The horu-beetle was indeed gigantic.

Staring at the thing with his mouth wide open, Emmet couldn’t help but be surprised. Yorick had told him how big the thing had been, but actually seeing it was a very different thing from hearing.

The two were standing in a large field of wheat, staring at a large, black beetle about ten meters away.

The beetle was truly big. A little bit over a meter and a half long and colored a metallic black with a slight sheen, on its back was a round, shiny carapace. It had big beady eyes and long, spindly legs, giving a person a sickly feeling. Grazing leisurely within the wheat, it casually munched on a stalk. In fact, all around it were half eaten and trampled wheat stalks.

If it noticed the two boys, it didn’t seem to care. After all, it was a meter and a half long, while the boys themselves might only be somewhat taller than a meter. What did it need to fear?

“What a bastard!” Yorick cursed. In his hand he carried a shovel, which he waved menacingly at the beetle. “We worked hard to grow that wheat! And he’s just gonna eat it all?”

Horu-beetles were a common pest often seen in the fields, universally hated by farmers. They were big and could consume an enormous amount of their crop in one go. Further, they were a pain to deal with, since their carapace armor was so hard and difficult to damage. Farmers would usually have to gather a large group of tool-armed people before they could batter it back and force it away.

However, although they were big, they weren’t usually this big! In their memory, neither Emmet or Yorick had ever seen a horu-beetle even half this large!

Emmet laughed. “Didn’t you say you were a supreme warrior? If you’re so tough, why don’t you go fight it?”

“You know what, I will!” Yorick put on a tough face. Striding forward, he raised his shovel and gave the beetle a good whack!

Ding!

The shovel hit the beetle directly in the carapace, creating a loud ringing noise. On the carapace appeared a tiny scratch mark.

However, the horu-beetle didn’t seem to care. Not even pausing its little side-pinching mouth, it continued to chow down on the stalk of wheat it was holding.

“Geh!” Yorick scowled, stepping back and putting his hands on his hips. “The armor’s too hard!”

Yorick only dared to attack it because horu-beetles were very passive. Even when attacked, they would rarely attack back, unless their lives were truly threatened. Even then, they would likely choose to flee first. They were more concerned with just eating their full.

“Ha-ha, weak!” Emmet chortled.

“Watch me!” Yorick was successfully provoked. His eyes turning red, he raised his shovel again, and with all his might, struck it down!

Ding!

Once again, another tiny scratch appeared on the horu-beetle’s carapace. Even so, it still didn’t bother to pay attention to Yorick, not pausing his munching even a little bit.

“This little…” Yorick was incensed.

“Loser! You boast about becoming a supreme warrior, yet you can’t even handle a little beetle?” Emmet teased. “How embarrassing!”

“Again!” Yorick protested and charged forward again. Another ding, another small scratch - it was to the same hopeless result. At this rate, it might take another thousand swings before the beetle took any real damage.

In reality, even a single adult might not have the strength to threaten a horu-beetle, how could a ten-year-old boy possibly have the required strength?

Seeing Yorick curse over and over again, Emmet grabbed his bag and pulled something out. At first glance, it appeared to be a contraption, consisting of a few layers of thin stone disks overlayed by varying patterns of sunstones and other common ingredients, organized in specific patterns.

“Hm?” Yorick noticed Emmet’s movement and paused his swing. “What’s that?”

“Hehehe…” Emmet chortled ecstatically. “I’m glad you asked. This is my new creation I created recently! One of the puzzles in the book detailed a schematic similar, and I was enlightened…”

“New creation?” Yorick’s eyes lit up in curiosity. He walked over and closely observed the new contraption. Tracing over its complicated quartz circuitry, he nodded his head in intrigue. “What does it do? Will it help beat this beetle?”

“You can say that!” Emmet smiled mysteriously. He pointed toward the horu-beetle. “Don’t mind me, go attack the horu-beetle again. Don’t stop and just keep on striking it!”

“Keep attacking the beetle?” Yorick raised an eyebrow. What was this mysterious contraption? What would it do? It needed him to keep attacking the beetle?

“Alright,” he acquiesced, turning and stepping toward the beetle again, raising his shovel.

Ding! Ding!

Soon enough, he was rapidly attacking the horu-beetle. One shovel hit after another, he struck the horu-beetle without care. After some time, he started to get into a rhythm, hitting each of the beetle’s sides with alternate strokes.

Still, the beetle was unphased. Finished eating its current stalk, it scuttled forward a step and began to start eating a new one. The constant battering only seemed to function as a sort of massage.

