“Gah… I feel terrible!”
A pitch-black mine shaft with not a speck of light. A girl walked forward, covered with dozens, perhaps hundreds of bugs clinging to her body. With every step she took, the bugs tried to tear at her skin and burrow inside.
Creeeak!
But it didn’t penetrate. Health 10, troll-like regeneration ability surpassing human limits, and extraordinary physical toughness. Her solid muscle and hide were as hard as a dragon’s scales, impenetrable.
The blood insects’ jaws bit into her skin, turning it red and stinging, but her exceptional regenerative power quickly restored it to normal.
Amidst the stinging pain all over her body, the girl swung her hands to swat away the incoming bugs, closed her eyes and mouth to avoid those crawling onto her face, and patted her body.
With every swing of her hands, the bugs turned into clumps of squashed fluids, soaking the girl. The quilted armor she wore began to emit a foul smell from the bug fluids and secretions.
“I feel terrible, but I have to do this.”
If there was something that only she could do right here, she would definitely do it. Having heard and seen Aslan’s thoughts many times, the girl threw herself into action just as Aslan would.
Right now, she was the only one who could withstand the blood insects head-on.
Bugs swarmed from the walls, ceiling, and floor of the mine shaft, latching onto Angie and tearing at her skin relentlessly. The girl fought back by crushing them with her palms.
When she couldn’t reach them, she rolled on the ground or slammed herself against the wall. The dead bugs piled up on the floor.
The blood insects kept charging at the girl without end. Either they didn’t know her hide was impenetrable, or knowing it, they kept trying futilely, clinging to her body obsessively.
The bugs that passed by Angie were stragglers—those that couldn’t find any space to latch onto her already bug-covered body.
When these bugs came, Aslan moved. He kicked them with his sturdy leather boots.
With a crunching sound, the bugs shattered. At the center stood Aslan, kicking legs, jabbing and swinging with his cloth-wrapped elbow. The bugs hit by his attacks smashed against the walls and broke apart.
He didn’t use his flail. There was a reason for that—he fought with one arm and one leg.
Behind him providing support were Ereta and Dimitri. Each wielding a torch and a weapon, they fought against the blood insects. They crushed flying insects with their maces, swung their sharp blades, and burned and cut with their torches.
The putrid smell and unpleasant chitin of dead bugs began to pile up on the mine shaft floor.
Aslan and the group pressed forward like this.
Even as they advanced, the number and intensity of blood insects attaching themselves to Angie remained unchanged. They kept coming, trying to dig into her flesh and eat her heart.
An apparently futile action. But Aslan understood the reason.
Angie wasn’t a priest.
She seemed like an ordinary human made of flesh, incapable of wielding divine powers.
Which wasn’t entirely wrong since she truly had no such powers.
So the blood insects acted on the premise that they could break through her flesh and subdue the “potential host.” They targeted Angie because she was at the front.
Therefore, even if they couldn’t penetrate, they kept attacking. After all, her hide, though tough, was still flesh, beyond the comprehension of mere insect logic.
With a wet, crunching sound that started and stopped, Angie paused at a mine shaft crossroads and lightly shook off her hands.
“Eww, I feel terrible.”
Saying this, Angie was completely covered in bug carapaces and bodily fluids.
The overwhelming stench was so strong it numbed her sense of smell. Every time she moved her arms, she could hear the rustling of chitin in her armpits and sides.
Her face contorted unpleasantly as she whined.
“I feel terrible…”
She wasn’t dissatisfied with the tactic itself. It seemed to Angie that there was no better way, so it couldn’t be helped. However, discomfort was a separate issue.
First, her whole body reeked. Though she had grown accustomed to bad smells from living in the slums, this level of insect stench was unprecedented.
Moreover, how did it feel to have bugs crawling on her skin?
An unbearable sensation that couldn’t be gotten used to. With a wrinkled expression of discomfort, Angie rubbed her cheek with her index finger.
Streaks of bug fluid and carapace smeared across her face. Clenching her teeth, Angie shook her hands again.
Still, she wouldn’t have to keep doing this forever, right? Firming her resolve, Angie clenched her fists…
“Angie.”
Hearing her name called, she turned her head. Aslan approached from behind, holding a cloak in the flickering torchlight.
“I’m sorry. Are you feeling very uncomfortable?”
Approaching, Aslan held his unfastened cloak close to Angie’s face while saying this.
“If there had been a better way, I would have done it. Right now… this is the safest method where no one gets hurt.”
And he wiped her face with the cloak. The thick bug fluid gradually disappeared with each stroke of the cloak.
Looking up at Aslan as he wiped her undoubtedly foul-smelling face with his cloak, Angie made a small sound.
Looking down at her, Aslan wore his usual melancholic expression, looking apologetic.
His remorseful expression somehow carried a strange sense of loneliness, making Angie’s response slightly delayed.
