Star Forge Titan

Lilim raised her elbow and nudged the thigh of her tall companion, half-jokingly saying that she could only reach about this height without jumping.

"Hahaha, the sand dunes may seem motionless, but when blown by the wind, they can run faster than a camel with long legs."

The orc smiled generously and said a desert proverb that meant something like "Don't judge a book by its cover."

"Eating its own children means that the Sandworm King will eat the big sandworm?" Ivan asked thoughtfully:

"Yes, although it is just a legend, there are indeed people who have witnessed similar scenes, otherwise the stories passed down in the tribe would not be told like this." The orc nodded in affirmation.

"Interesting, but do you think a relic needs to eat?" Alvin smiled slightly and asked a question that made everyone think.

"If eating isn't just about filling your stomach, then perhaps it's worth discussing..."

Chapter 47: The End of Paradise

The Herbert 001 Mobile Fortress, which is capable of photosynthesis (doubtful), most likely does not need to eat like ordinary animals.

So, for those who have seen this fortress 'preying' on giant sandworms in the past, was what they saw a real 'preying' behavior, or was it another behavior that looked like preying on the surface but actually had other intentions?

Crawling factories gnaw at the earth, providing a constant supply of iron and blood to the greedy beast of war.

Suddenly, these words popped up in Ivan's mind.

Now, a thousand years have passed since the Giant Kingdom existed, and it is difficult for him to imagine the scale of the war that the world of Palladia faced at that time.

However, there are already some clues as to what needs to be done right now.

If the Sandworm King Herbert 001 is regarded as a super-large ship that is three times larger than an aircraft carrier.

Then, the cats and bugs who were once responsible for the daily maintenance of the entire ship can also be regarded as damage control and maintenance personnel on the ship.

This means that there is a high probability that the area where they usually live has a fast passage leading to other areas of the ship.

Because only in this way can damage control and maintenance personnel like Maomaochong quickly reach the scene of the accident in an emergency and start damage control repairs as soon as possible.

Even if there is no express lane, there should be some other way of moving them to the repair location quickly.

And that was what he was now going to look for.

Ivan's curiosity about this relic was almost overflowing.

Regardless of his identity as a descendant of the Titans or his exploration of the possible future of the world, he increasingly wanted to find those precious clues preserved from the Giant Kingdom period in these ruins, hoping to discover some information about the existence of the Titans.

His intuition told him that this was the key point.

Even if we can only conduct a cursory exploration this time, we must find a way to find some valuable information.

Exaggerating the range of movement through possible fast lanes is undoubtedly a good choice to improve efficiency.

In fact, apart from the intuition that is difficult to describe directly in words.

After seeing the mural, Alvin seemed to sense an invisible call.

Even though there was no real sound coming from his ears, he felt a subtle throbbing in his heart.

interesting……

The black-haired boy smiled slightly and took more powerful steps to explore.

On the other hand, after hearing what Ivan had just said, the other members of the Tracker Team also had some ideas.

"If this king of sandworms preys on other giant sandworms, then no matter whether it really eats the prey it captures or wants to do something else with it, there is a high probability that the fragrance of time will remain here, right?" The speaker was Andre, the captain.

After a brief pause, he tried to lower his voice and continued in a low voice that was a little excited and a little controlled:

"Furthermore, if such a gigantic sandworm king also possessed scent glands, how much time fragrance would it produce? I suspect it would have to be measured in tons at the very least."

These words made everyone's breathing become heavier.

Of course, this does not include Ivan, who is still trying to find a possible fast lane.

Several people looked at each other and saw flickering looks in each other's eyes.

Sandworm hunters hunt sandworms, after all, for the scent glands growing on the big sandworms. To be more precise, they hunt for the scent of time inside and sell it for a good price.

If the sandworm king Herbert stores a large amount of collected scent glands or even the scent of time itself in his body, or if the sandworm king himself has a large scent gland, then their experience, which cannot be said to be either miraculous or dangerous, can be said to be a big win!

The tracker team is already very familiar with each other. They are also relatively rational and order-abiding among the adventurers. There are no misunderstandings between them, so naturally they will not have any overly sinister ideas.

However, compared to other people in the team, a newcomer named Ivan is actually a stranger who is not very familiar.

