Chapter 138 - 47: [Demon Insect Bone Breaker and Shadow of Antlers]

Chapter 138: Chapter 47: [Demon Insect Bone Breaker and Shadow of Antlers]

[Database supplemented.]

[Recorded into the "Artificial Life - Biological Posture Materials" content library.]

[Available for unit use.]

Samael fell silent for a moment.

"What’s wrong?" Talia asked.

"I think I can understand why everyone is afraid of the Undead," he replied. "Come to think of it, a dismembered monster crawling all over the floor, tearing at organs, and clawing madly is indeed quite terrifying."

He wondered if things like Corpse Demons were really meant for underground colony engineering. No, they seemed more like biological weapons. He pondered this as he and Talia continued to stride forward on their exploration. Perhaps they were deployed deliberately to cause destruction and slaughter, which was why they were designed to spawn naturally in a Spiritual Ecosystem where corpses piled up.

The surrounding Rusted Copper Trees gradually became sparse. As they continued forward, the light ahead suddenly brightened. Taking a few more steps, they found themselves standing beneath a gloomy, leaden sky, facing a massive High Grass Plain. Thin mist drifted between the dark green High Grass Plain and the leaden sky, like ethereal departed souls.

Huge, grayish-white rocks with ferocious shapes were scattered and towered among the nearly man-high tall grass, resembling the skulls of giants.

The two stood shoulder to shoulder before the High Grass Plain. The tough, upright tall grass was completely impenetrable, forming a solid wall of green that stretched endlessly into the distance, its stalks reaching up to their shoulders. They felt like two shrunken ants standing before a plush carpet.

"Ah, ahhh, help... ah, help." A shriveled wail echoed from somewhere within the tall grass. The blades of grass swayed in a certain spot as something inside cried out for help in the common tongue.

"Ahhh, help me. Ah. It hurts, it hurts so much." Three or four different wailing voices echoed in response, shifting back and forth from various locations deep within the distant brush.

RUSTLE RUSTLE. The sound of something moving through the tall grass echoed, accompanied by the shriveled wails for help.

Talia and Samael exchanged a glance, both inhaling sharply.

"You don’t think I’d just charge in to save someone the moment I hear a cry for help, do you?" Samael asked.

"Of course not." Talia looked away. "Though, just in case, I should ask... you wouldn’t, right?"

"If it were your voice, then I would," Samael replied.

Talia jolted, pressing her burning face against the inside of her helmet to cool down.

"Of course, if it were Randall and his friends, or Yaki and Gwyneth, or Elder Duke, or anyone from the Exile Tribe, or the Snake-Catching Uncle, the Soldier Inn Owner, the Mage girl who sells ice cream, or any innocent living person in need of help, I would go save them." Samael thought seriously before continuing. "If it were Norman Passat and his teammates... I might hesitate for a moment, but I’d still go save them, even though he traumatized me and left me in constant fear for several days. But if it were the Gugu Chicken Slayer, I... I’d hesitate for a bit longer, maybe an extra second or two."

"You could have just stopped at the first sentence," Talia sighed. "All that extra stuff was a bit unnecessary for me to hear... wait a minute, explain this to me! Who is the Mage girl who sells ice cream? Why have you remembered her for so long?"

"Ahhh, help me, it hurts, it hurts." The voices lurking in the tall grass continued, and shadows darted back and forth through the dark patches of the brush with a RUSTLE.

"We were still being hunted at the time. You were in a bad mood, and I didn’t have time to go into the details—" Samael covered his face.

"We’ll talk about this later," they said in unison.

"Ah, it hurts, help me..." The voices in the grass continued to wail.

"Hey, keep it down! Stop howling, I know what you are!" Samael shouted at the tall grass, raising his Nether Copper Sword Shield and striking them together.

[Nether Copper Resonator enabled.]

CLANG! CLANG!

The wailing vanished. Seven or eight slender, python-like flesh monsters clamped their mouths shut and reared their nearly three-meter-tall bodies from the tall grass, offering a silent bow to Samael from a distance.

Samael tapped his sword and shield together again, and the python-like flesh monsters shrank back into the tall grass, slithering away rapidly with a SWISH and a RUSTLE.

"Snare-type Corpse Demons," Talia said, shaking her head.

"Are we going in the right direction? We’re still heading deeper into the Heart of the Remains, right?" Samael looked at Talia.

"The direction is fine. We should be... over seventy-five kilometers deep into the Heart of the Remains now." Talia nodded. The Demon Race possessed geomagnetic sensing abilities, giving them a very strong sense of direction and distance.

Samael grabbed a handful of the tall grass and activated his Nether Copper Generator.

Amidst a low BUZZ, the grass stalks and leaves drooped without any reaction.

No copper content.

[Scanner enabled.]

[Ecosystem Maintenance Plant P-26.]

[Grass leaves are slightly toxic; stalks and seeds are non-toxic. Seeds are edible after rough processing. Yield is extremely low in a natural state; care by artificial lifeforms - symbiotic animals can increase yield.]

"Perfect." He gazed at the endless High Grass Plain before him and murmured, "An absolutely excellent location to build an Underground City."

"It really is quite nice. A large number of Magical Beasts inhabit this tall grass." Talia closed her eyes to sense the surroundings. "The tall grass can provide effective shelter, helping them hide from the Undead. There will be no shortage of servants here."

She suddenly opened her gray eyes and abruptly reached out to grab Samael’s arm.

"Earth-Devouring Demon Insect..."

Before she could finish, the ground began to tremble with a RUMBLE! The blades of tall grass shivered, and the figures of several startled Magical Beasts and birds flitted across the sky above the distant fields. Massive beast carapaces and thick manes, along with tentacles of rotting flesh and fragments of white bone, flickered in and out of sight within the brush.