《Insect Dungeon vs The World. (On Hiatus!)》 Ch -Prologue This prologue is indispensible for the story.
Third persons P.O.V:- *Clink* *Clank* *Clink* The heavy sound of metal striking metal was ringing everywhere. Countless brave warriors with disheveled hair and bloody bodies were fighting everywhere with beasts that looked more like abominations or monster from dreams than naturally created disasters. No matter how strong the strikes from their sharp and fine blade seemed, their blades always ended up repelled after colliding with the bodies of those damnations. Lights of different colors ranging from small to huge were flying everywhere time after time, impacting those freaks, creating giant craters and devastation on an environment devastating level, but most of those bastards would always stand up again like nothing happened and continue their massacre, spreading scenes of gore and pillage everywhere. Shurrrruuuuuu¡­¡­. *splash* splash*splash*splash* Sounds of movement through water reverberated amidst the falling rain. The Confluence of water and blood gave the whole scene an artistic touch, but with a feeling of sadness. Every drop of falling rain was evenly matched by drops of blood and sweat falling from the bodies of warriors and soldiers fighting with the monsters. BOOM BOOOMMM BOOOOMMMM¡­ Majestic Noises of battle exploded, while mournful voices and cries of desperation and wails of broken willed soldiers ringed through the whole battlefield. The soldiers, who had been fighting, killing the monster again and again, were so fatigued that the only thing holding their bodies was not magical powers, but their own will to fight. It was their will to protect their families and land, the will to protect their women from being ravaged and killed by the horde of vicious monsters which was keeping their cut and bruised bodies moving. While most of them believed for a miracle to happen, that would somehow turn the situation around, bringing the never ending massacre to an end, such miracle never happened. Reality ate their hopes because destiny had its own plans. The only thing that their desperation resulted in was to make their hotheaded and frenzied adversaries surge with a massive increase in killing intent, which made the situation even worse, worse than it already was. It was taking lives of brave and loyal warriors, fathers and sons to weed out the monsters. For every monster that was killed, hundreds if not thousands of the soldier were eaten alive or crushed to a meat patty. But no matter how many of them died no one alive retreated or ran away. There was not a single coward amidst their ranks, and every one of them stood straight in the face of death. When one died another took his place, moving forward without a shred of fear. They believed in their commanders, their supervisor, and their king. They believed that no matter who or how many died, their protectors would never let anything happen to their families, to their homes and to their country. That until they gave it their all, and did their part, there was no way anyone would be able to destroy their legacy. But they were not blind with faith, neither were they hypnotized to sacrifice their lives for a single persons ambition, but were together facing a villain like one they had never seen before. But even if their souls and wills were not dwindling in front of death, their hearts already knew that no matter how many common soldiers like them stayed true to their roots and followed every given order to their deaths, for their pride, for the pride and trust of their people, there was still no way for them to change the situation. No matter how many of their comrades died while killing a little bit of the enemy forces, the difference between their numbers and strength was indescribable. There was no way for them to put even a single dent in the enemies hearts as they were just mindless puppets sent to kill and destroy everything in their path. While the soldiers were desperately trying to fight with their nemesis, one of their leading commanders broke under the pressure. With his mind driven to insanity and thoughts of killing rampaging through his head, he cried out¡­ ¡°No no no oooooooo¡­.!¡± ¡°Why god! Why? What did we do wrong to deserve this humiliation and pillage? For what mistake thee want to destroy our land and our happiness? ¡°For what reason is this damnation, trying to lay waste to our thousands of years of history? Why is this devil not letting go of our legs, even though there is no way for us to retaliate against it anymore?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t take this anymore! You fucking bastard, if you really have the guts, then show yourself! Do you really fucking enjoy laughing at our miserable states, looking from behind the scenes? You fucking bitch of a leader. I''ll kill you, kill you uu ¡­¡­¡­¡± Guguaahh¡­¡­ *Thud* Everyone of their strongest warrior paled in front of the enemy generals. No matter how powerful they were once in their life, only death awaited them at the end.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The general cried, but he heard no voice to his anger filled question. All that answered him was an the axe of a rampaging Minotaur like monster. The general looked up and gave a long shout and declared to kill the impersonator, but all of his tenacity and anger came to naught when that Minotaur slashed his axe on his poorly defended neck. Without giving him any time to act or defend the axe fell on his neck, cutting his head. His crimson red blood created a fountain, blood splashed everywhere, while the falling rain washed away all of his grievances and sourness. His shocked and wide opened eyes clearly showed his confusion. His rapidly deteriorating mind tried to contemplate what had really perspired, but everything for him came to an end, when his eyes lost all light and he died. His head flew some distance before it crashed onto the ground, tumbled for some distance before it was stomped by a group of charging monsters. It was crushed so cruelly that all of his brain matter, fluids and muscles mixed together to a form, which can only be described as a paste.
P.O.V King:- There¡­. another one died. The strong really don¡¯t care about the weak, huh. When we were strong and our prey was weak, we played with them and enjoyed hunting them at our leisure. Now that we are weak and our prey is strong¡­ It can¡¯t even be called hunting. *Sigh* I don¡¯t know anything anymore. Prey? Were we even considered a prey by IT? We might have bellowed our bugles louder at the start, but time really showed how laughable and disgraceful, our forces and strategies really were. No amount of strategies and number of soldiers can hold a candle in front of absolute strength. Were our Advisers and ministers really right about the foreboding that they had perceived? If their views and notions were really adapted, could we have saved our entire race¡­ no, our entire world from the mouth of devastation? *Sigh* Regrets really make life sad, if we really had considered the views and wisdom of our ministers and cabinet then maybe this had not been the end, maybe we would have developed even further. If we had evolved and developed our technology for another thousand no just a few centuries then maybe¡­ Regret really makes life sad. An arrow which has already leaft the bow, really never returns before striking the target, huh. But the only difference is that, this time, our arrow struck the wrong target. How could we have known that the chance we sought to save ourselves would end up haunting our very own lives? How could we have known that our greed would one day end up making us face an adversary, who holds no meaning to life, no care for emotions, and has no heart? *Sigh* Should I blame myself, for trying to find life on other planets? Or Should I blame our army! Whose undisciplined and greedy nature devoured our whole civilization? Or Should I blame our gods! Who turned their heads away, when we needed them the most? *sigh* Did we really get so high on our success and enjoyment, that we forgot that are not almighty? That there might be something¡¯s in this world, which should not be provoked? Who would have thought that even our majestic force which counted to a total number of staggering 35 Billion, would face devastation on such a grand level that not even a million would be left? The war? It has only been a little over a Year, from the start of this bloody massacre. Yes, more than 5 Billion People died during this year. The Casualties from the barbaric attacks were uncountable. Most of the people who died were normal civilians, kids and elderly, people like farmers. Even though we still have some major cities intact and some places which are not normally available were also not attacked, but everything else was¡­ evaporated. Our fighting force which no one could put a dent in, has been broken and disfigured into a state that our former glory from just a year ago, seems like a thing of the far past. When we first found that place I thought we would be able to protect our land, our life, our home. We would be able to free ourselves from the disaster, which we could not help but create because of our own negligence. I thought that god had finally given us another chance to show him our value That we are not trash; we are not just depleting our resources, but are evolving. Yes¡­!! That is what really happened, that we could start our lives again, but * Drip*drip*drip* Even these tears can¡¯t help me forget my sorrow, this pain, and this anger. Wish I could go back in time and reverse everything and stop them from enraging it. I still think every day about the time when our soldiers brought that devilish thing back from their outer space skirmish. How wrong were we to think it would help us, but.......*sigh*. Nothing can stop IT now. I¡¯m sorry father. I could not help our kind. I could not help our planet, our world, but at least I did send that ominous bracelet away, at least it will not pester our world anymore¡­ at least after some time life will flourish here again, even if I will not be there to see the triumph and evolution of a new species and their evolution. Even if I am going to die today, but at least there is still hope, hope that it would not haunt the future of our coming generation, like it destroyed ours. Ah! Mother, looks like I am finally coming to meet you.
The king looked up and saw a giant disk floating and hovering high up in the sky. The disk floated and it came directly over his head and stopped. He saw it charging energy in one of its main cannons and when the sound of it getting powered up echoed in his surrounding, everyone stopped fighting with their enemies and looked up to see the cause of such unnatural phenomenon. The king closed his eyes as if surrendering his life to fate and then the beam fell. BBbbOOoOOmMM And then everything returned to serenity. The place that was once the most flourishing and advanced, crumbled like blocks. Mountains were flattened, rivers dried, oceans evaporated, and life became extinct. The cause of the said destruction left the orbit of the doomed world, left behind its master, to travel endlessly in the forever expanding universe, on a journey to find a new prey. Meanwhile the wheel of time kept on rotating, churning and centuries and millenniums passed away in the blink of an eye. While the destruction of the king and his whole civilization surely rocked the planet and the celestial bodies around it, but oblivious to all of this on the other side of the universe, millions of light years away somewhere someplace on a planet name Seiza, a light fluctuation of energy took place.
Year ¨C 4259, during summer, on the outskirts of an eerie, but otherwise quite mountain range something unusual happened. With the vibration and movement of soil and the stones around it; a crystal definitely different from the others started glowing with a pale blue light, and frantically devoured all the energies in the nature. This continued for one full day before it couldn¡¯t take more of it and had to stop. But by the end of its lunch it had eaten more than it could chew, and the result was a giant ass explosion. *BOOM* Like most balloons it also had a limit to how much it could eat and when it exceeded its capacity, the extra energy tumbled about inside it, and then forcefully came gushing out like a geyser. Its excessive energy tore through the underground, blasted the rocks and rest of the stuff and drilled a hole which directly connected it to the outside. The blast was heard and felt far and wide, as kings and bandits alike took note of this mysterious happening. Thankfully, the technology of the era had already advanced enough, otherwise except for the curiosity of treasure hunters and adventurers, many housewives would have cursed him to death for breaking their windows and cutlery. While the rest of the world was starting to get attracted towards its home, the owner and perpetrator of said event lost its conscious from excessive use of energy, and went into hibernation without knowing about the gift his un-ethnic explosion had brought him. Ch - 1 The newly formed life form slumbered for half a day before it finally opened its eyes, but unfortunately all he saw was darkness because he didn¡¯t have eyes. It struggled with its blurry and chaotic memory for a second, before its newly formed mind and soul started working their charm. ¡°Huh, what happened?¡± ¡°Why¡­ no, what am I?¡± It thought to itself for a second, but when it couldn¡¯t come up with any definitive answer it sighed, mentally. It relaxed gradually and new damaging thoughts gradually turned its head upside down. Seeing that all around it was nothing but darkness, the first objective it thought of was to find a source of light. So listening to what its nature was telling it to do, it tried to move, but it couldn¡¯t. The many survival instincts which was taking over its mind when he found out that he couldn¡¯t move made him a little depressed, but such thoughts vanished as soon as they came. So it tried other things like trying to see, hear, feel or touch, but when it failed to do anything other than to feel the temperature of the room, it knew that its form wasn¡¯t what its mind was telling it. ¡®Seems like I don¡¯t have any senses other than touch, and I also don¡¯t seem to have any limbs and I can¡¯t move.¡¯ If it had eyes it would be squinting them right about then, but its contemplation didn¡¯t displease him, rather it enjoyed thinking about its current state. ¡°Hum, this is an Interesting find already. Well, let¡¯s move on.¡± It was thinking of trying other conjectures and experiment to find more about itself, when a light blue box of some sort appeared in front of it out of nowhere.
A sentient being it trying to establish connection with you Accept the connection Yes/No
The blue box hovered in front of it, while he thought the meaning behind such a mystery. ¡®This is getting more and more interesting.¡¯ he thought. ¡®Well, let¡¯s accept it for now, and see what this thing is trying to do.¡¯ He accepted the connection and right about then, some voices started ringing inside his dark, infinite world. ¡°Hello, anybody there?¡± ¡°What are you saying little one! A connection needs two parties to establish you know.¡± At first he thought that the other party was delusional, talking to itself and such, but then he noticed the difference between their tone and voice. While the first voice sounded young, fresh and a little on the high side of the spectrum, the second one was low, stable, uniform throughout and seemed to contain love? ¡®Love, what is that?¡¯ Even his own thoughts confused him, not to mention two other identities. ¡°Ah yes, sorry madam, I was just too excited!¡± ¡°Well, as excepted. This is your first run after all.¡± ¡°Heee¡­¡± ¡°Well anyways, you remember what you were taught in the class right? Though having connected on your first time seems like you are also a genius. You probably prepared well before coming here. Anyways, let me inform you again, that once the connection establishes it is going to suck you straight towards the other side, so be ready okay.¡± ¡°Yes mam. I¡¯m ready.¡± ¡°Though that place will become your new home and everything, never forget that we¡¯ll always be there for you if you ever needed our help.¡± ¡°Yesh¡­¡± ¡°Okay. Live well stay safe, and don¡¯t forget your duty¡­ Oh, looks like the process is starting.¡± ¡°¡­.¡± "Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll be alright. Here take this your present¡­and now, for finding your other half and successfully connecting with it, I announce that you have graduated.¡± The one with kind of old and shrill voice finished her sentence and another ding sounded in the mind of the main character of the day, which was followed by another blue box.
Your helper will arrive in t-minus 0 seconds, Commencing changes to intercept the package.
He read the comment and felt his surroundings shake. Firstly, his surrounding which were filled with darkness turned all white, but he didn¡¯t think much about that. ¡®What¡¯s next¡¯ he thought. Next shining white particles came from nowhere and connected together to create a 4 ft tall, slim and colorless kite shaped crystal right in front of him. The crystal floated in air. Its formation intrigued him, but before he could think about anything, he felt his conscious getting dragged toward the crystal. He tried to force stop the movement, but it didn''t, and in the end he merged with the floating crystal. He apparently became more and more confused. Firstly, he didn¡¯t feel the pain thing his mind was telling it about. Then a whirlpool of black mass emerged on the floor, with a flash of dark light, some distance away. He wanted to see what that was about, but because he knew that it was not possible for him to move, he simply didn¡¯t try. He was thinking to himself, ¡®what¡¯s this all about?¡¯ When a small bug wearing clothes made of green leaves came out of the dark whirling mass of unknown substance. It didn''t actually come out of the gate thing. It was vomited out of it. The gate then closed itself, while the green bug rolled across the floor for some meters, and stopped at his foot or the foot of the crystal. "Oh, I am here" *Sniff* "Teac....." And it started vomiting, air. The owner of the area thought for a second before he decided to speak to the little big whose voice he thought seemed interestingly similar to the one he had heard in his mind. "Hey, who are you?" The bug at first didn''t give notice to his voice, but when it gradually stopped felling nausea, it noticed that someone was trying to talk to itself. She furrowed her brows and thought for a minute. Then she lifted her head and looked at the floating crystal, as her eyes billowed. "So you are can hear, good. Now, tell me what is happening here and what are you?" Her brows furrowed even more, while her forehead creased, when she heard the voice again. "Is it you? Are YOU trying to talk to me?" She cried out pointing her index finger directly at him. "Huh, who else is here with us? Anyways could you please tell me what is happening here?" But she didn''t answer his question and instead mumbled her thoughts out loud. "It is talking! But how can it talk!? Aren''t dungeon cores idiots?" ¡®Dungeon core? Umm let¡¯s see¡­¡¯ He checked his memory for the word, but didn¡¯t find anything substantial. So, he asked her. "Hey, what is a dungeon core? No first of all, what are you?¡± Having come to some kind of understanding the little thing nodded its head, and thought out loud again. "Let¡¯s forget about it for now, and see what it is up to." "Yes hi, how are you? My name is Feefee the 955, and I am your helper." "Helper?" "A Helper is... umm¡­ not that is not right¡­ a¡­ no¡­ he won¡¯t be happy hearing that¡­¡± She started talking to herself again and then sighed. ¡°Ah¡­ why wasn¡¯t I taught about how to handle a sentient core?¡± The crystal couldn¡¯t help, but look at her behaving like an idiot. ¡°Umm, okay, a helper in the sense that I will help you with anything that you want to do¡­." "You mean anything?" "Yes, anything. Be it a question, a skill, techniques, worldly talk, your first love... no other than the last one, any confusion that you have, I will help to solve it." "Ah! okay." And then it started thinking about what she meant by being his helper. The only word unknown to her which came to its mind when he heard her explanation was... servant. According to his knowledge only servants go to such lengths to help their masters. So it nodded its virtual head and started asking his questions, which she happily answered. "Okay, so who am I?" "You sir are a dungeon core." ¡°And what is a dungeon core?¡± "A dungeon core is a stone which has absorbed mana from its surroundings and has evolved to create its own domain. You see the crystal whose shape you are currently assuming is the heart of the dungeon or you, where your soul and you powers resides. While this is your heart, the domain or the dungeon, which you will create with your powers, will act as your body." He frowned when she mentioned the words heart, soul and dungeon, but when he understood their meaning, he took a breath of relief. "So I am a stone who became powerful enough to gain conscious. Is that what you are trying to say?" "Ah, haha, though dungeon cores don¡¯t usually gain conscious like this, but it seems like this is what has happened in your case." "Well okay. Enough about that, so what is this place? I mean my world used to be filled with darkness and you arrival, I think is what changed it into this white place, right?¡± She stopped for a second, and used her mind to come with the best answer. "Umm, this place is, you see, right now¡­ we are inside of you." "Inside me?!" He couldn''t fathom the meaning of those words. ''What does she mean by inside me?'' he thought. "Umm..like how every person has a little voice inside their head, this is the place where that little voice stays, and the role you have taken right now is of that little voice. "I don''t actually understand what you are trying to say, but even if this place is inside my head, what are you doing here? That is my question. I just can''t seem to understand how you could enter inside my head, without my permission?" he spoke with his voice turning a little hard and becoming tense. She frowned hearing him say that. Tilted her head and asked. ¡°Huh, didn¡¯t you see a blue box asking for your confirmation?¡± ¡°Oh that was you?¡± surprised he answered. ¡°Well, in a sense that was me?¡± and she giggled. "Umm, alright. So will you be okay, when we will eventually exit my mind?" "Haha, don¡¯t worry¡­ sir. This is my original body, and it will simply manifest outside when we will eventually exit.¡± ¡°Oh! So anyways, let¡¯s return to the real world.¡± "Okay, so think about returning and you will return to your original body." ¡°Huh?¡± The simplicity of the trick astonished him. ¡°It¡¯s that simple?¡± ¡°Yes, and if you ever want to return back here, just concentrate on your soul a little, and you will.¡± He heard her explanation, but he found the method to be too simple. In the end he sighed and thought about returning, and just as abruptly the whiteness had took over the dark. The darkness rained, and covered every part on his vision. The little bug vanished from his vision, making him think for a minute that maybe he was hallucinating, but then the familiar small sweet voice ringed inside his head, and he took a breath of relief. "Ah! Sorry about that. I forgot that you still can''t see." "Don¡¯t worry about it. Well what now? I mean what am I supposed to do?" As if she was already knew what he was going to ask she fired the answer at him. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.¡°The first thing should be to become partners. "We become partners?" ¡°Yes and no.¡± She said waving her hands with too much tension. ¡°We don''t just become partners! We''ll become one! Though your life will matter more than mine, you will have more powers and most, no all the decisions will be taken by you. But in a sense we¡¯ll pfficially become one.¡± "That sounds interesting." She rolled her eyes when she heard him say that and mumbled, "Haha... yeah right." ¡°¡­.¡± ¡°¡­.¡± *Sigh* The dungeon core finally broke the awkward silence between them. "Well then, what''s the procedure for this partnership? Should I sign somewhere?" She giggled when she heard him say that. "No stupid, we are not forming a contract. We are becoming one and the only way to do so is by..." He tensed and came on the verge of exploding thinking about the kind of thing she would ask him to do. ''She won''t ask my soul in return right?'' He thought as a drop of water dripped from the roof onto its back and slid on its smooth surface, before finally falling onto the ground. "Don¡¯t worry, it''s nothing much all you need to do is to give me a name and¡­ " "And..." he tensed a little, but "That¡¯s it." "That¡¯s it? You don''t need my soul?" She coughed out blood hearing him say that, and rebuked him for his nonsense. ¡°Hey I am not the devil you know! Anyways, please choose a good name for me, okay." Her nervousness about getting a name came out in her pleading because she personally knew many fairies, who having met fooling or arrogant partners had gotten names like, Blegh, good, Body, Ant, Meat¡­. She shook her frightened head, but still looked at him, full with expectations. "That¡¯s all right, but there is one think that I don''t understand." She smacked her head on the floor. "Now what?" "Why are you doing this? I mean why you want to become a part of me. I mean, why help me? Why become my helper?" She heard him say that a smile formed on her face. She placed her small but beautiful hand on his surface and spoke in a very low voice, dragging out every word. Lost in her memories and thoughts, she spoke. "What¡¯s in it for me? Now that I think about it, there is nothing, absolutely nothing in it for me. This partnership of ours is more like a sacrifice for me... One of the things that me and my fellow fairies were taught was that it is the duty of our race to stop a dungeon from raging and harming the environment. To make the dungeons a friendly place for other beings to gather¡­ But, but¡­¡± He thought a little about what she was saying and came to a conclusion that maybe she was being forced to become his partner or something. Though he felt that it was a good thing not being alone, he still felt wrong about forcing her. "Hearing you say that makes me think that dungeons are a bad place. Maybe other dungeons looses their mind or something and rampages, but don''t worry I won''t rampage or damage the environment. So now that you don''t have any reason..." "Idiot!" She mumbled. "What?" "I said you are an idiot. Yes, I said those are the reasons given by masters and my teachers, but it is not my reason for becoming your or any dungeon cores partner. My reason is simple, it is because, because I want to live and enjoy life.¡± ¡°¡­.¡± ¡°You know what other fairies that don¡¯t connect do for their lifetime? They either handle administrative work, or become a worker for other fairies. I want to become strong, see the things which only a dungeon can show, protect you against the attack from outside force¡­" "What, attacks!!" "To plan devices to kill everyone who will try to harm you. To see our pets growing and evolving into new creatures..." "KILL, Creatures, what creatures? Hey, come out of you world and listen to me..." But lost in her thoughts, she continued on telling him about his dream with her eyes sparkling and her voice becoming louder and louder. "To travel on the path which no one has taken, I want to ... I want to do that. That is my reason." ¡°¡­.¡± When she finally stopped she noticed that she was standing on the tip of the core with one hand on her waist and other fist pumped in the air, while a dazzling toothy smile had bloomed on her face. Following which her face quickly turned red from embarrassment. *Cough* ¡°Sorry about that¡± *cough* She quickly jumped down and turned with her head bent, gazing at him from the periphery of her vision. "Oh you came back from your dreamland... good very good. I don''t think I understand you reason and I think I have more questions right now than answers, but first let''s get over this obstacle." "Yes?" "So while you were showing me your convection & enthusiasm, I choose a name for you." "Really? Already?" "Yes and yes. Okay, so I think I will name you Minnie." "Wait! Don''t just..." She was going to say to not actually say her name, but he already had said it. *Ding*
All conditions Fulfilled.
Establishing connection with helper Minnie
*Ding*
All the necessary conditions for the Achievement "Let''s be Partner''s" fulfilled
Title:- Named Helper acquired
Little helper can now help you in your understanding of this world. There are no secrets between you and Minnie, now connected to each other mentally.
Bonus Reward:- 1000 Dc
¡°Huh¡­¡­¡­What happened?¡± He screamed out, and so did she. ¡°Why did you do it so suddenly, and what¡¯s with this name? Why does it sound so¡­¡± She was going to say something, but then she stopped. Red color suddenly adorned her cheeks once again, which quickly travelled over to her neck and chest. The contrast between her otherwise pure skin and her cheeks made the core delightful. ¡°So you like your name? It¡¯s simple and sounds cute. I mean it was the first thing that I thought about you when you first emerged from the gate¡­¡± ¡°Idiot partner¡­¡±she murmured, and her wings fluttered slightly. They stood there like that, waiting for the other to say something, but unfortunately no one spoke. Ten minutes passed between them in silence, when Minnie sighed and asked him. ¡°What about you? What should I call you?¡± And after pondering for about a minute he started telling her his suggestions. ¡°What about stone?¡± ¡°Because you were once a stone?¡± He happily nodded his head, but her reply mad him sad. ¡°Lame.¡± ¡°Then what about crystal?¡± ¡°That¡¯s too girly. Think something macho, something fitting your presence.¡± He thought some more and sighed. ¡°At that rate you might as well just call me Rocky.¡± And her eyes lit up. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ good. Rock, Rocky, rock¡­ I think it¡¯s good.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes. So from today you are Rocky. Okay, now let me enter the world inside you. I have a gift for you.¡± ¡®Is she acting shy or is she getting shy.¡¯ He couldn¡¯t comprehend what was happening with her. So he just let her be and entered his inner world with her. The same white world and the colorless crystal greeted him when he entered, and he was also again pulled inside the crystal as if being shown what his real self really was. Then he saw Minnie manifesting inside his world. This time she didn¡¯t enter from the dark gate, but butterflies made of light joined together and created her. Starting from her toes, the dots moved up creating her slender snowy legs, all the way up to her slightly pointed face with green sparkling eyes and finishing with her golden haired pony. The phenomenon was breath taking to look at. But the nameless dungeon core only thought of it as something interesting. Meanwhile, Minnie slowly opened her eyes, looked at the crystal and walked before she was arms length away from him. ¡°So now what?¡± he asked. ¡°Now I am going to teach you to mold your soul.¡± ¡°That is possible? So I¡¯ll be able to mould my bod¡­ sorry soul, to any shape.¡± ¡°Yes & yes.¡± Her answer excited him and he started jumping around, and stopped only after noticing that it was possible for him to move around in this inner world of his. He turned and looked at her, but when he saw that Minnie didn¡¯t give him any reaction, he thought that maybe it was a normal thing. ¡®So it was possible after all.¡¯ ¡°Then how are we¡­ I mean, I, am going to accomplish this seemingly difficult process.¡± ¡°Difficult? When did I say that it was difficult?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t it? I mean it sound so strange and everything.¡± And he saw her shaking her head smiling hearing him say that. ¡°Well maybe for others, but not for you. After all you can already see your soul and by soul, I mean that colorless crystal of yours.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± That surprised him a bit, but he let his newly found emotion be, and listened to her explanation. ¡°So all you need to do is to think about the shape that you want to take and your soul will respond. Though it will take a lot of concentration to change, but it is the easiest skill that you can gain. So try it now okay.¡± He heard her and tried to concentrate, but his 360 degrees of vision upped the difficulty for him and because he didn¡¯t have eyes or eyelids it wasn¡¯t possible to close his nonexistent eyes either. Well, it took him some time, but he somehow managed to concentrate enough to feel the changes happening inside of him. But just when he was about to finish the process, his concentration broke and so did his crystal. His colorless crystal melted and turned into goo. His body cracked and he split across the floor. Watching him trying so hard, but then failing and turning into goo made Minnie giggle, which made him slightly mad. ¡°Hahaa, that is kind of funny.¡± ¡°I here turned into this sticky substance and you are laughing!¡± ¡°Ah don¡¯t worry, because you whole conscious is already concentrated, you won¡¯t be able to harm yourself like this. Now, now, sure this is a bit tricky, but you were already close to getting it. I think one or two tries and you will get it.¡± ¡°Oh, Okay.¡± And just like she said, just on his next try he transformed. The sticky goo shined and emitted a ton of light. The light turned into a ball and covered him from all around. This cocoon of light engulfed him for a minute after which it broke and a transparent silhouette came out of it. The result left Minnie dumbfounded and she cried out. ¡°Hey! Why did you transform into me. Couldn¡¯t you have taken some other shape!?¡± And to her cry he innocently answered. ¡°But you are the only other shape I know.¡± And she remembered who he was. It irked her to see herself talking without moving her mouth and trying to use her limbs but failing. She cringed a little and she face palmed, when she saw him doing snake dance on the floor looking like her. ¡°You change into something else.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Just change a little. Change your face a little for my sake, please.¡± He saw her looking at him with her hands clapped and his mind told him that she was pleading. He thought for a second and somehow managed to sit still. ¡°So what kind of changes are you talking about?¡± ¡°You can do anything, like changing your eye size or anything of the sorts.¡± He heeded her request and just like she told him, made his face a bit smaller which instead made him look chubbier and increase the size of his eyes. The final product looked nothing alike Minnie and when she saw his new face laughter started fighting with her to burst out, but she controlled it somehow and gave him an okay sign. He wanted to ask her why she was being so weird but he shook his head instead. ¡°So what next?¡± ¡°Next¡­¡± She looked at him and covered the distance between them. She moved while her face reddened and her body shook ever so slightly. Somehow out of breath, she crossed her arms across his head and lightly joined her lips with his. This little action of her triggered something inside of Rocky, and he copied her. But instead of crossing his arms across the head like her, he tightly held her head and strongly pressed his lips against her, when she was about to stop. Seeing getting kissed back suddenly made her body shiver and she instinctively invade his mouth with her tongue, which was followed by him using his tongue against her. Their tongue war continued for a whole minute, when the seemingly out of breath fairy spasmed and fell on the floor. ¡°Minnie! Are you all right? What happened?¡± Meanwhile Minnie gasped for air as steam rose from for red face. Her trying to inhale made her small chest heave up and down which added appeal to her, but her partner didn¡¯t get the picture. She sat there for a minute and when her breath became normal, she used his shoulder to stand up. She saw him worriedly looking at her, which made her feel a little hot, but then her expressions changed back to her business face, and she asked him whether he had gotten any new messages. ¡°Yes, I got two new ones.¡± he replied and shared the information with her. Which were¡­
First kiss is a memorable experience. More so if a fairy kisses you.
Title: Fairy¡¯s Blessing gained.
It is very difficult to meet a fairy in this mortifying, cold world, forget about making one to kiss you willingly. But for one who achieves such a miracle rewards are a must.
Rewards: Mana regeneration. Mana presence. You are known to fairies.
Skill Mana Regeneration Gained
(active/Passive) Mana regeneration lv(1) EXP - 0% Automatically regenerates mana without users influence. Mana regeneration doubles if user actively tries to absorb mana from the world.
(active/passive)Mana presence Lv(1) EXP ¨C 0% Allows the user to sense the energies of nature around them. Default range is set at 10 meters. Range becomes 10 folds at every realm increase.
¡°Great¡± she said. ¡°Now with the help of mana presence you will be able to see, even in the outside world. Isn¡¯t it great!¡± He thanked her for her gift, and then they come back out to the outside world. But nothing remained the same for Rocky after that. The world changed, and so did his view. There was no need for him to carve eyes anymore. Moreover because mana presence gave him 360 degree viewing angle things simply turned out good for him, but with a mild headache. He saw dots, dots big and small of different colored lights floating all around him. The most numbered ones were Black colored, followed by cyan, yellow, green, red, blue and in the end there was a purple colored needle in the haystack. He looked at Minnie to ask her what these colors represented and noticed her small form glowing in yellow and green lights. The light he felt was most concentrated at her heart. Giving the illusion as if green plants were growing on a yellow colored ball, this obviously shook his heart a little. But he understood that it was probably how nature worked and didn¡¯t mind it much. He then asked her about their meaning and she answered that the colors represented the elements. They were Red for fire, Black for dark, blue for water, yellow for earth, green for nature, and cyan for wind. Thinking that maybe she missed out on one he asked her about it. ¡°Hey, Minnie, you forgot to mention the purple one.¡± ¡°Purple one?¡± her eyes opened up while her face distorted and she asked him in her lowest possible voice. ¡°How do you know about the purple mana?¡± ¡°What do you mean how I know about it? I can see it in the air. Though there are not even two of them in the area that I can see midst a whole ocean full of others, but they are still here.¡± He waited for her but she didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°Umm¡­ Minnie?¡± He looked at her and saw that she was deep in thought, but long before he got bored she finally spoke. ¡°The purple mana is not mana. It is not actually known what it is, but everyone knows that only devils have it. This one is more like a parasite, it the source of all the troubles.¡± ¡°Well forget about it for now and let¡¯s choose your dungeon type, before trouble comes knocking our door.¡± But as if she had jinxed herself and him, trouble arrived at their door step and a dangerous red box unlike its other counterpart started flashing in front of them.
Warning : Intruder alert
Ch -2 Both Minnie and Rockie looked dumbfounded at the sinister red letters floating in front of them. But that wasn¡¯t all that happened. The flashing warning sign stayed floating for a minute before it finally vanished, and a big screen like thing took its place. They both saw a White creature walking on all its four legs, circling around a brutally mangled body. This dead body seemed to have been through some kind of an explosion, as most of its upper half was gone. Its wounds looked burnt and what looked like an arm and half a head was laying right across it. There were patches of red here and there which probably was dried up blood. They say that a person¡¯s wounds tell their story. If such is true, then this person probably didn¡¯t suffer before dying. ¡°Minnie what is this?¡± Rockie pointed at the screen in front of him. ¡°Oh, this is one of the features and the perks of being a dungeon core, and I¡­¡± She smiled and replied, ¡°I get to enjoy it because I am your partner.¡± ¡°Oh, okay. Wait a minute so this scene is related to me?!¡± ¡°Yeah, moreover, this is probably happening right outside your doorsteps. Otherwise we wouldn¡¯t have been able to see this at all?¡± That was a shocking news for Rocky. ¡°But how?¡± ¡°Oh nothing .It probably came into the detection range of your mana presence skill.¡± Minnie answered him without any hesitation. And behaved as if, she was looking at cute kids playing in the playground. She pointed at the monster in the video and said. ¡°You see that is a monster called wolf. A white wolf actually. You see how pure and dazzlingly white its fur is? These wolves are pretty prideful about their fur, and their family.¡± ¡°But what is it doing out here?¡± Rocky asked her. ¡°I didn¡¯t know.¡± She replied shaking her head left and right. ¡°Anyways, what is doing? Oh, it jumped on the red goo!¡± ¡°Hey, that is not goo! That¡¯s a human.¡± ¡°A human?¡± ¡°Yes, moreover it¡¯s a dead human. Whoa, it¡¯s really eating it!¡± She spoke, fascinated by watching live a wolf¡¯s eating habits. Rocky was the wolf tearing meat from the dead body, splashing red blood everywhere, and enjoying the taste. The spectacle made Rocky shiver. ¡°Ah! This is disturbing.¡± ¡°But it is only filling its stomach. It will probably go away after eating it.¡± ¡°It is fast at this eating thing.¡±He commented. ¡°Nah, you are probably faster.¡± She replied back. ¡°Me? I will also eat humans?¡± ¡°Ah, no, not only just humans, but you will eat everything that dies inside your dungeon.¡± They talked about this and that. Minnie told him the difference between a human and monsters, and Rocky replied with oh¡¯s and ah¡¯s time after time. She told him that killing other things in the world does not only let you state your hunger, but also provide you experience to level up and grow stronger. She told him about the humans and how they advanced from simple and crude barbarians, to being so technically advanced that they were now the most prospering species of the world. She also told him that he probably needed to be vigilant against those humans. As they had the tendencies to try to outdo themselves by exploring new ruins, and places in the search of resources, and sometimes, even dangerous monsters. He wanted to ask more about those fascinating humans, but then he saw something. ¡°Ah Minnie, looks like it finished its meal.¡± Minnie turned her head and looked at the screen and what she saw disturbed her to her very core, as color drained from her face and her breathing got heavier. ¡°Huh, oh¡­ shit.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°FUCK¡­ lets me enter your world! Hurry up!! Shit, how could I forget¡­ hurry up!!!¡±
A wolf and its pack were walking through the forest, when the smell of human blood in the air attracted its attention. It tried to bring its brothers with him, but they refused, and he alone walked out of the jungle. Moving about, he came across a dry patch of land and saw that the reason for such strong and delicate fragrance he smelled was a dead human body, which was lying across a hole in the ground. He thought for a minute, before deciding to sit tight and testing the waters. He waited and waited, but when he saw no movement of any kind anywhere near him or his food, he started walking whilst keeping his attention on his surroundings. He didn¡¯t forget to check out the vicinity to look for multiple exits, In case of an emergency. He slowly walked and stopped only when he was just 2 meters away from the body. He fired a small blade of wind on the presumed dead human and got ready to jump back at any moment, but when he saw the silence of the forest continuing, he happily dived over for a meal. Though his wind blade out of luck ended up cutting the bodies arm and head, it didn¡¯t displease him one bit. He walked over to take a bit, but then he suddenly felt two small, no ant like presences keeping their eye on it and it flared. But thinking about how the presence seemed even smaller than the new born of his kind, he snorted once, and without giving them any mind, he stared enjoying itself. He ate and ate till there was nothing but an arm left, and just as he was going to walk back to his pack, he changed his mind, and decided to see what the fuss was about. He then jumped into the hole with the last remaining piece of meat, an arm in his mouth.
Just as the wolf jumped into the hole, Minnie vanished from the cave and found herself staring at a confused and somewhat funny looking chubby fairy. ¡°Minnie what happened? Why are you acting as if you are¡­ scared?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not acting, chubby. I really am sacred!¡± He saw her shaking and having difficulty to stay standing and a phrase came to his mind: ¡®A leaf alone in the wind, sacred to be apart from its mother.¡¯ ¡°So why are we here this time? Are we going to do that wet thing again?¡± His sentence pricked her small heart, and she denied him blushing from head to toe. ¡°Wh-who will kiss who, stupid! That one was necessary for the blessing. This- this¡­¡± ¡°Ah! But that was fun.¡± he spoke in low voice and sighed. Pfft! Minnie laughed hearing that. ¡°Ahaa, if- If you like that so muc-h we¡¯ll do it again. Okay. But this is not the time for that.¡± ¡°Why? Is it because of that wolf that just entered the hole? Geege..¡± She saw him suddenly opening his eyes wide and then giggling like an idiot. ¡°Oye, why are being so silly now? We don¡¯t have time for thi¡­¡± ¡°Ah, it is licking my body. Oh, that tickles.¡± ¡°AHHH¡­ hurry up, open your status and summon a monster! Hurry up!¡± She screamed into his ear, as she held his shoulders and furiously shook him. His head shook like the leaf in his phrase, and it got infinitely near of detaching from the neck. He somehow used his hands and stopped her, and then he urged her to explain the reason for her sudden change in behavior. ¡°You don¡¯t understand, that wolf will kill you, and then eat you like that dead body outside, and then shit crystal afterwards!¡± He heard her and the meaning of the word dead left him stunned, but having the mind of an emotionless child that it was, helped him get through the initial shock of his discovery, and to think past of it. ¡®Hum. Dying now after having born though after such a streak of coincidence will be a waste. But what can I do? My real body doesn¡¯t even move, forget about killing that thing. Hmm, killing it, huh. Maybe the words status and summon will help me kill it.¡¯ He lifted his head and looked at Minnie who had strangely calmed down, and was looking at the front where a life size screen stood, displaying all that was happening outside. ¡°Huh, how did that happen?¡± He saw that the wolf had gotten bored of licking his surface, and was now sitting at its feet nibbling on the arm which he had brought from the outside. The thought that said that it was dangerous to let a wild animal stay so close to it came to its mind, but he only shook his head. ¡®What can I do? Kick it? But with what?¡¯ Meanwhile, Minnie answered his previous question about the screen. ¡°I don¡¯t know how, but when you told me to look at the screen, this popped out of nowhere.¡± ¡°Ah, not that. Well anyways, now that it is distracted for a minute, why don¡¯t you tell me what a status is or rather why we need to kill that wolf thing?¡± *Sigh* ¡°Think about it. Why do you think I said that a dungeon rages?¡± She looked and saw his emotionless face looking straight at her, lost. And she unknowingly smiled back. ¡°Haaha, you see, a dungeon is a dangerous place, but it is also a very good source of nourishment for others.¡± ¡°I am Dangerous?!¡± he asked the questionable question. ¡°Yes, extremely dangerous. But as you might know, that great risk brings great rewards. A dungeon is¡­oh, it is about to finish the arm lets deal with it first.¡± ¡°Ah, okay.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s quickly get a dungeon type, before doing anything else. Now, now, I know what you are going to ask, but let¡¯s just get through this first while hope that the wolf won¡¯t try to take a bite out of you anytime soon.¡± She said that and he saw her moving her hands in the air, dancing, and when she stopped, a box magically manifested in front of him. Interested in the possibility that maybe she produced it somehow, he asked her. ¡°Yes, I called it this time. This is called a roulette wheel¡­¡± ¡°So this will let me choose my type?!¡± Being both confused and excited he asked her. ¡°Yes. You can see that there are a number of words written on it right?¡± His mind automatically answered what words were. ¡°Yes.¡± He replied. Seeing how he didn¡¯t ask her, ¡®what words meant?¡¯ Minnie felt slight curiosity. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you are doing this, but¡­ forget it. Now, you see the arrow pointing towards the words.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± He nodded his chubby head and his fat face made slapping sound across his cheeks. Minnie looked at him, but controlled her urges to stretch his face. ¡°Now, when you say rotate¡­¡± ¡°Rotate?¡± And the wheel started rotating. ¡°No, why did you¡­ well, anyways, it won¡¯t stop until you say stop¡­¡± Seeing as how he was once going to say stop like an idiot, she hurriedly closed his mouth with her hands which led to him falling backwards, and she fell atop of him. While having her whole body upon his and their noses touching each other¡¯s, she said, ¡°God let me finish first. Anyways, now we¡¯ll apply some logic into it and try to get the best possible option available to us. Okay. The board won¡¯t stop until you say the word.¡± And then she finally noticed her position and blushing, she fluttered her wings and flew away. Then she helped help him sit, as it was a hassle for him alone, and looked at the rotating wheel. She gazed at the wheel and seriously pondered about her options. ¡°So we have the option of becoming a goblin type, slime type, Reptile, birds, ah these are the basic ones. Huh, undead, Underwater, chest, Elf! Now that¡¯s rare. The rest are trash. Oh- Oh- OH, Dra-Dragonian. Now I¡¯m hyped.¡± ¡°What what? Found anything good?¡± He asked her while imitating her ¡®excited jumping routine¡¯. ¡°Dragonian, let¡¯s go for Dragonian. Anything relating to dragons is super ultra rare. I don¡¯t even think there is any dungeon alive which has dragon type common monsters.¡± ¡°Well why not; you probably know what¡¯s best in this matter.¡± He quickly searched for dragons through his memory, and the images and description his mind gave him about the super ultra fascinating beasts hyped him too. ¡°Okay, so you just need to say stop when I say. I repeat ¨C when I say. Okay.¡± ¡°Yes Madam.¡± He saluted with his wobbling arms. Then they both stared at the rotating wheel like hungry predators, while Minnie started calculating something in her head. She noted down its rotational speed, the torque and the momentum it carried. She took the factors of inertia and centripetal forces and worked through her ideas to also consider friction.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Having worked a formula of some kind, she looked at the space between the options and calculated again. She checked and reconfigured. Time passed slowly and after five minutes she looked at Rocky and nodded. ¡°Just stop it after I count to three, and say stop. Okay.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± She lifted her head counted one, two, three and shouted a ¡®stop¡¯ at him. And having gotten his signal Rocky too enthusiastically shouted back ¡®stop¡¯ at the top of his voice. ¡°STOP¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡± But instead of stopping right there and then, the wheel kept on rotating. ¡°Ah, Minnie, why didn¡¯t it stop?¡± But she didn¡¯t answer him and just pointed at the wheel. He looked and saw that it was still rotating, but then he noticed that it was ever so slightly losing its momentum. He tensed and like her, fixed his gaze upon it. He peeked at Minnie and noticed her mumbling something and decided to copy her. ¡°mumble-mumble-mumble-mumble¡± And as if whatever mantra they were working had worked its charm, the wheel finally started slowing and reached the bracket which had undead written over it. ¡°Just a little more, just one more bracket, Please god please!!¡± And as if finding her current state funny, Rocky mimicked her, and repeated the same thing like a parrot. The wheel as if it still had some life left in it moved a little more, and the arrow came over the Dragonian option and after moving 9/10 of the distance it stopped. When Minnie saw that it wasn¡¯t moving anymore, she screamed like she had seen a ghost, and tightly hugged her funny looking partner. ¡°WE did it! Yes, yes. Now we¡¯ll be safe. Now we¡¯ll be safe.¡± She held him and jumped around for a minute when a new message box appeared in front of them, and her heart leaped out of her mouth. Insects may look small and weak alone, but together they pack quite a punch. Congratulations your dungeon type has been changed to Insect. There are a variety of insects. As you are the first specimen to have chosen the insects as your quality, The first Boss monster will come free of cost. Happy choosing. Left with her mouth opened Minnie jerked her head, and stared at the roulette wheel hard enough to burn a hole through it, while the wheel tried to fade away by hiding behind the burst of messages. She saw that the arrow, which she thought had stopped at the Dragonian, had somehow carried on moving and made a touchdown on the next box before finally stopping. ¡°We were tricked. WE WERE FUCKING TRICKED!¡± she flared. ¡°Ah, but I think we¡¯ll be okay as an insect¡­¡± She heard him say that and cried out. ¡°Don¡¯t you say that, please don¡¯t say that. Who will be happy becoming an insect?¡± But he misunderstood her words and thought that maybe he was actually going to turn into an insect. ¡°Huh, I will become an insect?¡± ¡°No, not you¡­ but, but¡­¡± And she broke out in tears. ¡°No¡­ho...w will we sur..vive the atta..cks.¡± she sobbed. ¡°Oh don¡¯t cry and don¡¯t worry. It¡¯ll work out somehow. Look the system was happy with our decision and it even gave us a free boss monster. Whatever that is.¡± Minnie looked at the box still floating in front of her. She read the sentence and started crying even louder. *Hiccup* ¡°It said¡­ it said that we are the first dungeon to have even chosen the insect type¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ great.¡± ¡°That¡¯s shit!¡± She screamed into his ears. Rocky sighed and stood up somehow holding her left hand and spoke looking at something far away. ¡°Well, stop crying for now. We are still in the present, the future is far away.¡± Then he turned his head and looked straight into her eyes, and spoke wearing the warmest smile that Minnie had ever seen. ¡°So why become sad dreaming by the unknown when we still have time. It¡¯ll be alright. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m here.¡± His words worked like charm covered in honey syrup. Minnie stopped crying then and there, as if she was just waiting for some to sweet talk to her. She used his hand and quickly sprang back on her feet. He cleaned the wetness from her face with his other hand, and hugged her. Seeming how she was being tightly held by a guy who couldn¡¯t even stand properly made her giggle a little, but she willingly let him hug her and hugged him back in respect. Placing her forehead on his small and slender, but solid shoulders she spoke slowly. ¡°Okay, I understand. Let¡¯s wait for whatever our future has in store for us¡­ Together.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Then they both stopped hugging each other and looked in the eye. He felt that maybe she was going to do that wet thing again, and got ready to receive her, but she just gave a small peck on his left check and moved back to look at the screen, while he stood there dumfounded. He shook his head and moved somehow to stand beside her and looked at the screen, which was then showing the wolf having already engulfed the meat on the arm, and playing with the leftover bones. ¡°Hey Rockie, Let¡¯s move on with the plan: kill wolf. We don¡¯t seem to have much time left.¡± He heard her say the term, but didn¡¯t ask her as he also knew that it was better to focus on the matter at hand. ¡°Okay, next is the status. Like the name suggests, it shows the status of your body in an understandable format.¡± She saw him looking at her like an idiot and sighed. ¡°Well, it¡¯ll to better if you just open your status. I know, I know you don¡¯t know how to do it. So please, stop with your puppy eyes and listen.¡± She said, while Mr.Core thought about the meaning behind the strange word, ¡®puppy eyes¡¯. ¡°This skill is also related to the soul, so it will be easy for you.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°First concentrate your mana. I mean Use mana sense, and try to move whatever you see toward your chest or in your case, anywhere near your actual body. And when you start feeling a little ticklish, just simply say status and the system will do the rest.¡± ¡°This sounds a bit difficult.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it being difficult, and just concentrate.¡±She said with worry. So he did as she told him, and although he was inside his inner world for the time being, when he used mana presence the dots of lights once again emerged into being. He concentrated, and after a minute, one of the dots started willingly moving towards him. Two more followed it, when it touched them, and as if they were attracting other dots, soon a whole group of them started working their way toward Rocky. And as if the wolf had sensed something, he jerked his head toward the crystal, which scared the shit out of Minnie. But the wolf found nothing out of ordinary in the empty cave, and got back to chewing the last remnants¡¯ of the arm. Soon Rocky felt the tingling sensation, and as if it was his cue, he uttered the word STATUS with his whole might. ¡°¡­..¡± And nothing happened. The dots of lights kept on getting collected towards the first some. And after a large group of them formed, they magically vanished and the same old sound ringed inside his head. *Ding*
Status / Dungeon Interface
Name None Race Crystal
Level 2 Affinity Dark, Fire, Life
Rank 0 Job Dungeon Core
Nature (-1)Neutral Class None
¡­
Titles Born Killer, Named Helper, Fairy¡¯s Blessing
¡­
Health 85 Health Reg. 1.1/min
Mana 485 Mana Reg. 1.3/min
Vitality 8 Knowledge 32
Resistance 10 Intelligence 18
Skills (Passive) Telepathy, Mana sense lv(1), Mana Regeneration Lv(1),
Skills (Active) Outburst(Special), *Locked*, *Locked
Skill points 6
He looked at the status, but couldn¡¯t understand what all those numbers and words meant. So he asked Minnie, who looked at him as if she was seeing a ghost. ¡°What? Why are you asking me those things?¡± ¡°Huh, well, I am obviously asking you things which I don¡¯t understand on my status screen.¡± Confused, Minnie asked him again. ¡°What you see that on your status?¡± ¡°No there are a lot of other things like titles, health, mana etc.¡± ¡°Incredible.¡± She said. ¡°Huh¡­?¡± Understanding that Rocky didn¡¯t have any idea about how precious those words meant, she decided to explain them to him. ¡°You know, the status I was talking about is for the dungeon. Not your personal status. Actually, now that I think about it, I don¡¯t think dungeon cores even have a personal status box...¡± But he was too busy looking at his status and didn¡¯t notice her mentioning that. ¡°Oh, oh, there is a word dungeon written on it in red.¡± And the mystery of no dungeon interface was solved before its investigation even started. ¡°Press that. We¡¯ll talk about this matter after getting through the wolf.¡± He did that and another blue box, a little different from the first one opened up. And interestingly, it appeared in front of both of them. ¡°As expected.¡± ¡°So you can see it too Minnie?¡± ¡°Yes, this one, even I can see. Don¡¯t worry this is just how the system works. Anyways, let¡¯s see what we have and what we don¡¯t.¡±
Dungeon Interface / Status
Home Monsters / Store
Name ¡­ Type Insect
Floors 0 Total no of monsters 0
Rooms/Floor 0 Total no of invaders 0
Mana used / Total mana: (0/425)
Dungeon 0 Monsters 0
Resources 0 Upgrades 0
Dungeon Currency 1040 Reputation 10(Neutral)
¡°Okay here it is; the dungeon interface. Let me teach you the basics for now and then we¡¯ll get a full grip on it some other time.¡± ¡°Whatever you say.¡± And she gave him a quick review about the basic¡¯s, before moving on to the important parts. ¡°Oh that¡¯s interesting you somehow have 1040 Dc instead of the standard 1000.¡± ¡°What, what Dc¡¯s?¡± he asked. But Minnie was too busy playing detective and didn¡¯t hear him at first. ¡°Oh, you probably received it from the dead human outside our door.¡± And when her eyes met his, she saw him looking at her lost and demanding. ¡°Ah, sorry, what were you saying? Oh, Yes. You see, every monster has a price and a mana requirement you need to pay to summon them. Mana is required to control the monster and this Dungeon currency or DC is what we pay as the price. Your mana is high enough and we have our standard help in the form of Dc which should let us summon some monster right of the bat. But it is important to not spend our money too haphazardly, because we have too many things to buy and organize our dungeon.¡± ¡°Well moving on. So you see the second row. There are some words written on it like home, monster store; right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Okay, this right now is the home screen that is why the word home is glowing green right now. Now you see the words monster and store and how they are red?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Now to buy monsters we need to open the monster tab. SO go on and touch it. Let¡¯s see what kind of monsters this insect dungeon has in store for us. I hope there will be something worthwhile.¡± *Ding*
Dungeon interface / Status
Monster Home /Store
Dc(1040) / Mana(0/425)
Name Mana reserved Price(DC) Name Mana reserved Price(DC)
Ant egg(0) 5 10 Bee egg(0) 5 50
Ant worker(0) 10 50 Bee worker(0) 10 100
Ant soldier(0) 20 100 Bee soldier(0) 25 250
Ant queen(1) 100 500 Bee queen(1) 100 1000
---LOCKED---
Minnie was shocked to see that the monsters which her personally selected dungeon was letting her to buy were mundane small timers. ¡°Ants and bees? Seems like our luck is bad.¡± But he couldn¡¯t understand what she meant by that. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you know what kind of monsters ants and bees are?¡± He searched his mind to see if he had any idea and found out that he knew a great deal about them. ¡°Umm, oh! Now that I think about it. Aren¡¯t they cannon fodder type of monsters?¡± ¡°That is what I am saying. Ah, it¡¯s over huh. Well, it was good knowing you life¡­¡± ¡°Oh shut up! Just tell me how I can summon one.¡± And she seemingly uninterested, pointed at the interface and said, ¡°Just click on one, and let me sulk.¡± He heeded her advice and firstly clicked at the bee warrior. This led to a prompt to appear in front of him.
