Chapter 34
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Through the Screams, to the Kingdom (2)
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Amur Colony Ants.
Among insect-type monsters, they were the most powerful species.
Even a worker ant boasted an enormous size, standing two meters tall and five meters long.
Aside from certain calamity-class monsters, they were the strongest and toughest of all insectoids.
‘And yet, it was designated as an A-rank gate because of their low aggression.’
Despite the danger they posed, gates that produced Amur Colony Ants were known as ‘gold mines.’
This was because they were a rare type of non-aggressive monster.
Unless their queen was attacked, these ants did not show hostility toward humans.
“...Judging by the size of this tunnel, it seems my analysis wasn’t wrong.”
Asha murmured, shining a light on the tunnel’s damp, earthen walls.
That was right.
Her observation of a ‘monster that lays a hundred eggs’ had not been mistaken.
This was an ant nest built by Amur ants.
Therefore, what should have emerged from the gate were Amur ants.
And the boss monster should have been the Amur Queen Ant.
So why did a swarm of small, annoying flying insects emerge from the gate instead of ants?
“...Be careful. I have a bad feeling about what’s ahead.”
Ma Dongpal, who was leading the way, spoke up.
The tunnel was a straight path that veered to the side about two meters ahead.
What lay beyond was unknown, but one thing was certain.
The piercing stench was growing stronger.
“Got it.”
Asha nodded.
“...”
I remained silent.
I had a feeling I knew what scene was about to unfold.
*Flap.*
The Sage on my shoulder squeezed its eyes shut and climbed onto my shoulder.
It had already seen it, too.
Following behind Asha and Ma Dongpal with the Sage, I rounded the corner.
“Hmph, this is grim.”
Ma Dongpal’s blackened eyes narrowed.
Asha, beside him, covered her mouth.
Death.
A massive space, reminiscent of a hall, was filled with death.
This must have been the Amur ants’ gathering place.
A place where soldier ants sharpened their mandibles and worker ants polished their smooth carapaces.
“The numbers are insane. If these things had come out in a berserk state... we would have been helpless.”
The Amur ant colonies that emerged from gates numbered a dozen or so at most.
But the ants in this massive space numbered in the hundreds.
The scale of a legion, not a colony.
If all of them had charged out of the gate, it would have been a full-blown catastrophe.
But now, it wasn't a problem.
“But why are they all dead?”
This place was now nothing more than a tomb, where hundreds of headless corpses lay rotting.
The ants, soldier and worker alike, were all dead, their heads severed.
“Did they... fight amongst themselves?”
It wasn't infighting or a rebellion.
Their heads hadn’t been cut off; they were torn away, leaving messy stumps.
And all over the earthen floor…
Long gouges were carved into the ground, as if a bulldozer had plowed through.
“Suicide?”
Ma Dongpal muttered.
He was right, to an extent.
The ants had torn off their own heads.
They had slammed their heads into the ground and dragged them until they ripped off.
The corpses, their heads bent into an L-shape against the floor, were proof.
“Suicide? Why? Monsters committing suicide, what does that even...”
Asha mumbled, her expression bewildered.
“Let’s keep moving, we don’t have much time.”
With that, Ma Dongpal strode forward.
As they picked their way through the massive ant corpses, neither Ma Dongpal nor Asha spoke.
Both were struggling to process the situation.
So, I quietly spoke up.
“It was those flies from before.”
“Them? But Tunnel Fly poison doesn’t work on ants. And their stingers can’t even pierce the ants’ carapaces.”
Ma Dongpal muttered.
He was correct.
Normally, even several Tunnel Flies couldn’t take on a single Amur worker ant.
However.
That was only when the flies treated the ants as ‘enemies.’
“Asha, in MonMonMak, there’s a status effect called ‘Host Infection.’ Do you remember?”
“Host Infection? I know it. It sometimes affects insect-type monsters. If you get infected, your health depletes unless it’s cured, and when you die, it spreads to monsters placed nearby... Ah.”
Asha’s eyes trembled.
“Don’t tell me, they used these ants as hosts...?”
“That’s right.”
On Earth, there exists an insect called the ‘Phorid fly.’
They use ants as hosts.
The fly’s ovipositor is too thin and delicate to pierce an ant’s carapace directly.
So, the Phorid fly hovers around the ant’s rear.
After persistent attempts, it lands on the ant’s backside.
And just like that, it injects its eggs through the weakest part at the very end.
“...Ugh.”
Asha shivered.
The description alone was enough to give her goosebumps.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
A few hours later, the host ant begins to lose control of its body.
It then repeatedly slams its head into the ground, dragging it along.
To tear its own head off.
To create an opening for the flies that have grown by eating its flesh to emerge.
