Yes. It was poop.

I observed the offending orbs to be sure.

Dung

Excrement from a living creature.

Honestly, what was I expecting? Especially after everything else the magic boxes had given me up until now.

The information? Given. The conclusion? Concluded.

Fact rendered: The beetles pushing the balls of dung must’ve—in fact—been dung beetles.

But they were the biggest, meanest, sharpest—and only—dung beetles I had ever seen. I was quite sure dung beetles in the real world didn’t look like that. I observed them next.

Jungle Tunneler [Lvl 5]

This giant insect gathers globs of dung to dip in the acid of the bees it is in a symbiotic relationship with. Then, it rolls them against materials to drill tunnels. Unintelligent, but viciously territorial.

Hey! That was actually helpful! Thank you, magic boxes!

I decided to check out the bees, as well.

Jungle Stinger [Lvl 2]

This giant insect is capable of delivering devastating attacks of acid using its stingers, but it avoids combat. If a stinger is pulled out of the creature, it will die soon after. It is protected by the beetles it is in a symbiotic relationship with. Unintelligent and cowardly.

Okay. So the bees probably won’t be an issue for me. They’d probably flee from me since it says they’re cowardly, and they’re low-level anyway. My biggest worry is… that army of beetles.

The beetles, after all, were all level five, and I could probably only handle one, maybe two, at a time if I was lucky. It also depended on the general strength of a level five Jungle Tunneler, but the safest route was to assume they would be equal to or stronger than myself.

On a positive note, they were all level five, without any discrepancy, so if killing one was easy, then killing tons would probably be the same.

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I was still sort of worried, though. What if they decided to expand their territory and found my new home? It’d be a shame to abandon the Dino Cave, but I wouldn’t hesitate if it became necessary.

Although…

Looking around at all the free experience, I wondered if it would be possible for me to build a EXP farm…

Well… we can worry about that later. There are any number of steps to take before I can even consider such a possibility. Step 1: Observation!

I took another glance around the cave. Beetles and bees were flying back and forth in a massive crowd like people crossing an intersection in a big city. They worked together in harmony, without pause.

Then, one of the beetles flew into a tunnel, rolling his huge boulder of dung down with him. Nothing was unusual about this occurrence, as that’s just what the beetles did… They rolled spheres of acid-covered excrement down tunnels, apparently to… drill further?

The unusual part was when the beetle came back. He crawled out onto a ledge overhanging the center pit, spun around in circles a few times, and wiggled his butt in the air, as if dancing.

Then, as though they were called by his majestic movements, several bees turned and flew toward the dancing beetle. I wondered if what he was doing was a skill, and so I observed him carefully.

Mating Call [Skill Lvl 3]

The creature summons nearby females of various species to its location.

Wow. That dude had some serious game. Several more bees, as well as a few beetles also flew towards him as he danced, wiggling his butt around in the air for all to see. More beetles began to land in tunnels, dropping their droppings and performing the mating call. I scanned every single one to make sure I could get as much experience for Observe as possible.

Maybe it’s… dinner time? What do dung beetles eat anyway?

Only a few bugs were left in the massive room after the players took their bug harems down the tunnels. The ones left continued to fly in and out of the huge tunnel across from where I stood. The ones that flew out carried dung, so that’s probably where they were getting it from.

What generates enough of that stuff… that they can just keep coming back here with it?

I sort of prayed to the magic boxes that it was something like a common area where herds of dinosaurs--is herds the right word?--would relieve themselves. But… that didn’t seem to me like something any animal other than humans would do.

And maybe elephants… because they do weird death rituals or something, right? I think I heard about that once.

Well, Step 1: Observation, complete! Onto Step 2: Isolation!

Which, naturally, involved me getting one of each of these bugs alone for Step 3: Experimentation. However, as it stood right now, I felt woefully unprepared to handle that undertaking, and so, it was time to go grind some experience before I could return. My plans for an eventual EXP farm would have to be put on hold… for now.

I turned to leave, and stepped directly in a large pile of poop.

Ew!

I pulled my leg free and stepped back…

And I stepped back directly out into the open air over the ramp.

Woah!

“Graag!” I shouted in surprise, slipping and sliding down the slope, covering myself in the same dung I’d just stepped in.

I stood up, wiping myself off, and looked at the slope I’d fallen down.

Right into the center of the cavernous chamber.

There were about nine or ten beetles currently flying around in the room, as well as several bees. The latter scattered, but every single one of the former turned their sights on me, rage burning in their eyes.

This… wasn’t what I had in mind. Challenging the enemy on their own turf? Well, that wasn’t ideal, but I could accept it after everything I’d already been through…but... I was covered in the same mucky stuff they shoved their faces into… for whatever reason.

I looked around me at the formation of angry beetles again, and only a single thought ran through my mind.

Oh… poop…