Chapter 458
Chapter 458 Mutated Queen Bug
Greem was silently examining a black sphere inside the stone tower.
It was the strange object that Mary had left behind along with her note, and Greem hadn’t been able to figure out what it was after half a day.
[Beep. Deep scanning process completed. Report being produced….]
After a moment, a stream of data surged into Greem’s mind. The black sphere’s internal structure displayed in front of him. Greem couldn’t help but shout when he saw the familiar cross-section diagram of the biological structure, “The Carrion Beetle Queen!”
This black sphere wasn’t an item; it was a living being. Moreover, it was a strange creature that had left a deep impression on Greem– the Carrion Queen Bug!
Acteon’s original talent and potential were extremely ordinary. There was no way he would have advanced to adept. However, his luck was reasonably decent. He had succeeded in assimilating a Carrion Queen Bug when he was still an apprentice. It was this unexpected yield that allowed Acteon to break through the limits of his talent and successfully overcome the threshold of becoming an adept.
In all honesty, Acteon was a top-tier adept even among other First Grade adepts.
Bodily attributes: Strength 1 | Agility 1 | Physique 3 | Spirit 2
Hatched combat bug count: Determined by Spirit. Every point of Spirit allows control of twenty combat bugs. The current limit is forty bugs.
Hatched combat bug speed: When provided sufficient flesh and blood as nutrition, five larvae can be hatched each day with a growth cycle of twelve days.
Greem slowly went over the Queen Bug’s traits and silently estimated its combat ability.
The Queen Bug herself couldn’t fight at all. She had to rely on the hatched combat bugs to protect herself. With the speed at which she could hatch bugs, Greem could obtain five adept-level beetles daily after twelve days. Of course, this required feeding the beetles sufficient blood and flesh. The stronger the creature the meat came from, the better the effect. These bugs could be used as consumable and disposable soldiers, constantly thrown into the battlefield as cannon fodder.
From a particular perspective, the Queen Bug could be a moving, living biological den of beetles if she were utilized correctly. She could perpetually churn out soldiers for Greem’s faction.
However, the Queen Bug couldn’t do this by herself. She only gained this fantastic ability once she had assimilated with another being. That was why choosing a proper host became an important factor after the Queen Bug submitted.
Greem’s scan confirmed that the Queen Bug still retained adept-level abilities, despite being severely wounded by Acteon’s death. That meant that any apprentice adept would be able to become the new ‘Evil Bugs’ in a very short time, as long as they were properly trained!
Moreover, the existence of the soul brand in the Queen Bug’s soul meant that Greem had a certain degree of control over the new Evil Bugs.
Thus, Greem decided to share the tower’s control authority with the Queen Bug and allow it to make contact with all the apprentices in the tower stealthily. The Queen Bug could then make a list of individuals who could assimilate with her.
Greem had expected every single apprentice to be included in the list. However, he was surprised when he saw the list provided by the Queen Bug.
Weren’t these too few names?!
It was important to note that two dozen apprentice adepts were staying in the tower at the moment, including pseudo-adepts like Sabrina and Morse. However, there were just three names on the list provided by the Queen Bug. In fact, there wasn’t a single pseudo-adept among them. None of Greem’s four disciples were included in the list either.
Greem only recognized one of the three names.
Billis!
Beginner Apprentice Billis!
Greem couldn’t understand this result. It wasn’t until after he communicated with the Queen Bug that he finally got it.
It seemed the Queen Bug didn’t choose her host based on power. Instead, she decided based on their talent.
The Queen Bug was a dark-attribute magical creature. Thus, she especially favored lifeforms with similar talents. Billis might be the weakest, but his innate affinity was extremely compatible with the Queen Bug.
In fact, his soul compatibility with the Queen Bug was far superior to that of the previous Evil Bugs, Acteon!
Billis.
Greem repeated this name as he narrowed his eyes.
It was worth trying!