“No, it’s fine. It’s just a little uncomfortable…”
Whatever Angie was about to say got stuck in her throat due to Aslan’s touch.
The calloused hand, clearly bearing the marks of training and battle, wiped her face.
Though the hand was undoubtedly tough, the touch was incredibly gentle.
As his careful strokes reached her eyes, Angie instinctively closed them.
The meticulous movement of the cloak over her eyelids. When the touch left her eyes, Angie opened them again.
In the dim torchlight, Aslan flinched.
Every time Angie blinked or moved her face, Aslan flinched while wiping her face.
After quite some time, Angie realized his touch was handling her as if she were something fragile. Aslan’s large hand, big enough to cover her face, moved with utmost care.
Following his hand with her eyes, Angie noticed he was mostly cleaning her jawline and neck now that her face was already clean.
Lifting her eyes to follow his hand, she saw Aslan’s face.
His vivid green eyes, shining even in the shadowy torchlight, carried a hint of melancholy yet were unusually soft as they looked at Angie.
Meeting his narrow gaze, Angie momentarily swallowed.
“You’re doing great. Thanks to you, we’ve come this far easily.”
Angie didn’t have time to get conceited about the compliment. She stared blankly at Aslan’s face before snapping out of it.
“Ah, um, you’re dirty too. You smell. If you get too close…”
Only now did Angie remember she was practically drenched in bug fluid, but Aslan didn’t seem bothered as he used the remaining part of his cloak to wipe her head.
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind.”
Soft touches, gentle actions. Things Angie hadn’t experienced much in her life. Unconsciously blushing and closing her lips, she didn’t refuse his ministrations.
It was too sweet to resist.
In the midst of his tender care, Angie awkwardly changed the subject.
“S-so, how far have we come? How much farther do we have to go?”
Aslan finished wiping her head with the cloak and withdrew it. Angie felt a strange sense of regret.
“Well, I don’t really know much about mine shafts either. We don’t have a map.”
As Aslan turned to Dimitri, Dimitri shook his head.
“I don’t know either. I’m not a miner.”
Then he looked at Ereta behind him. Ereta, who had been watching Angie coldly until she noticed Aslan looking at her, responded.
“I don’t know either. But what about going against the wind direction? If you go with the wind, it probably leads outside, so going against it might work.”
I think it would lead to the deepest part. Aslan nodded at Ereta’s suggestion. Seeing him shake the cloak he used to clean Angie’s face and shoulders before putting it back on, Angie’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Indeed, even if not exactly opposite, the direction where the wind doesn’t blow would likely lead deeper. Good idea, Ereta.”
Ereta smiled lightly at the compliment, and the group moved toward the right mine shaft where no wind was blowing among the ones ahead.
During their movement toward the deeper parts of the mine, not a single blood insect appeared. Only an oppressive silence and a foul stench filled the air.
Angie wore an odd expression, relieved that no more bugs were coming, while Aslan kept his hand on the flail at his waist and gazed ahead silently.
The air grew increasingly thin, and the wind stopped completely. It even felt like the darkness was deepening.
Just as their torches went out and they lit new ones, they finally reached the deepest point.
It was a collapsed mine shaft.
More accurately, it was where the collapsed mine shaft had merged with a natural cave below.
At the center of the cave was what they had been after.
It resembled a bizarre organ that was both heart and brain.
Though its pulsating shape resembled a heart, the grayish structures hanging above it resembled a brain.
Thousands of bugs surrounded the mysterious organ. Between the wriggling bugs, glimpses of something metallic occasionally appeared.
Thousands of blood insects scattered across the floor under the hive mind’s—the mother creature’s—orders.
Seeing the sheer number of blood insects, Aslan thought.
Not encountering a single one while passing through the mine shaft wasn’t a coincidence.
This was behavior possible only for a hive mind.
Gathering the bugs together and using the open cave instead of the narrow mine shaft where flanking would be difficult to surround and eliminate enemies.
It was a sensible and rational strategy.
Aslan let out a low hum.
Even monsters with basic intelligence will gain wisdom if they survive long enough. For a creature like the mother, initially born with intelligence, surviving for a long time would naturally lead to such outcomes.
Devising such a strategy and attempting to take them all out in one go, albeit somewhat risky, wasn’t unreasonable. Thinking about the hidden intentions behind this strategy, Aslan drew his flail. The grinding sound of chains echoed.
“That’s the mother. Respond defensively as much as possible. Attack when I initiate the offense.”
A simple order. It might have been hard to grasp its meaning, but there were both former and current veterans present. Those who weren’t veterans weren’t so weak that they’d fall ill from slight mistakes.
As Angie raised her fists, Ereta her axe and mace, and Dimitri grinned while drawing his longsword, the blood insects scattered across the floor charged.
