Beast Taming: Becoming a Bug-type Elite Four Member Starting with Silkworm Raising

Chapter 199 Water Ghost Catfish”What’s wrong, are there high-level pet beasts living here?”

Seeing Lu Dahu looking like he was facing a formidable enemy, Russell was a little puzzled.

Although the devil dog could not defeat the fifth-level pet beast in a single pair, there were a total of eight people in the Chongwu House’s pioneering team including Russell and the He brothers.

Among them, He Qiuer, who carefully selected the parasitic pet beast, was able to exert a strength equivalent to the mid-level fifth level.

When officially developing, let alone fifth-level beasts, even if you encounter early-level sixth-level beasts, as long as there are not too many followers and everyone focuses their fire together, there is a considerable chance of killing them.

Therefore, Russell really didn’t understand the reason for Lu Dahu’s worried expression.

”Um...this is the information provided by Fan Ming. Take a look.”

As if he felt that he couldn’t explain a sentence or two clearly, Lu Dahu directly handed the notes in his hand to Russell.

Fan Ming was originally the intellectual leader of the Black Tiger Team. This note was written in great detail and even highlighted several possible risk points.

After taking the note and reading it for a while, Russell roughly understood what Lu Dahu was worried about.

After some detection by Fan Ming’s two mechanical beasts, the distribution of the beasts in the swamp at the entrance of the valley has now been clarified.

In this swamp area, there is mainly a kind of ferocious carnivorous pet beast ”Water Ghost Catfish”, and another plant-based pet beast ”Snake Vine” that coexists with them.

The Water Ghost Catfish is a gold-level water pet beast. Its innate skill is called ”Strange Powerful Meat Bomb”. It can tense up its fat body to a high degree and then release it instantly, so that it can quickly jump out of the water and swallow its prey alive.

The prey attacked by the water ghost catfish seems to be dragged into the water by the life-threatening water ghost and disappears without a trace in an instant. This is also the origin of the name of this pet beast.

At the same time, water ghost catfish like to sleep at the bottom of the mud very much. Because they drill around in the mud, they will also form many abrupt deep water areas and undercurrents underwater.

These underwater undercurrents extend in all directions and are intertwined with each other. Once trapped, even aquatic beasts will have to work hard to escape.

For pets that cannot breathe underwater, the undercurrents in deep water are even more dangerous than the water ghost catfish itself.

Relying on its familiarity with the environment and the sudden attack of strangely powerful meat bombs, the water ghost catfish can even prey on some platinum-level pets that are unwary and small in size.

He has good strength and a habit of creating complex terrain. Mud areas where water ghost catfish live are often more dangerous than ordinary mud areas.

The Snake Vine is a bronze-level plant pet. Although it looks like a green water snake, it actually has no attack skills except the most basic winding.

In the muddy ground where photosynthesis is difficult, they mainly rely on the food scraps left by the water ghost catfish and their feces as survival nutrients.

One of the principles behind the symbiosis between the snake vine and the water ghost catfish is to use its appearance to frighten pet animals that come to drink water near the wetland, attracting their attention, providing cover for the water ghost catfish’s sneak attack, and increasing its hunting success rate.

In addition, this pet beast, which has no fixed root system and can swim around in the water, also has the ability to sense as sensitively as a snake.

The snake vines scattered throughout the swamp are equivalent to the eyes of the water ghost catfish, which greatly complements their poor eyesight underwater and their insensitivity to the external environment.

In most cases, wild beasts follow the law of survival first, and have no principles or arrogance at all.

Once it finds that there are too many people approaching it and that its strength is greater than its own, the water ghost catfish will dive into the deepest part of the mud and never show its face until the danger has passed.

The muddy ground has a very high degree of resistance to physical and energy attacks. The question that Russell and the others need to consider now is not whether they can win, but whether they can win at all.

If you leave these water ghost catfish alone, it will not be difficult for them to get through the swamp safely because they are strong and work together.

However, in the subsequent development of the valley, many militiamen and workers will inevitably need to enter the valley.

If the hidden dangers are not completely eliminated and the water ghost catfish takes the opportunity to attack, Russell will become a sinister boss who harms the lives of his employees.

In his notes, Fan Ming also initially proposed several countermeasures.

Among them, the method with the highest efficiency and the highest probability of success after analysis is poisoning.

After all, swamps are not like ordinary waters. The flow of water here is small, and it does not require too many toxins to have a significant impact on the environment.

