Floor 42: The Ant Nest (2)

First things first — I had to deal with the ones behind me.

Down the tunnel I'd just passed through, the ants whose paralysis had finally worn off were already charging my way. Still, the opening bolt had clearly taken something out of them; their movements were sluggish.

I drove shadow spears into the ants beside the iron door, then slammed it shut behind me. By sheer luck, there was a lock. I frantically twisted the latch.

A small question nagged at me.

Wait, why does this lock even exist?

If the ants had come charging in the standard way, a locked door would have stopped them cold. Hmm — could one of the ants I'd passed on the way down have carried a key? I hadn't actually seen a key-carrying ant, but... that was probably it.

Besides, I was already inside. Not worth agonizing over.

I turned and swept my gaze across the room.

Queen ant, worker ants... and those ones with wings — soldier ants?

They had already squared into attacking stances, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Unlike the queen and the workers, the soldiers bore massive mandibles. If I had to guess, they favored raw physical force over magic.

Thirty ants, trapped in the chamber with me. Compared to the horde outside, it was hardly an overwhelming number. A plan was already sketching itself out in my head.

I let a grin spread across my face — and the queen exploded.

"The children sent no signal, and you still don't answer when I ask how you got in!"

"You don't need to know. We're going to fight either way, so just come at me."

"Kiik! Kill him!"

The enraged queen began chanting without warning. I activated Flash Step immediately.

Time slowed to a crawl. The queen and the workers were still mid-incantation, and the soldiers were just now kicking off the ground.

First, I pulled Dobby back behind me. At the same moment, I drew my mana up to its limit. Unlike before, I didn't hold anything back — there was no reason to conserve for enemies still to come.

Come to think of it, I hadn't poured this much mana into the Essence of Lightning in a long, long time.

The lightning wreathing my body flared brighter than it ever had. In the next instant, I unleashed bolts into every direction ahead of me.

The lightning needed only an instant to spread. Before the ants' spells could even finish forming, their pupils flooded blue.

The smell of cooking meat hung vivid in the air. The ants lay strewn across the floor, their original shapes no longer recognizable. The vast majority hadn't survived the full voltage of the discharge, bursting apart on the spot, and the survivors were grotesquely charred husks of themselves.

The queen's chamber should've been some kind of boss room...

It had ended far too anticlimactically. It hadn't even been hard. Well — it made sense. This trial was never meant to test you against something strong. Honestly, the only reason it had gone this smoothly was that I'd sneaked in like this. Thinking back on all the ants I'd have had to fight my way through to get here... it would have been an enormous hassle. I would have had to hunt down a key to open the queen's chamber, too.

As it stood, I'd simply killed the leader of the swarm straight away. Speaking of which—

Was the Essence of Lightning always this strong?

Its destructive power had startled even me. Come to think of it, I hadn't been using it freely at all lately. My focus had been entirely on axe work — I'd relegated lightning to the occasional diversion while I swung my blade. The power had exceeded my imagination enough to make my heart race like it hadn't in ages.

At this level, you could call it a grand magic, couldn't you?

Not Hellfire, but... hmm, Hell Lightning, maybe?

A long-dormant craving for magic came surging back up. Hmm. I could definitely get hooked on this.

I consciously shook my head, shaking off the thought. No. I couldn't let myself grow by spamming the Essence of Lightning. I'd chosen a melee class, after all — what mattered for me wasn't relying on skills, but growing through my own effort.

"That's... quite... powerful... though... when... I... fought... you... it... wasn't... this... bad..."

"Right? If you'd hit him with this much, would Ryun have died?"

"No... still... he'd... have... taken... damage."

Huh. Enough to wound a Sword Master. So the Essence of Lightning was even more effective than I'd imagined. Granted, if I'd dumped this much mana back then, I'd have been dragging my feet afterward for a while... Still, Ha Heijeong hadn't recommended it for nothing.

Listening to Ryun, I realized I'd been seriously underusing my skills all this time. The Shadow Monarch was the same way. Once I got comfortable with a few applications, I just stopped trying to find new ones, didn't I?

That was a bad habit. Flash Step, shadow spears, shadow arms — after developing a handful of uses for each, I'd imposed limits on them myself and stopped evolving. I'd thrown myself too completely into the axe. Even with Ryun teaching me...

In the next Waiting Room, I'd need to rethink how I used both the Essence of Lightning and the Shadow Monarch skills.

Thud-! Thud-!

