Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 190 Macrophagic Worm
Under the close supervision of a team of defense soldiers, technical workers from the Ministry of Construction operated several alchemical beasts for lifting heavy objects and slowly dragged the super-giant mysterious creature out of the pit at the landslide site.

After seeing the true appearance of this creature, Harvey felt that it could no longer be described as a legless reptile like a worm python. It was nearly thirty meters long, fat at the front end, and the body became thinner towards the back.

The body is two or three meters in diameter, which is no match for the giant ice python, which is only as thick as an adult's waist.

"Goodness! Isn't this the legendary giant worm that has long been extinct?"

Egno, who rushed over from the hospital, recognized the origin of this thing at a glance, and stood beside the insect body that didn't know whether it was dead or alive, and couldn't help but marvel at it.

"Macrophage worm? This thing is really a worm? What...what does it eat to grow so big?" Haru, the director of the Ministry of Construction, finally cleared himself of the suspicion of cutting corners and breathed a sigh of relief.

Egno had his assistant take out a tape measure and measured the size of the fat insect. He casually explained, "I also stumbled across this record in... uh, the ancient biological texts of the High Elves."

"This super-giant insect feeds on minerals and digs deep underground year-round, almost never surfacing above ground."

Harvey interrupted Egno and asked directly, "Feeding on minerals? Is it this unknown black stone?"

Egno shook his head, uncertainly saying, "It's impossible to determine what specific minerals they were feeding on, but it's likely that they were attracted to the surface by the food and then dug up the foundation of the city wall..."

He paused and continued, "However, this type of insect prefers heat and fears cold. In winter, it will burrow into the lava areas deep underground and lie dormant. It will only become active when the weather warms up."

Harvey felt uneasy after hearing this, no matter how he had witnessed the huge black stone tower being directly collapsed by this kind of insect, or how the concrete wall that was more than five meters high and nearly two meters wide was dug down by it today.

This means that if this guy's target of food is really the black stone used to build castles, then he would be sleeping in a dangerous building that could collapse at any time.

We must vacate the castle immediately!

He turned and instructed Egno, "Can you determine what mineral they ultimately feed on by studying this insect corpse? If it's really this black stone, my castle will be like a giant, delicious cake in their eyes."

Egno's eyes lit up, and he said excitedly, "I can dissect it right here and see if there's any undigested mineral matter in the insect's abdomen. It'll be easy to tell..."

The insect corpse is too large, and it is unrealistic to use dozens of alchemical camels to transport it back to the medical center or the castle laboratory. The best way is to dissect it on the spot.

Under Egno's arrangement, the doctors and assistants in the hospital who were extremely skilled in their work and had been trained by him quickly set up a large tarpaulin tent. The defense forces evacuated the onlookers and the workers responsible for handling the landslide accident, and quickly cleaned up and isolated the scene.

Harvey walked to the head of the insect curiously, looked up at this huge creature like a prehistoric behemoth, and found that even its eyes had degenerated completely, leaving only a closed large oval mouthpart. Through the gap, he could see that it was densely packed with not-so-sharp pestle-shaped teeth.

This is probably because the food source of this worm is a single mineral, and it does not need sharp teeth to prey on other creatures.

There is also a circle of scales on the insect's head that are similar in color to the skin. Each scale is the size of a small round shield. Harvey thinks that this was specially evolved to protect the head when drilling and digging underground.

"Egno, why did these worms become extinct? Is it because the minerals they rely on for survival are extremely scarce?"

Egno took out a forearm-length silver knife and gestured at the worm's massive body, saying casually, "Of course it's not due to a lack of food. Literature records that macrophage worms have an extremely long growth cycle and a very wide distribution area. Furthermore, they often fall into a state of suspended animation and dormancy that can last for years due to low temperatures, resulting in low reproductive efficiency and gradually becoming extinct..."

Harvey immediately understood the crux of the problem that Egno had described. The long growth cycle meant that the insects could not mature quickly and enter the breeding period. In addition, the distribution area was too vast, and the probability of two male and female insects of different genders meeting each other was too low. In addition, there was a long-term dormant state similar to hibernation, and they would lie dormant for several years at any time... This was completely a case of precisely hitting the wrong skill points on the road of evolution, leading to the natural extinction of the species.

"If nothing unexpected happens, I estimate that there should be only one giant phagocyte worm alive within a hundred miles of our territory." As Egno said this, he inserted the silver knife into the gap in the wrinkled and rough skin in the middle of the worm.

The insect, which was originally lying motionless, suddenly trembled slightly all over its body. Then, its head, which was tightly tied with a lasso, suddenly rose up, and its fat body caused ripples.

"Oh my God! It's not dead! It's just knocked unconscious by a rock!" Reiner exclaimed loudly, and he and Asdalen immediately lifted Harvey up and quickly evacuated the temporary tent.

"Don't panic!" Egno waved his hands and shouted, "This thing is not aggressive. It must have been stabbed and woken up from its coma..."

He turned to Harvey and asked, "Sir, this insect is still alive. Do I need to butcher it and dissect it to remove its stomach contents to see where its food came from?"

Harvey looked at the gentle yet trembling behemoth, and a thought suddenly struck him. He asked, "Is there any way to remove the undigested minerals from its stomach without killing it? Is there any potion that can induce vomiting?"

Egno scratched his head, turned around and whispered a few words to the assistant beside him, and the assistant hurried back to the medical center.

"Yes, there's a non-toxic potion that can induce vomiting. However... to make this guy vomit violently, I'm afraid it would take the equivalent of dozens of people..."

Not long after, the assistant came back pushing a cart, and indeed, he brought a bucket of medicine. Egno used a thick hose made of rubber fruit to directly insert it into the worm's large round mouthparts and began to force-feed the medicine into it.

The fat insect seemed to be quickly affected by the drug and began to struggle and wriggle. Its huge mouth, which could swallow a bull alive, kept opening and closing, making a strange crackling sound.

Everyone fled for their lives as quickly as possible away from its head. After another violent wriggling and struggling, the insect whimpered and expanded its mouthparts to the limit, then spewed out a large amount of stomach contents covered with thick mucus.

Harvey felt a little nauseous and turned his head away with a slight discomfort, not wanting to look.

Suddenly, he heard Asdalen and Reiner gasp at the same time, and Asdalen suddenly tightened his grip on his arm.

"What's going on?" He subconsciously turned his head to look at Asdalen, then followed the direction of his finger and looked back at the huge pile of vomit that was as big as a small hill.

In addition to various crystal-clear mineral fragments, there is a shiny object that stands out.

It was a huge crystal mineral as big as a coffin, pale yellow like amber, and crystal clear!

Through the reflection of sunlight, you can see a vague human figure faintly visible inside this huge piece of amber.

Something was sealed in this amber ore, and the macrophagous worm mistakenly thought it was food and swallowed it...

Harvey opened his mouth, feeling his throat dry. "Asdalen, I think I know how you were sealed into the amber crystal..."

(End of this chapter)