“GRAHHH!”

BOOM!

A loud roar came from the forest within the hive’s Wilderness zone. The next moment a large bear rushed out following after a man who was running desperately and beside him was a small demon like fairy.

Jumping along the trees and flying in the air was Levi and Mary as they watched me run away from the level 35 Juvenal War bear. Unlike the grown in War God Bear that Mary hunts, these juveniles are still low leveled and hunt in the edge of the forest to grow away from the chaos of the central area where monsters with levels in the upper hundreds exist.

Even so that doesn’t make them easy to beat because I have been stagnant so even with Level at level 35 he is only level 25.

“Stop running you coward! Fight the damned bear!” Mary shouted.

“HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BEAT THIS ARMORED THING!?” I shouted.

Obviously the bear had thick fur padding and the muscles were strong since they were targets of Flesh Hunter Wasp and Predatory Wasp.

“Use magic or that blunt side of your weapon on the nose.” Mary instructed.

I looked back at the bear that was a few meters behind me. I ground my teeth as I spun my glaive and suddenly stopped before spinning around and swung the blunt side right at the beast's nose.

Crack!

With the force of the charge which it could not divert, being so close, the nose and upper section of the head was broken and several fangs even cracked. The bear slid to a stop and reared up in pain while I ran around it before swinging the blade of the glaive between its hind legs joint and slicing the artery. The tall juvenile beast instantly collapsed and was in great pain.

“Put that thing out of its misery already!” Mary criticized him and I frowned but as I turned around, I saw the bear get up and distanced myself but it still rushed at me as blood poured out from it’s leg and broken face.

The paw came down on me like a boulder crashing and hit me on my side sending me flying and coughing blood.

“Oi Jackass! Pay attention to your opponent!” DD said and appeared next to me after i came to a stop with a potion and force fed it to him causing my health to rise.

I got up and quickly rolled away as a massive bear paw slammed down and frowned before a portal appeared under me and another above the bear. He fell through one and dropped out of the other and with my Glaive blade, I struck at the neck and hacked a large wound open causing a second fountain of blood to burst out.

Landing on the back of the bear I jumped behind it as it reared up and cut the other leg making it three serious wounds. Finally, the beast buckled and collapsed. I moved quickly and chopped at the head off to finish it off.

Finally I sighed and dropped to the ground.

“So ungraceful. You’re a disgrace unlike Levi.” Mary said.

“Shut up! You trained her when the wilderness was still safer and she had more options for opponents.” I complained and took out a potion and drank it.

“Right, you could have ended it if you had broken it’s nose or slammed it on the top side of his nose and pushed his nose into the ground. His head would have dipped and he would have flipped and would have revealed the underside of the neck. All that was left was…” She used her thumb and slid it over her neck, “Done. Instant fatal attack.” She said.

“Do you aim for only fatals? And how would you do it with a damned lance as well?” I asked.

“Lance comes with a shield. Just shield bash and strike down with the lance or use the blunt part of the lance.” She said with experience. “If you wanted to go more ruthless like you did, you could have kicked its balls. It was a male after all.” She shrugged.

“Aahahahaha! This brat is ruthless! Ahahaha!” DD laughed in the air and suddenly dodged as a rock flew at him.

“Call me brat again and see if that rock doesn’t end between your eyes.” She said with a dangerous tone.

“Fine ‘kid’ I won’t call you a ‘brat’ even though you are a ‘brat’ and a really annoying ‘brat’ okay ‘kid’?” He said emphasising all the words he should not.

Her rage burned and it formed into an aura of killing intent. She vanished and punched at DD and shot him far off but after going 10 meters he vanished and appeared grinning beside me.

“Did you forget brat, I am just a magical body and not a real creature. Oh wait I said I wouldn’t call you brat. Sorry kid.” He laughed and was punched away but appeared again.

“This is annoying.” Mary huffed after punching DD for the twentieth time.

“That is why I put P.I.T.A on his back.” I said as I got up. “Guess that is enough for today. I gained 3 levels already.” I said.

“Who says?” Mary said.

“I say because I need to go over the book that involves my class. I haven’t read it thoroughly yet and might discover some spells and skills I hadn’t noticed. Flor was left reading for me so she might have something.” I said.

“Oi we aren’t done yet!?” She shouted.

“I guess you're not hungry then?” I replied.

At that moment two growls came from the stomach of the two girls and they blushed before walking towards the portal that appeared in front of me.

Entering the palace we find Flor sitting on a seat drinking tea and reading the book. She notices them and puts the tea down.

“You’re back, good!” She said with a smile.

“Did you find anything?” I asked.

“Yes, first off there are several dozen ‘dances’ that correspond with your class and the glaive. Also each glaive instrument seems to give off a specific set of notes when swung in a specific manner meaning some songs can’t be done with specific blunt ends but you can make the different note instruments to use the different sounds.” She replied.

