Coran prepared himself to enter the hive.

Each individual adult wasp was at best a monster of the upper end of the 3rd tier.

Coran, of course, was an abomination of the 9th tier- an anomaly to the world. A being equivalent to the legendary heroes and monster kings.

And yet, the only reason he was as powerful as he was, was because his masters were all the more powerful.

His masters went far beyond the realm of legends.

If they were to be ranked at their current strength, they would be approximately in the 20th tier.

Just how strong is a being of the 20th tier?

If we consider a well trained human warrior to be in the 3rd tier, then a being of the 9th tier would have strength exactly 15,625 times the strength of this warrior.

It would take an entire legion and a half of soldiers for Coran to be beat, and this is taking fatigue into account. If he were to escape and rest, he would be able to take on far more. This does not take into account aptitude towards certain enemies however, and only overall fighting prowess. Meaning, it is possible for there to exist a 'rock paper scissors' formation in which a less powerful being would be more effective than otherwise against a more powerful being. Of course, in a one on one this would usually not amount to much if the tiers were different, however it could make a difference in larger numbers.

For example, perhaps only 10,000 soldiers would be needed if they had weapons which were effective against Coran. If they had ineffective weapons, perhaps 20 or 30 thousand would be needed.

Considering this, it would be obvious that Coran was merely playing around when he faced the wasps he fought, however it was not that he was playing around in the literal sense of the word. When he fought them, he was seriously paying attention and ensuring that he didn't take a single attack or leave anything to chance- however he only fought as seriously as he needed to.

It was as if he was pressing down a seesaw, trying to keep it balanced, and not exerting too much strength- but just the right amount. He was trying not to annihilate them in an instant, but to allow them to make a single attack before efficiently finishing them off.

However, this still presents the question- just how strong is a being of the 20th tier?

A being of the 20th tier would be somewhere around 50 million times as strong- not as the average human soldier, but as Coran, a monster of the 9th tier who could take on an entire legion on his own.

His masters could fight 50 million monsters as strong as Coran, and still win.

This was how overwhelmingly powerful they were.

How many human soldiers of the 3rd tier then, would they be able to win against?

750 billion.

This number is an outrageous value. There were nowhere close to this many inhabitants in the entire world.

It is something which could never even be conceived by regular standards.

Something which blows legends and myths out of the waters,

But that was who Coran's masters were.

They were anomalies.

They were beings which should not exist, yet did.

They were the dictators of power itself.

----

After confirming once more to make absolutely sure that no more wasps were lingering about outside the nest, he approached the poison covered entrance, and simply slid right through it- his spiked armaments and spear still in positions to attack in the case of some sort of suicide bomber attack.

There seemed to be no wasps waiting near the entrance, as all of them had tried to fly out of the nest only to be caught in the poison and die immediately.

Coran emerged from the viscous layer, entering the den of wasps.

His body was covered in the slimy poison, however his hands and feet had small threads on them that kept the friction between anything he touched, so he would not slip.

Looking around, he saw a number of hexagonal comb lined areas. Some of them were filled with maggots, others with eggs, and small wasps seemed to be crawling about the areas. Some were even newly hatching as Coran watched.

No adults seemed to be around this area. It was likely that Coran had killed them all, however that was not necessarily the case, and as such he remained prepared, using each of his four eyes to look in a different direction.

However, still finding nothing, he stepped forward and sheathed the spear he was holding into a strap at his side.

He then grabbed the bow at his back, and started producing arrows made from his own thread.

Gary had produced a concoction which made the thread that Coran and Berith produced as hard as steel, and so if Coran was able to shape it into an arrow, he could mass produce and fire as many arrows as he needed. He would then coat it with his own poison to ensure that it was deadly.

Coran quickly spun and coated hundreds of arrows, filling up the quiver on his back in less than a tenth of a second. In the remaining 9/10 of the second, he shot every single one of these arrows with a speed that could not be seen with the naked eye, so that they pierced the maggots and the eggs, along with every single child wasp around the area.

