Chapter 431 - 406: The Corroder

Chapter 431: Chapter 406: The Corroder

The rain tapered off, leaving only the steady drip of water from the eaves.

Velin gave Ola little time to catch his breath, leading the Dwarf—who looked as if he’d just crawled out of a mass grave—through a secret passage beneath the Lord’s Mansion to a cavern deep below Minas Tirith.

The air was damp, thick with the lingering stench of acid, decay, and sulfur. Glowing moss clung to the cavern walls, bathing the entire space in a sickly green light.

"This stench," Ola sniffed, his brows knitting together. "Smells like a dead rat that’s been fermenting in a troll’s stomach for three days."

"You’ll get used to it."

Velin kept walking, his leather boots ringing out crisply as they struck the wet, slippery stone.

The path ahead opened up.

It was a massive, natural grotto that had been modified by hand into a hidden training ground.

Several figures were already waiting.

CRUNCH.

The sharp sound of chewing echoed through the vast grotto.

Mia sat cross-legged on an ammo box, holding a bright red apple. Her cheeks were puffed out, making her look like a feeding hamster.

Seeing Ola’s sorry state, she swallowed the mouthful of apple and swung her small, bare feet.

"Well, well, if it isn’t our air force commander."

She casually tossed the apple core, now picked clean, in a high arc into a trash can in the distance.

"What happened to you? Anyone who didn’t know better would think you’d been wrestling a wild boar in a mud pit."

Ola ignored the succubus’s taunts.

He wiped the muddy water from his face, his gaze sweeping over the others.

Kael was perched on a protruding rock, the shortsword in his hand, named "Punishment," dancing between his fingers like a silver butterfly. At the sound of footsteps, he flicked his wrist, and the blade slid silently into his sleeve as he slid down from the rock.

Behind him, Xiaolan stood quietly. When she saw Ola, her former comrade-in-arms, she gave a slight bow—a standard salute for the Dwarf who had just crawled out of a death pit. Her posture was ramrod straight, and her every move now carried the calm composure of a seasoned veteran.

"Everyone’s here."

Velin walked into the center of the group, his leather boots crunching on the loose stones.

"The plan to eradicate the Plague Workshop has reached its final stage. Now, I will demonstrate a critical tool for this operation."

He turned to face the dense darkness in the depths of the grotto.

"Come out, Sarah."

The darkness stirred.

First came an unnerving RUSTLE, like countless dry leaves skittering across the ground.

It was followed by a rapid series of sharp clicks, the sound of hard carapaces striking rock.

CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK.

A deathly pale hand reached out from the darkness.

Sarah emerged from the shadows, her three pairs of insect-like legs scuttling forward in an alternating rhythm.

She wore a bodysuit woven from some sort of biological film, clinging to a bizarre figure that was somewhere between a young girl and a monster.

And behind her.

A black tide spilled out.

"W-what in the hell is that?"

Ola’s eyes widened, his scalp prickling with dread.

That wasn’t water.

It was insects.

Hundreds of fist-sized black beetles, packed together so densely they looked like a moving carpet.

They had flat bodies, and their carapaces were a matte black. Their six limbs were short, thick, and powerful, ending in sharp barbs. But the most distinctive feature was their abdomens, which pulsed with an eerie, fluorescent green in the dim light, screaming of danger.

And behind these smaller insects followed a row of much larger specimens.

They were as large as human heads, their abdomens so swollen they were nearly transparent, revealing a more conspicuous green liquid within. They looked like living Alchemy Bombs, ready to detonate at any moment.

"Allow me to introduce them."

Sarah walked to Velin’s side and casually looped her arm through his. She nuzzled her head affectionately against his shoulder, her docile manner a stark contrast to the terrifying swarm behind her.

"These are ’Corroders,’ the latest masterpiece from my father and me."

"Masterpiece?"

Ola took half a step back, trying to put more distance between himself and their wriggling appendages.

"What do these things do besides creep people out? Are you planning to toss them into Hector’s bed and scare him to death?"

"Crude."

Sarah tilted her head, a flicker of displeasure crossing her purple, compound eyes.

She raised a hand, her fingertip pointing toward a pile of discarded armaments in a corner of the grotto.

It was a pile of heavy tower shields damaged in previous battles. Each shield was forged from three layers of refined steel, more than two inches thick—impenetrable even to a heavy crossbow bolt.

"Go."

Sarah’s red lips parted, releasing a single syllable.

The instant the command was given,

the black tide of insects, which had been crawling aimlessly, moved as one.

Every Corroder turned in unison. They kicked off with their hind legs, unleashing a hair-raising BUZZ as they swarmed the pile of tower shields.

Their speed was astonishing.

In the blink of an eye, the small mountain of silvery steel was completely covered in black.

SSSSS—

The fist-sized insects crawled over the shields, their mandibles opening to spew streams of transparent slime.

Then, they began to gnaw ravenously.

The incredibly hard refined steel seemed as soft as cheese beneath their mandibles.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

That unnerving chewing sound rang out again, countless times louder than Mia munching on her apple.

Ola watched, wide-eyed, as the surface of a pristine tower shield became pitted and scarred in mere seconds, as if it had been splashed with powerful acid.