The Ant Nest? (4)
The moment we stepped into the second cave, it didn’t take long before we found it.
In the center of a vast chamber, a Giant Ant stood guard over hundreds of glistening eggs. We held our breath and pressed ourselves against the far wall, hidden in the shadows. The creature beyond was an imposing twenty meters tall, its form exactly as its name suggested—eerily similar to an ant, yet monstrous in scale.
“There really is a Giant Ant…?! Thank god I listened to Cyan…!”
“Shh! Monaca, you’re being too loud!”
Victor quickly silenced Monaca, who was practically vibrating with nervous excitement. Andrei, also holding his breath, gave me a thumbs-up from the side. I felt a little awkward. Truth be told, I’d been sweating bullets wondering what we’d do if there wasn’t one. Zeke had been putting so much pressure on me that I’d gotten genuinely pissed off.
Zeke, for his part, was still grinding his teeth at Monaca’s reaction.
“On three, we all go in at once…! Andrei, start casting your fire spell! …The moment I give the signal, Zeke and I will strike together!”
Everyone nodded at Victor’s command. Even Zeke gave a reluctant nod.
“Alright. Here we go! One…”
We all stared intently at the Giant Ant, barely daring to breathe. The only sound was the frantic pounding of our hearts, driven wild by the tension. Sweat trickled down my back from the nerves.
“…Two.”
I finished steeling myself to charge. Monaca gripped her bowstring, fingers twitching. All eyes locked on Victor’s lips. Time seemed to stretch like a scene in slow motion.
Then Victor’s lips moved. The tip of his tongue brushed the back of his upper teeth as he finally spoke.
“…Three!”
The instant the word left his mouth, Victor and Zeke shot forward like lightning. The metallic clatter of armor and weapons rang out chaotically. True to their C-rank veteran status, they formed up in perfect formation almost instantly.
“……!”
The Giant Ant jolted in shock at our sudden appearance. It rose up as if to defend itself, but it was already too late.
“Andrei! Now!”
At Victor’s shout, Andrei completed the incantation he’d nearly finished.
“…Bind the movements of our enemies. Fire Wall!”
Fire Wall
-Whoosh!
A massive wall of flames erupted from the ground and slammed into the Giant Ant’s belly.
-Kwaaaaaang!
“Kk-kkriiiik! Kkriik!”
Caught completely off guard by the blazing impact, the Giant Ant writhed in agony. Its massive body flipped over onto its side.
“Zeke!”
“I know!”
Victor and Zeke charged the overturned beast from both flanks, swinging their swords wildly.
-Whoooosh!
-Crunch!
-Slice!
-Stab!
“Kkriiiiiiiiiiiik!”
“Everyone, get clear!”
Monaca followed up with a relentless barrage of supporting fire. She nocked, drew, and released in rapid succession, unleashing a storm of arrows.
-Shiiiing!
Thud!
-Thwip-thwip-thwip-thwip-thwip!
“Kkriiiiiii—!”
The Giant Ant let out a blood-curdling screech that threatened to rupture our eardrums. But the scream didn’t last long.
“Kkriii…rik….”
Overwhelmed by the whirlwind of attacks, the Giant Ant’s movements finally stopped. It was so still that it was hard to believe it had been thrashing wildly just moments ago. Victor and Zeke hacked at it a few more times to be sure, but the result was the same.
““…….””
It was over. I hadn’t even needed to step in to protect Andrei. The Giant Ant no longer moved.
“…It’s dead,” Victor said.
At his words, the tension drained from Monaca and she collapsed to the ground. Andrei also sank down wearily.
“…Everyone worked hard.”
“Haaaaaaa… Thank goodness. I’m so glad it ended like this.”
Then Zeke, one leg trembling, clicked his tongue.
“Tsk. What a letdown. All that hesitation at the entrance over a pathetic thing like this.”
“Zeke, don’t you think your attitude is a little off? I wasn’t going to bring it up, but if it weren’t for Victor and Cyan, we would’ve suffered like hell on the third floor because of you.”
“…….”
Zeke’s face twisted at Monaca’s words. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it right there.
“Hey! What are you doing?! Don’t smoke that in front of me! It stinks!”
The acrid smell of the smoke made me wrinkle my nose too. Was he just going full rogue now…? Well, it wasn’t my problem.
I walked over to the Giant Ant’s corpse.
“Huh? Cyan! Where are you going?!”
I ignored Monaca and examined the carcass. I wanted to make sure there weren’t any other variables. Just in case.
‘…….’
-Tap tap tap.
I rapped my fist against the creature’s hard exoskeleton. But unlike in the movies, it didn’t suddenly come back to life. The ending felt absurdly anticlimactic after all the worry I’d gone through at the entrance.
‘For a C-rank party, they handled it pretty safely.’
