Chapter 87 - Bugs, bugs everywhere.

Jack walks with Sleipner toward the shrubbery that was just moving. The creature can't be over 30 metres away by now but without his spiritual energy, he's essentially walking around blind. This is one of the rare times he has gained insight into how much he has been using his spiritual energy without meaning to.

He almost feels like calling out Fenrir to help hunt for a bit, but it's far more important for the High-King wolf to keep control of those damn Brown Plains Rats.

Thinking about it for a moment, the rats would actually be good bait for the creatures they're hunting today. That's if they could control them… unfortunately a king rat still hasn't been born after all this time.

It's already the fourth generation of rats. That's how quickly they've been reproducing while contained to a particular area.

It's a big juicy target for all those creatures and it's better to keep the wolves watching the rats to ensure they don't escape and nothing messes with them.

He creeps through the bushes as he stops thinking about the wolves and rats. The branches and leaves rub against him as he passes through, leaving a sticky residue on his clothing. He takes a sniff of the residue in hopes of it giving him a clue of the creature's identity.

"It smells like shit." He flings the substance on his finger away, almost gagging.

He rushes through the thick shrubs to escape the strange, disgusting yellow substance that coats the nearby leaves and branches. Sleipner is following closely behind as Jack quietly curses himself for not following the tank-like horse as it barrels through the shrubs instead of covering his clothes in this foul smelling substance.

They pause before a thick wall of vines, Jack peers through the wall of vines looking at what's on the other side.

It's a large clearing with short brown grass and some trees in the distance.

It doesn't take long for him to notice the 4-horn Deer that are running about the field, a few deer with larger antlers seem to be fighting the large strange-looking creature that is crawling along the ground. Jack sits back and watches the deer and creature fight.

The large creature is like a large snake crawling along the ground, but it's much faster than a snake.

One of the deer launches a wind blade towards the creature, the creature doesn't even pause as it catches up to the deer that just launched the wind blade.

The deer is emitting some horrible noises for a moment before ceasing; the creature is curls up into a ball as the rest of the deer run away.

Jack can feel his blood pumping after watching the battle, "You stay here and chase after it if it runs, I'll keep up myself." Jack tells Sleipner as he checks his weapons one last time, there's no point messing around with this creature.

The creature should be about Stage 3, meaning that it's a strong beast even if insects aren't technically 'beasts'. A stage 3 magical beast can take down someone at stage 4 easily. Its speed is really quick and its shell looks rather sturdy as it had no damage after tanking the wind blade.

Holding his trusty newly repaired spear, Jack circulates dragon fire qi around his body, pushing it into the spearhead causing it to vibrate.

Looking at the insect, it doesn't appear disturbed by the slight hum of the spearhead as he quietly approaches.

He's about 10m away from it as he's assaulted by a foul stench and the faint crouching sound of bones being muffled slightly.

Jack paces around the curled up creatures for a few moments before shaking his head, there's no simple way around this. Its head is in the centre, protected by the other layers of its body.

He needs to decide, either jump up and expose himself or do something else.

He continues to walk around the outside of the creature; it doesn't take notice of him when Jack pauses at a particular spot. He readies the spear by preparing a small explosion as an evil smile comes over his mouth.

He stabs forward with the glowing and vibrating spearhead, a simple stab without any elegance.

*squealch*

Flesh tears as the spearhead penetrates the creature's armour easily digging into its flesh, the creature suddenly screams as it arcs up but Jack reacts in time using bunny dash to jump away as he releases the explosion in the spearhead.

*Boom*

A muffled explosion causes the rear of the creature to blow up, exposing its grey insides. Jack finally gets a first look at the identity of the creature. It has lots of lots of little tiny legs while it has a solid layer of armour around the outside.

'Ah, it's a two-step cave millipede.' Xueli announces but Jack doesn't react as he's watching it closely.

Its rear end has scattered around the area, big chunks of flesh and armour plating strew about. The creature itself is flailing around as its head vomits the food it just ate back up.

Jack watches it before spotting its head near to where liquid is being ejected out of it. Jack readies his spear, but it spots him too and pounces towards him.

He's surprised by this reaction speed. He readies another charge for the spear while using the first motion. His aim is for the mouth still spewing fluid as it him.

They're only three steps away from each other when Jack stabs forward, it's another simple, inelegant stab but as the vibrating spearhead travels through the foul smelling liquid it bends and tracks the target, it needs to.

