"Xii..." the Weaver Scarab escaped from his attack with much agility. Unexpected by Technos, the Weaver Scarab is different it's younger docile counterpart. After missing his first attack, Technos charged again, but this time, he started to face with disturbance.
The docile Ruby Scarabs attacked. Although their feature does not come with any features suitable for battle, sheer weight and body slam is enough to leave their opponent dizzy. Still, their sudden change in behavior is very questionable.
Why would a docile Ruby Scarab turn offensive after hearing the buzzing sound created by the Weaver Scarab?
But no matter how offensive they're, Technos will not retreat. Armed with the Medan-Material Short Sword, Technos charged at the crowd of Ruby Scarabs and started his slaughter. With each swing of his sword, one head of the Ruby Scarab will fall.
About ten minutes later, Technos felt something is going wrong in his fight. If the Ruby Scarabs is protecting the Weaver Scarab, why won't it escape? Doesn't this feel wrong? Plus, whenever the Weaver Scarab moves, remains of its weaving strings is dropped on the ground.
"I know what you're doing! You damn puppeteer!" Technos purposely left the two Ruby Scarabs he killed on the ground. Looking at how the dead corpses still twitching and trying to move, his question behind the scarabs action is answered.
The truth is, the Ruby Scarab action are all within the control of the Weaver Scarab. Like a puppeteer, the Ruby Scarab controlled them to fight its opponent without caring about their own lives. In return from controlling their body, a Weaver Scarab will ensure their nest's safety from the hunters.
This was an equal exchange. Similar to how the Red Ruby Lizard survives, they practice polygamy because of the rarity of Male Lizard amongst them. A nest of six to twenty Red Ruby Lizards may only have one Male Lizard amongst them, or they will be subjugated by another nest instead.
It was a practice of strong eat the weak and the strongest breeds. But at this moment, the Six-Legged Weaver Scarab is rendered useless before the hunter. By eliminating the last Ruby Scarab before him, Technos can finally handle this Weaver Scarab that gave him quite much of a problem.
In a battle that he wishes not to completely destroy a nest, this Weaver Scarab forces him to do so. With one Ruby Scarab's nest lesser, that's a loss of collectible resources. Worst, the Red Ruby Lizard loved to use these empty nest to grow in numbers. By destroying the nest of a scarab to ensure the growth of the Red Ruby Lizards, won't this be an irony?
But, he got no choice. It wasn't correct for him to let go ten Dominus Coins dangling in front of him and not capturing it. No matter what may happen in the future, his pocket has to be filled first. Without money, who knows how he will go through another day?
"KILL!" Technos charged at the Weaver Scarab. In retaliation, the Weaver Scarab sprayed a net made from its own threads in order to caught this human by surprise. Too bad, it miscalculated. The Medan-Material Short Sword that can cut off even the carapace of the Ruby Scarab and Ruby Broodmother, how can it be stopped by some mere threads?
The blade filled with killing intent cut past the netting and struck on the Weaver Scarab's front limbs. It cuts off a part of the limbs, leaving the Weaver Scarab fall on the ground with a thump. Following from that strike, Technos landed a stab straight into the Weaver Scarab's head, killing it straight without any resistance.
"Luckily, the Weaver Scarab itself possesses no fighting ability at all." Technos calm himself. It wasn't a troublesome battle for him, but no matter how calm he is, under 160 Ruby Scarabs and 1 Weaver Scarab attack still bring him to sweat.
The impression of "What if the Weaver Scarab controls not 160 Ruby Scarabs but Ruby Spiders instead?" keep running in his mind, telling how that his recklessness has to be controlled before he met with some disastrous situation that nothing can salvage.
But no matter what, he obtained enough resources for him to produce at least fifty Strength Stimulant Vials. This trip can be said to be extremely profitable. The option of processing the corpse of the Weaver Scarab came in view, where he swiped on the illuminated choice to let it begin.
Returning to the Dominus Fortress once more, Technos went back home, cooked his dinner, and prepared for a sleep. In the next morning, he paid a visit into the Zone 1 and 2 forests as usual. But everything changed on his second morning.
As a Qualified Hunter, his position is different from the others. He walks past the crowd with two bottles of Healing Stimulant Vial in hand, and keep up with the others about what happened. The road into their West Sector is crowded with injured people, both Qualified and Unqualified hunters.
"Technos! Come here and give me some help!" unexpected to him, as he was catching up with the news, his teacher, Daguza caught him in his sight and summoned his student to his side. as one of the members to the three departments, they have the responsibility to provide assistance.
"Teacher, do you know what happened?" Technos asked. Although he was updated with some information, they were too vague without head and tails. And it was important to know everything about it because he was a hunter.
"This group of hunters belonged to the 455th Pioneer Hunter Team. They're tasked with the mission to explore and obtain samples from the unexplored zone in the west." Daguza started his explanation by touching the details related to their background.
"They should be a [30 Pioneers / 11 Guards / 4 Commercial] hunter team. But based on their numbers now, three-quarter of their members are all killed. And the reason for the death of their team is caused by none other than the monsters from Crack of Elon!" his master continued with his deduction on what happened.
"Wait... Teacher, you say it was caused by monsters from the Crack of Elon? I thought there's no longer any creatures coming from Crack of Elon from the day Doomsday Century started? It's 700 years! Any monsters should be died by now!" Technos cannot believe what his master just said. In his thought and even from the words of other older hunters, there have been no activities from the residents of Crack of Elon over the past 700 years.
