Devouring the Royal Jelly Until My Belly Exploded! (2)

The floor of B3 suddenly blazed with an ethereal glow as hundreds of portals ripped open across it. Watching the spectacle from the ceiling high above, I had to admit it was one hell of a view.

I twisted the flamethrower around and hosed my own heavy armor with fire for a few seconds.

Whoosh—

The swarm of insects clinging to me crackled and popped, each one deep-fried on the spot.

I swung the nozzle behind me like I was taking a shower and gave my back the same treatment. Without the heat-resistant suit I would’ve cooked myself alive, but I’d come prepared. A few seconds of that inferno was tolerable.

I kept roasting the horde until the air reeked of burnt chitin, then slowly began my descent, using the chains to brake in controlled drops.

Down below, the battlefield had already turned into pure chaos.

Winged insects that had lost their flight capability were reduced to little more than wounded mantises. They were locked in a brutal melee against Rotters, Ogresses, and the Twin-Arms.

But without their venom, the bugs’ resistance was laughable. They were like praying mantises trying to stop a cart—utterly futile against the massive Ogresses and eight-armed giants.

I’d looked it up beforehand. Even an adult Devil-Bee’s stinger couldn’t pump enough poison through an Ogre’s thick hide to matter.

Even the slow-moving Rotters were rampaging through the swarm, slaughtering everything in their path.

To creatures that didn’t fear death, what threat could a bunch of wingless bugs possibly pose?

It was a landslide victory.

A total rout.

Almost all the enemy’s major pieces were dead. My own forces had barely taken a scratch.

No matter how I looked at it, a comeback was impossible.

As long as I didn’t fall for a sudden checkmate…

That was when it happened.

Ting—

One of the two chains I was hanging from snapped. My full-plate-covered body lurched hard.

I barely regained my balance and looked up. A cluster of Devil-Bees had latched onto the remaining chain and were pumping venom into a single weakened link.

I immediately aimed the flamethrower straight up and roasted the whole bunch off the chain.

But once the smoke cleared, the real problem became obvious.

The chain was barely holding on, almost severed from their concentrated assault.

…!

For a second my soul actually left my body.

I was floating right in the middle between the ceiling and floor of B3.

Should I climb back up using the remaining chain? Or just drop without braking?

With only one chain left, my mind went completely blank. I couldn’t even remember how to descend safely.

The Devil-Bees, now with nothing left to lose, launched another suicide run at the exact same spot.

I fired the flamethrower again.

They didn’t stop.

Even as they burned alive, they kept hammering that final weak link.

Fuck!

I unbuckled my belt and hurled it downward. It was the heaviest thing I had, still loaded with ammunition.

Then I activated the emergency release and stripped off every piece of heavy armor, throwing it all down too.

I was back in just my light protective suit and heat-resistant layer.

Even after cutting my weight in half, the chain was on the verge of snapping.

And then…

The Devil-Bees that had seen me discard the full plate started swarming toward me again.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was actually glad.

That was exactly what I’d been hoping for.

They all thrust their abdomens forward, stabbing me with their stingers.

I let them.

In an instant, dozens of holes punched through my protective layers. Their venom flooded into my body.

I had poison resistance, but the dizziness still hit me like a truck. I nearly blacked out.

Ting—

At almost the same moment, the chain finally gave out with a clean snap.

My mind felt like it was shattering. I desperately clung to consciousness with both hands and activated the skill.

Eight arms, each one and a half times longer than normal, burst out from my body.

With pure animal instinct I swung them wildly, grabbing two or three Devil-Bees per hand by their abdomens.

I didn’t crush them. I just held on.

Startled, they beat their wings like crazy trying to escape.

And then…

The acceleration of gravity that had been dragging me down finally met miraculous resistance.

The wingbeats of the dozens of giant insects still stinging me, combined with the dozens more I’d grabbed with my eight arms…

My falling speed began to slow, little by little.

I could see the massive mayonnaise-like tomb growing larger beneath me.

Right before impact I cast Earthquake, desperately trying to push myself upward from mid-air.

But even with everything added together, I’d only slowed down a little. The speed was still more than enough to turn my body into paste on contact.

Shit.

Still, I was certain.

I wasn’t going to die.

If what I’d seen earlier was right…

The material beneath that mayonnaise was…

All those thoughts flashed through my head in a tenth of a second.

Then came the impact.

Squish—

My prediction had been correct.

I plunged straight through the mayonnaise and sank into the floor below with far less shock than expected.

Then—

Crunch. Crack. Snap. Thud. Whoosh—

I smashed through thin wooden planks and cardboard-like material, tunneling more than ten meters before the brakes finally caught and I tumbled to a stop.

