“What? That’s true?” The news was sudden and quite shocking. I had thought that the termites could retaliate. After all no one like to be kept captive, but who knew it would be happening so soon and while we were visiting the farm. “That’s just bad luck.”

“Yeah, it’s true. The termites Dark brought weren’t from the cage. He found them loitering around instead. They were probably trying to make a run for it without their group and I am sure that the whole group will be coming soon too.”

“But what about the ants who were guarding them?”

 “Well, he said he found some ant carapaces too. So,…”

This was horrible news. As he had told me, there were at least five hundred termites in the farm and a queen.

“There was no way we can let even a single one of them to run away, that will be catastrophic, but why didn’t the colony sent anyone here? Or are they simply in the dark and don’t know?”

Who would want an injured tiger living in his backyard, waiting for his time to take care of old grudges. Only god knew what kind of catastrophe would ensue if we let even a single one of them slip out alive.

“Yeah, the termites probably killed everyone in the farm. So no one could send a distress signal. Anyways, they are probably getting together right now and will come toward us soon. They wouldn’t want to endanger he life of their queen. So get prepared and send your brothers back. I’m sorry but they won’t survive this ordeal.”

 “So should we…” I looked at Tiny and the others and saw them killing their third termite and this time all four of them got enveloped in that golden glow of level up.

‘How are they leveling up so fast?’

My face must have contorted and said ‘I don’t believe this.’ Because otherwise David wouldn’t have felt like asking me “What happened?” with concern.

“Just how are they leveling up so fast?” I asked him and he looked at me like I was joking with him.

“What do you mean fast? That’s pretty much the standard after all. I mean considering how a ranker has an experience demand which grows in the hundreds with each level, the novices probably just need ten so points of experience in order to level up.”

‘Then why did it take me so long to Rank up? Why does my body demands so many points to level up?’

David must have felt that I wasn’t satisfied with his answer, so he added,

“Although it’s a different thing that they… well, the novices can’t level up at all. Otherwise, I think just a second ranker alone could give them enough experience to consecutively level up to level 10 and proceed through with their evolution. Well, if doesn’t suffice then two will probably do I suppose. Anyways, we are going to go deal with the termites now, so go out now and take care of your bothers.”

I understood that he was concerned about my well being, but it angered me knowing that he didn’t think I would be able to handle some termites. There were five hundred f them, but so what? I fought against twenty thousand zombies in the last war and I had probably killed more than one hundred alone, excluding the last two bosses, that is.

“What do you mean? Am I not part of your team? Do you not believe that I can handle myself?”

His jaw opened slightly as if he was going to say something, but then before saying what he wanted to looked toward our… his team members and spoke.

“Well, every one of us can handle at least fifty rankers alone. You know, we all, me, Mink, D and Kim have been through thick and thin together. We know each other. I can run amok on the battle field just because I know my brothers will have my back. I am not saying that you are not strong. You are probably the biggest talent of this colony. It’s just that I don’t think trust can be given. I don’t think I trust you enough to stick my neck to save you or hope that you will save me but putting your life on the line.”

His words troubled me deeply. Maybe, I had just been taking this explorers business too lightly. They were serious, way too serious for their job. But he was asking for a simple thing from me; trust. He wanted to trust me and hoped that I won’t betray his trust, that’s all.

But I also knew that gaining someone’s trust wasn’t as simple as the word sounded.

But I had to stop thinking about it, because right then I felt the ground under my feet tremble. The vibrations were strong, but they were there.

I checked with my [Perception] what it was about. [Perception] was currently sitting at lv 25 and my Sense had already grown strong enough to cover 1 meter in radius around me. And with its help I saw about three hundred strong horde of plum and healthy looking termites coming toward us.

“Oh shit!”

“What happened?”

I asked him to calm down and told him that those termites were coming. “Hmm~” he slowly nodded his head contemplating the meaning of my words and finally spoke after making me wait for five fucking second. Little did he know how anxious I had become waiting for him?

“Okay, now I won’t ask you how you know that, but do they have their queen with them?” I checked again and saw a large body, at least five centimeter large body being carried by twenty termites in the middle of their group. She was a burden. If the termites didn’t have to carry her out then some of them probably would have survived and gained freedom, but it’s just that their fates didn’t exist outside this farm. They had sacrificed themselves for nothing the moment they had decided to rebel.

