Darius Supreme

"However, what is important right now is for me to finish that Quest before any new changes occur that could disrupt its progress once more." Darius stated, before summoning over Gunner and Xela using Miranda.

He let them know that they were going back down into the underground. The two seemed excited and relieved to continue what they had actually come here to do, as they had been thrust into many side quests after killing the Master stage bugs.

Right now, the last line of defense for the Insects were the Grandmaster Bugs and Beelzebub, so their job was a mixture of easy and tough at the same time.

Easy because their current power should be enough to fight with Grandmasters for sure, but tough because Grandmasters - and even the injured Beelzebub – was guaranteed to have means that could cause them trouble, especially since they were guaranteed to have made preparations for Darius' return.

When the trio approached the entrance to the underground, they were surprised to see that Miranda had greatly changed it. From a casual tunnel, it had evolved into an efficient metallic city.

At the entrance were a few raygun towers with armored tanks patrolling the area, as well as the smaller Warrior Bots. What intrigued Darius was the fact that Miranda seemed to have predicted their return down below - which should have been quite obvious - and made some arrangements for it.

This came in the form of a long electromagnetic track that ran down the underground world, a small train present at the entrance for Darius and co to relax in while they were transported below at hyper speed.

Seeing that, the Itemancer decided that there was no need to waste mana teleporting. As such, he sat in it with his two Branded Servants and gazed at the runes within that lit up.

The interior was the same as a private coach from a modern train on Earth. Luxurious, comfortable, and extremely high-class. Gunner and Xela marveled at it while Darius simply felt at home.

He poured himself some wine as the train came to life and the A/C began blowing cool air upon them. The trio had Endurance stats high enough to even ignore desert heat, naturally this made the A/C unnecessary.

Still, having it there was not a bad thing either. If anything, it made them feel much more comfortable. After all, Endurance didn't remove or negate their senses, just increased their ability to tolerate it.

When the train started moving, it was slow at first, but began picking up great speed as it maneuvered almost crazily through the winding tunnels which were almost never straight.

There were runes within the train that negated the force and movement on the persons within, so the three of them felt like they were moving in a straight line at a moderate speed the whole time.

So when the train slowly stopped only a few seconds later, it was natural that Gunner and Xela were surprised.

So quick? They had only just gotten comfortable!

The two grumbled inwardly as they alighted the train behind an amused Darius who could feel their reactions. He then looked around and saw that they were at the end of where the metallic expansion reached.

They stood as the end of the tracks, which was the end of where Miranda's subroutine had dared to cross, which was the end of the Master band.

The contrast between chromium metal on their side and black, dead earth on the other, indicating where the Insect's Grandmaster band began was truly strange.

If anything, for Gunner and Xela especially, they felt like their expansion and remodeling of the continent was justified. Not seeing the dead earth for so long had made them forget the wasteland they had come to meet upon their first visit to this continent.

From here, they began walking deeper into the bowels of the underground silently. They noticed that it was deathly silent, whether by nature or by intention was unknown yet.

Gunner took the lead as his face darkened, sensing something powerful coming from the front. However, it stopped in a cavern before them, allowing the trio to enter and witness who was waiting for them.

They were surprised to see that it was not one, but three!

[Heracron - Level 94 War Bug

HP: 55,076/55,076 MP: 6,987/6,987 STA: 21,500/21,500]

[Gluttworm - Level 99 Devourer Bug

HP: 87,540/87,540 MP: 3,656/3,656 STA: 45,977/45,977]

[Rancido - Level 98 Toxic Bug

HP: 62,920/62,920 MP: 4,565/4,565 STA: 23,965/23,965]

It was the beetle-like bug, Heracron, who had a single horn and a very muscular form, the worm-like Gluttworm that was huge and possessed a mouth with endless teeth, and finally, Rancido, the slug-like bug that oozed smelly pus that also had strong acidic effects.

Darius' eyes narrowed, as his sharp memory told him that the stats of the three had changed slightly. Not only that, but they had all gone up one level since last they came.

The last time Darius had seen those bugs, he had left them a lovely present in the form of 20 nuclear electromagnetic warheads exploding within the tight confines of a Faraday Cage.

With Beelzebub there to protect them, he wasn't too surprised that at least these tougher ones hadn't died, yet he had estimated them to end up crippled to the point that recovery would have taken a few months, not just a week.

Even then, what was trying to be put forth was that, in just one week, these bugs had not only recovered completely from what should have been fatal damage, they had also become slightly stronger.

Such a thing was absurd, and very few things could achieve such a thing for these fellows at the Grandmaster stage. There were about 34 items/substances he knew of in Faust that could achieve this feat with varying results.

The chief of them was Lunar Dew, but Darius knew that it was impossible for Lunar Dew to be present on Pokterr. It was something that required stringent conditions to be produced, and this place did not fulfill those conditions.

Darius' mind buzzed as he went into hyper analysis, considering the cause and effect of what was going on. The world around him seemed to slow down, but rather it was the case that he was thinking very, very fast.

Such a thing was possible with high Intellect, but just like how a computer with a CPU that could reach 5.0ghz would normally work at its base clock if there were no heavy tasks, so too did the minds of those with high Intellect default to slightly faster than normal speed unless they activated their full cognitive ability.

It was also the same as how those with high Agility would not suddenly blast about like the fast, creating sonic booms while they were casually walking. It was impossible for organic life to constantly function at a high output.

That would lead to overheating at the least, regardless of Endurance.

Darius closed his eyes as he delved into the wealth of his knowledge as well as his memories, cross-checking between the two to find what should be the cause of this upset.

He remembered that he had once theorized that the bugs were not relying on the resources of Pokterr anymore, as it likely could not sustain the entire group down below.

As such, they must have had some other renewable resources down there that had been used to sustain and strengthen the entire group over time. However, as Miranda had scanned the continent many times, it was unlikely that such a node would be missed by her.

And that was ignoring the fact that, as Darius knew, Pokterr simply could not produce those kinds of resources. It was just like how a desert could not produce rice, it was simply impossible.

However…

Darius had also once theorized that they might have dug through the underground and connected to the sea through an outlet. This had been his speculations as to how they could have gathered their resources without having to come above ground or invade other continents.

Narrowing it down like this, Darius checked which of the 34 resources could be produced by sea or within the sea. He came up with 14 of them, the lowest being Mermaid Blood and the highest being Sea Essence.

Darius' eyes began to brighten as he thought like this. Could it be that the bugs had found a group of mermaids underwater near their outlet and began trading with them?

Or did Beelzebub force himself to act and captured some of them to be eaten?

If that was the case, Darius was excited, praying that these gluttonous bugs had not eaten the entire population, for he had many uses for such an underwater force.

Of course, he was not ruling out any of the other 13 resources, but each of them were much more precious than Mermaid Blood with regenerative properties said to regrow limbs even.

If he could find a point of collection for any of them, he would make a killing! For these bugs to possess such a treasure, it was likely that they had either recently discovered it, or there had simply been no need to use it before his atomic gift.