This wave was quite the eye-opener for Xia Jin.
“There are so many ridiculous creatures in this world,” she muttered.
She didn't understand why it was like this at all.
But considering that creature's terrifying size, Xia Jin felt that if she could kill it and obtain its genes, she might be able to create a super powerful insect.
Additionally, the genes of other creatures in the water could, to some extent, give rise to some underwater units.
The characteristic of the Zerg was to absorb the essence and discard the dregs, incorporating all good genes and eliminating the bad.
“Let's send some banelings and hydralisks to try it out first. If we can't win, then forget it.”
Xia Jin sent another batch of insects to the shore. The giant squid didn't come onto land.
In other words, as long as she didn't do anything to provoke it, it generally wouldn't run onto the land for no reason.
“Maybe I should try a distraction.”
Let one group of insects draw its attention while another group takes the opportunity to go underwater and seize the mithril.
Xia Jin's primary goal was the mithril. As for the genes, they were too difficult to obtain with her current strength. Sending the banelings this time would likely have little effect, so she didn't have high hopes.
Soon, over a hundred insects arrived nearby.
Like a hundred meter sprint, all the zerglings suddenly tapped into their full potential and jumped into the water from a several kilometer stretch of the lakeshore at the same time.
Although the mithril was widely distributed, only this small area along the shore had it.
In this wave, after the insects jumped down, they swam directly toward the rocks without any hesitation.
Soon, the first insect cut off a large rock containing mithril and swam desperately toward the shore with it on its back.
Then the second, the third...
Suddenly!
Several massive fleshy tentacles surged through the water, instantly dragging these zerglings into the darkness.
“Hiss—”
Xia Jin saw that out of the fifteen zerglings that had obtained mithril, only two were still safe.
They didn't hesitate either. Knowing they couldn't make it to shore, they used all their strength to hurl the rocks onto the land.
As long as the rocks reached the shore, she could just have other insects pick them up later.
...
Shore perspective:
The water was filled with the color of blood.
From time to time, a rock with shimmering silver light was thrown up, landing on the shore about twenty meters from the water's surface.
Beneath the surface, the zerglings were doing their best, sacrificing everything for their Queen, even using their lives to distract the great water monster.
Through immense effort, more than ten mithril rocks were tossed onto the shore in succession.
The banelings mixed among them launched suicidal charges, detonating themselves against the enemy.
A hydralisk was swallowed and fired venom inside its body, but unfortunately, it had no effect.
Although slightly frustrated by the loss of the insects, Xia Jin still breathed a sigh of relief.
No matter how low the content on a single rock was, the total amount should be significant once accumulated.
Throw them! Keep throwing!
At worst, I'll just do this a few more times.
After accumulating twenty five rocks, the underwater zerglings were finally all killed.
Xia Jin clapped her hands happily. “This many in one go isn't bad.”
It went without saying how rare mithril was.
As long as she had this and earned some gold, the hive upgrade would be just around the corner.
Just as she looked excited, the squid monster suddenly poked its head out of the water and came onto the shore.
And then...
It picked up the rocks containing mithril one by one and threw them back into the lake.
The smile on Xia Jin's face gradually faded.
Holy crap.
“You're actually picking them back up?”
“I... [Expletive]!”
Xia Jin was truly speechless. There were so many rocks in the water; what was the point of coming out to pick these up?
Only after the creature finished picking up the rocks and dived back into the water did Xia Jin clutch her chest and take a deep breath. After a long moment, she managed to say, “I'll give it to you. You win.”
She decided to hunker down and develop for a while before coming back.
“I can try going into the water in other places to find other aquatic creatures to kill.”
Now the priority was finding genes.
There had to be a way to counter that thing.
That damned squid.
Xia Jin decided she would eat some squid meat in the future.
By a rough estimate, more than six hundred insects had been lost to this fellow, and in the end, they hadn't even broken its defense.
“Could it be Tier 9?”
Thinking this, Xia Jin sighed and ordered the drones that were rushing over to stop where they were and hatch a branch hive.
It was the only way. She would purposely set the branch hive further away.
The water monster probably couldn't leave the water for too long.
If she built it twenty kilometers away from the lakeshore and produced troops from there, there shouldn't be many problems.
...
Back at the base, Xia Jin created a second projection.
“This time, I'll still use the appearance of my main body.”
She wondered if Amelo thought she was already dead.
If those lords betrayed her because of it, Xia Jin wouldn't show any mercy.
Soon, her new body stood at the front.
This time, she changed into white silks and a white top.
In the rain, the girl's long hair fell over her shoulders, and droplets of water flowed down her skin.
She felt it had an artistic quality.
This time, the clothes weren't the loose princess attire; they were more like a student skirt.
This was one of the few light and simple garments the Princess owned.
“I need to get some more clothes. They're practically becoming consumables.”
Looking at herself, she gave a bitter smile.
Rate on N.U.