My body felt stiff. Between the Hedy incident a few days ago and all this adventurer work, I was exhausted. Once I got my reward, I’d head back to the dormitory and rest properly. After that, maybe I’d treat myself to some of the fruit I’d been craving. Lately I’d been in the mood for something sweet.
“Tsk, damn brat. Just standing around watching… Hm?”
Zeke, who had been muttering while looking at me crouched down, suddenly spotted something and walked toward the wall.
“…No way?!”
He tossed his cigarette aside and exclaimed in awe.
“Victor! Come over here! It’s a magic stone!”
“Hm? A magic stone?”
A magic stone? In a low-level monster cave like this? According to the game knowledge I had, there shouldn’t be any…
The moment that thought crossed my mind, a spine-chilling premonition flashed through my head.
‘…No way?!’
My mind screamed in warning. When I turned my head, Zeke was already reaching for the magic stone embedded in the wall.
I shouted at him with every ounce of strength I had.
“Mr. Zeke! Don’t touch that! Get your hand off it right now!”
But Zeke ignored me and touched the stone anyway.
In that brief instant his fingers made contact—
“Whoa—?!”
“W-what the—?!”
Victor and Zeke both cried out in alarm at the same time.
A sudden, violent change. The moment he touched it, an intense crimson light burst from the magic stone.
-Whoooooooosh!
“Ugh!”
“—! What’s happening!”
“What is this?! What the hell is this?!”
“I can’t…! I can’t see anything!”
“……!”
In the midst of the chaos, another deafening roar shook the chamber. The entire room we were in began to tremble violently, as if struck by an earthquake.
-Kwaaaaaaaaang!
Rocks that should have been fixed to the ceiling cracked and rained down mercilessly.
-Boom! Kwaang! Boom!
The fallen boulders piled up exactly where we had entered, completely blocking our exit.
“What the… ugh—!”
Andrei, who had been moving toward the entrance, was crushed beneath one of the massive falling rocks. His neck twisted at an unnatural angle the moment he was struck, his entire body pulverized.
Monaca’s face turned deathly pale as she witnessed the gruesome sight. A moment later—
“KyaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Realizing that Andrei had been turned into a motionless lump of meat in an instant, Monaca screamed.
“…?! What?! A-Andrei…?!”
Victor realized it too, but too late.
…The formation had already collapsed long ago. It was pure pandemonium. As if refusing to give us even a moment to breathe, a geometric magic circle had appeared beneath our feet and was now activating.
-Shwooooong!
“What do we do?! How do we—?!”
“…….”
“Uhh…? Uwaaaaaah?!”
Monaca stared into empty space with unfocused eyes, half-mad. The light pouring from the magic stone grew even more intense. The magic circle activated by the stone swallowed us all in a blinding flash.
The world warped once.
And then my vision went black.
The last thing I remembered was Zeke’s stunned, slack-jawed face as he stood there babbling incoherently.
It was like hell itself.
The surroundings had become so eerily quiet that the chaos from moments ago felt like a lie. I took a moment to calm my racing heart and steady my breathing.
A large-scale teleportation magic stone in a mere C-rank low-level dungeon? There was no record of anything like this in the information I knew.
…When I finally regained my senses and looked around, the scenery was completely unfamiliar.
A space so dark that not even a single ray of light reached it. I couldn’t tell whether it was day or night. The faint outlines I could make out after my eyes adjusted to the darkness suggested we were inside a cave. Water dripped from the ceiling with a steady plink. The deep resonance made it feel like the darkness might swallow us whole. It was a natural labyrinth that resembled a deep underground cavern formed from layers of ancient rock.
Since we had been moved here by teleportation magic, it was likely a hidden underground dungeon that couldn’t normally be accessed.
I felt around my waist. Fortunately, the sword in its sheath was still there. If I had lost my weapon in a situation like this, it truly would have been hopeless.
“…Still, I’m fucked either way.”
Even though I spoke quietly, the silence was so absolute that my voice echoed clearly into the distance.
What now?
I knew how to clear an underground labyrinth. I just had to find another magic stone of the same type somewhere in here and use it to escape.
But…
I looked around. There wasn’t a single trace of any living creature. Only oppressive silence.
…Had we all been scattered?
It was too dangerous to search alone. If I ran into a pack of monsters while moving by myself, this place would become my grave. The monsters in underground labyrinths had unranked danger levels, after all.
Therefore, I needed to find the other party members who had been split up. Victor, Monaca, Andrei… Andrei?
“…….”
And even Zeke, the one who had caused this entire disaster. The more people I could gather, the higher our chances of survival.
“Huu…”
I let out a sigh and drew the sword from its sheath.
Before me stretched two branching cave paths. The darkness was so thick I couldn’t see where either one led.
It was daunting, but one of these paths had to connect to the others. I had no way of knowing which. The teleportation coordinates were random, after all.
…There was no choice but to move.
I took a step toward the left path. I needed to regroup with Victor’s party as quickly as possible.
I slowly surrendered my body to the encroaching darkness and pressed forward.