Chapter 21: I Will Drive the Shield Beetles Out of This World

Tensing every muscle in his body, he gathered his strength together like twisted steel wire.

One segment, two segments, three segments!

With his strength accumulation reaching its limit and an aura threatening to twist the handle in his hand apart, Aolang shouted as he swung down the... iron pickaxe in his hand.

"Ding!"

The tip of the iron pickaxe struck the rock wall, and the massive recoil sent the pickaxe bouncing high into the air.

Aolang clenched his hands desperately to keep the pickaxe from flying out of his grip; even so, the force returning through the handle still made him stumble backward several steps, nearly twisting his waist.

Sha Ji looked at him with a speechless expression. "What are you doing, meow?"

Aolang put down the pickaxe and shook his hands, which were numb and aching from the impact. "Practicing the Charge Slash on the side."

Sha Ji glanced at the iron pickaxe Aolang was leaning on the ground, its tip already slightly bent. "Are you stupid, meow? How many pickaxes did you bring, meow?

If you use them like this, the pickaxes will be completely broken long before you collect the ore you want, meow!"

"... True."

Aolang looked at the damaged pickaxe in his hand, then at the exposed ore vein on the rock wall.

It proved that compared to swinging the pickaxe normally, smashing it down with a Charge Slash offered no advantage; the cracks in the ore vein didn't open much, it wasted effort, hurt the joints, and wore out the pickaxe even more.

Aolang had to give up on this "cultivation method" he had thought up on a whim and honestly swung the pickaxe with normal force.

"Ding! Ding! Ding!"

"Hmm, to save effort, the rhythm of swinging the pickaxe is crucial. Is there some commonality with the Fatal Combo?" Aolang stopped the pickaxe in his hand and muttered to himself.

Sha Ji couldn't hold back anymore, jumped up, and kicked Aolang's thigh. "Focus on mining, meow! If you disrespect the pickaxe and the ore, they won't respond with good things to you, meow!

Talk about cultivation when you get back to the Training Ground in the city, meow!"

"... Alright."

Facing Sha Ji's stern glare, Aolang had to first cast those chaotic thoughts out of his mind and focus on the ore vein before him.

A crisp and rhythmic tapping sound rang out again.

Very quickly, a Swallow Stone the size of a fist rolled down along with many small stone fragments, and Sha Ji lay on the ground, carefully collecting them.

It didn't miss the tiny fragments containing metal minerals either; high-grade ore blocks were rare, but collecting enough mineral debris would allow the Workshop to help smelt them.

"Look, meow! Only focus yields results, meow!" Sha Ji held the deep blue ore in its paws high up in front of Aolang.

Aolang nodded and continued to tap away with a clatter.

At this open-air ore vein, they had collected two Swallow Stones, several pieces of Iron Ore, and some scattered Earth Crystals, which counted as quite a harvest.

If they found three or four more similar ore veins, the main goal of their trip would be nearly complete.

After gathering these ores, the human and the cat continued searching for the next suitable mining location.

Just as they were walking, Sha Ji suddenly stopped, pulled on Aolang's hem, and signaled the latter to halt.

"Found something?" Aolang immediately crouched low and asked in a low voice.

"Look over there, meow!" Sha Ji pointed to a shadowed area on the back of a rock wall dozens of meters away, where two dark yellow creatures were lying still on the vertical rock face, seemingly asleep.

They were about two meters long (official data 295cm), very flat, like a stretched-out Shield.

Their bodies were covered in thick shells that faintly reflected a metallic sheen; merely looking at them made one feel their hardness.

These were the targets of this extermination mission—the Shield Beetle, a very special type of small Monster.

Although not particularly fierce or dangerous, they were a pest that gave Hunters a major headache.

Their hard dorsal shells possessed astonishing defense; not to mention his Hunter Dagger, even high-level Weapons would find it difficult to break through them in one go.

Besides lunging and biting targets with the pair of semi-circular claws in front of their heads, they would also curl their bodies into a ball, rolling back and forth to ram enemies.

