A torrent of ants flooded through the tunnel towards Lan and Thea. Clicking and snapping, they marched to their doom, much like the previous ants had.
Their black carapaces were painted neon blue, their eyes glassy. Each step was robotic and unnatural, as though they were being puppeteered.
Lan turned around, checking the cavern. Half the ants had sunk beneath the moss, but the rest remained. Frozen like sculptures above on the neon fungus.
"If… If it's already struggling to deal with that amount…." Lan trailed off, pulling Thea away from the edge of the cavern.
They watched in a twisted mixture of horror and awe as the ants ended their march. Tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of ants the size of a horse crowded into the cavern like sardines in a can.
"Maybe this is our chance," Thea whispered, her gaze transfixed on a slowly sinking ant.
Long, blue tentacles wrapped around the ant's body, slowly dragging it beneath the moss. Despite this, it remained still, patiently awaiting its own death. 'Or does it think it's already dead?' Lan wondered.
"To kill the Crypt keeper?" He asked, checking the tunnel behind him.
Thea licked her lips, nodding, "Yeah, maybe it will come out with these ants here. Then we can smash its head. It'll be like playing whack-a-mole!"
"I don't suppose you have a more detailed plan than whack-a-mole?" Lan asked hopefully.
"Where did plans get us so far?" Thea pointed out.
"It's only because Archie made those plans," Suddenly, he froze, realisation hitting him, "Hey… Why do we even need to kill the crypt keeper?" Lan asked doubtfully.
Thea frowned, knitting her fiery brows together, "Don't we have to kill it to clear the dungeon?"
Lan checked over the dungeon conditions, reading them carefully.
Alert: Dungeon trial – The Queen
Challenge - Kill the ant queen and her brood
Time limit – None
Reward – Dependent on performance and number of participants
Participants - 5
"Reread it," He muttered, squinting closely at the notification.
"It says to kill the ant queen and her brood…." Thea frowned, not getting it.
Lan gestured grandly at the moss-covered ground, tentacles breaking its surface, almost like a giant sea monster beneath was trying to escape. "Does that… Look like an ant?"
"But if… If we don't need to kill the crypt-keeper. Why would Archie send us here?"
The room started to rumble as the moss began to seethe and groan. Pulsating like a living creature, it gave off wave after wave of entrancing neon light.
"And why didn't he tell us about the blood before we got it on ourselves?" Lan added.
Without needing to exchange another word, Thea and Lan bolted up the tunnel. Their faces flushed bright red with both anger and terror.
"He's trying to get rid of-"Thea never finished her sentence.
Tentacles sprouted from the moss, lashing out like a whip and wrapping around her waist. She was yanked back, the extreme force snapping her head forward. Her eyes glazed over as she was dragged back, sinking beneath the moss.
"Oh shit!" Lan leapt to the side, tentacles flying past where he had been moments before.
He rolled, hitting his elbow off the tunnel wall and springing to his feet. Turning around, Lan watched as the Tentacles hovered in the open air. Somehow, they reminded him of cobras, ready to pounce the second he moved.
But he didn't have many other options, so moving was all he could do.
Lan sprinted up the tunnel, leaping over a lunging tentacle and ducking under one that swept towards his head. It was so close to hitting him that he felt a gust of wind pass over the back of his neck.
'That bastard!' He seethed, picturing Archie's weird face. He imagined all kinds of wickedly sharp things finding their way into that face. First, a fishhook, then a pizza cutter, or maybe a hot poker. The possibilities were endless.
He sidestepped a tentacle, stumbling over a rock and sprawling onto the mossy tunnel floor… 'Has the tunnel always been this mossy?' Lan wondered.
'When I first arrived, only the cavern floor had moss. When did?-' He froze. Tens of tentacles sprang up from the moss all around him.
"Looks like I'll be respawning soon," He mumbled.
En masse, the tentacles pounced. Lurching towards him at blinding speeds, he could barely dodge them using his increased reflexes.
But no matter how he looked, the tunnel ahead was impassable. Tens of tentacles crowded the only exit, making an impenetrable barrier.
Glancing behind him, Lan noticed far fewer tentacles in the cavern now. 'It must have a limited range, which means it's not eating the rest of the ants right now,'
Thinking of the ants, a lightbulb switched on his head, and he burst into another sprint. This time, towards the cavern.
His movements were deft as he nimbly dodged the pursuing tentacles breathing heavily as he focused on the rapidly approaching cavern.
He could see hundreds of ants standing like statues above the moss. 'Since they didn't react even when that thing pulled them under… Surely they won't mind if I get some experience first,'
Lan slid under a sweeping tentacle and lunged towards a fallen rock, grabbing it as he ran. He clutched the rock in one hand, inspirations flying through his mind as he burst into the cavern.
