15 Getting Humbled by a Bug

After I brushed off my cloak and used Clean Wash to get all the blood and nasty tongue juices off my clothes, I reached into the pile of ashes that used to be the Frog Shooters and retrieved the magic stones. I tossed them into my storage before moving on to find the last of the three monsters I wanted to encounter on the sixth floor. On my way, I cast Heal on my hands to heal the light burns. I was annoyed that I was affected by my own flames, but I knew the method to gain Flame Resistance, so I wasn't worried about this repeating. 

With my head repaired, I went back to wandering through the dungeon. After a few minutes of searching while moving away from the group that I heard while dealing with the frogs, I came across a gruesome site of carnage. I found a single red ant picking at the corpse of an adventurer who had been ripped in two. Beside the woman was a half-full quiver of arrows and a small arm-attached crossbow just out of reach of her outstretched hands, and it appeared that she had been reaching for it when meeting her end. 

The woman still wore a look of agony and fear on her pale and lifeless face. Her glassy eyes stared past the crossbow into oblivion as the ant used its mandibles to rip through the flesh and bone of her severed lower half nearby. A large pool of blood spread over the dungeon stones and still seemed to be fresh. I gave a brief salute to the fallen adventurer as I inspected the Killer Ant from a distance while it was distracted by the fresh corpse.

While Killer Ants and Warshadows shared the title of "newbie killers" I felt that the ants were much more dangerous than their peers. For starters, that ant was as big as a car and covered in natural armor that would prove to be extremely difficult for low-ranking level 1s to deal with. Even using blunt attacks is not a very effective strategy, so most groups are forced to chip away at the ants slowly, but that leads to the second and biggest problem with Killer Ants: they call for help.

When attacked and harmed, the ants release a pheromone into the air, which attracts nearby ants. This means that if you can't take care of them in a timely manner, more and more will start to swarm you until you and your group are totally overwhelmed and destroyed. This pheromone release and the ensuing tide of reinforcements is what ends up killing most adventurers when facing Killer Ants. Looking at the woman's corpse, I could only assume that was what happened to her. She must have begun to be overrun and panicked and trying to run away exposed her back, so she was bisected at the waist.

I deduced this using Thought Acceleration and Predictive Calculation, so I now knew that there were at least a few Ants nearby. I would have to finish this fight quickly or destroy the pheromones so that I wouldn't get swarmed by an unknown number of nearby ants that had already been attracted early by this dead woman. Silently sliding my blade from its sheath, I wreathed it in a cloak of aura before moving closer to the ant that now held the woman's upper body with its mandibles. I wasn't sure if it was eating or what, but I recognized the opportunity it offered me. 

Running forward, I struck hard with my blade. However, contrary to my expectations, my blade cleaved through the extremely tough exoskeleton but stopped halfway through the neck. That ensured that the ant would die, but it also gave it a few moments of life to let out a gargled cry as it trashed. It dropped the woman's body as it turned and tried to use its legs to spear me, but its movements quickly became limp, and it collapsed. I growled in annoyance as I finished the job and cut through the rest of the neck, but the damage had already been done.

I heard cries and a rush of stampeding feet approaching me through nearby tunnels, so I activated Formhide and lept out of the way to the far corner of the chamber. Enraged, five ants rushed into the room just as I reached cover and stood perfectly still. The ants moved up to the corpse and circles around it, clamping their mandibles repeatedly in the air and pacing throughout the room. After a moment, I looked down and found my blade drenched in ant blood and cursed silently right as an ant pacing nearby through its body against the rock formation I was positioned behind. 

I sprang to the side and let loose a destructive collum of flame, which drove the ant back but did little else. I snorted in annoyance as the remaining four ants charged toward my approximate location, but they clacked their mandibles in confusion since they couldn't see me due to Formhide. I used the opportunity to try and slip through the small group, but the ant blood on me and my sword attacked them like moths to a flame. Even if they couldn't see me, they could apparently smell me. 

Three ants lunged toward me, legs or mandibles aiming for my general area, so I lept high. Stone splintered and shattered below me as their attacks connected while I slashed forward and sent a wide Aura Slash forward into the heads of the three ants. Unfortunately, it seemed that even with my abilities, I was unable to cut through the exoskeleton cleanly due to my I-0 stats. The blow only took off chunks of their heads or faces, spilling thick purple blood to the floor. This seemed only to make all of the ants present angry. 

I responded by blasting a wave of searing heat forward, but that only caused the ants to cringe before they charged through the walls of flames and attacked me despite the fact that they were slowly cooking themselves. I grit my teeth as a mandible ripped through my robe and dug deeply into my side, crushing my ribs and causing mass internal bleeding. I gasped and backed up, casting Heal as the five ants scuttled closer, now using legs to try and impale me. 

I was forced to use Aura Shield in front of me in a semi-circle as the legs slammed toward me while I healed my injuries. I briefly reflected on how things had gone from good to bad so quickly before committing to the use of Flame Manipulation, even though it didn't seem too effective. While I could have done more damage with my aura and a sword that would leave my back open against five enemies, it took at least two solid hits to kill an ant outright, which took too long.

Instead, I conjured a flame in front of me, channeled everything I had into it, and released the pent-up energy as a super-condensed line of flame that dug deep through the ants' exoskeleton and meat and blew open wide steaming chunks in them. I began firing the attack like water from a hose and dragged it across all five at close range. Luckily, I managed to hit a chink in one ant's natural armor and exposed its brain to the open air, though it still twitched and spasmed where it stood. 

I used the opportunity to rush forward, casting Clean Wash to clear my robes and sword of purple blood as I slid under the severely brain-damaged ant and slipped past, redoubling my Formhide. The ants spun, but I rushed out of the room even as three more ants rushed in to aid the five. Some may call what I was doing a retreat with my tail between my legs, but I would contest that and claim it to be a strategic retreat. It seemed that I had been humbled by a bunch of bugs, which injured my pride but also helped to highlight my weaknesses and areas for growth further. 

"I lack any finishing power to actually kill tough enemies, whether it be through magic, skills, or arts," I said softly to myself as I moved up through the fifth floor, not bothering to drop my Formhide as I moved up through the dungeon. 

While hidden, no monsters bothered me, which gave me more time to consider what offensive skills and or abilities I could go for to improve my performance in the dungeon. I had a few options in front of me. I was already planning to train Earth Magic so I could go for a combo of the two and try to get Magma Magic. There is also the option to go for something else entirely, like Electricity Magic, or I can try and strengthen my flame manipulation somehow by working with it more. While skills are able to be inherently used immediately you can still increase its power and precision over time through practice. 

In the end, I sighed and pushed off making a decision until later as I continued pushing through the dungeon back toward the surface.