Chương 61: 1.3.17 - A Bug's Life

There was no shrieking, unlike the other monsters we had encountered so far. The moment those two large compound eyes appeared around the corner, it reacted to the light orb floating above us. These bugs probably navigated through smell more than sight, but that did not mean it was completely blind. The two feelers on its head swiveled about before it started clicking its mandibles furiously, followed by a quick rush towards our position. I fired a bolt of lightning towards it as it was rushing towards us.

The ant's speed did not even slow as it spat a glob of spit in the direction of the Lightning Bolt, which caused a mild explosion as the spit was scattered in all directions. While the spit itself was smoking when it splashed on the wall, I noticed it had a similar color as the tunnel walls.

It was likely the same material the ants used to reinforce the tunnels as they dug their nest, and maybe some kind of attack — whether it was used as some binding agent to immobilize their targets or as some acidic or venomous component, I did not intend to find out. Randell raised an Earth Wall and braced against it at the last minute as the giant ant rammed into the wall. I could see the wall crack on impact and Randell nearly being knocked back, almost losing his balance.

Annie fired ice shards over the wall without being able to see the target, hoping that some of them would hit considering our target's size. The problem with fighting in a narrow tunnel like this was the risk of friendly fire. I saw Randell create a hole through his Earth Wall and stab his sword through, which probably hurt it a little judging by the furious clicking we heard from behind the wall.

Randell thickened his Stone Skin armor and lowered his Earth Wall, preparing to engage the large creature in melee to also create an opening for us to release our salvo of spells at it. To Annie's dismay, none of the ice shards were sticking out of its body. She released another volley of ice shards at the abdomen but saw it bounce off its hard chitin shell.

"Go for its face and feelers to disrupt it." Randell shouted as he dodged a lunge by the giant ant. He was trying to circle around it to expose its back to us. Annie had already prepared another salvo of ice shards to fire at the ant's face, distracting it for a second. This gave Randell the opening he needed. He stomped on the ground, cracking the hardened soil beneath his boot as he cast a cleverly angled Ground Spike to trap one of the ant's legs before ducking under its mandibles to get to the other side.

It took a few seconds for the ant to free its leg before it could turn around. Randell took the extra time to cast a few more Earth Walls to try and close off the tunnel behind him. It did not completely seal off the tunnel but it would buy us some time if another ant found its way down this tunnel. It also ensured that the ant in front of us could not run away. I was charging a higher intensity Lightning Bolt all this while.

The moment the ant turned around, I called for my team to stand clear as I fired the Lightning Bolt at its abdomen, recalling what it did to those Glimmerwasp. The mutation the ant experienced not only made it larger but also made its exoskeleton thicker. The ant seized when my Lightning Bolt landed. Randell did not miss this opportunity and cast another few ground spikes at crisscrossing angles to lock its legs.

Seeing that it did not go down in one hit, Annie summoned a larger ball of water instead to douse its abdomen. I released another Lightning Bolt targeting its rear, which finally caused part of it to crack. CRAK — THOOM — SPLAT The ant seized at the damage it took to the abdomen. Unlike humans, these ants seemed to be able to keep moving even after suffering catastrophic damage to their bodies.

My lightning seemed to also have fried its nervous system as it was now moving awkwardly, still trying to slice Randell in half with its massive mandibles. To make it quick, I next aimed for its thorax to completely obliterate the ant, leaving only its head. This also destroyed the mana core but we needed to kill this ant quickly before more came. Randell was able to stab his sword through its eyes for good measure to put it down quickly.

Once I confirmed that it was completely dead, Randell quickly stored what remained of its head and legs into the bag of holding. We did not bother with the chitin shells that were scattered around the tunnel floor. We quickly hightailed it out of the tunnel. Even through the small opening left between Randell's Earth Wall s, we heard numerous clicking and tapping sounds — the rest of the nest probably alerted to our presence from the skirmish. Randell placed a few more Earth Walls as we left for good measure.