He could see it.
The path was laid out before him.
One step. He was on the moss now, his foot sinking slightly into the springy fungus.
He swung, his rock finding the weak point on the back of an ant's neck.
Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
----------------------------------------
Alert: Level up! [2->3]
'I suppose I did kill quite a few ants earlier,' Lan realised, adding every free point he had just gained into strength without a second thought.
When he swung the rock this time, it was like a sledgehammer, snapping an ant's shell like brittle glass.
Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
One hit was all it took now. Only one, and he could kill an ant. Which doesn't sound like much of an achievement... If these were ordinary ants, but these weren't ordinary ants. These ants would crush a car if they fell on it.
Breathlessly, he dodged a lunging tentacle and crushed another ant with the rock, and another, and another and another and another and another and another…
Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
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Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
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Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
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Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
----------------------------------------
Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
----------------------------------------
Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
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Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
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Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
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Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
…
It never ended, and he never got tired. His endurance was too high.
As he swung, blow after blow, he began to feel robotic. All he had to do was follow his talent's instructions, and his rock would crush another ant. There was no complex thought, no planning, no skill.
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He just did what he was told and…
Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
Easy as that.
But despite the ease, it left Lan feeling uncomfortable. He didn't like feeling so useless, like a passenger in his own body.
His frustration only made him swing faster, his arm blurring as he snapped steely carapaces like dry twigs.
The tentacles were beginning to get desperate, but it was too late. Lan was building unstoppable momentum.
Alert: Level up! [3->4]
Once again, he put every single point into strength.
This time when he swung the rock, it cracked. Slamming through an ant like a hot knife through butter, it split down the middle from the shear strength of the swing.
Thrashing at him in an endless barrage, the tentacles desperately tried to slow him down, crushing ants that he got close to.
Neon blue blood sprayed down on the cavern like rain, and Lan was drenched. Head to toe, he was covered in blood, reeking of petrol.
'If an ant saw me now, it would surely think I was the deadest thing ever,' He mused, ducking under a tentacle and lashing a vicious kick at an ant's carapace.
The ant's mangled corpse took off like it was shot from a cannon, barrelling into another ant and sending both into the cavern wall.
Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
----------------------------------------
Alert: Killed lvl:2 Ant Drone - Experience gained
"Double kill," Lan laughed, rolling under another tentacle.
Suddenly, the ground beneath him shifted, and hundreds of tentacles thundered towards him at once, wrapping around his waist like an anchor.
Just before he was dragged down into the moss, Lan took off his shoe and threw it at the nearest ant.
The shoe spun in a beautiful arc, the heel landing square on the ant's head and flattening its skull with a sickening crunch.
Alert: Level up! [4->5]
And then the world was blue.
Lan's world flipped, and he fell, plummeting through the thin layer of moss and landing on a pile of dead ants. His surroundings were dyed a stark blue by the moss above, making them seem all the more twisted.
The pile wasn't huge, disturbingly small, in fact. Considering just how many ants had been dragged under the moss.
"Thea!" Lan shouted, jumping off the pile and landing in a shallow puddle.
"Ah, shit!" He yelped, jumping out of the water. It burned like acid, and his foot had been burned since he was only wearing one shoe.
Hopping on his boot, he jumped on top of an ant's body. It slowly dissolved into the pool, giving off a sickening black smoke.
He glanced around the cave, gasping at what he saw.
A withered red tree was growing toward the ground in the centre of the ceiling. Its branches were twisted and gnarled as though recently struck by lightning. The branches stretched towards the ground and into the pool, evil black flowers growing on them.
'Were those tentacles its roots?' Lan wondered, staring at the upside-down tree growing from the blanket of moss on the ceiling.
On first inspection, there was no way out of the cave.
Besides the pool of acidic water on the ground and the slowly dissolving ants, the cave had no other features. None. No tunnels, no cracks to crawl out of, no escape…
Lan sighed, "It feels as though I'm inside the tree's stomach," He muttered, jumping from ant to ant like lily pads.
"Thea!" He shouted
No response came, so he kept searching. He tried to remember where she had sunk into the moss and made his way in that general direction.
There, he found a heaping pile of ants and… an arm.
With a grunt, Lan threw a few ants from the pile and grabbed the arm, pulling on it. The pile shifted and groaned, but Thea remained lodged beneath the mountain of ants.
"Fuck. Archie." Lan swore, tossing ants from the pile like driftwood. "Oh yeah, I levelled up right before I fell in," Lan remembered.
