Tl-ed by Wei

Edited by Oz

***

Summoners were considered powerful because of their ability to call forth alien creatures.

There were several requirements for a summoning spell. Once casted, it would consume a large amount of mental strength and vitality. However, there were some cases in which the summoners forced themselves to summon without meeting the bare requirements, resulting in fatal backlash. Such aftermaths were not uncommon.

Thus, sacrificial offerings came into being.

Offerings could vary: be it humans or corpses; insects and zombies; and even the caster's own flesh or soul.

Akin to money, the more you have, the better the items you will be able to purchase. Likewise, sacrifices work in the same way; the higher the quality, the greater the rewards.

First Tiered offerings such as Blood Sucking Worms could be used to summon Skeleton Soldiers; Second Tiered Crimson Crowned Beetles can call forth Armored Zombies; Third Tiered Venomous Lion Vultures can call forth the Tyrannosaurus Rex; and Fourth Tiered Desolate Lightning Falcons can call forth Lightning Colossals...

As in reality, one may encounter counterfeit goods from time to time. Summons are not guaranteed. There had been documented cases in which casters had used high-tiered monsters, such as Bone Dragons and Zombie Kings, as offerings, but had called upon wild pigs and dogs instead. Furthermore, it was a fact that many summoners were scourged by these ridiculous "counterfeits"!

In fact, there had been a time when Li Jiayu and his companions were tasked to bring down a male and female pair of Black Knights. After a long and arduous war, they brought down the female counterpart and relied on Li Jiayu to summon a creature from the corpse of the fallen monster which would aid them greatly in the peril.

However, life does not always go as planned, as Li Jiayu had actually conjured a hen...

In the midst hen's cackling, Li Jiayu and the Demon Hunter group almost coughed out blood from anger. However, they could only retreat, leaving behind the bodies of two teammates which made him drown in remorse.

Of course, that only occurred due to his lack of experience as an Apprentice Summoner. After he rose to the rank of a Greater Summoner, situations such as these never emerged.

There had also been numerous rare cases which were equivalent to miracles, such as summoners getting a summon beyond what they had bargained for! It all depended on luck, really. During a windfall, one could use a sow as an offering and summon a Frost Wyrm!

However, these chances were close to zero but that did not mean it was impossible. Nothing was impossible in this apocalypse!

Therefore, a career as a Summoner was akin to being a Gambler. If one was lucky, one'd be able to turn the tables and emerge victorious. Meanwhile, if one was unfortunate, they'd have to sleep on the streets and may even lead their companions into their graves.

Now, Li Jiayu shall bet once more!

A Scythe Beetle was considered a Middle First Tier offering and, if nothing else, it would be possible to summon a Skeleton Soldier, Goblin, Orc or a Beastman. If one was fortunate, they would even be able to call forth higher-tiered organisms such as Nagas, Ogres or even Arzuros.

[TL: http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Arzuro s]

Li Jiayu firmly believed if he had a contracted beast alongside him, with his leadership and axe mastery, they would be able to contend against the Crimson Crowned Beetles head on, behead more than 10 and harvest their Insect Cores as his first pot of gold in the apocalypse.

"Li Jiayu... You... Can you stop bringing up the matter about us wetting ourselves? It's embarrassing and it's not as if we're doing it deliberately..."

Sun Weiwei's face flushed red from the tip of her eyes to the bottom of her neck. She clearly recalled Li Jiayu being gentlemanly, always treating girls well. He even had the title of "Women's Confidante", but now, every word he spouted made the girls blush... He must have taken the wrong medication; that was the only explanation for his drastic change.

"You were the ones who peed standing. You can urinate yourselves but not allow me to talk about it? The patent for urinating while standing belongs to boys, so why are you women following suit? You even wet yourselves..."

Li Jiayu felt contented and joked a little more but ceased after noticing the expressions of the female students. They were on the verge of crying in shame, so he changed the subject. "Give me some space, I'll take care of its corpse..."

Even though they did not understand the motives behind his actions, they still trusted him and scattered to the back. Their eyes, however, remained glued to Li Jiayu's actions out of sheer curiosity.

"Anyone have a knife?" Li Jiayu reached for his face and ran his finger along the injury inflicted by the beetle.

Upon hearing that, a classmate quickly removed his keychain and handed the utility knife over. Although it was useless as a weapon, it was sufficient for slitting his wrists.

