Now that the queen was within sight, the first thing that had to be done was to check its status screen. But even without doing that, it was crystal clear that the queen ant was injured, revealed by the burn marks all around its exoskeleton.

Species: Great scarlet queen ant (mutant)

Condition: Poisoned (extreme) | Heatstroke (severe) | Burned (moderate) | Weakened (severe)

Sex: Female

Age: 34 years old

Height: 327 cm

Source Level: None

Source Element(s): None

Stats:

* STR: D- (62 → 45)

* AGI: E (48 → 31)

* VIT: D (69 → 48)

* SRC: D (63 → 52)

* SPR: D+ (66 → 60)

Accumulation Points: 102 → 53 [D]

How odd.

If the queen was solely focusing on getting away, it wouldn’t have been poisoned and burned this badly. So why?

Upon further inspection, there was a pile of eggs behind the queen. Although some of the eggs were crushed and tattered, most were in good condition. Truly a love of a mother toward her children — or was it simply their survival instinct…?

The queen must have protected the eggs until it was greatly weakened to the point that I had the confidence of facing it face to face. But of course, I wouldn’t do such a foolish thing.

“Now what…” I murmured.

The best option would be to use my last two grenades to cause the tunnel to collapse and bury the queen at its minions along with it. However, I didn’t think such a petty trick would work… They might get injured but killing them might prove difficult.

If this was the case, there would be a need to make them willingly stay in one place to receive the attack at full power, and wouldn’t the eggs be the perfect target?

I eyed Luna-1 beside me and smiled in glee, its mechanical lenses contracted upon seeing my gaze. Lunaria must be showering me with “He must have come up with something devious again,” or something.

And so, the assault on the queen ant began.

To start, I had to make it obvious that I was aiming for the eggs, which could be easily accomplished by using bright and destructive magic spells. With that in mind, I cast {Fireball} at the furthest distance from me as possible (around three meters). The fireball flew at the pile of eggs, unabated by the limited oxygen inside the cave.

My suspicion was correct: As soon as they noticed the incoming fireball, the ants launched themselves to block it. Naturally, a measly Aleph-tier spell was nothing when they hit the soldier ants, but the worker ants were easily burned to death.

Subsequently, I revealed myself while holding the two grenades that already had their safety locks opened and threw them in their midst, especially the eggs. And just like before, they used their bodies as shields to protect the eggs without even batting me an eye.

This time, the queen ant even took part in protecting the eggs, using one of its limbs to swat away one of the incoming grenades. However, that proved to be a fatal mistake, as the grenade detonated upon contact with the queen’s leg.

“Run!” I made a quick escape out of the tunnel toward the queen’s chamber with Luna-1 right behind me.

Boom! Boom!

While the two explosions arose, I was already far away from the site and made a few gradual turns on the tunnel, away from the dangerous shrapnel and the deafening sound. I didn’t know how two grenades would affect such a narrow, brittle space, but the tunnel was already showing signs of collapsing.

“Almost there!” I moved my legs at the quickest speed they could move and vaulted out from the shaft.

Fortunately, no such thing as “being trapped inside a tunnel with no way to escape” happened, and it didn’t collapse to the point where the dirt covered the whole tunnel. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to take the source crystals.

Once things calmed down a bit, Lunaria remarked, her tone flat, “I must say, your deviousness knows no bounds.”

“Oh, come one. They’re just a bunch of ants; don’t be so pedantic, Lunaria.”

No one would care when ants were killed whether it was in nature or indoors. In fact, for some, they were pests that should be exterminated at all costs.

“Are they really?” Luna-1, the spherical drone, turned to me. “You know, ants are among the most socialist species of animal besides humans: They care for the young, they domesticate fungi and tame insects that benefit them. Don’t you see one such place among the ant chambers? To put the final nail in the coffin, they are mutant ants; their intelligence exceeds that of normal ants by a huge margin.”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Well, if you put it that way…” I scratched the back of my head while pondering deeply about what she just said.

Yet such naïve thinking wouldn’t work in this post-apocalyptic world. At the end of the day, I did this because I didn’t want to die — to collect as many source crystals as possible to avoid death for failing the mission. It wasn’t that I had a deep-hatred vengeance that I must exact.

“Although, I will help you do this no matter how many times and heinous it might be,” she added.

“Really? Even if I want to massacre the whole Aquarine?”

“Mm. At this point, we’re partners in crime. Your life is innumerable times more important than any other. For me, that is.”

I never thought that she would go that far…

Ever since meeting her, her origin had always been a total mystery, nor that I knew much about her anyway.

“Ahem, I’ll put your opinion about this aside for now. On another note,” I looked around at the great amount of ant carcasses around me that seemed to be endless and said, “we have to scavenge their source crystals to meet our end since the queen’s source crystal alone isn’t enough.”

Hearing my reasoning, Lunaria voiced her agreement.

