After Cotton undergoes the Metamorphosis, we left her in the room alone so that she can form her own cocoon. To make sure that Cotton will evolve quite well, Tina suggested we gather monster cores from the insect monsters to aid Cotton's evolution. And since we are gonna gather cores, I tasked Gobu and Lina to gather materials in the forest for the preparation process. After all, Cores do not drop from monsters automatically but are harvested manually and meticulously so gathering some resources to help with the core collection is necessary.
While I prepare everything that is needed for the job, Tina entered my makeshift workshop.
"Master, I almost forgot to add another piece of info regarding the core we needed to collect for Cotton."
"Info?" I stopped mixing the potion I am creating and looked at Tina with furrowed brows.
"Yes. I didn't think much of it before, but Cotton is already level 300 at the moment right?"
"Indeed. So?"
"There was a restriction to the kind of core we needed to collect. I didn't think much of it since I was a low leveled child when I undergo my own metamorphosis, but according to what I know, when someone undergoes the metamorphosis process, the core is necessary to be the same level or higher than the current level of the one undergoing the process. Since Cotton is level 300, she will have to also get a level 300 core as well but it has to be a core from an insect monster."
"The hell?"
Over the past years, we have been grinding in the dark sea for weapon attributes. And due to my low luck at success in putting attributes to my equipment, most of the time, I would be farming for long enough that it didn't take too long for every companion of mine to reach the level cap. That includes Cotton as well. If you are asking about the attributes enhancement that I have done to my equipment, don't ask, until now, I have failed to do most of them so for now, I am just keeping them at the moment until the next big patch that involves the increased succession of attribute enhancements.
Now, back to the cores. Since Cotton has already reached level 300, the only cores that are gonna work are cores from insect monsters that are around level 300 or over that number. However, I don't know where to find insect monsters that are over level 300 or even level 300 insect monsters. Resurgia does not have many insect monster varieties and they all are low-level. Sandurk has the Desert Scorpion but that is a raid boss and it's regularly hunted by players so getting a core is just a big competition.
So that is already crossed out from the list of monsters.
Luminous Continent had some insect monsters as well but just like the Sandurk continent's Desert Scorpion, most of them are raid bosses and they are always being hunted regularly by players so it's another, not a good choice.
All that is left is the Aquagius. However, Aquagius is mostly composed of a big body of water and dungeons and monsters that are either fish or beings that live on the water. Sure, you have the insect kingdom and the only land that is present in the Aquagius Continent.
There are insect monsters present indeed, however, a level 300 or more? Pretty hard to find and pretty much a troublesome thing to search for. I have a few ideas on where to look but there is no guarantee to find one here. After all, when I reached level 300, I barely visited Aquagius and frequently stayed in other regions instead so I have no idea where to find an insect monster that is at level 300 or higher that currently exists in Aquagius and is easy to defeat.
"Any suggestion where we should find an insect monster we can harvest the core with?" I asked Tina. Since she lived in Aquagius for so long, she should know something about insect monsters present in her homeland right?
"Master, have you forgotten? I am not as privileged as my late brother and sister. I am very sheltered before and I barely had exposure outside due to the mockery of the people. Asking me is fruitless and useless. I am sorry about it, Master."
I scratch my head even though it's not itchy after hearing her answer. How foolish of me to ask her that. How should she know in the first place indeed?
"Can't be helped, I might have to do it personally."
Although I don't have the slightest idea just yet on where we will get the core, I can just search the forest. Perhaps I can spot one on the way. I asked Tina to watch the cottage while I am gone and transformed into a bat to search for the monsters. With the [Echolocaion] ability, I can map out the entire area below the trees just fine and see whether there are monsters and players nearby.
The land of the Insect People and insect monsters is big but compared to the water surrounding the land, the size of the land in Aquagius is just a handful of dirt compared to the vast water all around.
I circled around the forest for quite a while and managed to find both Gobu and Lina fighting against insect monsters. I didn't need to step in and help as they don't need it and they can do it just fine and I press on.
There are indeed some monsters I discovered deep beneath the forests some of them are massive and some are a little bit bigger than expected. But when I checked their levels, I am left disappointed as they don't even qualify due to how low their levels are. Most are around level 100 below and if there are some higher-level insect monsters, they are around level 250 or lower. The threshold for what was needed is still something I still couldn't find.
I continue to fly around the place until I felt exhausted and returned to my human form and landed on the nearest land that is devoid of monsters and rested. Being small has advantages but because I am small also has plenty of disadvantages especially for bats as bats are not capable of flying very long distances for hours when compared to birds.
As I take a break in the tree's shade, I spotted a little area that is currently closed off by a huge web. I already mapped out the area before I landed so I am sure there are no enemies here but seeing the web, I kinda doubt it a little. After getting a good amount of rest, I checked through the web and noticed a little cavern hidden from the web.
Just by examining the web, I can immediately tell it doesn't belong to a spider otherwise, this web should be as thick as a normal thread and as tough as rope, and as sticky as slime. The web here doesn't possess the quality of the web from the spiders therefore, something else made it. After removing the web covering the little cavern, I ready myself for any upcoming attacks triggered by the web's removal but it didn't happen so I continued on.
Before I can enter, a panel appeared before me allowing me to realize that it was a dungeon. Just as I realized this, another popup message appeared before me.
"[Congratulations! You are the first person to discover the "Lair of the KaValesh"! You have been rewarded 100 prestige points for discovering a hidden dungeon!]"
A hidden dungeon? I didn't know about this. As I checked the level entry of the dungeon, I gained hope all of a sudden seeing that the level entry to get inside the dungeon is level 300... Perhaps I am gonna find what I am looking for in here.
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