Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!-Chapter 208: Operation Set Up Cavern (6)

Having sealed up one of the three tunnels, Aoni half expected there to be a drastic drop-off in the main current's strength or even an increase in its temperature; however, when he swam some distance away from the wall, he came to realize that wasn't the case at all.

In fact, from what he could feel and sense, there seemed to be zero difference between the before and after of the main current, even with the exclusion of a third source.

Rolling onto his back and gulping in more air, he replayed his actions in the rightmost tunnel, in the left; however, within about a minute of beginning his trek, the things he saw and noticed were drastically different.

Swimming nearer to the wall and examining it closely, Aoni spotted markings all over the place that appeared to be caused either by digging with sharp claws or maybe fighting, and the deeper he went into the dark tunnel, the more of these clues he stumbled upon.

'There are far too many for these markings to mean anything other than the presence of a creature digging its way through the rock.' He mused as he swam around the entire tunnel, from top to bottom.

Compared to the other tunnel, this one is clearly man-made… or monster-made, that means ding ding, we have a winner. The only problem is, where the hell are the bugs at? Scratching his head while floating in place, Aoni reached down to the dangling part of the rope tied around his waist and shot an ice bullet through it, cutting off a strip of rope just big enough to cover his wrist.

Next, he swiftly secured the Energia crystal, which had been used as a flashlight, to his left wrist, freeing up his hand in case he had to fight, and continued swimming deeper into the tunnel.

---

Two minutes became five, then ten, and by the time he finished off a full air box, Aoni felt that this was becoming too tedious an endeavor; thankfully, right as he was about to give up and activate some Nodes to close it up, he noticed a flash of movement nearby.

'Hm? What was that,' thinking it may have been his eyes playing a trick on him, thanks to the abuse they were constantly receiving due to the saltwater sting, Aoni narrowed his vision and held up his arm to shine some light down the tunnel.

Clunk

And just as he did, his arm came into contact with the creepy, eyeless head of a giant 2-star mole cricket.

"AHHh Blub blub blubbbb AhhhAhAh," forgetting he was underwater for a minute there, bubbles shot out from Aoni's mouth as he screamed.

As if being randomly struck in the head wasn't enough, his muffled screams were surely a sufficient reason to trigger a reaction from the insect, which began thrashing its arms to attack whatever was making the noise in front of it.

Backpedaling in the water to create distance, the Lad barely had the peace of mind to muster an ice bullet, but somehow he managed to do so. Thanks to his proximity to the blind bug, Aoni's single shot was more than enough to put a fist-sized hole in the creature's carapaced face, killing it instantly and causing the water to take on a sickly yellow color.

| 2 PP earned |

'FUCK THIS HORROR MOVIE SHIT!' he screamed in his head while swiftly swimming toward the bottom of the tunnel and placing both hands on his chest.

'I didn't sign up to get caught off guard by a giant blind ass fucking bug randomly appearing out of the dark, DAMN IT ALLL!'

---

For the next few minutes, all Aoni did was stay on the bottom level of the tunnel, occasionally taking breaths of air from a new air box and trying to calm down.

It wasn't that the Lad was a coward or scaredy cat or anything like that, but you try being stuck in the darkness with a giant fucking bug that, if you weren't paying attention, could hack you to pieces in seconds.

Luckily, due to their lack of intelligence and unusual body shapes, the mole crickets were terrible swimmers, so at best, they could only float in a certain direction or toward sounds.

'Okay, I think I'm good, well, I suppose that's that then, the bugs are coming from this tunnel, and giving the scratches and gouges in the rock; my theory is that the super big one I saw when the barrier came down dug this tunnel out as a means to bring it's spawn into the cavern unseen.'

'Ugh, but damn it, I still need to check one final thing; even with all the proof that this is the way those guys are entering the lake, I still can't be 100% sure it's the ONLY method.' Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath from an Air box, Aoni sat up, stored the box away, and kicked off the rocky ground further down the tunnel like a person-shaped torpedo.

His goal is to find another bug; why? Because he needed to ensure this was the only way they could enter the lake, and the means of verifying such a thing was relatively easy.

Since all of the monsters native to his territory were heavily adapted to cold environments, what better way to check if they can handle the hot water than…well, throw one into it while alive and see how it responds?

Is it a little cruel, FUCK NO, HAVE YOU SEEN THOSE BASTARDS! Devil spawn, burn the house down if you find a baby kinda bug. Or at least that's how Aoni sees them.

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He'd even had a nightmare or two after the battle when he first cleared out the cavern of the creepy crawlies.

It's kind of funny because he'd never had such phobias before; however, after encountering thousands of giant bugs that wanted to eat you, just about any sane person would wake up in the middle of the night thinking they were covered in insects. *you're welcome tonight*

And so the search for a second bug began.