Chapter 99 Usurping the Nest
Nie Xiaoxiao was intrigued by the strange magical artifact before her. She had never seen such a tool before, as she could not sense any spiritual energy fluctuations at all.
Lele noticed her confusion and smiled, "This is not a magic weapon. It's a tool I made before I became a weapon refiner. Ordinary people can use it."
"Oh? That's great! Doesn't that save a lot of spiritual energy?" Nie Xiaoxiao exclaimed.
"Well, actually I didn't think I'd ever need these things again, but I kept them because they had some sentimental value. I never thought they'd come in handy today," Lele said.
In fact, she wasn't sure if this spray would work on third-order gerbils.
However, considering that the olfactory organs of rodents should be largely similar, and that the higher the level of the monster, the more sensitive its sense of smell, the more effective the rodent repellent spray should be.
Just in case, Lele took a spray gun filled with rat repellent and went into the gerbil hole first, followed closely by Nie Xiaoxiao and Achen.
To prevent Lele from encountering unexpected attacks, Nie Xiaoxiao even encouraged plant vines to scout ahead.
Going down the burrow, about ten feet underground, the gerbil's burrow begins to level out and gradually widens.
The hole is wide enough, but very short, only about 1.5 meters high.
Fortunately, none of the three of them were very tall, so they could avoid hitting their heads by simply bending over.
To their surprise, they didn't encounter a single gerbil along the way.
Remembering the scream of the gerbil that had escaped earlier, they finally understood that the whole gerbil colony had run away beforehand.
In the gerbil's nest, there are many paths leading in all directions, and they can only choose the widest one as the main passage.
Without the gerbils obstructing them, they reached the exit in just over ten minutes.
Ah Chen used his divine sense to scan the area and confirmed that there were no sand scorpions. The three of them then crawled out of the cave.
As far as the eye could see, there was a vast sea of sand, but it was clearly no longer the sea of sand where they had fought before.
"Which direction should we go? How can we avoid alerting those sand scorpions?" Nie Xiaoxiao transmitted her voice.
"Go east, that is, in the direction away from the setting sun. Then we can continue to use the road."
Although the gerbils here do not gather in large numbers, they are likely scattered throughout various corners of this desert.
"With the gerbil burrows there, we'll definitely be able to cross the desert," Ah Chen said.
After releasing his mental net to investigate, Achen quickly found dozens of gerbil nests, which were indeed interconnected.
After exiting one gerbil's burrow, walk about three zhang (approximately 10 meters) and you will see a new gerbil burrow entrance.
"Ah Chen, why do you think they built their caves so close together?" Nie Xiaoxiao asked.
"It's probably for the convenience of escaping. If they accidentally encounter an enemy, even if they're not near their own burrow, they can quickly find the entrances to other neighbors' burrows."
As long as they dart inside to escape the pursuit, they can simply dart out again. I believe the neighbors won't make things too difficult for them.
"After all, gerbils are relatively small in size and not strong enough in combat compared to other monsters. If they can't even make this much of a difference, they'll have a hard time surviving," Ah Chen explained.
After venturing in a second time, I encountered several baby gerbils in the burrow. They seemed to have just been born, their eyes still closed.
A female mouse stared wide-eyed in terror, seemingly ready to fight them at any moment.
The three ignored the mother mouse's presence, swaggered through her hole, and headed towards the exit.
The mother mouse was a little confused. Other gerbils had used this route before, but they only did so to escape predators and were forced to enter other people's nests.
Why would these three people, who are not of the same kind, stroll around their house as if it were their own?
The mother mouse couldn't understand it, but as long as they didn't attack her babies, she was relieved.
When Ah Chen and his friends descended into the gerbil burrow for the third time, it was already dark. This time, they were attacked by a family of more than a dozen gerbils, who were sitting together, preparing to devour half of a sand scorpion's carcass.
Ah Chen chuckled upon seeing it. Wasn't this sand scorpion the one he had killed that morning with the explosive talisman? It still retained the spiritual energy he had infused into it when he made the talisman.
Ah Chen: You're enjoying my prey, yet you still dare to gang up on me?
Before Achen could make a move, Lele had already taken out a spray gun and sprayed the male rat charging at the front a few times.
A strong, pungent smell suddenly filled the air. It was a combination of mint and lemon, which smelled a little cool and spicy to humans, but overall it was refreshing.
However, once this smell entered the noses of the gerbils, which are known for their keen sense of smell, the entire family of gerbils began to cough and their eyes watered.
In just half a minute, the entire gerbil family disappeared from their sight.
"Um, were we being a little impolite? Did we disturb their family's meal?" Nie Xiaoxiao said.
“Hmm, but I think what we should do next is occupy their bedrooms and wait until dawn before continuing our journey,” Achen said.
Lele took out an isolation array plate and placed it in a corner of the gerbil's nest. Then, she sprayed the isolation array plate with water.
"Senior Sister Pan, your rodent repellent spray is really great! It also freshens the air and smells much better than incense!" Nie Xiaoxiao praised.
"Take a break while you can. Tonight, the three of us will take turns on duty. I'll be on the first half of the night, and you two girls will be on the second half," Achen said.
"Ahhh! This is the first time in my life I've ever lived in a gerbil's nest. This is something I can brag about for the rest of my life!" Nie Xiaoxiao said excitedly.
"Isn't it shameful to talk about this kind of usurping someone else's place?" Ah Chen muttered under his breath, while Lele laughed so hard her shoulders twitched.
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