Chapter 221: Team test (7)

[The answer to your second question is very simple. The moment you see a fully operational ant colony close to a city, know the city is as good as destroyed.] The system said.

'How is that possible, they are just ants?' Blake was surprised by the system's reply.

[That is exactly the problem they are ants. Their reproduction speed is absurd and because of their ability to dig, they can destroy a city from below without the inhabitants knowing.

Also if you are thinking it shouldn't be a problem with all the demigods and angels in Calton city, well you guessed wrong because their strength lay in numbers, and if the city was destroyed of what use is in fighting them.

That is why they are among the magical beasts meant to be killed on sight or reported to officials.] The system said.

"Is it only me that feels that the tunnels are way too big for the ants?" Kade's observation drew the attention of the others.

"It might be possible for them to dig a tunnel almost twice their size, but there is a chance that apart from the queen there might be other knight rank ants." Sach said.

'What do you think?' Blake asked the system.

[Normal members of the colony are at the elite rank, so definitely there are knight rank ants which are most likely its guards and generals. But that should be the least of your worries.] The system paused for some time as if it was pondering over something.

[The problem here is that if the knights or generals were at the same level as the queen a kind of coup is meant to take place, but the question is why will the school use the hive of a king rank ant for a test?] The system asked.

'Remember what you said about king-rank beasts being stronger than the others. Isn't it possible that the same applied here?' Blake asked the system hoping he could receive a positive answer.

Whenever Blake remembered his last encounter with the berserk king rank beast, his body involuntarily shivered. If Zirrack had appeared even a second later that would have been the end of his journey.

[There is a chance that that might be the case, but you know what they say, If there was a chance for something to go wrong then it will definitely go wrong.] The system said.

…

A month earlier, the professors were tasked with finding and mapping out a perfect location for the team test.

Due to the location having a large variety of landscapes and beasts, they had agreed on using it which led to the next, eliminating all extreme dangers.

They first began scanning twice the usual landmass surrounding the location with artifacts and arrays, in order to prevent the berserk wyvern from reoccurring.

The artifacts picked up a very large ant colony led by a King rank ant queen and immediately Zirrack was dispatched eliminated them.

After they had made sure that there was nothing to interfere with the test from outside, they began scanning the location.

It turned out there were 2 King rank beasts in the area. The first was a crystal back gorilla, while the second was a King rank armored hippo that had mastered water manipulation.

Once again Zirrack was dispatched and living up to his name as the Kingslayer, he dispatched both with his bare hands.

Once the threats were taken care of, the scanning continued and they found a newly formed ant colony. It was a break-off from the one they had recently destroyed.

They calculated their reproduction rate and after making sure it wouldn't be a serious issue by the time of the test, they decided to leave them.

Unknown to the school 2 weeks later, the ants dug deeper over 200 meters into the ground while building their hive, they got to an area where thin pink veins were radiating with energy.

(AN: You should already know what this is? :)

Due to the mana-rich environment, the ants stopped digging deeper and used the area as the queen's chamber. Thereby enabling the guards and queen in the chamber to grow faster than expected.

…

Back to the present…

"So what next?" Sach asked Blake who snapped out of his reverie.

"The next thing is to build where we will sleep and I will say over there should be great." Blake said pointing at an area on the treetops where multiple branches crossed each other.

Everything in Infinite realm was way bigger than those on Earth and that included the trees. For example, the average width of tree trunks on earth was 4.5 feet but normal trees on Infinite had an average width of 11 feet.

"Okay?" The team gestured for the next step.

"We create a water barrier battle array on the branches and power it with an energy source." Blake said looking at Beyoni.

"Isn't it better to use rocks since they provide more defense, rather than wasting an energy crystal?" The team nodded at Ansgar's suggestion.

"Earth undoubtedly has more defense, but water is transparent and allows us to keep track of our surroundings and their movements." Blake said. "If an ant was to get close without us knowing, it would return to the colony for back up and that is something we don't want."

Seeing no other objections Blake continued explaining his plan. "Since ants have poor eyesight we will be making use of a presence concealing array and we will also be needing Night mist to block their eyesight in case they come closer than expected."

"Also, we can keep the water barrier warm by regularly heating it." Blake said.

Once the plan was out and the team saw no problem with it, they went to work and in minutes they were already done with the shelter.

'Yup, it wasn't a bad decision letting him lead.' Sach said as they went into the warm comfort of the water barrier.

'Just like I thought it would be, warm and soft.' Blake let out a sigh of relief as he rested his head on the water barrier.