Since it had worked so far, he put another 10 free points into strength. He had a feeling that killing this tree would rely on that stat more than anything else.
The pile slowly decreased in height until Lan managed to pull Thea from the heap after a big heave.
Her dark red hair clung to her scalp, slick with sweat and blood. Her uniform was in tatters, and multiple gashes bled onto her once pristine white shirt.
"If her body is still here, then she must still be alive," Lan leant in, putting his ear against her mouth. A faint whisp of breath fluttered out.
'Would she be better off dead?' Lan wondered, positing the thought. If she was suffering right now, wouldn't she be better off if he just killed her?
He moved his hand towards her throat and then froze. 'I've never killed a human before… Even if it's not a true death, I swore to be different. No. Better than other pathfinders,'
Decision made, Lan tossed her over his shoulder and leapt to the largest pile of ants, placing her on top.
Looking back up at the ceiling, Lan glared at the tree.
The longer he waited, the more the flowers on its branches began to bloom. He had no idea what would happen when they finished, but he was pretty sure nothing good would come of it.
"Now," He rubbed his hands together before turning to look at the piles of ants. "Let's find out if these things are still alive,"
***
George closed his mouth, his voice echoing off the cavern walls and assailing his ears. It may be correct to say that George suffered more than anyone else who heard his voice.
'It's hideous…'
He sighed, trying to paint the smile back on, trying his best to stay positive. If he looked at it one way, his talent was extremely powerful.
Talent: Amp
Ability: There is no such thing as good music or even a good sound. Everything is based on personal preference… Or so you tell yourself. You speak with the explosive power of a cannon. The louder you shout, the more damage you cause.
Penalty: Amp is uncontrollable. It cannot be turned off.
With this talent, George had practically flown to the sixth position of the point rankings. In the tutorial, he was almost invincible. Just then, he killed hundreds of ants and finally hit level 13.
Levelling was easy for him. It was like reaping wheat or cutting grass, and that made the fact he wasn't first on the leaderboard terrifying.
What scared him more than anything were the people above him. It was the fourth day of the tutorial, and he was level 13. Level fucking 13! And he was sixth.
Worse still, the top two places both had more than triple his points. He could massacre countless monsters by talking, so how could they… How could-
George was getting sidetracked and stopped thinking about the points he didn't even care about. Instead, he turned around, finding Archie and David standing behind him.
David waded through the water and placed a big hand on George's shoulder, smiling softly beneath his big beard. George peered up and smiled back, feeling as though he had to crane his neck even further to make eye contact with David than when they first met.
He liked David because the other boy was easy to communicate with. Although they couldn't talk… Or at least, George couldn't. They could pick up on each other's body language easily enough.
Next came Archie, his face sheet white. His compound eyes were almost bugging out of their sockets as he stared at George like he was looking at a monster.
George didn't like Archie. The guy never meant what he said and never said what he meant. He had always been good at reading body language, and Archie was a crook if he had ever seen one.
Archie nodded to George and walked past, clenching his jaw as he did so.
The trio arrived back at the shore, watching as the distant horde of ants covered in blood crammed into the tunnel Thea and Lan had disappeared into.
Wordlessly, George and David turned to Archie, who was staring despondently at the tunnel. Neither spoke, and eventually, it was Archie himself who shook his head, clearing his thoughts.
"We need to move quickly, and we need to move now!" He said matter of factly, marching towards the barren hive.
George glanced at David. The boy was squinting back at the tunnel with a thoughtful expression.
They made eye contact and exchanged a knowing nod before deciding to follow Archie. Picking their way through the massive, coral reef-like pieces of rock jutting out from the ground around the hive.
Archie's face was grim, and he kept glancing back at George in not-so-subtle attempts. If it was any other time, George might have suspected Archie was in love with him. But right now, he could tell something sinister was afoot.
George's best guess was that he was far stronger than Archie had expected, which had thrown off his plans somehow. 'Good,'
To be fair, George was far stronger than even he expected. He had never been exceptionally talented at fighting and usually placed as average in the academy rankings.
So, when he arrived at the tutorial and rocketed to the top immediately, he was more surprised than anyone.
Occasionally, an ant would poke its head out of the hive and rush over to them. Not much ever came of these attacks except the trio noticing the ants were rising in level.
As the ants grew more powerful, their appearance became more diverse. And their names changed. Until then, they had been exclusively fighting ant drones and maybe the occasional soldier.
But as they climbed the vast anthill, ants of all shapes and sizes beset them on all sides. Some had wings, others disproportionately enormous mandibles or spikes that gleamed with venom. One had an unusually thick carapace that even David had struggled to crack.
