Chapter 133: The Death Bell Beetle, Casam's Puppet Master

Chapter 133: The Death Bell Beetle, Casam’s Puppet Master

Carolyn was incredibly efficient.

The next day, the beetle carcasses from Casam were delivered to Su Nan’s laboratory.

Under the bright glow of the magic stones, twelve menacing insect beasts lay on the wide workbench.

These beetle-like creatures had a hard, bright red carapace, ten legs, four black, round eyes, two sharp claws, and a pair of jagged mandibles.

However, what drew the most attention was the large, horn-like chitinous protrusion on their heads, resembling a massive bell.

According to Carolyn’s description, this creature was called the Death Bell Beetle.

Their carapaces were as hard as steel, and their sharp claws could easily tear through solid rock. Additionally, they could emit a piercing sound wave that could cause severe internal bleeding.

An adult Death Bell Beetle had the combat power of an Apprentice Knight, which wasn’t particularly strong.

However, when these monsters appeared in large numbers, their threat level skyrocketed.

Especially when hundreds or even thousands of Death Bell Beetles simultaneously unleashed their sound waves, even Great Knights found it difficult to withstand.

Previously, the combined forces of the Dark Lake, Matu, and Osun city-states had suffered heavy losses under the swarm sound wave attacks of the Death Bell Beetles, paying a steep price each time to exterminate the insect hordes.

In the confined environment of Casam’s insect nest, the sound wave attacks of the Death Bell Beetles were even more powerful.

The Red Widow and Black Duke hesitated to launch a counterattack against Casam largely because of this.

"Beetles that can emit sound waves are quite rare."

Casam’s insect swarm consisted of more than just Death Bell Beetles; there were also Jellyfish Bugs, Giant Mouth Sandworms, and Six-Winged Bugs.

However, the Death Bell Beetles were the main force of the swarm.

Su Nan used the Mage’s Hand to move one of the beetle carcasses in front of him and began the dissection.

As the dissection progressed, more of the Death Bell Beetle’s internal structure was revealed.

The large, bell-shaped chitinous protrusion on its head was actually a horn-like tumor.

The Death Bell Beetle’s piercing sound waves were emitted from this tumor.

The tumor extended from its shoulders and suddenly widened above its sharp mouth, with four black, insect-like eyes growing on the sides of the tumor.

In essence, this creature had no true head; the massive horn-like tumor replaced its skull.

After cutting open the tumor, Su Nan found the insect’s brain inside.

"Truly a remarkable structure."

Su Nan couldn’t help but marvel.

He had seen many bizarre-looking insect beasts, but this was the first time he encountered such a unique structure.

Based on his experience, such a structure was rarely the result of natural evolution. It was more likely the product of artificial induction, or genetic modification.

"This could very well be the result of a wizard apprentice’s biological engineering."

Su Nan’s thoughts raced.

Could it be that there was a wizard apprentice hiding behind Casam?

If that were the case, attacking Casam would not be as easy as he had initially thought.

"If there really is a wizard apprentice controlling Casam, what is the purpose of sending the insect swarm to hunt and kill living beings periodically?"

Su Nan wondered.

A moment later, he shook his head, deciding not to dwell on it.

Regardless of the wizard apprentice’s intentions, Casam had to be dealt with.

Otherwise, the periodic insect plagues would make it impossible for him to develop the nearby mineral veins or continue exploring for more.

The only good news was that the puppets were highly resistant to the Death Bell Beetles’ sound wave attacks.

Puppets lacked the auditory organs and internal organs of ordinary beings, making them almost immune to sound waves.

In dealing with the Death Bell Beetles, the golem army had a significant advantage.

After dissecting all the beetle carcasses and recording the data in his lab notes, Su Nan waved his hand, casting a flame to incinerate all the carcasses before leaving the laboratory.

Casam’s recent activities had become increasingly frequent, and an insect plague was likely to break out soon.

He needed to accelerate the creation of golems and strengthen his forces as much as possible.

"These are the architectural designs for the knight academies in the other six provinces, all based on the Dragonheart Knight Academy. Take a look and let me know if there are any changes you want to make."

In the study, Koy pushed a stack of thick documents across the table to Su Nan.

Su Nan picked them up and scanned through them, nodding in satisfaction. "Let’s go with this. When can they be completed?"

