35: Chapter 35 Heroic Units

Could it be that as the Rank of these Xenomorphs increases, the structure and scale of the nest also expand?

Descending the tunnel, the main cave of the nest appeared before everyone.

The main cave was also exactly twice as large as the ones encountered previously.

Su Yang's focus was not here; he followed the wall to find the passage leading to another cave: the Tyranid Brood Mother's cave.

Entering the cave, a giant, heart-like fleshy tumor hung upside down.

Beneath the nearly 7-meter-tall tumor, the head of the Tyranid Brood Mother, covered in tentacles, was constantly trembling.

The air was filled with a damp, rotting stench.

Below the tumor were piles of white eggs the size of human heads; those were the larvae that the Tyranid Brood Mother had birthed not long ago.

Su Yang held up a torch and circled the cave.

Compared to the ones encountered before, this Tyranid Brood Mother was not only a size larger, but dark purple markings had also appeared on its exterior.

He took a step closer and raised the fluorescent plant in his hand.

The surface of the Tyranid Brood Mother's tumor was covered in holes of various sizes.

As it writhed, some white eggs were slowly being expelled.

In the slime of the tumor, Su Yang saw an egg of a different size.

The Xenomorph inside the egg was also different from the other white eggs.

This was likely the egg of the Burrowing Giant Insect they had just killed.

If his guess was correct, these Tyranid Brood Mothers were constantly upgrading as their Rank increased.

Upgrading not only allowed them to lay more eggs but also to cultivate new species of insects.

And surrounding the Tyranid Brood Mother, the range and scale of the nest would also expand.

Why did this pattern feel so familiar? Su Yang thought to himself.

If one viewed the Tyranid Swarm as humans, it seemed they were also constantly developing and expanding their territory.

Were humans the only participants in the Forbidden Area Trial?

"Kill it."

Su Yang ordered, turning around and exiting the cave amidst the Tyranid Brood Mother's shrill shrieks.

[ Killed Rank 6 Tyranid Brood Mother, command points + 500 ]

[ Obtained Rare E-Rank drop, Heart of the Hive ]

[ Can be used to accelerate technology research and construction speed ]

[ Unlocked Achievement: Insect Extermination Great Master (Rank 3), command points + 1500 ]

[ Triggered Event: Gaze of the Abyss (Rank 3) ]

[ You have completely enraged the Tyranid Swarm; a larger and more diverse Tyranid Swarm will wage war against you ]

It was actually a Rank 6 Tyranid Brood Mother, a full 3 Ranks higher than the previous Rank 3 Tyranid Brood Mother.

No wonder the other Xenomorphs killed were also of a significantly higher Rank than before.

However, just one Tyranid Brood Mother allowed him to unlock a new tier of the Insect Extermination Great Master achievement and the Gaze of the Abyss event.

Previously, upgrading these two events had required destroying two entire nests.

"Your Majesty."

Walking out of the cave, the Armored Elite Soldiers standing guard outside brought up a black object.

It was the skull of the Burrowing Giant Insect.

Su Yang reached out to touch it.

[ Obtained Rare E-Rank drop, Giant Alligator Bone ]

[ Obtained technology pending unlock (no conditions for research currently): Alligator Bone Plate Armor ]

He had obtained another new technology, which seemed to be defensive in nature.

Thinking of the hardness of the Burrowing Giant Insect's skull, Su Yang felt that the defensive capabilities of this plate armor would definitely be very high.

However, since it could not be researched yet, perhaps it would require upgrading the Thousand Mechanism Tower later?

After putting the giant Alligator Bone into his inventory, he ordered the soldiers to regroup.

The sun had completely set, and now they had to rush back to the territory at maximum speed.

Under Su Yang's command, one squad cleared the path, and one squad carried the four Armored Soldiers who had been incapacitated.

The remaining soldiers formed a circle, guiding the most important objective of this battle—the flock of sheep in the pasture.

These ugly three-eyed creatures had been scared half to death by the battle.