In 10 seconds of repeating this process, thousands of eggs, hundreds of maggots, and tens of children were taken care of.

Each arrow was shot with such power that it would seem like the targets were spontaneously combusting, exploding in a rain of guts and flesh with no prior warning. One wouldn't even be able to see the arrows being fired, and to a spectator it would almost look like a row of bombs going off all over the entire hive, only separated by a short time lag between each one.

When Coran had taken care of every possible threat in sight, he continued walking through the chamber cautiously, watching out for any that he missed, but there were none. His perception was not on Trevor's level, however it was still higher than even the most skilled assassins.

Coran repeated this process multiple times across three more chambers before he finally made it to the point where there were a few adults.

He took care of the adults with ease, using the same method, and so even though they would fly ferociously at him after realizing that their nest had been breached, they would usually die before even coming to this conclusion.

It was easy.

Too easy.

This was not even a challenge.

It couldn't even be called an extermination.

An exterminator is mostly protected from gear and equipment, but if they were to get careless and not use the proper tools, things could still go wrong if they were trying to take on a large nest.

But to Coran, this was not even an extermination.

Coran didn't let his guard down for even a second, but his instinct told him that even if he did let his guard down, that he would be able to easily mow through this hive.

"Well, I suppose things are better this way... it may be a little boring, however my goal here is not to play around or have fun. I am here to eliminate a potential threat, and that is all."

Coran continued making his way through each sector of the hive, and finally came across an area that seemed like a building made from a lime green plaster-like substance. It looked somewhat like a grainy wax, which seemed to have flowed like liquid at some point before hardening.

There was an entrance hole, and around it there seemed to be an entire swarm of adults. Coran looked at it from across a cavern, peeking his head out from the entrance.

'Seems like most of the soldiers have gathered here.... there are no more eggs on the walls in this area... what's this? It looks like they're being transported? The adults are going in and out of the green building, bringing eggs to the outer sectors? Does that mean that the eggs are being laid in there, but then are stored away from the queen? Interesting.'

A sharp memory of the thousands of eggs which his mother laid replayed in his head.

Coran recalled the terror he felt at their hatching, and remembered the disgusting faces of the children as they fought, killed, and grew stronger.

'I must exterminate these pests...'

Coran prepared to fire off his bow with his human hands, while producing arrows with his bottom two spiderlike hands, and simultaneously  shooting off darts and reloading with the two of his middle hands.

He quickly fired as many shots as he could, completely accurately, piercing right through the heads of every single wasp in the area, and hitting the eggs they were carrying while he was at it.

'There we go... now just the queens chamber left.'

Coran used a web to grapple his way down from the overhang he was looking on from, and skittered his way over to the entrance of the green building.

'Still nobody skilled enough to pull off any sort of surprise attack.... no, there hasn't even been a single person skilled enough to recognize that I am here and try to hide... sigh...'

When he reached the door, he pressed his back to the wall and peeked inside, taking a look to see how many enemies were inside.

However, on looking in, there were only 3.

Sitting on a large pyramid-like mount, which seemed to be built up in layers, and lying down in the position of a ruler, was a female humanoid wasp.

Her features leaned more towards a wasp than a human, but Coran could undoubtedly tell from her demeanor that she was at least above the rest in terms of intellect.

'Another one of those, is it? Another queen who is intelligent yet wild.... and only holds a desire to see chaos and destruction? There is only room in this world for two of those- well, I suppose three now if you include her eminence... and this wasp isn't one of them.'

Coran took note of the two wasps who seemed to be standing as her bodyguards.

They too were humanoid, and they were male and buff wasps.

They each held weapons- one which seemed to be an enormous bat which was completely covered in spikes, and the other which was holding a massive glaive that seemed to be extremely intricate in design.

'Just how did they obtain such well crafted weaponry?', Coran thought. 'Did they produce it themselves, or did they steal it from humans? If they stole it, I cannot imagine the gladiators who must have been wielding those things...'

Coran laughed at his own disbelief to himself.

