Chapter 95: Exploring the Inner Part
While Alros wanted to ter the core right away, reason come to the rescue as he decided to stay at the inner part for the time being.
His reasoning is mainly due to the fact it would be too much for him and he would not gain anything from being impatice. For the nearest future, he would stay at the inner part, until he gain more details of the beings inside the core part of the Forest of Bug.
So, he begin traversing the differt area of the Forest of Bug. While the Forest of Bug is mostly forested area, it also have some caverns and hills, to ev lakes, and rivers. The good thing is the Forest of Bug, while humid, is not to the point of being unbearable for him.
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"Let's see. This is the closest water source, large one at least. So, advturers would sometime stop here," Alros said, as he began to look at the map he procured during his stay at Zell City.
Of course, it is not too detailed, only having the most important landmark on it. So, he plant to make a more detailed one, so he would be able to navigate through the forest easier.
"There are same water skaters in the area, and probably mosquitoes, and leaches, with the likelihood of snails as well," he mused. He wonder if there is any monstrous aquatic creatures, like fish or shrimps inside the lake. With how big it is, the idea is not farfetched.
Just th, he heard a bunch of buzzing, "Looks like there are big mosquitoes," he said before looking at the swarm that coming towards him.
Normally, he would kill them all like regular people do, but he want to see if they have any interesting ability aside from being a pest.
He took out a clone of his slave and threw it at the swarm. Seeing there is still a lot of them, he begin to threw in more of them, eager to see if they have abilities he want.
As he observed it, and throwing as many clones as he could, he is dissapointed by his discovery.
"They don't have any ergy sapping or lethargy causing ability, it seem," he said to himself. He th wrote it into his book as well as drawing a symbol for mosquito on it, to tell the species that can be found in the area.
At that momt, he felt like he become a researcher on wildlife, his first dream before he had to changed it wh it is revealed he would not be able to do struous activity.
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After the visit on the lake, he head into the cter of the forest, though while the cter of the forest is the real cter, it could not be considered the core, as the core is usually the closest or literally on top of the leyline itself.
The cter did not have any landmarks, except for being the places with the largest trees outside of the core as well as having the most number of colonies inside of it.
From wasps, termites and ants, to ev colonies of solitary insects like beetles, caterpillars, and butterflies, it is filled with insects to the point one would call it flourishing with bugs.
If each Danger Zone is consider as a city, or a territory in its own right, with monsters as their citizs, th Forest of Bug would be considered the most populated and dsely populated territory in the tire world.
He proceed to draw as best as he could, using the biggest trees he could find as landmark. To which, he put the nearest colonies to it, so if he wanted to capture some of them, he would be able to find them easily.
Aside from making a map, he also began to write a bestiary of the monsters. While there are books detailing the monsters of the Forest of Bug, the bestiary also will be the book he would use to write down his experimtation attempt as well as possible Transmutation he would try to it.
With this, he will be able to look at it and knew what he kind of experimtation he would do at them.
"The ants and wasps, at the large size would be put into combat group, so I need to think of what will help them. Whether I should focus on their offsive or defsive, if I want to give them elemts or not. If it is the former, th what kind of elemts should I give to them,"
As he began to create the instruction at another book, so he can look at it wh he classifying it, he quickly sse monsters heading straight to one another.
Activiting Stealth, he get close and took out a fruit. He would prefer popcorn but he did not find any place that grow corns yet. So, he had to improvise.
"A colony war betwe Wood Termite and Flame Ant, this should be interesting," Alroe exclaimed as he began to eat the fruit as he watched the two monsters' species tear one another apart.
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The only thing that he find himself annoyed is the fact the Flame Ant took the bodies away. If not for their numbers, he would have tries to grab some of the bodies and see if he can get something out of them.
As for the outcome, it is a phyrric victory for the ant, as he expected. The Wood Termite, like it's name is able to create wood barriers a their mounds on one of the largest tree, prevting the Flame Ant to breach it.
While the Flame Ant could create flame, the wood is just too thick, making the Ant gave up as they have other problems as well, namely the other ants' colonies.
On the upside, Alros was able to see what the two species can do, and if he can took them to become part of his force or not.
"The termite would be great builders while the ant would be one of the main fighting force," though, with them being large instead of big, it would took him a lot of lair to accommodate them.
Though, with their numbers being at hundreds instead of thousands, likely to not make them consume the resources of the area to the point there will be nothing left. Still, he estimate there are a 500 to ev 00 ants, the termites having the same number as well.
So, he need to make sure the system space can accommodate the needed lairs and population first. He put the two on the 'yes, but observe others first,' section, a list he make so he would know which one will be the priority or not.