I flew back across the brook to explore the new territory and search for more creatures to analyze in my attempt to merge Heavy Carapace into my carapace’s mutation path. I headed for what passed for a mountain at my size but was little more than a mound of a bunch of rocks as big as the one I’d fought the snails under. The rocks were overgrown by moss and other plants I landed down and began searching and I found an opening into the mountain. I snuck forwards camouflaging myself into the environment. Massive tunnels branched off in all directions and I kept going deeper, I passed different tunnels my antenna twitching as I smelled food.

  I didn’t follow the scent for food instead I followed my pheromone scent choosing the one that screamed danger. I felt I needed to kill something big if I was going to unlock Heavy Carapace. I passed into a massive cavern three large rocks rising like half pillars in the center of it. The cavern smelled foul and I nearly threw up but pushed my bile back down. Looking around I quickly saw the source of the smell, a massive pile of feces at the center of the cavern. It couldn’t have come from insects and I wondered if this was the lair of the world boss nearly having a heart attack again until I realized the cavern was to small for it to have entered.

  I moved forwards the sense of danger growing until I was nearly at the pile of feces still not seeing anything. A round boulder moved. No, I realized. That’s not a rock.

  Another rock moved forwards and I saw a slightly smaller version, I thought it might be younger but realized it was just a male the bigger one being a female.

  I dodged to the side as the female scarab rolled forwards shooting forwards with the speed of a cannonball. I felt the air whoosh as it went past and chips of rock went flying as it hit the side of the cavern and bounced off like a pin ball using it legs to guide its direction as it came flying right back at me.

  Pressing flat to the ground it whizzed overhead narrowly missing me. I rolled to the size as the other scarab went flying past me the two death pin balls all bouncing from the rock pillars to the cavern wall. Luckily unlike my fight against the snails there was some space in here to do some real flying, not a lot and I was certain if I didn’t keep moving while in the air that I’d get swatted like a fly but fighting while moving was what I had specialized in.

  My wings buzzed and I took off dodging another attack. I peppered the side of the male scarab beetle with venom. It began to sizzle and burn against it, its health didn’t go down but I was putting holes in its carapace and weakening it so my stinger could puncture through it.

  The scarab beetles didn’t just continue bouncing around in their death-pin-ball routine and let me spray them with venom. The female scarab dove into the pile of shit and emerged pushing a ball of shit the size of her body and then began consuming it then she turned her back on me raised its abdomen and a spray of liquid shit that looked like acid sprayed at me.

  I dropped down the acid attack having a wide cone that followed me. As I moved out of the acid attack the male scarab clipped me with a cannonball attack. That hit sent me spinning cracking my carapace, my armor was damaged, but I’d reduced the damage down massively, taking only ten points of damage. Unfortunately, he came right back and hit me again, I managed to drive my stinger into its side through a section it its carapace I’d weakened with my venom and discharged four charges of venom into it. Its health began to tick down with no sign it had any sort of Venom Resistance.

  It rolled forwards and emitted a horrific gas and I felt my lungs dissolved. I coughed and flew backwards dodging a cannonball attack from the female scarab. There was now a descent size hole in the side of the male, and I kept shooting there, I missed with some of my shot-putting new holes in its carapace, but some punched through and started ticking down its health again. I briefly landed on top of one of the stone pillars pulling out one of my bottles of nectar. I downed the health potion, and my health shot back up, my carapace didn’t instantly heal it was still cracked and slowly coming together but apparently there was a difference between hit points and injuries.

  The male bounced its way off the cavern wall and pillars and arced up to hit me. I tried something next.

  “This might be stupid,” I thought as I set my legs wide apart and reached out and grabbed the scarab.

