155 - - The second day of ant-nesting, morning

The light cast by the magic stone lamps reveals blue-green shields blocking the passageway.

The planes with a hard shine are lined up tightly, with almost no gaps between them.

They had become such a magnificent obstacle that one could almost call them a wall.

It was as if the strong sense of oppression was a manifestation of the will that was firmly expressed to prevent anyone from passing through.

It was a strong defense that could not be broken down by any half-baked tricks.

Slipping into the defense is Thor, who is holding a white sword with a drawn blade.

His body is covered only by white scaled armor, and he wears no other significant protective gear.

Even though it looks just like a shield, he would not be safe if he is hit by a body blow.

Thor, however, walks calmly to the wall.

Was he so defenseless that his man-eating instincts could not be resisted?

Or did he take it as a cheap provocation?

A jade ant is unable to hold back, and it leans its head back to reveal its large jaws.

Its flailing legs stretch out, and it snatches at its prey in a single bound.

There was no way he could have gotten away from it, no matter how hard he tried.

The next moment, Thor was standing two steps back.

At the same time, the jaws of the ants, which had been chewing vainly on the sky, made a hard sound.

There was no way he could mistake the distance at such a close distance.

And Thor, who was supposed to be a dumb prey, showed no signs of kicking the ground or attempting to turn himself around.

As a result, Thor is completely unharmed, and the supposedly solid wall is now frayed.

Now Thor closes the distance in an instant.

He quickly steps to the side of the protruding jade ant.

A white blade flashes, and the monster stumbles back as it is struck hard where its head meets its chest.

Then, as if in a panic, it slams into the ant next to it as it tries to move forward.

The ant on the other side also tries to jump out, but this one, on the contrary, cannot move as if it is sewn to the ground.

At this point, the small fissure has turned into a big hole.

Dancing into the hole was Straccia, who had been secretly following behind Thor.

A black shadow kicked the ground and leaped over the monster with ease.

The two circular blades lashed out at the shields from behind without mercy.

The two shields were so tightly clustered in the not so wide passage that their heads were in the way, preventing them from turning around easily.

"Sleep fast, sleep well--"

Of course, it was not only the swordsmen who were waiting for them.

The moment he saw the crystal spiked ants lurking behind the collapsed shield wall, Yuril unleashed his sleep spell without a moment's pause.

However, he was just a little too late.

Just before they fell asleep, the quartz ants shook and vibrated their bodies in unison.

"UGYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Moe rolls on the ground, clutching his ears.

It is a tragedy that his sensory organs are too sensitive.

"It's already happened!　It's an anchor!"

Moo stands up, makes a cute fist, and closes both eyes tightly.

Inside the child's body, the magical power begins to surge violently.

At its peak, the power becomes a purple blitz that briefly shoots out from the child's head.

Almost immediately, the crystal spines of the ants seem to shake violently, and countless cracks appear.

Then, one after another, they began to crack and fall.

Looking alternately at the unbelievable sight and at Mu, who nodded in satisfaction, Rummella asked a question with a stunned look on his face.

What did you just do, little guy?

"Well, you're all chattering."

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Why is that one broken?

"Hmmm, is it because Moo is a genius?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

Probably Moo used , but it was impossible for it to have such a result.

There are some well-known lightning users in the "Platinum Flame," so Rummella is familiar with lightning-related magic techniques to some extent.

That is why she understood that what the child had done was too far out of the ordinary.

"Is it because of excessive power ......?　It certainly seems that the magic was increasing. But ......"　

"Rah, girl, you want a card?　But my hips are so soft."

That's none of your business. And don't rub it!"

While they were fussing, Thor and Straccia finished with the ants.

It has been two days since we entered the ants' nest.

The invasion curse we had received at the third level had been reversed to , and the invasion seemed to be going well.

However, the pace of the attack was slowing down a little as large ants began to mix in and the area became wider from this layer.

We also found out a surprising fact.

It seemed that Yuril's lack of physical strength had finally been resolved, but it was not so easy.

In fact, Yuril possesses the trunk fruit trait of .

At first glance, this characteristic seems to be similar to , but it is not.

Activation: Automatic / Effect: Strong / Scope: Self

It is not necessary to look at it closely to see that it has a dubious part.

The sacrifice seems to be a curse, but the whole thing seems to be recognized as a boon, and even Sora's is not applicable.

It is a very beneficial characteristic, so we are supposed to accept some of its drawbacks.

In this case, the upper limit of physical strength is increased and recovery is accelerated, but it seems that all of them are converted into magical power.

Furthermore, in Yuril's case, the more he uses his magic skills, the higher the upper limit of his magic power becomes due to .

Therefore, he is not getting tired so easily.

However, thanks to this, even if he uses the middle branch skill repeatedly, he doesn't fall into the shortage of magic power, though it is a tremendous situation.

Thor and his team exterminate the ants, going around every corner of the corridors and small rooms.

Around this layer, the number of quartz ants that interfere with the has increased, but Moe says that this has inversely revealed the ants' whereabouts.

Ram Merulla said that this was also unusual, but since Moo's sharpness had been proven in the wilderness of the Breaking Wind, it was a convincing story from Thor and the others' point of view.

So by mid-afternoon, we had managed to get most of the work done.

All that remained was the large room near the ramp to the fourth level and the small room at the end of the detour path that branched off.

The room where the central pillar had been destroyed last time had been neatly restored, and dozens of ants were waiting patiently.

As one would expect, this amount of ants is a bit dangerous to deal with.

However, it would take a considerable amount of time to defeat them by pulling them into the passage individually.

"Shall we go around from the small room first?"　

"No, this will only take a minute."

"...... understand."

Tired of being surprised by now, Rummella returned only a short acknowledgement.

Even though things are always beyond our expectations, we are not qualified to call ourselves adventurers of the Vajra class if we cannot learn quickly from situations and respond to them.

As I stood by to see what he would do, Thor touched the wall and began to search for something, just as he had done the last time.

Then he gives us instructions one after another.

"Yuril, would you please block the entrance on the other side? Thora, stop anyone who tries to run this way.

"Yes, sir."

Wait for me.

Okay, let's go."

The next moment, the central pillar suddenly collapsed.

Naturally, all the milkstone ants that had been clinging to the pillars were shaken off at once and buried in the earth.

At the same time, large cracks began to appear on the ceiling one after another, and it looked as if it was on the verge of falling.

"Bloom with your revenge!

Not missing a moment of clarity of vision, Ulille chanted immediately.

The ants notice something wrong in the room and start to move in unison, but one of them touches the trap and a huge icicle covers the doorway to the back of the room.

The monsters rush toward them, looking for a place to escape, but the lead ant, a jade ant, suddenly stops and holds off the rest of the ants.

As soon as it did, Thor and the others fled to the back of the passageway, and the collapse began, as if timed to coincide with the arrival of the monsters.

A tremendous noise is heard, and the ant swarm is quickly crushed by the debris.

After the smoke subsided, the scene of a large room that had been completely buried was revealed.

This is hardly surprising, since we have already been shown similar acts when breaking through the entrance to the dungeon.

Still, Rummella gazed in awe at Thor, who had so casually recreated the exact same view as before.

Then a realization occurred to him and he choked on his words.

"......You may have proposed this plan last time, ...... thinking of doing this ......?"

When asked, Thor gave no answer, only a small lift at the corner of his lips.