“They are what? Level 35+? You know that I am level 14, and was only level 11 when you first asked me, right?” Zalanir was baffled that Kael had only told him this now.

  He had thought that this could be a simple and free little action, because the other three were of such a high level. Kael was level 32, Shinnya was 38, and Djaxinz was at a freaking level 46. With this company, it was a steal for him to join, let alone even receiving rewards.

  “You won’t need to do any killing, just distract them with your bolts and we will be fine. Shinnya and I will also stay outside to guard, so we will protect you if there’s any danger,” Kael smiled.

  “Besides, because you are tagging along with us, you will level up fast. Not many fighters have a chance to kill high-level monsters. If the situation permits, we can even leave some dying ants for you to finish. If I have to give a prediction, you could gain five to ten levels without doing much,” Shinnya added.

  “If only the raid turns out as you said,” Zalanir scoffed. The quick level-up was tempting, but still, walking into a bunch of crazy ants that were more than double his level wasn’t on his calculation.

  “Don’t worry. We have been there twice already. The opening salvo from Shinnya will leave most of them fleeing for their lives,” Kael assured.

  “What are you looking for there?”

  “A rare seed. It was kept deep inside the nest. It’s the reason these ants outgrow their cousins nearby. That seed is brimming with life affinity,” Djaxinz explained.

  Zalanir wanted to ask how he knew if it was underground, but scrapped it because that wasn’t important for him. Though, the topic of distraction needed to be brought up.

  “So this is what I understand. Shinnya will light the anthill on fire, then when they crawl out, I will randomly fire light and sound bolts to distract them and pull them away from the hill. All the while, Djaxinz will move in and scoop up the seed. After that, we leave, and I will get my payment from Kael. Anything else?”

  “That’s the gist of it. Just remember, the black ants will be drawn out by light, whereas the striped ones will follow the sound bolts. Both of them are weak to fire, so in your free time or when spotting the dying ones, feel free to finish them off. We will leave out your target,” said Kael.

  “Remember to stay near us, else we can’t guarantee your safety,” Shinnya gave a reminder that Zalanir put on the highest order of his priorities.

  They moved out of the settlement, which didn’t surprise Zalanir considering their target was a huge anthill. How huge? Djaxinz could sneak in, so maybe the size of a mini-house?

  It was something that Zalanir soon found out to be correct. After moving north for more than half an hour and passing through a long stream, all of them were currently sneaking behind a shrub, overseeing a dirt mound standing in the open. Its size rivaled that of a normal container. It was unbelievable when Zalanir first heard about it from Kael, but looking at the anthill with his own eyes made him shudder.

  Without waiting too long, an ant crawled out at the top. A black one, which according to Kael, was fond of the light. Its size, though, was perhaps 1000x the size of a normal ant, approaching that of a mouse already.

  Zalanir didn’t think much of ants before, mostly because they were so small and harmless to care about. Well, except for making his skin itchy when they somehow got onto his body and crept all over it. He always crushed them without batting an eye. However, now that everything was gigantified, the wiggling antennae and smug face turned ants from indifference to disgust in his dictionary. Guessed bigger didn’t mean better!

  “Wait a second. How can my light bolts work in these daylight conditions?” Zalanir just realized something. “Will they be able to see my light bolts at all?”

  “Haha nope. This area will be filled with low-lying smoke soon. I have this specifically made for those ants so that they will be in the dark without affecting us.” Kael took out some smoke bombs from inside of his armor.

  “Everyone ready? Good!” Shinnya leaned toward. Her eyes fixed on the dirt mound.

  This wasn’t the first time Zalanir had seen Shinnya in action. In that battle, she scorched a poisonous frog until only dust remained with a fire beam attack. He thought she would do the same, but this time, she threw flame after flame at the mound and a small area around it, though these flames didn’t burn but stayed compacted.

  Then, she snapped her fingers, and like a switch, all of these flames erupted as if they had been fed gasoline. Ferocious and deadly.

  Following up on Shinnya’s display, Kael tossed all six smoke bombs into the open area surrounding the flames. They didn’t explode but oozed out smoke that stayed low to the ground (up to Zalanir’s knees) instead.

  After a minute, Zalanir almost puked when hundreds, if not thousands, of ants poured out of the mound, scattering around in a chaotic manner. This scene reminded Zalanir of when he took away the piece of bread on the floor that was swarmed over by a big ant colony. If before they were so disciplined, moving in several lines back and forth, then when that happened, it was like they were calling every man for himself when the common target was no longer available.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Not all of the ants made their way past the fire. Shinnya’s creation left dozens of them curled up on the edge of the mound, as well as on the grounds. They struggled for a bit, but succumbed to the fire in the end. If Zalanir was to guess, only 10% of them got past the fire field into the smoke, and their movement was as sluggish as it could be. But that number was still in the hundreds. And now it was their turn.

  Zalanir shot light and sound bolts in a cone area from their position. It would drive the ants away from them, meaning that he wouldn’t be in any danger. Despite the continuous sizzling sound from the flames, Zalanir still couldn’t conjure the sound bolt instantly, resulting in a small frequency gap between the two bolt variants.

