Like the ice witch described in her report, it looked like a wumao spider and an ant with a swollen belly; the upper half was slender, with clearly visible segments, while the lower half was bulging high, almost the size of an adult's torso.

Obviously, this was not the limit of the insect's expansion. To completely wrap the Mad Demon, its abdomen would have to swell to about two or three times its normal size. According to the "photos" sent back from the site, when it was in containment, its head would be buried in the ground, leaving only its bulging belly exposed, looking like a large, ripe insect egg.

"Did you kill it?" Phyllis asked.

"It's more convenient this way. Although it's not aggressive, it runs away very quickly," Agatha said, then conjured a slender blade of ice and cut into the insect's abdomen.

Immediately, a milky white liquid with a slightly fishy odor flowed out.

"This mucus has a certain antiseptic effect. Under normal circumstances, it can flow freely, but over time it will slowly solidify, turning into a substance like egg white," she explained.

"And then... used for food?" Faldi couldn't help but frown.

"Although I haven't eaten it, I don't think it would taste very good," Agatha shook her head, "The key is another kind of fluid in its body."

This time, it took her half an hour to peel off all the skin on the back of the insect, and she took out a slimy green organ.

"Looks a bit like a gallbladder," Phyllis said, eagerly leaning forward.

"But it doesn't contain bile," Agatha carefully cut a small opening in it and squeezed two drops of dark green juice onto the mucus that had accumulated on the ground. Then, she summoned two more ice cones and quickly stirred the mucus. "Now comes the important part."

Roland held his breath, carefully watching the changes in the "antiseptic fluid."

Before long, the liquid began to thicken, and the speed of the ice witch's stirring slowed down. After about two or three minutes, the ice cones immersed in it could not be separated, as if they were tightly solidified together by something.

He stretched out his finger and pressed the surface of the mucus, finding that it had transformed into a gel-like substance, with a relatively soft surface, but after pressing down a few millimeters, it was difficult to go any further.

"This is..." Phyllis said in surprise.

"Biological rubber," Roland said with a hint of excitement, "It's this stuff that kept Fran from moving."

From the first report Agatha sent, he noticed the special qualities of the relic crawler. At first, he thought it was a capability similar to a spider spinning silk, but as subsequent reports arrived, he discovered that the solidified mucus had excellent elasticity and toughness, no less than rubber. It could not only bond to the surface of objects, but also be shaped arbitrarily before solidifying. These two points alone gave it practical value.

Previously, Roland had been sending people to look for gelatinous plants. He believed that as long as he found a sample, Yezi could transform it into a high-yield crop that could be grown on a large scale. However, whether it was rubber trees or rubber grass, no definite news was obtained. Even in the species-rich Dawn Kingdom, no one had ever heard of such plants. Therefore, whenever elastic materials were needed, they could only be left to Soroya to solve.

This was undoubtedly restricting the production capacity of Neverwinter.

With a new batch of machine tools being put into use one after another, and the production efficiency and processing level of the factory had improved significantly, rubber became the most obvious shortcoming. Although he knew in his heart that rubber was just a general term for elastic materials, and could be artificially synthesized in addition to natural production, he had no idea how to operate it specifically.

When Roland suspected that there were no gelatinous plants in this remote corner of the world at all, the exploration report of the snow mountain ruins gave him an unexpected surprise.

That's why he decided to take this risk and try to cultivate this alien creature brought by the deep-sea monster.

Now that he had seen the real thing with his own eyes, he was finally sure of his judgment.

Leaving aside the durability of the solidified mucus, as long as it could serve as a seal for moving parts, it could undoubtedly be classified as a major category of rubber.

"According to Asha's scene backtracking, we discovered that it was these crawlers that bound Fran," Agatha said slowly, "They sprayed mucus from their tails, binding her tightly like silkworms. However, the liquid in the abdomen alone is useless. It must be mixed with the juice from the organs on the back to achieve rapid solidification—if it weren't for Sylvie's Magic Eye, we might have had to explore for another ten days and a half months."

"I see," Pasha nodded, "This is a good material for making fishing nets and ropes."

"The former is okay, but the latter is probably too soft," Elsha commented without reservation, "No one would like to use a rope that gets longer and longer as it is pulled. Besides, I don't think this knowledgeable mortal king would bring these insects of unknown origin back to Neverwinter just to eat a few more salted fish." She paused and turned her gaze to Roland, "No matter how crazy an experiment you want to conduct, don't forget that you now represent more than just Graycastle."

These words made Roland stunned for a moment. He did not expect that Elsha, who had always been concerned about him being the sole leader of the united front, could understand his intentions, let alone that she would say such words, which in a sense had already acknowledged the essence of his leadership.

"Of course," thinking of this, he couldn't help but smile, "If everything goes well, it won't be long before you can see its wide range of uses."

"But without the monster controlling them, how can we make the crawlers actively spray mucus?" Pasha asked, "Can't we just kill them and take it every time?"

"This is the direction of future research," Agatha wiped her hands after putting the organs into a leather bag, "If it doesn't work, we can only rely on large-scale cultivation to solve it."

In addition to the "Rubber Bugs," Roland then checked out other fresh species brought back from the ruins, such as fruit plants that could emit cold light on their own, and boneless small fish that lived in the dark river and were transparent all over. However, these new discoveries paled in comparison to the alien crawlers.

The former was just a symbiotic phenomenon—large groups of luminous beetles gathered inside the fruit. After eating the pulp, they would disperse, spreading the seeds along the way, completely failing to serve as street lamp plants; while the latter could hardly see the light and could only live in underground water veins. Although the meat was delicious, it was destined to be unable to be raised on a large scale and could only be served as a rare delicacy on the tables of a very small number of people.

Of course, Roland didn't expect every newly discovered species to bring him surprises like the "Rubber Bug." He was already satisfied with such gains from the snow mountain exploration.

Before leaving the Third Border City, Pasha brought two God's Punishment Witches he had never seen before to him.

"Your Majesty, they are willing to accept soul transfer and become new Devouring Worms. But before that, can you let them go to your dreamland and experience that incredible and wonderful world once?"