Before I dealt with the ant queen, I would have to deal with her minions. I buffed myself with Accelerate, but ignored the rest of my abilities as I moved towards them.

My level had nuked the ant queen’s stats, so she wasn’t a direct threat unless she accidentally fell on top of me. Her movement speed was far slower than mine, so it would be easy to beat her down in a war of attrition. At least, it would be if you didn’t count the ant soldiers she had summoned.

Whilst individually they weren’t a threat to me, they would still be able to overwhelm me with sheer numbers if I tried to fight them directly. Even though they were individually weak, it would only be a short while before I was defeated in a group battle.

So I ran towards the far wall again.

The ants surged at me. As I was the only target, they had to barge each other aside as they formed into a wave of chittering horrors. The higher level monsters pushed to the front of the pack and created a significant distance from their weaker cousins. Their long feelers snipped furiously as they dashed towards me.

If I hold back on my buffs, I can use my strikes more… but they lose a lot of their power. I need to find a way to lower the cost before I get any more buffs.

“They’re mandibles, by the way.” Rose spoke calmly despite my situation. “You keep calling them weird things, so I thought I’d let you know.”

I shook my head and dismissed my mana issues, along with Rose’s ‘helpful’ advice. Whilst it was interesting, it wouldn't help me survive right now. Maybe if I got some pet ants in the future I could learn a bit more about them. The main issue for me was that the cost to benefit ratio would only worsen as I gained more buffs at higher ranks, but for now, I had enough to play with. As the ants closed in, I turned and sprinted towards them.

I wouldn’t be using my abilities on the minions. Whilst that may get me a small amount of experience if I won, it would be a waste of mana given the fact they were an unlimited distraction. The ant queen had summoned twenty ants in total, but the majority of them were low-level and thus would be easy to defeat.

So I aimed for the strongest member of the group.

A quick thrust knocked it back into the pile, after which I dodged back again. I had managed to crack open the armour on its head, but a follow-up strike was made impossible as its allies clawed their way towards me.

The ant queen screeched in the distance as I continued my game of tag. I moved back and forth across the area for several minutes before the first high-level ant fell to my hit and run tactics.

In its place, another ant spawned in the distance.

Perfect.

I grinned to myself as I watched the new ant join its brethren in their futile chase. The one I had defeated had been high level, with heavy plates lining its body. Its replacement was far weaker, and moved noticeably slower.

I repeated the tactic on the last two higher levelled ants. One spawned another high level, but as it was split off from the group it was an easy task to take it down, after which the group was made up of twenty low-level minions.

My Accelerate buff had fallen off, and I was slightly out of breath, but the main threat had been managed. The ant queen could only take a shaky step every few seconds due to its low strength value compare to the scale of the beast.

Now was the time to make my move.

I had time to fully activate my buffs before we met, so that at least gave me an edge before the fight truly started.

The downside was that it ate up a large amount of my mana. My rage pool had dropped to sixty-five from the three abilities. The Novice buffs, which would have taken almost half of my mana previously, now only dropped it by forty-five.

My passive lowered the cost of each buff per buff I cast, but it couldn’t lower their costs to less than half the original value. Whilst it was extremely nice, the cost of the buffs themselves would soon far outweigh it.

There was one major issue I had tried to ignore, and that was the fact the passive effect had a level limit. Once I passed level twenty-five, its effects would become unnoticeable. I had to think of some way around it before I rose to that point.

All of that added together meant that I could only use my strikes a limited number of times. There were skills to increase mana regeneration, but most of those were either rare or locked to those who chose the Practitioner class.

If I could turn them into passive buffs that took mana over time, it would be perfect…

I ignored the thoughts and charged towards my enemy. The ant queen loomed above me as I closed in, but I knew that it wasn’t as dangerous as it seemed. The issue would be taking it down before its minions managed to wear through my stamina.

Instead of attacking the thing's legs directly, I ran past it. When it had been balanced to match my level, its armour had been decreased in size and toughness, but it would still take too long for me to wear through it.

Before I could move too far, the ant queen’s jaws opened and a rain of green goo fell towards my head. Rose tried to shout out to warn me, but I had already made my own move by the time I heard her first word ring out.

“Buffed strike.”

The ability leaped me past the main flow, but the ant queen’s attack had too wide a range. The only option I had would be to ride it out as best I could. I activated my Mana Shield, gritted my teeth, and ran.

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My mana dropped noticeably as a few globs sizzled on the shield, but I made it out of the attack radius without significant injury. I disabled the shield and took a deep breath. The smell of the green goo hung in the air and burned my nose, as though it wanted to take any small victory it could against me.

The ant queen hadn’t moved too far from the wall, which worked out perfectly for me. I had controlled its movements as I ran its minions back and forth for that very reason. The ant swarm in the distance was closing in, so I continued on my mad dash.

The ant queen, furious that I had managed to dodge its sneak attack, tried to turn to face me. In its haste, one of its quivering legs slipped, which caused its body to crash to the ground.

My heart hammered in my chest as it slammed down behind me. If I had been a second slower, the behemoth would have accidentally crushed me to death.

Damn, that would have been a way to go…

But now that it was lower down, it made my plan easier. I ran to the wall and jumped at it in the same manner as I used in the last fight. As my feet landed against it, I spun around and launched myself up onto the ant queens back.

A moment after I landed, it managed to push itself upright. The weight I added wasn’t enough to keep it down, but soon it would be.

The ant queen’s joints had far less protection than the rest of it. I ran up to the closest leg, which shivered and twitched as it pushed the behemoth back up. It hadn’t noticed the new rider on its back, but I would change that soon enough.

