Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Chapter 19: Flight

Today Simon was exploring and completing his [Mental Map] of the north side of the forest. He discovered a pond filled with hordes of monsters of varying races coming near to drink water. There were even races that he had not seen before like the blue-spotted Bucklion, with a deer head and a lion’s body.

He was tempted to lure this horde into his dungeon but he quickly shook his head and discarded the idea.

“Today I’m here to explore and complete my [Mental Map] and not to hunt. I shouldn’t get sidetracked.” looking at the Bucklions he repeated once again “must not get sidetracked.”

Clearing his mind he continued his exploration of the forest and after a while, he found a grove of towering trees hundreds of meters in height. What caught his attention was the gigantic honeycombs on top of those tall trees. It’s not like Simon had never seen honeycombs in his previous life but the ones before him were humungous. Each of the hexagonal cells could easily allow a full-grown adult to pass through. A sweet scent permeated the air stimulating his appetite

Without thinking much and mostly due to curiosity, he approached the vicinity of the honeycombs unknowingly. At that moment air started to vibrate and high-pitched buzzing noises could be heard coming out of the honeycombs all around. What came out could only be called the monster size variation of the bees on earth. It had 4 compound eyes and 4 wings made of keratin. The sound of its buzzing wings generated strong gusts of wind around it.

Analysis displayed its race:- Killer Worker Bee level:- 87

Simon did not have time to look at Analysis result as he immediately turned and started running. Large swarms of killer worker bees came out of the combs and instantly fixed their compound gaze on him.

One did not have to think hard to know what would happen when these monstrosities numbering in the hundreds took to the air. Space distorted due to the intense flapping of their wings and loud buzzing noises coalesced creating a terrible symphony.

He looked behind him to see a large patch of what looked like clouds made of hundreds of bees appear behind him painting a dreadful scene.

“%$&*..%$&*..%$&*.”

He incessantly cursed in his mind. Individually they aren’t very powerful, but their strength lied in their numbers. Whenever any intruder appeared near their nest, they would swarm them with their absolute numbers. Many shriveled corpses were lying around the ground, their life force sucked out by the bees. This time he had dug his grave quite nicely and the way he would die would be like those corpses with his life force drained out.

“%$&*..”

Simon worked his legs to their limits hoping to try to outrun them. But this turned out to be futile because they were flying on their wings and he was running on foot trying to outpace them was foolish. Unbeknownst to him, he had ventured quite deep into the forest with the bees hot on his tail. Fortunately, this chase did not last long. After a while, they stopped their pursuit and retreated towards their territory.

Simon felt quite relieved after seeing them retreat. He stopped in his tracks and drew hurried breaths. He didn’t know why they stopped chasing him, but he was honestly very thankful for it. After stabilizing his breathing he scanned his surrounding for a while. The area was eerily silent and not a presence of monsters could be felt till miles. This discovery made him alert and he raised his guard a few notches.

“The bees must have retreated for some reason. This place is giving me the creeps, I should get out of here as fast as possible.”

When he was just about to retreat, from the corner of his eyes he saw a tall peak thousands of meters in height. Simon finally knew the reason why the bees retreated as if in a hurry