FUCK!

I'm putting in my report that the meteor shower is a precursor to a beast wave. Is this a fucking zerg fracture? Where the fuck are all these beasts coming from?

There are so many goddamn bugs. So many fucking mosquitos.

Swarms of rabbit-sized blood suckers slam into my body as fast as they can, crumpling their proboscis against my resistant body.

[Verdant Mosquitoes C]

Their mushy insides coat me in a sickly yellow.

The sky is blackened with mosquitoes. The air buzzes, and the ground is littered with dead insects.

Khan is armored, so I send him into the heart of the swarm to wreak havoc. The air around him storms instead of buzzes, and his open maw swipes through the air, eating hundreds, thousands at a time if you consider his multiple bodies.

His skills are rapidly improving with all this protein.

[Man Eater] leveled once or twice during the first beast wave, but now we can probably rank it up a few times. It already reached Lv5 as a rank F skill,

[Man Eater F Lv5

The user can consume flesh and blood to heal wounds and regenerate stamina. During combat, the user's attacks have additional healing.

Heal on Hit: 6.0%]

Khan might be more unkillable than I am... I now know that his Might stat was automatically prestiged, practically doubling his might for every point put in. Add that with his multiple bodies and the fact that most of his skills increase his attack damage... oh boy.

Every time Khan attacks, he gains roughly 50 health back. Times that by the number of bodies he has, and that's a ludicrous amount of healing.

With one hundred bodied, he gains 5,000 health. He doesn't even have 1,000!

I can't wait to see this skill grow. It's the namesake of his species right now, a [Calamity Man-Eater].

I can see why he was exiled now. Khan is only a B-rank creature. How ludicrous will he get when he reaches A? Or if he goes even beyond that?

...He just ranked up [Man Eater] to rank E.

Duchess has grown to her full size and flies in place above me. She uses her magic to pulse radiation in the area around her. Any insect that flies too close instantly fries and adds to the carpet that litters the jungle.

She doesn't have infinite mana, but I can gift her some if she runs out. Luckily for my mana pool, she's using her mana as efficiently as possible.

However, she uses this opportunity to test out some new wind magic she learned recently. It kicks up all the dead insects and isn't as quick to kill as microwaving them.

Flash Gordon, Prometheus, and Rob are practically invisible to the mosquitoes. Something about not having blood.

Rob ride on the largest Khan, swinging his shovel and firing off [Bone Shots] into the swarm.

I'd imagine his new lantern could do something, but Rob found his shovel more trustworthy in this scenario. The lantern's power is halved since we aren't in his dominion.

Technically the power of his [Gravelord's Lantern] is doubled while in his graveyard, but that's scammy salesman talk.

Since Rob is a [Skeletal Gravelord], the basis of his strength should be in the grave he lords in, no?

Rob doesn't do too well in fights like this, and since these insects don't have any bones for him to pilfer, his enthusiasm has hit rock bottom.

Speaking of, I had Duchess fling Flash Gordon around using her [Telekinesis]. I'm sure he's having fun. Whenever he has mana to spare, I use [Master's Hand] to invoke his [Living Fortress] ability to grow to monumental size, if only for a moment, to squash thousands under his elemental might.

Finally, our newly evolved Prometheus radiates enough heat for the mosquitoes to instantly burn up when they get close to his body. His new [Pseudopod] can squat away pesky bugs that keep their distance.

I'm still not taking an active role, but managing my beasts. The insects that bug and attack me die from thorns damage eventually. However, I'm worried about something crawling into my nose or ears.

If I think something penetrates my defenses, I can always burn them out.

Speaking of, let's try out Prometheus' new skills. Hmm... what to use first. Well... I've seen everything but [Magmamancy]. I command Prometheus to use his ability, and I immediately regret it.

The ground around him melts. The air radiates heat as the dirt burns and dries. The surrounding corpses and vegetation immediately catch on fire.

Nearby stones melt into a gooey substance and spread along the ground, spreading the heat.

The smell of thousands of mosquitoes burning is sickening. I stop Prometheus before he burns down the entire jungle.

The heat remains, it doesn't dissipate immediately, and it seems Prometheus can't stop it. The fire isn't big enough for me to consider evacuating the fracture... This is a 'rain forest,' it shouldn't spread too much... probably.

Hmmm, fuck it.

I pull out my sword and start hacking trees, letting them fall in Prometheus' direction. He can go as wild as he wants.

All I have to do is create a situation where the fire won't spiral out of control. If Prometheus wants to be a living volcano, I'll let him.

Once the preparations are complete, I use my blade to cut slits along my arm, letting my rich, succulent blood flow down my arm. Like a hivemind, the swarms of insects decide that I'm the best meal.

I [Bolster Resistance] just in case and walk next to Prometheus.

My blood sizzles as it drips down to the floor. The mosquitoes sizzle as they kill themselves to get even a drop of my forbidden blood.

They form a living cloud that charges straight into a personally crafted hell. The dirt has melted into molten sludge, but I think Prometheus is cheating.

His heat isn't hot enough to melt it in the traditional sense, but he's taken a shortcut magically. The properties of the ground are molten, but they aren't hot enough for that, not yet.

Thousands, tens of thousands, die within the next few minutes. The jungle is littered with ashes and a smell that will permeate forever. I am littered with ashes... and the smell...

It would be worth it if those mosquitos were leveled high enough to grant any experience.