Please choose wisely. You won¡¯t be able to choose a different monster before having 10 floors.
He asked Minnie what the message meant and she told him that in a dungeon, monsters lived on places called floors, and the more floors a dungeon have the wider will be its variety. He instinctly felt that this was an important decision, one that would make or break his dungeon. So he decided to think about it for a moment before choosing. He tried to ask Minnie about her choice, but she said, ¡°Whatever, choose anything. There is no difference between their fighting power or potential anyways. So what does it matter.¡± He gazed at her for a minute and sighed. ¡®Ah, she¡¯s no help this time. Even though she said she would help me with anything. Well, whatever.¡¯ Firstly, he thought about what ants and bees were and how they would fare against the wolf outside. From what his memory described, the ants were known for their speed and power. Ants had six legs, so they could run very fast and said to have the power to lift fifty times their weight. But because they are not naturally aggressive, and don¡¯t often come out of their mounds, they are considered small time monsters individually. Though things change when their home is attacked. Well in the end, they are still not hard fighters and seemingly an old man with a stick or a young human with a club could easily defeat one. Bees on the other hand are dangerous. They travel in groups, are aggressive and attack anyone they deem dangerous to themselves or their queen. Their sting seemed to have different kinds of poisons depending on their evolution or daily habits. They are dangerous because they fly and they fly fast. They are extremely fast, but have low vitality. But according to his mind, surprisingly more people had died because of the passive ants than the aggressive bees. As for why, the reason was very simple. It was because though a bee might be a greater adversary than an ant, but an ant never moves alone, forget about fighting. So thinking how he will have more success having an ant colony rather than a bee hive, he decided to choose the Ants and actively bought one Ant worker to test the waters with the wolf outside. Ch -3 The wolf came down into the hole and felt one of the presences vanishing without a trace. That stupefied him a little, but he still walked to its last known location and saw a shiny thing floating in the air. That confused him even more. He circled in front of the floating crystal and did what a wolf does. He smelled and licked the thing to see if it was eatable, but the thing turned out to be too bland for his tastes. He tried to chomp on it, but it was as hard, as a rock, so after trying for a little he stopped. The wolf then shook his head, as if saying, ¡®I wasted my effort for nothing.¡¯ Then he looked back at the leftover arm, sat on the ground and started nibbling on it. But because the human he ate before was already very satisfactory and because he was mostly full, he decided to enjoy the last of it inside the hole. Actually though not finding anyone waiting in the cave to ambush him did saddened him a little, but he thought that the cave was a very good find already. He liked the cold, dark place and found it to be more comfortable than his home. So, he started enjoying himself on last of the human meat and time passed by. It wasn¡¯t like he had anything to do at home. So he decided to stay there till it was time to go back home. He slowly worked through the meat and then started licking the leftover bones. He took a bite out of it and it snapped. *Tak* It broke with a crisp sound and he snorted. Seemed to him the human wasn¡¯t a hard worker, but he liked it. Otherwise the bone would have been very hard and difficult to chew. He might have even injured his jaw on it then. He played with the arm for some time, but then he felt some movement behind him. He abruptly looked back to find and kill whatever it was, but there was nothing behind him other than the same old floating crystal and the wall. He tried to smell the thing out, but when he didn¡¯t find anything amusing, he got back to his original toy. He finished the arm, but then his tooth hit something hard and pain flared inside his mouth. *AYooo* He cried slightly from the pain and spit the thing out. He saw a solid object spinning through the air and falling some distance away. He stood up in anger, jumped and slashed his claws at the thing with all his might, but nothing happened to it. Only this time one of its nails broke and he felt as if its claw was on fire. *AYYOOO* He whimpered and howled like an idiot in agony. Though it angered him to see the thing which hurt him so much in the same room with him, but he decided to leave the thing be. He even thought for a moment that maybe that thing was a cursed object. ¡®Ah, my nail!¡¯ He thought. Learning from experience, he decided to just stay away from it. So he got back to his original place, but just as it was going to sit down and get back to sleep, when something changed. He was in the process of stretching his arms and legs, relaxing his muscles and sitting down, when he felt something stirring behind him. Shivers ran across his neck, and his hair stood up straight from fright. He jumped forward to get some distance between him and the floating crystal. He turned to see what all the fuss was about, when shinning light particles started coming from the crystal and getting collecting in front of the crystal. His mouth opened wide when he saw them lights joining together and forming a familiar, but completely different shape. The dots connected and started forming a claw on the ground. Then came the legs, forming before a hard black chitin exoskeleton. The process didn¡¯t stop until the face, eyes and absurdly huge mandibles of the said shape were formed. The wolf was left there tongue tied, as the light which he thought was disturbing ending up creating a monster out of thin air. But what made him shiver was the absurd size of that monstrosity. He thought about the knee tall, a small tree log wide monster that he and his little brothers used to play with when they were kids. He remembered how one lofty paw could easily kill them at that time, but the 4ft tall monster in front of him looked too menacing to die with just a paw. *Roar* The ant roared and out of pride he also howled back. ¡°AYooo.¡± That acted as the start of the struggle between the dungeon and the wolf. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ It was the ant which initiated the attack. It ran, and ran so fast that even the wolf thought that it blurred for a second. He instinctly jumped back and heard a small explosion ringing at the place that it was just some seconds ago. The dust scattered and there was the ant with its mandibles deep inside the floor. The noise soon washed away all of the wolf¡¯s confusion, and as he saw that the ant wasn¡¯t easy to handle he took his battle stance and got ready for another bout. The ant drilled its head out of dirt and the wolf got ready for a direct confrontation. The ant didn¡¯t think much, and again, like a raging bull, started running towards him with its pincers wide open. The wolf felt the sharpness and danger of its weapon, but didn¡¯t move and waited for the perfect time. The mandibles reached his head, but just as the pincers were about to close and cut his head of his neck, it dipped his head out, side stepped and countered with wind blades. *Snatch* The pincers closed and at the same time. *Fuu* *Fuu* *Finch* *Finch* The sound of pressurized wind travelling and hitting something hard ran in the cave. The wolf couldn¡¯t time his attack properly, so the blades didn¡¯t cut the ants neck. And although, the ant¡¯s exoskeleton was hard, the wind blades turned out to be more powerful than them. One ripped out its left eye, and the other Left a deep gash at its back. *Roar* The ant cried as green liquid dripped from its eye and back. Angered, the ant ran toward him in a mad rush, but as if the wolf was already ready. He simply jumped over it and with its sharp claws scratched and left three long cuts starting from the long deep cut the ant already had. *ROAR* The ant couldn¡¯t take the pain from having its back ripped open entirely, and fell after moving five more steps.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. The wolf didn¡¯t wait for it to recover and with a perfectly timed wind blade; he cut the ants neck, and ended its life. The wolf saw that it didn¡¯t get any much experience from the ant and scoffed. He moved slowly to take a bite out of it. He wanted to know how this evolved? Ant would taste, but then saw it magically vanishing into the same dots of light it had formed from. He stood there standing looking at the front of him like an idiot, but then abruptly turned around and started growling. *Garrr* The reason was simple, because those same lights were again coming from the crystal, and once again creating the same cringe worthy ant. But there was a difference, instead of one there were four of them this time. He had pride in his strength, and he was not someone who would run away in dire conditions. He loved challenges, and seeing how easy, yet difficult it was to kill one ant, he decided to see how he would fare against four. So instead of running away he calmed himself. Understanding that barking at those artificial creations was a waste of energy, as even the first one hadn¡¯t responded to its warning. He prepared himself, got into running position and pushed the ground with all four of his legs. All the power in his legs lifted him high in the air, which attracted the ant¡¯s attention. *ROAR* They roared looking at him flying through the air towards them, and opened their pincers wide enough to cut apart its body in half, but right then... *Boom* *Boom* Boom* *Boom* Four wind blades came straight towards the ant¡¯s flying parallel to the ground and collided with the two standing at the front. *ROAR* Because the ants were looking at him they didn¡¯t notice the blade. Two blades directly collided with one of them on the head and instantly killed it. The other ant standing at the front noticed the blades and moved its body to dodge, but one of them still struck it, and cleanly took all of its legs on the left side. Green sticky liquid spewed from its wounds, as it fell over shrieking. The ants standing behind had already moved away from path of the last blade by the time it got anywhere near them, but it ended up striking the crystal behind. The ants shuddered when it happened, but before they had the time to do anything by the time the wolf had already slashed its menacingly sharp claws and cleanly took the head of the other injured ant. Now it was two versus one. And from the way the ants were fighting, it was clear that they were fighting something out of their league. ¡°AYOOO..¡± As if assured of its victory the wolf howled with a smile on its face, but then its face stiffened. It saw an absurd amount of light dots coming together. ¡®Oh shit.¡¯ It thought. It understood that whatever was coming out now was probably different from what he had been facing so far. The lights concentrated and became a dense ball. The ball hovered in the air and silence prevailed in the cave. The ball kept on getting bigger and bigger until it was 4 ft tall. The wolf saw the scene and thought about its chances. The thought of running out did come to his mind for a second, but it thought to first see what kind of thing was coming this time, before deciding what to do. But he still moved closer to the entrance of the hole. The ball then sudden busted into a flash of light, and a similar, yet different monster from the other ants came out of it. He thought that maybe something would change, but what came out of it was still an ant. ¡°Ayooo..¡± It tried to test the waters by provoking it. *ROOAR* And the answer and the power behind the roar definitely proved that it was different from the rest. He noticed that this new ant was a little bit taller than the other ones, and its black body looked as if it was wearing body armor. Its legs had claws on them which looked sharper and dangerous than its counterpart. The stalemate between them ended when the big buddy moved its neck and touched their antennas, which was followed by them moving away and standing behind it. Then the newest ant moved. The wolf felt a gust of wind as its hair danced in the air and he saw the new ant covering the distance at a speed which wasn¡¯t slower than his. He didn¡¯t try countering the ant by slight positioning like it did with the first one and directly fired a concentrated ball of air at it. The ball of wind flew as a cannon ball and collided on the head of the coming ant. It forcefully stopped the arriving ant. *Boom* A wave of air travelled across, when its head collided with the ball, but it didn¡¯t die. The wolf concentrated to see what actually happened and saw it once again running towards him. He panicked and rushed towards the side, but the ant anticipated his movement and rammed its head into him *Crash* The power was so extreme, that he flew through the air and crashed onto the wall. But by the time the ant had rammed into him, he had already jumped backwards, which saved him. He quickly stood up and jumped forward, luckily dogging the ant pincers. He turned around and blood drained from his face. The wall couldn¡¯t stop the ant at all. He saw that it was half embedded into it and thought the biggest question of his short life. What if he hadn¡¯t jumped? But he quickly got over it and saw his chance. So he fired four wind blades at its side, but the result astonished him, and he had to once again jump backwards. The wind blades which could rip apart the first kind to shreds didn¡¯t even manage to cut through its black armor like exoskeleton properly. The ant feeling pain from its side thrashed against the wall in anger which made a whole section of it to fly toward the wolf who was left dumbfounded at its power. The wolf saw it turning its head towards him and he thought that it saw it smiling. He wanted to retort, but than a flash of pain came from his foot as a shriek felt his throat. *AYOOO* It quickly looked down to see what was happening and saw a pair of pincers grabbing its legs. Then in pain it noticed that the other two ants from before were nowhere to be seen. ¡®I have been had.¡¯ It thought. The big ant started scratching its legs on the floor like a bull and came running with it head shinning in a dull copper light. He understood that the light was probably a skill and haphazardly created a wind ball to stop its mad rush. But the ball simply broke into a gust of wind when it touched its head, and the angered bull collided directly with his head. *Crack* The pincers couldn¡¯t hold him down and the wolf flew through the air before loudly crashing with the wall behind him. *Boom* The loud sound and the wolf¡¯s broken body easily explained the power the big ant had used behind its ram. The wolf slid down across the wall and fell on the floor. His head bleed furiously. His back legs had deep cuts, but fortunately the tendons were safe. Five of his ribs broke when it collided with the wall, and some of them were sticking out of his chest. But the biggest injury was on his head. His skull had cracked the moment the ant touched his head, and blood flowed out of it like a raging tides. All in all, the wolf was on his death doors. From his blurry vision, he saw the ant running towards him with its pincers wide open and shining brightly. It knew that its condition wasn¡¯t anything good and he would die if the pincers so much as touched him slightly. So he took a chance, created a wind ball underneath its body using left of its mana and fired it. He didn¡¯t know what it was hoping to achieve, but out of dumb luck its body flew over the incoming ant in a parabola. He saw the ant roaring in anger underneath it and laughed. Then he saw the light coming from the hole and he knew that it was near the exit. But when it started thinking about its landing and everything, its head crashed on the roof of the cave and its flight path got interrupted. It crashed on to the floor and slid some distance before it came to a stop. He looked back and saw the ant thrashing about just in front of its face. ¡®Ah, am I going to be eaten by ants?¡¯ he thought. He closed his eyes waiting for the pain to come, but when nothing happened he opened his eye to see the ants standing there just a few centimeters away from him. ¡®Not going to kill me?¡¯ It thought. At that moment he noticed that he was already outside the hole and for some absurd reason the ants didn¡¯t come out and just roared looking at him from inside the hole. ¡®They can¡¯t come outside? THEY CAN¡¯T COME OUTSIDE!! HAAha they can¡¯t come outside!!¡¯ It coughed out blood, but that didn¡¯t change its mood. ¡®I need to tell my brothers about this place. I need to warn them. This place is not somewhere we wolves can run around.¡¯ It body kept on bleeding, its thoughts churning, as sunlight shined right over its head. The thought of warning his brothers kept on repeating inside his mind when his vision blurred. He shook his head and after a minute passed, he saw some silhouettes in front of him. But because he had already lost a lot of blood, and his vision wasn¡¯t getting any better, he couldn¡¯t see properly. Then somehow he saw four small cubs running across the field. He looked at them for some time, when one of them stopped and came running towards him. It stopped in front of him, and licked his face. Then the other cubs saw their brother and came running too. They talked to each other and then he saw more such shadows coming from afar. One of them warped into the most beautiful white blue eyed wolf he had ever seen. Her fur shinned like pure diamonds in the bright sunlight. Then his eyes met with her, and he felt as if he was looking into the ocean, serene, vast and never ending. She was followed by a rough and tough looking wolf; he was almost twice his size. He had a long cut mark across its face. The mark made him look strong. That wolf also looked at him with a smile on his face. The female wolf came near him, licked his face and spoke with the voice which contained nothing but love for him. ¡°Don¡¯t just sit there. Let¡¯s go.¡± He looked into her eyes for a second and said, ¡°Okay mother.¡± Before he happily stood up, shook his fur once and followed behind her. He looked back to see the wolf sleeping on the ground, before he quickly followed his family and disappeared into the light. Ch -4 ¡°Ah! Princess, we should stop! What if someone saw us? It will be trouble; too much trouble!¡± ¡°Huh? What are you afraid of? Don¡¯t worry. No one will say anything.¡± ¡°But- but.¡± ¡°Oh shut up and put it in already.¡± The conversation sounded a bit awkward, but it clearly conveyed the mood and thoughts of the pair in action. A young lad with golden hair and brown eyes was trying to get away from the clutches of the goddess like girl. Why wouldn¡¯t he try to do so? She was the one and only princess of Syria after all. Her silver hair which was the unique symbol of the people from royalty and her voluptuous chest, were not the only attraction about her. Her cute baby face and petite, curvy body, purple eyes and pure white skin, added by the thing that she was untouched and pure, were enough to send all the perverts to the toilet with one hand in their pocket. She is the dream of all the young lads and old men alike, but at the time she was trying to get on top of a cute, but ordinary 12 year old boy. ¡°No -no madam, no!!¡± He cried out in shame, but his expressions were telling another story. Though he screamed no like a chicken about to get his head cut off, his lust filled eyes and salivating mouth gave an entirely different reaction. His hands which were already playing with her soft mounds, were clearly not denying her offer at all. While the boy tried to stop her from getting his precious by rubbing his legs on her legs, she got hold of his stick and closed the distance between them. She smiled at him like an angel and stopped his small head just outside her entrance. She bent forward, placed her lips onto his, and invaded his mouth with her sweet and soft tongue. Euphoria took over the boy. The once crying boy couldn''t hold himself anymore and kissed her back like a wild animal. He rubbed, pulled, groped, teased her nipples and breasts to his heart content, before he finally noticed that his serpent was already free and out of her clutches. He thought for a minute about problems his following action would bring, but the heavenly voice saying, ¡®Do it¡¯ again and again in his ears and the tongue which was pushing his libido to the core, struck down all of his hesitation and he went for the strike. He rubbed it on her sticky and slippery cherry, but just as thrust was going to break her defenses and conquer the fort, a big ass explosion happened. The explosion brought with it a small scale earthquake, and one way or another the boy couldn¡¯t maintain his balance, and fell down from the bed. His eyes opened from the scare and the first thing he saw was a wall of green grass coming toward his face. He tried to push his hands forward to stop the collision, but it was already too late. He smacked the ground face first, and the rest of his body flipped over his head creating a BENCH. *Toon* ¡°Ahhhhh¡­.¡± The boy opened his eyes wide and spasmed from the pain for a while. Then after what seemed like an eternity or about three seconds, he stood up, rubbing his bleeding nose. ¡°Ah! Princess what happened?¡± He spoke, but when he heard no answer he looked around himself. And saw that there was no beautiful maiden waiting for him with her legs open, neither was there any bed or ceiling, Just lush green forest and some squirrels, which were wickedly smiling at him. ¡°Goddamn it!!¡± he cried out. ¡°Shit!! Why did I sleep on the tree and I was just about to... ahhh¡± He tried to remember her face, but midst the headache and pain he couldn''t do so. He touched his head and looked around for the source of that noise and heard the sound of birds chirping as if they were scared. He jumped atop the tree like a monkey and started moving toward the source of said disturbance. He only had to run for 20 or so minutes before he saw a flock of birds flying away hurriedly some distance away. ¡°Ah! The explosion! But what could have caused such a thing in the middle of nowhere? Wait! Isn¡¯t that direction....¡± He looked in the direction the birds were running away from and turned around to go back to his hideout. ¡°I should tell boss.¡± And he started running toward the east without caring about his appearance or the pain his face was in. His steps were light and he ran astonishingly fast for someone of his age. The roots and wilderness of the forest wasn''t able to a slow him down. He jumped and slid past all and every obstacle, clearly showing that it was his turf. He ran fast and it only took him half an hour to cover about 30 km¡¯s, when he came across a small clearing in the lush forest. He stopped when he saw the guards, standing outside the gate created from stacked together planks and tree logs. There were sharpened logs covering the perimeter and guard post at all the corners of the small hideout. "Oye brat! You back already? What, that explosion scared you out of your wits? Huh!¡± ¡°Haha, don¡¯t say that mason. He probably came back because he got hungry. Right kid, you came back for some breast milk, right!!¡± *FUFuu* ¡°A haahaa¡­¡± The guards laughed at him, but it was their everyday routine. ¡®Nothing new¡¯, he thought. He looked at the douche bags standing in front of him, unfazed by their attitude and smirked. He found their leader looking at him whilst showing his yellow rotten teeth and controlled his urges to smack his face. He looked into that dirty old muggers eyes and said, ¡°What you don''t know?¡± And this confused him. ¡°What do I not know?¡± ¡°The explosion it occupied in that direction.¡± he pointed towards the north some distance away and spoke, ¡°There and from the distance I was at, I think it happened right in front of the mountains.¡± ¡°What???¡± All the guards standing there gasped as they heard him mentioned the mountains. Not only the guard in front of him, but the other personals across him all shouted in shock from his sudden mention. ¡°Did it now Willie.¡± Mason the guard standing in the center, who was also the leader of the gate guards asked him with a hint of shock and disbelief in his eyes, but his voice clearly showed his excitement. ¡°Yes, I saw the birds flying away from that direction and the other animals also looked scared.¡± Mason placed his hand on his chin and like the others, moved his head to look in the direction of the silhouette which seemed to be looking at them from behind the tree crown. ¡°Okay well done for the scouting. I think commander will be happy hearing about the attentiveness of his men.¡± ¡°Hahaha..¡± ¡°Good good, very good brat. Now go inside the fort and see the commander. No wait, let me come with you.¡± The other guards smiled warily, patted the boys back and moved to open the gate to let him pass. He saw pity, disdain and even lust in the eyes of the guards and quickly moved to get inside. Will walked and saw the old bugger moving beside him. He frowned, but didn''t say anything. In the end they both hurriedly walked, as if in a race to get to their commander before the other, but they didn''t dare run inside. Though will was also a member of this particular mercenary group but he wasn¡¯t a member per say. He was allotted a meager pay of 2 silvers per month for his duties. Which wasn¡¯t a lot, but was still enough for him to live on. He was originally an orphan whom one of the soldiers of the group had picked up from a village destroyed by the bandits. But that person died when he was 5 and William became an orphan again. The rest is history, he worked part time to earn money to get class when his level became 10 and then started working as a scout for the group. Moving along the dirt road, Will saw groups of 50 well built strong looking men practicing formations followed by another group of people battling each other. Those were the elites of the raid team. Guards or scouts like Him weren¡¯t allowed to practice with them. After all those guys were the best. He saw some people, especially young kids and some pretty girls standing there with sparkling eyes. Though if it was some other day he would be standing there too, looking at them practice, while shouting at the top of their voice, for him they were his heroes after all. Living inside the hideout wasn¡¯t easy, but it was fun for him. The day he gained his class scout about one year ago, became the day when he was made to keep lookout on a certain portion of the forest and the commander meant business, when he was told that failure would be rewarded with death.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ After walking on the dirt road for twenty minutes they came across a small two story building made from wooden planks. It looked and was sturdy enough to handle the ramming of a sharp horn Rhino, even though it was made from wood. There were almost fifty people guarding the building and the same number of people was patrolling nearby. From the atmosphere it seemed to Will as if he was standing in a war camp, but he knew that it was nothing new, because this particular building was the most important building, as it was the residence of the commander and the boss of the group. It also acted as a command centre during monster hordes and bandit raids. They walked till they were some distance away from the fence surrounding the building and stopped. Mason walked to the guard standing there and politely greeted him. ¡°What you doing here mason?¡± That guard didn''t even look at Willie who was standing rights beside Mason the gate guard. But will didn¡¯t take that to heart, he was actually in shocked to see the captain of squad 10, The great Anton in flesh. ¡°Oh great sir, I am here to report about the explosion that occurred sometime ago.¡± But when Mason saw that Anton wasn¡¯t replying, he asked him again with trembling voice, ¡°Sir, you heard the explosion right.¡± ¡°Yes, it was a little discomfort able in a sense, but what about it.¡± The guard furrowed his brows. ¡°Sir my lackey brought back some information, which I think the commander will be pleased to hear.¡± Seemingly unfazed the guard shunned him. ¡°So you know what the commander likes and what he doesn¡¯t, huh?¡± ¡°No, no, no sir I am just a gate guard. How can this lowlife dreg be compared to the great commander. But the thing is, it is about the mountain. So I thou¡­.¡± Hearing him say that Anton pointed somewhere in the north and asked, ¡°Oh! That mountain?¡± ¡°Yes, yes.¡± Mason hurriedly replied. The guard nodded his head in understanding. ¡°Okay. So you want to meet the commander to personally tell him about it.¡± ¡°Ah, yes.¡± Mason scratched his head and spoke smiling foolishly, all the while Will stood there dumbfounded thinking when he became that dirty old bastards lackey. But Anton simply snorted and poured cold water all over his intentions. ¡°Humph, You are not qualified to see the commander.¡± ¡°But- but¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry¡± he said. ¡°You can tell me and I¡¯ll tell the commander myself.¡± Will felt as if Anton was mocking Mason and he felt good. Then he saw him looking at him and winking. Will cheeks turned red, when he understood what the captain was trying to do. Masons eyes opened till they were about to burst, but what could he have done just like he was trying to get in the good book of the commander to get promoted from guarding. But the one standing in front of him was the captain of the heroic 10th squad. For someone like him Anton¡¯s words were like law, which he had to agree with whether he wanted to or not. It was will¡¯s accomplishment to gain after all. Mason grudgingly told Anton what the kid had told him, and the guard walked inside the building with a smile on his face. Mason sighed when he saw that happen and started walking back. But then he saw Will laughing at him from the side and it irked him. ¡°What! You little shit! Do you have something to say to me!¡± ¡°It was me! I brought the news! So you have no need to get mad at me.¡± But listening to him talking back mason flared. ¡°What? You wanna die!!¡± He spoke and quickly drew his crude, nicked and rusted long sword. He pulled it out of its scabbard and placed it right across wills neck in one single motion. ¡°You think anyone will say or do anything to stop me from killing you, you fucking insect. You don''t forget your status.¡± Mason shouted, as the sharp sword next to will¡¯s neck scratched him a little and a drop of blood slid down across his neck. Willie looked down and spoke clenching his teeth ¡°I- I am an orphan.¡± ¡°Now don''t forget it.¡± Mason withdrew his sword and jerked his arm to remove the blood from his sword. But just as he was going to move back to resume his duty, the guard of the building, he smiled at the boy and nodded his head. ¡°You boy, the commander is calling you inside.¡± Will heard him and stopped right on his track. He happily jumped, mocking mason with a new found smile on his face and bowed to thank Anton. Anton pleased with him told him how to act inside and then checked him for any deadly weapons, which he wasn''t carrying and then accompanied him inside while mason stood there outside with his mouth hanging. Will walked inside excitedly as it was his first time visiting the indoors of the building. The building from the outside might have looked sturdy, but what he saw inside left him astonished. The inside looked nothing less than a noble¡¯s house. Though will had never been inside any such house either, but from the amount of gold and silver every and all the material objects had, he had no doubt that the silverware and gold engraved chairs and tables were probably worth a million times more than his short and pathetic life. He looked around and saw the heads of various monsters and animals honoring the walls. Their sharp eyes and dreadfully looks scared him a bit, but he didn''t cower and kept on walking. The commander¡¯s room was at the end of the hall and the guard stopped him just outside it. He knocked on the door and spoke with respect. ¡°Sir, I brought the boy.¡± And just then, a heavy somewhat metallic voice came from the room. ¡°Send him in.¡± The guard nodded his head and looked at will and once again told him, ¡°Now don''t do anything stupid inside and call your own death. Okay, now go.¡± And with his heart pumping blood like it was racing with time, will moved. Sweat trickled down his neck as his eyes wandered the inside of the room. While the hall was full of lavish things and hunted trophies, the room inside was somewhat barren. There was the painting of the man who was sitting in front of him on a sofa hanging behind the oval light stone chandelier, which hung exactly in the middle of the room. And that¡¯s about it. The room inside was decorated with white marble while the chandelier flung golden light everywhere. "Oh boy, don¡¯t look around too much and come here.¡± Will moved like a puppet when he heard the man. His eyes sparkled and lost in reverie when he stood before the legendary commander of the hideout. Stan was his name and he was quite a high leveled person. Though Stan was a bandit, but there were no sign or anything alike on him that would associate him to a bandit. His long black hair combed all the way back gave him a noble aura, while a half sleeved blue leather tunic adorned his monstrous chest. His biceps bulged as he moved his arms and will thought that he saw flame pass behind Stan¡¯s eyes. Will bowed once and tried to speak with proper manners which he failed at miserably. ¡°Sir it is an honor to meet you!¡± He wanted to kiss some ass, get into Stan¡¯s good book, but was stopped mid way. ¡°Boy what is your name?¡± Will answered, as his eyes sparkled with excitement. Stan moved his hands and crossed his fingers mid air. He looked at him for a second before raised his index fingers, pointed them at will and spoke ¡°Okay Willie boy, speak what you saw and don''t leave anything behind.¡± As if it was the clue for him to start his performance will started recounting his day. He spoke how he was fighting with his life on the line with a young white wolf and was near to bring it down, when he heard the explosion and felt the earthquake. Then he accounted how the wolf ran away midst the confusion and he followed him for some distance, but then he saw a ray of light going from the surface to the sky some distance away. He moved and saw birds flying and dust scattering everywhere. Will didn''t forget to mention the direction of the said explosion which made Stan open his eyes wide. ¡°So it is either a group of monsters fighting or something else. Why did it have to happen so near our hideout? But what if it was some kind of treasure.¡± Stan murmured. ¡°You boy, you said it happened right in front of the mountains?¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± ¡°Okay you can go.¡± He told will and asked the guard to come inside the room. ¡°Anton.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± ¡°Send one of kid¡¯s team to the place and get them to check out what really caused the disorder. Now go.¡± Will saw his revered commander nonchalantly giving the order and he didn¡¯t know why, but his mouth opened on its own and a request he didn¡¯t have in his mind came out. ¡°Sir, I would like to go there with the party.¡± He said and cold seat dripped onto his back. Not because of the fear of his revered commander, but because he had foolishly asked for something he knew that he yet wasn¡¯t fit for, but the arrow was already fired and there wasn¡¯t anything that he could have done about it. ¡°You pipsqueak! You want to go; There?¡± And with trembling voice will answered, ¡°Yea, sir.¡± ¡°You know what that place is right. ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Stan looked into his eyes for a whole minute before he started laughing. ¡°Haha. Sure, sure why not. That settles your reward. Just don¡¯t get killed over there.¡± Will took the breath of relief hearing that, but he still felt a bit stupefied thinking that he was going to join one of the squads on a mission. Excited, he came out of the building following Anton. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Meanwhile in the town Raznarock about three day distance from the place of explosion in the south direction, a simple clothed medium build man with shoulder length dry hair was standing in front of a notice board, seemingly looking at one of the newest posts posted just a while ago. Raznarock, the frontline of frontlines. The first line of defense for humans against the demons exist somewhere behind the mountain. That is if they ever came running out. A beautiful but small town which acts more likes a fort in the time of monsters hordes than a trade hub. Though the area the town is situated near is dangerous, but there is no limit to the hustle and bustle of adventurers, merchants and common people alike. The town is actually only 20 years old, but because it is surrounded with danger from three sides it has been through a lot of growth, death, carnage and prosperity. Old people die and new ones come running to take their place. Let¡¯s forget about that for a minute. For protection three sides of the town has 10 meter tall and 3 meter wide wall. It not only protects the town from the danger of monsters which sometime come running from the forest, but also against the strong and cold winter wind. While the back of the town faces the forest, at the front face some distance away from the gate, there are fields of golden wheat and other vegetables. Though the yield is not endless, but they enough for the farmers to sell and help make the town have a somewhat self sustaining food supply. While most of the time of the year is tension free for the guards and adventurers, but the dreadful winters are a different story altogether. Though everyday is a challenge for the guards as small time rank one monsters come day after day to challenge them, they consider it their everyday life. While the houses of handful of nobles and rich personals and merchants are made of stone and cement, the rest are made of wood. But even then the town was planned such that even if some houses caught fire it wouldn¡¯t spread across the whole town. The outer semicircle of the town is where common people live. About 80% of the people living in the town are either guards or adventurers, which is a very big number considering that almost 1000 people live here and half that number travels to and fro the town every day. Anyway, in the middle of the semicircle is the most visited building of the town, the adventurer¡¯s guild. which is followed by the town council¡¯s building and the market. All the three of them are situated in the centre. The guild and the town share a common notice board where most of the jobs and issue are posted. The notice board is placed just outside the guild for everyone to easily notice any new placed notice, but there is also one such board inside the guild for convenience. The man standing in front of the board seems to have made his mind removed the small paper and walked inside the guild right beside it. *Ting* The doorbell ringed and the man walked straight to the counter. The guild from the inside looks like every other modern building. The front wall is all glass, while the rest of the walls inside the small room are covered in green plants, which gives the room an otherworldly charm and beauty. A row of sofas and chairs are placed at the left side for personal waiting inside to sit. While two doors with the caption ¡®Bar and staff¡¯ hangs over them is situated right in front of the waiting area. At the side there is a water cooler and beautiful long eared young girl waits at the counter to help the adventurers. The receptionist heard the doorbell ring and out of custom smiled and welcomed him inside. ¡°Yeah, thank you.¡± ¡°So, how would you like me to help you?¡± ¡°Bella, I want to register the job to scout the explosion site.¡± The man placed the poster on the counter for her to check. She checked that the job was authentic and nodded her head. ¡°Your hand, please.¡± ¡°Oh, yes, here.¡± The scout placed his hand on the glass panel at the center of the counter which magically got engulfed into a series of beams of different colored lights. He took his hand off and saw a series of numbers coming and fading on the panel and after half a minute of wait what looked like his status displayed on it. ¡°The mission you have chosen is a D rank, and according to the guilds policy, all the missions under rank C can be chosen by anyone and without any plenty. So are you sure you want to choose this mission.¡± ¡°Yes, please.¡± And as if the panel had heard his affirmation, it changed from colorless to blue. Displaying information related to the reward, time limit and a map of the place of mission. Stuart noted down the info and walked out of the guild. Meanwhile the place in question faced its first small tribulation and fought with a wolf. Ch -5 Minnie looked at the screen in the inner world, which was perfectly showing all that was happening outside. She heard her partner ask her about the decision to choose their first monster, but she didn¡¯t feel like partaking in that useless endeavor and answered him just enough to state his thirst for information. She clearly understood the meaning behind the choice and what it could mean for her, no their future. But she also knew that there was no way, literally no fucking way for them to get past the varied attacks that they would be facing in the upcoming days with just ants and bees. She wanted to believe in them puny little insects and her partner, but luck just wasn¡¯t on their side. She saw him choosing the ants as his first monster choice and summoned one of the basic ants right outside. She really had no hope that an ant would be able to face the great white wolf of Devil¡¯s foot forest. But still a small spark of hope ignited inside her, when she saw the amount of mana that was being gathered outside and perked her eyes to see the result. The small spark soon turned into fire, when she saw the final summoned monster in front of her eyes. The summoned ant unlike any other ant in the real world was twice as tall. Not only that, but it looked and felt more powerful too. Its black exoskeleton, sharp sword like pincers, dangerous looking claws and a face which clearly meant business, really made her heart burn with hope and pump blood like a waterfall. Excited, she decided to check the real difference, the difference between the power of this ant and its natural brothers, and what she saw left her stunned. As the ant formed, the box showing its status appeared in front of Minnie and her partner. Worker ant (Common) The queen helps them grow. The soldier protects the queen and worker obeys them both. ¡­ Level 20 Race Insect Rank 0 Species Black Ant ¡­ Skills Dig lv(5), Crush lv(3) ¡°The hell, what is wrong with this ant!¡± Her reaction was natural and it truly surprised Mr. Core, when he saw the once sulking fairy, happy and kicking, flying around in front of him. ¡°What happened? Anything wrong?¡± ¡°Anything wrong?¡± she replied as her grin widened, and she subconsciously clenched her fists. ¡°Everything¡¯s wrong here. How come this ant¡¯s level is so high? Fuck high, this is probably the highest leveled ant in this world!¡± ¡°What?!¡± If Rockies¡¯ reaction before was just for the sake of it, then this time he was truly surprised. ¡°What, you think I am lying?¡± ¡°No, no.¡± He hurriedly denied her, though he felt a little doubt in his heart. ¡°Why would you even think that? But aren¡¯t you exaggerating a little by saying this is the highest leveled ant. I mean sure there are more¡­¡± ¡°You know, sometimes I don¡¯t understand whether you really don¡¯t know anything or you are just have been playing with me all along.¡± ¡°Hey, what does that even mean?!¡± She looked at him with her eyes squinted and spoke as her face turned to become like that of a fox. ¡°Anyway, moving on, to the answer of your question, in this world there is only one type of ant. And its species doesn¡¯t have black in its name. It is spelled with as ant, just ant and the highest level ant ever recorded in the annals of fairies is 17 and that was their queen. Now you understand what I am saying?¡± Rocky, seemingly confused, looked at Minnie and asked her, ¡°Then what is wrong with this ant! Isn¡¯t its level a little too absurd?¡± ¡°That is what I am saying. Hell if I knew things would turn out this way, I wouldn¡¯t even have cried like that. This is a goddamn miracle you know!¡± ¡°Oh, Shhh, Shhh, they are going to fight now.¡± He interrupted her. ¡°Yes, yes I can see that.¡± She spoke while lifting his hands from her mouth. ¡°Let¡¯s check the wolf¡¯s power too. And see what kind of an existence it is.¡± Interested in the possibility to examine his invaders status, he asked Minnie. ¡°That is possible?¡± And she answered like a queen. ¡°You are a dungeon. This is your domain. There is no one or thing that can keep themselves hidden from you and don¡¯t worry¡­¡± ¡°I know, in know, that is how the system works.¡± ¡°Smart Rockie¡­¡± Then Minnie moved her arms and screen changed showing a miniature wolf at the side with its information hovering over its head. White wolf(Uncommon) They are the protectors of the jungle, the messengers of light. They are prideful, travel in a pack and love their family to death. Advised to not hurt one, as other Will follow. ¡­. Level 47 Race canidae Rank 0 Species Wolf ¡­ Threat level D++ Skills **unavailable** ¡°Oh that¡­¡± ¡°Minnie isn¡¯t its level a bit higher than our ant.¡± They looked at each other and then looked at the screen and saw the wolf jumping and ripping the back of their protector with its claws. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­.¡± And the wolf killed the ant by firing a wind blade on its neck. The ant which they thought would produce a miracle, turned into dots of light without living for even a minute. ¡°Shit, shit. This is too infuriating. Even though the ant turned into the best that it could be, it still didn¡¯t cut it!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry lets summon some more.¡± The ant transformed into a series of light sand vanished leaving behind a mass of mana, which slowly travelled and got absorbed by the crystal. He saw his reserved mana getting free after the ant¡¯s death, and nodded his head. ¡®That¡¯s to be expected, I suppose.¡¯ he thought. Before he spent 200 dc and reserved 100 more of his mana to summon four more ant¡¯s. They both anxiously waited for the ants to appear and to start the fight, but even those menacing looking new recruits couldn¡¯t bring any difference. And before the newly formed ants could even lift their legs, two of them died. ¡°Damn, Minnie this wolf is absolutely brilliant. Can¡¯t I summon it somehow?¡± ¡°What Bullshit brilliant, he is a damn monster. Forget it, we are already spending so much, might as well call the big guy out.¡± ¡°What big guy?¡± then he noticed her finger hovering over the ant soldiers tab. ¡°Oh, that guy.¡± Minnie hesitated for a minute, but then took a breath and summoned the ant soldier. Though she didn¡¯t expect it and neither did him, but its status alone made a smile bloom on their face. They behaved as if sun had finally risen after a long dark night. Worker Soldier (Uncommon) The queen helps them grow. The soldier protects the queen and the worker obeys them both. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.Remember a soldier ant is aggressive towards all the intruders. ¡­ Level 59 Race Insect Rank 0 Species Black Ant ¡­ Skills Dig lv(5), Mandible shovel lv(9), Ram Lv(8), Sprint Lv(4) ¡°Fuck, this ant is out of this world.¡± ¡°Control yourself Minnie, control.¡± He somehow held the arms of that floating and brought her back to ground, but that didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t jumping with joy himself. ¡°Now we¡¯ll see who wins this fight. Ah, yes, yes, control¡­ How could I forget!¡± she slapped her face with her tiny hands and suddenly turned to face the owner and pleaded, ¡°Please give me permission to control that ant for now.¡± ¡°What you can control it?¡± ¡°Yes, now hurry up. I don¡¯t want it do die too.¡± ¡°Okay, you have my permission. Did that work?¡± And as if the world was answering him, a low hymn ringed in the air, which was followed by a round white ball about the size of a human skull coming out of the ground. Rockie instantly felt a connection to it and saw Minnie placing her hands on it. She did that and closed her eyes and said, ¡°You are dead now.¡± In the real world the soldier ant roared wildly toward the wolf. The ant then not behaving like its nature, told the other surviving ants to get behind him, dig into the surface and to wait for further instructions. That he understood because, Minnie spoke every word loud and clear for him to listen and to his surprise the ants moved the way they were told. ¡®I didn¡¯t even think about controlling them at all. I have to say Minnie knows her stuff alright.¡¯ Then the fight began and it ended. Ant it left him bewildered, how one-sided the fight was. The wolf wasn¡¯t even able to leave a wound on the soldier ant. All it could do was to keep jumping out of its way, to save itself, but even then it ended up getting caught into Minnie¡¯s ingenious plan. The fight ended when the wolf flew out of the cave and out of the ants reach. Minnie came out of the Terrance and grunted. He saw that she was enraged. But because he didn¡¯t understand the reason, he simply asked her. ¡°What happened, you killed the wolf, so why do you look so pissed off?¡± ¡°Ahhhh¡­¡± she screamed. ¡°He ran away. Why else do you think I am pissed? We finally had a chance to make up for some of our losses, but that little¡­¡± ¡°Huh, what loss? The loss of those ants?¡± ¡°Hah, you don¡¯t know, so let me tell you this. The only way to recover the price that we pay to summon our monsters is by killing the intruders and then absorbing their bodies.¡± ¡°What?¡± the new information left Rocky flabbergasted. ¡°Yes. Or we could keep them inside the dungeon and risk them getting near the core. Now why do you think I am, was¡­ hah, look Rockie, we spent 350 Dc to kill the wolf but didn¡¯t get anything in return, so what do you think, was this a profit or a loss?¡± ¡°But we did get to see the power of our ants, so I guess¡­¡±And hearing him say that Minnie sighed. ¡°Well, there is that too. Alright we can say that this monster was a blessing in disguise that let us see the potential of our ants, but we can¡¯t let this scenario repeat again. Anyone who enters your domain can¡¯t be allowed to return alive.¡± He saw the seriousness of the situation, but still asked her, ¡°But what if someone didn¡¯t come here to kill or harm us and just wanted to talk?¡± *Pfft!* ¡°Are you joking with me? Who do you think comes to a cave filled with monsters to talk? Don¡¯t be so na?ve!¡± She then saw his face sulk a bit and sighed. She then faced him, held his small hands and spoke tenderly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry I am here, so even if no one came to talk with you, I¡¯ll be here to listen and fulfill whatever whish you¡¯ll have. So don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be there for you.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Rocky said and looked at the screen showing the view of the real world. The ants stood there like statues, the broken wall and the blood on the ground were clear clue about everything that had happened inside the cave. He looked into the light coming from the hole seemingly lost into his thoughts. He stayed quit, staring into the light for some time, but then sighed, shook his head and thought, ¡®If it wasn¡¯t for Minnie would I have died already? And even if the wolf hadn¡¯t touched me, others would have done so in the future.¡¯ ¡®Ah! forget it.¡¯ But just as he was going to turn, something shined from the corner of the cave and it attracted his attention. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± He mumbled. ¡°Huh, what?¡± He didn¡¯t look at Minnie and simply pointed at the thing in the screen. ¡°That. I just saw it.¡± And as if the screen had understood his command, it zoomed to the object till everything else slid away and only That covered the whole screen. ¡°OH.¡± They responded surprised and intrigued. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that was possible.¡± ¡°Neither did me.¡± Minnie replied. ¡°Well, it¡¯s a good thing anyways, but what is that?¡± Minnie looked closely at the thing for a second, before she understood what it was. ¡°It¡¯s a Bracelet.¡± ¡°A Brace- what?¡± ¡°Oh it¡¯s nothing much. Just an accessory these humans and others like them like to wear. Though some have quite unique options and skills imbedded, but those ones are too rare and this one looks too¡­ crude and low quality.¡± But she didn¡¯t stop there and continued explaining the origin of said accessories. ¡°You know one fun fact about these accessories and even the weapons that them humans use?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the Dungeon Monsters who drop them sometimes on their death.¡± And as if she was filling a case against him, he protested. ¡°But how is that possible?¡± She only smirked in return. ¡°Hee, why do you think I was crying before?¡± He just shrugged his shoulders in response. ¡°Because humans like to explore dungeons¡± She emphasized the word explore, made a face as if she was telling a ghost story and continued saying, ¡°Though you are just a newborn and will probably be given some time to grow, but they will come back to reap the profits after some time, and then you will have to give rewards to your invaders for defeating your monsters.