The Heavyweight Empress

The Seltas Queen had yet to be sighted and confirmed.

As a high-threat monster, the reward for submitting the first report would certainly be substantial, but Li Le was unwilling to take the risk.

He felt that, in their current team, only Sisi and he were reasonably capable fighters.

Though the Three Spade Meowsters were working hard at their rescue-team side job, the corresponding professional skills could not be developed overnight.

Still, the fact that the Seltas Queen had pursued them this far meant it already knew Bug Brother's approximate location.

"Kaluo, bring me that sealed bag of golden powder."

A moment later, Li Le opened the powder bag, and an intense fragrance spilled out.

This was fragrant powder he had collected and sifted nearby while Sisi hunted and fed.

He had originally intended to mail it back to the research institute for Director Sara's subsequent research.

"Bug Brother, since you've joined my team, I'm responsible for your safety."

As he spoke, Li Le grabbed a handful and scattered it toward Bug Brother.

After a moment of dazed hesitation, Bug Brother beat his wings vigorously and raised his horn high, like a knight receiving a decoration.

Once his body was covered in glittering golden particles, Li Le leaned closer and sniffed.

"Your scent is masked. The Seltas Queen should have a hard time tracking you now."

Bug Brother felt he had gained some sort of recognition and protection from the swarm.

He happily circled Li Le in flight.

"Of course, you need to show some backbone yourself. Don't go flying over the moment the Seltas Queen releases a little pheromone."

Li Le formed his hands into the ring shape of a crescent tail and made a pinching motion in warning.

"We'll need to use Sisi's fragrance to lay some false trails too... Three Spade Meowsters!"

"Meow! Meow! Meow!"

With even a Seltas subdued, the Three Spade Meowsters' respect for Li Le had gone off the charts.

"Take these small bags of fragrant powder... split up... go somewhere deep inside where there's nobody around... and scatter it."

Li Le gestured between phrases as he explained the steps.

"Meow meow?"

Spade 2 looked toward the little cart and meowed questioningly.

"Don't worry about the rescue team for now... afterward, we'll meet up... where we first met... be sure to stay safe."

Once the three Melynx had dashed off, Li Le unrolled the contract scroll.

To complete his two-star urgent contract, [Soldiers of the Subterranean Kingdom], through its subquest, he needed to hunt and turn in five Bnahabra.

Deep in the Ancestral Steppe, where information was severely lacking, that subquest was not exactly easy.

For Li Le, however, it posed no difficulty whatsoever.

At noon, they packed up camp, loaded the cart, and began their return journey.

Compared with the outward journey, Li Le stopped hunting and feeding along the way, and kept a much lower profile.

Two hours later, a large stretch of devastated mountain forest appeared before them.

Trees had been snapped in half, and ring-shaped depressions marked the rock walls.

All of it demonstrated the power of the monster that had rampaged here.

Li Le sniffed the pale yellow scent lingering on the ground, abruptly dry-heaved, and instantly lost his appetite.

"That smell is way too strong. It should be the Seltas Queen... Bug Brother!"

Li Le waved toward the sky.

Buzzz~

Bug Brother swiftly descended beside him.

Before they could communicate, he aimed his scythe claws at the soil bearing the pale yellow scent and stabbed furiously.

"Looks like it really was."

Beating his wings, Bug Brother took off again and hovered over a patch of soil nearby, seemingly having discovered something new.

Li Le ran over.

He found several hollows holding venom on the ground, along with a small quantity of fluffy white insect silk.

"Whose traces are this venom and white silk?"

This time, Bug Brother did not touch them. He simply kept shifting positions urgently, as though expressing that they had to leave immediately.

"Is it your natural predator? Does it frighten you that much...?"

"We aren't very far from Sunken Hollow here. It should be a Nerscylla. In that case, those crashing sounds early this morning were the two insects fighting here... without a prepared web, the Nerscylla wouldn't have had the advantage. It probably retreated after losing."

As Li Le speculated, Sisi jumped off Old Bones' back inside the cart.

She thrust her scythe claws into a hollow containing residual venom and stirred rapidly.

"Sisi! You can't touch that, meow!"

Kaluo clutched his head and cried out.

Sisi looked at her scythe claws, which gave off a faint purple sheen, her compound eyes flickering.

She seemed to have confirmed Kaluo's words through firsthand experience.

But the mild poisoning did not dampen Sisi's interest.

Next, she wound white spider silk around her scythe claws and pulled.

Snap!

Before she had applied much force, the white spider silk snapped.

But the mesh structure that spread apart at the break sent Sisi into thought.

"The Nerscylla and Seltas Queen are both very active... to keep other teams from being attacked, we'd better get back and submit a report soon."

Although most teams were still operating on the outskirts of the Ancestral Steppe.

Li Le felt that submitting the report early would at least allow the other teams to take precautions in advance.