  Djaxinz had already charged in and jumped into the mound. Shinnya and Kael occasionally and respectively finished off stray ants that came into their place with a fire beam and in a more crude manner, splitting and dismembering the ants with the big sword.

  This was the first time Zalanir had seen Kael in action, and despite his chunky appearance, the man wasn’t slow at all. The sword gave him a huge reach, and he supported it with pinpoint precision and good swing speed. He would be a deadly opponent in the area for anyone.

  There crawled a black ant about seven meters away to his left that was still alive after a slam from Kael. Seeing that the situation had transpired as they envisioned, he took time to conjure a fire bolt to put that ant down for good. Kale laughed and left the spot after seeing him do that.

  After four bolts, the ant no longer wiggled, but still, he gave it another two just to make sure it was dead. Tagging along in a group like this was surely a great opportunity, especially against high-level monsters that were normally out of his league. He had experienced the sensation of gaining tons of levels already. Each time it happened, cool energy made a round inside his body, similar to when he took a big shot of cold water after a workout session. But now, these feelings came like a stream, making him feel on top of the world, capable of doing whatever he liked with perfect vigor.

  But there was also a downside in terms of constant notification spam. This was the first time he had gotten so many kill notifications that weren’t even of his own doing, so he didn’t know if the ant was dead or not. A nice problem to have, so he wouldn’t complain.

  He wanted to check all the notifications, especially the one saying that he got a new skill, and to invest all of his free points into damage, but had to put them off for now. Even though he was relatively safe, losing his focus in the middle of a battle couldn’t be wise.

  Their plan had been working well so far. Dominant even. Countless dead ants littered the ground. Some of them burned until only black char remained. Others got decimated and cut apart, with heads, antennae, and body parts separated and buried under other corpses of their species. A black ring of soot embraced a small area around the mound.

  The smoke had also started to thin itself. Kael was standing guard, but Shinnya had retreated and was meditating near the bushes. She must’ve spent quite a lot of mana in the initial eruption, and then continuously drained it further with the fire beam.

  Zalanir fired a sound bolt to the left when spotting a striped ant heading his way, then backed off to where Kael was.

  “Good job out there.” Kael grinned like a kid.

  “It has been twenty minutes or so already. Do you think Djaxinz is fine?”

  “He’s a beast, so don’t worry. He should be back any moment now. We still have ten minutes left before the smoke fades away.”

  Zalanir guided another striped ant away with his bolt. “I’m grateful that you told me about this, but say, how do you plan to tackle this if I’m not here?”

  “I have these.” The chubby took out some pieces of paper with exotic drawings on them. These dark, full black curves and turns presented quite a mesmerizing art piece. “These talismans take a bit of time to be made, but they get the job done, similar to your bolts. We initially planned to brute force our way with the support of these.”

  “First time seeing them. What do they do?”

  “They allow you to cast a skill that you don’t have. Though they are one-time use, and the power and scaling aren’t consistent. More often than not, they serve as substitutions or makeshift solutions to a specific problem.”

  Kael flung one up to an area several meters away. The thin paper flew straight there like a rock. No gliding or redirecting whatsoever. Then, it glowed and started shooting out light balls in random directions. In a cascading chain of effects, these light balls flew slowly and then exploded into dozens of light projectiles, making everything look like a fireworks display.

  Zalanir shot a sound bolt, followed by a light one in two directions to drive away the approaching ants. “That’s cool. Can you teach me how to make them?”

  “I don’t know how.” He shrugged. “I ordered them made at the Scriber Guild. If you have some coins to spray, visit them. It’s eight coins per talisman, though, so don’t go overboard.”

  Damn, it was expensive. He could buy a common piece of equipment at that price. But he would visit that guild for sure in the future. The idea of making a talisman sounded interesting. Maybe he could ask for an internship of some sort to learn how to make them. That could probably solve his money issues as well if he could get in.

  Zalanir drove another ant away. Something was off. They weren’t that sluggish as before, and now looked rather steady. One was even hiding behind a small mound of corpses to avoid the effect of his light bolt.

  “Hey, don’t you think tha—”

  “Retreat!” Kael shouted, then ran back to call Shinnya. His voice was on the verge of breaking down. Shaky, hoarse, and carried a sense of urgency.

  Zalanir stopped firing bolts and turned to run right away. He had no idea what was happening, but he had to stick closer to the plump man.

  Glancing over his shoulder, he caught the sight of the ants dividing into two groups. The bulk of their forces ran back to the mound despite some of the fire was still lingering and burning there, whereas the smaller group crawled to his position in a line. Their numbers were in the range of twenty, with a healthy mix of black and striped variants. But they looked vigorous.

  A horrified screech pressured his body and kept his feet on the spot. Then, descending from the sky, a huge ant the size of a dog landed behind Kael. Unlike the duopoly of black and striped colors from all the ants he had encountered so far, this newcomer was bathed in golden color. Three black lines spiraled on its neck, making the ant look like it was wearing some bracelets. However, the most distinct feature, the one that screamed to Zalanir’s ears that this one was bad news, was the pair of black and golden wings flapping on its back.

  Zalanir turned right the moment the pressure lessened. Joining Kael and Shinnya would mean facing that monster. There was no way a low level like him could’ve done anything here. He had to get out of here first, because that appearance meant only one thing: the queen was here.