Chapter 75: The Ant Colony

Minutes passed by.

Ethan opened his eyes and checked his status. His mana pool and Mana Reservoir had both recovered fully.

Satisfied, he stood up and walked back toward Aria, who had been waiting nearby.

"Done?" she asked.

"Yeah. Let’s go."

Aria got up, and the two headed toward the Ant Colony entrance.

As they approached the dungeon portals, Aria’s expression grew increasingly sour.

"Ugh, I hate ants."

Ethan glanced at her. "You hate wasps and spiders too. Is there any bug you actually like?"

"Don’t compare them!" Aria protested. "Ants are even worse in their own way. They’re tiny, they get everywhere, and there are always so many of them! You can crush one, and a hundred more will take its place!"

"Sounds like you already know what to expect."

"That’s exactly why I hate them!"

Ethan chuckled and continued toward the Hell Difficulty portal.

"I’m serious, you know," Aria said, catching up with him. "If those things start crawling all over me, I’m leaving you to deal with them."

Ethan stepped through the portal before she could complain further.

Aria hurried after him.

They emerged inside a huge underground cave.

Tunnels ran through the walls in every direction, some so small that a person would have to crawl through them, while others were wide enough for dozens of ants to pass at once.

Ants covered the ground, walls, and ceiling. Some carried pieces of food, while others carried white eggs deeper into the tunnels. There were so many that the entire cave seemed to be moving.

A system notification suddenly appeared before Ethan.

[You have killed a Level 10 Worker Ant.]

Ethan paused and looked down.

A tiny ant lay crushed beneath his foot.

He looked down at the crushed ant.

"...That was easy."

Aria leaned over to look at it. "You killed it just by stepping on it?"

"Seems so."

She looked at the ants crawling around their feet, then carefully moved closer to Ethan.

"Then try not to step on too many of them."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because there are thousands of them!"

Ethan looked at the crushed Worker Ant beneath his foot before turning his attention to the others crawling around them.

"Worker Ants aren’t much of a threat," he said. "They’re small and don’t have much attack power. A few might cause trouble, but they shouldn’t be able to hurt us much."

Aria looked down at the ants near her feet, then back at Ethan.

"Then why don’t you just set them all on fire? We could get rid of them before moving deeper."

"Not yet." Ethan looked toward the tunnels leading farther into the colony. "It’d be more efficient to do that when we reach the heart of the nest. The Queen should be there, along with the Waykeeper. If we can deal with them and the surrounding ants at the same time, we won’t have to fight our way through the entire colony."

"Oh, right. The Waykeeper."

Ethan opened his Legion Space and summoned several Shadow Wraiths.

The Wraiths emerged from the surrounding shadows and immediately began attacking the Worker Ants crawling across the ground. Their claws cut through the tiny creatures as they spread out around Ethan and Aria, clearing a path through the colony.

Ethan started walking, and Aria followed beside him. The Shadow Wraiths moved with them, killing the Worker Ants they encountered along the way.

"That’s much better," Aria said, watching a Wraith dispatch another ant. "At least we don’t have to worry about these little things."

"Just remember that the Soldier Ants are a different story," Ethan reminded her. "And we still have the Waykeeper to deal with."

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time."

Ethan and Aria continued deeper into the colony as the Shadow Wraiths killed the Worker Ants along their path.

The workers offered little resistance. Most fled as soon as the Wraiths approached, abandoning the food they carried or rushing into nearby tunnels with their eggs.

Watching through his summons, Ethan noticed that many were heading toward the deeper parts of the colony.

They might be trying to alert the other ants.

"Why are they running away?" Aria asked. "Aren’t they supposed to attack us?"

"Not these ones. Worker Ants aren’t meant for combat. They’re probably trying to escape, though some might be heading deeper to alert the others."

Aria watched a group disappear into a tunnel.

"So we’re basically invading their home."

"That’s one way to put it."

"Well, they shouldn’t have made their home in a dungeon full of monsters."

Ethan said nothing and continued forward.

The number of Worker Ants gradually decreased until the tunnel opened into a much larger chamber.

Several enormous ants stood guard at the opposite end. Their thick shells were much tougher than the workers’, and their massive mandibles could easily crush anything caught between them.

Soldier Ants.

One raised its head at the sight of the intruders and clicked its mandibles. The others immediately responded, and more Soldier Ants emerged from tunnels along the chamber walls.

Aria moved closer to Ethan.

"Those are definitely not Worker Ants."

"No," Ethan replied, watching more Soldier Ants emerge from the tunnels. "And there are more coming."

Before long, hundreds of Soldier Ants had gathered in the chamber, their mandibles clicking as they closed in on Ethan and Aria.

"That’s a lot of them," Aria muttered.

"It’s fine. Let the Wraiths handle them."

The Soldier Ants rushed forward, but the Shadow Wraiths were already moving.

Some attacked head-on, while others slipped through the shadows and appeared behind their enemies. Their claws struck the ants’ hard shells, but the Wraiths had other ways of dealing with their armor.

Several Wraiths summoned Phantom Chains and wrapped them around the Soldier Ants’ mandibles. Pulling from opposite directions, they forced the massive jaws apart, leaving the ants unable to bite.

Before their targets could break free, other Wraiths closed in with Spectral Claws.

Their Spectral Claws ignored part of the ants’ physical defense, allowing the Wraiths to tear through their tough bodies despite their hard carapaces.

One Soldier Ant after another fell.

[You have killed a Level 15 Soldier Ant. EXP +750]

[You have killed a Level 15 Soldier Ant. EXP +750]

[You have killed a Level 16 Soldier Ant. EXP +800]

The notifications continued to appear as the Wraiths cut through the swarm.

The remaining ants tried to overwhelm the Wraiths with their numbers, but they couldn’t keep up with attacks coming from every direction. Whenever they turned to face one enemy, another struck from behind.

Aria watched the battle unfold.

"Your summons really are good at dealing with these things."

"They have their uses," Ethan replied.

Through One Mind, One Legion, he followed the battle from the Wraiths’ perspectives.

The Soldier Ants were stronger than the workers, but they couldn’t match the Wraiths’ coordination.

Within minutes, the last Soldier Ant fell.

[You have killed a Level 16 Soldier Ant. EXP +800]

...

Ethan dismissed the notifications.

Several tunnels led deeper into the colony, but none showed how many Soldier Ants waited ahead.

"Let’s go," he said.

He sent the Shadow Wraiths into the tunnels ahead while he and Aria followed behind.