Chimeras I couldn’t be bothered to kill ran away from the fires I started. The heat wave hit my face but thanks to my resistance it only felt nice.

“Grrrh?”

Gökbörü growled, asking me if what we did was even necessary. Truth be told, starting those fires and spreading them to chase other monsters toward the wasp nest took a lot of time. So much time in fact that I didn’t even know if it was worth it anymore. I shrugged.

“Maybe we could have fought all of them. If they were anything else but bug-looking.”

Fuck bugs. All my homies hate bugs.

“It is not about killing them. It is about sending a message.”

I imitiated Heath Ledger’s Joker. Gökbörü gave me another confused head tilt. I patted his head.

We followed escaping chimeras. We sometimes had to intercept their route with an ice wall or Gaia Burst to make sure they went toward the nest.

“We would have made excellent shepards.”

The scent of burning vegetation mixed with the acrid odor of defeated chimeras, creating a pandemonium. Eventually, we reached a point where the fleeing chimeras were funneled into a narrow path leading directly to the remnants of the scorpion wasp nest. The surviving workers, sensing the approaching threat, buzzed around in agitation. I already saw with my own eyes that the different monsters were aggressive to each other.

Before the escaping chimeras could even reach to the nest, they were attacked by the scorpion wasps. While most tried to escape from the fight, the sheer number of the wasps and their aggressiveness caused by a threat being close to their nest made it impossible.

I watched them kill each other. Gökbörü let out a bored yawn.

“Don’t worry, we will have our own fight now.”

Most of the workers were away from the nest now. They moved out of the nest in hopes of blocking the monsters before they could reach the nest. The number disadvantage I had was less right now. I sank into the shadows, not simply blending with them like before. I existed just in front of the nest. Thanks to still being in the shadows, I wasn’t detected by the soldiers right away. I walked slowly to the closest soldier and loaded my mana into my hammer. It noticed me and tried to raise its shield like a pincer but it was too late. I crushed its head.

(You collected Soul of Soldier Calamity Wasp.)

Huh, I was right. They were soldiers. Other wasps noticed me finally as they let out screeches. I rushed to the closest one and swung my hammer. This one was able to block my strike with its shield pincer. I clicked my tongue as I ducked to dodge its spear pincer.

“What are you, a spartan soldier?”

I swung my hammer again and it was able to block it. But this time as I dodged its attack, I sent Gökbörü flying over its shield. He created an ice spear and sent it through the soldier’s compound eyes.

(You collected Soul of Soldier Calamity Wasp.)

Contrary to what their bulky size suggested, other soldiers had already surrounded us by the time we finished the second one.

“Look at this fuckers, they even know how to set up a formation.”

I hit the ground and released a Gaia Burst. Most of the rocks were blocked by their shields. I charged towards their range. As my reward I got three spears to my chest. However, it was all part of my plan. The moment spears hit my chest, I turned my chest into shadows, spears just passing through without harming me. I swung my spear and knocked one of their shields to the side. Rebounding from the hit, I smashed its head.

With that, their formation was broken. I was able to leap to their back. Their stingers snapped at me but I broke them off with hits from my hammer.

“Going through the trouble to create that diversion was definitely the right call.”

I mused. Unlike the workers I tore through without much problem, the soldiers actually had the capacity of posing a challenge to me. With their formation shattered, I exploited the opening and continued my assault on the remaining soldiers. leaped from one soldier to another, my hammer leaving a trail of destruction. Gökbörü, ever agile and lethal, complimented my attacks by swiftly dealing with any worker wasp that was still behind and brave enough to flank us. The battlefield echoed with screeches and roars as the creatures clashed in a macabre dance.

“Well, that was quite the show.”

I crushed the last soldier. I was mostly unharmed beyond some bruises and muscle soreness.

“How are you holding up?”

“Wooooofff.”

He let out a pained growl. I looked down and saw that he was limping.

“Did they get you? Let me look.”

I rushed and grabbed him. I lifted him to check his legs but I was surprised by his tail wagging and his tongue covering my face with saliva.

“Ah, you trickster.”

I put him on my shoulders.

“But don’t think I didn’t see you getting hit several times. Don’t over-rely on your Regeneration and Abnormal Status Resistance.”

I patted his head. He nuzzled to my head and barked.

“Her majesty, wake the fuck up, it already past afternoon! Get your life together!”

I slammed my hammer into the nest, causing a large part of it to collapse. If the queen was like the ones back on Earth its only purpose was giving birth and had no combat capabilities. But I was in a fantasy world. I stepped into the nest. It was warm and humid. It was hard to breathe inside and I was sure it would become harder as I moved deeper. Despite my attack and entry, I met with no resistance. Did all of the wasps die?