“Yes. She is right in the middle of the group. And I think there are only about three hundred of them and at the helm is a…second ranker?”

His expressions derailed and his mood went down south. For the first time I saw him getting angry and it was a disaster. Even Mink who was standing beside him stepped back when he got angry.

“How the fuck did the soldiers stationed here not notice the appearance of a second ranker? Do I have to command them too? Those fucking idiots. No shit, the termite got the courage to attempt escape. Fuck…!”

He yelled and the ground underneath my feet trembled.

“Big bro-the-r wh-at’s ha-ppe-nin-g?”

I heard Tiny’s trembling voice and knew that David was losing control, but he came back to his senses before I had to do anything.

He looked at our concerned faces and apologized. “Okay, you take your brothers back to the mound and…” he looked back at the team and asked them to get ready.

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

 “We are going to show those termites who they are messing with. And remember; don’t leave a single one of them alive.”

“What about the queen, leader?” crimson asked him and he told them to not kill her.

“And behave yourselves. I am asking you to kill them, so do it swiftly and end it before the help arrives.”

Then he looked back at me and gestured me to leave.

I didn’t know why, but it felt like a challenge to me and I didn’t want to go either. He was asking me to leave and the only think I had learned in this life was to disobey everyone and do what my heart told me to.

They were my team I couldn’t just leave them and run away when the danger approaches. I am no coward. And I didn’t think there would have remained any place for me in their team if I had shown them my back today.

I turned toward Bill who I knew could act as a leader, and told him to lead his brothers back and tell the soldiers about the termite’s rebellion.

“You are not coming with us brother?”

“No.” I replied to Bill and rubbed Tinys’ head that was looking at me like we were meeting for the last time.

“Don’t worry. We’ll continue your training after I handle this mess. Go now, and don’t forget to inform the soldiers about this.”

I then patted Bills shoulder once, gave him an encouraging smile and went back to stand with my team facing the direction, the termites were coming from.

Everyone other than Mink looked at me with a passing hint of being amused in their eyes, before they turned their heads back toward the direction the long horde of termites was coming to take back their freedom.

“Go.” I asked my brothers to leave, but they didn’t move until our voices got drowned by the war cries of the termites. They must have felt scared seeing a whole floor covered in termites coming towards them, but I didn’t have time to worry about them anymore.

Actually I didn’t have to worry at all. The termites… although there were a lot of them, I felt no oppression from them.

“Geeee…!”

“GAaaaa…!”

*Ting*

[Skill: Termite language obtained.]

“FUCK THE ANT!”

“HO!”

“KILL THEM!”

“HO!”

“LETS FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!”

“KILL THEM ALL!”

And no matter how loud or long they shouted, I didn’t felt overwhelmed by them. They actually looked even weaker than our common soldiers.

The termites kept running towards us without stopping. I could see that they were scared. Although they had somehow decided and went through their plan of falling out with us, but their awkwardness toward fighting was clear as a day. There were only five of us, but most of them were still shivering with fear.

I actually wanted to drop a poisonous acid bomb in the middle of their group and kill them right there, but I also wanted to see my team members fight for once.

So instead of overpowering the termites from the start I decided to take it easy for once and used [War Cry], just to give my team a jump in their abilities and make the already scared termites lose conscious.

“WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE UP AGAINST”

And not only did all of my allies had their health, strength, endurance and mana have an increase of huge13%, but the whole front line of the termites started foaming from their mouths and became paralyzed.

“What the fuck was that?” I heard Dark mumble in astonishment as the rest of them were looking at the termites that hadn’t stopped for a single second until then, were prostrating in front of them.

“What did you do!?” Mink curiously asked me and I said, “I did nothing. They just don’t have the spirit that’ all.”

“What he did doesn’t matter, just kill them all.” David said and became the first one from us to score a kill.

Packing skills like earth buster, earthen spears, and quake he was a difficult being to fight and a hard ant to crack.

Over that was his yellowish glow which was actually a barrier skill and it didn’t let a single scratch appear on him.

He was like a tank destroying termite just by being near them.

Our opponents were only once evolved termites after all, and they had no training, no skills, no experience to boot.

Just how could they handle he might of five super nova’s exploding on their heads.

“Ah! This is going to be too easy.”

Mink said and charged into the termite group.