A day passed, and Spade 2 tracked down the cargo cart by scent, rejoining them ahead of time.

However, Spade 2 was in terrible shape, dust covering his fur and a pale yellow stench continually wafting off him.

After Li Le spent a long time soothing him, his emotions finally stabilized, and he began describing what he had seen and heard.

Bang~ bang~

A feline paw snapped a branch; a feline elbow struck the rock wall.

From Spade 2's demonstration, the monster he had seen apparently possessed not only terrifying destructive power but was also in an extremely frenzied state.

"Hmm, the good news is that the fragrance diversion worked. The bad news is that the Seltas Queen isn't afraid of Sisi's scent. If anything, it's a little hostile."

"Huh? Sisi didn't even provoke it, meow. Why?"

Kaluo could not understand.

"Things between insects are hard to explain. By rights, the Nerscylla shouldn't have provoked it either, but it still got a thorough beating."

"All we can do now is leave the Ancestral Steppe as quickly as possible."

Li Le took a piece of Jagras back meat from the cart, bound it with insect silk, and tied it to a joint in Bug Brother's leg.

"Bug Brother, you can fly, so get far away first. If we really run into it, you could end up dead."

The fragrant camouflage from before had become a guiding beacon.

Li Le felt it would be better to have Bug Brother retreat first.

As long as Sisi was here, he could find his way back at any time anyway.

Bug Brother's hovering flight grew erratic, unwilling to leave just like that.

"A brief separation is for a better reunion. Go without worry. We'll be fine."

Persuaded by Li Le, Bug Brother turned and flew away into the sky.

Early morning.

After traveling through the night, the familiar red-earth ruins appeared in large numbers around them.

Li Le tipped his head back and swallowed a tin of portable rations, tossed the empty tin into the cart, and continued pedaling rapidly.

Rumble~...

Faint tremors traveled from the ground behind him into his body and the cart.

Crack~...

The dry snapping of breaking trees rang out one after another.

Li Le glanced back. Trees were rapidly toppling to either side, as though something was charging straight toward them.

"We're already leaving, and you just have to chase us, huh... get ready to fight!"

After shouting, Li Le drifted into a sharp turn and steered the cargo cart into a corner between rock walls.

Drawing his Bone Rod and bracing his stance, he leaped off the cart.

Kaluo held up a specially made Paintball and ran into position beside him.

"Where's Sisi?"

"Still asleep, meow!"

"Wake her up, now-ah!"

Hearing even Li Le's voice tremble, Kaluo immediately realized how serious the situation was. He scrambled onto the cart and shook Sisi hard, waking her.

Bang!

A broken log was knocked into the air.

A figure clad entirely in heavy, dark green carapace charged out of the forest.

The monster stood on four thick insect legs, its inward-turned claws resembling pointed shovels.

Hisss~...

As air continually vented from its body, the monster swept its gaze from side to side.

"Sisi, the Seltas Queen is coming for you. This isn't a monster we can handle easily. Be careful."

While assessing the situation, Li Le issued a solemn warning.

Sisi stared at the Seltas Queen for a moment, then controlled Old Bones to step sideways.

Seeing that the Seltas Queen's attention lingered on her only briefly, she tilted her head in thought.

"Wait, why does its attention seem to be all on me...?"

Li Le noticed something wrong.

But he had no more time to think. He immediately ran sideways, away from the cargo cart.

Bang! Bang!

The Seltas Queen stopped watching and charged, its insect feet pounding the ground as it lunged to ram him.

Whoosh! Crash!

The specially made Paintball burst against the pair of heavily armored forelimbs in front of its mouthparts.

The ore weight struck at the same time, embedding itself inside.

The Seltas Queen's entire body immediately shifted a short distance sideways.

Whoosh! Smack!

A ball of insect silk plastered itself over the crack in the forelimb's carapace, using Extract Essence to draw in the red essence spilling out.

As Sisi swung it around, she discovered that Li Le had already run too far away for there to be any chance of hitting him.

So she controlled Old Bones and followed him.

Bang! Boom!

The Seltas Queen rammed headfirst into the rock wall.

A depression appeared, and large quantities of rock immediately fell from the mountainside above.

Yet the falling rocks inflicted no effective damage on the thick carapace covering its back.

The Seltas Queen turned and charged toward Li Le again.

Is there something wrong with this Seltas Queen?!

Li Le cursed inwardly as he ran and glanced back.

Had it been some other, less threatening monster, he would have had the courage to try dodging with a roll.

But against a Seltas Queen, given the protection his hunter armor offered, even getting clipped would basically be the end of him.

So he leaped straight at the rock wall ahead and began climbing.

Boom!

Another thunderous impact echoed through the mountains.

Faced with rocks shaken loose from the mountainside above and hurtling toward him.

Li Le's only possible escape was to push off the rock wall and leap backward.