Finally, they came to a stop at the foot of a tunnel. It was lit by the soft golden glow of the moss above, allowing them to see deep into the recesses of the ant hill.
They strode into the tunnel, which was more than wide enough to fit all three of them side to side.
As he walked, George felt a strange pressure settle over him. He began to feel uneasy and knew anything that could make him, a level 13, feel that way was ridiculously strong.
The anthill was oppressive, and the deeper they sank into its depths, the stronger the suppression became. It was almost like they were being smothered.
Archie paused at the end of the tunnel, raising his fist and gesturing for them to stop. Then, he took a deep breath and pointed forwards.
"Royal guards, there are four, so we will take one each, and David can take the extra," He whispered.
'David? Why would he take the extra ant? Aren't I stronger?' George wondered, glancing over at David, who nodded without any complaints.
'Four royal guards… Not five. So, we never needed five people to complete this dungeon. But if that's the case, why did Archie send both Lan and Thea away?' George thought it over and could only come up with one solution.
'Archie didn't expect both of them to get the blood on them,'
They stepped out of the tunnel into a spacious cave. Glowing amber stalactites hung from the ceiling, stretching toward four pillars of different colours. Behind the pillars, a grand doorway encrusted with gemstones continued deeper into the hive.
The first pillar was rich green, as though it was made entirely of jade. It reminded George of the sorts of throne a great eastern emperor would sit on.
On this pillar of jade sat an ant of similar colour… If it could even be called an ant anymore. It looked eerily humanoid, sitting cross-legged on the pillar.
Royal Guard: Lvl: 12
Its face was still distinctly ant-like. However, the carapace covering its whole body resembled something like a medieval suit of armour rather than an ant. It had four arms that looked like a cross between human and ant limbs, and a magnificent pair of golden wings sprouted from its back.
The next pillar glowed fiery red and looked like it was entirely made from ruby. A similarly humanoid ant, red in colour, sat on this pillar. Instead of wings, it was covered in glowing red tubes pumping fiery liquid throughout the ant's body.
After that was a pillar of pure, brilliant gold. George could only imagine how much such a pillar would be worth as he stared at the beautiful ant above.
Just like the previous two, its appearance was distinctly humanoid, disregarding the antennas. Instead of wings or tubes, this ant had gleaming black scythes growing from all four humanoid arms.
Finally came an ant sitting on a pillar of what looked like black glass. The glassy substance glittered and sparkled beneath the reddish glow from the stalactites.
The ant above was enormous, its armour far thicker and sturdier than the other three. George had no idea how he would even hurt such a creature, deciding to fight a different one.
As they entered the room, all four humanoid ants turned to stare at them, insectoid compound eyes gleaming with intelligence.
"I'll take the green one, George, you get the red ant, and David can deal with the other two," Archie whispered, beginning to stride forward.
George's hand shot out, gripping Archie's shoulder like a vice.
The boy froze, slowly turning to face George and David, who were looking at him like he was an idiot.
George pointed at Archie's chest and then over his shoulder. Archie followed the finger, his gaze landing on the armoured black ant.
"No, no, no, I can't… I can't kill that thing," Archie protested, squirming as he tried to break free from George's iron grip.
But no matter how he struggled, George's hand didn't budge. The stat difference between levels only increases the higher a pathfinder gets, and George was far higher level than Archie.
"Can't you just scream, and the ants will drop dead?" Archie asked desperately.
George shook his head, writing words in the dirt with his foot.
No.
Only.
Good.
For.
Weak.
Things.
Archie sighed and looked at David, who loomed over him like death's spectre.
"Alright… I'll deal with the black one. You guys take the rest," He muttered begrudgingly, finally escaping George's grasp.
Archie walked towards the armoured ant like a man walking to the gallows. His shoulders were hunched; his hands clenched unwillingly.
George could help but smirk at the show before he turned to look at the other ants.
'I only have daggers, but since I reached level 13 and put a few free points in strength and dexterity, I should be able to hold up against the red one,' He decided, walking towards the red pillar.
The room was bare other than the pillars and jewel-encrusted door. Nothing stood between George and the ants. There was no cover, nowhere to hide if things went wrong.
The second he was halfway across the room, the red ant's head snapped up and glared viciously at George. Blazing murder shone in its inhuman eyes.
With each step he took closer, the tubes began pumping the glowing liquid faster and faster, causing its body to glow bright, fiery red.
With a leap, it jumped down from the pillar, landing on the reddish cave floor with a heavy thud.
George swallowed hard and gritted his teeth. Clenching his only melee weapons, the daggers his teacher had gifted him, he readied himself. And burst forward.