“So you’re saying Tunnel Flies are that kind of species.”
I nodded.
A single host is enough to consume an entire ant society.
Ants are wary of other species.
But they are not wary of their own kind.
They would have tried to help their suffering comrades, only to fall victim and become hosts themselves.
“...”
Asha bit her lip without a word.
Ma Dongpal, however, remained calm.
“So these are just the empty shells the Tunnel Flies ate their way out of. And the ones that hatched here are the ones that attacked us outside.”
“Correct.”
“I may not know all the fine details, but I’ve done some research on Amur ants. In that case, this entire nest must be in this state. And there must be dozens more chambers like this.”
Well, shit.
Ma Dongpal’s face contorted as he spoke.
There was no need to ask why.
*Bzzzzzzzz.*
From the darkness at the other end of the tunnel, the chilling sound of beating wings began to vibrate.
***
“Just die already, you damn bugs!”
Ma Dongpal roared as he swung his arm.
The distinct marks of his claws were etched into the dark tunnel.
*Splat!*
The Tunnel Flies, struck by the heavy bear paw, fell to the ground.
*Squish!*
Ma Dongpal bared his teeth, stomping on the twitching insects on the floor.
“Dammit, there’s no end to them.”
Ma Dongpal, the 4th-ranked S-rank Hunter.
He was now breathing heavily.
*Bang!*
With the sound of a gunshot, something warm splattered across Ma Dongpal’s eyes as he faced forward.
He turned around.
Asha stood there, holding a mana rifle, her eyes sharp.
The young hunter who had panicked in the first ant chamber had, paradoxically, grown calmer as time went on.
Unlike him, who grew more agitated with each passing moment.
“Mister, are you going to just stand there spacing out?”
“...My apologies.”
Ma Dongpal steadied his breath and started moving again.
Two hours had now passed since they began pushing forward, smashing through the swarms of flies that came from every corner of the ant nest.
‘Damn it, this is a terrible matchup.’
Normally, an S-rank Hunter like him wouldn't struggle against mere D-rank flies.
Even now, a single swing of his arm could obliterate five or six of them.
The problem was the situation.
The boss monster was nowhere in sight.
And they were forced to fight monsters for an extended period in a narrow tunnel.
[Guardian’s Advent - Forest Stance]
[Time remaining: 20 minutes]
The Forest Stance, which increased all stats and provided a separate Tough Body, boasted phenomenal performance.
But its mana consumption was just as immense.
Even for him, who possessed top-tier S-rank stats, the maximum duration was just over two hours.
However, two hours was normally not a problem at all.
- In his Advent state, Ma Dongpal can finish off an S-rank monster within 10 minutes.
That was his public reputation.
And Ma Dongpal had the ability to prove it.
He never needed the full two hours in the first place.
But what about now?
‘To think I’d transform just to swat D-rank monsters.’
It was like filling a swimming pool with water just to pour it into a soy sauce dish.
Thus, the current situation was the absolute worst.
The price for exchanging explosive power for endurance was catching up to him.
‘Dammit, I activated it early because I thought the queen ant would show up for sure...’
Advent-type skills had a 24-hour cooldown.
In the end, he had no choice but to maintain the transformation, like it or not.
*Bzzzzzzing!*
The Tunnel Flies that had been clinging to the walls, observing the situation, took to the air again.
This time, from all directions.
‘The hell?!’
Sensing their presence, Ma Dongpal twisted his body.
He contorted his upper body to its limit and swung his foreleg like a baseball bat.
*Splat!*
With a spray of viscous green blood, the insects that charged from the front were reduced to chitinous debris.
But immediately after.
From the east and west, from directions his arm couldn't reach, the sound of beating wings drilled into his ears.
“These fearless little flies...!”
Ma Dongpal roared and tried to twist his body to evade.
But.
*Scrape!*
“You piece of...!”
The claw that had just annihilated a few flies got caught on the earthen inner wall.
The tunnel had been getting progressively narrower as they went deeper.
At some point, Ma Dongpal had started to feel his movements restricted.
And at this very moment, it had tripped him up.
“Leader...!”
It took only a second to pull his claw free from the earthen wall.
But that one second was critical.
Even if he managed to dodge, at least one poisonous stinger would find its mark on his body.
Just then.
*Slash!*
A cool flash of a sword blade scattered through the dark tunnel.
The two flies closest to Ma Dongpal were bisected and fell.
“Are you alright?”
“Hunter Kim Hanul...”
Ma Dongpal stared at Kim Hanul, who stood before him, sword in hand.
Though he was a head and a half shorter than himself...
For some reason, it felt as if he should be the one looking up.
