Floor 13, Forest of Insects (3)

The ferocity of the insects' assault after the Queen's death made me certain my guess had been right. You could call it simple rage at their queen's demise, but personally, it felt more like the system making sure no one could ever capture another Insect Queen.

Looks like I'm about halfway there.

Unlike my earlier advance through the brush, I was sprinting now. The scenery that had brushed past me before was greeting me again — the jungle-dense forest, the massive trees, the long-reaching branches, the thick canopy of leaves, and the insects. The only difference from before was that the bugs no longer drifted peacefully through the woods.

As I ran, a swarm of ice insects that had been prowling in search of a target locked onto me.

"Kieeeek!"

The ice insect at the head of the pack let out a bizarre screech and turned in my direction. At that cry, the others swiveled their heads in a long, undulating line.

I pushed off hard and discharged lightning straight ahead of me. And in that same instant, I kicked off the ground and surged forward. I was moving at nearly the same speed as the bolt I'd fired. Barely a second passed between the insect struck by the lightning bursting apart, charred, and me passing over its remains.

And just like that, I kept on running.

After more than an hour of running, I'd learned one thing: once a single Insect Queen died, these things shared information among themselves somehow. Under normal circumstances, if I outran the bugs behind me at speed, only the ones prowling ahead should have come at me.

They definitely weren't swarming this hard before I killed the Queen.

Before, once I'd swept through one swarm, it took a fair amount of time for the next one to show up. But now — even though I'd kicked up my pace and shaken off the ones behind me, the horde closing in from every direction showed no sign of thinning.

It's like they've got some airborne radar network they're all sharing.

Even at this very moment, mid-sprint, the insects kept hurling themselves at me from all sides. And that cemented my conviction: there was another Insect Queen. Otherwise, this level of swarm aggression simply made no sense.

Whew.

Which meant I had no choice but to keep burning the Essence of Lightning to carve my path. My mana was draining steadily as time wore on. The one mercy was that the mana accumulator gauntlet kept refilling it — but my mana stat was markedly lower than my others. If things went on like this, it was a certainty my mana would bottom out before the clock ran dry.

Well, it's not like I'd die just from running dry.

The important thing was finding the key. I was certain that running this direction would lead me to the Ice Insect Queen, but without the key, the door wouldn't open anyway. Damn it. Should I change course now and hunt for the key?

Huh?

Speak of the tiger and it shows up, as they say — right at that moment, a strange sensation pricked at me from my seven o'clock. Roughly seventy meters out. Something was closing in on me. And the instant I felt it, a sigh of relief escaped me inside.

What a relief. Honestly, right after I'd started running the opposite way, I'd worried I might not find the key at all. If the creature carrying the key to the hidden mission was fleeing the other insects' rampage, it might have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been avoiding me instead. I couldn't tell whether that rage came from the Queen's death, or whether the poor thing simply had no choice but to obey the Tower's commands. Either way, it was coming.

Actually, that's a stroke of luck.

Good fortune, pure and simple — I wouldn't have to tear the forest apart searching for the thing.

Fifty meters now. I turned my body. The insects couldn't match my speed, so the space directly behind me was clear. But the sky in the distance had been stained pitch black. The swarm converging on me had long since outgrown any word like "swarm." There was no comparing it to earlier. A blackened sky — you could call it a calamity. Every insect in the forest was running toward me.

Heijeong's holding up fine, right?

Hah. Worrying for nothing. Ha Heijeong is a regressor. And she had a key too — the Insect Queen would be tucked away in some hidden chamber. Worst case, she'd just shut the door and seal herself in.

Focus.

Maybe because I'd felt this sensation once before, the insects' presence came through even sharper than before. A clear signal cutting through swarms hundreds strong. I ran toward the strange feeling at my seven o'clock, into that blanketed black sky.

Twenty meters.

I loosed a ferocious bolt at the oncoming swarm. The lightning stretched out and struck the lead insect dead-on — and from that point, one thick bolt split into hundreds. Those hundreds branched again into hundreds more directions. Like an enormous spreading net, the lightning tore through the swarm — tatatatat! — and more than a thousand insects burst apart and died.

The key-bearing insect was no exception.

It's falling.

A silver gleam flickered amid the red and blue mists. Thank goodness I'd marked its position ahead of time. I snatched the key out of the air before it could hit the ground. That was that. Now all I had to do was take down the Insect Queen.

