yasinovel Chapter 319: Even the Useless Can Be Shown Off
Chapter 319: Even the Useless Can Be Shown Off
It took the group another half hour, but they finally emerged from the cave.
Beckett Abbott hadn’t expected to actually find zombies on this side of the mountain.
"Maybe it’s a zombie that wandered up from the base of the mountain?"
Holden Shaw said uncertainly, looking at the zombie corpse on the ground.
They had been out of the cave for less than an hour. It looked like an ordinary Mutated Zombie.
It hadn’t even seemed accustomed to using its Superpower; he had killed it in a single blow.
Nina Jacobs was examining the zombie’s corpse when she suddenly froze.
"What’s wrong?"
Adrian Shaw’s face fell when he saw what was in Nina Jacobs’s hand.
It was a tracker.
"This kind of tracker uses radio waves and has a very short range. Who would bother tracking a zombie?"
Shirley Lucas clearly recognized the device as well.
"It wasn’t tracking the zombie. It was tracking us,"
Nina Jacobs said.
Someone had found them.
The other party was using zombies to locate people, but their motive was unclear.
"So that means someone else has already made it onto the mountain."
Adrian Shaw scanned their surroundings warily.
’Did someone beat us to the Mystic Ice Core again?’
Nina Jacobs, however, had already summoned her Superpower Fire and incinerated the zombie.
"It’ll take them time to get here. We should leave first,"
Nina Jacobs said.
The only problem was which direction to go.
"The zombie came from that direction. We can head the opposite way."
Shirley Lucas pulled a tablet from his dimensional space. It contained a rough map of Mornfell’s various peaks.
While it couldn’t pinpoint their exact coordinates, they could still get a general idea of their location.
Adrian Shaw didn’t hesitate to follow.
Their goal was to reach the summit.
As long as the path led upward, they were on the right track.
As they walked, Nina Jacobs left special markers behind.
She did this not only so they could retrace their steps, but also to leave a message for Trevor and the others.
The acid rain’s corrosion had actually made the mountain path much easier to traverse.
There was no vegetation left on the ground, and the surrounding gray-white tree trunks crumbled at the slightest touch.
But this also meant they had no cover whatsoever.
"Hey... do you guys hear something?"
Marcus Miller finally spoke up.
After absorbing the Mystic Ice Core, he’d noticed his hearing had become far more acute.
He had wondered if he’d developed a Spiritual Element Superpower, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
His hearing had simply improved.
"A sound?" Leo Hale said he couldn’t hear a thing.
Beckett Abbott also gave him a puzzled look.
"There is."
Nina Jacobs activated her Five Senses Enhancement and confirmed it, hearing a faint rustling sound around them.
Now, no one dared to make a careless move.
"Where is it?" Jessica Vance formed a Wind Ball in her hand, ready to strike.
Nina Jacobs frowned.
The rustling sound fluctuated, sometimes distant, sometimes near, making it difficult to pinpoint.
But that sound...
Nina Jacobs hesitated no longer. Diamond Sand swirled in her palm. "Stay put! Don’t move!"
Marcus Miller stared at his feet in astonishment.
The soft, weathered ground was instantly reinforced by Nina Jacobs’s Earth Element Superpower. He suddenly understood.
"There’s something underground!"
THUD!!
THUD! THUD!!
Marcus Miller felt something sharp violently striking the ground beneath his feet.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The impacts grew more numerous and rapid.
Adrian Shaw immediately summoned his Thunder Element Superpower and blasted the ground beside him.
With a sickening CRUNCH, a huge, black-and-green, sharp-headed beetle burst from the pale-gray earth.
It moved with incredible speed, closing the several-meter distance to Adrian Shaw in an instant!
BANG!
A Thunder Ball struck the beetle, knocking it onto its back.
When the others got a clear look at the beetle’s abdomen, a paralyzing dread washed over them.
In addition to its many legs, the beetle’s underbelly was covered in several neat rows of round eggs.
The eggs, like transparent, miniature chicken eggs, were packed tightly together.
They could already see the long, wriggling legs of the larvae inside.
"There’s more over there!"
Shirley Lucas shouted, only to realize they were already surrounded by more than a dozen of the creatures.
Each beetle was enormous.
"Too bad this thing doesn’t look edible."
Chase Gallagher had already summoned his Wind Element Superpower, attacking one of the beetles as he spoke!
The usually silent Wayne Warner, a look of disgust on his face, swung his fist at a mutated beetle pouncing on Nina Jacobs!
SMASH!
Holden Shaw’s long saber struck the beetle’s surface, but its shell was so hard he couldn’t even make a dent.
Amidst a CRACKLE of burning flames, Nina Jacobs had already dispatched the beetle with the eggs on its belly.
"These things are a real handful."
Leo Hale had met his match.
Several beetles had already burrowed back underground, but thankfully the ground where the team stood was still reinforced by Nina Jacobs’s Earth Element Superpower.
Leo Hale couldn’t imagine how horribly they would have died just now if it weren’t for Nina Jacobs.
The beetles’ front antennae were like sharp bayonets, and they were incredibly strong.
If Nina Jacobs hadn’t reinforced the ground, they might have been impaled on the spot!
Meanwhile, with the help of Wayne Warner and a few others, Nina Jacobs had already killed four of the beetles.
Seeing the remaining beetles burrow into the ground, Nina Jacobs placed her palm flat on the earth.
Her Fire Element Superpower flowed into the ground, causing the beetles below to scurry about frantically.
Wayne Warner plunged one arm into the ground and yanked out a mutated beetle with his bare hands.
Watching Wayne Warner tear the beetle apart in a matter of seconds, Leo Hale was filled with absolute awe.
The last few were forced to resurface, and the moment they emerged, Holden Shaw and the others who were waiting cut them down!
"Thirteen."
Chase Gallagher announced after a quick count.
"One got away," Nina Jacobs said, gazing in a particular direction.
She had let it escape on purpose.
’There must be a nest of these mutated beetles nearby.’
In fact, if one looked closely, they could see the subtle changes in the ground.
The ground where the mutated beetles had burrowed was slightly raised, forming a faint trail.
Seeing Nina Jacobs take off after it, Shirley Lucas quickly collected the beetle corpses and hurried to catch up.
"Is there any point in collecting these things?"
Beckett Abbott couldn’t help but ask.
"Who cares? I’ve got room in my dimensional space anyway."
Shirley Lucas wasn’t sure if they were useful either, but even if they weren’t, he could still show them off to people.
After all, it wasn’t every day you got to see bugs this big.
"A bug nest... does that mean it’s going to be full of bugs?" Jessica Vance said, still unsettled by the recent memory.
"They’re no different from other Mutated Animals. Watch your step,"
Nina Jacobs said as she ran.
The thirteen they had just killed were all counted toward her mission.
Even though they had mentally prepared themselves, when the group followed the fleeing beetle to its destination, the sight that greeted them still sent a cold sweat down their spines.
It was a massive sand pit, and inside lay more than thirty mutated beetles of various sizes.
In the center was the largest mutated beetle of all, and the eggs beneath it were already enormous.
The pit was littered with white bones.
Some were human, others belonged to various animals.
"Is that a person?"
Holden Shaw pointed to a humanoid corpse lying at the edge of the sand pit.
It looked like a woman.