“EEE, SAVE ME!”

One of the termites yelled and fell on the ground.

Even though his opponents were mere termites, Mink still showed off spectacularly. His exoskeleton swell and covered his whole body. Not leaving even a single part uncovered. He looked like a mini tank going on a rampage. His skeleton grew and grew until it was almost three times its previous thickness.

But that wasn’t all, his feet and antennas grew club like things at the ends.

“Have fun bitches.” We heard him say as he pulverized the front row of the termites and charged deeper into the group.

“AAA!”

“NOO!”

“PLEASE, NOT ME…!”

We heard all kind of pleading and scared sounds coming from his way and before long Dark who was itching to more also showed his colors.

“FUCK.”

He yelled and his body warped into this skinny zombie like figure with long metallic claws at the ends of his legs and his mandibles changing into scythes. His antennas stretched and stretched until they were twice their previous length and turned into a double edged flexible blade, but his exoskeleton shrunk instead.

It was like he had evolved into a sharp, yet brittle blade. His body was full of openings, but his dexterity made up for his flaws.

He specialized in cutting termites like they were vegetables and every time h moved the sound of blades cutting air came.

“Whoa.” It was my honest reaction. I knew third rankers were strong, but wasn’t this too much? Both of them had shown extreme body warping abilities, as if above second rank one was directly able to imply skill upon their bodies.

But at least both of them were still sane. Because I don’t think I can say the same for Crimson. I finally understood why he had ‘The Maniac’ as his title.

He didn’t move, but that didn’t mean he didn’t act. Five fireballs appeared out of nowhere and started hovering above his head.

His eyes turned to the color of fire, vibrant and alive and a bloody maniacal smirk appeared on his face. “I’m going to enjoy this.” He said. Heck, even his face was saying he will enjoy it.  But it wasn’t until he fried one of the termites charging toward him did his true nature came out.

“Ha-ha die, die, die, die, die, die!”

And the fireballs launched toward the termites without stopping. The fireballs countdown was almost negligible. The count of balls hovering over his head never dropped below two and he continued raining death upon the termites until they all died.

He fired ten fireballs in six seconds. It was an amazing number and every fireball killed at least one termite, burned another and singed a couple of them.

I at first had thought that Mink was the strongest of them all and David was the leader because of his calm nature and intelligent self, but how wrong I was!

Not only was David not calm, he was a crazy mean ant. No matter how much Mink Pulverized, Dark sliced, or Crimson burned, they all combined didn’t come near the number of termite he alone killed.

But knowing that all of them were strong was felt well, and it’s not like I didn’t do anything.

The termites were many, and although they weren’t able to hurt any of us, some of them still somehow slipped past them and reached me.

“How do I look to them with my grey color tone and ominous presence?”

Surely, the terror of my war cry was still there, but having been through the attacks of my team they must have thought that I was a pushover. Because no matter who, everyone who was able to reach past them came toward me, yelling, “I’ll revenge you all.” Or something like that.

But everyone who reached past them still died by my hands. I only wanted to knock them out, but six of them still died. And in the end I was only able to knock out seven termites for Tiny and the others to level up on.

“Hey guys, do you even need me?” I asked them when Mink killed the last of them.

He snorted before looking back at David and saying, “I killed sixty five.”

“Thirty five for me.” Dark joined in the fun and I added, “I dealt with twelve.”

“I burned fifty eight.” Yelled crimson and David shook his head giving us a smirk.

“One hundred and thirty five.”

“Fuck!” Mink cried out hearing his extraordinary number. Also did I say it only took them ten minutes to sort out the termites?

“That’s pretty amazing actually.” I complemented him and asked him the question which had been bothering me for a while.

“So, was this also a test?” I needed to know. I knew it was another one of their tests. I didn’t knew whether the captain had deliberately sent us to the farm ad planned this whole Endeavour to get me comfortable with the team or what, but it sire did work out fine.

“Yeah, we were going to bring you out here in three days time. We could have gathered some more second ranked termites in that time, but you wanted to come today, so we had to change the plans.”

“Heee…. So, did I pass.” And they made faces which completely said the obvious.

“Okay, so what now?”

“Now we will let the soldiers handle the queen and team explorers will officially enjoy our rest. While you help your brothers level up. How about it?”

“It’s a great plan.”