***** Illianna's POV *****
Since I kept my gaze focused on Sian's back most of the trip, I didn't see much of the surroundings, but I could tell that this forest was extensive. Although it was only at a glance, where I looked I could only see the treetops.
"See, we're almost there," Milka said in an animated voice as always. "I can already see from here."
Lifting my head, I looked over Sian's shoulder. The place Milka was pointing to looked like a huge crater, probably created by some meteor.
Without a single vegetation inside, I could clearly see its circumference, and it seemed to be at least hundreds of meters. Inside the crater was not the only place without vegetation, in the surrounding area there was also nothing but rocks and sand.
It was like a small desert within this huge forest. The vegetation could only be seen a few kilometers away from the center.
"Is that crater the ants' valley?" I asked.
"That's right," Sian replied.
"Judging by the name of the place, are we going ant hunting?"
"We are starting to lose altitude," Sian pointed to the ground, "See for yourself."
Doing as he said, I looked down. Initially, I saw nothing, but as we got closer to the ground, I could see what he was pointing at.
There was a long trail of yellow dots that blended into the barren ground. If it weren't for the fact that some of them were moving while carrying something, I wouldn't have noticed.
After I managed to locate the first ones, I quickly managed to find more of these yellow dots. I couldn't tell what they were, but the number of them was in the hundreds.
When we got even closer, I could finally see clearly, but I was skeptical about what my eyes were seeing.
"Those things are..." I muttered.
"It is exactly as you see it," Milka stated. "They are ants."
Although this may sound like something common, it was completely the opposite.
The ants were huge!
They looked a little bigger than the rottweiler I had in my past life. In the middle of them were some much larger ones.
Like 'normal' ants, several of them were carrying things like goblins, dead animals and plant branches.
"Isn't this place dangerous?" I asked.
"A bit, maybe?" Sian said.
"As far as I know, ants are formidable creatures capable of killing beings stronger than them using their superior numbers. If those are the same, I believe it's not a good idea for us to be here."
"Nah, this is the perfect place for you." Sian said. "It's the season of their stampede, so their numbers are even greater than normal."
"Stampede?" I asked.
"That's when the anthill gets overcrowded and several of them get kicked out," Milka replied. "When that happens, they go out killing everything in sight. Even if they are weak individually, they are scary when they are in large numbers. That's why Clay has put the city on alert with weapons on the walls."
"I'd rather not know that..."
As we got closer to the ground, the ants began to form towers, climbing on top of each other. Even though we were in constant flight as we crossed the valley, they were following us without lagging far behind.
Having seen the same as me, Tina seemed to be incredibly tense as she held tightly to Sian's arms.
"I don't mean to be ungrateful, but if we can go somewhere else, I think it would be safer," I said.
"Relax, everything is under control," Sian said. "Teshar, let's land here."
"What? We're going down right in the middle of them?"
"With master and Teshar here, you don't have to worry. Even if the ant valley turned ten, we would still be able to clear it."
Although Milka tried to comfort me, seeing the mountains of ants chasing us did not allow me to stay calm.
Following Sian's orders, Teshar reduced her speed and began to descend. Below us, the ants didn't stand still, they were piling up fast. More and more ants were starting to come out of the dozens of holes that had scattered on the ground.
But making my concern go for nothing, Teshar flapped her wings and the hundreds of ants flew away like dry leaves in a gale.
Just then, a giant circular wall of fire rose from the ground with us in the center, probably created by Teshar.
With no ants to bother us, we landed safely and Teshar went small again and perched on Sian's shoulder.
Looking around, I noticed that despite the intense fire, I was not feeling a single remnant of heat.
"What's the plan?" Milka asked Sian.
"Let's kill everything that comes close."
"But wasn't that supposed to be training for Illianna?"
"Remember when we came here with Clay?"
"Is she the same?"
"Yep," Sian nodded.
Having my curiosity piqued, I asked Milka, "What do you mean by being the same?"
"He made a strange request for us to kill monsters for him," she replied. "He said he had a divine skill that allowed him to strengthen himself from dead creatures."
Noting the obvious similarity, I spoke to Sian through the link between us.
"He's a reincarnated like me, isn't he?"
"I never thought about it, but it's a pretty high possibility. When I came here with him, he just kept talking about how he needed to kill as many monsters as possible to get stronger."