Although everyone had been getting along relatively well during this period, it was obviously not a wise move to base the safety of oneself and even the team on the uncertain moral values ​​of strangers, especially when faced with a large amount of possible huge treasures.

What's more, the opponent's strength is so amazing that people have to consider it in advance.

Keep it secret from him first, and then include him in the money when dividing it later...

After communicating with each other through eye contact and simple gestures, the members of the tracker team immediately reached a consensus.

Is there enough time?

Andre silently raised another question by combining lip movements with gestures.

The murals show that the Sandworm King stays on the surface longer than expected to 'sunbathe'. Although each 'sunbathing' period is at least three months apart, the ancestors of the catworms have enough time to seize this opportunity and use the external sunlight to cultivate a batch of exceptionally high-quality seedlings for subsequent planting.

The half-elf wizard, who had a basic understanding of ancient Norse, pointed to the mural he had just discovered and gave his answer using a combination of lip movements and gestures.

Andre was silent for a moment, but just when he was about to make a choice.

Suddenly, there was a tinkling sound outside, and the cats and insects around became obviously panicked.

"Oh no!" Lilith suddenly exclaimed when she heard the sound.

"What's wrong?" Andre looked at her immediately.

"I don't think I locked the door when I came in." The halfling said as he turned and rushed towards the entrance.

Hearing Lilim's words, the others immediately reacted and rushed towards the half-open door at the lounge entrance.

When exploring ruins, especially when entering an unfamiliar environment for the first time, most adventurers will deliberately leave the door open.

Because that would speed up our retreat in the event of an emergency.

Apparently, this was why Lilith didn't restore and lock the door to the lounge entrance, and it was only then that she suddenly remembered something else.

In this mysterious ruin, besides the cute cat-bugs, there lives another dangerous creature.

In fact, those tinkling sounds were the alarms deliberately sounded by the cat-and-bugs on guard in the distant passage.

They sounded the alarm to notify other cats and insects outside the lounge to return to a safe place quickly. The reason was naturally that dangerous creatures were entering their group's activity area.

While the sentry cat-bug was directing the other cat-bugs back to the lounge, Lilith had already run to the entrance door. She nimbly restored the door lock she had just pried open with her hands and quickly closed and locked the entire door.

Only after completing this series of tasks did she finally breathe a sigh of relief, wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, and turned to her other teammates to make a gesture that everything was fine.

"Don't worry, I'm an expert..."

boom!

A familiar whistle came from the other side of the door, followed by an extremely dull thud.

The impact force transmitted from this even knocked Lilith away through the heavy and thick metal door!

The halfling fell to the ground and immediately spat out a mouthful of blood. It was obvious that his internal organs had suffered serious damage.

"What's going on?" Andrea asked loudly.

"The door has been discovered! It's those monsters from before!" Kalani, who heard something from the sound, quickly understood what happened.

"Can a locked door be blocked?" Andre asked loudly while helping Lilim up and checking her physical condition.

"I'm not sure. I have to ask Li...lim." Looking at the unconscious halfling, Kalani couldn't help but become more and more anxious.

I'm a mage, and I don't know much about machinery, but this halfling thief who can make accurate judgments...

Gripping his staff nervously, the half-elf wizard realized that there was no other exit and the few people might have been completely trapped.

Ivan, who was still looking for a fast lane just now, naturally could not continue to be obsessed with finding a way after hearing the loud noise.

As he quickly walked to the gate, his eyes became serious.

Judging from the speed at which the door was deforming, Alvin came to a not-so-good conclusion.

This door can't last long. It was able to protect the cat and bug before, probably because it was closed for a long time, so the other party never discovered it.

But now the inside and outside of the room have been connected once, and both the smell and other traces will reveal the existence of this door.

In other words, the safe home of cats and bugs will soon no longer be safe.

So, adventurers can be really bad sometimes.

Oh, me too.

That... is still quite tricky.

Ivan looked at Andre, who seemed to see something from his solemn eyes. He couldn't help but smile bitterly and gently put Lilith down.

This experienced adventurer quickly recovered and made a judgment that was at least less likely to go wrong in a short period of time.

