We quickly handled the one guarding the entrance, and then blocked the entrance with clay wall after all of us had entered. If I didn’t do this, we might have to face some surprise attacks from the returning ants. It seems that they’ve noticed our invasions, as they are now moving in a hurry.
“The vanguard are Amyl and me! Claire should check for the surrounding danger! Shallie, dont leave from Diabell’s side!” (Est)
“Understood!” (Claire)
“Got it~!” (Shallie)
The ant’s nest is quite large. Although the entrance is a bit small, the insides are so wide that 3 people can walk side by side. Since the ants are surging from the front one after another, let’s immediately test my improved flame magic.
3 flaming spears appeared around me when I imagined it in my mind. I imagine it aiming towards the ants to increase the penetration rate. The ants in front being pushed from the one at the back had no other other choice but to advance even if they want to avoid it. The flame starts bursting after piercing through, burning many of them together.
The ants raised their agonized screams and fall one after another. However for the following ants, they start climbing over the corpses of their companions like it was nothing. Claire and the other provides support with arrows and magic. We managed to repulse the waves of ants several times piling the corpses in front of us, but a hole suddenly opened between the vanguard and everyone at the back.
Several ants came crawling from that hole. Do they dig the hole while we’re fighting!? Although I got a bit impatient as we got divided, we don’t have to go back to help, as the neck of the ants that appeared got cut off.
“Ei~!” (Shallie)
Shallie showed her wonderful skill while raising a lovely shout. That surprised me. She might already be able to fight splendidly.
“Well done Shallie!”
Shallie had a joyful expression while waving her hands when I said that. Some ants seems to still appeared from the opened hole. Diabell stopped me when I tried to close it with Earth Magic.
“My lord, please leave this to me.”
Diabell starts concentrating after saying that. Once I felt that the air around Diabell shook for an instance, a big lizard clad in flames suddenly appeared in the next moment. This is…a Salamander?”
“Go!”
After Diabell gives that short order, the Salamander advanced slowly towards the new hole. Although some ant tried biting it, their opponent is a huge mass of fire. They start burning after attacking. I guess insects have no fear, as they just pass by from the side of their burning companions and continued attacking. However the Salamander greatly inhaled, spitting a terrifying amount of fire from its mouth.
The approaching ants were swallowed by the flame without being able to do anything aside from turning to ash. I guess Spirit Magic is considerably strong too. Its pretty convenient as you don’t have to act as the vanguard yourself.
No matter how many they are, they cant just spring out endlessly. The number of enemies appearing had decreased whenever we advance. We passed through the body of the ants that we cut and burn. We can’t afford to collect the monster cores in this situation.
No one said anything, but we’re all tired and injured. Claire and Shallie had their ears drooping. They’ll reach their limit soon.
We exerted our energy to advance, until we reached a huge cave that could even be called a large hall. Rice grain-like thing the size of a human sticks to the wall in large quantities. That should be the egg of the Soldier Ants. Being surrounded by those large amount of eggs, at the center of it is an abnormally big ant with the lower part of the body being 3 meters long.
“Is that the Queen Ant?”
“We’ve finally located it.”
Reacting to us who readied our weapons, the Queen Ant slowly stands up and starts threatening us. Our MP had already reached rock bottom. I’ll be running out of bullet after one or two more shots. I created the image for explosion magic. Once the ball of light appeared, I fired it aiming at the Queen Ant’s feet.
Her body size become her disadvantage as she can avoid it, the magic reached the Queen Ant’s feet without missing, exploding and tearing her foot. That should deal some damage. It’s going to take her a while to recover.
Although the Queen Ant came rushing at us furiously, all of us had spread out.
“I’m going!” (Claire)
Claire starts using her Rapid Shot, as large amount of arrows starts piercing the Queen Ant’s body and stuck there one after another. Transparent body fluid starts to overflow from the wounds. Some part of her body looks like hedgehog now.
“Answer my summons, Salamander!” (Diabell)
Diabell exerted her last bit of energy to summon the Salamander. The summoned Salamander start spewing out flames while biting the Queen Ants. the Queen Ants started biting back with her huge jaws. The salamander’s flaming body starts melting her jaws, disappearing just like that. The movements of the Queen Ants had become dull, trying to fight us in close combat.
“Yaah!” (Lelena)
“Eat this you monster!” (Amyl)
Lelena flings her morning star without stopping, while Amyl keeps on using his Bamboo Splitter skill to cut the rest of the Queen Ant’s feet. Shallie used my shoulders to fly over.
“You big scary thing~!” (Shallie)
Shallie swung down her dagger, splendidly cutting the Queen Ant.
I then jumped on the back of the Queen Ant, aiming for the thinnest part of the body which is between the chest and abdomen, swinging down the sword down several times.
“With this, it’s farewell!” (Est)
Although I almost got shaken off a few times by the violently struggling Queen Ant, I clings decisively, until I finally managed to split her in two.
The Queen Ant could no longer endure after having her body split in two, her struggling limbs had gradually stops moving, until the light of her eyes finally disappeared. It seems that we’ve managed to defeat it somehow. When I confirmed that it no longer moves, all of us threw our weapons and fall on the ground. It can’t be helped. We’ve really reached our limit.
And suddenly all of us felt energy filling us. It’s the level up.
Est：Level 34
MP 431/431
Speed 289
Defense 276
Luck 166
Skills Possessed:
『Swordsmanship：Level 3』
『Mapping：Level 1』
『Flame Magic：Level 3』
『Speed up：Level 1』
『Strength Up：Level 2』
『Shield：Level 2』
『Healing Magic：Level 1』
『MP Regeneration：Level 1』
『Earth Magic：Level 1』
『2 new skills can be acquired. Please choose from the list:』
『Ice Magic：Level 2』
『Speed Up：Level 2』
『Healing Magic：Level 2』
Claire：Level 32
MP 145/145
Speed 356
Defense 151
Luck 248
Skills Possessed:
『Evasion：Level 3』
『Rapid Shot：Level 3』
[T.N: 強弓 in the raws, something like strong bow. Feel free to give me better name]
Diabell：Level 29
MP 418/418
Speed 224
Defense 119
Luck 224
Skills Possessed:
『Summon Spirit of the Wind：Level 3』
『Swordsmanship：Level 3』
Shallie：Level 25
MP 68/68
Speed 197
Defense 91
Luck 184
Skills Possessed:
『Swordsmanship：Level 3』
『Great Jump：Level 1』
Amyl went up from Level 29 to 32. Lelena went up from 28 to 31 respectively. Thanks to the fierce battle, the level of everyone seems to have greatly improved. Like this we’re already Gold-rank in term of just level.
Claire seems to have reached the mastery of level 4 for Archery. She obtained a new skill called 『Power Shot』. It might be a skill to shoot off a single powerful blow.
Shalie had raised 5 levels. She’s already as strong as a Silver-rank. Even in the fight this time, she had helped a lot too. She seems to have grown up mentally, so it should be safe to leave the role of vanguard to her. I’m also interested in the 『Great Jump』 skill. Please use me as a springboard~! She might have gained the skill during that time. She should treat it like a combined technique.
Diabell is just one step before Level 30. She wouldn’t have any problem with the next fight. What kind of skills should I acquire this time? Since I’ve take magic before, let’s try to increase my physical offensive ability here. So with that, I acquired 『Swordsmanship：Level 4』 and 『Speed up：Level 2』.
Thanks to this fight, our fight with the Floor Master soon will be easier. After we collected the monster cores as much as possible, shall we get out of this place?
T.N: Wide hole, big queen, so many “Yo mama so fat” jokes here…