The Ant Cave
Jangcheok shouted, “There’s another swarm nearby!”
Soon, eight more ants came crawling out of the tunnels. Even while fighting, the ants released pheromones to call in reinforcements from the surrounding area. This wasn’t like the entrance to the dungeon where the ants were scattered. The entire underground was crawling with them.
“Die!”
Sion smashed the head of an ant that had just reared up with the edge of his shield. With a sickening crunch, its skull shattered and sticky bodily fluids poured out.
“They’re coming from this passage too!”
Another swarm burst out from the maze-like tunnels that branched off in every direction. Almost simultaneously, two groups of ants arrived to attack us.
“Sion! Fight while falling back!”
Our numbers were far fewer than the ants’. We had to avoid being surrounded at all costs. Sion retreated with his shield raised. Jangcheok and I relentlessly killed the ants trying to crawl under it. Even after all that, more than ten ants were still charging toward us.
Ah. Fuck.
“Another swarm’s coming!”
Yet another group arrived. This wasn’t just any swarm. Nearly twenty ants. Just an absolute shit-ton of them. When around thirty giant ants gathered together, the corridor turned pitch black. They trampled over each other’s bodies and surged toward us like a wave.
“Ugh!”
Sion barely managed to steady himself while fending off the ceaselessly snapping mandibles. Jangcheok swung his sword with fire in his eyes. Sion was making deathly groans but somehow holding on. Still, too many ants were focusing on us. It was getting hard to endure. We were reaching our limit.
“Hajun!”
Jangcheok shouted while decapitating an ant. “We should pull back now!”
There was no way three people could defeat over thirty enemies. But our goal wasn’t a massacre. We just needed to draw their attention.
“No! Not yet!” I yelled.
“What?”
“We need to call even more! We have to lure them out!”
“Fuck, what more do you want to call here!” Sion screamed like he was dying.
Thirty was too ambiguous a number. For Roa to handle things easily, we needed to pull in as many ants as possible. It seemed like the right time to use the spell.
A revolutionary method that both summoned ants and increased our numbers.
It was Necromancy.
I focused my mind and chanted the spell.
“Animate Skeleton!”
Animate Skeleton
The unholy magic that summons the power of darkness to animate bones around the caster. It is not powerful enough to move still-twitching flesh, but it can at least manipulate a skeleton. The dead raised by this spell will be cursed and become mindless slaves, offering blind loyalty to the caster.
[You have summoned the power of darkness...]
[Wicked mana spreads outward!]
It was one of the basic low-grade spells for a Necromancer. Animate Skeleton was the absolute foundation of necromancy. While weaker than the higher spell Animate Dead, it was incredibly powerful for a low-grade magic.
Necromancers were one of the few summoner classes in Dungeon Overseer. Other classes could learn summoning too, but none were as efficient as a Necromancer. Since summons could both deal damage and tank, it was obvious how much a Necromancer could dominate dungeons in the late game.
However, because the summons themselves were so strong, the penalties were severe. In particular, a Necromancer’s spells immediately released wicked mana and dark energy, drawing the attention of nearby monsters. Animate Skeleton was no exception. When cast, the revived skeleton’s flesh would completely rot away. The rotting meat emitted a terrible stench that attracted other monsters.
In the late game, this aggro ability could be used for kiting and mob farming, but if you carelessly created undead minions with necromancy while still this weak, you’d end up fighting every monster in the dungeon and die.
[A corpse revived by wicked mana. The suffocating silence of this monster would be unbearable for any living creature.]
I revived the ant corpses as skeletons. To be precise, they weren’t exactly skeletons. They were more like exo-skeletons. Since I had revived their exoskeletons instead of bones.
The moment they were revived as skeletons, their flesh began to rot and fall away. But inside the ants’ exoskeletons, the rotting flesh released toxic gas. Thanks to that, every time the ant skeletons took a step, they spewed corpse gas from every joint.
A total of seven eerie ant skeletons that would send chills down your spine just by looking at them. That was the limit of what I could raise with this spell.
The ants twitched, their legs trembling, then rose from the ground. Some were missing legs, had holes in their abdomens, or had their mandibles torn off with pus dripping out. Yet they had returned from death to obey my commands.
Shhhhhhhh...
The living ants didn’t show fear when they saw the ant skeletons.
Shhhhhhhh...
They were simply confused. Ants had no minds to begin with. They didn’t know what fear was, nor what necromancy was. They simply moved according to the commands imprinted in their pheromones, trying to clean up the corpses that had appeared in their nest.
“Ant One through Seven.”
I called the ant skeletons.
“Line up here in a single file. Advance forward in formation!”
The ant skeletons marched forward. A foul stench sprayed out between their joints. The ants obeyed my commands even as their bodies rotted away. The ant skeletons mercilessly bit into the living ants.
