Chapter XLII - Solution (part 2)

Three hours have passed, and the mission has gone well so far.

Five items had been scratched off the list I've given. And now, only three of the hardest are left.

Hod studied the list again as they walked in the forest.

Cony got bitten by a venomous fox during the previous search, so she had to sit it out on the nearby village. And now, Barett, Valey, and Hod are strolling in the woods on their own.

Beside the fact that Cony got bitten by a venomous fox, the search has gone great so far. Most of the items they thought were difficult to obtain, were luckily very easy to get. For example, the angel leaf that was supposed to be on the bottom of the cliff, actually grew one on the side of the cliff, meaning they don't have to go as far as rappelling down to the bottom.

Another example is with the devil's apple. The tree was supposed to be extremely tall, like twenty meters high. But one fell down to Valey's head just seconds after they arrived.

It's like a god of luck is following them... But their luck seemed to have run out.

The next three items weren't so easy to obtain. Mutated queen bee's essence is what you can loot from killing a mutated queen bee, a Yellow ranked monster. The essence is useful for cellular regeneration of a person. 

For example, if a person with a sickness like Haemophilia drank this essence along with the magic potion, it can cure their Haemophilia permanently and allow them to heal wounds even faster.

The essence could also be used to regrow lost limbs. But since this essence is very powerful and hard to obtain, the price was extremely expensive.

So, Hod's only choice was to hunt the mutated queen bee himself and take the essence.

They finally arrived at a large tree, with a gigantic bees nest on the trunks. The nest is at least five meters in diameter, and sticking on it are mutated bees with the size of at least one meter in length. Just looking at it gives Valey shivers.

The bees look just like a normal bee, but bigger. With its thick yellow and a bit of fur. Are those really fur?

Barret quickly readied his shield and axe when the first wave of bees started flying towards them.

"Why are there so many!?"

Valey shouted as she shot arrows with 100% accuracy towards the heads of the mutant bees.

"I'm not sure! Could be because it's breeding season!"

"What the hell is a breeding season!?"

Hod shouted while shooting small ice spikes towards the bees. Meanwhile, Barett is hacking the bees. His armour and shield is full of the bee's insides.

They continued to fight their way towards the nest. When Hod is only a few meters below the nest, he froze the nearby bees and leaped towards the giant nest.

Valey supported him by shooting all the bees that are flying at him, making his path clear of bees.

Hod straightened his rapier, and stabbed the nest with his full force. He enchanted the sword with ice magic, making anything it stabbed turned into ice.

Just as ice slowly covers the entire nest, a large shout can be heard from inside the nest.

"SHRIIIEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!"

Hod quickly let go of his sword that is still stuck on the frozen nest to dodge the attack. As he fell on the ground, his whole body froze as he saw what's inside of the nest.

It was a giant bee.

Not just big, but frightening and disgusting.

The bee had six eyes, with four huge sharp jaws. The claws on its arms look as if those are as sharp as a sword. Not to mention the giant string on it's back... Except it wasn't a normal sting.

The sting itself was connected to the main body by some sort of tail that the bee could control. Hell, that wasn't even a sting. That was a tail.

It's like a scorpion's stinger, but more flexible like a tail.

The bee's huge wings are making the bee fly with a huge woosh in every flap. It looks at Hod on the ground like looking at its prey.

"Scatter!"

"SHRIEEK!!"

Hod got his ass off the ground and started running. The bee chased him. It wasn't long until it reached Hod, but Hod was smarter. He created an ice barrier to protect himself from the bee's stinger tail. But what he didn't know is that the bee also had a high intelligence.

The bee crushed the barrier with its main body. And when the ice falls down, it shoots the tail at high speed towards Hod.

He couldn't dodge this.

WOOSH!!

"SHRIEEKK!!"

The bee flew back in pain as Hod regained his balance. The bee looked at its tail... Or what's left of it.

Barett was nearby when the bee was about to stab Hod using its giant sting. He immediately threw his axe to slice off the bee's stinger. And now he had lost an axe.

"Don't worry! I still have six more axes!"

He summoned another axe from his space ring and turned his gaze back to the bee. What he sees made him despise himself.

The bee quickly regenerated the lost stinger in mere seconds. As if it was never gone, the bee attacked again.

"Oh... Shiet!!!"

Hod dodged to the left when the stinger sliced where he stood. Hod quickly conjured giant ice spikes from the ground that goes five meters upwards. The bee was stabbed in multiple places, but it simply flew upwards and healed the wounds in mere seconds.

"That regeneration is going to be a problem. Valey! Remove its flight!"

"Got it!"

Valey had finally taken a good position. She was away to look for a nice spot to snipe, while Hod and Barett distracted the queen bee.

And now she is on top of the tallest tree in the distance. Though the tree wasn't as tall as the tree where the nest is at, it's still the one that can easily spot a bee that big. Simply said, the tree is the perfect spot for sniping.

Valey picked three arrows from her quiver, all incendiary arrows. She lit them up and put all three in the bow. She pulled the string and had her eyes straight towards her target, the bee's wings.

She released the string.

WOOSH!!

"SHRIEEEKK!!"

The three arrows hit perfectly in the middle of the two giant wings. The flames burned the wings, rendering the bee hard to fly.

The bee fell down to the ground with a boom. Hod and Barett wouldn't miss this chance.

"Strike with everything you got!"

Hod used his giant ice spikes on the bee, while Barett used his earth magic to create earth pillars that jolted upwards.

The bee was wounded by a few of Hod's ice spikes, and was pushed upwards by Barett's earth pillars. From the distance, Valey shot her lightning arrow at 100% accuracy, straight to the bee's head. 

SHRINGG!!

The arrow sliced through the brain in perfect smoothness, killing the bee completely. The body of the bee fell down to the ground, intact. Hod and Barett tossed their hands while Valey ran back to the location.

"Nice shot, Valey! You totally owned this one."

"Thanks. Now let's get the item."

They quickly dissected the queen bee's insides and put all the essence where the heart is located into a giant bottle. They were able to obtain six bottles in total, where one they could give to Rize and the rest to the auctions.

With that many bottles, they could easily become rich.

"Let's go back to Cony. We only need two more items."

"Yes... The hardest one is now done."

The three went back to the village where they will pick up Cony. They believed that the bee's essence could heal Cony's wound, so they headed back first.

After seeing that the essence actually healed Cony, they quickly went out again to grab the last two items.

And the mission was over after that.