Getting the mundanities of life handled were irritating, but needed. A new phone. Email address. Contacting the police, in case the contract became a thing. It was almost dark when he had everything he needed handled, the console of the Lightning setup the way he wanted it… he wanted to head to the hotel. But…. there was one more thing he needed to do before checking in.
He headed into a hardware store, picking up a handful of shelving units… and then headed back behind the dumpster, vanishing from reality… appearing in his own personal storage container.
The place was crowded; and messy. So much food, so many dead ants, his supplies just laying around…. He needed to organize.
First, all the destroyed and damaged food. He only wanted jars if they were intact enough to replace with venom; and he didn’t care about the contents.
He spent the next hour building shelves, organizing… and by the time he was done… he was starting to feel sleepy. Lightheaded. At first, he wondered what was going on…. Until he emerged into reality to dump a pile of garbage in the dumpster behind the store… and immediately started feeling better.
He… was getting CO2 poisoning. The container was a small, confined space… he thought for a moment.
Could he… empty the air in there out of inventory… and then add more, fresh air?
He tried it… and when he went back, everything felt much better… except for the little fact that the abrupt shifts in air pressure had sent all the lighter objects bouncing around.
He spent another ten minutes putting everything back on the shelves, getting it sorted… and then took another load of trash; mostly melting ice cream; out, tossing it into the dumpster. Finally… time to head out for the night.
He… could probably just take part of the air out next time? Whatever, he had a solution.
When he stopped at the motel 6, and showed his ID, the woman behind the counter gave him a nod, and handed him a keycard; without even asking for a credit card. Which… was nice.
He could just lay back, get some rest, watch the news, or maybe a movie… and spend however long until he fell asleep filling jars with venom. Just… just so relaxing.
When he settled in, turning the TV on, and popped the rest of the case of Olive jars into his hand, starting to dump them into a garbage bag… the news started playing… and it was a bit troubling.
~Project Moonshot is officially underway! As yesterday’s viewers will know…~ An image of a space shuttle lifting off into the sky appeared… and then of the inside of the shuttle, showing hundreds of people strapped into seats, holding up thumbs. ~The planned launch of the Enterprise came and went without a hitch; and landing on the moon has begun. With humans and the crops we introduce as the only living things, the Chosen tell us that the lunar colony should become a healthy, thriving place, where no monsters can attack; and in the event civilization should fall on earth, we will live on! Speaking of the fall of civilization…~
A new video popped up… showing a mass of ants; looking to be thousands of them in every direction, taken above, from a helicopter. As the helicopter flew over the swarm, it suddenly started to shake… and there was a momentary view of an ant with wings, seizing the cameraman and yanking him out, before it went black.
~Iran, which notably ruled that anyone who accepted the gifts of the ‘System’ was to be executed on sight, has fallen, and it is hoped that its mistakes will be a beacon for the rest of the world, to understand, to learn… and not make the same mistakes. Refugees have been minimal, and hundreds of Chosen are currently working to contain the massive swarm of ‘Dorylus’ type ants that are overwhelming the locals. It is believed that there are somewhere around one hundred million of the creatures, growing more numerous by the hour, and arguments for and against nuclear weapons use have been passed around for the past hour in an increasingly heated meeting of the UN.~
~Speaking at the UN, the head of the People’s Republic of China branch of the Chosen Committee had these words.~
A new image pops up. A man wearing a long red robe, appearing to be of Chinese descent, was standing behind the podium. ~Nuclear weapons would be a terrible solution. Without a group of sentient beings nearby to absorb the excess mana, the death of so many millions at once would lead to funnels of energy into the void… and not only accelerate the growth of the planet as a whole, but open portals to places holding things far, far worse than ants. If they are used at all, nuclear weapons must be used on a very small scale. Another solution must be found, or we will merely trade one apocalypse for another.~
He turned off the TV.
So. The first country to fall was Iran. He would have bet on North Korea.
