Chapter 326: Greedy Demon
Marcus was still trapped in place, rapidly weighing his options and trying to think of a way out, when the beehive in his hands finally finished absorbing the Red Locust Spirit’s energy.
For a brief moment, the hive blazed with crimson light. Then the glow faded, and a system notification rang out with news so unexpected it nearly made him forget the danger around him.
Ding!
[Congratulations, player Stonehaven. The hive you obtained is the primary nest of the Red Locust Bees. The Thousand-Year Queen within has absorbed sufficient energy from the Red Locust Spirit and caused the hive to mutate, generating two skills: Summon Red Locust Bees and Collect Red Locust Honey.]
So that was what had happened.
Marcus was stunned, but this was hardly the time to inspect item skills. He immediately stuffed the now-quiet hive into his backpack and yanked out the Red Locust Cicada Net.
"Grow!"
He urged Blackie to pivot in midair, spoke the command word, and the net shot out like lightning toward the Thousand-Year Blood Spirit Cicada hovering less than five meters away.
The poor creature was still focused on maintaining the red sealing barrier, using its song to stir the accumulated Red Locust energy in the grove. It had no chance to evade.
The net wrapped around it cleanly.
"Catch!"
The cicada, still glowing red, was dragged straight into his Red Locust Wood Basket.
The surrounding cicadas instantly snapped out of their trance. Their wings buzzed wildly as they activated Cicada Sheds Its Shell and scattered in every direction. In the distance, the sealing barrier stopped expanding as the cicada’s song abruptly faded.
’Success.’
Marcus grinned. But the smile had barely formed when danger crashed back in.
The Red Locust Bee Kings had already launched their next volley, and the strange rabbit monster, moving with shocking speed, had hopped directly beneath him.
The moment it saw his smug expression, the rabbit seemed to sense something was wrong. Its front paws dug into the white fur on its chest and pulled out a dark, ragged fishing net.
At the same time, black energy began swirling around its body.
Then it kicked off hard with its hind legs, bounced off a branch for extra height, sprang upward, spread the net wide, and lunged straight at Marcus.
Whoa.
He could not afford to underestimate this thing.
The rabbit could actually fight, and that net looked suspicious enough that Marcus had no intention of finding out what it did by getting caught in it.
He spurred Blackie forward, reached into his backpack, and pulled out the second Pure Mist Cloud Cluster, the one with only twenty-three minutes of use remaining.
"I am a cloud!"
He spoke the incantation at the last possible second.
Just as his invincible defense state was about to end, just as the rabbit’s net was about to engulf him, Marcus transformed into a drifting white cloud.
The rabbit was no Divine Beast-level monster. If it had been, it would never have needed to sneak around earlier. Naturally, it had no way to harm him in cloud form.
"Nice try. Keep dreaming."
Safe again and feeling a little too pleased with himself, Marcus glanced back at the rabbit.
Using three branch rebounds in rapid succession, it had climbed nearly thirty meters into the air, reaching the exact spot where he had been hovering moments earlier to catch the cicada.
That jump power was ridiculous, he could not help admiring it. Unfortunately for the rabbit, it had chosen the worst possible moment to be airborne.
The instant it reached that height, the massive storm of poison needles fired by the Red Locust Bee Kings converged on it.
The rabbit had become his substitute target.
"Serves you right."
People hunted monsters, Monsters did not hunt people.
’You want to catch me? I should be the one catching you.’
The rabbit was clearly confused by his sudden disappearance, but when faced with the incoming barrage, it showed no panic at all.
Its body twisted lightly in midair.
Swish, swish, swish!
The dark fishing net whipped through the air in smooth arcs. Every poison needle that reached it was swept into the net and vanished without a trace.
Marcus’s eyes widened.
That display was impressive enough on its own, but now he was even more curious about the net.
Still, technique could only do so much.
The rabbit could deflect the needles, but it could not absorb all the force behind them. Its balance broke at once, and it tumbled helplessly from the sky.
CRASH!
It slammed into the ground like a falling stone.
’Seriously? All that dramatic entrance, only to end like that. What a disappointment.’
Then again, if the rabbit were truly as powerful as it acted, it would not have spent all this time sneaking around the grove.
So what exactly was it?
Before Marcus could think further, the buzzing around him deepened into a furious roar.
The Red Locust Bee Kings charged in.
They had lost the precious Red Locust Spirit. Their main hive had been stolen in front of their eyes. Their rage had reached the point of madness.
