GAMMT - Chapter 32
Chapter 32: Infighting
Before setting off, Fu Chuan's gaze swept over the patch of grass, lingering for a moment. She remembered this spot; it seemed to be where she had killed the hunter and had a brief scuffle with Groundhog.
In that case…
Relying on her sharp eyes, she reached out and rummaged through the grass. She soon picked something up, examining it between her fingertips as her thoughts raced in the silence.
Vague ideas were like a white gull flying over the calm ocean horizon. The gull's claws touched the mirror-like water, and the ripples bloomed into a flower.
But at this moment, besides her, no one could admire its colors or savor its fragrance.
Fu Chuan quickly switched to her invisibility mode, took out some paper money from her backpack, and scribbled a short note, which she sent out with her spider silk.
Once the cooldown was nearly over, she once again crept toward her target area.
The battle had already begun over there.
This swarm of locusts was truly unlucky. Although their numbers were greater, humans had always been one of the apex species among thousands, balancing their intelligence with their population size.
So, while the locusts succumbed to their biological instincts and returned to rest, the humans had cunningly used their generational knowledge to pinpoint their schedule and follow them.
This team was prepared. The first wave of their attack in the grass revealed a much higher lethality than during the day, and they were using equipment and resources she hadn't seen before.
"Sixth, keep an eye on the perimeter. Be on guard."
The five-person team was clearly composed of long-time comrades with rich combat experience and a deep familiarity with one another. Unlike Ah Qi, who had been warily watched by Yan Shangjun and his group, these five trusted each other implicitly, willing to guard each other's backs. The one called Sixth cautiously placed his palm on the ground, using a wood-element vitality Arcane art. He silently chanted an incantation, and his mental power and life elements grew beneath his palm. Soon, small blades of grass sprouted from the soil. They swayed, releasing subtle particles to sense any nearby creatures. If anyone entered the area, the grass would immediately send an alert to Sixth.
It was a decent warning-type Arcane art, but life-based Arcane arts were difficult to learn and consumed a lot of mental power. This correspondingly sacrificed Sixth's combat strength, so it was a division of labor among the five.
A defensive tank, a roaming assassin, a vigilant scout, ranged personnel, and if the damage output was strong enough, a healer to round things out—this was a standard team composition.
Once Sixth had set up his perimeter and confirmed the area was safe, he gestured to his teammates. The other four then launched their main assault. In a single wave of resource-burning attacks, they slaughtered several thousand weakened and heavily injured Scorpion-Tail Locusts. Then, they repositioned themselves, using the mountain as cover, and began their ranged attacks.
This was just a group of wounded soldiers, so the fight was easy. They just had to coordinate well and prevent the locusts from breaking their defensive line in a desperate charge.
It was going too smoothly, and their experience points kept rising. When Sixth noticed that his grass alarm hadn't triggered, he assumed the area was truly safe. However, nearby… another team was approaching.
The reason they went undetected was that a girl in this team held a translucent turtle shell. The shell was covered in glowing totem-like patterns, reminiscent of an ancient crystal goblet. Her mental power was linked to it, and while consuming a large amount of her energy, the crystal turtle shell emitted an oval, transparent shield that enveloped the ten tightly-clustered people. They stealthily approached the area where the other team was fighting.
"Don't touch these," the girl cautioned, pointing at the small blades of grass on the ground and mouthing the words to her team. The leader gave a hand signal. When they were about ten meters away, they stopped, waiting until the other team had whittled down the mob of monsters to a non-threatening number…
The turtle shell's light retracted, and the ten people leaped out, attacking the five-person squad directly.
The slaughter began!
In another patch of grass, Groundhog, who had been squatting patiently, grew anxious. Not daring to speak, he tugged on Ah Qi's sleeve and gestured with his eyes: Are we going to fight, big sis? They've started. Should we play the oriole?
Ah Qi naturally wanted to be the oriole. If they jumped out now, both teams might unite to attack them.
They were outnumbered.
And their opponents were all 10th-level Arcanists, with both resources and combat power. It wouldn't be easy to take advantage of them.
Actually, if their captain were here… their chances would be much higher.