Key in hand, I wheeled around and picked up speed again.

Another thirty minutes gone. At last, I spotted a large cave sealed with an iron door. The insects were still chasing at my back. I jammed the key into the lock, swung the door open, slipped inside — then blasted a wide arc of lightning at the horde lunging from behind and slammed the iron door shut in the same breath.

Now I don't have to worry about the flying ones.

All that remained was the Insect Queen herself. The cave was pitch dark, and a damp, musty reek rolled in thick with a deep chill. Given that chill, it had to be the Ice Insect Queen. I sent a bolt of lightning forward to light my way.

In the small hollow beyond, sure enough, a blue Insect Queen was glaring at me.

So the one Heijeong killed must have been the Flame Insect Queen.

Unlike the beetle-like insects I'd met in the forest, the Insect Queen looked like a winged spider. She stood about four meters tall at the shoulder — blue carapace, eight legs, and four sharp wings jutting out. A sting-like blue feeler trailed from her tail, and thick, viscous saliva dripped from her slightly parted jaws.

Well, the wings are useless to her right now anyway. Just watch the feeler...

Eh, forget it. There really didn't seem to be much to worry about. She didn't look all that strong. No — this wasn't arrogance. It was cold judgment. Compared to the enemies on my personal floor, the enemies of the other floors simply fell a tier below.

As I drifted through these idle thoughts, the Insect Queen let out a shriek.

"Kiyaaak!"

I pulled the Essence of Lightning up to its fullest, kicked off the ground, and charged. Flash Step. At lightning speed, the soles of my Kashatoom shoes struck off empty air as I leapt. The Insect Queen couldn't respond at all to my velocity. Her ten-odd eyes were still chasing my afterimage as I brought my twin-bladed axe down, wreathed in lightning, onto her skull.

Kwaduk—

The arthropod shell shattered completely, the axe sinking nearly to the end of its haft. Through the split, sticky blue fluid sprayed up into the air.

"Kiii...ruk..."

Lightning coursed down the axe blade in the next instant. The unfinished scream of the Ice Insect Queen hung in the silence. A moment later came a muffled pop — something bursting open in the Queen's abdomen. Probably the lightning's doing.

That was the end of it. Her belly had ruptured, spawning a pool of blue venom, but like the other insects, it posed no real threat to me.

Hm. I killed the Queen, so there should be a reward...

I shoved the Ice Insect Queen aside on the off chance something sat behind her, but there was nothing. I turned my head and swept every corner of the little hollow, and still no reward showed itself.

Hm, what the...

As I mulled it over, a thought flashed through my mind.

Oh! Maybe it's inside her belly?

The key-insect had worn its key on a feeler, but the ones carrying the hidden mission keys kept theirs inside their bodies. I brought the axe down, split open the Ice Insect Queen's abdomen, and rummaged through the mess inside. Thick fluid oozed out between the torn carapace. A groan of disgust escaped me unbidden; I nearly gagged, but just barely held it down. Thank goodness for the gauntlet...

After a short while of digging through the viscera, a blue sphere emerged from amid the sticky fluid. By its appearance, it was unmistakably an elixir.

And then, as if the system had been waiting for me to find it, the notification window appeared — a beat late.

One hour left. Not enough time to regroup with Heijeong. Convenient timing, though, that the insects' strength was fading too.

Time to farm achievement points, then.

Heijeong had brought up score farming as well. She was probably grinding points right about now too. Having sprinted for quite a while, I caught my breath for a moment and then approached the iron door. The whir of insect wings outside hadn't stopped — as if they were lying in wait for me to come out. Well then, I'd better live up to their expectations.

Drawing up the Essence of Lightning, I swung the iron door open.

The familiar sight of the Waiting Room swam into view as my vision brightened. I turned my head to look for Dobby. I wasn't worried, exactly — just wanted to make sure. Thankfully, he was right there at my left.

"Kkiik?"

"You do okay with Heijeong?"

"Kkiik! Human! Burned bugs up!"

"Good work."

Come to think of it, Dobby hadn't actually done anything this floor. Hm — if it had been anything but insects, I'd meant to get him some combat experience too... Well, nothing for it. I'd just have to train him myself in the dojo later.

"Go wash up first."

All that tearing through the forest had left him pretty filthy. After sending Dobby off to the shower, I opened my status window out of habit.