Chapter 54 We Found Food...

For the next one week, Lenny went about his daily routine which was: Wake up, Daily quest, Eat the cotton worm and the hearts of the Praying mantis, rest, eat some more, rest and then go out for extra points.

As much as possible, he avoided the centipede Chimera ant whenever he saw them.

It was not long before he noticed that they were also other variations of insects in this nest.

It was no wonder that the System called them Chimera Ants.

However, to the best of Lenny's knowledge, such a mixture shouldn't be.

In fact, according to what he knew of insects, all this insects had different live style and living habits. tthey were all unique in their own ways, and should not mix.

Even if they mixed, he expected natural selection to take place.

There was supposed to be a struggle of sorts for space, resources, and food, but the classification of these creatures was just abnormally compatible with one another.

Lenny could not help but feel as if there was a greater hand at work here.

Even though it is clear that these creatures were brought here by the demons, something still felt off.

Lenny could not put a finger on it. It was just his intuition that he had honed for many many years raising its head.

However, in this place, there was only so much he could do.

For one week, he explored the place, always trying his best not to pick a fight with the giant Preying Mantis. Even though he had become significantly stronger than he used to be since in got into this place, whenever he used Surveyor on the Giant Chimera Preying Mantis, he still could not see its Stats.

This meant that there was still a distance for him to go.

Also, he kept his eyes open for the likely hood of spotting any humans around the place.

however, he soon discovered that he had also underestimated the size of this colony.

It was very very large.

This was practically an underground city.

Every time Lenny went exploring, the Satan system would help him map out the place.

In his exploration, he found two other safe spots.

He used these areas in relation to one another whenever he went hunting.

And whenever, the Chimera ants were after him and he could not handle them, he would run and hide in the safe zones.

In this manner, a week passed. He did not have any hidden quests. Just the usual daily or side Quests.

His strength increased again an he became level 5.

At this point, Even Lenny had started to notice that becoming stronger by Killing Chimera ants was becoming a Drag.

At it least for the Chimera ants he was killing, it was definitely not enough.

Even for Lenny, Life was beginning to become Modane. At least it was until he came across them.

It happened when he came back from one of his usual daily hunts.

He laid at a corner and in the safety of one of the Safe zones.

He was having a little nap. He suddenly felt something approach him in his perception range.

Immediately, he opened his eyes. he was an assassin and even without the perception ability, he had a sensitive system for the change in his environment.

Even so much as the wind changing directions could wake him up.

However, he was too slow, or rather, his opponent was too fast.

The last thing he saw was a man holding the Carapace of a Chimera Ant and using it to Smack his face.

*Bam!*

One Aggressive hit to the face and It was lights out for him.

With the Alert from the system, he opened his eyes.

<Hidden Quest: Survive the Gladiator Village>

Lenny opened his eyes to the world moving around him.

Through the pain on one side of his face, he slowly opened his eyes as he looked around.

The world was truly moving around him.

He blinked a few times and tried to wipe his eyes, but he discovered that he couldn't as his hands were tied front of him.

He tried to move his legs too, but his legs were constrained. In other words, they were also tied.

He looked around and the current situation made him frown.

He was currently being Carried like a pig for the slaughter.

His hands and legs were tied to a long stick.

One side of the stick was on the shoulder of the person in front, and another was on the shoulder of the person behind.

both of which were big hefty men.

Apart from Lenny, they also carried bags on their backs that were made from Cotton worm skin.

Lenny tried to struggle free but the ropes that were used to tie his hands were very strong.

Also, his mouth was stuffed shut with Cotton from Cotton worm

Through the cave walls, the men carried him.

They even came across the younger Preying Mantis Chimera ants twice, and this men butchered them without even dropping Lenny for even a second.

Nothing that came to obstruct their path was capable of holding them back.

Surveyor.

<Name: Bugger>

<Race: Demi human (second generation)>

<Level: 9>

<Rank: Nil>

<Strength: 186>

<Agility: 93>

<HP: 60/60>

<EXP:170/185>

He frowned at this. It was no wonder he went lights out with just one hit. Just one of these guys was already four levels above him.

They took Lenny through parts he had never explored before.

Through wide openings and a strong gathering of bugs.

Sometimes, the bugs even avoided them and let them pass which surprised Lenny.

Along the way, they came across a flow of an underground river.

They stopped by it and went to the river to drink water.

All through the journey, Lenny had pretended to still be fainted.

Now that they had put him down, he used it as opportunity to pick and hide a small sharp and pointy stalagmite.

He was an assassin. Even if he was given a needle. in his hands, it was a weapon.

Once the big Burly men were done with their drink at the river, they came back for him.

Of course Lenny immediately shut his eyes in pretend.

They took him through different turns. Surprisingly, apart from the younger Preying mantis that was easier to kill, they did not come across the really big and scary ones with Black and red Carapace.

They did not even come across the Centipede Creatures.

If Lenny were to make a wild guess, then he would say that these guys knew this place so well that they knew the safe paths from the dangerous ones.

This was incredible and yet scary.

For Lenny, it had not been easy to map the area as much as he had done.

In fact, he had more dangerous paths on his map than safety zones.

Also, he had only explored for about two hours a day.

However, these guys had been carrying him for six hours straight, and yet the danger was next to known.

He could not imagine the amount of danger they had to go through to achieve this.

The scars on their burly bodies suddenly made sense to him.

After a while, he could see a big dome shaped Stone far ahead.

It looked like a giant mushroom. But it was made entirely of stone.

It was extremely wide and for some reason, he could tell that tha bugs were avoiding the place.

It took another fifteen minutes of working.

After which they reached it.

On the ground, and around the Giant Mushroom shaped Rock, Lenny could see the all too familiar glowing mushroom.

"No wonder the insects are staying away," he thought to himself.

There was a stone slab in front.

The men put him down and proceeded to open it.

As there did, Lenny saw the inside and he was speechless for words. (author: then again, he had cotton stuffed in his mouth...LoL)

It was just as the system had stated.

This, was a village.

All around, he could see children who were either naked or half naked playing around.

The men took him up and entered into the Dome before sealing shut with the stone slab.

As they went through the village, he could see mothers nursing their babies and he could see also see as Cotton worms were reared in pens for food.

He could see some other selected insects in cages. From the looks of things, it was also for food.

There were huts that were made from the Carapace of insects all over the place.

As the men took him through the village, the children that were running around naked ran towards them to welcome them.

Some of them poked at Lenny.

They looked at him with curiosity and some even poked at him.

the men waved to the children.

"Ahhh!!! My children, you are back!" Lenny heard the scream of a loud aged voice. "What did you find?"

One of the burly men carrying Lenny waved as he laughed out loud, "we found food!"