Chương 63: 1.3.19 - The Queen's Gambit (1)

"Thank you all for gathering here today, some of you might have heard bits and pieces but I will start from the beginning for everyone's benefit. If you have questions, please wait till the end of the briefing. Raise your hand and I will call out to you one at a time." Daresh spoke with an air of authority that you would expect from a Guild Master. It was my first time seeing him in person, though I'd heard some stories about his exploits from other adventurers when they drank.

Standing next to him was Aldric, and another man I could not recognize.

"Some months back, Lord Aldric and some of his men had encountered some unusual monsters in the forest surrounding Hollow Delve. They were believed to be giant ants, mutated by the corruption coming from the dungeon. Last week, Randell's party took on the mission to confirm it by going into the deeper levels of Hollow Delve and confirmed that one of the walls had been breached. The ants had dug into the dungeon and had either hunted the monsters in there, or been indirectly influenced by the corruption source."

Daresh looked in our direction when he said that. It was also the first time I had seen the guild hall being that packed. It was more than just the regular adventurers that were in here. Due to the nature of the subjugation request, it was mostly only Steel Ranked Adventurers that were invited, with the exception of a few Bronze Ranked that were part of a Steel Ranked party. The reason it was so packed was because the soldiers from the Falden manor were also in attendance for the mission briefing.

Most of the tables and chairs had been stacked in one corner, while the Mission Board had been cleared of its regular notices and was being used for today's briefing.

"Through combined efforts with Lord Aldric's men and some of you here, we had been able to locate what we believe to be all the nest entrances that connect to the surface. The ants' rapid expansion, if left unchecked, would likely destabilize the local ecosystem. When all the beasts in the forest nearby have been depleted, there's a chance the livestock and town residents would be next." I spied Fallic standing somewhere across the hall with Haeken and another party member I did not recognize.

When he turned his head and our eyes met, I could have sworn he shivered before quickly looking in front. I had tried to return his daggers after the duel but he avoided me like the plague, and I decided I might as well put them to good use — in case I met another beast like the Sabertail Panther. I could hear Waldo stifle a laugh behind me when he saw Fallic's reaction. To this day, they still would not tell me what they were laughing about.

"Lord Aldric had been able to secure the help of Sir Roderic, who is a Gold Ranked Adventurer himself and will lead his team of Silvers as the vanguard, and coordinate the overall operations of this mission." Daresh looked to Sir Roderic, who was broad-shouldered and looked to be slightly taller than 6 feet. I could not quite tell his age as he was greying at the temples which indicated late 40s or early 50s. However, his body was well built and the scant wrinkles on his face made him look to be in his 30s.

"Thank you Guild Master. The rest of you, please do away with the honorifics and just call me Roderic like my party does." Roderic said with a friendly smile. I could sense the tension lift a little just with that statement.

"The operation is not too complex. Our intel suggests that the ants are mutated from the Geomyre Ants that are typically found in the surrounding forests. If that is true, the Queen should be immobile in its nest. My team will take the entrance that we think has the shortest path to the Queen's chamber. The rest of you will be assigned entrances for the groups that you have formed. Some of these entrances will be covered by the Falden soldiers."

Roderic paused, less so for dramatic effect but more to allow time for everyone to absorb the information.

"The tunnel system should be straightforward if they mimic Geomyre Ants. We will converge on the central chamber where the Queen and the majority of the ants are. If you do reach the central chamber before us, stay back in the tunnel you came from and hold the line." Roderic added. Someone raised a hand and Daresh called on him to ask his question.

"Why do we have to go from different entrances? Why not just march in behind you?"

"Good question. There are several reasons really. First is that the tunnels are limited in width, only one party can fight effectively in one tunnel" Roderic explained. I recalled the difficulty we had with maneuvering around the tunnel fighting that one ant. Roderic went on to explain the other benefit of preventing any workers from escaping with any corrupted eggs. He opened the floor to questions again after that. Several hands shot up this time. Daresh and Roderic took turns answering the questions.

Not all of them were about the tactics, as some pertained to guild payments and contribution points. Some asked if they could choose which entrance they were assigned. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. By the end of it, all questions were answered but not all requests could be accommodated. Some parties walked away with a grumble but it seemed like they would still show up considering their home town was under threat.

We had departed in the middle of the night instead of pre-dawn like the rest. Due to our experience, we had been assigned the entrance on the third level of Hollow Delve. The timing was tight but by our estimates, we should be able to get to the entrance just as the rest of the parties start on theirs. We were more familiar this time and took less time to make our way down to the third level. We came across some Orange cored monsters but aimed at scattering them rather than wiping them out.

