The Ant Nest

Jin-soo had climbed the Tower at 22:22:22 even on the day he met the Eight-Light Hound, covering the ten-hour gap by carving rest and sleep down to the bone. The Dragon Tooth Soldiers forged from Lizardman teeth had at least cleared a fair share of achievements during the ten hours they spent drilling the hound, and that had bought back time he would otherwise have lost.

Even so, he couldn't stop the dark circles from settling under Shin Sua's eyes again. Fortunately, once they returned to their original schedule a few days later, those circles vanished almost overnight.

They climbed without pause, and the results followed. Forty-five days after challenging Floor 51, Jin-soo and Shin Sua stood at the far edge of Floor 99.

"Clear this, and it's Floor 100."

"Yeah."

They had already cleared Floor 99's hidden dungeon and claimed every achievement on it. All that remained was the mission that would carry them up to Floor 100.

"How are you feeling?"

"Never better."

They had slept their fill and eaten until they were heavy with it, and both stamina and mana sat at full.

"Then let's challenge it right now."

"Okay."

Shin Sua agreed, and the two of them stepped into the clear of Floor 99 at once. A brilliant wash of light closed around them.

They came down in an underground cave where not a single point of light could enter.

"I can't see a thing. I'll light it with a skill."

"Go ahead."

With his permission, Shin Sua cast.

A sphere poured out brilliant light and flooded the dark cave. Right. The Floor 99 survival site was an ant nest. Ant monsters charged anything that gave off light, and they charged it like things gone mad. Before his regression he hadn't known that, and he had paid dearly for the ignorance. He knew it now, and he still didn't stop her. The reason was simple. Come on. Hurry. From where he stood, it meant the lumps of experience would come running on their own. No need to go looking.

They moved forward through the glow of Light Orb, and a dry skittering reached their ears—the sound of something crawling. Fast. As expected. Jin-soo smiled.

"J-Jin-soo, I think the monsters are coming."

Shin Sua, by contrast, had gone rigid. Floor 49's twenty-four-hour survival mission had pushed her to the brink of death more than once, and the memory sat heavy. Floor 99 was the same kind of trial. The time they had to endure had tripled, and this was an underground cave with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Of course she was tense.

"Then we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fight."

Jin-soo split the Dragon Tooth Soldiers in half and set them to the front and the rear.

"Good thing the cave is wide."

She forced the brightness into her voice. The cave was large enough for the stone golem to move freely.

"Yeah. Lucky us."

He answered her and settled into a fighting stance. Wonder if she'll still say that once she sees the swarm. Why else would an ant nest be this big? Because the ants are. The monsters living here averaged a meter in length—small for a monster, enormous for an ant—and they didn't keep to the ground. They came swarming over the walls and the ceiling. See that, and terror is the only honest response. For a player, the place might as well have been hell.

There was a reason he had taken the Floor 99 mission as Mage of the Ice Dragon, a holy-affinity mage, and not as Blood Demon Swordsman, a dark-affinity warrior. The battlefield itself demanded it. When the numbers are this high, ice magic is the right tool. He could lock their footing, and he could turn bad ground into ground that favored him.

The crawling drew nearer. The instant the approaching shapes crossed into the Light Orb's glow—

"Eek!"

The color drained from Shin Sua's face, and no wonder. Ants pouring in from both ends of the cave, carpeting floor and wall and ceiling alike, belonged in a horror film.

Frost Decree dragged the swarm's speed down, and Ice Barrier sealed the ceiling and the walls in the same breath. The ants shrieked and gnawed at the ice. It did not give. The ones that clung to it froze where they were.

Ant monsters aren't particularly strong. Their levels ran high, they were huge for ants, and sharp mandibles paired with a hard exoskeleton made their offense and defense respectable enough. None of that changed what they were. An ant was an ant. Set against another monster of the same level from a different species, they were pitifully weak. What they have is numbers. A goblin pack or an orc pack runs to a few dozen at ordinary strength. Hundreds gather only for a large-scale raid, and absent some special event, a thousand is the ceiling. Ant monsters start at a few hundred thousand. That's the baseline. On the high end, swarms climbed past a million, past ten million, into the hundreds of millions.

How many are in this one? He didn't know the exact figure. One thing, though, was certain. Hunt for three days and three nights and you still won't finish them. For Jin-soo, someone had thrown an experience banquet and forgotten to set a limit.

The Dragon Tooth Soldiers, split into two lines, cut down every ant monster that crawled in beneath the ice—crushing, cleaving, killing.

He worked them with offensive magic, but he didn't spray spells without restraint. An ant nest is a war of endurance. Mana and stamina both had to be kept at a sane level. Once a measured volley had thinned the swarm, he took up the Staff of the Ice Dragon and stepped in beside the Dragon Tooth Soldiers. Mana's down just far enough. Time to spend stamina and let it come back.

