Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 593 - 60: The Terror of Cockroaches_1

Chapter 593: Chapter 60: The Terror of Cockroaches_1

This was a vibrant and colorful world, a scene that could only appear in dreams, a fairytale kingdom dissociated from reality. The people appeared beside a vast lake. Through the clear water, one could see the smooth stones at the bottom of the lake. Looking around the lake, they were in an underground cavern that would be about one or two square kilometers in size. Every few feet within the cave, natural pillars extend from top to bottom, serving to support and prevent the cave from collapsing. The defining feature of this cavern was its light. On the walls and ceiling of the cave, as well as on the supporting pillars throughout, numerous Crystal stones of various sizes grew. These crystals were in various colors, shimmering with a seven-color light. The massive number of crystals flickered alternately, and every object in the cave continuously changed colors, filling the entire underground cavern with a dreamlike beauty.

Outside the lake was a soft lawn, and beyond the lawn was a vast area of shrubbery. Without sunlight, both the grass and shrubs were pale, but under the illumination of the colorful crystals, they reflected various lusters. For some reason, these plants could still grow so lush in a world with no sunlight, and many bees, as big as fists or forearms, even flitted among the distant shrubs, gathering nectar from the large flowers growing from the shrubs. The entire world within the cave was peaceful and harmonious. It was hard to believe that this was in the same underground world as those dangerous tunnels they came from earlier.

Just as the girls were opening their mouths in surprise, staring blankly at the colorful scenery around them, the grass rustled, and several strange worms about half a meter long crawled out from it. These worms had huge heads, almost half the size of their bodies. They undulated their bodies forward and, upon reaching the water’s edge, they submerged their heads into the water without even glancing at the girls. After soaking for a while, their bodies visibly puffed up. It seemed like the worms had hydrated themselves enough. They turned around satisfied and crawled back into the grass, disappearing after a while of rustling. The girls stared in amazement at these leisurely worms. It was the first time since they came to the Underground World of Earth’s Scar that they encountered such relaxed creatures, which had no aggression and didn’t take any precautions. They were even more laid back than the wild animals of the surface world.

"Take a closer look at the walls." Pannis’s eye twitched, and he whispered to the girls, "This place isn’t as quiet and lonely as you think. Look around, we still have many companions here."

With Pannis’s prompt, the girls looked around and got a shock. Indeed, the beautiful shimmering crystals were too distracting, and everyone had ignored the unusual beetles constantly scurrying up and down the rocky walls where the crystals grew, sometimes even climbing onto the crystals, seemingly feeding on them. Each beetle was about the size of a palm, relatively small for the underground population. However, they had a special appearance that the girls instantly identified.

"It’s cockroaches." Freya grimaced, "Why are they here too?"

"Don’t underestimate cockroaches, they are more resilient than most creatures." Catherine, though also disgusted, advised, "Since the First Epoch, countless species have gone extinct, but the cockroaches apparently survived just fine. As it seems, aside from their size, they haven’t changed much. In terms of vitality, they are much stronger than we are."

"Not without changes, though." Ike, who emerged from the water a few minutes ago, interrupted, "If you observe carefully, their changes are quite significant. At least, I have never seen semi-transparent color-changing cockroaches before."

"Are they aggressive?" Catherine cautiously asked. "Will they attack nearby creatures unprovoked?"

"If you don’t emit hostility, they won’t." Ike shook his head. "But still, better not get too close. Some consider these roaches to be the most irksome among all bugs in the Underground World. Once provoked, I fear among us, save for Pannis who could manage due to his Demigod physique, the rest would all meet their ends here."

"That serious?" Catherine mumbled incredulously but wisely moved away from the water to observe these roach-like creatures from a safe distance. They appeared to be a variant of roaches, identical to the common roach save for color. They were indeed semi-transparent. Their earlier perceived black color was due to the rock color visible through their semi-transparent bodies. Upon closer inspection, one could see that from within these roaches, rays of different colors, similar to the crystals, constantly emanated, making them look like miniature crystals.

"They eat the crystals, don’t they?" Standing beside Catherine, Vivian observed a while and asked, "They grind some fine powder from the crystals as their food using some method, hence the light emanating from their bodies identical to that from the crystals?"

