NOVEL NEXT Chapter 79: Insecta
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Vlad glanced at the notifications while his eyes widened; what he had summoned just now wasn’t the ancient knight, wizard, or some sort of half-dragon warrior he had expected. Hell, even an old man would have been better and more reasonable than this!
Ding!
[The Hero Unit [Insecta, the Corpse-Eating Crimson Beetle Queen] has been summoned!]
[The World is changing.]
[An Era of Insects had begun.]
[All Insects shall bow down to their queen!]
[You acquired the special Territory Trait [Insect Nest]!]
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[Insect Nest: Lv1/10]
Grants a passive enhancement to the growth of Insect-type Monsters raised or summoned in the Civilization by 100%.
The proliferation of all insects is also enhanced by 100%, their reproduction speed and quantity are enhanced by 200%, and their total power is doubled as long as [Insecta, the Corpse-Eating Crimson Beetle Queen] is alive.
However, their hunger is doubled.
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However, the only thing he could see right now was an insectoid woman… or man… or both.
Insecta, a being that went beyond the concept of a “Hero”, if anything, felt like he had just summoned some sort of wicked villain.
“Insectoids…?”
The moment he summoned her, Vlad learned a bit of information about what she was, or at least, what “Insectoid” stood for.
Millions of years ago, before Vampires, Werewolves, Imps, Incubus and Succubus, Orcs, Goblins, or even most of the evil gods and moon goddesses existed…
Obscuritas was a realm dominated by an Apex Primal Race, Insectoids.
And Insecta here was the Queen of the Crimson Beetles.
These ancient beings had not gone extinct but had degenerated over time, becoming monstrous and with little to no intelligence.
Meanwhile, the new intelligent races, especially the most populous trinity of Obscuritas, Vampires, Orcs, and Werewolves dominated the lugubrious dark lands with an iron fist.
The once-known race of intelligent and monstrous insect-like beings that inhabited the prehistoric Obscuritas, Insecta, was the queen of one of their deadliest clans.
The Crimson Beetles.
“I’ll bring down any army you put in front of me… And my children shall feast! Haha… HAHAHAHAHA!”
RUMBLE!
Her Aura continued growing larger, shaking the entire manor, resembling a never-ending, all-encompassing swarm of pure dread and destruction.
“Paul! Sacrifice her! She’s nuts!”
Chris started going crazy because she was simply too overwhelmingly strong; her Aura made the two of them feel a bit nauseous and even weak.
It was as if they were facing a mighty final boss!
“I’m not sacrificing her!”
Vlad sighed, slowly standing up again, resisting the Aura of Insecta and releasing his own Soul Aura, concentrating.
“Insecta… Seal your… Seal your Aura right now! And… sit down, please.”
“Oh?”
Insecta’s eyes widened as she raised her eyebrows in surprise; nobody had ever treated her like this before; nobody had ever told her what to do.
Yet… although in the past she would have eaten his head off with a single bite, a different feeling surged from her heart.
She wanted to obey and make her master happy.
“Ah, so this is what it feels to become a Familiar, hm?”
She gave Vlad a motherly smile as her tremendous Aura quickly concealed itself within her body, and she sat down over the cold wooden floor.
“I apologize for my rudeness; I didn’t intend to scare you, master,” she said. “I just was very excited! But I’m so sorryyyy!”
She giggled a bit while asking for forgiveness as if nothing!
But… Well, Vlad found her quite endearing in her own right.
Although Chris was only left even more shocked after what he said.
“Ah, well, if you’re sorry, then it’s fine.” Paul nodded.
“What?!” Chris asked angrily. “She almost killed us!”
“Hahaha! I never intended to kill anybody; I cannot kill my Master,” Insecta smiled. “After all, he and this Territory he’s building are all tied to my soul. This new life I’ve been given… is directly connected to him and this entire city. If they all perish and are destroyed, so will I.”
“See? She’s still my Familiar at the end of the day,” said Vlad. “Well, I was scared as well, but this game has to follow its preset rules at the end.”
“Hmm…” Chris was still very suspicious of Insecta. “I don’t know… She seems kind of evil, malicious even. Is she trustworthy?”
“I suppose the concept of evil is not something I am very… acquainted with,” said Insecta. “Back in my Era, there were no such things. You simply battled for territory and resources. Multiplied, fought, ate, and survived. I suppose all of these… strange politics, morality, and so on were mostly born after the Era of the Insectoid by the new, weaker races.”
“O-Oh…” Chris muttered. “So you’re like a cavewoman of this world or what?”
“Hahah! I don’t know what that means, but yes, we did use to live inside of huge caves, my beautiful nest,” nodded Insecta. “There, billions of my insectoid children would serve my every need. Albeit when it was time for battle, sometimes I would step in and destroy my foes. Just so I wouldn’t get too conceited and ended up growing weaker as a result!”