The foul liquid blocks his view but he trusts his spear as it twists strangely, the liquid emits a hissing sound as the spearhead disappears but he can feel the spear dig into flesh.

He can't waste anytime and releases the explosion, *kaboom*.

He uses bunny dash to leap backward as the explosion sounds, but before he's able to look at his handy-work, he's suddenly hit in the side by something.

He reacts in time and steadies himself as he skids along the ground. There's no damage to his body, but he still has a cold sweat on his forehead. It was very close to hitting his spine then, and that would be destroyed at this stage.

Jack looks over the millipede as it trashes about for a few more moments before finally ceasing to move. He got hit by the rear end of it as the muscles involuntarily contract and expand during its death throes. After waiting a few minutes, he millipede no longer moves.

He quickly stores it away as pain comes over his head, it seems like his spiritual energy hasn't recovered yet but the body still disappears leaving behind a bloody field filled with foul smelling liquid.

That fight luckily wasn't too noisy, so the other creatures shouldn't have been disturbed. Jack wipes his spear and walks toward Sleipner, who is still poking his head through the vine wall when Jack trips over something annoyed at himself for this newfound clumsiness.

He looks down at his foot to see a strangely twisted up body of a rabbit. Its ribs are sticking out as it looks like its spine is twisted, yet there's no blood?

He stands up when the little rabbit person avatar appears, he's startled but remembers this and readies himself. The avatar dashes towards him, he's tempted to block it to test out his new strength but plays it safe by using bunny dash at the last moment.

*Boom*

It blows dirt in the air; the avatar disappears while the rabbit just stands there looking at Jack with its glowing red eyes as if nothing happened at all. Jack looks at the hole it created in the ground, glad that he dashed backwards instead of intercepting it.

"Jeez, you rabbits are annoying. Are they what's infesting the villages in this region? I thought the villages were all intact, shouldn't they be all blown up if that's how they can hurt people?" Jack asks out loud as he gestures angrily at the rabbit.

'Careful, some of the most benign animals can become the most deadly when mutated.'

It sits there staring at him, almost like it's mocking him without moving.

He pulls the dagger out from his waist; the rabbit's eyes react to this, but it still doesn't move. It continues to just watch him.

"Will you still not move after this?"

He stabs 'Fang of the Night-Demon' toward the ground, 'Shadow Strike' he announces in his mind as the shadow proceeds along the ground and engulfs the rabbit in a pitch-black sphere. The little avatar appears again, this time it looks much worse off as its eyes glow red.

It leaps towards Jack who is ready for it; he uses bunny dash to move about 50m away.

*BOOM*

Birds are scared out of their trees as a large pit is now where he was just standing. The rabbit avatar has disappeared while there's nothing left of where the rabbit was except for a smooth sphere cut out of the ground.

"I'm honestly surprised that worked." Jack announces, a glow develops on his hands when suddenly a reward egg has appeared. It's pitch-black compared to the usual ones, he's just about to touch it when it disappears from his hand.

"What?" he yells and looks around.

"Thaaanksss" a whisper comes over his ears, he turns his head but can only catch the slightest glimpse of the shadowed person disappearing.

"Hey, that was mine. Give it back!" he yells out, but there's no response. Xueli is giggling in his mind.

"Fine, you can have that as a reward for leading me through the Jade Palace somewhat but you have to ask next time!" he yells out while walking toward Sleipner.

"Well, let's go find some more of these creatures… I really hope there're no centipedes around."

He mounts Sleipner learning from the previous mistake, the giant horse doesn't care about the disgusting bushes as he walks through the bush and back towards the main road.

The two of them trot down the road for a few minutes when they come across a squad of soldiers.

In the sky there are three creatures that look like giant disgusting flies flying back and forth, by the soldiers feet there is something they seem interested in but Jack is unable to spot it from the distance.

"Ahh, we can't cut these damn things with the sword!" one of them yells.

"I can't get a hit, they're too quick!" a soldier holding a bow announces, one creature buzzes close to him.

The flying creature attacks the bowman's shoulder forcing him to drop his weapon, he takes up a dagger and slashes at the creature but it flies out of reach.

"It's coming, ready the spears!" the leader soldier announces, two spearmen come forward as the creatures make another dive.

One of the creatures is stabbed by a spear but the other two make it through attacking the soldiers leaving them bloodied.

Jack has had enough of watching from a distance, 'Bunny Dash!' he announces in his mind and rushes forward. The creatures are about to make another diving attack when Jack stands before the soldiers who haven't readied the spears.

