloodline. I won't try and assimilate some strange foreign bloodline." A sense of disgust rose in Greem's heart when he recalled Acteon's ugly appearance.
The Queen Bug's lotus-like mouthpart started moving even more rapidly as if Greem's nonchalant attitude had terrified her. Her screeching voice was complete pollution of noise. Although the Queen Bug continued to screech without stop, Greem only heard three words through the Chip. Understand. Powerful. Obey.
"I only keep servants useful to me. Ones like you…" Greem tapped the table lightly, looking at the Queen Bug in dissatisfaction.
Adolescent carcass beetles or carrion beetles were adept-level magical creatures that lived in groups. Their shells were sturdy and durable. More importantly, they were capable of flight. With some slight modifications, they would be decent magical servants. However, their greatest weakness was their slow flight speed, along with their severe lack of long-ranged attacks.
That caused them and their large numbers to be useless in a fight. It was easy for an awkward situation to arise, where the enemies couldn't beat them, but they also couldn't catch up to the enemy.
The Queen Bug started shrieking even more frantically, like she was desperate to sell herself.
Greem listened carefully for a while. He then closed his eyes and contemplated. Finally, he spoke.
"I don't desire the kind of inferior immortal body of bugs that Acteon had. That is why I will never consider assimilating with you. However, I can refer you to a few other candidates. If you can assimilate with one of my subordinates, then I can allow you to continue living. Otherwise, I would have to wipe away the last marks left behind by Acteon on this world."
The Queen Bug screeched and wailed for a long time before ultimately lowering her head in helplessness.
"Since you've agreed, you should open up the defenses of your soul. I'll leave a soul contract with you." Greem struck while the iron was hot and tried to settle this potential aide in the shortest time possible.
The Queen Bug might have been an intelligent lifeform, but she had no choice but to do as commanded in this situation. She cowered on the table and slowly opened up the defenses of her soul.
Under the Chip's control, Greem's Spirit pierced into the core of the Queen Bug's consciousness like a hot needle. Greem's soul brand was left in there.
In doing so, the Queen Bug could be considered one of Greem's magical servants. It didn't matter who it would assimilate with in the future. This soul brand would always remain and would be a necessary method for Greem to control her life and death.
The Chip took the opportunity to scan the Queen Bug's mental consciousness and the form of her soul. Soon, the Queen Bug's attributes projected into Greem's mind.
Queen Bug. Assimilation-type mutated magical creature.
Does not possess offensive abilities on its own, but can provide the host with the unique ability of hatching combat bugs. Host's talents will decide traits of hatched beetles. However, the primary form of the bugs will always remain as beetles.
Bodily attributes: Strength 1 | Agility 1 | Physique 3 | Spirit 2
Hatched combat bug count: Determined by Spirit. Every point of Spirit allows control of twenty combat bugs. The current limit is forty bugs.
Hatched combat bug speed: When provided sufficient flesh and blood as nutrition, five larvae can be hatched each day with a growth cycle of twelve days.
Greem slowly went over the Queen Bug's traits and silently estimated its combat ability.
The Queen Bug herself couldn't fight at all. She had to rely on the hatched combat bugs to protect herself. With the speed at which she could hatch bugs, Greem could obtain five adept-level beetles daily after twelve days. Of course, this required feeding the beetles sufficient blood and flesh. The stronger the creature the meat came from, the better the effect. These bugs could be used as consumable and disposable soldiers, constantly thrown into the battlefield as cannon fodder.
From a particular perspective, the Queen Bug could be a moving, living biological den of beetles if she were utilized correctly. She could perpetually churn out soldiers for Greem's faction.
However, the Queen Bug couldn't do this by herself. She only gained this fantastic ability once she had assimilated with another being. That was why choosing a proper host became an important factor after the Queen Bug submitted.
Greem's scan confirmed that the Queen Bug still retained adept-level abilities, despite being severely wounded by Acteon's death. That meant that any apprentice adept would be able to become the new 'Evil Bugs' in a very short time, as long as they were properly trained!
Moreover, the existence of the soul brand in the Queen Bug's soul meant that Greem had a certain degree of control over the new Evil Bugs.
Thus, Greem decided to share the tower's control authority with the Queen Bug and allow it to make contact with all the apprentices in the tower stealthily. The Queen Bug could then make a list of individuals who could assimilate with her.
Greem had expected every single apprentice to be included in the list. However, he was surprised when he saw the list provided by the Queen Bug.
Weren't these too few names?!
It was important to note that two dozen apprentice adepts were staying in the tower at the moment, including pseudo-adepts like Sabrina and Morse. However, there were just three names on the list provided by the Queen Bug. In fact, there wasn't a single pseudo-adept among them. None of Greem's four disciples were included in the list either.
Greem only recognized one of the three names.
Billis!
