He didn’t know where he was going, but anywhere would be better than back there. Only two ants were on his tail now, but unlike the other two black ants, he had no way to get rid of them. He could fire dozens of light bolts, but they wouldn’t do anything to these striped variants.

  Gasping for breath, he slowed down a little bit. His lungs were on the verge of breaking down already. Thanks to all the running and jumping practices he did inside the training area — and tons of tennis in the past — he had managed to improve his endurance drastically. But that was for a marathon-style exercise. Dashing like he was trying to recover a drop shot wasn’t.

  Sound. There was no sound for him to conjure a sound bolt. For some reason, he just couldn’t conjure one using the sound of his footsteps. Maybe he needed a louder sound source, or that he wasn’t concentrated enough to create one. Two agents of death were just some distance away though, so if it was the latter, then he was fucked.

  He was under no illusion that he could take them on. The level discrepancy was too big. If they were gassed or injured, then maybe he could try, but these two looked as fresh as they could be. How come the appearance of the queen inspired this much vigor? Was she their mother or something? Oh, ants hatched from eggs, so perhaps she was indeed their mom.

  It also certainly didn’t help that he was running on an open grassland. There were some trees, stones, and bushes here and there, but they weren’t enough for him to hide from the pursuers. If only there was something for him to distract them.

  He threw an earth bolt back at the nearer pursuing ant. His reduced speed had allowed them to close the gap. Though thanks to the mad dash earlier, he had created enough buffer for the time being.

  “Think. Think,” Zalanir muttered as he ran.

  An image of the long, clean stream that they passed by on the road leading to the mound crossed his mind. That could work. If he remembered correctly, the stream was to the south, so he should run there. He had no idea if ants could swim, but it wasn’t like he could find a rat-sized ant back to where he lived. Still worth a try. Better than nothing. He started to prepare for an air bolt. Speed was of the essence here.

  The change of direction did allow the ants a chance to catch up to him, though. Because his and their speeds were nearly the same, with him being a tad slower after slowing down to avoid plucking his lungs out, the race of endurance had leaned toward these six-legged beasts.

  Now that he did a curve instead of running in a straight line, the distance was cut even shorter.

  Seven meters. Six. Four. Zalanir flung an air bolt right when the closer ant jumped. Idiot! He saw that jump from a mile away already. These ants were just too telegraphed in their actions. “Hey, free advice. You should mix them up. Send the message. Don’t just stay on the baseline and blast forehands. Bring the opponent to the net and lob the heck out of them.” Zalanir laughed out loud.

  He upped his speed just a little bit to match the ants’ pace. This wasn’t sustainable, but he had to maintain the distance. They were just six or seven steps behind. As long as he didn’t give them a chance to jump, then he should be okay.

  If his memory served him right, then the river should’ve been close by. It could come into sight at any moment. Just a little bit more. This was just a slightly more intense cardio session.

  While running for his life, Zalanir’s mind traced back to the queen’s entrance. Kael and Shinnya were obviously strong, but that ant queen looked like she was in a league of her own. Not to mention all the assaults from regular ants. Battling their queen in front of their eyes surely wasn’t the brightest idea. Hopefully, those two managed to stall and escape.

  Djaxinz as well. He was still inside the hill. If the queen led her armies back down there, he would be in big trouble. Zalanir still had no idea about the man’s strength, but based on what he had seen so far at the pit, as well as Kael’s recitals of their two past attempts at the anthill, Djaxinz’s strength seemed to specialize in dealing with a single target at a time. It would be bad if he didn’t make it out before all the ant colonies arrived on his back.

  Finally, the stream came into his view after about five minutes of running, but just when that happened, Zalanir realized that it didn’t matter at all. He had been too focused on finding any lead to the stream that when he glanced back, the two ants chasing after him were now too far away, and they were moving in … a weird .

  Without the danger from the ants, Zalanir sauntered along the pre-determined path that led to the stream. It was right there, so why not take a rest before deciding on what he would do next? His lungs and heart appeared to support that notion, as both of them hummed with faster beats.

  Zalanir splashed water onto his face and dipped his head under the current. Fighting in the fire had made the feeling of playing with cool water a blessing. The stream wasn’t big, and the water was so clean that he could see through to the bottom without any issues. There were hardly any fish or aquatic animals, only some tiny mantises and insects swimming and playing on the surface.

  Throwing his butt onto the grass, Zalanir slowed down his breath while staring at the vast clear, radiant sky. Must’ve been noon now, though the temperature wasn’t hot. Probably not summer. It only occurred to him now that he had no idea which season was this. How many seasons did this world have?

  He was safe now, but he still needed to go back to check on the others. It wasn’t like his power was enough to make any difference, but maybe he could help distract the ants to create an opening. Assuming that they were still in battles, though he doubted it. Just let them be alive.

  With his hands finally free, he opened the System interface to check the long-awaited notifications.

  You have slain [Ethrophia Foodfinder — Level 35]

  Level advances to 15

  [Mastery: Magical Apprentice] skills available

  Warning: You can delay choosing a new skill only until the next batch of skill offering; otherwise, you lose that option permanently.

  Level advances to 16

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  You have slain [Ethrophia Foodfinder — Level 36]

  Level advances to 17

  You have slain [Ethrophia Foodprocessor — Level 35]

  Level advances to 18

  …

  You have slain [Ethrophia Foodfinder — Level 36]

  Level advances to 23

  A grin pegged onto his mouth when he read all the notifications. Going from level 14 to 23 in under an hour was a wet dream. Shinnya had mentioned the effect of shared experiences when fighting in a group, and that the ratio was dynamically determined by the System based on one’s contribution, so he didn’t have that much hope for a huge leap in level. His task was mainly to drive the ants away, anyway.

