Chapter 278: Wood-Borer Ironjaw

Chapter 278: Chapter 278: Wood-Borer Ironjaw

Once Seraphina Sinclair identified the source of the sound, she immediately tried to investigate.

She slowly, ever so slowly, moved her eyes. Peeking through the slits of her nearly-closed eyelids, she used the faint light from the dying embers of the central campfire to cautiously inspect the floor around her bed.

On the stone floor, aside from a few motes of dust she’d disturbed when she lay down, nothing seemed out of place.

But the sound was definitely real. It was growing clearer, closer...

’It’s definitely under the bed!’

Seraphina Sinclair didn’t hesitate any longer. Her left hand silently closed around the longsword she’d drawn from her Silver Moon Earrings, while her right hand tensed, ready to throw off the covers and roll out of bed.

But just as she was about to move—

The rustling suddenly stopped.

Dead silence.

There was only the faint, occasional crackle of the campfire’s Embers and the nearly inaudible sound of her own breathing.

Seraphina Sinclair remained still, patiently waiting.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds, half a minute... Not a single stir from under the bed.

’Was it just my imagination?’

’Or maybe some harmless little bug drawn to the light and heat of the fire?’

’Is that possible?’

Seraphina Sinclair frowned. She didn’t dare let her guard down.

’In this godforsaken place, any anomaly could be fatal.’

Besides...

’Haven’t I entered a new area?’

’If the monsters’ strength has increased, have the rules for the nightly hunt changed too?’

’Could this thing... be something that slipped through the cracks after the rules changed?’

Slowly, inch by inch, Seraphina Sinclair raised her upper body, her gaze locked on the shadow where the edge of the bed met the floor.

Nothing there.

She strained her ears, but it was still silent.

After a moment’s hesitation, Seraphina Sinclair pushed herself up with her right hand on the bed’s wooden board. She sat up, slowly and silently, then gently lowered her feet to the cold floor.

She bent down, put her face close to the floor, and looked under the bed.

The faint light of the campfire barely illuminated the area directly beneath the bed.

It was empty, save for a little accumulated dust and a few strands of unidentifiable fibrous material.

No living things, no abnormal holes, and no trace of movement.

Seraphina Sinclair’s brow furrowed.

She was confident in her hearing, especially after increasing her attribute points. That sound just now was definitely not a hallucination.

She stood up and walked a circle around the wooden bed, carefully inspecting every wooden board and every crack. She even used her dagger’s hilt to lightly tap the boards and the floor, listening for any hollow echo.

Everything was normal.

Seraphina Sinclair frowned. After a moment of thought, she opened the regional channel to take a look.

No one else reported a similar situation.

Once she confirmed this, Seraphina Sinclair stopped hesitating. Her brow smoothed out. She suddenly gripped the bed’s wooden board and, without a second thought, yanked with all her might—

The wooden bed was violently flipped over by Seraphina Sinclair, crashing onto the floor with a muffled thud.

The instant the bedboard left its original position, several small black shadows shot out from under the bed like lightning, scattering in all directions. Their Speed was so great they left only blurry trails!

"Bugs!"

Seraphina Sinclair’s pupils constricted. Her longsword was already a blur of cold light as it swept out horizontally!

PING!

PING! PING!

A few faint, sharp sounds, like metal striking metal, echoed through the small cabin.

Her Blade accurately struck two of the dark shapes, slicing them in half mid-air. The severed pieces fell to the floor and twitched a few times.

In the light of the campfire, Seraphina Sinclair finally got a clear look at her attackers.

They were beetles, about as thick as a thumb and as long as one of its joints. Their shells were a dull, dark brown, almost perfectly camouflaged against the wood of the bed. The edges of their carapace were sharp, and their mouthparts were especially developed, forming serrated black pincers that glistened with an unsettling oily sheen in the faint light.

Viscous green fluid oozed from the severed carcasses.

The remaining beetles showed no sign of retreating at the death of their kin. Instead, they let out a sharper, more intense rustling sound. They clung to the shadowy corners of the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling, their compound eyes locked firmly on Seraphina Sinclair.

Seraphina Sinclair fixed her gaze on one of them and used Insight without hesitation.

[Wood-Borer Ironjaw (F-level)]

[Description: A harmless, gregarious creature that often lurks in wooden structures or shadows. Its carapace is hard, and it excels at gnawing on wood fiber, feeding on wood. Its bodily fluids are somewhat corrosive. It fears strong light and flames, immediately hiding in shadows upon encountering them. These creatures are, indeed, harmless to humans, but to wooden furniture... a wooden mobile cabin... hehe.]

"Harmless?"

Seraphina Sinclair read the "hehe" at the end of the Description, and a vein throbbed at her temple.

But this wasn’t the time for witty remarks.

Her mobile cabin was made of stone, but most survivors’ were still made of wood.

If left unchecked, these bugs could very likely gnaw through a cabin’s structure in the dead of night!

What would happen then?

’The cabin gets damaged, the black fog pours in?’

’Or I’d lose all mobility, be trapped in one place, and have to just watch as the dead things close in?’

Besides, "harmless" was probably only a relative term.

Mouthparts that could easily chew through wood, combined with corrosive bodily fluids—getting bitten by one would be anything but pleasant.

Seraphina Sinclair didn’t rush to eliminate the few remaining insects. They were hard to spot in the shadows, and she had no way of knowing how many more were hiding in her mobile cabin.

’The best way is to move them!’

’Move all the wooden furniture inside the mobile cabin to the kitchen or bathroom. Of course, before I move anything, I’ll need to exploit their fear of fire to do a thorough cleaning.’

A cold glint entered Seraphina Sinclair’s eyes. She had a plan.

With a flick of her wrist, she returned the longsword to her earring. She then strode over to the fireplace and took some firewood from her Silver Moon Earrings.

CRACKLE!

Sparks showered down, and the flames roared to life, burning several times brighter than before.

The orange-red firelight illuminated more of the cabin’s corners. The Wood-Borer Ironjaws clinging to the shadows on the walls and ceiling immediately began to stir, agitated.

They emitted an increasingly shrill and frantic rustling, scrambling to retreat into deeper shadows. A few even abandoned their perches entirely, scurrying frantically toward the cracks where the walls met the floor.

’Now that that’s confirmed, it’s time to clear the bugs out of the furniture.’

Seraphina Sinclair started moving the wooden furniture, giving each piece a "deep clean."

Wherever the firelight shone, the insects fled in a panic.

Seraphina Sinclair wasn’t sure if these bugs had appeared tonight, or if they had entered the mobile cabin long ago when she was training in the Wind-carved Fissure.

She carefully inspected the furniture in the cabin. Aside from the bed, nothing else had been gnawed on.

Moreover, the wooden bed only had a few bite marks on its boards, which didn’t affect its normal use at all.

From this, Seraphina Sinclair knew the insects must have gotten in today.

’That’s very strange.’

’Today isn’t some special milestone, and the system didn’t make any announcements. So why didn’t the insects show up in the past few days, but appeared today instead?’

As Seraphina Sinclair pondered this, she quickly had a realization.

She hadn’t moved for the past few days. Today was the first day she had.