"Next month," Koy smiled. "The teachers responsible for training the students have already been arranged and will be ready to start as soon as the academies are built."

With the war just ending, many tasks required his attention as the newly appointed Grand Duke, but he always prioritized Su Nan’s instructions, often checking on them personally.

Seeing the Grand Duke place such high importance on the matter, his subordinates naturally didn’t dare to delay or slack off. They worked with exceptional diligence, and in just two to three months, the six knight academies were established from scratch, demonstrating remarkable efficiency.

"The recruitment of new students is also underway, following the model of the Dragonheart Knight Academy."

Pausing for a moment, Koy hesitated but couldn’t resist asking:

"Are you sure you only want seven knight academies? We have plenty of people and resources; we could easily build more."

Now that the entire Starlight Duchy belonged to the Ernest family, the resources of the entire duchy could support more than just seven knight academies. They could even build one in every town if needed.

Su Nan shook his head. "No, quality over quantity."

Building more knight academies was easy, but cultivating qualified knight students was far more challenging.

The most critical issue was the supply of Dragon Blood Fruits.

To cultivate qualified knight students in just four years, Dragon Blood Fruits were essential.

Otherwise, students from commoner and peasant backgrounds, who naturally lacked the innate talent and physical attributes of noble offspring, would have no chance of advancing to knight status within four years.

Even with the current seven knight academies, Su Nan had to expand several magical plant gardens to grow enough Dragon Blood Fruits to meet the demand.

Building more would stretch their resources too thin.

Perhaps in the future, when more magical plant gardens were established, they could consider increasing the number of knight academies.

Seeing Su Nan’s determination, Koy didn’t press the matter further.

In fact, he had considered establishing a knight academy specifically for noble offspring, similar to the Dragonheart Knight Academy.

However, after much deliberation, he abandoned the idea.

Firstly, he didn’t have enough Dragon Blood Fruits, and what he had was already allocated to the military.

Secondly, most noble families had their own unique breathing techniques, martial arts, and training methods, making it difficult to standardize the curriculum.

Even partial standardization was challenging.

Unless he could provide breathing techniques and martial arts superior to those of all noble families, along with more efficient training methods, the idea of a noble knight academy was simply not feasible.

"How is the talent assessment going?" Su Nan’s voice interrupted Koy’s thoughts.

Snapping back to reality, Koy smiled. "It’s going smoothly. The assessments are complete, and we have identified 223 children with the necessary talent. I’ve already arranged for them to be escorted to Flashlight City, and they should arrive at the base in a few days."

Su Nan nodded slightly.

That was a decent number.

Considering the scale of the talent assessment, which covered six provinces, a higher number of qualified candidates was to be expected.

With this, the base would have nearly 270 students, and the number would likely grow over time.

"How is your training going?" Su Nan shifted to another topic.

"It’s going well, and my realm is now stable," Koy said with a beaming smile.

After consuming the high-grade Dragon Blood Fruit Su Nan provided, he successfully advanced to the Legendary Knight rank.

After half a year of consolidation, his realm was now firmly established, and he was seeking to break through to a higher level.

Koy’s innate talent was exceptional; otherwise, he wouldn’t have advanced to the Advanced Knight rank at the age of 19. As the Grand Duke, he now had access to resources far beyond what he had before, which accelerated his training significantly.

He was confident he could advance to the 2nd Circle Legendary Knight rank before the age of 35 and the 3rd Circle Legendary Knight rank before 50.

To put this in perspective, Evans, who was widely regarded as a prodigy in the duchy, didn’t become a 3rd Circle Legendary Knight until he was 80.

This was a conservative estimate.

With Su Nan’s assistance, Koy was even more confident he could achieve the 3rd Circle Legendary Knight rank earlier.

"That’s good to hear."

Su Nan nodded slightly.

His plan was to have his brother advance to the 3rd Circle Legendary Knight rank within twelve years, at which point he could also enter the Starlight Tower to undertake the knight trials.

Advancing from the 1st Circle to the 3rd Circle Legendary Knight rank in twelve years was not an impossible task with the right investment of resources.

With this in mind, establishing new magical plant gardens had to be prioritized.

As he left the lord’s mansion, Su Nan continued to think about the magical plant gardens.

With the profits from the underground world’s mineral veins, funding for the magical plant gardens was not a concern. The only issue was manpower.