¡± But he just couldn¡¯t understand her thought, and voiced his complained. ¡°Now why would I reward someone for killing my monsters?¡± To which Minnie replied back saying, ¡°It¡¯s like a give and take relation. The humans will let you live and you will reward them for killing the monsters.¡± ¡°But why do I need their protection?¡± And she smirked hearing that. ¡°Humph, you don¡¯t know, but the humans are despicable, biased and cowardly creatures. They only care about things which they deem to have some worth, and everything which points to their own destruction, they nib it out from the bud.¡± He couldn¡¯t understand hear reasoning, and shook his head mumbling, ¡°What does that even mean?¡± ¡°It means that until you become strong enough to handle an invasion by a whole army of humans on your own, forget about not giving bribes for your life and hope that you being first of your kind will have some worth in their eyes.¡± Hearing her say human this, humans that made his mind hurt. He saw his pride ant standing outside and asked her, ¡°Umm, who do you think will win in a fight between a human and a wolf?¡± But her answer made sweat run down his face like water. ¡°That¡¯s easy. A human of the same level as the wolf can level it quicker than your soldier.¡± He had some pride and she broke it and what was left of it was professionally collected and burned in the flames of hate. ¡°That¡­ so how many humans are in this army of theirs? Surely there are no more than 10, right?¡± ¡°pfft!¡± ¡°Haahaa¡­ ten¡­ haaha¡­ oh please don¡¯t joke like that. The army off the biggest empire in this world has more than a million soldiers working. And there are many beings who are over rank 4. Understand what I am saying.¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Well don¡¯t worry. We have time. After all, every dragon was once an egg too.¡± Taking a deep breath he let all of his worries slide away and sighed, before mumbling, ¡°Hah¡­ this world is weird. Anyways, what should I do with that bracelet thing?¡± She saw him pointing at the screen. ¡°That, just absorb it and it will simply enter into your inventory.¡± His search, but net him any answer about those two words, and when Minnie looked, she saw him lost into his own world. She looked into his eyes and said, ¡°You know you can just ask me. No need to burden your immature mind so much. Well, inventory is something only you have. It is where all the equipment or non biological things which you will absorb from now on will get stored. On the other hand absorb is a skill that every dungeon has and it allows a dungeon to eat only dead bodies, and grow strong.¡± As if he had understood the Dao of eating, he nodded his head and asked, ¡°So how should I use this skill?¡± ¡°Just look at the thing and say absorb.¡± ¡°Just that?¡± ¡°Easy isn¡¯t it? Well that¡¯s the perk of being a dungeon. Now, Shuu, eat it and come back. We have a dungeon to create.¡± It was just a command, a simple word of connected alphabets, but that simple word changed his fate. Though his destiny had already changed the moment, this seemingly innocent and young core had scored its first kill, but the actual turn in time happened, when he absorbed that rough and rusted piece of metal. Though what had to happen would have happened eventually, but his simple usage of his skill flung him into a battle, which otherwise had nothing to do with him. Rockie like a well behaved child listened to her mother and followed her command. He zoomed out, looked at the dirty looking bracelet, and said absorb. The floor vibrated for a split second before the bracelet sank into the floor. He happily nodded his head, but just as he looked back the sound of a heartbeat ringed into his head, and his world turned black. ***** ¡°Minnie, where are you¡­.¡± ¡°¡­..¡± His surroundings suddenly turned Ink black and he lost his vision. It was like he had retuned back to the state before he met Minnie. He looked around to find her, when he suddenly felt something running past him. ¡°Hey, is that you??¡± With trembling voice he spoke. But silence prevailed and that made him impatient. Then after half a second something answered back . . ¡°KKKKkkkkk¡± Shivers ran down his spine, because he understood that he wasn¡¯t alone in the dark. ¡°FUCk¡­¡­¡± and the race for his life began. Ch -6 Will followed Anton out of the fort, and they turned left from there. Will looked, but didn¡¯t see Mason outside, and a smile slowly crept over his face. He felt satisfaction making that bastard lick dirt. ¡°Hey, stop daydreaming and follow me. We have a long way to go.¡± ¡°Huh, oh, yes sir, sorry sir, I¡¯m coming.¡± Slapping his face once, he started following Anton. He had heard many stories of Anton¡¯s success and had always wanted to meet him. After all a person who had titles associated to his name like The wall or the Giant, couldn¡¯t be a simple being. Everyone knew that Anton had very high earth affinity, and his defense was out of this world. In his five years of service in Wild sword mercenary group he had completed over 100 successful missions, which included complete devastation of 10 bandit groups, major scouting for the nobles of the empire, coming out alive from the monster horde five times. His exploits list was so long that people stopped counting when he and his team successfully came back alive from the hole of death, an ancient level dungeon on the far east of the continent with 97% mortality rate. ***** Will followed behind Anton as they quickly travelled the dirt road and entered the jungle. At first will followed him easily, as they were just walking, then Anton started jogging. ¡®Maybe the place is some distance away.¡¯ Will thought. They jogged at a casual speed for half an hour, but then Will stated facing problems. Everything was fine until the next half an hour. Though the jog had some time ago turned into a run, but will was able to keep up, but when they crossed the one hour mark, Anton raised the pace once again and will had to start a fully fledged sprint. Well, Will was the one who had to sprint, while Anton still looked like he was jogging. This fast paced running continued for another half an hour and Before Anton For the first time looked back at will. The faces will was making and the fountain of sweat that was dripping from his head, plus his huffing and puffing clearly showed the great condition that he was in. Anton laughed looking at him and asked, ¡°What do you say, shall we stop? How about a drink, want some water?¡± Yes, Will had quite a lot of stamina for someone who was a scout, but to wills stamina was no where enough to run a three hour marathon which Anton was making him complete. Though the idea of some water to quench his thirst sounded like angels bugles to him, but he knew that Anton was testing him and nothing more. ¡®He is probably trying to gauze my abilities.¡¯ He thought Looking at his senior officer running backwards without even looking at the front in the obstacle full jungle gave Will quite some shock. Will knew that if he stopped now, then he wouldn¡¯t have to go through that mountain, but to admit defeat in front of his revered captain. He didn¡¯t want to do that. So he snorted and continued running behind Anton. Even when his body forgot to breathe for a second and he almost chocked, he still kept on running. Anton looked at the boy and inwardly nodded his head. ¡®Well, he at least needs this much will if he wants to grow.¡¯ He thought and with the twist of his foot turned to face at the front. ¡°No water for you then.¡± The hell course of full blown distant running continued for another hour before Anton stopped. Will saw him stopping, everything that was keeping standing flew away and he just let go. His body crumbled like a dead burnt tree and he slammed face first onto the ground. His nose once again started bleeding, but he just squirmed on the ground to get some air. Will had no idea how he had continued to follow behind Anton in his half dead state, but he was happy that at least he was able to follow behind him. But what he didn¡¯t know was that if Anton hadn¡¯t slowed down in the last half an hour to an almost crawling speed, then he probably would have really met with god by now. His clothes got dirty from the mud and dirt, but he didn¡¯t care about such a thing because he had more important matters to attend to, like breathing. ***** Anton whistled in a unique rhythm and after it echoed in the forest for two times, the same yet somehow different sound came from somewhere some distance away in the forest. Following that, four healthy looking young adults came running from the forest. Anton saw that and squinted. His demeanor changed and the smiling and caring face turned stiff. ¡°Vice leader Rae, where is your team leader Ren? And a 5ft 4¡¯¡¯ girl person stepped out from the lot. Wearing Black clothes which seemed to absorb light, and a Grey Safa which covered her face completely, she spoke to Anton in a soothing voice, full of respect. ¡°Reporting sir, team leader Ren is out in the woods to hunt some Day spiders, and Scout Rusty has gone to call him back.¡± ¡°Oh, He is able to hunt those damned spiders alone now?¡± ¡°Yes sir. Some day¡¯s captain Ren¡¯s poison reached Intermediate level, and the spiders poison has stopped working on him.¡± Anton nodded his head slightly hearing that. ¡°Okay, be at ease member Rae.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± ¡°So how have you been? I hope you lot didn¡¯t have any difficulty working with each other right?¡± ¡°To summaries it in one sentence I¡¯ll say and other will surely agree with me, that this has been a really fun three months sir. We learned and have built up on our team work and that¡¯s not all, as most of us are already above level thirty and captain Ren Is just a level shy of reaching 40.¡± That surprised Anton. After all just three months ago they were in the upper twenties. ¡°Well, good job. I didn¡¯t expect that much progress, but like they say it¡¯s only the matter of taking your first step and rest follow.¡± Smiles bloomed on all of their faces, while Will curiously looked at the Vice leader of the team whose members didn¡¯t look much older than he was. ¡°Okay, so I am here to give you your first mission.¡± And their eyes sparkled like puppies hearing that. ¡°Yes!¡± They silently bumped their fists. Will looked at them like an outsider and saw how composed and disciplined they were. A tinge of jealousy poked his heart, but he controlled his emotions. He stood up and walked till he was standing behind Anton, but no one looked at him. It did hurt him a little thinking that no one was giving him any attention, as they seem too engrossed listening and talking with Anton, but he didn¡¯t lose heart and kept standing there staring at Rae whose eyes he found too attractive. ¡°But let¡¯s wait for Ren and Rusty to come back before I divulge you the mission.¡± ¡°Yes Sir, they will be here in a minute or so.¡± And just as Rae spoke, a somewhat tanned man with spiky red hair and multiple piercing on his left ear came running out from the forest. He was almost 6ft tall and from the long sword behind his back he was clearly a swordsman. Wearing a simple but effective iron chest guard and a bracelet covering his right arm he clearly meant business. His attire was lacking in defense but maybe that¡¯s just how he was. Moreover the red undershirt and black leather pants gave him a wild look. He looked fit and fine to slice someone¡®s head off.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Maybe Will expectations were a little too much or he was expecting a knight wearing shining armor to come running out. ¡®How is he the leader of this team?¡¯ he just couldn¡¯t understand. Following him was the team scout. Wearing light green cotton shirt which had laces instead of buttons for and brown muddy pants, he adorned the lightest attire of them all. His sleek face and squinted brown eyes gave him a mean look. Maybe his attire wasn¡¯t fit for fighting, but his first job was scouting after all, but that didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t carrying any weapons. He had a short bow in his left hand while a dagger hanged from his waist. Ren and Rusty gave their pleasantries and stood in the line smiling at the other team members. While Rae stepped back and Ren took he place as their team leader. They were waiting to be given their first mission, but Anton¡¯s next words stunned them and they hurriedly moved back. ¡°Now that you are all here, then let¡¯s spar a little and see how strong you have really gotten.¡± And as if that was clue, all six of the team members present spread across the forest. The Scout whose official class was archer jumped and climbed the tree; one magically manifested a shield and jumped back covering two girls who seems to be too concentrated on something and mumbling to themselves. Rae took out her dagger and stood behind Ren who smiled at Anton and removed his sword from its sheath on his back. His sword shined and a drop of sweat dripped from his chin and as it hit the ground and dispersed into multiple fragments, he moved. *Clang* *Clang* He chopped toward Anton¡¯s ribs, the sword sliced through air creating howling sounds, but all his chops and slashes were stopped by Anton¡¯s glowing hands, contact with which created crisp metallic sound. Ren saw his attacks fail, but he didn¡¯t step back and instead pushed forward. His sword glowing in silver light, he performed the newest skill he gained when he had reached level 40. ¡°Mana strike.¡± He shouted. But Anton saw it coming from a mile away and dodged it by shifting his weight on his left leg, but so much for his dogging. Just as he moved a shiny dagger come from his shadow aiming directly for his thigh. ¡°Trying to take out my leg; you are too young for that Rae!¡± He shouted and he rotated over his left foot, and used the built up momentum to kick the handle of the dagger. ¡°Ahh!!¡± Rae¡¯s hand couldn¡¯t hold on to the dagger and it got air born. It flew through the air and stuck the ground passing from between Will¡¯s legs. *Gulp* Will hurriedly moved back. The sudden attack to his manhood scared the shit out of him, and he instinctly stepped back. ¡°Good, good. No hesitation, the one and only thing you need to remember is to have no hesitation.¡± Anton spoke to the Rae who had already placed a new dagger in her empty hand, and was trying to aim for his back this time, which was open and defenseless. All the while Anton didn¡¯t forget to inform Will to move back, ¡°Hey kid step back for now, this place is going to get rowdy. Opps..¡± Just as he turned his face towards Will a barrage of arrows came somewhere form the forest and hit Anton¡¯s back. ¡°Sir!¡± Will cried out, but Anton did nothing and the arrows collided directly with his back. *Ting* *ting* x5 ¡°Don¡¯t stop Rusty, keep firing.¡± Ren shouted while he tried to slice Anton¡¯s back with his glowing sword. But as if Aton had eyes on the back of his head, he dodged the attack by jumping forward. But he didn¡¯t forget to hold Rae¡¯s hand which was sticking out from his shadow and pulled her out. He not only did that but also sent him flying back toward Ren who was too engrossed in attacking him. ¡°Oh Ren!!¡± and they collided. Anton didn¡¯t let them rest and conjured a stone projectile over his palm and fired it toward the warrior who was coming to help them. *Boom* ¡°Gwah!!¡± The stone bullet stopped Raymond in his tracks. With his feet buried in the ground and his kite shield trembling awfully, he slid across back to his initial position. Meanwhile a fire ball almost the size of a human chest went flying over Raymond¡¯s back and collided with Anton. *Boom* The attack created a lot of smoke and Rose who had fire the magic smiled, thinking that she had succeeded, but then the smoke subsided and Anton came out unscathed. ¡°Good enough.¡± And he conjured a dozen of those stone bullets, one of which was enough to seriously press their team warrior down and entirely take him out of the fight. And he fired. *SHU* x 10 The bullets flew at break neck speed. Ren and Rae who were at the front had the most difficulty dodging them. But because Rae had Thief class, which mostly emphasized on agility and dexterity, she was able to avoid them all. She jumped; Cart wheeled as stones passed through her arms, rolled and once again jumped using her hands to dodge past all four of the projectiles which had come her way. She went straight flying toward Anton with a new dagger in her hand. Meanwhile Ren used his sword to deflect the two which had reached him and slid across while charging his sword with mana to perform another mana strike. Both Ren and Rea timing their strikes perfectly and because they were just some meters away from Anton, he couldn¡¯t see what was happening behind them. But Anton looked at them smiling and moving his arms to break their resolution once and for all by taking their weapons away by give a chomp on their wrists to cancel their strikes. But at that time, Rae vanished into the shadows and Ren jumped left with a Grin on his face, his teeth showing out and his. Anton briefly looked at his smiling face, he couldn¡¯t understand what they were going away after having come so near him, but then saw a huge ball of fire just two meters away from his face and his eyes opened wide in shock. *BOOOOM* That wasn¡¯t the end though. Ren Put weight on in right leg and pressed down, his sword glowing bright he used all of his strength and slashed it in one smooth motion from left to right at Anton¡¯s neck. But when his sword got stuck somewhere he understood that he had failed again. Fire covered Anton completely, but after a yellow glow from his body the fire quickly subsided. And Anton once again came out unscathed of the fight. Ren¡¯s sword was grasped tightly between his teeth and his right hand which was straight and facing forward was giving smoke, while his left hand had once again found its target and was holding Rae¡¯s wrist who was actively trying to shake it off. Anton let go of Ren¡¯s sword and spoke, ¡°Okay, that¡¯s enough.¡± Hearing that Ren didn¡¯t sheathe his sword at first, but then bowed and went back to where Raymond and Rose were. Rusty came out of the forest and gave Raymond an injection filled with red liquid to help him with his health regeneration. *Clap* *Clap* ¡°Good job guys. That was excellent work. Now, I have no qualm about your ability to attack or about your team work, though Ren you should use your warrior more effectively. But you Raymond,¡± While Raymond just stayed there in his crouching position. It had proved to be too difficult for him to constantly defend his party mage against the barrage of stone bullets that Anton had fired, but he had endured it somehow, though his bruised and blue arms, told his story clearly. ¡°Though as the main tank of your party, it is your duty to be at the front lines, but it is also important to protect your party mage and the highest damage dealing individual form damage. Good work.¡± ¡°Ren and Rae¡± they lifted their heads, ¡°I didn¡¯t see when you actually gestured for Rose to fire that supersize fireball and you Rose...¡± Rose pointed at herself and smiled wearily, ¡°Who else. You actually went forward with the attack without questioning their ability to dodge. I can see why vice leader Rae said that your team work has improved. Good job everyone. You all did a splendid job, and I think you all are ready for your first mission.¡± He patted their back and then looked back at Will who was starting at kids like mad. Then he looked back at the team and smiled. ¡°Now, I know that other than the mission you lot are also intrigued about who that boy is, right. Okay, Will come here.¡± Will heard his name being called and he suddenly came out of his trance. He shook his head and then moved to stand just behind Anton. ¡°Okay will, introduce yourself to them and them what you saw today.¡± Will stood up suddenly as if some had pushed a nail up his ass. He looked at the faces of his seniors and saw that though some were eagerly waiting to talk to him, others furiously staring at Anton. He took a deep breath and moved forward. ¡°Hello everyone, my name is will. I am a scout. Though this is my first time meeting you all, but I have to say you guys are fantastic.¡± His eyes sparkling and his fists clenched, he shook his head, ¡°No, you all are too good! Especially Sir Raymond...!¡± Raymond¡¯s ears perked up, when he heard that. ¡°You know, I got goose bumps all over me when I saw that stone projectile colliding with your shield and I even thought that you were stupid for not dodging, when that absurd amount of bullets came your way¡­!¡± but then his voice got stuck in his throat, as his own spoken words circulated inside his head. ¡°No, no, I mean that you not moving, even in the face of danger, was a very commendable thing. If it was me, then I would have run away a long time ago. I¡¯m sorry please don¡¯t hurt me, you are a very brave person, I¡¯m just a little scout and I don¡¯t even taste good.¡± Rae, Ren, Rusty and even Raymond giggled hearing that, and Anton had to stop him from making a fool of himself. ¡°Okay that¡¯s enough introduction for you. Now tell them about the explosion.¡± Hearing that it was finally time to know about their mission, they suddenly stopped laughing. Their eyes completely focused on Will, he again saw how serious this group was. *Gulp* And he recounted the same thing he had told the commander. ¡°So, it is a scouting mission, huh.¡± Rae spoke when Will finished speaking. Anton heard that and not denying her, finally gave them their first mission. ¡°Yes, auxiliary team no 8¡­¡± they all stood straight like posts, Anton recovered a white envelop secured with the seal a sword on fire and gave it to Ren who officially accepted it. Anton nodded his head and spoke, ¡°At this time you have been officially given your first mission. The time limit is three days. You have to report to the commander or me within the next three days with information regarding the site, cause, and observation and the result from your investigation.¡± He then looked at Ren and seriously spoke, ¡°Mr. Ren this mission is to investigate the cause of the disturbance. Will will move with you as your official scout. But remember This is not his mission, understand.¡± Anton, seeing that he had said all that he wanted to say, asked one last time, ¡°Any doubts?¡± ¡°No, sir.¡± They replied back. ¡°Okay.¡± Anton smiled, ¡°Then it¡¯s time for me to go back. Anton went back after giving them some useful suggestions. For his speech as their superior officer, he said, ¡°Sometimes It¡¯s better to retreat in the face of death, than to die and burn all bridges for a successful revenge.¡± He then smiled and vanished into the darkness. Ch -7 Just as Rocky absorbed the Bracelet from the ground, Minnie felt her connection with him fading. She felt like someone had tugged at sting connected them together, and then snatched it off completely. The sudden feeling of danger forced her head to look at her side, but then their connection abruptly broke. Minnie felt a force push her from her position and she was forced out of the inner world. She manifested outside and hurriedly called Rocky, but he didn¡¯t answer back. ¡°Hey, Rocky are you there?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be like that, talk to me!!¡± ¡°Please don¡¯t act like that, you are scaring me!¡± ¡°Rocky??¡± But no matter how much she cried with her hand on his crystal smooth surface, she didn¡¯t get any reply from him. She then took the wait and see approach. ¡®Maybe because it was his first absorption, he ended up using all his mana and went into a force sleep?!¡¯ She thought. But she knew in her hear that she was just being optimistic and the reason was something else entirely.
The next day came, but Rocky still didn¡¯t wake up. The tension engulfing her mind had completely transformed into dread by now, as the thoughts of him dying starting surfacing inside Minnie¡¯s pure heart. ¡°What should I do? What can I do?¡± Seeing that how even her mental messages weren¡¯t reaching him, she decided to get help from her teachers. ¡°Yes if it¡¯s them! They¡¯ll probably have a solution!¡± she tried to encourage herself, but failed and ended up feeling even sadder. And she brought out the batch that her teacher had given her on her graduation. She looked at it with watery eyes and then tapped twice on its surface. Suddenly, a click sound came from inside it and a blue projection shot out. The 3D hologram looked exactly like her teacher, though the image was transparent and greenish in color. The figure yawned and then suddenly spoke, ¡°Hey Feefee, how are you?¡± Though the small somewhat chubby fairy spoke leisurely at first, but when she saw tears sliding down her students¡¯ eyes, her cheery mood changed into complete seriousness. ¡°Huh, what happened? Why are you crying? Are you all right?¡± ¡°*Hick*¡± ¡°Now, now, don¡¯t waste your precious tears my dear, and tell me what happened. I will help try to help you the best that I can?¡± Minnie nodded her head and recounted the whole story from the start. She even told her about his titles and how her dungeon core was intelligent enough to hold a conversation with her. Then she told her about the bracelet which had led to the current situation, and that he wasn¡¯t waking up any more. She ended her story and waited for her teacher to comment, which in the end she did, but the content wasn¡¯t what Minnie expecting to hear from her. ¡°So he can see his own status?!¡± ¡°Madam, this is not the time¡­¡± ¡°Little feefee you don¡¯t know shit. Hell wake up in no time, don¡¯t worry about that, but tell me are you sure that he has his own status; One that lets him gain levels and such?¡± Minnie didn¡¯t know why but she felt a suffocating feeling, a sudden urge to break the batch and end the connection, but she controlled her emotions and took a deep breath. ¡°Yes madam. I am sure.¡± ¡°Okay, that¡¯s good. That¡¯s good.¡± Though the content was all nice and everything, Minnie still saw through the tinge of anger and hate that was behind the voice. It was beyond her why she was being asked such trivial questions, when his dungeon core, her partner might be in some kind of trouble. But instead of being helped she was asked such things. ¡°Tell me does he have affinity with life attribute?¡± Minnie almost slipped and spoke that not only he had affinity with life, but with dark and fire too, but her instincts screamed at her to only tell what was asked from her. And she hoped that maybe the question was related to his recovery as life attribute was known for healing. ¡°Yes, he has.¡±Minnie replied. ¡°Good, very good.¡± But her hope broke when the connection between them crumbled apart as the last message arrived from the other side. ¡°Sigh! I¡¯m sorry Minnie. I can¡¯t help you. It can¡¯t be helped. Just remember that we all love you. You just had to contact that.¡± And the connection batch broke. Minnie was left there standing dumbfounded looking at the broche crumbling apart in her hand. ¡°What the hell happened?¡± She had called her home to ask about a solution, but ended up feeling even more confused and dull about the whole situation. ¡°Forget it. I don¡¯t know what teacher meant. And over thinking won¡¯t bring any results either.¡± She was left there standing alone in the dark cave with only hope, hope that her partner would come back to her all the same. That his coma would only end up being a case of mana deprivation like her teacher had suggested, but little did she know that her troubles were just starting. The first one to notice was the ants who sprung back into motion from their lifeless state. Next came the ever so dreadful system notice screaming and scaring Minnie awake from her muddy state of mind. Warning: Intruder Alert She looked at the hole and saw shadows extending from outside and covering Rocky and her into their grasp. Her heart leaped out of her mouth when the shadows increased in a few seconds. And all she could say before her first meeting with humans was, ¡°FUCK!!¡± ************* Rockies¡¯ inner world:- He absorbed the bracelet and something unexpected happened. First, Minnie who was standing behind him broke down into pieces and before he could even comment on it, a black stain appeared in his vast and wide spotless white world. The spot looked to be too far away, but because he could still see it he understood that it was either not that far away or was simply too big. Then the spot started growing and in half a minute the small spot grew as large as a mountain that Rocky could see clearly. The Spot continued to grow and Rocky magically gained a mild headache. At first he didn¡¯t think much of it, but as the spot continued to grow, his mild headache turned serious, and he understood that there probably was some connection between the both of them.
In about an hour the darkness had almost covered everything in front of him. He looked behind him and thought that, Soon, the world will become half dark and he will be representing the white in this space. And just like his thoughts, after another hour, the sky in front of him had turned all black, and the point finally came when half of the world was black and half was white. But then the advent of darkness stopped there, and a something came floating from the edges of darkness and stopped right at the line parting the both sides. ¡°What! How come you look like¡­ me?¡± ¡°¡­¡± But the other party just stared at him like a devil. If there was difference between the current form of Rocky and the other party, then it was that if rocky was colorless and transparent, while his doppelganger was purely black and had red eyes. It wasn¡¯t just black it looked more like it was a shadow and had translucent black fumes or something rising from its head. Rocky noticed that the fumes rising from its head wasn¡¯t there just for decoration and that it was what had stained his white world. Moreover the color wasn¡¯t black like he had initially thought, but a purple so dark, it looked like black. ¡°Hey stop that thing! You are polluting my world.¡± Rocky spoke pointing at its head.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. But the thing just continued to stare at him without as much as blinking its eyes. ¡°Hey, are you listening.¡± But before Rocky could ask him who he was or where he had come from, his impersonator screamed and red lava came gushing out of its eyes. It screamed with his claws facing towards his face. The lava didn¡¯t stay stagnated, but instead carved vibrant red lines over his face, travelling down his neck and drawing characters on his chest. One line turned left over his shoulder and travelled down to carve a spiral over his heart while the other divided into two. One came straight down and parted his chest into two equal sections, before stopping at its navel. While the other traveled all the way to his left hand and created a pentagon over the back of his hand. His screams full of agony and pain sent shivers down Rocky spine and a lump formed in his throat, but before he could help him or himself, the devil reincarnate stood up straight from his crunching position, as a wicked smile formed on his face. A long serpent like tongue came out of its mouth, and just before Rocky could move, it shouted at the top of his lungs with its claws facing him. Rocky saw him getting into a running stance and he remembered the wolf and his first attack. Cold sweat drenched his back when he connected the dots. But before Rocky could spring into action, the thing moved leaving behind a vapor cone and appeared right in front of him. Its speed was so extreme that before Rocky could even move a finger, its claw reached his face and Rockies body flew. Though the thing had attacked Rockie with a might which could have easily turned him into powder in the real world, but he magically didn¡¯t feel a thing. Though the claw had sent him flying, but Rocky simply moved his wings and stopped his flight. But just as he stopped mid flight, he saw a black punch covered in black skulls and similar fumes coming towards his face. Though he could see it he still couldn¡¯t do anything. The punch soon touched Rockies face, and his body went supersonic from the force. *BOOM* Rocky collided with the floor and a huge explosion happened. ¡°Ahh, this is so frustrating.¡± But he wasn¡¯t given a chance to move. He felt an unnatural force pulling his foot and lifting him into the air. ¡°OH SHIT!¡± Rocky exclaimed. It slammed him into the ground once, and as if that wasn¡¯t enough, it lifted him again and smashed him. Lift, smash, lift, smash, smash, smash¡­.. Rocky forgot the count mid way, but then remembered that the last one he remembered numbered 666. And as if not satisfied from its performance, his doppelganger got frustrated and threw him away like a rag. Rockies rolled in the air, smashed face first into the ground and skid a long distance before coming to a stop. He sighed and used both his hands to get up from before he faced its way. He saw that thing getting frustrated looking at him and smiled. Rocky felt a small sense of accomplishment from that, even after being used as a punching bag by it. ¡°What? That¡¯s all got Blacky? You know if I had my ants with me, then this fight wouldn¡¯t have been so one-sided¡­¡± and then his eyes opened wide. And as if someone was listening to him, large number of dots started accumulating and turned into something which was rather familiar to Rocky. The devil reincarnate furrowed his brows when he saw that happening, and tilted his head in confusion. A completely white worker ant about four feet tall manifested out of nowhere and stood beside Rocky. Even he was left thinking about how that had happened, but he simply smiled and laughed at his luck. ¡°Now, we¡¯ll see who will trash w¡­¡± *Smack* But before he could finish his sentence, Blacky moved and smacked the ant with his left hand which made it burst into the same lights from which it was formed. ¡°Haha¡­¡± And one more slap from it sent Rocky flying again. Rocky stood up again and started cursing, ¡°Fuck!! If it was a soldier ant then¡­¡± And the same phenomenon happened again. Covered in light particles a soldier ant manifested in front of him out of nowhere. ¡°Haaha, this is great.¡± And before Blacky could move the ant Roared and ran toward him. With its head facing forward and glowing in a faint copper light, a sudden rush of adrenaline made Rocky excited. Blacky turned his body from the waist up, stood in a modified karate pose with his right hand facing front and his left hand with the pentagon on it folded near his waist, with the palm facing front. Rocky who knew the power behind that head butt of his ant shouted at the top of his lungs, ¡°GO, soldier go.¡± The ant roared and jumped to become a missile in air, as the copper glow moved from his head and covered his whole body , while Blacky thrust¡¯s his palm directly toward the flying ants head. *Boom* A huge shock wave travelled from the point of contact, but unfortunately the ant couldn¡¯t hurt him at all. Instead it turned into a crushed plate as if it was pressed between two mountains. Rocky didn¡¯t let it get to him. ¡°So what if one couldn¡¯t do it, I¡¯ll summon MORE!!¡± And suddenly balls over balls of light covered the whole place, with more emerging with every passing second. One after one ants started manifesting from nowhere. One, two, ten, twenty soon a hundred ants were summoned and more kept on coming and surrounding Blacky. Even Blacky looked stunned from the display of such a power, forget about Rocky who was left there with his jaw open, when he saw that happen for real. And then the mega fight of one against an army started. The whole army of white ants started running toward Blacky. Roars covered the whole area. Blacky saw them coming and took a step back. Then he gave a low grunt before his claws elongated and turned into almost deep black sharp swords. *KEYaaannn* It roared and moved with a speed even faster than before. Ants collided with his nails, and their heads got chopped. Punches rained and turned even more ants into paste. He jumped, he ran, he rotated his body like a typhoon and brought a storm of broken legs and chopped heads everywhere with him, but the ants didn¡¯t stop coming. Blacky¡¯s speed of killing them was ferocious but the speed at which they were getting summoned was even faster. He killed one and three took their place. He would smash four and twenty more would come out to take their place. But there was no doubt that it was a slaughter. Soon the number of killed ants numbered in the thousands and a change happened As if angry at the situation he had placed himself in Blacky roared creating a low shock wave which pushed all the ants near him back. It then crouched placing its hands on the ground. The red lines on his body which Rocky thought were just for decoration started emitting red devilish light and soon his body morphed. It grew and grew till it was 5 meters tall. Scales formed over its body and horns grew from his forehead. His feet turned into balls and his legs and arms thick like tree logs. A new eye grew on his forehead. His muscles grew and grew until they swallowed him whole. His body which looked as if it was carved from stone turned him into a monster who had taken birth for just one thing; to kill everyone. Blacky clenched his fists and smiled feeling the power inside him. Rocky on the other side clenched his fists too, but from fear. And the fight started again, and then it ended. Blacky just lifted his arm, punched in the direction where the most ants were concentrated and the shock wave alone cleared the whole area. Rocky¡¯s mouth opened wide from the fright. ¡°Y-you piece of shit! You think only you can grow¡­ the fight isn¡¯t over yet!!¡± And as if that was the command the ants started jumping onto other ants backs and vanishing without a trace. At first Rocky wanted to stop the madness, but when he saw the left over ants growing bigger and bigger, a smile formed on his face. ¡°Haaha, now we¡¯ll see who wins this fight.¡± But Blacky just snorted and moved his foot. The space warped, time stopped and before the first ants could even evolve completely his fist crumbled them into pieces. But that didn¡¯t mean the ant just died. There were countless of them everywhere and though Blacky moved at inhuman speeds to kill some the rest perfectly converged together to create mind boggling 50 meter tall ants. Rocky had thought that the result would be good enough for ants, but it was just too much. Every step that the new ants took created tremors and fortunately or unfortunately there were hundreds of them by the time Blacky scored his ten thousandth kill. A tinge of anger passed by his face looking at the spectacle. He ran in anger and obliterated one of the legs of the ant near him, but that did nothing to the ant. He gritted his teeth in rage and started climbing the ant by running over its other leg, before he reached its face in three seconds. A truly humongous eye greeted him and he drilled inside it roaring in anger. *Roar* The ant roared in pain, but unfortunately it couldn¡¯t do anything to stop the little insect from rampaging inside its brain. While killing the ants individually was simply and easy enough, this big brother of theirs took him five full minutes to deal with. He then jumped from one head to another killing them softly. Rocky saw that the big ant was useless and started punching the floor in anger. ¡°Damn this shit, damn, damn, damn cant these ants even deal with one little devil.¡± *Ding* And everything stopped. Even time stopped. And a notification appeared in front of Rocky. But the language was unknown to him and he couldn¡¯t understand it. It was followed by a ball of golden light coming from the ground and then time started moving again. The ants as if attracted by this golden light, started moving toward it. Blacky hurriedly moved to kill as many of the ants as possible, but one minute was all it took for the ants to reach the ball and swirl inside it. Soon silence took over everything. After ten minutes there were no more ants to be seen. The only things left in the half black and half white world was Rocky, Blacky and a golden ball seemingly floating in the air. Blacky wanted to smash the ball, but the ancient aura coming from it made him stop. *Crack* Then the ball cracked and soon it broke like an egg and a golden Ant head came out from the top. It looked at Rocky and then stared at Blacky. Then the ant literally stood up on its two legs and walked out of the ball. Its body was completely golden, even its eyes and wings were as if they were made out of gold. It was just a head taller than Blacky, but looked like a skinny teenager in comparison to the buff Devil. Blacky smiled when he saw it, thinking he was being wary of that little thing. Then the ant moved and somehow Rocky saw everything happen after that in slow motion. The ant ran on two legs and while Blacky was still in the motion of blinking his eyes, it reached him. It used two of its arms to hold Blacky from his neck and the other two arms did a winding motion before striking him directly on the chest. Rocky heard no sound, no explosion occurred. Just that Blacky¡¯s body got liffted into the air, but because the golden ant was holding him, it didn¡¯t flew away. Two holes appeared on his chest, but the ant didn¡¯t stop. It then released its bind on Blacky, and did a drop kick on his back. But before the sound from the explosion could reach Rocky, the ant jumped 10 meters into the air and then dropped down covered in a golden glow. It came down with his palm facing the ground and threw a palm strike onto the face of Blacky. *BooOOOmm* Time returned to normal again and a huge explosion happened. Rocky was thrown into the air from the blast wave, before the golden light from the explosion covered him and his world.
When Rocky came back to himself once again, he saw that there was nothing there. No Blacky, no golden ant and even his world was back to being white and spotless again. Seeing that there were signs of anything having happened there, he couldn¡¯t help but think inwardly, ¡®Was that a dream?¡¯ Ch -8 Back in auxiliary squad no 8 camp. After Anton explained the mission to the party and went back and Will was left in the camp full of unknown strangers alone. Though most of the members were still teens, but there was not one who was younger or even near will age. He was just a Fifteen year old kid after all. The team members moved back to their work after shaking hands with him once and didn¡¯t come back after that. While he sat there looking lonely, stargazing the bushes shook a little. That attracted his attention and also scared him a little, but he took a breath of relief when he saw that it was Rae. She saw him sitting there alone looking like a fool. At first she didn¡¯t understand what she should do, but then she started walking toward him. Will who saw her coming tensed up once again, not because he was going to be confronted by someone of a higher post than him, but because from the first time he saw her, Rae had been wearing a ¡®safa¡¯, which was also covering her face. Only her eyes could be seen Normally that is. And right now she was walking toward him while removing the said cloth from her face and it was what was behind it that greatly shocked Will. Her shoulder length black hair, small cut and pointed nose. Lips that looked so tender and juicy that made will unwillingly suck his lower lip. Her sharp but subtle chin which made him shy, last but not the least her big brown watery eyes. Will didn¡¯t forget but willingly stopped breathing to not give away his state of mind to a thief of her caliber. He clenched his fists super hard, as his voice saying Hug her, kiss her, hold her, started blasting across the plain fields of his empty mind. ¡°So, how are you will?¡± She asked him with her honey filled voice which made Will want to simply drink her out till his senses drop dead, but he controlled, somehow controlled his blushing face and trembling mouth to spew out nonsense and replied, ¡°Like a Bear.¡± She smiled and broke his aching heart into two pieces, and she continued, ¡°So you are a scout.¡± ¡°Yes mam.¡± ¡°Good. Will tell me what is your level and how high is your path finder skill?¡± Will stared directly into her eyes as the angel asked him something and his mind automatically answered her back but the only thing he was thinking about was how to make this girl fall for him. ¡°My level is 13 and my path finder is at beginner lv 5.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± His heart ached even more when he saw the slight disappointment in her eyes. ¡°Okay, no worries. Be ready tomorrow, we¡¯ll be leaving at 0400 hr tomorrow, Alright.¡± Rae was going to go back, but then she noticed Wills face turning red like a tomato and his hands shaking. She hurriedly held his shaking hands and spoke, ¡°Will are you alright? What happened¡­¡± But her holding his hands had the opposite effect, His face turned even redder, and his world started rotating. He almost fell, face first onto her breast, but she held his head and screamed out, ¡°Hey what happened are you all right? Healer, Heale¡­ Riana get your ass over here¡­ Will need¡¯s you.¡± But before the situation could escalate Rusty jumped out of the woods and said something to Rae in her ear. She looked at will in concern but nodded her head, stood up and left. Rusty who kept on looking at Rae until she went out of his sigh, turned his head, looked at will, and smiled. ¡°So how was she?¡± Will saw how casually he had asked him the question and sighed. ¡°A heartbreak.¡± ¡°Haaha, damn right!¡± Rusty replied back as he slapped Will¡¯s back. ¡°Ouch¡­!¡± ¡°But you did good kid. That head rotating was good, but did you really think that she would have let you rest your head on her mounds. You are delusional.¡± ¡°But I had to try.¡± Will replied. While his eyes still looked in the direction Rae had walked. ¡°Yeah right, what do you know? She is not an air head. You are lucky that you are new and this is your first time here otherwise she would have easily connected the dots and cut your head off. She is a genius you know and the princess of us younger generation.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Will nodded his head as if he had understood what he was talking about. ¡°Anyways, my name is Rafael and everyone calls me Rusty.¡± Will straightened up and held shook his hands. ¡°I am Pleased to met you Sir Rafael, I am will, a scout.¡± ¡°No need for pleasantries Will. Now onto business. I am here to inform you that, on squad leaders orders you will act as our official Scout and I will act as your helper and tomorrow you will be the one to lead us to the mission site, understood¡± The news surprised Will. Not only was he allowed to go with them, he was even given a very important role. ¡°Me?¡± ¡°Yes, you. You are here to gain experience of working in a real team right. Well welcome and goodbye. And we will leave at 0400hr in the morning so be ready by then. ¡± ¡°But¡­¡± will wanted to retort, and say that he wasn¡¯t expecting this, but before he could Rusty vanished into the Darkness, like he wasn¡¯t even there a second ago. ¡®0400 it is. I better get some sleep.¡¯ And midst a lucid dream and wet underwear, the Night passed away and the time to leave came.
¡°Where is the little kid?¡± Ren the squad leader asked Rae, who was standing with the rest of the team in front of him in a single file. ¡°He is prob¡­ oh there he is.¡± Rae saw Will coming out of the woods and noticed that his clothes and face looked washed and cleaner than yesterday. She remembered how he wasn¡¯t feeling well yesterday and her heart softened. Will came and bowed to the captain. ¡°Good morning sir. I am sorry for being late.¡± Ren noticed his swollen red eyes and sighed. ¡°Now¡­¡± ¡°Will sir.¡± ¡°Will do your best, okay.¡± Then he noticed Ren nodding at Riana who nodded back and mumbled something. Will felt a strange energy radiating from her and engulfing him. Following which was a wall of notices coming and going before his eye.
+25% movement speed or the next 2 hours.
Wind god¡¯s blessing Your body will fell a bit lighter for the next two hours.
+100% Stamina regeneration for the next hour.
Mage Riana, is trying to establish Telepathic connection with you. Accept/Reject
He looked at the Beautiful green haired lady, who had come to help him heal last night and saw her nodding her head. So he accepted the request and another prompt came to his sight. You are now connected to the party members of Squad-8 through mage Riana. Allows member Will to send and receive thoughts to and from all the members connected. Though the buffs gave him an initial shock, as he thought about the ability, talent and skill required to pull off something of this caliber, but quickly accepted them too, thinking that it was to be accepted. Otherwise they wouldn¡¯t have been given a mission of their own. Then he met with the scout Rust, who casually smiled and waved his hand at him, before stealthy pointing his index finger toward Rae who was again covered from head to toe. Will smiled warily and went toward him. He felt revitalized seeing he was being welcomed by at least two members of the team, even if he hadn¡¯t gotten the time to talk with the other members. Will and Rusty talked about the plan and dividing tasks, they soon moved out. With Will leading and showing the path, Rusty keeping eye on the monster and both giving reports back to their leader Ren, they slowly made their way through the forest. Though Will made some mistakes like being too engrossed in the surrounding trying to find monsters and only stopping when he was right in front of them, all the obstacles they met were quickly solved and removed by the team following behind him. The scout taught him all the way through and will kept on performing better and better. Though the day bats they met on the way sacred the shit out of Him, when one tried to suck his blood, but again the team took them out too easily as the bat were too low leveled and couldn¡¯t do anything to stop their advance. All in all it took them only three hours to reach their mission spot. The buffs played a huge role for Will and allowed him to keep going without stopping or getting out of breath otherwise reaching the destination alone would have taken a long time.
¡°This is the place sir.¡± Will spoke to Runt, pointing towards the barren grayish yellow land which had too many stones and dirt scattered everywhere. ¡°Okay, the trip ends here. Get in the back now.¡± Will wanted to retort, but he understood that it wasn¡¯t his mission and that if something bad happened then they won¡¯t have time to babysit him. So although it was a little bit frustrating, he still moved back. Then Rusty climbed a tree to do a quick survey before he informed Ren through Riana. Ren asked Rae to find a quick and safe route to the site and moved with the rest of the team to find a safe site, which they couldn¡¯t find, as the forest was too lush.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. So Ren had to compromise with wills safety by bringing him along which he actually didn¡¯t want to. ¡°Now, you know that we won¡¯t be able to protect you if something bad ass came running our way. So what will be the first thing you will do I that case?¡± Will didn¡¯t know how to answer that! But because he understood the mission¡¯s important, and knew the most about his powerlessness, he was able to the devise the perfect notebook answer to Team leader Ren¡¯s question ¡°Run back to the fort and inform the commander?¡± ¡°Very well.¡± Ren smiled and said. After five minutes Rae came back from the scouting. Their conversations ended there and Rae shared the site with everyone. Understanding the topography Ren asked her, ¡°So what is the situation, any danger?¡± ¡°Negative. There are no enemies nearby.¡± To which rust added saying he didn¡¯t notice any monster activity from atop the tree. ¡°Though..¡± Rae added, ¡°I saw some blood outside the site of impact and a dead white wolf.¡± ¡°A white wolf?¡± ¡°Yes sir. It body is still lying just outside the impact site.¡± ¡°Okay. So tell me something about the site.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it was done by any monster. From the signs and destruction, I think the hole was blasted out, and not the other way around. So inside we will either find long and winding underground tunnel or¡­¡± Seeing how Rae was explaining, Ren and Rusty quickly got to the same conclusion, ¡°Or this is the entrance to a dungeon.¡± ¡°A new born dungeon?¡± asked Raymond. ¡°Probably, or maybe an older one that finally reached 100th floor.¡± Rose replied looking at him with solemn eyes. *Ahem* Ren got their attention towards him. ¡°We¡¯ll retreat if it¡¯s an old dungeon so no need to worry about that. Anyways¡­¡± he faced Rae and asked, ¡°So how far is it?¡± To which she simply replied saying, ¡°Just a few meters away.¡± He looked at all the members present and nodded his head. ¡°Okay, we will do this like we have always done. Because the hole as Rae told is narrow, Raymond you are at the front. Following you will be me, then Rae, followed by Rose, Riana..¡± He looked at Will who was staring at him and continued speaking ¡°And at last Rusty will enter. After entering we will assume defensive stance, with Raymond acting as the Wall, me and Rae as front line attackers, Rusty and Riana as support and Rose as the damage dealer. Our primary focus is to investigate and find the cause of the disturbance, and the decision to engage the enemy will be taken after gauging its strength. Any questions? No, okay let¡¯s move out.¡± Will opened his mouth to say something, but then looked at Rae and ended up not saying anything. Then following Rae the team moved quickly, but not without taking note of their surroundings. Rae had already removed the wolf, so the dark hole was clearly in open for them to enter.
