Novels2Search
The Quantum System
Chapter 41: Ants

Chapter 41: Ants

Ryan scouted ahead of the group, ranging to the left of the road while Miguel was canvassing the right side. They had freed the second group of captives at the Hotel, which had been a far easier fight than the first. The captors, except for the guards stationed at the entrance to the compound and the guards stationed to keep watch over the incarcerated captives, were sleeping in the rooms two by two and were killed silently in their sleep. The highest level group was interrupted during an orgy with unwilling female participants. Ryan would forever remember Alexis’ expression of vindication as she smashed her bo staff into the testicular region of the leader.

Freeing the captives afterward was the same harrowing ordeal that the first raid had burdened them with, but Ryan had the sneaking suspicion that he was becoming inured to the horrors that humanity could and would visit upon one another. They then elected to accompany the group towards Kapps to ensure their safety. Ryan focused on the slope above him, he wasn’t certain whether or not he had spotted movement and took a closer look at the area. It wouldn’t do for the group of 317 former captives struggling along the mountainous road to be ambushed by a high level creature. Few of them were armed and the five members of the group accompanying them couldn’t cover the whole column.

Most of the people were also burdened with whatever supplies they had liberated from the two strongholds, mostly food. The group wasn’t well supplied, but with the materials the Fortress had decided to donate, they should survive for a week or two, enough time to secure their own provisions. Alexis had argued that they should provide them with more help but the general consensus of the group had been that they couldn’t afford to do more and needed to secure their own future and focus on their own strength, a sentiment he wholeheartedly supported.

While he moved through the bush Ryan wondered what happened to all the smaller critters after the system got initiated. He could spot numerous tracks of mice, lizards and a variety of bugs, but so far, hadn’t spotted a single live specimen. The large variety of fauna was remarkably absent from his senses save for the evidence left behind by their tracks. He wondered if a Level 10 scorpion would be a threat to a larger, low levelled animal. His musings on the nature of the system granted evolution were interrupted when William pinged him with: “Ryan, come over. Miguel found something he thinks we should see. Meet me at the column so we can head up together. They’re due a rest anyway.”

Ryan quickly headed down towards the road where William was already impatiently waiting for him. “Let’s go. Miguel said it wasn’t urgent but I want to be home by lunch.”

As they headed up the opposite slope Ryan couldn’t help but tease his sibling “Missing Lizzy so much? Or is it Katrina’s cooking?”

“Bit of both,” William replied sheepishly. “but actually, we need to consult with John about our new Achievement. And also discuss what we have found in town. I am worried that there were only that few people still in the suburb, discounting the U.S. embassy. It’s a bit worrying to be honest, between the prisoners and the gang members there were about 400 to 500 people left in that part of town. What happened to the rest?”

“Either dead or fled. I assume that quite a few managed to get out of town. But you’re right, that’s very few people of what must have been more than 10 000 prior to Initiation.”

“Ok, we’re up at the ridge where Miguel said to wait. Let me just ping him to come get us.” William interrupted their discussion.

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Ryan looked at William as they waited for Miguel. His brother was deep in thought and judging by the frown edged onto his forehead contemplating their earlier discussion. While the implications of the situation in town may have been concerning, Ryan saw no need to overly worry about the situation as they couldn’t have changed what happened and, to be able to prevent similar occurrences in future, would need to focus on developing their own strength first and foremost. Post Initiation this world operated on the basis of might makes right and he had every intention to be on the right side of that equation.

Miguel collected them a minute later and led them along the ridge further up the mountain, holding parallel to the road. When they reached a broad swath of cleared ground he started explaining: “This was what got my attention first, it’s a broad path cleared of absolutely everything. Feel the ground, it’s smooth and hard, compacted to a significant degree. You can barely dig into it. Believe me, I tried. I followed the path for a bit and found… Well, you’ll have to see it to believe it.”

As they crested the next ridge over Ryan and William stopped as if they had run into a wall. A significant part of the next valley was cleared of absolutely everything. It reminded Ryan of pictures of a strip mining operation he had seen once upon a time. Huge towers of compacted dirt thrust into the sky. The lack of any comparable features made their size difficult to estimate but Ryan judged them to be at least 25 metres high. On closer examination he could spot bright white bones littered on the ground at various locations throughout the valley.

It was only then that Ryan discovered the architects of the desolated wasteland in front of him. Columns of ants were marching through the valley. The industrious little, or not so little, animals were streaming from the towers, separate columns heading back towards the towers. Ryan warily moved closer to one of the busy paths. The bones scattered throughout the valley were a clear indication of the danger these little beasties posed. When he approached closer he saw that the ants were about the size of three of his thumbs, smaller than he had expected. Nonetheless, Identify popped up with Myrmicaria baumi gigantean, which told him absolutely nothing. Even so, the scale of the devastation the buggers managed to create within such a short timespan left him in awe. And then, on second thoughts, a seed of worry germinated. If the colonies growth proved exponential, they’d soon threaten the entire area. It would be prudent to keep an eye out on the area and if need be, deal with it.

The individual ants were all low levelled, mostly in the range of Level 1 to Level 3, but their staggering numbers together with the fact that Ryan had no idea how they could kill them efficiently, made elimination of the colony an unknown. Ryan sighed, another matter that they would need to discuss with the group. He really loathed all the discussions although he accepted the need for it.

As they headed back to the column they discussed what they had seen, and then Ryan had an epiphany he had to share: “Hey, hey hey” he nearly hyperventilated in excitement, “If we can find a good way to kill the ants en masse, we have found the holy grail. Forget the risk they pose as a whole, it’s worth trying to eliminate them for the experience alone. Imagine, thousands of ants worth of experience. We’ll level up like mad. Guys, we can’s share this with the others yet. We need to keep this to our group, at least until we have discussed it.”

Both Miguel and William immediately agreed on the wisdom of Ryan’s suggestion so as they met up with the group and were asked what they had found Ryan took the lead and explained that Miguel had found bones of a large and very weird creature. They couldn’t Identify them and were still unsure what the hell it could have been. They had the group resuming the trek in a few minutes, the short rest had restored the spirits of near everyone. It took them another hour to reach Kapps. On first sighting the road block and the Kapps Hotel unpleasant memories of the ambush he had last experienced here arose unbidden from Ryan’s subconscious. He quickly suppressed them and led the group to the property. This time he wasn’t worried about a possible ambush as he had spotted Johannes, Stoan and Tanya waiting for them. Those three had volunteered to get the group settled in and return to the Fortress about a day or two late.