As Ah Qi was pondering this, she suddenly felt another tug on her sleeve.
Huh? What was this little Groundhog doing? She turned her head and saw him holding his gun in one hand while scratching his butt with the other. ?
Ah Qi's nerves tensed. Looking closely, she saw a strand of spider silk tugging at his sleeve, with a small note attached to it.
Spider silk? Who else could it be but her? Ah Qi's heart skipped a beat. That person is nearby, and she detected our hiding spot without making a sound.
So strong.
Ah Qi had always felt that she wasn't that far behind the captain in terms of combat power. In a life-or-death fight, she might not win, but she could at least retreat and escape. But at this moment, she had a sinking feeling. The captain could detect them without a sound, while she couldn't sense the captain at all.
In that case… the outcome of a battle would be hard to predict.
Had her previous judgment been wrong? Or had this captain become so much stronger immediately after absorbing the resources she took earlier?
But those resources shouldn't have been enough.
Ah Qi, her face an unreadable mask, read the note. A ripple disturbed the calm of her clear pupils. She put the note away, pressed down on Groundhog's head, and signaled for him to remain hidden.
But Groundhog's thought was: What? She won't let me scratch my butt? But I was being very careful and didn't make a sound.
The two of them remained hidden for a short while… Over there, the ambushed team of five, including Sixth, was on the verge of collapse, retreating step by step.
"Retreat!"
"Who are they?"
"Don't recognize them. They don't seem to be from the farm."
"No, they're using masks."
"We can't retreat! They've blocked us off!"
"Lure the monsters over…"
They tried to lure the monsters into the fray to create chaos and escape, but the ambushing team was well-prepared and ruthless. Two men blocked their escape route, directly freezing the person who was about to draw the monsters.
It was over. The five of them were completely trapped.
Just as they fell into despair and the team of ten was about to annihilate them, they suddenly felt a tickle under their feet. Before they could react, spider silk that had silently spread across the thin topsoil shot up, enveloping them like a net being drawn from the water. As the net closed, a shadowy figure emerged from invisibility and pulled a tightening cord with one hand.
Her strength had now reached 5200, so pulling the weight of more than ten people with one hand was manageable.
Swoosh!
The large spider web, hoisted like a pulley, tightened around all fifteen people, trapping them like fish in a net.
"Someone's here!"
"Burn the net!"
The two groups, who had been locked in a life-or-death struggle moments ago, now forgot about attacking each other and frantically attacked the spider web, especially with fire. They quickly locked onto the shadowy figure, trying to kill the perpetrator through the web, but before they could finish chanting their Arcane spells…
The shadowy figure had already cast a pre-prepared Stun Arcane.
Stun!
Normally, Stun was a single-target spell, not powerful enough to affect a group. But Fu Chuan was experienced. She applied the Stun to the spider web… and followed it with a continuous composite Arcane incantation.
The spider web was essentially a trap, a form of area-of-effect attack. After being caught in a group-debilitating trap, a negative status effect was applied to everyone. Before they could cleanse it, the trap was enchanted with a Stun effect. This meant that by touching the web, they were also stunned.
However, this group stun wasn't as potent as a single-target one; its effect was spread out, lasting only one or two seconds.
In the first second, Fu Chuan cast Forest Thorns, binding their arms and covering their mouths, preventing them from both casting and chanting Arcane incantations, effectively sealing their combat abilities.
And then there was no "after." The spider web was withdrawn, and in the second second, the Forest Thorns completely replaced it.
Cold and sharp.
After all this was done, Fu Chuan glanced at her mental power and frowned slightly.
Group attacks and composite enchantments really were the most draining. Her mental power was now just over 2000, but this one move had consumed three-quarters of it, leaving her with only a fraction.
And this was a surprise attack. In a direct confrontation, she would be no match for so many people. She wasn't some overpowered protagonist, after all.
Fortunately, it was a success.
Fu Chuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief and, without wasting any time, said flatly,
"Drop your backpacks, or die."
At this moment, everyone was puzzled. If she wanted their loot, she could just kill them. Why was she making them hand over their backpacks themselves?