"Me and Charlotte, we're definitely reincarnated. As for the guy you bought the book from and the demon lord, we're not sure, but it's a really pretty high possibility. But if they are too, that means you have had contact with four people who have come from another world."
"Hmm, that's quite a lot considering I didn't even know about the existence of reincarnates until recently."
"In the end, things happening around you get more and more suspicious. Considering what has happened so far, I think you must have found a few more without even noticing."
"I've been around a lot of places, so that's a possibility..."
"I think we should confirm-"
Before I could finish, I felt a hand on my back throwing me against Sian. Even though I was caught off guard, thanks to my armor, I managed to react in time and stopped myself before running into Sian's chest.
When I looked back, Milka was smiling provocatively as she looked at us.
"I thought you had finally fallen for master's charm and were going to kiss him at any moment," she said. "I just wanted to help."
"No," I denied. "You couldn't be more wrong."
"No more wasting time. Let's get started." Placing his hand on Tina's head who was holding tightly to his shirt, Sian said, "Stay here and watch with Illianna."
Despite Sian's words, she was reluctant to loosen his shirt, so I held out my hand to her.
"Stay here with me, he'll be a little busy."
After Tina held my hand, a hole opened in the wall of fire in front of us and a long corridor formed. At the same instant, the ants began to enter the corridor, rapidly advancing toward us.
Although the fire was not giving off any heat, it was not there just for show. Due to the large pile of ants entering the hallway, some of them had run into the walls and were immediately charred.
As the ants approached, Sian remained motionless facing them.
"Aren't you going to wield your spear?" I asked.
"Why would I do something so troublesome when I can easily eliminate them?"
Still standing, he stretched out his open hand toward the ants. In the same instant, dozens of gray dots appeared around him and became a fist-sized sphere.
These spheres contain a lot of power.
Will he cast a large-scale magic?
As I watched intently, my expectations were betrayed.
The spheres elongated, as their tips became sharp.
"Just arrows?" I muttered.
"Don't underestimate Master and keep watching."
Doing as Milka said, I kept my eyes locked on him.
Soon, countless gray arrows started shooting toward the ants.
The instant one was fired, another would appear in its place.
Like a rain, the arrows bombarded the ants endlessly as they pierced their shells.
These were not like the magic arrows I learned in the book. The power of penetration is far superior to any arrow I have ever created.
On my map, the enemy units' points of light were disappearing in droves, and with them, so were their lives.
*Ding*
---
Magic essence has been collected.
---
Ignoring the system's warning, I continued to watch.
Every ant that came near turned into a porcupine in an instant.
Strangely enough, when the arrows were disappearing, the shells that should have been full of holes seemed intact. This leads me to believe that he was probably using space magic to ignore their shells.
"I recognize that those arrows are powerful, but wouldn't using a big spell be faster?" I asked.
"The magic stones will not form if the ants are turned to dust," Sian replied casually. "The stones are the crystallized, concentrated form of the magic remaining in the dead creature's body. So if the body is turned to dust, the magic will disperse."
Because I was paying attention to Sian's explanation, I belatedly noticed an ant approaching from behind.
"There are ants coming from behind!" I shouted.
The moment the ant jumped over the wall of fire, it was shot by the arrows and died instantly.
Before it fell to the ground, its body disappeared.
"I was already waiting for it," Sian said.
When I looked at the map carefully, I saw that the concentration of ants in one place was high. They were probably climbing on each other to get high enough to jump.
Before I could tell Sian what was happening, I saw more arrows going towards the top of the wall of fire.
Jumping against the arrows, I saw the ants. It was as if they were jumping into the trajectory of the arrows, but most likely Sian was predicting where they were coming from and then shooting.
As he did this, before the ants hit the ground, they all, without exception, disappeared.
The bodies were probably being collected by him.
"Master, if she does nothing, it's not good either," Milka said. "Let one pass."
"You're right," Sian said. "But take it easy, Tina is still a child."
Among the many ants that were jumping, only one passed through the rain of arrows.
Upon landing, the ant was ready to advance against us.
Holding tightly to the shaft of my staff, I prepared to intercept it. But before I could do anything, Milka stepped on its head, knocking it to the ground.
With a double-edged ax that appeared out of nowhere in her hand, she chopped off the ant's legs.
Leaving the ant struggling, Milka came over to me and put her hand on my shoulder.
"It's time to kill your first monster."