  He did get three kills, but those ants were already on their last legs, so the fact that the System still attributed him such a generous prize of nine levels was baffling. If it wasn’t for the appearance of the queen, maybe he could get more? But still, he got more than what he signed up for already, so no complaints. Just need the other three to be safe, and this would become his most successful activity ever since he came here.

  Among all the kill notifications was the skill offering that he had been putting off until now. Adaptability Bolt was great for its flexibility, but using the same skill over and over again did feel boring after a while. Let’s see what the System got for him.

  [Muddy Ground] — Common: Coats the target location in mud for a short duration (minor scaling with Level). Enemies within are slowed and take damage over time (minor scaling with Mystique).

  Essence: 8

  Mana cost: Low

  Not sure how the targeting and taking affinity worked, but this skill was quite flexible. It could be everything he needed. It was also spammable, probably, because of the cheap mana cost.

  He was off to a good start, because the first one was such a good skill. An AoE slow that also dealt damage to affected enemies was an amazing combination. If he had had it, then the chase earlier wouldn’t have lasted that long. One cast and he could laugh it off while the ants were stuck in the mud.

  [Wind Rush] — Common: Imbues your legs with the power of the wind, increasing your speed (minor scaling with Mystique) for a duration (minor scaling with Level).

  Essence: 7

  Mana cost: Low

  Oh, his first buff skill. This skill probably produced the same result as Muddy Ground, as both helped widen the distance between him and the ants. In general, this skill was definitely more valuable, as increasing speed could help him get to a location faster, thus reducing the commute time.

  However, in combat, it was hard to say. It would come down to the personal combat style between enhancing himself and disabling enemies. He would edge into Wind Rush, because proactivity and attacking was always his style, both in competing and teaching tennis. Defense was good, and one should always strive for a balance between them, but defense only won points if the opponent messed up, which he had no control over.

  [Sound Blast] — Common: Channels to compress all the sound at the target area for a duration, then releases to create a blast that can destabilize the enemies (minor scaling with Mystique; affected by the channeled duration).

  Essence: 8

  Mana cost: Low

  Why did he feel like the skills being offered were based on all the affinities he had taken references for Adaptability Bolt? Earth, wind, and now sound. What would be next? Fire? Light? Oh, it was light. Zalanir peaked into the next option, but returned right away. One step at a time.

  An AoE skill for a back-line damage dealer. If he were in a party with a tank or a target to attract enemies’ attention, then he could stay back and keep on blasting this skill at the enemies. Kael would fit that role. Didn’t that sound great? He could rack up many kills doing it that way.

  However, the problem was finding a tank or at least someone who wasn’t also a range class. He couldn’t expect to be in a party with that requirement all the time. This skill would be hard to use when he was alone. Taking the two pursuing ants for example, would they allow him the time to channel the attack? Unlikely. Oh, this could be the opener when he ambushed something. But that was it. Or if he had skills that could immobilize enemies, such as Muddy Ground, then perhaps he could pull this off. That would be a neat combo.

  [Ball of Light] — Common: Conjures a ball of light that illuminates a medium radius (minor scaling with Mystique) around you for a duration (small scaling with Level).

  Essence: 4

  Mana cost: Low

  The light skill turned out to be … rather useless. It could be useful for an expedition into the underground or a dark cave, but couldn’t he just bring a flashlight? There was a flashlight or at least similar tools here, right? He found it hard to believe that for every exploration, people would need a kill like this Ball of Light. Would they just go around looking for a light mage? Nah, fire mage would also work. Such a strange skill.

  [Affinity Capsule] — Common: Gathers an affinity and locks it up for a duration (medium scaling with Level).

  Essence: 8

  Mana cost: Medium

  He was happy that he got five skill options to pick from, but the last two choices had been pure utility. Discarding the useless Ball of Light, Affinity Capsule did leave him with an impression of it being a good skill, but he didn’t know if it was worth a skill choice.

  The obvious synergy was with Adaptability Bolt. He could store an affinity to conjure a bolt variant of his choice. If he had this, then he could drive the two pursuing ants right away and thus cut all the running exercise. But that would need him to store a sound affinity in the first place. That decision would be easy in hindsight, but what about a neutral situation? What affinity should he keep if he wanted to combat the golden queen?

  There was also uncertainty in the Adaptability Bolt description that might reduce the effectiveness of Affinity Capsule. It said, “Absorbs the affinity of the target area to fire a magical bolt of the same type” so what would happen after he was done with the preparation phase? Would the affinity be absorbed and thus gone? If not, then how many times could he do it? The way he did it now was to absorb an affinity from the environment — with his assumption and his understanding of the general principles — that was unlimited out there, so he had never cared about that part of the description. But he highly doubted that it would be the same for Affinity Capsule.

  Based on the wording and his comprehension ability, this skill had no use in combat whatsoever. Was this for research purposes? Yeah, he could envision a situation where he encountered an unknown or rare affinity, in which he would use this skill to get a sample for future reference. But that was a bit too far-fetched for now.

  It was time like this that he could only sigh at his lack of understanding about this world. It had been almost a month, or perhaps more than a month already, that he had been here, but he was still such a novice.

  After this long, he had to let go of the hope of returning to his usual life of tennis, hanging out with friends, and doing music as a side gig. Unless there was another armageddon with a white circle popping up and sucking him in, he needed to learn the way of this world.

  There were so many things that could leave a long-lasting impact: the choice of skills, the selection of friends or acquaintances, or the option of which place to stay or move into. He had to treat each one of them with care and purpose.