Whispering Verse

Chapter 2826 Insects Underground

The surprised Shade almost immediately extinguished the light ball floating around him, and looked at the cave that suddenly appeared in the darkness:

"A hollow in the ground? How is this possible? With my powerful space perception, why didn't I notice that there is such a large underground space here?"

As a special metal, mithril may indeed cause supernatural phenomena near mineral veins, but this definitely does not include the ability to shield space.

So standing at the melted cave entrance, Shade looked hesitantly at the darkness below. Of course he would not jump down recklessly, and in the field of vision provided by "dark vision", the bottom was more like a naturally formed underground cave, with nothing in it.

This place is not completely closed. There are underground cracks around the cave that connect to other locations. It's just because the "strong spatial perception" fails here for some reason, so Shade doesn't know what this cave is.

However, he suddenly remembered the content of the conversation with Professor Uke Wood just now, so he found a green leaf that had been turned into a toy from his pocket, but nothing happened when he put it in front of his eyes, which meant that Shad had not been affected by it. The effects of so-called "psychedelic gases."

But then he replaced the ordinary green leaf with the "Leaf of Youth". This time, after putting the leaf in front of his eyes and waiting for a moment to take it off, the world he saw with his right eye was indeed different.

It's not that the illusion is broken, but that what was originally hidden is revealed.

The huge tree trunk root system broke out from the bottom of the underground cave, then spread to the entire cave, and then extended to invisible places along the cracks.

And on those dark tree roots, white vesicles, or things like insect eggs, adhered to them. Those eggs were translucent to be more precise, and it was only because of the white mist that was slowly billowing inside that they appeared to be white. The vesicles emit a faint light in the darkness. The light is not strong, but the brightness slowly changes with the surge of white mist in the vesicles.

It was precisely because of the transparent vesicles and white mist that Shade could clearly see the sleeping insects inside the eggs.

Those bugs are about the same size as normal adults, but judging from their appearance, they are all "paradox bugs" no matter how you look at them.

"Roots that grow up from the ground instead of down, and these paradoxical bugs."

The mithril mine that Shade wanted to find was indeed here. Although he did not dare to call out the light ball illumination, he could still see patches of silver phosphorescence on the side walls of the cave. This is the color of mithril ore.

The silver phosphorescence intersected with the light of insect eggs on the roots of the thick ancient trees. The scene deep underground actually looked so shocking that Shade even held his breath without realizing it. Gradually, as the [Eternal Leaf] left the eyes for a longer period of time, the roots and insect eggs disappeared again.

And just when Shade wanted to cover his eyes with leaves again, white mist suddenly appeared in the originally empty underground cave.

The thick fog that symbolizes the concept of "time chaos" has already filled the bottom of the entire underground cave in just one breath. At the same time, the buzzing sound of insects clearly appeared in the depths of the cave, and it was getting closer and closer to Shade's position.

Shade decisively took off the key from his chest with his left hand, and the ritual matrix emerged under his feet. The moment the [Staff of Yggdrasil] was grasped in his hand, he suddenly tapped the bottom of the long staff. Towards the ground beneath his feet:

"The stability principle of ancient elves!"

Emerald green light spurted out from the top of the long staff, like a big tree growing a canopy, and it seemed to provide Shade with a shield from the wind and rain. The sound below was not the collective awakening of insect eggs, but an invisible thing making a buzzing sound, which suddenly hit the emerald green light under the cover of the white mist that had surged up.

With a clicking sound, Shade's thaumaturgy was forcibly interrupted, and he even bounced back like a cannonball.

And the thing hidden in the fog also showed its appearance due to the power of thaumaturgy. It was a "paradox insect" about three meters in size, with a dark carapace and wings that seemed to be able to forcefully distort time.

It was obviously seriously injured when it collided with the thaumaturgy that specifically restrained them, but immediately after the blow, it hit the hole again.

Its body shape would have been absolutely impossible to enter such a small hole, but during the flight it actually shrank to the size of an adult, and then successfully entered the hole. Shade, who had fallen, was about to stand up when he saw the insect rushing towards him.

Without thinking, he raised his free right hand and the huge rotating flame was immediately thrown out:

"Remnants of Chaos!"

This is not a forest, so there is no need to worry about forest fires. And because the Paradox Bugs were burned by the First Fire, the flames have a harmful effect on the bugs. Coupled with the small fighting area, Shade was not worried about his opponent being able to escape.

