Chapter Sixty-One: Insect (4) The Terrifying Demon Worm!

Zhao Tianhe plunged headfirst into the sea, desperately swimming downwards as he cast a first-level spell for underwater breathing upon himself.

Unfortunately, Zhao Tianhe could hear the splashes behind him—the sound of something entering the water in rapid succession—along with faint but steadily approaching ripples.

‘Damn it, they’re amphibious! Jeros never misses a meal and always brings girls along to feed me dog food, but when it matters most, he’s nowhere to be found!’ Zhao Tianhe shifted the attributes of the Heart of Aggregation towards strength, increasing his swimming speed and finally managing to keep pace with the pursuing swarm.

“Oh dear, my poor child…” Pixie, with a bubble of air encasing her head, grabbed Zhao Tianhe’s hair and patted his scalp with a confident smile. “Behold the power of nature!”

“Huh?!” Zhao Tianhe stopped, for he heard a denser, more urgent sound.

Hundreds of fish of all sizes converged from every direction, forming a school that surrounded the insect swarm and devoured them all.

“Hahaha~~~ Bugs are just bugs, after all!” Pixie laughed, hands on her hips.

“Right, you can command natural creatures, so these things are only a bit stronger than ordinary insects…” Zhao Tianhe watched the dispersing fish and the insect remains floating in the water, finally breathing a sigh of relief.

Yet when the fish dispersed, Zhao Tianhe saw dozens of fish belly-up, writhing desperately…

“Damn, don’t tell me…” Zhao Tianhe gasped, recalling a scene from the recent swimsuit show—though that had happened to people, not fish…

Splash! Thud!

One by one, monstrous bugs burst from the bodies of fish, some as long as half a meter. Their streamlined shapes suggested they had inherited some piscine traits, making them better suited for aquatic combat.

“Don’t worry! I’ll summon something even bigger…” Pixie, startled by the scene, refused to back down. She raised her hand, ready to call forth larger ocean creatures to join the battle.

“Stop! Any bigger and I really won’t make it!” Zhao Tianhe quickly called her off. These dozens of bug monsters seemed manageable, but if a giant bug appeared, he feared today would be his grave beneath the sea.

The compound eyes of the aquatic bug monsters fixed on Zhao Tianhe, their powerful hind legs propelling them through the water in pursuit!

‘Their strength isn’t high, but their forms are better suited for the water—they’re faster than me.’ Zhao Tianhe instantly gauged their abilities. ‘Overall, they’re probably a bit weaker than D-class elites, but stronger than ordinary D-class monsters.’

On his short sword, the water-cutting enchantment was instantly activated, and Zhao Tianhe cleaved a bug monster in two with a single stroke.

‘I have enough power to kill these bugs outright. I haven’t fought myself in a long time; I need to stay calm and fight smart.’ Zhao Tianhe coolly analyzed the swarm rushing him, quickly establishing an order of attack.

Sweeping left and right, he killed four bug monsters outright, ducked and tucked his legs to dodge three more, then stabbed ahead to slay another…

Three minutes later, at the cost of some scrapes on his left hand and right cheek, Zhao Tianhe had dispatched forty-seven bug monsters.

“What a stench…” Pixie pinched her nose, as the dark red fluids from the bug monsters’ remains stained a wide swath of sea.

Zhao Tianhe swam slowly, occasionally stabbing at the carcasses.

These bug monsters, like the insectoid humans before, each had a core bug. Unless the core was killed, they wouldn’t truly die. Though he didn’t know what trickery lay within, Zhao Tianhe decided to finish each one off.

Soon, he learned why the core had to be destroyed.

“What’s going on? Hasn’t he returned yet?” Jeros returned to the hero’s apartment with his companion, having boasted to her about his partner’s culinary skills. ‘Usually, he’s always cooking up something on the beach, but now he’s nowhere to be seen when I bring someone special… Sigh… Hm?!’

Zhao Tianhe burst out of the sea, faster than ever, his face showing rare fear.

“Ahe, you…” Jeros thought Zhao Tianhe was training, but soon realized otherwise.

“What are those monsters? Summoned creatures? They’re disgusting…” The woman frowned at the giant bug monsters scrambling onto the beach behind Zhao Tianhe.

Dozens of monsters, some barely ten centimeters, others over ten meters long, had been spawned from some large ocean creatures that had consumed the fish, which had been infected by the bugs.

Perhaps some monsters had been too damaged to react immediately, so the fish swam far before dying.

Some of them transformed into bug monsters and rushed back to attack. Zhao Tianhe wasn’t afraid and slew more than a dozen, but soon noticed violent waves in the distance…

Some large sea creatures, while eating the bug monsters, failed to crush the core, and became parasitized…

“Help!” Zhao Tianhe and Pixie screamed together.

If Pixie hadn’t cast acceleration spells to aid him, they would both have been caught and devoured by the giant bug monsters in the sea.

Boom!

A blast of searing wind swept out, instantly incinerating all the bug monsters. It was nothing more than a quick-cast, fourth-level spell: Firecloud Blaze.

“What are these things? Monsters? They’re giving experience points?” Jeros flew to Zhao Tianhe, who lay exhausted on the ground.

“No idea,” Zhao Tianhe shook his head, glanced at the woman, then at Jeros.

Jeros nodded, returned to say a few words to his companion, and then waved goodbye.

Afterwards, the two men returned to the apartment, where Zhao Tianhe recounted the day’s events in detail.

“Monsters from the natural world… That’s nearly impossible,” Jeros said, frowning. “The dungeon is tightly controlled, and if monsters ever entered the natural world, you saw the consequences—it would be an absolute disaster! Impossible to hide!”

Dungeon monsters are, in fact, produced by the world’s will to replace ‘old species’. Their presence doesn’t merely disrupt or invade the natural ecosystem—it obliterates it.

If those bug monsters were truly invading from the dungeon, it would never go unnoticed. That would mean millions of lives erased! The national magic web’s surveillance is no joke; it’s a vast system built over thousands of years, the dream and sweat of the people, the foundation of the future world.

“So, is it magic?” Zhao Tianhe asked, furrowing his brow.

“Hmm… I’m not sure. Using monsters, or creating them through magic, isn’t impossible. It could be someone’s new form of magic,” said Jeros, knowledgeable as ever. He didn’t dismiss Zhao Tianhe’s guess, but instead closed his eyes in deep thought, the faint sound of grinding teeth echoing. ‘Whoever you are, if you dare to lay a hand on my partner, I’ll make sure you have nowhere left to die!’