The flames fully enveloped my exoskeleton, but with the fire resistance of obsidian, it didn’t have much effect on me.

The only part of me affected were my wings, which were singed until they were no more.

With my wings gone, I made a rough landing as I crashed onto the ground.

[Critical Damage to your wings. Do you wish to molt and heal all you would? Molt requires 10 biomass][Y/N]

Before I decided whether to molt, I turned my attention to the hornet that delivered the attack.

The beast hovered in the air as a spiraling mass of flames grew in front of it.

Flame hornets naturally had a fire affinity, but it seemed this one had a high enough level to actually learn a spell.

Since it could fly, this meant it had the advantage, so I had to time my next move just right.

At the exact time the fireball released, I molted immediately. The blazing ball of fire tore through the air like a cannonball and resulted in a small explosion of flames that swallowed everything within radius the blast.

In its wake, all that remained was an empty obsidian shell burnt to a crisp. The hornet’s body visibly relaxed at the sight as it lowered itself to the remains, but just as its feet were mere centimeters from the ground, a burning splash of liquid covered its entire body.

In a span of a second, its vision was mostly gone, and chunks of its body were melting and falling off onto the ground.

In desperation, the hornet tried to retreat, but even its wings were gone, as well as its legs.

It felt as if every cell in its body was on fire and its blood was suddenly replaced by lava.

In its last moments as the hornet was being melted by acid, the creature released one final death scream to warn its colony of the danger it faced, and just before the creature’s vision disappeared into nothingness, the last thing it saw was the sight of a creature that must’ve had over a hundred legs slowly crawling towards it.

The different segments of ithis creature’s body twisted and turned like tiles slowly shifting. Even for a monster, the very sight of this creature made the hornet’s skin crawl. Its exoskeleton was like a dark oil that sucked in all the light. Its pointed legs and forcipules covered in the blood of the hornets’ kin.

Wielding its forcipules like dual sword, the terrifying creature split the hornet in half from its abdomen.

[You have slain a level 5 flame hornet.]

[You have leveled up to level 10 and have gained 10 skill points]

[Strength 163->168]

[Speed 151->156]

[Defense 164->169]

So level 5 is where these monsters begin learning spells.

[You have gained 330 biomass]

After devouring the 10 flame hornets from before along with the level 5 hornet, I gained a total of 330 biomass.

-New Skill Acquired-

[Lv. 1 Molt: Allow the user to shed his exoskeleton and instantly grow a new one. This skill will allow the user to instantly heal all his wounds and regain lost stamina. The Exoskeleton’s hardness will also increase by 25%. This skill can only be used once every 24 hours and requires 10 biomass]

As a result of using molt during battle, I gained it as a skill. The difference between this skill and molting using the evolution tab is that when I use the skill, I wouldn’t double in size.

But it also presented a few drawbacks, like only being able to use the skill once every 24 hours. Also, this was the only one of my skills that requires biomass to activate.

Vibrating my wings, I took to the air once again and set out for more prey.

Using my mold skill along with my Googum, I set several traps along the nest.

I also did several experiments like creating strands of goo so small that they could hardly be seen with the naked eye.

By themselves, these strands were of no consequence, but when combined and overlapped, they could be quite effective.

When the strands managed to get wrapped around the hornets’ antennae, legs, or wings; it proved to be quite a nuisance to get them off, leaving the hornets vulnerable while it struggled.

Using my mold skill, I created sharp obsidian spikes on the walls before shooting out thin strands of Googum to latch onto the hornets; then, by swinging them mid-air, I sent them crashing into the spikes.

Even their flame attacks couldn’t damage the Googum. Seeing this, I coated my wings in the substance for extra protection against fire attacks.

As I fought and accumulated EXP, my level steadily increased until I finally reached Level 10!

In total, I managed to kill 51 flame hornets, netting 1530 biomass after I devoured them all, along with 51 monster cores that I could sell when I went home.

According to the forum, their stingers could also be sold to create spears and other pointed weapons. Their armor also offered a slight fire resistance that could be sold at a high price to create armors.

Apparently, their venom was also favored by players with the assassin class. I didn’t even know they possessed venom since I’ve never been hit by their stinger.

Their venom couldn’t kill you, but like regular hornets, being injected with it could be extremely painful, making it suitable for torture.

I didn’t bother collecting any of these since I didn’t like the idea of trading biomass for money. I was already making enough since I didn’t have to share the profits of this dungeon with anyone.

With no more hornets in the nest to inhibit me, I made my way towards the queen.

The mana in the air became thicker the closer I got to her, to the point where it was almost tangible.

Bright orange mana crystals lined the walls leading to her lair, and of course I didn’t waste the opportunity to harvest them.

Soon a cavernous room expanded before me, covered in colorful crystals. At the edge of the room awaited the queen.

Her body exuded so much heat that it caused the rocks around her to produce steam.

Her armor was bright orange, the same color as flames.

Her eyes visibly sharpened the moment I entered the room, but my eyes instead drifted to the abominations at the queen’s side.

There were roughly about 10 of them in total. Some of these abominations had gray fur that reminded me of sewage waste, along with milky white eyes.

These monsters looked like a crossbreed between the dungeon rats and the hornets.

The others had bright blue scales and looked like a crossbreed between the Electrosaurs and the flame hornets.

Behind them were several large oval eggs.

Taking in this sight, I finally realized I was wrong.

At first, I thought that the queen was eating the monsters her workers brought her, but it turns out I was utterly wrong.

She’s using them to create chimeras.