The chamber was quiet, but outside, the sound of ants hammering on the iron door rang out relentlessly.

"Suyeok! It's noisy out there!"

"Let them have their fun. It's fine."

Naturally, I had no intention of opening that door before I tracked down the cocoon that had vanished beneath the ground. It would have been a hassle, yes — but more importantly, if I killed ants out there and the subjugation completed early, I'd lose the hidden mission.

I walked over to the spot where the cocoon had disappeared. Hmm. It definitely went down through here, didn't it?

The dirt floor looked just like the rest of the chamber — no hidden mechanism, nothing. How does this thing open? I stomped on it a few times, pushed at it with my hands. Just dirt. On a hunch, I even poured mana into it. Nothing changed.

I remembered the exact spot, so there was no chance I'd misjudged the location. It went down through here, so it should be right here...

"Dobby, do you know how to open this? Any luck with holy power?"

"There is no holy spell for digging!"

"Anything? A feeling, a hunch?"

"Nothing!"

"Ryun, do you know anything? It feels like someone sealed it with magic..."

"I... am... a... Sword... Master... not... a... Grand... Wizard..."

I'd expected as much, and predictably, it wasn't helping. Ugh. Then what was I supposed to do?

I couldn't just give up here. I put my mind to work, fast.

There might be a hidden passage leading downward somewhere in the chamber. The queen might have been holding something, too. I headed first to the spot where she'd been standing.

The queen had taken the lightning head-on and been blown to pieces. I kicked through the scattered wreckage, but no key — not so much as a fragment of anything useful.

Fine. No choice, then. Time for the last resort: good old-fashioned grunt work.

"Dobby, let's comb the chamber."

"Understood."

"Don't overlook even the smallest thing."

Outside, the ants were still hammering away at the iron door. Twenty minutes slipped by amid the grating racket — and despite ransacking the massive chamber from corner to corner, I came up with nothing. I was starting to genuinely wonder. Was this place never a boss room at all?

Dobby had led us here, yes... but maybe from this point on, we were supposed to descend further through a different fork in the tunnels.

Ugh. Fine — one last try before I give up.

Enough time had passed that my mana had recovered considerably — I'd recovered some from the ants I'd killed, too. I drew up roughly half of what remained, and the dim chamber lit up blue once more. Channeling all the frustration of that long, fruitless search, I slammed a bolt of lightning down onto the spot where the cocoon had vanished.

BOOM—!

The chamber shook violently, like the whole nest had been hit by an earthquake. Rumble— As the light brightened, the ground began sinking away beneath us. The hole widened little by little, and dirt funneled down into it.

"Hwaack!"

"Dobby!"

I had no idea how big it would get, so I instinctively grabbed Dobby and backed away two steps. Soon enough, a sinkhole roughly three meters across had opened where the cocoon had descended. I edged closer carefully and peered down into the hole. Nothing but darkness.

I'd gone and made a hole in a fit of desperation, so I felt a little flustered. Is going down there the hidden mission?

As I deliberated, a ding — a notification window popped up.

An optional hidden mission. It had been a while. I was on Floor 42 now, so it had been nearly twenty floors since Floors 2 and 21. Come to think of it, I seemed to stumble onto an optional hidden mission every twenty floors, oddly enough. Could there really be one waiting every twentieth floor?

The window offered the out, but I had no particular desire to take it. Floor 42 had been underwhelming, all things considered. I needed to come away with something more to feel satisfied. And no matter how hard an optional hidden mission was supposed to be... I wasn't really worried. I had a Sword Master, Ryun, with me.

I calmly let the ten seconds run out.

Hmm. I'd expected it to just tell me to drop into the sinkhole... Most likely because Floor 42's trial wasn't technically over yet. Come to think of it, the same had been true for the other optional hidden missions — they'd only unlocked once the floor's original trial was complete. This was the consequence of ignoring the other ants and barging straight into the queen's chamber.

I turned toward the iron door. I'd need to clear out the remaining ants first.

Had enough time passed, or what? Boom-boom-boom — the iron door was shuddering like it was about to collapse. How many of them have piled up out there? Even just the ants I'd run into on the way to the queen's chamber had numbered in the hundreds. Accounting for the ones in the other tunnels, we were probably looking at over a thousand.

Hmm. How to handle this? I deliberated for a moment, then approached the iron door.

"Dobby, stay sharp. Just in case — get a barrier ready."

"Got it!"

