Continuing to walk down the walkway the bugs are coming from seems to bear fruit as their number slowly increases, they still don’t seem to care that a humanoid robot is simply walking into their domain, so maybe the worst is yet to come. I keep up my pace and after some time I enter what seems to be a hot spot for the insects, the before ever-so-present jungle scenery is completely gone, replaced by a barren wasteland that has been turned into bug food. Every wall, floor, and ceiling are completely covered in bugs and insects, they swarm around in circles, trying to find more plant life to eat.

I wouldn’t quite call what I see here a colony, there isn’t a home being built here. It looks more like a ton of bugs simply congregating in a single large cave. It feels maddening being here, I disliked insects when I was still human, but I didn’t panic if there was a spider or bee in my room, but this is different, there are so many bugs in my vicinity that it feels like there sheer presence bears weight.

I vividly remember visiting a “Butterfly Farm” when I was little, they cultivate beautiful flowers and show off butterflies. The part I remember the most vividly is being inside a “Butterfly Walkway” of sorts, it’s a simple walkway with flowers around it and some nectar for Butterflies to snack on. The only problem is there are so many butterflies in these walkways that you can HEAR them fly. The image before me bears the same resemblance, there are so many insects before, sounds like the skittering of their feet and munching of their mandibles which before weren’t audible, are now so loud in an ordinarily quiet cave that it seems almost obscene to walk into this place.

I feel like a shut-in teenage son coming out of his room on an important holiday, all sorts of relatives, that I didn’t even know existed, sitting before me at a dinner table, staring me down, the relatives I didn’t know existed replaced by what can only be assumed to be an uncountable number of bugs and insects carpeting every surface of the cave I entered. Thousands of insect eyes stare down at me, wondering if I’m what’s for dessert, only to find out that I’m literally made of metal, and losing interest quickly.

Pushing my way through the carpet of bugs on the floor I make my way into the middle of the gigantic cave they made their home. I wander along the walls of insects and when I reach a cliff face, I finally find something interesting, a castle built into the bottom of a gigantic cave.

What the hell, what kind of idiot built a castle underground? Large walls haphazardly circle a large keep, making for an impressive display in the middle of a pitch-black cave, the worst part, every single surface of it is writhing with insects. They said I was supposed to kill a queen, but I didn’t think insect queens lived in castles.

For now, I decide to make my way down to the castle and investigate, searching through the endless cave system is getting boring. Currently overlooking the castle from a vantage point upwards I hop down onto its level and begin making my way over. It looked tiny from where I was standing, but when I get up close to it, it seems to be huge, the walls alone are easily as big as a two-story house! There are no gates to speak of so I simply let myself into the giant courtyard teeming with bugs.

When I enter the courtyard, I see something quite familiar to me, the Rima Insect Queen, but there is a slight problem, it’s not a queen but multiple queens. Before me stand 4 Rima Insect Queens, What the hell! Who needs that many queens?! The Rima Insect Queens sit in the corners of the courtyard producing eggs in peace, for a second I wonder if I even need to kill them, they look quite peaceful. But in the end, I walk up to one looking quite content with its life and punch it straight through its exoskeleton with [Power Punch].

The other 3 Queens notice my assault and they charge at me at quite a slow speed, I expertly walk past their charges and hit them with [Power Punch], trying to conserve energy while doing so. When I’m done, I hope for a notification, but nothing happens. I look around to check if I’ve missed anything and spot a thin frail humanoid figure walking out of the keep. There are people here? A bit perplexed I approach the figure, but when I get close and my cameras can finally pick up the details of the figure, I get a shock.

What I thought was a malnourished human was a humanoid bug. It’s so thin it almost looks anorexic and it stands as tall as some basketball players. It could probably get a modeling gig if it wasn’t for its bulging eyes, bug-like face with giant mandibles, and the green exoskeleton covering every part of its body. Where the underarms are supposed to start are large scythe-like appendages and it has large translucent bug wings covering its back.

After I get close enough, I hear the humanoid bug start to talk in a broken, scraggly female voice, “As I thought, we have an intruder on our hands. Thank you for telling me, my children…” She guides one of the bugs who crawled up onto her body down her arm and back onto the ground before raising herself and looking at me. “And what are you supposed to be? You certainly look civilized.” This bug seems like it’s quite intelligent, not like others. Maybe I can convince her to just stop attacking the village instead of punching another head off.

