Chapter 156 - Colony of Ants

"Raksha! Bite it!"

Woof! Woof!

Obeying her command, Raksha, the young gray wolf charge toward the giant ant in front of them, bearing its fang at it. While the two were fighting, Sheila also assists her pet once in a while when things about to get dangerous for Raksha. Although the Giant Ant alone is not a trouble for her, that wasn't the case for Raksha as it was still low in level. After grinding some experience by herself, she would occasionally bring out her pets and let them hunt the monster in the wild while following right behind them.

Raksha, it has the meaning of Protection and Moon. Sheila had decided to give that name to the wolf pup which has now grown to young, simply because she wishes it would able to protect her in the time of needs. Its size has grown tremendously when it reached a young age which was now comparable to its previous size before turning into one of her taming pets. If it keeps on this momentum, it should be possible for Sheila to ride on it when it reached a.d.u.l.thood. Just imagining herself riding the gray wolf, adventuring in the wild together, brought a warm feeling of happiness inside of her. Sheila couldn't wait for that time to come.

As for 'Kuu', the mimicry slime. Sheila had told it to practice more on the mimicry skill, that was why it was currently impersonating as a dark long-sleeve jacket she currently wore on top of her summer outfit. Sheila praised it many times when she wore it for the first time as it felt very natural to the touch. She didn't expect to feel comfortable when wearing the dark jacket(Kuu) over her current outfit, it was almost to the point that she thought it was an actual jacket rather than a mimicry of a slime. That was simply how amazing and hardworking Kuu is! It jiggled around her as if embarrassing when it was receiving an honest compliment from her which was also pretty cute in Sheila's opinion.

Looking composedly at the Giant Ant fighting against Raksha, Sheila remembers the time when she had met it for the first time. She had been hunting the fierce wolf for a while now as she memorized its presence due to having Raksha with her. It was at the time when she had just finished hunting a group of them when suddenly this new type of monster menacingly appeared in front of her. She had sensed its presence miles away but have been ignoring it up until now since it didn't seem like it was targeting her, or rather, it looks more like the colony was minding their own business. 

But when one Giant Ant approaching her out of sudden, Sheila knew it was going to kill her simply by sensing the killing intent just by staring at it. She was being careful and didn't want to make the first move, worried that by killing this ant, it might attract the colony to her. If that was the case, she would be done for, that is if she couldn't escape the Trial Tower in time which is impossible as she should have sensed them coming miles away from her position. But if she were to be distracted by something else in the meantime, like the time at the park where she was exposed to Yuna... that would surely be the end of her.

Or will it truly? After all, she hadn't forgotten about one important information regarding the Trial Tower. It was the fact that it should be possible to resurrect completely by three times so long as she was 'killed' in the Trial Tower, that was what the system had told her. Since she had never test it before, not because she was cowardly, but more of not having any trust in the system. She didn't want to die young, after all.

Woof! Woof!

While she was pondering over such thought, Raksha went toward her before barking, as if asking for praise which she complies in kind by crouching down a bit and snuggle it close to her. Its fur was very soft and feel comfortable to the touch, one might even exaggerate by saying it was heavenly! If not for its huge size, one would undoubtedly mistake it for a dog. Sheila also treats the young fierce wolf the same as what she would do to a dog. Even though its name clearly screamed 'fierce', it didn't look fierce at all in Sheila's opinion. She was really cute. Yes, Raksha is a 'she'.

It has only been a few days after she talked with her parents, yet she only managed to level up twice. The higher she goes, the harder it is for her to level up. But even with that, with the Trial Tower that has monsters which could respawn indefinitely, it didn't pose that much problem to her. While the other required them to put years of hard work for their skill improvement, she only needs to kill the monster to level up to become stronger. It was like she was born with a golden spoon, but even the system has its cons. 

Like the other who put years of sweats for their skill, she also required to do the same for her skill, magic included. Even if she could learn many by buying the skill book from the shop, it required her to put effort into it if she wants it to reach the max level. Skill at level 1 is nothing but basic. Most of the skill at that level isn't enough to be useful in real combat. Even though it looks like she was idle while letting her pets go wild in hunting, she was actually manipulating her skill before moving on to another once she thought it was sufficient. 

Even right now, Sheila was making an earth doll by manipulating the dirt off the ground. Yes, she didn't only have fire magic. After saving enough gold, Sheila bought a couple more of skill books for herself. Earth Magic is one of them. At level 1, she could only create a wall made of hardened dirt that has enough force to defend against average people and a couple of hits from a monster at level 10. For a beginner, it's a good skill. But as someone almost reaching level 30 with a high amount of vitality, it couldn't be used in live combat as her own body is a lot tougher than it, after all.

Rather than concentrating solely on leveling up, she decided to do it sparingly and if she had time, she would use that time to focus on leveling up her skill. Some of her skills had reached a satisfying level for them to become a trump card if used properly yet none reached the max. At first, she had thought a month was enough to complete the requirement, but it seemed that she was far too naive and arrogant. At least, she could complete one of the requirements within that timeline but not all of them after having done further calculation.

After having enough snuggling with Raksha, Sheila stood up on her feet and pulled the rune note out of her inventory before urging Raksha to return to the note. By now, Raksha had already hunted almost ten Giant Ants on its own, of course with her assisting if the situation called for. Between Giant Ant and Fierce Wolf, the difference in their strength isn't that much apart, yet the Giant Ants work much better when they're grouped up together while Fierce Wolf is a lone wolf who hunts by themselves instead of grouping together as a whole. 

Basically, if the Fierce Wolf was alone by themselves, it would be an easy target for the colony. Plus, there is also the Queen Ant who managed and control the colony like it was her own feet. So in essence, the Giant Ants is much more dangerous than Fierce Wolf. Up until now, Sheila hasn't picked up the presence of the Queen Ant after traveling this far into the Forest, so she didn't know its full capabilities just yet other than the information she acquired from reality when she had researched about it on the internet. The internet is an endless sea of knowledge, after all.

If the Queen Ant truly exist within the colony, then its level and attributes must be on par with a boss. And this wasn't the only thing she had to be worried about if that was the case. If one even knew a little about ants would know that there are a few ants around the queen, and that is the Soldier Ants while the normal one was called Worker Ant. If she wants to fight against the Queen Ant, she must be prepared to face off against Soldier Ants too. The further she thought about this, the more she believes the Queen Ant is a boss for this floor.

"One Giant Ant found. Judging from its appearance alone, it must be a Worker Ant."

Sheila muttered softly to herself as she looked up at the crawling ant ahead of her. The Giant Ant hasn't taken notice of her presence mostly because she was hiding her presence by becoming one with the shadow. Slowly, she creeps toward the ignorant Giant Ant like a snake, remained undetected from the latter. As she was getting closer to the Giant Ant, Her left hand was already equipped with the APW turning into a well fit dagger, ready to be swing at any given time.

Even when she was close enough to feel its breathing, the Giant Ant still hasn't taken notice of her presence while munching innocently on the nuts it has collected off the ground. Some might find it cute but not to Sheila as she ruthlessly cut its head off before moving on to pick up the gold coins off the ground, dropped from the result of its death. Though it seemed easy to kill the Giant Ant by looking at Sheila, no one could copy her exact movement at all unless they have the same strength and set of skills like hers.

She was already this frightening with her raw strength alone, one could imagine how much stronger she would become if she practices martial art into live combat. Unfortunately, many martial art skill books in the shop were as high as heaven. The price is too heaven-defying for her to afford so she never touched upon such a subject again after finding out the cruel result.