  My feet slid but I had the Raider skill as well as Thick Muscle Structure letting me carry things ten times heavier than I was. I felt muscles pop and strain then hurled the scarab down towards the ground driving after him beating my wings to go full speed. It hit the ground stunned for a fraction of a second, but it was enough for me to get a full speed attack against an off-balance opponent and discharge three more charges of venom. I took off a thousand health with just my physical damage and my venom damage did the rest and the male scarab died.

  No time to celebrate I dodged to the side as the female rolled like a steamroller on meth bouncing the corpse of her mate aside and lifting her abdomen.

  “I’ve seen that trick already,” I said.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I dove in and stabbed in under its abdomen punching through its weaker carapace of its underside. I injected my last seven charges of venom. She slammed her abdomen down and squished me under her bulk before I could move. My carapace cracked and she began to pound me under her using her body like a jack hammer. I tried to move but was being pressed into a crater only my super carapace keeping me alive. Seconds ticked down as she kept pounding me and I felt my carapace reduce less and less damage as it cracked more and more of my carapace.

  If I hadn’t gotten the Dire Growth Gland, I’d have been dead. I was down to eighty hit points and would have been a paste without the hit point boost. My carapace was shattered, and I was bleeding green blood all over. My bottles had been smashed in the fight so there were no more health potions until I returned to my base in the grass jungle. I reached up and touched the female scarab to analyze her and get her massive bulk off my body.

  It was some sort of biomorph related to my offspring I figured, useful for my main quest but still not what I was looking for. I staggered towards the corpse of the male as I got up when suddenly the pile of shit began to move. A little scarab beetle the size of my head came out covered in the animal excrement.

  “No fair, you start out with a hundred-and-fifty hp?” I grumbled preparing to kill this thing.

  Another hatchling emerged, some were labeled as beasts, some as monsters but there were way too many of the things, hundreds. I took off running towards the body of their male progenitor. I slashed out killing one of the hatchlings each was about the size of my torso.

  I touched the body and just hit accept dismissing the notification as soon as it popped up without even reading it.

  These were hatchling and not very dangerous, but my carapace wasn’t going to be negating any damage and there were so many they could overwhelm me with sheer numbers. I killed another of the little shit-stained creatures before the main horde could approach and grabbed two and flew to the top of one of the stone pillars.

  I collapsed just that short flight was agony. I growled in irritation as I reviewed my notification about what I had just unlocked. My carapace was beat to shit but if I upgraded it hopefully that would repair it also as it mutated.

  Before I did that I touched the little hatchling I’d carried under my left arm to analyze it as well.

  “Thank fuck,” I grunted.

  So many bugs had died before I finally got this, but it was the culmination of my efforts. I’d save its upgrade for last after merging Angular Plating first. I didn’t analyze the second hatchling I needed to heal and without my health potions that meant I needed to eat. I devoured the hatchling ignoring the foul taste of shit, it barely gave any biomass but I needed it for food not upgrades. I collapsed back and selected Angular Plating paying the two-hundred biomass and passed out.

  When I woke up my carapace was halfway fully repaired, I didn’t know if that was a result of the upgrade or just healing after my meal but I was back to full hit points but I still felt exhausted. I spent the three-hundred biomass and merged the biomorph I’d been hunting for days now.

  “This had better be good,” I said right before I passed out again.

  When I woke up I could instantly see a difference in my body. I felt heavier, not super heavy but I might need to put more points into Brawn to make sure my movement speed wasn’t effected. Thick heavy ridges of carapace covered my body and I could see the smooth sections had been changed becoming harsh and angular in certain sections of the segmented joints. I didn’t have a mirror but what I could see already looked impressive if I saw a bug with carapace like this I’d for sure have second thoughts about fighting them. I pulled up the notification looking over my carapace’s changes.

  I seemed to have passed anything that a wasp might be able to acquire and gained carapace of what some ancient scarab humanoid or monster would have. The damage percentage and reduction were insane, and I could resist some exotic damage types as well.

  Stretching and moving I decided to leave, it was time to prepare for round two against the widows. I would not suffer a spider to live.