Chapter 20: [Arc 1] Chapter 14: Return of the Roaches!!

I took another look at the map over Floor 4 and saw the bitter truth. 

Before I continue on any further, let me review the topography of Floor 4: It is a tunnel-network type floor, meaning it's made solely of tunnels and big rooms. An example of the latter is the room that housed the roaches before.

This is further divided into two types of layers, one lower level and one upper level of tunnels. The roach room was on the lower level and the pipeline I busted during my first visit was on the upper level. Then we have all the tunnels that go up and down between those two.

Another piece of information is that the entrance to this floor lies in the upper levels while the entrance to the next floor is on the under levels. 

Due to the leakage problem that I made on my previous visit, the water keeps on running downstream from the upper to the lower level. This does make it easier to locate the entrance, as all the water flows towards the entrance now.

Still no problems, you say? Even if the lower level's water levels are high enough to slow me, the glass cannon, down? And there are monsters out there that have no problem with walking in, or ON, the damn water? That's a problem in my book.

The worst part is, if the entrance is on this floor, then it's more likely to be on the lower level rather than here on the upper one. Damn...

Should I try to dam the water somehow? Am I stupid? How can someone that's only got webs and threads at their disposal dam such a big current of water?

Any other idea would be to learn a skill that would help me while I'm in the water. But I have only 2.2 Skill Points now, thanks to several skills reaching Lv.10 while I was hunting. I also reached racial Lv.9 in the hunt as well... not enough. Even with 2.2 Skill Points, I don't have enough Points to buy a skill to help me to conquer water...

If I were some other species, then maybe there would be some skills, but a demon spider that lives in the darkness? No way!

There are the Glavras spiders that populate this floor, sure, but they're like a different species than me. Besides, they probably don't have any good memories of me. I flushed some of their guys into oblivion before after all...

Speaking of those guys, where are they? I've searched a good 40% of the whole floor, upper- and lower levels combined, and I've yet to see any monsters now except for the occasional rats and frogs on the upper level. Did they abandon the floor due to the flooding, or was it the explosion that scared them off?

While we're on the "missing monster" subject, I haven't seen any roaches either. I've even searched their former base, but nothing. That's a happy thing for sure, but it's kinda spooky as well.

Then there's the problem of me going empty for places to search, as the map for the upper level's around 95% finished already. I need a way to explore the lower levels without being dragged by the current, but how... 

Think, Garami, think! Get those cobwebs outta your brain and think! ...That's it!

---

Phew. That should be enough for today.

I took a moment to admire my work. A big railing made of webs and threads had been placed above the ground, a good half meter above the water level that originated from the broken pipeline. The architect of this new structure is me. 

It's such a simple solution that I wanna beat myself up for not thinking about it before! If the ground's no good, just walk in the air with threads! All the walking on the previous floors must have knocked me off my game, but now I'm back in business. Several skills get proficiency through the work too. Even the Rogue class's class level goes up! So... how many birds am I getting with this one stone again?

I'm leaving the last few percentages of the upper-level map to later in case I don't find anything down here. If I don't find anything even then, then I have to... *shiver* search Floor 6... can the Quest be mistaken and the entrance is really on Floor 5? Probably not. I shouldn't place my hopes on wishful thinking like that.

I'll stop for today. This work takes tons of stamina to do, and I don't wanna end up dropping into the river 'cause of SP shortage. Just need to look for a ladder to the upper-level tunnels. It should be just this way... across the broken part of the web-railing? I don't remember building it like that. 

Aah, it's broken. Now I get it... why's it broken? It wasn't the water current, and there are no signs of any floating rocks that could have wrecked it either. The broken part is in the middle of an x-junction, but the flow of the current is going to the path I came from, meaning that any floating web-breaking trash should go the same way. 

Then there's something in one of the two remaining paths then. I've yet to search through either one and the path back home's untouched, so it has to be one of them. I'll take a quick frog-bite, get some sleep, then do some detective work tomorrow. Good night.

---

The next day, I started the search after the web crushers. Instead of a full railing set, I made simple ropes in the roof to climb across. They're kinda like the ropes mountain climbers use, only that mine's on the roof instead of on the mountain wall. 