POV from Minnie¡¯s side: Minnie saw the same red warning message flashing in front of her and tensed up. Then a large screen showing a human, wearing black overall¡¯s having a slim shoulder, back attached to it appeared in front of her. Minnie noticed that other than those iron pieces she was also wearing knee and elbows guards over her clothes. But the main thing was that all of them were black. The intruder stood beside the wolf for some seconds, before she dragged it away and cleared the hole.. She looked inside and when she didn¡¯t find anything interesting inside, she ran away. Minnie took a breath of relief, but because she understood that her intruder had probably gone back to call her team mates and that they would be here in the next five minutes if they are near or fifteen minutes at most if they are far. So now she had five minutes to think about what to do with them. She looked at the cave and noticed how congested and narrow it was. Inside the cave there was not much space. But the main problem was about the enemy strength. She knew nothing about them. ¡®Ahh, If they are humans then e have a pretty good chance, but only if Rocky wake up anytime soon.¡¯ ¡°I hope, I just hope they are only her for some scouting¡­¡± Yes she was told in her school that humans do send a small scouting party to places of disturbance to check out the dangers and everything. So even though the dangers of her being disconnected from her dungeon core, no possibility to summon dungeon protectors, or not even having a place to hide were real, at least she would be safe. As she was told that humans are greedy bastards who will come to leech from her dungeon and won¡¯t harm her until she keeps on meeting their demands, a request to which she was ready to comply. Firstly a warrior holding a kite shield entered the hole wearing all iron equipment. His short sword hung from his waist on his left side and a helmet covered his face. Following him Ren cam down too. Minnie hurriedly got her act together, but got struck in the hard and rock place. She couldn¡¯t decide whether she should attack now and irk him or not attack him and irk his whole team. Thinking how no matter which dungeon it was, is, or will be it was the duty of a core to send monsters to intercept the intruders and send them to their death bed. And she needed to do it too to at least make the situation look normal. But her intruders were already attacking her protectors by the time she came to be. ¡°The hell? Are those ants?¡± ¡°Those are¡­ Big? What should we do?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s mash them.¡± And they moved. Seeing the two humans sheathing their swords and coming towards the ants, Minnie ordered her babies to intercept them, while she hid behind the core. After all a fairy wasn¡¯t something that people could simply meet without having a destiny or maybe this was their time. Raymond rotated his short sword in his hand, before grinning and sprinting towards one of the ant workers standing at the front. He moved and stopped the raging ant with his shield and did a shield bash on its face which not only pushed it back but also made it fly. The same scene played at his side, where Ren at first gauged its strength by playing with it but when he saw that it was just too weak, he crouched down and charged his sword with mana before performing a mana strike. Because his level was almost twice its level and he was using a special attack, before the ant to do anything Ren¡¯s sword moved like lightening and struck its head. The power from his strike cut and dissected the ant into two pieces. Minnie looked with disbelief. ¡®The wolf hadn¡¯t been able to do such a thing, even with the help of its racial skill.¡¯ She thought, but then remembered reading that humans were powerful not simply because of their intelligent, but because they could use their intelligence in a better way than most beings could. She quickly understood that the difference between a wolf and a sword wielding human was not just the difference between their levels. By the time Ren had killed the ant all the rest of the members had come down from the hole. Minnie saw their numbers and trembled ever so slightly. ¡®There are too many of them here.¡¯ She hurriedly gave the Soldier ant to move but she ended up making a mistake. The soldier ant was strong and he was also a fast learner. So when he got the command to fight, he once again relayed the same message to dig and wait for its turn to the injured ant worker and stepped forward. It looked at the humans standing in front of him and roared.
Though Ren had killed one monster ant, he still kept his eye on the bigger, more menacing ant of the bunch, which was standing near the core aloof like the death of its comrade meant nothing to it. *Roar* But then it suddenly roared looking at him and charged forward like a raging bull, as if trying to prove that his thinking was wrong. Its head glowing with mild copper light, it bashed its head on Raymond¡¯s shield and cracked it. Raymond felt the ant, surging with power behind the shield, but was sent flying as his shield crumbled apart like glass. It stunned Ren, but he quickly grasped the situation and stopped the ant from doing a follow up attack on Raymond. Meanwhile the lonely ant worker behind the soldier ant started digging. While they were fighting the rest of their team came down from the hole and the scene shocked them a little. The first thing the mage girls Rose saw was Ren¡¯s shield cracking from the ants head butt and then him flying through the air and dropping mid way between them and Ren who alone was facing the ant on steroids. *Clang* *Clang* *Roar* But no matter how Ren tried to cut, slash or stab the ant with his strength, his sword would always bounce of its exoskeleton leaving behind sparks. ¡°Ren let us help.¡± And Ren felt two powerful attacks coming from behind. He noticed their trajectory and moved when they were almost upon him. While the ants opened its mandible and moved its head to try and cut him to pieces, but Ren agilely used its pincer to jump upwards as the fireball and a glowing arrow, directly struck the ant on its face. *Boom* *Shyaa* The fire which was its weakness completely engulfed its face and body, while the arrow got logged deep inside its left eye. *Roar* It started thrashing, and was going to move toward Rusty and rose when jumped off Ren reached the roof and used it as its foothold to down. His face facing the ant, he did a fully mana charged cross mana slash on the ants back. When momentum from his jump, his own strength and the swords sharpness ad his skill they all combined, hi power unexpectedly jumped levels to easily pierce the ants back. He did not just cut the currently soft exoskeleton from all the fire, but the sword even went all the way through and left a foot deep cut on its body, which immediately spurted a fountain of white fluid and rained on Ren¡¯s face, covering him completely. *Roar* Ren fell on its left side and unfortunately the ant almost thrashing like a bull came to collide with him. *Bang* They collided, as Blood came out of his mouth, but before the ant could harm him more Rae came out from the ants shadow and cut two of its legs. Then she rolled under its soft bottom, creating another set of injuries there before coming from the other side and cutting another two of its legs. The ant momentarily stunned from the sudden turn of tables couldn¡¯t roar anymore and fell down, as its remaining legs couldn¡¯t handle its weight and they broke. Its fall opened the wound at its bottom and even more white fluid gushed out; filling the barren dry land. Rae came out of the shadows and stood beside Ren who was looking in the ant¡¯s eye with his sword hovering over its head and glowing stronger and stronger by the second. ¡°Good bye little ant.¡± And the sword struck down. *crush* Like his first kill the ant soldier also got his head cut into two and it soon disappeared into multiple dots of light, but Ren instinctively felt danger. And thinking about it he turned to face his team members waiting behind him and his face stiffened, his smile turned into a scowl and he screamed, ¡°Rose!!¡± But before anyone could do anything, another ant came digging out of the ground, just a few centimeters from Rose¡¯s feet and it jumped into the air. Its 4ft tall body completely covered Rose¡¯s vision. ¡°What?!¡± she uttered in shock, when the ant stabbed it six legs directly into her body. ¡°Huh?¡± Rusty and Riana who were standing behind her couldn¡¯t react before Rose fell backward from the ant¡¯s weight. That fall finalized her death. The legs came out from her back after puncturing her lungs, stabbing her heart and completely ripping her stomach and bring it out with them from her back. ¡°Gwack!¡± she coughed blood. ¡°STOP!!¡± Ren shouted but as he saw that spectacle happen in front of him, but *Roar* The ant wasn¡¯t listening to anyone. It looked down into her eyes, just like Ren had looked at the soldier ant. It opened its pincers and stabbed them downwards. They entered her cheeks like butter, before he closed his mandibles and cut her face off, killing her right then and there. ¡°YOU BASTARD!!¡± it was Raymond who had come running when it saw the ant coming out of the ground, with his sword already half way into the ant neck, but it was simply too late to do anything. The ant vanished into multiple dots of light, leaving behind the mutilated and badly bleeding body of Rose. With trembling hands Riana placed her head on her chest and when she didn¡¯t fell any heart beat tears started flowing from her eyes as she looked at Raymond with her hands on her mouth and cried. Ren gritted his teeth and turned around in anger. Though his mind was full of anger and it his inner voice was screaming inside his head to destroy the core, lit it, blaze it, it was actually Rae who had acted first and was currently slashing the core with all her might. Her eyes red and her face uncovered. She didn¡¯t care about her image, as she gauged the core and etched deep lines all over the crystal. And she made a final cut, before she saw it gaining a purple tint.
Minnie saw what happened over the screen and didn¡¯t dare to look from behind the crystal. She was simply too scared to go in front of them. She saw the ant soldier dying gloomed, then rejoiced when the ant worker killed the girl, but then gloomed again when she saw that girl who had played the greatest role in killing her soldier coming and attacking the core directly. She finally took a sigh of relief when she saw the girl stopping and taking a step back. But then she got confused when she saw all the other humans taking a step back too. Curious, she decided to look back and what she saw left her dumbfounded. There it was the core of the dungeon which had been colorless till date was suddenly glowing with a purple tint and with time it was getting stronger. But that didn¡¯t stop there. The core soon started emitting a vile and awful aura as if it was a bloodthirsty monster. Angered by the humans for trespassing his land and then the cave started vibrating as if it was the end of the world. ¡°What is happening?! This this¡­¡± ¡°Rae, Raymond, let¡¯s leave first.¡± Ren commanded but before they could actually move the core pulsed once, before purple colored glowing wave of darkness spread out from the crystal. And without leaving even a single corner unaffected, it soon engulfed the humans and the cave inside it. Ch -9 It was night time. While most people were getting ready to end the day and sleep, a glowing ball of fire entered the atmosphere. It lightened the night sky and leaving behind a trail of fire, flew over the Solomon Empire, Fire burn kingdom and Robin¡¯s estate, before vanishing to the east of the dreadful devils pass mountains, near the border of Renee Empire. While technically it didn¡¯t enter enemy walls, but unfortunately for the emperor of Solomon Empire, it did fall a little too close to them. Which was why, even after three months had passed from the incident, the king of Solomon Empire, King Solomon the 25, was still feeling anxious. The castle of once great Empire which was still standing tall, ever since the beginning of its reign, looked a little worn out than most days. The king was anxious, because most fireballs¡¯ from outer space were a precious the source of meteoric metal, an inch of which could make a normal iron sword into a rare weapon and there were chances of the newest one to fall into the hands of the neighboring Kingdom. So, he had, on the same day that the meteor had come, ordered his men to bring it to him, with no chance of failure. And now when the heat of the event had died down, Solomon talked to his most trusted aide. ¡°So you came, Huh. You are a bit late, though. Did anything unexpected happen?¡± A blurry dark figure slowly solidified in a corner of the room. It walked out from the shadow of the soft red curtains and courtly bowed in front of the person sitting on the gold covered, black diamond wood chair. ¡°Good evening my liege. How are you today? It¡¯s such an exceptionally bright day, but you are still not enjoying yourself. You need to give sometime to yourself and enjoy living a bit." ¡°You know how it is and still ask me those useless questions! If you have so much free time, then use some of it and find out the one who tried to assassinate me.¡± The king spoke without taking a breath, which left him slightly winded. King Solomon spoke crude words, but his voice contained no anger. Because the man who was currently respectfully bowing to him was an existence, who had single handedly ended the last war and was the only reason that even though the once great Solomon empire was on the brink of destruction, it was still standing. ¡°Ah! My liege! About that, you shouldn¡¯t concern yourself with such trifling matters. We have already caught the perpetrator and it seems like, it is the usual play of ¡®kill the king to gain the kingdom¡¯. So, please don¡¯t worry. I will soon make the heads of every single mastermind behind the incident to roll underneath your feet." "I believe you Meredith, I believe you. So, tell me about that other matter? Did you find out anything?" The shadowy figure muttered an, ¡¯Oh!¡¯ when he heard his master, but he swiftly replied back with a smiling face. "You also know my liege, the commotion which ¡®that¡¯ created. It took us some time to protect it, but don¡¯t worry it is perfectly in our hands now.¡± Solomon¡¯s brows furrowed when he remembered how much chaos that one space rock had caused, and sighed, ¡°Even though it had fallen on our grounds!¡± But it took a single reply from the humble Meredith to break the heavy atmosphere between them. ¡°My liege, we managed to find out everything that is needed to know." ¡°Good, good. So tell me everything¡­¡± ¡°Yes, my lord. We found the site where the explosion had occurred. It was surreal; destruction everywhere. I am sure even the highest tier spell that our magicians can use could not have caused travesty on such a scale!¡± Meredith spoke excitedly. ¡°Ho!¡± A smile formed on Kings Face as he spoke, ¡°Good, good¡­¡± ¡°It was a meteorite my liege, but not a simple or regular one. It destroyed 3 villages, destroyed 10es of acres of fields and mutilated 10 miles of our land in its rage.¡± ¡°Ah, so a meteor it was. Well, the meteoric metal in our treasury is also on the low side, so it¡¯s good enough, I guess. ¡± Solomon spoke, but with fading excitement and repressed mood. Meredith saw his liege¡¯s face becoming expressionless and his excitement dwindling. He hurriedly added, ¡°My liege, it wasn¡¯t just a meteor.¡± ¡°What??¡± ¡°Yes, my liege. Inside the crater we saw the meteor and inside the meteor we found an artifact; an artifact which even I could not identify!¡± ¡°Haaha, finally, finally, we will have our higher ranked artifact. Now we will see how that pathetic Bolt tries to go on war with us. What was it? Do you have it with you? Haaha, something that even you the greatest spy of our empire couldn¡¯t identify! It must be a ¡®legendry grade¡¯ item or maybe even ¡®Ancient¡¯ one! GO on, don¡¯t keep it to yourself. Tell me, don¡¯t keep me waiting¡­¡± the king got so excited that he almost screamed at Meredith. His eyes got redder and redder with each passing second. ¡°Please sire, control your excitement. It is not good for you health. You already have so many enemies! Don¡¯t add another one on the list. And about the item, it is a bracelet my liege.¡± ¡°Show me.¡± But Meredith stuttered when he heard that. It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t have the artifact, but the hands he talked about were his men. And they were bringing it to the capital, travelling through safe, unknown routs; Keeping it away from the eyes of enemy spies. ¡°I¡¯m sorry my liege, but I don¡¯t have it with me right now, but a young fine man is bringing it to the capital.¡± Solomon gritted his teeth, but understanding that it must have been very difficult for Meredith to secretly get his hands on the Bracelet, h didn¡¯t say anything. And also the prospectus of having the Bracelet, gaining abilities and powers to once again prosper his empire soon relieved his tension. After all, what did a day or two mattered, after three months worth of wait. ¡°Oh! So how long will it take?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry my liege! He¡¯ll be here within a week. I was informed that he is coming via the barren lands near ¡®The Devil pass¡¯ mountains. Nothing resides there, so there is no way for any mishap to happen.¡± Solomon sighed, hearing the name of those cursed mountains. He looked toward the north, looked past the glass window of his spire tower and even though the ¡®Devils pass¡¯ mountains were far-far away from the capital, when Solomon looked outside, he clearly saw a huge silhouette with a sharp peak and dark atmosphere staring back at him. Memories came flooding out, making him remember the past, but he just sighed looking at the otherwise beautiful scenery of his gardens and the old city buildings behind the castle walls. ¡°You better be right Meredith! You better be.¡± Solomon spoke slightly lost and tired. **************** Back in the dungeon, Rocky woke up with a headache and blurry vision. He hurriedly looked around, but when he didn¡¯t find anything unusual, he felt a little broken. ¡®Well, forget it.¡¯ He thought. Thinking that there were more important things to do, than to waste time think about things, that he even didn¡¯t know were real or not. ¡°Minnie!!¡± He called out after coming out of his inner world, and saw that she was currently floating in front of him, looking toward the entrance, toward the hole to the surface. ¡°Oh there you are!!¡± he called out, but Minnie seemingly lost, didn¡¯t reply back. He waited after a minute and she finally turned around. ¡°Hey, sorry about that! I think I slept¡­¡± But then he noticed her eyes becoming watery and tears flowing down ¡°Huh??¡± he said out loud. ¡°What happened?¡± But Minnie didn¡¯t reply back and instead came flying at him, with her hands wide open. She tightly clutched him and started crying, making his surface slippery and wet with snort and tears. ¡°You are back! You are finally back!!¡± she sobbed. ¡°I thought that girl had killed you and you had combusted your mana to deal a final attack!¡± She fired word out of mouth like a machine, seemingly lost in explaining whatever she had dealt with, but unfortunately most of them went over Rockies head. ¡°Wait-wait hold on, hold on for a minute! What girl? What are you saying?¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡± Minnie looked at the crystal like she was looking at a fool. She calmed down when she thought about it. ¡®He was sleeping after all. So maybe he doesn¡¯t, but¡­ AH! Let¡¯s just ask him.¡¯ ¡°So you didn¡¯t release a burst of purple eerie energy to protect me¡­¡± She blushed, ¡°I mean yourself from the humans?¡± But that confused him even more. Both his dream and her behavior weren¡¯t normal after all. ¡°What? Humans attacked us? When did this happen?¡± Then he noticed the things and changes that he had initially blurred out of his vision by focusing only on Minnie. Firstly he saw that there were no ants in the cave, and secondly, the spherical crater that he was in also wasn¡¯t there at the start. He first called Minnie to his inner world and then pointed towards the crater to ask when that had happened. Minnie seeing that he really had no clue to anything recounted the last two days, from the moment he had gone sleep. When Rocky heard what she had gone though during the time, he was left speechless, but the news that shocked him the most was something else. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.¡°Ant soldier.¡± He spoke pointing some distance away and to his surprise or not an ant soldier appeared out of nowhere. He rubbed his temples when his suspicion proved to be true and he spoke out loud. ¡°So that wasn¡¯t a dream! That really happened! Wait, then what would have happened if¡­¡± Minnie saw him talking to himself and smiling awkwardly, she nudged him to ask why he was behaving like that. Rocky looked into her eyes and slapped his small face before replied, ¡°Something not great. Actually¡­¡± and recounted his dream or the fiction like reality which had occurred right in his inner world. Minnie face went through a series of fascinating and funny transitions throughout his story and at the end she was left tongue tied. When Rocky asked her, whether she had any thoughts about it all, she gave him a frightening answer. ¡°You almost died, you know.¡± Which, proving his suspicion, scared him a little. ¡°And if I am right, then the dark devil or something was trying to absorb your soul¡­¡± She said while pointing at him, ¡°and possess over your body.¡± His mouth opened and he scoffed hearing that. ¡°And he would have been successful, if you were a human.¡± She mocked him. To which he reacted taking a breath of relief. ¡°But what how did it enter my body?¡± Rocky asked. ¡°Lets see¡­¡± And, recounting their steps backwards, they got to the item of suspicion which had led to the situation. They both looked at each other and cried out at the same time, ¡°THAT BRACELET!!¡± Rocky rubbed his temples again from all the stress before speaking, ¡°Should I take it out?¡± ¡°No!! Just let it rest in the item box. If it really was the cause, then we have to get it away from us, but for now, let it rest there. Afterwards we will gift it to some stupid human and get rid of it.¡± Minnie saw him looking at her with puppy eyes and understood what he wanted. She rolled her eyes and sighed before saying, ¡°Or we will check it once again after you gain some levels.¡± Rocky nodded his head, of course not without smiling like an idiot. Understanding that it was probably the best to let the item rest in his inventory, he changed the topic. ¡°So what now?¡± ¡°Now, we will see whether you gained some levels from killing those humans or not. And then, after distributing the skill points, we will create our first floor. Okay.¡± ¡°Capishe.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing, just my foreign memory acting on its own. Anyways, should I open my¡­¡± ¡°Yes, open you status and share it with me.¡± Accepting her request he shared his status with her.
Status Self / Dungeon
Name None Race Crystal
level 5 Affinity Dark, Fire, Life
Rank 0 Job Dungeon Core
Nature (-10)Neutral Class none
¡­
Titles Born Killer, Named Helper, Fairy¡¯s Blessing
¡­
Health 85 Health Reg. 1.1/min
Mana 485 Mana Reg. 1.3/min
Vitality 8 Knowledge 32
Resistance 10 Intelligence 18
Skills (Passive) Telepathy, Mana Presence lv(1), Mana Regeneration Lv(1),
Skills (Active) Outburst(Special), *Locked*, *Locked
Skill points 50
But when Minnie looked at his status, she was left slacked-jawed. Her eyes fell to the ground and she spurted out a fountain of blood, at least her expression presented such. He wanted to ask her what had happened, but she spoke on her own. ¡°That¡­ is that status real?¡± And thinking that maybe it was possible to temper with one¡¯s status, Rocky replied, ¡°Yeah¡­ why, anything wrong?¡± But unlike what he was thinking Minnie started laughing creepy as if it was that day. ¡°Hoho, Wrong?¡± she opened her mouth wide and shouted as her white gems shined with otherworldly light, ¡°There is nothing wrong. This¡­ your status¡­ it might be this world¡¯s most powerful status that I have ever seen.¡± ¡°Really?¡± even Rocky got excited though he didn¡¯t actually understand what she really means. ¡°Just let me explain.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°So, firstly you have 50 skill points at level 5. 50 not 25, not 5, but 50.¡± She pointed all of her fingers toward him to exaggerate that 50. She continued with, ¡°This itself is enough to make you centre of jealousy, but you also have three¡­ three fucking affinities, and one of them is even a rare type. I mean do you personally know god?!¡± She saw him smiling at her, while scratching his head like an idiot. She couldn¡¯t control herself and let one out. *Pfft* ¡°Not that I don¡¯t like it.¡± While Rocky was thinking who this god was. *Sigh* he lost interest in the thought and rest the case. ¡°Oh! That¡¯s good enough. So what should¡­ I mean what about the skill points? Are they powerful?¡± Then he searched his mind and enough information about them surfaced to freeze him up. According to his mind, normal humans get five points per level, and he saw that he had double that amount. Nodding his head he continued reviewing. Most humans or even other intellectual creatures don¡¯t even have an elemental affinity, forget about three like him. Yes, he felt happy knowing that he was better than those humans. Minnie also repeated the same information, but added that once a person reaches level 100 they are given a quest to rank up, and the reward is a new and more powerful class depending on the kind of experience they had to go through their life to get to that level. ¡°Well, at least you won¡¯t have to worry about not having enough mana to summon more ants.¡± ¡°Yeah, haaha..¡± ¡°Okay, that covers the skill points. Now, we¡¯ll talk about the attributes.¡± ¡°No I know about them too. Vitality for health and disease resistance, resistance for the ability to resist damage, intelligence for brain capacity that in turns affects the amount of mana, wisdom for calculation speed and it also affects total mana.¡± He spoke, while Minnie looked, no, stared at him touching his lips with his fingers like a hungry and drooling coyote. She felt a slight urge to run and do something with his lips, but she controlled her shaking legs at the end, somehow. *Ahem* ¡°Right¡­ that covers everything. Let me take a look at your born to be a killer title. I am somehow finding it intriguing.¡± ¡°Sure. Here goes.¡± And his personal status slide away to make room for the title information box to come up.
Title: Born to be a Killer.
As destiny has it, killing and strength goes hand in hand. You are no stranger to death that comes after struggle for living, it is what you live for.
Only Those who Kills someone within five seconds after their birth are worthy of this title.
Effect: Gain Intelligence and Knowledge of subject killed Gain Skills at twice the speed for half the effort. Reward: *Locked* *Locked*
Bonus reward 1st Dungeon floor set unlocked
¡°Well, that explains it.¡± ¡°What explains what?¡± ¡°I mean this title explains your knowledge. At first I thought that you were a reincarnated person or a returnee, considering your knowledge, but seems like I was wrong.¡± ¡°hahaa¡­ I didn¡¯t notice it. But when did I kill a human?¡± ¡°Idiot¡­¡± she scoffed. ¡°Then who do you think blasted the poor bastard who was afterwards eaten by the wolf?¡± ¡°Oh so that was done by me?¡± ¡°Probably, the explosion which gave you the skill outburst and let me find you killed him too.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± That was a like a revelation, an almighty message to him. That killing others had been a part of his life from the start. That he was born to kill others. ¡°Look we won¡¯t have to buy the first floor for our dungeon too.¡± Minnie happily pointed at the bonus reward given by the title, but Rocky interrupted her. ¡°Huh, it says set. What¡¯s a set?¡± ¡°Damn, a set. We got a free set. Damn that saves us so many credits. Damn this title is too good. Damn I want to eat you right now.¡± She found him looking at her with furrowed brows, after her performance and faked a cough, again. ¡°Ahem. A set is five floors. A floors costs 1000 Dc so your title¡­¡± she pointed at the screen, ¡°Has saved us 5000 Dc. See now we can happily shop with our saved credits to our heart content.¡± ¡°So should I¡­¡± ¡°No, let¡¯s distribute points to your attributes first.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°So, firstly add one to all four of them and then we¡¯ll pick up from there.¡± ¡°As you say professor.¡± Distributing the points, they noticed that a point in vitality gained Rocky an increase in his health by 10, a point in resistance increased it by .5, one point in intelligence and wisdom, increased the total mana by 10 and 5 points respectively, while his health and mana regeneration increased by .1/min. Minnie looked at the result and clapped her tiny hands. ¡°Okay, because you are a dungeon core, you won¡¯t be fighting directly. So there is no need to increase your health. Let¡¯s just put 40 points into your Intelligence and the rest into wisdom and then we¡¯ll buy the ants and start carving the floors.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ sounds right. Okay, let¡¯s do as you say.¡± The increase in stats looked like this: [Mana: 915] [Intelligence: 72] [Wisdom: 24] Minnie opened the Dungeon interface to see how many credits they had and sadly after the expenditure and shopping spree that they both had gone to, to kill the wolf, their savings had dwindled, a lot. And even the gain from their recent profitable business or the human¡¯s death hadn¡¯t gotten them much at all.
Dungeon credits : 690 + 245
¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Rocky lamented. ¡°What did you expect? Who told you to blow 350 dc on that Wolf, and thank god your dream somehow magically blew up those people, otherwise we would have been left with nothing in our hands or maybe we would have even died.¡± She preached him, but he just drank the poison like it was water and replied like it wasn¡¯t him who had done it. ¡°That¡­ sounds creepy.¡± ¡°Yep, creepy it is and that amount to a total of 935. Now it¡¯s either 18 workers or nine soldiers or we can buy four soldiers, one for every floor and then workers with the rest to dig out our dungeon.¡± ¡°What we need to dig?¡± ¡°Or what did you think!¡± ¡°Anyways, let¡¯s buy four soldier ants for 400Dc and ten ant workers for the rest.¡± ¡°As you say boss.¡± And as they finalized their purchase, balls of lights started forming in the real world one by one, and in less than five minutes, 14 ants, big and small emerged from the great beyond. Minnie bobbed her head up and down, confirming the emergence of ants. ¡°Now is the matter of our floor design.¡± ¡°What? Oh! I see, you mean to make sure that those invaders would stay the most time inside and grant us some credits and then die horribly, right?¡± ¡°Yup, that¡¯s right. So let¡¯s brain storm the plain and get the workers going.¡± Then after one full hour of deliberate discussion, they finally got a design ready for their first two floors. After taking with Minnie Rocky decided to create the replica of a real ant hill for the first ten floors. The first floor was a straight tunnel. Rocky didn¡¯t cover the spherical crater, which his purple doppelganger had blasted, and left it as it was. The tunnel was made narrow and low, so low that it was just the right height for the ants to travel through and after the first 100 meters of it was an small 3metre tall, 5 meter wide and 5 meter long antechamber, extended from which were three tunnels which were connected to three different rooms of 10x10x10 size rooms. Following which was a single human size tunnel, leading to the last room of the floor, followed by a slope to the second floor, which was a straight and narrow tunnel, again. Because they didn¡¯t have enough monsters for all the five floors, they decided to settle with just three floors for now. The third and the last floor were dug as winding passages, having more than one tunnel leading to the last room. Rocky made sure that most tunnels were dead ends, and that only two would be leading to the last room where he had shifted to. The ants busied themselves with the digging, while outside the dungeon; the wolves were getting ready. !!Spoiler!! Final warning. Once you see it, you can''t un see it. You see there are two spoiler buttons. one is for everyone who think they will be able to figure things out on their own. (1400 words) second, is for the summary of the entire first thing.(400 words.) Now you all can choose to either directly red the summary and be done with it. or Read the First spoiler, understand how things happened, and then read the summary. Its your choice. Spoiler:For you all detectives to figure out the truth on your own. Let¡¯s start from the very first chapter Prologue: There is this portion in the king¡¯s pov; Most of the people who died were normal civilians, kids and elderly, people like farmers. Even though we still have some major cities intact and some places which are not normally available were also not attacked, but everything else was¡­ evaporated. Our fighting force which no one could put a dent in, has been broken and disfigured into a state that our former glory from just a year ago, seems like a thing of the far past. When we first found that place I thought we would be able to protect our land, our life, our home. We would be able to free ourselves from the disaster, which we could not help but create because of our own negligence. I thought that god had finally given us another chance to show him our value That we are not trash; we are not just depleting our resources, but are evolving. Yes¡­!! That is what really happened, that we could start our lives again, but * Drip*drip*drip* Even these tears can¡¯t help me forget my sorrow, this pain, and this anger. Wish I could go back in time and reverse everything and stop them from enraging it. I still think every day about the time when our soldiers brought that devilish thing back from their outer space skirmish. How wrong were we to think it would help us, but.......*sigh*. Nothing can stop IT now. I¡¯m sorry father. I could not help our kind. I could not help our planet, our world, but at least I did send that ominous bracelet away, at least it will not pester our world anymore¡­ at least after some time life will flourish here again, even if I will not be there to see the triumph and evolution of a new species and their evolution. Even if I am going to die today, but at least there is still hope, hope that it would not haunt the future of our coming generation, like it destroyed ours. Did you see it? Don''t worry if you didnt see anything now, then you will see it by the time you finish reading the whole spoiler section. Or The you can check theother spoilerbutton. It contains thesummary of our main plot! The story then goes forward and we reach chapter 3 In this chapter we see a wolf eating a human and then he comes insdie the dungeon. He walked over to take a bit, but then he suddenly felt two small, no ant like presences keeping their eye on it and it flared. But thinking about how the presence seemed even smaller than the new born of his kind, he snorted once, and without giving them any mind, he stared enjoying itself. He ate and ate till there was nothing but an arm left, and just as he was going to walk back to his pack, he changed his mind, and decided to see what the fuss was about. He then jumped into the hole with the last remaining piece of meat, an arm in his mouth. And Chapter in 5: This happens after Rocky defeats the wolf. But just as he was going to turn, something shined from the corner of the cave and it attracted Rockies attention.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± He mumbled. ¡°Huh, what?¡± He didn¡¯t look at Minnie and simply pointed at the thing in the screen. ¡°That. I just saw it.¡± And as if the screen had understood his command, it zoomed to the object till everything else slid away and only That covered the whole screen. ¡°OH.¡± They responded surprised and intrigued. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that was possible.¡± ¡°Neither did me.¡± Minnie replied. ¡°Well, it¡¯s a good thing anyways, but what is that?¡± Minnie looked closely at the thing for a second, before she understood what it was. ¡°It¡¯s a Bracelet.¡± ¡°A Brace- what?¡± ¡°Oh it¡¯s nothing much. Just an accessory these humans and others like them like to wear. Though some have quite unique options and skills imbedded, but those ones are too rare and this one looks too¡­ crude and low quality.¡± But she didn¡¯t stop there and continued explaining the origin of said accessories. For those whodidn¡¯t seeit canclickon thespoilerbuttonat thevery end. The story moves forward, mc eats the thing and we reach chapter no 7 and Rocky fights with Blacky who was inking his inner world black. And comes chapter 9: The chapter starts with this: It was night time. While most people were getting ready to end the day and sleep, a glowing ball of fire entered the atmosphere. It lightened the night sky and leaving behind a trail of fire, flew over the Solomon Empire, Fire burn kingdom and Robin¡¯s estate, before vanishing to the east of the dreadful devils pass mountains, near the border of Renee Empire. While technically it didn¡¯t enter enemy walls, but unfortunately for the emperor of Solomon Empire, it did fall a little too close to them. And our beloved King Solomon¡¯s talk with his favorite servant Meredith. ¡°Yes, my lord. We found the site where the explosion had occurred. It was surreal; destruction everywhere. I am sure even the highest tier spell that our magicians can use could not have caused travesty on such a scale!¡± Meredith spoke excitedly. ¡°Ho!¡± A smile formed on Kings Face as he spoke, ¡°Good, good¡­¡± ¡°It was a meteorite my liege, but not a simple or regular one. It destroyed 3 villages, destroyed 10es of acres of fields and mutilated 10 miles of our land in its rage.¡± ¡°Ah, so a meteor it was. Well, the meteoric metal in our treasury is also on the low side, so it¡¯s good enough, I guess. ¡± Solomon spoke, but with fading excitement and repressed mood. Meredith saw his liege¡¯s face becoming expressionless and his excitement dwindling. He hurriedly added, ¡°My liege, it wasn¡¯t just a meteor.¡± ¡°What??¡± ¡°Yes, my liege. Inside the crater we saw the meteor and inside the meteor we found an artifact; an artifact which even I could not identify!¡± ¡°Haaha, finally, finally, we will have our higher ranked artifact. Now we will see how that pathetic Bolt tries to go on war with us. What was it? Do you have it with you? Haaha, something that even you the greatest spy of our empire couldn¡¯t identify! It must be a ¡®legendry grade¡¯ item or maybe even ¡®Ancient¡¯ one! GO on, don¡¯t keep it to yourself. Tell me, don¡¯t keep me waiting¡­¡± the king got so excited that he almost screamed at Meredith. His eyes got redder and redder with each passing second. ¡°Please sire, control your excitement. It is not good for you health. You already have so many enemies! Don¡¯t add another one on the list. And about the item, it is a bracelet my liege.¡± Those who still can¡¯t understand what is going on here, can read the summary at the spoiler at the very bottom. Spoiler: This is the summary. Prologue: I¡¯m sorry father. I could not help our kind. I could not help our planet, our world, but at least I did send that ominous bracelet away, at least it will not pester our world anymore. Chapter 5: And as if the screen had understood his command, it zoomed to the object till everything else slid away and only That covered the whole screen. ¡°OH.¡± They responded surprised and intrigued. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that was possible.¡± ¡°Neither did me.¡± Minnie replied. ¡°Well, it¡¯s a good thing anyways, but what is that?¡± Minnie looked closely at the thing for a second, before she understood what it was. ¡°It¡¯s a Bracelet.¡± Chapter 9: ¡°Yes, my liege. Inside the crater we saw the meteor and inside the meteor we found an artifact; an artifact which even I could not identify!¡± ¡°Please sire, control your excitement. It is not good for you health. You already have so many enemies! Don¡¯t add another one on the list. And about the item, it is a bracelet my liege.¡±
So, in the prologue we see the king talking about how his soldiers brought back an artifact from an unknown world and it changed their destiny and called upon the destruction they had faced. Then at the end he apologizes to his father for being a bad son and then tells him how he had send that Bracelet away. In chapter 3the wolf brings an arm inside the dungeon. In chapter 5 Mc kills the wolf and sees an artifact lying at the side of the room. Minnie tells him it was a Bracelet. Although it didn¡¯t look to be anything good. In chapter 9, we see king and his servant talking about a meteor that had come lighting the sky at night time. They talk and Meredith tells Solomon that the meteor wasn¡¯t normal and contained an artifact. A bracelet. King Solomon asks him where it was and Meredith says, ¡°Don¡¯t worry my liege! He¡¯ll be here within a week. I was informed that he is coming via the barren lands near ¡®The Devil pass¡¯ mountains. Nothing resides there, so there is no way for any mishap to happen.¡± For those who still don¡¯t understand. It¡¯s okay. I have another story with an op mc, please try that one. I hope this helped you all. You see it hurts to know that i wasnt able to write things properly and we had to see this day, but what would have been the fun if none even knew all the foreshadowing that i have been doing in the background. I''m sorry if you think i spoiled your fun by directly quoting things. Ch -10 (Scout¡¯s P.O.V):----- My name is Steve and I¡¯m a scout. Because of recent recession there are no jobs available in the imperial city anymore, and even if there are, they are all taken by them more dignified scumba... I mean noble people. I also want to work in the imperial corps but¡­ *sigh* It¡¯s not easy. Why I want to work in the imperial corps you ask? Well, for most people it¡¯s about dignity, pride and whatnot, but for me¡­ It¡¯s about money. Yes, I love money. I mean who in their right mind would not do any and everything in their hands to get some of that bling! I have been an adventurer all my life, and it¡¯s a poor line of work. Especially for those who are not strong enough for Monster hunting, most of us E, F and D rankers. Well, most paid jobs are all related to monsters, or those which demands you to fight with your life on the line, like monster hunting. There is always the danger of dying while fighting monsters, and even if you don¡¯t die from monster attack, there is also the danger of being backstabbed by your own colleagues over some stupid loot. Then there are wars, protests and all the shit dragging low level adventurers into it, making their life nothing less than misery and nothing more than a mess. An Adventurers life is like a magnet, a magnet attracting all of the shit toward itself. But today, my luck shined. I saw a job for scouting an area somewhere near ¡®The Devil¡¯s Pass¡¯. Well, it looked quite easy, so I picked it. I mean, no fighting with monsters, no dangerous work, just need to scout the area and give the information back to the guild. And if someway or somehow I come in contact with a monster, I¡¯ll just need to run away and inform the guild about the monster for a little extra on the reward. Though this area is a bit dangerous, but the danger here does not come from the monsters, but from the name of this place itself. ¡®The Devils Pass¡¯ it sounds literally like the entrance to hell after all. Climbing these mountains is dangerous, and nowadays, no one try to cross this gate to hell anymore. There are many myths connected with the other side. Like, how there is an ancient dungeon on the other side of the mountains, and like a dragon ancestor is the dungeon guardian protecting its core. Well, all heresy and whatnot. But the place I am going to is not that dangerous, as there are no monsters there. According to rumors, it used to be a lush green place, but some calamity destroyed everything and made it barren. No greenery, no monsters, and also no profit for your average muscle brain adventurer. *Sigh* I¡¯m here to investigate, find anomalies, run back and inform the guild. See, not dangerous at all. The story for this job goes something like this, Some days ago a giant explosion occurred somewhere near here. Although it caused no commotion or disturbance, but still, one should know what grows in his backyard. So the guild put out the job. After all, things don¡¯t just blow up for no reason. I know this job might not be as easy as I am making it to be, but it¡¯s still better than having to fight monsters for some petty silvers. At the very least that I will get out of this job is a gold coin. ********************************************** ¡°Ah this damn forest!!¡± Do I have to say anything about the forest at the foot of the mountains? There are so many monsters here I don¡¯t know what to say. Those shitty wolves! Let me check whether they are still following me or not. ¡°Phew, it¡¯s safe.¡± I really thought I was going to die. A whole pack was following me after all. Well, good thing that my job has got nothing to do with them. And now that I am done with them, I¡¯m finally there. I can see it. It¡¯s in front of me; the aftermath of that explosion. Well, I don¡¯t see any crater, though there are Dirt and stones everywhere. ¡®Oh! Maybe, it got covered by all the debris and stuff, though it sounds a bit impossible. Let¡¯s move a bit closer, maybe I¡¯ll find something to show off with after going back.¡¯ I thought. Slowly, but surely, I walked closer to the area of impact, then I understood why I could not see the crater. It really was hidden behind a shit load of dirt and stones, which were covering it like a crown. And in the centre, there it was, a wide and black hole, going who knows how deep into the ground. There was a boy standing right outside the entrance to the hole to who knows where, and a dead wolf lying at the side. ¡®Another party?¡¯ I thought. I might not know how deep or what was inside it, but I know that I didn¡¯t want to go inside there without anyone protecting my arse. On further observation it looked to me like it was an ant mound. An opening at the centre, sand and stones everywhere around it, what else could it have been. If that really is an ant mound then I don¡¯t think I have any work left here, because if I went down there then it will only result in a quick death for me. My brain worked without any one asking it to. I think it¡¯s an ant mound, but I don¡¯t see any signs indicating ants walking out from there or even anyone moving at all, except for the boy behaving like there is a party going inside. I moved a little bit closer to the hole so I could see inside, all the while thinking about ants. Fact number one, Ants don¡¯t create explosions to open a hole to the surface, they just work it out quietly and live happily, enjoy their hunting, eat their prey and increasing their numbers. They are not free like us humans; they have got work to do. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Fact number two, Ants are strong. How strong? They are an adversary given ¡®F rank¡¯ by our leaders. Hahaa¡­ Ok, an alone ant is not strong. Alone, it is one of the lowest ¡®F rank¡¯ monsters, but in their home, where there are thousands, if not millions of them, it becomes another story altogether. Inside their mound they become a ¡®C Rank¡¯ level threat, not so easy. But if there is a fire mage in your party, then it¡¯s a done deal. After all fire is the bane of most if not all the insect type monsters. Anyways, when I reached the optimum place to see inside the hole without being found out, I saw some people: kids, fighting monstrous ants inside and winning. ¡®Mission accomplished.¡¯ I pumped my fists, but before going back I looked one last time at the boy. I saw him going through the state of curiosity to cheering and then dread. Like him the atmosphere of the cave deviated between tense, calm and then a sudden shower of blood lust, which was followed by a scream from the boy. The sounds and monster roars, well that¡¯s what they sounded like, made it sure that I wouldn¡¯t go inside, and the rest of my hesitations were blown away when the ground started tumbling and a few minutes later the boy jumped away from the hole. While I was busy balancing myself in the forest and trying not to blow away my cover, an awful amount of energy came gushing out of the hole like a geyser. The hole erupted with the most baleful energy I have ever felt. The shower continued for a whole five minutes before the energy dissipated into the surroundings. ¡®Well, my job here is done.¡¯ I saw the boy getting up after watching that spectacle and running to the west with his tail between his legs. Not an actual tail, just a metaphor to tell how scared he was. I did what I could, picked myself up and following his example ran back to the capital saying, ¡°To hell with scouting!¡±
Third person POV with focus on Will: On the flip side, Will was having a blast. Firstly, he got to scout for an upcoming hero team. And secondly, he got to watch the team literally decimating the monster like ants to the ground. All the members played the roles given to them, but for him the one who outshined them all was his vice leader Rae. He had already seen her hot side, but became a fan of her, when he saw her cutting the big ant apart like they were made out of tofu. Yes, although most of the work was done by the athletic team leader Ren, but who said he couldn¡¯t cheer for his crush. If Rae¡¯s beauty had stolen his heart at first, then her vicious attacks just tore it apart. ¡®Go, Rae, go!!¡¯ he yelled, but his voice didn¡¯t reach her. But the festive mood soon turned into mourning, when the smaller ant that had gone into hiding made a cheap shot and killed Rose. Wills eyes became watery, and his voice got stuck in his throat, when he saw her getting stabbed by that bastard ant. It was the first time for Will to helplessly see someone he knew die in front of his eyes. Yes, he had heard of the soldiers of the fort dying before, but to him they didn¡¯t hurt like the murder of Rose did. He forgot to breath, his vision became blurry and his legs started shaking. He heard Ren¡¯s angry voice and saw his blurry figure turning toward the core, but then noticed that before Ren could even move, Rae had already started hacking away at the core. She attacked ten or some times before the core started shinning purple. Will couldn¡¯t believe everything that happened after that. It was like a comeback by the villain from the sad stories that he used to hate as a kid. A pulse came from the core and made everyone stop in their tracks. Then his eyes met with Ren¡¯s and he saw his anger, grief, pain and even dread that he felt toward the core in them. Ren¡¯s mouth moved, but before the sound of the words ¡®Run¡¯ could reach Will¡¯s ears, a huge amount of energy came blasting outwards from the core, and engulfed everything inside the cave within it. Will hurriedly jumped backwards to get away from the path of destruction travelling upwards through the slope, as he was standing directly in front of the entrance. But he still got blown back from the pressure created by the blast and lost conscious for a minute. ¡°Ugh.¡± Will woke up with a mild headache and ringing ears. His eyes teary and the last words from Rae rang inside his mind. ¡®If for some reason we aren¡¯t able to return, it will be your duty to return back to the fort and inform the commander about everything.¡¯ He looked once inside the cave and saw a crater at the centre of where the core once used to be and no sign of anyone else. Wiping his eyes with his sleeves, he tried to stand up, but stumbled and fell down twice. *Sniff* He got himself together and finally stood up, as a stabbing pain in his chest held him from falling down again. Yes, his team mates had died. Yes, he was all alone in enemy territory, and yes, he was scared of the unknown monsters waiting in the cave, but Rae last words held his mind from breaking. He ran toward the forest. With his back unguarded and sun setting in front of his eyes, he ran. Though he ran at the top of his speed, he didn¡¯t forget all that Rusty had taught him about scouting or sneaking around in enemy turf. ¡°Don¡¯t just look straight, look down too.¡± ¡°Hey, what are you doing? Don¡¯t just look down, look up too!!¡± ¡°Hey, you idiot! Who is going to look at the sides, and stop making so many noises!!¡± A laugh blossomed on his face when he remembered those words. His body automatically making slight adjustments, he was able to move a little more like a true scout; silent and efficient. ¡°Oye! Stupid pervert! Don¡¯t just run in a straight line. Use your environment to your benefits.¡± ¡°Hey, hey¡­ not there stupid! Up here! Don¡¯t look at me like a noob. Tell me, who is going to look for monsters above in the trees? Want to get your party killed, huh?¡± *Sniff* Will just couldn¡¯t forget his words, the teaching of his brotherly teacher. Rusty in a day had become the big brother that he never had. A big brother, who was too eager to teach him everything that he knew. Rusty¡¯s voice still fresh in his ears, and with his foolishly smiling face appearing in front of Wills eyes, he ran as tears fell from his eyes on to the forest ground, entangling and becoming a part of nature themselves. The memories of all the members of squad no 8 tortured will, as he made his way back toward the fort. He remembered Ren, Raymond, Riana, Rose ¡­ And he remembered Rae. He remembered her smile, her perfect face, her smooth voice. He remembered the time when she had come walking out of the forest and walked toward him, revealing the angel hidden behind her unusually usual getup. He remembered that she was the first one who had come to talk to him in the group. Will felt a pulse originating from his heart, and traveling through his body, as he once again remembered her asking, ¡°What happened? Are you alright?¡±
Fortunately for Will, the wolves who were always on the hunt in the forest were busy somewhere else. Otherwise he wouldn¡¯t have been able to reach the fort, even with all the techniques that he was using to move. It took him four hours to return back to the fort and by the time that he had become utterly exhausted. He had forced his body to move past its limits and that had taken a toll on his health too. He came out stumbling from the forest and felt bliss seeing the all too familiar face of that old mugger Mason, who was still standing in front of the gate. He took a breath of relief and with that all the exhaustion that he was keeping at bay with his willpower came back. He fell all the while seeing blurry figures running toward him through the last strands of his consciousness. ¡°I¡¯m back.¡± He mumbled, before his conscious faded away.