And the insect did not hide. A colorful light suddenly rose in front of the flame, and then the violent fire ball that rotated and flew gradually slowed down. After stopping, it accelerated and flew towards Shade.

"Reverse time?"

Shade uttered a rare curse word in his heart. This time when he went out to prospect for mines without the [Night Watch], he could only open his arms to embrace the flame, and completely absorb it and transform it into a spirit before the explosion occurred.

Just after the flame, another beam of white light sprayed from the mouth of the worm directly sprayed onto Shade's body under the cover of the flame. Then there was a clear sound of a clock hand turning, and then a large piece of white light shattered appeared on Shade's body.

[Time is paused, but it doesn't work on you. ]

The paradox worm is immune to almost all attacks, so Shade did not try to attack again. When the worm hit him again, he stepped back and appeared directly at a higher point in the passage, then took out the [Disaster Card·Grit Worm], used the power of "Earth Walking Technique" to jump into the soil, and then jumped all the way to the ground.

So soon, in the forest sea in the afternoon illuminated by the late autumn sun, Shade jumped out of the soil, and then jumped lightly again, stepped on the tree trunk beside him and jumped onto the branch.

He held the long staff in his right hand and held the fireball that had not yet grown in his left hand, waiting for the worm to come out. But he waited for twenty minutes, and even ran to the entrance of the mine, but he didn't wait for the bug to chase him out, so he could only admit that the bugs did not follow him.

Professor Yuk Wood was no longer here at this time, and Shade did not try to go deeper underground again. Instead, he turned around and left here, and then used the "Friend of Chocobo" pendant to summon the Chocobo who was willing to help, and rode it to the Little Mig Village.

After successfully meeting the hermits of the [Forest Hermits] in the village, Shade was taken to the Hermits' station again.

Unfortunately, Mr. Steve Davis, the chief elder of the Hermits, was not here for the time being because he was cooperating with the church to deal with the burning trees in the forest, but fortunately, Mr. Meloni, the keeper of the Hermits, was here.

Now the forest near this station has also lost all its leaves. These people living in the deep forest have harvested the crops planted this year and are preparing other winter supplies to welcome the coming cold winter.

Mr. Meloni was still talking to Shade by the largest campfire in the camp. He listened to Shade's story without showing much surprise on his face. He just nodded slightly:

"I remember you know that there are countless paradox bugs sleeping in the local dense forest."

"Yes, these are created by those time travelers for countless years."

Meroni nodded again, slightly turned sideways and looked at the forest in the distance:

"Some of those bugs are sealed, and the other part seems to be suppressed by the power of the forest itself and fell asleep. Although I don't know about the underground cave you mentioned, the hermit group discovered a long time ago that there are underground caves extending in all directions under the Vista Forest, and most of the sleeping bugs are inside."

However, the hermits did not observe the hidden bugs through the [Youthful Eternal Leaf], they have their own unique magic.

Shade asked in surprise by the fire:

"So, it has always been like this? I mean, no one has done anything?"

"Then what can be done?"

Merloni asked back:

"Except for the secret arts of the elves and the powerful time power of the thirteen-ring warlock like a month ago."

This refers to the two Adele above the city of Vesta, dealing with the bug that came out of Flora's soul.

"Except for the few difficult rituals we have mastered, there is no way to harm those bugs. If it's just one or two, the power of the United Church can indeed kill them, but how many bugs do you think are sleeping in the ground under our feet?"

Shad couldn't answer this question, but he also understood what Mr. Meloni meant:

"What you said makes sense, but it's like a bomb. The longer it's not resolved, the greater the explosion will be. Are you really just simply delaying? This should be the worst approach."

Mr. Meloni smiled:

"I know what you mean, but we are not simply delaying. Our previous view was that when this forest can no longer seal so many paradox bugs, we will notify the church. As long as the righteous gods descend, all problems will be solved. It's just a few bugs, and the righteous church probably won't ask for the power of the gods, but what if there are tens of thousands of bugs?"

"That's a really good idea. But since the local bugs are all asleep, what did I encounter just now?"

Shad asked again, and Mr. Meloni could also answer this question.

He stood up and left for a while, and soon returned with a thin booklet. The booklet was called "A Survey of Species in Vista Woodland", but except for the cover, there was no letter on it, and the inside was full of pencil illustrations.