The reason why I decided to do so is that if something attacked me while I was busy making a whole railing, then I would be toast. The whole "being on the roof"-thing will also help me escape the eyes of enemies in these dark tunnels.

I kept on searching for the tunnel until I reached a dry area. The tunnel ended in a crossroads that has a higher elevation than the other tunnels, making it a safe area from the flood. This looks suspicious, but with so many roads to chose from, I think I would rather see if there's something in the other tunnel before-

*splash* *splash*

And something is coming from the very same direction as I was thinking about. Time to go invisible. I climbed back to the roof and used my hiding skills for good measure. Running away? No way. I don't know a thing about this place. It's gonna end up with me getting lost or meeting a dead-end. 

The unknown party is coming closer. Let's take the opportunity to figure out what I'm dealing with here... what the f*ck!?

A bodybuilder + cockroach!? And there are tons of them! Disgusting! Disgusting on too many levels! And sweaty! It feels like a sauna's passing by!

Urgh, I think I'm gonna be sick... are they using some "sweating" skill? Or "stench"? Something?

Ehm, my bad. And there's a skill that nobody wants such a creature to have, so seriously, my apologies!

Moreover, these guys are the roaches from before! And they've evolved two times since last time! I've studied their previous evolution, the Rushroach, just to be safe, but who had expected that the rank E stage popping up!? They even have the skills from when it was "rushing", so I'm not wrong here.

Wait a sec, I almost overlooked something. The macho-roaches' condition is "control"? I identified some more, but they all came up with the same condition.

They're controlled by someone? Looking at the different skill list's I can see some common points like the newly acquired skills from evolving, meaning [Insect Flight], [Brute Force], and [Cross Breeding].

The first can be written off as there ain't any space to fly in, and the third from not having any... "partners"..., but [Brute Force] should have had some more levels. It's an easy skill that lets you use SP to jack up your STR for a limited time, so I see no reason for them to not use them more often.

Back to the point, anyone can see that the macho-roaches are being controlled as a swarm rather than as individuals. The question is: who's the mastermind? Oh, and one more question: how did they evolve so fast?

Are the macho-roaches some secret strike force for the roaches or maybe..., guess there's only one way to find out. And one road to the answer. It's the only tunnel that the roaches didn't enter, so it's the only path I can take anyway~.

---

I passed the intersection where my railing had been broken before and continued towards what should be the origin of the macho-roaches. Like the previous tunnel, this one's also elevated enough to escape the flood. The possibility of those roaches living here is increasing.

It's not like I'm going in with guns blazing, but it's less safe not to confirm if there's vermin in your home or not. [Danger Sense] is running on full throttle, but I'll run away the moment I see something too bad.

Like right now, but they haven't noticed me, so I'm safe.

A group of macho-roaches, guarding a hole in the wall... an entrance to a cave? Some of the tunnels go in the same direction, so let's bypass those guys.

I took a tunnel going upward to an area of the upper level that I couldn't access before. You could say it's a "closed-off area of the upper levels". Any machos here? Nope. Move on.

I moved in the same direction as the entrance the roaches from before guarded and found an entrance... which revealed an open area. A cave. And the entrance was far from the ground.

And the ruler of the roaches is in the middle of the cave. It was like a copy of the previous cave it had lived in before. Even the entrance that I looked out from was the same as the one I had used to spy the roach-army before. It must enjoy being in these types of caves.

A ginormous back that looked like an overgrown rotten bulb, with the foremost half being no different from a regular Crushroach, except for being a size bigger than the guys that raided my home the first time I visited the floor.

As I thought. The machos were under the command of a Queen Crushroach.

A creature that has reached one end of its natural evolution line. It's still rank E in practice, but it's also counted as a rank S. This means I can't see its skills due to [Discern] being too low in levels, but I can guess them.

Including the original abilities of the Crush- and Rushroach stages, this thing probably has some egg-laying skill to mass-produce roaches. As for why I know this, is because it's in the middle of such right now. With the many roach-related monstrosities lately, I'm not in the mood of describing the process. Ever.

