By the time Rowan climbed back to the surface, night had fallen. Cold moonlight blanketed the ground, and a thin layer of frost glimmered in its reflection.
Rowan didn't feel particularly cold. After all, he was now who knew how far from where he'd started, and perhaps the nights weren't as cold here.
But his resistance to ice might have improved, too. With his location changed, he couldn't reach any firm conclusions.
Two light sources still hung high in the sky. Rowan still couldn't see them clearly, but he could vaguely make out their positions and colors. One was white with a slight yellow tint, while the other was faintly reddish. The yellow-white one was several times larger than the red-white one.
A cold wind blew. The surroundings were hushed, without so much as an insect chirping or any other sound. The scene felt a little eerie and frightening.
His six walking legs stepped through the frost, making faint sounds and vibrations as Rowan cautiously explored ahead.
The little green leaves on the surrounding shrubs had folded up, pressed close against their branches. The originally yellowish-white twigs looked as though they'd put on green coats. Rowan guessed this might be their unique way of keeping warm.
He hadn't run into any trouble, not even any relatives or friends of the giant earthworm. So despite searching slowly, he'd already covered quite a bit of ground in a short while.
Until now, he'd stayed directly above the underground river, which made it easier to gather food and water.
But as the riverbed rose, Rowan had shifted slightly away from the river's path to preserve the strategic depth of his underground position.
He was now several hundred meters away, moving parallel to the underground river. That way, he wouldn't stray far from the water, and there'd still be enough soil to keep him safe.
Rowan still couldn't figure out how this strange planet rotated and revolved. The way he'd measured time in his old world didn't apply here. He'd been crawling for a long time, yet the sky hadn't changed at all. The sun showed no sign of coming out to work.
When he felt the energy stored in his body had dropped to nearly half, Rowan stopped moving forward.
In this strange, dangerous place, he didn't dare use up all his strength. Instead, he stopped whenever he had about half left, keeping more than half in reserve to deal with any unexpected situation.
After replenishing his food from the roots of a shrub, he crawled deep underground to rest.
After several days of slow progress, the number of plants on the surface had gradually increased, and there were quite a few more kinds, too.
The last time Rowan had climbed to the surface, it had been broad daylight. He'd barely gone forward before stumbling upon quite a show.
A black giant insect, more than ten times his size and about as big as a human palm. Its flattened head bore a pair of absurdly huge mandibles. Its body had three segments when viewed from above, all covered in a thick shell. Six short limbs gave it an extremely low profile, and a pair of equally tiny antennae stuck out on either side of its mandibles.
At the moment, this Black Beetle was surrounded by dozens of black ant-like insects. They didn't seem special, just ordinary-looking. They had neither the exaggerated hooked fangs of the Yellow Earth Ants Rowan had seen before nor any Fecal Spray Attack. He'd have to see them show off their talents to find out what they could do.
The two sides were at a standoff, and a fight seemed imminent.
The Black Beetle ambled along at a leisurely pace, seemingly looking down on the little creatures surrounding it.
The Black Ants, on the other hand, surrounded it without attacking, as though they were waiting for reinforcements. Then again, the Black Ants were even smaller than Rowan. He couldn't understand why they'd decided to pick a fight with such a giant.
Rowan's advantage was on full display. His two large eyes might have made him nearsighted by human standards, but among insects, they absolutely counted as Clairvoyance.
He watched from beyond the combatants' range of sight. As long as he was careful not to make too much noise, they wouldn't notice him.
That was because insects with poor eyesight generally had much better senses in other ways.
He couldn't afford to provoke either side. Last time, watching a fight had cost him dearly. He'd lost the little home he'd built for himself and been left wandering for ages.
He'd once sworn that if he ever watched a fight again, he'd be a dog. But when he actually came across a show worth watching, he still couldn't control himself. So what if he became a dog? Dogs were much stronger fighters than an insect the size of a fingernail.
Still, he'd learned a few lessons: don't get too close when watching a fight, and watch in secret to avoid getting caught up in it.
The Black Beetle grew dissatisfied as the ants gradually tightened their circle. It seemed agitated now, no longer leisurely, and kept raising its mandibles as if ready to attack.
The tense atmosphere finally reached its breaking point. The Black Beetle could no longer hold back. It lunged forward and clamped its mandibles around a Black Ant. It seemed to take no effort at all to tear the ant in two.
The two halves fell to the ground. Its antennae and limbs still twitched involuntarily.
The fight was already so intense right from the start—a clean, instant kill. Rowan watched with boiling excitement, cheering, "666!"
The death of one of their own enraged the Black Ants. Without another moment's hesitation, dozens of them swarmed forward.
The battle quickly reached a fever pitch.
The Black Ants had the numbers, but they had skinny arms, legs, and waists. The only weapons they had to show for themselves were their sharp mandibles. Against the Black Beetle's heavy armor, they could barely inflict any damage.
The Black Beetle, by contrast, was practically an invincible War God! Its giant mandibles could tear through anything. If they caught you, there was no such thing as being injured but surviving. If you were left in one piece, you'd done well.
Fortunately, for all their enormous size and deadly power, its mandibles had a flaw. Like two sevens closing together, they could only meet at the tips, where they inflicted terrifying damage.
And with their slender bodies and nimble movements, the Black Ants weren't easy for the Black Armored Beetle to catch accurately.
So even though every strike from the Black Armored Beetle was fatal, the two sides still managed to trade blows.
But some unlucky ones inevitably got caught. Scattered body parts littered the battlefield.
The ants still had an overwhelming numerical advantage, but their numbers were slowly dwindling. If things kept going this way and no reinforcements arrived, it was only a matter of time before the Black Armored Beetle killed them all.
The ants finally realized the problem and changed their tactics.
The ants that had climbed onto the Black Armored Beetle's back stopped gnawing at its sturdy shell and instead attacked its eyes and antennae. If those two parts were damaged, it would be both deaf and blind.
The ants on the ground attacked the Black Armored Beetle's hooked claws.
Its thick armor covered most of its limbs because it kept so close to the ground. But the hooked claws at the very ends of its limbs stuck out, making them the ants' main targets.
The change in tactics immediately made a difference. The Black Beetle's sweeping, wide-open attacks became hesitant and restrained, as though afraid to hit the wrong target. Most of its attention shifted from attacking the ants to shaking them off its back and dodging the ones sneaking at its feet.
Watching from afar, Rowan cursed inwardly. These guys had no honor. They were using every dirty trick in the book.
The early chapters of this novel focus on realism. Many of the insects that appear are based on real species, and the Black Armored Beetle is based on the stag beetle.
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