Tim, and the guard patrolled the area where the dead bugs were. They were yet to receive help from oblins, and that wasn't too surprising, because the closest ones were supposedly a whole kilometer away! It was going to take a while for them to get here, if they saw the signal to begin with, that is.

  The guard started sed guessing if anyone saw the first signal, so he unleashed a new one every five mihat way, someone was bound to see the sigually!

  Anyway, it took little time for things to bee b here. Personal safety was a luxury that every creature longed for, but factually, the sense of safety left a lot of room for boredom. Siimothy was especially proo boredom, he ended up doing something stupid. He stuck his head in one of the tunnels where the Demoles had crawled out of!

  This was beyond stupid, because any bug could snap his head off down there, but the thrill of his own stupidity was euphoric! He felt sharper than ever now, mentally that is, and so, he mao pick up on an importaail.

  Tim then pulled his head out of the hole, and asked. “Hey, guy? Are beetle holes supposed to be this dark?”

  The guard was too far away to see what he was doing, so he yelled out. “Why the hell are you looking down a beetle's asshole?!”

  “You’re talking about the wrong hole, John. I'm going to call you John from now on.” He followed along.

  “My name is Gustav,” The other tered, and finally, he figured out what kind of hole Timothy was talking about. “You meaunnels? Yes, the underground is usually dark, it's supposed to be.”

  Timothy wasn't satisfied with that answer, because he could tell that the guard was being negligent here. As a response, he walked over to the biggest tunnel he could find, which was almost ni wide, and walked into it.

  Gustav the guard followed suit, because he didn’t appreciate these random acts of exploration from the other. He was about to scold Timothy, but then he figured out what the fuss was about!

  “You weren’t kidding, that's a hole as dark as any!” Gustav said, and he was referring to something very specific, he was talking about a pitch bck portal!

  Every tuhat these bugs had dug before, when they crawled out of the ground, led back to one single point. The tunnels led to the portal, so after this point, it was easy to put two and two together!

  “It's a portal, the me guess, it leads to a nano universe?” He asked.

  “I'm afraid not,” Gustav added, “Nul is the only nano-universe I know of, and it's pretty hard to get there! This portal leads to something smaller, smaller than a nano universe. There has to be a needle universe sitting oher side of that portal, they're usually just a kilometer wide, and don't have a sun surrounding them. It's a pce people go when they want to age more slowly.”

  “Well shit, I never heard of a needle universe before.” He expressed, “Maybe this is why we couldn't find that many bugs so far? They're all hiding in there, and they're all ing out of one portal, so it would take a while to find a specific spot like this.”

  Gustav nodded, and was angry enough to break the strict, disciplinary rules he followed, as he said. “Shit, you're right! Beetles are known to cover their tracks as well, they're experts at it, so they could've hidden this whole ass portal here for a long time now! Sneaky… bastards!”

  Tim grinned, he was amused by the other's cussing, but the a bit of a devious idea. He wao trick the guard, to have him ehis needle universe willingly, just so he could follow after him. Tim khat he'd get in trouble if he jumped into this portal himself, as he would have to do it without permission, so he had to improvise here.

  “You know, we catch the bugs by surprise if we jump in the portal nht? I'm guessing that less than ten bugs had gotten out of that portal si night, so they’re scared, they're retreating.” He pitched.

  “No, we must wait for backup.” Gustav refused, he strictly followed protocol.

  Just as they were about to back out from the tunnel, a bug suddenly popped out of the portal, however, this one was not a beetle! It was a foot-long hor, and it pounced on Gustav, trying to poke his chest out!

  Tim subsciously tossed himself to the left side of the tunnel, just to avoid the hor. When he saw its two-inch stinger, he focused on it, and then ss needle off using a densed, bde-like shot of fire!

  The needle never even touched Gustav's armor, so the rest of this battle was easy. Being a sub-experienced battle mage, Gustav’s first rea was to burn the hor alive, so he grabbed it by the chest, pushed it away from his face, and burhe living senses out of it, to the point where he tossed it bato the portal!

  “Ah!” He then yelled in frustration, “I'm okay… but that was freaking close!”

  The guard was really worked up, so one may wonder how much he'd panic if he was actually stung by that horim was having a lot of fun here, despite that close enter. He found the other's reas hirious, and he was a weird gnce away from pissing himself out of ughter!

  Then, Gustav suddenly said. “You were right, Timothy. We should be taking the fight in there before the bugs get a ce to fight back! Let's go!”

  Without much of a warning, he leaped into the portal afterwards, and Timothy was left with his hand c his mouth. Now, he had the freedom to ugh as much as he wanted!

  “Oh my god, he is such a scaredy cat! Hahaha!” He hollered, and after a few seds of hysterical ughing, he jumped through the portal without sed guessing himself whatsoever.

  Tim had regeed a few thousand mana points throughout the night, so he at twenty-ohousand points again. He figured that it was enough to put up a fight there, and it was especially easy for him now, since he could both move freely, and had ara pair of hands to help him shoot bugs down this time. He jumped into the portal head first!