I gathered a massive charge of lightning in my right hand. The instant I activated Flash Step, I unlocked the iron door's latch. The door swung open on its own, pushed by the weight of bodies shoving from the other side — I didn't even have to touch it.

Inside the slowed time of Flash Step, the first thing I saw through the widening gap was the crushed corpse of an ant. I couldn't tell whether it was because the queen was dead or whether ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they'd always been this stupid, but the ants pushing in endlessly from behind had apparently crushed the ones in front to death.

I hurried back several paces.

Whew.

The moment the door opened, a cascade of unrecognizable, pulped ant corpses came tumbling into the chamber. Beyond them, ants half-crushed and on the verge of death were being shoved forward, whether they willed it or not.

I unleashed the lightning, then conjured dozens of shadow spears in front of the iron door to wall off the passage.

"Kraak!"

"Kyaaak!"

The ants at the front were the first to be skewered. A writhing, seething mass of them — the moment the door opened, the ants at the back had gotten excited and started shoving forward with no idea what was happening ahead. The swarm was impaling itself on my shadow spears of its own accord. A few ants loosed spells as they died, but I dodged them without effort.

Are the workers just that low on intelligence?

I didn't even need to dismiss the spears and remake them. The ants dying on the points were being crushed backward by the weight of the swarm behind them. Viscous fluids and torn carapaces rained down beyond the shadow spears.

"Hm... hm..."

Ryun sighed, and I felt exactly the same. It was a scene of ignorant ants being slaughtered helplessly. I was the one who'd made the spears, and these were enemies I had to kill — and still, it was a pitiful sight.

As time passed, their numbers finally began to thin, and I finished off the survivors.

After confirming the notice that Floor 42 had ended, Dobby and I stood before the sinkhole. Three meters across. No bottom in sight — only an abyss of darkness staring back. No ladder down, no rope, not even handholds in the wall.

Hmm... so we just jump?

With Kashatum's Sky Shoes, a fall wouldn't kill me — no worries there. Still, the question remained. How are other people supposed to get down, building it like this? Don't tell me it's a portal shaped like a sinkhole? A whole other world down there?

It was possible. And if that wasn't it, the fall alone could kill you. But whatever — nothing to stress over. I just needed to jump. Spread my kinetic sense as far as it would go, and the moment I felt the floor, step on empty air for a safe landing.

"Dobby."

"Heeek! Suyeok! You're — you're planning to jump from here?!"

"...You saw it coming, didn't you."

Dobby nodded slowly, his face a portrait of misery. He didn't whine about being too ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠big to carry, at least. I gestured, and he came over on his own and nestled into my arms.

With Dobby tucked against my chest, I leapt into the sinkhole.

"Kkiiheeek!"

Dobby's terrified scream echoed up out of the pit.

◇ Floor 42: The Secret of the Ant Nest ◇

I'd jumped down without much thought, but once I was actually falling, it took real work.

A sinkhole three meters wide. It had looked roomy at a glance — the problem was how deep the shaft went. Barely a few seconds in, the walls were already closing in. Kick off one wall to avoid slamming into it, and the opposite wall rushed up to meet me. This kept repeating, and my speed bled away accordingly. At this rate, I wouldn't even need to step on air before landing.

Maybe thirty seconds passed like that. The far reach of my kinetic sense finally caught the floor. And in the very instant I was bracing to land, the pull on my body vanished — and gravity reversed.

A heartbeat of weightlessness. Immediately after, the surrounding air shifted. Thick, damp air seeped into my nostrils. It felt like arriving in an entirely different world. When the reversed gravity faded, I touched down lightly on the ground.

"Suyeok! Something — something's wrong here!"

Dobby hopped down from my arms, tense, shoulders hiked all the way up to his ears as he scanned our surroundings.

The dark corridor glowed faintly with a reddish, sulfuric light. Unlike the ant nest's raw burrows, the passage before us was squared off and finished, as if carved by tools. A completely different space from the one above.

And then a notification window rose.

Nothing but the time remaining — no detailed instructions. I was used to it; the optional hidden missions on Floors 2 and 21 had been the same way.

I kept watch around us as I thought over the mission. The secret of the ant nest, huh. What's down here?

A second space beneath the nest. The finished, smoothed tunnel made it certain — someone had built this deliberately. Which meant the ant nest above was someone's doing as well. The vanished cocoon. The spell-casting ants. And the notification had called them "demon ants."

The demon realm... are we looking at a warlock or a lich?