Honestly, the axe could do it. However, it was stained and although the blood was non-toxic, it would pollute Li Jiayu's blood.

"Jiayu, are you going to dissect the insect?"

"..." Li Jiayu was rendered speechless by the female student's question.

"No, I'm using it for bloodletting."

He drew the utility knife across his elbow and blood gushed out in large amounts, spilling onto the beetle's carcass.

The students around stared wide-eyed as they could not comprehend his actions but the solemness on his face made them shut up in fear of distracting him.

Li Jiayu's fingers started interweaving, like a butterfly flitting through flowers, as he mouthed in an intelligible language. In the eyes of the students present, it seemed as though he had turned unfathomable; not like those con men, but the Mages or Monks you see in games.

"Beyond the void, through the depths, albeit separated by space, we are bound through fate... I, Li Jiayu, am a summoner hailing from the Central world, please heed my call."

While Li Jiayu was focused on reading the chants, Wang Siyuan's face drained of blood as he exclaimed, "Jiayu! Another Scythe Beetle is heading our way!"

Li Jiayu's heart shuddered and was surprised to see a red-coloured Scythe Beetle eyeing them from dozens of meters away. It flapped its wings while its eyes shone with hatred. For some odd reason, it seemed to treat Li Jiayu as a mortal enemy, seeking revenge for its partner which laid under Li Jiayu's feet!

"Fuck! It's the Scythe Beetle Lord!"

It's abrupt appearance set off crashing waves in Li Jiayu's heart and he was unable to retain his calm. Never would he have expected the emergence of another Scythe Beetle, let alone the Scythe Beetle Lord!

That was an existence stronger than the ordinary Scythe Beetle. It had reached the Higher First Tiered rank equal to the Crimson Armored Beetle. However, it was extremely powerful and if one were to compare both beetles in lethality, this one would undoubtedly emerge victorious!

'Why is it like this... At this moment, it would be suicidal to go against the Scythe Beetle Lord. The possibility of defeating it wouldn't go beyond 30%. Time... time, I need at least two minutes...'

Swish~!

The Scythe Beetle Lord charged over with frightening speed before anyone could react, but Li Jiayu's scalp tingled. Relying on his keen senses to maneuver out of harm's way, he felt the beetle brushing past him as he dodged!

By a hair's breadth, the sickle beetle missed its target. However, another male student was caught off-guard and was hit head-on by the meteor-like body not far from Li Jiayu.

In a blink of an eye, the boy's chest was pierced by the mandibles. He was then separated into two starting from the chest. As his head flew out, along with half of his chest, blood sprayed out like a fountain.

"Ahh!"

After snapping out of their daze, the group of students were frightened out of their wits and they screamed at the top of their lungs. Regardless of their fear, the worms had not hurt them, but this time, it was the real deal... Blood was spilt and bodies were dismembered and it happened to their classmate of the same year. A brother had been mutilated into several parts in a blink of an eye.

The worst part was that the dead classmate's blood had splattered onto their faces. Fear gripped their hearts and their legs went numb!

The Scythe Beetle Lord knew no mercy. It simply turned its head and widened its jaws to harvest the life of another student that was soon clipped into two like a watermelon. Another clip and his limbs fell off. He struggled desperately to break free with only his upper body, but another mandible pierced his heart!

The student whose legs were severed spewed out a pool of blood, convulsing slightly before breathing his last.

In that brief period of two seconds, the beetle had already caused two deaths. Now, Li Jiayu was completely enraged and poured his focus into the chant.

"Heed my call, be my companion and fight alongside me for I shall offer my sacrifice. I will respect you... Come forth, my new companion!"

As Li Jiayu's spell was completed, the air seemed to have thickened to that of a paste. The atmosphere became suffocating and people started experiencing difficulties in breathing.

Beneath Li Jiayu's feet, faint glowing lines started appearing, forming a circle like an array of sorts!

The Scythe Beetle Lord noticed that and rushed toward Li Jiayu, its mouth emitting a harsh screech as it lunged forward!

Thud!

A hammer appeared just in time and crashed straight into the beetle's face with a resounding thud!

The person behind that was Sun Weiwei!

She could not bear to leave Li Jiayu in peril and used herself as a form of distraction for the monster in order to buy Li Jiayu some time!

