The scary wasp did not flinch or react at the withered bodies and continued bowing respectfully towards the queen.

Was he being punished?

Why did it feel like the Queen was humiliating him?

Even though I was hidden a safe distance away, I could feel the sparks flying between them.

The wasp queen seemed to enjoy bullying him by keeping him kneeling for such a long time, while the scary wasp was silently suppressing its raging fury.

Their formidable auras battered my senses and I felt either of them could attack each other at any moment.

The surrounding wasps knew well enough to keep a distance. However, to avoid being detected I was unable to move at all.

They remained at odds, until finally, the wasp queen snapped.

With an incomprehensible screech she threw out her clawed limb at the scary wasp, knocking him back through the air.

The scary wasp didn't retaliate but rebuffed the queen's attack by planting his blades deep in the ground to slow his backward momentum, and endured in silence as new injuries opened up on his body.

When he finally stopped moving, he returned to his original position and bowed like nothing had happened.

Just what was going on?

It was clear they detested each other and yet he was still serving her.

Two of my dangerous opponents fighting each other should have made me happy, but seeing the enemy that had given me so much trouble getting bullied like that made me feel disappointed for some reason.

"You didn't expect me to fight this queen, did you?" I sulked.

«No, I didn't.» Sensei replied, seemingly annoyed. «Despite what you may think, I don't want you to die.»

«I'm well aware this queen is beyond your current capabilities. I merely wanted you to gain some awareness of the creatures on this level. There was always a very low chance of you encountering the queen. She spends majority of her time underground and only resurfaces to eat. You just have poor timing.»

I sighed. Was it just bad luck on my part?

«I think you should forget about the secondary quest. With how things are now, the risk factor is very high.»

Ah yes… the secondary adept quest, [Find the Hidden Queen].

«Although the other queen is weak, it is still much stronger than you.» Sensei continued.

«The quest is not mandatory so, I would focus more on getting out of the hive.»

Hmm… that was true and he sounded reasonable… But why did it feel like Sensei was looking down on me all of a sudden? Did he think I would get killed by the other queen so easily?

My thoughts were interrupted as the fearsome wasp queen screeched out something towards the scary wasp and he bowed again before flying out of the chamber.

The baffling spectacle was brought to an abrupt close and the other wasps also dispersed along with him.

After a short while the queen also started to move. I watched her leave the chamber through the wide opening, her heat trace vanishing below the ground into the hive's inner sanctum.

Even then I carefully scanned my surroundings with [Heat Sense] just to make sure I was alone, and I didn't move until I was confident the wasps wouldn't be coming back.

Outside the 'food chamber' was the deep tunnel the queen had vanished into. I wondered where it lead, but I knew better than to linger around, so I quickly moved past it to reach the rest of the cavern, where I encountered a problem.

The cavern was sealed off with a single exit in the form of a tunnel high up in the walls. Without my wasp to fly over it, the only way was down, and there was no way I was going back there. I did not want to see that wasp queen ever again.

The formerly busy place was eerie in the absence of activity. The wasp squadron were nowhere to be seen and I assumed they were still busy dealing with the escaped hosts.

I wanted to leave here as fast as I could before they returned, but I had no idea how to return to the top of the hive. With nowhere else to go, I began to look around, when something caught my eye.

There were two chambers nearby, one piled high with clusters of wasp eggs and another that was completely empty, whose walls were stained in that peculiar shade of purple.

It seemed to be the bloodstained room I had glimpsed in the wasp's memories.

Its interior was more vivid in colour than in the chamber of corpses and there was an abundance of mushroom florets growing from the very surface of its purple walls.

Although I had no need for the antidote anymore, that room made me extremely apprehensive. For such an amount of blood to stain its walls, something terrible had to have happened there. But seeing all those poisonous mushrooms gave me an idea.

I appraised my new skill.

[Detox] - Negates all toxins in the bearer's body.

Hehe… very interesting.

I wanted to test the limits of this skill so I entered the bloodstained room and began to eat all the mushrooms I could find.

There was no hallucinogenic effect this time as it was instantly nullified by [Detox] which consecutively increased in level the more I ate, along with my [Poison resistance].

I stopped when it became clear I would no longer gain any benefits from ingesting them. But by the time I was done, I'd gained three additional levels in [Detox] and five in [Poison Resistance].

It was simply amazing!

If [Poison Resistance] provided immunity to low level toxins, then [Detox] was like its omniscient grandfather that was even more potent!

With this, I no longer needed to be afraid of poisons anymore.

With a sinister grin on my face, I exited the bloodstained room and went into the chamber next to it that was filled with clusters of eggs.

When the hive returned to its normal state, I knew these clusters would get taken up to the hive by carrier wasps. And what better way to get to the safer host chambers than to hitch a ride along with them?

I quietly slipped inside one of the clusters and concealed myself with [Stealth] as I waited for the unsuspecting wasp to take it away.

And I did not have to wait long as, soon after, the air filled with vibrations as multiple wasps converged into the cavern. They then began to carry away the egg clusters one at a time.

I felt one of the wasps attach itself to the cluster I was in and the next thing, I was getting carried through the air along with them, completely undetected.

〚Skill Aptitude Increase: 『Stealth LV 5』has become『Stealth LV 6』〛

I was curious about the aftermath of the battle and I even worried about the fate of that whimsical lizard that had followed me.

I hoped it had survived the battle and left the hive to safety. But I didn't dare poke my head out of the cluster to see. I scanned the surroundings instead with [Heat Sense].

The atmosphere was incredibly tense and I could clearly see the outcome of my meddling in progress.

There were more hunter wasps moving around in squadrons, patrolling much more strictly than before, and I spotted several silhouettes of builder wasps moving along the tunnels, gathering the bodies and parts of the wreckage to work on fixing the hive's broken parts.

It was extremely satisfying to see.

However, the more I scanned around, the more I noticed something was amiss. Rather than continuously rising towards the uppermost parts of the hive. The cluster I was in, seemed to be moving down, heading somewhere else.

I poked my head out and saw that the wasp attached to my cluster had diverted to an isolated place that did not look at all like a host chamber.

Whole sections of the hive around here had collapsed, but they looked too old to have been caused recently. Also, there were no bodies around at all as you would expect from a recent battle.

«Stay alert. You are being observed.» Sensei said suddenly, and I was immediately wary.

Observed? By whom?

Without any thought, I scanned around with [Heat Sense] but it did not reveal any threatening presence, or any being at all, aside from the wasp carrying the cluster. This made me even more confused.

«Try using [Mana Sense] instead.» Sensei suggested.

I immediately activated it and almost instantly, a large mana presence exploded before my eyes.

〚Skill Aptitude Increase: 『Mana Sense LV 1』has become『Mana Sense LV 2』〛

It was intense, yet there was no hint of anything before this. There was no trace of any creature or the heat outline of a body. It had somehow stayed undetected until now, like it possessed both [Stealth] and the ability to suppress its own aura.

And now suddenly, this flood of mana came from somewhere inside the isolated place, and I panicked.

Did I walk into an ambush?