Chapter 149 – Queen Ant
Ants of various colors flew or crawled. The sheer density in which they gathered was enough to make a person feel faint.
“Is this the Ant Nest? That’s a lot of pa.s.sages!” Liu Lan curiously examined the tunnels sprawling in all directions.
“You’re not scared?” Fatty asked, pointing at the ants.
“Scared? Scared of what?” rebuffed Liu Lan. “How could I be scared with you here?” She smiled charmingly as she feigned cuteness and a sense of dependency at Fatty. The rogue inwardly felt something was weird about Liu Lan’s sudden change in personality lately; while he was a little happy about it, he also felt it was somewhat dubious.
Ignorant of the thoughts running through Fatty’s mind, Liu Lan inquired, “How do we get to the boss?” All her excitement was directed toward the boss.
“We force our way in,” Fatty said gravely.
“Brute force it? You insane? There are enough monsters here to drown us to death with their spittle alone!” Clueless as to why he seemed to have lost his mind that day, Liu Lan gawked at Fatty.
“Of course we’ll clear out the mobs first,” noted Fatty.
“This many mobs…” His companion rested her head on her palm, as if she were about to faint at the very thought. How would they clear out tens of thousands of mobs with just the two of them?
“I’ll show you something good,” Fatty declared, and he took out a fiery red scroll. “Intermediate fire skill scroll, Wildfire Stormburst.” He tore the scroll and flung it into the air. The parchment emitted a brilliant red glow that shot out, tracing a magical hexagon in the sky. From the midst of the formation, fiery flames rained down.
Ding!
System Notification: Player Money Grubber has used an intermediate fire skill scroll, Wildfire Stormburst. Grants the skill Wildfire Stormburst, an AOE effective over 25 square meters.
Magic Attack: 30
Duration: 60 sec.
In the Fire Valley, Fatty had wormed his way into making friends with West the Flame Ruler, and gained plenty of good stuff from it. The Thunderfire Power Bomb was the most powerful of his loot, yet this fire scroll had been among the more trivial items.
“Only 30 magic attack?” Liu Lan pouted. “That’s not enough for—” But, before the words were barely out of her mouth, she watched as fire rained down on the contingent of ants and caused numbers like 55, 67, and 64 to pop from the monsters every second. At such rate, a large area was cleared out in the blink of an eye. A great many flying ants were killed as well.
“Ah?!” Liu Lan gaped at the sight, then turned to Fatty with a burning gaze.
“How’s that?” Fatty asked smugly.
“Give me one! I want to throw one too!” Liu Lan s.n.a.t.c.hed a scroll, another intermediate skill called Sea of Flame from Fatty. Swiftly tossing out the scroll, Liu Lan shouted, “Hah! I’m the G.o.ddess of Flame! Watch me! Sea of Flame!”
The scroll spun through the air and flopped onto Wheat’s head. The rodent raised its little head to study the object before pulling it down and sitting on it.
“Huh?! What happened?” Liu Lan was dumbstruck. She turned to Fatty. “Was that a fake scroll?”
“What fake scroll?” The rogue didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You forgot to tear it!”
“Oh, yeah! I forgot.” Liu Lan hastily kicked at Wheat’s b.u.t.t. “Move aside.”
Retrieving the scroll, she tore it and tossed the parchment toward the area with the most monsters. Along with a ding from the system, a magical hexagon pattern materialized on the ground. Subsequently, fiery flames erupted one after another to devour all of the mobs within the formation.
“Wow, how quickly it kills!” Liu Lan gushed in excitement. She was happy to see her visibly climbing experience bar.
Whoos.h.!.+ A golden halo ringed Fatty’s head and illuminated his smiling face. At that instant, he greatly resembled the smiling Maitreya Buddha statue.
Ding!
System Notification: Congratulations, you’ve reached level 33.
Whoos.h.!.+ A golden halo wreathed Liu Lan’s head as well; she’d also leveled up. “Woah, I’m level 32 now!” Liu Lan was ecstatic.
After putting all of his new stat points into strength, Fatty looked toward the ma.s.sive Ant Nest. The mound was several dozen meters high, comparable to a six-story building. The number of monsters inside was unknown. If the pair wanted to force their way in, they would have to be prepared to pay a high price.
“Fatty, do you have more scrolls? Give me another!” Liu Lan had grown addicted to throwing skill scrolls.
Exasperated, Fatty replied, “The scrolls aren’t of much use now. Let’s lure the boss out first.”
“Should I lure it?” Liu Lan summoned the Fire Cloud Panther.
“No need, no need. Too dangerous,” responded Fatty. “Let Wheat do the job.”
Curled up nearby, Wheat rolled its eyes. You say it’s ‘too dangerous’, yet you make this Lord Wheat do it?
After scanning their surroundings, Fatty pointed at a pa.s.sage. “See that tunnel? Let’s go over there and guard it. Let Wheat pull the boss over.” The pa.s.sage was only two meters high and one meter wide, just enough for one person to stand straight in it. The structure was great for defense since only one guard could prevent an entire army from entering. Hearing Fatty’s plan, Liu Lan shot a sympathetic glance at Wheat. With tears in its eyes, the rodent burrowed underground.
