The path back to the top of the tree was much easier this time than the first time they climbed it, and it was even emptier than when they tried to descend.
"It seems that the Queen has really decided to focus on increasing the power of her soldiers as quickly as possible..." Lohan commented in a serious voice, worried about what might happen now that the Boss of this dungeon was in a state of desperation.
Lisa nodded to him, understanding his concern and agreeing with it.
"Yes, I think this will be our best opportunity to attack... I even thought about trying to destroy the places where the Queen keeps the captured beings, but considering that she could notice our intrusion through that, it’s better to keep our element of surprise." Lisa said.
"Yes, let’s try to go faster..." Lohan replied, and Lisa sped up.
Without worrying about encountering groups of beetles searching for them, the pair used Lisa’s ability to hide their presence, while Lohan also camouflaged them both using his two mimicry skills.
To the unsuspecting, if they saw them running, the only thing they would see was a small, ghostly black figure, slightly transparent, exuding an aura of shadows that blended them intensely with their surroundings.
In a few minutes, they climbed from the first floor to the second, from the second floor to the third, and only on the way from the third floor to the fourth did they encounter other beetles.
Strangely, these beetles were guarding the passage to that floor, showing how important it was to them.
"I think our target must be on the other side of that passage..." Lohan commented, knowing he was stating the obvious, but starting the conversation with Lisa about what to do.
"What do you think, Halon, should we fight these beetles head-on and weaken their forces? Or should we try to sneak in and get a surprise advantage?" Lisa offered her ideas.
Although she had a preferred idea, considering the importance Halon had shown in recent days, she gradually began to listen more to his opinion.
When they agreed on something, it was perfect, but even when they disagreed, they discussed it calmly, trying to understand each other’s points to reach a compromise.
"To be honest, I’m very tempted to just attack head-on, but we don’t know what’s on the other side of that passage, so I think a more discreet approach is better. Let’s make the most of the element of surprise we have." Lohan gave his opinion, and Lisa nodded in agreement, also believing that this was the best alternative.
Instead of going in directly, remembering the problem their scent caused when they tried to escape, an idea came to mind!
"Lisa, wait... Before we move on to the next floor, do you remember how they tracked us when we tried to escape the first time?" Lohan recalled, his serious voice echoing through the mental link. "They smelled us! No matter how invisible we are with our camouflage, to these insects, we still give off a different odor than they do."
Lisa stopped abruptly, her fox ears lowering as she processed the information. "You’re right... the Queen is using each soldier’s senses as if they were extensions of herself. If our scent doesn’t match that of the hive, we’ll be detected the moment we cross that passage, even if we’re almost invisible to the naked eye."
"Let’s quickly go back a few floors. We left some of those beetles there that haven’t been fully processed yet due to lack of time," Lohan suggested.
Reluctantly, Lisa turned around and ran silently through the fossilized wood tunnels.
When they reached the site of the previous battle on the second floor, the metallic, acrid odor of the beetles’ fluid still lingered in the air.
Lohan slid off Lisa’s back and approached the shattered carapace of one of the Level 10 Elites.
Using his flexible membrane, Lohan began to extract the viscous, greenish fluid, the beetles’ "blood," just as he had done with the Shadow Serpent’s Digestive Acid, and began to spread the substance over Lisa’s silky white fur.
"That’s... huff... absolutely disgusting, Halon." Lisa complained in a trembling voice, grimacing in pure disgust as she felt the cold, stinking viscosity stain her fur.
"Consider this a temporary ’Olfactory Evolution,’ haha," Lohan joked mentally, trying to ease the tension as he also covered his own exoskeleton with the pungent substance. "Now, I hope that to their chemoreceptors, we are nothing more than moving debris from the hive itself."
Despite the aesthetic and olfactory humiliation, the effectiveness of this plan was obvious.
With their odor camouflage complete, they retraced their steps to the third floor. As they approached the guarded passage to the fourth level again, Lohan activated [Threshold Mimicry] and [Spatial Echo Location], merging their silhouette with the deep shadows of the tree.
This time, as they passed a few meters from the guard beetles, the buzzing of the insects’ wings did not change frequency.
The monsters’ antennae swayed, picking up the familiar scent of their elite brothers, but the guards remained static, allowing the Slime and the Fox to slip silently into the heart of the Queen’s territory.
’Perfect. The element of surprise is still ours,’ Lohan thought excitedly.
Arriving on the fourth floor, the two passed several beetles, which flew around carrying silk cocoons in a hurry.
Some beetles carried intact cocoons carefully, flying deeper into the tree, while other beetles carried broken cocoons out of the place.
They all moved in a strangely robotic manner, never looking at anything other than the work they were doing.
Even when the pair fought against the group of beetles, despite the insects’ low intelligence, it was possible to see them pausing to think at times, but now it was as if their entire consciousness had been deactivated.
’Why are they like this?’ Lohan thought for a moment, concerned.
Despite the question, he knew that the answer was because the queen was controlling them. The real question was, why was she acting this way? Had her confidence diminished?