The Flower Fairies were easy to address; he could have Queen Tiya summon more of her kin.

The key was the apprentices responsible for guarding the gardens.

"Announce a batch of garrison duties at the base, and have the apprentices take turns on a regular basis."

Currently, the base doesn’t have any second-tier wizard apprentices, so Su Nan has to personally handle the establishment of the magical plant gardens. However, the garrison duties can be entrusted to the students, and setting a higher contribution value for the tasks should motivate them.

The new batch of students is about to arrive at the base. After some training, they will be ready to take on various basic tasks. When more students take on these basic tasks, the competition will intensify, and the older students will naturally shift their focus to the garrison duties.

Time flies like a white horse passing through a crevice.

The month of Thunder (April) quickly passed.

During this time, Su Nan attended another gathering at the Forest Cottage, acquiring over ten types of rare metals and four mini soul crystals. After this gathering, he finally gathered all the materials needed for the third magic rune core.

After refining the third magic rune core, he immediately proceeded with the synthesis.

The synthesized 3rd-level magic rune core further increased the requirements for both the body and the soul. In addition to needing 45 points of mental power, he also needed a constitution of over 40 points.

"My current mental power is 45.04, just meeting the requirement, but my constitution is only 36.37, still short of what I need."

Su Nan weighed the magic rune core in his hand and headed toward the warehouse. His current constitution is roughly equivalent to that of a Junior Great Knight. The effects of the advanced Dragon Blood Fruits are still quite significant. By synthesizing and consuming a few advanced Dragon Blood Fruits, his constitution could quickly rise above 40 points.

After two days of absorbing the effects of the advanced Dragon Blood Fruits, Su Nan’s constitution smoothly increased to 40.35. Without hesitation, he immediately fused the 3rd-level magic rune core and then went to the spell practice area for testing.

Considering the power of the 3rd-level magic rune core, Su Nan did not use the Steel Golem as a test subject this time but opted for the more powerful Advanced Stone Golem.

First, he tested the attack power.

In a full-scale effort, the metal spike storm generated by the magic rune core took only a dozen seconds to batter the Advanced Stone Golem into a state of near-collapse, leaving it riddled with holes.

"Pretty good, the attack power has increased by about 80 to 90 percent."

"If it were a 1st Circle Legendary Puppet, it would likely be destroyed in a single encounter."

Next, he tested the defense.

After a series of tests, Su Nan had a good idea of its capabilities.

"In terms of defense, it’s roughly between 4800 and 5000 points, equivalent to the combined defense of five Supreme Guard Rings."

Su Nan nodded inwardly.

Such a high defense level is something even a formal wizard couldn’t penetrate in a single strike.

What surprised Su Nan even more was that the mental power consumption barely increased.

With his current mental power, he could use the magic rune core for up to three minutes.

Even under intense attacks, sustaining it for two minutes would be no problem.

"If the upgrades continue to only increase power and not consumption, once my mental power improves further, the magic rune core could become a regular weapon."

The prospect of a regularly usable magic rune core was terrifying! At that point, Su Nan would be virtually invincible below the level of a formal wizard.

"The Golem Army has also successfully expanded."

With Su Nan’s full commitment, the Golem Army in Darklake City has grown significantly in recent days.

Considering he wouldn’t be refining Adamantine Golems or Secret Puppets anytime soon, Su Nan used the four mini soul crystals he acquired to refine more Steel Golems.

The current Golem Army in Darklake City consists of nine Steel Golems, twenty Elite Stone Golems, three hundred Dual-Blade Spiders, and a thousand Stone Golems.

This lineup is far stronger than the previous Darklake City.

When Carolyn saw these golems in the newly established military camp, she was completely stunned.

Her last bit of worry about the approaching insect plague vanished.

Joking, what’s a mere insect plague when they have such a powerful Golem Army?

The next step to consider is whether to launch a counterattack against Casam.

Honestly, if not for wanting Matu and Osun to share the pressure and reduce casualties while also eliminating more insects outside to ease the future assault on Casam, Su Nan would have ignored the insect plague and directly attacked Casam.

However, Su Nan didn’t have to wait long.

On the first day of the Moon of Blossoms, the sphinx scouts stationed near Casam reported that Casam’s insect swarm was on the move.

Countless insects were surging toward Darklake City!

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end