radicalducati Chapter 6 Waiting for a Rabbit to Run into a Tree Stump
Chapter 6 Waiting for a Rabbit to Run into a Tree Stump
After his body was reassembled and grew, Luo Lan faced the same prey again with significantly less effort.
Using its two front legs, it gripped the brain-dead young spider's body and dragged it away from the stone bridge, back into the relatively spacious and safe corridor.
This time, the shell is no longer needed.
So as soon as Luo Lan came to a stop, the skeletal left hand hidden inside the carapace immediately reached out. It grabbed a relatively hard piece of rock, raised it high above its head, and slammed it down hard on the insect corpse in front of it.
"Click, click, click..."
After several heavy blows, the entire insect corpse shattered, and green bodily fluid mixed with shell fragments splattered all over the ground.
Luo Lan's bony hand reached directly into the pile of rotten flesh, and his bony claws swept away and swallowed the soft tissue mixed with the broken shell fragments.
[Chaos Essence +1]...
[Current Chaotic Essence: 17]
The entire young spiderling was devoured, shell and all. Compared to simply emptying the shell and getting only 3 points, absorbing the thick shell along with the spiderling brought a total gain of 5 points.
[One per animal isn't much, but there are plenty here!]
Now that they'd figured out the duration of [Terror Lv.2]'s control over these insectoid monsters, if they used the five-minute time difference correctly, it would be a one-sided massacre. Luo Lan decided to take the initiative.
Once the fatigue and mental energy from activating the skill had subsided somewhat, Luo Lan immediately used his eight limbs to crawl back down the corridor, returning to the side of the rotting corpse he had initially discovered, which had been possessed by the young armored spider.
After the insects have been feeding on it for the past few days, the amount of rotting corpses on the ground has shrunk considerably, to about one-third of what it was when Luo Lan first discovered it.
At that moment, four young spiderlings were scavenging the last scraps of food.
Luo Lan made no attempt to disguise herself and swaggered out from around the corner. She even deliberately raised her two front legs and used their sharp tips to pound the stone slabs on the ground.
"Tap! Tap!"
The crisp, dull tapping sound echoed in the secluded corridor.
The commotion was so obvious that even the most oblivious low-level monsters noticed it.
The four young armored spiders, who were focused on digging out rotten flesh, all stopped what they were doing, turned their ugly heads, which were filled with compound eyes, and stared at Luo Lan, this strange "kin" who had suddenly intruded.
The scarlet eye on the back of Luo Lan's hand suddenly widened.
They resorted to the same old trick.
【Terrification lv.2】!
The crimson gaze, like a petrifying ray, instantly swept over the four insects in front of it.
Under the same terrifying mental shock, the compound eyes of the four young spiderlings instantly lost focus, their limbs stiffened, and they all turned into four ugly, gray-black insect statues, frozen together around the rotting corpse.
Luo Lan strolled forward leisurely, stepping over the insects that were completely frozen in place, and walked straight to the pile of rotting corpse that had been almost completely devoured.
[Seriously, there are only a few corpses left. What a bunch of nasty bugs!]
While inwardly complaining about how wasteful these insects were, Luo Lan's hands moved with utmost care.
The skeletal left hand emerged from beneath the carapace, sweeping across the pile of corpses like a whirlwind.
The soft flesh and body parts disappeared rapidly at a visible speed under the rapid digging and tearing of the bone fingers, turning into wisps of purplish-black particles that were completely absorbed by the bone hand.
[Chaos Essence +7]
[Current Chaotic Essence: 24]
There was no waste; not even a trace of the entire corpse remained. Yet, this half-eaten remains only provided Luo Lan with 7 points of Source Essence.
[So fast, only three minutes have passed?]
Luo Lan's original plan was conservative: first, freeze these insects, deal with the ready-made soft meat on the ground, and then retreat to a safe distance, taking advantage of the cooldown time to deal with these living targets one by one.