Could it be that this person possessed a shred of mercy?
A glint appeared in several people's eyes, especially one man who struggled to make a sound.
"M-My lord… you'll have to free my hands first…"
Fu Chuan narrowed her eyes and flicked her finger slightly. The spider silk and Forest Thorns loosened a bit.
And with just that little bit of leeway, the man's eyes suddenly turned fierce. He opened his mouth to quickly chant an incantation and formed hand seals, but before he could succeed…
A thin line tightened around his throat. The others heard a sound like tearing silk, then saw a line of blood burst from the back of his neck as his head rolled back, losing its balance.
It fell to the ground with a thud.
Then, they saw a blood-red thread floating in mid-air.
Spider silk, hardened, decapitation.
Looking closer, they saw the black-clad figure's finger slightly hooked, clearly having just controlled the spider silk to execute the man.
So she had left a strand of silk, secretly wrapped around their necks. It was transparent in the darkness, so they hadn't noticed. When it was time to harden it, it tightened directly around their throats.
A fatal blow!
The effect was staggering. They had thought this person was unwilling to kill, but now they saw that wasn't the case.
Any hope they had was extinguished like a raging fire doused with cold water. Trembling, they all proactively removed their backpacks. At their level, having survived at least two dungeons, it was impossible not to have a low-level backpack. None of them dared to lie, fearing they would be the next to die.
As the backpacks fell to the ground one by one, Fu Chuan used one backpack to collect all the others, then narrowed her eyes and raised her hand.
Killing intent radiated from her!
No!!
Although they were wary that she might kill her captives, they thought if she wanted all their loot, why go through the trouble of restraining them? They still held onto a sliver of hope. But now that the situation had taken this turn, they were terrified, struggling and whimpering collectively.
Just then.
Two figures suddenly burst from the grass.
One launched a ranged barrage, while the other attacked with close-range Arcane arts.
It was Ah Qi and Groundhog. They attacked with incredible speed and suddenness, and both were powerful combatants. As their assault came, the black-clad figure who was about to slaughter her captives dodged and sent her spider silk lashing toward them.
Groundhog immediately burrowed into the ground and attacked from below.
Unless the spider silk was hardened, it couldn't penetrate the soil due to insufficient toughness. But if it was hardened, the mental power required to control it underground would be immense, making it inefficient.
The shadowy figure was forced to retreat and block Groundhog's continuous attacks. Meanwhile, Ah Qi provided support from the side and was clearly beginning to cast a trap Arcane, perhaps Air Combustion?
Everyone immediately recognized Ah Qi and her companion, knowing how strong they were. Hope surged within them, and they were on the verge of tears. Seeing that Ah Qi was about to encircle her and that Groundhog's underground attacks couldn't be broken, the cruel black-clad figure grit her teeth, turned, and fled into the darkness, quickly disappearing.
Groundhog tried to give chase.
Ah Qi stopped him. "Don't go. This person is very agile; you won't catch her. If we split up, she might ambush and kill us individually. That spider silk is too troublesome."
Groundhog immediately stopped and said fiercely, "That person is truly evil!"
When they returned to the group, everyone was trembling, afraid that they were just another, more ruthless pair of orioles.
After all, the night seemed perfect for preying on one another, and they themselves were such people.
This was the world of Arcane Throne, wasn't it?
Who hadn't gotten by this way?
But… Ah Qi directly broke the Forest Thorns, freeing them.
Everyone was stunned.
Including the girl from the second team. She stared at Ah Qi. "Why didn't you kill us?"
Ah Qi glanced at them and said woodenly, "Those are Scorpion-Tail Locusts. They are far more dangerous than other swarms. Don't think we're holding steady now. Even if we survive for three days, our combat power will be declining, not increasing, because our potions can't keep up. But it's different for them. Their reproductive rate will cause their numbers to explode. If you all die, who will fight the monsters? Not to mention the mother locust BOSS that will come later. Just thinking about it is a headache."
"If we can't clear the dungeon and everyone dies, what's the point of who gets more in the meantime?"
Perspective. This was true perspective!
