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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Thanks to the narrowed passage, the undead ants could completely block the entrance, and time was needed for the party’s stamina management, especially Athena’s.
Moreover, seeing that acid didn’t work on their own kind, they were perfect for stalling.
As the undead ants completely sealed the entrance, we were able to safely retreat to the food storage room.
“…Phew, those zombie ants seem more useful than I thought?”
“No, far from it. For them to become useful, I need to become stronger. That was just a temporary measure. I used up all my magical energy because of that. I need time to recover.”
I had been slowly filling my vessel by receiving magical energy from the seal since the moment we ran away, but the speed wasn’t very fast.
It made sense.
As I was moving, the efficiency was bound to decrease, and originally, whether mana or magical energy, it couldn’t be fully replenished in a short time.
It was thanks to being me that I could show this much recovery speed.
Normally, magicians become completely helpless when they use up all their mana in battle.
Therefore, mana distribution was the basic quality of combat magicians, and it was the most basic of basics to save 20% of mana in any situation to prepare for emergencies.
However, this time, I poured out all my mana without even leaving that 20%.
It was because I trusted the two of them that much, and at the same time, I believed in my recovery ability.
“If I have about 10 minutes, I can support you with a Dark Bolt once.”
“…It takes a long time.”
“It’s extremely fast.”
“…Really?”
Athena showed a surprised expression at Kayla’s words.
As a former knight, Kayla knew quite a bit about magicians.
“Still, the offensive has weakened compared to before. Since the food storage room is spacious, we should be able to settle things there.”
At that moment, the presence conveyed by the undead ants started disappearing one by one.
“Tsk, they collapsed already.”
As expected, they were weak without support.
I thought that necromancers of that class were incapable.
I chose it because I had confidence in my future, but…
There was a reason why few Warlocks specialized in necromancy.
‘Still, they bought a decent amount of time.’
In the meantime, Athena’s breathing became steady, and we were able to escape to a favorable space for us.
“The number seems to have decreased significantly. Can I go wild a bit more now?”
Indeed, compared to Athena, it was evident that Kayla was holding back a lot to maintain the front line.
“Should I just take the front?”
I didn’t have much magical energy left anyway, and I had brought a sword as a secondary weapon.
Therefore, it was possible for me to take the front.
If I took the front, there would be no rear to protect, which could be said to result in Kayla’s leash being loosened.
“There’s no need for that. Weren’t you trying to internally establish your position as a magician, even if not externally?”
“That’s true.”
In reality, as a magician, I was now more helpful to the team.
Kayla’s level had risen tremendously, and Athena was already pulling her own weight.
With the skeleton as well, the front line was sufficient.
Therefore, what was needed now was a proper rear guard.
Although I wasn’t satisfied with myself, I wasn’t at a level where I couldn’t act as a magician.
“I won’t let the front line collapse. And I don’t intend to go all-out. There might be more of them left besides those ones.”
There probably were.
However, there was a high possibility that they wouldn’t come out.
‘The queen and her royal guard.’
They would be in the deepest part of the ant nest.
They probably wouldn’t come out until we invaded.
“But the more I fight, the more I feel my mana heart reacting.”
If that was the case, I had to cooperate unconditionally.
‘This is unexpected.’
I thought I would just help keep the territory from collapsing, but I might be able to obtain an unexpected achievement.
I immediately gave permission.
There was nothing to be grateful for.
She was my person, and the stronger she became, the more helpful it would be to me.
And so, when we faced them again…
“…What is that?”
Kayla’s figure could be seen going berserk as if everything had been a joke until now.
At that level, my support was hardly needed.
Thanks to Kayla’s performance, the burden on Athena was greatly reduced, and she could engage in battle with much more composure.
It would have been better if she had fought like that from the beginning, but since she gained a sense through the prolonged battle, what I had done wasn’t completely useless.
‘That’s her conserving stamina…’
I newly realized how tremendous a mana heart was.
Cutting, trampling, smashing, collapsing.
Her movements were twice as fast as before, but the sight of her controlling herself and sweeping the battlefield as if nothing had happened made it clear why knights were treated as tactical weapons on the battlefield.
Of course, it would be difficult for ordinary knights to show such a sight.
Especially the instantaneous high-speed movement she showed using her excellent right foot, which I had fixed, made even me lose sight of Kayla’s figure for a moment.
I tried to capture Kayla’s appearance as much as possible.
At my current level, I couldn’t properly support Kayla.
However, it would be different in the future.
When I became stronger, no matter how strong Kayla became, I had no intention of falling behind her forever.
Even if that appearance was created with my support, I would one day become stronger than Kayla.
‘Even the remaining 20% chance of winning has been taken away.’
Now, if we fought, it would be a sure loss.
In just a few hours, she showed tremendous growth as if she had gained enlightenment.
“Teacher!”
The Giant Ants also seemed to think that things couldn’t continue like this, and their attacks started to concentrate on Kayla.
Especially the acid, which poured towards Kayla like crazy, was enough to make Athena panic.
No matter how much resistance she had to acid, that amount would be threatening.
However, Kayla remained calm.
She instantly changed direction and started pouring mana into the shield in her hand.
Soon, aura coated her shield.
Hwak!
She swung the shield towards the pouring acid.
The shield, strengthened by mana and coated with aura, instantly repelled the flying acid.
Chiik.
It seemed that only the exoskeleton resisted the acid, as the corpses of the Giant Ants with their insides exposed started melting in the acid.
Kayla glanced at the ones who had shot the acid and then started dealing with the surrounding ones first.