Another skill I can guess is some sorta Leadership Skill to take direct command over the Queen's family, meaning its kin. It's a skill that can command an army. Quite efficient. The costs are taken care of by having the roaches search for food and EXP on their own.

The reason why they only passed through the web-railing must be 'cause their orders were something like "kill all enemies" and not "search for spiders that have built blockades in front of you". In other words, the machos are stupid. They were that from before, but this is on a whole new level.

I could just throw one of the poisons I obtained from the Quest reward and be finished with the whole Queen-deal right now, but what would happen to the macho-roaches? Probably go crazy and destroy anything close by. It's a damn pain, but I'm not getting any other ideas... or do I? This requires some preparations.

---

It took a few days, as the macho-roaches returned to their nest at certain intervals. They only occupied the cave was the Queen was, not even caring about the "backroom tunnels" where I had stayed these last days.

Maybe they're not considering those places a threat? It's closed off from the rest of the Dungeon, and the roaches are using the only path leading to her regularly. There aren't even pipelines here to take advantage of.

If they're gonna slack on the security, then that's fine with me, since I'm able to construct my traps in peace. I just needed to stay unnoticed while doing so. 

There are several hundreds of macho-roaches, which are split into several groups that leave the nest at certain times, only to return with eventual prey around the same time of the day, all except for a handful of guards.

The Queen must think she could withstand any potential intruders long enough to call back the expedition troops. And with that bulk, I can't completely disregard it as idiotic. It's still a naive plan. There are lots of ways to incapacitate someone.

The operation is happening when all expedition groups are out in the Dungeon. But even then, the guards are in the way. Therefore, it's time to use the special trap that I've used half, no, three-quarters of the time I've stayed here to make.

The first part was to lure the guards into the backroom-tunnels. To do that, I made use of [Thread Control] to unravel a ball of threads that hold up tons of loose rocks that I had stored to use as throwing weapons. The sound of the many rocks falling to the ground caught the attention of the guards, making them leave their post to investigate. 

I couldn't see it, but they'll likely step in the "Sticky Path" now. It's a little something that I made with the regular birdlime trap in mind.

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It won't trap whatever that stepped on it the first time, but after being worn down a little, the adhesive properties come forth at full force. By altering the amount of force that needs to be exposed to the threads, I can stick a whole group that occupies the whole corridor at the same time instead of making a bottleneck at the beginning of the path. 

All the guards would be stuck together, but I don't have the time to witness that. Right after the last guard had left their post, I threw a thread to the ceiling of the cave and used it to dangle above the Queen. Before jumping down, I threw bundles of threads that I had stored in the Storage towards every entrance to the cave, no matter which "floor" they were on.

After completing the sealing, I jumped down behind the Queen and retrieved my secret weapon from the Storage.

The Kigal-Note.

I have only used it as a dictionary for all of my life, but the true worth of this tome lied in its other ability: the ability to trap living creatures inside the book and steal the use of their abilities.

During my rounds of mapping the fourth floor, I've tried to use this power, but I can only capture the likes of Greycave Rats, which barely have any useful abilities to their name. If I invest all my MP, then I could capture a level 2 Pond Frog, but nothing stronger. Count in the regeneration of my MP through [MP Auto-Regeneration], and I could probably trap a level 5, but I would faint from MP-loss right after that.

So, what am I planning to use the Kigal-Note for in this situation against the Queen? Capture it. And to do that, I'm gonna be cheating a little.

I opened the book so it was facing the Queen and a black vortex came out of it, sucking the Queen into itself.

Or, that's what's supposed to happen, but the force of the vortex is too weak! A vacuum cleaner would have more power than this. I'm not even lowering the power of the book. The fault lies in the Queen herself. She's too strong! The Kigal-Note has no problems against creatures with low stats and weak skills, but the opposite is also true. 

Weight, size, racial rank, level, none of them mattered for the Kigal-Note. It could trap anything into it... Is the theory, but when facing something that's too strong stat-wise, then the book's MP consumption rises. The same holds for any powerful skills the target may have.

Therefore, I've made a backup plan in cases where I would wanna use the Kigal-Note on enemies that are too strong for capture: [Grudge Evil Eye]. The final initial skill that I picked up.