Somehow, it felt likely. This place didn't look like a normal world, after all. The lich I couldn't say, but I'd run into a warlock back on Floor 9. Back then it had only been resurrecting its dead hunting hounds, but...

They say high-tier warlocks and liches can cast curses.

I'd need to move carefully. I did own a curse-breaking scroll, bought long ago on Ha Heijeong's recommendation — but this was Floor 42 now. I couldn't afford to hand an enemy an opening. Ideally, the moment I laid eyes on one, I'd kill it with Flash Step before it could act.

Let's go see.

As I set off, I sensed multiple presences at the far end of the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠corridor. Six of them. Couldn't tell what they were, but they were enemies I'd have to fight — that much was certain. Well, of course. That earth-shaking boom when I blasted through the sinkhole? The things down here had obviously noticed. Coming to check on the disturbance was only natural. I'd dropped straight in after all, so they'd reached me first.

Before they came into view, I cast Shadow Veil. First, I wanted to watch and assess. If the real boss is a warlock or a lich, the best move is to kill it without ever showing my face.

Resurrection of the dead, curses. Either way, if the main body stayed alive, things would get very messy.

I warned Dobby to keep quiet, then slipped into the corner of the corridor. Pressing flat against the wall, I watched as strange creatures emerged from the far end of the passage.

Bipedal creatures with dark crimson skin. Spiral horns like a ram's sprouted from their skulls, and their fingers jutted out sharp as claws. No wings, but they looked like the demons from old paintings. They did not look weak.

As they drew near, a notification window floated up above their heads.

Lower Demons. So that was what the "demon" in demon ants meant. I'd been expecting a warlock or a lich, but this had veered off course — this was something to do with demons and devils instead.

The demons walked right up to where I stood hidden, frowning, and sniffed at the air.

"I smell blood..."

"It's the ants' blood."

Oh, hell. That was us — it was coming from me and Dobby. I'd sprayed deodorizer when we first sneaked into the nest, but I'd just been fighting in the queen's chamber until moments ago. I hadn't swung a weapon directly, but I'd killed far too many ants for that to matter. Blood had pooled across the chamber floor; of course it was on my boots.

My stomach tightened. I tightened my grip on the axe, ready to swing at any moment.

Drip. Just then, a few drops of ant blood fell from the sinkhole above. The demons reflexively tilted their heads up.

"Blood drips all the way down here? Something's gone wrong up top."

"I thought it was just a mistake, like Lord Shogal said... you idiots! This is why you don't put trash like them to work."

What a relief. I let out an inward breath and strained to catch every word.

"No, the barrier outside the nest was cast by Lord Shogal himself. It's not the ants' fault. Someone came in targeting us."

"What do we do? Should we go up?"

"If they got in without breaking the barrier, they're not pushovers..."

Shogal. From the way they talked, this Shogal was clearly in charge here. To complete the hidden mission, I'd probably have to take him down. And I'd bet the vanished cocoon was in his hands, too.

"Going up ourselves is the worst move. They could be waiting for us up there."

"Right. He only told us to punish the ones who screwed up. If an enemy's come, we report to Lord Shogal first."

"Then you four hold this place. Bel and I will report to Lord Shogal."

"Understood."

"Don't stand so close. They could come falling through at any moment."

"So much worry. If they fall, we just kill them."

One of the demons conjured a spear of mana beneath the sinkhole. The others formed fireballs above their palms, ready to hurl at a moment's notice. It wasn't far off from what I'd done upstairs. Intelligent beings really did think alike.

While I was mulling it over, two of the demons turned and started back. I trailed after them as quietly as I could. From what I'd gathered, Shogal had no idea an intruder existed — not even after the earth-shaking ruckus. The barrier they spoke of was presumably at the nest's entrance. I'd been summoned into the ant nest by the Tower's power, so the barrier had never broken — which is why they'd concluded the ants had simply blundered.

"The blood smell's getting stronger."

"Looks like things are getting cleaned up up top."

"Hey, Bel! Report faster. It feels like they'll be down here soon!"

"On it!"

The two demons quickened their pace. I couldn't very well trail them trailing blood-scent, so I let the distance open briefly, then sprayed deodorizer in a hurry. By the time I finished, the two had rounded the far end of the corridor. It wasn't a fork, so I hastily followed after them.

Man, it would've been a real pain if I'd had to fight my way through these guys first, huh?

