Chương 11: Caterpillar and Unlocked Features
Being a new enemy for the Dimensional Clone and something stronger than just a Worker Ant if it was based on the levels detailed by the game, the Caterpillar, which appeared to be possessing a soft skin which the sharpened wooden stick could stab, was worthy of its level.
Just like the old saying goes, 'Don't judge a book by its cover.'
When the Wooden Stick that the Dimensional Clone wielded stabbed towards the gigantic Caterpillar that was just wriggling on its way to munch on a stalk of tall grass, the Caterpillar's skin seemed unaffected as it only wriggled a bit before the force the Dimensional Clone used bounced back to him.
It should be a great ambush. However, a split second after it bravely leaped out to deal a fatal blow against the Caterpillar, all the momentum it built was sent back in full force.
The Dimensional Clone was sent rolling on the ground and only stopped after its third revolution.
Although kind of a slow reaction, the angered Caterpillar that got its meal interrupted issued a silent shriek. It was unlike the Worker Ant's dying shriek that Aldrin already got used to hearing.
It was low, silent but… ear piercing!
And just like his Dimensional Clone, he had to cover his ears to protect them from that destructive shriek.
Naturally, he first tried to mute the sound of his PC to escape from it. However, muted or not, the sound being produced by the game remained the same.
In Aldrin's mind, he could only attribute that phenomenon to the mysteriousness of the IDLE Database.
"Oi! Stand up!"
While still covering his ears, Aldrin shouted towards the Dimensional Clone when he noticed how it remained prone while covering its ears.
However, that was proven useless. It was impossible for the clone to hear him. It didn't have any consciousness after all.
Moreover, it was only moving by itself through the machinations of the game.
With the subject of its anger staying still on the spot, the gigantic Caterpillar, instead of producing silk from its mouth, raised half of its body as it aimed to trample on the Dimensional Clone using its wriggly and thick body.
'That's a totally confident move.' Aldrin thought. He couldn't help but commend that caterpillar.
Fortunately, it wasn't the end for his Dimensional Clone yet. Perhaps sensing that it was about to face a fatal danger, it rolled to the side to dodge as well as pick up its dropped weapon.
Although the Caterpillar had a strong defensive capability, its speed was on the slow side.
Furthermore, because of the Caterpillar's confidence where it even stopped its ear-piercing shriek, the Dimensional Clone got the chance to recover.
Using the chance when the Caterpillar's body fell down on its previous spot, the Dimensional Clone carefully picked an angle before stabbing the Caterpillar for a second time!
As if it learned from its previous mistake, the Dimensional Clone actually aimed at the Caterpillar's brownish spot on its green skin.
STAB!
Truthfully, there's no sound that was produced when the Wooden Stick lodged onto the Caterpillar's body but for Aldrin, it felt like he heard that when he saw how the Caterpillar's skin instantly split open starting from the Wooden Stick's point of contact.
SPLASH!
Instead of blood, the Caterpillar's slimy juices that made up most of its innards burst out of its body.
Faced with the sudden surge of the Caterpillar's sticky and slippery juices, the Dimensional Clone failed to dodge and got drenched by it.
Compared to Aldrin who would probably be bothered by the Caterpillar's bodily fluids, the Dimensional Clone ignored it and only stepped back before aiming the Wooden Stick to another brownish spot.
Furthermore, it did not stop with just one or two stabs.
Since it was aiming for the Caterpillar to die, the Dimensional Clone circled around the wiggling Caterpillar to continuously stab at the insect's weak points.
A few seconds later, the Caterpillar stopped wriggling about as it finally died against the Dimensional Clone's Wooden Stick.
At the same time as that, the familiar notification about what he gained showed up after the lines of combat status log at the lower left side of the game's interface.
[Dimensional Clone killed the Caterpillar by repeatedly stabbing its sensitive spots]
[You received 5 IDLE Points]
Upon reading that, especially the last log, Aldrin's face fell.
"5 Points… It's the same as the Worker Ant from before… Does this mean that gained points will always depend on the enemy's difficulty?"
As he considered what he observed from the Worker Ant that fell to Easy difficulty… that question he uttered was more or less answered by himself.
Easy Difficulty will yield him 3 Points.
Normal Difficulty will yield him 5 Points.
What about Hard, Impossible and Totally Impossible?
That's something he wouldn't know unless he tried killing insects of that kind of difficulty.
Following that thought, Aldrin instantly moved his cursor to the Options Menu.
However, when he was about to change the Target Settings, he noticed that there were two rectangular boxes with drop-down menus instead of one.
And those were labeled Minimum and Maximum.
Aldrin instantly understood what it meant. He now had more freedom on choosing the difficulty of the Dimensional Clone's target.
It was most likely to prevent himself from losing a lot of time when the Dimensional Clone grew strong enough that almost everything in its surrounding would drop down to Easy difficulty or if there's anything lower than that.
He didn't need it for now so he didn't change anything. Moreover, he also stopped his idea of choosing a Hard difficulty insect to target.
Closing the Options menu, Aldrin went back to watching the Dimensional Clone look for its next prey while still dripping from the Caterpillar's slimy liquids.
However, due to how the camera of the game was placed somewhere above the place, Aldrin took notice of Worker Ants walking in droves escorted by Soldier Ants towards the Dimensional Clone's direction that was still unaware.
No. He didn't just guess that their destination was the Dimensional Clone because he observed how that march of the ants was homing to its direction.
"It's the Caterpillar's slime juices! It's attracting the ants! The Dimensional Clone is now a prey or a food that is about to be harvested by them!" Aldrin exclaimed as he reached a realization.
Due to that, instead of letting the Dimensional Clone continue its hunt and before the game system recognized that it was being chased or in Combat Mode, Aldrin hurriedly clicked the option to leave the Lower Dimension.
[Leaving the Dimension in 3… 2… 1…]
As soon as that countdown ended, the same glowing Spiral appeared above the Dimensional Clone's head and sucked it in to transfer it out of that Dimension.
Fortunately, he was swift with his decision this time, otherwise… the Dimensional Clone would have no way to survive that.
The game interface soon darkened and the clump of his hair returned to him. Following that the result of the second run of the day appeared in front of him.
[Idle Adventure Mode Run Time: 2 hours 8 minutes, 11 seconds]
[Total Creatures killed: 76]
[Total IDLE Points gained: 378]
[Total IDLE Points used: 60]
[Total IDLE Points to be converted: 318]
[Lower Dimension Conquest progress: 6%]
[Remaining Chances: 3 (will reset at 0:00 local time)]
[Evaluation: D Rating]
Aldrin was already about to wait for the conversion and transference of Dimensional Energy when he noticed that there's a next page to the result of his run.
After clicking once, a new set of lines appeared in front of his eyes.
[Total IDLE Points Accumulated have reached 1000!]
[Host has unlocked the 2nd tab of the Idle Adventure gameplay: Equipment and Skills]
[Host has unlocked the ability to store IDLE Points for other uses]
[Host has unlocked a new feature: Idle Shopping]
[Some of the new unlocked features will only be available on and after the next run]
"Equipment and Skills… Idle Shopping." Ignoring that last message, Aldrin read the text out loud as he watched how on the top right of the IDLE Database's interface, a shopping cart icon reminiscent of shopping menus on most games suddenly popped up and became another clickable menu.
Curious as to what the new feature was, Aldrin moved his cursor towards the shopping cart icon and unhesitatingly clicked it.
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