As long as the snake vines are allowed to wither in large quantities, the water ghost catfish will turn into a group of big headless flies. When they are extremely hungry and surface one after another to hunt, Russell and the others can catch turtles in the jar one by one.

But the problem is that the vitality of plant-type beasts is usually relatively strong, and it can poison the snake vine to the point of extinction. I am afraid that the low-level beasts in this water area will also be basically wiped out.

After the development is completed, Russell does not plan to fill up the swamp, but plans to use this place as the first line of defense for the Insect Valley, raising some aquatic insect beasts to guard the home.

If poisoning is used to deal with the native pet beasts, a lot of manpower and material resources will have to be spent to restore the ecology, which is quite troublesome.

As for methods such as hiring high-level mercenaries to attack by force, they are essentially the same as poisoning.

Being pushed forward by the violent methods of high-level beast masters, not only will the swamp become barren, but even the ecology of the nearby land will be destroyed.

”The trapping tactic seems to be more feasible...”

After ruling out these several plans, Russell’s eyes finally fell on the trapping method that Fan Ming marked as ”low success rate”.

Water ghost catfish like fishy food. After dragging their prey into the water, they often do not start to devour it immediately. Instead, they store it in the mud and wait for the meat to rot slightly before eating it.

Taking advantage of this weakness, it is actually not difficult to simply lure the water ghost catfish to appear.

The reason why Fan Ming judged the trapping plan as having a low success rate was mainly because even if the fishy smell lured them, the water ghost catfish would not rush out of the water to hunt for food, but would wait for a while and let the snake vine explore it first. Surrounding environment.

Once they discover that there are multiple mid-level energy fluctuations around them, they will give up hunting and hide directly back in the depths of the mud.

However, there are no flying mount beasts in the Insect House Development Team. Everyone treks on foot and has to be careful of deep pits. The speed of walking through the mud is not much faster.

If you cannot intercept the water ghost catfish during the short period of time when it is close to the water surface and jumps out to swallow the bait, it will still dive into deep water again after it has eaten the bait.

Coupled with the electrostatic hedgehog who is the main controller in the team, the effect of current radiation will be greatly attenuated through a thick layer of mud.

Moreover, Zheng Ping’s electrostatic hedgehog was only at the early stage of the fourth level, and it would be suppressed by the mature water ghost catfish, which was at least the late fourth level.

If you want to control the floating water ghost catfish by relying on electric current, it would be more efficient to just reach out and catch it directly.As for Ayou’s Shadow Sewing Arrow, it’s almost useless when facing aquatic beasts...

Because of this, Fan Ming felt that the trapping tactic could only be implemented half-way. It could lure someone out, but it couldn’t keep the target.

”Dahu, Fan Ming, do you think it would be possible to weave a large fish net and use it as bait?”

After thinking for a while, Russell, who had completed the entire plan in his mind, waved his hand and called Fan Ming who was not far away.

”I don’t think it’s feasible. Water ghost catfish are not much smaller than humans. If you want to catch them, the toughness of the fishing net must be very high. However, if the net is too thick, it will be easy to detect. If you want to find suitable materials and not easy……”

Hearing Russell’s suggestion, Fan Ming shyly adjusted his glasses, but still expressed his negative opinions very objectively.

As far as he knew, the materials that could meet the requirements of binding a water ghost catfish with a few strands of thin thread were almost all produced from high-level pet beasts. If you want to purchase a large number of them in a short period of time, you will probably have to pay a high price.

Although Fan Ming had long heard that the Imperial Chongwu was rich, in order to clear out some gold-level pet beasts, Russell would not buy some rare pet materials at sky-high prices to build an Internet cafe.

”Indeed, I often want to use nets to set traps when hunting in the wild, but the fine nets that are not easy to detect are not strong enough, so I can usually only catch low-level pets.”

After Fan Ming, Lu Dahu also agreed with his analysis.

If it were on land, the net could be covered with soil or dead leaves, but in the water, even a rope as thick as a little finger would be extremely conspicuous.

With the intelligence level of a gold-level pet, it is enough to easily see through this low-level trap.

However, although his knowledge reserve is not as good as Fan Ming’s, his mind is much more flexible.

Seeing Russell’s confident expression after repeated rejections, Lu Dahu rolled his eyes slightly and immediately thought of this young man’s old profession.

”Eh... No, no! Russell, it seems that your pet house is mainly engaged in the worm silk business? Can the worm silk produced by the Royal Insect House reach the strength?”