'This stupid woman, does she plan on throwing her life away? Although your act was commendable, I, Li Jiayu, do not need a woman like you to pity me...'

The Scythe Beetle Lord immediately turned toward Sun Weiwei. Li Jiayu noticed that and became both angry and anxious. Tightening his grip, the fire axe flew out at incredible speed before lodging itself into the beetle's eye, causing large amounts of thickened red goo to seep out!

"Oooo!!"

The beetle whined in agony. In a frenzy, it flapped its wings furiously and flew over, fully intending to collide with Li Jiayu!

Li Jiayu felt a connection establishing itself in this crucial moment!

'It's here! Here it comes! My summon has arrived!'

Li Jiayu screamed inwardly in excitement as he slashed his wrist. A pool of blood spilled out instantly!

'Why did it drain so much of my blood... Anyways, more blood means the better the summon... Do not disappoint me!'

Scythe Beetle Lord charged towards Li Jiayu; it was at a four meter distance and a second was all it needed to reach Li Jiayu!

1 meter...

2 meter...

As it was two meters away from Li Jiayu, a dark shadow suddenly loomed over its head and, whilst bringing along a putrid scent, swiped down with great momentum!

Bang!

The Scythe Beetle Lord could not resist the impact and was smashed downwards!

***

Tl-ed by Wei

Edited by Oz

***

The Scythe Beetle Lord fell down a meter before Li Jiayu. Its mandibles clamped desperately toward Li Jiayu as though hell-bent on splitting Li Jiayu in half. However, that was impossible as it was being thoroughly suppressed by the tentacles which coiled air-tightly around it!

"Dark Octopus!"

Li Jiayu was stunned as he stared at the shadow which straddled the beetle. Its body was an inconspicuous pink throughout and roughly two times the size of its hostage; it was an octopus!

This octopus was bald. Its beady eyes resembled two brass bells and its body was covered with a faint layer of oil that dripped with a 'zi zi' sound - bodily fluids reeking of the sea.

Its terrifying tentacles were most notable as they were as thick as two human thighs and measured approximately two metres long. They were also covered in dark-red suckers, the size of steamed buns, and twitched constantly.

'How in the world did I manage to summon a rare beast such as the Dark Octopus...'

Li Jiayu soon snapped out of his daze. Murderous intent flashed in his eyes as he strode forward deftly, fast approaching the beetle, and lifted his axe, cleaving at the beetle's wounded eyes!

The Scythe Beetle Lord was like an impenetrable fortress. Its defense could not be compared to the likes of ordinary Scythe Beetles, so attacking it head on usually resulted in naught. The only weakness it had was its relatively fragile eyes and as long as one could destroy its eyes, the brain would be in reach. Thus, it would die!

Peng! Peng! Peng!

Li Jiayu hacked down mercilessly at its eyes. Following that, parts of its face and foul-smelling blood splattered in all directions. However, the beetle had amazing tenacity. With its legs and wings twitching and flailing desperately, two of its limbs managed to remove two tentacles before stabbing toward Li Jiayu!

He sneered at the desperate attempt by the cornered beast. It was definitely hard to dodge but there were only two appendages and with the 800 pound body weighing it down, its movement was greatly affected. Li Jiayu's silhouette flashed to the side and easily evaded the attack. Reeling back, he hacked away.

Probably realizing that killing Li Jiayu was futile in its miserable state, it switched targets and made every effort to eliminate the students around them.

Woo...

It screeched, stunning the surrounding teenagers whose faces paled several folds. Even Li Jiayu's eardrums throbbed from the terrible pain!

The Scythe Beetle Lord struggled desperately to turn its body. Crawling toward the window, its intentions were completely obvious to all and that was to commit suicide by throwing itself out the building, in an attempt to flee from the wildly-hacking student. Otherwise, it would be tortured with its eyes exploded and brain squashed!

"Bastard! You think I would allow you to escape in one piece after making me so miserable? Impossible. Die for me!"

Li Jiayu stalked after it like a shadow, executing a series of moves: mountain splitting axe; straight cleave; and ground levelling axe. Blow after blow connected like a flowing stream of water landing on the eyes of the fallen Scythe Beetle Lord. The heavy blows from the barrage of assaults caused the Scythe Beetle Lord, which had long since lost its center of gravity, to crash to the ground!