The expressions on everyone's faces were incredibly complex, especially the girl and her group who had ambushed the others. They looked embarrassed.
It wasn't that they were wrong—after all, everyone was the same. But to suddenly encounter someone in the group who was truly capable and had a sense of the bigger picture was so rare that it made them feel a little ashamed.
Ah Qi didn't say anything more. Human nature was what it was. Ultimately, these people would still weigh the pros and cons.
So she prepared to leave with Groundhog.
"Wait."
The girl suddenly called out to Ah Qi. "Take us with you. We want to join your team. Is that possible?"
"Right now, the Teng Family and Xie Clan are at odds, each with their own factions. We're scattered and afraid of being picked off one by one. After all, these nobles don't care about the big picture. Only if we have enough people and are strong enough can we avoid being weakened."
"Everyone's goal is the same: to get stronger and survive."
Ah Qi tilted her head and exchanged a look with Groundhog, who blinked.
Wow, the captain is amazing. With just one act, she's gathered a group of people and formed her own faction.
Although one person died, she had at least stabilized the situation and prevented these people from killing each other while hunting.
The one with the truly grand perspective was the captain… even though she still took their backpacks. But she left them their combat gear, allowing them to continue fighting, and indirectly saved the lives of the first five people.
She was bad, but also good.
She was so complex.
Groundhog scratched his head, thinking to himself: What kind of person is my captain?
She got what she wanted and stabilized the situation.
Steady as a rock?
But Ah Qi's thoughts were: She has indeed become much stronger, but her mental power seems to be a weakness. After those two group attacks, she immediately needed to use potions. She must have been running low, otherwise she wouldn't have deliberately taken their backpacks.
Her goal must have been the mental power potions.
So, what is her background? How can her mental power be so far behind her terrifying agility?
If she had been training since childhood, with such strong abilities and intellect, years of meditation should have brought her mental power to at least 5000, enough to match her three terrifying attributes at level 9.
Unless her innate aptitude for mental power is extremely weak, far inferior to her other three attributes. Or, she only recently started training and lacked a proper environment for meditation.
The more Ah Qi speculated, the more curious she became about this captain of hers.
The ever-cautious Fu Chuan didn't have time to sort through the backpacks she had acquired. She just quickly transferred the mental power potions for her own use.
Her real target tonight wasn't these two teams; she had merely improvised a plan on the fly. Her objective was another swarm of locusts—the one that would be escorting the food resources plundered by the main force today. They would deliver these resources to their nest to supplement the soon-to-be-birthing mother locusts, ensuring they could successfully lay the next batch of young.
Wiping them out would significantly disrupt the locusts' reproduction. That was her goal for the night, but she estimated that others would have the same objective.
"The Teng Family and Xie Clan are probably veterans, but they didn't ambush this resting swarm or the hunting parties that were sure to appear. This means they have more important things to do. And the dungeon settlement points for intercepting the locust food convoy are clearly much higher than for the former, so they will definitely show up."
Fu Chuan calculated her invisibility time. She first used her high agility to move stealthily through the grass, then used her spider silk to detect the locusts' droppings on the ground to pinpoint their location. She knew she could find the swarm much faster than anyone else.
She had to find them first!
Fu Chuan soon got close to the escorting locust convoy, then went invisible and quickly approached…
Suddenly, she stopped and hid.
The Teng Family and Xie Clan hadn't arrived yet. She just had to wait for them.
Fu Chuan waited for about ten minutes. During this time, the number of locusts grew, all of them second-line stragglers retreating from the farm. There were over a hundred thousand of them. They gathered here, consuming the plundered food on the spot and secreting it as an organic slime, which they then rolled into small balls to take back. This would help the mother locusts eat directly, reducing digestion time and speeding up reproduction.
The ground was densely covered with these organic slime balls.
Fu Chuan crouched in the grass, observing the locusts' activity patterns. After they had accumulated a large number of slime balls, she lay in wait. When they ignored the finished balls and moved to another area to eat and secrete more… she found an angle, and as she raised her hand, her fair, jade-like fingers throbbed with a slight pain. But they quickly condensed into poison needles…
This was the insect-type gene talent she had awakened, a talent tied to her own human genes. It was more advanced than a skill because it wasn't limited by cooldowns, nor was it constrained by the quantity of a weapon like a bow and arrows. As long as she had mental power, the poison needles would always be there.