"Lord!" one soldier announces, Jack doesn't take note of this and readies the second motion of 'Heavens Piercing Thrust'.

Jack stabs forward twice in quick succession as the creature is diving towards him.

*POP*

The two creatures suddenly explode in a bloody mist.

It takes a moment for the soldiers to react to what happens, "Thank you Lord!", they announce while bowing towards Jack.

Jack inspects the creatures previously killed before storing away their dead bodies.

"What's going on here? Why were the flying insects attracted?" Jack asks the officer.

"Lord, we came across a dead demonic sheep on the roadside and shortly after attacked. We haven't cleaned it up yet" the officer points to the ground where there's a dead sheep with black wool on the ground.

"Ah, that's weird why would it die?" Jack wonders out loud.

"I don't know Lord."

*buzz buzz*

The group looks into the air, a group of 10 flying creatures are flying towards the group.

"I'll take care of this."

Jack stands before the soldiers, between the dead sheep and the flying insects. The soldiers quickly gather their things and leave just as the next wave of insects arrives.

'Second Motion'

The spear jabs out in 4 thrusts, the soldiers pause for a moment to watch this.

*POP*

8 of the creatures explode into a bloody mist while the remaining two fall onto the ground, crawling around buzzing their wings. A soldier steps forward with his sword and stabs it, it takes effort but he's able to kill it.

Jack kills the remaining insect while looking at the comparison with their weapons, the soldiers are primarily using the ant shell swords but they don't seem to pierce through the leather skin on these flying creatures.

The spears and arrows can pierce the flesh, but they're made of metal.

'We still have an equipment problem. A shipment of minerals should come through soon from the mining village. Wonder what I can find to bribe the dwarves to make some weapons?' he wonders to himself as the soldiers leave.

"Thank you, Lord!" they announce as they disappear into the distance, Jack wanders around collecting the corpses of the remaining insects and the sheep.

There's nothing else remaining here so remounting Sleipner. He chooses a random direction and repeats the entire process again.

The morning passes by quickly as he hunts with Sleipner. They have collected over 90 insects, most of which were killed by Jack, but Sleipner killed a couple.

His clothes and weapons in disarray, but a big smile on his face as 'Fia' dances about atop his head before disappearing.

He feels more in tune with his body; the fighting has helped round out some edges with his cultivation and battle skills. A saying that Xueli keeps saying, 'You can't control the destination, but you can control the journey there' so that has given him an insight into his current progression.

Jack and Sleipner have walked through a good 30% of the village's total territory through the morning and are near the rat area. There are countless wolves standing around the area but as Sleipner approaches them, they all make way for him. He might be a lower rank than Fenrir for now but that doesn't mean any of these wolves can do anything to him.

Not that they would, Fenrir seems to be keeping the grey and hellfire wolves in line.

Sleipner stops at a clearing, Jack can see the thousands of rats in the distance. It's like a brown ocean as they fight against the wolves trying to break their containment.

Jack lets out a whistle as he dismounts the horse.

Fenrir comes running up to Jack upon hearing the whistle, Jack is surprised at how dog like Fenrir currently looks. He looks like a husky except with piercing red eyes.

Jack leans down to pet him but Fenrir places a particular rat in his hand.

The rat doesn't squirm as if it has been terrified of Fenrir. The rat is a pure white and looks rather beautiful. All the other rats so far have been brown or grey, looking like giant sewer rats, but this rat looks more like a pet. It's much smaller than the other ones too.

Unfortunately, it's not a king rat, just a mutation.

"Well thanks for showing me this rat, wanna come check out the town?" Jack asks Fenrir. It responds by wagging its tail.

Jack stores the rat in his pocket before bringing Fenrir back to the village for a walk. As they approach the village, smell assaults their nose as Fenrir almost drools, the smell showing that it's lunchtime.

The streets are busy with the sound of life and activity, goods are being passed around as children play around on the streets. Jack smiles as he watches them before heading towards the kitchen area.

He nears the kitchen where he spots Jessica walking with Lunamarie and some guards talking about something, Jack pulls up on Sleipner while kicking up some dust when Lunamarie to almost jump in fright.

"You... You..." Lunamarie points at him with her mouth agape as she looks up at the horse.

"You what? Also you shouldn't point at people, it's rude." He strokes Sleipner and leaps down.

"Don't pull up like that… Why does that horse have that mutation?"

"I found him like that, why?"

"They're an ancient extinct race, precursors..."

Jack laughs, "How can that be? It says in the system that he's a Lightning Scaled Horse, he came with a den."

