Loran and Yang steadily made their way towards the river, hoping that the riverbank would allow the sled to move more easily. The two were quiet as they trudged along, Loran was focused on not getting them lost and Yang was thinking about what she would do with her current stockpile of over 10,000 EXP.

'I can definitely catch up to the others now.' Everyone else in the party was at level 14, and while Yang was no longer considered weak, she had still been playing catch up for almost two months now. Knowing that she had just about closed that gap definitely going to be a weight off her shoulders. 'Still, that won't even be 6,000 EXP, what Skills should I get...'

[DANGER SENSE] went without question. As a Tank, being able to sense where threats were at all times was an absolute necessity. She could even learn it right now since she knew that Loran was one of the players that had mastered the Skill already. The problem was that she would need to level up twice before she could learn [DANGER SENSE] because of the PER requirement. Over the last month, more players had received the increased EXP cost that Loran had; as it turns out, the cause was player level. After level 10, each additional level would increase the cost to level up Skills by 10%. Right now, Yang wanted to make sure she learned and leveled up every Skill she could before raising her player level.

'Should I try getting Pull? It would be nice to have more CC abilities, but can I even do that with my ax? Maybe I should get a pick instead...but isn't that a DEX weapon?' She was aware that as a Tank her focus wasn't to deal damage, but she knew that damage was the most direct way to maintain aggro. "Hey Loran."

"Mh?" He grunted, struggling far more than Yang under the weight of the sled.

"Picks are DEX weapons, right? I was thinking about getting Pull but..."

"You can just get a Bone Pick, that has better STR scaling."

"Oh, they're different?" Yang had realized that Loran was using a different weapon for a while now, although she hadn't commented on it. It was hard to miss, his original pick was fairly thin, having been made from antlers and a tree branch, but this pair was much sturdier-looking, being made from bone and was much thicker. "Okay. Wait, did you master Pull too?"

"Yeah, not sure why though," he said somewhat bitterly, "barely anyone has been interested in it."

"Well, you've one more customer right here. Think you could teach it to me real quick?"

"In a minute, we're almost at the river."

They continued walking and it wasn't long before Yang could just barely make out the sound of the rushing river. However, almost as soon as she could hear it, Loran stopped suddenly.

"Hey, don't just-"

"Shush," he said quickly, trying to be quiet, "there's something near the river."

Yang took in a quick breath, her mind switching gears to prepare for a possible fight. "Wolves? Pigs? Deer?"

"None of the above," he said, eyes squinting as he tried to understand what he was hearing. "I think... it's clicking?"

"So it's something new then." It was more of a statement than a question. "I guess this little trip of yours wasn't so pointless after all."

"Yeah. Anyway, you stay here for a minute, I'll go Analyse it real quick."

Letting go of the sled, Loran began approaching the river, keeping as many trees as possible between him and whatever he was hearing.

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Yang readied her ax and shield, watching not just the direction of the river but the surrounding woods as well. 'Can't let some wolves or pigs get the jump on me just 'cause I'm distracted by some new thing.'

Loran returned quickly, surprising Yang. Additionally, while he had his normally serious expression when he went to check the target, now he was grinning uncontrollably. "We need to take this thing back to the village. Fuck, we should probably ditch the wolf bodies if we need to."

"Whoa whoa, calm down. What did you see?" She asked expectantly, wondering what could make such a usually reserved guy so excited.

"It's an ant, a giant ant with an iron carapace."

"An iron shell," She said incredulously, "how the hell does that work?"

"The description said they eat it, so their nest is probably on top of an iron mine."

As he finished speaking, Yang was struck by a realization. "So these ants..."

"Are the village's ticket out of the stone age." Iron was an essential material in nearly all games with a crafting system. Not only would it make the players stronger with better weapons and armor, but it would also mean better tools to improve the village. Finding a way to process the raw iron ore would be difficult, but it was possible, and Loran wasn't about to let this opportunity slip by.

"So what are we waiting for," Yang said, gesturing in the direction of the river with her ax, "let's go squash a bug."

"Right, but," his smile faltered, "it probably won't be so easy."

"...Why?" Yang asked hesitantly.

"Well, you know how your armor is really OP?"

"....Loran, are we able to hurt this thing?"

"We can still hurt it," he said, recalling the ant's stats and Skills, "but this is going to be one grindy fight. Oh, by the way, it's coming to us."

"....Say that part first next time you asshole!" She said, trying not to shout as she took a combat stance facing the river. "I thought you were being stealthy!"

"Didn't matter, one of its Skills basically makes its PER over 70. It could probably smell all this wolf meat an hour ago." The clicking of the ant's legs and mandibles was getting louder, the ant was less than 50 feet away.

"Alright," she said begrudgingly, "so is there a plan for this?"

"Let's play it safe first, don't use Taunt. Let's observe it for any trickiness. After that we need to break through its shell, so try to focus on one area."

"Got it."

It was at that moment that Yang's eyes narrowed. Loran quickly turned around, focusing on the monster that was now within sight.

The impossibly large ant was around two feet long, about the same as a mid-sized dog. Its carapace was a deep, shiny black with faint specks and lines of silver and brown, the traces of iron had begun to rust from exposure to the elements. The compound eyes shined as the head twitched back and forth, perhaps attempting to get a better look at them as its antennae flicked through the air. The mandibles on its face were bulbous but tapered down to a sharp edge at the base.

The insect stood still for a moment before making a mad dash at them, accelerating to top speed in an instant and moving faster than even a Moss Wolf. Yang saw this and took a quick breath, briefly remembering how most insects had astonishing speed and strength proportionate to the size of their bodies. 'Just how strong could this damn thing be?'

Yang readied her shield reflexively but then lowered it, realizing that it would probably be useless in the current situation. 'The little thing can't even reach past my shins, no point in protecting my chest,' she thought.

However, the ant quickly proved her wrong, jumping towards her once it came within 10 feet and almost landing directly on her chest. Yang reacted without thinking, smacking it out of the air with a swing of her ax. The ant hit the ground with a thud, quickly rolling to its feet before continuing its attack. The side of its carapace had not a single scratch on it from Yang's ax.

Loran ran to where the ant landed, and before it could go back on the attack he brought both his picks down on the insect, one towards its head and the other towards its thorax. Yang was briefly confused as she watched him attack not with the point of the pick, but with the blunted back of the weapon.

The Iron Ant still showed no signs of injury but dashed away from Loran, a pair of small marks on its carapace.

'Seems like Loran will break through the shell eventually,' she thought bitterly. The armor might not have been unbreakable, but seeing it take so little damage made her wonder if they would be able to kill the ant before they became too tired to fight.

The ant began scampering towards Loran, possibly recognizing that he was the one that posed the greater threat.

"Hell no, GET OVER HERE!" She shouted, activating [TAUNT].

The ant paused for a moment, being overcome by the effects of the [ENRAGED] debuff, before letting out a hiss of fury and changing directions, charging towards Yang.