The Royal Guard Ant became enraged, but then it soon felt its body shiver. The strange human in front of it was radiating so much hate and killing intent that his murderous aura and glare made the hard-to-threaten ant feel endangered.
Vincent stopped limping menacingly and remained glaring at the ant with a cold stare. Then he raised his hand and threw one of the eggs at the Royal Guard Ant. Regrettably, his aim was off by a couple of inches, and the egg flew past the target.
*Splat*
The Royal Guard Ant became infuriated by this action. It glared at Vincent with unimaginable hate after witnessing him throw the ant egg like an ordinary object.
However, the Royal Guard Ant was injured and weak. Because of this, its killing intent was so weak that it couldn't compete against Vincent's killing intent.
"Hehe. Even if you can't understand me, I think you know quite well what I'm going to do with this second egg." Vincent said with his threatening voice. His empty hand landed on top of the Acid Ant egg, and his fingers started tapping on the egg's shell.
The Royal Guard Ant felt the urgent need to kill Vincent immediately. Even if the human before it didn't look very mobile, the ant was in a similar situation. The blood loss was making the ant harder to concentrate. For how long the ant was injured is unknown.
Vincent clenched his grip. His fingers pierced through the eggshell and tore open the top of the egg. He could see the monstrous ant became infuriated by this taunt. The plan to piss the ant off seemed to work.
Now the Royal Guard Ant knew the egg couldn't be saved anymore. The last order the ant received from the Broodmother Queen Ant was to save every egg they could possibly save.
However, the Royal Guard Ant knew its end was near. To run after the cart Ester, Lupa and Tula moved was difficult with the constant loss of strength.
The Royal Guard Ant was barely standing, but only Vincent and Kazumi knew of the ant's dire situation. Unlike Vincent, the ant couldn't bluff its current condition.
Furthermore, the monstrous ant thought Ester, Lupa, and Tula probably had similar strength to Vincent. The more Vincent bluffed and displayed his killing intent, the further the Royal Guard Ant's mind became chaotic.
The Royal Guard Ant felt it had no choice but to kill Vincent at the cost of its own quickly fading life. If it couldn't follow the Queen's wish to safeguard ant eggs, then taking a vicious human that plays with ant eggs would suffice. With seething anger and a hint of regret, the ant's body quickly started to inflate.
Vincent and Kazumi could see how loyal the ants were to the Ant Queen; in a way, Vincent felt a bit jealous of the unwavering trust.
'I wonder if one day I can receive this kind of trust.' Vincent thought as he stared at the acid explosion, ready to erupt. A few seconds later, Vincent raised a smirk and...
*POP!*
Acid and bits of the Royal Guard Ant splattered in a wide radius. Trees, leaves, grass, and rocks started to melt in the area. It quickly became an acid hell.
Vincent also became covered yellow like his surroundings. His bandages quickly melted, and his skin became red. His face displayed a pained expression which made Kazumi worry.
Smoke and loud sizzling sounds could be noticed from far away. Lupa perked her ears and pointed at the area covered in smoke caused by acid.
Ester, Lupa, and Tula worried about Vincent's safety. The words, "I have a new ability." made the three hope for Vincent to know what he was doing. Even though they wanted to trust his words, their hearts could only worry.
A few minutes later...
"I hear footsteps. It must be Vincent, but... why is he walking and hiding behind trees?" Lupa tilted her head while pondering what Vincent was trying to do.
"Vincent asked for bandages, and the acid melts everything it touches other than water. Also, Vincent can't walk on his own, or did you forget?" Ester accurately guessed Vincent's actions.
"Is-is Big Brother naked?" Tula's cheeks flushed red. Then she raised her hand to cover her eyes. Tula tried to peek from time to time.
A burnt scared hand soon appeared, waving from behind a nearby tree. "Throw me bandages or something wrap around my body. I will cover myself, so stay back. Don't peek!" Vincent said with an embarrassed voice.
[Are you afraid the girls will see your weenie? Hehe. ]
Vincent sighed and didn't answer. He picked what Ester threw and started applying the bandages around his body. Vincent felt more embarrassed and afraid about his ruined, burnt skin than being seen naked.
It took a while for Vincent to finish and limp over to Ester, Lupa, and Tula. It seemed his legs recovered some of their strength after using Overheat, allowing Vincent to limp with no aid slowly.
"Vincent!" The three women exclaimed.
"You don't need to worry. Kazumi told me about the water trick, so I washed all the acid on my body away. Ohh. I forget to mention that I became resistant to the acid of ants. It only feels like hot water for a few seconds now." Vincent noticed the surprised expression on their faces while he spoke as if it wasn't a big deal.
