Seed of Titan-Chapter 138: Poking a Beetle’s Nest

The beetles were flying in a cluster, so about half of them were turned into mush as they splat onto the rocky wall under Drai’s heavy palm.

Seeing this, the other beetles reacted accordingly, scattering themselves around Drai’s colossal body.

Drai continued flailing his arms, swatting away any unfortunate beetle in the path, but the beetles were too scattered, so he only succeeded in killing a few more.

Suddenly, Drai shrank, returning to his original size. The beetles didn’t miss this opportunity—they all darted toward Drai with their mandibles open.

A flurry of fists splattered green goo across the gorge, followed by another flurry which decimated another pack of beetles.

Drai’s punches kept flying as the beetles swarmed him. He attacked with precision, crushing a beetle with each punch. However, there were too many of them for Drai to completely thwart, so he was occasionally scraped and stabbed by the beetles that managed to slip through his defense.

Feeling multiple stings all over his body, Drai silently activated essence heal. He then grew to twice his size and continued pulverizing the attackers.

Just as the swarm had thinned considerably, another large swarm appeared, instantly covering Drai in a cloud of beetles.

Drai didn’t hesitate and upped his size once more. As he grew, he slaughtered large batches of beetles before they could disperse. And after he reached his limit, he immediately deactivated his skill, shrinking again.

Looking at the dozens of beetles that were swarming in once more, Drai couldn’t help but chuckle.

’Heh, turns out these guys are quite weak and dumb as hell—they fall for the same move every time. Why do the valley creatures fear this bunch so much? They could just work together and fight back. It’s a viable and better alternative than surrendering themselves to feed that massive guy.’

While thinking of this, Drai kept counterattacking, steadily thinning the swarm, and soon, there were only a few of them left.

Moments later, a swift one-two smashed the last pair of beetles, concluding the assault.

Drai wiped his sweat, panting slightly. He looked at the obliterated beetles scattered on the ground.

"Phew... That wasn’t too hard. Oh—let’s see..."

Drai crouched and put his hand into a gooey mound. He activated Bio Drain, but not long after, he had a disappointed look.

"The flow’s not too bad, but the quality’s not worth the effort."

Drai peered through the gorge and didn’t see any other pursuers. He shrugged and turned around, heading back to the base.

Seeing the empty valley, Drai transformed into his maximum size to save time. He sprinted ahead and arrived at the usual rock formation just a few minutes later.

After reverting back, Drai entered the crevice. Shortly after, he entered the cave.

"Where have you been?" a voice stunned him.

Max was sitting by the fire pit, stoking the embers. A faint cloud of steam rose from a small clay pot in front of him.

"Oh, I just returned from a stroll," Drai vaguely replied as he slowly walked toward the fire pit. Upon getting closer, he was greeted by a rich, malty scent.

Drai sat down and gestured at the steaming pot, asking, "What’s that?"

"A drink," Max said as he pulled out a pair of wooden cups and poured the pot’s contents into them. He gave a cup to Drai, who sniffed the liquid a bit before taking a gulp.

The warm liquid ran down his throat, spreading a calming warmth throughout Drai’s body.

Drai stared at the cup in his hand. The drink reminded him of Christo and his favorite tea.

"Is it not to your taste?" Max asked upon seeing Drai’s reaction.

"Oh—it’s not like that," Drai hurriedly replied. "I was just thinking of my friend. He has this special tea from his hometown that he often shared with me. It has a similar calming effect—that’s why I was reminded of him."

Max smiled and sipped his own drink.

"Friends, huh?" he mused. "I wonder how my friends are doing..."

Drai let out a rueful smile, feeling sorry for Max. After taking another gulp, he asked, "By the way, why did you wake up? When I returned here earlier, I saw you’ve gone to bed already."

"Hmm, I wonder why... Maybe because someone was stomping the ground so much, causing my bed to shake?"

"Eh?!"

Drai scratched his head, smiling awkwardly. He did rush here, but he didn’t expect for his footsteps to be so impactful that it even affected the cave.

"Heh, it’s fine. I was kind of restless anyway, so it wasn’t a good sleep," Max shrugged.

"Restless?"

"Yeah, like I was forgetting something important."

Drai froze, a cold sweat ran down his face.

Seeing Drai’s expression, Max laughed and patted him on the back. "No need to be scared, Drai. I get this feeling all the time. I guess I’ve grown a bit too paranoid."

However, Drai thought differently.

"Actually... I saw a green moon."

This time it was Max who became stunned.

Seeing this, Drai felt his conjecture was confirmed—Max knew of the strange events.

"I don’t know when it changed color," he continued, "but it has been green since more than an hour ago."

Max put a hand to his face. "Sorry, Drai, I totally forgot to tell you about the green moon. It’s a unique phenomenon in Siyeun Mountains. I guess you saw what happened to the creatures here."

"They all headed to the gorge."

"Yeah. It’s different for each biome, but in Funky Valley, the green moon makes all its inhabitants converge somewhere in the gorge. Don’t you think they look strange, as if they were in trance?" Max asked.

Drai simply nodded.

"Well, that’s because they’re being overwhelmed and controlled by fear. Actually, I’ve followed them once because I was curious. Turns out they were gathering to meet the Swarm King."

Drai stayed quiet, so Max continued, "I think there’s some kind of ritual going on there. I’m not sure what, though, because I left before they did anything. It was getting boring, and the Swarm King’s minions were also keeping a tight guard, making it a hassle to keep peeping unnoticed—I really didn’t want to annoy the Swarm King."

"Huh? Why?" Drai asked, finally speaking up.

"He’s relentless, even more so than the Lightning King. If I were to bother him like how I kept challenging the Lightning King to a spar, I wouldn’t be able to live peacefully for a single day here. That’s why over the past few years, I did my best to stay out of their way, just so I wouldn’t unknowingly piss them off. Hey, are you listening?"

Drai had dropped his cup just now. He sat there stiffly, guilt on his face as he looked at Max.