Floor 42: The Secret of the Anthill (1)

I'd dropped in without giving it much thought, but once I was actually falling, there turned out to be a lot to handle.

A sinkhole three meters across.

It had looked wide enough at first glance, but the problem was how deep it went.

Barely any distance down, the wall beside me was already pressing close. Every time I kicked off one wall to avoid slamming into it, the opposite one came rushing up to meet me.

This kept repeating, so naturally my speed bled away. At this rate, it seemed I wouldn't even need to deliberately step on empty air before I landed.

Maybe thirty seconds passed like that.

Then I felt the floor at the far end of my expanded aura perception.

And in the instant I braced to land, the force pulling at my body vanished and gravity flipped.

A moment of weightlessness.

Immediately after, the surrounding air churned and swapped itself over. Sticky, damp air crept into my nose — it felt like I'd stepped into an entirely different world.

When the reversed gravity dissolved, I settled lightly onto the ground.

"Suyeok! S-something's wrong!"

Dobby, who had leapt down from my arms, pulled his shoulders up to his ears in alarm, eyes darting around our surroundings.

The dark corridor before us glowed a sulfur-red, tinged crimson at a glance. Unlike the anthill's raw tunnels, a passageway cut into clean right angles stretched out ahead.

It was a space completely different from the one above.

And right then, a notification window popped up.

Only the time remaining was displayed — no details whatsoever.

It was familiar. The optional hidden missions on the 2nd and 21st floors had been the same way.

I kept watch on my surroundings while mulling over the hidden mission.

The secret of the anthill, huh.

What could be down here?

A second space beneath the ant nest — one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠look at that neatly carved passageway made it certain that someone had built it deliberately. Which ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meant the anthill above was someone's doing as well.

The missing cocoons. The ants that cast magic.

And on top of that, the notification window had labeled the ants as "Demon Realm Ants."

The Demon Realm... could a warlock or a lich be down here?

Something about it felt likely. This place didn't look like a normal world either.

I couldn't say about liches, but I'd crossed paths with a warlock back on the 9th floor. All he'd done back then was reanimate his dead hunting hounds, but still.

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

I would have to move carefully. I did have curse-breaking scrolls I'd bought on Ha Heijeong's recommendation ages ago, but this was the 42nd floor now. I couldn't afford to give an enemy an opening for nothing.

Ideally, the moment I laid eyes on one, I'd want to kill it instantly with lightning.

Let's take a look first.

As I started walking, I sensed several presences at the far end of the corridor.

Six. I couldn't tell what they were, but they were definitely enemies I'd have to fight.

Well, of course. Blowing through the sinkhole had sent a roar echoing through the earth. The enemies below had obviously heard it too, and it made perfect sense for them to come investigate.

And since I'd dropped in first, they'd reached me before I reached them.

I cast Shadow Veil before they came into view — first, to size up the situation.

If the boss really is a warlock or a lich, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the best move is to kill them without ever showing myself.

Corpse revival, curses. Either way, if I didn't kill the real body fast, things were guaranteed to get ugly.

After warning Dobby to stay quiet, I slipped into an alcove of the corridor.

The moment I pressed myself flat against the wall, strangely shaped creatures appeared at the corridor's end.

Bipedal beings with dark reddish-black skin. Coiled, spiral horns like a ram's jutted from their heads, and their fingers rose up sharp as claws.

They had no wings, but they looked close to the demons in the pictures I'd seen — and nothing about them looked weak.

As they drew near, name tags floated above their heads.

Lower Demons, was it?

So that's what the "Demon" in Demon Realm Ants meant? I'd been thinking warlocks or liches, but I'd veered slightly off target. This was something more connected to demons, or demonkin — that sort of thing.

The demons right in front of me wrinkled their faces and sniffed at the air.

"I smell blood..."

"It's the ants' blood."

Ah. That was me and Dobby.

I'd sprayed odor-eliminator when we first snuck into the anthill, but we'd fought the whole battle in the queen's chamber right before this. I hadn't personally swung a weapon, but the sheer number of dead ants made it moot.

Blood had pooled up over the soles of my feet, so naturally my boots were stained with it.

A jolt of alarm ran through me, and I tightened my grip on the axe so I could swing it at any moment.

A tension-thick moment. Then — plip — a few droplets of ant blood dripped down into the sinkhole from above.

Reflexively, the demons tilted their heads back and looked up.

"Blood's dripping down from up here? Something's gone wrong topside."

"Just like Shogal said — I thought it was a simple mistake... you idiots! This is why you don't use trash like those ants."

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

"No, the barrier outside the nest is Shogal's doing. This isn't the ants' fault. Someone came in targeting us."

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

"Anyone who can break in without shattering the barrier isn't someone to take lightly..."

Shogal.

From the way they talked, this Shogal seemed to be the one in charge of this place. To complete the hidden mission, I'd probably need to take him down — and I'd wager the missing cocoons were with him too.

"Going up first would be a mistake. They could be waiting for us up there."

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

"Then the four of you hold this position. Bel and I will go report to Lord Shogal."

"Understood."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Don't cluster together. They might come falling down out of nowhere."

"You worry too much. If anything falls, we kill it."

One of the demons conjured a spear of dark magic beneath the sinkhole, while the others formed fireballs above their palms, ready to hurl at a moment's notice.

Not unlike the trick I'd used from above. Intelligent beings really did think alike.

