Accompanied by a gray light and the same dizziness that he'd felt after being teleported to the Temple of Shadows, System returned to his nest along with Shava and Aura. He brought thirteen jars of dragon bone marrow, some magic items, and hundreds of magic candles back with him.
Now that he had a rge amount of magic candles, there was no longer any need to cultivate luminescent mushrooms. The magic candles were a far superior source of illumination for the underground nest.
Unlike System, who was a pragmatist, Aura and Shava brought back two rge boxes full of treasure. Aura's box was full of gold coins, while Shava's was filled with gems.
While those riches would have been more secure if they'd been left in the temple's hidden treasure room, the two insects obviously preferred bringing them back to the nest.
Although Aura had obtained ownership of the Temple of Shadows on that demipne from Rafael, he didn't feel any sense of belonging to the temple. To him, it would be better to bring the gold coins back to the nest and use them to decorate his chamber.
...
However, not long after System returned, his antennae picked up the scent of blood. He could smell both ant blood and a second type of blood that smelled simir to sulfur. The smell made System feel uneasy for the first time in a long time.
"Could it be a creature from the Abyss?" System muttered in a quiet voice.
Ever since the gnolls' invasion of Lilt Forest had been stopped by the elves, the Abyss demons that had fought alongside the gnolls seemed to have disappeared without a trace.
According to the information that Ying had passed along to System, the gnolls had become the subjects of Abyss Lord Ogan, Aura's dragon brother, who was the culprit responsible for turning Aura into a butterfly.
Ever since System had woken up after his third pupation and discovered that the entire Warren Pins had been occupied by undead creatures, he'd always felt a sense of wrongness that he couldn't quite pce. He now realized that the source of the strange feeling was the Abyss.
System had always believed that the inferno dragon Ogan had abandoned the gnolls and given up on the Warren Pins. He now realized that the truth might not be that simple.
...
System and Shava quickly moved in the direction of the smell. While rushing through one of the nest's passages, he soon encountered a wounded worker ant knight.
The carapace over the worker knight's abdomen was broken. Fortunately, there was only a small amount of blood flowing out, and the ant wasn't in any serious danger. System made sure the worker knight was okay before continuing to track the scent of the Abyss creature's blood.
Before long, his antennae heard the sound of cshing near the nest's entrance. The smell of an Abyssal creature's blood also grew stronger. He guessed that his ant subjects were likely fighting against some number of Abyss creatures.
Just when System and Shava were about to reach the entrance of the cave, the sounds of combat vanished. It seemed like the battle was over.
When System arrived, he saw Meatball, who had transformed into a huge mouth filled with multiple yers of serrated teeth, biting the head off of a huge centipede.
As soon as System walked over, his son Meatball immediately spit out the centipede head and approached System affectionately.
After Shava, Meatball could be said to be System's strongest combat power. Since the two of them hadn't seen each other in a while, System used [Probe and Analyze] to check how much Meatball had grown.
...
Species: Amoeba Beast (renameable)Level: 42/130
Diameter: 0.53 metersWeight: 41 kilograms
Estimated Combat Power: 180-260Special Talents: [Pupation] (20/22), [Insect Adaptability] (30/30)
...
System didn't expect Meatball to have any problems undergoing his fourth pupation if he continued growing at the same pace.
After rubbing Meatball's body with his tentacles, System walked over to investigate the dead centipede's body.
The decapitated centipede's body was still twitching slightly, causing a lot of dark red blood to flow out onto the ground. With so much of the creature's blood around, System felt a very strong Abyssal aura.
Bck soon ran over to System's side.
After Bck expressed her joy and confusion regarding System's return, she quickly told him what had happened in the nest while he'd been missing for the past half month.
System learned that this one-meter-long centipede hadn't been the first one to show up at the nest. Three centipedes had attacked the nest in the past half month, with the most recent centipede being the smallest and most ordinary one.
Interestingly, all three of the centipedes had taken the initiative to invade the nest. None of them had been encountered by the ant teams patrolling outside.
After receiving the news from Bck, System immediately realized the seriousness of the situation.
Bck quickly led System over to the corpses of the other two centipedes, and System got his first look at these strange centipedes with hairy arms. These odd creatures gave him a simir feeling to the one he'd gotten from Meatball's predecessor, the white spider.
However, after System tried eating a few bites of the centipedes, he noticed something unusual about their blood.
Like Meatball's predecessor, these Abyssal centipedes also had insect blood, but their situation was very different.
While Meatball's predecessor's blood had been mixed with demon blood, his core had still contained pure insect blood. However, these centipede-like creatures contained mostly demon blood. Their blood had only been supplemented with some insect and other arthropod blood.
In truth, they were a different kind of demon.
System recalled Ying telling him that the Swarm Druids were followers of Ogan. If his guess was correct, these centipede demons had been developed by the Swarm Druids.
After inspecting the ant knights and healing their injuries with his [Healing Power], System visited the queen, then left the nest with Shava to try to find out where the demons had come from.
Although his [Intuition] hadn't given him any warning, which indicated that these huge centipedes weren't a major threat to the colony, he still felt that it was necessary to investigate these Abyss creatures immediately. He wanted to avoid any trouble that he hadn't already taken precautions against.
After all, while his [Intuition] was useful, he only received warnings about most threats after they'd already appeared.
...
In the past half month, the climate in the Warren Pins hadn't changed much. The temperature was still around zero degrees.
There had been a light snowfall in the past two days, and a thin yer of white snow covered the ground. Due to the cold weather, the snowfkes hadn't yet completely melted.
The snow made it easier for System to observe the situation on the ground as he flew through the sky. He soon saw a fallen gnoll zombie two kilometers away that was being devoured by a rge centipede.
The centipede was a little over one meter long. While most of its body looked normal for a centipede, some strange white spikes grew along the back of its brown carapace. These spikes looked very much like the fangs of a gnoll.
System noticed that centipede's body was rapidly growing as it devoured the zombie's flesh. Every two or three minutes, its body grew about one centimeter longer.
After observing the centipede from the sky for more than ten minutes, System flew over with Shava to take a closer look at the centipede from the Abyss.
The centipede seemed to be very alert. When the two of them moved within approximately thirty meters of the centipede, it suddenly stopped eating the zombie and rushed toward System at a high speed.
...
Species: Centipede Demon (renameable)
Length: 1.07 metersWeight: 15-25 kilograms
Estimated Combat Power: 5-20Special Talents: -
...
System was forced to give up on his idea of observing the centipede from close range. He quickly had Shava cut off all of the centipede's legs so that it lost its ability to move.
While Shava was fighting against the centipede, System discovered that he seemed to be able to feel the emotions of this Abyss creature.
