The fearlessness of these things is terrifying...
I get that they're monster ants, but where the heck did all their sense of survival go??
What did evolution do to make these things???
The sound of rocks and coins being moved around can be heard as I began collecting all the treasures I threw out during the battle. Rocks and debris were thrown aside while the gold treasures returned to my storage. I grumbled in annoyance as I spent extra time separating treasures and gold coins mixed with the debris during my messy battle.
Argh, how annoying.
Damn bugs need to understand that these things are worth more than them!!!
Wait, I was kinda the one throwing these riches everywhere though... Let's not talk about this ok?
Atleast those bugs saved me the trouble of cleaning the insect guts off these things...
I continued to collect my treasures for the next for minutes, constantly thinking about the details of the strange insects. As someone who grew up in the modern world and was taught a small amount about evolution, the tenacity and lack of survival instincts the bugs displayed still confused me. Even if these things are monsters, from an evolutionary standpoint, their fearlessness of death should have caused their species to become eradicated due to natural selection. Furthermore, the first-ever ant or creature to develop this trait probably would have died before getting a chance to make offspring. Ants back on earth would easily throw away their lives for the sake of their colonies, but even they had some degree of self-preservation as insects. These things, however, were just... insane.
Suddenly, I remember the results I got when I appraised the monster ants during the battle. The 「Appraisal」skill failed and came up with errors, the only thing it showed was the name of the species and the fact that they didn't belong to this world...
Just a guess but, rather than actual animals or insects, these things are closer to... tools?
Or perhaps they're being manipulated?
I do remember back on earth, there were parasites that manipulated snails into becoming easy prey for predators in order to feed and reproduce.
Maybe these ants caught a disease that both suppressed their survival instinct and created a new race alien to the world?
I have a few guesses but zero proof to back it up...
It doesn't help that these things evaporated into the air when dying either.
BAH!
I'LL THINK ABOUT THAT LATER!!
For I have something else to do.
Instinctive hunger grew within me as my「Mana Sense」detects thick mana in the air that flooded the cave, I floated in the air upside down excitedly. I've been holding back while cleaning up, but now I've finally finished up.
I've got some growing to do...
.
.
.
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Somewhere closer to the surface in the dungeon where the weird lightbulb is floating around, the sounds of combat rang throughout the cave. Metal and carapace smashed against each other and the sounds of angry monsters echoed. A dwarven warrior gripped his tower shield angrily before charging and bashing away a large monster ant, sending it sliding a few meters back into its comrades.
"What are these thin's? Their toughness makes me look like a little girl!"
"You are a little girl."
"Wha' was that you cuttin' board elf?!?"
"Concentrate you two!"
Alice called out as she brandished her sword toward an ant, causing a small dent in its carapace before she nimbly dashed backwards to avoid an attack. She then stabbed forward and attempted to pierce the eye of the ant, but the reflexes of the insect reacted in time and tilted its head so the sword bounced off the carapace instead. Seeing this, Alice quickly kicked the insect in the front leg before spinning around and slashing at the ant's leg joint, only for the sword to bounce off and cause another small dent. She furrowed her eyebrows, annoyed at the toughness of their shells, and delivered another kick to its face before backing away.
"The toughness of these insects easily earns them a place in the A rank monster list, I'll have to remember to report this new species of monsters to the guild. Olivia! Burmer! buy me some time!"
Olivia stared daggers into Burmer, still angered by his comment, as he huffed deeply before loosening his grip on his dwarven war hammer while the elven archer drew back her bowstring.
"「Oh wind, grant me strength and pierce my enemies with your gentle breeze」"
"「Power of lightnin' and thunder, shroud my hammer and smite my enemies」"
Blue light glowed as electricity danced up and down on the dwarf's palm as if it was alive. After a moment he gripped his weapon tightly once again, causing electricity to creep up quickly and envelope his hammer in destructive light. Far behind him standing on a rock, Olivia closed her eyes as she finished chanting her spell incantation. The glowing wind blew around her and enveloped her bow in green light.
"「Gale barrage」"
"「Thunder's Irate」"
A glowing green arrow made from wind shoots out from Olivia's bow and splits into multiple smaller ones, homing towards each individual ant. Each wind projectile impacts each ant in the eye with pinpoint accuracy, causing them to scream in pain and stumble clumsily. Coordinating with her attack, Burmer charged forward with a battle cry before slamming his war hammer into the largest ant which happened to be the closest.
The monster ant was pressed down under the sheer force of the attack, causing cracks to form on the ground. Lightning travelled through the insect and into the ground before connecting with the other monster ants and electrocuting all of them.
However, during the coordinated attack, the shells of the insects shimmered in purple light. The electrocution from the lightning-based attack was quickly brushed off and the damage from Olivia's wind-based spell was nowhere to be seen. Even the largest ant that received the full force of Burmer's hammer quickly recovered and pulled itself out of the ground. Quickly backing off into his party, Burmer observed the situation.
"Lightnin' and wind are no good either. What annoyin' fellows..."
"Burmer!"
"I hear ya."
Without hesitating Burmer stepped to the side, revealing Alice who was standing there with her eyes closed. The sword she was holding in front of her glowed in white light as she channelled her attack, a spell that even s rank adventurers who were hailed as heroes would have trouble learning. Alice knowing this spell alone made their adventurer party well known in this remote country.
"「Dear mother in heaven, grace me with your blessing and rid the monsters before me」"
Alice opened her eyes and swung her sword forward, releasing her spell.
"「Light's Judgement」"
A wave of ethereal white light fires out from her sword, becoming wider the more distance it travelled. With a deafening sound, the wave of light crushed through the monster ants and crashed into the rocky environment behind, causing the cave to shake for a moment.
Unlike before, the ants were now devastated. The purple shimmer on their shells did not appear and a total of ten ants were hit, half of what the entire pack consisted of. Some were split in half by the attack while the luckier ones only had some legs cut off. But whether or not their injuries were fatal, all of the ants screamed in pain before melting and evaporating as mana.
"I almost used all my mana for that... but it's still so tiny..."
"Light works! Good job missy, leave the rest to us!"
"Thanks... I'll take you up on that offer..."
Alice said tiredly as she used her luxurious-looking sword as a walking stick and supported her shaky legs. Marie stepped forward, her white robe fluttered as she channelled mana into her golden crosier.
"Everyone, I'll be supporting you now!"
"「Dear mother in heaven, please gift power to our weapons and place our enemies to rest」"
"「Imbue Light」"
The weapons of each party member excluding Alice lit up in white light. Seeing this, the remaining half of the monster ant pack screeched and spat angrily at Marie. Three of the ants, which were hanging on the wall, sprouted purple spikes from their backs and fired them toward the priest. Surprised by the new attack of these monsters, Olivia and Burmer sprang into action. Narrowing her eyes, the elven archer pulled three arrows out from her quiver and nocked them on her bow made from a world tree branch.
"Vermin should know their place."