Prometheus managed to squeeze a few levels. Once he reached level sixty, he got nothing.

I also gained another title.

[Congratulations, User! You have killed the equivalent of 100,000,000 insects in less than a day! For this monumental feat, one C-rank insect is worth ten D-ranks, one D-rank is worth 10 E-ranks, etc.]

If my math is correct, we just killed one hundred thousand mosquitoes. Holy shit. I got an A-rank title for killing ten-ish thousand snail eggs in a few hours. What will I get now?

[Warning. [Insecticide] cannot coexist with [Butcher]. A new title is being created.]

[Swarmbane A

You are a natural insect killer! You deal more damage to swarms and bug-like creatures!

Bug bites are less effective against you.

"Normal" attacks deal AOE against swarms of small creatures.

You deal +35% damage to all arachnids, bugs, insects, and any other "creepy crawlies."]

Prometheus did most of the work but didn't get a title. Only the "races" can own titles. My tamed beasts can only watch as their hard work turns into benefits for their master.

...I don't think they mind.

I double-check the condition of my beasts, healing a little here and there before looking around for any look.

...and there's nothing. Whoops.

I don't think I would get much from these creatures, but I'd imagine at least a handful or two of mana crystals. I'm close to the ginormous tree, so I walk.

Khan, Duchess, and Prometheus seem exhausted from our little bout. Well... Duchess is low on mana, Khan has indigestion issues, and Prometheus is hungry.

I don't have mana to give to Duchess, I don't have enough mana to heal Khan's digestion problem, and I don't have spare metal on me to feed Prometheus.

Duchess wraps herself around my neck, resting on my shoulders while I have Khan "walk it off." Prometheus tries to eat my arm. Lovely.

Why couldn't they have the stamina of Flash Gordon or Rob? Is that too much to ask?

The tree is magnificent up close, and I can't see the top from down here. Bulbs of green and white litter the lower branches, and roughly 60% of the bulbs have at least one or two flying creatures swarming them.

Before anything, let's examine the tree. First, I inspect it for any signs of consciousness before briefly touching it.

...seems tree-like. I guess it's safe to touch.

Ooo, I feel something. My attunement stat is telling me something. Something about this tree resonates with one, maybe two energies I have crammed in me.

The affinities listed in my title [Life Bringer] are the culprit. Nature and Life. I'm not "attuned" to nature, but regardless, my stat is telling me something.

Hmmm... I don't recognize or notice any other energies... Time for a taste test.

Taste like a tree... This should be enough for [Scientific Insight+], right?

[??? Tree (???)]

Coolio.

I get Rob to sneak up the tree on the back of one of the Khans to steal one of the bulbs. Rob cuts it down with his shovel, and Duchess catches it with her mind.

I do the same tests on this membranous, gooey sack fruit. Now let's see. I re [Scientific Insight+] the tree.

[Zerg Tree (Adolescent)

This tree produces creatures at an unnatural rate. It teems with life and nature, influencing the surroundings. It was planted here long ago.]

Huh.

Let me double-check something real quick.

Zerg fractures are identifiable by the seemingly unstable amount of creatures found within. No one knows where they come from or how they are made.

Did I discover something huge? This fracture was pre-owned. Does that mean the Cerulean Shield knows about this?

[Resistance: Curse 101 > 102]

Maybe that has to do with it. This fracture lacks natural resources, and the beasts are unprofitable. The fact that it's cursing people doesn't help.

Actively exploring a giant tree is a must, but if you get cursed as you get closer and closer, it wouldn't be worth the effort.

Plus, it's not a high-level cleric can come in all willy-nilly. This is a low leveled fracture. Having a high-level person casting fracture-wide high-level magic would definitely destabilize the whole place, rendering the fracture useless.

The big question is if the tree is radiating a curse or if it's something else...

[Thisss one doesn't think it's the tree]

Oh, do tell.

['Tis a hunch. It would be uncharacteristic for a "life/nature" tree to curse people, no?]

Maybe it's a life/nature curse. There are a few in the catalog. One of the life curses is causing your target to develop cancer. One of the nature curses is turning your target's brain and body of that like a beast.

[Yes. But wouldn't the tree put all of its efforts into creating creatures? Instead of wasting energy on a fracture-wide curse that seemingly does nothing?]

Maybe, maybe. Since it doesn't seem to affect beasts, perhaps it's a nature curse.

[Did you just ignore thisss one?]

Aren't humans animals too? What makes us different- ah, probably the same thing differentiating the "races" and the rest.

[Resistance: Curse 102 > 103]

I want to leave the radius of the tree.

[Can thisss one collect living samples? Roots, branches, some bark?]

Be careful. You never know if the tree will attack you for trimming it without consent.

[Thisss one always exudes caution.]

If the samples keep cursing me, you'll have to find a way to contain them before I get rid of them.]

[...]

~~~

My resistance got up to 105 before we left the radius of the tree. I don't feel too different, but you never know...

Actually, maybe I can know. I test myself with various means. Since I have a guess of what type of curse it is (nature since it ignores beasts) and where it comes from (probably the tree). It has no symptoms and can be cured.

The healers on standby managed to cure the curse when my party initially left the fracture.

[Beast Touched (Initial Stages)

Beast Touched, known as Lycanthrope or Therianthrope, is a cursed condition where a non-beast race "reverts" back to nature. Therians are ironically not immune to the affliction. If anything, they are more susceptible to "reversion."

The initial stage has no symptoms.]