However, one of the guards sensed that something was up.

"Your highness... there seem to be no more coming in to collect the children."

"That's... strange. Where did they all go? Do they expect me to just pile up the eggs here?"

"I.... I am not sure.", the other guard replied. "Should I go and check to see what the holdup is?"

"You idiot! We cannot allow her highness to stay here alone! It is our duty to remain by her side at all times!"

"Ah, you are right. Please forgive me, your highness."

"Go."

"Excuse me?"

"Did you not hear me? I said go. Do you expect me to stay here waiting just because you two insist on guarding me? Figure out what's wrong."

"Yes, immediately your highness!"

The one with the bat seemed to get ready to run off, however before he could do so, Coran showed himself.

"There will be no need for that."

The hundreds of eyes which collected into what seemed to be two eyes on each wasp- went wide with surprise as Coran showed himself in the middle of a wasp den. Though, it must be noted that the queen had only two eyes, and they looked very.... human. The look on her face was one of surprise at first, but this was followed by a different expression. One that Coran couldn't exactly read himself.

Coran, a single spider who seemed to be equipped with the strangest tools and weapons, showing his face inside the den of wasps- and the chamber of the queen at that. It was unthinkable for the two guards. It was impossible.

"How did you make it in here??? There should have been hundreds of our men just outside here, and even more overall... how did you sneak by them?!", the man with the glaive shouted while pointing his glaive at Coran.

"How did I sneak by them? Oh please. That would have been impossible even for me, given how many there were. Use your head a little. Are you an intelligent monster? Or perhaps an intelligent wild? Regardless, you should have a brain. Right? I'm not wrong in that assumption, am I?"

"Grr... to speak in such an arrogant tone... tell me straight, or I will cut you down on the spot! How did you sneak past our men!?"

"I didn't.", Coran replied while picking chitin out of his teeth with the metal cone on one of his hands.

He then smiled monstrously.

"I killed them all."

----

Alicia was the queen wasp of the largest nest in the lower monster realm.

Most queens of any given nest were not warriors. They were instead nothing more than baby producing machines, who would be protected by the strong warriors she birthed.

This was not the case for Alicia.

Alicia was a queen, however as the queen she did not want to have to live in the fear that if her guards were defeated, that all she would be able to do is lay down and die.

She valued strength greatly, and trained herself hard in order that she could at least pull off self defense should it come down to it.

As a result, she was known as a prodigy among insectoids.

Many insectoids could only ever reach the realm of the 4th tier- the upper 4th tier if they were lucky. It was almost the destiny of an insectoid to be weak among monsters.

However, Alicia had worked and worked, all while rearing children, building up her hive, and producing workers and warriors.

She was a monster of the upper 5th tier.

If she were to be compared to another, her strength rivaled even Ploritan or Kota.

Her two warriors, Bar and Rab were of the upper 4th tier. They too were warriors who were at the top of their race- however their purpose was almost null, as their queen would be able to protect herself even if they died, since she was stronger than them.

Even so, it was their duty to protect their queen.

Never in a million years would she have expected her training and strength to come into play, as it would be unlikely that anyone would be strong enough to make it to her chamber, however she always ensured to continuously sharpen herself and make sure she was ready to face any enemy- whether it was a mass scale human invasion, or a demon trying to take over the nest.

But she could never have expected this.

A young spider who seemed to be wearing some odd ragtag gadgets as if he were a human, had invaded her nest and claimed to have killed all her warriors.

'That can't be right.... right? There's no way that this little spider could have done this...'

However, the beating in the chest of Alicia told her otherwise.

'What is this I'm feeling.... is this nervousness? This is something I've never felt... is it because of this spider.... what is he? Why is he here?'

Her heart continued to beat, faster and faster, until it got to a point where it was so loud she could barely hear herself think.

'I.... I need to calm down... he's an invader... I have to... ah! My guards! Bar, Rab! They can take care of him!'

"Bar, Rab! Show this spiderling that he was arrogant to make his way in here! Duel him!", she shouted.