While I was thinking, two of the demons turned to leave.

I tailed them as quietly as I could. From what I was seeing, despite the earth-shaking commotion, Shogal had no idea an intruder was here.

The barrier they mentioned must have been at the entrance to the anthill. I'd been summoned into the anthill directly by the Tower — so the barrier never broke, and they'd assumed it was just the ants' blunder.

"The blood smell is getting thicker."

"Looks like things are being cleaned up topside."

"Hey, Bel! Report quickly — it feels like they'll come down any moment!"

"Got it!"

The two demons quickened their pace. I couldn't follow them trailing the stench of blood behind me.

I let them pull ahead for a moment, then swiftly sprayed on more odor-eliminator.

In the meantime, the pair turned off at the corridor's end.

It wasn't a fork in the path, so I hurried after them once more.

If I'd tried to fight my way through these guys first, it would've been rough going.

The passage was neatly carved, but much like the anthill above. There weren't as many forks as before, but the corridors were jam-packed with doors — how many rooms did this place need?

There were plenty of demons walking around, too. Not as many as the ants, but hardly a handful either. If I'd fought my way in from the start, I'd have been surrounded from every side.

Before long, I arrived before a door gleaming gold.

The two demons knocked on it cautiously.

"...What is it?"

A sinister voice seeped out from beyond the door.

Though he couldn't see them standing outside, both demons bowed their heads deeply. Even with an intruder loose — a situation that demanded urgency — they still went through all this formality.

It told me everything about how much Shogal terrified these creatures.

"We went to confirm the tunnel opening, my lord."

"Enter."

At Shogal's word, the golden door swung open on its own.

Beyond the opened door, in the center of what looked like a laboratory, I saw the same cocoons I'd spotted earlier.

The cocoons floated inside vats brimming with red liquid, black pulsing tendrils speared through them.

My gaze traveled along the tendrils connecting the vats to —

Demi-humans sprawled across the floor. The tendrils were fastened to the heads of winged demi-humans.

Draining energy from the demi-humans to feed the cocoons?

The demons were already stepping into the room. No time to think further.

I matched their stride and slipped in behind them.

At the head of the vats, Shogal was eyeing the demons with sharp, narrow gaze.

Not a warlock, not a lich — just a demon.

He resembled the lower demons but with telling differences: sharper features, a redder hue, and a blade-tipped tail standing rigid and straight behind him.

"Did you educate the trash properly?"

"...It wasn't a mistake. Ant blood is dripping down the passage. It appears an intruder has entered."

"You're certain? Did you go up and check it yourself? No one in this world could punch through my barrier without a whisper of warning."

"...We didn't go up, but we're certain. The corridor by the passage was thick with the smell of ant blood."

"Sometimes worker ants awaken into queens, don't they? Sure they weren't just brawling among themselves?"

At Shogal's words, the demon's face went pale and he swallowed hard.

Even watching from the sidelines, the exchange was suffocating. I had a decent picture of what kind of creature Shogal was now.

I flicked a glance at Dobby.

I'd handle Shogal first; he was to ambush the demons. Within the time-stopped world of Flash Step, even Dobby would have more than enough to take out two lower demons.

The moment Dobby nodded, I carefully stepped to Shogal's flank.

"If blood's running all the way down the passage, it's no mere infighting."

"Oh? Then I'll go check myself — and if you're wrong, you all die."

A flicker of doubt crossed my mind. Even with news of an intruder, Shogal's expression hadn't shifted a hair. If anything, he was more focused on threatening the demons in front of him than on the enemy.

Just how confident was he in his own strength?

"No answer? Then pay the price for troubling me, you lower-tier pest."

Shogal grinned with a cruel twist of his lips, and I activated Flash Step.

The answering demon's words began to stretch out like a broken tape recorder.

"Y-yes, my... lo—"

I didn't draw the lightning up right away.

Unlike Flash Step, pulling lightning up created a ripple of mana. An intermediate demon might sense the ambush through that ripple.

I took a small breath, then swung the axe faster than I ever had.

My plan was to take the head first. I'd never fought this species before — a half-baked opening attack could bounce back on me.

Just before the axe touched Shogal's neck, I wrenched the lightning up with full force.

Only then did Shogal flinch and twist his body away.

But it was too late. The axe carved through Shogal's neck in a single stroke, and his head flew skyward.

Huh...?

Yet there was none of the usual solid resistance. It felt less like cutting something and more like slicing through water.

In a blink, Shogal's floating head and body vaporized into red mist.

I panicked — but I couldn't afford to freeze.

Dobby was mid-swing, taking the second demon's neck. With the ambush blown, protecting Dobby came first.

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

In the resumed flow of time, the vaporized Shogal reformed into his original shape.

Astonishingly, not a single wound on him.

"What? So there really was an intruder? And he made it all the way to my chambers? You useless pieces of trash! What do I even pay you for?"

Shogal exploded in rage. Not at me for ambushing him — at his incompetent demons.

He spat on the demons' corpses and turned toward me. His raised brow made it plain: he was thoroughly, murderously angry.

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

A voice like something crawling out of a crypt.

I clenched my teeth. My mind was a tangle. Even the axe charged with the Essence of Lightning hadn't landed so much as a scratch on him.

...How the hell do I fight this thing?

Then, Ryun slowly opened his mouth.

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