Annie conjured water to fill the gaps and freeze it. This would not seal the ants off from the dungeon but it would still slow them down, giving us enough time to leave the dungeon. We could hear the sound of the first layer of Earth Walls being broken down behind us as we ran for the level 3 exit. It was a good thing Waldo had the foresight to make sure we packed all our equipment back into the bag of holding instead of leaving it at the camp site.

The moment we reached the first level, we decided to leave the dungeon regardless of what time it was outside. It was midday by the time we exited the dungeon. We came across a few other hunting parties on level 1, which was good as they probably cleared quite a few packs of monsters. That meant that we barely had to fight anything as we left the dungeon. We managed to get back to the guild hall before they closed, Sennika giving us weird looks when we pushed open the doors and collapsed on the floor.

"Did you guys rediscover your inner child and decide to race each other back or something?" Sennika said with a coy smile as she leaned over the reception counter.

"See for yourself." Randell just threw the bag of holding over to her. The bag's enchantments allowed the user to sense what the contents were without needing to take them out.

"Haah — We — haah — did not — haah — Fwooo, hoooo~ We did not want to become ant food, so we left immediately. The giant ants are real. We found one of the entrances to the nest down on level 3." Waldo said when he finally caught his breath.

"They might not come up to level 1 that soon but we should warn the other adventurers that frequent the dungeon." Sennika's face dropped when she heard what Waldo said. She immediately checked the bag's contents, which only made her expression darker.

"I'll report this to Lord Aldric. I'll also need to alert the Guild Master immediately. I know the three of you are not from this town but you have no idea how many lives this might potentially save" Sennika said before she rushed upstairs. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Three of you? Does Sennika know something? Randell also shot me a glance before he averted his eyes at that remark.

"I don't know about you guys, but I need to soak myself for hours after this. Especially after that creepy ant. I never knew ants could look so mean." Annie said as she stood up. I was craving Marta's food after days of stew made from dried rations and meat jerky with barely any seasoning. The lack of vegetables in my diet was not doing any favors for my bowel movement.

"I agree, I'll head off too. See you three here tomorrow morning?" I looked to Randell for confirmation, which he returned with a nod, too tired from rushing back after the fight with the giant ant. Later that night, I finally had time to look through my status. I had opened and dismissed all the notifications to avoid the gnawing feeling at the back of my head but did not have time to properly look through my status. I pulled on the Weave to bring it up.

Status Core: Lightning Affinity (Perfect) Core Stage: Yellow Stage Level: 8 Mana Core Capacity (MCC) Progress to Next Level: 1, 725/2, 500 Core Mutations: - Lightning Brain - Lightning Adaptation Spells: - Electrolocation (Tier 2) - Level 6 - Lightning Bolt (Tier 2) - Level 9 - Lightning Infusion (Tier 1) - Level 10 - Lightning Manipulation (Basic) (Tier 1) - Level 2 Soul Mutations: - Adaptive Soul - Nature's Constitution - Myelin Insulation - Musculoskeletal Compaction Status Core: Lightning Affinity (Perfect) Core Stage: Yellow Stage Level: 8 Mana Core Capacity (MCC) Progress to Next Level: 1, 725/2, 500 Core Mutations: - Lightning Brain - Lightning Adaptation Spells: - Electrolocation (Tier 2) - Level 6 - Lightning Bolt (Tier 2) - Level 9 - Lightning Infusion (Tier 1) - Level 10 - Lightning Manipulation (Basic) (Tier 1) - Level 2 Soul Mutations: - Adaptive Soul - Nature's Constitution - Myelin Insulation - Musculoskeletal Compaction I had pushed my Electrolocation up another level by constantly keeping it on.

Coupled with the multitude of Orange cores I had absorbed, I had accumulated enough experience such that I was a little more than halfway to the next level. If I had not leveled my spell or if it had been capped, I would have barely gone up 10% of a level.

"Hmmm was this the rate most people leveled?" I said out loud.

"Yes genius, this is how us common folk level" Merv suddenly said, giving me a fright.

"Fu— I thought you were asleep. Can you not scare me like that?" I glanced over and saw Merv looking at me, the whites of his eyes catching the moonlight from the window.

