'Shit! Who was it!?'

He quickly looked behind him to see who attacked, and his eyes widened when he spotted the relatively small fairy looking at him with a cold face. What surprised him the most was the fairy's state. 'My sword was that shallow?'

Flor had a significant slash going across her chest, but she looked perfectly fine and free of injuries. Her face was cold and indifferent as he looked at him after delivering an attack that had pushed his body forward and opened a wound large enough to see his ribcage from behind.

Ignatia stepped forward, her fist clenched, and the she punched his gut. "."

The human's pupils shrunk as he tried to dodge quickly, but their physical strength was similar, making it impossible because of the closeness between them.

BOOOM!

His body arched like a bow as he was flung backward, his internal organs taking deep damage as his Phoer Body Shards plummeted.

Flor was not one to lose an opportunity, and she quickly flew above him, pointed downward. "Die."

Several wind crescents shot from her, all of them landing one after another and making his body bounce against the ground while large gashes spread around him. After the third slash, Flor stopped as a message entered her eyes.

[Congratulations on defeating . You've gained 17 Experience Points.]

Flor took in a deep breath only to hiss in pain. Ignatia approached and smirked. "Quite a nice reward. I've gained 84 experience points, hahaha."

Flor rolled her eyes. "Are you bragging, knowing I have less?"

Ignatia smiled smugly. "I've realized that you've probably tiered up somehow. So, yeah, I'm bragging because I feel annoyed that you are now stronger than me. So, how much did you win?"

Flor snorted. "As if I would tell you. Anyway, is his equipment useful to you?"

Ignatia looked and shook her head. "Nothing interesting. I didn't expect much, but his weapons and tools are not my fit. So, with their low quality, if I wear them, it will most likely not be worth it."

Flor looked at them and saw that they were all Level 5 unranked equipment. 'Well, even Flawed Basic Level equipment is expensive in the cities, from what I learned, so it is normal not to have any.'

Unranked equipment was the most common because it didn't need special ores to be created. Sylvanium, Etherium, and such were not only uncommon but almost impossible to find and obtain sustainably. While there might be mines, their production rates were also abysmal. So, high-level equipment was usually worth extreme amounts.

Trades between powerful kingdoms, empires, or religious groups were all made using those ores, as they were equally important for every living creature.

Flor still didn't throw the equipment and used her strength to carry the human back. Ignatia said. "Oh, can you give me the corpse? A Level 10 is very rare to come by, and it can probably nurture a subordinate queen."

Flor blinked and looked at Ignatia. "Subordinate queen?"

Ignatia nodded. "I'm naturally not going to be the only queen in my nest in the future. I need weaker queens to focus on creating worker ants while I focus on breeding the stronger ants. Moreover, as long as I'm alive, they will always obey me as their progenitor, so they are different from wild queen wannabes."

Flor laughed. "Queen wannabes, huh?" After thinking for a second, she nodded. "Well, I don't have any use for a Level 10 corpse either way. However, the clothes fit quite snuggly, so can I carry him first to my place, and then you can strip him down and carry him away? I don't really want more Aether Mana than I've used to carry these items back."

Ignatia easily agreed. "I don't have any problems with that. I also want to relax a bit, so I can help you carry him if you want."

Flor knew that Ignatia was physically stronger, so she threw the corpse at her. "Sure. Let's go."

As they trotted back, Ignatia looked toward the ants that were approaching and ordered them. "Return home and guard it until I come back. Go back to your usual work."

The ants all silently acquired and moved through the forest as one, returning to the nest by following their pheromone traces.

Then, both leaders strode through the forest in silence for a while until Ignatia smirked. "He got you good."

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Flor's eyebrow twitched. "He sneak-attacked me."

Ignatia's smirk widened. "You also did so and did less damage."

Flor gave Ignatia a side-eye. "Is this how you thank me? By mocking me?"

Ignatia couldn't hold it and finally burst into laughter. "Seeing you fly away was hilarious, hahaha."

Flor shook her head and sighed. "I don't know how almost being bisected is funny, but sure."

Ignatia pondered. "Say, if you hadn't had this strange breakthrough, would you have been able to survive that?"

Flor thought and commented, unsure. "Probably with heavy wounds. I mean, if I had my previous strength, even catching up to him would've been a problem."

Ignatia snorted. "If you hadn't appeared, I could've fought him with my children and avoided any escapes."

Flor looked at her, speechless. "Wouldn't many of those ants have died if you had fought him alone? Is this how you say thanks to me coming to wipe your thorax?"

Ignatia looked at Flor with her compound eyes and, this time smiled genuinely. "Thanks."

Flor scratched her cheek, not expecting such a straightforward answer. "No problem. We are neighbors now, so I wouldn't want anything bad happening to you."

Ignatia chuckled. "Yeah… neighbors."

Flor nodded, and both forest creatures continued their journey in a comfortable silence.

After arriving, a few Rose Fairies came forward to help, and they quickly stripped him of his equipment. Ignatia smiled at Flor. "I'm returning; if you need anything, tell me."

