Gordon tapped Anhill on the shoulder.

Anhill, who had always been in a light sleep, opened his eyes, as if he had never fallen asleep at all, and picked up the heavy crossbow that had never been put away without confusion, and the scope locked on to the golden touch in his sight.

It was an unknown insect-like monster, which looked like a combination of a beetle and a praying mantis, and it was not too big, about four or five meters long, barely reaching the edge of a large monster, about the size of a beetle.

"Bang."

The muzzle of the [Shiyu] cannon flashed, and a dyed bullet shot out, hitting the target accurately, leaving a puddle of brilliant pink marks on the carapace that seemed to be cast of gold.

"Twitter——!" The mysterious monster suspected to be a beetle species was frightened, and after a sharp hiss, it began to burrow into the ground.

"Leave it!" Anhill let out a low snort.

The storm roared, turning into an afterimage and rushing forward.

Unfortunately, it was still a step too late, and the golden monster burrowed into the ground extremely fast, burrowing into the ground before the gale could bite it.

It even didn't forget to use its sharp hind limbs to stir the sand, burying the passage it carved out when it burrowed into the ground.

"Woo-lur-"

The gale, which slammed into the air, roared angrily, frantically gouging at the slightly floating pile of sand.

Some of the tooth hounds were good at burrowing, but the stout Gale was clearly not that type, and by the time Gordon and the others had arrived at the run, he had barely managed to dig out a shallow hole large enough to shock his big head into.

Pork Chop looked at Gordon, the intent was clear.

Before Gordon could say anything, Anhill spoke first, "What is almost certain at the moment is that the ground floor around this building is relatively solid, so you don't have to worry about quicksand, otherwise that thing wouldn't have come here to drill in and out."

But now the pursuit is not appropriate, and there is no need, I have already ridden it with dye bombs, and I don't worry about it running away.

My advice is to go back to the camp first, rest and adjust the state, and replenish the items, we can't be sure if and when we will encounter the mechanical monster during the pursuit, so it's important to stay in shape. ”

Gordon thought for a moment and agreed to Anhill's suggestion.

"Let's go back to camp first."

In the camp sorted out by the advance team, they slept until the afternoon, and after waking up and eating a hot meal, Gordon and the others suddenly felt full of energy.

Once again, the pork chop offered to attack, and this time Gordon did not object again.

Among the two, a cat and a dog, the only one who is good at digging into the ground is the pork chop, but unfortunately pandan and amber are not here, otherwise they can still help.

In the midst of Gordon and Anhill's repeated instructions, the pork chop set off alone.

It first came to the building where the golden beetle had been found last night, sniffed left and right, and found nothing unusual.

Tighten the straps of the cat armor and the catsword, and finally check the condition of the props, and after confirming that everything is correct, the pork chop burrows into the ground.

The sand was mixed with the smell of dyed bullets, guiding the path of the golden beetle as it burrowed into the ground.

The pork chop dug down the route, and after a few minutes, it was empty in front of it, and it almost didn't fall straight down.

"Meow!"

The pork chop screamed in surprise, and hurriedly grabbed the rock crevice outside the cave with its sharp claws, which avoided the fall.

It's a dark underground cavern.

At this time, it was hanging upside down on the rock wall at the top of the cave, shaking.

The pork chop stabilized its mood, and the concentrated cat pupils quickly swept left and right, and there was no danger for the time being, and no living creatures were found, which made it breathe a sigh of relief.

Climbing down the rock wall, the pork chop shook off the sand on his body and looked around.

As Gordon had guessed, the underground near the ruins was empty.

Large and small crypts, caves, and tunnels are connected to each other, forming a huge and complex underground space.

Similar landforms are common in desert areas.

It can be said that the sand sea on the surface and the lava caves underground, together form a desert that seems barren but is actually full of diversity.

After taking out a small notebook and simply recording the terrain with a compass, the pork chop followed the smell of the dyed balls and traced it.

Every two or three hundred meters, it will pause and continue to draw a topographic map, and at the same time, according to its number of steps and the direction of travel, it will roughly confirm the position of the surface of the area it is in at this time.

This will help it accomplish the main purpose of the reconnaissance - to find an entrance and exit suitable for Gordon and them to enter the underground caverns.

In this way, while chasing the smell and moving forward against the map, the pork chop couldn't tell how long it had been since he entered the underground cave.

It's always easy to forget the passage of time, and the sense of orientation is blurred in the dark.

The pork chop continued to move forward, and finally found the trace of the golden beetle in an underground cave that was very wide, covering an area of tens of thousands of square meters.

It was lying motionless on the rock wall, seemingly sleeping.

He was not the only one with a golden beetle, and in this giant cavern, as well as several caves in the nearby area, Pork Chop had encountered several monsters of the same kind.

They are supposed to be the "masters" of the nearby caves, and I wonder if they have anything to do with the mechanical beast?

After a moment's hesitation, the pork chop began to probe - it tried to get close to the creatures.

These golden beetles have vision, and they also have a very keen sense of vibration, they don't move fast, and they are not very aggressive, and even if they attract their attention, they can easily escape.

After walking and playing with these unknown monsters for a while, the pork chop suddenly raised its body.

The sensitive beard shook twice, and it felt a hint of breeze.

When there is wind, it often means that there is an entrance.

It searched carefully, and soon found a large crack in the rock face high up nearby.

That's where the breeze comes in.

The rock wall is not vertical, the surface is uneven, and it is not difficult for a human without claws to climb.

If that crack in the rock could really get to the surface, Gordon and they should be able to get down through here.

The pork chop made a mark on the topographic map again, and then climbed along the rock wall to the crevice in the rock.

When it got closer, it found that due to the angle of observation, this stone crack was wider than it thought, and it was not an exaggeration to say that it was a road, and even a large man with a strong wind should be able to pass freely.

"I hope it goes smoothly." The pork chop burrowed into the passage inside the stone crevice and ran upward.

A few more minutes passed, and it saw the light at the end of the passage.

The pork chop was very excited, and the pace was further accelerated.

"Which meow is this?" The pork chop that had come out of the crack in the stone looked left and right for a while, and a question mark appeared above his head.

It is surrounded by brick and stone walls more than ten meters high, but you can see the clear sky overhead, and the moonlight sways down to illuminate the place.

The pig chop scratched its ears and climbed up the wall, and soon came to the surface.

Looking back, the pork chop suddenly said to himself: "It turned out to be a well meow, and it was quite a big meow." ”

Observing the mottled weathered buildings around them, the pork chops were very sure that they had never been to this place before, but it was certainly still within the range of the ancient ruins.

Climbing up the wall to a higher place and looking around, the pork chop finally figured out where it was at this point.

"You've already run to the castle in the middle of the ruins?"

Confirming the next direction, the chop slipped down the wall and ran towards the direction of the camp.

Ps.

Those who like to understand the setting should guess that I wrote about the male mantis in these two chapters, which does not appear in the game, only in the setting.

In the first case, the male pavilion mantis was prepared to appear as a vassal monster, but it was later canceled, and I didn't find any picture information about the male individual, so I could only write it vaguely.

There is a setting that is not sure if it is an official setting.,Said that the male pavilion mantis is golden.,The female is brown.,As the female eats more and more males.,The color will become more and more golden.,It's a way to judge its age.,This statement has been mentioned by two UP who do MH ecology.,But I haven't found such information myself.,So it's not applied for the time being.

(End of chapter)