We did not even bother to absorb the cores and harvest any body parts to save on time. It was honestly difficult to tell how long it took us to reach the level 3 entrance but we estimated it to be around a quarter of a day. The rest of the parties should be entering the nest around this time. Even if we were early, they would not be far behind. By entering the nest at around the same time, we hoped the ants would also be more scattered, instead of being focused on a single entrance.

The walls that Randell had erected previously had already been torn down. As we entered the tunnel, I reminded the team that I was almost as blind as they were in these tunnels. My Electrolocation only allowed me to see down to the end of the tunnel, which was not very far as the tunnels bent and twisted a lot. Soon we heard the familiar clicking that we heard a week ago. However instead of struggling like we did last time, we had discussed a revised strategy.

"Here it comes!" Randell braced against an Earth Wall just like the last time. However right after that, Annie conjured water and sent it to where the ant stood before freezing the water solid. Randell stepped back to let the wall break, all the while preparing another Earth Wall. He sent it flying down on the gigantic ant's head right as the ant broke through the first wall, pinning the monster down. It tried to stand but could not find grip on the frozen floor beneath it.

Without wasting any time, I fired two Lightning Bolts at its head using both my hands. My spell immediately fried its brain, and I followed up with another bolt of lightning targeting the thorax. While the abdomen was still twitching, the jaws and those sharp claws on its legs at least stopped moving. Waldo was still relegated to a glorified lamp post but it was still useful not having to wave a torch around.

"Good work. That was a heck of a strategy Damian. I never thought of channeling Earth Wall from the tunnel ceiling." Randell complimented me as we walked around the ant's body. The mission brief had included information about targeting an ant's head and midsection to completely kill it. However that would also mean the mana core would be damaged. Our team made the decision to prioritize speed and safety rather than trying to preserve the core.

On our way in, we ran into a few other lone ants which we dispatched quickly using the same strategy. Unfortunately, there was one instance in which a second ant came and rammed into the first. The slippery ice almost caused both the ants to knock into us like we were bowling pins. Randell was quick to react and cast several Ground Spikes and an Earth Wall to slow them down.

I had already paralyzed one with a Lightning Bolt, so it was just the second ant flailing while it was wedged between its comrade and the ceiling. We managed to put both the ants down but Randell suffered a slash to his arm despite his Stone Skin armor. We did some quick first aid and let Randell drink one of the Basic Healing potions so that we could keep going. While we had more than a few potions with us, each of us was limited in how many we could take due to potion toxicity.

"I thought we would come across more ants, the nest seems rather sparse?" I said, recalling the number of ants I saw just outside the nest of the Geomyre ants.

"We don't really know how the corruption affected these ants, but there are a few possibilities" Waldo said as we ran along the tunnel.

"If the corruption started with these ants eating the monster flesh, and the Queen was the first to be corrupted, there's a high likelihood that the ants that hatched from a corrupted Queen would be different to their siblings." Waldo paused to catch his breath.

"There is a high likelihood that the corrupted ants are a new generation — and they ate all their siblings from the previous generation" Waldo shared his theory. I could hear Annie gulp beside me, probably freaked out by the image of these giant ants eating their smaller ant siblings. We came across another pair of ants. This time I fired two Lightning Bolts, one after the other, at the leading ant. The first bolt of lightning was intercepted by its spit but the second bolt managed to hit it.

It did not kill the ant but only paralyzed it, which was all I was aiming for. My spell made the leading ant tumble, which caused the second ant to run into it. Normally they would be able to untangle themselves easily but Randell saw the opportunity and cast a few Earth Walls from the left and right to press them together. Annie summoned a deluge of water aimed at the ants directly and froze their tangled bodies, further impeding their movements. It was quick work from there to dispatch the ants.

While we did not have many injuries, Randell could only take another healing potion and both Annie and I had already drunk one Basic Mana potion each. We needed to start managing our resources once we reached the central chamber. Squeezing through their tangled bodies after Randell and Annie dismissed their constructs was a different story though, as I accidentally nicked one of my legs on the sharp spikes.

After a few more minutes of running, we could tell we were near the central chamber as we could hear sounds of fighting ahead of us. When we emerged from the tunnel, there were already dozens of adventurers and Falden soldiers fighting near their respective tunnel exits. The fights were no longer as clean, since each team was engaged with several ants at once, with at least one or two ants — likely the soldier ants — that were significantly larger than the worker ants we had been fighting.

Right in the middle of the chamber was the monstrosity that towered over other adventurers, shooting spit that melted through armor and elemental constructs. One such spit was flying right at us.