The shadow ant used the holes made by Xeno's black sphere to rapidly ascend through the chasm. Devo looked downwards as the screeches of the Queen Demise Ant Reverbirated from below.

"Well, that could have gone worse." Xeno joked as the shadow ant placed him and Devo on a barely intact stone bridge. Xeno carefully placed Shira on the ground and her legs wobbled a little like jelly, causing her to drop her staff. While Shira was trying to regain stability in her legs, with the shadow ant preparing itself to catch her if she falls, Devo heard Alice talking to him over the party chat.

"What's going on over there? That noise sounded like it was made by a bad DJ.". Devo reiterated what had he had just experienced.

"That sounds awesome; so do you want us to come over and help you beat it?". Devo thought about it for a second.

"Don't bother it's a raid boss so we wouldn't stand a chance,".

"Oh...". Alice awkwardly scratched her head.

"So how's your collection effort going?" Devo asked. Alice, currently in a spherical cavern made of pink stone, gave a confident smug as she quickly counted all the Voltium Ore the three of them had collected.

"Three hundred Voltium Ore and of HIGH quality if I might add," Alice remarked. Devo could somehow tell that Alice's started to grin even more.

"Soooo... how many RUUNNE STOOONES have you collected?". There was a short pause after Alice asked her question. Xeno let out a cough to end the silence.

"We got a little sidetracked but we'll be done in fifteen minutes.".

"Bet!" Alice shouted before she, Lumina and Nova hurried out of the pink cavern.

Devo clicked his right shoulder back into place, causing his whole right arm to twitch as he regained control over it. Shira managed to shake off the jelly feeling in her legs and picked up her staff. She noticed that Devo and Xeno were talking to each other before Xeno and his shadow ant flew off.

Devo crouched down on one knee and told Shira to hop on. Shira climbed onto Devo's back and Devo stood back up. Devo activated his Lightning Cloak before quickly parkouring up the chasm.

"What were the two of you talking about?" Shira asked while Devo was making his way up the chasm.

"We decide to split up to speed up the collection process.". Devo landed on the stone bridge and ran into a tunnel that lead to the lower sections of the seventy-third level.

Xeno, and the shadow ant, exited a tunnel and found themselves in a giant cavern. Xeno quickly checked his mini-map and spotted a collection of monsters. He snapped his fingers and four spears emerged from a shadow on the ground.

The shadow ant grabbed each of the spears with its top four arms while crossing its bottom two arms behind its back. The two of them took off, with Xeno flying near the roof of the cavern and the shadow ant flew close to the ground and quickly made their way to the location of the monsters.

The cluster of golem ants, hexapedal golems that had the same stone coloured body and cyan mana veins as the Ant Golem Guardian, were following an ant golem knight, the pre-evolution of the ant golem guardian signified by it only having four arms, as it seemed to patrol around the cavern. Xeno hovered above and out of the view of the group of ant golems; his shadow ant hid behind a boulder and waited for a signal from Xeno.

Xeno extended his arms outwards and the size of his shadow wings increase by 1.5 times. Xeno signalled to the shadow ant to get ready before quickly swinging his arms from a T shape to in front of him.

A storm of shadow knives stormed out from his wings and towards the group of ants. The shadow ant instantly jumped out from behind its cover and flew directly at the ant golem knight. The ant knight instinctively spun around while grabbing its two cutlasses, with its top-right arm and bottom left arm, before barely managing to block the shadow ant's attack.

The ant knight spotted the volley of rapidly descending shadow knives. The ant knight quickly jumped back while letting out multiple clicking noises. The ant instantly responded to the clicking noises and tried to avoid Xeno's attack. Some managed to avoid it while others were punctured by the knives. The ants that had avoided Xeno's attack quickly hurried away while the ones hit by his knives struggled to move more than an inch.

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Xeno made an upwards motion with his left hand while the shadow ant roundhouse kicked the distracted ant knight over the centre of the slowed ant golems. A pitch-black shadow formed below the group of ant golems before a cluster of shadow spears erupted from the ground and pierced through the ant golems causing their mana veins to stop glowing. The ant knight quickly sliced the spears below itself before landing on the ground. The ant knight flipped the sword in its left hand so it was holding the sword backwards slicing in a circular motion and launching a slash that cut all of the shadow spears in half.

The shadow ant raced over to the knight ant slashed all its spears at it, causing sparks to fly as their blades clashed. The two launched a flurry of slashes at each other with the shadow ant having a narrow advantage. The ant knight tried to slice the shadow ant's neck with both of its swords simultaneously.

However, the shadow ant redirected the knight ant's swords by spinning its bottom two hands causing the spears to appear as if they were buzz saws. The spears caught the swords and the shadow ant effortlessly slammed the swords into the ground. The knight ant was knocked off balance by the shadow ant's manoeuvre and before it could respond the shadow ant pierced the mana orb in the centre of its chest.

The knight ant's hands twitched as it dropped its swords and stumbled backwards. The glow in its eyes and mana veins went out before it fell onto its back. The shadow ant looked at the knight ant's body as it bursted into blue cubes, due to Xeno finishing off the remaining ant golems, before slowly looking over to Xeno. A screen showing all the loot appeared in front of Xeno and he quickly looked through it.

[Encounter Loot Summary]

[1 Large Mana Golem Core]

[27 Medium Golem Cores]

[67 Stone Shells]

[24 Thunder stones]

[32 Rune Stones]

[2 Ancient Golden Cutlasses]

[15 Silver and 34 Copper Valt Coins]

"Thirty-two huh? That's pretty good though that Ant Knight Golem probably inflated the number of Rune Stones.". Xeno was about to click auto collect all but noticed a pop-up appear next to the loot list.

[Shadow Ant Golem Guardian request to receive the 2 Ancient Golden Cutlasses, the 1 Large Mana Golem Core, the 27 Medium Golem Cores and the 24 Thunder Stones]

[Accept?]

[Yes/No]

Xeno was surprised at the request. He didn't see a reason to refuse, since he didn't need the materials, and because he was interested in what would happen. He decided to click yes. The Loot quickly floated into the air. The Stone Shells, Rune Stones and all the Valt Coins gathered together before turning into a blue cube that flew into Xeno Inventory. The rest of the loot flew over to the shadow ant and started to orbit around it. Xeno watched as the shadow ant grabbed the large mana golem core and motionlessly stared at it for a few seconds.

The shadow ant proceeded to press the core against its own, causing it to start to merge into the shadow ant's core. Mana encircles the shadow ant until the mana core completely merged into its core. Shortly after that, the other golem cores flew into the shadow ant's core and the thunderstones transformed into pure energy and flew into the shadow ant's mana veins/marks.

After the shadow ant had finished, Xeno noticed that the colour of the shadow ant's mana veins and mana marks had slightly shifted to a lighter shade of purple, along with it being slightly taller. It also grabbed the two cutlasses and placed them on its back, crossing its middle and bottom arms to hold them in place.

Xeno quickly checked his mini-map and located multiple groups. He noticed the shadow ant was bowing on one knee to Xeno followed by a pop up appearing in front of him.

[Shadow Ant Golem Guardian is requesting to gather the materials separately to increase productivity]

[Accept?]

[Yes/No]

Xeno thought about it and figured he could handle it.

"Very well," Xeno said before the yes button flashed, causing the pop up to disappear. The shadow ant stood back up and slightly nodded at Xeno before heading off. Xeno watched the shadow ant, on the mini-map, making its way to one of the groups of monsters. Xeno found it convenient that he was able to interact with the pop-up vocally. Xeno took off and flew towards a different group of monsters.