Fatty and Liu Lan quietly snuck over to the chosen tunnel, clearing out a few mobs on the way. “I’ll guard this side; you guard the side leading out,” Fatty instructed. Liu Lan nodded and wheeled the Fire Cloud Panther so that her back faced Fatty’s.
Heeding Fatty’s command to draw the boss, Wheat slowly crept inside the nest. Since the Ant Nest was so big, without Wheat’s earthwalk, it would’ve been hard enough to meet the boss, let alone kill it. Of course, that was unless Fatty was determined to use up all of his scrolls.
Fatty and Liu Lan stood ready at the tunnel’s entrance. They waited for about ten minutes before hearing a rumble throughout the entire nest. Countless ants rushed out in all directions and began to attack wildly.
“Squeak squeak!” Wheat shrieked from somewhere. Fatty looked over and saw the rodent’s head pop up in a vacant area before it immediately dove back down again.
Boom! The Ant Nest suddenly trembled. As more and more ants flooded out, an extremely piercing screech echoed from the nest. Then, a three-meter long, ma.s.sive ant slowly crawled forth.
The ant possessed a solid exoskeleton that looked like a set of golden armor. Six pairs of wings were attached to the creature’s back, and six thick, powerful claws grew from the legs. After the ant crawled from the nest, its wings flashed and slowly lifted its body to the sky. Behind this colossal creature were another six guard ants half its size.
Bang!
A Howling Bullet nailed the ma.s.sive ant. Wheat popped out of hiding and ran for its life toward Fatty. The hovering ant noticed tiny little Wheat scampering across the ground. With a flash of wings, the boss instantly appeared over Wheat’s head as if it had teleported. One of its legs extended to grab the rat.
“Squeeeaak!” Terrified, Wheat squealed hysterically. Abruptly, the rodent’s form disappeared into the earth.
Snagging only a clawful of mud, the ant growled low in its throat. The aerial a.s.sault had created a hole about half a meter deep in the ground. “Such speed! Such a ruthless attack!” Seeing the ant in action, Fatty repeatedly questioned in his heart whether he could take on the behemoth’s attacks. During the brief moment the ant descended, Fatty took the chance to shakily toss out Appraisal.
Queen Ant
Gold boss
Level:???
……
Notes: One of the bosses in Thousand Cave Ridge. It fancies blood and flesh, frequently leaving the nest to s.n.a.t.c.h up unsuspecting individuals.
“You still able to hold on up there, Fatty?” Liu Lan, witnessing the boss’s majestic might, called out worriedly.
“Let me respectfully inform you: Never ask a man if he can hold on,” Fatty replied solemnly as he turned to Liu Lan. He then fired off an arrow toward the Queen Ant.
Ting! The arrow bounced off the moment it collided with the Queen Ant’s body, not leaving even a tiny crack.
Fatty continued trying to aggro the Queen Ant until it slightly flapped its wings and glided before him. Swiftly extending two claws, the boss was about to grab Fatty!
“s.h.i.+t!” The rogue hastily stepped back to dodge the attack. Simultaneously, he took advantage of the shortened s.p.a.ce between them, dropped to his knees near a leg joint, and slashed out. Clang! A number rose as his dagger struck the Queen Ant’s front leg: -160.
Only 160 HP? Fatty’s lips twitched bitterly. A gold tier boss’s health could reach several thousand or even over ten thousand. Ignoring health regen, it would still take forever to kill the boss at this rate. The thought ran through his mind very briefly.
Immediately, Fatty retreated until he was four or five meters away from the tunnel. Since the Queen Ant suffered a slash from Fatty, it naturally wouldn’t let him go. The instant Fatty fled into the tunnel, he heard a series of sharp noises coming from behind.
The Queen Ant’s six pairs of wings had fiercely sliced into the side walls of the tunnel until at least a third of their span was stuck in the walls. Since the Queen Ant was three meters long, its wings were at least two meters in length accordingly. When fully spread, the wingspan reached four meters. Therefore, they would naturally crash into the walls since the tunnel Fatty chose was only a meter in width. But, this also demonstrated the solidity and sharpness of the wings, such that they could rival at least a blade.
While Fatty might have planned for one of the wings to be damaged from the crash, he never expected the Queen Ant to lodge itself in the cave mouth. “Screech screech!” the Queen Ant wailed furiously. The boss wanted to free its wings, but they were buried too deeply due to the force earlier applied.
“Heck yeah, accidents actually bring unexpected success!” Fatty exclaimed smugly. However, he found that Liu Lan’s face had turned red, and she was glaring at him. “Waaa, why’re you glaring at me? Little Fatty didn’t offend you or anything, waaa!” He felt wronged.
“I do it because I want to. What ya gonna do about it?” Liu Lan fumed. She raised her spear and stabbed at the Queen Ant’s head. “Screw you! Go to h.e.l.l!”
“Angry women are horrifying,” Fatty whispered, patting Wheat who’d emerged from the ground. Wheat nodded, but it was unclear whether it understood or not.
“Screech…” the Queen Ant released an extremely ear-piercing shriek upon being poked. Its mouth suddenly opened wide and spat out a wad of lime green liquid.
“Careful!” Fatty quickly embraced Liu Lan and rolled on the spot.
Szzzzz… The ground where the liquid landed sizzled and emitted white smoke. The entire area was dissolved at least three meters deep.