This rolling attack wasn't slow, made little noise, and was usually not hard to dodge.

But imagine this: you are in the thick of a battle with a large Monster, and at a critical moment, a Shield Beetle with no grudge against you suddenly rolls out from some corner and hits your lower back...

Countless Hunters have suffered greatly from this, been severely injured and defeated, or even perished.

Sometimes they would also climb onto other Monsters and lie still; from a Hunter's perspective, it was as if those Monsters had gained several layers of hard armor that were difficult to breach, causing the hunting difficulty to spike inexplicably.

What troubled the Guild most was that Shield Beetles lacked natural predators; among currently known creatures, only the Great Jaggi has been confirmed to eat them.

But the Great Jaggi also eats earthworms, insects, fish, shrimp, and shellfish, rather than hunting Shield Beetles specifically just to grind its teeth.

Moreover, the Desert surrounding Luokelake has no Great Jaggi distribution; to prevent Shield Beetles from overrunning the area, the Guild issues missions at regular intervals to recruit Hunters for cleanup, making them a typical pest.

The only thing worth being grateful for is that as long as the correct method is mastered, dealing with these small Monsters isn't difficult; even a novice like Aolang could do it easily.

"Sha Ji, keep watch on the surroundings."

"Okay, meow."

Although the intelligence indicated no signs of large Monster activity nearby, it never hurt to be cautious; after giving this instruction, Aolang strode toward the two Shield Beetles lying on the rock wall.

He did not hide his presence; those two Shield Beetles should have noticed him, but they did not leave their perch on the rock wall.

Because instinct honed by millions of years of survival of the fittest told them that lying still was the best strategy against enemies.

But this time, they were clearly mistaken.

Aolang approached one of the Shield Beetles; he did not draw his Weapon, but instead picked up the pickaxe.

But he didn't swing the pickaxe to strike; instead, he continued walking closer to the Shield Beetle, inserted the pickaxe tip into the gap between the beetle's shell and the rock wall, and then pried with force.

That Shield Beetle was pried off the rock wall, flipped onto the ground, and writhed helplessly.

The Shield Beetle's dorsal shell was exceptionally hard, but its abdomen was very fragile and soft; Aolang drew his Hunter Dagger and stabbed straight down.

"Squeak—"

Watching the thick green body fluid gush out from the blade wound and the Shield Beetle twitching until it gradually stopped moving gave a strange sense of satisfaction.

"Next is the second one." Aolang sheathed his Hunter Dagger and picked up the pickaxe again.

As a Beetle Species, the Shield Beetle's intelligence wasn't high, but the dying shriek of its kin and the scent of blood made it realize something was wrong.

It voluntarily released its jointed legs, fell from the rock wall, and curled its body up at maximum speed; by the time it hit the ground, it had become a large ball with a diameter of sixty to seventy centimeters, leaving no blind spots.

Aolang pursed his lips, put away the iron pick, walked up, and kicked the shield bug that had curled itself into a ball.

The enraged shield bug used the momentum to start rolling, spun around quickly, and charged toward him.

"Be careful, meow!" Sea Buckthorn, who was on watch, called out a warning. "Getting run over by it actually hurts quite a bit, meow!"

He had no idea how it knew that.

If, in the middle of fighting other monsters, one ran into a shield bug rolling around like this, it would indeed be a bit of a hassle, but right now the shield bug was the only opponent, so there wasn't much more to say.

The instant the rolling shield bug closed in and was about to crash into him, Aolang braced his shield and lunged forward in a head-on collision, slamming the rolling bug-ball to a halt.

That shield bug seemed to have been stunned by the impact; its tightly curled body even loosened up a little.

Not giving it a chance to curl back up, Aolang darted in close, thrust the Hunter Dagger into the gap between its loosened shell plates, and then twisted the hilt hard.

The grievously wounded shield bug could no longer hold its curled posture and stretched its body out.

Aolang casually finished it off with one more slash.