It was unbelievable for a person to become resistant to the acid that can melt metal like plastic left in the sun. Nonetheless, Vincent didn't seem harmed by the acid.
The Royal Guard Ant had exploded, covering a large radius with acid, but not a single hair was missing on Vincent's head; his words were true.
"Are you telling us the truth? You are not hurt?" Ester wanted to hear his confirmation one more time before accepting what her eyes saw.
"Ye, ye. The acid hurts. How are you not hurt?" Lupa added.
Tula lowered her hands, uncovering her sight. She noticed Vincent looked the same as before, but with a mix of bandages and strips of long cloths wrapped around his body. He also wore a shirt and pants.
[I understand their worrying. You should reassure the girls and leave this place. We don't want to fight against more ants, do we?]
Vincent spent some time explaining what happened and how he became highly resistant to acid. Ester and Lupa became surprised by the mysterious Mutation class powers he possesses.
On the other hand, Tula tilted her head in confusion since she didn't know of Vincent's two classes.
'I don't understand what Big Brother and Sisters are talking about, but it must be the guardian angel's work. The guardian angel must have helped my Big Brother.' Tula pondered before choosing to ask nothing.
Tula thought Kazumi protected Vincent from harm's way, so she decided to leave Ester and Lupa to talk with Vincent uninterrupted. Tula was content to believe in her imaginative development.
After Vincent said his piece, he slowly limped over to the cart and placed his hands on the cart's back. "Are we leaving this place or what?" He continued while waving his hand to come over.
Ester, Lupa, and Tula understood his intention. It was best to leave since Lusterfall City shouldn't be too far from their current location.
Slowly moving and pulling the cart, night soon covered them in darkness. The group rested for the night, but Vincent decided to inspect and see if he could store the ant eggs in the cart before doing so.
Vincent noticed that the info of the eggs was almost pretty much the same. All the Acid Ant eggs had the same description. Only one of the Soldier Ant eggs had a growing female ant inside.
There was also a smaller egg than the others, and its color was more vibrant than the rest. As Vincent inspected the egg, he noticed it was a Royal Guard Ant egg.
[Name] Royal Guard Ant Egg (Male)
[Condition] Healthy, Growing
[Detail]
An egg created by [Broodmother Queen Ant]
An egg grows then matures a Royal Guard type ant depending on the nutrients the shell absorbs.
Vincent had once seen this egg before. It was under the Royal Guard Ant along with the female Soldier Ant egg.
As Vincent finished inspecting all the eggs, he tried to store them.
[1x Acid Ant Egg (Uncommon Quality) gained.]
[1x Acid Ant Egg (Uncommon Quality) gained.]
[1x Soldier Ant Egg (Uncommon Quality) gained.]
[1x Soldier... ]
The area illuminated warm orange by a campfire started to flash green every few seconds until, one by one, all the eggs but one remained. The Royal Guard Ant egg couldn't get stored inside the Soul Dimensional Storage.
[1x Soldier Ant Egg (Uncommon Quality) gained.]
[1x Soldier Ant Egg (Rare Quality) gained.]
[Error.]
[The Royal Guard Ant Egg (Male) can't be stored. The object has a formed soul and is not considered an inanimate item.]
[Only inanimate objects or objects with souls of the same owner's wavelength can be stored.]
"This type of ant will keep giving me problems, heh..." Vincent sighed and resigned himself to the enemy that keeps opposing him one way or another.
[Why don't we keep it? Maybe it would see you as its master. What do you say? Vincent, the ant demon king from another world, this title has a good ring to it?]
"The people already consider me evil. An army of ants would make me look like a demon king for sure. What do you think evil ant commander Kazumi?" Vincent said as he looked at the sky. It was a bit cloudy, and the stars hard to see.
It was like his future. Vincent set a few goals to pursue, but the journey to arrive at the destination was unpredictable and stacked with many odds against him.
Vincent pondered as he played with the last egg on the cart. He decided the newborn ant shouldn't be difficult to kill after tilting the egg with his finger a couple of times.
Furthermore, Vincent became highly resistant to minor acid. It would only feel as if touched by hot water for a few seconds, and that's that. Only his clothes would melt, so in other words, the acid only hurts his wallet to buy clothes.
[I guess you can do that. Also, I think the egg isn't going to hatch any time soon. The description says it needs nutrients to grow the ant inside, so I guess the ant might not hatch in a long time since it isn't doused in diluted acid.]
Kazumi came up with a theory about the ant eggs. Ester, Lupa, and Tula didn't appear to have been in danger from the ants hatching from the eggs and later getting attacked by them.