It seemed she had no intention of disrupting the front line, as she had said herself.
I casually checked the amount of magical energy recovered.
‘It will be possible soon.’
I confirmed the location of the soldier ants that had shot the acid and calculated that it would sufficiently reach them.
The ants seemed unable to continuously shoot, as they were shaking their bodies in place.
‘Are they gathering acid or something?’
There was a need to reduce their numbers before that.
I transferred magical energy to the staff again, amplified and arranged it, and immediately chanted the activation word.
A black sphere was created and rapidly fired in a straight line.
The magic accurately hit the soldier ants and soon caused a large explosion.
Kwang!
Only the traces of the instantly killed ants remained in the place where the dirt had settled.
‘Tsk. Can’t get them all?’
Still, more than half were reduced.
Thanks to them being clustered around the passage, their damage was great.
Once the ones supporting from a distance disappeared, Kayla was unstoppable, and the food storage room turned into a mess of Giant Ant corpses.
Kik…
Kwajik.
Kayla trampled and completely crushed the last one.
Athena, who had finished the battle leisurely thanks to Kayla’s performance, muttered,
“They absolutely won’t run away.”
“That’s the kind of creatures they are.”
“But Teacher, how did you suddenly become so strong? Is it because of that mana heart thing?”
“That’s the biggest factor. And… this helped too.”
Kayla answered Athena’s question while pointing to her right foot.
“As I used it, I realized that it has many useful aspects. Especially the strength is no joke. It’s difficult to control, but the instantaneous speed is incomparable to my left foot.”
“Even if your appearance is human, your right ankle is transplanted with the body of a lycanthrope. He wasn’t an ordinary guy even when he was alive, and the combination failed.”
Moreover, it was Kayla’s own ability to control that difficult-to-control aspect.
It was thanks to the body’s restructuring that it was well-assimilated.
“By the way, it seems the second wave is over with this… What are you planning to do? Will you go outside to rest and then come back?”
“How’s your stamina?”
“I’m still fine. Indeed, thanks to the mana heart, the efficiency of aura and physical ability amplification has improved, so I’m not tired. Less than half of my mana has been used.”
When I looked at Athena, she said while shrugging her shoulders,
“What have I even done? I’m much better than before.”
“Then, instead of going up, let’s continue after I recover my magical energy here. Leaving this place in this state for a long time will take a while.”
Most of the scattered Giant Ant corpses here were intended to be used as food.
However, if left alone for a long time in an exploded, cut, and shattered state, the prey we hunted might become unusable as food.
If our condition was really bad, we would have prioritized safety more, but looking at Kayla’s skills just now, it didn’t seem very dangerous.
‘Even if there are additional forces, we can fight one more time, and if it doesn’t work out, we can run away then.’
If only the queen and her royal guard were left, we could sufficiently recover inside and go.
Once the conclusion was reached, we moved to a relatively better place and took a break.
In the meantime, I sent the specter to check if there was anything more and instructed it to confirm.
At least we could find out whether there was something or not, even if we didn’t know the scale or level.
Meanwhile, Athena clung to Kayla and poured out questions, and Kayla, not seeming to find Athena bothersome, answered various things and helped Athena properly internalize the real combat experience she had gained.
By the time my magical energy had recovered, the specter returned and informed me of the scouting results.
“It seems there are no Giant Ants nearby. Even if there are, they don’t seem to have any intention of coming here.”
“Then we’ll have to go and find them.”
“Right. And the queen will still be in the deepest room.”
After deciding to move, I explored the inside of the cave with my companions, passing through the field of Giant Ant corpses.
“…Ugh, there are so many larvae.”
Like the food storage room, the ant nest had many rooms for various purposes.
There were rooms full of larvae, rooms full of eggs, and rooms full of pupae in the midst of metamorphosis, each divided, and there was also a garbage dump where dead Giant Ants and leftover trash were discarded.
“Oh? There are also ones with wings?”
“…Those are males. Their combat power is nothing special.”
In the meantime, we also discovered a room where male Giant Ants were playing and exterminated them all.
Even though we had gone quite deep, there was nothing to be seen except for the males.
There were a few additional food storage rooms, but no other Giant Ants were seen there either.
‘There aren’t as many as I thought. I thought there would be a bit more.’
Even if there were, it wouldn’t have been a big problem.
Although Kayla showed monstrous performance, even if she had only shown the level of movement she first displayed, we would have eventually annihilated all the rushing ones, even if it took time.
It wouldn’t have been a problem even if there were a few more.
It wasn’t for nothing that I brought secondary weapons.
If I had participated in the front line while recovering magical energy and then supported again after recovering, it wouldn’t have been a problem even if there were more.
‘It wasn’t for nothing that we came here.’
It’s just that the difficulty plummeted as Kayla awakened.
Of course, the number we dealt with wasn’t small.
Even a rough count exceeded 300.
‘That much should feed the entire territory’s population for a month.’
The total population of the territory was less than 2,000.
There were larvae, eggs, and pupae as well.
I could confidently say it would last a month.
After going down for a long time like that, we finally arrived at a place that seemed to be the queen’s room.
“…The ones guarding, they don’t look ordinary?”
Each of them looked twice as large as the ones we had been fighting, and their exoskeletons were noticeably darker in color.
‘Did they eat minerals or something?’
There weren’t even any mines around here…
They had also noticed us, as they were on alert against us in a threatening posture.
The funny thing was that they didn’t rush at us first like the other ones.
‘Surrender?’
They seemed to have the intention of allowing us to plunder the interior.
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