Trope World - Volume 1 Chapter 38 Underworld Wasp

“What’s an underworld wasp?” I asked after we made some distance from the door. The others looked at me before Sirius spoke up.

“Surely you’ve heard of the taint of the dark. There are many tales of great heroes of both man and centaur battle against the dark. I’ll admit some are rather obscure, but most mention the deadly underworld monsters.” I looked at the centaur and raised a brow. “No, ok then. Um, do you want a description or a story. I could tell you the story of the Moon Demon the dark slayer of the underworld dragons. He was a true demon whose sin was secrets and fraud. He was a follower of the Dao of Illusions.”

“He also sounds like your personal favorite. I’d rather a description but I wouldn’t mind a story. Is Moon Demon still alive.” The centaur looked pensive. Then nodded.

“Moon Demon is a figure shrouded in secrets and a weaver of lies. None know if Moon Demon was a stallion or mare. Some believe, he may not have been a centaur at all. Only three facts have been proven true. Though they are still considered theories. As a master of illusion there are many ways for him to falsify what we consider fact. He is the founder of the Moon sects of the Equine territories. He traveled to the heart of the underworld and slew the Underworld Dragon Belimago the static. Belimago was a Devil of one of the primal sins, sloth. There were none lazier or crafty as Belimago. He collected the worst of the underworld beasts such as the underworld wasp.” We paused and looked around us. This place was supposed to be a nest of those very monsters and here we were telling stories. I began to channel the skill nobody. I felt something click and my squad looked at me confused.

“What are you doing?” Farron asked.

“I’m practicing a Dao while we travel. I can feel enlightenment from the story. Please continue.” I said. This battle seemed like a million stories of guys battling dragons. The only difference is the context.

“Moon Demon was crafty; he knew the underworld wasp could paralyze its prey with its painless stinger and lay its eggs within them. The wasp larvae quickly move to the host’s brain and they each devour a part of the host’s consciousness. When they mature the new wasps would have the mind of the knowledge of their host. Despite having a human, centaur, or elf mind they are vicious predators. They use their knowledge to lure the host’s loved ones to the nest. Their known for taking cities.” I blinked once then twice. That’s what we were dealing with. Maybe, I should burn everything.

“How did Moon Demon get passed the underworld wasps and the other obstacles between himself and the dragon?” I asked.

“He cast an illusion on an entire human kingdom. Moon Demon convinced a kingdom that Belimago kidnapped the kingdom’s heir. At the time the kingdom’s king and queen had just married and had no children. Moon Demon’s illusions were too great to be denied and so the king and queen charged the kingdom’s sects to raid Belimago’s lair and rescue the heir. Though confused the sects were forced by ancient laws to rescue the heir.” I could already see the ending.

“One chosen of the sect slew all that opposed him and made it to Belimago. He demanded the heir be returned to the kingdom. The dragon was very confused but refused the chosen out of hand. As a high demon of sloth, he would never lift a finger to help another. Instead he made a deal with the chosen. If the chosen guarded his lair for 6 moons, then he would return the heir.” Ok, I didn’t know where the story was going.

“From that time for nearly twelve centuries every time a chosen would make it past the underworld monsters they would have to fight the chosen before them. If they won, the dragon would use his Dao of sloth to force them to guard him. Each time the guard would have to add the previous guard’s time to his original six months. The sects fell into ruin and the kingdom was overtaken. Moon Demon had disguised himself as the latest chosen and had defeated many of the kingdom’s chosen. Eventually, the sloth contract ran out and he regained his freedom. Without waking the dragon, he slew the beast and made a cloak from the dragon’s scales.” Ok, I had question.

“Why didn’t he just fight the monster himself from the beginning?” I asked.

“Some say this story is a complete fabrication and Moon Demon purchased his cloak from a merchant on the road. Others say that the dragon Belimago still lives and no one defeated him.” Sirius said.

“Thank you for the story anyway.” I said and stopped. Someone was missing. I turned my head and there wasn’t a centaur. How could we have lost a whole centaur quietly? Then again, we had snuck away from Gan. Detect, analyze, and focus were going at full throttle. My insight failed to pierce the veil of darkness around us. It was like Od’s ability to block my BP detection.

I looked around tying to focus and then I heard something. It was a squelching noise it came from above us. From my bag of holding, I took out a medium grade spirit stone. I only had one and it wasn’t worth consuming. I tossed it up through a large hole. As the light advanced it tapped against a winged black chitinous creature. The creature was massive hideous and eyeless. It was larger than a centaur and it held the lost centaur in its legs. Blood and green venom dripped from a wound in the centaur’s side.

The worst sight of all was the massive pink tubular organ buried deep within the centaur’s ass. Large round objects stretched the fleshy tube as they made their way into the centaur. When my spirit stone struck the monster, it let out a high-pitched screech. The sounds of thousands of moving legs filled my ears. My hand moved and I flicked my qi to bring back my spirit stone.

I drew Lucifer and ducked under a stinger aimed for my neck. My eyes widened at the sight of my attacker. It wasn’t an eyeless wasp like in the chasm. This creature was clearly humanoid. Was it an underworld wasp 2.0 or something? The creature took a step back when I slashed with Lucifer. The king of Babylon’s blade nearly cut the tail and stinger apart. The wasp went through a series of hand signs and black lightning sparked in her hand forming a black lightning bolt. “That isn’t in the natural elements, I can’t absorb it.” Lucifer said, I activated my talismans just as the wasp through her lightning bolt.

It crashed into me lightning up the cave with blinding light. Three of my talismans burned away cutting my defense down to 9.7x my BP. She drove her tail through the barrier aimed for my neck. An arrow from my side bounced off the side of her tail throwing it off enough for me to dodge.

