Aaron was less interested in bland, human fingerfoods and more interested in the view. He noted several defensive towers had been built, with auto turrets atop them, and the walls weren’t far behind. It was actually a rather complex design, and he realized he had been right about his earlier thoughts.
“Are they meant to funnel down here?” he said, pointing.
“Oh, you noticed, huh? Not all brawn. But yes, the walls are specifically designed to funnel land attackers toward the auto turrets. Whether they will work or not has yet to be seen. There’s a young lad among my people. War nerd. He came up with the idea, and we figured we’d give it a try.”
Aaron nodded. He thought it was pretty impressive, but he also noted that Julius listened to the advice of a boy, by his own admission. He already had a good impression of Julius’ leadership, save that the whole being was mind-controlled by a void corrupted creature, and knowing that he listened to his followers only served to hit the message home.
It wasn’t just humility that impressed him, though. The base was looking rather defensible. He didn’t know if it was capable of holding back powerful D-grades without people like himself and Talia defending it, but it was certainly a lot better off than it had been when he arrived.
A buzzer rang, and Julius tapped it and then looked up.
“Dorian is on his way. Would anybody care for some refreshments?” he added, gesturing toward a cabinet full of spirits and wine. It was expensive stuff, likely remnants from before the integration.
“No, not now,” Aaron waved away. He wanted to keep a clear head for this, although it would likely require downing at least one full bottle to have much of an effect anyway.
“Same, I’m good,” Talia said.
“Suit yourselves,” Julius said, pouring himself a glass.
A ding sounded, and the elevator opened, and out stepped Dorian, flanked by two of the scouts.
The man looked like he had been running all night. He was messy, and dirt stained his face.
“Life hasn’t been too harsh out by the jungle, has it?” Julius said, gaze washing over the man.
But Julius’ playful tone was not shared by Dorian, who marched straight toward Talia and Aaron without barely taking note of the man.
“I have… troubling things to report. The ants are even more than we expected. Vicious, overwhelming, and they seem to communicate with one another over vast distances. It’s all quite impressive. Individually, though, they show no signs of greater intelligence. But when locating an enemy, they often attack from multiple angles, cutting off escape routes, and using heavily armored ants at the front, while lighter ones attempt to take advantage of their enemy’s flanks. It’s all so organized. I’ve never seen anything like it. They’re either a lot smarter than they look, or the queen, or whatever else is commanding them certainly is.”
Talia and Aaron shared a worried look.
“When will this nightmare end?” Ryan groaned. “Hey Julius, on second thoughts, can I get a scotch?”
“Yes, of course,” Julius said and snapped his fingers, and one of his people prepared it for Ryan.
“But that’s not all,” Dorian continued, swallowing and taking a deep breath. “I’m not sure exactly how they’re doing it. But they seem to be gathering new abilities. Or rather, Skills. We saw lightning ants. Ants that spat acid, and another kind that could shoot out elastic tongues like frogs, snaring their enemies,” Dorian rubbed the creases etched into his forehead. “They’re truly terrifying little things. Nothing in that jungle seems to pose any real threat to them. The beasts still alive are just food yet to be consumed. And not only that, but some of the little demons aren’t so small.”
“Word is spreading, too,” Julius piped up, somber like a thunderstorm hung over him. “Several people from the settlement have seen them at the edges of the jungle while collecting resources. I know of a few that even engaged a couple of the ants. They killed the little beasts and survived, but they say more just kept coming. Luckily, when they escaped to the plains, the ants stopped their pursuit. Still, rumors of endless numbers of ants, some more powerful than others, have started to spread. People are getting worried. This isn’t good for stability or productivity. If people are too worried, they’re not crafting as well, or hunting as sharply.”
“Yeah, doubt they would be,” Aaron said. “But we can’t just go rushing back in there. Good news is, we took out the other two beast lords, but they weren’t easy prey. At least one of them wasn’t. And based on everything you’ve said, the ants are worse. But if they still refuse to cross into the plains, we have some time.”
“Is it wise to take time?” Talia asked. “If they’re growing stronger and gaining new Skills and powers, then perhaps it's best we strike now, even if it means being weaker.”
“Yeah, I hear you. But I’m very short on good dishes. At the very least, I need a good dish to provide boons. It won’t take long to cook, and could make all the difference. But it’s not just that, with the ingredients I have stored away, I should be able to grind out some quick levels. I might even have enough soul-strengthening ingredients left to push for my race evolution. And for you,” he pointed at Talia. “Getting some training in as a D-grade probably wouldn’t do you any harm, either.”
“Yeah, you’re right about that,” Talia said, looking thoughtful as she rubbed her chin. “Fine. I’ll go hunt some beasts around. Get a little practice in with my new powers. Meanwhile, you can grind as many levels as you can.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Take Zero with you. If he can get a level or two, that’d also help.”
Aaron then turned to Julius. “The same goes for the elites. We’ll need as many of them as we can spare. Push them to level as fast as possible; every little bit helps.”
Aaron knew he would be the one fighting the queen, but the ant colony sounded absolutely massive; luckily, most of its warriors were not particularly powerful. Still, his energy wasn’t limitless, and if he was swarmed by thousands of weak ants while trying to focus on the queen, it would no doubt make victory that much harder.
