Snap! Snap!
To prevent the first possibility from occurring, Lan Qingyou released all the golems she had on hand.
She also reduced her speed to first gear.
Once she had a suspicion, whether it was correct or not, she acted on it immediately.
Being cautious might waste more time, but overall, there was no downside to it.
Staying in first gear and protected in the center by her golems, Lan Qingyou moved forward slowly, with the purple knights mounted on orange Horned Lions clearing the way around her.
Although she didn't have many magic lanterns, she had plenty of dispelling light balls.
However, to avoid any blind spots, she hung magic lanterns on the purple knights.
Originally, Lan Qingyou had only brought one magic lantern she'd found in an abandoned shelter when she set out.
But she couldn't help the fact that she had found so many abandoned shelters over the past few days.
In some cases, the people had left and taken everything with them, but in others, they had left their belongings behind.
This allowed Lan Qingyou to pick up quite a few basic units for free and toss them to Shang Chuan.
As for whether those people had left on their own two feet or lost their lives, Lan Qingyou had no way of knowing.
Regardless, it was lucky she could obtain so many magic lanterns; otherwise, she wouldn't have dared to send her scouts very far ahead.
Whir— Whir—
As Lan Qingyou walked through the cave, which resembled a stalactite grotto, under the protection of her golems, the mechanical roar of machinery suddenly echoed from ahead.
It was the sound of the Spiral Lances activating.
Clearly, the scouts ahead had engaged the enemy.
Lan Qingyou immediately ordered the golems to pick up the pace and go help.
Wearing her identification glasses, Lan Qingyou naturally recognized the monsters blocking her path at a glance.
【Cave Bat (D)】
【HP: 300】
【MP: 200】
【Skills: (Sonic Attack), (Swarm Hunting)】
【Description: A small, gregarious, omnivorous monster that lives only at cave entrances. While their sonic attacks are powerful, their most troublesome trait is their swarm attacks, which leave you at a loss for how to fight back, forcing you to flee in a panic.】
Well then, I've been flying for such a long time, and I'm only just at the cave entrance?
After reading the description, Lan Qingyou suddenly felt that this cave exploration might be more troublesome than she had imagined.
After all, if she was only at the entrance, it meant there was still a long way to go.
However, the more it was like this, the more excited Lan Qingyou became.
Treasures—the deeper they were buried, the better they were, right?
Still, looking at the hundreds of Cave Bats filling the air, Lan Qingyou felt a bit of a headache.
She had barely forty golems in total; clearing out so many bats would be quite exhausting.
Fortunately, while her golems were also D-grade, the bats' physical attacks couldn't even scratch the paint on golems made of iron, copper, and a few rare minerals.
As for the sonic attacks, they were even less effective against inorganic objects.
The only thing needed was time.
Thinking of this and seeing the bats' useless attacks, Lan Qingyou decided to take a break.
She set up her magic tent. With the Magic Alchemy Shield active, Lan Qingyou stood at the edge of the protected area, commanding the golems in battle while controlling the floating cannons to attack and using Soul Siphon to harvest Soul Crystals.
These items were becoming increasingly important to her.
Previously, she had only chosen this skill because she thought it would be needed for alchemy, but to her surprise, her experiments showed that even golems could use them.
If she wanted to create her own golem army for protection in the future, these things would be indispensable.
Whether they flew in the sky, ran on the ground, or swam in the water, she would collect as many as possible. It wouldn't hurt her now or in the future.
At the very least, they could be used as an ingredient for brewing potions, couldn't they?
And so, after a hectic flurry of activity collecting over a hundred bat Soul Crystals, Lan Qingyou returned to the tent to rest, leaving the remainder for the golems to handle.
Of course.
While she called it resting, it was only relative.
She currently had a large number of Soul Crystals on hand and had also brought back a dozen Cave Bat carcasses.
To understand a monster, the first thing one needed to do, besides observing their habits, was to understand their physical structure.
Therefore, dissection was the only way for her to truly understand her opponents now.
After all, she couldn't just lie there and observe them all day like a birdwatcher.
Besides, they were currently in the middle of a battle.
She took photos to upload into her cards and then began the dissection with her surgical tools.
After dissecting a dozen or so in a row, Lan Qingyou gained a very deep understanding of these Cave Bats.
Especially the physiological structure of how they used sound waves as a means of attack.
Even though they were biological, there was no shortage of bionic machinery on Blue Star.
In fact, Blue Star had basically mastered bionic mechanical arms and legs.
"It really is a good thing to come out and travel after all,"
Lan Qingyou said as she washed her hands and wiped the fine sweat from her forehead.
Whether it was the snow wolves she'd encountered while wandering earlier or the Cave Bats now, only through dissection could she truly understand these monsters.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Lan Qingyou opened a notebook with a wolf-skin cover and began recording.
This type of notebook was made from paper she had produced herself.
Olf was in charge of the cutting, Ruan Qingyi the cover, and Shang Chuan the binding.
Mass production had basically been achieved.
Or at least, the people of Tarot Villa no longer had to worry about things like notebooks, toilet paper, or sanitary pads.
Clack!
When a sound came from outside, Lan Qingyou poked her head out and saw that the Cave Bats that had filled the cave were all gone.
Many had died, but comparing the current numbers to what she had seen before, it was clear quite a few had fled.
They were just monsters; there was no need to exterminate them all.
So, Lan Qingyou ordered the pink infantry to collect the corpses, then packed them all up and sent them to Shang Chuan.
After all, she didn't have much space left in her cards or her herb bag.
The monster carcasses would eventually be processed by Shang Chuan's people, who would also sort out the useful parts, such as bat teeth, wing membranes, and monster cores.
Don't think these things could only be used by alchemists like Lan Qingyou.
In reality, they had many uses.
For example, bones and teeth could be used to make weapons and bolts; fur could be used for clothes, armor, and bedding; and the meat could be eaten after processing, and so on...
If all else failed, the bones could be ground up and used as fertilizer, which was exactly what the Empress, Jiang Lan, did.
There was never a shortage of buyers.
After finishing the cleanup work, Lan Qingyou packed up her magic tent and continued on her way with Steel Wool and Little Spoon.
Rate on N.U.
