Clyde explored the underground world while lurking in the shadows. Following the insect men monsters, he attempted to find their lair. Marquis Charles who had occupied the Needham Plains was unaware of the over 400,000 humanoid monsters forcibly occupying the world under his feet. Because all the adventurers and mercenaries he had hired had never returned, the human army above the ground was unclear about occupied the underground world.
Clyde quickly penetrated deep into the insect men monster’s territory. The smell of blood pervaded this place since the attack methods of the insectmen monsters were a lot bloodier compared to their opponents, the underground ratmen. If Clyde had to choose a side to cooperate with, then he would have chosen the underground ratmen without the slightest hesitation. At least, the underground ratmen looked a lot more palatable and didn’t cause severe discomfort.
In the area controlled by the insectmen monsters, Clyde saw many human mercenaries and adventurers trapped here. Even from far away, he could hear their screams. By the time he arrived with the insectmen monsters, the battle had almost finished. The human mercenary group was rather low-leveled, and their equipment was not particularly good. Although they fought bravely, they were still unable to resist the swarming attacks of the insectmen monsters. These insect-type monsters must have learned from some ghost and undead-type monsters. In their horde, their attack patterns closely mirrored their peers’ battle tactics.
Generally, a mercenary group would have over ten people. Comparatively speaking, adventurers didn’t have any minimum number of party members, even two people could form a team, and there were several solo teams. This mercenary group in dire straits had over a hundred people. However, the humanoid monsters that surrounded them had over ten times their numbers. Thousands of insectmen monsters blocked and besieged this mercenary group in the passage. If an ordinary adventurer team had been in their places, because of the differences in numbers, they might not have persisted this long and already been wiped out.
Low-leveled mercenary groups and adventurer teams couldn’t afford magicians and other expensive magic professions. They also couldn’t afford knights, this kind of high-level martial profession. Therefore, they could only passively resist these insectmen monsters. The insectmen monsters also couldn’t use magic, but they had inherited a common skill of insect race monsters and could spray venom from far away. That green venom was incomparably poisonous for humans. Even the armor the mercenaries wore was directly dissolved because of the venom’s terrifying corrosive nature. Unless they were a human with a high-level martial profession that cultivated body-protecting battle qi or a mage using a magic shield, basically no one would resist this venom.
With the dark underground environment, the range of the mercenary group’s archers was greatly limited. The accuracy of their arrows was greatly affected by the visual conditions. Many were unable to pierce through the thick carapaces of the insectmen monsters. Looking at the scene, Clyde saw several places where their line of defense had been broken. Many mercenaries didn’t actually die to the insectmen monsters but rather their deadly venom comparable to concentrated sulphuric acid. The simple armor of these mercenaries was unable to resist even a small splash of venom.
The insectmen monsters swarmed to finish the siege against the mercenary group. The scouts of this mercenary group had long been killed by the insectmen monsters before the siege. The remaining mercenaries had inferior agility compared to scouts, so they could not break out of this encirclement. Even if Clyde had wanted to save them, it was too late. Most had already been killed. There were dismembered corpses everywhere. Some insectmen monsters were already biting and chewing the corpses. The strange gnawing sounds resounding in this dark underground passage could easily make other people very uncomfortable.
Now, only a few female archers of that low-leveled mercenary group were left, but the insectmen monsters subdued them before they had the time to commit suicide. As the few females in the mercenary group, they had received special preferential treatment by their fellow mercenaries. As a result, they had survived until the end. However, insectmen monsters had intelligence. Clyde suspected that those insectmen monsters had intentionally spared them for other wicked purposes. Otherwise, it was hard to explain why their sprayed venom hadn’t hit them. The male archers standing beside them were not so lucky and had already melted into unrecognizable corpses.
The insectmen monsters surrounded those few female archers. Although their close combat skill was not bad, the brute force of these insectmen monsters exceeded male human warriors. In addition, their carapaces were very thick. When the female archers drew their daggers to fight, before they even had time to swing their weapons, the insectmen monsters lashed out using the cockroach antennae on their heads like whips.
The instant their daggers fell, the insectmen monsters charged and pressed the female archers to the ground. Afterward, the insectmen monsters tore their leather armor to shreds, revealing their fair skin. In a short moment, they were entirely stripped naked and turned into white lambs. Along with their leather armor, even their undergarments were torn into shreds. The white lambs screamed in fear. Because their skin had been exposed, they felt unprecedented fear, thinking these insectmen monsters would directly chew them alive. Stripping them was just a means to make things convenient to eat later.