Its power reduced all the stats of the target except for LUC and INT, and while it also used MP, it's only 1 point for 10 seconds use already on Lv.1! The reduction of stats is based on the skill level and the RES stat of the target, meaning that the Queen, with her low RES stat, is a perfect target for this skill.

There's one problem: even with the Evil Eye weakening her, the Queen's still too strong! I don't have enough MP! Therefore, it's time to use this: an MP High Potion!

It recovers a large amount of MP based on how much you chug down. Even your natural MP regeneration increases significantly. Not to mention the effect of passive MP-recovery skills.

I couldn't drink the whole potion at once. I tried a little sip before, barely a drop, but I still almost fainted due to MP-overload. From just a drop! Therefore, I'm taking small sips as my MP gets drained from both the Kigal-Note and my Evil Eye. 

Little by little, the Queen inches closer to the open book. Hurry up. Hurry before the macho-roaches gets back. Even those who are trapped could break free with that raw muscle power for all I know...

The Queen grasped the ground, desperate to avoid getting closer to the dark vortex. Come on, just lose your grip al..., -ready?

*Swoop*

Did I get her? How?

It almost looked like the Queen fainted, making her release the grip she had of the floor. Oh, gotta stop drinking the potion. I'm already crying tears of blood due to the excessive MP-circulation. My head hurts...

But what happened to the... MP!! The Queen's total MP was only 10! The Evil Eye can reduce the total amount of Life Stats, such as MP, so it must have reached the point where the Queen had practically 0 MP, making her faint due to the lack of it!

Scary! I-I mean, j-just as I planned. Hahahaha......

*Crash!*

Urgh. They didn't even care about the webbed entrances and smashed the walls to make a shortcut instead. The macho-roach guards jumped down from the newly made hole in the wall with murder in their eyes. Stop! Don't come any closer!

Just as I was thinking that the macho-roaches stopped dead in their tracks. Eh? Then does that mean... [Identification]!

Yup, it's there. [Kin Domination]. It looks like a type of skill... there it is. Just give me a sec to read this...

Ehem, according to the Kigal-Note, [Kin Domination] is a Leadership Skill that lets the skill holder control their kin like they were soulless dolls. The skill holder can even... [Danger Sense] is picking up something further in the Dungeon. From the same direction as the tunnel that the roaches use to explore the rest of the Dungeon... and there are lots of readings... and they're damn fast...

Calmly and sophisticated, I placed a hand on the Kigal-Note that had fallen to the ground and made an order in my mind in a regal and composed manner:

STOP! Don't come back to the lair! Contraorder! The last order is canceled! Therefore, don't come here!!

---

Phew. They stopped. [Kin Domination] is damn awesome. And scary. This definitely classifies as a Heretic attribute ability. I ordered the troops in the Dungeon to stay at stand-by for now. I need to see what I can do with this power. Good thing the guards can be used as lab rats. Before that, let's go over all the System Messages that I chose to ignore during the tug of war with the Queen.

Yeah, it was a good idea to buy [Mana Increase (Small)] before the assault. And just as I hoped, the [Grudge Evil Eye] is compatible with [Debuff Reinforcement]. 

The two titles came as a surprise. The Kigal-Note tells me that the [Mystic Arts User] is awarded to someone that uses 150% or more of their total MP in one fight, while you get the [Legion of One] title when surviving a fight against a hundred opponents of equal or higher racial rank. 

The first one is easy to understand, but for the latter... I didn't get it despite surviving the roach-raid the first time I was on this floor, but now... was it because the fight wasn't considered finished as the expedition roaches were after me until I ordered them to stand down? Probably. I'm no expert on titles, so I'm not sure.

But, with this, I have all the "stat increasing" skills except for the SP-related one. Maybe I should... no. I'll get it now. Not taking the skill in this situation is just stupid after all.

As for why it's stupid, it is because the [Kin Domination] ability allows the "subjects" to use the skills of the "ruler". In other words, I'll be sharing my skills with the roaches that will do my dirty work for me! And it's important to take notice that this is "sharing", not "giving". 