This was the terrifying power of a racial talent.
But a resourceful schemer like Fu Chuan, upon getting poison needles, didn't immediately think of ambushing and killing enemies. Instead, she took this crafty, indirect route… poisoning the mother locusts' food.
She was more vicious than a palace torturer with her needles.
Yet, this person, lacking resources, squatted there steadily, carefully shooting her needles while occasionally chugging mental power potions.
It was so draining!
This was killing her…
"If it weren't for the lack of time, I haven't even meditated more than a few times, and I haven't used the Tri-Body Core I just activated… My mental power can't keep up with my three attributes and level progression. I wouldn't have had to resort to robbing those people's backpacks."
Because of the delay, Fu Chuan had to hurry and shoot the poison needles, trying to ensure that every organic slime ball received the torturer's loving care.
Just as Fu Chuan was about to die from exhaustion… she suddenly stopped.
Because something felt wrong.
Fu Chuan grew a little anxious. Why hadn't those people come yet?
Could it be that they couldn't find the location?
And the locust swarm had been here for so long without moving. Their food supply was running low, and they had almost finished secreting. It was time for them to escort the food back, but they hadn't.
Could there have been some unexpected change?
As Fu Chuan grew suspicious, she suddenly noticed some locusts moving the organic spheres.
Were they leaving?
No, they were rolling them into a pit.
The pit was a natural ditch. Fu Chuan remembered passing it when she was flying her airship. She had later asked the farm staff about it and was told it used to be a riverbed. The water had dried up, and the riverbed had been dry for over twenty years.
Beluke Province was short on water and often suffered from droughts, especially in areas like Jingyang.
And what was hidden at the bottom of such a deep riverbed ditch?
Fu Chuan's original plan had been thorough, but this sudden development made her suspicious. She couldn't resist going over to take a quiet look.
She kept her distance from the locusts, observing the situation in the ditch from the maximum range her vision allowed.
The locusts buzzed as they carried the organic slime balls down, releasing them into a dark area at the bottom.
Not only that, but Fu Chuan soon saw something else in another area… other locusts were flying in, dragging large, dark objects. A closer look made Fu Chuan's heart sink.
Corpses.
Human corpses.
Fu Chuan understood at once: Feeding? Is there a comrade down there that requires them to expend so much food to feed? Isn't it for the mother locusts? But pregnant mother locusts wouldn't give birth in this kind of environment; the pH conditions are unsuitable.
Besides, mother locusts needed to save time; they wouldn't directly consume human corpses.
"Then it must be a BOSS that meets the conditions for evolution. It's in its evolutionary phase. This Scorpion-Tail Locust swarm is developing on two fronts: mass breeding in the nest on one side, and efficiently cultivating a BOSS with human corpses on the other."
Once Fu Chuan figured it out, she felt the situation was not good. Ordinary mobs didn't deserve this kind of treatment. It had to be an elite mini-BOSS, originally level 5 or 8, that was evolving into a higher-level BOSS. Once it surpassed level 10, it would be difficult to deal with. Even twenty or thirty 10th-level Arcanists couldn't handle a BOSS that commanded a swarm of locusts. And with a BOSS of that level, the other locusts would also level up faster due to the biological swarm effect, leading to a group-wide promotion.
Fu Chuan immediately felt a headache coming on. But there were many locusts near the ditch now, and they were very close to the main force. She couldn't deal with this evolving, soon-to-be 10th-level BOSS.
What should she do?
Just then, the spider silk Fu Chuan had laid out sensed someone passing through her defensive perimeter.
Someone was here.
Those people had probably arrived.
Fu Chuan retreated. With her high agility, she heard the faint rustling of something crawling nearby.
She turned her head and saw a gecko slowly crawling just three meters away from her.
Fu Chuan froze and remained hidden. A moment later, she saw a slight disturbance in the tall grass to her left… and then, she saw Teng Yunli.