He lay there, staring at the ceiling, hand dangling into the olive jar, steadily dripping. The first of how many? Iran might have forbidden its people from using the magic... but they still had guns. Technology. And the people would've been gaining levels and getting stronger whether they wanted to or not. How long could one of the weaker, less-armed, nations hold out, especially ones with more territory than people?
***
When he woke up the next morning, he’d accidentally made a bit of a mess; leaving a puddle of venom on the carpet. Not wanting to cause himself problems… or get his new ID in trouble; he poured a mass of shampoo from one of the disposable bottles, scrubbing it up with a towel… and sealed the jar, adding it to the pile he’d created.
After getting ready for the day with a casual outfit; the same concealed body-armor, a nice button-up grey shirt with the NRA logo on it from Joshua’s closet, and of course some ill-fitting jeans; he put on his new boots; appreciating the feel of properly fitting shoes, and feet not covered in rat-guts.
He sighed… and laid the tablet out on the bed, checking the Guild app; and seeing a string of messages from Sledge.
~We’ve been hunting wasps for two hours, no sight. Glad you didn’t waste your time. I’ll bring the gun back later.~
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
~Jesus fuck was I wrong, we’ve killed three of the damned things and they all suck! Thank you so much for the gun! The cops are paying us a bounty for all the wasps, and I feel like I should give you a cut, I’d have been useless without you.~
~The Chosen just left. They cleared the nest, the wasps are done. Apparently there were a few other incidents in town; a giant rat nest, and the zoo got bad again. We’re heading to the zoo, if you want to tag along.~
~You dead?~
He nodded and tapped out a reply. ~The giant rat nest was my basement. Got it dealt with, and got a new truck, upgraded it. If you’ve got any new missions, I’d be interested in tagging along, if you need help.~
He closed the message, and opened the map. When someone called in a monster sighting, it was added to the map; and a system-augmented AI swept through it, updating it once an hour. It showed both ones that had already been dealt with; as well as ones that needed dealing with.
He blinked. He’d never looted the damned rats. He shook his head, wondering if the person sealing the cavern would be doing it… they were probably an earth-shaper, maybe even a squid. Who knows what a bunch of man-eating rats would have in their bellies…
If the cops hadn’t shown up, it might have taken him hours longer to deal with… but he’d probably have been able to loot a few of the dead people’s homes, and the rats. Who knows what he might have ended up with.
The cops had his phone number, now. Not just his, either; and apparently the Guild app was built to sync up with local law enforcement… and to keep working if it stopped existing.
He suddenly got a response.
~Ouch! Well, that explains why we didn’t hear from you. We’re clearing another ant nest in a couple hours. Two, if we can; they keep popping up like crazy anywhere there aren’t people, from what I can see.~
~Well, wouldn’t want Texas to turn into Iran, would we? Give me an address, I’ll meet you.~
Ants shouldn’t really be a problem for them, right? They’d handled one yesterday; the new nest should be trivial; they were better prepared, this time.
***
The arrival at the nest was fairly normal. They’d stopped off on a backwoods road, parking the van roughly a mile from the nest; and gathered together as Stacktopus took to the air… and started his usual routine, first digging a deep trench with his powers; it seemed to be working even faster now than it had yesterday; then starting the long process of shaping a ring of them to guide the ants into narrow channels.
The foursome were standing at the end of the trench, admiring the massive earthworks, when Sledge glanced over. “So. You hit level 7. Get anything fun? More undead? Stronger ones? More Assassin stuff?”
Grey shrugged. “I can give the zombies some of my powers now. I don’t have many of the Soldier ants left… hopefully today will fix that… but I can make a Soldier and with my Stealth and Venom powers. I was thinking of making a pack of six of them, telling them to go in and bite ants til they die… and repeating. With venom and surprise on their side, each of them might be able to kill a bunch before it dies. Or maybe even telling them to hunt for the queen first; could probably take her, if they can get there and all bite at once.”
