Bang!
Liam's fist collided with the golden metallic structure, and the whole thing shuddered.
Everyone took a step back as they saw a thin barrier light up. The thing covered the whole hill and was also quite strong. It looked like even Liam's attack was not enough to break it.
However, Liam was not done yet. After the first punch, he repeated the same thing and punched at the same spot over and over again and again.
With his bloody clothes and his dirty hair sticking to his body, combined with the slime, the putrid blood from the vampires, and the green blood from the insects, he looked like a maniac.
Haaa! Haaa! Haaa! Haaa!
He sent about twenty punches, all aimed at the same spot as if he was taking out his frustration about something else on this barrier in front of him.
The next second, he drew his black dragon sword and doused it with fiery mana before repeatedly slashing at the same spot.
While just the strength of his punches was not nearly enough to shake the barrier, the attacks from the black dragon sword seemed to be more than sufficient.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
This time it only took him three attacks.
When he slashed down at the barrier for the third time, small cracks started appearing from the spot where the sword had cut the energy.
"Got you!" Liam aimed for the same spot and sent a few more attacks until these small cracks started spreading, and finally, a whole chunk of the barrier collapsed.
This, in turn, led to more cracks appearing, which soon spread to the rest of the barrier as well, and the whole thing then ended up completely shattering and disappearing.
"Let's get in first." Liam stepped forward and touched the naked metallic structure. Though no more insects were coming out, he did not want to take any chances.
He had had enough of these surprises lately, so he decided first to make sure that the whole thing had already been emptied out from top to bottom and there was nothing more inside.
Following Liam, Alex and the rest of the main group entered the golden pyramid-like structure one after the other.
Since the isons varied in size and especially the second wave being almost the same height as them or perhaps even taller, no one had any issues entering the structure through the numerous holes.
However, the moment they stepped inside, a rancid pungent smell assaulted them.
The metallic exterior was clean and crisp, with just its golden luster shining brightly. The same couldn't be said for the interior.
Inside the pyramid-like structure, the entire space was like a maze with long corridors and turns everywhere. Not to mention, there was sticky greenish goo dripping from all places.
Kyuuuu!
Suddenly Luna dashed forward and directly jumped into a cluster of something. Liam and the others hurried after her to see what it was, only to notice a bunch of cracked eggshells.
The white fox grinned happily, greenish liquid sticking all over her.
"Master, there were some eggs here. I destroyed everything!" She happily declared, not in the least bothered about the poisonous nature of the blood.
Liam was concerned for a second, but then he remembered that one of the items the little glutton in front of him had swallowed was the poison flame.
In fact, he had never seen the fox affected by poison to date.
He had always chalked this up to her superior physique as a celestial beast but now he was starting to wonder if she had a genuine poison immunity.
Perhaps the fox was trying to assimilate the second flame?
He quietly looked at her for a second and decided to talk to the fox about this later after finishing the task at hand first.
"Insect eggs? So more could have come out, huh?" Liam returned his attention to the isons.
He picked up one egg that was not particularly damaged and also took out a backpack from his storage space. He then placed the egg in his backpack carefully.
Hmmm? Alex looked at him questioningly.
"I need to find out if these things are worth anything." Liam shrugged.
"..." Everyone was speechless.
Here they were wondering what new terror was going to pop out from this random alien pyramid, but their guild leader was on an entirely different page. He might as well be a thief who had come in to rob the house of someone rich.
Of course, Rey was immediately inspired and started collecting a few more eggs, handing them all over to Liam. "Bro, here's some more."
Alex rolled her eyes. "Look one is hatching." She playfully teased her brother, who immediately dropped the whole bunch of eggs.
"Fuck!" Rey looked a little angry. "Sis! You are costing me money! This is not funny!"
"Idiot. Stop trying to blame your stupidity on me."
"Cough. Cough. That's enough." Liam quickly intervened before the brother and sister pair could go at it again.
"No need to take more. We can first find out if this egg is valuable or not and later on collect them from other pyramids." He then proceeded to destroy another cluster of eggs that was right in front of them.
Everyone watched in a daze as Liam's words had only reminded them that there could be more than one of these terror-inducing swarms and if they also evolved at the speed at which the other beasts were evolving… gasp!
They could potentially be facing a swarm of Level 50 or perhaps even higher-level insects in just a few weeks' time.
Just the mere thought was blood-curdling!
Everyone snapped out of it and continued forward in a rush without messing around any longer. Even Luna was serious as she went ahead of everyone and roasted all the eggs in sight.
The group quickly walked through the pyramid, exploring all corners of the interior, which were mostly long passageways and sharp turns.
***
Mass Release Chapter 1~
Please thank Exzistential for sponsoring this mass release!