Nathan didn't need the Mind Eyes to know that bee's status.
In The Strongest Survivor, skills that allow people to see the status of others are rare. In the main group, only Kael with his Demonic Eyes and Stella with her Mind Eyes can do it.
The Queen Bee was a Green Grade. She had at least 100 points in every stat and her unique stat was Reproduction.
In the original work, Kael with 37 Strength points managed to punch an iron door and make his hand pierce through the metal. A hundred points would be enough to demolish a small house.
As a queen, she had the ability to create worker and soldier bees, Gray Grade creatures much stronger and tougher than normal.
But for that, she had to stay on the ground, anchored and fully focused on her eggs at the base of the tree.
This forced an extreme debuff on her body. Her stats plummeted from 100 points to around 30, and it was exactly because of this opening that Kael managed to kill her on the first day.
"Thank God, I arrived right on time," Nathan muttered, activating the Mind Eyes.
The world gained that translucent film and he focused on the base of the cracked tree.
The insect was anchored to the asphalt. It was the size of a common dog, its carapace didn't look like the chitin of a normal bug, it was a thick, black armor, as thick as lead plates and marked by yellow rings that emitted a toxic light.
Its abdomen was grotesquely swollen and rested heavy on the concrete. It pulsed in rhythmic and violent spasms, secreting eggs the size of bowling balls covered in a translucent, foul-smelling goo.
The creature's six legs were columns full of sharp barbs, tearing the ground every time she adjusted herself. Her head was an anatomical nightmare. Two antennas as thick as steel cables whipped the air nervously, and her compound eyes, huge and spherical, reflected the environment in thousands of greenish fragments. Double serrated jaws snapped incessantly, drooling a viscous liquid that sizzled and melted the grass around it.
The most glaring difference wasn't the size, but the aura. A thin emerald-green mist exuded from her body. The trademark of a Green Grade monster.
Above that crown of natural thorns on her head, the Mind Eyes responded.
[Mana Queen Bee (Green)]
[Condition: Spawning (Debuff Active)]
[Strength: 31(100) | Agility: 15(100) | Health: 35(100) | Stamina: 28(100) | Mana: 40(100)| Reproduction: 100]
Nathan's eyes locked onto the second line, Agility 15. With the spawning debuff weighing on her body, he had a chance.
He looked at his own right hand, the puncture wounds from the dog's teeth were still bleeding and his fingers were swollen. His only weapon was his hand and the ability to compress mana into projectiles.
'It'll have to do,' he thought, facing the queen's guards.
The four soldier bees patrolled in formation around the queen, two flying in opposite circles in the higher branches and two resting on the lower branches, one on each side. The queen was at the base of the tree among the thick roots, her huge abdomen pressed against the branches, completely motionless.
Nathan formed two mana spheres, one in each hand. He pulled the frigid current at the same time, the pain in his right hand made his jaw clench, the dog's tooth punctures burning like embers while the blue energy condensed over the fresh blood. His Control worked in the back of his mind, sealing the mana leaks in both spheres before the pain made him lose focus.
He aimed at the two soldier bees resting on the lower branches.
BANG. BANG.
The two shots tore through the air in perfect sync leaving blue trails in the dust.
The left bee caught the flash, its thin wings vibrating in a blur trying to throw its heavy body out of the trajectory, but the movement wasn't fast enough. The sphere grazed the side of the creature, piercing the right wing's membrane with a dry rip that made it lose its balance and plummet down spinning until it hit the tree roots.
The right bee didn't even twitch its legs. The second sphere found the exact spot between its huge compound eyes, its forehead carapace caving inward with a hollow snap of breaking glass, splashing a thick, greenish liquid across the trunk before the creature fell stiffly onto the asphalt.
They didn't die. Their Gray Grade carapace was too hard. The two thrashed on the ground, rubbing their barbed legs against their own heads while letting out ragged screeches that sounded like nails scratching metal.
SCREEEEECH!
At the base of the tree, the queen ignored the noise. Her grotesque abdomen continued contracting in the same sickly rhythm, expelling another yellowish egg covered in translucent goo without even turning her head toward the attack.
Nathan didn't miss the chance. He focused the mana in his left hand, pushing the compression to the absolute limit of his Control until the sphere shone bright enough to illuminate the broken concrete around him, aimed straight at the motionless queen's chest and fired.
The sphere crossed the space with a violent hum and collided against the black armor.
CLANG.
The sound echoed through the parking lot like a steel hammer hitting solid wood. The blue smoke from the explosion swept the grass around it, but when it settled, the queen was still there, polished, without a single scratch on her emerald-green carapace. The raw shot was useless against her heavy stats.
The fallen soldiers' screeches served as an alarm for the rest of the hive.
The air above Nathan vibrated heavily, the two bees that were flying in circles in the high branches folded their transparent wings and dove toward him like two stones, their exposed rear stingers dripping an acidic liquid that sizzled against the air.
