After one hour of roaming around what he deemed as the border and periphery of the Ant Colony, Aldrin was already close to earning back what he initially spent before starting his hunt.
Without going inside their territory, he focused on targeting the patrol squads like the first one they encountered to effectively hunt them.
With each encounter earning him 50 to 60 IDLE Points, it only took around 15 squadrons of ants to gather 900 points, 200 points short of what he initially spent.
Moreover, at every battle they faced, Aldrin was gradually getting the hang of it, his combat experience rising steadily. Tank and Hitter were also evolving alongside him.
With Aldrin acting as the bait to round up their prey, Hitter was preventing the others from approaching him all at once and lastly, Tank was literally becoming a wall that the enemies would be colliding with.
Based on just that, his hunting efficiency during this fifth run was outstanding, to say the least.
It's a lot better when idling using the Dimensional Clones.
Even after an hour, the injuries they accumulated were only a few scratches or little chunks of wood from Tank's shield.
'In a sense, this is still in line with the Idle Games I encountered before. Actively playing the game is more rewarding than waiting for the idle mechanics to do the work for you. The difference here is that... the 'Active' gameplay leaned towards sending me to this place and experiencing it myself.' Aldrin mulled over as he stealthily climbed a large boulder atop a tiny hill that was dotted with crawling vines.
He's currently alone, right inside the territory of the Ant Colony.
He did get an easy harvest of points in an hour. However, a problem immediately surfaced right after reaching the 900 IDLE Points.
In around fifteen minutes after his last encounter with an ant squadron, apart from occasional Worker Ant and Caterpillars, no new ant squadron appeared before him again.
He first thought of plunging inside the territory of the ants but being too cautious, Aldrin thought of scouting ahead first. He left behind Hitter and Tank ordering them to kill every Worker Ants and Caterpillar they would encounter.
Unlike when he's not manually controlling one Dimensional Clone, Aldrin found out that he could command the clones mentally rather than following the Attack and Target Settings.
He switched Hitter's Weapon(L) to a sword to become his substitute Striker when it was proven that using a Bow against a Caterpillar was ineffective. Its skin would just bounce the arrow back even if it was already a Level 2 Bow.
Around 5 minutes later, Aldrin finally reached the top of the rock by hanging tightly to the arm-thick vines that were covering it.
And as soon as he used that height to get a better view of his surroundings, Aldrin instantly lowered his body and lay in a prone position, covering himself with the vines while furtively looking ahead.
"So this is why there are no more squads leaving their territory. Most, if not all, ants are gathered here. Not only are there Commander Ants but there are also Winged Ants patrolling the sky. On top of that... that one particular ant is... terrifying." Although he whispered that almost devoid of emotion, Aldrin was actually feeling a bone-chilling sensation. Even if he's a distance away from it, he was being terrorized by its undeniable power.
In his quick estimation, apart from that terrifying ant and the Winged Ants, there are more than 1000 ants composing of Soldier Ants, Elite Soldier Ants and Commander Ants, filling that open space next to a gaping hole on the ground that was probably an alternate entrance for the Ant Colony.
They were all uniformly standing in attention and the military discipline that was somewhat non-existent when he was fighting them outside the colony could be observed.
After calming himself down, Aldrin tried to peek again to firmly identify that one particular ant. "That's not a Commander Ant, is it? It's standing upright like a human. Moreover, its main feature, even though it still looked like an ant from head to toe, it was kind of unique. Totally different from the worker ants that all looked the same. The same goes for Soldier and Elite Soldier Ants."
He squinted his eyes to focus it on that unique ant, hoping that the system running the Idle Adventure mode would show him its information.
And fortunately, it worked!
However, it showed him another terrific surprise.
[Level ??: Ant Champion Sira (Difficulty: Beyond Impossible)]
"Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, Impossible, Totally Impossible and now... Beyond Impossible... This kind of difficulty, can I overcome this? Moreover, its current level is a question mark... No wonder it instantly sent me shivering in fear." Aldrin couldn't help but lament his upcoming challenge.
The ant even possessed a unique name.
Thinking back to the Giant Head Ant he saw earlier and considering those were all identical as well, Aldrin believed that this unique Ant Champion was even stronger than those big heads.
"If I want to complete the conquest of this Lower Dimension... Sooner or later, I still have to face that one with a question mark as its level. And worse, there's more than one of them. I don't know what the reward will be for that but one thing's for sure... This place also exists somewhere. Just like what's beyond the Rift yesterday..."
After watching for a while, Aldrin carefully retreated to go back to the same direction he came from.
Even if the two Dimensional Clones were with him, it's nothing short of suicide if he tried to dive in there.
Even if he didn't include that Ant Champion, just the number of Winged Ants and Commander Ants would be enough to overwhelm them.
Better find another spot away from that gathering of ants who looked like they were going to war.
'Wait... a war?' Aldrin suddenly halted in his steps when he thought of that possibility.
'That's right. For them to gather like that, there's most likely a bigger purpose. Besides, there are no other notices from the IDLE Database about the changes in the Ant Colony's behavior...'
He was thinking deeply about it but then... a realization struck upon him.
'Even if they're going to war against another insect colony, I won't benefit from it... It's not like I can barge in there and steal kills from them... Or I possibly can...'
After reaching this point in his thoughts, Aldrin hurriedly returned and reunited with his two clones. And while letting them stick close to him, Aldrin changed all of their right-hand weapons into a bow.
As for arrows... It was automatically being regenerated on the quiver hanging behind their backs.
After lying in wait for around 10 minutes, Aldrin finally saw the army of ants going out of their Colony's territory.
With the leadership of that unique Ant Champion, they began marching towards the east.
Aldrin followed them from a distance, making sure that they wouldn't be detected.
And around 10 minutes more... Aldrin rejoiced that his guess was correct.
In an open area devoid of the usual tall grasses, the Ant Army led by the Ant Champion Sira met another army of insects.
[Level ?? Black Spider Champion Wenka (Difficulty: Beyond Impossible)]
For the first time, ever since getting the IDLE Database and running the Idle Adventure mode, only now did Aldrin find out that... in this Lower Dimension, the Ant Colony wasn't the only dominant force.
East of where his clones were always dropped lies another Colony. A colony of Gigantic Social Spiders. And they're different from those spiders he would occasionally encounter near the Ant Colony. With black bodies and red eyes, they looked like a patch of darkness in this green world.
"This is a chance to... gather points..." After gulping down his imaginary saliva and slapping his cheeks, Aldrin ordered his two Dimensional Clones to get in position with him.
With the army of ants and spiders about to fight against each other, they would be fishing in troubled waters using their arrows.
"By the way, I haven't tried it yet but... I can still feel my Energy Quintessence... Is it possible to use my Concept here?"
While in the midst of thinking of that possibility, the screeching of insects began to drown the field.
And with the lead of their own champions, the two forces collided!