Preoccupied with attacking the beatle, Yorick didn’t notice the contraption in Emmet’s hands slowly light up brighter and brighter within the sunlight, showing off a light golden glow. Just as the glow was getting brighter and brighter, Emmet suddenly tilted it in Yorick’s direction, causing a hazy yellow beam to shoot out of it!

The beam hit Yorick in the back and dispersed around him, bathing him in a glowy light.

“Hm?” Yorick subtly noticed a change, but deeply engrossed in his combat, didn’t look to see what had happened. He continued to strike at the beetle, varying his form with each hit, trying to find some sort of technique that would work better.

Ding! Ding!

He grit his teeth, striking with his shovel with more and more of his effort, the horu-beetle’s shiny black carapace filling his enraged vision. By this time, it was filled with tens of tiny scratches.

“Hah! Hah!” He began to yell out, grunting with each swing. Unknowingly, his strikes began to get heavier and heavier. Suddenly, the more he struck, the more he felt invigorated. It was almost as if something was supplementing his energy.

Seeing Yorick’s reinvigorated energy, Emmet’s eyes lit up.

At this moment, Yorick saw a piece of the horu-beetle’s carapace that had been hit multiple times. Several criss-crossing small scratches had joined together to form a slightly deeper scratch in the middle. His eyes suddenly turned red, and he turned his strikes toward that area of the shell!

Ding! Ding!

The shovel battered that section of the shell with harder and harder strikes, and the area was decorated with more and more scratches. Although not completely accurate, the shovel would usually hit within a few inches of the criss-crossing patches of scratches. At some point, Yorick had stopped treating the shovel as just a shovel, and was wielding it like a sword, taking sideways stances and using the rotation of his waist to give him more power in his slices.

Suddenly, DAK!

A slightly different sound rang out, a sound that gave the impression of something cracking. Mid-strike, Yorick’s shovel bent near its tip, its malleable material curving from its usual shape.

However, the beetle wasn’t unscathed either. The last strike, the scratched-up part of the carapace finally gave, a tiny inch-deep crack appearing.

At that moment, the horu-beetle finally felt threatened, and it quickly dropped the stalk of wheat it was feeding on and scurried away. Soon enough, it had disappeared within the thick patch of dense wheat stalks.

“Ha-HA!!!” Yorick tossed his shovel to the side and threw his arms into the air, screaming out gleefully. “I did it! Hell yeah!”

“Good job, good job!” Emmet smiled, using a hand to awkwardly clap the side of his leg. It was hard to hold something and clap at the same time.

It was then that Yorick finally noticed the hazy yellow light surrounding him. Turning toward Emmet and seeing the contraption still dimly lit, his eyes widened. “What’s that?! What did it do?”

“Hehehe, I’m glad you asked!” Emmet chortled pervertedly. “I don’t know what it’s called, but I think I’m gonna name it the sun beam! Using some quartz circuitry and several sunstones in a layered circuit, it can absorb the sun’s energy, convert it to a nurturing state, and then shoot it out toward someone, allowing them to absorb the rays and invigorate their energy levels!”

“Oh!” Yorick had a realization. So no wonder he had been able to damage the beetle at the end - he had been recharged by Emmet’s solar beam! He had thought it was strange that the more he had hit the beetle with the shovel, the more energy he seemed to have.

Staring at the strange contraption in Emmet’s arms, he couldn’t help but be amazed. So things like this existed? He had never heard of anything like it!

Although, for a sheltered farm boy, that wasn’t saying much. Was it likely for something like that to make an appearance here?

“Hehe,” Emmet raised his head proudly. In truth, even a week ago, he would not have been able to build such an amazing device. It was all thanks to the amazing book the tribe head had gifted him - in one such puzzle on the 25th page, it detailed a similar configuration. Enlightened, he had modified a bit of its structure to build it in real life. Thankfully, the primary components, quartz and sunstones, were readily available to him. Especially in tilling season, farmers might find several wagonfuls of those rocks sitting in the fields.

He was incredibly excited. After building the contraption a few days ago, he had been itching to try it out. However, he had no place to try it. Thus, today was a perfect opportunity to see his handiwork in action!

Seeing the contraption actually work as intended, Emmet couldn’t help but grow more and more motivated. The book was such an amazing resource that he was blessed to have - it would be such a waste to not take full advantage!

“Let’s go again! Let’s go again!” Yorick screamed out. He picked up his dented shovel and waved it around in the air. “That felt amazing! We gotta go again - this is good training!”