Nathan spun on his heels and burst into a sprint, forcing every fiber of his twenty-one Agility points against the uneven ground of the parking lot. The buzzing sounded like a chainsaw engine glued to his ears, the heavy wind from their wings already messing up his hair when he threw his body weight to the right, diving headfirst over the dented hood of a silver sedan.
BZZZZZZ!
The first bee's stinger pierced the car's roof exactly where his foot had been a fraction of a second before, piercing the metal sheet like it was paper and making the metal bubble with a toxic hiss.
The second bee scraped past the top of the sedan, its barb-filled legs tearing Nathan's shirt mid-air and scratching his back. The physical thud ruined the balance of his jump, throwing him awkwardly against the destroyed asphalt, skinning his elbows as he rolled so he wouldn't be an easy target.
He needed to get up before they circled back.
Nathan stood up from the asphalt before he even stopped rolling completely, his twenty-one Agility points responding to his instinct and getting him on his feet in a quick leap. His back burned from the monster's scraped paws, but his twenty-one Stamina points suppressed the pain and kept his lungs working effortlessly.
The bee that had missed its dive was pulling its abdomen upward with force, the metal of the sedan's roof snapping and tearing as it tried to free its stinger tangled in the bodywork.
"Got stuck," Nathan growled, blood dripping from his injured fingers. "My turn."
He didn't give it time to fly again.
Nathan stepped on the car's hood, the momentum of his twenty Strength points denting the steel downward and launching him into the air. The creature turned its head and opened its double jaws wide in his direction, but Nathan landed heavily on top of it, grabbed the base of its right antenna with his skinned hand and punched his left hand straight into the gap between its spherical eyes.
"Swallow this."
He pulled the frigid current to his closed fist pressed against the bee's skull and released all the compression at once.
BOOM.
The point-blank impact caved the chitin inward with a wet snap, the head exploded splashing green fluid across the windshield and the heavy body collapsed limply onto the metal roof, finally releasing the melted stinger.
[You have eliminated a Soldier Bee (Gray). +3 Health]
He didn't stop to look at the body, the buzzing of the second flying bee was already making his teeth vibrate again.
Nathan jumped off the sedan back onto the asphalt, bending his knees to absorb the impact.
"Come down already," he muttered, facing a creature that was making a turn high above and diving toward him once more. Except now he wasn't running away with his back turned.
He opened both hands, focusing the mana current in both palms at the same time. The spheres formed quickly, dense and vibrating stably thanks to his fifteen Control points closing the fissures.
The bee descended tearing through the air, its spiky legs pointed at his face.
Nathan aimed his right hand and fired.
The creature flapped its wings and zigzagged to the left at the last millisecond, the blue shot grazed past and blew up the tire of an overturned car behind it. It was fast, but the sudden dodge broke its attack speed for an instant.
"Smart," he grunted, his eyes tracking the beast's break in inertia. "But I have two."
He took advantage of the new angle with the Mind Eyes and threw his left hand into the trajectory.
BANG.
The sphere hit the base of the left wing dead-on, the explosion tore the membrane by its roots and the creature instantly lost its lift in the air. It fell spinning in a spiral, hit the concrete hard and began dragging itself uncontrollably, screeching in pain as it tried to support itself on its sharp legs.
Nathan formed a third sphere in his right hand.
"Stay down."
He fired straight into its crawling abdomen, the lower carapace gave way under the pressure and the insect stopped moving in the middle of a green puddle.
[You have eliminated a Soldier Bee (Gray). +2 Agility]
Nathan lowered his arms and spat on the asphalt, his breathing heavy as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. The parking lot was once again focused only on the distant alarms and the wet sound of the Queen, who continued to ignore the death of her guard to expel another glowing egg at the base of the tree.
The other two bees he injured at the beginning kept crawling near the thick roots, slow and with their wings completely broken. The sky was clear.
"The air force is gone," Nathan whispered, clenching his bruised fists. He stared intently at a colossal green carapace anchored to the asphalt. "Your turn, Your Majesty."
Nathan walked up to the two wounded soldiers dragging themselves among the roots. The one with the pierced wing tried to take flight when it felt him approach, but could only flap its good wing in the air and spin in pathetic circles on the ground. He formed a missile and fired it into its head. The skull caved in and it stopped.
[You have eliminated a Soldier Bee (Gray). +1 Stamina.]
The second, the one that took the shot between the eyes, was crawling blindly in the opposite direction, its barbed legs tearing up the asphalt aimlessly. Nathan walked up to it and fired another missile into the back of its neck.
[You have eliminated a Soldier Bee (Gray). +2 Strength.]
Four soldiers dead. The parking lot went silent, except for the wet and rhythmic sound of the queen producing eggs.
Nathan stopped about ten meters away from her and analyzed the situation. The missile he fired earlier hadn't left a single mark on her carapace. The black armor was too thick and a Gray's condensed mana didn't have the power to penetrate it.
But the junction between the head and the thorax was different. In the manhwa panels, when Kael sliced the queen with the demonic sword, the blade went exactly into that gap where the plates separated to allow head movement. It was the only spot where the exoskeleton was thin.