However, the wicked aims of these insectmen monsters were not to eat them. With their usual style and means, they wouldn’t deliberately strip their prey naked. It was fine to eat after directly killing them. The insectmen monsters gently strangled their preys’ fragile necks, and those few white lambs lost consciousness. Then, the insectmen monsters carried those white lambs on their shoulders like hunters returning with prey to take them away.
The entire hunting process was quick. After strangling their prey until they fainted, the insectmen monsters dragged them away. Looking at their proficient hunting methods, they had definitely done this many times. The caught white lambs didn’t even have the chance to commit suicide. Compared to insectmen monsters, underground ratmen were a lot more decent. Generally, underground ratmen didn’t do anything besides looting goods.
When Clyde saw this scene, he had originally planned to make a move, but he laid down his hands after some hesitation. These insectmen monsters were too proficient and seemed to have done this many times. Therefore, he temporarily changed his plans and turned to follow those insectmen monsters carrying the white lambs. He wanted to see what these insectmen monsters would do.
Insectmen’s reproduction methods differed from those of Human Race. Although underground ratmen possessed crime tools similar to the Human Race, they were a group of dedicated bandits. They only robbed the things of the Human Race; they didn’t have any interest in human women. Even if the other party looked very beautiful, they were all the same in the eyes of the underground ratmen. Only worldly possessions stirred their interests. Their ideal crime tools were wasted in regards to any captives.
Insectmen monsters were different. They basically lacked a tool of crime. It was simply a waste of resources for them to take these women. Although those few female mercenaries couldn’t be considered beauties, they were still at least average, if not better due to their fitness. It would be a pity if they were taken away and killed by these insectmen monsters. Thus, Clyde continued to follow those insectmen monsters while lurking in the shadows.
The deeper Clyde went into the territory of the insectmen monsters, the stronger the discomfort he felt. There were bloody taboo scenes everywhere that challenged his psychological endurance limits. All along the way, many corpses and skeletons greeted his path. If average adventurers and mercenaries had been in his place, they would have already retreated in sore straits, unable to bear the impact of these scenes.
Although Clyde was an Evil God, a Great Old One, he had been a human before crossing to this world. He had retained the morales of humans. In the battlefields he had seen before, although there had been horrible fields littered with corpses, he had not seen grotesquely mutilated corpses. Here was simply too cruel. (Editor note: This is what drives him over the edge?!?) Clyde could only do his best to focus on those female prisoners carried by the insectmen monsters. At least, their white figures were much easier on the eyes.
After following these insectmen monsters for a while, Clyde felt that the matter was not as simple as he had imagined. The overall layout of the passages was orderly. The further down the path, the more refined the underground structures were. Even before reaching their destination, Clyde noticed that the insectmen monsters’ exquisite underground constructions had already surpassed those of the Human Race of Ximengsi Continent. The technological level represented here could be compared with that of Gnome Race and Dwarf Race, these two specialist races.
This was quite abnormal. Although the insectmen monsters were humanoid and had a certain level of intelligence, due to their backgrounds as insect-type monsters, the upper limit of their intelligence was fixed and not very high. Their intelligence was comparable to their ancient opponents, the underground ratmen who had fought against them for supremacy of the underground world below the Needham Plains for several hundred years. According to common sense, it was impossible for them to build such superb underground architectural complexes. The more reasonable explanation was that an existence with higher intelligence had guided them.
Clyde subconsciously used his dark-detection magic to identify powerful, dark-attributed monsters in the area. This detection magic didn’t take long to make a major discovery. According to the magical reaction, three extremely powerful dark existences stood at the end of the passage.One was the leader of the insectmen monsters with an energy signature matching those insectmen monsters he had seen previously. Only the amount of energy here far exceeded any insectmen he had seen.
However, the power levels of the other two existences were above the insectmen monster leader. Their attributes were also completely different from insectmen monsters. Clyde suspected that these two existences had allowed these insectmen monsters to build such exquisite construction works. However, these two existences didn’t pose any threat to Clyde. Although their energy reaction was stronger than that of an Ancient Demon King, it had not reached the level that could give Clyde misgivings. Thinking this, Clyde relaxed and calmly followed those insectmen monsters to observe the underground city of the insectmen monsters.