The corridor was finished and well-built, but otherwise similar to the ant nest — not multiple branching tunnels this time, but there were doors lining the walls. So many rooms. The demons moving through them weren't as numerous as the ants, but hardly sparse either. If I'd fought my way in from the start, I'd have been surrounded from all sides.

Before long, I reached a door gleaming gold. The two demons rapped on it cautiously.

"...What is it?"

A sinister voice drifted out from beyond the door. Even unable to see the two demons outside, they bowed their heads deeply. If they showed this much deference even in the urgent situation of an intruder's arrival... it told me everything about what Shogal was to them. An object of pure terror.

"We confirmed the passage has opened."

"Enter."

At Shogal's word, the golden door swung open by itself. Through the opened doorway, in the middle of a laboratory-like room, I saw the cocoon I'd glimpsed earlier. It floated inside a tank brimming with crimson liquid, wriggling black tendrils impaled through it.

My eyes followed the black tendrils connecting the tank to—

Other races. Lying collapsed. The tendrils ran from the tank to the heads of winged humanoids.

They're draining energy from them and feeding it into the cocoon?

The demons were already stepping into the room — no time to think further. Matching their stride, I slipped in behind them.

There, before the tank, Shogal was staring down the demons with sharp, predatory eyes.

Not a warlock or a lich after all — just a demon.

He resembled the lower demons, but different. Sharper, more defined features; his skin burned red; and from behind him, a razor-tipped tail stood erect and proud.

"Did you trash take care of disciplining them or not?"

"...It was no mistake. Blood has been dripping down the passage from the ants. It appears an intruder has entered."

"You're sure? You went up and looked? No one in this world can pierce my barrier without a trace."

"...I didn't go up myself, but it seems certain. The corridor toward the passage was thick with the smell of ant blood."

"Sometimes workers awaken into queens, don't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they? Could it not just be them tearing into each other?"

At Shogal's words, the demon swallowed hard, terror written across his face. Even watching from the sidelines, the exchange was suffocating. I had a pretty good idea what kind of creature Shogal was now.

I shot Dobby a glance. I'll take Shogal first — you ambush the demons. Even inside Flash Step's slowed time, Dobby could take out two of them.

The moment Dobby nodded, I began carefully stepping around toward Shogal's flank.

"If blood's flowing all the way down the passage, it wasn't mere infighting."

"Is that so? Then I'll go up and check myself — and if you're wrong, you all die."

That gave me pause. Even hearing that an intruder had entered, Shogal's expression hadn't shifted an inch. Worse, he was more focused on threatening the demons in front of him than on the actual threat. How confident was he in his own strength?

"Not answering? Lowly trash shouldn't have wasted my time — and now you'll pay for it."

Shogal flashed a wicked grin, and I activated Flash Step.

The answering demon's voice began to stretch and smear like a broken tape.

"Y-yes, sir—"

I didn't pull up the lightning immediately. Unlike Flash Step, drawing lightning creates a ripple of mana. Against an intermediate demon, that ripple might betray the ambush.

I steadied my breath, soft and quiet — then swung the axe faster than I ever had. The plan was to take the head clean off. He was a species I'd never fought; a half-hearted opening strike could rebound on me.

The instant before the axe met Shogal's neck, I wrenched the lightning up with full force. Only then did Shogal flinch and twist his body. Too late. The axe carved through his neck and kept going. His head sailed into the air.

Huh...?

But there was none of the usual solid resistance. It felt less like cutting something and more like slicing through water. In a flash, Shogal's floating head and body vaporized into red mist.

I was rattled — but I couldn't stand still. Dobby was in the middle of beheading the second demon. With the ambush blown, protecting him came first.

I rushed to stand in front of Dobby, then turned to face the red mist.

Time flowing normally again, the vaporized Shogal reassembled into his original form. Astonishingly, not a single wound on him.

"What's this? So there really was an intruder? And he made it all the way to my room? You useless pieces of trash! What exactly are you good for?"

Shogal erupted. The fury wasn't aimed at being ambushed by me — it was aimed at his incompetent demons. He spat on the demons' corpses, then turned to face me.

His raised brow made it abundantly clear he was thoroughly angry now.

"One human, one goblin. Just the two of you?"

A sinister voice. I clenched my jaw. My mind was a mess.

Even the axe charged with the Essence of Lightning hadn't so much as scratched him.

...How am I supposed to fight this thing?

Then Ryun slowly opened his mouth.

"Looks... like... you'll... need... my... help..."