A normal missile wouldn't work even there. He needed everything in a single shot.
Nathan took a deep breath and started pulling mana. Every drop left in his reservoir. The frigid current left his stomach, his chest, his legs, his arms, converging into his right hand like tributaries flowing into a river. The pain escalated quickly, his arm burned from his shoulder down to his fingers and his vision darkened at the edges, the world narrowing as if he were looking through a tunnel.
The sphere formed in his palm. It wasn't blue, it was white. Bright enough to cast shadows on the asphalt, dense enough for him to feel its actual weight pulling his wrist down. His Control worked at its limit, sealing every fissure, squeezing the mana until it vibrated with a high-pitched hum that made his teeth ache.
The queen felt it. Her antennas stopped whipping and pointed straight at him. Her abdomen contracted violently and her front legs pushed her body up. She was trying to break out of her spawning posture.
Nathan ran, ten meters... eight... five.
The queen's legs tore the asphalt and her massive body rose a few centimeters off the ground, her jaws opening with a snap that echoed through the entire parking lot. The emerald-green mist thickened and the air grew heavy, loaded with a pressure that made Nathan's legs protest with every step.
An overturned car was between him and the queen, its chassis facing up with its exposed axles. Nathan stepped on the blown tire, climbed onto the chassis and launched himself from the highest point, using every ounce of Strength in his legs to gain altitude.
In the air, the world became sharp. The queen beneath him trying to stand up, her front legs dug into the concrete, her head raised with her jaws open drooling acid. And right there, between the crown of thorns and the armored thorax, the thin gap where the armor plates separated.
The queen's jaw came at him.
Nathan twisted his body in mid-air, dodging by centimeters, feeling the wind from the bite and the acidic smell burning his nostrils. He extended his right arm and shoved the white sphere straight into the exposed junction.
The contact was instantaneous.
The explosion had no sound in the first second. It was just light, a blinding white crater that swallowed the queen's head and expanded in every direction. Then the sound arrived, a deep boom that shook the ground, shattered the windows of every car within a twenty-meter radius and threw Nathan backward like a ragdoll.
He hit the asphalt on his side, rolled twice and came to a stop on his back, staring at the blue sky with his ears ringing and his right arm completely dead. Mana at absolute zero.
He lay there for about five seconds, hearing only his own heartbeat.
Then he turned his head to the side.
The queen had no head anymore. Her thorax ended in a jagged, melted stump where green liquid gushed in weak pulses. Her body staggered on its legs for two more seconds before collapsing onto its side, crushing eggs and roots under its weight.
[You have eliminated a Mana Queen Bee (Green).]
[+16 Strength. +12 Agility. +20 Mana. +10 Health. +14 Stamina.]
The letters were green and the numbers absurd. The wave of energy filled every exhausted muscle as if someone had turned on a generator inside him.
Another screen appeared, golden.
[Achievement Unlocked!]
[First human to eliminate a Green Grade creature.]
[Title Acquired: "Transcendent"]
[Effect: When eliminating creatures of a higher Grade than your own, all received stats are doubled.]
Nathan slowly sat up on the asphalt, reading the golden screen once, twice, three times. A smile spread across his face, wide, genuine, the first since he woke up in that world.
"Transcendent..."
He started laughing. Low at first, then louder, the sound echoing through the empty parking lot between the destroyed cars and the queen's corpse.
He had awakened with 10 in everything. Ten. The absolute minimum a human could have. While Kael started with 30 in all stats and an archdemon inside his head, Nathan Salt started as the most generic mob possible, with no family, no mentor, no nothing.
But now he had something that made up for it. Double the rewards against any creature stronger than him. The harder the fight, the greater the gain. The system was telling him that the way to go was to hunt upward, always upward.
And the most annoying part of all? Kael had received this too. The protagonist who was already born with every possible advantage gained this very achievement on top of everything else, because of course he did, he was the protagonist.
"What a lucky motherfucker," Nathan muttered, the smile still on his face as he wiped the dried blood from his mouth.
Next to the queen's body, an object gleamed on the ground. A thin, silver ring, with engravings that changed shape depending on the angle.
[Item Acquired: Ring of the Transcendent]
[Rarity: Legendary]
[Upon equipping, choose a stat. Whenever the wearer eliminates any creature, they will receive a minimum of +1 in the chosen stat, regardless of the original drop.]
Nathan picked up the ring and put it on his finger. The screen flashed asking for his choice.
"Control."
[Linked stat: Control.]
The silver engraving pulsed once and stabilized. Nathan looked at the ring on his finger, feeling the cold metal adjust itself to the right size, and opened his mouth to call out his status when a voice cut through the silence of the parking lot.
"PLEASE! SOMEONE! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
Nathan turned his head. The voice came from behind him, from the direction of the concrete path he had arrived from. It was female, desperate, cracking on the edge between a scream and a cry.
"PLEASE!! SOMEONE!"