The ants fought back, but when foul-smelling fluid gushed from the cracks in their shattered chitin shells, they recoiled in disgust. The stench from seven rotting ants was overwhelming.
“Ugh.”
From behind, Jangcheok and Sion dry-heaved. It was a poison that would make even humans nauseous and weak if inhaled for too long.
Shhhhhhhh...
Ants began poking their heads out from all directions. The ants that had been holed up in the royal palace had smelled the stench rising from underground and swarmed in to clean up the corpses.
Although not many were charging directly at us...
“Whoa... shit.”
There were seriously a ridiculous number of them.
#
“Hey!”
Inside the underground passage filled with a horrific stench, Sion crushed an ant under his heel and shouted.
“When the hell are we pulling out?”
Thanks to the skeletons I had summoned, the burden had definitely decreased. The number of ants we had to fight at once was down to two or three. And even those were weakened by the gas, their bodies trembling.
But we couldn’t just sit here forever.
“Let’s pull back now.”
I had no idea how many we’d killed. We had slain every ant that came close, and the skeletons had charged into their midst, diligently slaughtering enemies. Yet looking at the ants still densely filling the underground, I realized one thing clearly.
This was endless.
A little over an hour had passed since the fight began. My party members were also at their physical limits.
“Ueeeek.”
“Damn it.”
Jangcheok had collapsed from poisoning. I’d thought he was being quiet, but he was busy making ant-cake on the floor.
“Mr. Jangcheok. Can you walk?”
“Cough, cough. Yeah...”
“Hey. This isn’t working. Let’s move.”
I was fine since I was a Necromancer, but Jangcheok seemed vulnerable to poison. Sion’s movements had also grown sluggish. If we stayed any longer, it would be dangerous. The summoning time for the ant skeletons was almost up, and I didn’t have the mana to summon new ones.
“We’ve done enough.”
I sheathed my saw-toothed blade and ran over to Jangcheok. I gathered our gear and hoisted him onto my back. He was heavier than he looked.
“Sion. Cover us.”
The ant skeletons were starting to fall apart. I was grateful they had moved at all.
“Fight on your own! We’re leaving!”
I ordered the ant skeletons to draw aggro. They faithfully obeyed. They tangled with the ants and fought them.
“To the platform!”
We retreated steadily. A wave of ants chased after us. Sion, running ahead, lost his balance and staggered.
“Fuck! Run straight! If you fall behind...”
...A bad memory suddenly flashed through my mind. The comrades I couldn’t save before. I had vowed never to lose a comrade on this expedition. I didn’t want to lose anyone else.
“Uwaaaaah!”
Sion barely regained his balance. I helped him up so he wouldn’t fall.
When we reached the platform, I heard a voice calling us.
“Mr. Hajun!”
It was Maya operating the elevator. In her hand was a bright fluorescent red potion.
Wildfire Potion. An expensive item bought from the Alchemist Guild. When thrown, it exploded and set everything on fire. In the early game it was a fire lance, in the mid-game a powerful AoE, and in the late game a universal seasoning. A very useful item.
“Ms. Maya! You know how to detonate potions, right?”
Alchemists fought by detonating the potions they created themselves. In Dungeon Overseer, where one-versus-many battles were common, AoE skills were always the right choice.
Maya nodded confidently.
We hurriedly climbed onto the elevator.
Shhhhhhhhh...
The ant bastards approached with that bizarre sound. It was an eerie noise that made your hair stand on end and gave you goosebumps. Dozens of ants were making the threatening sound at the same time.
“Maya!”
Maya hurled the Wildfire Potion. Her target was the ants rushing toward the elevator. As the potion spun through the air, she chanted,
“Potion Explosion!”
BOOM!
The Wildfire Potion exploded fiercely, just as its name suggested. Red flames burst out in every direction like fireworks. It was so hot I had to cover my face with my arm.
The sticky flames created by alchemy splattered everywhere. The viscous substance clung to the ants’ shells, boiling at high temperatures and burning holes straight through their bodies.
Maya kept throwing potions.
BOOM! BOOM!
The dungeon blazed fiercely. The smell of roasting ants filled the air. The ants engulfed in flames let out silent screams as they burned to death.
After throwing five Wildfire Potions, the area around the elevator for about forty meters had turned into a sea of fire.
Maya, who had calmly thrown every last potion, activated the elevator. Soon, the sound of chains winding echoed as the elevator slowly began to rise.
It would have been dangerous if the ants had climbed on and interfered, but right now they were too busy trying to shake off the flames, as if they had fallen into hell.
Clatter clatter...
The elevator rose at a steady speed.
THUD!
Soon, a familiar place appeared. The exact spot where our party had been wiped out before.
It was the crypt.