Although I understood Milka's words, I remained motionless.

I felt nothing when I saw Sian killing several ants, but having to kill them myself was a different situation.

Probably because she saw my hesitation, Milka came to me.

"Don't overthink it," she said. "Just look at it like a normal ant."

"It's impossible for me to do that when it has the size of a dog," I said.

"So think of it this way, if the next time you meet an ant with intact legs, you will be its snack."

"Even if you say that, it's still hard for me."

Placing both hands on my cheeks, she looked into my eyes.

"If you want to be strong, this is a necessary step."

Although I was wary about doing this, Milka was right. This world is not an easy place to live. To have a better life than my previous life, I need strength.

I need to be strong!

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath in and then slowly let the air out of my lungs.

After repeating this a few more times, I slowly opened my eyes.

Facing Milka who was still in front of me, I said, "I'll do it."

Seeming satisfied with my response, she released my cheeks and smiled, "This is how it should be."

Holding Tina's hand, she said, "Go ahead."

Holding the staff firmly in front of me, I began to conjure a magic arrow.

Since the spell was already recorded in the system, this allowed me to conjure it simply and quickly.

In front of me, a long, thin, pointed shaft of blue color formed. Following my command, the arrow shot at the ant, piercing the shell of its abdomen.

"That was great for a beginner," Milka cheered.

I'm not trying to brag, but she was right, this was excellent. It was much faster and more solid than the last arrow I cast. Even the time it took to cast it was only a third of what I normally need.

However, the credit for that wasn’t mine.

Lifting my staff, I looked at it in a new light. Its silver and gold glow was really eye-catching, but I like it.

It seems that when it comes to magic, I need to put my feud with Sian totally aside and start listening to him more.

"The ant is still alive," Milka said. "Since your staff can also be used for cutting, use it."

"Okay," I nodded.

Doing as she said, I used the sharp sunbeams of the staff to attack the ant. Even though I didn't know how to handle cold weapons, I cut its abdomen in half with ease.

In place of the cut, a viscous, almost transparent yellow liquid began to ooze out and a pungent smell penetrated my nostrils. The smell was so strong that I instinctively blocked my nose.

Although I had already seen a lot of things in my life, I had to restrain myself from vomiting as the ant struggled and spewed its liquids everywhere.

"Seeing that you hardly made any force, that staff is even sharper than I thought," Milka looked on in admiration.

"Why is it still alive even in that state?" I asked.

"Ants are extremely resilient creatures, they take a while to die if the brain is not destroyed," Milka replied. "Do you know any other spells?"

I nodded.

"Good, then this time try to aim for the head."

Searching through the spells I had, I chose Wind Razor. It has good cutting power while also being simple.

As before, I easily cast the spell and shoot a wind razor towards the ant's head.

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Even though it didn't hit where I aimed because the ant was struggling, it was enough to cut off a chunk of its head.

"You did it!"

While Milka was rooting for me, all I did was stand there watching the ant cease its movements as its life faded away.

The feeling of taking a life was something strange…

Perhaps because it was from an ant monster, apart from the momentary revulsion, I didn't feel guilty about it.

As I watched the ant until its last moments, a small blue magic stone formed among the yellowish goo on its head. At the same time, the system also warned that it had collected the magic essence.

***

After I killed the first ant, Sian let ants through his rain of arrows more often. Whether it was with the sunbeams from my staff or with spells, I was killing them all.

Deep down, I felt that this was something cruel, but I hardened my heart and continued to use them as living training targets.

When I had already killed my tenth ant, Milka stopped cutting its legs. At first, it was hard to deal with them because they were so fast, but thanks to my armor and staff, I got the hang of it pretty quickly.

With some time having passed after we arrived in the valley, my skill had mapped out much of the place and I could see the level of the ants. They were around level 5 to 15, with the higher level ones being scarcer.

When the flying ants appeared, I thought they would be tricky to deal with since they flew zig-zag, but that turned out not to be the case. Before they could even get close to where we were, Sian shot them.

Unlike normal ants, they exploded as they died, causing the splatter of their remains to fall on the other ants on the ground.

Almost instantly, the armor of the ants that had been splashed began to smoke. At first, I didn't understand what was happening, but when I looked at the ground, the parts where the ant fluids touched were melting.

These ants, even if it was just one low-level one, it would take a soldier or two to deal with them. A swarm like that attacking would certainly be problematic for any kingdom to deal with.

Nevertheless, in a matter of minutes, while assisting me in my training, Sian had killed hundreds of them. That is, if he hadn't already reached the thousands.

I couldn't tell for sure, since before the ant corpses accumulated too much, he kept them in his space storage.

***

The huge piles of dead ants that Sian was constantly storing gave me a certainty. The amount he had killed had already passed thousands, but still, they kept coming out of the earth as if there was no end to them.

Even when some larger ants with level 20 appeared throwing jets of acid, he dealt with them easily.

Before the jets could get close, he intercepted them with space portals. At the same time, hundreds of smaller portals appeared above the ants on the ground.

The acid that had been used as an attack was returned as it fell like rain.

Even if the acid did nothing against the ants' main body shell, this was not the case with their thin abdomen and legs.

Over time, the ants changed their approach and began to attack coordinately.

It seemed as if they were being commanded.

The flying explosive ants began to blend in with the normal ones as they tried to get closer. The acid-spewing ones were using the workers as a shield. There was even an underground attack by some level 50 ants.

But none of this worked, before they got close enough, Sian would kill them.

***

After losing count of how many ants I killed, I stopped for a break.

"Drink this, it will help you recover from mental fatigue after casting so many spells."

Milka handed me a bottle containing a yellow liquid.

Although I was mentally exhausted, it wasn't due to the spells. The system did most of the work, so the spells didn't demand much from me.

But killing so many ants in such a short time created a burden in my mind, so I accepted the potion.

"Thank you."

"Looks like I won't get my turn to shine today."

As Milka expressed her dissatisfaction, she suddenly frowned.

"It's coming!" she shouted.

"I know," Sian replied calmly.

While I wondered what they were talking about, my armor acted independently.

Before I could process what was happening, the shield of my armor enveloped Tina, who was at my side, and me.

In the next moment, everything around us glowed yellow and I unconsciously closed my eyes.

...

... ...

While I waited in a state of alertness, nothing happened.

When I opened my eyes, I realized that before whatever was going to get to me and Tina, it didn't.

Looking roughly from one side to the other, I tried to understand what was going on.

Around us, including Sian, Milka and Teshar, was a transparent dome.

Its entire circumference was covered by the yellow light I saw earlier. Although I say light, all it had was a dim glow, not strong enough to hurt my eyes.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Looks like we were attacked~~" Milka replied nonchalantly.

Although she acted like it was no big deal, seeing Sian sighing as he wiped the sweat from his forehead made me believe otherwise.

Just as I was about to ask him, the veil of light surrounding us began to clear. While I was awestruck by what I saw, I felt Tina squeeze my hand tightly as she trembled slightly.

Her fear was understandable, after all, everything within a few meters around the dome we were in was destroyed.

It was as if we were on a pedestal surrounded by a deep moat.

I couldn't see even a remnant of the ants that surrounded us.

Feeling a tremendous chill in my stomach, I gulped dryly as my legs weakened. But because I had Tina by my side, I held on and took a deep breath, trying to pull myself together.

Although I tried to remain calm, because of my nervousness, all I could do was ask again.

"What the hell happened here?!"