When they first started guiding them, they all huddled in a corner and refused to move.

It wasn't until Su Yang grabbed two of them and gave them a beating that he managed to scare the flock out.

Because of the wounded and the flock of sheep, the team's return speed was not fast.

Along the way, the troops were in a state of extreme tension.

Now that Gaze of the Abyss had reached Rank 3, there was a possibility of being attacked by the Insect Swarm at any time while on the way back.

Even worse, the territory might also suffer a larger-scale attack.

He thought more than once that he should have killed that Tyranid Brood Mother another time; after all, it was too dangerous at night.

Fortunately, Su Yang's worries did not come to pass; after several hours of marching, the team safely returned to the territory.

And the territory was fortunate enough not to suffer an attack from the Insect Swarm tonight.

Only after walking through the territory gate did Su Yang's anxious heart finally settle.

The soldiers were already at their limit; if they had encountered a battle on the way, the outcome would have been truly unpredictable.

Returning to the territory, Su Yang's work officially began.

He immediately replenished the fuel for all soldiers and reloaded the crossbow bolts for the Crossbowman to prepare for any potential Insect Swarm attacks.

Afterward, he designated an area on the west side of the territory to raise those ugly sheep.

Without hardwood to make wooden fences, Su Yang had the soldiers cut down some fluorescent plants to make a simple partition.

Fortunately, these sheep were timid and unfamiliar with their surroundings, so they didn't dare to wander around.

On the way back, Su Yang roughly estimated the number of these sheep.

Based on the current population of the territory, these sheep would be enough to eat for a month.

People rely on food as their heaven, and solving the food problem brought Su Yang much relief.

After handling a series of urgent matters, he opened the panel to check the harvest from this time.

Although this battle was somewhat thrilling, the result was good, and the harvest was quite rich.

First was the command points.

Now, in addition to being an important resource for upgrading the Main Base, command points were also a key factor in competing for exploration rankings.

Whoever could obtain more command points would have a greater advantage in the rankings.

In this battle, the command points gained just from killing enemies amounted to 3960 points.

Adding the 2000 command points from the achievement rewards, a total of 5960 command points were obtained.

It was slightly less than the last time he defended against the Bug Swarm Tide, but the Bug Swarm Tide attack involved all the Tyranid Swarm in the area.

This battle, however, was only the gain from one nest.

From this, it could also be seen that the nest where the Rank 6 Tyranid Brood Mother was located was a tier higher than other lower-Rank nests.

Next were the item acquisitions; this time, two Rare-grade items were obtained.

Compared to the ordinary Heart of the Hive, the Rare-grade Heart of the Hive had an additional ability to accelerate construction speed.

In other words, it could not only accelerate scientific research speed but also accelerate the speed of building upgrades and renovations.

Moreover, the time the ordinary grade could reduce was at most 1 day, while the Rare grade could reduce it by up to 2 days.

If he wanted to upgrade the Main Base to Rank 3 later, he wouldn't have to wait bitterly for several days.

The other Rare item was the Alligator Bone dropped by the Burrowing Giant Insect.

Its use was currently unclear, but given its rarity, it definitely wouldn't be bad.

Finally, the most important harvest—food.

This battle solved the short-term food problem.

However, besides the rich harvest, Su Yang also discovered a hidden danger from this battle.

That was that the soldiers' ability to counter elite monsters with extremely high individual combat power was relatively poor.

A single Tyranid Giant Insect almost reversed the entire battle.

Although the combat power of the Armored Soldiers was strong, they were still unable to parry when facing such giant creatures.

Counting the Crossbowman who were pinning it down, Su Yang spent almost 15 soldiers in total to kill the Burrowing Giant Insect.

And it was only barely resolved at the cost of four Armored Elite Soldiers being incapacitated.

What if there were two Giant Insects?

Or if other more powerful elite-level Xenomorphs appeared in the future?

If he still relied only on Armored Soldiers then, the battles would become extremely difficult.

Perhaps the territory needed the existence of Hero-level units.