148 Braint

Ackster had found one of the joints connecting the thorax either to the ant queen's abdomen or to her head. He wasn't sure whether to proceed or not. Crawling out of the ant queen's ass didn't sound very attractive. But he was tired and weak, almost too tired and weak to break through the ant queen's sturdy exoskeleton.

The aftereffects of using his entire strength and Limit Breaker were beginning to set in.

He could stay inside the ant queen and rest. But Ackster wanted to get out of her cramped insides and finish what he had started. He was confident he would get back enough energy to survive by digesting the ant queen.

So, even if it wasn't nice, it couldn't be much worse than what he had already done, considering he had bathed in the ant queen's insides. Ackster crawled through the hole, hoping it would lead to the mouth so he could leave the queen and clear up her throne room so that he could rest before trying to find his way out.

Ackster sighed in relief.

The space he entered on the other side was much too small to be the ant queen's hill-like abdomen, which meant he had entered her head. He had to remain crawling, or he would bonk his head against the ant queen's esophagus. Or what he assumed was her esophagus. He couldn't see anything, and he wasn't good at biology, especially not ant biology, even after dissecting a bunch of worker ants.

But, regardless of what it was, it wasn't hard enough to stop him, so he stood up and space for himself by clearing out the ant queen's head and using what was within to sate his hunger.

'Yup, that's gotta be brain.'

Ackster's hand found a soft, juicy slab of meat that had a worryingly familiar consistency, which confirmed that he had entered the head and not some sort of antechamber for the abdomen.

With another sigh, Ackster began eating. This much wasn't enough to daunt his Iron Stomach or Iron Will. He knew he had to eat, regardless of what it was. And even if ant brain wasn't the most delectable delicacy, it was still pretty decent and far from the worst he had eaten. It was even pretty high up in the list of the things he had eaten during his stay in the ant nest. And since he couldn't see anything, he didn't need to be put off by the lacking visual aspects of the meal.

Ackster munched away at the ant queen's brain as he tried to recover his energy so he could ensure his safety after finding his way out of the ant queen's body. Now that the queen and the general were dead, there shouldn't be much to worry about, even if he had lost an arm. But the fact that he had lost his arm in a fight that he felt he shouldn't have lost his arm fighting told Ackster that it wouldn't be so bad to be careful now and then. After all, his arm and shoulder weren't far from his head. If the ant queen's strike had gone a little to the side or if he had been unable to dodge, Ackster would have died.

'Let's just say it's a good experience.'

Ackster did his best to ignore the still bleeding stump as he ate. At least it was beginning to close up and scab. He wouldn't die from blood loss.

"Good work, Mio."

Mio hadn't done much in the fight, but the slime kept Ackster company, which deserved a compliment for such a good and cute slime. Mio patted Ackster's forehead in response.

Comforted by the slime in his hair, Ackster took another bite. But halfway through, he bit something hard, and something in his mouth cracked.

"Was that my fucking tooth?"

Ackster spat out whatever it was he had bit on in his mouth. It came out covered in mush, a mix of minced brain, saliva, and blood. He was about to use his other hand to pilfer through the mess and pick out what he had eaten.

"Shit."

He had done it out of habit, and it wasn't until he realized nothing was happening, even as he thought he was moving his arm, that he remembered that his arm was gone. Ackster scowled at his hand.

With only one hand to use, Ackster couldn't really rife through its contents.

He closed his fist carefully, squeezing away the soft stuff and finally closing on something hard. There was only one hard thing, so he shook his hand to rid it of brain matter so he could try and figure out what he had bitten. It was too smooth and cool to be a rock that had been inside the ant queen while it was alive.

The ant queen had just died, and a stone would have retained some of her warmth. But other than identifying some of its superficial properties, Ackster couldn't do much since he was still sitting in pitch darkness.

"Here, hold this."

He held up the not-stone-stone to Mio. Since he had only one hand and his bag was in his room, Ackster couldn't carry it with him, at least not if he wanted to do something else at the same time.

"And don't eat it."

Ackster wasn't sure Mio could digest it since it was even hard enough to chip his tooth, but Ackster wouldn't put anything past the mysterious little slime.

Mio tapped Ackster's head once in acknowledgment as it held onto the stone within its hair-filled body.

With that, Ackster finished his meal and found his way to the ant queen's moth and left her body.

Things hadn't panned out exactly as he planned it. But Ackster had defeated the ant general, the queen, and he had done it without dying in the process. He had lost his arm, so he couldn't call it a perfect victory, but it was good enough. Now, it just remained to be seen how dire the situation outside the ant queen would be.