Li Jiayu's eyes flashed with a tinge of chill as the beetle fell to the ground. Performing a spin, his waists, shoulders, wrists and axe seemed to have formed a connection as he unleashed burst after burst of unparalleled power!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

His momentum was imposing and after five consecutive 360-degree swings, he finally managed to destroy the left eye of the beetle. The eye socket sank down and exposed the pale flesh within.

At this time, the Dark Octopus, which had been straddling the beetle, moved and its bell-like eyes rolled as though it smelled something delicious. It leaned forward to determine where the source of the aroma was and thrusted one of its many tentacles into the exposed eye socket of the beetle.

Goo... Goo...

The sound of wailing resounded and the tentacle that stabbed the eye socket started to constrict and contract, dredging up the beetle's brain matter.

Li Jiayu looked on, flabbergasted. While he was still hung up on how he would go about destroying the brain, the octopus had acted unexpectedly... Although something like draining the brain matter appeared perverted and the way the Dark Octopus absorbed them looked grotesque, it wasn't any worse than being the enemy's very nightmare.

In less than 3 seconds, the previously arrogant and domineering beetle, that had killed students left and right and forced Li Jiayu into a corner, stopped struggling and wilted down. It had become so completely and utterly motionless that it could not be any less dead. After the Dark Octopus sated its hunger with the nutritional brain stew, its tentacles slid out clean. However, on its suckers, there was an impressive red crystal.

This crystal appeared exquisite. It was the size of a grape and shone with a flame-like luster. Who would have imagined something so beautiful could be found inside a creature as grotesque as the beetle? Even world-renowned jewelry gems seemed inferior.

"Insect Core! Lord Tiered insect Core! And the purity is so high!"

Li Jiayu exclaimed. Never had he expected to be so lucky as to attain such a windfall in the beginning of the apocalypse-this was a rare item!

Usually, as long as an insect was a Higher First Tier, they would produce insect crystals while the lord of insects would produce lord insect cores. However, lord-type insects were extremely rare. Out of tens of thousands, only one would emerge. It would be harder to hunt down a lord-type insect as their intelligence surpassed the others, they had command over other insects and they knew to flee when the situation was dire.

In Li Jiayu's past life, there had been a market for Insect Lord cores, where people competed over them and their prices were also beyond those of ordinary cores, probably by a hundred, thousand or even a million times!

What was the usage for lord tier insect cores... They were extremely useful! Family tour, murder and arson - it was a heavenly treasure for marrow cleansing. Albeit being a First Tier Insect Lord core, it possessed enormous use for him.

Just as he decided to plan the usage of the lord-type insect crystal, Li Jiayu felt his body go numb all of a sudden. In a state of light-headedness, he saw stars in his vision and held onto the walls. Li Jiayu looked at his bleeding left elbow, then at the tentacled octopus that was waving proudly and smiled wryly.

"Octopus dude, you are too vicious, draining 300 mls of my blood... And I was too desperate, causing a temporary energy exhaustion that makes me unable to even stand straight... However, thank you. If you hadn't appeared in time to suppress the beetle, I would probably have been shredded into a thousand pieces..."

Li Jiayu was not exaggerating one bit. From a certain point a view, the Scythe Beetle Lord's prowess seemed to lack, but in fact, it was extremely powerful in the wilderness and even second tiered insects were of no match!

Unfortunately, today, it had been constrained in this relatively cramped classroom which limited its fighting capabilities. Its flying capabilities had been neutralized and coincidentally, Dark Octopus spawned atop it, so it failed to play out most of its lord capabilities.

Otherwise, even tens of Li Jiayu would have been sent helter skelter.

Unexpectedly, the octopus seemed to contain sentience as it nodded its head. Both of its eyes then narrowed slightly in a wretched kind of way, akin to perverted maniacs, and the octopus scuttled across the ground, sweeping the panties and stockings up with its tentacles like they were treasures!

And as it strapped the last panty on its head, it emitted a muffled cheer...

"Oh... A-Are you a pervert?"

Li Jiayu's face froze at the octopus' actions. A sense of foreboding took root in his mind and he then uttered,

"W-wait... You... You're not a Dark Octopus! You're actually one of those tentacle monsters that exist in those hentai films[1]! That kind of low-life creature?!"

--- Translator Notes ---

[1]Hentai - Basically anime for adults