That night the fort went ablaze with the news of losing five upcoming elites to some ants. Wills testimony and the news of him having returned alone spread through the fort like a wildfire. Will answered all the questions that commander Stan asked him, and didn¡¯t forget to tell in detail the blast that took the lives of Ren and his team. It confused and intrigued Stan learning that what took their lives was an unknown purple blast of energy and not the ants of the dungeon. Stan and the captains of the elite squads like Anton, Smith and Bernard, who were present in the fort held a meeting through the night, and in the morning an announcement was given. It was decided that captain Bernard and his team would lead the investigation of the site and if the dangers of the dungeon were accessed to exceed level C, then it would be eliminated. Bernard and his ten men squad was scheduled to move out next week, during which they were made to check and rehearse their plan of action time and time again. The news of the second best squad being give the job left the people of the hideout contemplating about the danger involving the case. After all the total level of these men exceeded 700 and Bernard was an evolved ranker himself; the alpha wolf of his pack. Three day later, Will decided to leave the mercenary group, to gain the kind of strength that he knew wasn¡¯t achievable living and doing missions as a mercenary. With his heart on fire and having ¡®not again¡¯ on mind, he left the fort after thanking Stan and Anton for everything they had done for him. Ch -11 A day after the birth of Rocky, a pack of wolves was passing through the forest, pulling a shredded body behind them, and one of the two male wolves at the front asked the other one excitedly. ¡°Ah! Big brother when did you learn that skill!? That was too great!!¡± ¡°HAha, I learned it at my 75th level up. If it wasn¡¯t for that then we wouldn¡¯t have succeeded in killing that Scaled Deer¡¯s. This one¡¯s scales were too hard.¡± ¡°Nah, you would have handled him somehow even without that skill. You are getting strong enough to contend with tribe leader after all.¡± ¡°Bullshit! I am nowhere near as strong a tribe leader. She is already a ranker and has evolved. I stand no chance against her¡­ for now that is.¡± ¡°haaha¡­¡± They laughed simultaneously. This was a pack of white wolves, lead by two brothers Stone and Ralph. Although their pack contained 15 wolves, in the end they were just a small part of an even bigger herd. Though the brothers were not much apart from each other in strength, but the disparity between their levels wasn¡¯t small either. The little brother was just shy of level 50, but the big brother was already reaching the big boundary to the rank up. Ralph had two wives and one kid from the first wife, while stone didn¡¯t take any women under him after the death of his first mate. While they walked while talking, a small cub greedily looked between their hunt and Ralph, before he finally gained the courage to ask him, ¡°Da, can I eat the heart?¡± ¡°You can get a small share, sure.¡± ¡°No, Da! I want the whole heart!¡± the cub spoke using his paws to describe what he meant by the word whole, but Ralph denied his request saying, ¡°You can eat the whole heart when you hunt it Speck, but for now you will only get the amount you deserve.¡± Speck¡¯s gloomed, but then the leader of the pack whispered into the ears of his nephew, ¡°Don¡¯t cry little one. You can eat my part of the share, but don¡¯t tell your Da, okay?¡± Speck smiled shyly looking at the alpha male of the pack. Stone, who was already showing the early signs of evolution upon rank up was the pride of the tribe. After he had hit level 75th his fur had started turning grey and the fur on his stomach had become darker. With each increasing level he was getting taller than the other wolves of the tribe and was already 4¡¯4¡± tall and already stood a whole 4inches taller than his peers. But the most noticeable thing about him was his black paws, and red streaked tail. This was an anomaly, because he was a white wolf. ¡°Hey, I heard that! And you don¡¯t have to give him your share¡­¡± Ralph tried being a father, but failed in front of his doting brother. ¡°Forget it kiddo, forget it. Haahaha¡­¡± The little brother sighed and shook his head in denial, before ordering the wolves behind him to move out. ¡°Okay boys lets pack the body and move.¡± They walked through the forest and when they got half way through Ralph smelled something delicious in the air. He took a strong whiff and found that the scent of blood in the air belonged to the most delicious of delicacies; a human. Ralph started salivating as the memories of his previous eating came back and he remembered the soft and tender muscles that most humans had. He stopped right in his tracks to know where the scent was coming from. Taking a full breath he took the scent in and marveled at the freshness. ¡°Big brother¡­ do you want to...¡± Stone shook I head when he heard him. ¡°No. we already have a hunt and the members are tired. There is no need to find trouble on our own.¡± The reason why the leader was Stone and not Ralph wasn¡¯t only because of his strength, but also because he had more wisdom of age and experience of the dangers covering them from all sides. Even the little one had his nostrils moving. ¡°Da, can I ¡­.¡± ¡°No?¡± They both shouted at the same time. ¡°So you are not coming?¡± Stone asked Ralph. ¡°Heee, I won¡¯t be able to sleep at night if I don¡¯t go and check the situation out now.¡± ¡°You know if it wasn¡¯t for your bad habits you already would have had a pack of your own. Anyways, take note of the surroundings, okay. Those humans are too cunning, and don¡¯t forget to check whether it¡¯s a trap or not and¡­¡± ¡°I know, I know come back before its night, I know.¡± Stone sighed. ¡°Ah! You care too much big brother. Okay bye, and don¡¯t worry.¡± And taking another big breath, Ralph moved leaving the pack behind and jumped behind the bushes getting out of Stones sight. ¡°That kid!!¡± But Ralph¡¯s voice interrupted him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry I will bring a souvenir!¡± *Sigh* ¡°When will he ever grow up?¡± Stone shook his head left and right in defeat and ordered the pack to move.
The wolves moved through the forest with stone leading them and the others pulling the body in rotations of five. They reached their den on the far side of the forest and feasted. Stone, Speck and his mothers went inside the den while the rest stayed outside and cuddled with each other. The sun started setting and the wolves got together to end the day.
Three days passed away and Ralph didn¡¯t return back home. Stone was getting anxiously with each passing second, but when Ralph didn¡¯t return even after three days, he decided to check the situation out. Stone actually wanted to go bring him back on the second, but stopped when he thought about his brother¡¯s reckless behavior. ¡®It¡¯s alright, he¡¯ll come back on his own.¡¯ But by the third day bad thoughts had started forming in Stone¡¯s mind, which made him worry for Ralph¡¯s safety. A bitter feeling in his heart was telling him that something bad had happened and he decided to go find him. Stone took the whole pack and moved to the place where Ralph had divided from them. He tried to smell the scent of blood in the air and noticed a small lingering scent coming from the way Ralph had disappeared to. He got angry and howled when he notice that the scent of his brother was mixed in between it. Ralph¡¯s mates started howling when they noticed it, followed by Speck and then the rest of the pack joined too. Stone started walking toward the direction that the scent was coming from. His walk soon transformed into a jog and then after a minute he started running, pushing the ground with enough force to leave deep foot prints into it. *Roar*Howl*Roar* He moved so fast that the rest of the pack got left behind by him. He flew through the forest, decimating all the branches and flora that came his way. Ten minutes later, he reached the place and the scene made him abruptly halt on his tracks. Tears automatically formed in his eyes, and his fur started shaking with sorrow, when he saw the bloody, mangled and decomposing body of Ralph lying on the right of a deep black hole in the ground. Blood covered tracks of someone having dragged the body away from the hole were still present. It didn¡¯t take him even a second to understand that whatever had killed his baby brother was inside the hole. He kneeled in front of Ralph¡¯s body and yelped ever so slightly, with the nonexistent hope that he might wake up again. He licked Ralph¡¯s pale face and pushed him with his trembling feet, but Ralph didn¡¯t wake up. By that time the rest of the pack got there, and saw was their leader kneeling in front of a dead wolf. Speck and his mothers came running and started howling and licking Ralphs face, trying to wake him up. ¡°What happened Da? What happened? Wake up Da! Please wake up! I promise, I won¡¯t ask for another heart, I promise! Please Da, please wake up!!!¡± But Specks crying didn¡¯t reach Ralphs ears. Stone on the other hand didn¡¯t cry or even move an inch. His jaw gritted tightly and his eyes blood red, with the thought of entering the hole and killing the entity inside it, he stood up. *GRRRrr* He gave a low pitched roar, a yell full of anger, and then charged inside the hole without saying anything to his pack. Entering the hole he didn¡¯t find what he was looking for, and instead a 6metre deep and 3 meters wide crater welcomed him. He didn¡¯t stop his descent and jumped directly over the hole, entering the somewhat low cave swiftly. He ran, and ran as fast as he could, forgetting everything about conserving his stamina or energy. The thoughts of avenging his brother clouded his mind and he ended up making a critical mistake because of it. Behind him his pack entered the hole, but their minds were cool and they did notice the minute differences like the hand carved tunnel, which unfortunately Stone didn¡¯t notice. Stone moved fast and came across a tunnel and saw a somewhat big ant waiting for him inside. His brows furrowed when he saw it and the image of those docile small ants from his childhood came to his mind. ¡®This¡­ killed him?¡¯ he thought, but then shook his head thinking, ¡®No, no how the fuck could this thing¡­¡¯ The sudden appearance of the ant had made him stop for a second, but he otherwise continued running. He flew through the clearing, without minding the ant. He made a casual slash with his claws and the ant got torn apart like it was grass. He kept on moving without seeing that there were two tunnels to go through. Passing through the tunnel, he found another ant waiting for him in the room following it, and its life ended similarly to the one before. A single swipe of his claws turned it into mashed meat. He didn¡¯t stop and kept on running through another set of tunnel and room, before coming across a slope descending downwards and two more rooms, but he didn¡¯t come across any other monsters or even ants. He felt unhappy and angry at the prospectus that maybe the murdered of his brother had moved out of the tunnel, but he still ran forward and after a final tunnel he came across the entity he was looking. Rocky and Minnie were having an ordinary day. After moving the main core to the second floor, Minnie had the ants busy digging the second floor. While Rocky had started another skill practice, which Minnie called triple benefiting soul shifting. Which would have been an impossible practice for a normal being to do, even if one was somehow able to get all the required skills. But being a dungeon core came with a huge set of cheat abilities, like the ability to practice these skills together. The main skill involved was [Soul shifting]. The skill gave its user the ability to detach his soul from his original body, and travel the world in the astral form. The skill also gave one the ability to possess inanimate objects at first and living being with the increase in mastery. For now though, Minnie had him posses the wall of his dungeon, which was quite easy for Rocky to achieve, after all even if his soul was leaving his heart or the core, but the object to possess was still his own body or the dungeon. According to Minnie this single skill was the path to open a multitude of other useful skills and to train them simultaneously with each other. He had by the way gained the skill [Meditation] while possessing the walls.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Which increased his mana and health regeneration by 200%, but had drawbacks, like he had to remain motionless while meditating. Like Minnie had said, meditating while soul shifting and possessing the walls increased the proficiency of three of his skills. The third skill being [Mana sense], which according to Minnie when trained to its highest realm, had the slight possibility of evolving into God ranked skill [Omni presence]. At first mana sensing while possessing the wall gave Rocky a very severe headache and almost made him lose his conscious. ¡°Too much information for too little space¡±, said Minnie. So Minnie advised him to start low and gradually make his way up. There was one more benefit that Neither Rocky or Minnie realized at the moment, which was very deeply related to Rockies¡¯ freedom. It was noon and Rocky was continuing his new routine, when the Intruder message rang with a red warning. Rocky was at the first floor when he saw a lone wolf entering the dungeon and jumping over the hole like it was nothing. ¡°Another white wolf?¡± his thoughts leaked out, but Minnie answered him anyways. ¡°And he looks angry for some reason.¡± ¡°Looks strong too.¡± They analyzed his information and found out that it was the greatest adversary they had ever faced.
Stone the wolf (UQ)
Once a white wolf, now an existence reaching the point of evolution. What will become of it is not know at the point.
¡­
Level 95 Race Wolf
Rank 0 Affinity Wind(90),Dark(7),Fire(3)
By the time they could react, Stone had gone and killed the first ant he had encountered, moreover creating a new dungeon record by taking less that 15 seconds from his entry to the kill. Stone cruised through the floor like it was his backyard, and within the next ten seconds he killed another ant. ¡°This wont do!!¡± Rocky started panicking as he watched the wolf cutting his ants like he was cutting vegetables. ¡°Yes, even the first ant wasn¡¯t able to kill the worker ants like this.¡± Minnie replied, while she nervously nibbled on her nails. The tension was already real, but then even more wolves entered the dungeon. Rocky did a quick count and Minnie asked him, ¡°How many?¡± ¡°Tw-twelve!!¡± Rocky replied with trembling voice. Even Minnie eyes fell out of their socket hearing that number. She plucked her hair in anger for not creating the dungeon a bit more deadly, and racked her brain to make a plan. Then she remembered that there were only five workers and one soldier ant on the first floor, and the rest were digging on the second floor. Even after converting the numbers, she realized that the situation was already hopeless. She knew that the worker ants were no danger to rampaging wolf and even if the soldier ants somehow killed it they didn¡¯t have enough credits to handle the rest of the wolves following behind. ¡°It¡¯s hopeless.¡± She told Rocky, who nodded his head for some reason before saying, ¡°The situation can still be saved.¡± He then checked the levels of the wolves and nodded his head once again. ¡°It¡¯s a hassle, but the plan might work.¡± ¡°What plan?¡± Minnie hurriedly asked, but he didn¡¯t reply and got himself busy with commanding the ants. But her confidence returned when she saw the movement of ants on the screen in front of her. The ants left on the first floor dug into the ground before the big scary wolf could get to them, and all the worker ants on the second floor started moving towards the slope to the first floor. The wolf came sprinting down the first floor, but the ants dug a second tunnel from the side of the slope and moved up before the wolf could notice them. Rocky had specifically ordered the most powerful of the worker ants to dig the tunnel and they had somehow accomplished the task before the wolf could come down. Stone, continued running forward, but didn¡¯t meet any ants on the way, before he reached the boss room or the room where the core had currently moved to. And after having run for 500 meters through the narrow underground tunnels, he finally stopped. In front of him Stone saw three familiar but somehow different ants standing side by side in front of a floating crystal. A simple glimpse of the crystal and he understood what the place was. He was already having doubts on the way, but that thing confirmed his doubt that he had entered a dungeon. ¡°Oh foolish little brother, couldn¡¯t you have found some other place to rest!!¡± He blamed his brother for his own death, but squashed the thought as soon as it came. ¡°NO matter the reason, I will kill this thing and avenge you brother.¡± Minnie translated the wolf¡¯s howls for Rocky. ¡°¡­.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± The stage was set and the countdown for the fight had begun. Stone was alone and there were three bigger and stronger ants looking at him expressionlessly. The face of his once smiling brother remerged in his mind and his anger flared. He gritted his teeth and started running, gave a low grunt and jumped at the ant on his left to make a jumping swipe at it. Minnie controlled the ant on the left and made it step back. Already in position she got ready to attack the wolf just as it would touch the ground. Rocky possessed the one on the right and charged at the wolf from the side. Stone saw the ants acting and understanding that these ants were not mere puppets like the ones before. He front flipped to cut his flight midway, struck two wind slashes on the ant in the middle by using the inertia from his flight and in the same motion stepped back to get out of the way of the ant charging from his right. Stone stepped back and Rocky missed him by a few inches. He flew some distance because of momentum, while the ant in the middle had tried to dodge the attack by jumping to the left, but had still ended up getting struck by one of the wind blades. At that time, Minnie charged directly at the retreating wolf for a tackle. *Roar* The blade directly cleaved it the shoulder of the ant in the middle. The depth of the cut was deep enough to show the difference in power between this wolf and the other one. While Ralph¡¯s wind blade hadn¡¯t even cut through the soldier ant¡¯s exoskeleton, Stone¡¯s skill had tore through it and reached deep enough to make it bleed. Minnie controlled her ant to charge at the wolf, but the wolf showing dexterity fitting its species, jumped with his hind legs, just as they touched the ground and flipped through the air firing another set of Wind blades at her ant. The wind blades made direct contact with the back of the ant controlled by Minnie, but unfortunately for the wolf, before he could cheer, the ant controlled by Rocky came running toward it like a bullet and jumped with its head glowing copper color. They both collided in mid air. Stone tried used his limbs to take most of the force behind the tackle, but he failed and got flung away into the wall. ¡°Gwack!!¡± Mean while, the ant with the shoulder injury started running to intercept him in anger, as its wound throbbed with pain. With Its pincers glowing white, it got right upon Stone, who had somehow made a nimble landing by rolling on the ground. Its mandible wide open and his pincers glowing with deadly power, the ant had come jumping with the proper intent to pierce the wolf in one move with, but Stone got his back on the floor and using his legs flipped the ant into the air. The ant got thrown straight up and Rocky who was still using mana presence felt a huge amount of mana gathering near the wolf¡¯s mouth. ¡°Oh no!!¡± Rocky said, but it was already too late for him to act. As the airborne ant was about to descend directly on Stone, he smirked giving a low grunt and a huge cyclone, containing mini, but powerful criss-crossed wind blades originated from the end of his mouth. *Woosh* It struck directly on the soft bottom of the ant and again lifted it into the air. *Baam* It smashed on the roof. Struck between the roof of the cave from above and the cyclone from below, the ant couldn¡¯t do anything to get away from its prediction. *Roar* It ant cried out loud, but neither Minnie nor Rocky were able to stop Stone, as his skill shredded the ant. The [Cyclone] continued for a whole ten seconds, before Stones mana ran out and he had to grudgingly stop it. And as the power keeping the ant afloat had been turned off, it fell directly upon Stone, who hurriedly rolled away to save his life. While Minnie tried to sense life in the ant, Rocky saw the destruction that the [cyclone] had caused. The ant had a huge see through hole in the centre of its body. Its wound looked brutally torn and shredded. There was no blood or gore to be seen, only a mist of wet and finely grained meat permeated through the air. Stone checked the condition of the ant behind him, and let out a happy grunt. He was feeling haughty, but the power he had used hadn¡¯t come without it own set of side effects. This skill of his needed a huge amount of mana to use, and only he knew that he had only enough mana left for just one more cyclone. The ants in front of him kept on looking at the ant behind him and didn¡¯t move. Stone knew that they weren¡¯t afraid of him, and were probably discussing the plan to handle him. *Huff* His heart pumped like mad, his lungs opening to their fullest; he took a deep breath, before letting out a loud Roar. *Roar* ¡°Gwack!!¡± Rocky and Minnie¡¯s minds buzzed as the sound reached them. Stones roar wasn¡¯t simple use of vocal cords, but had mana imbedded behind every vibration. It was his skill [Authority], which allowed him to suppress every monster which was more than ten levels beneath him. Though stone had roared out of frustration, and didn¡¯t believe that it would work on the ant, but the skill did more than he could have asked for. The ants started stumbling and back stepping just as the sound hit them. Stone seeing the result directly fired wind blades upon [Wind blades] upon them. He who had already reached the ¡®Intermediate realm level 9¡¯ of the [Wind blades] had long ago broken through the limitation of only firing the blades in sets of two. Stacks of four bright highly compressed crescent shaped wind blades flew through, cutting the air itself. Rocky was the first to get out of the disoriented effect, and saw eight truly powerful [Wind blades] right upon him and Minnie. Seeing that Minnie still wasn¡¯t out of the effect yet, he did what every capable man would have done in the situation. He pushed the ant controlled by Minnie out of harm¡¯s way, as the blades touched his ant¡¯s exoskeleton, cleanly tore through it, sliced his legs and cleaved his body into pieces. The power and sharpness of the attack was so gruesome that it didn¡¯t stop after killing the ant and stuck the wall behind him, tearing through it too. His ant disappeared into multiple dots of light as Minnie shook her head and got hang of her ant. The first thing she saw after the skills effect wore out was the other ant disappearing. She didn¡¯t fear for the worst, because Rocky had given her very good news. ¡°Grrr!!¡± Stone haughtily challenged the last ant to attack him and started preparing, but then stopped. He saw the ant pointing behind him with its front leg. He turned his head to check out what the commotion was about, and saw a whole bunch of ants entering the room from the tunnel behind his back. Five worker ants came out of the tunnel looking battered and wounded. Following behind them entered a Soldier ant holding something inside its pincers. Stones eyes opened wide, he clenched his claws and they got embedded into the ground. ¡°SPECK!!!¡± he roared and the soldier ant that was being controlled by Rocky tightened its grasp. Stone slowly walked up to the ant holding Speck and nudged him with his nose. It tore his heart when Speck didn¡¯t move. Stone licked his face once and noticed Him taking a shallow and weak breath. Then a sudden revelation hit him and he kneeled on the ground. ¡°Wh-what happened to the others?!¡± His jaw trembled and opened wide, tears started forming and dripping t the ground as the truth became apparent, and he understood that the pack had followed him into the hole, and died because of recklessness. His tears fell on specks face, who woke up after feeling the wetness. Speck slowly opened his eyes and saw his uncle looking at him with an almost broken face. Even he couldn¡¯t control his emotions and cried out loud, ¡°The- they are dead¡­. All dead! I couldn¡¯t do anything. First father, then mother and then everyone else¡­ I couldn¡¯t do anything uncle, I couldn¡¯t do anything!¡± He howled in grief as the memories of seeing his family dying resurfaced in front of his eyes. Stone had stopped crying when speck had woken up, he looked at the howling wolf and patted his head. He stood up and started walking toward the last standing ant from the trio he had faced. ¡°Let him go.¡± He said looking straight into the eyes of the ant, but seeing that it wasn¡¯t responding, he spoke again, but with respect kneeling on the ground. ¡°I beg you, please let hmy nephew go. I¡­ I will do anything. You can kill me if you want. I¡­ I will become your pet wolf and obey your every order, but please let him go.¡± ¡°No uncle, no. Run away before¡­.¡± ¡°Grrrr¡± ¡°Shut up and let me talk¡­¡± ¡°But¡­¡± Minnie saw the duo bickering with each other and sighed. She praised Rocky for taking the cub hostage and waited for him to take a decision. She knew that the wolf was powerful, and his addition to the dungeon would be a great asset for them, but she let Rocky take the decision after she explained the benefits to him. ¡°Okay, let the cub leave.¡± Rocky told Minnie who took a breath of relief. She thanked god for making it so that Rocky didn¡¯t just let them both go out of pity. The ants standing at the entrance parted, and the soldier ant holding the hostage, took the struggling cub and walked into the tunnel. ¡°No, please no¡­¡± Stone saw the ant taking his nephew away and howled with sorrow. He saw the ant disappearing front the front of his eyes and slowly stood up before saying, ¡°What now?¡± to the ant. And taking that as her cue Minnie manifested out into the real world. She made stone sigilant, but didn¡¯t give him any time to react and directly spoke; ¡°Now you will present your heart and a part of your soul to the core.¡± Her words confused both the wolf and Rocky who could make sense out of her method. ¡°You do that and you will get bound to this dungeon as its monster. You will keep your memories, which we will be able to take if we felt the need, and you will lose your freedom.¡± Minnie saw him frowning and scoffed, ¡°What? Regretting your decision now?¡± ¡°Suu..¡± Stone scoffed at her words. He thought of killing the fairy and running away when the time presented, but Minnie¡¯s next words left him tongue tied. ¡°And stop thinking about taking revenge, you won¡¯t be able to harm the dungeon core or any entity associated with it. Failure to comply will lead to your death.¡± Minnie felt a sense of superiority when she saw the wolf getting frozen and she continued. ¡°But all these shackles comes with a wide set of benefits. You will get to fight with better and stronger beings, mainly humans, to your heart content. You will gain levels and skills regularly and you might even get the chance to evolve into something stronger than your current species. Moreover you won¡¯t have to fear death, because monsters of a dungeon can be resurrected again and again.¡± Stone thought about all that little fairy had said and weighing the pros and cons found that other than not being able to hurt the master or leave the dungeon, there were too many benefits to have, but the pain and suppression in his chest didn¡¯t let him forget the loss of his whole family. He sighed and with a somewhat willing, but mostly unwilling mind nodded his head to comply with the fairy. ¡°Okay, good choice. Hopefully we will get along with each other.¡± Then Minnie asked Rocky to repeat after him and told the wolf to say yes to everything. Stone did hesitate when a new voice started talking to him, but he agreed thinking about Speck, who was still in their hands. ¡°Are you willing to present your heart and soul to protect and help the core flourish and prosper?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Are you willing to remove the shackles bounding you to the life in the outside world and forever be indebted to me your master to be?¡± ¡°Yes¡± ¡°Are you willing to enjoy life, have fun killing and feast upon the blood of every soul which will intrude upon the home of your god?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± Both stone and Rocky looked at Minnie, as if asking, ¡®what the hell those vows were about¡¯, but then within a second, Rocky felt almost half of his mana leaving his body. At the same time a tri colored circled pentagon emerged from the ground with Stone at the centre. Stone hesitated, but Minnie assured him that it was just a part of the procedure. The drawing then started rotating and hollow hole opened at the Stones chest at the place where his heart was. Then the sigil moved up and Stones eyes became white as if someone had possessed him. The atmosphere stayed like that for a minute, before the wolf and the sigil both vanished midst a burst of light. ¡°What just happened?¡± Rocky asked feeling perplexed. ¡°Oh nothing. Because every dungeon entity is needed to be brought from the dungeon store, he vanished because we haven¡¯t bought it yet.¡± Then feeling the desire they checked their gains and the message made Minnie yell happily. ¡°Fuck Yes.¡±
[Total Dungeon credits: 875] [New monster added to store] [Stone the wolf:500Dc, 300Mp.] [Skill gained: Wind blade, Wind cyclone]
Ch -12 The fight with the wolves had brought a great loss of personals to the dungeon, but the credits gained from killing them had even things out. Moreover, the owners had gotten something extra, brought to them on a silver platter. The gains included 3 Level ups, one new monster, two new skills, which unfortunately, his ants couldn¡¯t use, because of them having no wind affinity at all, and finally the completion of the third floor. About the skill points, they decided to put one level worth of points in wisdom every five levels. Adding 30 skill points to intelligence the status turned out as,
Status Self / Dungeon
Name None Race Crystal
level 8 Affinity Dark, Fire, Life
Rank 0 Job Dungeon Core
Nature (+50)Neutral Class None
Titles Born Killer, Named Helper, Fairy¡¯s Blessing
Health 85 Health Reg. 1.1/min
Mana 1050/1140(-90) Mana Reg. 1.3/min
Vitality 8 Knowledge 102
Resistance 10 Intelligence 24
Skills (Passive) Beginner Telepathy, Mana Presence lv(1), Mana Regeneration Lv(1), Soul shifting
Skills (Active) Beginner Outburst(Special), *Locked*, *Locked, Meditation Lv(3), Wind cyclone lv(3),
Intermediate Wind Blade Lv(9)
Skill points 0
Being content with his overflowing mana Rocky giggled feverishly. And Minnie like always shook her head seeing him act like an idiot. ¡°Having fun, Are we?¡± ¡°No, just marveling at this feeling. I don¡¯t know why, but I am feeling powerful for some reason.¡± Rocky spoke giving a toothy grin. But Minnie gave him another surprise saying, ¡°That is because your mana has crossed the first small boundary, this feeling of strength will increase even more once you reach level 10.¡± ¡°Huh why is that?¡± ¡°Because then you will get a free skill at that point.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes, but don¡¯t get your hopes up. The chance of one receiving an active powerful skill is almost negligible.¡± And that actually turned him mood a bit bitter. ¡°Damn.¡± He jested. Then he shook his head making weird noises and slapped his face. He turned around to look at Minnie, and seriously spoke the grave matter which was haunting him. ¡°Minnie, I think, we need to strengthen our dungeon somehow.¡± And the fairy who wasn¡¯t unknown to the danger that they were in just yesterday, approved his suggestion saying, ¡°Yes I agree. We both know how near we were to death by the hands of the wolf. I think we have been relying on our luck too much.¡± Rocky snorted, but nodded giving reason. ¡°Yeah, If it wasn¡¯t for that little cub¡­¡± but was cut short by Minnie who started repaying the real problems that they had. ¡°But the problem is that the option to customize the dungeon will only open once we reach floor number ten, and before that we have to make do somehow.¡± The words rang inside Rockies head like a bell, because Minnie had somehow forgotten to tell him about the rewards for reaching the tenth floor. ¡°What customize? I didn¡¯t see anything related to that on the Dungeon store.¡± Understanding that she had made a mistake, Minnie tried to play it cool, but looking at Rockies eyes made her chest feel hot and she looked away. ¡°Of course you did not see it.¡± Her voice turned into whispers by the time she ended her sentence, ¡°The option was locked, so¡­¡± ¡®Strange¡­¡¯ he thought, but let her be and gave her another chance to salvage her pride. ¡°Anyways what will that option grant us¡­¡± Which Minnie perfectly explained saying, ¡°Stuff like skills, potions, weapons, floor customizations, monster variations, evolutions, but the most important thing for every young dungeon¡­¡± ¡°.¡­¡± ¡°Traps!¡± ¡°¡­.¡± Minnie understood the reason for his silence after all, the store was the most precious thing that a dungeon had, and she had forgot to tell him about it. She quickly changed the topic. ¡°Oh? So should I instruct the ants to dig¡­¡± But was cut in short by Rocky, who insisted on doing something else first. ¡°No, let¡¯s buy some monsters first.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± And she complied with his request. Fiddling with the interface Minnie brought out the store to see if any monster variation was available, but unfortunately the store was still as barren as ever, not including the inclusion of Stones name in the store.
Dungeon interface / Status
Monster Home /Store
Dc(875) / Mana(590/1140)
Name(Rank) Mana reserved Price(DC) Name Mana reserved Price(DC)
Ant egg(0) 5 10 Bee egg(0) 5 50
Ant worker(0) 10 50 Bee worker(0) 10 100
Ant soldier(0) 20If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. 100 Bee soldier(0) 25 250
Ant queen(1) 100 500 Bee queen(1) 100 1000
Stone the Wolf(0) (UQ) 300 500 Only one specimen allowed.
---LOCKED---
They looked through the store and something caught Rockies eyes. ¡°Why is the wolf a unique monster?¡± He asked and Minnie replied looking bored saying, ¡°Probably because he has slight affinities with other element, although his species is known to only have wind attribute¡­¡± ¡°Oh? So what are we going to buy this time? Should I bring the wolf out? I have enough mana for him to reserve, but what is with its mana expectancy. Isn¡¯t it absurd?¡± Brought to light by Rocky, Minnie checked what he was talking about and found it questioning too. ¡°Huh, now that I see it¡­ well, there could be a variety of reasons for it. One that he is a monster from outside of our dungeon type, and second that, maybe he is subconsciously fighting against the dungeons control. So it is taking much more mana to control him, than otherwise would have been required.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Rocky nodded in understanding, before asking, ¡°So more soldier ants it is?¡± Minnie gave an alternate suggestion. ¡°Um, why don¡¯t we buy the ant queen? I mean it will continuously lay egg every hour, and it being a ranker herself, she will probably be a lot stronger than the wolf! What do you say?¡± Rocky weighted the benefits with the presence that the wolf had, and in the end the ant¡¯s ability to lay eggs won his heart. Rocky turned to Minnie and nodded his head, who smiled back and bought the Queen in return. They waited for the wonderful performance of the mana and light to commence, but proving them wrong, something entirely different, but oddly familiar happened from the summoning. No dots of light appeared, and instead a dark black whirling gate opened on the roof; similar to the one from which Minnie had appeared from. It came into existence and expanded till it became 10 meters wide. Comparing both of this and the other one was like comparing a fish to a shark, the difference in size was that obvious. The gate appeared and hurriedly closed, before dropping something heavy into the room. *Boom* The floor shook, and dust scattered everywhere and blocked their view of the outside world. Both Rocky and Minnie excitedly waited for the dust to scatter, so they could marvel at the being which could create a mini earthquake just by dropping onto the ground. And when the dust finally settled, what they saw didn¡¯t excite them, but instead scared the living shit out of them. Minnie looked amazed after observing the queen. Starting from the bottom, its legs looked like sharp pep sickles, which were 20 centimeters wide and a whole meter long. The ends were so sharp that they she had gotten embedded into the floor due to her own weight. She had spikes on her legs. ¡®Truly made as a war machine¡¯, Rocky though, but then Minnie corrected him telling him that those were her hairs. She had a leg span of 5 meters and her main body was 3 meters wide. But her height was on the smaller side considering her other proportion, standing at 2 & a half meters tall, while her legs only amounted for 1/5 of the total height. The queen looked like she was an ant on steroids. Who knew ants could have muscles. Well, it didn¡¯t have actual muscles, but her curves and contours, made her body look really stunning and ripped. Her bulged body makes her look extremely vicious and ruthless. The mandibles looks more like a scythe, ready and waiting to show their ability to remove heads cleanly from the neck. They had enough circumferences to engulf a 3 meter wide tree and cut it in half. Her sharp steel like hair were not just a part of her legs, but covered her whole body; especially her neck. Completely covering the one obvious weak point that she had. Well, leaving aside her physical appearance the thing which shocked them both was her status, which appeared displayed exactly why she was the queen.
Ant Queen (Rare)
The queen helps them grow. The soldier protects the queen and worker obeys them both. Ant queen is a special monster, with a very small chance of being born in a colony. Queens specializes in laying eggs, but can also defend herself, if needed.
Level 20 Species Fire Ant
Rank 1 Affinity Fire(24%)
Health 1050 Mana 2500
Can lay eggs without a limit, but only 100 ants will woke at once. Each egg will birth a small ant and has a slight possibility to give birth to variant ants. Can lay an egg every ten seconds.
Skills Active Mandible Cutters Lv(5), Crush lv(9),Fireball Lv(6), Fire breath Lv(6), Intermediate Fire Resistance Lv(2)
Passive Sleep, Egg laying Lv(6), Control, Hive mind.
Her eyes wide open and glittering, with drool dripping from her face, Minnie yelled, ¡°We got lucky! We got lucky!! We got lucky!!!¡± She squealed like a pig. She Hugged Rocky out of happiness and pecked his cheek, before she started jumping all around the queen like a child. And her sharp voice did not make her sound any better, but Rocky liked this new unknown side of her. ¡®She looks cute.¡¯ He thought, while rubbing the cheek she had kissed. He wanted to ask her why she was so happy, but she didn¡¯t give him any time and started firing words at her like a parrot. ¡°You know how lucky we are? Gosh, this is so amazing. Who knew we would get a variant ant so easily, Moreover a queen! This is so great.¡± Rocky understanding what she was talking about smiled too. ¡°We should install shock proof walls when the store unlocks, okay.¡± ¡°Yeah sure.¡± But then an idea hit Rocky. ¡°Minnie actually what is the cost of buying a floor right?¡± ¡°What you forgot?¡± She tilted her head to the left in confusion, but still explained it to him. ¡°It costs 100 Dc for every floor and the same amount of mana required to be reserved for the floor.¡± She saw him squinting his eyes and looking lost as if trying to remember when she had told him that. ¡°Huh, Didn¡¯t you see the difference between your total mana and the mana being consumed by the monsters?¡± ¡°Hee¡­ I.. actually didn¡¯t see that.¡± Minnie face palmed and looked at him like an disappointed parent. ¡°You know you need to remember stuff, here¡­¡± She opened the Dungeon interface to show him his dungeon status and repeated everything once again.
Dungeon Interface / Status
Home Monsters / Store
Name ¡­ Type Insect
Floors 3/5 Total no of monsters 7
Rooms/Floor 4 Total no of invaders 0
Mana used / Total mana: (670/1140)
Floors 500 Monsters 170
Resources 0 Upgrades 0
Dungeon Currency 375 Reputation 15(Neutral)
¡°It¡¯s simple. Every tab explains itself. Like number of monsters literally tells us the no of active monsters we have in the dungeon. Now, eggs won¡¯t be considered active monsters, okay.¡± ¡°Aha¡­¡± Rocky scratched his head in shame. After all, being tutored and being told was two completely different things. ¡°Humph¡­¡± Minnie pouted, but continued explaining. ¡°The most important thing to take not of in this panel is the amount of mana you have reserved for the various activities like; monster summoning, resource planning, floor buying. And at last is the amount of Dc¡¯s you have.¡± She finished explaining, exhaled a deep breath and asked him, ¡°Now, was that difficult to remember?¡± ¡°Haaha¡­no.¡± ¡°SO don¡¯t forget this common information now.¡± She turned around and slightly pumped her fist, ¡®Safe!¡¯ she mumbled, but Rocky hugged her from behind. ¡°Really, did you really think I don¡¯t remember you telling me that you will explain it later? Huh?¡± Minnie¡¯s cheeks dyed red, she struggled to get away from him, but unfortunately she couldn¡¯t. With her back touching his chest, she giggled slightly before saying sorry. Rocky let her go, she turned around and their eyes met. She looked at him like a hurt puppy which made him snort and they both ended up laughing at their performance. And while they were getting heated over useless stuff the ant queen started moving around in the dungeon. They didn¡¯t notice but a new numbers were being silently added to the interface and it showed the current number of eggs in the dungeon and the counter moved every five seconds. And by the time Minnie and Rocky noticed it, the number had already climbed up to 34. ¡°What the hell? What is that?¡± Rocky marveled. ¡°That¡­ I think is the number of eggs in our dungeon. I said the monster tab doesn¡¯t tell us the number of eggs, and the system added the facility for it¡­ Scary isn¡¯t it? But that¡¯s how the system works. It grows everyday, like how we grow.¡± She said with pride, as if the system was her brain child. ¡°Amazing¡­ but what is with that absurd number. We don¡¯t even have 10 monsters and the egg counter has¡­ oh it reached 40!¡± ¡°There is probably a catch, let¡¯s check out the Queen.¡± The display on the screen changed to the place near the slope to the first floor. The queen waited for a second, moved and laid a fist sized egg. ¡°Oh! So that is reason!¡± Minnie face palmed. ¡°What, what are you talking about?¡± Seemingly in a low mood, she pointed at the eggs and said, ¡°The eggs, they are so small¡­¡±
Meanwhile, in the Adventurers guild of town Ragnarock, Annie the guild master was looking through reports, and sorting them out. A Small bun on her head, plain reading glasses lying on her nose, and a bang of hair trying to escape the clutches of her left ear, she was a heaven defying beauty. Her fluffy red cheeks making her eyes come out alive. She was an enchantress, the dream of all the princes, and a goddess for everyone else. Wearing a loose pure white shirt, with three open buttons and her grey colored laced bra peeking from inside. A black office coat over her shirt, and a matching plain black skirt hugging her hips, she looked more like a hot office women, than the dangerous master that she was of something like an adventurers guild. Her assistant, a long eared Elf by the name of Leaf, stood beside her. His face straight and tense, his nose ready to smell all dangers, and his eyes looking straight onto the guild masters cleavage, he was feeling horny. A drop of sweat travelling down his neck, a sharp sense of excitement in his heart, he waited till his master asked him to look away, which she had become tired of, but his wish didn¡¯t come true. The room she was in was also exceptional like her. Made from the mana nullifying stones and coated with sound proofing paint, having vigils installed to break stealth, teleportation and skill formation. It was one of the best rooms that a anyone could ever dream of. It was not an exaggeration to say that the small 7x7x7 meter sq room made the guild bleed 30 million gold coins. The room had a full glass wall facing the North, giving a perfect view of the forest, flourishing just outside the town walls. While the master and her servant were busy with their activities, the guard outside the door knocked twice and opened the door. ¡°The receptionist is here madam.¡± ¡°Send her in.¡± She nonchalantly replied. The door opened and a neatly dressed, but pale looking girl entered. Her eyes as big as the moon, scanned the whole room, before settling at the guild master sitting behind a dark rectangular prime cloud marble desk, who was reading guild reports. She didn¡¯t give the old pervert standing behind the guild master a single glance. Even though she could feel his sight all over her body, she didn¡¯t look at him. Because she knew the kind of attention seeking pervert he was, and knew that the more one refute him, the he happier he would be. She felt disgusted remembering the day when the guild master had beaten him with her wand in front of the whole guild, and he had moaned like he was having the time of his life. ¡®Fuck him.¡¯ She thought, but didn¡¯t let her thoughts show on her face. She came in and bowed respectfully, lifting the helm of her frilly dress. Then attentively standing back up, she greeted Annie. ¡°Good evening madam.¡± Annie closed the report she was reading and looked up at the receptionist, who shivered as their eyes met and asked, ¡°So what do we have? Anything worth my time?¡± ¡°Yes madam¡± She replied, and brought the file containing the information brought by the scout to Annie¡¯s desk. ¡°According to the scout, the place of explosion has a deep dark hole going straight into the ground.¡± Then she recounted all the information said by the scout and finished by telling, ¡°He greatly emphasized the second explosion and told us that the ants though powerful weren¡¯t able to tackle the party inside the cave, and it was the purple blast which in the end took their lives.¡± Annie carefully listened to her, while reading the scouts testimony, before sighing. ¡°So although that useless fellow did give us information, he didn¡¯t bring anything concurrent. Ants underground could mean anything. It might be their mound or they might just be travelling somewhere else. Though the purple blast intrigues me, but according to our sources the first explosion was a bright white and not purple. So rather than having our questions answered, we have more of them now.¡± ¡°¡­.¡± ¡°Jade¡­¡± ¡°Yes master?¡± ¡°Put another job for scouting the area. The job will be given ¡®Rank B¡¯ for the anonymity of the dangers. Information required is the whole map of the underground, including the monsters, habitat, recourses, and environment. And put the reward as negotiable.¡± ¡°Reward according to the information brought, master?¡± ¡°Yes. Let¡¯s wait and see, what the party of tried and tested individuals will bring us.¡± Ch -13 Adventurers Guild, Town-Ragnarock:- Annie the guild master was feeling torn and bored, working on the reports and handling the guild affairs. ¡°Ah! This is going to take too long like this! Should I go myself and see what the commotion is about?¡± But Leaf who was standing behind her moved, and spoke with his face just centimeters away from hers, ¡°No madam. You can¡¯t move. You knew very well the kind of ties and shackle this position you are holding would bring with it. Now that you have actually succeeded in becoming the guild master, you have to act like one too. Let the missions be solved by the young upstarts. This is your duty as the guild master~ huf, huf, huf.¡± Annie snorted thinking about the contract she was made to sign. She sighed and looked at leaf, who was still trying to catch his breath. Using her index finger she pushed his head away and replied. ¡°Who told you to say all that in one sentence? Anyways¡­¡± She looked through the window to the south and toward the town flourishing outside her window. Her vision expanded and she looked beyond the town wall, and into the fields some distance away. She bit her lip and a veil of sadness covered her face, as she saw an old man working in the fields. His beard longer than his hair and his back a little bent, clearly showing that old age was catching up to him. Annie stood up from her chair, which startled Leaf. ¡°No, please madam, don¡¯t go! What will I¡­¡±, but Annie cut him short placing her index finger on his lips to shut him up. And she spoke, as Leafs eyes became watery and his body started shivering. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I am not going to the site. I am going somewhere else. Message me once enough adventurers accept the job to form a party. Then opening the window she flew out of the room, leaving beautiful blue snowflakes behind. They shimmered with sunlight passing through them, but then disappeared before touching the ground. Leaf watched her fly out of the window. Understood the place she was going, he took a deep breath and mumbled, ¡°He won¡¯t come back madam.¡±
Annie flew through the air. Flying over the town and past the town walls, she silently landed on the ground, just before the green fields. She took a step forward, but then stopped. Smacking her forehead, she used [Freeze] and froze the atmosphere around her. Then she activated her [Barrier] to keep the effect of the [Freeze] to within its boundaries and to stop it from damaging everything around her. A mellow cold wind originated from her [Barrier] and parted the fields. Seeing that everything was working out greatly she nodded to herself, and silently disappeared midst the wheat crop. She took extra attention to not create any noise and even slowed down her breathing and heartbeat. Her every step created a flimsy layer of ice underneath her feet to not affect the ground. Remembering the position, she walked till she was just fifty meters away from the old man who was plowing the fields with a pick axe. Sweat dripped down his face, as sun shined right above his bald head, which had a long scar from the front to the back. He was not very tall. Standing at just 5¡¯5¡± tall he looked like every other old farmer, wearing an old and worn out, but clean button less shirt and dark brown pants. But there was something about the old man which distinguished him from common folks. Like how efficiently he was using the pickaxe. His every single draw of his multipurpose pickaxe would leave behind a perfectly straight line and give the illusion as if that line was parting the ground into two sections. The stones were being dug out in real time and getting flung to the side on the same place. Annie didn¡¯t come out from behind the crops and stood there looking at him. She didn¡¯t blink to take in everything that the old man was doing. At one time she even forgot to breath and almost choked, but got hang of herself when the old man looked at the sky and smiled, exhaling out a small gust of air with his eyes closed. Noon soon turned into evening, and the farmer finally finished plowing the land. He lay down on the ground and closed his eyes. Annie bit her lips as her hands trembled. Her feet struggled to move. She wanted to go out into the open, but she couldn¡¯t. Remembering all that her mother had said to her, she struggled as a tear dripped from her eye to the ground and creating a small ice lotus. This also disappeared with time. At the end she finally lifted her feet to walk, but Leafs transmission reached her and broke her determination. Hearing that the party had assembled, she clenched her fists and with a heavy heart returned back to the guild. The old man who was sleeping on the ground opened his eyes as she was leaving, before closing them again after sighing. ¡°Achoo!!¡± He sneezed as a cold gust of wind hit the clearing and dropped the temperature down a peg. ¡°FuFu¡­¡± He snickered thinking about something, and went back to sleep.