Could the gecko be his?
Teng Yunli and his group didn't notice Fu Chuan's presence. They were secretly pleased to be the first to arrive. After scouting for a while and confirming no one else was around, they began to pull the locusts away in waves to be intercepted and killed by another group.
Fu Chuan took a look and realized the Teng Family had considerable influence. They had gathered at least ten 10th-level Arcanists, meaning their night-hunting team had more than twenty people.
The Xie Clan members were also nearby, and they would only have more people.
With so many of them out here, what about the defensive firepower back at the farm?
Fu Chuan felt a bit helpless. People were people, each with their own selfish interests, including herself. She was ultimately planning for her own benefit, so there was no point in judging who was noble and who was base.
But the dungeon situation had changed, and she needed to coordinate… Fu Chuan thought for a moment. Her original plan was to come here, plant her poison needles, observe the hunting parties to gather intelligence, and then kill some locusts depending on the situation. She hadn't intended to assassinate these people and cause infighting. Firstly, she wasn't confident she could succeed, and secondly, she didn't want to waste effort on infighting.
But now, the plan had changed.
"The gecko is constantly looking in Teng Yunli's direction, so he's not the one controlling it. He's the prey being monitored. That means the ones lying in wait nearby, planning to be the oriole, are Xie Yong and his people. They have more and stronger people on their side. They'll make their move once Teng Yunli's group is worn out."
Fu Chuan knew this was the exact same pattern as the previous two teams. One group was destined to be wiped out.
In that case…
Fu Chuan calmed down and first observed the Teng Family's side to see if the expert who used the black mist was among them. After a while, she confirmed he wasn't.
Then he was likely with the Xie Clan.
Fu Chuan became even more cautious. She sent out her spider silk, following the gecko's trail backward. Where it had been, it must have left climbing marks, and its origin was where the Xie Clan members were.
It took Fu Chuan three minutes to track them to the edge of a forest.
She didn't go in. Spider silk wasn't omnipotent. The Xie Clan had shrewd and cautious people; she was afraid of being discovered.
But confirming they were in the forest was enough.
There was another creature more sensitive than her, better at tracking prey.
Fu Chuan retracted her spider silk, split it into two strands, and sent them along a different route to the main locust food convoy. The silk directly stole some of the organic slime balls.
Right under the noses of a few locusts.
They watched as the balls they had worked so hard to secrete rolled away on their own… ???
What the hell!
The food balls had come to life?!
They were shocked. Their brains couldn't comprehend the treachery involved. They just went berserk and gave chase. But Fu Chuan's spider silk was incredibly tough. As she expended a large amount of mental power to drag the balls away quickly, the locusts pursued them relentlessly… Soon, they reached the area where the Teng Family was hiding.
The balls rolled right in front of the Teng Family members.
Teng Yunli and his group: "?"
What is this? A dung beetle's ball?
Then they looked up and saw a dark cloud of locusts descending upon them!
Ah!
Dammit!
Meanwhile, the thirty-plus members of the Xie Clan, lying in ambush and preparing to be the oriole, were caught off guard…
"Not good, retreat quickly!"
For some reason, Xie Guangyu shouted urgently. Before the others could react, they saw the dark swarm of locusts pouring into the forest.
"Fight!"
"Hurry!"
"We've been exposed?"
"Damn it, someone must have deliberately lured them here! Who did it?!"
"The Teng Family?"
Their first suspect could only be the Teng Family.
It had truly become a dog-eat-dog situation.
On the other side, Fu Chuan had succeeded. It wasn't that she intentionally wanted to screw them over. Compared to infighting, having them fight the locust swarm for the sake of humanity was more in line with positive energy, right?
And this way, all three parties had something to do.
Fu Chuan's move caused quite a stir, directly agitating the locusts in the ditch as well. They buzzed out to chase and kill the two groups of humans.
After all, those humans were strong enough.
As long as they revealed a few more of their trump cards, they could take on these escorting locusts.
And then… Fu Chuan, with no one to worry about behind her, quickly headed for the ditch.
The BOSS. She had to kill it!
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