After all, in this open environment, he wasn't sure if a sudden attack on one of them would trigger a group stress response and wake the others from their stunned state prematurely.
But he didn't expect his new body to be so efficient at eating; it finished off all the rotting corpses in just three minutes.
Since there are still two minutes left in the five-minute control period, there's no reason to let this "source essence gift package" that's been delivered right to our doorstep go to waste.
Slowly approaching the four young armored spiders huddled together, Luo Lan's bone hand shot out with lightning speed, his five fingers gripping the head of the outermost insect like steel buckles.
With a flick of the wrist and a burst of strength from the joints, it snapped!
"Click."
Without hesitation, the bone claws were withdrawn, and it pounced on the second one.
"Click."
After two crisp sounds, the two headless worm corpses crashed heavily onto the stone slab.
Just as Luo Lan had anticipated, the sound of his companion's skull shattering and the spurting green fluid startled the remaining survivors.
The mental suppression of [Terror Lv.2] showed signs of cracking. The remaining two young spiderlings' limbs trembled, and they managed to break free from their stiff state ahead of time.
They haphazardly changed direction and lunged at Luo Lan's shell with their front legs.
Want to engage in close-quarters combat?
Luo Lan didn't give them that chance at all.
【Terrification lv.2】!
The crimson eye flashed again, a simple and brutal response.
[If one skill isn't enough, then try two!]
Despite the fatigue from using skills in quick succession, Luo Lan launched another mental attack.
The two insects, which had been pouncing in mid-air, crashed heavily onto the floor tiles as if their souls had been ripped away from them, their limbs twisted together.
Unsurprisingly, these two little insects that fought so hard were sent to another world by Luo Lan to "reunite" with their companions.
Using whatever was available, Luo Lan manipulated his bone claws to pick up a hard brick from the corridor and began to smash it violently against the four corpses whose carapaces were still relatively intact.
Then the bone claws reached into the pile of broken flesh and carapace and began to devour it.
[Chaos Essence +19]
[Current Chaotic Essence: 43]
Three of the larger insects provided 15 points of source material, while the other, slightly shriveled one, only provided 4 points.
[It seems that even among monsters of the same species, there are individual differences in the amount of source matter they absorb?]
[However, the total amount of Chaos Essence provided by this swarm of insects is far more abundant than the amount obtained by randomly scavenging corpses in the dungeon.]
[Then... let the hunt begin!]
Having found a way to make money, Luo Lan did not hesitate to adjust his survival strategy in the underground palace.
Aside from occasionally taking a chance to drive around the underground palace corridors with [Thermal Vision], most of the time it was spent by the narrow stone bridge.
This path, which is a must-pass for young armored spiders, has become an excellent spot for monster hunting.
Behind the numerous boulders and bunkers near the stone bridge, Luo Lan began his long wait.
The next day, five young spiderlings lined up to cross the bridge. Luo Lan followed the same method, killing them in a split second, smashing and swallowing them whole.
[Chaos Essence +23]
[Current Chaotic Essence: 66]
On the third day, he encountered a small patrol of four. He didn't even give them all a chance to get onto the bridge before emerging from the shadows.
[Chaos Essence +17]
[Current Chaotic Essence: 85]
The time has passed to the fifth day.
Beside the dark cave stone bridge, the green sap of insects was scattered all over the ground, traces left by Luo Lan's continuous hunting over the past few days.
This time, three young spiderlings groped their way across the slippery stone bridge.
As soon as they entered the underground palace, Luo Lan emerged effortlessly from the shadows.
With a flickering single eye, it extended its bone claws and swiftly snapped off the heads of the first two insects.
But just as he strode towards the third young spiderling, which remained frozen in place—
"boom!"
A dark shadow had somehow climbed onto the ceiling of the underground palace and plummeted straight down. A thick, long, sharp segmented limb descended from the sky, crushing Luo Lan's left side shell with overwhelming force!
Four pairs of dark purple insect-like compound eyes, gleaming with a fierce light, all looked down, locking onto Luo Lan.