As for whether he could land safely, that would depend on Sisi.

"Sisi! Get ready to catch me!"

Just as Li Le prepared to jump, a familiar buzzing came from above.

Smack! Clack!

Bug Brother used the carapace on his back to block the falling rocks overhead.

But although his carapace could withstand them, the wings on his back were not nearly as strong.

This was clearly not Bug Brother's most suitable posture for withstanding impacts.

Crick, crack~

Several crystalline fragments of transparent insect wing drifted down.

"You... it's too dangerous for you to show yourself here."

Bug Brother did not respond. Instead, he clamped Li Le between his legs and quickly carried him upward and away.

Bang! Bang!

Looking up and seeing this, the Seltas Queen stamped fiercely on the ground, seeming even angrier.

Suspended in midair, Li Le began speculating as he observed.

As for the greatest difference between himself and Sisi in the eyes of insects.

That meant that even when Sisi wasn't releasing any fragrance, no Seltas scent would linger.

Because Seltas wouldn't dare come near in the first place.

He, on the other hand, had the closest contact with Bug Brother.

"Then, in the Seltas Queen's eyes, I'm a creature with two mingled scents. Could it have mistaken me for..."

Li Le looked up at Bug Brother, who was carrying him through the air, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily drooped.

Whoosh~

The sound of surging air came from the ground.

With its head raised, the Seltas Queen pressed its four legs into the ground as air surged wildly inside its mouthparts.

"Bug Brother! A high-pressure water cannon's coming! Can you handle it?!"

Li Le slapped its leg hard in warning.

Bug Brother lowered his head slightly, seemingly signaling that he shouldn't worry.

Whoosh! Bang!

A ball of water shot out.

Buzzz!

Bug Brother beat his wings at high speed and abruptly darted sideways.

Whoosh~

The spherical mass of water swept past beside them, trailing a blast of air, then burst apart overhead.

"Bug Brother! Awesome!"

Li Le gave him a thumbs-up.

Thinking back now, he felt his earlier worries had been entirely unnecessary.

If anything in the entire ecosystem understood the Seltas Queen's attacks best, it was undoubtedly a Seltas.

With its target gone, the furious Seltas Queen immediately turned around and fixed its attention on Sisi.

At that moment, Sisi was still following the previous command, watching the sky and waiting to catch Li Le.

"Sisi! Li Le's safe already! We're the ones in danger now, meow!"

Kaluo gave a warning and passed over another specially made Paintball.

Sisi hoisted it up to test its weight and found it a little lighter.

"Li Le's combining skills keep improving, so the balls are getting smaller, meow."

Without hesitation, Sisi swung it around and threw it.

Bang!

As the pink mist burst out, the ore ballast struck home again.

One of the forelimbs guarding the mouthparts, covered in extremely thick armor, shattered with a crash.

The reason Sisi was so intent on attacking those small forelimbs.

Was that Li Le had specifically explained it during their meal break.

Once the Seltas Queen's small forelimbs there were shattered, its weak point-the mouthparts on its head-would be completely exposed.

The intense pain made the Seltas Queen stamp its legs and pause briefly, but it didn't stop its advance.

Sisi glanced sideways. The Paintball Kaluo was holding out was clearly another size smaller.

Rather than take it, Sisi shot out silk and hoisted Kaluo straight onto Old Bones' back.

"We're taking it head-on, meow?! ...But!"

After a brief surge of excitement, Kaluo abruptly snapped back to his senses.

As the Seltas Queen rapidly approached, the enormous disparity in their sizes was becoming increasingly apparent.

"Whatever, meow! I'm fighting alongside Sisi!"

As he spoke, Kaluo grabbed and lifted the binder ballista bolt head hanging from Old Bones' side by silk.

Just as the two insects were about to meet, Sisi sharply raised the silk wrapped around its scythe claws.

The bony joints throughout Old Bones' body clacked against one another.

Its feet immediately bent downward, and its entire body dropped flat.

The Seltas Queen lowered its head again and rammed straight ahead, plowing through the ground.

Crash!

Dirt flew.

The instant they collided, Old Bones' neck twisted and snapped.

Chunks and splinters of bone scattered through the air.

Only the rigid spine met the Seltas Queen's face head-on.

But it held for only a moment before crumbling apart.

The Seltas Queen's compound eyes brightened, as though it had realized that the small insect before it.

Apart from its rather strange scent and appearance, wasn't as formidable as it looked.

Crack~

After Old Bones fell apart completely, Sisi landed on the ground.

Sisi seemed a little dazed.

It seemed unable to believe that the "Ahtal-Neset" it had spent so long assembling could prove so fragile.

But the massive body bearing down right in front of it gave it no time to think.

"Sisi! Watch out, meow!"

At that moment, Kaluo appeared beside it, holding up the binder ballista bolt head and shouting a warning.()