## Chapter 317 – The Great Bee Uprising
“I’ll slice you to ribbons, dejiyaaah!”
My swordsmanship had become heavier and faster. Investing in a new sword was paying off, and an unbelievable confidence surged within me.
Good equipment brings good confidence.
— Fwoosh!
I didn’t even need to measure the distance between myself and the hornet bastards. They were cleaved in two with every swing of my sword, plummeting to the ground. Of course, their attacks couldn’t touch me.
— Buzzzzz!
The greatest strength of the Headmaster Sword Style is its continuous flow.
Executing footwork while seamlessly transitioning between techniques like flowing water, I dominated the space.
There was no mercy for the hornets caught in my blade’s path. They were sliced into pieces alive. — Buzz! Those hiding among the vines, launching surprise attacks, couldn’t harm me either. Did they really think I’d fall for such a cheap trick?
“You little punks!”
I vertically cleaved the hornet in front of me while twisting my body to unleash the Asura Blood Splatter Fist. The punch, amplified by my gauntlet, created a powerful strike, and the hornet trying to ambush me had to bear the full brunt of it.
— Crack!
The mana-enhanced punch shattered the hornet’s head.
Dark fluid spurted from the broken shell and fragments as the creature fell, twitching violently.
“You guys are too weak.”
From the start, I was a man who took care to wear armor, so I wasn’t worried even if these bastards tried to sting me.
No worries meant increased confidence.
Increased confidence meant increased combat power.
And that increased combat power determined that the enemies in this space were ‘weaklings’. It was fate that I would go wild.
This is the power of fate.
In other words, Fate Power.
It was a battle I couldn’t lose from the start.
“Good job, Blackie!”
Winia constantly scanned our surroundings, providing cover, and Claudie was, of course, slaughtering them. Was there a nest nearby? The number of hornets attacking seemed close to twenty.
The way they were attacking so fiercely suggested a high possibility of a nest.
— Thwack.
Only after slicing up all the attacking killer hornets did the slaughter cease. I shook off the clinging fluid from my blade and quietly sheathed it.
“…This feels so good.”
Realizing the power of my new sword anew, I felt an abnormal desire for slaughter surge intensely. The excellent feel of the blade made me want to rampage even more.
These hornets couldn’t quell my impulse. I craved hot blood containing hemoglobin, not this green fluid.
“Whew, Khatt. Your skills have improved, haven’t they? Very good.”
Claudie, holding a hornet’s torso and pulling out its stinger, said that.
“Hehe, really?”
“Yeah. Definitely. At this rate, you’ll soon reach the realm you experienced last time.”
I thought reaching it soon was impossible, but Claudie, with a refreshing smile, praised my potential and gave me a pep talk.
Mama believed in me.
“But to do that, you’ll need to feed the sword more blood, right? Let’s keep working hard?”
“Of course. Trust me, Claudie.”
I was already overflowing with motivation.
Having tasted ‘that realm’ even for a moment had been a huge stimulus, changing my very ideology.
I currently aimed for ‘strength’ itself.
Freely wielding Headmaster Severance was my first goal. After achieving that goal, perhaps it would be the Heavenly Demon Death Beam.
Having a clear goal established by previewing my potential, it was only natural for my motivation to explode.
I wanted to become the powerful warrior Claudie had presented as soon as possible.
“Hehehe. Really… you’re so impressive, Khatt. Will we be able to see a child soon?”
“I don’t think it’ll be soon.”
“No. We’ll be able to soon. Winia should start preparing too?”
Winia, who had been poking at a hornet corpse with her staff, reacted to those words.
“…Prepare for pregnancy?”
“Yeah.”
“No, it feels like I’ll get pregnant right away if I skip contraception for even a day…”
What was this all about?
Winia rubbed her lower abdomen and looked at me.
“Yeah, Blackie. Honestly, it feels like you’re still a long way off, but hurry up and become a strong warrior like Unni says.”
I didn’t know why, but I got an erection.
Contraception… Seeing Winia cast a contraception spell on herself every day did create a strange feeling. There was no need to worry since there were no side effects or harm to the body, but what was this strange feeling?
More than anything, when Claudie and Winia talked about pregnancy together, a strange feeling grew, and my lower body became too heavy.
“Honestly, aren’t I a pretty strong warrior now?”
“I guess so.”
Honestly, I thought I could fight an orc one-on-one without much difficulty now.
Compared to then, I had definitely gained more muscle, and my skills and techniques, as well as my mana, had increased.
Mana.
This mana also melts into the muscles and bones, strengthening the body and increasing its durability. I didn’t know for sure, but my strength was vastly different from that of an ordinary person.
The enhancement was almost permanent, so if I used up all my mana, I would return to being an ordinary person, but as long as I didn’t use it up, my body would remain strong forever.
And I couldn’t say for sure, but if I gained a little more strength, I might be able to exert strength comparable to an orc.
I was gradually reaching the Heavenly Demon.
“Now, Blackie. Stop thinking about impregnating me and collect the heads. It’s still a long way off.”
Winia, with a smirk, reminded me of our original purpose. That’s right. Three killer hornet heads were worth 1 silver. We had slaughtered close to twenty, so the profit would be quite good.
“O-oh… right. It’s still a long way off.”
I immediately took out my knife and started collecting the heads.
But these bastards were too disgusting. I couldn’t stand the squid-like tentacles growing long from their mouths. So I didn’t want to show them any mercy.
— Flutter, flutter.
As I continued to cut off heads and put them in the sack, I noticed some of the dying hornets twitching their legs and wings, begging for their lives.
