Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1052 - 167: After the Swarm

Chapter 1052: Chapter 167: After the Swarm

The campsite had become silent once more. Both the rustling sound of creatures crawling on the ground and the buzzing of insects in the air had moved far away, and even the occasional rustling sounds from around had ceased to appear; the surging swarm seemed to have stilled the entire forest’s sounds, leaving nothing but a dead silence after passing through.

"Crash," the crisp sound of shattering crystal broke the stagnant silence, also causing the air around to start flowing again. Pannis, too lazy to use the temperature to soften the resin barrier, simply smashed the closure outside the tree hollow with a punch and was the first to emerge from his room, hanging upside down from a branch and shouting, "Everyone come out, the insect storm is over. Vivian, hurry and reactivate the defense Array. There’s plenty of work to do, let’s hope we can finish it quickly."

"You wish, that’s impossible," the Elegance queen, naturally would not break the resin so roughly like Pannis but followed the normal procedure, softened the resin and tore the barrier to come out, shaking her head, "In any case, dinner had just finished. Everyone come out and work, we might still have a chance to sleep tonight."

"What exactly happened, what is this insect storm, was it just those insects?" The girls crawled out from their hiding spots one after another, following the other Demigods down to the ground, but as soon as they landed, they couldn’t help but show bizarre expressions. Catherine spoke with a dry voice, "This... these are the traces left by the insect storm?"

The girls finally understood why Pannis preferred to hang upside down in mid-air, and why the queen would rather sit sideways on a branch. At that moment, they wished they hadn’t jumped to the ground. Looking around, the expressions on the other Demigods’ faces were equally vivid; everyone felt more or less the same way because the condition of the ground was far from pleasant.

The ground within the campsite had been cleared by everyone earlier, weeds and dead leaves were swept out of the campsite, exposing the dark brown soil which had been dried and warmed by Vivian, making it comfortable to sit on directly. But now, the dry ground had disappeared, covered with a thick layer of insect corpses. Stepping on it, the crisp sound of the shells breaking mixed with the dull sound of the guts being crushed, creating a disgust-filled sound. Looking down at their feet, their shoes were already half-buried in layers of insect corpses, and some of the dead insects that had not yet stiffened writhed underfoot as if they were still alive.

Not only the ground, but the stove and the wooden platform were also not spared. The interior of the stove was filled with insect corpses, and the flames had been extinguished by the insects using their own bodies. The insects close to the wood were burned to ash, filling the air with a strong burnt smell. The wooden platform used as a table was also covered with dead insects, and even the plates previously used for meals were buried beneath the corpses of insects, making people feel a surge of nausea just thinking about having dined on the same plates.

Adventurers were almost never afraid of insects, with only a few, like Freya, who were scared of certain types. In previous adventures, the girls had fought insects countless times. Logically, they should have been accustomed to such scenes by now, but the sheer number of these was fundamentally different; the sight of hundreds of thousands of insect corpses was truly shocking. Seeing insects of various sizes and grotesque forms piled up, twisting and convulsing, even the strongest of wills would find it hard to accept.

"This is what they call an insect storm," Flare said, struggling internally for a moment atop a tree before finally deciding to return to the ground. But before jumping down, her majesty first took a pair of leather boots from her backpack and put them on, replacing her almost barefoot-like leaf shoes; she was not keen on stepping into that mass of insects. With her new boots on, Flare not only went back to the ground herself but also dragged the reluctant Pannis down with her, explaining to the girls, "It’s a very rare natural phenomenon in the Forest of Death. Probably only Pannis and I have seen it among those present here, no, Dillie, you must have seen it too."

"Yes, I’ve seen it too," the scorpion-tailed lion, the only member still clinging to the tree, remarked. However, no one objected to this, as the scorpion-tailed lion, unlike the others, couldn’t wear shoes. Making it walk directly on the insect corpses was not just a matter of discomfort; if it were cut or punctured by some strange insect’s body, it might get poisoned. Better to let it stay on the tree. Dillie himself seemed quite content to relax, lazily stating from the branch, "But that was before I knew you guys. When I first encountered it, I had no experience. Luckily, I ran fast enough, or I might have died in the insect storm."

"As you can see, the insect storm is a very dangerous phenomenon within the Forest of Death. We’re really lucky; if we hadn’t chosen a Tower Tree as our campsite, we would probably have had to hide in the Inherent Psychic Domain," Flare explained. "The cause of the insect storm is still a mystery. Some believe it’s related to some kind of change in the Leyline Energy, but there’s no solid evidence to support that theory. Of course, the cause is not important; what’s important is the behavior. An insect storm manifests as a sudden, mad migration of insects from a specific area. Irrespective of their race or size, all leave their nests and migrate to other areas, becoming highly aggressive during the migration and attacking any living creature they encounter. Any other creatures in the path of the swarm hide themselves, those that can’t hide in time end up like these, completely devoured by the swarm."

Flare kicked around in the pile of corpses, revealing several white bones covered by insect remains. The bones were completely stripped of flesh, and their surfaces were full of cracks and defects, as if they had been bitten by immense force. Without touching the bones, Flare casually kicked them aside and continued, "Not only do they attack other creatures, but they also continuously attack each other during the migration, though this does not interfere with their movement."

"No wonder there are so many corpses left on the ground," Catherine exclaimed in amazement. "How many of them are there exactly? To leave so many bodies in such a small area."

"Each insect storm involves tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of insects," Flare nodded. "The ones who actually survive until the end of the migration might not even make up one-thousandth of their number. The rest all die along the way. Look at these insect corpses; some are simply killed by the poisonous mists of other insects. By participating in the insect storm, it’s as if they have given up their own lives."