86. Elf (3)
86. Elf (3)
After confirming that Lea had left her behind and disappeared, Prodisia straightened her knees and stood up.
'This is a new opportunity.'
She had given up on everything.
Her body had been in a state where she couldn't even commit suicide.
She had thought that if she just held on and endured, the elves would eventually come to rescue her, even if she had been banished.
But no one came to help.
Neither the elves nor the humans.
And not even that human.
Ten years passed, and she decided to commit suicide by biting her tongue with her teeth. But the humans' quick intervention saved her.
And then, all of her teeth were forcibly extracted.
For a long time, she lived a life worse than a beast, and even her humanity had completely vanished. But then, a God appeared.
That God breathed new life into her and granted her new power.
As soon as Prodisia entered the Hive Mind, she was certain.
That Lea was the God who had descended to clean up this trash.
And she would never let this opportunity given by that God slip away.
"First... c-clothes..."
Even though her mind had been eroded, Prodisia, who was not significantly different from her original self, covered her naked body with her hands.
As Lea moved further away and the Hive Mind grew faint, a wave of shame washed over her.
Even for an elf who loves nature, it didn't mean they liked being exposed.
"U-um... excuse me..."
Even after Lea had left, Prodisia cautiously spoke to Amber, who was still in front of her.
Prodisia would definitely win if they fought, but because she knew through the Hive Mind that Amber was an object Lea cherished quite a bit, she spoke carefully.
"Here you go."
Amber handed the Mimic Creature, Raksha, to Prodisia.
"Is this... c-clothes?"
Seeing Raksha for the first time, Prodisia could not understand that the black, sphere-like Raksha was clothing.
"Yes. If you place your hand on this, it will change into clothes."
Nod.
Prodisia nodded at Amber's words and placed her hand on Raksha.
Raksha moved along Prodisia's hand, clinging to her body and transforming into clothes.
"Uh... i-is this really clothes?"
Prodisia was flustered as she looked at Raksha, which had transformed into clothing.
It was so revealing that she couldn't even think of it as clothing. On top of that, because it was skin-tight, her figure was exposed quite explicitly.
Having never worn such clothes in her life, Prodisia felt a sense of shame comparable to being naked, even though she was wearing something.
"Unfortunately, we no longer have the strong Raksha, only the weak ones remain. If you feed it humans whenever you think of it, the surface area will gradually increase."
"Ah... I-I see... I-I need to do something about this quickly..."
"For now, I will show you around this place. Please follow me."
"Yes...!"
Since it wasn't regular clothing but Raksha that had transformed, she didn't have to worry about it ever falling off, but Prodisia still grabbed her chest with her hands due to this anxiety-inducing style.
'Ugh... this is, t-too much!'
Her chest was already large and uncomfortable, and the clothes barely covered her areolas, so she couldn't take her eyes off her chest out of anxiety.
==
I need to start growing our legion's power.
I want to live quietly, but the surroundings won't let me live quietly.
No, it's not like I destroyed a city or anything; I just kidnapped a few thousand humans, yet the Padix Kingdom is gathering its strength.
The Holy Kingdom is funny, too.
The Padix Kingdom, sure. One of their cities was raided and thousands were kidnapped, so it's understandable they are preparing for an all-out attack.
But the Holy Kingdom is joining hands with the Padix Kingdom and moving, even though I spared most of the Holy Knights and killed fewer than 10 people.
Right now, there are no combat creatures other than Gluttony.
The Ners think they are combat creatures because I work them so hard, but strictly speaking, they are workers.
They are small, versatile all-rounder creatures that can do all sorts of chores. It's just that compared to humans, they have superior physical stats, so one might think they are combat-types.
But Ners are, accurately speaking, the children who play the role of workers in our legion.
If you count the total combat power in our legion, the Ners are at the very bottom. That's why there are thousands of them.
Ners are easy to breed precisely because they are weak.
In our legion, the stronger you are, the more you consist of a single individual.
Those are the [ Overlord ]-class creatures.
'Now that resources are piling up quite a bit...'
It's time to wake up the next creature.
