BXBX NOVEL Chapter 249 - Insect Woman
"Yeah, but first, let\'s remove her from here. We don\'t know if she is still alive so we need to hurry."
With the help of Atlas, we carried her out of the stomach of the Giant Devouring Sandworm. She is covered in slime, the blood of the monster, and some flesh that I have been stuck to her hair and body. She is still warm, perhaps, due to her still inside the body.
Since there is a nearby ruin where there is a stable flat concrete floor, we brought her there. The enemies that surrounded the area is not a match for me and the wolves and quickly disposed of them before they can even be turned into a bigger problem.
"Atlas, carefully put her down here," I said and pat the concrete floor I just wiped off with my hands from dust..
Atlas slowly put her down. I checked her body pulse and breathing and thankfully, she is still alive. However, just from looking at her, she is too weak at the moment.
"Let\'s camp here for now and wait for her to wake up. They are sensitive to sudden temperature changes so we will have to monitor her condition."
I also pull out clothes from my inventory. Since the only female clothes I got are some of the Normal rarity magician\'s robes and other equipment that a female can wear. With the help of Lucia, the female insect person is now wearing decent clothes to cover her private parts.
"From my observation from her body, it seems like she was swallowed whole without a chance to resist against the Giant Devouring Sandworm. And based on her condition, it seems like she was swallowed approximately 3 days ago," I explained after looking at the signs on her body.
"3 days ago? And she is still alive? Shouldn\'t she be digested already if that is the case?" Lucia frowned.
I was about to explain things when Atlas decided to explain things for me.
"Let me explain Princess. The stomach of the sandworm takes a long time before it can digest its food. Once it swallows something, there is a chance that you will be able to remain alive while you are still inside the stomach for a week. Why is it like this? Because the Sandworm needs to save up its food inside its stomach to prepare for a massive digestion process. Before it will digest things inside its stomach, it will pile up all of the things it swallowed until it feels full. That\'s the time it will start to go dormant for a bit so that the food it swallowed gets digested without any problem."
"Oh, so since the stomach of the sandworm is pretty empty, that means, this guy is still looking for food when you killed it, Master?"
"Yeah. Wait, I thought you and your father hunted Sandworms in the past."
"Haha, actually, the sandworms gets toasted to dust before we can do anything on its carcass so I have no idea that the sandworms\' body function like that."
Bodies of the sandworms turned to dust? I wonder how strong her father is when he was still alive.
"Anyways, I doubt, she will wake up soon. Let\'s eat something, I will cook."
I also summoned the wolves to keep the area guarded for a bit while I cook food while Lucia and Atlas are observing the unconscious insect woman.
Even though I don\'t have the Ex Job - Chef to be a master in creating various dishes, at least I know a thing or two in cooking. It might not be a masterful one that you can say it is on professional level like restaurants serve them but it\'s edible and delicious. Good thing Alternate World also stimulate the sense of taste which is why we can still taste the food even though it was just a digital one.
The area is quiet and I don\'t see any players around. Most likely they are preparing for the tournament and they are racking up points in arena or most likely, they are doing some dungeon dives. But its much better, at least there aren\'t too many eyes to pry.
It took me a few minutes before everything is complete.
"Food is ready guys, if there are nothing to be concerned of, lets gather around and eat."
The Wolves returned and I immediately throw some fried meat from the monsters I killed before.
"What\'s the menu for today, Master?" Lucia is eager to the food I prepared.
"Mushroom stew with some lemon juice. Perfect in the hot climate."
"Nice, this is good food! Let\'s dig in!"
"How is the insect woman? Is she showing signs that she is waking up?" I asked the two.
"There are no signs of her waking up but her breathing is now stabilized and her temperature is returning to normal. Maybe a bit later on, she will be waking up. The clothes you gave her helped," Atlas answered.
"Well, that is expected. However, I am quite not sure why she was there in the first place. I heard the Insect People live only in Aquagius? How come she is here? It is impossible for the Giant Devouring Sandworm to be on Aquagius either since it does not live in the water and I doubt it can even swim."
"Maybe this insect person is a visitor from Aquagius and only arrived here in Sandurk. It might be a huge chance that whoever the people she was with, they are looking for her unless they got eaten," Lucia said as she slurps her Mushroom stew.
We are about to finish what we are eating when I detected movements behind us where the insect woman is lying down. There, she slowly get up while she is rubbing her head.
"Huh? Did I already die? Is this the afterlife already?"
She shook her head a bit and she looked around and her gaze stopped at us who are also staring at her.
"Kyaaa! Who are you people?!" she quickly backs off as she looked terrified from us.
"Master, it seems Atlas terrified her a lot," Lucia grinned while looking at Atlas.
"Wait, what the f*ck? I didn\'t do anything! Also, I am not that ugly for her to get so scared!"
"What are you talking about, big guy. Did I even tell that you are ugly?"
"..."
I stood up from the stone seat and deposit the utensils in my inventory for a bit.
"Don\'t be alarmed. We do not pose any harm at you. We just rescued you from the stomach of the Giant Devouring Sandworm. You don\'t need to be worried and you can at least drop your guard down on us."
"..." she looked at us sternly as she shift her eyes from Lucia, to Atlas, to me and to the wolves. She looks like she is not sure what to react and from the looks of it, she haven\'t seen a human just yet.
"She is still wary on us Master," Lucia said.
"That\'s pretty normal reaction. Let\'s just not do anything that will spook her instead. Just keep being low profile and don\'t try to startle her. That should help loosen her guard down on us and let her refresh her mind for a bit. I am sure she is confused as heck right now. So yeah, let\'s continue eating. It bad to leave the food for too long and we can\'t afford to let the hot weather ruin the food."
Atlas and Lucia returned to their seats and continue eating. Since Lucia and Atlas are asking for seconds, the aroma of the Mushroom stew started to emanate around and the insect woman who is just observing everyone in the distance frowned after she smell the aroma of the Mushroom Stew coming from the food.
She seems tempted but she also steeled herself to not approach blindly. But then...
[Stomach Growl](A/N: Sorry, I tried imagining the Sfx of the empty stomach but I suck at it.)
The three of us turned to her together with our heads turning towards her in a synchronized way, making her more embarrassed than she initially felt when the her stomach started to emit a sound.
"Looks like you are hungry, its a good timing that we are eating, come, eat with us," I said to her.
"Master, does insect people eat normally like we also do? I am not so familiar with their race and it seems you know a few knowledge about her race."
"From what I read, they are the same as us and they eat food like we always do. Don\'t worry, the food is good, at least it won\'t make you die of hunger," and I put down a bowl of Mushroom stew towards her direction.
Maybe due to the hunger of staying inside the stomach of the Giant Devouring Sandworm for three days straight, she cannot resist the Mushroom stew and immediately went to take a chow on it.
Alright, her guard is down, now, we just need to know why one of the Insect People is here in Sandurk.