Before I could apologize again to her I heard a raspy voice come from the other side of the wall unfortunately only Kitsoma could see through her illusions so I had her relay what was happening.
"There are about 10 red goblins with 1 of them in front that has some sort of nasty leather like armor. Its got a very sharp pointed stone spear.... Oh gods the leather armor is green goblin skin."
"Ok so our main priority right now is to lay low we don't know how strong these guys are and if they have backup close by just keep an eye on them and lets hope they pass by."
"OK, right now it looks like they are just investigating the dead bats..... they found the dried up body of the big bat..... Looks like they are surprised, the leader is excited about something....They are packing up the bats and leaving from the direction they came from."
"Ah dammit not like we needed food or anything damn goblins.... oops no offense guys I meant damn RED goblins." I look back and smile sheepishly towards the goblins who looked at me with upset faces like a child who pouts at their parents. I admit it was cute thank god they aren't as ugly as the other world made them out to be.
"Lets move out, Sondar you get ready just in case there are some stragglers. Howy get ready aswell we are going to need some speed to cut them off if there are some leftover." With nods we all get prepared shortly before Kitsoma lets down her illusion.
We look around and all thats left is just the dried husk of the dire bat. I looked around hoping for maybe some dungeon drops like in games but if there were any then I'm guessing the red goblins picked them all up and left.
"Vexsus, come look at Tinoa she is starting to foam at the mouth man whats going on?"
I look over and on Tinoa's neck were she was bitten was a puffed up and highly aggravated wound that was leaking blood and pus. She was starting to foam out the mouth and had slight convulsions.
"This is what I know as rabies, but it shouldn't have been this fast I don't know what to do, do any of you maybe have healing magic?" I looked at them with hopeful optimism only to shortly fall as they all said no until Shorunt spoke up.
"I can cast a small healing spell but I don't think it is strong enough to cure this."
"Great Shorunt that will atleast buy us some time to figure out something else to do. Go ahead and start casting and I will help you like I did with Kitsoma."
With a look of nervousness Shorunt muttered a few words with a wave of his staff over Tinoa's body and shortly after a green light starts to shine from the staff to cover over her. I step up behind him and activate MP share. I then activated MP Absorption to keep my MP maxed out I then had an idea.
"Hey Shorunt I want you to focus and pour all of your mana into that spell, can you do it?"
"Yea sure but I don't see how that will make a difference?"
"Just do it ok just think of me like a battery for your spell take as much from me as you need."
Almost like a flood gate opening I feel my mana rush out of me into his body. Thankfully I had maxed out Absorption or else I would not have been able to stay conscious with how much he was taking away from me. I had to go full blast with the skill because even at max it was still not absorbing enough from the ambient mana in the air to keep up with the pull.
[User has Exceeded maximum mana, Backlash eminent]
[User has Exceeded maximum mana, Backlash eminent]
Thankfully the green light started to shine brighter until it went from a deep green to an almost bright emerald and the light seemed to not only cover Tinoa but also seemed to get absorbed into her body. Her convulsions started to lessen and the wound on her neck stopped bleeding and it slowly closed up and went to normal. Over the next 5 minutes of the constant pull from Shorunt her body started to gain back its normal color until she opened up her eyes with a look of extreme grogginess.
Shorunt immediately stopped the spell and the pressure on my mind instantly went away. However because I had been pulling so much from the surroundings for so long and so fast, The sudden stop had caused almost like a brick wall that made my interior slam against it as a backlash erupted and sent me flying backwards away from Shorunt.
"MASTER" Is all I heard before a loud crash as my body slams into the cave wall and I become imbedded in it.
[User exceeded maximum mana, Backlash will now occur to help stabilize]
I stared at that message for a couple seconds until the sounds of the others asking if I was ok came rushing back.
"MASTER, MASTER ARE YOU OK?!?!?!"
"Good god yes I'm ok it was just a mana backlash from using to much MP and refilling it. Just help me out the damn wall and I told you to not call me master."
"I'm sorry boss I was just so scared after seeing you getting expelled backwards and implanted into the wall. Are you sure your ok it was a pretty bad impact?"
They all looked at me as I shook off the dust and rocks that still clung to me.
"Yea, Yea I'm fine it hurts but I'll be fine we just need to go get me some food and I'll be healed up in no time."
"OK, if you say so but I suggest maybe we continue to try and find that cut off section of the cave and move away from here boss. I scouted out another section of the cave to the left of us away from the red goblins and there seems to be some kind of nest or something over there. I couldn't see creatures but it was dark and if there are no vibrations than my Earth sense skill is useless."