“Huh. Well, its an idea, at least. Honestly… Ants have senses other than just sight. I’d think they’d be caught fast, inside the tunnel, and swarmed… though maybe killing whatever takes them.”
“True enough. They didn’t know exactly where I was, but some figured something was there last time. Oh yeah. Speaking of last time… I looted some Ant chitin last time, and some acid globules; these fat organic orbs that explode into acid when I throw them. You know anything we can do with that?”
Sledge looked up; Stacktopus was still busily working. “Well. Anyone with skills making clothes can still do it, and you can learn it the old fashioned way, too. Either way… anything you make with enhanced materials, like from a monster, ends up enhanced, too. So a jacket made of Ant chitin would be Uncommon armor. The only trouble is, not that many people had the skills to do it without a machine and make good leather armor… so they’re charging pretty heavily for their time. And the Upgrade thing usually only works for one piece, not the whole body… so most folks just have normal armor, and maybe a protective chestplate.”
“...I bet there’s comms for those in the Guild app, right?”
“Yup! All of them busy as hell, and usually getting dragged around by groups so they can level up while they work; we could probably get one to give us a discount if we let him work on stuff in the van while we did this, but… still expensive.”
“Huh.” He lifted his tablet from storage, and opened the Guild app… and after a moment, found the right spot.. And a ‘Leatherworker’ who advertised…. Five thousand dollars per piece of Uncommon leather armor. Fifty thousand per piece of Rare. He had Rare stuff? Nice. A bit out of his price range.
He sent a message.
~I’ve got over 4,000 Chitin Plates from giant ants. Any chance I could get any sort of discount, or trade them for some work?~
The response came before Stacktopus gave the response. ~A little? But not really much. I’m overflowing with Chitin plates right now. Me and some of my friends are making armor for the EPPD first, and we’ve got all we need for that. If you get anything special or rare, though, we could have words. Otherwise, I give a 10% discount for supplying your own materials. 4500 a piece for Uncommon. With two boots, two gauntlets, a helmet, and a chest, thats 30,000 without materials, 27,000 with. And to be clear, I have a friend who does the shoes while I do the rest.~
Ooof. Something to consider later, if the EPPD gave good money.
He ignored his earlier idea of summoning stealthy, evenomed ants; for the most part. The single Soldier he summoned, he gave the venom to; he somehow knew that, while it might not have the acid-spitting glands anymore… being dead… if he gave it the Venom power, it could spray that every thirty seconds or so. He could also take one of the acid globules out of storage, and maybe it could use that… but for now…
He just summoned up one of the bigger ants… and nine of the smaller ones, forming them into a line between him, Sledge, and the open face of the trench… The Soldier was already as hard to summon as two of the workers; making it Envenomed made it worse.
Setting the backpack on one of the small ones, and rigging the fuses, alongside the usual jars of venom, the group went back to watching Stacktopus…. Until he gave the signal.
As the little ant ran forward, sprinting towards the nest as fast as the five legs it had left could carry it, Sledge stretched, flexing, Grey double-checked the buckshot he’d decided to load this time… and the figure leapt down the hole.
Only a few seconds later, they saw the abrupt puff of smoke….
And out of the nest rose a swarm of ants…. All of them a deep red in color… and interspersed among them, about as expected, were a handful of Soldiers… who had visible trails of fire running from their jaws.
“....Fuck. Literal fire-ants. Star… a bit worried about this one. See how bad fire hurts them, please.”
A moment later, a fireball slammed into the leading edge of the swarm… which emerged completely unscathed. A few seconds later, Shockwave called down a blast of lightning on the same group; and the Soldiers literally exploded, bits of Chitin flying in every direction.
Sledge looked around at his allies, then at the swarm, as Shockwave kept blasting, holding them back; but they all knew that if he were doing it alone, he could only do it half as long, or even less, as he and Star working together. “...I don’t think we can handle this. We may need to back off…”