Wizard: I devour the stars with swarms of insects.

Wayne's eyes lit up when he heard what his mentor Morse said. He hadn't expected his mentor Morse to be so generous.

Immediately, several ideas popped into my mind.

What I need are some potions that can enhance mental strength and help me advance to the second-class wizard apprentice level?

Or perhaps skill books on witchcraft and magic tricks, some kind of precious item or material? Or... something simpler and more direct, like magic stones as a reward?

After all, for wizard apprentices, buying anything in the Black Forest City Academy requires magic stones.

However, after thinking about it, with the help of the [Hive] system, all I need to advance to a second-class wizard apprentice is time.

He improves his mental strength through meditation every day, and then he will naturally be able to advance to the rank of second-class wizard apprentice.

Furthermore, some potions that temporarily enhance mental strength also have side effects.

If someone frequently uses drugs in the early stages and develops a dependence, it can easily lead to an unstable foundation of mental strength in the future.

As for precious items and materials? I don't seem to have any particular need for them here.

However, when Wayne thought of the experimental materials, a thought suddenly struck him.

Thinking back to the core of the "Honeycomb" I built using fruit flies as nodes.

To be honest, the number of fruit flies I bred was already quite small, only four left, and these fruit flies were too weak.

Connected to the [Hive] network, it can only serve some [detection] and [early warning] functions, and cannot form combat power at all.

If we could connect some stronger, more powerful, and more aggressive insects to our [Hive] network.

At that time, the [Swarm] cluster attack mode can be used to harass and attack the enemy, assisting in combat and truly bringing the [Hive] network to life.

Thinking of this, Wayne cleared his throat and asked.

"Um... Teacher, if possible, I'd like some rare insect species, preferably those with stronger attack attributes and some offensive capabilities... Do you have any here?"

"Insects? There are plenty of those things in the Black Forest. What do you need them for?"

"Professor Morse asked, somewhat surprised."

I thought Wayne would want some magic potions to enhance mental power, or some kind of material.

Unexpectedly, what Wayne wanted... turned out to be some insects?

"Well, the students want to do some experiments on insects..." Wayne said, scratching his head.

He couldn't say it directly, but he wanted those insects because he had the [Honeycomb] intelligent network in his mind.

It can connect with the consciousness of those insects and control them as "powerful assistants" for its own use and manipulation.

Therefore, I could only make up a reason to answer like this.

"I see. If it's an insect..." Instructor Morse paused, seemingly remembering something, then added, "Wait a moment!"

Then, he turned around and went to the shelves in the laboratory, and began to search through them.

He then called upon the tentacle monster "Poke" and the strange dog "Snoopy" to help him search.

So Poker poked his head into the pile of junk and started frantically rummaging through it, while Snoopy used his keen sense of smell to search through another pile of junk.

Soon, not long after.

With the help of Poker and Snoopy, Morse's mentor unearthed an old black stone box from a hidden corner.

The surface is marked with traces of witchcraft patterns, and at the seal, there is a painted face with empty eyes.

Mentor Morse instructed Pok to hand him a mithril tack and tap it on the surface of the stone box in a specific order.

Next, a scream rang out from the surface of the box, and the face painted on the seal revealed a ferocious and painful expression.

Then, the face split into several pieces, and the stone box was opened. Inside the box was a... skeleton.

Next, Morse's mentor carefully removed it with tweezers.

Under the laboratory lights, Wayne saw that it was the remains of an insect.

"I obtained this by chance seven years ago when I was invited by a friend to attend an inter-academy artifact exchange meeting held in the neighboring Kingdom of Rune."

"Mentor Morse said."

The goat's vertical pupils revealed a look of reminiscence.

"That exchange meeting was held in an abandoned castle in the Kingdom of Rune, and the participants included representatives from Gray Tower Academy, Starry Sky Corridor, and even the Eye of the Other Shore... There were many people."

"On the third day of the trade fair, several wizards reeking of blood suddenly arrived at the fair, saying they were in a hurry to deal with some 'tricky' spoils and could sell them at a discount in exchange for some healing potions and mobility tools."

"Those wizards claimed to be from a wizarding kingdom, remnants of an expeditionary force. Later, the kingdom was embroiled in internal strife, the expeditionary force disintegrated, and they fled here."

"This remains of an insectoid corpse are from a fierce battle they fought when they encountered the border guards of the insectoid civilization during their invasion of a certain plane."

"That battle destroyed many planets and killed many wizards. In the end, the expedition brought back the remains of some royal infants and brought them back to their plane of existence."

"At the time, the wizard told me that these insects were terrifying and had the property of 'devouring'."

"I thought it might be possible to revive the remains of these insects from other dimensions and conduct some biological research, so I traded other items for an insect corpse."

"But later, it didn't work out..." Professor Morse shrugged, somewhat helplessly.

"I didn't try it for too long at the time. Later, I was delayed because of other experiments, and it's been sitting here collecting dust ever since."

"If you need it, this thing is yours." Mentor Morse put the bug back into the box.

Reseal the seal on top.

"You can try some methods to hatch it; it probably requires some special incubation process..."

"Okay, thank you, teacher."

After Wayne took the box from his mentor Morse, he felt a little dumbfounded.

I never expected that what I would get in the end would be a corpse?

However, as he prepared to leave the lab, Morse's mentor said to him...

If other types of insects are needed, I will need to help myself.

Then, you can go to the Black Forest with me and catch the insects you need.

After thanking his mentor Morse, he took his leave.

Wayne returned to his room. Once inside, he placed the box on the table.

Following Morse's instructions, after using a mithril stick to press several points on the surface, a scream was heard and the face split open.

After opening the box, Wayne took out the insect carcasses inside.

In the candlelight, at a closer distance, the insect corpse appeared to resemble both a scorpion and a dragon, measuring one foot and two inches in length.

The torso is made up of seven sections of dark gold bone armor, each with a naturally growing spiral energy circuit on its surface.

"..."

After thinking about it, I realized that although I knew the [Hive] network connected to living organisms, I was just wasting my time.

However, Wayne still held onto the idea of ​​giving it a try, activating the [Hive] network in his mind and attempting to connect to the insect carcasses before him.

[Attempting to connect...] The [Honeycomb] network prompt screen appears, and the connection attempt begins.