You guessed it. The proficiency that the roaches obtain from using the shared skills is given directly to me! Several hundred roaches' worths of proficiency are for the taking without me having to do anything!

Of course, there are some skills that the roaches can't use due to them being incompatible with the skills. These are [Aura of Darkness], [Spider Thread], [Grudge Evil Eye], and [Identification].

No clue why the aura's no good, but [Spider Thread]'s no good as only creatures with the right traits can use it. The Evil Eye requires them to have their Karma Value at a negative 100 at one point of their life, so that's also out. And for [Identification], well, they're too stupid to use it. Seems that the skill requires a certain amount of INT to be used. Damn...

No matter, any other skills except for the above-mentioned and the skills that require them are free for use for the roaches. Ah, except for [Darkness Magic]. Not that I can imagine these guys being able to use magic in the first place.

Before initiating my master plan, let's pick up some more skills. Those easy-to-use 1 Point skills. I looked at my status page and saw that my skills had grown to the point of granting me 3.2 Skill Points, even after using 1 on [Mana Increase (Small)]. So, three weakling skills that the roaches can farm proficiency with. I'll profit from these the moment they reach Lv.30, so there's no reason to hesitate.

The stamina-increasing skill is a must at this point, so that's one. As for the other two... oh? This one looks nice. It will be helpful with traps like the "Sticky Path". Not to mention that the roaches can find this one very useful.

What should I take for the last one? Maybe... why not this? It will help me in case I end up in situations like with the tree I almost failed to take a branch from. It also isn't hindered by [Parkour], as this one is a balance type instead of a movement type like [Parkour] is. Alright, I've decided!

And there went my Skill Points. My current stats are:

Kukukuku. It will be a pure pleasure to see the improvement of these skills... even if they're a little messy with them all like this.

*Cough*. I cleared my throat, even when I couldn't speak, place a hand on the Kigal-Note, and gave an order to all the roaches in the Dungeon.

Order. Use the shared [Auto-Mapping] to explore as much of Floor 4 as possible without dying. After that, go to Floor 5 and do the same, then Floor 6. In case a hidden room is located, be sure to mark it on the mental map. Use the shared skill as much as possible, and be sure to store the corpses of defeated monsters with the [Spatial Storage] skill. Fight till the death against any opponents! That's all.

The guards that were still in the cave left the moment I was finished. With this, I'll not only get a massive increase in skill levels, my map's gonna be filled out in rocket speed!

Eh? How about keeping the roaches as a personal army? No way! Those things are too ugly to look at, not to mention fighting alongside them! Not to mention the budget that's required to keep them fed. 

Better to have them exhaust themselves while working with my skills and maps. If some survive even after that... then I'll have them rampage on Floor 7. That's gonna be enough to finish them off. Kukukuku...

Description:

The Queen Crushroach is a special evolution of the Crushroach line, only available to female Rushroaches. It is one of the Phantom Rank S monsters, a type of monster that has reached the principle of their natural evolution line. 

The Queen is a rare evolution only accessible to female Crushroach-line monsters. As the chance of at least one female being born in a generation of 10.000 Crushroaches is less than 0.01%, the chances for the birth of a Queen Crushroach are even smaller. If the female does reach this point, then one can expect that the surrounding land will fall to famine in less than a few years if not taken care of.

Appearance:

The Queen Crushroach has the appearance of a cockroach of the size of a large dog... at least the first half of it. The second half is a huge abdomen of the size of a carriage. The Queen has a set of wings, but it is too big to ever make use of them.

Abilities:

While its true battle abilities are closer to a rank E-, the Queen's strength is determined by its "kingdom", meaning all the monsters of the Crushroach-line that serve the Queen. This also includes the monsters that chose a different evolution than the Queen, even those that have reached rank D, or above that again. 

The strength of the Queen is proportional to her army, meaning that the strength of the Queen is determined by how friendly the surrounding land is to the Crushroaches. A land filled with prey, like a forest, will result in an army capable of destroying a whole country. On the other hand, an army build inside a cavern will barely be able to sustain itself. 

The Queen itself is extremely weak, lacking any battle abilities on its own, and it is barely able to even move.

Garami's comment: G-glad this one was in the Dungeon...

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