"They're no reports because we have too many locations unexplored. It doesn't mean that they're gone from our New Earth. Don't forget, the owner of this world is them, and not us. It is not impossible for them to come back, thinking that the human might group together once more." Daguza stated his point of view.
"Remember... Even the Red Ruby Lizards keep coming back no matter how we tried to clear out their numbers. It means only one thing. Either there's a leader of the Red Ruby Lizard is still out there, or its because we did not get rid of the main problem." Daguza shared. And from the way he sees things, maybe the whole Commercial Hunter Department is following the same mindset.
"Technos understood. I will remember you teaching and studied deeper in related to these matters," he replied his teacher's teaching and continue to monitored how he assist them. But the moment he took his own bottles of vial similar to his own, Technos eyes opened wide.
"Why do... No... Did the Commercial Hunter Department own these recipes? Are they crafting these kinds of medicine for the sake of humanity to explore and protect themselves?" Technos speaks everything in his mind as he looks at how Daguza tends the injuries.
"Look carefully because in your class tomorrow, I'm going to teach you about all these items. We call this Stimulants. This is all we humans have to fight against the monsters roaming outside our Dominus Fortress!" he did not expect that his teacher is utilizing the stimulants to assist the others.
"Well, I'm an idiot. If Uncle Don can have such a recipe with him, how can the others with some status don't? And here I thought that only I can do it..." Technos blamed himself for overestimating his ability. Although he did that through his own whisper inside his mind, his teacher still caught a wind on his attitude.
"Technos..."
"Yes, teacher?"
"Pay attention. This is where the CommercialHunter Department shines. In the eyes of the others, we might look like a money-grubber, but did you know that four-fifths of the research came from our blood effort trials and dedication?" Daguza looks at his student and reminded him.
"Yes. Technos understood," he quickly answers his teacher for being absent-minded during his direct lesson.
Without bothering about the cost of the bottles of the vial he withdraws from his bag, Daguza went from one to another, providing them with many different medicines to recover from their problematic condition.
"This is Healing Stimulant. Once consumed, the patient will immediately start to recover a part of his vitality. Even during a battle, by drinking this bottle of Healing Stimulant can recover 10% of your stamina and 20% of your injuries."
"This is Releasing Stimulant. If using them before consumption, it will double the outcome of the recovery effect from Healing Stimulant. If they're used together, the percentage of recovery is doubled. But remember, this cannot be used alone before any stimulant applied."
"If you did not follow this restriction properly, the patient might encounter hallucination, increase in aggressive behavior, sexual aroused, and paranoia." as they go from one person to another, his master continues with his explanation.
At the end up his practical class, he learned that compared to his Strength Stimulant, Healing Stimulant, and Blood Rejuvenation Stimulant Vials, the Commercial Hunter Department carries something different instead. But if it were to compare, his limited recipes of three stimulants is nowhere better than the department's 11 type of stimulants.
Healing Stimulant - Injury Recovery
Flying Feet Stimulant - Stamina Recovery
Releasing Stimulant - High / Double Effect
Battle Stimulant - Increase Fighting Sensitiveness
Durable Stimulant - Increase Body Resistance
Sight Stimulant - Increase Eye Sight
Stamina Stimulant - Increase Stamina
Breathing Stimulant - Increase Lung Capacity
Sexual Stimulant - Viagra-like effect
Painkilling Stimulant - Morphine-like effect
Sleeping Stimulant - Sleeping-pill effect
After he learned about the eleven different recipes possessed by the Commercial Hunter Department, his interest in attending the class went up higher. But too unfortunate, his teacher misunderstand his intention to get into class quickly.
In their next day class, Technos not only learned about the proper method in how they prepare the Primary Stimulant Essence, he even learned about a few methods of preserving, creating, and collecting new recipes, his teacher also teaches him one recipe to start with.
Sexual Stimulant
10 drops of Primary Stimulant Essence / 10 Drops of Horn Beetle Blood / 10 Drops of Marble Scale Rodent Blood / 10gm Ruby Scarab Shell Powder
He did not like it, but since it was the first recipe his master handed to him, he will have to accept it without any further questions. Finishing the class and return to his home, Technos lied flat on the bed. The piece of a written recipe made contact with his Elon Bracer and absorbed without anything left.
He rests his eyes for a while in order to awaits for something to come a few hours later...
"Tang! Tang! Tang!"
"Tang! Tang! Tang!"
"They're here! The monsters are here! Everyone, it's time to fight against the Slaves from Elon!" the guards standing on top of the Fortress Wall hit the gong as hard and fast as they could to alarm all the residents of Outer Dominus Fortress.
And as a part of the Dominus Fortress Residents, how can those live much inside the Fortress not participates in this? In this West Sector alone, the numbers of fully equipped hunters from the Inner Fortress Society is amounted to between 300 to 800 people.
All of the people able to fight armed themselves with different weapons, most of them made from the Old World Steel. With footsteps started to get clearer to them, Technos took a look on the outside of the Dominus Fortress, and noticed their enemies is coming forward to attack them!
"Open the Fortress Gate!"
"Residents of the Dominus Fortress, get ready!"
"The Elon Carnival starts now!"
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
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[Author's Note]
I don't think anyone expects this right? Killing Carnival begins!