Chapter 24: Garden of Eden (The Hive)
With Nyx in the lead, the pair followed a couple of meters behind her. Due to the various paths and trails that could be taken, the group decided not to separate too much in order to not get swarmed or ambushed and be unable to help the others.
But after walking for 10 minutes, they saw no bees in the hive. They could not even hear the sound of wings beating.
Mordred and Persephone shared a look with each other as if to ask, 'What the hell is going on?'
After another 5 minutes without seeing an enemy, Persephone could not hold it in anymore.
"What the hell! Where are all the bees we are supposed to be struggling to have a life and death battle with?"
Mordred took a minute to think of a reason but only one thing came to mind after going through all the possible scenarios.
"It might be because of us. We have been shooting like crazy on every floor and then just had 3 hours of target practice.
The bees might have retreated to or near the throne room in order to protect the queen. We might meet the occasional bee who will act as scouts but for the most part, the difficulty of the mission has increased by a lot."
Persephone had to agree with that. Even without Mordred stating it explicitly, she also knew why he said that.
The bees were known to be more dangerous when they were in groups. The larger the group, the more dangerous it was to go after them.
There should have been hundreds of bees inside the hive while thousands were outside but even with their large numbers, they were at least spread out.
But if all of them retreated to areas around the throne room, that made the groups much larger with fewer breaks in between. There might not even be any breaks at all since the bees would try to swarm their attackers at a moment's notice to ensure the safety of the queen.
Mordred and Persephone needed to decide fast whether they would continue with the bonus boss or not.
"This is practically suicide. If we go in there, we might just end up dead before we even reach the boss."
"I agree but you are forgetting something. I have a system that specializes in taking down armies with small numbers.
Give me a minute to search through the system store and see what I can get."
Persephone thought about it before agreeing with Mordred. He only had his system for a day and she got more details about it for less than 12 hours. There was plenty that she did not understand about it.
Mordred went into the system store before looking up explosives related skills. The grenades had helped earlier with clearing floors so Mordred was hoping they could deal with the new threat as well.
He did not set a limit on the Tier of the skills this time because he wanted to know just what he could purchase now and in the future. Mordred also realized that he been foolish earlier. He needed to plan out all of his purchases ahead of time so he knew his arsenal ahead of time.
[
Tier 8 Spell: Creation: User is able to use materials available to put together weapons, armors, or explosives they are familiar with, in a moment. The more complex the weapon or unfamiliar the user is with such weapon or explosive, the more mana it takes to create the device.
Cost: 5 Billion System Points
Tier 6 Skill (Knowledge/Passive): Advanced Explosives: User has advance knowledge using rockets, missiles, grenades, artillery, and other explosive related weaponry as well as unique ways to use them in order to take out targets, disable vehicles, or create the maximum amount of destruction with the least amount of effort. Use can even create their own explosive devices or upgrade existing ones.
Cost: 1.5 Million System Points
Tier 4 Skill (Knowledge/Passive): Intermediate Architecture: User has a basic knowledge of buildings, their weak spots, and how to navigate through them. Useful for when using explosives to blow them up.
Cost: 40,000 System Points
Tier 4 Skill (Knowledge/Passive): Intermediate Explosives: User has intermediate knowledge using rockets, missiles, and grenades as well as unique ways to use them in order to take out targets, disable vehicles, or create the maximum amount of destruction with the least amount of effort.
Cost: 40,000 System Points
Tier 2 Skill (Knowledge/Passive): Basic Explosives: User has basic knowledge using rockets, missiles, and grenades.
Cost: 5,000 System Points
Tier 2 Skill (Knowledge/Passive): Basic Architecture: User has a basic knowledge of buildings and the logic behind how they are built. Useful for when using explosives to blow them up.
Cost: 5,000 System Points
Tier 2 Spell: Magic Mines: User places an invisible glyph on the floor that, when stepped or be detonated remotely, causes an explosion to occur. The skill level equals the number of glyphs able to be created at once.
Cost: 5,000 System Points
]
Mordred checked the number of points he had and they had already reached a little over six hundred thousand after killing 8 floors worth of treantlings.
'Too bad I can't purchase the Tier 6 Explosives skill. And that Tier 8 spell: Creation will be very useful in the future. Even with inscriptions, these bullets may be too weak to be useful against higher-level or rank creatures.
That also makes sense why there are so many materials in the shop. I have a reason to actually buy them now instead of just letting them sit in there.
I need to remember this: Everything in the shop has a use. I just do not know it yet.'
Seeing that he was still too short to purchase the Tier 6 Advance Explosives skill, Mordred felt a bit disappointed before he purchased Intermediate Explosives, Intermediate Architecture, and the spell Magic Mines.
Mordred was prepared for the familiar flood of information in his mind once again. But he was not prepared properly and suffered from a headache. This created just as much pressure on him as before.
After taking a few minutes to catch his breath, Mordred looked at the beehive before he had a flash on inspiration. He knew how he was going to beat the bees.
'1st thing I will do after I get out of here is to learn more about this system. What it will allow me to do is wonderous.'