Scouting Ahead

Rowan had missed exploring alone.

But back then, he had been much weaker and injured, so he'd only dared to dig tunnels underground to get around. Now, he felt his ability to protect himself had improved enormously. Even if he ran into the Earth-Yellow Ant army head-on, he could escape early thanks to his superior vision.

Seeing so many insects in the Insect Nest crying out to be fed had left him feeling a little anxious. He'd thought that even if it meant taking some risks, he should try to make the trip there and back as quickly as possible. But once he came outside and felt the cold wind, he calmed down.

When it came down to it, those insects were all mindless tools. Even the Mother Nest wasn't something he couldn't afford to lose. If his life was in danger, then of course his own life mattered most. Everything else was expendable.

As long as he stayed alive, he could build it all back up. That Insect Nest was only the result of a month or so of work. If he had to start over, he already had experience and could rebuild it before long.

Of course, it would be best if he didn't have to give anything up. He was simply preparing for the worst.

Besides, if it were only him, he wouldn't have to worry about food or drink. Not only could he get by on tree bark and sap, but he'd also absorbed some gene fragments after drinking the Stinky Earthworm's bodily fluids last time, and evolved them. If all else failed, he could eat dirt, absorbing minerals and decaying matter from the soil to survive.

But he wouldn't do that unless he had no other choice. After all, for the human soul inside him, eating dirt wasn't exactly a pleasant thought. Still, he could consider adding those genes to his new insects in the future. If they ever found themselves in a special situation like this one, the whole group could eat dirt.

After thinking things through, he felt much more at ease, and his previously hurried pace slowed.

He followed the bed of the underground river. This time, he didn't dig a tunnel; that was far too slow. He needed to be cautious, but there was no need to overdo it.

The view was better aboveground, making it easier to scout the area. He could always dig a tunnel if he came across an obstacle he couldn't get past.

The light source in the sky slowly rose, but the land ravaged by the Earth-Yellow Ants remained lifeless. Even the insect chirps that had once filled the area had vanished.

He crawled on for who knew how long, but the land remained desolate and silent. Even the Stinky Earthworms he'd once been unable to stomach were nowhere to be seen. Rowan clicked his tongue in wonder. The Earth-Yellow Ant army must have numbered in the tens of millions. Otherwise, how could they have caused such widespread destruction?

Along the way, he encountered a few scattered Earth-Yellow Ants and sent them to join the meeting in his stomach. With food to replenish his energy, he didn't feel tired.

A rumbling sound of water came from ahead, and the air grew damper. As he continued onward, the moisture became visible as mist, while the roar of the water grew deafening.

After advancing a little farther, Rowan discovered the source of it all. The ground ahead abruptly dropped away, forming a cliff dozens of meters high against the land beneath his feet. Water from the underground river poured out over the cliff face, forming a waterfall that crashed into a small lake below. It sent mist billowing into the air and made a tremendous roar.

Rowan cautiously crawled to the edge of the cliff. Back when he was human, he'd had a mild fear of heights. Even looking down from the fifth floor made his legs tremble. The last time he'd been swept into the air, everything around him had been pitch-black, so he couldn't tell how high up he was—and his fear of heights hadn't been triggered.

But after he poked his head over the edge and looked down, his fear still didn't kick in. Somehow, the condition had miraculously cured itself after he became an insect.

At the end of the day, fear of heights was just a psychological barrier. Perhaps because he'd already experienced falling from a great height, deep down Rowan no longer believed that a simple fall could kill him. So the barrier had naturally disappeared.

The unexpected surprise made Rowan happy. After all, it was worth celebrating that one of his weaknesses had been overcome.

The scene below was somewhat blurry. The cliff was beyond the range of Rowan's clear vision. He could only make out vague patches of color and infer that there was a lake beneath the waterfall, with green patches all around it.

Those were plants. The land below hadn't been ravaged by the Earth-Yellow Ants; its ecosystem was still intact. Perhaps the cliff had stopped them and forced them to change direction.

But now he faced the problem of how to get down safely. The cliff beneath his feet was made of stone. His Digging Legs might be powerful, but they probably wouldn't help here. Should he just jump? It wasn't as if he'd die from the fall.

Rowan began moving along the edge of the cliff. Even if he had to jump, he couldn't do it where he'd been standing. There was a lake below, and he had no experience fighting underwater. If he ran into some kind of aquatic combatant, he'd be a sitting duck.

After crawling for several hundred meters, the patch of color below was no longer gray-blue, and he could clearly make out the crowns of some tall trees. Farther from the waterfall, the cliff face was much rougher. Unlike the area near the falls, it hadn't been worn smooth by the water.

He tried to find a path he could climb down. The rear six of his limbs had sharp hooked claws. As long as the cliff wasn't as smooth as a mirror, he should be able to make his way down slowly.

He followed a crack in the rock, where there were loose stones and some moss-like plants. Carefully hooking his claws into the rock face, Rowan began to climb down.

His thick shoulder plates and back armor offered tremendous protection, but they were also incredibly heavy. He barely noticed their weight normally, but now that he was hanging in midair, it became all too apparent.

Fortunately, his claws only looked thin and fragile. In reality, they were extremely sturdy. Together with his powerful limbs, they held his body firmly against the rock face.

As he slowly neared the ground below, Rowan's view gradually grew clearer. Perhaps because he was closer to the water, the land below was lush and verdant, with green covering all the soil.

The vegetation here was completely different from what grew above the cliff. Rowan wasn't a botanist and couldn't tell what families the plants belonged to, but their appearances alone made the differences clear.

The area was more vibrant with life. And hidden beneath all that greenery were even more varied kinds of insects, along with a greater diversity of gene fragments.

Unfamiliar insect chirps drifted from the grass. Rowan was excited. He could finally meet some new friends. He wondered if they'd be willing to appreciate his Rowan's Combat Technique.

But when he was only five or six meters above the ground, an inhabitant suddenly darted out of a crack in the cliff and launched a sneak attack on him.