Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 589 - 56 The Fourth Layer_1

Chapter 589: Chapter 56 The Fourth Layer_1

The underground crevices of Earth’s Scar were rumored to have anywhere from seventeen to twenty-one layers, stretching down to a depth of two thousand and five hundred meters. Each layer was separated by tens or even nearly hundreds of meters of rocks and soil, and every layer was like an independent world. Throughout their journey, the six members of the expedition discovered a part of the Yarran World that they could hardly believe existed. Each layer was teeming with a variety of animals and plants never seen or even heard of before, their environments vastly different from those on the surface of the Yarran World.

From what they had seen on the first four layers, this place was like a paradise for arthropods. On the first layer, the six of them encountered huge hordes of gigantic centipedes and millipedes, coiling around and entertaining themselves. There were also quite a few animals from the surface world of Earth’s Scar that had ventured into the caves in search of food. These long gigantic arthropods were rife on the second layer too, filled with puddles inhabited by algae. The air was swarming with large mosquitoes, and spiders hidden in the dark corners scurried about, leaving cobwebs all over the ground and tunnels. The sight rendered Freya weak, and she barely managed to climb up to the third layer with Catherine’s help.

On the third layer, there were far fewer giant spiders, but creatures as stiff as stone, resembling long worms, populated the area. Slightly bigger than half a meter, these herbivorous cave-dwellers fed mostly on mosses and light-avoiding ferns, a rare vegetarian species in the underground. They lay motionless on the cave walls, their appearance indistinguishable from stones unless touched. Often, as they passed through a tunnel, these insects would burst out into the air in large numbers disturbed by their presence. When provoked, they would emit a large amount of irritant gas that was painful to the eyes, much like pepper. Most of the giant spiders on this level fed on these stone insects, along with several other large insects and even smaller spiders. However, the spiders also faced a formidable predator on this level, a species of gigantic bees over a meter long. These bees hunted the stone insects too, but they seemed to prefer the giant spiders. They could paralyze a spider by injecting a paralyzing poison, then carry off the equally massive spider to their nests, thanks to their strong flying ability. Pannis remarked that he had seen similar bees in the Sighing Swamp, but they were at least five times smaller. Those bees were known to lay their eggs in the captured victims, providing a ready food source for the newly hatched larvae. As circumventing trails abound in the third layer, they spent more than eight hours traveling, during which they had witnessed thirty battles between the bees and spiders. The bees still held the upper hand in the majority of these confrontations, winning over eighty percent of the fights. Unfortunately, these bees did show interest in creatures of reasonable size, not just spiders, including the six adventurers who passed through. Luckily, however, given the loud humming and intense heat they generated when flying, they posed little threat. Typically, they’d be sliced in half by Catherine before reaching the group, their defenses proving as fragile as paper compared to the centipedes and millipedes on the first layer, unable to withstand a single blow from Catherine.

Now, on the second day of their journey into the Earth’s Scar, the team had already surpassed their goal by reaching the fourth layer ahead of schedule, managing to navigate through the first divine wrath, an underground dark river, and were on their way to the fifth layer. As no traces of spiders had been spotted so far in this layer, Freya seemed to be in high spirits. She softly hummed the folk songs from the Neutral Land, adding a touch of beautiful charm to their arduous journey.

"Hmm, there won’t be many spiders going forward," Ike was answering Pannis’s question: "Not to say there won’t be any, but they will indeed be scarce. However, any spider we encounter from now on will be incredibly strong, far surpassing those we’ve seen in terms of both power and speed. I remember the deepest I’ve seen a spider was on the tenth layer. That was a Demigod magical beast, dwelling in an underground hollow on the tenth layer, preying on surrounding creatures. It was one of the dominators of that layer. If I hadn’t found a narrow path to slip away from its territory in time, I might have become one of its victims."

"There’s a Demigod on the tenth layer?" Pannis raised an eyebrow in surprise and asked, "I remember you saying that the deeper we go, the stronger the magical beasts become. If there’s a Demigod on the tenth layer, what kind of monster might be lurking at the deepest part?"

"I’d love to find out," Ike’s gaze sparkled with a longing to conquer the unknown. "For mortals, a Demigod is the pinnacle. But what if there’s a creature below that can defy this common sense? Unfortunately, the chance of going further down is slim. Several Demigod explorers have fallen on the thirteenth and fourteenth layers. Only an exploration team consisting of experienced Demigods, with sufficient numbers, might be able to venture beyond the fourteenth layer. For example, a team of heroes who fought against the Divine Soul a hundred years ago would do. I’ve heard that Kyle and Nellie are very experienced explorers, and the others are not academy-trained Demigods. Together, they have the potential to break into the sixteenth layer or below. However, unfortunately, those people are key figures in various factions and are unlikely to risk their lives on such a proposal."