Beginner Apprentice Billis!
Greem couldn't understand this result. It wasn't until after he communicated with the Queen Bug that he finally got it.
It seemed the Queen Bug didn't choose her host based on power. Instead, she decided based on their talent.
The Queen Bug was a dark-attribute magical creature. Thus, she especially favored lifeforms with similar talents. Billis might be the weakest, but his innate affinity was extremely compatible with the Queen Bug.
In fact, his soul compatibility with the Queen Bug was far superior to that of the previous Evil Bugs, Acteon!
Billis.
Greem repeated this name as he narrowed his eyes.
It was worth trying!
Greem was silently examining a black sphere inside the stone tower.
It was the strange object that Mary had left behind along with her note, and Greem hadn't been able to figure out what it was after half a day.
[Beep. Deep scanning process completed. Report being produced….]
After a moment, a stream of data surged into Greem's mind. The black sphere's internal structure displayed in front of him. Greem couldn't help but shout when he saw the familiar cross-section diagram of the biological structure, "The Carrion Beetle Queen!"
This black sphere wasn't an item; it was a living being. Moreover, it was a strange creature that had left a deep impression on Greem– the Carrion Queen Bug!
Acteon's original talent and potential were extremely ordinary. There was no way he would have advanced to adept. However, his luck was reasonably decent. He had succeeded in assimilating a Carrion Queen Bug when he was still an apprentice. It was this unexpected yield that allowed Acteon to break through the limits of his talent and successfully overcome the threshold of becoming an adept.
In all honesty, Acteon was a top-tier adept even among other First Grade adepts.
Even veteran adepts would have had to run away from him if he had managed to raise an army of carcass beetles. After all, not every adept could raise a thousand-man army like Mary. Not every adept could use that army to wear down his beetles, and not every adept could bypass the swarm of bugs to strike at him.
Sometimes, there was no solution against an army of carcass beetles paired together with Acteon's immortal body of bugs!
However, now that the Carrion Queen Bug had landed in Greem's hands, it wasn't hard to imagine what had happened to Evil Bugs. To think that Mary had killed Acteon on her own in the Knight's Plane without any support from himself. Just the thought of how difficult and dangerous that had been sent shivers down Greem's spine.
Now that Mary had left the Queen Bug in his possession, she was hinting that Greem could do as he liked with it.
Just as Greem stared at the black sphere and started releasing a murderous intent, the black sphere moved and slowly opened up.
It wasn't actually a black sphere. It was the Queen Bug curling it's body into a ball. The exposed black layer was only the Queen Bug's tough shell!
Perhaps because it sensed Greem's murderous intent, or maybe it knew it could no longer hide, the Queen Bug had opened up on its own. It once again turned into a black beetle.
It was a peculiar lifeform with a thick black shell. It had a pair of large rainbow-colored eyes on its head. Multiple, smaller compound eyes surrounded those two eyes. A lotus-like mouthpart was at the front of its head, and one could see the pair of knife-shaped jaws on the front.
A dark black shell that gleamed with a particular brilliance was at the beetle's back. The chip's scans indicated that the shell was as tough as magical alloy. This kind of toughness was enough to endure a full-strength blow from a berserk swordsman. In fact, the swordsman wouldn't even be able to leave a scratch. Only blunt weapons could cause enough impact damage to the soft organs under the shell.
Even though the beetle had multiple blade-like limbs on each side, it's tiny size probably made it hard for it to defend itself.
While Greem silently assessed this strange Queen Bug, it raised its head and let out a sharp screech at Greem.
[Beep. Detecting foreign lifeform requesting mental connection. Requesting instructions from host. Connect?]
"Connect!"
Greem's mind filled with innumerable noisy and foreign bug screeches.
The tone and pitch of the screeches slowly morphed and adjusted until a clear stream of consciousness finally made soft contact with Greem's mind. A set of slightly incomprehensible mental projections were transmitted.
"Protect……contract……live……"
The Queen Bug wasn't human. Consequently, the way she thought and communicated was remarkably different from how a human would. Still, both parties were able to communicate via the use of keywords.
"You want to obtain my protection by exchanging contracts?" Greem could only guess at the Queen Bug's meaning through the Chip's 'translation' of specific keywords.
The Queen Bug nodded.
"It's unfortunate. I really care about my human bloodline. I won't try and assimilate some strange foreign bloodline." A sense of disgust rose in Greem's heart when he recalled Acteon's ugly appearance.
The Queen Bug's lotus-like mouthpart started moving even more rapidly as if Greem's nonchalant attitude had terrified her. Her screeching voice was complete pollution of noise. Although the Queen Bug continued to screech without stop, Greem only heard three words through the Chip. Understand. Powerful. Obey.
"I only keep servants useful to me. Ones like you…" Greem tapped the table lightly, looking at the Queen Bug in dissatisfaction.
