Chapter 360

Chapter 360

“What? Monsters are attacking?”

“Fuck!”

“Everyone up.”

The moment Kim Jin-su’s voice rang out, the people who had been deeply asleep all kicked themselves awake at once.

They hurried up onto the roofs of the transport vehicles.

“What is it, Captain? Monsters all of a sudden?”

“Can’t you hear that sound? They’re Ironclad Ants.”

At Kim Jin-su’s words, the Awakened pricked up their ears.

They, too, heard the sound of Ironclad Ants clicking their teeth together.

“It’s true! Ironclad Ants chased us all the way here?”

“Fuck! Are they trying to avenge their kin or something? Crazy monster bastards!”

The Awakened could not hide their bewilderment.

The campsite was sixty or seventy kilometers away from the fissure that served as the Ironclad Ants’ habitat. At the walking speed of Ironclad Ants, it should have taken them well over ten hours.

They could not understand the idea that the ants had followed them across such a great distance to avenge their kin.

It was hard to believe that Grade F monsters possessed such a strong attachment to their own kind.

A moment later, the silhouettes of Ironclad Ants appeared in the darkness.

“Insane!”

“Good God! How many are there?”

The Awakened’s faces went deathly pale.

A vast army of Ironclad Ants, too numerous to count, was approaching them through the darkness.

Like a tidal wave rolling in, the Ironclad Ants came toward the campsite, clicking their teeth.

“Fuck! What about an escape route?”

“Too late. We’re already surrounded.”

“Damn it!”

“Everyone, prepare for battle.”

An enormous number of Ironclad Ants had encircled them from every direction, north, south, east, and west.

It was already too late to run.

Not only the Awakened, but the porters also prepared for battle.

Though they were not on the same level as Awakened, the porters also possessed excellent combat skills.

They took out anti-monster guns specially made in Neo Seoul.

At best, they were weapons that would not work against high-grade monsters, but they could deal sufficient damage to Grade F monsters like Ironclad Ants.

Levin and Briel stood beside Zeon.

Levin scratched his head and muttered,

“Ironclad Ants leave their territory this easily? That makes no sense by my standards.”

“Someone must have played a trick.”

“A trick?”

“Otherwise, the current situation makes no sense.”

Zeon knew more about monsters than anyone else.

He understood the physiology of Ironclad Ants as clearly as the lines of his own palm.

No matter how great their grudge over their killed kin might be, Ironclad Ants almost never left their territory.

The territory of Ironclad Ants was usually about twenty or thirty kilometers centered around their burrow. At the walking speed of Ironclad Ants, if they went any farther than that, they could not return to the burrow within a single day.

The fact that they had chased them over a distance beyond that was itself abnormal.

Something had clearly driven the Ironclad Ants here.

“Who would play a trick like this, and why?”

“We’ll have to find out from now on. Until then, you’ll have to put in some work.”

“Don’t worry. As long as I’m here, the Ironclad Ants won’t be able to do anything to them.”

Levin answered with a confident expression.

Levin was a Grade B Awakened.

If he used his full strength, wiping out the army of Ironclad Ants would not be a problem.

It would take some time, though.

Zeon nodded and looked at Briel.

“You be careful too. If you feel like it’s really dangerous, ask Gaia for help.”

“That won’t happen. I can protect myself well enough.”

“Good. Then I’ll leave it to you.”

CRASH!

At that moment, the Ironclad Ants’ offensive began.

The huge transport vehicles shook as if they might break apart at any moment under the Ironclad Ants’ attack.

Kim Jin-su swung his sword and shouted,

“Remember! Don’t let a single one climb over the vehicle wall.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Don’t worry, Captain! We all know that much.”

The Awakened answered while attacking the Ironclad Ants trying to climb over the wall made of vehicles.

The porters, too, were frantic firing their anti-monster sniper rifles.

Levin transformed into a ghost and unleashed Purple Lightning.

Crackle!

Purple currents scorched the Ironclad Ants black.

Even though their kin were dying right beside them, the Ironclad Ants paid no attention and continued attacking the humans.

“Tch!”

Briel, who had been watching the situation, launched attack magic. It was simple attack magic like Wind Cutter, but the effect was clear.

In that way, the humans joined forces and blocked the offensive of the Ironclad Ant army.

Meanwhile, Zeon moved silently.

Riding the sand into the sky, Zeon caught sight of something foreign.

Large objects scattered here and there in the middle of the Ironclad Ant army.

Zeon immediately landed on the ground and examined what the objects were.

“Flame Armadillos.”

The Flame Armadillo corpses had been chopped into small pieces and scattered all the way to the Ironclad Ants’ habitat.

With this, it became clear that someone had used the Flame Armadillo carcasses to lure the Ironclad Ants all the way to the campsite.

Drawn by the Flame Armadillo carcasses, the Ironclad Ants had followed them here as if bewitched.

“I don’t know who it is, but they’re quite cunning.”

Zeon clicked his tongue and scanned his surroundings.

Kieee!

Clack-clack!

Nearby Ironclad Ants attacked Zeon.

Zeon casually fired Sand Blaster, dealt with them, and flew into the air.

Standing atop a swirling pillar of sand, Zeon looked around. But all he could see were Ironclad Ants. The ones who had orchestrated this situation were nowhere to be seen.

“Why lure the Ironclad Ants this way, of all places? Do they have a grudge against us?”

Zeon soon rejected his own assumption.

They had not encountered any humans on the way here. Naturally, there could not be anyone with a grudge.

He also erased the assumption that Scavengers had done this.

Ironclad Ant corpses were not valuable enough for Scavengers to covet to this extent.