The staff rose and fell, and ants broke under it. Each blow returned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a thin thread of the mana he had spent. All the while he tuned the Ice Barrier, using its size to meter the swarm—shrinking it when the hunting ran too quick, so more ants poured in, and widening it the moment the pressure edged toward too much, cutting the flow back down.

"Whoa!"

The sight of ants crawling in along floor, wall, and ceiling from both sides of the cave had rattled her. Now she steadied. With Jin-soo holding their numbers in check, the weight came off, and she committed the stone golem, then laid on blessings, recovery, and protection in a steady rhythm, supporting the fight with everything she had.

The problem was that her mana and her mental strength were not infinite.

What do I do? As her mana sank toward empty and her mind began to fray, anxiety took hold. The stone golem was killing ants in earnest, but she herself was barely helping. Then she saw him—Jin-soo, Staff of the Ice Dragon in hand, beating ant monsters down. Right. I'll try it too.

Resolve settled over her face. She gripped her staff, stepped forward, and brought it down hard on an ant monster's head.

"Kieeeek!"

The ant that had taken the blow shrieked and lunged, huge mandibles clacking. Slow. Frost Decree had dragged their movement down. Shin Sua swung again, hard, hammering skulls one after another until a single ant monster couldn't endure it any longer and died where it stood.

Before she met Jin-soo and changed class into a healer, Shin Sua had been a warrior. Her mana and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mental stats were low for a healer because of it. Turn the same fact around, and her strength and agility were high for a healer.

"Hehehe!"

One ant down, she broke into a bright grin, locked onto the next target, and swung again.

"Huh?"

The sight of her laughing as the staff rose and fell left Jin-soo, for a moment, with nothing to say. Did I just ruin a perfectly good person? A faint guilt stirred. Shin Sua was exactly what the name Holy Saintess suggested—warm-hearted, compassionate to the bone—and that same Shin Sua now wore a smile edged with madness while she smashed ant skulls with a staff. I never even hinted she should copy me. Why is she doing this?

He was a mage, yes, but his strength, agility, stamina, and durability were absurdly high, so he had simply found a way of fighting that made sense for him. His dark-affinity status class was a warrior besides, and the Staff of the Ice Dragon recovered mana whenever he landed a physical blow. There was no reason not to swing it. Shin Sua's case had seemed different.

Wait. Is it? Later, once her level climbed, the math would change. Right now, though—not long after her change to healer—her strength, agility, stamina, and durability were perfectly usable. And she was a warrior to begin with. The stone golem and the Dragon Tooth Soldiers made a solid guard. Nothing here was truly dangerous, so honestly, swinging the staff and taking even one more slowed ant was more efficient than standing idle. She's doing it right. The guilt vanished clean.

Hunting efficiency goes up. And if a monster closes in, better she be swinging ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠than frozen stiff until she gets hurt or killed. She only seems to do it when it's safe, anyway. Self-justification complete, he turned a smile on her and brought the Staff of the Ice Dragon down, shattering an ant monster's head. The levels are climbing beautifully. Hunt in an unbroken drive like this, and a level that sat at a mere 2 had no choice but to rise. It couldn't have stayed put if it wanted to.

So the ant monsters are called Ant Fiends. A thousand already? The hourly take was so monstrous that the word insane came to him unbidden. Why only three days? If it were up to me, I'd stay three months. Give him that long, and he might actually clear every Ant Fiend in the nest.

He swallowed the regret and was breaking Ant Fiend skulls with the Staff of the Ice Dragon when the ice barrier he had raised began to crack, fissures racing across it. Soldier Ant Fiend. Three times a worker's bulk, and mandibles to match.

The arrow sank into the Soldier Ant Fiend's head. The problem was how shallow it sat. Paying the shaft no mind, the creature went on gnawing at the barrier, so Jin-soo patched the ice and answered with a heavier spell.

The spell punched clean through the Soldier Ant Fiend's head. Dead. Against a defense that high, a Piercing Ice Arrow—harder-hitting than a plain Ice Arrow—was the proper answer. One down. A crowd of them will be along any moment. Kill a Worker Ant Fiend, and workers came in force. Kill a Soldier Ant Fiend, and soldiers did the same.

The stronger one after that was the giant soldier, wasn't it? A Giant Soldier Ant Fiend was boss-grade, its frame vastly larger than an ordinary soldier's. Back then I never even laid eyes on the queen. Before the regression, enduring the successive waves of workers, soldiers, and giant soldiers had been the limit of what he could do. And even enduring had tasted like death. If he hadn't held Sanctuary open for as long as the skill would allow and simply outlasted them, he might well have died right there. Now the situation was very different.

What does killing the queen pay? An Impossible Feat, maybe, and a reward enormous enough to match. The expectation sat warm in his chest. Then let's see if I can take her. The rewards pouring off the swarming Ant Fiends were no longer enough. Jin-soo moved to hunt the queen.