With their plans settled, he returned to his farm. As soon as he got there, he handed all of the corpses over to Zach and Marko for processing.
He was a little surprised to see a squad of goblin riders atop wolves dashing past after a successful hunt, led by one of the smaller goblins who hadn’t been of much consequence earlier. Not because they were riding, but because they already looked like they belonged atop the wolves.
Putting them together seems like it was a wise decision.
He continued through the fledgling outpost and spotted the temple, which was also coming along nicely, and looked to be only a couple of weeks away from completion. Many of the walls were already being filled out, although much was still transparent.
The farms themselves had also been completed. The soil from the trials had been tilled into the ground, and unsprouted seedlings had apparently been planted. Seeing this, Aaron remembered an item he had yet to use and pulled the mana heart he had won in the trials out of his scabbard.
Mana Heart [ Legendary ]
These amazing artifacts pulse with mana, infecting all around with their energy. There are many uses for such items, from burying them in the ground to infuse plants with mana, to using them to fuel powerful constructs; the only limit is one’s imagination.
He didn’t know what else to do with it, and so he simply punched straight into the ground with the mana heart held in his grasp, burying his fist down to his shoulder. There, where his fist reached, he left the mana heart and kicked over dirt to close the hole.
With that done, he decided to check in on something he hadn’t looked at for a while. His planetary ranking.
He had killed multiple beast lords since the last time and gained many levels. Not to mention picking up the Shard of Divinity, however many points that might provide.
Aaron Dober:
Planetary ranking: 212 of 5,124,885,011
Aaron’s eyes widened. He had expected to jump quite a few rankings, but his progress was even more impressive than he had expected. At this rate, he would soon find himself in the truly high rankings.
Then again, he was level 84 now. That was right up there with the elites at the end of the trials. But of course, the elites hadn’t been sitting around doing nothing the entire time. Like Talia, many had already hit D-grade. Especially the ones at the very top, who were already quite close when they returned to Earth. And the ones who weren’t would be rapidly approaching.
But there was something else that caught his attention. The population was still dwindling quite fast. He hoped that it would soon find some stability and slow.
Then, he decided to scroll up and check out the top of the rankings.
Planetary rankings:
- Darius Nessar
- Raksha Tiksus Vakmal
- Ernest Sheridan
- Erdek Foulbreath
- Talia Rhineheart
- Ikran Teshk Ungari
- Edwan Coser
- Vikran Takeshi Udon
- Terry Cadillac
- Kim Soohyun
Most of the list hadn’t changed too much. Edwan, one of the names he didn’t recognize, had gained a few spots, which was intriguing, and there was another new name. Terry Cadillac.
But then he realized that Johan was nowhere to be found. Wait, really? This was far more surprising than anything else, and he immediately used the search function, but nothing came up when he punched in Johan’s name.
“Does that mean?” He murmured to himself.
He didn’t entirely trust the man, but his impression had been mostly okay. He had thought that Johan would play a rather major role in whatever happened to their world after the trials. And to see him knocked off the list entirely sent a shiver down his spine.
Then again, he had been close to death himself and doubted that Johan would be the only top ranker knocked off the list. Their new world was still in its infancy, and things were likely to change drastically as a new norm settled in.
But he couldn’t spend all day musing over the rankings. Ultimately, it was more entertainment than strategy. He didn’t know these people, or at least what they were capable of anymore, and thus, couldn’t know how relevant any of the information was to him.
He dismissed his System and returned to surveying his camp. The goblins had even built a little nursery for his antler roach larvae, and one of the goblins who had taken a tamer Class E-grade evolution was tending to them.
Aaron waved as he passed the nursery, but there wasn’t too much to see. The roaches were still well and truly in their infancy, wiggling around straw nests and feeding on decaying meat within the simple, wooden, barn-like structure.
Mana Cores, similar but not the same as the Mana Heart, had been connected to the defenses Aaron had placed. And now, his farm had both an operation shield and sentry orbs protecting it.
The homestead and surrounding cabins were still very basic for the most part, but it was incredible the progress that they had seen in such a short period of time.
But there was work to be done. Returning to his portable kitchen, he prepared it for what was to come. He only had a few soul-strengthening ingredients left, and his plan was to fuse them with the most potent ingredients produced after Marko got done with the corpses.
With any luck, he would manage to craft some dishes that would propel him into a D-grade race evolution before the fight with the ants.
But he also wanted to save some of the best ingredients to create at least one supreme dish to buff himself with. He had no idea how powerful the queen ant was, but based on her minions, he knew he couldn’t take any chances.
He was going to have to grind hard and fast, and he started to get a little apprehensive as he waited for the ingredients to be prepared.
But it wasn’t just about dealing with the ants. There was also the dungeon token in his scabbard, and he very much wanted to take part in it.
And while there was still a decent amount of time remaining on it, he had no idea how long dealing with the ants would take, and doubted it would be a short-lived affair.
After all, they would likely need to battle their way through an army and then descend into the hive. If that took several weeks, then he might risk missing out on the dungeon.
Aaron’s brow bent. He was going to do this as quickly as he could, and then, slay himself an ant queen.
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