Chapter 75 - Survival Challenge

"It's strong enough to critically damage a peak Ordinary Rank at least. But because there's a delay like any other grenade, it will be hard to use it against another Energy Refiner." Aldrin evaluated the Essence Grenade.

Following that, he and Hitter walked towards the four Giant Head Ants, giving them the final blow turning them into IDLE Points and corpses to be melted at the Essence Furnace.

After sending Hitter to help the clones to finish the remaining two enemies, he then stood vigilant for any incoming surprises that's waiting for him.

When a minute passed and nothing out of the sort happened, he passed by his clones to approach the Ant Queen that's laying an egg.

However, when he reached around 5 meters before it, a new set of notifications flashed in his eyes.

[You located the Ant Queen!]

[Ant Queen used its ability 'A Queen's Woe']

[The whole lair has been alerted.]

[Survive the wave of Royal Ants coming to the rescue of their Ant Queen for 30 minutes to finish the dungeon]

[Death means failure and as a penalty, 2 Idle Adventure runs will be deducted and the Dungeon will reset, raising the level of the monsters by 1.]

Upon reading that, Aldrin's face relaxed slightly despite the deafening shriek of the Ant Queen blasting his ears.

"I see. So, it turned to survival instead of meeting a Boss-type Ant stronger than the 'Guardian Ant'.  Time to finish this dungeon then."

He looked behind him and the three Dimensional Clones were about to rejoin him while the two Shadow Clones had already disappeared.

A few seconds later, the Ant Queen and the Worker Ants suddenly stopped as rumbling sounds echoed across the whole Ant Queen Lair.

Before Aldrin's eyes, he saw how the ground seemingly expanded, widening the gap between him and the weak-looking Ant Queen.

Then from around him, eight passages that were nonexistent earlier lit up followed by the marching sounds of ants coming out from the said passage.

As those ants stepped into the faint light illuminating the place, Aldrin found a horde of Worker and Soldier Ants, holding different types of weapons.

They're all shrieking at him as if shouting 'You dare touch the queen!'.

He tried accessing their details but it seems the Dungeon restricted him from doing that.

This way, he had no idea how strong the ants before him that were continuously filling the widened space of the Ant Queen Lair.

"If they can also give me IDLE Points then great. But I doubt this will be the same as before. Either way, I have no other choice but to fight..."

From above, a countdown timer also appeared and seeing how much time the Dungeon gave him to prepare, he instantly accessed the Equipment and Skills tab and changed Hitter's weapon to a pair of a shield and a hammer.

"We're surrounded, relying on a long-range attack is not viable here. Having two tanks or three attackers is more efficient."

Aldrin analyzed his options and came up with that kind of conclusion.

He had to survive for thirty minutes and at the moment, he's counted at least 500 of those ants surrounding them and there's more clogging the passage.

"They're probably unlimited and will instantly disappear after 30 minutes passes in this Survival Challenge... Then I got an idea to safely pass this." He smirked as he readied himself as well as his three Dimensional Clones.

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[0:01]

RING!!!

Accompanied by a loud ringing sound akin to an annoying alarm clock, the shrieking Royal Ants of different types charged towards his position.

Positioning themselves to face four different directions, Aldrin simultaneously gave the command to the Dimensional Clones.

Ripple!

Shield Blast!

Aldrin and Striker brandished their weapons, unleashing the Ripple skill,  decimating the first two rows of ants they're facing. Likewise, the Bronze Shields of Hitter and Tank shined brilliantly as they blasted the charging Royal Ants in a cone shape.

"As I expected, no IDLE Point gains and they're not being transferred to Idle Storage... Such a waste." He lamented before his face returned to seriousness.

The first wave was decimated, however, that's just the start.

Even if the dust hadn't settled yet, the next wave charged forward, trampling the dead bodies of their fellow ants.

With his hands gripping tightly on his weapons' hilt, Aldrin began his survival or massacre. Whatever the scene could be called.

-

-

Back in the Lonewind City, Commander Yun was gazing at the two bright moons through his office windows. Behind him, his subordinate was reporting the findings of one of his men sent to follow the man arranged by the spy of a gray organization called Three Vipers Gang.

"Reporting to the Commander! The information relayed to me is as follows..." Without raising his head, the subordinate reported word by word and without omitting any details.

As soon as he finished he stood up and saluted, waiting for Commander Yun's next order.

"A trainee. It's also the same conclusion that the investigation by the Mayor and the Federation's Agents came up with. I don't know if finding that whistleblower is still important when a Primary City and more Secondary Cities have already been destroyed on the other side of this planet. The Overseer even made landfall to investigate it herself. Days from now, new information about the culprits will most likely turn up." Commander Yun said, his hand on his chin as he contemplated the available information.

At first, they thought it was just the Dimensional Disruptor's low chance of being unable to block the opening of a Dimensional Rift. Then the audio was sent to the Mayor's Office. The Overseer then informed the mayor that the same occurrences happened in other Secondary Cities.

And after a week of investigation, without any other lead turning up, the culprits targeted a Primary City.

"Compared to a Secondary City like this one, a Primary City is way bigger. But even it cannot withstand the sudden appearance of eight Dimensional Rifts. Their tests are successful. Is that why they decided to enact their plan? No... There's something more hidden from this. I better ask someone for more information. I stayed in this Secondary City and planet by that man's orders but I cannot just stand idly if this planet is coming close to the path of destruction."

When he reached this point in his thoughts, Commander Yun then turned around to address his waiting subordinate, "Follow that one spy and locate the whistleblower. Even if his importance seemingly dropped after the recent events, what he did was still exemplary. The best we can do is protect him from harm."

After saying that, he left his office with a clear destination in mind.

Minutes later, he reappeared in front of the Refiner's Association and was guided to the top floor at a moment's notice.

"Qi Yun. You looked serious. What seems to be the problem?" Matias looked at the newcomer, one of his eyebrows raised slightly.

"Old man, what is the Refiner's Association's stance over these recent attacks on the planet?" Commander Yun didn't beat around the bush and directly confronted the old man of the Association.

However, despite his serious expression, Matias calmly answered. "Hmm... Isn't it the same as usual? Neutral."

"Bullshit! With the number of gray organizations out there still existing even in this corner planet, I'd say the Association is slacking off."

"Contain your anger, young lad. I get where you're coming from. However, with limited personnel, the Association's hands are tied, at least that's the case on this planet. Most of the Energy Refiners of your caliber are all being recruited by the titan-class organizations. Overseer Tania made her move, why not wait for news in the meantime?"

"What if Rift opened in here again? And worst, it's the same multiple Rifts? What now?"

"Like I said, calm down. If that happens, we're definitely hopeless against it. If we panic at this time then you'll certainly see the whole planet in chaos. Isn't that why they contained the news of the destruction of the Primary City to the masses? Whoever is responsible for this, I assure you that the Association will not turn a blind eye to that." Matias flicked his fingers and a screen appeared in front of them.

Inside the screen, a scene of chaos and destruction flashed through and in the middle of it, a single Silver Metadome could be seen trampling on numerous Rift Monsters. And at a distance, a few black-cloaked Energy Refiners seemingly give orders to the horde to either slow down the Silver Metadome or attack the city before them.

"Huh? What's that mean? Can they control the Rift Monsters?!" Commander Yun blurted out a question after seeing that eerie scene.