“Buffed strike.”

The hit wasn’t enough to destroy the limb, but the next few strikes took it out. I only have to use my ability on the first attack to break through the thin layer of armour, and the rest managed the job unassisted.

One down, five to go.

“Rook, watch out!” Rose shouted from within my brain, which alerted me to the scuttling sound by my side. An ant had made the arduous climb up the side of its mother, and it was getting ready to leap at me whilst I was distracted.

A quick staff thrust knocked it back and sent it rolling off the side. I heard it crash to the floor, but a quick glance confirmed that the fall had only injured it as the monster tried to push itself up. There had been a risk it would die from the impact, and that it would be replaced by a higher level ant.

Those things wouldn’t struggle to climb up the ant queen’s back. Other ants were making the climb, which meant I didn’t have much time. I could knock them down one by one, but if they started to die it would be difficult to fend their replacements off.

I repeated the process on another two legs, though I didn’t use my strike skill. After the first one had been knocked out, the ant queen could no longer keep itself upright, so I had more time to work on each joint. Despite that its whines, I didn’t show any mercy as I destroyed every single one of its legs.

As it dropped to the floor once more, the ant soldiers crawled up the queen’s body to attack me. It didn’t take much effort to knock one of them down, but their sheer numbers would overwhelm me before too long.

So I didn’t fight all of them.

I knocked the ones who climbed up onto the ant queen's head to the floor, but let the others build up on its abdomen. After a minute or so, a large pile of ants were trying to make their way towards me from the far end of the ant queen.

This is the most insane thing I've done yet, but it should work. Thankfully, these things are bloody stupid.

After they had built up to a good level, I ran towards the pile of ants. They rolled towards me, but the heap fell apart as they tried to get past the thin section of the ant queen’s back. As they collapsed, I jumped toward them and used their bodies as a ramp.

Their mandibles snipped at my legs, but I managed to avoid getting snagged as I hopped to the top of the writhing mass. Before it could collapse further, I turned and jumped back towards the ant queens head.

The marker for the perfect point hovered in the centre of the ant queens skull.

“Buffed Fury! Buffed strike!”

My staff crashed down on the marked point. The armour, which had previously held up against any attack I had made against it, was crushed aside as my weapon cracked through it.

**Perfect Point struck. Critical Strike.**

I only managed one critical strike, but that was enough. The ant's head had caved in, but it survived the damage as it screeched below me. Now that I had broken through its tough outer layer, I no longer needed any fancy tactics.

As I rained strikes down on it, the creature's struggles weakened until it collapsed to the floor. A moment after it had died, the rest of its summoned minions followed suit as they crashed to the floor around me.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad.” Cory hovered above me as he spoke in a smug tone.

“Did you have to say-” My angry rebuttal was interrupted as the ant queen exploded.

The outer layer erupted outwards, carrying me with it. As I had been on the edge, my trajectory was mostly horizontal, but that didn’t help matters as I dropped towards the floor at an alarming rate.

I saw Cory flash in front of me for a second before I crashed into him. He had matched my velocity to some extent, but it still blew the air from my lungs as he caught me.

After we slowed down enough, he dropped me to the floor. My legs had taken most of the impact, but I was still winded for several seconds before I finally pushed myself upright.

“Rook, are you OK?” Rose appeared next to me and looked me over before she turned back to Cory. “What the hell was that? You used to be the dungeon heart for this place, care to tell us why that thing just tried to take us out with it?”

“I don’t know…” Cory hovered beside me, his light dim as it flickered deep within. “There must have been a new surge of mana, and it was a big one. I’ll keep a closer eye on it in the future.”

**Congratulations. You have levelled up.**

After the voice rang out, I let the tension drop out of my body. It would only announce a level up after combat had ended, so the fact it had spoken now confirmed that the battle had finished.

“Might be worth a look.” I nodded as I brushed myself off. After so many near death and actual death experiences, my mind had adapted. At least, that’s what I liked to tell myself. “Well, at least it's over now.”

I couldn’t stop myself from saying those words. As I tried to pull them back, the smoke behind us cleared and revealed yet another figure.

It was another ant, though this one only at the size of the ‘usual’ large ants.

The creature was around two feet tall, though its antennae reached a fair bit higher as it stared in our direction. Though my body ached after the long battle, I didn’t show myself any mercy as I raised my staff in its direction.

But it didn’t attack.

Instead, it tilted its head from side to side as it looked between each of us. Despite the fact that Rose should be invisible to everyone other than me, it still gave her several glances before it turned back to me.

I didn’t know much about ants, but the fact it had yet to attack left me puzzled. My guard remained up as it took step after cautious step towards me. If this was some sort of trick so that it could strike at close range, then it wouldn’t work.

“Rook, wait.” Rose called out from the side, her eyes fixed on the creature as it approached. “I don’t think it's aggressive.”

“What do you mean?” I glanced at Rose out of the corner of my eye. “This thing is a summoned creature in a dungeon, how can it not be aggressive?”

“I agree with her.” Cory spoke quietly at first, but his words gained confidence as he continued. “I don’t feel any link to it. This isn’t a creature of the dungeon.”

After the pair had agreed, I slowly lowered my staff. The ant watched me, entranced by my movements, before it took another step towards me. As it neared, a faint fragrance hit my nose.

Flowers in the rain, as far as I could describe it.

The ant let out a low pitched rasp as it nuzzled against my leg. Its mandibles, which were easily large enough to cut my skin from bone, rubbed against my thigh as I watched the ant in shock.

“Don’t tell me… it thinks I’m its mother?”