Chapter 144: Chapter 44 Cat Catches Mouse
In the Earth Cave, Richard, who was studying an insect egg specimen, suddenly trembled as he saw the rune on the table light up.
The magic array he had set up as a precaution had been triggered.
Richard slightly furrowed his brows and said, “Ulysses, did you encounter any troublesome insects while you were out having fun?”
“Chirp, no, those insects are still as dumb as ever; I flew around haphazardly and shook them off easily,” Ulysses replied blankly.
Buzz!
Another rune lit up on the table.
...
This meant another magic array had been triggered.
Seeing this, Richard didn’t hesitate to pack the items in the cave into his magic pocket, preparing to move out of this Earth Cave.
The caves he chose were remote ones abandoned by the Black Crystal Worms, and normally no insects would visit.
Now that his magic array had been triggered, it indicated that this place had become unsafe.
Seeing Richard hurriedly packing up the cave, Ulysses suddenly realized and said, “Chirp, another insect triggered the alarm, didn’t it?”
Richard nodded, picked up his magic wand, and prepared to leave the cave through another tunnel.
A hiding place naturally shouldn’t have only one passage.
“Chirp, I say you’re just too nervous. The passages in this cave are so complicated, it’s normal for insects to occasionally get lost; there’s no need to move every time an alarm is triggered,” Ulysses landed on Richard’s shoulder and murmured, “And even if they accidentally find us, we can just deal with them, so why bother moving?”
Every time they moved, he and Richard would have to search the insect nest for a long time to find a suitable hiding place.
To ensure safety, Ulysses had to meticulously explore the structure of the tunnels near their hiding spot, which was troublesome.
Listening to Ulysses’s rant, Richard calmly replied,
“We are inside the insect nest now, and we cannot afford the slightest neglect. If we get caught by those insects, we will be in big trouble.”
“Chirp, so what if we get caught? Didn’t we find a good place to escape from their pursuit the year before last? It’s not far from here.”
Richard shook his head, “Unless it’s absolutely necessary, I’m not willing to go to that dreadful place.”
…
Two minutes later, a scout insect cautiously approached the cave and immediately chirped upon seeing the remnants of a wizard’s presence.
Soon, a group of insects arrived at the cave, led by Inhardt himself.
“My lord, you are truly prescient. That wizard monster really stayed in this place.”
Inhardt paid no heed to the toadying of his subordinates, silently entering the cave.
From this cave, he could see many traits similar to his own observation in the wizard monster—cautious, calm, restrained.
This cave had no decorations, only a platform and a stool.
Inhardt touched the platform with his upper limbs and quickly found a mark.
According to the Golden Armored Warrior Insects, this mark was called a rune, similar to their script. However, the wizard’s runes had magical abilities similar to the Priest Insects, and many Priest Insects in the back of the insect nest were already trying to decipher this script.
On this mark, Inhardt sensed a faint energy residue, revealing that it had just been triggered and that the wizard monster had left not long ago.
“Pursue, that wizard monster isn’t far from us! You each take different paths, cover the tunnels around, and try to minimize the escape range of this wizard monster.”
…
“Chirp, lad, it seems like the insects have stuck to us.”
In the tunnel, Ulysses flew from behind and landed on Richard’s shoulder.
Richard frowned; how could he have been followed despite being so careful?
“What did you find?”
“Chirp, there are insect traces in basically all the nearby tunnels, and it doesn’t seem like a normal maneuver.”
“Are you sure?”
“Chirp, don’t you trust my judgment?”
Richard rubbed his temples, “Then, this is indeed troublesome.”
If this large-scale search was a general hunt targeting all wizards in the nest, it would still be manageable for him. However, he feared that this search was aimed specifically at him.
As a One Ring Wizard, he couldn’t afford the risk of being targeted by the insect nest.
“Forget it, let’s prepare for both, head towards that place for now.”
A kilometer away in a straight line from Richard, Inhardt was with the Warrior Insects analyzing the local tunnel structure.
The complicated organization of the insect nest posed a difficulty for wizards but was also a challenge for the insects.
An insect, despite having physiological advantages, needed several years to familiarize itself with the tunnel structures near their own settlements, and for inter-settlement communication, a special insect was required called the Map Worm.
“You’re saying this wizard monster knows the tunnels even better than you, possibly even more familiar?” Inhardt was incredulous.
It was an unfunny joke that a native Black Crystal Worm claimed that an outsider knew the nest’s tunnels better than itself.
“My lord, these wizard monsters have a tool that can easily explore and map the tunnel structures around them, called the Imaging Crystal Ball. Every infiltrator among these wizard monsters has one.
If they’re willing to spend time exploring the tunnels of the insect nest, then him knowing the tunnels better than me is not impossible.”
The justification of the Warrior Insect was logical, but amidst this reasoning, Inhardt detected an unusual implication.