“Aaaah~ ugh~”

Pain like every bone in my body had shattered rolled through me.

I tried to grab something to pull myself up, but whatever I clutched broke apart and I collapsed again.

The fragments in my hand looked like cardboard and thin wooden boards.

I soon confirmed my guess with my own eyes.

Hexagons.

The entire space was lined with dense hexagonal cells—the so-called honeycomb.

I had fallen straight into the giant hive of the Devil-Bees.

An adult Devil-Bee reached twenty to twenty-five centimeters in length.

Their honeycomb cells were correspondingly huge, each hexagon about ten centimeters across.

Plus, the queen—who exceeded two meters—needed room to move, so the interior spaces were surprisingly wide.

Bzzzzzzzz—

Thud-thud-thud—

From somewhere, an enormous cacophony began to rise.

These were the same Devil-Bees that had shown terrifying aggression the moment I dug a simple tunnel.

And now I had just performed a literal flesh-bullet strike straight through the center of their home…

Even though their colony’s numbers had been drastically reduced…

I was completely fucked.

In the next instant, my vision went black with the sheer number of Devil-Bees.

“Aaaaaagh! Agh! Aaaagh!”

Their indiscriminate barrage had begun.

Bzzzzzzzz—

Thud-thud-thud—

Stab— Stab— Squelch— Stab—

It felt like hundreds of syringes were plunging into my body at once.

The only saving grace was that the thick layer of mayonnaise covering me had made the stings a little shallower.

I’d thrown away my belt, so I couldn’t use Shovel Long Jump to escape.

I didn’t even have a decent weapon.

I flailed my arms wildly, smashing any bug I could reach.

“Die! You sons of— ugh— aaaagh! Just die already! You fu—”

Splat— Crack— Crunch—

But it was hopeless. They were simply too many.

Bzzzzzzzz—

Thud-thud—

Stab— Stab— Stab— Stab—

My arm speed was gradually slowing down.

“Ughhh… ehhh~”

Even my tongue was starting to stiffen.

My little sister’s chilling warning flashed through my mind.

—You didn’t think about what would happen if they swarmed you and stung you dozens of times, did you? If the neurotoxin “mandaratoxin” accumulates, it’ll put a Hunter into something like “awake but anesthetized” state.

Shit.

I tried to stand up. My lower body wouldn’t respond.

With my waist unresponsive, I couldn’t even perform the simple motion of getting up.

Then my arms began to tremble and lock up as well.

I gathered the last of my strength and screamed.

“Sssaaangpaaaaraaaa— help meeeeeee~~”

But my face and tongue were already half-paralyzed. I couldn’t even properly say “Twin Arms! Save me!”

This was how I was going to die…

That was when the Devil-Bees, who had only been stinging until now, switched tactics.

They began ripping apart my already perforated heat-resistant and protective suits with their nasty pincer-like mouths and started tearing into my flesh.

—And then they’ll cling all over your body and slowly, deliciously nibble away at your still-conscious older brother’s flesh. Whatever meat is left, they’ll grind up with their jaws and turn into food pellets for the larvae, right?

“Ughhh…”

Being bitten in countless places at once, the sheer misery of it made me want to break down crying.

But even in that haze I swallowed my tears and steeled my heart.

Even if I died, I would die with my mind intact—like a proper Hunter, with dignity!

I would never pity myself!

And…

I still had a chance!

There ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is always a chance until your last breath!

I tried to move my arm.

It barely responded, but my fingers could still twitch a little.

I forced my fingers to crawl across the floor and grasp the item that had fallen there.

It was the lucky item that had dropped earlier—the Bee Venom Mitigation Injection. Since I had no inventory at the moment, it had just been lying there.

With the last strength in my fingers I removed the safety cap, stabbed it into my thigh, and shakily pressed the plunger.

A little.

Just a tiny bit, my right arm seemed to loosen.

I shoved that arm as far as I could into one of the hexagonal cells.

My hand closed around something soft—the center of a Devil-Bee larva—and a sticky liquid.

At the same time, a status window appeared.

I immediately brought my hand to my mouth and devoured the larva and sticky fluid, chewing and licking everything I could.

Loan investment!

That’s right!

This virility stat could be used to borrow ability points, right?

I didn’t even need to think.

I immediately raised my poison resistance by 1.

Whether I had fifty seconds or fifty years left, my life had become extremely simple.

Move my right arm as fast as possible, shove it into a larva cell, and devour everything inside!

It was time to feast!

I’d eat every last one of them!

The speed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at which they were stinging me and stacking mandaratoxin…

If the speed at which I devoured everything could catch up…

I would gradually regain control of my body!!

Eat!

Keep eating!

Devour them all!

“Slurrrp— chomp chomp—”