Two Bee Kings immediately moved to guard the two remaining hives hanging from the Red Locust Tree King.
The third Bee King shot straight toward the rabbit lying in the dirt.
Even though Marcus was the real thief, he had vanished into cloud form. To the Bee Kings, the only visible outsider left was the rabbit.
So every ounce of their fury landed on it.
The rabbit looked ready to explode with frustration. If it were not injured, if its strength had not fallen to almost nothing, it would have wiped out every last Red Locust Bee in the grove, and that thieving knight along with them.
But reality was cruel.
In its current state, handling even two Bee Kings would have been difficult, never mind the black swarms filling the grove.
It did not hesitate.
The rabbit flipped over, sprang upright, and bolted for the exit.
The two remaining hives were already under heavy guard, and the surrounding swarms had tightened into layers. There was no longer any opening to steal another hive.
Besides, Marcus was no longer covered in the Red Locust Spirit’s glow. Even if he tried the same trick again, there was no guarantee it would work.
’Time to leave.’
He had already taken the main hive. On top of that, he now possessed the Red Locust Spirit and the Thousand-Year Blood Spirit Cicada.
This haul was enormous.
Marcus guided Blackie downward and retrieved the Pure Mist Cloud Cluster he had dropped earlier. He checked its remaining duration; only four hours left.
Those few seconds of sonic assault from the Blood Spirit Cicada had drained more than an hour of durability, which was quite painful.
"Blackie, move!"
He had noticed the rabbit still had not escaped, so he urged his mount forward at once.
As it turned out, when the rabbit tried to flee, it ran straight into the returning Twin-Blade Red Locust Bees and Twin-Tailed Red Locust Bees. Faced with such numbers, it did not dare force a path through and risk drawing the whole swarm after it.
Instead, it pulled the same white flower from the fur on its chest and held it high above its head.
Instantly, the furious Bee Kings and the surrounding swarm ignored it completely, as if it did not exist and the rabbit calmly walked forward.
Marcus narrowed his eyes.
That white flower functioned a lot like his Pure Mist Cloud Cluster. Both seemed capable of deceiving monster senses.
He spurred Blackie and pursued.
Just as the rabbit was about to slip past the bees and reach open ground, Marcus closed the distance. Still in cloud form, he drifted to less than five feet behind it.
Without hesitation, he activated Insight.
—
Greedy Demon.
Level: Hidden.
HP: Hidden.
Skills: Hidden.
—
’Greedy Demon.’
The name alone sounded extraordinary. Worse still, it could conceal all of its visible stats, far beyond anything Marcus had expected.
There was no telling how dangerous it really was. Yet Insight still managed to pry loose fragments of information.
—
Background: One of the creatures born alongside the Dreamland Continent itself. Naturally lively and adorable, gifted with an extraordinary instinct for treasures, capable of sensing and identifying valuable objects hidden throughout the world.
But as treasures multiplied across the continent, so too did its greed. It began wanting everything for itself.
As its obsession deepened, the divine power it was born with gradually faded. In its place, strange and crooked talents emerged: theft, trickery, deception, concealment.
In time, it became the Greedy Demon.
Eight hundred years ago, the Greedy Demon attempted to sneak into the forbidden lands of the Arcane-Beast Race and steal the Ten Thousand Beast Spirit Orb.
But it was discovered by the Ghost Race’s Earth-Listening Ghost and the Arcane-Beast Race’s Thousand-Eyed Dream Demon.
The Ghost King and Beast King joined forces to strike it down, nearly destroying it completely.
Though it survived, it was gravely wounded. Its strength fell to the lowest depths, and every treasure it had gathered was lost.
Now it wandered the Dreamland Continent relying on cunning, quick reflexes, and low-grade treasures, searching for energy-rich relics in the hope of restoring the divine power it once possessed.
—
Marcus stared. ’Definitely not an ordinary monster.’
The more he learned, the more interested he became. But the Greedy Demon was almost clear of the grove.
There was no more time to hesitate.
The plan he had already formed had to happen now. If the Greedy Demon escaped, the opportunity would be gone.
’Heh.’
Its background was far grander than he had expected, but Marcus had no intention of backing down. Whatever it was, however powerful it might once have been, this was now.
Of course, he was not foolish enough to rush in carelessly. Just in case, he activated every buff and support skill available, stacking them one after another to raise his combat strength.
Then he gripped the Bat Dragon Cloud Sword, leaned forward over Blackie’s neck, and accelerated toward the rabbit.