"Kalani, heal Lilim's wound. Gaoshan, prepare your bow and arrows and come over to help. The door won't last much longer. We need to find something to build a defensive cover!"

"A wise decision." Alvin nodded after hearing this. Even if he were in charge of the command, he would give similar instructions.

The cats and bugs seemed to realize something. The pregnant cats evacuated with their cubs, while the adult cats helped the adventurers build a shelter defense line.

Soon, a large amount of useless debris was piled up a few meters away from the gate, forming a semicircular arc shelter like the barricades built during the French Revolution.

Ivan held the Annihilation Axe in his right hand, and with his left hand he took out a piece of equipment that had not been used for a long time from the lepton space. It was a brutal long-range weapon he made with his own hands, a large-caliber heavy pistol - the Crusher.

Calling upon the power of [Reshaping the World] to directly generate self-propelled gem bombs, the explosive ammunition whose primers and warheads were all made of unstable fire element fragments quickly filled the pistol's magazine.

Then, the black-haired boy, holding an axe in one hand and a large-caliber musket in the other, walked directly to the center of the bunker facing the gate.

On the left stood the orc Gaoshan, his bow drawn. His heavy arrows might prove effective against those parasitic beasts. Andre, meanwhile, drew his two-handed greatsword to protect Ivan's right side. A warrior like him was no stranger to battle formations, having faced numerous monsters during his years of adventure.

At the same time, many cat-worms holding tools such as wrenches and screwdrivers came to the back of the bunker. In terms of the number of metal weapons they possessed, they might be comparable to the elite troops under the Witch King.

Although they were a little scared, none of the cats and bugs retreated, because this was their home, their last home.

It was then that Alvin noticed that even including all the cubs, the total number of the catworm population was only more than a thousand, which could be said to be close to the brink of extinction.

If the monsters outside the door were allowed to rush in, the number of surviving cat-worms might not even be enough to maintain genetic diversity.

This is not okay...

Something so lovely cannot be extinct.

Although the battle was about to begin, such a willful Fat Tiger thought popped up in Ivan's mind.

At the same time, he himself confidently believed that there was nothing wrong with this idea.

It seems that no matter before or after the time travel, humans are still as arrogant~ (laughs

With a sigh, the door finally burst open under the continuous impact from the outside!

A howling insect beast rushed into the lounge first.

However, what greeted it was a self-propelled fire elemental gem bomb fired by Alvin with his heavy hand cannon crusher!

The air was torn apart with a scream, and what exploded immediately afterwards was the insect beast's yellow-green splattered flesh and blood!

The battle begins!!!

Chapter 48: Opening the Gate to Meet the Enemy

The hammer fell, and after being hit by both physical and magical forces, the unstable fire element crystal embedded in the end of the self-propelled gem bomb was immediately activated.

The exploding fire elemental magic rapidly accumulated within the sturdy and narrow barrel of the gun, and in the blink of an eye it was transformed into thrust, causing the gem bomb to accelerate in the direction of the muzzle.

The air was easily torn apart by the .75 caliber crystal bullet that reflected a faint red light. The conical shock wave cloud that appeared when it exceeded the speed of sound was fleeting. The violent gunshot like thunder had not yet spread to the surroundings, and the flying bullet had already hit a small row of names on the death list.

The first parasitic beast that rushed into the room with a roar was hit head-on. Its sturdy shell that could withstand sword strikes and arrows was easily pierced by the self-propelled gem bomb that continued to accelerate during flight.

A wound as big as a bowl would be fatal to an ordinary creature, but the insect beast, which is three meters tall and five meters long, can still endure it and continue to move forward.

The next moment, a blazing fire lit up inside the wound.

With Alvin's excellent dynamic vision, he could even see the insect beast's solid outer shell cracking bit by bit, just like a slow-motion video. The broken lines spread rapidly in all directions like fast-growing vines.

Immediately afterwards, a dazzling red light burst out from inside out, and a fatal explosion occurred!

The warhead, also made of unstable fire element crystals, exploded rapidly in the brief moment of collision due to the imbalance of internal elemental power.

The explosion from inside the wound threw out a large amount of broken flesh along with the insect beast's yellow-green body fluids, staining the ground and walls with a disgusting color, and adding a sour and fishy smell to the air.