Annie came back to the guild after receiving the message, entering through the same window she had flown out from. Just as she entered, leaf held her legs and clamped to them like a chimpanzee, as he started crying crocodile tears. ¡°Oh madam! My dear madam! Please stop hurting yourself by going to that man over and over again. He is not worth your affection. I you want to love someone then please lov¡­ Gwack!¡± ¡°Sure, why not. I¡¯ll love you¡­¡± ¡°Gwack¡­ Ah, ah, ah¡­ mo¡­ more¡­ love¡­ me more.¡± She face palmed and [unfreeze] the pervert, who sat down and moaned taking heavy breaths. Leaf spoke as his ears turned red, ¡°One more ti¡­¡± but stopped when he saw a sharp looking ice needle forming in Annie¡¯s hand. ¡°So, where are they?¡± She asked him. Leaf suddenly stood up, brushed his clothes and pointed his finger at the western wall. Ripples forming on the wall, it went through a change, as a clear crystal screen appeared from it. Static appeared on the screen, before the view settled and it displayed a red room. This was a device created by Dr. Steve of the imperial Engineering and research department. The Device named Teve after its creator had a unique function. It could using mana display view from the other device it was connected to. Annie looked inside the room as memories reemerged from the past. There was a time when it was her and her team, who sat in the room and talked to the former guild master. She felt nostalgic remembering all the missions that they had accepted in that same room. The room was designed to create a heavy atmosphere, and make the adventurers subconsciously think that the mission wasn¡¯t an easy task. She sighed once before looking around the room and thinking, ¡®Even the scenery outside hasn¡¯t changed, still no window. The curtains are same too, their holes are still intact. Ah! The hole that I created in the floor is even bigger now. Heck! I can even see the ground! This room is in serious need of some renovation.¡¯ She stopped looking around when her feeling of D¨¦j¨¤ vu settled and stared directly at the adventurers who were interestingly looking at her. She scanned their faces and a mischievous thought entered her mind. She spoke in a grave tone, ¡°So, you are the excellent individuals, who have decided to risk their lives against the horrible and disastrous Dragon race...¡± her eyes scanned their faces in anticipation and they reacted accordingly. ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Wh-what?¡± ¡°DRA-DRAGONSS??¡± ¡°Ah! Honaurable master we are not here for D-dragon subjugation. We- we¡­¡± ¡°Yes, yes¡­¡± The girls cried out. Annie looked at them in confusion, but then snickered when she saw their faces turn pale white. ¡°Haaha¡­ you all should look at your faces. Pfft! You kids look so scared. This is amazing.¡± Because she couldn¡¯t actually send or feel any intent through the screen, she failed to notice a slight flicker in the atmosphere in the screen and carried on. ¡°Sorry, sorry my bad. You all were looking so tense that I couldn¡¯t stop myself. Now, don¡¯t take it to heart; it will only do you bad, and also me. Well, let¡¯s not get stressed over small matters. Let me say my sorry and once again, please don¡¯t take what I said to heart, but if....¡± Hearing that Annie was just joking the kids took a breath of relief. The two girls who were wearing red and yellow colored robes distinguishing them from the rest, smiled like kittens as they looked into each other¡¯s eyes. While the man completely covered in black didn¡¯t move and neither did the archer in his dyed green rhino Iron back leather armor, over a light cotton shirt. Other than the assassin two mages and an archer; the team also had a knight; A ranker who had already advanced his class to knight from warrior. ¡°Don¡¯t worry teacher its ok. Wit¡­.¡± The knight cut into her talk, but Annie causally brushed his intrusion and finished by saying, ¡°But if you do take it by heart then, you might become someone great in the future.¡± To which the adventurers responded by nodding their heads. ¡°Okay¡­¡± ¡°Yes.¡± The knight watching that no one was asking for information other than what had been provided by the guild, decided to directly ask the master. ¡°Teacher, could you tell us more about the site?¡± The knight requested. Annie looked at the knight and thought, ¡®this white knight; he¡¯s¡­not bad I guess. He has guts for sure.¡¯ ¡°You Knight! Are you the leader of this party?¡± The knight hearing that flinched a little, and then looked at his companions. Seeing that no one was responding or disapproving, he nodded and spoke with resolution, ¡°Yes, I am.¡± ¡°Good, then their life is in your hand. Whether they live or die will be decided by how you see the situation. Well, we could do all the informalities and teachings at some other time. For now, let¡¯s concentrate on the job at hand.¡± ¡°HAI!¡± they shouted collectively. ¡°Okay then, as all of you know this job is a simple ant subjugation, but with a minor intricacy to it. The thing is, we don¡¯t know how many ants there are. They could be in the tens, hundreds, thousands or even in the millions.¡± Hearing that, the adventurers lost their cool and started shouting. ¡°How could this be? How can Six B rankers possibly fight with a million monsters on their own?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. This is not possible. Why was there no information regarding lack of information on the job description?¡± Annie thought she heard something wrong, but then let the thought pass. Hearing them bickering like little kids, a vein popped out of her forehead. ¡°SILENCE!!¡± She yelled, which made the adventurers shut their mouth. ¡°Don¡¯t forget who you are talking to. Now, you are adventurers, and no one forced you to choose this job, it was your choice.¡± She scanned their faces and nodded when she saw them attentively listening to her. She added, ¡°Yes, the job is dangerous, but didn¡¯t you read the reward? It says negotiable. Meaning the more you bring, the more you earn. Your pay will depend on the kind of information you bring back.¡± She saw the knight taking a breath of relief hearing that and reminded them, ¡°And don¡¯t think I will let you all off if you came back without bringing something evident. Otherwise¡­¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The hot headed knight didn¡¯t back down from her threat. ¡°What? Don¡¯t tell me we will have to fight till death. Just because we accepted this assignment, doesn¡¯t mean that you have the right...¡± But continuing her manner of speak she completed her sentence. ¡°Then you could always come back and receive your pay according to the information you bring back.¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°¡­..¡± ¡°Haha, young chicks are always impulsive. No matter how much time passes, they don¡¯t learn to have patience and never listen. Good, good, just about the right mindset to...¡± ¡°Really, she said it¡¯s the right mindset.¡± ¡°Yeah, I was like really afraid right there¡± The two mage girls talked with each other and the Knight joined them saying, ¡°Phew. At least we won¡¯t be considered green horns after teacher pra¡­¡± But Annie delivered another punch to their guts. ¡°Ha-ha, Just the right mindset¡­to get killed. Like I said, they never listen.¡± She shook her head disappointingly, but the smile on her face never faded. All the while Leaf was making faces, completely understanding what they were going through. In the end, it was quite known in the town and the adventurer¡¯s circle, how unique, both the master and her personal servant was. ¡°This much is enough for now. Let¡¯s get down to business.¡± Annie suddenly turned serious which scared the kids. ¡°All that your party needs to do is to go inside the cave, defeat any and everything that comes out, and get to the very last end of the hole. Salvage every bit of information that you can from the cave, come back, and receive your reward.¡± Everyone nodded their heads, except the knight. ¡°So, shall we also kill the queen? Isn¡¯t it a great asset to nurture f-d rank adventures?¡± ¡°Oh! good, good. You lot are not bad. Especially you white knight. Yeah, if the place is not too dangerous then let the queen live, but if you think that there is no other way than to destroy the infection from its roots, then..¡± *Silence* This time no one spoke anything, all of them waited for Annie to finish. Seeing this, Annie couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°Then you know what to do. Anyways, that is all and well, but I have something I want to ask you all.¡± ¡°Yes, master?¡± They collectively asked. ¡°Well, before you go tell me...¡± *Silence* ¡°What were your names again?¡±
The knights POV: Shesh, that guild master is too much. She and her assistant both are perverts, but her behavior was especially bad today. Everyone knows, she starts playing with adventurers when her mood is bad. Maybe something happened¡­ Ah let¡¯s forget about her. After getting reprimanded or as said by master, ¡®getting some sense beaten into us¡¯, we left the guild. Coming out of the marvelously build futuristic building was like unwillingly being thrown out of a castle. The building is that amazing. Those gadgets, that high quality material, other than the people working in the guild, everything else about it is just fantastic. The guild master did ask us our name, but then completely lost interest, and cut off the connection to that see through gadget. A crazy thing about that Teve is that, there are only four of them in our great empire, and two of them are installed in the guild. And that thing is not something which anyone can buy with just money alone. This alone speaks tales about the power that our previous guild master held in the empire. No one knows why he left¡­ Ah whatever. *Sigh* Only if our current master wasn¡¯t a mean sadistic bit¡­ *Ahem* Anyways, I am the leader of this expedition team. I think I should at least introduce myself to them. I still don¡¯t understand how they let me become the leader? Maybe they don¡¯t want to get recognized or something, well whatever. So let¡¯s do this. *Gulp* *Ahem* Then first are the greetings. ¡°Excuse me everyone. Pleased to meet you all,¡± get their attention with a polite greeting, ¡°I am ¡®D¡¯sue¡¯ and I am a ¡®Knight¡¯. I usually work alone, but it''s my utmost pleasure that I getting an opportunity to work with all of you.¡± Then say some honey filled words, ¡°I think, none of you mind me becoming the leader of this team. Well, for the time being at least.¡± And that¡¯s it. That was a bit nerve racking, but I hope I did good. ¡°Now that my introductions are over, why don¡¯t you all introduce yourself too? That way we¡¯ll at least have an idea of how to arrange our strategy; minding everyone¡¯s skills and levels.¡± I¡¯m sweating bullets here please somebody says something. And as if my words were the cue, the heavy atmosphere between the party lifted, and the mood lightened a little. The first one to introduce herself was the fire mage in red robe. Now, I don¡¯t usually get together with mages. I mean, there is something about them that irks me. Their haughty behavior and that feeling they give just makes me feel nauseous, but somehow I am getting attracted toward this girl. To tell the truth, she is beautiful. No, she is gorgeous. No she is like a goddess descending from the heaven, as she stepped forward. An angel whose smile alone is enough to warm my heart and ignite my spirit. I don¡¯t know what to say, be it her red eyes, or her red hair or her red cheeks. Now, there is a lot of redness involved with her, but the color doesn¡¯t swallow her and instead make her look prettier. Everything about her is perfect. That slim curvy waist, those medium C size boobs, those deliciously glossy lips!! I mean everything about her is really perfect, but my thinking about her changed when she started speaking. She¡­ is just too energetic. ¡°Hey Mr. Knight, You took too damn long to start the introductions! Martha was like, should Martha just speak or should Martha wait. You know what? Martha hate to wait. See Martha is good at rhyming. Hate, wait, ah Martha is so good. Ah feeling tiered, Martha is going to sleep.¡± I literally smacked my head from getting my image of her broken by four sentences from her. She killed the perfection that she was in my mind in a single blow, and she didn¡¯t even introduce herself. *Sigh* ¡°Miss, please tell us something about your ability, before¡­ you go to sleep.¡± Awkward, awkward, even I am saying weird things now. ¡°Ah! Heehe¡­ sorry, Martha always does it. If it wasn¡¯t for this habit, then father wouldn¡¯t have been disappointed in Martha. I¡¯m sorry.¡± All the while I was yelling her to just get on with it in my mind. ¡°Ok, so Martha name is Martha and Martha is a fare mage.¡± She said pointing at her robe and the rest of the member¡¯s smiled warily. ¡°Though Martha¡¯s rank or level is not as high as every one of you, but Martha can assure you all that Martha¡¯s control and skills are first class.¡± She said and yes, she was smiling. ¡°Yep, yep even father said Martha is a genius.¡± She introduced herself and I controlled myself giving reasons like, ¡®No,no, no, cool down, no need to panic. She is just a girl, though she has a few screws loose in her head, and says Martha this Martha that everytime she speaks, she is otherwise fine.¡¯ And it actually didn¡¯t work. ¡°Thank you for telling us about yourself Miss¡­ Martha.¡± My face twitched saying her name. ¡°Well, now anyone else who would like to grace us by introducing themselves.¡± And I hoped that the next one wouldn¡¯t be as eccentric as her, but who was I kidding. The next to introduce herself was the other mage of the party. Standing at 5¡¯4¡±, she wasn¡¯t just an inch taller than Martha, but looked more mature too. While she wasn¡¯t speckles like Martha, her cold attitude made up for that gap between them. ¡°Name - Dust. Affinity ¨C earth, I am a Rank 0, level 89, Mage. I specialize in Earth attack and defense skills. Most of my skills are at Intermediate lv-3. So, if you think I can be of any usage to you all, then don¡¯t be shy and do tell me. Thank you.¡± *Twitch* And I mentally face palmed, again, no smacked my head with my hand. What kind of an introduction was that! Though she seems strong, skilled, and spoke little, and gave all the information we required. Actually¡­. She did a lot better than that other girl who was looking at dust with sparkling eyes. Then I remembered something. News that had shook the low ranking individuals some months ago. It was said that the hunter who had single killed a whole colony of black venomous rats. From what the guild reported, the kill count amounted to one thousand rats, including the king rat which was a ranker. The thing to note is that the hunter at that time was just a D ranker. Her name didn¡¯t leave the guild rooms, but soon started calling the hunter with the name Dust, for the destruction that she had caused at the site. Leaving the story aside, If her skills are really at the intermediate level, then she is a strong comrade to have. Well, I¡¯ll also have to be careful of her, who knows when she might get impulsive and try to poke me with a spike or something. Okay, let¡¯s move on. ¡°Anyone else?¡± Then the assassin came forward and bowed respectfully. Covered from head to toe in black, with only his eyes staring out, he looked strange and mysterious. He held a jet black dagger, which made me question whether it was even there or not, and wrote something on the ground. ¡°I am sorry, I can¡¯t speak. So please bear with me. Anyways, my name is Enco and as you can see, I am an assassin. Nothing to be surprised about. I am also a ranker and specialize in dagger techniques and dealing with shadows. Thank you.¡± Like I said, the assassin had a reason to not speak. The introductions continued with the archer. Who following the 100 steps to being an archer, was wearing a light colored shirt underneath a green leather jacket. His arrows peeking out from his quiver and his short bow in one hand he looked ready to attack. A dagger hanging from his waist and just like in the book he was barefoot. He introduced himself as Bill. He told us that he was a member of another B rank party which had gotten annihilated last month, and he had taken the mission to even his losses from the previous mission. Like I said he was following the guide to be an archer to the roots. But for some reason, he was taking confused glances at another member of the party, the swordsman. No, not some ordinary swordsman. Someone who had achieved rank up and had evolved his class into one from the fable of legends. He was the one and only, the hope of this generation against the Demon army, the heartbeat of countless young ladies, the virgin killer, the messiah, the one and only human with the class HERO¡­ *Ahem* Off, let¡¯s take deep breaths. Though I must say that I am feeling excited for getting to work with Sir William, but I have a big question to ask him. I mean what is he doing here? Moreover alone, and without his party of five beautiful young maidens? Well, who care¡¯s. All I know is that other than the archer and me, no one else is giving him looks of envy. Which in itself is strange, considering he is the hero or maybe I am mistaken. I looked at him and smiled. It was Hero time, but he turned out to be a devil instead. ¡°Ah! Okay, that will do. So what about you Sir?¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°HUH?¡± Don¡¯t tell me he is goi¡­ ¡°Don¡¯t tell me! Don''t you know who I am? How could it be? I¡¯m famous you know. How could a lowly knight not know who I am? It''s already a hassle giving you the position of the leader, but what the hell yo? Do you live in a cave or something? How the actual fuck could you ask me who I am! I am¡­¡± ¡°Sir!! It''s not that I don¡¯t know who you are, but I thought that there might be some who don¡¯t. So, I trie¡­¡± ¡°Shuuu! Don¡¯t talk when I am talking. I thought you had some balls to not ask me to become the leader, but looks like you are a eunuch too.¡± ¡°whaaa!¡± ¡°Shut up and listen. I was going to let you play house for this time, but with such an attitude, you can¡¯t be the leader of this team. So, I am going to lead now and YOU ALL WILL FOLLOW. Hey You archer! Do you have the skill [Eagle eyes]?¡± ¡°How do you¡­¡± ¡°No need for such useless questions, we are already late. Everyone go on and start your preparations. Meet me at the front gate in one hour. GO! MOVE! WHAT ARE YOU ALL WAITING FOR? And you, archer, it''s your duty to scout ahead with your Eagle eyes. Our objective is very far.¡± ¡°But..¡± ¡°No buts and also no ifs. Listen to me and my every order. You lot do what I say and I¡¯ll protect you all from any and all danger. Otherwise, you all will be on your own. Let''s finish this mission as soon as we can. I have people waiting for me. Understood?¡± ¡°¡­¡­.¡± *Twitch* ¡°I SAID ¡®UNDERSTOOD¡¯?¡± ¡°Yes, sir¡± We all shouted at the same time. ¡°Then go for now and come back to the front gate in one hour. MOVE, MOVE, MOVE.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± And we were made to run like dogs. I didn¡¯t know he had such a fiery temper. I mean he is the hero. He¡¯s got all the girls. He is already living his life to the fullest. So can¡¯t he be a little sensitive. ¡°Sigh!¡± And here I thought that I would get to lead a team of my own, but there is nothing that I can do about ¡®HIM¡¯. So, let¡¯s just complete the mission and come back after killing him¡­ or not. I had nothing to pack and others like wise didn¡¯t have anything to pack either, so I decided to buy some health and mana potions. Who knows what we will have to face there. But if the information is right and the monsters are just ants ¡­ then what more could I have asked for. Then after we packed all the stuff necessary to travel the distance without any disturbance, we started our long journey to an easy quest, at least I think that it¡¯ll be easy. Well, how difficult can a bunch of ants be, for us? ************* Even though our leader is a bad character, but there is no one who can say anything about his choices and decisions. They were all perfect. He made earth mage Dust to create a fortress¡­ yeah, a fortress to sleep during the night, fire mage was given the duty to get the fire burning, the assassin had to go catch food and I was made the cook. What did he do? Nothing he just ordered us around, but on the premises to act as the guard, while we all slept at night. The road was unusually long and winding. Town ¡®Ragnarock¡¯ is at three day distance from the Mountain range. Though I say three days, but we took one day to get there, or were made to get there in one day, not much difference. Though I have to say, Bill really is a great archer. All the bandits and monsters that we met on the road were nicely spotted by him, and were cleanly and peacefully executed by our assassin. He really is a great guy, though he doesn¡¯t speak much, but he also doesn¡¯t need to be given any order. He always acted first, and killed all and everything that came our way. There is a road that leads straight to ¡®Devils beard¡¯, which is a forest just before the ¡®Devil Pass¡¯ mountain range. The numbers of monsters that we had to face while traveling in the forest were a lot, but all of them were still simply and effectively manhandled by the assassin alone. He is very powerful and trustable. I tried to talk to him, but he always ran away or tried to pick me with his dagger. I think he is just a bit shy. The forest was really scary. Even I got scared of the pitch black darkness that surrounded everyone at night. Because of big and wide trees, with very dense canopies, almost no light reached the ground after sundown. Our leader wanted to continue moving even during the night, but his intentions were broken by the attack from night wolves. Night wolves are not very dangerous monsters, individually that is, but the thing is they move in a group. They are pack monsters and their hunting party always contains thirty to fifty wolves at a time. Because of their affinity with the dark element, they can become a pain to fight with during the night. It was very difficult to spot them in the darkness of the forest because of their jet black hide and non-luminescent eyes. They are like shadows during the night. But because we had the archer with us, he saved us from getting ambushed by them. We came to the decision to stop traveling at night and to camp over the trees. The night passed without any difficulty because of our tree fortresses, and we started our journey again during the day to the ant hill. We encountered no wolves during the daytime, but were attacked by a group of golden snakes. A golden snake is a rank 1 monster, not especially high leveled, but their evolved forms are much more dangerous than they are. We were very fortunate enough to not encounter them. About the snakes, they were killed without mercy, again by our one and only assassin. We arrived at our destination at around 1: 30 pm, but because we were a bit tired from the journey, we decided to rest a bit before opening our treasure chest. Because we were already resting I decided to create some snake soup from the snakes. The soup was delicious and everyone praised me. I noticed Martha glancing at me from the sides. Maybe girls do like men who can cook. The leader even advised me to not sell the recipe to any store or inn to keep it authentic. Everyone laughed a bit, before leader stood up¡­ ¡°So are you all ready?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± We yelled. ¡°Then let¡¯s go.¡± And the nightmare started. Ch -14 It was Evening, Rocky was feeling giddy, because his Mana sense had gained another level, and his sense had increased up to a range of 40 meters. Moreover he had finally gained the soul shifting skill which he was so eagerly practicing for. But he gained more than just that and the way came as a surprise for him too. The first one he gained was the [Astral projection]. He knew that he was close to getting this one and gained it after his fiftieth try. The skill wasn¡¯t too special on its own, but it did improve the time he could stay in his soul form by a lot. The after playing around in his soul form, he gained the skill [Ghost vision]; which made him gain the ability to sense the presence of life around him. And because the dungeon itself was a living thing, everything around him lit up as he activated the skill. The last one was [Possession]. Yes, it took him a lot more time to get than the other skills because all the time he was leaving and possessing his own body and not a foreign object. Although that made it easier for him to do a pseudo possession, which did make his skill gaining speed slower, but it had to be done, otherwise there was the risk of him completely destroying his soul. So it took him some time, but in the end, after possessing and returning from the wall of his dungeon heart like countless times, he finally gained [possession]. And like its name, it gave him the ability to possess inanimate objects. Then the change happened. He was still in the process of happily jumping around while hugging Minnie, when another system message came up.
The skills [Astral projection], [Ghost vision] and [Possession] can be joined together to create a Rare ranked skill. Would you like to proceed with the skill evolution: Yes/No
After confirming with Minnie, who said that it was a rare blessing from the heavens, and he should take it, he confirmed the evolution. And after a sudden blinding light, and a feeling of something leaving him, the skills combined and evolved to their final form.
(Passive/active) Soul Manipulation ? Lv (1)
Soul, one of the greatest mysteries of the world. Soul is the container that holds the power. While body is just a way to display.
Skills: Allows the use of skills in soul form, but with an increased cost and decreased effect. Able to leave your current body and posses any inanimate object. (1Mp/sec) Death won¡¯t be instant. Get a second to live after death. Time increases with increase in skill level.
Rockies eyes opened wide as he looked at the information. But the celebrations were short lived as the intruder alarm rang out.
Warning: Intruder alert
¡°Where are they?¡± ¡°Forget that. Why is it showing the view of the room next door and not of the outside like it used too?¡± They were looking at the screen from Rockies inner world, but instead of displaying the intruders, the screen was instead showing the queen laying eggs. ¡°Probably because your mana sense only has the range of 40 meters and we are more than half a mile away from the entrance.¡± ¡°Shit.¡± Rocky punched the air in distress, but Minnie¡¯s words helped him calm down; instantly. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry so much. Why did you think I tasked you to get the soul shifting skill?¡± She asked him moving his brows up and down. ¡°It was in preparation for this moment. After all, everyone knows that it takes a long time to level the [Mana sense] skill to optimum levels. And by everyone, I mean the humans, who only need to extend their sense to one or two hundred meters, while you need to cover your whole dungeon.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± Rocky exclaimed. Then Minnie pushed him and said, ¡°Now you go. Leave the control room to me, and go play possession with the walls.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°Now, now, don¡¯t be scared. You will be alright.¡± Then turned her head around before joking, ¡°Alright, but only If they don¡¯t have a priest in their party, but don¡¯t worry, they won¡¯t be able to exorcise you if you possess the wall quickly enough.¡± ¡°Exorcise?!¡± Rocky knew what the word meant, and understood how near he would be to extinction, not just death if he did let a priest play around with his soul. ¡°Okay, go now. The more time you waste, the easily they will advance.¡± ¡°Oh, okay.¡± He turned around to leave the crystal heart, when Minnie called him again. ¡°Ah! One more thing¡­¡± ¡°What?¡± He asked. Minnie looked at him, smiled and said, ¡°Good luck.¡± ¡®That smile.¡¯ Rocky thought and smiled back before flowing out of his core and travelling to the surface; bypassing floors and walls. ¡°Ah! This has so much potential.¡± He said as he passed by a group of ants.
It took him just twenty seconds to reach the entrance and he saw that the humans had already come down from the hole. There were five of them, wearing different getups; looking strong and robust. He contacted Minnie to say he was there, who replied back saying she knew because the screen was up again. Minnie felt his worry from their connection and joked, ¡°Don¡¯t worry there are no priests in the group.¡± But Rocky replied saying he wasn¡¯t worried about that. ¡°This group they look strong.¡± Noticing the group formation and their artifacts and diversity in their classes, even Minnie got serious. ¡°Check out their levels. Let¡¯s see what we have.¡±
Intruders List
Dungeon default [Analyze] failed to determine their stats and skills.
Results: Number 13 (Human) (Assassin) (R-1) (Lv-94) Jasmine D¡¯ Renee (Human) (Fire Mage) (R-0) (Lv-65) Daisy Fields (Human) (Earth Mage) (R-0) (Lv-89) Daniel Knight (Human) (Knight) (R-1) (Lv-35) Bill long shorts (Human) (Archer) (Lv-55)
And Rocky operating his dungeon interface analyzed their status and felt goose bumps by looking at their levels. His eyes wide open and his jaw opened wide. He asked Minnie, ¡°D-did you see that?¡± And in an imposingly gloomy voice Minnie replied, ¡°Unfortunately, I did.¡± ¡°So what now?¡± ¡°Now, we evacuate or make a game plan. First let¡¯s see the number and types of ants we have.¡± ¡°Yeah, sure.¡± Rocky nodded in affirmation.
Monsters Available (DC:49)
(Name) (Rank) (Amount) Queen Ant (1): 1 Ant soldiers (0): 2 Ant workers (0): 6 Ant chuchas (0): 200/1600 (+6/min)
But that made Minnie even sadder. ¡°I feel they should give us a handicap for sending two fucking rankers to destroy our pitiful forces.¡± ¡°Calm down Minnie, calm down. Though I have to say, the decision to buy the queen has proved to be a good one. Moreover, one of it eggs even gave birth to a worker ant. What more could we want?¡± Some of her confidence returned as she heard him. ¡°So what¡¯s the plan?¡± ¡°The plan¡­¡± she said and sighed. She gave the screen one more look before taking a deep breath, and then the discussion started.
The group of humans with the Hero William in the lead reached the mission site. Coming out of the forest, they saw the hole and the wolf which the scout mentioned in the report. ¡°So that¡¯s the wolf, which the report talked about.¡± Bill said looking at the skeleton lying to the right of the hole. ¡°Looks like it.¡± Daniel commented. ¡°Okay team. We will enter in a minute. Give your gear a final check up, and warm up if you all want to.¡± William gave the orders and walked up to the wolf. He bent in front of it, and then using a stick opened its mouth. Maggots fell out of it, but William didn¡¯t fell disgusted looking at them, and thoroughly checked the body. The scene of William searching through a rotten and highly infested body disgusted the girls. It didn¡¯t disturb Dust, but Martha couldn¡¯t take the scene and ended up throwing up. Daniel the knight moved to support her and rubbed her back saying, ¡°Easy there, easy. Don¡¯t worry about it. Did you bring water¡­¡± and seeing her watery eye he sighed. He helped her stand up by holding her body, as she shivered from his touch and gave her a bottle of water. ¡°Relax and don¡¯t look at the wol¡­¡± seeing her face turning pale again, he quickly changed his word. ¡°West, don¡¯t look toward the west!¡± Dust came up and after staring into Daniels eyes for a second; she took Martha away, Leaving Daniel standing there with his face twitching. William came back to the front of the hole and went inside after pointing at it. The girls came back after a minute, with Martha looking better than before, and with the rest of the group entered the hole. The first thing they encountered was a 10 meters wide hole right at the entrance. So they slid down and climbed over the other side, but not without carefully inspecting the surrounding¡¯s first. Even though it was just the entrance, they didn¡¯t want to get ambushed by ants while they were in the hole. On the other side of the hole was a tunnel; dark, moist and straight. ¡°Looks like we have a path to follow.¡± William said and decided their formation for walking, with Daniel at the front and the rest following him. They moved just a few meters into the tunnel, when darkness engulfed them all. ¡°Do anyone of you know a light spell. It¡¯s too dark here.¡± William asked, when he saw that he wasn¡¯t even able to see a single meter in front of him. And Martha raised her hand looking at him like a kid. ¡°Martha knows. Martha knows.¡± She said.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Now are you an idiot or something. We don¡¯t need a fireball.¡± He whispered, his voice almost breaking before reaching her. ¡°Martha knows you are scared that the fire will eat all the oxygen, but don¡¯t worry Martha¡¯s fire is special. It won¡¯t eat oxygen. This place is too eerie. Martha is scared. Please let Martha show you.¡± she replied with puppy eyes, but the hero couldn¡¯t see the spectacle. ¡®Huh¡­¡¯ it was not something that one of them uttered, they yelled in sync. ¡°How is that possible?¡± Even William couldn¡¯t help, but look at her in new light. He wanted to ask her how that was possible, but the archer left him in dirt in his excitement, ¡°How is that possible? Is it a secret art or something?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a secret or anything. Like Martha told you all when we were introducing each other, although Martha¡¯s level is not that great, Martha¡¯s skill mastery and elemental control is top notch.¡± ¡°So, what kind of a relation does it have with oxygen less fire?¡± William asked. She didn¡¯t answer his question straight away, but looked at the ground and pondered on whether to tell him the reason or not, but maybe the dread of darkness won over her mind and she finally answered saying, ¡°It¡¯s because Martha can directly use mana as the fuel and create fire burning mana. So, Martha doesn¡¯t think it will affect the oxygen level at all.¡± William felt irritated hearing her speak, but the idea did sound good to him. ¡°Okay do it. I want light at least 10 meters on front and five meters on behind. Got it?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Martha is not stupid. Martha understands.¡± And she clicked her fingers, following which a small [fireball] conjured in front of her. The fireball created enough heat to melt iron and created blinding light every. But Martha pouted seeing that the light from the fireball wasn¡¯t enough and dissolved it. Then she closed her eyes and placing her hands near each other and gathered mana inside the cavity. She concentrated enough mana to create ten such fireballs, and condensed it until it took the shape of a crystal ball. It glowed with enough intensity to brighten the tunnel up to twenty meters in front of them. ¡°Gwah! What is this? It¡¯s too intense¡­!¡± ¡°Martha, stop it¡­!¡± ¡°Ah, my eyes¡­!¡± But the light from the ball turned out to be too intense and ended up hurting the others. Martha panicked at first, but then removed some mana from the ball, and then made it float behind them at some distance. Martha seeing that the light was bright enough to light the tunnel, but not strong enough to not hurt their eyes called out to them. ¡°Don¡¯t worry guys, you all can open your eyes now.¡± Following her voice they slowly opened their eyes, and saw each other¡¯s faces. The tunnel was bright enough to show 15 meters in front of them. William was about to say something, but Daniel jumped the gun and praised her, ¡°Good job.¡± To which she replied with a vibrant smile. William seeing that sighed and gave his instructions, ¡°Okay Daniel get at the front, and don¡¯t forget to keep your shield up. Archer move behind him. Girls stay with me, and assassin you know what to do.¡± They changed their formation like advised and started walking. Bill noticed five holes in the shape of a pentagon on the ground and on the roof, and warned the group about them. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s probably the ants. With openings so small they are probably not bigger than a fist.¡± Dust replied. They travelled through that tight tunnel which wasn¡¯t even wide enough to have three people travel shoulder to shoulder, and reached a small clearing. Daniel walked inside the room followed by the others and stopped. ¡°Where are the ants?¡± Daniel mumbled, which others easily heard as his voice echoed inside the room. His doubt was real after all they hadn¡¯t met a single ant on the way, and they had travelled for whole 200 meters. Ants were considered to have high sentimental value with their mound, and were known to attack all the intruders. Dust hearing his mumble decided to use her skill [life detection], which could detect the presence of every being in contact with the ground. ¡°Okay guys, give me a second.¡± She said and released a pulse of mana into the ground. Much like the result of sonar, everything with light lit up in front of her eyes. ¡°Oh no!¡± She looked up and shouted, ¡°They are on the roof!¡± and as if the ants had woken up from their slumber, the whole roof came down on them. ¡°Fuck! The whole roof is full of ants!¡± Daniel shouted, but his voice got drowned by the screeches from the ants. The ants fell and were right upon them, but then Martha shouted ¡°Everyone, Get down¡­!¡± Everyone followed her excited voice, hearing her excited except William and dropped their bodies to the ground. ¡°Explode!!¡± Martha yelled right after that and the light ball hovering behind them cracked, and *Boom!* An ear deafening explosion occurred. All the ants above their heads got evaporated, and the rest, which were falling from the side, got flung away to the walls by the blast wave. Daniel and dust hurriedly stood back up, with their eyes fixed on Martha. No one cared about William, who was looking as perfect as ever, even after taking the force of explosion form behind. The archer hanged his bow on his back and held his dagger. They noticed that the blast wave after the explosion alone had killed one fourth of the ants, and even more had gotten killed by the explosion. The ant¡¯s which didn¡¯t die in the explosion started running toward them with their mandibles wide open and William commanded Dust. ¡°Create a wall. Keep them away. And you, fire girl¡­¡± He laughed and spoke, ¡°grill them. Knight and archer¡­¡± he looked at them and moved out after saying, ¡°Take care of the girls.¡± The rest of the ants couldn¡¯t enter the wall created by dust and were grilled to death by Martha¡¯s [Flame throw]. A jet of fire coming out of her hand burned every ant in two meter radius of her to a crisp. Enco the assassin and the Hero - William came back unscathed after killing all the ants left. While Enco removed blood from his dagger by moving it between his gloved fingers, William just shook his sword once, and it became as good as new. But just as they were returning, something amazing happened. All the dead ants which hadn¡¯t evaporated form the explosion, started breaking into multiple dot of lights. The dots flew into the air like fireflies, before disappearing into thin air. Everyone was left looked tongue tied by the display. Well, everyone except Martha, who enjoyed the spectacle. ¡°So pretty!!¡± she murmured. But others were too busy in connecting the dots and looking at each other with their eyes wide open. ¡°Dungeon?¡± Dust spoke first, followed by William, ¡°Maybe?¡± and Daniel just nodded his head while Bill mumbled, ¡°Looks like we can kill the queen.¡± And his statement jollified the mood even more. ¡°Ha-ha¡­ Well, we¡¯ll know when we see the core, but until then let¡¯s just enjoy hunting.¡± But Martha interrupted Daniel by pulling him arm before hurriedly asking, ¡°Danny! Martha doesn¡¯t know what a dungeon is. Can you tell Martha what a dungeon is?¡± William looked at her jumping around like a kitten and spoke, ¡°Martha¡­¡± Who replied with, ¡°Yes?¡± opening her eyes wide open, bobbing her head up and down. But William did not get taken in by her cuteness, and simply gave her- her next task. ¡°Conjure another, no at least three more of those light balls.¡± He then, looked at the others and ordered, ¡°We are moving.¡± ¡°But dungeon??¡± Martha pinched Daniel¡¯s arm, who replied saying, ¡°Afterwards.¡± ¡°Okay. Martha will do what the bad man says.¡± She said, her lips quivering. And Daniel smacked her head with the flat side of his sword. After half a minute three more of those light balls emerged behind them, as Dust tried to help the pouting bunny. Moving forward they were again greeted by a tunnel. They saw egg shells stacked together by the side. But what really surprised them wasn¡¯t there presence, as they had already met with their owners, but the sheer number of them. Because in the twenty meters they had travelled, they saw no less than three hundred egg shells, and the number was rising with each step they took. ¡°Careful! I sense of a lot of life signals up ahead!¡± Dust spoke as she kept taking glances at the captain. ¡®Why can¡¯t I sense him? Is the hero class really that strong?¡¯ she thought because this was the second time she was using her skill [Life detection], and the second time she had failed to sense William. The tunnel ended without any conflict and another room stood in front of them. Daniel was about to step inside, when William stopped him. ¡°Stop for now. Martha¡­¡± she looked at him while still pouting, ¡°can you send one of those light balls inside the room?¡± he pointed to the room. ¡°Huh, who does he think Martha is? Does he think Martha can¡¯t even do that? Idiot leader.¡± she mumbled while looking at the light ball, and then pointed her finger to the front toward the room. ¡°Shuu, go there and do a boom.¡± And as if the light ball was her pet, it heeded her command, and silently went inside the room. *Boom* It exploded and a huge amount of fire once again singed William, Who just puffed a smoke cloud out of frustration. ¡°So?¡± he asked Dust to once again use her skill, and see if there were any ants left inside and she gave a thumbs up, but just a second later her face paled, and she started back stepping. ¡°They are coming! A whole lot of them are coming!¡± And she created a make shift wall of dirt; A barrier to stop the ants from entering the tunnel. ¡°What happened? That explosion didn¡¯t kill them?¡± Bill asked, as he tried to take shots from the widows in the barrier created by Dust. ¡°Don¡¯t know, but these feel a little different from before.¡± Dust answered as she poured even more mana into the wall to strengthen it. The wall held on and didn¡¯t let a single ant to come out of the room, but just as they sighed and took their breaths of relief, sand started falling from one corner of the wall. ¡°Huh? What is that?¡± Martha pointed at the corner, but before anyone could react, the same phenomenon started occurring all over the wall. ¡°Shit they are drilling through!!¡± Daniel yelled and pushed his shield onto the wall, trying to do a fusion, but a wave of mana pushed him back instead. He tried it once again, but with no result. ¡°Damn it¡­!¡± he yelled and Dust warned everyone, ¡°Get ready! They are here!!¡± Then abusing her mana to the limit, she blasted the wall away to force the ants back, which was followed by the assassin once again running out of the group and diving into the ants. The number of ants was similar to the amount in the previous room, but they were more concentrated than before. Daniel stood at the front as his shield glowed bright white, and a [Mana shield] extended from his own shield. It stopped the ants from overrunning them, but then he noticed something and stood up. He walked forward and the ants got pushed back with him. ¡°Tsk!¡± Disappointed by his own cowardliness, he used bash and minced all the ants into paste within five seconds. He looked at Enco who was once again returning after fighting the ants alone, and understood why he was so eager to go fight in their midst. ¡°You should have said something!¡± he said to Enco who said something using sign language which he didn¡¯t understand. ¡°He says there was no time, and I can¡¯t speak, so I¡¯m sorry.¡± Martha translated for him. She noticed everyone looking at her and swayed her hand left and right, ¡°Don¡¯t look at Martha like that! Martha is a shy girl you know!¡± And once again the ants disappeared midst light dots. ¡°But if this is a dungeon, then why aren¡¯t we getting anything from them? I mean I didn¡¯t even get any experience from them at all. Not even .001%?¡± Daniel asked the others scratching his head. ¡°Maybe these are common ants?¡± ¡°Who knows? I hope we¡¯ll at least get something from the queen?¡± Bill commented. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go. We still have a long way ahead of us.¡± Then travelling through another tunnel, they once again stood in front of a room, but this time they didn¡¯t stop or waste Martha¡¯s mana by making her explode that ball. They knew after all that a single Daniel was enough to destroy all the ants. But following the light ball, when Daniel entered the room, he was left scratching his head, because forget ants the room was totally empty. There were no ants, but he did see a slope descending downwards. ¡®Probably towards the second floor.¡¯ He thought. The others followed him inside, and also didn¡¯t find anything. ¡°Let¡¯s just go down. Who know how many floors this dungeon has?¡± Bill commented, but instead of reprehending him, the others decided to just rush to the second floor. They moved leaving him standing there. He shook his head and followed behind them, but just as he was about to get out of the room, the ground beneath his foot trembled. Daniel looked back, and moved to push Bill out of danger, but before he could do so, a ridiculously big ant head came out of the ground and *Snap* ¡°Ahhh..!!!¡± It went back inside the hole it had come from after cutting bills foot. ¡°My foot!! My foot!!¡± Bill screamed, as Daniel dragged him away from the room, yelling, ¡°What the fuck was that?¡± ¡°Danny, it¡¯s coming up from right underneath you!!¡± Dust yelled at him telling him that he was in danger. Daniel pushed Bill away, and rolled backward, as a 4¡¯3¡± tall and even longer ant came flying out of the ground. It made *tick*tick* noise as his eyes met with Daniel¡¯s, who was already in the motion of swinging his sword at its soft bottom. *Roar* The ant screamed as the sword left a long cut before parting from its body. It fell onto the ground and tried to dig, but Enco appeared directly over the ants head and pierced his dagger into his head. The ant didn¡¯t even get enough time to screech, and its head got chopped off from its neck. Like the other ants, it also turned into a series of light dots. By the time the ant died Daniel had made Bill drink a health potion, which stabilized his dropping health and made Martha char his wound. ¡°Ahh, ahh, ahhh¡­ this is fucking crazy!!¡± only the sound of bill crying rang inside the room, while Daniel grunted, trying to hold him still, so that he wouldn¡¯t end up worsening his wound. ¡°Shut up and hold on for a minute. The pain will pass.¡± Dust slapped bill and preached. They stayed in the room for half an hour and waited for his condition to stabilize, while the other looked at him. No one said anything about his injured foot, but Bill saw concern in their eyes. Grunting he stood up using his bow as support, and spoke, ¡°If I leave now, I won¡¯t be able to payback my due and then the loan sharks will kill me. So this is the only way for me to stay alive. Understand me, if I leave now then I will die outside. I have no choice; the loan my previous party took to buy provisions is now on my head, so please understand.¡± Daniel was going to say something, but then William walked up to Bill and patted his shoulder, ¡°Sure, you need our help right now. so we will help you. Why won¡¯t we. We are a team after all. Let¡¯s go¡­ I¡¯ll take care of you.¡± ¡°Thank you boss.¡± Bill smiled hearing William say that, and the others nodded their heads. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. Okay let¡¯s see what the second floor has in store for us.¡± William replied and turned around. His face warped and a cynical smile appeared on his face. He gritted his teeth to stop his smile, and descended down the slope. Ch -15 Rocky and Minnie decided to use the first floor to test their human invaders. To see what kind of skills they had, and how strong they were in general. The traps started from the very first room. First room was made to check out the how flexible those humans were. At first Rocky thought of using the worker ants, but then they unanimously decided to only use those Chucha (small) ants. The plan was ingenious and Minnie praised Rocky to the end for coming out with it. The result: Fire mage alone ended the fight. In the second room they tried to figure out how the humans would handle pressure. And the room proved that every individual human had their own set of skills to counter the enemies, and even protect themselves. From second room the pair understood that the humans weren¡¯t an adversary which the little ants could handle. The trap continued with the third room, where they ambushed the humans using a worker ant. The trap although succeeded in action, ultimately failed in the execution. Because Minnie wanted to ambush the fire mage, even though she knew the chances of which happening were low, but she did it anyway. But the ant in question couldn¡¯t react properly, and missed its chance. The owners had to make do with a foot from the useless Archer, who was the weakest of the bunch. While Minnie sulked behind him, Rocky saw the worker ant being killed and disappearing into the void, but after leaving behind a part of its exoskeleton. His brows furrowed, he couldn¡¯t understand at first what kind of a phenomenon it was, but then he remembered the humans talking about the dungeon monsters leaving behind stuff after their death, he understood that it was probably a function of the monsters. He asked Minnie what that was all about, and she replied saying, ¡°Like I told you before. Humans enter a dungeon for two reasons. First, is to gain experience and grow strong. Second are the objects or resources¡­¡± She pointed at the ants drop in the human hand, ¡°that a dungeon monster drops on its death.¡± She then told him that every summoned monster had a chance to drop a part of their body set as a default drop, unless they changed it with materials, wealth and other things. ¡°Their desire to get strong is understandable. Even I want to get strong enough to get over them, but I just don¡¯t get their reason to fight to get those monster drops. I don¡¯t think they are fools, so why, why do they do that? That is something I don¡¯t understand.¡± Minnie heard him and nodded her head. ¡°You are right.¡± She said. ¡°Just like you said, why fight dangerous monsters and play the game of death. Its lie they are foolish not so intelligent being, but it is not like that either.¡± ¡°So what is it? What¡¯s the reason?¡± ¡°It is simple. Humans are greedy beings. It¡¯s their nature. Like how a wild animal has instincts, it¡¯s their nature to greed for everything that¡¯s not theirs. Their greed is also the reason why they let a dungeon, which houses multitude of dangerous monsters to prosper.¡± Minnie preached. ¡°So, if a dungeon doesn¡¯t harm humans, then they won¡¯t have a reason to hurt that dungeon, right?¡±Rocky asked in anticipation pointing at himself. But Minnie reprimanded him saying, ¡°That¡¯s na?ve of you. The humans are greedy and are also cowards. There is no way they will let anyone with a chance to gain superiority over them to live long. They don¡¯t even care about their own fellow humans. Let¡¯s not even talk about their behavior with other species, and especially with a special entity like you.¡± Rocky gulped once and looked at the humans below him, as the worry regarding his future crept up his spine. ¡°So, what do they do with the monster drops? They don¡¯t eat it right?¡± he asked hearing which Minnie chocked on her own saliva. *Cough!*Cough!*Cough!* She wanted to retort, but seeing Rockies clueless face, she decided to just explain it to him, ¡°You know how strong that chitin is right?¡± Rocky nodded his head. ¡°Good. Now, you see the workers chitin is strong enough on its own, but what if the humans wore it.¡± Rocky furrowed his brows and frowned a little. ¡°They can?¡± he asked. ¡°Ho ho, not directly¡­¡± Rocky took a breath of relief hearing that, but then froze when Minnie said, ¡°but they can process the chitin, remove the impurities, improve its weakness, then add some metal into it, and a little hammering would let them shape the ants exoskeleton into a armor that won¡¯t even break after taking the attack from a soldier ant.¡± She saw him looking at her with sparkling eyes and felt flabbergasted. She asked him, what he was thinking, and Rockies answer opened a new line of monster for the dungeon. ¡°What do I think? I think the humans are geniuses. Who could have thought that such a crude thing could be used in such an exquisite way?¡± Minnie scratched her cheek adoring a confused smile on her face. ¡°Well, it¡¯s good that you understand.¡± She wanted to tell him more things, but got interrupted by Rocky who asked her, ¡°So Minnie, can we make armor for our ants?¡±
Meanwhile the humans descended the slope to the second floor after having conquered the first floor, after much, but not a lot of difficulties. Daniel explained to Martha what a dungeon, while Dust and Bill talked about the ant that had taken Bill¡¯s foot off. Thanks to Dusts Earth magic, Bill gained himself a new and solid sand foot, and his balance skill helped him in walking, but he ultimately lost his combat mobility. Their discussion about the ant did reach William, but he just brushed it off saying there was no need to worry because of those pitiful things. Reaching the second floor another tunnel welcomed them, but with an even tighter and narrow opening. Their conversations and descriptions were going on and on when their leader interjected between them, and stopped their untimely girls talk. ¡°Stop wasting time. We get it, the pit is frustrating, and the tunnel is scary, but we need to move now. We have already wasted a lot of our time. The more time we waste the lesser become the value of our reward, and also who knows when something might come to attack us. I don¡¯t want anything to attack me while I¡¯m crawling inside this shitty hole.¡± ¡°Yes sir you are right. Let¡¯s move now, while our surroundings are still calm.¡±Daniel pointed forward, suggesting everyone to hurry. ¡°UUU, Martha doesn¡¯t want to crawl. Should Martha destroy the wall?¡± But William wasted no time in refusing her suggestion. ¡°No time. Anyone else? No, then Knight get in the front and start crawling, I¡¯ll follow you. The archer and assassin will crawl behind me, followed by the mages. No questions allowed, it¡¯s is for the safety of, everyone else¡¯s and also mine.¡± He said. They crawled and crawled and crawled, but nothing happened. The Knight crawling at front had his shield up in front of him, while the others behind him had their faces down. The knight was really stressed, he had been crawling expecting one or more monsters to jump come out of blue to attack them, but so far everything had remained calm. And they once again reached the opening to a room. With Martha¡¯s [light balls] hanging over their heads, they could clearly see a lot of those small ants standing there alone in the room, looking at the tunnel. Daniel smirked, and was about to move out, when he felt a hand creeping over to his shoulder. He flinched as it touched him, but the voice which came after it made him calm down. ¡°Don¡¯t. There might be another one of those big ants hiding in the ground.¡± William advised Daniel and then turned his head around. ¡°Dust, do you have enough mana to cast another one of those sensing skill of yours?¡± And she nodded her head before closing her eyes. Half a minute later she opened her eyes and told them that like William had thought, there was a life signal coming from underneath the ground. William asked her to find how deep the core was, but Dust shook her head saying the skill was still in the beginner realm and had a reach of only ten meters. William told Martha to do her thing, and blow those little ants. To which she happily complied. Martha at first was going to once again send one of those light balls hovering behind them, but then changed her mind, and started preparing a small fireball the size of a fist over her palm. She continued pouring more and more mana into it, but unlike concentrating and controlling it like she did with the [light ball], she let the mana rampage inside it instead. The fireball gradually lost it spherical shape as she poured gradually poured mana into it, and changed into a protruding, spiky amoeba. Thought its size never changed, but the glow it radiated grew to frightening degrees. The light it created was enough to see how tired everyone was after crawling for 20 something minutes inside the narrow and dark tunnel. ¡°Martha is sending the package.¡± Martha said when she became content with her fireball and everyone hurriedly got low on the ground. Then she sent it flying into the room. The fireball buzzed away, flying closely from the swordsman¡¯s face and past Daniels shield, who quickly straightened it and used his [Mana shield] to cover the tunnel hole. Everyone waited, but no explosion occurred. The all looked at Martha who simply pointed in front of her; and just as she did, the ants cry rang out. The collective sound the ants created was so loud that even the wails of a ghost would seem nothing in front of it. When everyone looked in the room through the visible section of Daniels shield, they saw the fireball finally giving up, and raining fire upon the ants. Five seconds after the fireball broke down, the ants were burned, and they disappeared without leaving behind even ash. Actually, fireball she created was in no way a good spell. The amount of mana that she had used would have made it explode from going out of control a long time ago, if it wasn¡¯t for her mastery in Fire control and Manipulation. Because of her control in Fire, she was able to make the fireball hold on until it reached the center of the room and then she specifically leaked all the mana inside it in the form of fire. Seeing that the Earth mage ¡®Dust¡¯ who was behind her couldn¡¯t help but utter, ¡°What kind of a skill was that?¡± To her muttering, Martha replied saying it was a skill she had gained a long time ago, playing with the fireballs as a kid, which astonished the others. ¡°But why isn¡¯t the fire extinguishing? Why is it still burning?¡± ¡°Oh! Martha put a lot of my mana in it you know. Martha made sure to program it to use mana as fuel, so the fire will keep on burning until the fuel lasts. With the amount of mana that Martha poured inside it, it is probably going to burn for 3-4 minutes top.¡± She felt butterflies in her stomach, praising herself. So, she giggled a bit while replying to Dust.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Then suddenly the ant underground came to the surface screeching as if it was hurt. Its exoskeleton was bubbling and losing its shape. The others understood that the fire was probably more dangerous than it looked. They waited for the fire to burn out and the room to cool down before entering the room. ¡°Good job kid, Good job. Everyone let¡¯s move out and see what kind of an ant it is.¡± William spoke as he pushed Daniel into the room. Daniel parried the ant that was running amok trying to cool it sizzling Exoskeleton. The others didn¡¯t have to do anything, because a casual shield bash from Daniel on the ants head broke its neck, and made it disappear into dot of lights. ¡°Oh!!¡± Martha again got lost in the spectacle of flying dots, while the others felt disappointed because the ant didn¡¯t leave behind anything. ¡°Okay, nothing to see here, let¡¯s move out.¡± William walked to the next tunnel, but then stopped seeing there were two of them. The discussion about which tunnel to chose didn¡¯t last long. Though the thought to divide the party into two groups did show its presence, curtsey of Mr. Bill, but they simply brushed it off saying there was no need, and entered the tunnel on the left. Which unfortunately ended opened into a dead end, and made them waste fifteen minutes. They didn¡¯t find any ants inside either. Gritting their teeth, they wasted another fifteen minutes to travel back, and finally entering the tunnel on the left. Though they once again didn¡¯t meet any monsters inside the tunnel, they did find the opening which brought them to another room. Which following the routine had three tunnels. They looked at the ever increasing number of tunnels with twitching faces, and William shook his head. They decided to not be stubborn and divided the party into three teams. But then Daniel placed the topic of traps in front of the party. ¡°What about traps then? I know myself and I can¡¯t distinguish between a trap and normal floor at all. And the way the ants are becoming¡­ Stronger.¡± And everyone looked at him like they were looking at a clown. ¡°What don¡¯t look at me like that? Though I have to say the ant¡¯s are pathetic for our levels or skills,¡± He glanced a Martha before continuing, ¡°But what about those who do a dungeon solo? Or those whose levels are not enough. Don¡¯t forget I am a ranker and there is a huge difference between a ranker and a leveler.¡± Bill nodded his head, thinking about the meager contribution he had made. ¡°So what do are you trying to say.¡± ¡°I am saying that there is a chance, though slight, for there being traps inside one of the rooms. I am just saying that we need to think about all the dangers. I don¡¯t want to risk my life or risk getting an injury, which otherwise could have been easily avoided.¡± He made his point and stepped back. Then the group once again discussed between them how to go about it. Then decided to make the teams around Enco and Dust the only two fit members who could discover traps, and then there was Bill. Who could also discover traps, not actually like how an assassin could, but his Eagle Eye skill could find the discrepancy. So, minding about the traps and what not, the teams were divided as following. Enco with Martha, Dust with Daniel, and Bill with William. Because only William was strong enough to take care of Bill, if ants ever decided to once again ambush him. The groups then made a final check and went inside the tunnels.
