Feeling complicated I went back to the nursery and just I as stepped inside Tiny held my shoulders and started shaking them.

“Why did you decline becoming the vice-commander? But thank god you are back. I thought…”

But before Tiny could finish talking, someone interjected which surprised us both.

“Why did you decline being named?”

It was the bully.

Tiny looked dumbfounded at him. He pulled my hand and stepped back.

I patted his shoulders and got back to the bully. I told him I didn’t, and still don’t know what it meant to be named by the queen, and he scratched his head awkwardly.

“You know, you just lost a great opportunity to engrave your name in the list of father of the ants.”

{Values has become lv 2}

Tiny nodded his head from behind, still hiding behind me, but then added,

“But it’s good that you declined, otherwise her other suitors would not have taken that lightly.

Oh! The information was too much for my little head to process, but understanding what he meant, I took a breath of relief.

But the bully wasn’t done yet he suddenly yelled out, “Don’t you like the princess. How could it be!? How can anybody say no to a beautiful and charming lady like her?”

Turned out, being named meant, to be chosen as a one time partner for the next queen, and a life filled with endless glory.

Looks like my senses saved me this time.

But I still have plans and things I want to see before dying.

Anyways the three of us, continued to talk through the night and it turns out that the bully, no, Bill, tried to thrash me around because he could feel something off about me.

He said that it was like an instinct saying to destroy me before I grow.

Anyways the night turned into day, and I left those sleeping friends of mine behind and started walking toward the scavengers barracks, thinking ‘Its show time, baby.’

{Planner has become lv 3}

{Anticipation has become lv 5}

At the barracks I was greeted by a soldier from the captain’s special unit, and was given a joining letter.

I stared dumbfounded at it, and was about to neglect, when the soldier spoke,

{Decider has become lv 6}

“Don’t reject it for now, keep it. Now tell me, why did you join the scavengers?”

I answered him with ambitions words like danger, adventure and thrill.

And the soldier smiled.

“Come to the captain’s office once you rank up. You don’t know what we do, but it is the most dangerous and exciting job one can even dream of as an ant.”

And I was left alone with a thought which asked me repeating what could be more dangerous than being a scavenger?

{Anticipation has become lv 6}

Anyways, I left the area and joined the scavengers at the hub.

While most just stayed away, peeked, stared, or looked at me. Then some ants, no, one ant, a female ant came to talk to me.

“Mr. Hero you are finally here, huh. You look stressed and tired, must have been quite the hangover. Okay, now that you are here that makes it everyone.”

{Connections has become lv 4}

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She came and went away like the wind, and didn’t even ask my opinion or anything on the matter.

Another girl came from behind and patted my back.

“Don’t worry about it. She might seem a little cu-cu I the head, but she will grow on you. Hi, I am the leader of unit 24.”

{Connections has become lv 5}

{Talk has become lv 8}

She waited for me to speak, but my confused face probably reminded her that I was a newbie.

“Oh right! You are new. You see in every scavenger mission, thousands of ants leave the hive and it is not possible to control so many ants…”

“Even more so if you have ants like her.” I added.

To which she added, “She is the vice captain of the team though.” Which surprised me.

“As I was saying, so to control the ants, the party is divided into groups and the groups are further divided into small teams of ten ants, and I am the leader of one such party.”

{Military knowledge has become lv 5}

I shook her hand, gave her a corporate bow and told her that it was a pleasure for me to meet her.

{Manners has become lv 8}

{Acting has become lv 6}

“The pleasure is all mine Mr. Hero, but the reason I am here is because due to some circumstances our party is missing one member and I, no my whole party would like you to join us. You see you can only attend a mission if you are part of a team or the leader.

I thanked god that she was here to pick me up after hearing that.

{Faith has become lv 2}

Well, thinking as no one else was coming to ask me to join them, and as she was asking politely, I thought why not. The one thing I needed the most was guidance, and that was easily achievable in a team full of veterans.

“Great. Then let’s go and meet the team. Then we’ll get back to the business.”

I followed her and just a few steps away meters away was the team.

There were six male and four females in the team. The ratio didn’t surprise me as their gear and abilities did.

All of them were rankers after all. They also had the little dot on their head, which my mind told me was the appraisal sign.

I focused on the dot on the leaders head and what I saw made me surprised.

{Appraisal has become lv 6}

Black Soldier Ant. (Common)

Level

5/10

Type

Insect

Rank

1

Job

Fighter

Health

5.5/5.5

Stamina

3/3

Stat Tier: F

Strength

1.7

Intelligence

.3

Agility

.8

Constitution

.5

Dexterity

.4

Vitality

.5

Wisdom

.1

Endurance

.5

What the hell is this?

This is the true power of an appraisal. No, it’s still incomplete, actually. Well, you get the gist of it.

I understand the rest, but what does that stat tier mean?

A tier is the level of your stats. It ranges from the highest SSS to the lowest F. Like how the one in the status say F, that means… wait a minute F… Fu… a tier of F when the lowest if E… Fuuu! Ah! This is too funny. What the hell are you appraising… an ant? Haha…

This status annoys me. 

“Hey, what happened?” team leader asked me and I replied her saying nothing, just thinking about something.

“Okay, then team this is the rising star of our colony, and Mr. Hero this is my team.”

We greeted each other and after some words of flattery and praises, we got down to business.

“You see the teams aren’t divided equally, and we contend with each other for resources and as you might know the currency of our colony is food. We are paid in food and we pay in food too. So all the missions as much are to provide food for the whole colony, also allows us to enough food to live a life of leisure. But all of that depends on what we score outside.”

{Common knowledge has become lv 6}

Her talking about the pay made me remember the pit and the commercial districts. Anyways, she then told me the team composition.

“We have four soldier ants for protection including me, one scout, one long distance message, three carrier ants and then there’s you.”

I already knew what a soldier and a scout ant was, but the carrier ant looked nothing like the other two. It looked too weak actually, and skinny. It didn’t even have exoskeleton and a wrinkly skin instead.

It actually didn’t even look like an ant at all.

{Examine has become lv 4}

While the messenger ant had long antennas, by long I mean really long. Almost thrice his size long, his head was also twice the size of my head, but it didn’t look to be out of place on his 5 centimeter long body.

{Examine has become lv 5}

“Ahem! Why do you always get lost in your own thoughts?”

One of the soldiers asked me, and I only smiled. Then a horn sounded and everyone looked straight ahead.

“They are releasing the information about today’s mission.” The same soldier once again explained, but then got surprised when he heard the information.

A strangely stiff voice rang in the hub.

“Individual team mission, last known location is the giant canyons, target is the blood sucker, and Dangers may include, blood worms and the other colonies of ants.”

And team leader brought the position and direction our team would travel in.