“Come on Human, if you die, we’re stuck here with them. We have to get out of here.” I leapt away disengaging my opponent. She glared at the arrow sticking out of her tail then harrumphed at my retreating form. The darkness swirled around her and she vanished from my detection. That wasn’t good at all.

Lucifer’s natural glow illuminated the chaos around us. Using the squads as meat shields had been an excellent idea. Most humanoids were ignored in favor of the larger targets. I dodged a set of powerful legs as Everond pulled my head down. “Well this was a suicide mission.” Everon muttered. Riku guarded the exit on wooden stakes were the bodies of several wasps that tried to kill him.

Just as we passed the exit, I heard a voice loud and proud. “Oh, my poor lost bitches where have you gone. Did you think you could hide from your dear elder Gan?” I knew it was only a matter of time but really.

Explosions rang out behind our escape and a lot of screaming. I had no idea what was happening, and I didn’t want to know. If we were lucky Gan would get f.u.c.k.i.e.d by the wasps. We took two turns and entered a different part of the underground.

All around us were bodies. Each was in a different state of dress. Most were skeletons with shattered skulls. “This must be their dumping ground for used hosts. When the eggs hatch, they cannibalize the other eggs before making their way to the brain. Most of the time only a few larvae make it to the brain. Their filled with the memories of their hosts and some believe they’re the host reborn. That is never more apparent as when a larva consumes a whole brain.” Sirius said. He was ragged and out of breath. Stinger venom covered his plate mail. He was fortunate to be a heavy type.

Sirius had the thickest armor I’d ever seen on a centaur. From what I could tell his whole body was armored in either chain mail, plate, or rare steel chi cloth. The stingers were sharp, but they weren’t up to pierce plate mail.

“What about the humanoid underworld wasp I fought. Was she one of those lucky larvae who ate all her siblings and consumed the host brain?” Sirius looked surprised.

“Yes, and worse she was in the foundation stage. Underworld wasps are beings blessed by the dark with powerful bodies. They’re stronger in each cultivation rank than a human or centaur. In the foundation rank she’s probably as strong as a palace building cultivator. Worse they have the techniques of their host.” I nodded. The lightning had been a problem. It blinded me to the tail stinger follow up.

My eyes widened when I sensed a hole in the darkness. For a moment my insight peaked through. I saw the wasp woman’s stinger buried in Gan’s side. Then before the darkness clouded my view. I saw her stuff the centaur’s v.i.r.g.i.n ass full of ovipositor. It was the biggest ovipositor I’d ever seen. My vision grew blurry and the wasp woman blew me a kiss as her eggs made their way into Gan’s ass.

How did they beat Gan? He was core formation. Then I saw a smile on Gan’s face. What was going on? Did Gan have some plan that involved him becoming an underworld wasp? Were we just manipulated?

“Come on we need to get out of here.” Everon said. Riku lead the way spear in hand as we crossed into a room filled with underworld wasp maggots. They covered the rooms laying atop the bodies of various monster from below the earth. Cones of blood colored honey covered the walls while blind wasps went about eating the bodies and producing the honey. The maggots consumed giant dollops of the blood colored gooey mass. Holes were carved through the ceiling where wasps moved back and forth. We stopped prepared for an attack, but nothing happened. None of the wasps took notice of us.

Nobody lv2; +200DEX

I was doing it. My aura had wrapped around my squad and wore away at their perception to the world. We were essentially nobodies now. Or to be precise we had become background noise. So long as we didn’t do anything to disrupt that we would be ok. The tension in the air had continued for moments then Farron raised his hoof and took a step forward. He was still in my zone of protection.

“We need to follow the wall and get out of this room. I won’t be able to keep us hidden for long.” I whispered. Everon and Riku looked at me then Sirius nodded. “Stay close to me.” I said as we made our way following the wall.

Honey oozed beside us as we made our way. The ground was sticky, and our hooved companions were making loud sucking sounds. Yet still the wasps took no notice.

Nobody lv3; +300DEX

I felt my covering of nothingness grow a little tighter as we made our way towards the one of the doors leading out. We picked up speed and the clomping sticking sounds grew ever louder. Some of the wasps looked around but didn’t screech in warning.

Nobody lv4; +400DEX

As my hold over the nothingness increased it became unstable for a moment. We stopped moving when one of the wasps fluttered towards us to investigate. When we stopped my nothingness settled. The wasp looked around and found nothing. The door was only a few dozen meters away. I didn’t know if my nothingness could keep us safe from the foundation rank wasp.

With loud sticking hooves we made it to the door and opened it. Only for scrolls, books, and old weapons to fall loudly banging on the ground. Three wasps launched themselves at the door inspecting the inside. They still paid us no mind. When nothing was inside, they returned to what they were doing. We heard several clicks between them. It was a language we knew that. When the wasps left, we quickly took everything on the ground of value. Then we entered the room and gently closed the door behind us. Everon let out a breath as did the others. I was still holding mine. I could do so indefinitely with spirit energy.

Nobody lv5; +500DEX

The room lead out, but the door was barred from the other side. If we wanted to escape, we needed to go back out there, and take the other door. We striped the place of every scroll we could find then I grasped the handle of the door again. Slowly, I opened it to see the humanoid wasp. She looked me in the eye and grinned. She licked her lips and I stepped back. Then she gently closed the door behind her. My sword was already out and ready to run her through. Her tail twitched and her stinger was pointed at my throat.

“Try it and you won’t survive. Lucky for you three I’ve just laid my eggs. My instincts are satiated for now.” I was certain I could parry the tail and run her through. I didn’t know if she could throw off my veil of nothingness. She looked at me with with yellow multi lensed eyes. She was the only underworld wasp to have eyes. What did that mean?

“I want out of this nest and to return to my family. I believe you five are my best chance to get out. How about we make a deal?”