When the Samurai Worm was making its defense, there was a sense of powerlessness—a bad omen for sure.
“Samurai, raise your head,” Inhardt commanded.
The Samurai Worm complied.
Inhardt gazed at it, a glimmer of light flashing across the black crystal on his forehead.
“Tell me, Samurai. Is there fear in your heart?”
“My lord, I…” The Samurai Worm wanted to deny it, but the words that came out affirmed it.
“My lord, we are vastly inferior to those Wizard Monsters.”
“That’s no excuse!” Inhardt’s tentacles lashed fiercely at the Samurai Worm. “You should be thankful that I am the one who noticed your thoughts! Had it been any other Priest, you’d already be a cannon projectile for the Mother Goddess Cannon!”
The Samurai Worm shook and bowed its head silent.
“Warriors, look at me.” Inhardt beat his wings, ascending into the air, his body glowing with a holy light.
“I know many of you harbor fear, but I’m telling you, we will not fail!
In the past, we waged war against the sky’s Giant Dragons, we waged war against the Earth Cave Demon Spiders from the abyss, and though we’ve failed countless times in warfare, we ultimately triumphed!
No matter how horrifying those Wizard Monsters may be, under the leadership of the Mother Worm God, our Black Crystal Worm Clan will claim victory in this war!”
Inhardt’s words resounded powerfully, mirroring the divine descent of the Mother Worm God, accompanied by the holy radiance emanating from his body.
Samurai Worms knelt en masse, tears of regret dropping from their eyes.
With such a proud history of victories against formidable foes, how could they harbor fear in their hearts?
They were destined to win.
Satisfied with the reaction of his troops, Inhardt descended from the sky.
Defeatism must not exist in the military, not even a trace.
“Now, go capture that fugitive Wizard Monster and sacrifice him to the Mother Worm God!”
…
“Capture that Wizard Monster!”
A Samurai Worm clad in black armor emitted a piercing screech, and behind him, a swarm of Samurai Worms flapped their wings, rushing furiously along the tunnel.
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Watching this scene, Richard’s expression was unchanged as his Magic Wand tossed out a black Fireball.
Boom!
The black flames filled half the tunnel, a Magic Barrier appearing in front of Richard to block the flames. However, the situation was dire for the insects as the smell of charred flesh and shells quickly filled the air.
But Richard had no time to relish the insects’ plight. He glanced at the Crystal Ball in his hand and continued to fly low along the tunnel.
Richard’s situation was not promising. Within the nearby tunnel system, hundreds of insects were searching for him—including rare ones like Spider Knights and Sacrificial Insects.
Particularly the Sacrificial Insects. They could roughly ascertain Richard’s whereabouts through vague answers provided by the World Will, completely cutting off Richard’s hope of escaping through Shadow Infiltration.
Fortunately, there were not many Sacrificial Insects in the chasing party, so Richard could still manage with the intricate tunnel system and maneuver around the insects.
Ahead, a shadow darted out, stopping precisely beside Richard.
“Ga, there are insects ahead too; they’ve taken a shortcut to get ahead of us—we can’t go through this tunnel.”
Ulysses’s voice was urgent, devoid of its usual calm, sinking Richard’s heart.
“Have we been surrounded?”
Richard examined the three-dimensional map of insect nest tunnels recorded in the Crystal Ball over the years. From the map, the routes Richard could take were limited, and most led to dead ends.
A vast net had tightly ensnared him.
“Ga, what should we do? Fight our way out? Or…”
Richard eyed a large blank space at the edge of the map and sighed slightly.
He would have liked to fight his way out, but he needed the capability – and he was in the heart of the Black Crystal Worms’ nest. If he, a One Ring Wizard, could dominate here so effortlessly, Wizards would have flattened it long ago.
“It seems we can only head that way.”
As insect chatter echoed through the tunnels, Richard put away the Crystal Ball and turned to fly down the farthest left path.
A few seconds later, Inhardt arrived at Richard’s turning point, faced with three diverging paths without any trace of the Wizard Monster’s movement.
Logically, this would be the time to split forces.
However, Inhardt did not divide his troops; instead, he plucked a mushroom from the ground and threw it down. The mushroom rolled on the ground a few times, finally pointing in the direction Richard was heading.
“Go through this tunnel,” Inhardt commanded.
“This tunnel?” a nearby Samurai Worm hesitated, “My lord, if that Wizard Monster is familiar with the tunnels, he wouldn’t choose this one.”
“Hmm? Why?” Inhardt asked.
“My lord, although there are several forked roads in the middle of this tunnel, all those forks are dead ends. If he doesn’t take any forks, this tunnel only leads to one place.”
“Which place?”
The Samurai Worm’s body trembled, seemingly recalling something terrifying.
“My lord, this tunnel leads directly to… the Source Sea Abyss.”