"Squeak!"

"Squeak~"

Walking through the empty corridors of the Worm Castle, Ron couldn't help but let out a loud chirp, only to hear the echo of the sound at the end of the corridor.

Made of the same material as the outer wall, the tunnel inside the castle is also made of stalactite fragments mixed with the secretions of insect swarms, with a slight elasticity and the unique fishy smell of beetles, as if walking in the body of a giant beetle.

But this is only an illusion.

Leaving a mark along the way, Ron explored the entire Worm Castle and found not a single beetle, not even a single egg.

However, in the lower part of the Worm Keep, Ron found the warehouse of the Worm Swarm. The stolen grain from the rat colony, as well as some of the freshly harvested mushrooms, were piled up in it.

Obviously, just as Ron had secretly observed at the beginning, the swarm did not eat rice, but only used rice as nourishment for cultivating fungus, and cultivating fungus did not need to use up all the rice at once, so the remaining rice was stored in the warehouse by the beetles, waiting to be used slowly.

"Squeak!"

I don't know if I can eat these grains?

Picking up a handful of rice, Ron observed and made sure that there was no change in the shape and smell of the rice, but he was not at ease, so he carefully packed the rice in the bag that was originally wrapped in nuts, and prepared to take it back to the territory for the moonlight rat to eat before deciding whether to carry it.

If the food is still edible, then more than half of the food lost due to the theft of the swarm will be recovered, and even if the four moonlight rat owners do not find a source of food, they can barely survive a cold winter, and the rat swarm may starve to death some of the disabled and low-intelligence moonshine rats.

"Squeak!"

There is no way around it.

After all, they are all a burden to the rat colony!

Hopefully, they will find enough food!

As he thought in his heart, Ron didn't feel sad. In fact, when accepting the memories of the previous leader of the moonlight rat, he felt extremely strange about the social state of the moonlight rat, because it was completely inconsistent with the evolutionary law of survival of the fittest.

However, after a few months of living together, Ron has also accepted the distribution system of the moonshine rat population, and unless he is forced to do so, he will not easily give such an order that is enough to fundamentally shake the foundation of the moonshine rat population.

Therefore, in his heart, Ron still hopes that the Iron Fang can find enough food so that all members of the Moonlight Rats can live a comfortable winter.

"Squeak!"

It's time to go back!

Putting the small cloth bag wrapped in rice back on his back, Ron probed the Worm Keep again to make sure that nothing was missing, and then re-burrowed out of the Worm Keep, ready to burrow into the tunnel and return to the Moonlight Rat Territory.

............

To get to the tunnel entrance from the Worm Castle, you must pass through the fungus fields of the insect swarm.

As if trampled on moss, Ron's feet were soft, and as Ron advanced, bits of luminous substance were squeezed out of the soft mycelium beneath his feet, reacting with something in the air, changing into a flickering shimmer.

In this faint light, Ron could clearly see a few small white mushrooms emerging from the carpet of mycelium the size of a grain of rice, and then, like blowing up a balloon, grew to the size of a pigeon's egg in just a few minutes, and then gave off a sweet smell.

"Gollum~"

The fragrance poured into Ron's nose with his breath, stimulating his sense of smell, and immediately Ron's abdomen let out a loud bowel sound, as if the three nuts he ate before entering the Worm Castle were a magic trick. At the same time, Ron's mouth secreted saliva with bowel sounds, and he was ready to eat.

"Squeak!"

It's very fragrant!

Unfortunately, I'm not an instinctive beast!

Suppressing his desire with reason, Ron swallowed the saliva in his mouth, and walked briskly across the fungus blanket without looking at the fragrant fungus.

And as Ron advanced, more mushrooms appeared in front of Ron, as if due to the lack of harvest of the swarm, the number of these sweet mushrooms increased, like baseballs scattered all over the lawn on the baseball field, and several could be picked up by bending down.

So, when Ron stepped out of the fungus blanket and saw the corpse of the armored giant insect in the distance, a bolt of lightning flashed out of nothingness and struck Ron in the head.

"Squeak!!

These bugs eat mushrooms!

Bugs eat fungus!

Eat mushrooms!

Eat!

"Squeak!"

If these fungus insects can be eaten, then why can't moonshine rats be eaten?

Maybe I should bring some mycelium and fungus back for an experiment, maybe I can get more food for the moonshine rat colony!

Without hesitation, Ron walked back into the mushroom blanket, picked a few of the best-smelling and fullest-growing mushrooms, and then crouched down and carefully cut a piece of the mushroom blanket about the size of the fungus with his paws, and wrapped it in a small cloth bag along with the fungus.

Of course, Ron didn't put the mushrooms, the blankets, and the rice found from the beetle storehouse together, because the so-called small cloth bag was actually a piece of cloth that could be knotted at the two ends after wrapping the object.

So, in the end, Ron re-tied the small cloth bag wrapped in three balls on his back, and carried it into the tunnel with the small crossbow, and ran towards the warehouse of the Moonlight Rat Territory at the end.

............

"Click~"

Silence enveloped Wormcastle after Ron left, but it didn't last long before it was interrupted by a crisp opening and closing.

Originally, there were several passages on the hard shell of the Worm Castle, which made it easy for the beetles to enter and exit, but now on the side of the Worm Castle near the ground, a small exit suddenly opened again.

A pair of much smaller chelicerae like armor beetles poked out of it, followed by tentacles, a head, a body, and soon a white beetle the size of a thumb with a round body and upturned chelicerae emerged from the worm castle.

"Click!"

Tilting his head and opening and closing his chelicera, the little armor beetle waited for the carapace to harden all over his body, and shook his tentacles to sniff the enemy's breath, but as time passed, Ron's breath gradually dissipated, which made the little armor beetle settle down.

It lay on its stomach on the ground, flicking its tentacles, waiting.

"Click!"

When the carapace on its body is hard enough, the tentacles of the little armor beetle's head suddenly stand up and swing continuously in one direction.

Then, as if receiving some kind of command, it quickly crawled to the fungus field in front of the Worm Castle, bowing its head and inserting its sharp chelicerae into the fungus blanket.

"Click, click!"

Like a pair of scissors, the sharp chelicera cut a piece from the entire fungus blanket that was about the size of the back of a round carapace, and the little armor beetle stopped cutting, and then it carried the cut blanket on the carapace, and quickly rushed into the darkness deep in the cavern, disappearing without a trace!