Of course, I wasn’t going to spare them, so I immediately stomped on their necks to kindly separate them. The total number of heads collected was eighteen. Exactly 6 silver’s worth.
It was a fairly simple task, and the daily wage was quite decent.
“Then shall we go a little further in?”
At Claudie’s suggestion, we moved further inside.
“Ah, but you know, I have a feeling there’s a nest nearby.”
When I told them that, Claudie showed interest, and Winia also wanted to see what a hornet’s nest looked like. She probably wanted to investigate whether or not it could be used as a magic ingredient.
Claudie was probably just curious.
“But Winia. How many children would be good?”
“What? U-umm… the more, the better, right? How many are you thinking of, Blackie?”
I was thinking two daughters resembling Winia would be enough. Should we go with two?
“Wouldn’t five be good?”
“Unni?”
While I was pondering the number, Claudie made a shocking declaration.
“Five? Are you telling me to have five, Unni?”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“N-no, it’s okay, but five is too man… no! We have to ask Blackie!”
Winia, her face flushed red, looked at me.
Five, huh.
That was tempting.
“Five would be good too.”
“Blackie?!”
“Hehehe, you thought well. The more children, the better.”
Claudie, in a very good mood, expressed her joy with a smile. In contrast, Winia looked quite flustered.
Winia carefully asked me again.
“…Blackie, are you really going to make me have five?”
Seeing her look up at me with a flushed face, grabbing my sleeve… my lower body reacted strongly again. It felt like five wouldn’t be enough.
“I think it’ll be fine. No, let’s do that.”
“You’re crazy, really.”
“If it’s too much, we can hold back a little.”
“N-no, who said it’s too much?”
Seeing Winia hastily change her attitude as soon as I said we could hold back… my lower body reacted strongly again. No, why was our Winia so cute today?
“I can give birth as much as you want, but just… ha, really. What’s going on because of Unni.”
“Hehehe. What’s going on? Just asking you to have five.”
“Blackie, if you’re going to do that, you’ll have to earn a lot of money, okay?”
“Why do you think I work all the time?”
I was preparing from now because raising children would cost a lot of money. This was just my guess, but Claudie probably wanted about a hundred children.
She was probably thinking of creating the Kim Khatt clan.
If so, I had to work myself to the bone to meet Mama’s wishes.
“And Unni. Stop touching my body so much, okay?”
“Oh my, is it not allowed?”
“It’s not allowed.”
Claudie, in a very good mood, was already hugging Winia from behind with a beaming expression.
But a hundred children.
If I asked Winia for five, and Karin also had five, how far would I have to increase the number of wives?
The question only deepened.
Anyway, as we chatted casually and headed towards the center of the jungle, I honestly didn’t know where we were.
Even after spending several days here, it still felt new and mysterious. I had long forgotten the way from the middle, but it was okay because Winia was so reliable.
“But Winia. You know the way, right?”
“…That’s why Blackie gets lost. Can’t you even remember that?”
“I remember roughly, but I don’t know exactly.”
“Bullshit. You don’t know at all.”
Strictly speaking, I was a strength character, not an intelligence character.
Of course, that didn’t mean I was stupid. On the contrary, I was quite smart, but finding my way in the jungle was a completely different story.
In this world, my education level was quite high.
“Well, it doesn’t matter if Blackie is an idiot. I’m smart, so don’t worry because I’ve already memorized the way.”
“You’re really reliable.”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s our Winia.”
I had already figured out that Claudie was bad at directions since the zombie parade. She knew the desert roads well, but more than half of her long experience was useless here, so it couldn’t be helped.
— Buzzzzz!
Winia tried to find the nest by tracking flying hornets. It was a fairly reasonable method, but… even after spending quite a long time, we couldn’t find the nest.
“For bugs, they’re quite cautious. Tracking failed today. Let’s go back.”
As a mage with good judgment, she gave up quickly.
Since it couldn’t be helped, we decided to return and focused on subduing the hornets we encountered on the way.
As we caught a few more and went back the way we came, I wondered if we would get lost again like last time. Of course, Winia was Winia.
We came out of the jungle without getting lost.
***
Two weeks later.
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Uwaaaah!”
“Dehaaack!”
Killer hornets were rampant like the Black Death.
“What the fuck is this…”
As I expected, the hornets had invaded the city.
Screams and flapping sounds echoed constantly through the streets due to the swarms of flying attackers. The damage was unspeakable, and the official number of children kidnapped by the killer hornets was in the double digits.
Moreover, the number of dead adventurers was so high that there was no need to count them individually. Countless people had become meat dumplings, reduced to a meal for the hornets.
Eventually, the citizens locked their windows in every house and refrained from outdoor activities.
As a result, the city and the guild were put on emergency alert.
Even Lord Isbant recognized the seriousness of the problem and issued a subjugation order. The soldiers, led by the young lady, were advancing.
“I knew this would happen.”
The problem had become serious due to a complacent response. Of course, we had made quite a bit of money over the past two weeks by taking advantage of that complacency.
Well, we couldn’t earn more money from the middle because the prize money had run out.
But no matter how I thought about it, I believed that the number of hornets had exploded because the prize money had been cut off, and the subjugation had stopped.
“Khatt. I heard that anyone who destroys a nest and brings back proof will receive quite a bit of money?”
“Really?”
According to what Claudie had found out, a large reward had been placed on the killer hornets’ nests, and many people were risking their lives to enter the jungle to find them.
We decided to join that procession.
