Queen Armoured Ant

Two months had passed since Allen first began assaulting the armored ant nest, but he had yet to take it down.

He was currently in the village that had been set up in the foothills of the White Dragon Mountains for smelting mithril. It was still a rather barren place, as development had only begun in April.

A man who was carrying timber together with Allen called out to him, "Looks like you're pretty strong, lad."

"Thank you, mister."

Naturally, Allen was not here to help build the village. No, he was here to continue his assault on the armored ant nest. He had killed more than two hundred armored ants each day twice a week over the past five weeks, which brought his kill count above two thousand. If the info from Raven about there being a thousand armored ants in a nest was true, he should have been done ages ago. So what was going on?

If it just so happened that the first nest he ever attacked was a large one, then fine—even if there were three thousand or five thousand armored ants, killing them all was simply a matter of time. However, there was one thing that was bothering Allen: every time he approached the nest again for another day of hunting, the two hundred corpses from the previous day would be completely gone. He suspected that the queen armored ant might be consuming the corpses as nutrition in order to continue spawning more.

One might think, "Easy! Just move the corpses away, then!" but that was much easier said than done. As the monsters rushed out of the nest in an unending stream, it was difficult even harvesting the corpses for magic stones, much less dragging them away somewhere. The efficiency for grinding XP here was absolutely unparalleled compared to any prior methods or targets, but the monetary reward was pretty much zero.

In light of all this, Allen had gone to Sebas in mid-April with a request. He was not sure if the butler would say yes, but he knew through his talk with Zenof that the man had already been making various concessions on his behalf.

What Allen asked for was to make his huntsman days and days off consecutive, and to allow him to stay out during the night in between. Even he, with all his level-ups and buffs, found the distance between Granvelle City and the location of the armored ant nest quite far. The long commute was making it difficult for him to get in as much hunting as he wanted.

At first, Sebas frowned at the mention of staying out. Just as he was about to say no, however, Allen offered to help out at the mithril smelting village.

So, he eventually ended up giving the green light. When Allen mentioned this to Rickel later, the head manservant looked quite surprised and asked how Allen managed to make it happen. Apparently, staying out was generally forbidden. It turned out that the butler had bent the rules for Allen's sake once again.

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- Schedule Before the Change:

Service / Service / Huntsman / Service / Service / Day Off

- Schedule After the Change:

Service / Service / Service / Service / Day Off / Huntsman

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Being able to dedicate two consecutive days to hunting was such a step up that even if Allen dedicated several hours to helping out at the village, he still came out ahead. Thanks to cutting out one round of his commute, his daily kill count rose from two hundred to three.

Today, after putting in a few hours at the village, he was once again at the armored ant nest. And this time, the fight was finally going to proceed much differently. Namely, armored ants had stopped coming out of the nest.

'I did it! My persistence finally won out! Take that, you stupid insects!'

Keeping at this for two consecutive days ever since mid-April had finally paid off. The three-meter-wide entrance to the anthill gaped wide open as if inviting Allen in.

'I've got to strike while the iron's hot. I have torches and magic tools for illumination with me, but let's send in a few Summons first.'

Scouting the location out before heading in only made sense. What's more, to avoid getting lost, Allen wanted to confirm where the queen armored ant was and to figure out the most direct way to reach her. Knowing and not knowing sometimes made all the difference.

'Now, who should I send in? Chappy? No, it'll probably be dark inside, so Horo's the best bet. Poor Chappy, I still haven't been able to use it for much.'

Upon leveling up as a Summoner, Allen gained more and more useful skills, with Sharing being the latest one. He was continually considering ways to make the most out of each Summon's Ability in light of what each new skill brought to the table. Bird G's Ability, Voice Mimic, was one of the Abilities that suddenly got a lot more handy with the addition of Sharing.

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Voice Mimic

Effect: Mimic someone's voice.

Conditions: Have heard the target's voice and know the target's name.

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Back when he did not yet have Sharing, Allen had to give detailed instructions for whose voice to mimic and what to say from within fifty meters. That was incredibly inconvenient, but the inconvenience was completely resolved thanks to Sharing, suddenly making the Ability much, much more useful.

Now, Allen could give Chappy continuous instructions on who to sound like and what to say no matter how far away he was. The possibilities had expanded greatly, but unfortunately, he had yet to find any opportunities to actually make use of this Ability.

During the time Allen was deep in thought, Bird D had continued making its way deeper and deeper into the anthill.

'Oh wow, it's really big inside. One Horo alone won't be enough.'

As could be expected of a nest that had been home to over a thousand ants, the place turned out to be an expansive labyrinth. The passages branched out countless ways, with the tunnels stretching on endlessly. To make the process go faster so as to take advantage of this opportunity to get at the queen armored ant, Allen sent in three more Bird Ds. All the areas that the four Horos passed through were immediately mapped onto a page in Allen's grimoire.

'I see, there's a small room h— Oof, one Horo got done in!'

The anthill was not entirely empty, as could be expected. A Bird D had just entered a dead-end chamber when it was suddenly caught by large mandibles and crushed to death. In the split second before it died, Allen had caught sight of three armored ants. There were still quite a few armored ants lurking about inside the nest.

'I ain't giving up, though! Hmm...'

Allen pondered how to conquer this ant colony. He was currently Shared with the three Bird Ds still inside, plus the one Bird D that he had just Summoned to replace the one that had died. Their number could be maintained by Creating more any time one got done in while they continued pushing farther down the gently sloping passages in their effort to completely map the place. Whenever that happened, Allen made a mark on the map and sent over the mixed force of three Beast Ds and one Bird D that he had roaming in the nest to wipe out the forces in the area.

Naturally, he was Sharing with them too, for a total of eight Summons that he was concurrently Shared with. He slowly but steadily exterminated all the monsters remaining within this way. The small larvae that the Summons encountered every once in a while in the chambers were also mercilessly stomped out.

As there was no light at all inside the tunnels, the Beast Ds were moving in total darkness. The vision that Allen Shared with them was also entirely blacked out. He was relying on the Bird D that accompanied their group to observe their surroundings so that he knew what instructions to give the Beast Ds.

When Allen had first started in the morning, progress had been smooth. However, the armored ants hardly just sat around idly. In the afternoon, they started showing up in greater numbers.

'Ugh, another Horo got hemmed in again.'

The passages were only barely large enough for armored ants to pass through. As such, they would become practically blocked every time an ant showed up, making it impossible for Allen's Summons to keep going. Every time a Bird D found its way blocked by an armored ant after turning back from a dead end, since there was no way it could kill the monster by itself, Allen had no choice but to revert it into card form. Summons that were returned to card form from afar—thanks to Sharing—automatically made their way back into the grimoire's holders. Then he had to re-Summon and send them out once more.

As soon as the Beast Ds encountered an armored ant, no matter if it was in a passage or a chamber, they killed it. But that was the easy part. Because the corpse that remained was in the way, the Summons then had to use their jaws to hold it by its crushed head and push or pull it to somewhere they could discard it, such as at a dead end or a small room. Only after this could they continue exploring.

'This almost feels like a puzzle game. Is this what clearing an armored ant nest is supposed to be like?'

Just how long would he continue this puzzle minigame for? In any case, the sun was about to set when a Bird D finally emerged into the largest cavern in the anthill.

Inside were ten armored ants all clumped up together around another ant that was clearly different from the rest. This special monster was roughly three times as long as a normal armored ant and had a caterpillar-like torso that protruded from underneath its shell, expanding and contracting rhythmically.

'This must be the queen armored ant! There's no doubt!'