Additionally, there was no telling if the grenades were enough to kill the queen, so I came down the shaft again once I deemed it safe. The small opening at the end of the tunnel was blocked by dirt, and the inside apparently had collapsed.

There was no telling if the queen survived or not, but I better leave the digging for tomorrow.

***

Time lapsed like it was nothing, and I had collected like 30 percent of all the ants in the queen’s chamber before my hands wouldn’t move anymore.

There was a higher concentration of soldier ants in the queen's chamber, being like 30 to 40 percent of them. Therefore, the ants that were at First Order easily exceeded five hundred, and coupled with the fact that I was already exhausted, what I scavenged was already a lot.

Anyway, seeing that continuing further would be futile, I returned to Tuilë’s house. I had promised to look after her house, so I couldn’t leave it neglected for a long time.

Nevertheless, once I stepped foot at the mine, Yorith, a man who somewhat looked like an orange humanoid Muppet, came looking for me with a look that felt like he had seen a ghost. Well, who wouldn’t be surprised to see someone staying coop deep inside the cave like some kind of hobo?

But he then laughed heartily, “Ha! Lad, you staying deep in the mines with no news sure has given me some dread. Hm? That looks like a lot of source crystals. What a huge haul, isn’t it?”

Oops.

I forgot that I was carrying more than my regular amount — I carried the thirteen Second-Order source crystals as well. Usually, the amount I brought back wouldn’t cause my backpack to bump, so he rarely noticed anything. Only recently that the amount was getting bigger and bigger. Just yesterday, before I claimed the life of thirteen knight ants, I harvested a sum of about 278 source crystals in the queen’s chamber (with two Second Order included). I wouldn’t have kept counting the number if not for Lunaria telling me.

Still, it was only natural that he would grow suspicious.

Noticing my silence, Yorith scoffed, “What? You think I’mma throw my pride into the dump just to snatch that little amount of source crystals? I ain’t a thief that would take someone else’s treasure,” and then motioned at me.

“No, I’m just… Yes, I’m thinking that I may have a job for you.”

“Huuh? I ain’t that cheap for you to employ, y’know,” was what he told me, but his eyes were quite eager upon peeking at the source crystals inside my backpack.

What I was aiming for by employing him was to help move all the ant carcasses to the surface so that it could later be sold to Gekko.

While he wasn’t totally trustworthy yet, it was many times better than trusting a stranger I’d never met. Character-wise, he didn’t look like someone who would stab me in the back. If I doubted everyone I met, there would be no end to worrying about things.

Of course, this would only be in motion once I had taken the queen’s source crystal as well as since my exploration of this place wasn’t done yet.

“Payment? I’ll pay you twice your current work, and all the miners can join as well.”

The more hands that helped this project, the better it was. Plus, with someone like Yorith to take charge, I had fewer things to be worried about.

“Twice?” His voice fluctuated, but instead of finding it too little, it felt like too much for him as proved by his next words: “Is there danger involved? I can’t endanger the workers no matter how big the pay is; most of them are the backbone of their family, after all.”

“Worry not. I guarantee that the miners will not face any sort of life-threatening danger.” I waved my hand to assist with my statement.

“I’ll consider it and talk to the others first.”

I nodded and said my farewell before continuing my walk home.

***

As soon as daybreak came, I rushed to the mine to get my trophy — the core of the mutant queen ant.

I arrived at the shaft that the queen ant had escaped to after about half an hour of running. Such distance was no longer enough to exhaust me, though.

No different than yesterday, the end of the tunnel was enclosed with dirt. However, this was good news, so I went ahead and cast {Earth Burrow}… and a dead ant’s decapacitated head popped out. Yikes!

The way that it appeared, and especially its grotesque appearance after being blown apart by the grenades, almost gave me a heart attack, but I continued on with casting magic until I unearthed the queen ant’s upper body. Looking closely made me realize how big it was…

Unmoving it might be like it was dead, I wasn’t convinced. Thus, [Identification] was the way to go.

Condition: Poisoned (extreme) | Heatstroke (severe) | Burned (severe) | Weakened (extreme) | Wounded (extreme)

Surprisingly, there was no “dead” in its condition, meaning that it was still alive despite all that. Truly one hell of a monster.

Luna-1 floated beside me as Lunaria stated, “Its vital status may be weak, but it’s still alive… What are you doing?”

“Of course I’m killing it.” I already had my gun ready and pulled the trigger. The bullet shot the queen ant right between the eyes, pierced through its brain, and only then it finally died.

Having watched so many movies where the monsters would suddenly attack when neared gave me fear of approaching it, hence the use of the gun.

Now that it died, I unsheathed the catalyst daggers and cut open the queen’s head. The inside was similar to any other ants but magnified by several folds, so it was a bit more disgusting. Soon enough, however, a source crystal thirty centimeters in diameter with creeping yellow veins inside emerged at the back of the ant’s head.

By taking the source crystal as large as a basketball, I raised it to the sky, proclaiming, “With this, the goal is achieved!”