"Indeed, it’s unlikely," said Pannis with an unnatural smile. "Those important figures are willing to lay their lives down for the sake of the Continent, but I don’t think they would risk their lives for a haphazard exploration."

"How can you say it’s pointless?" Ike retorted. "Exploring and conquering this unchartered land is the greatest reward."

"Alright, maybe you’re right," Pannis conceded with a bitter smile. "But I don’t think they’d see it that way."

"So, that’s why I say it’s a pity." Ike breathed a sigh of regret and shook his head.

The explorers found themselves in another long tunnel. The defining characteristic of the Underground World beneath Earth’s Scar was the extensive tunnel network that connected various large caverns, making tunnel exploration a frequent activity for adventurers here. The tunnel they were in now was low and narrow, allowing only one person to crouch and progress at a time. If Freya hadn’t lost over twenty kilograms recently, she would have had a hard time passing through. In this situation, Pannis voluntarily took the lead while Catherine held the fort at the rear. The tunnel grew narrower, so that they now had to crawl on their bellies to advance. This situation, although stifling, offered one advantage. The dangerous arthropods in the Underground World, which typically were large, had trouble invading such restricted spaces, thereby reducing the chances of an unexpected attack.

As they had all experienced at the Crying Cave earlier, underground adventures usually put a psychological strain on the participants. However, they felt none of that here. On the one hand, the abundant light in the narrow cave effectively negated the effect of the gloom. On the other, their attention was constantly drawn to the unknown creatures all around, leaving them no time to dwell on the feelings of oppression and unease brought on by the confined space.

"What other creatures should we pay attention to in the fourth layer?" Pannis didn’t want to dwell on the matter of the heroes, so he changed the topic: "Like the scorpion just now, and the beetle at the entrance."

"Each layer has thousands upon thousands of insects living in it, each one poses a certain danger, so we have to be cautious." Ike replied, "But from the areas we need to pass through, there aren’t too many dangerous insects. Aside from some powerful creatures wandering around, like the beetle we just encountered, most of them are group living creatures, group living in the truest sense."

"Group living?" Lina, standing behind Ike, asked curiously: "Do you mean like the spiders and mosquitoes in the second layer living together in large groups?"

"No, that’s why I emphasized, group living in the truest sense." Ike explained: "Those creatures just live together, they can’t be considered group living. True group living is like most of the creatures in the fourth, fifth, and sixth layers, large numbers of the same kind of creature gathered together, moving and resting together as one body, collectively hunting and building nests, forming a large-scale group, this is true group living."

"Hmm, like bees in the outside world?" Lina asked: "And also ants, they are considered group living, right?"

"Yes, just like them." Ike nodded: "In the fourth, fifth, and sixth layers, apart from some creatures with extremely high individual power, the rest of the dominant species are group living creatures. Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, gather together, no predators dare to provoke them easily. Often, they will counter-attack the predators in order to grab enough living space. However, luckily, these group living creatures individually aren’t powerful and their body sizes are relatively small. To us, who have shields, they are not a huge threat."

"What characteristics do the group living creatures in this layer have?" Pannis asked further: "What do they look like?"

"On this layer, the one we might encounter, and the strongest, should be a kind of locust." Ike said: "Or to be precise, it’s an insect like a locust, but they are very small and not very active, we generally won’t encounter them."

"Very small?" Pannis’s laughter was strange: "Around twenty centimeters?"

"Correct." Ike said: "Compared to the insects in the outside world, of course, they would be considered large, but here they are absolutely small insects."

"Do they have very ugly appearances, yellow-brown bodies, two very obvious robust legs." Pannis asked: "Yellow-brown wings on the back, protruding mouthparts, both vertical and horizontal teeth? And many serrations on the thigh, with protruding eyes? "

"How do you know?" Ike’s face suddenly stiffened, he forced a smile and asked: "Have you seen them?"

"Heh, heh, heh." Pannis also gave a hollow laugh and said: "Obviously, they are in front of us, and they don’t seem too friendly." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at qidian.com. Your support will be my biggest motivation. Mobile phone users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)