Concluding that going further might incur the wrath of more knight ants, I opted to stick to exploring the periphery area. And doing so netted me five more groups of mutant ants by the time it was time to call it a day.
Overall, I gained a sum of 243 First Order worth of source crystals when this was all over, which meant 1.714 something to go. What a huge gain.
On the way home, I swung by Gekko’s store to get my next plan going: to make a trap that would kill several knight ants in one fell swoop. I also asked him to make two more quintals of the thing — the ant insecticide — just in case as a follow-up plan.
“A liquid that can combust easily with a touch of fire? Are you perhaps referring to oil?”
“Oh? You sell oil here?” Of course, there was no way that the oil would be gasoline…
“Indeed. It is extracted from a kind of plant, and it’s used for cooking. Naturally, it isn’t combustible, but if it’s combustion that you’re seeking, then there’s a special type of substance that can burn on water for a long time made from a mixture of black oil, resin, lime, and many other substances. We call it ‘Aquarine fire.’”
Huh, black oil? Seriously? That’s petroleum! And the properties of this substance, er… isn’t that…
Excited with my finding, I told him to procure some for me, maybe two barrels worth or so.
As for the payment… since bringing the ant carcasses was too much of a task and I didn’t want to reveal their whereabouts just yet, I used two Second-Order source crystals as collateral until I presented the needed ant carcasses.
While I could use them to increase my power — especially when I had a high affinity to all elements — there was a limit to how much I could become stronger through the use of source crystals. Forcing myself to absorb them would only cause adverse effects later down the line, and it was better to use them when going for a breakthrough.
Moreover, I didn’t worry that the cost would backfire, as doing this would give me at least twenty times the return rate in due course. As long as I kept this up for another eight to nine days, then two thousand would be in hand.
***
The plan of poisoning the water proved to be more successful than expected. However, I was sure the same trap wouldn’t work thrice. Using the water source was already putting a hard stretch to the already overused trap.
These ants were, after all, smart ants. Well, compared to your run-of-the-mill ants.
“Nonetheless, their food supply is one thing, but water? Water is scarce in this place; I don’t think it can last long without drinking. Thus, I should put pressure on their supply while I still have the chance,” I mumbled to myself.
Although the red fog contained within the mycelium creeping on the walls might be able to sustain them for some time, they weren’t undead like crimson draugrs at the upper layer, so they had to eat and drink eventually.
It would be a completely different matter if they had another source of water but looking at the limp and dead mutant ants strewn across the ground proved otherwise.
For the next few hours or so, I kept harvesting source crystals. If it wasn’t for my hands that became tired after doing this for a long time nonstop, I wouldn’t have stopped midday and would have amassed more source crystals. I even asked Lunaria to help me with the scavenging and was surprised to find that Luna-1’s mechanical arm was quite dexterous.
Should have done this yesterday.
While taking a moment of respite, I addressed the elephant in the room, “Why don’t you help me since yesterday?”
“Seeing you all happy yesterday made me not want to disturb it.”
“Geez. Just say you like to slack off…” I sighed.
“I never said that, though.”
At any rate, I hadn’t brought with me the thing needed for the trap I was planning for, as I had yet to know my targets’ locations. It would be great if they were clumped together in a single location, but I better not relied on such thought.
After about twenty minutes of rest, I continued onward and stumbled upon the largest chamber I’d seen so far. Peeking inside revealed a giant mutant queen ant the size of an elephant along with a dozen or so knight ants standing neatly in two rows from each other before it.
Just when I threw the wishful thinking out of my mind, it happened right in front of me. What with this coincidence?
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Still, it was no wonder that the ant nest had paths that were three meters wide vertically and horizontally. To accommodate for its larger thorax and abdomen, the nest had to be this big. And speaking of their queen…
Species: Great scarlet queen ant (mutant)
Condition: Food poisoning (mild) | Weakened (mild)
Sex: Female
Age: 34 years old
Height: 327 cm
Source Level: None
Source Element(s): None
Stats:
* STR: D+ (62 → 58)
* AGI: D- (48 → 44)
* VIT: C- (69 → 65)
* SRC: D+ (63 → 57)
* SPR: C- (66 → 64)
Accumulation Points: 102 → 84 [D+]
It was barely at Third Order, but it was Third Order, nonetheless.
