A lot of identical Beetle Etherious suddenly appear from deep inside the dungeon. Ben can even sense that their magical power is the same. It's as if they are actually one individual, not many like this.
"Don't tell me they have the same power as the ones we defeated before," says Mira while smiling bitterly.
"I think they are, so it will be quite annoying, but it will be easy too because they will have the same weaknesses," says Ben.
"Still, their number is a big problem. There might be thousands of them," says Mira.
"There are just around 350 Beetles or so in that group. This room is too small to accommodate 1000 of them, it is still a problem though. But there might be more behind this group too. Still, I'm more than happy to play around with them. It's like I'm fighting against myself, at a lower level," says Ben while grinning excitedly.
"Maniac," says Mira tiredly.
"You can rest while I fight them," says Ben.
"Alright, please put a barrier around me so they won't attack me," says Mira.
Ben nods and puts a barrier using enchantments around Mira. The barrier is strong enough to block one full-powered attack from Ben, so it should be safe. Ben makes a barrier of this scale so he can go all out in his fight.
"Now, let's dance, bugs!" says Ben while covering his hands & feet with Sun Devil Slayer's red solar element.
The Beetles copy his magic but their solar energy is weaker than Ben's because they themselves are weaker. Ben grins as he rushes toward the Beetle Etheriouses. He clenches his fists as he jumps to the Beetle colony. They also make the same attack as him in a packed formation.
*BOOM*
Both sides' attacks hit each other and creates a big explosion that blew away many Beetles. Ben's attack is still far stronger than these bugs. He kills tens of Beetles with just that one attack. Then he gets ready again because the Beetles are rushing to him without any care for their dead comrades.
The Beetles surround Ben and half of them fly to attack from the air. These Beetles even start to use different spells from the Mages that they've fought in the past. It becomes more interesting and Ben really enjoys this fight now.
He rushes at them and attacks them with his solar energy punches or kicks. The Beetles are using many kinds of attacks, but none of them can land any hit at Ben. He is just too fast because he uses his Light Element to increase his speed.
Each of Ben's attacks is enough to destroy the Beetles' bodies. He would be bored if he could win with just one attack. But there are so many of them that he can keep attacking as they keep coming toward him.
Ben punches a Beetle's chest and destroys it, but another Beetle has appeared behind him. It attacks him from behind and some Beetles also sent attacks from other sides. He grins because he has sensed them and he takes care of them by swiping his solar energy-covered hand in a spear shape to cut them in half.
Then he jumps to avoid another attack from a Beetle. He lands on that Beetle's shoulder and grabs its jaw from above before ripping its head from its body. Ben keeps grinning throughout the battle as green blood splattered on his body.
"Sigh, he's like a kid, playing with bugs and all," says Mira while watching the battle.
The battle goes on for almost half a day because more Beetles keep coming after Ben defeated the previous bunches. Their corpses are stacked in the room, so Ben needs to burn them all with his magic. There are around 5000 Beetles that Ben has fought just now, making him wonder where they came from.
"What a harvest. My Devil Slayer Magic gets strengthened a bit. If their levels are higher, I would get strengthened more," says Ben disappointedly.
"Don't be cocky! If they are stronger, then the battle will be more difficult too," says Mira.
"That will be better. These Beetles were too weak and even 5000 of them didn't make any difference to me," says Ben smugly.
"Yes, yes, you're the man. Now, let's continue, our job hasn't finished yet," says Mira while pushing Ben to move forward.
They go deeper into the dungeon and now different types of Etheriouses start to appear. The Etheriouses attack them continuously as they walk along the path. But just like before, these Etheriouses are weak, so Ben & Mira can defeat them easily.
Some hours later, they finally reach a very big room. They've killed many Etheriouses and handled many traps. Luckily, the path didn't split again. It seems the previous trap that changed their location has sent them to the correct path, which was very lucky.
"I hope this is the end point of this dungeon," says Ben.
"It seems to be the place. There's no other door and those creatures there look very strong. They might be the bosses here," says Mira.
On the other side of the room, 3 creatures are standing while looking at Ben & Mira. All 3 of them look like humans but their energy shows that they are Etheriouses. 1 looks like a teen male, 1 looks like an adult female, and 1 looks like an old man.
The ones who look like a teen male & an adult woman seem to be very angry at Ben & Mira. Ben doesn't know why the adult woman seems upset, but he knows why the teen male is upset. Behind the teen male are some big transparent eggs-like things which have the Beetle Etheriouses inside them.
"Are you breeding them?" asks Ben curiously.
The teen male Etherious just stays silent, so Ben says, "It seems you are mute, maybe those 2 are mute too. Well, not like I expect idiot Etheriouses to be able to talk. Your intelligence seems to be very low, after all."
The teen male's veins pop out of anger, "DAMN, SHUT UP, HUMAN! I DIDN'T TALK TO YOU BECAUSE IT'S A WASTE OF TIME. BUT YOU JUST KEPT TALKING AND EVEN INSULT US. WE AREN'T PUSHOVERS."
Ben is quite stunned at that, "You seem to be a pushover to me. If not, then you won't talk just because of my slight insult."
The teen male Etherious seems to realize it, but instead of calming down, he gets angrier. Ben laughs at that, making the teen male wants to attack him. But the adult female stops him even though she is also angry.
Then the old man finally talks, "Humans, enough of your insults. We know that you are strong, but don't think that we are the same as those weaklings that you've just killed. We can kill you easily if we want."
"Oh, really? Then why don't you do it already?" asks Ben with a mocking tone.
"So we can see the humans who intrude on our place and kill our children," says the old man with a calm but full of hate tone.
"Children? Did you mate with her?" asks Ben all of a sudden, making him get a hit on the head from Mira.
"Mating? We can do that, but that won't give us any offspring like you. We are artificial beings, so we can't reproduce sexually," says the adult female.
"You don't need to tell us that," says Mira with a dark expression.
The Etheriouses ignores her though and the old man says, "We have a different method to increase our number, by using our Curses. Neo's curse has the ability to clone other individuals, it's the Curse of Multiplication."
The old man says that while pointing at the teen male. Then he points at the adult female, "Zoe's Curse is the Curse of Birth. She can give birth to lower-level Etheriouses using her energy. All the Etheriouses that you've met were her children. Neo multiplies the best child that Zoe has ever made."
"So that's why there are so many of them here. Your power is to increase your army's number, after all. I don't know why you explained it, but thanks for the explanation. That means we just need to kill you all to finish this job, right? Sounds good to me," says Ben while grinning.
"Yeah, let's finish this fast," says Mira while nodding.
Both of them get ready to fight again and finish this job.
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2. Chapter 338 of Transcended as Lord Buggy
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