We spent the rest of the day doing some light activities, like practicing skills or just small talk. Marcy was thrilled with her new magical job. She hasn't unlocked 'apprentice magician' yet, but I think that after she plays a little with the elemental arrows she might be able to grasp the insight to use other types of magic.

Next morning, the ninth day of humanization. Or tenth. I lost track. However, I think I will have to trigger the skill again using points before returning to town.

"Guys, I am turning back to troll now. There is little time left on the skill timer, and I need to cool down for a whole day before turning to human. So I am clearing five floors of the dungeon as a troll."

"OK. Can we see your transformation?" Zahariel asks with a childish curiosity.

"No. I have to take off my clothes and then it takes five minutes to finish the transformation and I have to wear clothes again. It is too gruesome."

I leave the camp and find a quiet place away from their sight. Five minutes later, Grendel is back.

"Let's go. It is time to bust some bugs. But before that, does someone want to change jobs?"

"Make me monster tamer!" Helen asks.

"I'll keep my current job." Marcy won't let go of her new Mystic Archer job.

"Make me a magician now," Zahariel asks.

I check mine, I can now become an Elementalist. But I will grind elemental magic before that. One can get more spells this way, and the odds of getting a rare spell increases. I'll grind super villager then.

We carefully approach the hive, and it is squirming with bugs again. In retrospect, the area near the slaughter is the most crowded. Maybe leaving all those dead bugs outside has just served as food to entice the other bugs out.

And these bugs right now found a tastier morsel than their dead brethren. Fresh cursed troll. I've earned a [Bug Bait (curse)] title last fight. Maybe one of these bugs was a caster, or the collective grudge of the bugs caused it. Speculations apart, it is time to fight again.

"Helen and Zahariel, use AOE on the pack of bugs. Marcy picks the flyers and whoever gets past me."

I take the {Dead Zone} stance atop a slope and trigger {Whistling Double}. The range of the dead zone increased by a few feet now that I am in troll form. The bugs are drooling when they charge at me. I sink my feet on the ground and keep my spear singing. A dozen, two dozen, the frenzied vermin just keep charging, trampling the corpses of their dead brethren only to die on my spear and roll down the slope. Damage from ranged bugs keeps piling up, but it is manageable. Some bugs that survive the AOE spells end up aggroing on Zahariel and Helen, and they take some damage. But almost a third of it is shouldered by me and both of them can use healing magic. This kind of gauntlet is only a tiresome grind at this point.

Marcy enters MP Exhaustion for maybe the first time in her life. She was spamming magic arrows too much.

Some bugs get past the dead zone and go for the mages. Time for crowd control. [Intimidating Shout]. The bugs spread out away from me and it means it will be harder to make a chokepoint again.

"Switch to single target attacks and pick the ones further away from the hive! Marcy, stay down and rest."

"I am sorry."

"Don't worry. Nobody is gravely hurt, we are holding. Just keep training and find your own pace. But right now stay crouched and don't shoot another magic arrow until you are over half MP."

"You're the boss, G!"

"Helen, Zahariel, don't chase. Let the bugs scatter if they want. We are not here to clear them out, we are here to gain entrance to the dungeon. Gather up here next to Marcy and stay down."

"Yes!" "Acknowledged!" They bunch up next to Marcy and I set up {Dead Zone} again right next to them.

"Watch out for any bugs with area attacks. Ignore the ones aiming at me and recover stamina and MP."

Little by little the bugs that broke the fear effect return, but they return in disarray because of their different move speeds and recovery times. Dead zone only breaks if it is overwhelmed above my accelerated attack rate, disarmed or run out of MP and stamina to keep attacking. Or if I move my feet. It does not excludes using magic or ranged attacks as long as the spear is held in one hand. In any other condition, it is a sphere of death that will cut down any bug that enters it.

And after a few minutes, the attacks stop and now there are only squirming bugs around us.

Helen (Monster Tamer) has gained 9 levels! Marcy (Mystic Archer) has gained 6 levels! Zahariel (Magician) has gained 2+9 levels! Grendel (Super Villager) has gained 1+9 levels!

63 skill points added.

Marcy grabs my arm and looks at me with pleading eyes. "Grendel, should we spend our points or save them?" She is strangely close, but it is probably the environment that is making her scared.

"Spend them on passive or support skills that doesn't see much use. The skills you use frequently should not be leveled with points. Give them a chance to level up on their own. Keep about 20 points in reserve though. You might need to level a skill in a pinch to get out of trouble."

It doesn't mean the rest of the hive is empty though. I take some time to stow away the bodies of the most interesting bugs around. The ones that might have a use as raw materials, and the high ranked ones, a dozen C-rank and less than a hundred D-rank.

"We are moving to the entrance now. Snipe only the ranged bugs and the ones that are not coming at me." I put away the horn spear and shield. It is time to test a new close quarters skill: Dragon Claws.

Enticed by the tasty snack I am, the bugs rush to me as we move. I cut the ones that close into melee range with the claws and practice my magic spells with the others.

"Water Jet" Some magma ants cool, hiss and stop dead. "Air Cannon," Buzzing dragonflies that burst when dead are swept away from us. I keep cycling between the elements I have low proficiency and slowly plowing forward.