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The insides looked like the abandoned bee nests I saw as a child. No honey but… Wait, what is this? A white, unmoving being caught my attention. Making sure that my Shadow Melt ability was fully active, I moved closer to it. It was a larva. I think. It was cut into two, cleanly.

1- Why it is dead if it is a larva belonging to this hive? I was the first one to enter the nest except the hornets. Of course, it could be a chimera I haven’t come across brought here as food instead of a larva but the shape of it made me think that it was a hornet larva.

2- The cleanliness of the strike was weird. Too sharp, too clean. Whatever did this had a sharp weapon and knew how to use it which was weird. The only monsters I can think were soldier scorpion hornets but why would they kill their own young?

Gökbörü jumped off my shoulder sniffed the larva and let out a sharp growl with his teeth bared. His already small body was lowered and his hackles were raised.

“Danger?”

I asked in a hushed whisper. He answered back with a growl. I knelt beside him.

“You think someone entered before us?”

He whipped his head back and front.

“Something.”

He growled. I tried to tune in with him using Enhanced Senses but since the skill effectiveness was lowered, I couldn’t smell what he was smelling.

“Should we go back?”

He raised his body and slammed his front paw to the ground.

“Alrighty.”

He climbed back to my shoulder and we moved forward. As we went deeper, we encountered more dead larvas. All were killed with a single precise cut. That eliminated the theory that the first one we encountered was prey.

“It goes underground. Well, it can’t be helped.”

The eerie silence of the underground nest accompanied our descent. The air grew denser, and the temperature rose as we ventured further into the depths. The mystery of the slain larvas weighed on my mind, and Gökbörü's tension mirrored my own.

As we moved through the winding tunnels, the walls adorned with intricate patterns created by the scorpion wasps, the atmosphere became increasingly oppressive. The occasional carcass of a hornet at a recent battle within the nest. Just like with the larvas, they were also killed with one clean strike. Gökbörü, his senses on high alert, suddenly stiffened on my shoulder. His low growl resonated through the tunnel. I stopped, tuning my Enhanced Senses to detect any potential threats. A faint sound reached my ears- the sound of something heavy falling on the ground.

I ran towards the noise, while still keeping the bare minimum effects of Shadow Melt so that I wouldn’t be detected before I could see what caused the noise. My search lead me to a cavernous chamber, its walls pulsating with an otherworldly glow. The air hummed with magic, and a sense of foreboding filled the space.

In there I could see what made the noise. It was the her majesty herself. It was huge, easily triple the size of the soldiers. The chitinous exoskeleton covering it was a mosaic of colors, combining the earthy tones of a scorpion with the vibrant, warning hues of a wasp. It lacked wings. Its stinger was long, razor-sharp, and barbed, with a venom reservoir that pulsated with a malevolent glow. Its lower body had some kind of birthing sack.

There were also bigger, meaner-looking soldiers around her. Their colors were more vibrant than their normal kind and they were also more spikier.

This was the boss area of the first floor. A Challenger had to navigate through the entrance, which was like a cave, then the grasslands, then the forest, then the nest and lastly they had to kill the queen and its bodyguards.

In normal conditions of course. Just like most conditions I found myself facing, I was in abnormal conditions as the boss was already dead. The once-queen lay lifeless, its enormous form a testament to the power it once held over the nest. The bodyguards looked like they had died before it.

I felt Gökbörü’s claws dug into my armor. I could feel his fear. I haven’t felt fear of him except for the time when we faced Tormented One. However, fear wasn’t the only thing I felt from him. Disgust. The queen slayer, the being in front of us disgusted him.

I realized that I hadn’t taken a single breath since I entered the cavern. I took a slow, controlled breath. At that very moment, Queen Slayer turned his eyeless head to me, his tentacles moving in the air. For some unknown reason, I came to conclusion that I also was disgusted by this creature. While its outer look was similar to a bug and even to a Reaper, my disgust wasn’t born out of it. It was something else, this thing felt wrong. I slowly tightened my grip on my hammer and shifted my weight, preparing to charge and strike the creature before it could notice me.

I took another slow, controlled breath. I tightened my core but the moment I got ready to move, a shadow fell upon me.

Dodge!

Parry!

Block!

Melt!

All of those options rang in my head but before I could choose, something heavy hit my chest. I flew, only to be stopped by my hard crash into the cavern wall. The entire cavern shook as the taste of iron filled my mouth.

(You are being afflicted with Nidhogg’s Essence.)

(Nidhogg’s Essence ignores all of your resistances.)

(You have poisoned severely.)

A burning sensation radiated from where I was hit. I could only gasp as I slid to the ground from the crater I created on the wall. Gökbörü barked and created ice walls around us.