"Not very sure about that." Ike spread his hands. "After all, I am not a scholar. Your conjecture is plausible, but there aren’t many willing to verify that. They are too hard to deal with."

"Can’t tell." Lina curiously regarded the scampering mutant roaches. "Do they have any unusual abilities?"

"This is how it is. These mutated roaches only appear on the fifth floor. There are over forty known territories of their colonies on this floor. Their territories are all safe zones." Ike explained, "Very few aggressive magical beasts dare to enter their territory. Even if they do, they would not dare to hunt casually. They dare not provoke the roaches. Even in the depths of the eighth floor, no magical beast would dare to do so. This shows their deterrence."

The girls cannot help but retreat a few steps, distancing themselves from the roaches. Catherine watches the crawling roaches cautiously and asks, "How do they maintain this deterrence? From what I see, their limbs are not strong, their mouthparts are not well developed, and they don’t have venomous barbs or anything similar. They can’t be intimidating others purely by their vitality, can they?"

"Big sis, you’re starting to sound more and more like Pannis." Lina teased with a smirk, "But I’m curious too. Could it be because they absorb energy from the crystals? But that doesn’t make sense. It’s obvious that the crystals they eat are completely devoid of any energy. They can’t possibly absorb any energy."

"Their only distinguishing trait is exploding." Ike explained, "If you’re without ill intent, it doesn’t matter if you stomp on a large number of them. But once someone with hostile intent deeply penetrates their territory, all the roaches within a ten-meter radius of you will explode simultaneously. They emit a special signal during the explosion that prompts their companions nearby to explode too."

"Doesn’t that mean the whole cave would collapse?" Catherine couldn’t help exclaiming, "That’s incredibly dangerous."

"No, no. Their explosions aren’t that powerful, but they release all the toxins accumulated inside their bodies," Ike sighed, "A past demigod estimated that the poisonous cloud created by a roach explosion can poison a forest mammoth to death in three seconds. Moreover, the higher the concentration of the poison cloud, the stronger the toxicity. Therefore, if we trigger these beetles, everyone except Pannis, who, due to the powerful energy in his body, can resist the toxin from invading, won’t be spared. Even Miss Lina, you could detoxify, but the speed of the toxin will leave you no time to cast your divine spell."

"The more I hear, the more worried I get." Catherine remarked with a bitter smile, "Who would’ve thought? Such seemingly harmless creatures hold such powerful capabilities."

"Without a unique skill, how can they become the dominant creatures of a specific layer in the Underground World?" Pannis stated, "Ike, as long as we maintain a ten-meter distance from the roaches at all times, we’ll be fine, right?"

"Correct. Also, the poisonous cloud caused by their explosion does not spread easily. As long as the explosion isn’t targeted at us, it mostly won’t affect us." Ike explained, "So, everyone regards the places where these roaches are on this floor as safe zones. As long as you’re in open areas, you can rest freely without worrying about other predators disturbing you."

"That’s the best news I’ve heard today." Catherine let out a sigh of relief, "We don’t need to rest now. We’ve got to keep moving. How much further is it to the nearest entrance to the lower floor? Is the entrance also included in the safe zone?"

"Not too far, but we must leave this safe zone." Ike answered, "From here, just over an hour’s walk and you’ll see the entrance. Right, there is another piece of good news I need to share with you. I believe you’ll like it very much."

"Actually, I think I’ve guessed what it might be." Pannis gave a grin, pointing a finger at Ike’s shoulder.

Catherine nodded and said, "From the moment you put your shoulder lamp away, I had a guess. We won’t be needing any lighting tools for a long stretch of time, right?"

"Hehe." Ike grinned sheepishly, "I can’t hide anything from you two. Yes, until the ninth floor, we won’t need any lighting tools again. These few layers are thick veins of crystal. Everywhere you look, you will see crystals exposed. There are hardly any areas covered by darkness. So, we can travel a long distance in the light now." (To be continued. If you like this story, please come to qidian.com to vote and support me. Your support is my greatest motivation. For mobile phone users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)