“I see…” Paul nodded. “That’s interesting… To think the developers designed such lore even for “prehistoric” times within this Realm… I suppose all other Realms also had their own prehistoric times.”
“Maybe that sounds kind of cool,” said Chris. “But anyways… Erm, so she’s the Hero of this territory? Kind of extreme; I had at most expected some kind of old vampire guy or gal, but a bug woman… thing?”
"Yeah, well, it’s like a gacha, so maybe it wouldn’t even fit with the whole theme; it was random,” explained Vlad. “Nonetheless, despite the rough introduction, Insecta seems really strong.”
As the two talked, Insecta didn’t stand still, quickly crawling around the room, even walking on the walls and ceiling, and then looking outside through the window. It seemed very hard for her to stay still.
“Hm, this place smells delicious; so much flesh and blood to devour…” she smiled, licking her lips. “Ah! My bad, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“…”
“…”
Paul And Chris remained in silence, dropping their jaws after hearing her say that out of the blue.
She was even scarier than Vampires!
“I promise I won’t eat anybody!” she said. “I-I promise! Okay? I will only eat… corpses! Indeed, I devour them whole. It helps me produce my children.”
“Okaaay…” nodded Chris. “Give her something to eat.”
“Alright…”
Vlad opened his Inventory, more to just calm down the hunger of his new summon, and brought out a large Neburian corpse; it was a lion-like monster covered by black and gray-colored biological armor.
“Ohh! What’s this?! A Neburian?”
Insecta seemed surprised; she knew about the Neburians and instantly recognized one at first glance.
“Wait, you know about these guys?” Chris asked.
“Just how ancient are they?” Paul wondered.
Insecta sat down, using her giant claws; she easily tore through the hard armor of the beast and opened its carcass, beginning to take large filets of meat and eating them with a big bite.
“Nom! Hmm, this is a nostalgic taste! Yes, I know about the Neburians,” she said. “They’re a race of Insectoids, did you know? Parasitic ones.”
“Parasitic?!” Paul wondered. “Wait, does that mean...”
“Yes, the reason why they come in all shapes and sizes is because they have parasitized such bodies and transformed them into their new bodies,” said Insecta. “Upon maturing, the Neburians fuse with their host and become one with. Their host would often times remain similar to how it was before being parasitized, but it would gain a protective layer of exoskeleton over their bodies, their eyes might become like us insects, and they would usually gain either wings or additional limbs and claws.”
“So this whole time… we’ve been fighting a race of parasites?!” Vlad asked in shock. “I can’t believe it; I really thought they were like… something else. Maybe like, Uh, Undead?”
“Oh dear, no, they are not Undead!” laughed Insecta. “They were all very much alive. Their hosts don’t have to grow up with them though, so their king often plants their larvae on captured foes they deem worthy. Did you fight some of the Generals? They’re usually powerful monsters they captured beforehand.”
“Yeah,” nodded Vlad. “Then Judgement, that centipede woman and the four-armed giant… They were all originally different people.”
“Well, if they had already fully metamorphosed, then it means their brains had been eaten and transformed by the Neburians, so there’s no hope for them,” said Insecta. “The original hosts are technically alive, but their sense of selves and so on are gone; they had technically died, yet their bodies remain alive… Very scary, right? Hahaha! And you said I was scary? There were all kinds of strange races back then… Compared to the people of this era, you all look like babies.”
“The King of Neburias had a grudge against Vampires and my father, the Emperor of this Empire,” said Vlad. “Does that mean my father has lived for so long?”
“Hmm… I died before I could meet him; the Neburians, however, probably survived way past their own Era. The ones you’ve fought are most likely the last remaining one of them. When they’re about to be defeated, they often retreat underground and sleep, recovering energy and multiplying more for many years before appearing again; it could take dozens, hundreds, or thousands of years.”
“Phew, good thing we blew up the mountain then, dude!” Chris felt relieved. “We won’t be having them annoy us for a while.”
“Yeah, but at the end of this week we’ll need to confront them again,” said Paul. “We have to prepare. I’m sure the King himself might confront us.”
“Hmm, if you feed me enough corpses, master, I could regain more of my original power,” said Insecta. “And I can help you deal with that pest… with my millions of children included, of course.”
“Millions of children? Regain your power? What do you… mean?”
Paul quickly looked at Insecta’s information; her “Status” was much different than his own.
