CHAPTER 29………………………………………….
10. Ant Nest
Episode 028 – Ant Nest #1
“W-what are you doing now?”
Raccoon Leaf’s voice trembled. I answered casually.
“What do you mean? I’m going to eat it. I was getting hungry anyway.”
“Good heavens…!”
Leaf’s face twisted in shock, but I ignored him and bit down hard on a Wildling.
“Eeeiiing…!”
The white Wildling wriggled violently in my mouth.
But it was futile resistance. I even found it fun to eat a living creature. The tickling sensation in my mouth was strangely enjoyable.
[Experience Points Acquired.]
Swallowing one whole Wildling, the familiar letters appeared. I smiled with satisfaction and looked at the others.
“Tastes like green grapes. Perfect. Not salty, and pleasantly tangy to the finish.”
“Gwiing!”
“Gwiiiing!”
“Eeeing!”
The Wildlings started scurrying around, but with their snail-like slow movements, they couldn’t escape my grip.
As before, they really were pitiful and delicate creatures.
Of course, right now, they were my food.
“T-this is horrible. How can you eat something so cute?”
“That’s because you haven’t been hungry enough. Once you lick one, your mind changes.”
I grabbed a Wildling in each hand and compressed them softly. When I mixed two together, they squeaked Eeeing! and fused into a single larger creature.
‘Feels like playing with clay.’
It was delicious, and eating them was fun—truly a creature made by the heavens.
While I was devouring the Wildlings, the one in Leaf’s hands wriggled violently.
“Wow, it’s incredibly sweet!”
Leaf began licking the Wildling’s skin with his tongue.
“Told you it’s tasty. Eating them is the right choice.”
“Uh… n-no. I still can’t eat it.”
Leaf hugged a Wildling tightly to his chest.
“Do as you like. I’ll eat them all anyway.”
I had planned to leave one as emergency food, so I figured Leaf holding that one was fine.
I swallowed a total of eight Wildlings.
I could feel the energy coursing through my body again—Wildling fluids definitely contained a strength-giving component.
[Experience Points Acquired.]
[Level Up.]
A message appeared noting my level-up after a long time.
I ignored Leaf’s guilty-looking gaze and summoned the letters that displayed my level and stats.
The method was simple: just question myself, and the letters appeared.
Race: Beast lv.8
Strength: 27
Agility: 22
Stamina: 29
Skills: 《Omnivore》 《Sturdy Claws》 《Low-Frequency》 《Stealth Maneuver》 《Courtship Dance》 《Crossbreeding》
Finally, all stats were above 20. My agility increased by 3, and my body felt lighter than before.
‘I can feel myself getting stronger. Excellent.’
Most satisfying of all, the scars from porcupine quills had completely healed.
“Alright, now that we’re full, let’s go to the queen. The room with Wildlings is near the queen’s room, right?”
Leaf didn’t answer, hugging the Wildling in his arms.
Gwiing! The white Wildling answered for him.
After leaving the Wildling room, we walked for a while until a vast chamber opened up before us.
The narrow tunnels widened, and scattered bones and corpses of beasts were visible everywhere.
“Almost there? Where’s the queen? Why are there so many holes?”
I asked, puzzled, and Leaf pressed close to my back. The Wildling in his arms squeaked Gwiing!
“It’s too quiet… At some point, even the ants disappeared…”
Leaf sniffed anxiously.
I looked at the disgusting holes and asked him.
“So which hole should we go through now?”
“Well… this should be the queen’s room. The dampness and moss on the floor suggest so.”
“Did she escape to another chamber?”
I thought the ants that fled to the blue crystal earlier might have warned the others and taken the queen through a secret passage.
“She probably didn’t go far. The queen is very heavy. Look, the moss is pressed down. She went this way.”
Leaf crouched and rubbed the moss with his paws. A sticky, viscous liquid clung to his paws. He sniffed, then pressed his nose to the ground like a dog, tracking the queen’s scent.
“Looks like she went through that hole.”
Leaf pointed to a relatively large hole among the many tunnels.
“Are you sure?”
“I may not have Yan-Mite’s tracking talent, but I’ve survived in this forest for years.”
Leaf nodded confidently. I could only hope he was right.
I led the way, blue crystal in front, toward the large hole. Dark shadows surged through the tunnel ahead.
Sizzle, sizzle.
Sizzle, sizzle.
Large-headed ants, helmet-like, poured from the hole.
“What… is this a trap?”
Their sharp mandibles clicked threateningly.
“Don’t come any closer!”
I waved the blue crystal to intimidate them.
But the ants didn’t flee. They raised their forelegs and antennae, threatening me instead.
