For now, let’s leave the monkey and take a look at that creepy insect.
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[Insect King Grand Riokku lv138]
[Title] Insect King, Swamp Monster
[Traits]
[Ferocity], [Army], [Parasite]…
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Ah, it’s a bit easier to see.
It’s still hard to see, but it consumes less mental power than the monkey.
The ability to peek at status windows doesn’t seem to be completely proportional to strength.
Perhaps, the higher the intelligence of the target, the harder it is to see through?
Well, if that’s the case, it would mean Gunter’s intelligence is similar to the monkey’s.
That doesn’t seem right.
The important thing was whether there were any skills worth borrowing.
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[Skills]
[Bite and Tear lv20] …[High Jump lv20], [Decay Fluid lv10]
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Ugh, what’s with these skills.
Is it because it’s an insect? There aren’t many cool skills.
Moreover, even with high levels, some skills didn’t seem very advanced.
High Jump is almost the same as my Quick Crawling skill, isn’t it?
When I asked Pelerian, he replied.
“Inefficient evolution includes skills as well. You’re looking at a specimen that evolved haphazardly, not properly.”
It looks too strong for that, though.
It’s not that there were no great skills at all.
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[Symbiotic Parasite lv30]…[Symbiotic Parasite Injection lv10], [Symbiotic Recovery lv10]
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Aack!
It seems to be in the direction of strengthening its power by breeding parasites inside its body.
It looks quite useful. It seems possible to inject them into enemies and sacrifice parasites to recover its body.
But I don’t like it. I’m definitely not going to learn that.
Then I should turn my attention back to the monkey side…
‘Wait a minute.’
I suddenly realized.
Is skill the only thing I can take from here?
My eyes caught sight of the bright red fruit in the distance.
The monkeys standing in a circle, guarding the root with their backs.
No matter how well I’m wearing my natural ghillie suit and using the Stealth skill, it would be impossible to sneak in there undetected.
I’d be discovered and all hell would break loose before that.
But it should be less strictly guarded than if the insects were protecting it.
At least there shouldn’t be any monkeys that burrow through the earth.
One of my subordinates had a useful skill.
‘Pointy-nosed Tunnel Mole lv10’, who only knows how to dig tunnels to escape.
And ‘Tunneling lv3’ that I borrowed from it.
Thanks to that, I gained confidence to escape even from the monkey forest.
「Leaping Horn lv2 surpasses the limit of skill ‘Tunneling lv3’.」
「’Tunneling lv3′ temporarily becomes ‘Tunneling lv10’.」
For a moment, I gained tunneling skills equal to Chimera Fafnir.
Thank you, Tunnel Mole!
Pababababak-
==
“Keke…”
The Crimson Teeth Giant Centipede looked at its king.
Insect King Grand Riokku.
There was no bond or anything like that with him.
But she had no choice.
If she were alone it would be fine, but she had young children.
She had no choice but to join the insect army.
Both Riokku and Silverback Akims are tremendously powerful magical beasts.
If she could evolve someday, maybe then she could compete.
She didn’t know.
“Kekeke.”
Bowingie showed affection on her back.
At least until these children become proper king centipedes, she couldn’t think about evolution.
Originally, centipedes don’t have good eyesight.
But she wasn’t just a ‘magical beast’ centipede.
She was born with sharp eyesight close to that of a bird of prey.
Something suspicious entered her field of vision.
‘Keke?’
The tree root temporarily occupied by the monkeys.
The ground right next to the root was bulging.
Could it be that an insect had dug a tunnel through?
That wasn’t the case.
Because a familiar someone poked their face out.
It was a small white snake.
That friend looked up with just its eyes slightly exposed.
The monkeys still didn’t know anything.
And the crimson fruit hanging at the top started to shake.
‘Kekeke! (Invisible Hand!)’
The white snake friend cast a strange magic.
It was clearly trying to pick the fruit with it.
As a member of the insect army, should she alert everyone to the current situation?
No, she didn’t feel like doing that at all.
The fruit fell with a plop.
The small snake caught the fallen fruit in its mouth.
And the small snake disappeared from that spot with a poof.
As the giant centipede was dumbfounded,
“It seems neither the swamp monster nor the silver monkey… intends to settle this, it appears.”
The centipede almost had a seizure in surprise.
It was the spider, with whom she didn’t get along, who spoke.
“The fruit will, it seems, become the monkeys’ possession.”
The face attached to its belly grins.
It’s asking for the centipede’s opinion.
The giant centipede answered coldly.
“Keke.”
“…!”
The face-spider’s expression hardened.
Thinking, ‘How rude. I wonder how long you can keep that up.’
At that moment, one of the babies on the giant centipede’s back tried to say something.
“Ke…”
“Keum!”
When the giant centipede shouted, the baby was startled and lowered its head.
That sight looked annoying to the face-spider.
‘Keep acting so arrogant. I’ll sweep all of you away soon.’
The face-spider had a dark intention.
In the near future, it would eliminate all insects except spiders.
The insect army is too numerous.
It’s disadvantageous for both the distribution of experience points and the division of fruits.
It was at that moment when the face-spider glanced at the fruit that had grown this time.
“…Huh, it’s gone?”
It disappeared.
The fruit that the monkeys had been guarding until just now was gone.
Did the monkeys end up taking the fruit? When did they…!
“Catch it, the fruit, it’s been stolen-!”
The face-spider’s eyes turned bright red.
The fight between Riokku and Akims also stopped.
“Take it, back…”
Shouts erupted from the monkeys and insects.
==
I am a genius!
I did it successfully.
「Using Emergency Return lv20.」
I returned to the top of the cliff.
With the bright red fruit in my mouth.
My bewildered subordinates welcomed their leader’s return.
I succeeded in stealing the fruit.
An unusually small and bright red fruit.
Its name is…
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[Root Fruit of the Hegemon]
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It was a fruit that made me feel like I should offer something precious right away.