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[Insecta, The Corpse-Eating Crimson-Beetle Queen]
[Unit Type]: [Hero Unit] [Combat Unit]
[Fighting Power]: [3]
[Stamina]: [3]
[Mobility]: [4]
[Element]: [Evil] [Heroes] [Fantasy] [Insect]
[Affinity]: [Affinity of Blood +1] [Affinity of Darkness +1] [Affinity of Insects +2]
{Special Abilities}
[Corpse Eating]: [Has a chance (5%) to acquire the Special Ability of a corpse it fully digests. Chance increases if the corpse if from a powerful monster.]
[Swarm Queen]: [Can summon already created Insect-type Units without the need for her Master’s Arcana at her side and control them as if they were part of her very being.]
[Bloodthirsty]: [When activated, enhances Bloodthirst, Fighting Power increases by +50%, and highest Affinity increases by +3. Lasts: 10 Minutes. Requires the Master’s Arcana.]
[Calamity of the Battlefield]: [When fighting against over 20 Enemies or more at once, any physical attack gains the ability to generate shockwaves capable of affecting several enemy units at the same time.]
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“Wait what? This Status… It’s so different from the Player’s status.”
Paul was left confused about why Insecta had such little stat points when she was so powerful… Was it all a façade? Or were her stats simply calculated much more differently than Players?
The answer came quicker than he expected, thankfully.
Ding!
[All Units summoned or created by the Territory Civilization System will have unique Stats, Abilities, and Powers that may differ greatly from the Player.]
[Unit Type]: [Every Unit has a “Type” which indicates what they are. Types usually have passive effects; Hero Units are naturally stronger than a Normal Units. Combat Units can fight proactively and deal damage, etc. It is a method of classification.]
“Pretty normal, alright…”
[Fighting Power]: [The Total Fighting Power of a Unit, it is based on all their capability within battles. This could include techniques, physical and magical power, and even battle intellect. Hero Units start at a minimum of 3, while Normal Combat Units begin usually at 0.1. Meaning that the weakest Hero is comparable to 30 Normal Combat Units, without including Added Bonuses from Element.]
“Oh! Okay, I understand better now… huh.”
[Stamina]: [The total physical energy of a Unit, this is what defines how tired they can get in battle. Hero Units start at a minimum of 2, while Normal Combat Units begin usually at 0.3.]
“Makes sense.”
[Mobility]: [How many “Tiles” per turn a Unit can move. Within the Strategy Map, you can see all Units moving through Tiles. Each Tile usually being 25 Meters of length. A “turn” is usually between 3 to 10 seconds.]
“Huh?! So Insecta can move… 200 meters in 3 seconds?!”
[Element]: [The Elements that a Unit is made of. Every Element can interact with the other to grant a Unit special Weaknesses and Strengths against other Elements. When fighting a unit whose Element is weak against the unit you’re controlling, your unit can deal 100% more damage to them, and vice versa.]
“What are Heroes, Evil, and Fantasy weak against?”
[Affinity]: [Affinities are a special stat related to Elements, a “Secondary Element” but that instead of interacting with foes, it interacts with allies. When allies with similar affinities are between 1 Tile of one another, their Combat Power increases based on the Affinity Bonus.]
“Wait what?! Insecta can make every insect unit have 2 more Combat Power from being adjacent to them?!”
“Yes! This is why I told you, master, that I can easily wipe out the Neburians… as long as I get my army prepared,” she giggled. “So? Now that my powers are tied to yours, would you like to create my kindred?”
“Your… kindred?”
Vlad noticed yet another status window appears, one of a unit he could now summon.
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[Corpse-Eating Crimson Beetle]
[Unit Type]: [Combat Unit]
[Fighting Power]: [0.3]
[Stamina]: [0.3]
[Mobility]: [0.5]
[Element]: [Evil] [Insect] [Fantasy]
[Affinity]: [Affinity of Blood +0.2] [Affinity of Darkness +0.2] [Affinity of Insect +0.2]
{Special Abilities}
[Corpse-Eating Spawn]: [Unit can generate a duplicate of itself once it has eaten a part of a corpse.]
[Swarm]: [Several Units of the same type can combine as a Swarm, counting as a single Unit.]
{Unit Description}
[A swarm of monsters capable of devouring corpses or still living bodies, duplicating themselves while continuing to devour anything in their path. Insecta controls them as their mother.]
[This unit is generally one of the weakest of the entire game but can duplicate quickly and form swarms of dozens. If Insecta is blessed by the Insect God, the Unit can unlock a second Special Ability that allows it to form a swarm and act as a single Unit.]
{Summon Requirements}: [Summon Hero Unit Insecta] [50 Arcana] [50 Blood Energy]
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“Oh…”
Insecta smiled as she noticed that her master was shocked by what he could now summon.
And it only cost Arcana and Blood Energy, energy sources he already began to produce.
“So, Master? Will you conquer the Realms with me?”
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