"I was almost asleep until you started talking to yourself. And yes, most adventurers don't progress as fast as you. Most take years before progressing to Yellow, and only the ones that push hard ever make it to Green." Merv said in a whisper.

"How do you even know what stage I'm at?" I asked. Everyone at the orphanage knew my core was awakened but I did not remember ever telling anyone what my progress was.

"Duh, I saw your Steel rank tag. That takes Yellow cored strength. Anyway, please stop talking to yourself even if you're not sleeping. Some of us need to get up early to work" Merv said as he turned his body the other way, trying to go back to sleep. I dismissed my status then and closed my eyes. Sleep claimed me a lot faster than I expected, my body relaxing the moment it sensed the familiar straw bed. We collected our payments and our camping equipment that Sennika kindly removed for us from the bag of holding.

Sennika told me I could visit the Falden manor anytime I wanted and to ask for a steward by the name of Jasper. Aldric had mentioned that instructions had been given to Jasper to assist me with my reward. The team decided to meet that night at the tavern they were staying at to celebrate. While the threat of the giant ants had been confirmed, there were apparently preparations that needed to be made and communications to be sent.

If the nest really had a Blue cored queen, no one in this town was equipped to handle it.

"Toast to the Weave!!" Randell roared as we smashed our mugs together. Both Randell and Waldo had gone for the usual mulled wine, while Annie had gone for a light cider. I had ordered whatever passed for milk in this world and elicited a good laugh from the barkeep. He had said something foul along the lines of 'going home to suckle on my momma's teats' but served me my drink anyway. Well joke's on him cause I was an orphan in this world.

"I thought you guys would have wanted to go to that Rising place or whatever that you two keep mentioning. The both of you seemed really fond of it." I said as I sipped on my cold milk. There was a block of ice floating in it, courtesy of Annie. Randell and Waldo exchanged awkward looks and were about to say something when Annie cut them off.

"The food here's better. Try some of this Damian." She had wanted to feed me a piece of steak which she had cut, but I took the fork from her to eat it myself. I was not about to let the barkeep make fun of me being fed after that last joke about my choice of drink.

"Well we should take the time to rest up and relax. We will stay on in this town and help with the upcoming mission, but the guild would need some time. There will be good coin to be earned for sure and plenty of monster cores to absorb" Waldo said after emptying half his mug.

"We do need a different strategy though with the ants." I said, which made Annie and Waldo's faces drop.

"No no no. I didn't mean that. You both just had a bad match up for the ant. Just like the Sabertail Panther was a bad match for me."

"Aww, you're too kind Damian" Annie placed her hand on my arm as she said that, giving my arm a light squeeze. THUNK! The noisy chatter around us suddenly went quiet. Everyone turned to look at who smashed their mug on to the table. I looked over and saw Fallic and Haeken at another table. I had not realized they also frequented this place. Haeken just had his face in his palm, shaking his head. Probably too ashamed at Fallic's behaviour, as Fallic was the one that had smashed his mug against the wooden table.

He kicked back from the table, which caused his chair to screech loudly against the wooden tavern floor. CLIK-CLAK — CLIK-CLAK — CLIK-CLAK — CLIK-CLAK Everyone, including me, kept our eyes on Fallic as he got up and slowly walked over to our table, stopping right in front of me. Ok, what the fuck is this guy's problem this time.

"Miss Annie, you should find better company than the likes of him. He has no skill and only relies on his affinity. You also need to be careful of him stealing cores from the party members" Fallic said with a sneer.

"Myself and my friend would be a much better addition to your party." he went on with his monologue.

"Sorry, but do I know you?" Annie said.

"You! It's all your fault." Fallic suddenly turned to me, pointing his fingers at me.

"I will prove to everyone that you're just all talk. I challenge you to an Adventurer's Duel!" He removed his guild tag and held it out. I could see Haeken bury his face in both his palms in the background. I had about enough of this guy at this point.

"Damian, you don't—" Annie started.

"I accept!" I would beat the shit out of Fallic this time.