Goose was still trying to mess with me, but I focused on the corpse of the beetle. I was impressed that Goose was able to bisect it when I noticed how thick the armour plating was. A small test with my mace and I was happy to see that it cracked the armour meaning if I did a proper swing, I should be able to kill it easily.

Looking at the piece of broken chiton an idea came to me. I haven’t had an opportunity to strengthen my body with creature’s parts as none of the creatures I have killed have been significantly stronger than my current upgrades. Thanks to those upgrades and the traits that I have gotten I was able to survive the slave King’s attacks without getting my bones broken.

But one of my recent traits was subdermal armour. While it mainly used my bones it was a bit different. I held one of the chiton pieces in my hand and concentrated on it trying to see if I could use it to upgrade my subdermal armour pieces.

After about 10 minutes I was able to confirm that yes, I could use chiton to upgrade them. That was an incredibly pleasant surprise, but I wasn’t going to use this beetles armour. I was hoping for an evolved beetle or even a monster that will be out there waiting for me.

I looked out beyond the borders of the nation trying to asses my next moves. While the weather was still warm you could already tell that it was starting to get colder. It was already raining a bit but with the light blue clouds above it wasn't going to turn into heavy rain. It was time to hunt but I didn’t want Goose to start messing with me again, so I sent him an idea of a competition to see who kills the most beetles.

I got back a surprised feeling, but it soon morphed into eagerness. I wanted to give a signal to him so we could start but Goose was the one who signalled the start and immediately zoomed off. A big smile came to my face as I squeezed my two-handed mace with my hands and then rushed to the cluster of beetles that I saw in the distance. Before I reached them Goose had already counted to three. While he couldn't count reliably above 10, he didn’t need to as I kept track of his kills.

The group of four beetles noticed my approach and started to rush towards me. These were weak opponents and for my first strike, I struck wide so I could kill three of them at once. I possibly put a bit too much strength into this swing as the first one exploded and the other two weren’t better off. The last beetle tried to stop but the grass was a bit too slippery because of the rain and it slipped directly in front of me where I could easily finish it off which an overhead swing.

For a brief moment I was ahead of Goose, but he quickly overtook me once again. Using my energy sight, I could quickly find where the rest of the beetles were. Most of them were trying to dig out rabbits who were hiding in their burrows so hunting them was quite simple for the beetles that were decent at digging. It seems that over the past month, they have become quite comfortable here as there weren’t many predators who could challenge them. Goose and I were going to change that belief as we continue to kill them.

A few miles outside the nation’s borders I finally understood why there were so many beetles around here. There were mounds of dirt protected by groups of beetles. Inside that dirt mound were one or two females who laid eggs that matured quite fast. The further south we went the more of those mounds we found and destroyed. My count was at 285 when I finally met a first-rank beetle. Goose had 304 but he seems to be running out of steam while I could keep going for a few days at this pace.

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The few things that I have learned about the beetle’s behavior is that when they’re alone they take a defensive posture but if there's more of them than me they always rush and attack me. This first rank beetle who was alone however rushed me immediately when it noticed me. That meant the beetles could detect the strength of their enemy and make informed decisions. That makes them smarter than I first realized meaning I should take this a bit more seriously just in case.

The beetles have a large mandible and their legs have hooks on them making time quite dangerous. At least it seems like they don't have any wings but because of that their back armour is quite strong. Still, with my mace, I should be able to do a lot of damage. They can be quite fast but as demonstrated here a simple sidestep is effective for evasion as they can't maneuver well when they are moving fast.

It tried to stop so it could turn around but once again the grass was quite slippery and I was able to catch it before it got control. With a big overhead swing powered by energy, I broke its carapace burrowing the mace deep. It died quite soon afterwards.

Looking over the first rank beetle it seemed to be larger, faster and generally stronger than its weaker counterparts. Its armour was also thicker, and I don’t think that without using my core energy I could cut through it with my two-handed sword. Bringing a blunt weapon was indeed a good idea.

I called Goose back and gave him the win. First-rank opponents are starting to show up and a beetle with an evolution or a monster might actually be a threat to us especially to Goose if one of them could fly. While I don’t think that they would be able to catch Goose they could certainly surprise him. He was incredibly proud of his victory, and I hunted him a rabbit for his prize.

There were fewer first-rank opponents than I was expecting so the next few hours went by without any surprises, but I was once again slowly gaining experience for another level up. It was at this point that something else happened. Back home it seems that the dungeon on my land had finally gathered enough energy and experience to complete another floor. The feeling through my ability was quite weird as the dungeon was claiming land that was mine and I felt like if I was close enough, I would have the strength to stop its expansion.

Stopping expansion would probably mean that the dungeon would break and would have to be killed to stop the monsters from constantly escaping. It was a good thing that I didn’t mind the dungeon expanding.

I quickly pulled back my awareness so it would have an easy time finishing its fourth floor. It will take a few days to finish it, but I don’t expect it to have any first-rank opponents. That will probably happen after the 5th floor, but I guess I will see when I delve into it.

Finding a dungeon is not an easy task if you don’t have expensive artefacts or the proper abilities. So, while I was reducing the number of beetles, I was also trying to find the dungeon entrance. My first plan was to just find the heaviest concentration of beetles and continue until I found the dungeon, but this didn't work. The beetles didn’t hold territory continuously and some places had more dirt mounds than others, so the density of opponents didn’t mean that I was going in the correct direction.

I was lucky that I had the mini-map otherwise it was hard to keep sense of the surroundings. Landmarks in the grasslands were sparse and sometimes even with my vision all you could see around you was an endless moving sea of grass.

I suspect that many people who travel here have never returned, especially because of cloudy days like we have today. Finally, I had to go into a grid-searching pattern. Over the next day, I continue to search a large land area without any success.

Goose had long left me and I was getting a bit tired of easy opponents and not finding my target. None of the first-rank beetles had any evolutions and none were monsters. I guess it’s just too early for them to have lived long enough for any to develop.

I wanted to travel even further south where there seem to be stronger beetles, but my current hunting time was over. I need that to get back to do some specific training and help George finish the inn that I hired him to help me build.