Gluttonous Worms, a bottom-feeder species inhabiting the underground cave networks of the Edge Forest Sea, are synonymous with savagery, greed, and foolishness.
Newly hatched Gluttonous Worms will devour each other in their hatching caves to achieve initial growth; of course, this cannibalistic habit will accompany them throughout their lives.
Although individual Gluttonous Worms are very weak, even a Gluttonous Worm Complete Form's growth limit is merely D-class.
Yet, they are one of the most troublesome and destructive creatures in the forest sea.
Unless facing a Worm of a higher stage than themselves, they simply do not know what fear is.
Even under the influence of the [Intimidation] ability, these low-intellect, rash, and irritable Worms will struggle unwillingly, delusionally attempting to rush forward and take a few bites.
But under the restraint of a Gluttonous Worm Complete Form, they can temporarily forget their infighting and unnaturally execute simple commands.
Such as "digging," "attacking," "following"... Because of this characteristic, coupled with their vast numbers, they have become a nightmare that constantly troubles Civilization.
Every year, Civilization's observation stations lose countless instruments and equipment due to the rampant destruction of these Gluttonous Worms.
Nesting everywhere and digging madly, they often cause the ground surface of an area to collapse, even destroying building foundations and gnawing through underground pipelines and wiring; even super-hard alloys are left riddled with holes by them.
Like an enhanced version of termites, every observation station gritted their teeth in hatred towards them!
Moreover, Gluttonous Worms are very vengeful; any creature that interrupts their feeding will be endlessly pursued by them.
At this moment, such a scene was unfolding in a dark cave:
A white figure was running quickly ahead, a large Insect Bone Frog clutched in its mouth; behind the white figure was a terrifying tide of hundreds of grayish-white Gluttonous Worms.
The white figure was Neva, as for why she was being pursued by Worms?
The answer was obvious.
A few minutes ago, Neva, who was hunting, suddenly heard the damned wailing of an Insect Bone Frog.
How could Neva forget that memorable sound?
She immediately went to the scene of the incident, and sure enough, a silly Insect Bone Frog was lying on the ground, twitching and wailing.
Neva truly didn't understand how such stupid creatures hadn't gone extinct.
Entering a cave full of Worms was one thing, perhaps due to getting lost; eating those poisonous mosses was another, due to their deceptive scent; but why make such a loud, miserable cry?
Did it want to die faster? Or was it kindly telling the Worms: "Food here, come quickly~"
She expressed an inability to comprehend such strange and confusing behavior.
The surrounding Worms, hearing the "dinner bell," indeed swarmed over, and their dense numbers, even seen a second time, still left her with lingering fear.
But this time, she did something bold and crazy.
Neva, seeing "wealth" and getting an idea, quickly rushed forward and ended the Insect Bone Frog's unpleasant wailing with a single bite.
She dragged the Insect Bone Frog's corpse and turned to run, her movements very practiced.
It was precisely because of this that the spectacular scene of hundreds of Worms chasing Neva occurred.
Several days had passed since Neva's Evolution into a Shadow-Prey Beetle, and during these days, Neva had not engaged in such food-snatching incidents sparingly.
Relying on her speed advantage, Neva had been freeloading off the Worms; if there were only a few Worms, Neva would unceremoniously send them into her own stomach as guests.
If there were too many Worms, Neva would lead them in circles through the caves until they were half-dead with exhaustion, then quickly disappear before them.
Neva never tired of such antics.
During the time she was first born, these annoying Worms had left her in a sorry state, and that feeling of suppression and pain was still fresh in her memory.
Neva never considered herself broad-minded; moreover, being lenient towards these Worms would definitely mean something was seriously wrong!
She was currently just a pitiful, weak, emotionless Worm.
Gradually, the Worms behind her grew further and further away; perhaps feeling bored, Neva accelerated, shaking off those slow Worms.
Bye-bye!
..."It's finally dinner time again; I wonder what this Insect Bone Frog's meat tastes like."
Towards food, Neva was always full of curiosity and love, and possessed a spirit of exploration.
She used her forelegs to cut a piece of Insect Bone Frog meat and put it into her mouth.
To say she wasn't anticipating it was a lie; Worm meat was bitter and fishy, and she had long grown tired of it. She had thought Insect Bone Frog meat could restore her confidence in food, but the result was not very ideal.
How to put it... Although this Insect Bone Frog meat had no bitterness or fishiness, uh... it actually had no taste!
The texture was like eating cardboard, and there was a sensation of grit rubbing against her mouth!
Gourmet Neva smacked her lips, evaluating the Insect Bone Frog meat.
Indeed, no expectation, no disappointment.
Putting the last piece of meat into her mouth, Neva let out a satisfied burp!
[Devoured Insect Bone Frog, Evolution Value +0.3]
After several days of hunting, Neva's Evolution value had reached 6.2; perhaps because she had been racing with the Worms, the proficiency of [Extreme Speed] and [Agility] had both increased by 1 point.
Recently, Neva's luck had been quite good; she hadn't encountered any dangerous fellows, and this smooth feeling once made Neva think that [Misfortune], with a proficiency of 2, was just for show.
But not long after she had this thought, the effect of [Misfortune] gradually began to manifest.
For example, when Neva climbed a rock wall, stones would inexplicably break; when she walked, stones from above would suddenly fall; and she would trip over things for no reason.
Neva was very certain this was the effect of [Misfortune]; she figured that under normal circumstances, a Worm wouldn't be hit by falling stones from above more than ten times in a single day.
Currently, this situation hadn't caused very serious harm to Neva; if [Misfortune] was only this level, it wasn't unacceptable, just a bit annoying!
Full and satisfied, Neva lay down on the ground, propping her chin with her scythe-like forelegs, adopting a very human-like thinking posture.
This was the second Insect Bone Frog she had encountered; she had inquired with her heart and could now confirm that Insect Bone Frogs were not creatures of the Worm cave.
"They come from the outside world, which means the exit to the outside world is nearby!"
Neva had not given up on finding a way out of the cave, but there had been no progress; the environment of the underground caves was simply too intricate and complex.
After resting for a while, Neva got up, preparing to search the nearby caves again.
To prevent herself from repeatedly entering the same cave, Neva carved some marks on the rock walls of the cave entrances she had passed.
Over several days, she had also filtered out many wrong routes.
After circling around for about a few hours, Neva arrived in a very large cave hall. This enormous space connected to many other passages, and its structure appeared very complex.
On the rock wall at the other end of the cave hall, there was a small spring gushing out a trickling stream, forming a huge pool in the hall that occupied half of the entire space.
The clear pool water reflected the surrounding bioluminescence, presenting a deep blue hue. The surrounding stones had been eroded by the rushing water into various strange and bizarre shapes, looking very peculiar and dreamlike.
Neva hadn't expected such a beautiful scene in this dark and eerie underground.
Neva had only seen such karst cave landscapes in books or on television.
Due to lack of opportunity and funds, uh... mainly lack of funds, she had hardly traveled anywhere in her previous life, so seeing such a natural landscape for the first time was quite shocking.
Suddenly, some annoying things appeared at the edge of her vision.
"It would be even better without those unsightly Worms..."