"Great Digger that sounds like a good plan along the way we will heal up and get ready for a fight. Sound good everyone?" I ask just out of respect for the others but I had already started heading that direction as a low grumble could be heard from my stomach.
We continued down a path that widened out and the walls started to become smooth and had the look of almost being marble like ending up in a large room with multiple tunnels exiting from it.
"Hey what is this? is it marble?" I ask taking a second to examine the wall closer.
"No I don't think it is, it looks just like the normal rock wall of the rest of the cave but its been smoothed down? I can't really think of anything natural that can do this." Kitsoma says coming up next to me and looking aswell.
"Boss I know what can do this and I say we turn back because this is a dangerous sign." Shorunt says while the other goblins shake in fear.
"Its the sign that we are approaching a nest area of the cave ants."
"Cave ants? how can they smooth out and even widen such a large cave like this? This should take years for a colony of ants to do."
At that moment as if on cue a black and red ant-like creature appears from a side. It had 2 huge mandibles on either side of a gnashing mouth that was secreting a liquid that would sizzle when it landed on the ground. each foot had what looked like a sharp curved claw that was in a shovel form.
"Guys this is no ant. Ants are tiny little things that can be stepped on this is a monster that shovels out caves by itself. Are you saying there is a colony of these Fcking things." I say as I start backing up slowly hoping to not move to fast as to make it start attacking us.
"Vexsus These are just the worker ants of the colony, the weakest but also the most abundant. If there is only one then we are lucky. If we can kill it we can eat and also the parts of this monster are good for equipment and weapons." Surprisingly this time Sondar told me this when I had expected Kitsoma to offer up something insightful. It looks like when it comes to fighting maybe a meathead like Sondar is a good source of info.
"Ok Sondar have you fought something like this before?"
"Yea but it wasn't easy. They have sharp mandibles that can crush you if they don't cut in half first. A strong acid melt that can melt you down and they will also use their shovel like claws to attack aswell."
"Oh fantastic... Here's the plan Sondar lets go ahead and have you start making as many earth walls as you can to surround it keep its focus on you as much as possible but do not take chances ok just stay safe and do what you can. Sylvania use your ice magic to cool it off since its an insect it should have a weakness to cold temperatures. Kitsoma if ice magic doesn't work then your up maybe a few fireballs in its face will keep it from noticing when me and Howy go up and shave off a few legs. Is everybody ready? Then lets go."
Soon an Earth wall appears and surrounds the Ant, while a small ice spears are thrown from above as Sylvania flies overhead thankfully the cave is large enough to allow her to fly with ease. Kitsoma and the goblins waited patiently as I had the goblins just wait this one out since they had a bit of trouble with the bats. Soon the ant had clawed its way over the top of the walls and we could see 3 ice spears sticking out of its carapace. it didn't seem effected at all by this so I signaled for Kitsoma to start her attacks.
Shortly after a fireball crashed into its mandibles and exploded causing the mandibles break off and lodge into the cave walls like blades. We heard a loud shriek of pain before the loud thudding of something hard running away from us. After the dust settled we saw that the ant had left a trail of greenish slime like blood leading down the tunnel.
"Should we follow it?" asked Howy.
"Nah lets just wait here and prepare if I know anything its that it will be back and with friends. It'll be better to stay here and fortify than to chase after it and possibly run into others unprepared." I had the ideas of closing off entrances and solidifying the walls covering the tunnels so that way when they do come we could have a funnel that would give us the advantage against the huge amount that was going to be coming.
I also decided to have Sondar doing the same to the entrance we came through that way if it gets to bad we could run back that way while still having the advantage of the funnel. I planned on making use of my spatial bullets this time as it had the potential to get through their thick carapace.
After about 30 short minutes we were done and none to soon as we heard shrieks and movement coming from the other side of a few of the closed off tunnels.
"Looks like our guests have arrived, everybody get ready because this is gonna be a doozy of a fight." I got ready as I start to see holes forming in 3 of the walls as a sizzling sound could be heard shortly after.
"As soon as the holes are big enough I want elemental spears thrown through, that will be the first line of offense."
Sondar, Sylviana, and Kitsoma grunted in acknowledgement I had wanted to try and use the mandibles that were blow off but I didn't have time so I just left them there hopefully they would still be there after the fight.