Daniel looked at the back of William, who entered following Bill In the central tunnel. He smiled thinking that William, although acted hard on the outside, had a soft heat inside. William went inside the tunnel and Daniel¡¯s eyes met with Martha who showed him her tongue and winked, before she followed Enco. He smiled thinking about that other worldly beauty, but a sudden cough from Dust made his cheeks turn red. ¡°You coming?¡± She asked him, seemingly uninterested in his thoughts or his interactions with Martha. *Ahem* Clearing his throat, Daniel patiently walked inside his tunnel of choice, with Dust in the lead, and one of Martha¡¯s light balls following behind them. Because Dust was an Earth mage, and had the Earth Manipulation skill in the intermediate realm, it was easy for her to find things on the ground which weren¡¯t a part of nature; Like pits, Spikes, groves and any other odd shaped cavities and such. She did her best to find the traps, and after using a fifth of her mana by the time they reached the room at the end of the tunnel, they were completely sure that there were no traps installed on the floors in the dungeon. They both stopped just outside the room, and after Daniel completely blocked the path to the room with his Mana shield, Dust used her Life sense skill to check what was inside the room. ¡°There are only two life signs inside the room. One is on the roof directly over the door, and the other is waiting hidden in the ground.¡± ¡°Ah! What¡¯s with this dungeon, and its hidden ants? Are the monsters trying to be an assassin?!¡± ¡°Hu¡­ Dusts laughed, but quickly changed back to her usual cold and mean self. Daniel looked at her with shock, which made her look down at the ground. She changed the topic asking him what to do next, to which he replied saying, ¡°I¡¯ll handle the one on the roof. And you take care of the other one.¡± He grinned at her and started counting, ¡°Three, two and one. Let¡¯s go!!¡± Daniel used his shield to cover their heads from the ant on the roof. ¡°Jump!!¡± he heard and did a front flip as his armor rattled inside the empty cave. The ants attacked him, but his shield saved him from the above and his jump made him out of the other one. Making a safe landing he Looked behind and saw the ant on the roof crying in pain from having one of her pincers broken during its collision with his shield, and at the bottom was the head of the other ant which was struggling to get out of the ground, but was being successfully being held by Dust. His eyes met with Dust¡¯s, and he gestured at her to kill the thing. To which she reacted by sending stone projectiles hurling toward its head. Though bullets connected squarely with the targets head, they didn¡¯t do anything more than to make the ant shake its head vigorously. Her cheeks turning red, a long thin spike emerged from the roof and entered the ant¡¯s eye. *Screech* The ant shook in pain, but then suddenly with Dust saying [Hedgehog] thin needles grew all over the spike, and made the ant quite. ¡°Ouch!¡± Daniel made a pained expression, and prayed for the ant. Watching its partner getting killed so easily, the other ant shook its head like an angry bull. Then it jumped toward Daniel with its Mandible glowing white and eyes calling death. But Daniel just smirked. Using his shield as a glove, he hooked the ant right on its jaw, and on contact activated Shield Bash. *Fuu* *Boom* The ant flew through the air like a rag doll, and directly collided with the wall on his right side. It fell down, struggled and somehow stood back up. Its legs shaking like a drunkard, but before it could walk a single step, Daniel who was waiting with his sword charged with mana, threw the sword at it. The ant was still staggering, probably at its last breath, when the sword pierced its head, and made the ant fly. The sword carried the ant with it, and got logged into the wall behind the ant. And the ant hung from it. Daniel looked at Dust, who had finally entered the room and smiled, then nudged his head toward the ant and slowly walked to it. He reached the ant and looked into its eye, as its bottom half started disappearing midst the light dots. The ant was jet black in Color, with wide black eyes. In terms of height, this ant was almost reaching his navel. Now compare that with his almost seven foot tall reach, and you get a five foot tall ant. It was almost the same height of the mage, who was staring at it with her perfectly round eyes. Its legs were pointed, like spear, and had small hairs on them. But its most dangerous looking weapons were not its legs or Antennas, but its head and its mandibles. The head appeared disproportioned according to its body size. It alone was a meter long, and equally wide. The mandibles were really big, and looked even more menacing up close. They looked ready to snap away others necks. Having seen what he wanted to see, Daniel held the sword handle which was sticking out of the ants forehead, and slowly pulled it out. Which accelerated the ants demise and it turned into dots of light, leaving behind an artifact in the shape of its face. Dust checked whether the ant that she killed gave her anything, but disappointingly stood back up and walked to where Daniel was. She saw him holding a mask in the shape of the ants face, with its mandibles and eyes attached, and squinted. Daniel saw her coming toward her, and presented the mask to her. She was going to wear it, but then heard Daniel calling her, and started walking into the next tunnel. They walked for another fifty meters, and came across another room. Dust used her skill, but instead of telling Daniel the situation, she simply walked inside the room. Daniel frowned, but the followed her inside, and saw Enco and Martha waiting for them inside. He saw Martha looking as happy as ever and shook his head, but then heard footsteps of someone running, and saw Martha coming towards him. Martha stopped a meter away from him, but before he could say anything she killed him saying, ¡°Oh Tin man you are back! Martha thought you died somewhere in the tunnels!¡± But Daniel saw something, a glint in her eyes; some wetness, which gave him a different emotion from her, than what her words transferred. For him, all of the conflicts and turn of events that they were facing held no importance. And everything that had happened from start was nothing, but a source of mild amusement. But this girl, this madly beautiful, but psychotic girl felt like an escape to him. A change in his otherwise pathetic life, that he had been looking all his life for. And for some reason she had walked toward him on her own. A smile formed on his face, as he patted her head and played with her hair, before asking about her journey through the tunnels. Martha got stunned at his action, but didn¡¯t otherwise stop him and replied, ¡°We encountered no traps, but two ants in the tunnel and two big ones in the rooms. The ones in the room were big and strong. They scared Martha a lot. Even Martha¡¯s fireball couldn¡¯t hurt them, so Martha obliterated them with [light balls] instead. Martha said ¡®~Phew-Phew~¡¯ when they died, but slender man looked at me angrily because he didn¡¯t get to kill any ants.¡± She spoke pointing at Enco, who visually shivered hearing her call him slender man. Even Dust smirked hearing that. Daniel hurriedly asked her if the ants dropped anything, but she only moved her head left to right, and kicked the ground while pouting. ¡®So not all monsters drop something huh¡¯ he thought. But Martha started jumping around Daniel asking, ¡°You got something!! Right, right? Show Martha! Show Martha!!¡± Dust felt a headache coming toward her, so she quickly recovered the ant mask from her pouch and gave it to Martha. Dust waited in anticipation of Martha yelling, ¡®Oh it¡¯s so dirty!¡¯ or something like that, but instead she heard her yelling in amusement. She looked at Martha and saw her wearing the ant mask on her face and yelling, ¡°Oh, so many lights!! Martha loves it!!! Oh, Oh, even that tsundre is a light ball. Haaha this is so funny. Oh thank god slender man is not here anymore. Ah! Tin man is so blinding, my eyes hurt!¡± Then Martha removed the mask from her head and sat on the ground with her head in her hands repeating ¡®Ite, ite, ite!! Dust picked up the mask with a frowning face and felling repulsive and oddly irritated she put it on. And her world changed. The whole cave lit up in multiple dots of lights. Even the walls glowed with a soft brightness. She looked down to see Martha and saw a deep red ball instead, looking at Daniel she saw a white ball radiating soothing and warm light. She was going to see what Enco looked through the mask, but then a commotion occurred in the middle tunnel. She saw a dark ball stumbling out from the middle cave. Hurriedly removing the mask, she saw William coming out of the tunnel, battered and wounded. They all moved at once when, and hurriedly closed the gap between them and the shadow. But when they got closer to it, what they saw left them horrified. Their captain, who they thought to be the most powerful of them, was stumbling around everywhere like a drunkard, but the difference being he was completely drenched in blood instead of alcohol. His clothes were ripped apart and his upper torso armor was almost nonexistent. Entering the room, William saw his team mates running towards him. He smiled, but then fell on the ground with a thud. Sir! Leader! Their cries, which were enough to engulf the whole cave, rang out inside the room. William who was still conscious, even after all that he had gone through, shoved his head up and saw his team mates worrying for him. He couldn¡¯t help but will his body to move, which after some struggle did. Martha, who was already near him moved even more fiercely, she swiftly got behind his back and helped him sit down. He thanked her, and looked toward everyone who were standing beside him. ¡°What happened to you? Why are there so many scars all over your body? What the hell happened inside that tunnel?¡± Daniel couldn¡¯t suppress his fear and panicked. His voice started trembling. He removed his sack from his waist and pulled a red bottle out of it, before he simmered most of its content on James body, and gave him another to drink, which he unconditionally accepted and drank. ¡°We were ambushed.¡± William said while drinking the content of the bottle. ¡°When we entered the tunnel, we saw that it was completely empty.¡± saying that he moved his sight to look at the roof, ¡°But who knew that they would be waiting for us in the open space. Because we were too careless, we left the tunnel and entered the room, without checking for monsters, and just as we did, we saw how big a mistake we had made.¡± He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly. ¡°There were ants inside, so many of them that they were almost everywhere. They surrounded us from every side, and blocked the way in and out of the tunnel. We knew that to survive we had to fight, it was now or never, and we just did that.¡± His eyes turned bloodshot thinking about all that he had to endure to keep his life. Others were sure, instead of tears blood would start flowing from his eyes if he didn¡¯t calm down, but they couldn¡¯t stop him from expressing his grief, ¡°I killed some while protecting Bill, and he killed some while I protected him. Like that, we continued to kill the ants and when only five were left something happened. And only after fighting them for a long time, could I defeat them all.¡± he said looking at the ceiling. All of them were left flabbergasted. What happened inside the tunnel? They didn¡¯t know. They only knew that two people entered the tunnel and only one of them came out from it. ¡°Ah!¡± Daniel knew that William didn¡¯t go alone in the tunnel. Bill ¡®the archer¡¯ was also with him. He looked back toward the tunnel that he came out of, but didn¡¯t see anything else other than a trail of blood. He looked back at their leader and asked, ¡°Where is Bill?¡± William, who was still looking at the ceiling, didn¡¯t even turn his head to look at the Knight. With his face devoid of expressions, but with eyes full of grief he said, ¡°There was one ant which never came down from the roof when others did to start the hunt. It waited for the perfect opportunity, and just when I left Bill¡­ alone¡­ in a proper and secure place to deal with the remaining ants¡­. He got his neck snapped in two by it, and there he died fighting with the ants.¡± ¡°I¡­ I told him that I would protect him, but¡­ but I failed¡­ I¡¯m sorry. Bill is no more.¡± Ch - 16 Daniel and others rested for an hour, and after William¡¯s health returned back to its fullest, they decided it was time to move onwards. Though the death of Bill did leave a lot of suspicions in the hearts of Dust and Daniel, but they didn¡¯t let their trust in William dwindle. After all he didn¡¯t have a reason to kill Bill. Daniel looked toward Dust and saw her looking toward him, and both nodded their heads at each other. With Enco at the front followed by Daniel, and William walking between the girls the party with one less member descended down to the third floor of the dungeon. The tunnel following was long, not really long, but longer than the other tunnels that they had to travel through in the dungeon. They didn¡¯t know what could be waiting for them at the end other than a queen. Moreover the ambush of William had made them extra vigilant. But their vigilance only ended up being a determent for the state of their minds. The tunnel didn¡¯t connect with any rooms. It was just a straight pipe, but fortunately it was wide and tall enough for them to walk comfortably. ¡°Why is this tunnel so different?¡± Martha mumbled. ¡°Different? How do you mean?¡± Dust asked. ¡°Martha means, this tunnel, it is so large and wide? Isn¡¯t this strange?¡± Even Daniel joined them in their discussion. ¡°Yeah, this is confusing. What kind of an ant requires a 4 meter high tunnel to move around in?¡± Hearing that the others smiled wearily because comparing the size of the ants they had met on the upper floors to the outside one only one monster came to their minds. ¡°The queen!!¡± the three spoke spontaneously. William smirked and said, ¡°Haha, looks like this is the last floor.¡± They walked for another ten minutes and finally reached the end of the tunnel. The light Balls that Martha had created really did wonders. Her lips twitched a little when she thought about the amount of mana that she had to expend just to lighten the area around them, but it seemed like her preparation was wasted, because no one came to attack them. The light exited the tunnels and entered the room, and the spectacle made the shiver. The room was empty and not at the same time. There was nothing on the ceiling or in front of them. Dust estimated that the ceiling was probably twenty or so meters high and width of the room was even more than that. They continued to move forward, and the radiance from the balls also continued to reveal the room more and more. Then after walking some more steps they officially exited the tunnel and entered the room. ¡°Is this really the boss room?¡± ¡°Why is it so empty? Where are all the ants, and the army that you were talking about?¡± ¡°Do you think we are in the wrong place or there is no queen here?¡± Dust, Daniel and Martha talked with each other, while Enco and William remained silent. Another three meters and they saw a large amount of cracked and empty egg shells, by the time they crossed the six meter mark, there were no more empty shells on the ground, and instead live eggs laid everywhere. And they stopped. ¡°Aren¡¯t these¡­¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Daniel replied to Martha. ¡°So what now?¡± Dust asked looking at the light ball covering and reveling more and more of the egg infested ground. Daniel sighed and William for the first time in a while intervened their discussion. ¡°Martha how many light balls can you create?¡± To which she answered saying, ¡°Not many?¡± ¡°But if you want Martha to-do a big boom, then Martha has something else too.¡± ¡°No, I just want you to light this place on fire.¡± This excited Martha even more. ¡°Oh, oh, Martha has just the thing to make this place bright.¡± She started by creating a light ball and like poured enough mana inside it to make the skill go out of control. ¡°That looks dangerous.¡± Dust and Daniel started stepping away from her. ¡°Isn¡¯t this the same as¡­¡± But before dust could complete her sentence, the light ball deformed and changed into an amoeba. Then Martha threw it into the air and ran back. ¡°Come everyone!!! Don¡¯t stay so close to it!!¡± she laughed as she ran. The others didn¡¯t get much time after her warning, and just as they returned back to the tunnel, the room lit up. The amoeba ball broke down in thousands parts and flames fell from the roof like a meteor shower. *SCREECH!!* *ROAR* And as the fire rained down from the roof it made the room go ablaze. In the 25 meter long room, at least a diameter of 15meters was completely covered with eggs. There were eggs everywhere Martha tried to count them, but stopped after reaching hundred. The fires rain, destroyed a lot of the eggs, but the amount left still scared them. Then their eyes met with the queen, which stood at the center of the circle of eggs. Not only did their eyes bulged out and dropped on the floor, but their jaws also opened wide enough to touch the ground. ¡°That is no ant! How can an ant be so fucking huge? Is this a trick? What the hell is going on?¡± No one answered Daniel. They were too mesmerized looking at the queen. When all of them were still trying to figure out what the hell they were looking at their leader spoke, ¡°Daniel where the fuck are you running to? Come here to the front and don¡¯t you fucking retreat again!¡± Daniel wanted to run away, and he really had almost gotten away, but he also knew that there was no way he would be able to escape the fight and leave the others behind to save his life. Because he still would have to report to the guild, and he knew that at that place none of his lies would matter. So he did, what was asked of him, and went to the front line with his shield in front of him. ¡°Dust and Martha, you both handle the little ants. We will distract the queen until then. Okay?¡± Dust nodded her head and told Martha what to do, who shook her hands excitedly. But the queen had plans of her own. She didn¡¯t let them do what they wanted and just as Dust moved, she moved too. The speed at which the queen moved wasn¡¯t very fast, but she only had to cover the distance between them, and not run a marathon. She was agile, mean and vicious. Her eight legs blurring, Daniel only saw a black shadow moving toward him, and before he could create his mana shield, its head collided directly with him and made him fly. Fortunately he was able to get his shield between the head and his body, which saved his life, otherwise the strength with which he was flung, was enough to make paste of him. Its head stuck his shied, his shield got pressed on to his body, and his body fell through the air, before it collided with the ground with a bang. The impact was a vicious one. The sound which came from his collision easily explained his situation to the others. The queen rushed past Enco and William as a wave of little ants came to overwhelm them. It reached Dust in two seconds, and struck with its front leg. Dust only saw a huge and thick pole like spear moving towards her at a speed that she as a mage wasn¡¯t made to react too. The leg ripped apart the sand wall that she had only just started to create, and was just about to get her, when Martha pushed her away, but ended up getting touched by its leg on her shoulder. ¡°Ahhh!!¡± she cried out, as the leg gave her a superficial wound. ¡°GOD DAMMIT!!¡± William shouted, but then Enco attacked the queen from its back. The queen turned sharply, and Enco disappeared from his place. He appeared from Martha¡¯s shadow, and was just about to help her, when he saw a leg attacking him directly at his head. The queen actually nimbly moved her body to once again face the mage and the newest arrival. Her legs creating after images, she pounded on the assassin with all of her power. But the assassin actually fared well against the coming attacks. He was easily able to evade all of them, but Martha was having a lot of difficulties. Because she was not a fighter, and a mage, no matter how much she tried, she wasn¡¯t able to Evade the attacks like the assassin. So, she used a highly condensed ball of fire as a barrier to absorb the queens attacks, but even that had a limit. Queen slapped the fire shield from both side without giving Martha much time to breathe. The make shift barrier of hers wasn¡¯t easy to hold either. Her mana drained with every second, and her injuries increased every time queen¡¯s legs struck the shield. The series of being slapped and being flung reached the count of fifteen, but it was stopped by Dust who made a spike to emerge from the ground and mercilessly stab at the queens¡¯ leg which was in the motion of slapping Martha¡¯s shield. The spike failed to pierce the ant queen¡¯s leg, but it interrupted her attack and Martha fell downIf you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Seeing the chance, Enco moved and firmly caught Martha between his hands. The fire shield Martha was using had already cooled down and didn¡¯t hurt Enco. He quickly backed far away, and stopped only when he was near Dust. They smiled when they saw each other looking so beat down just after the initial barrage of her attacks. ¡°It is more difficult than we thought it would be.¡± They thought that the queen would follow them to attack, but that didn¡¯t happen, and instead it shrieked. Following which the eggs near them started cracking. *Tick*crack*Tick* With every second ants in the tens started coming out of the eggs. The ants came from the front like a wave and tried to drown the trio, but Dusts sand wall held the ants out, and Martha made burritos of them. The queen sent the little ants to attack them, and even made snack out of some of them. ¡°What kind of a queen is this?¡± Dust scoffed. But the queen visibly regained her stamina by eating her kids. No one had the liberty to take part in this debate about the queen¡¯s debauchery, because she was coming. The queen didn¡¯t even look at William who was standing at the side, and pounced at them. Martha got tensed and fired numerous fireballs at the queen. Daniel reacted and started charging his sword with mana and got ready to fire his skill [Cross slash] at her. But Dust left them behind in dust, and before anyone¡¯s attack could land a blow on the queen, a very heavy and thick pointed spear of sand, zoomed past everyone and landed squarely on the queen¡¯s chest. *Roar* The queen roared in pain, and the room shook with her rocking emotions, as the sand spear pushed the queen back with its momentum. But although the spear got embedded deep in its chest, it ultimately failed to kill her and angered her instead. Daniel Checked Dusts condition and found out that she wasn¡¯t fairing well at all. ¡°What happened did you use too much of your mana?¡± He asked ¡°Yeah, it took¡­ too much time¡­ to create and depleted a lot of my¡­ mana, but it worked right?¡± she tilted her neck to look at the queen behind Daniel, and saw her wound closing as she ate the eggs around her one by one. Dust tensed watching the monster eat her kin, but just then the fireballs Martha had sent reached the queen, and exploded on her body. *Booom* The explosions destroyed the ground beneath the queen and created holes in her exoskeleton, as a pillar of fire rose atop her, and touched the roof. The blast wave from the explosion left deep trenches in the ground, and travelled towards Daniel and the other in anger. Dust looked at the upcoming storm with fearful eyes, and just as it was about to hit them, Daniel shouted, ¡°Iron cage!!¡± Following his voice, his shield shined in blinding light and in a second, a cage of blue light enveloped them all. The shockwave collided with the cage and made it to vibrate, but otherwise didn¡¯t left much of an impact on the skill. Daniel hurriedly canceled the skill, as the wave went past them, and drank a mana potion. The girls wanted to thank him, but their happiness didn¡¯t last long, as a silhouette emerged from the firestorm. Dusts spear had turned to dust from the onslaught of Martha¡¯s fireballs and the hole left behind by it closed completely, as the queen ate last of the eggs. Even the superficial burns from Martha¡¯s normal fireballs healed with her chest wound. The queen then without wasting time started charging mana inside her mouth, which gave birth to uncertainty inside their hearts. Daniel understanding what the queen wanted to do, asked the others to scatter, but Dust stopped them and told them that if the queen¡¯s next attack was an AOE skill, then scattering would only lead to them getting severely injured. The other option they had was to interrupt the queen before she could finish charging mana, but it was already too late for that. One she was too far away, and they also didn¡¯t know what kind of an attack it would be, and second fire from Martha¡¯s fireballs was still burning. So they ultimately just decided to defend against it. Dust quickly used her leftover mana and created an [Earthen wall] in front of them, hoping that whatever that monster was trying to do would be stopped by it. Martha on the other hand saw the queen smirking and felt an ominous feeling. ¡°Guys!!¡± She said, but before she could complete her sentence, the atmosphere in the cave got heavy and the zing coming from the queen stopped. Due looked past the earth wall to see the reason for the sudden silence. He saw queen eating the condensed mana, lifting her mouth to face the ceiling, as she took a huge breath. Then his eyes met with the queen and he yelled, ¡°Incoming!!¡± And at the same moment a beam of highly condensed fire left the queen¡¯s mouth with a bang and it reached them in the next second. *Boom* It struck the [Earth wall], their first and only line of defense, and just the impact alone drilled a two meter deep hole in it. The wall started trembling in the next second, and Dust started moaning from pain, as a drop of blood came out of her nose. Daniel watched the wall crumbling, and decided to try the shield fusion once again. He stood up and slammed his shield on the wall, and activated his skill [Mana Shield], as the wall almost broke from the impact. Martha screamed as she saw him try to do something to the wall. ¡°Hey! What are you doing? Stop it!!¡± she said, but then stopped when she saw the wall glowing with a pale blue light, and the wall itself started changing. Firstly the wall shrank, which increased Daniels heart rate then it engulfed his shield. The next change came suddenly as the whole wall solidified and became circular. Dust felt the stress on her mana decrease and took a breath of relief. She looked up to see what was happening, and saw her Earth wall having become round like a shield and glowing with blue light, as Daniel alone held it in place against the beam. Daniel smiled happily when his fusion with the wall succeeded, but then the ant upped the rate and intensity of her Beam. As a result, a ball of mana travelled up the beam and viciously struck the shield. *Boom* The impact cracked the newly created fused shield and made blood rush to Daniels mouth, as the force pushed him into the ground. He swallowed the blood, and furiously slammed his sword in the ground to get an anchor, and not just fly way from the impact. The beam of fire continued for half a minute before it finally ended. Daniel snorted as the beam stopped, and the great Earth shield crumbled into dots of light. His bloody and torn arm couldn¡¯t support his shield and it fell to the ground. Daniel peacefully lied there, Dust was on the verge of losing conscious, and Martha was too scared to do anything. The assassin sat behind them, completely unharmed, and their captain was nowhere to be seen. Dust lifted her head to see, why the queen was not doing a follow up attack on them, and saw her guzzling fireballs on the opposite side. But because of all the dust scattered in the air, she couldn¡¯t see anything properly. She sighed, but then remembered that the ant mask from before could work even in bad conditions, and recovered it from her pouch. She sighed and wore the mask, looked at the queen and saw her fighting with a black radiating ball. Remembering that it belonged to their captain, she took a breath of relief. She looked at Martha and Daniel noticed that noticed that the light balls indicating their identities had gotten to the size of a small bean. She looked back with the intention to glare at the assassin who had done nothing noteworthy so far, but saw that there was no on there. Her brows furrowed, she removed the mask and saw that Enco was sitting right behind her, with his eyes closed. It confused her, but she let him be and turned back to watch the queen. But then William or the black ball of light did something outrageous, and started running toward them with the queen on his back. "Oh my Fucking god!! The fuck is he doing??" she cried out. Well, it was understandable. They were all expended after all, and held no chance to hurt or kill the queen. The queen was almost upon them, but then the dark ball running in front of the queen disappeared. With the mask on, dust clearly saw him vanishing into the queen¡¯s shadow formed from Martha¡¯s light balls. Which confused her, not the disappearance, but the skill used. Because according o hr understanding the only skill which used shadows as a mean was from the shadow category and the only person who could use it in their party was Enco who was sitting behind her, or maybe not. She wanted to tell the others about this oddity, but before she could do so, a dark hole opened from her shadow just below Enco. The dark ball came out of it and fused with Enco. She wasn¡¯t dumb and understood what was happening. But then Enco moved. He jumped up and unleashed a deadly attack directly onto Daniels neck, whose eyes were too focused on the rampaging giant moving towards them, and had no idea about everything that was happening behind him. Though Daniel in the end did notice a slight killing intent coming from behind him, but before he could understand anything, or even move his neck to see what was attacking him, something struck his left Side, and he body rolled on the ground, five meters away from his initial position. When he looked back to see what was actually happening, he saw that the place that he was laying at had a dagger stabbed deep into the ground. Right next to that place, there was a curved stone pillar that dust had probably erected to push him away. ¡®Huh? What happened?¡¯ It was normal for him to have such thoughts. Who would believe their eyes if they saw a person they trusted attacked them out of nowhere. But before he could do anything, Martha opened fire at him with fireballs. ¡°WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOOOP!¡± He cried out. Fearing for the future that was becoming non-existent with each passing second, as the fireballs silently flew toward him. He had lived his life on the spur of the moment, but had never regretted any of his decisions. He remembered the sword that his dad gave him as a present on his coming of age ceremony. The girl he used to adore. His mother whose tender and warm smile he could never forget, and his dead friend, whose shield he was still holding in the hand he had left it in. Emotions and feelings of having lived a short, but warm life started rushing to his heart, and filling his eyes with tears. He sobbed once, but then remembered the promise that he had made with his friend on his death bed. The ambitions his friend had passed onto him. His feelings erupted, and all the ideas of having lived a fulfilling life died. His mind that was reassuring him that it was okay to die wavered and life came back to his eyes. He glared at the balls of death coming to take his life and gritted his teeth. He tried to move his exhausted body, but nothing happened. He put even more effort and tried again, but other than vibrating somewhat, his body didn¡¯t move an inch, and just as all of his hope broke, the hundred of fireballs exploded near him and he died. Well, that¡¯s what he thought, but unfortunately he didn¡¯t die, or at least he hadn¡¯t died yet. Looking above him he saw a thin layer of yellow sand taking the brunt of Martha¡¯s fireballs. Noticing the cracks, he moved his trembling shield above him, and just as he did, the dome of sand broke and the fireballs fell upon him. *Boom*boom*boom*boom* The fireballs exploded, but his shield saved him. Being buried inside a ton of debris might have been the real reason, but who cared about the order. He was alive and that was all there was to it. He strained his neck and looked back to see where the real battle was happening, and saw Dust making spike attacks on the assassin, who was actually attacking her martyr style. Enco was attacking her using his clones. Not real ones, but an illusion of sorts. Dust on the other hand was creating obstacles in his path, and turning his clones into shadows by spiking them. Daniel understood that Enco being an assassin was probably trying to find a gap to go stealth mode. And to summarize it all, there was one unconscious Martha, one porcupine Dust and five running assassins trying to turn ¡®Dust¡¯ into dust and one him, who couldn¡¯t move. Ah! And a giant ant queen that was watching them from the stands. Then his sight fell on Dust¡¯s face and his expressions changed. ¡°Is she wearing the ant mask? But why is she attac...¡± But those things didn¡¯t matter because at the moment Dust slipped and successfully provided real Enco a chance. Dust failed to stop one of the clones which suddenly turning material, slashed his dagger and vanished after cutting open her stomach. ¡°Gwack.¡± She fell on the ground, as blood splashed and made a small puddle underneath her. Her face losing its color, her hair disheveled, her eyes losing sight. Her personality taking complete 180 degrees turn, she got angry. While Daniel came out of his trance, and hurriedly tried to open his sack and get a regeneration potion out of it. ¡°Why you fucking piece of shit? Why?... Tell me fucking why?¡± Dust cursed him, as the she tried to close her stomach wound with sand. But then Enco did something which made her even more furious. ¡°Ah hahaa. ¡± He laughed. ¡°Ha haahaa¡­ You little girl! what were you trying to achieve by interrupting me from killing that good for nothing Muscle headed brute?¡± Dust couldn¡¯t believe her ears. ¡°You can speak!¡± She glared at him without blinking till her eyes turned red. And to her anger filled questions Enco laughed again. He touched his temple and said, ¡°You all are fools. Who told you to believe an unknown stranger? It was a plan, everything that happened here was a plan constructed by me.¡± ¡°How could that be?¡± her eyes showing exactly, how much that one line had shook her. ¡°Don¡¯t believe me? Then maybe this will take care of most of your delusions.¡± Ch -17 After Minnie and rocky completed their ¡®How to armor an ant¡¯ guide, they once again gave all their attention to the humans. They watched humans crawling on their hands and shared a laugh, but the tension didn¡¯t decrease. Then the humans decided to be stubborn and not divide their party on encountering the two tunnels. It made rocky angry because he had to order the ants to leave the tunnels, but it eventually made them both snicker once again, as they saw the humans wasting their time, and turning back to go through the other tunnel. They had at first thought to simply save their ants and use them all once the humans reached the queen, but then they were provided a chance at the next room, when the humans decided to divide their party. They saw the five of them entering the tunnels in pairs of two and the mage girl going alone. When Rocky had created the tunnels, he had never once thought that the simple idea would give them an exciting chance in the future. ¡°This is a great chance Minnie! Let¡¯s ambush her with Ant soldiers. No matter how strong she is, she won¡¯t be able to handle two of them, right?¡± his confidence took a whole 180 degrees turn by the time he finished his sentence. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s send the workers too. Six of them working together, no let¡¯s make that four. We don¡¯t want the humans to know that the dungeon deliberately made preparations to attack a single human.¡± ¡°But won¡¯t that¡­¡± ¡°No, we don¡¯t want anyone else know that you can think.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± He shrugged, not understanding or even minding her intentions as he simply trusted her completely. Having known their strengths and knowing how overpowered they were, Minnie and Rocky made the decision to give up on harming all of them at once, and made sure to take care of the most damaging one of them, the fire mage. And distributing their ants according to the plan, they sent four ants, two worker and two soldier ants to ambush the Mage, and also sent the rest of the worker ants to fight the knight who had mercilessly squashed the little ants. Though the decision had come at a great expense, but they had still decided to simply give up on killing the Dark and green balls of light which had entered the middle tunnel. Yes, they were too far from the dungeon core and because they were still out of range of Rockies Mana sense, so they still could only see the humans as balls of lights, glowing in the color of their elemental affinities. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. Ten minutes passed and rocky and Minnie looked at each other¡¯s swollen faces. They sighed at the same time, as the aftermath, no, the one sided massacre of the fire mage unfurled in front of them. The fire mage single handedly took care of all the ants that came her way. When a single [fireball] wasn¡¯t able to kill the ant workers, she fired ten and overwhelmed them. The soldiers fared well against the normal [fireballs], but the super compressed [light balls] evaporated them completely. The ants didn¡¯t even get to shriek. Minnie once again went to the corner to sulk, and Rock disappointed at his ants passed through the middle room. He was going to leave to see how his works fared against the knight, but then saw the humans coming and stopped. Rocky actually didn¡¯t know what he was waiting to see. He didn¡¯t have any spare ants to attack them. He looked at their energies and sighed, and was just about to move out, when something dramatic happened. The humans were walking side by side. They talked with each other about how there were no ants in the room, and were just about to leave the room when the one with the dark ball of energy recovered a dagger from his waist and plunged it directly into the other persons neck, killing the archer on the spot. Rocky looked at it happening with his mouth wide opened and Minnie joined him when she saw it to. Then they saw the assassin eating food, taking a nap and then making cuts on his body with his own dagger. He even made sure to look exhausted by sprinting around the room. Then he went outside the room. ¡°Fuck, what was that!!!¡± Rocky erupted. ¡°And that is why they say, the only enemy a human has is another human.¡± Minnie mumbled. Rock followed him after swallowing the body, and saw him blaming the ants for his murder. He then went back to his inner world, as the humans rained fire inside the temporary boss room. The queen flared and attacked them, but the duo didn¡¯t care about that, as they had another mystery to solve. Just as the humans entered the queen room, they entered Rockies mana sense range, and the screen once again starting displaying everything clearly. On the screen they saw six humans entering the room, which gave them another headache. ¡°Now, where did that human come from?¡± Minnie pointed at William and said. ¡°What do I know? I have been looking at the humans from the time they entered, and I didn¡¯t see him coming at all.¡± ¡°Ah! This is infuriating¡­ no, wait go outside and check how many humans there are outside.¡± ¡°but¡­¡± ¡°Just do this once and then come back.¡± Rocky went outside, checked, and came back. Minnie asked her how many humans he saw and he answered looking at the screen which was showing six humans, ¡°Five. I only saw five of them.¡± ¡°Ah ha.¡± Minnie smiled weakly. ¡°Don¡¯t just smile to yourself, and tell me what are those humans planning?¡± ¡°No, no.¡± she gestured with her hand, ¡°It¡¯s not those! It¡¯s him. Only one human is planning something, and the others are just road kills.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I mean, the one who killed the archer is planning something and using his clone to fool the other humans.¡± And the fight between the queen and the humans reached its final segments. Enco, who was using his [Transform] skill to look like William, attracted the queen¡¯s attention toward the others and then vanished. But Minnie made the queen stop right in its tracks, as the earth mage somehow saved her partner from the assassins trap, and started fighting with him. Rocky did ask why she wasn¡¯t attacking the humans, to which Minnie replied saying, ¡°There are two reasons. First, the queens¡¯ mana and stamina is not enough to kill all the humans present and second..¡± She tapped the screen, ¡°I want to know why this person waited so long to show his true colors.¡± Then the fight between the humans concluded, with Dust loosing the match. The assassin having killed the knight, injured the earth mage and made the fire mage use all of her mana, was feeling quite contempt. He looked at Dust who was furiously looking back at him and said, ¡°You know you have no one else to blame but yourself. You all were too greedy this time, little one. Who asked you to choose the mission? Who asked you to come here? Who asked you to form party with strangers? It¡¯s your own fault and you will die cause of your own mistakes.¡± ¡°What? What are you even saying? WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?¡± ¡°Anger, yes, get as angry as you can!!¡± he looked into her eyes and spoke with a grim voice, ¡°For this is the last time you can get angry after all. Haaha¡­¡± ¡°Then tell me¡­¡± She glared at him strongly enough to burn a hole in him and asked, ¡°Who asked you to kill us, and why do you have to kill us?¡± she somehow controlled her anger and asked him, but couldn¡¯t hide her expressions turning wild and ferocious. ¡°Are you trying to buy time? For who? Her?¡± he spoke pointing at the unconscious Martha. He then smiled and pointed toward the ruble and slowly spoke, ¡°Or him?¡± A cold sweat ran down her back. Because of the ant mask, she could see a ball of light wiggling under the ruble, trying to do something and she was sure that it was Daniel. She thought of buying some time for him, so that he could accomplish, whatever it was that he wanted to achieve. Maybe he could provide them a last chance to kill this devil spawn, but she had failed. While she was having suicidal thoughts, and was thinking that it was over, Enco spoke again, ¡°Well, forget about the sleeping bimbo, she is not going to wake up anytime soon, but about him, he¡¯s¡­¡± and he smirked. ¡®Why is he making that face¡¯ she thought and he told her. ¡°Dead¡± and he started laughing. She looked at the ruble through the Lenses, and saw the ball of light wiggling, waggling. She couldn¡¯t understand what he meant by him being dead. ¡®What is he saying? He is clearly not dead. Wait, does he¡­¡¯ Understanding that he was having confusions, she once again tried to buy Daniel some time. ¡°You are going to kill me right?¡± And Enco nodded to her question without any delay. ¡°So, won¡¯t you at least fulfill one of my wishes?¡± she asked. ¡°Don¡¯t wanna.¡± He rejected and went through the motions of attack. ¡°Please. Please. Listen to me. At least tell me what I am dying for! Or how you executed your plan? Yes, don¡¯t you want to torture me by telling me how you executed your plan and made fools of us? Or do you want to live without telling anyone?¡± she was desperately tried to grasp lose straws in hope that he would help them. All the while Minnie and Rocky calmly looked at the drama that was occurring in front of their queen. ¡°Ah! Now that I think about it, Yes, I do want others to listen to my plan.¡± He grinned and said pointing at Dust, ¡°Especially you.¡± And then starting mumbling to himself, ¡°No one knows how much I had to prepare to make it fool proof, but Mother won¡¯t listen. She only wants results and nothing more.¡± He sighed once after saying that, and looked at the ceiling. When Dust heard him say ¡®Mother¡¯ she couldn¡¯t help but feel a tinge of hope. So, she tried again, ¡°Your Mother, who is she? Why does she want us dead?¡± Enco creased his brows and looked at her by tilting his neck diagonally. Then he snorted once before saying, ¡°She is my mother, my god, my everything! You don¡¯t need to know who she is, but if you want to¡­¡± His eyes became sharp and he suddenly rushed at her with black daggers in both his hands. Dust knew something bad was going to happen to her. So, she yelled out, ¡°Don¡¯t kil¡­¡± but the answer to her cry came before she could complete her sentence. ¡°Don¡¯t worry I am not going to kill, you just taking precautions.¡± he said and moved his daggers, following which came a sprout of blood from both of her arms and a loud cry. *Thud*Thud* ¡°AHhhhhh¡± Her arms fell on the ground, and her cry rang out in the empty room. He cut her arms from the shoulder as a precaution. ¡°Well, now that this is done, let¡¯s continue.¡± He said looking at her with eyes that looked like he was enjoying this. Rocky shuddered when he saw that happen, and Minnie commented, ¡°See, that¡¯s what humans are like. He is not following orders, he is enjoying himself.¡± All the while Dust screamed, and screamed, and screamed. What happened after that? She had no idea. Time blurred by as she wailed from the pain. She wanted to lose conscious, but the pain, anger and frustration was too deep and too horrible, and kept her conscious through the first some bouts of pain. She kept on wailing, and Enco kept on speaking. She couldn¡¯t hear what he was saying and couldn¡¯t care less about it either. She wanted to die, but she wanted to kill him too. So she held on. She forcefully held on to her soul that wanted to leave her body. Enco got irritated from her crying and shit, so when she didn¡¯t stop being noisy even after some time passed; he finally lost it, and started kicking her. He kicked her in the gut, on her face. She curled into a ball, but he didn¡¯t stop hitting her, once, then twice, then again and again and again, until her voice couldn¡¯t leave her throat, and she stopped breathing.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°What dead already? I even gave you a hand to stop your crying. Are you not going to wake up now?¡± He said to Dust, and then mumbled to himself, ¡°What should I do now? Let¡¯s just kill her.¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­.. When Enco cut off Dusts arms, Daniel was looking. When Dust cried in pain, Daniel was still looking with wet eyes. When Enco kicked her ruthlessly and almost killed her, he was still watching as his eyes turned blood red. His mind went mad with fury and his hair stood up straight up with rage. He wanted to go and snap Enco¡¯s neck and drink his blood. He kept on looking at her, till blood started flowing from his eyes, it was madness. He was going to yell out loud, and curse the living shit out of Enco and his whole fucking family, when he saw Dust turning her head, and their eyes met. There were no tears in her eyes. Her face showed not even a tinge of pain. Her mouth was sealed shut. She didn¡¯t cry again, but he knew she had not lost her soul yet. It was not anger or hate or retribution, but vengeance. She wanted Enco dead, and she wanted his help. Her eyes told him to wait, wait for the right moment, to wait till Enco tells them everything. How he knew all of this? Well, call it his intuition or his ability to read faces, but he just knew. He was happy not for Enco, for he was just a dead man walking, but for Dust. Her eyes still contained hope and they were burning with desire, and were waiting for a chance to repay all of her pain back. He knew they could still be saved; just getting the regeneration potion was not enough. They needed something more, something that could handle that piece of shit; and he remembered the queen. ¡®But why was she not moving anymore?¡¯ He looked at her and for some reason she looked in his direction. ¡®Shit!! What was that!!¡¯ He gestured Dust with his eye to look at the queen, and he himself tried to find Martha. Dust moved her tired self, and encouraged herself to look at the queen. Enco saw her looking at the queen and felt a bit surprised to see her alive. His surprise doubled when he noticed that she was using her earth ability to stop her bleeding. Well, although it sure as hell looked creepy, but it was doing wonders for her, at least she was still not dead yet. ¡°No need to look at her, she can¡¯t see us.¡± To that bastards chant both Daniel and Dusts ears perked straight up, to capture everything that he was going to say. Even Minnie and Rocky got serious as he said that, but ended up laughing instead. ¡°Forget about seeing us, I think it¡¯s already sleeping.¡± ¡°Wh..y?¡±Dust asked him. ¡°Ah! Yes, why? Huh. Because currently it is captured in my illusion, and in the illusion this room no longer has anybody inside, and is empty.¡± He then pointed at the queen and said, ¡°Which means the queen has no one to attack, so I think that its s.l.e.e.p.i.n.g.¡± He looked back at her and saw that she was still looking at him; he felt that something was odd. Something was odd with her eyes. But his vigilance went away as soon as it came, when he looked at her pathetic self trying to increase her life by the seconds. He noticed that even though Dust was using her mana to stop the bleeding, her blood was still flowing out, and even her mana was also almost exhausted. So, to him, she was just a guest of a few more minutes, nothing troublesome at all. As he was thinking that, Dust voice once again sounded in his ears, ¡°Why?¡± Again the same question, but he understood the difference between the two, and he answered, ¡°Like I said, my master ordered me to enter with a human party and kill everyone inside.¡± *Pfft* Minnie spurted a fountain of saliva onto the screen in the inner world hearing that. Even Rocky couldn¡¯t help but check his ears when he heard that. ¡°What did he say?¡± Enco continued with, ¡°You see the real target is not you guys. You guys are all just preparations, raw materials for a big boom. The real target is this dungeon.¡± But dust couldn¡¯t believe all that he was saying. After all, the dungeon was a new born. ¡°Why? What did this new born dungeon did to you? ¡± {[Yes ask her that.] Rocky nodded his head from inside his inner world, but her follow-up made him go, [Huh, what?]} ¡°And even if you want to destroy the dungeon what does that have to do with us? Just destroy it and let us go.¡± Dust requested, but then froze, as she thought about her wording. But Enco was feeling too high on his triumph, and didn¡¯t acknowledge her words. ¡°This one is no good, it needs to be destroyed. As for the reason to kill all of you, think what would happen if you all die here and no one returned back to the guild.¡± He asked her. ¡°If we die here then the guild would send more adventurers to investigate. Ah!¡± and then the thought suddenly hit her. ¡°But if they investigate then, won¡¯t they also just destroy this dungeon. Because who would want to let a killer prosper in its own backyard, a monster spawn that could kill ¡®B rankers¡¯ Even though it was clearly a new born.¡± Her tongue rapidly fired words. { Meanwhile Rocky and Minnie reacted like this to the sudden turn of events. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°¡­¡±} Dust wanted to milk all the information out of Enco before killing him. So she didn¡¯t let go of the moment and continued asking him question she could think off. ¡°But, why does your master wants to involve our guild in this mess?¡± She really believed that they were just preparations; the real mission was something much more sinister and evil than she the one she could even reach. She knew that whatever the reason to their supposed deaths was, Enco didn¡¯t know it, but she still asked him and he also gave her the expected answer. ¡°That I don¡¯t know. Well, everything has its cause and effect. The world doesn¡¯t work on fairness and pride, but on money and politics. So, how would this weak me know about my masters genius. This is just one of the works that goes behind in the background, while others continue to live their lives, strangers to all of these. You all are dying for a greater cause, so don¡¯t feel sad.¡± ¡°Just do it already!!!¡± This was not an invitation from her to Enco, but to the queen, who still wasn¡¯t attacking. Enco looked at Dust in disdain and continued speaking, ¡°Anyway as I was saying. Well, now that I am telling you all of this, let me tell you this too¡­¡± But Dust defeated him to it, and spoke first, ¡°You killed Bill right? And you used your fucking clone to trick us, and there is no captain William, he was you all along, right!!!¡± She smirked, as if she had finally one upped him. Air around the assassin shook slightly and he clenched his fists, but then cooled down and started laughing. ¡°Ahahaa¡­ good, good, very good.¡± A snap of his fingers and he got engulfed by black smoke. Ten seconds passed and William came out of the smoke with tears in his eyes and his clothes shredded. He looked exactly like the time he had come out with the news of bills death, and he even repeated some of his lines from that act. ¡°You are not as idiot, as I thought you to be, but how did you find out?¡± And Dust explained how William never showed any signs of being preset in her [Earth sense] and how the mask she was wearing further improved her doubts. Enco looked at her with twitching face, but Dust continued speaking in a very soft and low voice. Although she was feeling extremely exhausted, and was suffering from negative effects like; ¡®Mental Strain¡¯ ¡®Physical Strain¡¯ ¡®Anemia¡¯ ¡°Infection¡¯, she held on to her life and told him in a breaking voice, ¡°You see¡­ your illusion, and clones, and whatnots¡­ they might have worked on us humans¡­ but¡­ it has¡­¡± And as she completed her sentence a large fireball came whirling toward Enco¡¯s back. ¡°No affect on this dungeons monsters.¡± And she smiled. Enco saw her eyes and his surrounding glowing with an orange glow. ¡°Fuck!!¡± he looked back to the side and saw a fireball just inches away from his face. The thing is; Dust understood more about dungeon than others. She knew how vicious and intelligent the monster, especially final monster of a dungeon could be, and also knew that the queen was probably listening to the reason and was waiting for him to finish talking. Though she could not lift her head high enough to look at the queen, but neither could Enco see her actions, because he had his eyes fixated on her. But she was not alone. Why would she need to look at the queen herself, when she had Daniel to do the part! Her job that was to buy time was over. Now it was others time to act. Why was the questions needed to be asked? They were asked to confuse Enco. It is a proved fact that, a second of delay in making a decision, and taking action could prove fatal in a life or death battle, and to make his thought process slow was her intention. When he moved his neck to look back, one of the light balls behind the queen exploded in a flash of light. It created radiance so frightening that everything got covered in a white light. It suddenly became so bright that Enco almost became blind cause of it, but the queen wasn¡¯t affected like him, and then her fireball finally reached him. It engulfed his body and flying over Dust exploded on the wall behind her. *Booom* It created a sea of fire just like the one that Martha¡¯s poorly aimed attacked had created, though the effect of this single fire ball weren¡¯t so drastic and dramatic. The impact created no pressure waves just a small earthquake, but it did brighten the room exponentially. {[Fuck.] Minnie cried out, as she saw that assassin emerging at some distance away.