"Where were you?" Yumiella asked as soon as she spotted him.
Lancer explained that he had some business back home to take care of. She gave him a look but eventually nodded.
"Alright, we'd better get going then."
Together, they made quick work of the first few floors above 100. Lancer and Yumiella took the lead in attacking, while Luna provided backup and reinforced their defenses with her barriers.
As they fought, Lancer noticed something strange: he was gaining fewer and fewer magic points from absorbing the defeated creatures. He asked the system for an explanation.
[You have nearly reached the energy threshold for absorption,] the system informed him.
Lancer groaned at the news, but the system offered a solution. [The excess energy can be redirected to Subject Typhon. It will aid his development and allow him to level up.]
That caught Lancer's interest. Typhon, being a creation of Lancer's power, already had an immense magic point count. Manticores typically relied on their physical abilities and crystal spikes for combat, and even the strongest alpha males rarely exceeded 100,000 magic points. Their growth rates were also slower compared to other magical beasts.
However, because Lancer had created Typhon as a chimera using part of his own abilities, Typhon had inherited nearly all of Lancer's skills and a similar capacity for increasing magic points. Even so, his growth was still significantly slower than Lancer's.
With the excess energy now being funneled to him via their soul link, Typhon's magic points had risen to just under half of Lancer's current total.
When they reached the 120th floor, they were greeted by an unsettling sight. The room was filled with enormous ant-like creatures.
[Myrmides] the system identified.
The creatures would have looked like normal ants if not for their van-sized bodies and metallic pincers, which gleamed ominously. Those pincers, the system added, were sharp enough to slice a person cleanly in half.
One or two of the creatures would have been manageable, but this was an entire colony.
Lancer gritted his teeth. "This is going to be a hassle."
The ants' exoskeletons were much tougher than Lancer had expected, and to make matters worse, they seemed to share the same immunity to poison as the basilisks.
"How is this even fair?" Lancer complained as he unleashed a barrage of crystal blades, only to watch them bounce harmlessly off the insects' armored shells.
Even Typhon was having trouble, his teeth and claws failing to leave so much as a scratch on the creatures. Meanwhile, Yumiella and Luna were cutting through the ants with ease. It seemed Yumiella's sword was particularly effective against their exoskeletons.
Frustrated, Lancer pulled out his spear, but a harsh realization struck him—he didn't have any skills with it. He was barely managing to fend off a pair of pincers when Typhon's voice echoed in his mind.
"Master, may I use the magic points you have granted me to obtain a new skill?"
Lancer didn't hesitate. "Go for it!"
"Yes, Master," Typhon responded. Suddenly, electricity crackled across his body, and thunderclouds began to gather on the cavern's ceiling. With a blinding flash, a lance of lightning erupted from the clouds, reducing one of the ants to a pile of ash.
"Whoa!" Lancer exclaimed, impressed.
[Subject Typhon has obtained the skill Wrath of the Thunder God,] the system explained. [This skill allows him to directly manipulate the direction and intensity of the lightning he generates.]
"Can I use it?" Lancer asked eagerly.
[As Typhon is linked to you as a subordinate, you may freely utilize any skills he possesses,] the system replied.
"Sweet!" Lancer grinned as he activated the skill. "Spears are overrated anyway."
Bolts of lightning rained down as he unleashed a barrage of strikes, each vaporizing an ant instantly. The skill was consuming an enormous amount of mana, far more than his usual regeneration rate could handle, but the enemies were clearing out much faster.
Eventually, they managed to destroy most of the ants and reached the queen. She was a colossal creature, at least five times larger than the soldiers, her entire body plated with the same metallic substance as their pincers.
Yumiella leapt into action, slashing at the queen with her sword, but to no avail. The blade skittered uselessly off the queen's reinforced exoskeleton.
She landed next to Lancer, clicking her tongue in frustration. "What now?"
Lancer tried using the lightning skill again, and this time it seemed to work. The bolt punched a hole clean through the queen's abdomen.
"Yes!" Lancer cheered—until the wound began to close. Within moments, it was as if nothing had happened.
"Oh, come on! How is that fair?" Lancer groaned, directing even more powerful strikes at the queen.
But his frustration only grew as the attacks stopped having any effect at all.
[The myrmide queen appears to possess a skill that allows her to adapt to damage types,] the system informed him.
Lancer relayed the information to Yumiella and Luna, and Yumiella's expression turned grim. "No way," she muttered.
Lancer clenched his fists. "I have a skill that could probably take her down," he said, "but it'll have to be in one shot—or we're screwed."
Suddenly, the queen stepped back, and a swirling ball of pulsing red energy began to form between her massive pincers.
With Thought Acceleration active, Lancer saw it coming in slow motion, but he realized he was too slow to dodge.
With a high-pitched humming sound, the queen released a devastating ray of bright red light aimed directly at them.
Yumiella stepped forward, her body glowing with a blue aura. The beam suddenly changed trajectory, veering away from them and punching clean through several layers of rock, vaporizing everything in its path.
"Now!" Lancer thought.
He sprang toward the queen, activating Atomic Collapse. A blinding blue beam of energy shot forth, aimed directly at her head. He figured the head was the best target—destroying it would ensure the queen couldn't recover, as her massive body was too large for his skill to obliterate completely.
The attack landed with precision, and the queen's head disintegrated in an instant. Her massive, headless body slumped to the ground with a resounding thud.
Lancer absorbed what remained of her, feeling the surge of magic points flood in. He was just about to celebrate their victory when the cavern walls began to shake violently. Rubble started to rain down around them.
"The cavern's about to collapse!" Luna shouted, her voice tinged with urgency. "We have to get out of here!"
Lancer quickly assessed the situation. "Speed of Lightning works across the same floor. Grab on!"
Yumiella and Luna didn't hesitate, gripping his arms as the ceiling began to cave in. At the last second, they vanished in a flash of light.
They reappeared at the entrance of the floor, and Lancer let out a relieved sigh. "We made it," he muttered.
But as the adrenaline began to fade, his vision started to blur, and the ground beneath him felt unsteady. His knees buckled, and the last thing he saw was Yumiella reaching out to stop him from falling before everything went dark.