In the first place, the poison wouldn’t have much of an effect on Third-Order creatures and higher, and for it to be poisoned meant that it had consumed a lot of it…
This would be my biggest chance to take it down before the poison wore off, but the problem would be the knight ants protecting it as well as the many other ants. I mean, the chamber had many paths connected to it with worker ants crossing to and fro the place, bringing food with them. Only from my side that there were no ants to speak of, as I had killed all of them.
As for why the other ants hadn’t noticed me, I had put extra caution by making sure to clean myself thoroughly for this occasion — although the biggest factor lay in the fact that I was quite far. I was never a filthy man that didn’t like to bathe.
Somehow, this felt déjà vu, like how I ended up in the insectoid monsters’ nest. Only that a single grenade wouldn’t be enough to kill the queen like the last one. Truly troublesome.
Be it what it would, the main problem was that there were too many guards on the queen’s side. I better did something to them, lest I was swarmed by countless ants to death.
This would be where my trap came into play…
***
I divided the plan on taking them down into two parts: to deal with the knight ants and to deal with the rest.
There was no doubt that the queen wasn’t much of a fighter compared to the other knight ants, though I couldn’t underestimate it either.
Well, the reason why I was so obsessed with killing the queen was none other than its source crystal. A single Third-Order source crystal was worth like one thousand First-Order ones. You could imagine how this would drastically help with my goal since it’d fulfill half of it.
Anyway, my initial plan was to dig a deep and huge pit where I would then spill a drum full of a special substance called “Aquarine fire” into it. Of course, I would add in a few dozen centimeters of water prior to doing that in order to contain the fire and maximize the trap’s effectiveness.
But because the cart that I used to borrow wasn’t flat and thus unable to carry a drum full of liquid, I had to tote the thing with my own two hands into the mine. Luckily, I was already used to doing this when Tuilë asked me for help before, though this still caused me back pain. Ouch!
“Alright! Time to set up the trap for real.”
First thing first, I dug a ten-meter-deep pit with a diameter of about three meters. A task that would have taken me a day to do manually was finished in a matter of an hour through the use of magic.
Secondly, I filled the pit with water with the power of magic — creating water was a piece of cake for me who could master all elements thanks to my Vocation. Otherwise, going back and forth from the nearest water pond would waste a lot of time.
Thirdly, I dumped in the drum which made my back ache. I was sure that although it was only a small drum, it was more than one hundred kilograms in weight. The green content spilled inside covered the water by a few centimeters.
Last but not least, I covered the pit with {Earth Lump} — this was so that the trap was unseen and would only collapse under certain conditions, like enough mass or force.
“Is this where I come and pull the aggro of the monster here?” Lunaria questioned.
“No. I need you to distract the queen and the other ants so that they don’t follow me here. Or in other words, you’re the lookout for this set-up.”
“Mm, understood. So when will we begin?”
“When else if not now?”
That said, I didn’t wait for her affirmation and sprinted for the queen’s chamber; It was located a few turns away from where the trap was. In meters that would be a bit more than fifty meters, a distance that could be crossed in a few seconds if I sprinted all the way.
As the ants around my side were virtually wiped out by me, I chose a closer place. Even though, there would be a stray or two ants coming to my place from time to time.
The entrance to the queen’s chamber was in sight; just the same, the dozen or so soldier ants were lining up in order into two lines like the most loyal minions they were. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that I was inside the Medieval Ages court, the kind where the officials would answer to the ruler.
Putting that thought aside, I initiated my plan. To attract their attention, I must aim for their queen… Adding one or two deadly injuries now would be the best. Thus, I grabbed my semi-automatic rifle and took aim.
As a Third Order, it possessed a hard exoskeleton and only some parts like the joints would be weaker, so I must make sure to hit at least one of those parts. It just so happened that I had one target in mind: its abdomen.
Occasionally, the queen would lay eggs. It was at that moment, in which the queen was at its most vulnerable, when I would strike and deal the most damage.
The temperature was currently warm and humid. Exactly the perfect time for a queen ant to lay eggs.
Just as expected, when fifteen minutes passed, the queen started laying eggs as the worker ants gathered around it as if swarming a pile of sugar.
“Hold… Hold…” I waited until the eggs started to come out.
Honestly, it was gross seeing it for myself even from far away, but I had to endure…
…And the golden time finally came.
I pulled the trigger, and the bullet was released from the muzzle at an extreme speed, shooting for the abdomen of the queen ant. As the bullet lodged itself, greenish blood spurt out, proving that the queen ant wasn’t entirely impervious to bullets.
The queen ant immediately produced a sound similar to a scream by rubbing the abdominal area and the legs together, causing me unease.