An army of bugs that were uniform and ravenous was not a thing to take lightly. To be quite frank, many would prefer to suffer an attack by an army of undead zombies than an army of bugs.

They were the worst type of invasion/population species in all universes they existed in. Their reproductive abilities were horrifyingly effective and as long as there was food, they could grow endlessly.

Given enough time, any bug race could eventually eat an entire universe bare, as long as they didn't encounter sufficient resistance.

This was why Thanatos' undead had been mostly forgotten as just another mark in history compared to the Insect race of Pokterr who had tried to consume Faust.

Back then, even Thanatos had come out to fight them back with his undead, which was coincidentally part of the reason why the Adept band had been so scarce, numbering even less than the flimsy Andrato Kingdom.

The number of lives that had been lost in that endeavor was not a joke. That was why the Insect race had been harshly punished and almost wiped out under the joint retaliation of all the various beings of Faust.

If it wasn't for the fact that insects were so hard to kill, they would have been cleared out. Even now, the various continents occasionally sent enforcement squads to the underground world of Pokterr to cull the insect race to keep them in check.

And yet, someway, somehow, some fool had chanced upon an Insect Queen Egg and brought it back. Not knowing what it was, he had sold it to another party through the black market.

One way or another, this item had changed hands slowly but surely until it landed in Darla's hands, before eventually landing in Darius'.

With one Insect Queen under his belt and his Transmutation ability, he had been able to hatch the egg, which he had then nurtured with top-tier resources to have it birth more and more insects.

Of course, he had made sure to make the Insect Queen imprint on him so that it would become subordinate to him. Heck, he had almost made her into Branded Servant, but since the first method had worked, he had saved that slot for an actual humanoid.

All the younger bugs were connected with their queen through her hivemind, so they knew that Darius was the big boss, making them show him respect. The same, although to a slightly lesser degree, was true about Gunner, mostly because they felt Darius' scent on him.

This led to the current scene, where Darius summoned 'just' 50,000 of his currently million-strong bug army to clear the Journeyman floor.

The bugs themselves were at the Amateur stage at best because Darius had prioritized feeding the queen and leaving the birthed bugs within the Bag of Holding.

Without a dungeon and its endless resources/instances, Darius simply couldn't afford to feed every single bug. However, now that he had secured a dungeon and would probably create more or strengthen it, his bug army would spend their lives harvesting resources within to grow their numbers.

Sorry, what was that? The safety of Faust, the possibility of betrayal by the bugs, and whatnot? Darius had no worries about any of that. The only chance the Insect Queen could have to overcome the imprint on her soul was if she reached Grandmaster-stage before Darius.

As someone who literally decided how she would grow, how could he let that happen?

To double down on this, he planned to have the Insect Queen sign a Soul Paper contract once it gained elementary sentience and a humanoid body. This would prevent any extra variables from occurring.

As for the bug army, Darius didn't need hundreds of millions of them. His plan was to occasionally let a few loose on the other continents to wreak havoc. The denizens of Faust were too peaceful and an element of chaos needed to be introduced into the world to amuse Vena.

Of course, the method in which he would carry this out had to be foolproof and perfect, so that it could never lead back to him. Otherwise, he would have an entire world on his tail the very moment he was even suspected.

The duo walked down the same tunnel as before, marveling at the efficiency of the bugs as they ganged up on any monster that showed up and consumed its essence until nothing was left.

This was why the Insect Race was feared. They could eat ANYTHING at all, nothing was spared from their palette. It didn't matter whether you were a spirit being or made of Darkness elemental energy, you would become nutrition for this race to grow and propagate further into the world.

In a matter of minutes, they came upon another cavern with a new boss monster. This one was vastly different from the Shadow Abomination, because it was actually a humanoid!

[Detected target is of an Enemy affiliation. Displaying details accordingly.]

[Name: Shadow Assassin

Race: Elemental

Class: Assassin

Subclass: Master of Shadow

HP: 1,596/1,596

MP: 1,160/1,160

STA: 1,520/1,520

Level: 40

Strength: 42

Agility: 49

Endurance: 38

Intellect: 29

Charisma: 12

Luck: 10

Abilities: Shadow Veil, Shadow Tendrils, Duplicate, Shadow Walk, Shadow Blades, Shadow Summon, Shadow Shield

Weapons: Elemental.]

Currently, the bugs were locked in a brutal battle against the boss. Many of them had consumed the essence of Journeyman monsters and had grown greatly, but of course, given their sheer number, it was not enough to strengthen the entire swarm as a whole.

They were being brutally beaten by the Shadow Assassin, hundreds of their numbers dying every minute. However, as was the law of insects, the weak would become the nourishment for the strong until only the ultimate insect would be left behind.

Many broke off from the fight to consume the corpses of their brethren. When enough had done so, a few glowed with sparkling lights as they climbed to the Journeyman stage right away.

These bugs would then jump back into the fight, then rinse and repeat, creating a situation where their numbers would dwindle rapidly, but with their power rising in tandem.

The Shadow Assassin continued to fight without acknowledging this, showing a surprisingly poor amount of intellect given its tats. It was almost as if its stats only affected its power but failed to work for its actual mind.