With a hint of surprise, Lu Dahu quickly asked Russell.

”Big mulberry silk? Even if fifty strands are twisted into one, it won’t be able to meet the requirements...”

However, before Russell could answer, Fan Ming immediately expressed his negative opinion.

In a rigorous academic spirit, he was not afraid of offending Russell and expressed his doubts bluntly.

”It’s not a giant mulberry silkworm, it’s an iron chrysalis silkworm.”

Knowing that Fan Ming also put forward his opinions to ensure the smooth implementation of the development plan, Russell was not angry even if he refuted it several times, but explained patiently.

Lu Dahu and the others had only been in Yuchongwu for a relatively short time, and their few days of rest were mainly spent on sleeping and purchasing supplies. They really didn’t know the current industrial structure of Yuchongwu.

”The strength of iron chrysalis silk is indeed much higher than that of mulberry silk, but no matter what, it would have to be more than a dozen strands twisted together to withstand the struggle of the water ghost catfish... This thickness will still be noticed.”

Hearing the words ”iron chrysalis silkworm”, Fan Ming’s expression of disbelief eased slightly, but he still held an objection, feeling that even iron chrysalis silk could not meet the requirements of catching water ghost catfish.

After all, the Iron Silkworm is not a rare pet beast. As long as you search for some industry average quality data on the Internet and calculate the weight and strength of the Water Ghost Catfish, you can easily draw a numerical conclusion.

”Our iron chrysalis silk is not an ordinary thing on the market. I have a cooperation with Feiyi Shipping Company. This batch of iron chrysalis silkworms is used to weave large airship airbags for them.”

Faced with Fan Ming’s persistence, Russell continued.

Hearing this, the questioning look on Fan Ming’s face suddenly turned into surprise.

As a researcher who relies on knowledge to make a living, even if he has never worked in the shipping industry, he still has a basic understanding of what grade of materials are needed to transport airships in the wild.

Even if the airbag made of iron chrysalis silk is reinforced with various internal frames, soaked with special paint, and then superimposed with some defensive energy fields, it will be difficult to withstand the full attack of a pet beast above level six.

However, after flying in the wild a lot, it is difficult not to encounter attacks from high-level wild beasts. This is also an important factor why purely mechanical airships have become more popular in recent years.

The name of Flying Wing Shipping Company is well known. It is the number one shipping company in the southern principality, and it is not an unknown small company.

Being able to pass the quality inspection of Flying Wing Shipping and provide them with manufacturing materials for large airships proves that the toughness of these iron chrysalis silk exceeds the industry average by at least %.

”If you want to avoid being noticed by the snake vine, you can only use five strands of worm silk to weave a net. Can the specialized cultivation of worm silk in the Royal Insect House be able to do it?”

After re-analyzing, Fan Ming asked Russell seriously.

”Um... I’ve never made a net before, so I’m not sure about this. Let’s bring some iron chrysalis silk over and try it out first.”

Regarding Fan Ming’s problem, Russell didn’t dare to vouch for it, but since there was no better way now, he wouldn’t suffer any loss if he gave it a try.

After tentatively deciding to use trapping tactics to deal with the water ghost catfish, he immediately sent a message to Lu Yinning. The other party replied that he would prepare it immediately and expected it to be delivered tomorrow morning.

”The official trapping will have to wait until the silkworm silk arrives. Let’s prepare the bait today.”

After sending everyone’s location to Lu Yinning, Russell immediately suggested in order not to waste precious time.

”It’s simple. A taste for fishy smells is a common trait among most carnivorous beasts. I’m considered a veteran.”

Hearing this, Lu Dahu patted his chest and took over the job.

After a while, he drew up a list of materials for making bait and distributed it to every pioneer team member present.

”Wow, lotus leaf frogs, rosy tits...these are all low-level monsters known for their delicious meat. Isn’t it a pity to feed water ghost catfish?”

After taking a look at the list, he found that the ingredients written on it were all the raw materials for the delicious dishes in the restaurant. Russell, a foodie, felt a pity and wished he could show them all in his mouth.

”...If you really want to eat, I’ll grab some for you along the way.”

Seeing Russell’s expression on the verge of tears, Lu Dahu could only hold his forehead helplessly, and then silently increased the amount of hunting by %.

Although it sounds outrageous to compete with the target pet beast for food, who is to say that he is the boss now... (End of Chapter)