The bestiary mentioned that there was a relatively simple hunting method that would let you deal with a hive of Leaf Ants with little issue, something about some kind of bait and fast and lethal attacks, but I didn’t really think that I needed that.

Well, I guess I was doing the ‘fast and lethal’ thing already so I was technically using that part of the strategy already, but that's besides the point. My plan was much simpler and, probably, much more effective.

I called it ‘Shoot Lightning until they die’, which is really just a formalised version of my fighting style up to this point. The only real problem I could foresee was that I’d have to find every single one of them if I wanted to make sure that the problem was dealt with for good.

Actually, does Chain Lightning have a range limit?

The Lightning didn’t Chain off of the last ant here but that could easily just be because it didn’t have enough power to reach anything else, in which case I could probably just finish off all of them in one fell swoop.

Where’s the best place to shoot it though? Hmm, probably the middle I guess.

The hole that the ants had crawled out of was clearly visible now that they weren’t there to hide it, so I was able to jump up to it with a quick Lightning Step with no trouble. Carefully holding myself in the branches, I inspected the hole and roughly estimated that it was actually quite large. In other words, I could probably crawl through with no problem.

“Hyup,” I pulled myself up into the hole and realised that, with my body blocking the only source of light, it was nearly pitch black just a few metres ahead of me.

Gods damn it, I’m going through dark tunnels to hunt hoards of small animals again.

The only reason I didn’t just up and leave at that realisation was the knowledge that these ants were kind of ugly, so I just didn’t care as much about killing them. Was it kind of heartless? Maybe, but they were ants so I didn’t think it mattered too much.

I Charged a small amount of Lightning in front of my head, allowing it to be mostly powered by the ambient Mana, and took careful Breaths to effectively create my own version of the Mage Light spell. Making a mental note to make a physical note of that in my grimoire, I trudged on through the tunnel.

This close to the edge, there were just not that many Ants, but as I advanced further more and more began to challenge me. Obviously, since they only came at me one at a time, I was easily able to dispatch them but getting past their corpses was incredibly difficult and, at times, disgusting.

Fortunately the problem was solved relatively easily by just pushing them along with me until I found a side tunnel that I could simply shove them in, but even that was distinctly unpleasant.

Eugh, I’m definitely not doing any more extermination Jobs if they’re all gonna end up like this. Fighting that Golem was pretty cool, I should do more of that.

The tunnel was primarily made out of sticks that were stuck together with some kind of web or silk, so I was constantly beset by uncomfortable pokes from every direction with the odd section of unusually smooth silk that actually felt quite smooth. It was certainly not pleasant, but that was nothing in comparison to what it slowly transitioned into.

Over the course of an hour, I noticed that more and more sections were being covered by an extra layer of webbing. It was a curiosity but nothing more, at least until I touched one of the sections with my bare hand and felt a disgusting and clingy wetness.

I let out a sound of disgust and tried to pull back but my hand was firmly stuck to the web and refused to budge. Panicking just slightly, I first tried to wrench my arm free with pure physical force. Unfortunately my Strength still sat at the same value as when I awakened so that accomplished exactly nothing.

At that point I remembered that it was usually seen as a good idea to play to your strengths instead of your weaknesses and activated Lightning Cloak. Immediately, the webbing was burned by the heat and began to melt, eventually allowing me to finally free my hand. But it didn’t come out of the encounter unscathed, it was still covered in blackened chunks of web (or silk?) and I realised that I didn’t have a good way to deal with the issue and would have to just live with it until I was done here.

It should be fine as long as I avoid any more of that stuff, there can’t be that much of it.

One thing that I believe any aspiring adventurer should learn, and learn quickly, is that there can always be more. Always.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Just half an hour later, when I was sure that I was getting close to wherever these ants liked to gather, the amount of sticky webbing had increased to the point that I had to keep Lightning Cloak up on low power constantly in order to move around. Oddly, it only seemed to stick to my skin rather than my clothes, but that just meant that I could focus my Lightning onto my hands so that less would end up wasted.

You know what, this is far enough. I can probably find a good place from the outside by now.

So without further ado I charged a Bolt and fired it directly below myself, blowing open a hole that led directly to the forest below. Immediately I felt a sense of unease that, perhaps slightly unrealistically, I could actually sense the direction of. It seemed to be coming from further down the tunnel, so I rushed through the hole and landed painfully in the grass.

That way, then.

The unease didn’t disappear when I left the tunnel, so it served as a convenient compass that would take me right to the Ants. Although very few things had actually triggered Sense Danger, so I wondered if maybe I was biting off more than I could chew… probably not though, Chain Lightning countered these things so perfectly that I probably wouldn’t have much trouble as long as I didn’t let them get too close.