As soon as the ants showed themselves through the holes they were instantly greeted with spears of ice, fire, and earth. I had Kitsoma use spears instead of fireballs just because I wanted the tunnels to be closed off as much as possible and also because if they were to explode they had the potential of causing a cave in.
After a few more openings were created and they ants started pouring in we had already killed a few of the ants with some lucky hits. I shot a spatial bullet into every hole I could see, bad news was I had to get close as the bullets were slow moving, good news was that the second they went past an ant I would hear loud squeals of pain and the sound of ripping.
After a few more bullets I felt a sudden increase in the speed that it flew and also it increased in size from the size of a thumbnail to the size of a babies fist. It also increased the suction power as I felt a solid gravitational pull that started sucking in the loose rocks that tumbled from the walls and even from the ground. I heard even more painful squeals and soon it was silence, I stuck my head through one of the holes that had collapsed after my skill had gotten stronger and I saw atleast 10 ant bodies each with different parts ripped off in a circular pattern. It looks like my bullet didnt have the power to pull the bodies into it like a black hole but instead had carved its way through them. It looks like their armor like exoskeleton kept them from fully succumbing to the pull as it kept their bodies somewhat intact but it did not stop the massive amounts of bleeding that occurred.
I went back and got the goblins to come with me and help me make sure they were all dead. If they weren't then they would be as I shoot as spatial bullet straight into their faces. It looks as though they all died from either the spears at the start of the fight or my bullets but they were like fish in a barrel as they couldn't even get past the walls because of Sondar constantly sending reinforcing waves of mana into them. It was easy but I made sure to keep my ego from inflating to much to be sure I wasn't caught off guard.
By the end of my investigation we had found maybe 2 or 3 who were still alive albeit barely, but they had barely the strength to look up at us before they finally gave up. I decided that before we moved on it would be best to salvage what we could from the bodies and if we were lucky these ants might have some cores to harvest along with their exoskeleton, mandibles, and claws that I planned on turning into armor and various weapons and tools.
"Vexsus this was a great outcome but I am a bit worried about what's ahead of us. If we keep going down this path you know we are going to eventually encounter warriors and even worse the queen." Kitsoma came up to me and said as she helped harvest the many materials from the bodies. Howy and Liosa had a knack for harvesting as they somehow were able to find the weak points in the armor like shells and break them off with ease.
"I understand that but if we just try and find a way to the surface without getting stronger what happens when we run into those slavers again? I felt power radiating from that big guy that I couldn't match. All of us together could probably take him but that would be a risk I don't want to take with you guys."
We discussed what the plans were for the fights ahead as I had Sondar create a huge bowl and had Sylvania fill it with ice, I also had Kitsoma heat up the bowl until the ice melted then I through in some of the ant meat and made a impromptu stew for all of us while I became a mana battery again. This time however I regulated how much I drew in and even let my natural mana drain before using Absorption.
[User has devoured the flesh of [Cavernous Worker Ant] Will now auto assimilate.]
[Generating skill list]
[Acid Spit] - User will now secrete weak acid from its mouth.
[Iron carapace] - User will grow a Iron like covering over its body to further enhance defense at the expense of mobility.
[Pheromone sense] - User will now be able to detect and use pheromones.
I was happy to finally see this pop back up since it had been so long since I gained a skill through using gluttony. I looked each skill over seeing the different potential uses but in the end I decided to pick Pheromone sense just because if I could use it like many different animals and insects did then I had the capability to attract creatures into an ambush situation and with better control who knows maybe I could even cause hallucinations or even control what they thought.
We finished eating and got to work on attaching armor to the goblins and Howy using the leather armor and cloth scraps as bindings. They were the ones picked to have the armor because 1. They were the weakest defense wise. 2. Me and Sondar had tough exteriors already in addition to also a buffing skill to further enhance our defense. and finally 3. Because Kitsoma refused saying it was to heavy for a mage such as herself.
After that I went ahead and took some of the mandibles and grating them against themselves I was able to cut off a few to the size of a shortsword that way 1 could be used by Konna and 4 could be split up between Howy and Liosa.
As we got packed up with a wagon like sled from some of the bigger pieces of leftover carapace we set off further into the Ant tunnels.
----------------------------------------
[MP Share] 3 -> 10
[MP Share] Lvl 0 -> 1
[MP Share] 0 -> 10/20
[Spatial Bullet] 6 -> 0
[Spatial Bullet] Lvl 0 -> 1
[Spatial Bullet] 0 -> 2
[Pheromone sense] Lvl 0 0/10 - User will now be able to detect and use pheromones.
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