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I lean forward into a bow with my hand on my chest, “Greetings, my name is Andy. I am a golem who is currently employed by the earthlings to exterminate the Insects Queens who have made their home close to their home.” I raise myself again and look the insect woman in the eye. “The earthlings were being attacked by the insects frequently so they asked for my aid in dealing with them.” When the insect woman hears me talk about my current issue, she looks at me surprised, “So you were the one who killed all my children recently…”

I look at her again, “I am sorry, but I suggest you move, your uh-, children, they are creating trouble for the earthlings.” The insect woman, who probably is some sort of queen ponders my words for a moment before saying, “I’ve got a better idea, I’ll kill you right here and now and then I’ll kill those worthless earthlings, whatever they are.” Oh, damn… I prepare myself for a fight, the insect queen hunches over, and her wings begin to rapidly flap before she turns into a blur and shoots at me in a curve. She is so quick I barely have time to react and hurl myself out of harm’s way. Damn! She’s fast!

Before I can even right myself up from my lying position, I hear the buzzing of the insect queen’s wings behind me. I turn around quickly but before I can even move, I see the insect queen reel back both her scythe hands to slice at me. I can’t dodge so I simply take the hit, but when I get hit across one side, I get flung to one side of the courtyard instead of being sliced apart. Thank God I’m made of metal! I finally get up and can already hear the insect queen approaching with her buzzing wings.

When I look for her, I see her dive down from the sky in a bow with both her scythes out cackling like a maniac, “Hahaha! You’re a tough one, I’ll have my fun with you!” I charge up a [Power Punch] to meet her, but the Queen makes an evasive maneuver behind me before I can even begin to punch her. Before I realize it, I’m being carried under my arms like a kid, the queen throws me upwards in the air and chases me up into the air to hit me while I’m falling. There aren’t even any trees to fall on here! What can I do?!

Wait! That’s it! If she’s so fast I just need to react faster! And I got just the [Skill]! While the queen is approaching me, I activate [Overclock] and the world seems to slow to a crawl. Every move before me is clear as day, where the Queen is flying, what her next attack is, how long I’ll fall, and much more. I take my time to analyze the picture before me and I build out a plan to soften my fall and kill the queen at the same time. My time was running out though with my new evolution I could feel the heat of my processor, and it was getting toasty. If I left this running any longer it could be hurtful for me, so I turned off overclock and set my plan into motion.

The insect queen flies up to my side and prepares to slice at me with both her arms to one side of her head and yells out, “Say goodbye!” in her raspy unhealthy sounding voice. I extend my arm to the insect queen and grip her at her waist, I immediately activate [Crushing Grip] digging myself into the queen’s hard exoskeleton and forcing the air out of her. She gives off a meek gasp and wheeze before I pull her in straight into myself for a powerful hug. The insect queen’s wings which are now supporting two people simply can’t keep up and she falls with me.

“L-Let go you-, buffoon! I’ll kill you!” The insect queen yelps out her complaints while in my embrace and continue falling with me, just before we hit the ground, I loosen my grip on the queen and angle her to be below me. When I finally impact the ground, I hear a loud crunching noise and yell emanating just from below me.

I stand up immediately just to find the insect queen with guts and gore spilling out of every orifice of her body and cracks in her exoskeleton. She is somehow still alive, twitching and moving her arms into the air in pure rage while screaming in pain, my plating is pretty beaten up too and half of me is covered in bug goop, so I walk up to her side and with a simple [Devastating Kick] kick off the bug queen’s head. When I do so, I finally get the notification.

Defeated 4 Rima Insect Queens: 1000 XP received

Defeated Prime Insect Queen: 400 XP received

You have advanced from Level 10 to Level 20

Nothing new? Well, I guess I got a lot last time. I look over myself, my body is all banged up and the paint is chipping off some parts, yet my senses tell me that I’m working correctly and that nothing is broken. The insects that were around me before me seemed to lessen after the queen’s death, the ones close to the fight converged on her body to inspect what happened to her, but most simply dispersed in smaller cave entrances.

Now, why was there a castle down here? I go into the keep of the castle and look for anything, but there is nothing in there anymore. Did the insects here even eat the wooden furniture? All furniture is gone and the only thing remaining is the walls, I walk a bit longer before I find a chair made out of stone which looks to be of importance. So, this must be a throne room?

I look a bit more, but the only thing I could discern from things here is that this is some wannabe king’s castle, why it was built underground, or why bugs took it over? No idea.

With my investigation over I make my way back to the earthling village, and on the way, I find a suspiciously low amount of bugs. I just hope the mole village didn’t get stampeded by bugs… When I return, the village looks alive and well, but there is an unusual amount of guard moles outside the doors. Yep, they probably had to fight bugs because of me, sorry!