Until now, I hadn't thought about waking it up because of the lack of human resources.
I had only woken up Gluttony.
But now, two nations have raised their weapons against our legion.
Presumably, countless humans will come here. If so, that means resources will roll in on their own.
The human farm is already running without issues, and the orphanage is doing well, too.
On top of that, we are periodically receiving homeless people and criminals from Medherun City.
Now that things are starting to get plentiful, more resources are rolling in on their own?
It's time to wake that thing up.
Furthermore, once I find the location of the Elf Village, I have to attack it, and our legion needs to become stronger to raid an Elf Village that is far superior to humans.
Our Colony is vastly stronger than humans, but there is one thing we are weaker in.
That is mobility.
Humans can move to other places in an instant using return scrolls or teleport gates.
We cannot do that.
However, while not as good as teleportation, there is something we can do that is similar.
It is the [ Worm ], a creature that lives only in underground tunnels.
The lowest floor of the Colony.
It has a slightly smaller build than Leviathan, but that's just saying it's smaller than Leviathan. Compared to a Ner, it is an enormous size.
Every time I go to the lowest floor, I am startled whenever I see Leviathan and the Worm.
If you consider that one of the Worm's teeth is the height of an average human, you can guess how huge the Worm's build is.
The Worm is also a creature with a gentle personality and is quite affectionate.
The problem is that the Worm's size, if I were to exaggerate, is the size of a city.
The Worm requires as much energy as that size suggests. What can you do with that energy?
That is tunnel movement.
The Worm is a creature that basically lives in the ground.
<Information>
Name: -
Species: Worm
Affiliated Nation: -
Affiliated Organization: -
Gender: -
Height/Weight: 2321.2m / 965,000t
Disposition: Chaotic / Neutral
<Stats>
Strength: 431
Durability: 143
Agility: 216
Stamina: 610
Mana: 0
These are stats that make you gasp as soon as you see them.
To begin with, the level of its size and weight is just absurd.
The job the Worm does for our legion is to become a means of transport with those monstrous specs.
It can carry thousands of Ners inside its body without any problems, moving through solid ground deep underground as if it were underwater.
That is the Worm's ability.
Why haven't I been using something like this until now?
It's simple.
I can't even fathom how many humans a Worm with that kind of height and weight would need.
Even if I fed it every single human currently in the human farm day after day, the Worm probably wouldn't be full.
The original Queen didn't use this Worm often, either. If she didn't provide enough humans every time she used it, it would eat up her entire legion.
But now, it's different.
Mana, an energy, has appeared.
Now that a new energy called Mana has appeared, I no longer need countless humans.
I placed my hand on the sleeping Worm's body and commanded it.
[ Wake up. ]
Twitch.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble-!
The Worm's eyeless head turned toward me.
I don't know if I should call it a head or a mouth.
A Worm with no eyes and no nose.
However, the Worm emits a sound from its mouth that ordinary living things cannot hear, and it sees what's in front of it like a bat.
It probably sees me as just one human, too. But the Worm is also a creature that is strictly part of the Hive Mind.
The Worm, knowing that I am in front of it due to the Hive Mind, lowered its head as it was.
The Worm, whose mouth size alone reaches nearly 100m.
Ners are at least small and cute, but the Worm is a creature of disaster level just by moving its body once, so I get nervous.
I carefully stroked a tooth that was as big as me.
"I will give you energy for the Worm now."
Wide open-!
The Worm's mouth opened wide, and its teeth went inside in an instant.
Looking at it like this, it just looks like the entrance to a cave.
I entered the Worm's mouth, and the Ners that were behind me also entered.
In the hands of those Ners were humans.
Not just any humans.
They are the humans currently in our Colony who possess Mana.
They brought a total of 100 such humans.
Ah, of course, they are only men.
These humans with Mana will be batteries for the rest of their lives inside the Worm's belly until they die.
I put the humans who possess Mana into a place inside the Worm's belly that is set up like a museum exhibit.
'Transport secured... now, shall I go wake up the combat-specialized children?'
==
Prodisia naked, which should have been inserted yesterday