Now that I didn’t need the Mage Light (Chargelight perhaps?) I cancelled the spell and put my now freed up Mana regen to use on something more practical. Namely, a massive Chain Lightning Bolt.

I began to slowly Charge the Bolt in my hands but, after a second, I stopped and let the spell dissipate. The Mage Light was tethered to my head, couldn’t I do the same thing for my Lightning Bolt? If I used Channel Mana I could probably control it just as freely, and maybe even just let it float next to me like I had with the Light.

How have I never thought of this before? Oh yeah, nevermind.

Regardless of my heavily proven lack of Wisdom, I was able to focus and push my Bolt away from my hands and connect it directly to my Mana Pool, allowing it to float above my shoulder. After carefully regulating the Mana being spent so that it was below my recovery, I simply left it there. Since my Skills were doing so much of the work, I could probably pay enough attention to keep it going perpetually if I didn’t do anything too complicated whilst it was going.

Honestly, even running was probably taking things a little too far if I didn’t want it to dissipate.

----------------------------------------

Apparently I really was quite close to my end goal. After around 10 minutes of walking I came across a section of the canopy that sagged strangely and, after slowly and carefully pulling a few branches down I found the familiar walls made out of silk and sticks.

I grinned and manoeuvred the glowing orb of Lightning closer to the hive. It had been Charging for much longer than I’d ever Charged something before, but it was also significantly slower so that it wouldn’t overtake my regen. Consequently, it was only around a third of the largest size I’d managed to produce so far.

Of course, something like that was easily fixed.

With a nearly full Mana Pool, I was able to push significantly more into the spell, and if I focussed on it entirely then I could even extend the Channels of Charge to get more ambient Mana involved.

So I did just that, pushing roughly a hundredth of my Pool every second through my Charge whilst simultaneously extending its reach. It was a relatively simple process, basically just copying the pattern that I already produced instinctively at a larger scale, but as I went further than I’d ever had reason to go before it became harder and harder to focus on anything.

Eventually my senses dulled and I passively realised that I had somehow started using Meditation whilst I was technically in combat. Well, I say technically, but just as the power began to ramp up a sharp stinging pain erupted in my leg and that description became much more literal.

It was hard to tell whilst I was still paying attention to my spell, but I was fairly certain that something was biting my calf. Unfortunately I didn’t really have time to do anything about that, as my hands that I’d instinctively been holding around the Bolt also erupted into pain, although this one was a completely different kind.

Am I being burned by my own Lightning? Maybe that’s a sign that I should stop charging this thing, that hasn’t happened since… well since a few days after my Awakening actually. Why is that?

The sudden sources of pain caused my concentration to waver and, all at once, the extended Channels evaporated and left me with comparatively quite small pull of the standard Charge. At least there was a bright side, since now that I didn’t have to pay attention to maintaining the Channels I could open my eyes and get a nice clear look at the swarm of insectoid soldiers that was rushing out of an opening in the hive.

That doesn’t look too great.

I wasn’t sure how much time I had before they reached me, but in the time it had taken me to fully realise what was happening another two Ants had already joined the first in biting my ankles.

My Mana had been reduced to around a quarter already which meant that somehow I’d gone unnoticed for a full minute, but also meant that the Bolt still wasn’t as big as it could get. Although I wasn’t sure how much it needed to be, it was already around twice the size of my head, and I wondered if Condense Mana would have been able to make it a little more manageable.

Whatever, not time for that. I’ve just gotta launch it.

Before I finished the thought the Bolt had already exploded into a cone of bright cyan Lightning, completely hiding the hive from view for the fraction of a second that it was visible. Almost before it had dispersed, Chain Lightning kicked in and a secondary wave of dozens of much smaller blasts struck the Ants around me, and a third wave struck even more.

“Phew” Whilst not physically taxing, controlling that much Lightning was exhausting and I really just wanted a lie down. I let out a breath of air and dropped to my knees, only to be reminded of the Ants that had been tearing them to pieces only moments ago, causing me to yelp more out of surprise than pain,

The scream was from the pain though, as my nerves seemed to take that as a signal to start working again and I realised the full extent of my injuries. I fell forwards but was able to catch myself before landing on my chest.

“P-potions, I still have those, right?” I didn’t even realise that I was speaking out loud, and fumbled around for a Low-Grade healing potion, soon managing to pull one free and quickly chug it down.

That could have gone a little better.

Combat Cleared 1 Leaf Ant Hive [Levels 1-18] Defeated

You Have Reached Level 22

Proficiency Gained You Have Reached Max Level In The Skill [Channel Mana]