We reach the hole created by the chalice's destruction. Some sticky webbing and crystalized goo are covering everything and some black enamel that looks like a carapaced bulwark makes a circular canopy above it, making the entrance look like a trap. Walk in, slip on the polished floor and get stuck in the webs deep inside. Beneath the slick floor pieces of the broken chalice can be seen. There is not a single patch of exposed dirt.

"It is going to be tough getting down there without getting stuck in that trap. But I think it will be even harder to get out of there."

"Doesn't look inviting, does it? My entire body is telling me to run away." Marcy gets cold feet.

"But we already got paid to dive in. There is no coming back now."

"You have that look when you are about to do something, Grendel. What is it?" Helen, as usual, is able to read through me.

"I am going to make an experiment. Zahariel, you are able to sense the miasma flowing out of that hole, right?"

"Yes, I can. Beelzebub's power is greater than when this was a simple hole in the ground. In fact, there is enough miasma out here that we can consider this foyer the first layer of the dungeon already."

"Good. Please bear up with the stench." I take some pink glass vials from storage and the same amount of metal test tubes.

"These are repellent potions," Marcy points out. "Are we blocking the entrance?"

"Kind of. I want to test if these potions have an effect on the miasma." I answer while mixing the reagent with the catalyst to finish the repellent potion. Once it is properly mixed, I put the cork back in.

"This thing is disgusting." Zahariel shares the same feeling as I do. I remember my first contact with this potion. Something in me told me this thing was trouble. I wanted to get rid of it but even more, I wanted to get away from it.

But why? The main ingredient for this repelling potion is Chytheria. The same mana-draining herb that is used in medicine for mana poisoning and as a toxin to keep mages imprisoned. Monsters need a higher amount of ambient mana to survive than humans. Monsters instinctively avoid low mana areas. This is why the orc settlement was at the foot of that mountain. This is why the syrup meadow can spawn that many slimes in its middle. They are power spots. Not unlike this hole here. Repellent potions are in fact an extract with a negative 'mana charge' and it sucks ambient mana. The potion loses effectiveness when it is filled with this mana.

Now, what is miasma? I am betting these potions here that miasma is poisoned mana. I take the completed potions in my hands carefully and toss each one at a different spot of the entrance, to cover it all. A pink mist spreads where the potions broke, enveloping the whole entrance in its haze.

"How does it look now, Zahariel?"

"Amazing! Not only the miasma stopped flowing out, the stuff that is near the entrance is being drawn and sucked into that pink mist!"

"It won't last too long. But it will give us some breathing room. The bugs in the first chambers should flee the mist. See how it is not spreading out here? It is because it goes after the biggest mana density. The first chambers of the dungeon are being drained of ambient mana as we speak. We will be able to get a foothold in the dungeon without worrying about an overflow in the first room.

The number of bug species that have already settled outside means a radical ecosystem change in this region. These hive bugs are very aggressive and have already pushed out the normal monsters. They will spread even further in search of food. And what food bugs like the most? Crops.

"I will keep watch out here, spread out and check if any secondary exits opened. Don't go too far."

"I don't see miasma leaking out from anywhere." Zahariel points out.

"I really don't want to go on my own in this place."

"I'd rather stay next to you, Grendel."

"It was a stupid idea. Sorry. Hey, look. The pink mist is being sucked into the dungeon." The remaining repellent mist is actually moving inside to suck more mana. Maybe neutralize is more like it. The mist's negative charge eats up the mana and neutralizes it. "I think we can go in now."

This opens a whole new possibility. But that can wait until after we are done with this errand.

We climb down into the hole. Somewhere right below us, [Presence Detection {Treasure Sense}] tingles. It might be something from the dead adventurers. It is not a pemadra or money. I'll ignore it for the moment. The enamel and the crystallized goo are very slippery.

"Watch your step. If you slip here you are sliding all the way in. Let me go first."

Entering Beelzebub's Hive dungeon complex. Guild Card updated.

It seems Kareena changed our guild cards or unlocked some hidden feature to record the dungeon raid progress. There is no way of cheating out of this quest. Of course, we could just ditch the guild, but they might ask for the gold back.

Little by little, we go inside. The repellent mist has all disappeared now. The mana density of the entrance has lowered to the levels of a human town. It will take quite a while to recover. This will keep the bugs from going out. Just to be sure, I take a higher grade repellent and set it the usual way by the entrance.

"Eww, this thing is really disgusting, Grendel!" Zahariel complains. My guess is not that the repellent works against monsters. It is just that humans have zero innate mana sensitivity. Proof in point, Zahariel is not a monster. He does not even have a core.

We go past the dead-mana zone of the cloud, and enter what might be a maze of bug tunnels. There is an oval hall about the size of a house with several tunnels leading into it, some too small for a human. The crystalized goo and dark enamel are everywhere. In the distance down one of these tunnels, some glowing hexagonal honeycomb can be seen. It is like a scene from a sci-fi b-flick. In the distance a shrill. The whole place smells like roaches.

"This place is disgusting. I don't think I can endure this for too long." Marcy complains. Regretfully Helen was forced to get used to filth during her jail time. Zahariel is unfazed. I guess he saw much worse during the war.

In the distance, an unnerving clicking can be heard. It is like something hard is tapping on the crystalized goo.

Something big is coming. Presence detection shows two creatures bigger than me approaching.