I waved the heavy hammer in my hand, crushing the hard carapace of several ants that were in range. Instead of flying away, their bodies got dragged by the hammer before being smashed against a random wall, causing their acids to fly in all directions.
"Woah!"
I jumped back, evading the acid that sprayed, watching as it gave off brown smoke as it melted rocks, before turning to Marionne and Mina. "Be careful, these guys have potent acid in their abdomen!"
Still, the two didn't seem to need my warning.
Mina wasn't even coming close to the ants, as she could punch holes through them with her revolver without moving an inch. Marionne, on the other hand, kept sending flying slashes, freezing the ants before they scattered into hundreds of fragments.
At this rate, they would get most of the enemies before I could even gather enough records! I quickly ran deeper into the enemy ants. Although they possess powerful acids and tough carapace, they weren't an opponent for my hammer!
Everything happened too quickly after that. I was lost in thought, claiming one ant after another, trying to level up as fast as possible. Before I noticed it, the almost endless army of ants vanished.
"Is that it...?" I muttered, slightly disappointed.
Turning to the notifications, it seems that the record from the ants did increase my level cap by another two levels. However, the experience they gave me wasn't enough to level up. "Well, I guess we'll meet more of them soon enough."
I stashed my hammer back into the World Storage before turning around and walking back to where the others were. Toki and Hailey looked tired; only Lily seemed fine. Seeing their sorry state, I guess it was a close call then.
"Ruin, what should we do now?" Mina, who walked to my side before I noticed, asked in a quiet voice.
Right now, two of us are unable to continue fighting. They would need to rest for a while. Given that, I think it's a no-brainer to decide our priority.
"We'll camp here until Toki and Hailey recover. There's a chance another army of ants or other insects will come, so we should all stay together."
Hearing my words, everyone moved immediately. Marionne searched for an easy-to-defend location, hidden but with a great vantage point, while Mina went around to scout out the place for signs of other monsters.
Soon enough, Marionne returned, bringing good news with her.
"I found one. It's about three hundred meters this way. It's flat but is hidden by the surrounding rubble. We should be able to rest if it's there."
As expected of someone helping the military from time to time, her choice of location was great! Without delay, all of us walked down the road, with Marionne supporting Toki and me supporting Hailey.
Something worried me, however. Hailey's body was hot. I thought she had a fever since even her forehead was burning, but she vehemently denied it. In the end, Marionne and I switched, with Toki being supported by me now.
"... Blockhead." Toki only said that one word before going quiet.
Although I had a lot of things to say, I decided to hold my tongue. Arguing right now wouldn't really be productive and rather could end up causing a fatal opening in our defenses. I kept quiet the rest of the way until we reached the clearing that Marionned found.
It was, as she said, a flat space surrounded by tall piles of rubble. If we keep our tents low, then we can avoid being discovered by land units. Leaving Toki to her own devices, I started to take out camping equipment. This time, it wasn't the makeshift kind, but actual tents and other trinkets provided by the military.
I haven't experienced setting up this kind of tent, but it wasn't hard to guess. It took me less than ten minutes to set up the three tents, all we had, in a line. After I completed the setup, Toki and Hailey went to one of the tents each, planning to sleep to regain their stamina.
About half an hour later, Mina finally returned.
"I searched the surrounding areas up to a kilometer ahead, but there are no signs of other insects anywhere," she explained with a frown. "It could be that they're under stealth or using camouflage, so we'd still need to be careful."
"I see..."
With all of us gathered, I quickly began evaluating our current status. As the team's "blacksmith," I spent the idle time repairing their weapons and armor, one at a time. Mina used up quite a lot of her bullets during the last fight, so I restocked her ammunition immediately. Making it on-site? No, I can't. In the first place, I have no raw material for gunpowder. I had her backup bullets in my World Storage, so that's what I gave her.
When Toki and Hailey woke up, it was already turning to night. Furthermore, beyond our expectations, the temperature dropped quite rapidly, as if in a desert. Having no choice, we had to create a bonfire to keep ourselves warm, despite the risk of alerting the enemies to our presence.
