Ruminas looked around, after confirming that she hadn't missed anything, she set off, leaving this heavily damaged place and heading towards the first gathering location of the mission.
"Hopefully there won't be any more delays along the way…"
Ruminas sighed.
"Hey, calling you centipede is a bit inconvenient, do you want a name?" Ruminas asked, looking at the centipede wrapped around her arm.
This scene would be quite creepy if others saw it, but Ruminas didn't feel anything at all. She wasn't afraid of reptiles, she just felt a little ticklish when it clung to her.
The centipede wiggled its head slightly, Ruminas took that as a nod and she began to think of a name.
"Beru, how do you feel?" she asked.
The centipede did not do much to show that it was satisfied with this name.
"Okay, let's go."
Ruminas didn't delay any longer and started to speed up, she didn't want anything to appear in the middle to disturb or block her way again.
But-
On the way, Ruminas also encountered many strange scenes that made her curious and had to stop to learn about them.
"Female-"
In front of him was a giant red sphere, but it wasn't like a normal sphere. On the contrary, it was moving, as if it was breathing. Ruminas also saw strings on the surface of the sphere, and inside was black blood, they looked like blood vessels.
"This sphere must be at least as big as several buildings!"
There were many monsters around, it seemed like they were guarding that sphere. There were even species she had never seen before, the number of them reached several hundred.
"Can't handle it…" Ruminas silently calculated.
Before, just a few dozen of them had caused her a lot of trouble, now there were hundreds of them with many new types, not to mention that she was currently having problems controlling her 'qi' so fighting was not a wise decision.
"Let's see if I can appraise that thing…"
[Giant Mother Fetus]
[Description: It is something that helps produce other monsters, it can be seen as a monster's lair but it also needs energy to continue producing monsters and that energy is simply other living creatures]
"Something that can spawn monsters…?"
Ruminas took a deep breath.
"I don't know how many more of these are out there, but if we let them continue to reproduce, sooner or later the monster population will get out of control."
But right now Ruminas has no way.
She had no basis to attack and could see no path to victory.
"Let's leave it for now. When I'm strong enough, I'll come back and destroy it." Ruminas made a decision, her eyes filled with indescribable determination.
She looked at the monsters and the fetus for a while before quietly leaving. However, things did not stop there. On the way, Ruminas saw many other fetuses. Their sizes varied greatly, but they all had the same ability to give birth to monsters.
Ruminas continued to move, trying to stay away from the areas with the giant mother fetus and the monsters guarding them. She couldn't afford to expose herself or get caught up in an unnecessary battle right now. However, the deeper she went into the area, the more she realized the severity of the problem.
The ground, the ruined walls, and even the few remaining trees were covered in a strange red carpet. It was more than just a covering, it was like a parasite, sucking the life out of everything around it to nourish its embryos.
Ruminas could see several creatures trapped within this red carpet, their bodies twitqing unconsciously before becoming completely still, and then beginning to disintegrate into liquid and be absorbed.
Ruminas frowned.
"This… it's like its own ecosystem!"
"Have the monsters evolved to this extent…?"
Not only do mother fetuses create monsters, but the red carpet itself may also serve as an energy source.
Thinking of that, Ruminas felt a bit of pressure. If this situation continued, perhaps it wouldn't be long before this entire area would be completely taken over by these creatures.
"Tsk, this is so troublesome…"
She muttered, speeding away from the danger zone. But after walking a distance, she suddenly stopped when she realized something was wrong. The surrounding space became too quiet.
"…"
This feeling was familiar—like the feeling before a predator attacks its prey.
Ruminas quickly turned around, her hands tightening on her weapon. She could feel something watqing her from within the red carpet. And then, the ground beneath her feet began to shake slightly.
"This is bad…"
A low roar rang out from afar, followed by the appearance of a giant creature. It emerged from the red carpet as if it had just emerged from underground, its massive body trailing a large amount of crimson mucus everywhere.
Ruminas' eyes flashed with wariness.
The monster before her was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was not one of the monsters that guarded the fetus, but something different—more dangerous.
"It looks like… a snake, but its body has the characteristics of those monsters. It seems to be a parasitic snake."
"I can't fight now… not to mention this will be a difficult battle and the commotion from here will attract many other monsters."
Ruminas quickly judged the situation and finally came to the most reasonable conclusion at the moment.
"Run!"
Ruminas didn't say anything more and turned around to run away. She used the white 'qi' surrounding her to increase her speed, and also used black blood to temporarily increase her stats.
Ruminas did everything to run away.
"This is not cowardice, this is strategy!" She thought to herself as she ran.
From behind, roars and the sound of objects being destroyed continued to be heard. Ruminas turned around to see the parasitic snake still chasing after him.
The parasitic snake was not only gigantic in size, but also very fast. It let out a piercing screech, its long body slithering across the red carpet without any hindrance.
Ruminas gritted her teeth, her speed was pushed to the maximum but the distance between her and the monster still didn't widen much.
"I can't keep running forever…"
If she simply ran, she would eventually be exhausted. But the snake was different. It seemed to have adapted to this area completely, showing no signs of weakening despite the long chase.
Ruminas quickly glanced around, searqing for something that could help her shake off this monster. And then, her eyes stopped on an area ahead—the ruins of an old building, its walls crumbling and its pillars about to collapse.
"A good opportunity!"
Without hesitation, Ruminas accelerated straight into the ruins. When she was only a few steps away, she suddenly jumped up, flipped to the other side, and at the same time swung her spear and slashed hard at one of the main pillars.
BOOM!
The pillar cracked, bringing down a section of the wall as the parasitic snake charged into the area. Huge boulders and debris rained down like a landslide, burying the monster beneath.
Ruminas rolled on the ground to reduce the impact force and quickly got up, panting.
"Not sure if I can take it down, but at least it's enough time for me to get out of here..."
Without stopping for a second, she immediately turned and ran towards the first gathering point of the mission. But deep down, she knew that this area was much more dangerous than she had imagined. The mother fetuses, the strange red carpet, the never-before-seen monsters… all of them were threats that could not be ignored.
"I will definitely be back…"
Ruminas' eyes shone with determination as she continued to move forward, leaving this deadly zone.
The distance after that was not long, but it took Ruminas a whole day because she had to avoid many areas with many monsters. Roughly counting from where she had started until now, Ruminas must have seen thousands of monsters.
"What the hell kind of number is this…"
She breathed heavily and looked up at the arrow above her head, the distance to the assembly point was less than 20 meters so she had to get there today.
"Here it is!"
Finally, Ruminas succeeded in reaching this place but she wondered one thing… why the subway station…
"Surely it can't be wrong, right…?"
Ruminas saw a passageway leading down and the arrow above her head also pointed down there, the distance was only a few short meters but the darkness and silence below made her a bit worried.
"Since I was here anyway, let's get off!"
She held the weapon tightly in her hand and slowly walked down there.
Not knowing what was waiting next, Ruminas continued to move forward. She didn't have much fear in her heart because there was nothing she hadn't experienced before, like death, like having her body taken over...
"It'll be okay!"