Flor nodded back. "Next time, tell the Rose Fairy what happened so we can send aid."

The Ant Queen grabbed the corpse by the nape and agreed she dragged him away. "Sure~."

Amapola approached and asked. "Queen, what is happening?"

Flor rubbed her chin. "Hm… We have a problem. Some humans appeared outside of Ignatia's nest, and it doesn't seem like a coincidence. There will probably be more creatures coming."

Amapola frowned, looking worried. "If a strong Sylvan comes with bad intentions, we will be helpless."

Flor got thoughtful as she turned to look at the tree standing in the middle of their now living area. "… Perhaps not so much." Her eyes moved to the small garden they built at the side and asked. "Speaking of which, how are the young ones growing?"

Amapola's face changed from worried to ecstatic. "Liu Shu's aura is doing wonders on their development. I feel like they will be stronger as a base than normal fairies."

Flor blinked. "Stronger?"

Amapola nodded enthusiastically. "One of them has been born, and because of Liu Shu's influence, her base stats are like this."

Aether Mana Shards: 35/35

Phoer Body Shards: 11/11

Anima Energy Shards: 22/22

Flor's eyes widened when Amapola told her. "No way, that's 50% more Aether Mana, and the Anima Energy reserves had been doubled as well!"

Amapola commented. "We've guessed that they are probably F+ Tier instead of F Tier at birth. This is a massive improvement! Moreover, this one was transplanted, so she hasn't received the entire benefit since birth. It will take a few more months for the newly planted Rose Fairies to be born, but we are sure that when they hatch and level up, they will become much stronger than we are."

Flor laughed. "Good. Like in your case, a Rose Fairy reaching the F+ Tier is very rare. However, now we will be guaranteed to reach that level." Flor looked at Liu Shu and said with a wistful tone. "Perhaps, reaching the E- Tier is not completely out of the question."

Flor was currently at that tier but reached it by luck. Therefore, her expectations were not high for Rose Fairies to break this significant barrier alone. However, she didn't think it was utterly impossible. After all, they had Liu Shu. 'She is just Level 3, and she has already managed to influence our race's basic tier by one small level. If she reaches Level 10…' Flor couldn't bring herself to imagine what kind of gargantuan influence Liu Shu could have by then. 'She will probably be the Golden Sap Forest's overlord, right? No… Perhaps more… But.'

Flor looked in the direction of Fortuna City. 'There is another World Tree in that direction, right? I've heard that World Trees don't like each other's presence much, but I'm not too knowledgeable about it. Hm… I should add it to the list of information we need Verdantia to collect for us.'

Flor paused. 'Speaking of her, I wonder what she is doing? I should go visit her when I have time.'

Amapola commented. "Also, Queen. We've noticed that the Thornstride had been spotted in the River Beaver and Myconid territory."

Flor's eyebrows raised. "Myconids? Aren't they descendants of a fungus race and relatively… tame?"

Flor was about to call them lazy, but her lifestyle was not much different from someone growing roots. Other than her routinely scheduled hunt rounds, she would stay by Liu Shu's side, enjoying nature and manipulating Aether Mana for fun.

Amapola nodded. "We just received a report from the fairies we stationed around." Her face became a bit sad. "Speaking of which, one of them died."

Flor paused and sighed. "Tell them to be careful. If they don't return, we will never get the information they've managed to gather."

Amapola nodded. "Also, Queen. Why are you wearing that stuffy cover over your chest?"

Flor looked down and remembered about her wound. Thankfully, she was covered and didn't agitate the entire Rose Fairy race. "Ah… Well, I got a bit injured by the human. Ignatia was worried and helped me."

She really didn't want to express goodwill toward the woman, but… 'Hm… Since we are neighbors, we might want to take care of each other. Spreading a bit of good publicity shouldn't hurt anybody, right?'

"O-Oh, Queen Flor!"

Flor turned and saw a petite and low-level looking at her. "What's wrong, little one?"

The small Rose Fairy gathered her courage and shouted. "T-Thank you for helping Mommy Ignatia!"

Like a glass mirror, Flor's lighthearted smile cracked. Amapola, at the side, also looked at the Level 3 Fairy with a stunned look. "Mommy?"

The Level 3 Fairy stuttered, her face as red as her hair or eyes. "W-Well, she told me to call her as such…" She was extremely embarrassed, but one of her friends told her to express herself freely, so she did so.

Flor rubbed her forehead, looking at the child with a non-enthusiastic expression. "Well, do as you please, I guess? But remember that she can turn on us in a single instant if someone angers her."

The Rose Fairy nodded timidly. "I-I will."

Flor asked. "So, what do you want as a reward?"

The Level 3 spoke loudly. "O-Oh! I know! A brush with hard bristles!"

Flor's lips twitched. "Why do you want that?"

The Level 3 fairy smiled bashfully. "T-To brush Mommy Ignatia's carapace."

Flor answered in a single dry sound. "Oh."