Lux was horrified by the sight of it, piles of skeletons that could fit whole entire caves just sat there. The ants were the ones collecting the bodies of the monsters that died down there, the one question was why didn't they collect the body of the dragon? Usually, dragons were one of the most powerful creatures in any game but were they actually defeated by one of the ants?
Lux knew that the ants could carry masses bigger than the dragon because the skeleton of the centipede was there but what made no sense was that they didn't collect its skeleton-like the others. Lux watched from up top, there were tons of ants down there ripping apart the meat of the dead animals and carrying it out into one of their many tunnels.
Lux thought for a second and then gasped.
The reason they didn't pick the dragon skeleton was that it attracted monsters to it, so they would use it to collect monsters so that they could eat their meat and become stronger, this is how they collected their strength, they would feed their babies the meat so the babies could also become just as strong as them.
Lux realized how smart the ants were compared to the other monsters he had encountered. He wondered why that was, since he couldn't find a way out of the cave system he might as well watch the ants at work. Lux then saw the hermit crab he ate also there, they were ripping its shell off, Lux wondered where they stored all their items.
He got up and saw a pattern of which ants went to which place. The ants carrying meat went back to where the larva eggs were, the ants with any shells, skin, horns, etc headed towards another tunnel near a worm skeleton.
Lux wondered if he could steal some of their resources but knew how risky that was, he still hoped the ants would go to sleep so he could. Lux couldn't tell if it was night or day but he really didn't know if that mattered for the ants. Lux shook his head and thought of every way he could break into their storage, he was now determined to steal from the ants.
"Ok, operation -steal from the ants- is a go" Lux set up camp on the stone ledge and observed the ants, they worked by the clock and seemed rushed. Lux actually began to realize more weird things about the ants, some with meat also carried it through another separate tunnel that was the opposite way from where the babies were.
They seemed agitated every time they went out of the tunnel, like something was worrying them. Lux found these things peculiar and was glad he had begun observing the ants. He had found tons of new things about the ants, like how they can't climb up walls like ants from Lux's world.
This reassured Lux that he was safe upon the stone ledge, he located the tunnels that lead up to the surface but the ants were always coming in and out of it so Lux knew it wasn't safe to leave -yet-.
Lux formulated a plan to leave but he would need a huge distraction for the ants to stop going into the tunnels. After 6 days of watching the ants working, Lux had finally gathered every bit of information he needed to start operation S.F.A.
The ants were a very organized group of monsters, so they worked every 48 hours but then they would take a 2-hour break before starting work again so all their defenses were down in that short time frame. They would all take a break back at that acid pool Lux discovered was a place that practically gave them energy, at first Lux thought that plugging up the acid pool would make a great distraction but then remembered that everything that it touched dissolved into bubbles.
Never mind that- Lux began his heist as soon as the ants started heading to the acid pool. Lux climbed down quickly and entered the tunnel where they took all the monster materials but was wary of any guards as he wasn't sure if all the ants were gone.
The tunnel was made of stone but soon faded in a white diorite-look. There was a hallway that extended about 50 meters long with cubbies on each side. In the cubbies, there were different monster materials.
Lux smiled in greed.
He then heard a sound, it was an ant. With quick speed, Lux hid into one of the cubbies filled with sheep's wool. He then peeked from the side.
He saw the ant but it wasn't a normal ant, it had a gray shell on it and had emerald green eyes with a zig-zag-shaped shell that looked more like a beetle than an ant. It was feeble as its arms shook. It started organizing some materials and carried them down the hallway. Lux debated whether he could kill the ant but shook his head. It was an unnecessary risk that he wasn't able to afford.
The ant proceeded to organize more things and then left unexpectedly.
Lux started putting the sheep's wool and got out of the cubby. He saw something shining from one of the cubbies in the distance. He was attracted and began walking towards it.
A stone tablet stood in front of Lux, it had little blue inscriptions on it.
"Rune!" Lux recognized the markings and realized it was a rune but it was physical. He had thought that only he could get them, as they weren't items he could take out as an item. He shrugged and picked it up. It dissolved the instant he touched it, Lux immediately checked his inventory and saw the rune in one of his rune slots. He tapped on it and it read:
Ice touch.
Lux wished it had a description to it but it sadly didn't. The name still hinted at something that had to do with ice. Being afraid that he would wrongly put the rune on something stupid, he left it as it was. Lux curved his lips, he wondered if there were any more runes hidden away in the storage.
Lux searched the place but didn't find any more runes, he was also searching for the centipede scales and the snakeskin. He didn't find anything useful, most of the things that were there were actually very useless, he found that they stored dirt and wheat. He found more stupid things like sand and flowers.
Lux frowned.
"Where do they keep their goodies!?" Lux then turned to the end of the hallway.
He went into one of the three different tunnels as it led into a wooden door. Lux was confused about how there was a door here when this place was inhabited by ants who didn't even understand the concept of doors.
He opened the door, holding his dragon tooth dagger he peeked into the room. There sat a tall woman, she had a curvy stature to her with plum thighs and average-sized breasts that Lux couldn't stop staring at. She was absolutely beautiful, but Lux was still wary of her.
She had her legs crisscrossed on the floor and her hands up that formed a triangle like she was doing yoga. Her eyes were closed as her long eyelashes were shone, Lux was confused.
"Is she an NPC?" Lux thought to himself.
She then opened her innocent eyes and looked at Lux with a blank stare.
"Hello, player Lux! To start the quest [King of monsters] please proceed" She said in a monotone voice, Lux frowned but was relieved that she wasn't a player like him. It would have been a shame if Lux had to fight such a beauty.
"Proceed," Lux answered without hesitation.
Ding!
Lux got a notification on his status window, the survival guide had a red exclamation mark on it. He pulled it out and opened it up, there were new pages. He first noticed that there was now a table of contents that were labeled like so:
"Introduction [page 2-3]"
"Survival steps [page 4-5"
"Quests [page 6-6]"
Lux flipped to page 6 and it read:
"You have accepted the quest [King of monster]".
"You need to be at least level [50] and have your first godly perk unlocked".
Lux raised his eyebrows.
"Godly perk? What is that?" Lux asked, of course he didn't get an answer.
The NPC went back into its yoga pose, Lux smiled wryly. He searched the room but didn't find any, it only had a little bed on the side and a desk with a candle that lit the room on it.
Then suddenly…
A huge thud was heard, it shook the whole room.
Lux turned around and felt the earth under him shake.