Adolescent carcass beetles or carrion beetles were adept-level magical creatures that lived in groups. Their shells were sturdy and durable. More importantly, they were capable of flight. With some slight modifications, they would be decent magical servants. However, their greatest weakness was their slow flight speed, along with their severe lack of long-ranged attacks.
That caused them and their large numbers to be useless in a fight. It was easy for an awkward situation to arise, where the enemies couldn't beat them, but they also couldn't catch up to the enemy.
The Queen Bug started shrieking even more frantically, like she was desperate to sell herself.
Greem listened carefully for a while. He then closed his eyes and contemplated. Finally, he spoke.
"I don't desire the kind of inferior immortal body of bugs that Acteon had. That is why I will never consider assimilating with you. However, I can refer you to a few other candidates. If you can assimilate with one of my subordinates, then I can allow you to continue living. Otherwise, I would have to wipe away the last marks left behind by Acteon on this world."
The Queen Bug screeched and wailed for a long time before ultimately lowering her head in helplessness.
"Since you've agreed, you should open up the defenses of your soul. I'll leave a soul contract with you." Greem struck while the iron was hot and tried to settle this potential aide in the shortest time possible.
The Queen Bug might have been an intelligent lifeform, but she had no choice but to do as commanded in this situation. She cowered on the table and slowly opened up the defenses of her soul.
Under the Chip's control, Greem's Spirit pierced into the core of the Queen Bug's consciousness like a hot needle. Greem's soul brand was left in there.
In doing so, the Queen Bug could be considered one of Greem's magical servants. It didn't matter who it would assimilate with in the future. This soul brand would always remain and would be a necessary method for Greem to control her life and death.
The Chip took the opportunity to scan the Queen Bug's mental consciousness and the form of her soul. Soon, the Queen Bug's attributes projected into Greem's mind.
Queen Bug. Assimilation-type mutated magical creature.
Does not possess offensive abilities on its own, but can provide the host with the unique ability of hatching combat bugs. Host's talents will decide traits of hatched beetles. However, the primary form of the bugs will always remain as beetles.
Bodily attributes: Strength 1 | Agility 1 | Physique 3 | Spirit 2
Hatched combat bug count: Determined by Spirit. Every point of Spirit allows control of twenty combat bugs. The current limit is forty bugs.
Hatched combat bug speed: When provided sufficient flesh and blood as nutrition, five larvae can be hatched each day with a growth cycle of twelve days.
Greem slowly went over the Queen Bug's traits and silently estimated its combat ability.
The Queen Bug herself couldn't fight at all. She had to rely on the hatched combat bugs to protect herself. With the speed at which she could hatch bugs, Greem could obtain five adept-level beetles daily after twelve days. Of course, this required feeding the beetles sufficient blood and flesh. The stronger the creature the meat came from, the better the effect. These bugs could be used as consumable and disposable soldiers, constantly thrown into the battlefield as cannon fodder.
From a particular perspective, the Queen Bug could be a moving, living biological den of beetles if she were utilized correctly. She could perpetually churn out soldiers for Greem's faction.
However, the Queen Bug couldn't do this by herself. She only gained this fantastic ability once she had assimilated with another being. That was why choosing a proper host became an important factor after the Queen Bug submitted.
Greem's scan confirmed that the Queen Bug still retained adept-level abilities, despite being severely wounded by Acteon's death. That meant that any apprentice adept would be able to become the new 'Evil Bugs' in a very short time, as long as they were properly trained!
Moreover, the existence of the soul brand in the Queen Bug's soul meant that Greem had a certain degree of control over the new Evil Bugs.
Thus, Greem decided to share the tower's control authority with the Queen Bug and allow it to make contact with all the apprentices in the tower stealthily. The Queen Bug could then make a list of individuals who could assimilate with her.
Greem had expected every single apprentice to be included in the list. However, he was surprised when he saw the list provided by the Queen Bug.
Weren't these too few names?!
It was important to note that two dozen apprentice adepts were staying in the tower at the moment, including pseudo-adepts like Sabrina and Morse. However, there were just three names on the list provided by the Queen Bug. In fact, there wasn't a single pseudo-adept among them. None of Greem's four disciples were included in the list either.
Greem only recognized one of the three names.
Billis!
Beginner Apprentice Billis!
Greem couldn't understand this result. It wasn't until after he communicated with the Queen Bug that he finally got it.
It seemed the Queen Bug didn't choose her host based on power. Instead, she decided based on their talent.
The Queen Bug was a dark-attribute magical creature. Thus, she especially favored lifeforms with similar talents. Billis might be the weakest, but his innate affinity was extremely compatible with the Queen Bug.
In fact, his soul compatibility with the Queen Bug was far superior to that of the previous Evil Bugs, Acteon!