“That’s interesting but it feels like I will take a long while to learn them.” I said with a frown.

“It’s dancing so what else do you expect? It’s still a good combo fighting style and from the methods I saw, they are all perfect for one vs many combat.” She said.

“So a good war class, that seems interesting.” Mary said as she took the book and looked at the open page and flipped through one of the dances. “Wow, these are complex stances! No wonder they call it a dance, it really deserves that name. Dance of the Blood Fly, this name seems quite morbid.” She said and read outloud the description. “A dance where the children born from the blood of the enemies dance with their master's enemies who will see death while allies will see a crimson rain and as the children born from blood dance in the earth and in the sky.” She said and shivered.

“So it’s a dance to control the blood sucker mosquitos.” I said looking over Mary’s shoulder.

“How can you not feel sick hearing this?” She asked him, seeing him completely unaffected.

“Bugs are an extremely important creature in nature. To suck the blood of the dead means to keep the land pure from the filth within the blood. It also keeps creatures from being contaminated by speeding up decomposing bodies.” I said.

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“Mary, don’t argue with him on this subject.” Flor whispered and the pink haired woman nodded. “Droso, there is more. I found the connection to the druid class.” Flor said taking the book and going to page 154 where it talked about magic. “It seems besides the grove even the transformation magic of the druid probably originated from this.” She said.

I took the book and read its content. ‘The Arthromancer is the master of all creatures that others refer to as insects. Understanding their language and feelings and can command them but it is a small part of their power. For a true Arthromancer, one must change to match their own creatures. Being able to morph and shed their human form for one of their loyal servants. Merge your human form halfway, grow the armor and gain the power of the insects within your own body and hunt as they do or shed your human form and join their ranks as one of them. This is the Arthromancer, the master of insects and one who joins his being with them.’

Below this text was an explanation of how to view the beings. The way to see their very beings separated in different ways and how to use magic to change and merge the human figure.

“So complex!” I stated in shock.

“It is but it is one aspect of the book that druids seem to have completely comprehended and I can directly teach you the skills.” Flor said, happy to help.

She told him that using Mana Vision and Mana Aura would let me learn those spells. “So I need to match up the mana aura of something else to my own.” I muttered. Suddenly some crystals dropped into my lap. “Don’t go wild, first inscribe your own aura into one crystal, they will help you revert back in case something happens.” Flor said.

I took it and with her instructions, injected my aura into the crystal and stored it in my inventory.

“Since I need to convert my aura into that of another creature, let's do a full transformation into one that wouldn’t be too hard.” I said and looked at Levi. “Levi, come here for a moment.” I said.

The girl looked confused for a moment before she flew over and landed in front of me .

“Just stand still a moment.” I said and used Mana Vision and Mana Aura skills allowing him to vaguely see the aura. Both were extremely low leveled at the moment and it took a long time before I could memorize it all since it was all vague but I leveled up both to level 3 in one go since I was trying to copy something so complex.

Rubbing my head letting the headache go away first.

“Did you get everything?” Flor asked.

“I think.” I groaned. Strangely enough, DD was on the ground while massaging his head as well and Mary found it quite interesting, this fact.

“Alright, might as well try it now.” I said and stood up.

I looked at my own mana aura and with mana I began to alter it and soon my body was hit with an uncomfortable feeling. My size slowly shrank to the same as Levi and over my body, the strong carapace armor started to form. If not for the fact that my equipped armor adjusted to my size it would have slacked but I felt really uncomfortable and took off my shirt and did so as my wings began to grow and were similar to Levi’s.

After a moment it was finally complete.

You have transformed into the race, Queen.

“Huh?” I muttered and noticed my voice being very high pitched.

“Wow you look so cute having reverted back to your child age.” Flor said, gawking at me.

“I think it’s because Levi is so young.” I said but suddenly felt something wrong. “Why is the race Queen and not King?” I asked, confused.

“Obviously bitch, you went full on gender bender! Ahahahaha.” DD laughed.

As soon as he said that I paled and patted in between my legs and turned pale as a ghost and quickly took out the crystal with my identity and quickly started to shift back and returned to normal.

“Hey you didn’t record that!” Flor said.

“It was a failure anyway.” I replied seriously.

“Ahaha I would expect so, this is the funniest mistake all transforming druids make during their life. They fail to identify the parts of the aura that make up the male and female. Just call males on some bug race and some female and identify it in the aura then check yourself and then the woman next to you and me. For male you should check the fairy. Even if it's just a magical body it still has a shape and form and so it has a gender.” Mary said.

I sat down and rubbed the bridge of my nose and sighed, “Let's eat first. My head hurts from exerting myself too much. For changing completely, I will go slow instead. Druids can take parts instead of full transformation and still make them work so slowly exercising that is better. I at least can make my own wings now.” I said and got up before going to the kitchen to cook.