"As you wish, your highness!", Rab shouted back. He was the one with the glaive.

"I have no idea how you made it here, and I refuse to believe that you killed all our soldiers, however I will duel you here one on one!!"

The spiderling seemed to smile arrogantly at this.

'Why does he seem so confident?', Alicia thought. 'It can't be that he really...'

"Alright. That's a pretty generous offer, so I'll take it, but if you all would like to fight me two or three on one, I don't mind. After all, it wouldn't make a difference. But, if you insist on a duel, then sincerely, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Just know that I don't trust you, so if you try to play any tricks on me like facing me one on one, and then have someone else jump in, I will sense that minutes before it happens and be able to react."

'Hes so arrogant!! Why is he so arrogant!? But... what is it.... it annoys the hell out of me, but I... I don't know... I cant find myself hating it.... it's almost like its... like its cute? Agh!! What am I thinking!! I'll watch as Rab kills him quickly, and this whole thing will be over.'

"Do you think  that I would dare do something as low as having outside interference in a one on one duel just to win!? And to allow the queen to fight!?!? I would never-"

Rab seemed frustrated at Coran's response, however Coran raised up a single spiderlike hand to stop him from speaking.

"It doesn't matter whether you would or wouldn't. The fact of the matter is, you CAN. And if it can go wrong, it will go wrong- according to my master. Trying to figure out whether someone will be honorable and keep their word, or betray you is pointless, because if you assume from the start that they will do the dishonorable thing, then you have nothing to worry about. Now then. Shall we battle? If your other partner here wishes, he is free to go behind me out into the hive and check to see whether I'm telling the truth or not about killing the rest of you. I give you my word that I won't attack him if he walks behind me... of course, can you really trust my word? I mean, from your position, I must be nothing more than a snake who made his way into the den of a lion somehow. But please, sincerely."

Coran stepped aside and seemed to motion towards the doorway, implying that the path was open.

"If you wish to check, I will not attack you. If you believe me, then go right ahead. But who knows? I might just stab you in the back while you're heading out."

The two wasp warriors seemed completely irritated by Coran's demeanor, and Alicia was freaking out on the inside.

'Is... is it that he seems kinda... cool?? He seems cool!! He's so different from all the servants in the nest... nobody has ever had such an attitude towards me... they've all simply submitted themselves without restraint... because I am the queen of course...'

Even tho her mind was rattled, she worked hard such that her demeanor let off no such sign. To a standard spectator it would appear that she was completely calm, and relaxed even- as a queen should be.

"Go ahead and get rid of him, Rab. Bar, please check the outside to confirm that this spiderling is lying.", she said coldly.

'Ahh.... did I just come off as kinda bitchy? Will that spider think I'm some sort of coldhearted leader because of this?? Wait! Why do I care! He's about to die anyways!!'

Bar replied immediately.

"Yes, your highness!"

He then ran out, while keeping an eye on Coran who didn't make a move.

"I wouldn't do something as low as attack someone so much weaker than me with deception. Of course, if they were only slightly weaker than me, that would be a different story. I would pull every underhanded trick in the book to defeat an enemy that posed even the slightest threat to myself.", Coran muttered.

Rab then stepped forward, poising his glaive to fight.

"You're arrogance goes too far! Battle me, spider! First, what is your name?"

"My name? It is hardly important, but I suppose that is something that warriors do before they go into a deathmatch? Fine then. So that you can know the name of the one who kills you, I am Coran, the slave of their excellencies and her eminence, the antiheroes and the Determined."

'Slave?? Did he just proudly proclaim that he's a slave??? What the hell!?! How can he say something so shameless, while seeming so... so cool and collected?? It doesn't make sense!', Alicia thought.

"V... very well then, Coran.", Rab replied while visibly confused. "I am Rab, servant to her highness, Alicia, the greatest monster queen in the realm!"

"A pretentious statement.", Coran replied. "I don't think you understand what it means to serve a great monster queen."