"Ah, then that's good then." Lunamarie breathes a sigh in relief.

"What were you going to say?" Jessica asks.

"Precursor Qilin, they formed into 6 different types while all of them have disappeared. If you have some then I'd expect the ancestor level people to try to take them." It piques Jack's curiosity upon hearing about Ancestor level people but Jessica speaks out before he can.

"How can you tell?"

"The horn, it has the same jagged pattern on both its horn and hooves. Perhaps he just has an injury."

"Maybe, he's been through some things with me, even today." Jack strokes the horse a little, Sleipner huffs in pleasure.

"Look at you, how did you get so dirty?" Jessica comes forward and fixes up some of Jack's clothing. Fenrir comes out from behind Sleipner and eats some chunks of old flesh from the ground.

"That's disgusting, are you a wolf or a pig? Why are you eating that stuff for?" Jack feels like kicking the wolf as it eats the entrails falling from his clothes. He steps forward when he hears someone scream.

"Ahhh!" Lunamarie suddenly yells.

"What!?" Jack and Jessica ask in unison as they look at the bunny girl almost fall over, she backs away and runs into the building locking the door.

"What was that about?" Jessica asks.

"Uh perhaps Fenrir?" Jack gives the wolf a pet, avoiding the tongue as he picks up some more entrails on the ground.

"Are you a wolf or a pig dog?" Jack asks as he strokes it, he doesn't get a response.

"Well, umm, that is the laboratory, and she has the key so we can go through the back?"

"Sure, let's go" Jack pulls the little white rat out, it sniffs the air and looks at Jessica.

"Aww how cute, tiny white, maybe. Little snow? No.." Jessica mumbles to herself as she reaches for the rat.

The little white rat is big enough to fit in her entire hand as it squirms about. The escort soldiers lead them around through the rear door where Lunamarie is already refining herbs. Her expression is one of complete focus, so Jack and Jessica choose to not disturb her.

"I'll stay here, you go do whatever." Jessica holds the rat and sits inside. Jack sits there watching Jessica and Lunamarie for a few moments but they're each in their own little worlds. Jessica is playing with the rat while talking to the little Phoenix chick.

Jack exits the rear exit, Fenrir and Sleipner are both hanging around. He takes a few laps around the village, watching the residents get their food.

A minor scuffle breaks out between residents from the village that was burnt down and the kobold workers, but soldiers step in the mediate the conflict without him needing to get involved. This short circuit has given him a few more ideas about how to build the city.

Jack takes a last lap of the village before stopping at the city hall building. There's a lot that needs to be finalised for the auction tomorrow night, and current plans are to head off tonight for early preparation.

Hilda and Bane both greet Jack as he walks through the door.

"Don't mind me, I'm just here to talk about the plans for tonight. How did you go with the underground section of the city Bane?"

Hilda passes him a report, he quickly reads over it but Bane speaks out.

"Lord, we found… almost nothing down there. It seems to be a site for a religious ceremony but as none of the participants are alive, we're unable to know exactly what religion it was."

"What about the person I rescued?"

"He hasn't woken since you left. He was lucky to survive the trip back here."

"What about the people we took from the village last time? The blonde-haired dickhead?"

"We haven't been able to acquire any information from him. The only part is that his uncle was perhaps involved in the ceremony. You can be sure about that. Unless he has a spiritual lock on the information, there's no way he could hide it." Bane smiles with a malicious smile as he speaks the final part.

"Do we know who his uncle is?"

"We have his name and which cities he is affiliated with."

"I see, so what can we do about it? I don't particular want some religious group to create pools of blood for some purpose nearby."

"Lord, over the past few days there has been a massive change in the heavenly energies. I would assume that the energies required for the ceremony are no longer permitted. That might restrict their activities in the short term but as we don't know the usage of the blood pool… I don't dare make assumptions." Bane responds.

"We have many contacts made in the various capital cities already and will sniff them out eventually so don't worry, Lord." Bane adds.

"I don't like the fact that they're so close, we need to be able to watch them at least but it sounds like you're on top of it all. Good job, I noticed a few things as I was making my rounds this morning and saw a few problems we need to address but first thing is first, we need better equipment."

"The ant carcass swords are good but against enemies that are stronger than ants, the sword's seem to fail."

Hilda and Bane listen to him narrate his experiences with the flying insects and various other crawling ones he found around the region.

"So I was thinking that we can get the dwarves to look at making some new weapons for us."