That was how much stronger Kim Hanul’s aura had become.
What people called a ‘presence.’
Especially after they passed the first ant chamber, that presence had grown even denser.
“I’m ashamed. If I’d known it would be like this, I would have been more careful.”
“Not at all. It’s perfectly understandable that you’d be tired.”
‘Is it?’
Despite Kim Hanul’s words, Ma Dongpal felt confused.
It was unthinkable for an S-rank like him to be exhausted in a place like this.
But by that same token...
It was also surreal that Kim Hanul, who had just received his B-rank license, was so composed.
“I’ll admit it, dammit. I am getting a bit tired. But aren’t you tired? You’ve been swatting bugs for two hours without a break too, Hunter Kim Hanul.”
So he asked.
“And you’ve also been... guiding us since earlier.”
From the very first fork in the path, he had entrusted Kim Hanul with leading them to the boss monster’s chamber.
And now, he had even saved his life.
He had already shown every possible sign of incompetence as a guild leader.
A question like this wouldn’t tarnish his reputation any further.
“Right now, my mind is a bit more tired than my body.”
His mind?
I see.
It seemed Kim Hanul’s ability was the type that consumed a lot of mana, just like his own.
If so, that made sense.
Mana depletion caused more mental fatigue than physical.
It was actually Asha, standing behind them, who looked surprised, muttering something like, “CrappyGame-bro’s mentality, forged by MonMonMak, is tired?”
“Still, I have to endure.”
Suddenly, Hanul’s eyes shifted to a point behind Ma Dongpal.
Even after walking for two hours, the tunnel passage remained unchanged.
But Ma Dongpal, whose sense of smell was heightened by his Advent, quickly understood the meaning of his gaze.
The stench flowing from the darkness ahead was definitely a little different than before.
“We’re not far from the boss monster.”
***
My body wasn't tired.
[Activating Lord’s Afterimage Lv.1.]
[The stats of the Undead Lich Iramatus will be combined.]
Though he had been sent to meet his maker in a single blow, the Lich was as strong as Dragon Fang Count Gullar.
[Trace Copy is active.]
[Copied one of Odolph’s stats and skills. Strength +30. Creation Skill - Flames of Hellfire (A) can be used.]
Trace Copy had compensated for my much-needed strength.
So, even after fighting through the tunnel against swarms of flies for nearly two hours, my body wasn't tired.
But something else was weighing on my mind.
[The Sage is analyzing the Amur Queen Ant’s pheromones with Special Analysis.]
Ever since we passed the first ant chamber, a strange scent had begun to drift from the passage ahead.
It was different from the simple stench of rotting corpses.
I had the Sage analyze the smell.
And the Sage reported that it was the pheromones emitted by the queen ant.
- I will take the lead.
That was why I had volunteered to guide them from the first fork.
If I followed the pheromones drifting from ahead, I would eventually reach the queen ant.
All the while, the Sage displayed the information on my status window.
[Analyzing the queen ant’s pheromones...]
[Analysis Content: H..lp... m..??]
The text, initially composed of simple letters and question marks…
[Analysis Content: He.p m..e? I...]
...began to take a more concrete form the deeper we went into the ant nest, as the pheromones grew stronger.
[Analysis Content: Hel.. ...y ch...d...]
And when we had slaughtered hundreds of Tunnel Flies…
It coalesced into a single language.
And at some point, it became a scream.
[Help me, my child. Help me, my child. Help me, my child. Help me...]
It was seared into my retinas.
The deeper we went, the stronger the pheromones became, and the text of the scream grew more intense and vivid, encroaching upon a corner of my vision.
But I couldn't close the analysis window.
The changing ‘clarity’ of the text was the only signpost guiding me to the queen’s chamber.
I had to constantly watch that scream.
Naturally, my mental state was continuously worn down as a result.
‘Good grief. This is way more terrifying than any horror game I played back when I was streaming.’
Just imagine.
A text box filled with nothing but the words ‘Help me, my child’ is floating in the corner of your vision.
And to make matters worse, the letters, initially blurry, become clearer and clearer as you push through the darkness.
*Bzzzzzz!*
The intermittent sound of beating wings drilling into your ears and the giant fruit flies darting out of the darkness were just a bonus.
‘...This is a bit much.’
Even for a mentality forged by MonMonMak, this was a bit dangerous.
No, perhaps it was *because* my mentality was forged by MonMonMak that I was able to endure it.
And so, for a full three hours.
After being forced to experience a VR text-based horror game for three hours…
The text that had been encroaching on my vision finally changed.
[Come here, my child.]
It happened the moment we came face to face with a massive earthen wall blocking our path.
Finally, it was time to defeat the final boss of this damn horror game.