Translator: Kurehas.h.i.+ Aiko

Editor: ryunakama

Chapter 50: Fighting Techniques and Escaping Techniques Learned From the Past OO Part 1

· Empire Bee's Pollen Hair

Soft hair growing on the bodies of Worker Bees used to collect pollen and nectar.

It is mostly used in everyday life, with almost no combat application whatsoever.

· Empire Bee's Warrior Hunting Stinger

The stinger of the Empire Bee Warrior whose main job is to fight the enemies of the Hive.

Because it is not coated in poison, the only thing the Warrior can do is to repeatedly stab its enemies to death.

· Empire Bee's Warrior Jaw

Jaw of the Empire Bee Warrior, whose main job is to fight the enemies of the Hive.

These jaws are not meant for slas.h.i.+ng through flesh but rather to crush the hard armors and husks of its enemies.

「Insects are kind of amazing, don't you think? With the way in which murderous intent let them evolve into predators like that?」

Compared to other animals out there they are relatively weak, so it's small wonder that nature gave them the gift of specialization at specific tasks during the course of the evolution rather than overall versatility.

Thinking about it, Warrior Bees are sure to die while protecting the Hive, so they had to have something that would allow them to carry out their duty and make their deaths count.

I mean, they may have been weak, but their true strength lies in their numbers…… and the items they have dropped are also pretty neat, so there's that.

「Sanraku-san, please look there. There's some more text.」

「If you want to prey on the true predator, you need to become an even greater predator in order to succeed.」

We could also see that some bees were being eaten by the flowers from which they were trying to collect the pollen…… No, let's correct that. That wasn't exactly a flower, and I have seen both its name and pictures in some of my school textbooks.

「Preying Mantis…… Although you wouldn't be able to tell at first glance.」

「The flowers! They camouflage themselves as flowers!」

Emul's words were not just a mere exaggeration here. I was honestly impressed. If it wasn't for those bees that just got eaten by it, I would probably never have realized what was going on before it was too late. It was almost like a chameleon's ability to blend in with its environment, but this mantis was doing that even better. This isn't good, we might not be able to proceed as smoothly as I had initially planned……

「For the time being, let us try to hunt it down.」

We might understand more about this place and its inhabitants if we study the descriptions of the items that could be found here. Thinking like that I took out a throwing knife from my inventory that I bought at the store earlier…… I threw it at the place where the Mantis was hiding, utilizing a technique that I learned during my struggles with the Toxic Eagle.

The knife connects and there was the damage indicator, which must mean that weapons tend to ignore the ability to mimic the surroundings. …… Hmm?

「I see…… so the optimal course of action is to just hit it until it dies instead of going for some fancy strategy.」

「This is a really big bug, I tell you----!!!」

Its sh.e.l.l was apparently as tough as the toughest armor and it had four horns growing out of its head, making it look like a crown of sorts. Although it was an insect as well, it was on a completely different level from the Bees.

「Now we have a combination of stag beetle and Kabuto beetle…… Yup, as you'd expect from a fantasy setting.」

Everything in its movements was saying that it was at the apex of all beetles out here. The cream of the crop. The ultimate beetle of sorts.

「Fumu, how about we haul a.s.s for now?」

「Ah, aaahhh!? Huh? We're running away!? I was sure that you were going to suggest that we fight this thing!」

「Okay, so do you want to fight it?」

「Absolutely not! I'm all for hauling a.s.s and running away!」

No, truth to be told, I wanted to fight this thing, but after carefully considering our options here, I decided not to do that. We had way too many disadvantages here to be able to take this thing on…… Yes, if we were to fight it right now, it would most certainly result in our deaths.

First of all, we stand out like sore thumbs. Second of all, after the commotion we caused at Thirdrema the whole city's worth of players were onto us, and it was only a matter of time before they are going to come here in search of us. So time, of all things wasn't on our side. Looking at the mantis, I had a feeling that it would take us more than five minutes to defeat it, and if we were to take on that beetle as well then G.o.d knows for how long we would be stuck in here. It was highly probable that some of the players would be able to find us by then.

A whole different matter was the fact that it wouldn't be that much of a problem if it was only a ground battle. But both the mantis and the beetle had wings on them, so it wasn't all that improbable that they were able to fly, which would surely give them a tremendous advantage. Not to mention that evasive maneuvers would be such a drag to pull off here. There were simply too many things indicating that this battle should be avoided at all costs. I had my throwing knives on me, so it could shoot them off the sky, but their number was currently very limited.

「And that is why we are retreating for now……」

「Hyaah!!!」