Ironclad Ant corpses were only valuable as ingredients for sand hardener, and useless for other purposes.

Even if they took hundreds of Ironclad Ant corpses, they would be paid less than the price of a single Grade D monster. So there was no reason to go through such a complicated method to obtain Ironclad Ant corpses.

“Then why?”

Zeon’s mind spun fiercely.

Suddenly, his head turned toward the fissure that served as the Ironclad Ants’ habitat.

“So many Ironclad Ants came outside, which means the fissure must be empty. Then is this a burglary?”

Without thinking any further, Zeon unfolded Sand Walk and ran toward the fissure.

Kieee!

Ironclad Ants along his path attacked, but Zeon lightly avoided them.

He considered even the time it would take to use Skills against the Ironclad Ants a waste, so he simply dodged their attacks and sprinted.

Zeon instantly broke through the Ironclad Ant army and increased his speed.

The sand beneath his feet pushed him forward gently, allowing Zeon to run as fast as the wind.

After running for about an hour, the fissure appeared.

Not a single Ironclad Ant could be seen around the huge fissure.

The enormous fissure had literally become an empty house.

Zeon threw himself into the fissure without hesitation.

Zeon fell at terrifying speed.

But just before he reached the ground, the sand gently supported his body, allowing him to land without suffering even the slightest impact.

Tap!

After landing on the ground, Zeon looked around the inside of the fissure.

The inside of the fissure was made of sandstone.

Countless caves were bored into the sandstone walls.

Those were the homes of the Ironclad Ants.

The burrows that should have been teeming with Ironclad Ants were empty.

If someone had planned to rob the Ironclad Ant burrows, now was the perfect opportunity.

Zeon stood still for a moment and focused his mind. Then he felt a subtle ripple in the air coming from the burrow on the left.

“Here.”

Zeon immediately entered the cave where the ripple was coming from.

The ant burrow was extremely narrow and dark, making it difficult to pick up speed. Also, the burrow often split into three or four branches in an instant, making it more complicated than most mazes.

If he had not felt the ripples in the air, even Zeon would have struggled for quite some time to find the path.

Zeon moved by following the occasional ripples of air.

He walked for quite a while.

It felt as if he had entered several hundred meters underground.

CLANG!

As Zeon was looking around for the path, he felt another ripple.

Unlike the faint ones he had felt until now, this ripple was particularly strong.

Before long, the source of the ripple appeared before Zeon.

It was an exceptionally huge underground space.

In the space, wide enough for dozens of Ironclad Ants to enter with room to spare, there was an unusually enormous Ironclad Ant.

The moment Zeon saw the ant, with its head that looked as if it wore a crown and its long antennae, he intuitively realized that it was the queen.

As if proving his guess, countless eggs were attached to the walls of the underground cavity.

They were all eggs laid by the Queen Ironclad Ant.

Around the Queen Ironclad Ant, ants that appeared to be soldiers lay scattered dead.

The ones who had killed the Soldier Ironclad Ants were attacking the Queen Ironclad Ant.

Zeon furrowed his brow.

The combination of those attacking the Queen Ironclad Ant was very unusual.

Slender-bodied people wearing black turbans and deshada.

Even at a glance, they looked far from ordinary humans.

They were not human, but elves.

And not ordinary elves, but elves black as obsidian.

They were Dark Elves.

The Dark Elves were moving chaotically around the Queen Ironclad Ant, attacking her.

“We have plenty of time. Don’t rush.”

“Focus on the antennae. Once we remove the antennae, this bitch is nothing.”

Some Dark Elves shot bows, while others swung shamshirs or rapiers. There were also those who used magic.

Up to that point, Zeon could understand.

Elves were originally skilled with bows, good with swords, and fond of using magic.

The problem was that among the Dark Elves, there was a race that absolutely should not have been able to coexist with them.

“Chwik! Stop that thing from escaping.”

“Leave it to me! Chwit!”

Orcs were swinging axes as large as their own bodies.

CLANG! CLANG!

The orcs’ axes merely bounced off the Queen Ironclad Ant’s hard shell and did not inflict any real wounds. But it was enough to pressure the Queen Ironclad Ant.

Elves and orcs did not get along.

Their compatibility as races was truly the worst.

The noble elves and the combat race known as orcs thought of each other as less than the grime stuck between their toes.

In Elharun, the city of nonhuman races, they had no choice but to cooperate, but the elves and orcs scattered through the desert were so hostile that they were desperate to kill one another.

Dark Elves were even worse.

They regarded orcs as beasts, not as targets for cooperation.

Because of that, it was unthinkable for Dark Elves and orcs to cooperate in a hunt. Yet here and now, Dark Elves and orcs were working together to hunt the Queen Ironclad Ant.

Their smooth offensive continued, as if they had coordinated with each other more than once or twice.

At the center of it was the old orc.

It was the old orc Zeon had seen during the day.

Every time the old orc gestured, the formation of the Dark Elves and orcs changed.

SLASH!

At last, one of the Ironclad Ant’s antennae was cut off by an orc’s axe swing.

Kieee!

The Queen Ironclad Ant let out a scream of agony. Then the Dark Elves and orcs attacked the Queen Ironclad Ant even more fiercely.

When the remaining antenna was also cut off, the Queen Ironclad Ant lost her sense of direction and floundered.

The Dark Elves and orcs did not miss the opening, attacking and ending the Queen Ironclad Ant’s life.

THUD!

The Queen Ironclad Ant collapsed with a heavy sound.

Without even taking a breath, the old orc shouted,

“Chwit! Collect all of the Queen Ironclad Ant’s eggs.”