"So we're just going to camp here until the backup arrives tomorrow?" Toki asked, confirming.
I shrugged my shoulders lightly, a wry smile on my face. "It's nighttime right now. We can't continue exploring even if we wanted, right?"
At night, when there's not a single artificial light in sight, the world is literally blanketed in darkness. Even if we did continue exploring, we'd probably fail to find anything, given the dark surroundings.
Toki probably knew this too and just wanted to argue for the sake of it. She quickly backed off with a smile, not pushing the matter too much.
"Anyway, what should we do about the rotation of guards?"
We can't rest with all of us at once, after all. We need someone to stay guard, at least two per shift.
Hailey quickly raised her hand, offering her opinion. "Ah, then Toki and I will take the first shift. We already rested enough, after all."
"Ehh? I'm still tired, so I can't. I almost used up all my mana earlier, after all, so I still feel sleepy." Toki countered, waving her body left and right as if she were dizzy. "Why don't you take the first shift with Mahiro? He's the only man here, and as they say, ladies first~!"
Although Toki said it probably as a jab against me, her opinion was actually pretty reasonable. After all, I plan to continue repairing their gear before sleeping. "Alright, I will take the first watch. Are you fine with that, Hailey?"
"E-Eh?"
She suddenly looked uncomfortable. Does she not like to do the night watch with me? Somehow, that hurts, not being trusted...
"I'm telling you, that's not it..." Toki whispered in a low tone, shaking her head. "Sometimes I want to crack your head open just to see how it works. Is there even half a brain in there?"
In the end, Hailey and I became the first watch, with Toki and Marionne as the second and Mina and Lily as the last shift.
To save our energy, everyone had a short dinner before turning in for the day. However, there were only three tents, while there were four who needed to sleep. Being the smallest, Lily had to share a tent with someone, and Mina was the one who ended up having to share with her.
The four of them entered their respective tents, going to sleep early, while I just took out my portable anvil and whetstone, about to begin the maintenance of the weapons.
To not let the sound of my work disturb their sleep, I decided to guard the entrance, far from the tents. Since I also have a portable brazier, the cold night was no problem for me despite being away from the bonfire.
"As expected, Hailey's spear was quite worn by the acid..."
Really, enemies capable of melting weapons are such a menace. Like the acid slime from before, and now those ants.
Repairing the lance wasn't easy since I had to fill in the partially melted areas. It was fortunate that I was bringing with me various metals, so I could quickly create the same alloy I used on it before.
*Tap!* *Tap!* *Tap!*
"Hmm?"
Hearing footsteps approaching, I stopped immediately, turning around. Although her figure was obscured by the bonfire behind her, I knew it was Hailey from her outline.
"What's wrong? Did an enemy appear?" I quickly asked, about to stand up, before I heard her almost panicky voice.
"Ah! Sorry for interrupting your work. There's no problem, so I just went to check up on you."
Right, making sure we're on the same page is important after all.
"I haven't detected signs of monsters yet on this side too. I guess, as expected, they rest during nighttime."
I seldom see ants and bees working during the night, after all, so I think my theory could be true. Well, if they have insects that are nocturnal, like moths and such, then I guess we'd still need to stay vigilant.
"Ah, is that my spear?" Noticing what I was repairing, Hailey commented with an awkward tone. "The ants messed the blades quite hard. Sorry for making it hard to repair, M-Mahiro."
Well, it's my job anyway, so I don't mind either way.
Seeing that she had nothing else to say, I decided to return to what I was doing, pouring the molten alloy over the partly melted parts before letting the form harden a little first. After making sure it was solid enough, I began hammering.
The entire time, Hailey kept standing behind me, watching over me as I repaired her weapon. Even though she was feeling hot from being too near the brazier—her face completely flushed—she didn't take a step back at all.
"..."
It was awkward, but I resumed my work until that moment.
""... Something's approaching!""
The two of us turned toward the east simultaneously, detecting the foreign presence at the same time.