“Th-these are warrior ants. The queen’s guards. They’ll be strong. Their appearance means the queen is nearby.”
Leaf picked up a stick from the floor.
I narrowed my eyes.
Compared to other ants the size of my forearm, these warrior ants were about half my size, with black, sturdy exoskeletons.
‘They say ants can lift dozens of times their weight.’
If in the same weight class, no creature could beat an ant. I just hoped that wasn’t true.
I swung my claws at the incoming ants’ heads.
Snap!
Screech!
The ant heads were torn apart, spraying fluid—gruesome to witness, but it showed I could damage their hard exoskeleton.
“This is doable, surprisingly.”
Fresh from leveling up, I couldn’t contain my overflowing strength. Eating the Wildlings had clearly helped.
The swarm of ants bit at my limbs with their mandibles, but my thick skin absorbed most of the damage.
“The attacks are bearable.”
I swung my claws repeatedly, leaving shredded ant bodies scattered on the floor.
Screech!
One ant bit my waist. I could bear it, but then it arched and aimed its stinger at my spine.
The thick, pointed stinger pierced like a needle, a prickling pain through skin and hide.
“Damn it…!”
I smashed the ant’s head with my fist. Its head and thorax separated, body convulsing violently.
The jaws had clamped down so firmly that the split mandibles held onto my waist like tweezers.
“Disgusting creatures, endless numbers! There’s gotta be a better way!”
I shouted to Leaf while fending off the ants.
He’d lived long in this forest and jungle; maybe he had a trick to escape the crisis.
Leaf swung his stick at the ants, trying to fend them off.
Sizzle!
“No, no!”
The ants yanked the stick from him, tossing it aside. Leaf sighed anxiously.
Soon, Leaf was pinned by ants on his limbs, screaming as they stretched him.
“Gyaaah!”
He was clearly in mortal danger. If this continued, he might be torn apart.
“Bare hands aren’t useful in a fight.”
I slashed at the ants gripping Leaf, targeting the weaker joints between head and thorax. Their heads fell neatly.
“What… is this?”
Leaf struggled, seeing ants clinging to all four of his limbs.
Like the ant on my waist, the warrior ants’ jaws seemed unbreakable once clamped.
Sizzle.
Sizzle, sizzle.
Sizzle.
Ants poured endlessly from the holes. Fearless insect soldiers surged like a wave.
I remembered placing a wingless dragonfly outside an ant nest as a child.
It was quickly dismembered and dragged inside the nest.
Back then, life and death were just amusement—I never cared about the dragonfly’s feelings.
I now faced the dragonfly’s fate myself.
“Damn, just too many of them!”
Of course, my will to survive wasn’t so easy to break.
If even a tiny chance of survival existed, I would fight endlessly.
Snap!
Crack!
Each slash of my claws sent ant heads flying. My newly increased strength and speed from leveling up granted me incredible power.
Yet dozens more ants kept swarming me.
The walls were black with ants pressing against me and Leaf. Their mandibles and forelegs pounded relentlessly.
Repeated hits started to hurt, like my hide was being tanned. Mass attacks were overwhelming.
“L-Leaf, do something!”
I crouched, yelling. Leaf was surrounded and being battered too.
“W-wait! S-sizzle, sizzle! S-sizzle!”
Leaf’s squeaks made the ants hesitate and gradually pull back.
I grabbed his arms, backs together, removing the flanking threats.
The warrior ants encircled us, mandibles clicking loudly.
They stomped in rhythm, exuding a powerful presence like a tribal warrior ritual.
Finally, a pause gave me a chance. I cautiously asked Leaf:
“What did you say to them? Why are they acting like this?”
“I… challenged them to a one-on-one duel…”
“One-on-one duel? What does that mean?”
“One of their strongest warriors will fight one of us. The winner gets a chance to reach the queen.”
“The ants’ strongest warrior?”
The warrior ants in front of me all looked fairly similar. Some had shorter antennae, some longer, but nothing seemed special.
‘Even the strongest among them looks weaker than the three-eyed wolf.’
“What happens if we lose the duel?”
“We become food for the queen and her offspring. That’s the ritual—the warrior ants’ duel… different from knight bees.”
I didn’t know about knight bees, but if it was a one-on-one duel with one of them, I was on board.
“Fine. Which one should I fight?”
Sizzle.
Sizzle.
As I prepared, the ant line parted, and some ants bowed their heads in a ceremonial salute.
“Is that… their strongest warrior?”
“Seems like it.”
“Ugh, that’s not even an ant!”
I expected a sharp-jawed ant to appear, but instead an utterly unexpected creature emerged from among the ants.