I had the Drone prepare a list of all the meat and ingredients we possessed and was flabbergasted by the degree at which the things were gathering. My face suddenly twitched as I thought what would happen if I sold all this. Even so I had the Drone bring one of everything and asked how much Levi and Mary actually ate before I separated what I wanted to make and got the quantity he needed.

While cooking, I was surprised that my cooking level rose to level 6 so quickly but I soon attributed that to the fact that the material was a bit higher class than the beginner goods I used before.

When all of us finally gathered around the table, the two bottomless pits ate like there was no tomorrow, but I had prepared enough for thirty people and they ate the majority while DD, Flor, her familiar and I ate much less and slower.

All the while Flor read the large codex for my class. Half way through Flor poked me, “Hey, are you going to train your transformations?” She asked.

“Hmm maybe.” I said.

“I read here that Arthromancer usually follow several paths through their class.” Flor said. The others began to pay attention.

“Oh, let me see.” I said leaning over.

“See here.” Flor pointed.

I read it all out loud, “Arthromancer, being a taming class is unique because the creature has a huge breeding rate allowing for huge swarm attacks. This also creates a weakness to themselves as some may form a dependence on the bugs for hunting. When properly trained, the Arthromancer can become a close or long range fighter and by learning all the secrets and powers of their beasts they can become an Arthro shifter, one who trains and uses their creatures to supply their powers to fight themselves. The second are referred to as Arthro Conductor, ones who train and refine their Glaive mastery to a very high level to allow them to fight with the dance in close combat or to conduct the insects as they please. The final is considered an Arthro Trainer. These have little to no close combat capabilities but they focus on training their creatures to the highest level making them the highest level in large scale battles but are easy targets if spotted.” I read.

“So there are three pathways?” Mary asked while stuffing herself.

“Of course not, idiot.” DD shouted, “These are the three main pathways but they can mix and match and there are probably many more secrets that can be uncovered.”

POW!

DD went flying from one of Mary’s casual punches before appearing again sneering and going back to eating.

“Still which do you want to do?” Flor asked.

“That is hard, for now though I think the first one is the best option maybe. It’s good for training. It would be better in case we ever fall into a situation where I can’t summon my bugs.” I said.

“Oh so he can be sensible.” Mary said in fake shock.

Flor rolled her eyes, “Then you should learn partial transformation. You can take specific parts after learning to distinguish each one from each race. One example is Levi’s Stinger launcher. You can probably copy that.” Flor said.

“Right, about that thing, how strong is it now?” I asked Levi.

“Hmm…” Levi though while finishing what was in her mouth. “Those stupid green things are a bit strong right master?” She asked.

“Which one?”

“The ones leading the goblins. Specifically the ones in the Glacial Mountains.” Levi said.

“Oh the Lesser Frost Trolls. Yeah they're a bit strong. Level 179 I believe but their regeneration is almost perverse.” She said.

“Aye, I can pierce their skin with the stinger.” She said.

I didn’t really react much but looked at Mary.

“That’s very strong actually, until now trolls are one of the hardest creatures to kill in the hive without swarming. Well… it’s hard for most bugs, those fucking ants you have are an exception though.” She sneered.

“Rocket ants I think they were called. Why are they called that?” I asked.

Mary sneered, “Previously they were called bomb ants, in a group of three to five, measuring 15 cm they boasted a perverted strength and could bite a tree and crush the trunk in small groups. Around their nest is a wasteland cleared out by them. Now that they are Rocket ants, they measure 40 to 80 cm depending which type of ant and their back pair of legs seem to have developed similar to grasshopper legs.” She explained.

“Ah~! Rocket’s I get it.” I nodded. “I’m surprised you know what a rocket is?” I said.

“There are some long range propulsion weapons. You might know the Hwacha which fires arrows or one similar to the ancient chinese rocket launcher you see in old movies that has a mouth similar to a chinese dragon.” Flor said. “I’ve seen a few but they are hard to use unless it's large scale combat since the cost is quite high to make.”

“Yes, but those bugs aren’t.” She sneered. “Those things now need only two to bite down a tree and since they can carry 30 times their own weight it means their strength is already bordering 100 or so.” She complained.

“Probably not. Not unless all the status screens were synchronized to human standards though the ones we see probably are.” I said.

“Oi Jackass! I want to see the ants let me ride one.” DD said.

“Shut up and go eat.”

“Papa! I finished eating, i’m going to go play a bit.” Levi said content before she picked up DD.

“Oi! AH! LET ME GO!”

Levi happily ignored his complaints and ran off before hopping and taking flight without a care in the world.

“Well we should finish eating then I should get to training with a few bugs and see if I can’t slowly form a balance between me and my transformations.” I said.