“What the heck!?”
In the flower field of my base, there were countless bee demon beasts. Judging by their size, most of them were probably Greater Beasts.
If I were still human, I might have fainted at such a sight, but as a slime, I’ve fought giant insect demon beasts several times, so I just felt a bit disgusted.
“Gichi gichi gichi!”
About five of the bees noticed me and flew over.
“(Replicant Form)”
I swung my poison whip five times. Each time the whip hit, the bee’s body exploded into pieces, and they were annihilated in an instant.
With the speed of a Greater Beast, evasion was impossible, and it was faster for me to swing five times than for them to reach me.
“Gidi, gichichidi! (Don’t falter! All units, prepare to fire!)”
A leader-like bee, probably a Dire Beast, shouted orders.
The other bees stopped gathering on the flowers and began to fly up all at once, increasing their Mana.
The leader also gathered Mana while trying to distance itself from me. It was probably a rear support type.
It was the right move for a commander, but I had no obligation to let it get away.
“(It’s standard to crush the head (command tower) first, right?)”
“Gidii!?”
I extended my poison whip and pierced the leader with the large fangs at the tip.
The leader was skilled and managed to avoid a vital spot at the last moment, but with a hole in its side and poison injected, it was all over.
It soon breathed its last.
…Yeah. With this feeling, I don’t even need to swing it like a whip.
Just hitting them with the control of my Replicant Form is enough to inflict a fatal wound.
“(Replicant Form, Quadruple Activation)”
I created four new poison whips, and with five whips, I began to ravage the bees.
The way they danced around as if each had its own will was like the resurrection of that Hydra.
One by one, they were accurately destroyed.
This precise movement was thanks to the Multi-Weapon Style I gained from Evolution.
I could control five at the same time freely, and I could reduce the number of enemies in an instant.
The bees also followed the last instructions of their leader and retaliated by firing poison needles and fireballs, but they were completely meaningless against my Toughness.
Eventually, realizing their disadvantage, a subordinate-position Dire Beast-like individual gave the order to retreat, and the survivors scattered like spiders.
“(…Well, I guess I’ll chase them for now.)”
It would be troublesome if I left them alone and they came back again.
I quickly absorbed the defeated bees, activated Stealth, and began the pursuit.
The bees hadn’t gone far yet, and I quickly caught up.
It seemed they had split into two groups, and the numbers were about half of what they were when they fled.
I somehow concealed my huge body and quietly followed them for a while. The group arrived at a gentle hill where flowers bloomed.
Location-wise, it was close to the Forest Turtle’s habitat.
The other group that had split off joined them there.
The other side of the hill was a cliff, and the bees went down below.
I also went to the edge and peered down.
“(Whoa, is this their nest?)”
Indeed, there was a huge beehive lying there.
Unlike normal beehives that hang from tree branches, this one was lying on the ground at the base of the cliff.
“(It’s huge…)”
Its scale was larger than even me, who had become a Feral Beast. It was one of the largest demon beast nests.
“(Mana detection… This feeling, there are several Dire Beast-class individuals.)”
I roughly judged that.
I still couldn’t narrow down the numbers, but I could do this much now.
“(There probably aren’t any Feral Beasts, so I shouldn’t lose, but… I don’t want any to escape.)”
I thought for a moment and decided to unleash my maximum firepower first.
I used Air Jump twice and leaped high into the sky.
“(Air Jump, Rampage, Crash!)”
I activated the convenient Skills that I used frequently at the same time.
I fell like a meteor.
“(Replicant Form, Heavy Thrust!)”
I imitated the poison spear I made from the Hydra and thrust it out at the moment of impact.
An extraordinary collision sound shook the surroundings.
“(Half-destroyed, it’s surprisingly sturdy.)”
I had saved my power so that I wouldn’t blow it away, but I had still intended to obliterate it.
I jumped out of the large hole I had made myself and observed the state of the half-destroyed nest.
As if reacting to the sudden attack, bees were swarming out of it.
They were about to rush at me, who had attacked,
“(Weapon Storage, Thousand Blades Burst)”
They were instantly cut to pieces by countless knives.
All the scattered blades were made of wood. I had made the wood the target of my Skill.
The wooden blades also caused further damage to the nest, but even so, the bees’ fighting power was not exhausted.
The reinforcements appeared endlessly.
“(Weapon Storage, Thousand Blades Burst)”
However, they were immediately scattered by Thousand Blades Burst.
I used that Skill, which should have a long preparation time and high Mana consumption in exchange for its overwhelming destructive power, continuously.
“(Weapon Storage)”
Then, I took out another weapon (……..) made of wood.
This was the trick behind being able to fire Thousand Blades Burst in rapid succession.
During my Zone Control training, I had stored the weaponized wood in my Weapon Storage.
That was because I would be troubled if it was left alone and found by humans or used by other demon beasts, and I always did that when I used Zone Control.
But this wood, it was a waste to just let it take up space in Weapon Storage.
So, I poured Mana into it every night before going to bed to make it ready to activate as ammunition for Thousand Blades Burst.
Time doesn’t flow in the other dimension, so the Mana I put in doesn’t dissipate.
Thanks to that, now I can take it out and immediately make it explode.
“Gi, dii…”
A particularly large individual, probably the queen of this nest, appeared and was shot through at the same time.
With that, the appearance of the bees suddenly stopped.
~Unspecified Information Recording Area~
…
War-Inducing Weapon Creation, Fue Toukouya’s Soul Accumulation Value (Level) has increased to 113.
…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The feeling of overflowing power told me that my Level had increased.
It had been a while since my Evolution, but this was finally my second Level up. The road ahead was long.
“(Escalating Warfare… The poison of the needles seems pretty good, but it’s not as good as the Hydra’s after all. Well, I’ll store it for now.)”
I collected only the necessary materials, melted the bees, and then turned my gaze to the remains of the nest.
I could feel a considerable amount of Mana from this nest as well.
I took a piece of it, which had been crushed into an easy-to-eat form by the repeated attacks and was dripping with a little honey, and took it into my body.
“(Yum, sweet!?)”
An exquisite sweetness spread, as if a barrel of honey had been concentrated into a single drop.
Mana, even denser than the queen bee, permeated my entire body.
I devoured the honey mindlessly in a pleasant sensation. As if I had become a bear.
“(Phew, I ate my fill.)”
By the time I finished eating the nest, my stomach was full, including my Storage.
Satisfied with my meal, I started on my way back.
Thanks to my Sense of Direction, I had a rough idea of the direction of my base, and I would return before sunset.
In this way, I was living a fulfilling Feral Beast life.
But four days later, dark clouds gathered over my peaceful days.
“—It seems that nobles are coming to defeat Kouya-san.”
It was Ergo, brought by Paula, who delivered the news.