} By the time the flash ended and the fireball reached Enco, he had already moved from his initial position. His level and Rank wasn¡¯t for show after all. When his body noticed that he was in danger, it moved at the top speed that it could muster without any command from his brain, and escaped the danger. Human mind and muscle are more complicated than they are thought to be. Sometime no matter how much one wants their body to move it doesn¡¯t listen and refuses to do so, but sometimes, it moves on its own. But Daniel was prepared. He knew that Enco wouldn¡¯t die or even get hurt by any attack from the queen, and would use his fast movement speed to escape the fireball. Enco ran In Daniel¡¯s direction because there was no other place for him to run. The destruction that Martha¡¯s fireballs had created was not on a small scale. It had nearly destroyed the whole room. There were big wide stones everywhere, and some places even had part of the roof fallen down. The only safe route lead Enco directly toward Daniel. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. Daniel started charging his sword with mana just as the light ball exploded. He had tried to use the same skill before, but hadn¡¯t gotten the chance to, and his mana charged sword was left buried in the ground. So he made his already charged sword into an overly charged bomb. He emptied all of his mana inside it, and waited for Enco to get close enough to him. And just when Enco got near the debris area where he was, he unleashed his skill, [Cross-slash]. His sword broke and turned into dust. Well, it was bound to happen because he had not slightly, but massively over charged it with mana. But he didn¡¯t care; the skill had already left the sword, and was it was moving extremely fast, faster than the fireballs and even faster than the assassin. Enco, who was running away from the fire, suddenly saw a blue colored cross slash coming towards him, but because of his speed, he couldn¡¯t stop at time, and directly collided with the beam like attack. The ¡®Cross-Slash¡¯ touched him, cut him, and moved on. It didn¡¯t stop even after passing through his body. It travelled some distance at hyper speed, and exploded after colliding with the wall behind him. When Danile saw that he knew that it was finally over. The villain was dead and they could leave if the queen let them. He was going to move his body and walk toward Dust, but his feet stopped in the middle of their motion. He saw Enco¡¯s body that was cut in four pieces by his skill not falling down, and instead floating in the air. It then slowly turned translucent, and then completely vanished. Luck is a very difficult attribute to comprehend. Just when the cross was about to collide with Enco, his foot touched a shadow created from the fallen roof and the fire from queens fireball. Enco then went with the flow, used shadow movement, and vanished. The cross cut his after image, passed him by and made a huge impact on the wall. Daniel¡¯s mouth hanged, he had failed. He had expended all of his energy, his sword was broken, Martha was already unconscious because of high mana usage and Dust¡­ ¡®We are going to die.¡¯ He thought. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Enco was really scared; the one after another coordinated attacks had given him a heart attack, after heart attack, but he had also become aware of his mistake, which was to not just kill everyone, and be done with it. ¡®Why did I not just kill her? Why did I not just kill that monkey? Why did I not check on that bimbo?¡¯ He regretted his decision of playing with them. He wasn¡¯t scared of the queen, he wasn¡¯t scared of Martha¡¯s mana burn, he didn¡¯t even care about that brute, and he definitely wasn¡¯t scared of that no arm girl, but their team effort had almost ended his light. ¡°I¡¯m going to kill them.¡± He thought, but then smirked. ¡®But I will not kill those girls without playing with them to my heart content.¡¯ Like they say, old habits die hard. He decided to make all of them pay for their crimes, and had already decided their punishment, ¡®I¡¯m going to cut all of their limbs, and then skin then alive, slowly. Just you all wait and see.¡¯ He felt safe, so he exited the shadow and¡­ *Guck* ¡°Huh?¡± A sudden rush of pain and then blood leaked out of his mouth. He looked behind him and saw no one. He looked to his left and right and saw no one, then He looked down, and saw a spike joined to the ground. It extended straight to his chest, entering his heart and leaving from his back. He lifted his head, and saw a girl without arms lying on the ground, but looking at him with a crazy smile on her face, clearly laughing at him. He couldn¡¯t speak properly because of blood that was climbing his throat. ¡°I see¡± he said. His eyes turned red and veins bulged on his forehead. How could he have thought that the girl who was nothing more than dead meat to him would end up taking his life? Moreover using a simple spike! A spell that he could evade even with his eyes closed. He kept on looking at her, and her smile slowly turned into laughter. It looked like they were having completion of who would die first, which he lost. The light in his eyes dimmed, and he died while looking at a face which mocked him till his death. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Daniel saw it happen with his own two eyes, but he couldn¡¯t believe it. Enco had clearly gotten away, their plan had also clearly failed, but what happened next was excitement from out of the world. He didn¡¯t know how Dust had pinpointed the point of Enco¡¯s exit, but she did the impossible and the villain who didn¡¯t die even from the collaborated effort of the queen and his super spell, died from a mere spike. He moved, no he rushed, no he ran to Dust. He couldn¡¯t stop at time and slipped on the floor, but his excitement was too high for him to care about such small stuff. He lifted her head with his left hand, and placed it on his lap for support. He opened her mouth, and started pouring health regeneration potion in her mouth, but she didn¡¯t swallow and it soon flowed out. He knew that the situation was dire and he need to take some drastic measures, if he wanted to save her. So he chugged some of the regeneration potion, placed it in his mouth, and made her swallow it by giving her mouth to mouth. He repeated the same procedure until he had poured two flasks worth of medicine into her body. Then he placed her head back on the floor took, out two more such flasks, and directly poured them over her cut arms. He knew that just lesser regeneration potions won¡¯t be enough. She needed immediate help from a cleric or a healer. The regeneration Potions did make her bleeding stop, and her face also regained a bit of its redness, but she was out of danger. She was still unconscious after all. Even though he was worried about Dust, he still kept his eye on the queen who was looking at him from where she was standing at. He didn¡¯t knew whether she would attack them or not, but he didn¡¯t care and after finishing helping her he ran straight towards Martha, who was lying on the ground, unconscious. He knew that she was not injured in any way. She and had only exhausted her mana reserves. So, he lifter her from the ground and started shaking her to wake her up, and after feeling some earthquake like vibrations she woke up and started screaming. But then she saw Daniel and her screaming stopped, but instead tears started falling down from her eyes. She hugged him tightly and started crying. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for this.¡± He said and gave her a mana potion to drink. Then both of them returned to Dust, lifted her up and were going to go out of the room, when the queen moved. That petrified them. Martha even stopped breathing. But unlike what they expected, the queen didn¡¯t attack and instead returned back to the dungeon core. Martha took a breath of relief. Daniel lifted Dust up in princess carry and carried her out of the room. They stooped at the exit to look back as Feelings of excitement and eagerness flooded their veins, but Daniel shook his head once, before he started walking again. Ch -18 Running came two people out of a hole in the ground. One was a red haired girl with a tattered red cape flying freely behind her and the other; a tall man covered in metallic armor, which was equally rugged and scratched. The man was holding another girl in princess carry and his expressions didn¡¯t have a single clue of menace. His eyes were glowing with fervor and had a slight glow to them. ¡°We are out! We are finally out of the hell hole!¡± The girl wearing the red cape made a ¡®Y¡¯ pose by holding her hands high up above her head, as she shouted at the top of her voice. A smile also formed on that man¡¯s face who was calmly standing beside her. The sky and the twinkling stars held a new kind of beauty for him on that night. The girl he was carrying had no arms and from the flowing blood and her torn clothes, it was clear that she had been badly mutilated by someone and her condition also wasn¡¯t great. These were the trio who had survived the ordeal and the betrayal of their own team member and escaped from the mouth of death of the newly discovered den of ants. They escaped, but not without paying a huge price for it. Daniel was carrying Dust ¡®The earth mage¡¯ while ¡®The fire mage¡¯ Martha walked beside him. He looked at dust who was still unconscious and a hint of pain and feelings emerged in his heart, when he remembered what she had to go through on their seemingly easy, but an atrociously difficult job. He remembered how she had swallowed the pain of having her arms cut without letting even a little sound out, and how his and Martha¡¯s life was saved by that same girl who seemingly on the verge of death didn¡¯t forget to take her revenge. After running and crawling for an hour in the monster less monster tunnels, the remaining members of the B Rank party sent to look at the dungeons authenticity came out of the hole which had become a new experience of trust, cruel realities and dangerous plans to them. Daniel looked at Martha, who was still standing straight looking at the normal but lit sky, but he noticed that even though her smile wasn¡¯t fading and she was holding herself quite well, her watery eyes and flowing tears were enough to state her state of mind. Her shivering legs were also enough of an indication telling him that all which they went through was as real as life could get and that they were really lucky this time to have survived the perfectly spewed traps and plan of a true mastermind. ¡°We were lucky, huh.¡± Martha didn¡¯t mind his mumbling and nodded instead, pointing that he was true about that. He also sighed as they started walking towards their home. ¡°Let¡¯s go, we have a lot of distance to cover and very little time for that.¡± ¡°How is she?¡± She didn¡¯t question his decision as she could also see that Dust¡¯s condition, though looked fine, but her pale face and lifeless body was enough to tell that she was anemic because of high blood loss. He looked at the near death girl in his arms as he said, ¡°Though her bleeding has stopped, but she is still unconscious. I won¡¯t say she is out of danger because she has already lost a lot of her blood. I have nourished and am trying to preserve her life by giving her my mana, but I don¡¯t think she will be able to hold on for more than a day like this. We really need to get back to the town and get a high cleric or someone of the same status to help her. I don¡¯t want her to die, not after all of that she went through, with us.¡± His voice got heavier and heavier the more he spoke, but then Martha slapped his shoulders as she started walking forward. ¡°So let¡¯s run.¡± The sudden nudge on his shoulder brought him back, as he started following her. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s run.¡± They started running away from the cave of misery and towards their establishment of life. The night was dark, darker than usual. There was no moon in the sky, so they had no natural light around them to see. Daniel had to slow his speed because Martha was too slow for him to run at his full capacity. She was a mage after all. A mage¡¯s strength is directly equal to their mana and spells. It has nothing to do with their physical abilities. So no mage actively tries to increase their physical abilities. They are known for their destructive power and it is also a reason that a mage is an easy target. It sounds stupid at first, but a mages fire power or ability to cause destruction is on a completely different scale and level than any other class. This increase in power in turn also makes them fragile and vulnerable to an all sided attack and because of their low physical abilities, mages account for the most amount of deaths when the situation calls for a retreat. SO, They both ran from the ant hill and travelled down the mountain and toward their home while the things, which the assassin said to them, kept on rampaging inside their minds. They left the barren lands behind and entered the Devils Beard forest, but unlike before, this time they didn¡¯t stop for rest because it would take them almost a whole day to run back to the town and time was what Dust didn¡¯t have. ¡°Martha, we are going to travel through the jungle. I am sure our journey back won¡¯t be easy and there will be a lot of monsters coming to take a bite of us, but we don¡¯t have time to waste for the sun to rise, so you¡¯ll have to preserve and make it through with me, I don¡¯t want to lose anyone else.¡± ¡°Ah! I- I can do this, I am sure, but¡­¡± ¡°Then it is good. I am leaving the battles to you because I can¡¯t fight while holding her, right.¡± ¡°Bat- Battle? Ah! Right, you can¡¯t fight while holding her, but won¡¯t my fire burn everything and lit the jungle ablaze?¡± Daniel looked at her as if he was looking at a criminal, an arsonist. But he waved his hand conveying to her that she needed to lay low, talk slow and to follow him. Martha nodded her head understanding the meaning and followed behind him. They walked and even though it was night and the time of the jungle and its inhabitants, strangely there was no sound. Everything was just too quiet and calm. The calm felt like a bad omen to them and that sickening feeling was enough to make their hearts tremble with anxiety. But instead of stopping, they gritted their teeth and continued to advance. The calm and silent jungle retained its serene state till they reached the center. Because they were vigilant and attentive they had decided to move slowly to keep note of their surrounding and not to get trapped inside an ambush, but things changed when they reached the center of the jungle. The calmness and silence of the jungle got turned upside down, as the sound inside the whole area around them got taken over by the howls of wolves.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Their hearts jumped when they heard the call of wolves and they both became attentive. ¡°What the fuck? Did we somehow enter the shadow wolf¡¯s territory?¡± Martha hurriedly looked everywhere to understand the situation and said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like it, I am sure we are following the right path. But then,¡± She was interrupted by Daniel who was listening to the cries of wolves. ¡°Looks like, we¡¯ve been had. This is why the jungle was so quiet.¡± ¡°What did you find out? Tell me.¡± ¡°Just get ready, those wolves are coming. I think the jungle was quite because these damn wolves were following us from the start and now that we are in their territory, in the middle of this darned dark lightless jungle, they have finally decided to attack us.¡± ¡°What? Is that true then~ then what should we do?¡± He looked at her, smiled and he said with a laugh, ¡°Let¡¯s run.¡± and started running at his full speed. His sudden actions bewildered Martha as sweat trickled down her open back and she hurriedly followed him. Because Daniel was carrying Dust in his arms, his speed wasn¡¯t that great and Martha who was a mage was able to follow him though she had to put some effort in her actions. But just as they had started running, the calm jungle suddenly gained back its liveliness. From their left, their right and definitely from directly behind them, sounds of grass and branches breaking and twitching suddenly broke the serenity and their hearts which were already pumping blood at a heightened speed, became crazy and as its beating got faster and excited became the howls and cries of the wolves following behind them. ¡°Mine fire, fire; don¡¯t leave any corner. Burn them alive.¡± ¡°But won¡¯t it burn the jungle itself.¡± ¡°Huh, are you an idiot? Why are you thinking about the jungle? Don¡¯t you want to live? Do you want to die? If not, then blast those wolf bastards to hell; burn the fucking jungle¡­!¡± Carrying a girl, no matter how light she was, and then running. This was already tiring the hell out of him physically, but then being followed and chased for life also quickly drained him mentally and he lost his temper. Martha gritted her teeth, as for her burning a whole jungle wasn¡¯t what she had signed up for when she had become an adventurer. She really didn¡¯t want to do it, but being chased and hunted by those monster wolves was enough to make her forget about her ambitions and whatnot. She readied herself mentally to do everything in her hands to leave the darned jungle with her life intact. So she opened her arms and faced her palms to the left and right direction and started firing fireballs like a machine. Most of those aimless fireballs did nothing other than burning trees and grass, which in turn burned even more trees near them, but some of them made loud impacts and killed the monsters. Though the wolves were getting killed by her over the top fireballs, but she didn¡¯t receive any level up notification, indicating that the wolves getting killed were too low leveled and the higher leveled and stronger ones were not there yet. The wolf¡¯s cried in pain and their partners howled in anger, but none came out of the fire to pounce on them. But the hundreds of sounds coming from near the wall of fire were enough to solidify their belief that, if she hadn¡¯t made up her mind to spew out fire on both the side at the same time, then the wolves would have started attacking them in the hundreds. While fire covered and blocked the path for the wolves to come from the left and right, but those of them following from behind were quickly decreasing the distance between them and their number wasn¡¯t low either. They ran while Martha kept on firing the fire balls and after some time the intensity of her attacks deceased. From the looks of it, she had almost reached her limits and was just preserving through share will power. Daniel noticed her pace getting slow and then saw her ghastly pale face devoid of blood, it startled him. He hurriedly ordered her to stop using her mana and to preserve it. ¡°You can stop firing fireballs now. Preserve your mana, a fight is coming. Charge all of your mana into your biggest spell and fire at my command. Okay.¡± She looked at him with her slightly aged face and tired eyes and she stopped spewing out fireballs left and right and acknowledged his command. They ran like that for another three or so minutes when a horde of wolves, about fifty of them, suddenly came running towards them from the front. These were the high ranking ones who hadn¡¯t joined the fight and were clearly waiting for the right time to ambush them. The pressure on them both increased even more when they remembered that there was an equally strong horde of wolves following behind them. Daniel turned his head around to look at Martha and saw that she was getting ready to do or die. ¡°Is your spell ready?¡± ¡°Yes, it is, but¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the power and fire it at the front. If you can control its power, then make sure that its impact travels in a straight line and doesn¡¯t disperse.¡± ¡°Huh, I can do that.¡± Daniel didn¡¯t know what to expect of her power. Because she, no, the fight and troubles had already expended most of their powers, therefore they were not at their full power. Otherwise, even a single spell of hers would have been enough to wipe the wolves to dust. So he really didn¡¯t expect much from her this time and as he also didn¡¯t see any concentrated fire balls near her, neither did he see any spell formations raging, so he thought that maybe her mana was too low to use the any of her powerful spells, but boy how wrong was he. Just as he told her to fire, a magical wave travelled through her body and everywhere it touched lit up in fire. The fire burned and burned all the trees around them to charcoal black in a second. It was like the wave had quickly lit up some kind of fuel and created havoc. Left, right, front, back every side around them turned into a burning inferno. Daniel s eyes bulged out when he saw the scene of carnage unfolding in front of him. He quickly used his shield skill ¡®Iron wall¡¯ and created a defensive barrier to stop the fire from reaching them, but to his surprise a road opened in the inferno leading straight outside while everything else around them burned. *Ayoo* *Ayoo* *ooooooo* The cries of wolves flooded the whole area as the fire touched and burned everything, but he noticed that though fire looked menacing, it wasn¡¯t strong. Sure, some 0 rank wolves were burned to death by it, but it had no almost effect on those higher ranking monsters. Martha continued to run after Daniel after she fired her spell, but then her steps dwindled as her she also lost conscious while running. Though she had created a massive blazing inferno of 200 meters, but it also emptied her mana pool, which in turn made her forcibly lose consciousness. Daniel saw her falling, but he couldn¡¯t leave her behind. So he gritted his teeth and gave a low shout as he changed Dust¡¯s position and placed her on his left shoulder and picked Martha before she could fall onto the ground and hurriedly placed her over his right shoulder and carried them both. He ran on the road and left the domain of fire behind, but the fire instigated by Martha quickly expanded and spread through the whole forest. And slowly cries of monkeys, birds and all the other inhabitants echoed throughout the jungle. The whole Forest was in turmoil. All the monsters residing the forest started running to save their lives, they ran to save their lives and slowly the situation turned grave. Daniel hadn¡¯t thought that she would have the power to burn down the whole forest, but she displayed power much greater than anyone at her level could and the results of it were obvious too. He ran out of the fire covered area, but unlike what he had expected would happen, they didn¡¯t get ambushed by the wolves. He got surprised at first, but quickly understood what had happened. The fire spreading through the forest became a danger to their cubs, so they ran back to save them. So her unreasonable carnage had in turn saved their lives. ¡°Haha, so her fire actually saved us all. That¡¯s fine, but I hope this fire won¡¯t make those running monsters to come chasing us towards the town.¡± He kept on running forward as the once lively and green forest burned to smithereens. He ran and ran for another two hours and finally got out of the forest, but there was still a lot of distance that he needed to cover and from the looks of it even Martha was not going to wake up any time soon. It took him another three hours of walking to finally reach a road connecting to the town, but his tired self finally gave in when he saw a carriage coming towards him. His legs staggered and he fell on the ground. His fading conscious and closing eyes saw a wheel stopping as two people jumped from the carriage and picked the girls up. They placed them inside the carriage and then came to help him, but by the time they picked him up he was already out of conscious. The fire kept on burning the forest and it was really going to burn the whole forest down, if the rising smoke hadn¡¯t given birth to black rain clouds. Ch -19 ¡°Ah! Finally, it¡¯s over.¡± ¡°You think so?¡± ¡°Right?¡± Rockies first ever clash with the humans ended with him gaining a tired soul, and a massive amount of constructional headache. He had somehow, held on to his life, although most of that was taken care of by the humans. The damages from the skirmish were still huge. The amounts included, the death of over 1800 ants including the queens spawns. A completely destroyed room and that¡¯s it. Though it doesn¡¯t look much at all, but the cost to cover the damages, the owners didn¡¯t have. And even after collecting dungeon credits from the archer and the assassin¡¯s bodies, their wealth only amounted to a total of 688Dc. Which although had evened out their expenses, but had failed to gain them a substantial profit. That was until this message hadn¡¯t come.
Congratulations!! A feat of strength has been performed. You have protected your dungeon from an enemy that was way above your level and even made them retreat! Rewards: +1000Dc, +6th floor rights.
And for the first time in their short lives as a partner, Minnie and Rocky understood that there were other ways to gain money, than by killing humans. Though even those paths demanded death and destruction. ¡°You didn¡¯t know?¡± ¡°No. No one ever told me this. Maybe¡­¡± Minnie thought that maybe everyone who knew such information simply just decided to not make it public and profit alone on it. ¡°Anyways, we have enough credits now to buy the wolf, complete the dungeon to the tenth floor and then buy some monsters over it. So what do you want to first?¡± Rocky poked Minnie over her shoulder and asked her. ¡°But first, let¡¯s check our gains other than the credits.¡± She spoke while playing with his hair. ¡°As you say.¡± On checking they found out that Rocky actually didn¡¯t gain any levels from the skirmish. When he asked Minnie the reason, she said, ¡°Probably because you or your summons didn¡¯t deal the final blows to the humans that died here.¡± And here guess was right on point. Rocky sulked because he was just a little shy from that tenth level and the skill store. Though checking the inventory did improve his mood, but not by much. From absorbing the archers body he got, 1 Iron back rhino light leather set, which included boots, pants, jacket, and gloves. It had the set bonus that increased Defense by +15 and dexterity by +12 and gave a skill [Super shot]. He also gained a simple and defenseless cream colored satin shirt, one processed iron dagger, a short bow and its accessories. In term of accessories he got; a ring that increased agility, one that decreased wind resistance and a bracelet which increased critical chance. On the other hand the assassin gave, one shadow leopards light armor set. Which included a pair of shoes, cardigan, robe, gloves, and mask. Assassin¡¯s equipment was incredible to look at, its every piece increased the agility by at least 5 and critical chance by +2% and the set bonus doubled the previous bonuses and gave the [Shadow walk] skill. His two daggers were rare black Iron enchanted daggers.
Dagger of sharpness. Quality ¨C Rare?
Class- all from the Thief tree. Restriction- Rank 1
Stats: +20 Sharpness, +5% critical chance, +100% critical damage
His rings also increased critical chance and agility by a total of +30 and 2%. They also got 3 Gold and 20 silver coins from these two. Most came from the assassins pockets. Other benefits included a level increase in Fireball, Mana regeneration and Mana manipulation, while 2 in mana sense and soul manipulation.
Rocky and Minnie decided to set the order of things as; First, buy floors up to the tenth level. They already had bought five floors before the fight, 6th was gifted, so after spending 400 Dc Rocky bought the rights to expand up to the tenth floor. But he didn¡¯t directly order the ants to dig up to the 10th floor, because he didn¡¯t have enough mana for that. His first three floors reserved a total of 300Mp, Queen needed 100Mp, that wolf whom they wanted to bring back demanded a staggering 300 Mp. These three alone reserved 700Mp, while his mana pool only amounted to 1140 Mp. And Rocky wanted to expand the dungeon to the fifth floor, but stopped at the fourth, and that¡¯s 200Mp more. Minus 100 Mp for his personal expenses and there was only 240Mp left to buy ants. Means, the day till ants ruled the world was still far; too far. Second, was to buy the monsters. After all the digging was done by the ants, and the earlier they bought them the earlier would their floors be ready. ¡°So, whom one should I buy first?¡± Minnie snorted, but didn¡¯t reply to his silly question. ¡°Okay, wolf come out.¡± Rocky yelled with sparkling eyes. And the same phenomenon midst which the wolf had vanished appeared once again. The tri colored pentagon emerged on the ground, and burst into a bright glow of light. A black paw came out of the pillar of light, and just as it touched the ground, the pillar broke and light particles scattered into the little dots. Stone smirked when he saw the crystal and asked, ¡°What took you so long?¡± But his owners were too busy being astonished from the changed that he had went through. Appearance wise, he had gotten over five foot tall, but looked slender than before. His black paws didn¡¯t change much other than getting bigger and meaner. Moreover, three one inch nail adorned his jet black feet. His once red streaked tail had turned completely red, and he grew three colored circular patches on his spine. The biggest circle of 5cm diameter was silver in color. The next one was black colored, and the last one, Red. Rocky checked his status and saw that other than a change in his appearance he had also come anew with an increase in power.
Stone the single tailed wolf (UQ)
Once a white wolf, now an existence reaching transcendence. What will become of it is not know at the point.
Level 4 Race Wolf
Rank 1 Affinity Wind(90),Dark(7),Fire(3)
Titles The awakened.
Skills Shadow dance (1), Fire typhoon (11), Half-moon blade (8), Shadow bind (1).
The biggest surprise was that he had ranked up. His name changed from wolf to single tailed wolf, and Rocky thought that maybe next time he would evolve to a double tailed wolf and giggled. But his skills surprised Rocky even more. Though he didn¡¯t gain an individual skill from the fire element, but its presence changed his Wind cyclone to fire typhoon. His wind blade changed to a half moon blade and he even gained two completely new skills from the dark element. Rocky asked him to display his skills, so that he could grasp their destruction capabilities. Stone smirked and complied; ¡°Happily!¡± he said and turned to look the other side.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Firstly he used shadow bind and nothing happened. He tried one more time, and they came to the conclusion that it probably needed a target to activate or shadows. Next, he used [Shadow dance], which was more akin to a martial skill rather than a magical one. Using it increased his agility and flexibility. Then he displayed a set of movements which could have easily made any master swordsman sweat. [Half moon blade] was just an evolved form of [Wind blade], but their destructive ability was on a whole another level. ¡°Half-Moon blade!!¡± he shouted and without a single second delay an almost two meter large and half a meter filled crescent blade made of wind energy zoomed past everything that came its way. Those huge pieces of stones were cleaved so finely that they didn¡¯t even fall down, and to the observer it looked as if the blade had simply passed through. But the skill which impressed Rocky the most was still the [Fire Typhoon], which just decimated everything around the wolf. It was an AOE skill and behaved just like a real typhoon. It kept Stone in the eye at the center, and the fire storm rotated around him. The storm had a slight delay time, as it needed mana and time to setup the storm, and other than having a short duration of just five seconds, it also had a cool down of one hour, but the destruction was enough to deter all the side effects that came with it power. One another side effect of it being that it was a last effort kind of skill. Because it didn¡¯t have an upper limit, its destruction capabilities depended on the amount of mana poured into it. When Stone displayed it, it drained all of his mana leaving him in a weakened state and dozing conscious. The skill display had started with Rocky looking over the wolf like a boss, and ended with the wolf rising to being the new star of the dungeon. Stone took a quick five minute rest to restore a thread of his mana and they continued. ¡°Damn!! Are you really only a first ranker?¡± Minnie couldn¡¯t help but ask him, because the skill display was too amazing. ¡°Hahaa, aren¡¯t I amazing?¡± But Rocky stopped them from hitting it off and wasting time. ¡°Okay, stop. We have work left to do.¡± Rocky said looking at the perfectly charred and smooth room that the fire typhoon had created. ¡°So, how many credits do we have?¡± ¡°Minnie checked and replied, ¡°788¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lot if you think about it.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°So, how many and which ant should I buy?¡± Minnie didn¡¯t take much time to get to a decision and answered, ¡°If we think about it clearly, then I think that it would be better for us to buy eggs and soldiers rather than workers.¡± ¡°But what if the invaders attacked while the eggs are still in their incubation period? Minnie opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. She couldn¡¯t come to a direct answer and stone interjected between them, ¡°If I am not wrong then that is what I am here for right? To kill the invaders, right?¡± And Minnie smiled hearing that. Rocky thought a bit more before giving up. ¡°Fine, let¡¯s buy the eggs then.¡± Because only workers would be born from the eggs, they decide to use 500 credits to buy five ant soldiers, and broke their piggy bank to buy the eggs. They became dirt poor once more, but the satisfaction they gained from having a small force, and the future chance of having a whole army made them contempt. Their dungeon stats after the shopping looked like this.
Dungeon Interface / Status
Home Monsters / Store
Name ¡­ Type Insect
Floors 3/10 Total no of monster 1+1+5+28=7+ 29 Queen+Wolf+soldiers+eggs
Rooms/Floor 3 Total no of invaders 0
Mana used / Total mana: (940/1140)
Floors 300 Monsters 640
Resources 0 Upgrades 0
Dungeon Currency 08 Reputation +56(Neutral)
The bought soldiers appeared in the room, and Rocky sent them directly to dig the fourth floor. Before he bought the eggs he created a small nursery at the end of the room, near his crystal. And to do that, he collected dirt from the room and made a soft cushion for the eggs. But as he was collecting the dirt, something attracted his attention. He told Minnie and she went out to see what it was. She removed the dirt, and dug the thing out. It was an egg, but one which didn¡¯t show its presence on the dungeon status. Meaning it was not an egg bought by them from the system. The egg was fist size; just the same size as the queen¡¯s eggs, but the queen didn¡¯t show any reaction to it. A question mark floated above Minnie head when Rocky asked her what it meant. Rocky then used dungeon analyze on the egg.
Chaotic Egg
A rare egg that may come into existence in an unstable environmentally
Will become bound to the first entity the new born sees. The new born is guaranteed to be a new existence.
After deliberate discussion they came to the result that it will see Rocky first, to bind it to the dungeon. Then they placed it with the other eggs in the nest. Minnie checked the egg for more information about their hatching time. While the rare egg didn¡¯t show any such information, the other eggs did and made them understand why they were five times cheaper than the instantly delivered ants.
Ant egg Rank(0)
Time left till birth: 18 hours.
It rained that night, and by the time the ants dug through the fourth floor, it was already noon of the next day. Rocky trained through the night and leveled his [Soul manipulation] 1 level, while [Mana manipulation] and [Meditation] increased by 2 levels each. Minnie spent the whole night away, and only came back in the morning. ¡° Follow me.¡± She didn¡¯t greet him, neither did she let him greet her, and ordered him to follow. And Rockycould only comply. He wanted to refuse and interrogate her, but seeing her looking excited after so many stressful days, Rockies heart softened and his inner voice told him to just go. Her eagerness and confidence raised his expectations, and added a sweet charm to their little interaction. He followed her, obliviously in his soul and noticed that they were going toward the entrance. ¡°Is the surprise that you are flaunting about, waiting for me at the entrance of our dungeon?¡± To his question she behaved¡­ questionably. She giggled instead of answering him and increased her speed. ¡°Hey, come on and tell me.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be like that!¡± ¡°Hey, At least give me a clue!¡± But to all of his persuasion and rumble, she answered with a simple sentence. ¡°Just see it with your own eyes.¡± Both of them, one fairy and one soul travelled through their familiar, yet unfamiliar dungeon, as they reached their destination. And Rocky couldn¡¯t close his mouth. ¡°Woah¡± his response came directly from the soul, and why would it not, the view was that beautiful. It was like an ocean. Blue, light colored and truly marvelous. The entrance to the dungeon, which once used to look like the aftermath of a hard fight, changed completely in one night to look like a soul cleansing, mood soothing, mind relaxing, tourist spot. ¡°How did this happen?¡± Rocky didn¡¯t even look at Minnie. ¡°It rained last night when you were training. The clouds that covered thousands of miles of sky quenched the thirst of these barren lands. The rain not only changed our dungeon, but also brought life back to the barren patch of land near our dungeon.¡± ¡°I never knew a simple rain could change a completely devastated area into something this encouraging!¡± ¡°Yeah, this could very well turn into a heaven for adventurers to relax at.¡± Minnie¡¯s eyes shined as she thought about the future. They watched the nature blooming to their heart content, before getting back to business. ¡°Now, we need to make sure that no monsters emerge from this pond or any ants come to attack here from the deeper parts of our dungeon!¡± And it was decided to make the region a monster free tourist spot. They at the moment didn¡¯t know that this single decision and its future possibilities would end up saving their lives. Actually the water filled pit was not the actual attraction. If light falling on still water could make it look mystic and enchanting, then those ovate things which were radiating that blue light and soothing aroma were really out of this world. The pit from inside to the out, the walls, floor almost everything was covered by blue glowing patches of some kind of a plant. Every single one of them had a big ovate shaped head, stuck on a slim pole. The head was blue in color and was covered in shining white dots. And according to Minnie it was their natural glow. They didn¡¯t need sunlight to charge, and were a good source of light. Rocky was so engrossed in looking at them that he spoke out loud. ¡°What are they!?¡± ¡°What don¡¯t you like it?¡± ¡°Like¡­ I love it. But what are these? There is no mention of these things in my borrowed memories.¡± ¡°Well, we can only know what they are by analyzing them.¡± Replying to her with an ¡®Okay¡¯ Rocky appraised the entity to see what kind of a thing could look so beautiful.
Blazing Frost Mushroom [Ingredient Rank : A]
Blazing frost mushroom are a rare variant of light mushrooms. They grow in a dark and humid space, but the most important thing needed for their growth is abundant mana.
Species : Fungi Grade : Rare Growth Area : 25m Price : 1Dc/Mushroom
Rocky was checking their information, when Minnie at his side started giggling ¡°Ha-ha, they are exactly like what their name implies.¡± ¡°Yes they are. Bright, bold and beautiful, just like their name.¡± Rocky replied. They sat on the edge and stared at the mushrooms for a whole hour. They shared some laughs talking about their first some interactions, and tried to hold hands when they talked about their invaders. Rocky shared his wish to become able to talk with her face to face in the real world. He told her how scared he becomes sometimes, and want to hold her hand and place his head on her shoulder to which Minnie smiled and replied saying that day would come. They shared a heartwarming and peaceful moment at the pond, and then a blue screen popped up in front of them.
Ant eggs Rank(0) Incubation period is over. Waiting for the ants to wake up.
They smiled looking at the blue box, and their parental values came to surface, but then at the same time the intruders came to invade.
Warning: Intruders Alert.
Rocky used his Mana sense and to see who had come this time and trembled. His mana sense covering 50 meters he saw what was attacking him. ¡°Fuck, Minnie run! The whole forest is coming!¡± Ch -20 Will didn¡¯t sit around on his ass all day before leaving the fort and instead spent his day observing the soldiers of various classes and asked around what they thought was the best class to have. He decided to get his scout class revoked and gain a new class. He wanted strength and from his recent bloody adventure, it was pretty advent to him that being a scout wasn¡¯t the way to the peak. Scout class would earn him enough money to live a good life, but the strength to fight against cruel and vicious monsters? As scout wasn¡¯t the class for all around heavy duty lifting. He completely left behind his mentality of having a happy and safe life behind and decided to live his life fully to the end. It took him three days to ask around and get enough information about the classes to have an opinion formed of his own. According to his research, the strongest or the most damage dealing class was the Mage, but it was also the hardest class to level and rank up. Because according to the mages he meet, every rank up needed a set level of proficiency in all the skills, like to reach rank one the mage needed to have all of their skills in the intermediate rank. And that wasn¡¯t all; one also needed affinity with an element to become a mage and be a genius at that. There were no known self taught mages in the world and getting a teacher was expensive. Top that with how expensive mage skill books were, he simply decided to not even try. And the talk about zero mobility, paper defense, need of a party to hunt monsters¡­ ¡°It¡¯s not worth the effort.¡± He thought. Then there was the swordsman and warrior. Both classes were similar to each other and depended on their weapon mastery to Rank up. Although the demand for talent in these classes was not that high, the time it demanded was and time was what Will didn¡¯t have. He simply didn¡¯t want to waste his time swinging his sword left to right day and night for years with no end in sight. He didn¡¯t even ask about the support classes like a priest, healer, or scout. The only options left were for him to either become a Thief or an archer. While an archer had his own set of skills and could be quite deadly, but in the end an archer was also just a support class, with very limited scope of becoming overpowered. So he decided to become a thief. Maybe he chose the class because of Rae, maybe not, but he just decided that. Then after calming his mind, he said his goodbyes to Anton who gave him a letter with their mercenary groups seal on it and left the fort. He came out bare footed and on Anton¡¯s recommendation decided to check out the Ragnarock town and register in the adventures guild there. ¡°Give the letter to the receptionist and the rest will be taken care of. But do you really have to leave?¡± He remembered his last conversation with Anton, before shaking his head and taking steps toward the dangerous future he was walking toward. It took him half a day to cross the forest and reach the dirt road leading toward the town. ¡°Hah, how far is it?¡± But thankfully just a minute later he heard the sound of horses running and carrying something heavy with them. It was a merchant travelling back to the town after a successful run in the dungeon on the eastern side of the continent. The cart stopped near him. ¡°Want a lift kid?¡± Will didn¡¯t know what to say to a person who would stop on their own and give lifts. ¡°What are you hesitating for? Come tell me where are you going?¡± Will though for a minute and decided it was better for him to travel in the cart than to walk the whole distance. ¡°Ragnarock.¡± He said. ¡°Oh! Well, isn¡¯t this a coincidence, I am also going there. Come on lets go.¡± Will glanced at that person¡¯s chubby but cleanly shaved smiling face and sighed. ¡®What happened to me? If it was before¡­ then I would have probably jumped on the first chance. No, I would have asked him to stop on my own accord.¡¯ Shaking his head he hopped on the seat. ¡°let¡¯s go¡­.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your name kid? People call me Divine.¡± ¡®Like hell they call you that!!¡¯ Will retorted in his mind and his face turned stiff, which the merchant caught, but didn¡¯t comment about. ¡°So going there for business or just passing through?¡± ¡°I¡­ Don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Oh! It happens. Looks like it is the first time you are travelling on your own.¡± ¡°It shows?¡± ¡°Haha, I am Devine, what can¡¯t my eyes see?¡± Will snorted as a reply to his comment. ¡°Any ways, aren¡¯t you a little too young¡­¡± Will glared at him for saying that and Divine replied, ¡°No, no, I¡¯m not saying that you can¡¯t travel without a guardian or anything, but still¡­¡± ¡°No, I didn¡¯t run away from my home.¡± He then recovered a sealed letter from his pocket, with the forts seal on it and waved it around before pocketing it back. Sweat appeared on Divine¡¯s forehead when he remembered which noble house had that seal. ¡°Ha-ha, like I was saying that dungeon is too horrifying!!¡± Will rolled his eyes on Divines try to change the topic, but the talk about the dungeon attracted his attention. But from the content he understood that the dungeon Divine was talking about was to the east. A ten something year old dungeon which had 20 floors and a rank 3 albino snake of some kind waiting at the end, guarding the master core. The sun sat behind them and a dark cover of branches hid all light the moon light. The merchant flipped a knob to his left and the two fire candles at the front of the cart lit up.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Will looked astonished at the marvel at first, but his face turned to one of grave anger as he remembered where they were. Divine saw his face turning astonished and nodded to himself in his mind, but then Will flipped on him. ¡°Hey what are you doing? You- are you a bandit? Really even you?¡± Divine shouted, but will didn¡¯t listen to him and somehow after quite a lot of struggle, succeeded in turning the knobs off. After doing that he once again came back to sit on his side of the seat and Divine was left confused and scratching his head. ¡°What¡¯s your problem? Behaving like a girl on her period¡­¡± Wills head slipped from his hand when he heard that and glared at him. ¡°What?¡± Divine yelled? Will shook his head hearing him and asked him, ¡°Why did you do that?¡± ¡°Do what?¡± ¡°Give all the monsters in the forest a direct target to attack!¡± Divines face turned serious when he heard that and he shivered how serious the allegations were. He hurriedly looked around the cart to see if any wolfs were following them or not. Will snorted once again seeing him behaving like a coward, but then he smelled something. His brows furrowed he took a strong whiff and frowned. He stood up on the moving cart which scared Divine and made him yell out, ¡°What are you doing, sit back down or you will fall.¡± But Will simply brush his hand off and squinted. He saw that the sky some distance glowing with an orange glow and the closer they got to it the higher the surrounding temperature was becoming. ¡°Did the temperature rise suddenly?¡± Divine asked when his greasy body got covered in sweat. Ash fell on wills face and he yelled out, ¡°Its fire! The forest is on fire!!¡± ¡°What?¡± Divine couldn¡¯t believe his ears. ¡°Where?¡± He jumped on his seat in astonishment. ¡°Look at the side, the whole forest in on fire!!¡± ¡°Was there a thunderstorm? Fuck that.¡± And Divine tensed the reigns to stop the horse. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Will, simply couldn¡¯t believe him. ¡°What do you mean, we need to return. I don¡¯t want to give my life to forest fire.¡± ¡°You, don¡¯t you know anything? We need to get out of this forest and the only way out is in front. There is no way we will be able to get past the fire if we returned now. ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t understand! A single gust of wind and the fire will spread all through the forest in the matter of seconds. Just believe me and drive forward.¡± Divine gritted his teeth and remembering his times in the dungeon city Magnolia, he decided to trust his companion¡¯s decision. ¡°Hiya!¡± *Smack* And with the sound of reigns hitting the horse the cart flew on the dirt road. Will the noticed that the fire was coming from the north, but it was far away and seeing the distance he saw sure that they would be able to reach the town with their lives intact. That is if they didn¡¯t stop in the middle somewhere. But just twenty or so minutes later, Will saw something coming out of the forest. At first he thought about the wolves, but the silhouette looked to be 7 ft tall and walking on two feet. ¡°Stop there, stop right there. There are people¡­¡± ¡°No, if I stop now I won¡¯t be able to get out of the forest¡­¡± But then the human stumble and fell. The duo saw the human fall and ended up breaking into three parts. And just as Divine saw him falling he hurriedly stopped his cart near the human on his own and jumped down. Will looked astonished at his sudden change of heart and following behind him. He went to pick the guy and saw that it wasn¡¯t one human, but there were two girls and one man and all three of them were unconscious. One girl had her arm cut off and was bleeding. The other two although didn¡¯t have any bleeding wounds, their appearance still looked haggard, as if they had been fighting until just some minutes ago. ¡°What are you doing kid? Stop staring and help me out. I can¡¯t pick the man alone you know, he is too heavy!!¡± ¡°Huh¡­ yes!!¡± Then using all of their strength they hurriedly picked them up and ran from the place after loading them up in the back of the cart. They didn¡¯t speak and Will stared at the girl with no arms. He gritted his teeth and turned to face Divine. ¡°Do you have a medical kit or something like that?¡± ¡°Huh¡­ Ah! The girl, yes, yes, in the back, there is a chest. It has some¡­.¡± Will didn¡¯t let him finish and hurriedly moved to the back and opened the chest. He pulled out a flask containing yellow liquid and showed it toward Divine. ¡°Is this a disinfectant?¡± ¡°Huh, yes, yes.¡± Will emptied the whole bottle disinfecting her wounds and tied a string at the open bleeding wounds of her arms to stop the bleeding. Dust shivered in pain as he did that, but otherwise didn¡¯t wake up. The fire never reached them and in after three hours they finally arrived at the town. The guild thanked them for saving the lives of three adventurers on a very important mission and gave them a gold coin as a reward, which Will and Divine distributed equally between them. Divine left after telling will that he would be in town for a month and that he could come look him up if he wanted to visit the dungeon city Magnolia. Then after saying his goodbyes to Divine, Will once again entered the guild. The marvelous building and its clean and formal look made him stop breathing for a second. He couldn¡¯t understand how such a building could exist in this cruel world. ¡°Whoa!¡± he exclaimed and the adventurers passing by him chuckled looking at his completely mesmerized look. He went to the reception and stood in the line. It was already night time and because the rush hour had passed, his turn came soon. He got to the front and the amazingly beautiful and cheerful receptionist greeted him. ¡°Welcome dear sir. How can I help you?¡± And after a stare up, blushing and some stuttering later, Will recovered an envelope from his pocket and after passing it to Jade spoke, ¡°I-I would like to join the guild.¡± Jade accepted the envelope and opened it. Her brows furrowed when she saw the seal on the envelope, but the content was a simple identification certificate from the forts commander. ¡°Very well. Please, wait there for a minute and I¡¯ll call you back.¡± She pointed towards the seats at the side and clicked a button on the tab. Another girl came from the room behind the desk and Jade gave her the certificate. The girl asked her who it was for, but disappointed at his age returned back to the room. A minute later she returned with a blank card and passed it to the receptionist who then called Will. ¡°Yes!!¡± Will asked being equally nervous and excited. Jade gave him a ten page joining contract and told him, ¡°Please read it carefully and then make a blood print here, here , here and here.¡± Will looked awkwardly at her and spoke, ¡°I- I can¡¯t read.¡± Jade looked at him shying and smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. Here let me help you.¡± The contract didn¡¯t contain a single line that could be used against them or by them. It included terms like; you pay for your injuries, food, clothes, etc, etc. The Guild won¡¯t be responsible for your death. You will work as a contracted worker, if the situation ever arose. You are allowed to choose you own mission, but in case of any emergency or any guild activity when your presence is required, your presence is necessary. Failure to comply with the terms would be punished with the lightest being a fine and the highest being the termination of your contract. It also said that he was needed to complete at least one mission per month or a higher ranking mission than your guild rank after a month of absence. Will nodded his head understanding every clause, and then their talk reached the guild ranking. ¡°So, currently your rank is F which is the lowest rank. Guild ranks go from F to A and then S, SS, SSS, G, N and finally L.¡± Which confused Will. Because the ranking wasn¡¯t following the alphabetical order. ¡°Now, Mission ranking F and E are like community service. The missions include helping a shopkeeper, running some errands, playing hockey for some old lady¡­¡± Will coughed at the last one and jade giggled. ¡°Then C& D ranking mission are the mission which deal with transportation, dealing with bandit groups, one on one fights, revenges etc.¡± ¡°Even revenges?¡± ¡°Yes, even revenges. Then mission for rank B & A deals with everything dangerous like; exploring uncharted land, Exploring Dungeons, etc. S, SS and SSS are specialty missions which can¡¯t be given to normal people. You won¡¯t find them listed on the mission board. She didn¡¯t explain them and Will also understood that his rank was too low and he didn¡¯t need that information. ¡°And finally the missions with the ranking G, N and L are the compulsory missions, which you will have to participate in if asked for. G is when the mission is our guilds personal business, N is for a mission on the national scale, and L for something which affects the whole world. These missions as a citizen and member of the guild are advised not to skip, as the deserters are usually hunted down afterwards. Okay any questions?¡± ¡°So, how can I get a mission?¡± ¡°There is a mission board over there and a board outside and both are frequently updated with missions. Now, once you pick a mission of your guild ranking or the one a single rank above, you will have to remove it from the board and bring it here. Understood?¡± Will nodded his head. ¡°Good boy. Now, place your hand over this hole please.¡± Will looked but then complied and just as he rested his hand on it hole on the table, something got logged inside his hand. Will shrieked and then looked at his hand, but before he could ask what it was jade replied, ¡°That is a tracking device, a identity proof, takes samples for you strength increase every day, and also tells us whether you are alive or not.¡± ¡°Then what is the card for?¡± ¡°It proves that you are a member our guild. Anything else?¡± ¡°NO¡­¡± and he walked out of the guild.