Billis.
Greem repeated this name as he narrowed his eyes.
It was worth trying!
Age of Adepts
Updated to Chapter 1499 - The Orc Pantheon
100Chapter 99
101Chapter 100
102Chapter 101
103Chapter 102
104Chapter 103
105Chapter 104
106Chapter 105
107Chapter 106
108Chapter 107
109Chapter 108
110Chapter 109
111Chapter 110
112Chapter 111
113Chapter 112
114Chapter 113
115Chapter 114
116Chapter 115
117Chapter 116
118Chapter 117
119Chapter 118
120Chapter 119
121Chapter 120
122Chapter 121
123Chapter 122
124Chapter 123
125Chapter 124
126Chapter 125
127Chapter 126
128Chapter 127
129Chapter 128
130Chapter 129
131Chapter 130
132Chapter 131
133Chapter 132
134Chapter 133
135Chapter 134
136Chapter 135
137Chapter 136
138Chapter 137
139Chapter 138
140Chapter 139
141Chapter 140
142Chapter 141
143Chapter 142
144Chapter 143
145Chapter 144
146Chapter 145
147Chapter 146
148Chapter 147
149Chapter 148
150Chapter 149
151Chapter 150
152Chapter 151
153Chapter 152
154Chapter 153
155Chapter 154
156Chapter 155
157Chapter 156
158Chapter 157
159Chapter 158
160Chapter 159
161Chapter 160
162Chapter 161
163Chapter 162
164Chapter 163
165Chapter 164
166Chapter 165
167Chapter 166
168Chapter 167
169Chapter 168
170Chapter 169
171Chapter 170
172Chapter 171
173Chapter 172
174Chapter 173
175Chapter 174
176Chapter 175
177Chapter 176
178Chapter 177
179Chapter 178
181Chapter 180
182Chapter 181
183Chapter 182
184Chapter 183
185Chapter 184
186Chapter 185
187Chapter 186
188Chapter 187
189Chapter 188
190Chapter 189
191Chapter 190
192Chapter 191
193Chapter 192
194Chapter 193
195Chapter 194
196Chapter 195
197Chapter 196
198Chapter 197
199Chapter 198
200Chapter 199
201Chapter 200
202Chapter 201
203Chapter 202
204Chapter 203
205Chapter 204
206Chapter 205
207Chapter 206
208Chapter 207
209Chapter 208
210Chapter 209
211Chapter 210
212Chapter 211
213Chapter 212
214Chapter 213
215Chapter 214
216Chapter 215
217Chapter 216
218Chapter 217
219Chapter 218
220Chapter 219
221Chapter 220
222Chapter 221
223Chapter 222
224Chapter 223
225Chapter 224
226Chapter 225
227Chapter 226
228Chapter 227
229Chapter 228
230Chapter 229
231Chapter 230
232Chapter 231
233Chapter 232
234Chapter 233
235Chapter 234
236Chapter 235
237Chapter 236
238Chapter 237
239Chapter 238
240Chapter 239
241Chapter 240
242Chapter 241
243Chapter 242
244Chapter 243
245Chapter 244
246Chapter 245
247Chapter 246
248Chapter 247
249Chapter 248
250Chapter 249
251Chapter 250
252Chapter 251
253Chapter 252
254Chapter 253
255Chapter 254
256Chapter 255
257Chapter 256
258Chapter 257
259Chapter 258
260Chapter 259
261Chapter 260
262Chapter 261
263Chapter 262
264Chapter 263
265Chapter 264
266Chapter 265
267Chapter 266
268Chapter 267
269Chapter 268
270Chapter 269
271Chapter 270
272Chapter 271
273Chapter 272
274Chapter 273
275Chapter 274
276Chapter 275
277Chapter 276
278Chapter 277
279Chapter 278
280Chapter 279
281Chapter 280
282Chapter 281
283Chapter 282
284Chapter 283
285Chapter 284
286Chapter 285
287Chapter 286
288Chapter 287
289Chapter 288
290Chapter 289
291Chapter 290
292Chapter 291
293Chapter 292
294Chapter 293
295Chapter 294
296Chapter 295
297Chapter 296
298Chapter 297
299Chapter 298
300Chapter 299
301Chapter 300
302Chapter 301
303Chapter 302
304Chapter 303
305Chapter 304
306Chapter 305
307Chapter 306
308Chapter 307
309Chapter 308
310Chapter 309
311Chapter 310
312Chapter 311
313Chapter 312
314Chapter 313
318Chapter 317
319Chapter 318
320Chapter 319
321Chapter 320
322Chapter 321
323Chapter 322
324Chapter 323
325Chapter 324
326Chapter 325
607Chapter 606
608Chapter 607
611Chapter 610
612Chapter 611
613Chapter 612
614Chapter 613
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