Chapter 181 - An Offer

"Raksha and Kuu, both of you take care of the leftover soldiers and leave the queen to me, okay?"

Woof!

*Jiggle!*

With that decided, Sheila pulled a dark spear out of her inventory. Upon thinking for a bit, she realized that most of her skills affected them too much that the battle doesn't seem fun anymore, and so, Sheila decided to try fighting the queen with a normal spear instead. As much as she hates pain and suffering, she also didn't want to have an easy and smooth life. It might come out as strange but, she prefers to suffer for a short while, like having bad luck for an entire day, in which she would be reward with some luck the next day. To her, that is how reality works.

One can't wish to have a good life for the rest of their life without a little suffering in the midst, that's just being greedy. Without difficulty, how would one appreciate the good thing in their life? Most people would only realize what is important to them, the moment they lose it. That's how regret is born. 

Seeing the female human charging toward her, the queen immediately commands the soldiers to intercept her path. The soldiers quickly stood in the path toward the queen, intending to block her from going forward. Unfortunately, Sheila swiftly bypasses them by jumping from shadow to another, leaving the rest of the soldiers to Raksha and Kuu. Once she reached approximately close to the queen, Sheila fiercely thrust the dark spear straight toward her. The queen somehow managed to avoid it by a hair's breadth as the moment she saw Sheila bypassing her soldiers with ease, the queen promptly took a distance from her previous location.

"Quick reaction but, that is still not good enough."

Sheila said and, before the queen can launch an attack, she rotated her body around in a swift movement along with the spear before slashing it toward the queen. At such a close range, the queen didn't have enough time to avoid it other than could only hope that her exoskeleton is tough enough to defend against the incoming slash. 

SCREECH!

With her strength ten times that of average people coupled with a very durable spear, it is strong enough to leave a small cut on the queen's shoulder, but not deep enough to make it fatal. Nonetheless, it still hurt getting a cut, which was why the queen ended up screeching in pain. Knowing that it managed to hurt the queen, Sheila didn't stop there and instead, increase her speed and keep on slashing her spear at the queen in a place where she won't accidentally kill it. 

Even since the idea of taming a boss has been implanted in her mind, Sheila keeps on wondering whether it is possible by making all sorts of theory thoughts. The very thought of having a boss-type monster under her command excited her to no end. Though the queen in front of her is not that strong, strength-wise but, it can be fearsome if she let it breed as it pleased. Even if her soldiers are not under her direct command, she does have their queen under her thumb. 

Just imagining ordering the queen to direct thousands of its soldiers to crush her enemies with their numbers is simply an amazing sight to behold! Sheila wanted that foresight(imagination) to happen! And so, she decided to beat up the queen for now before giving it an offer of a hope to survive by becoming her subordinate/tamed monster. With that thought in mind, Sheila fiercely slashes toward the queen with her spear like a complete madman if one were to look at her current expression. 

'a boss-type monster under my thumb, a boss-type monster under my thumb, a boss-type monster under my thumb.' this thought keeps repeating inside her mind the longer it takes before the queen surrenders itself at her. No matter how many times the queen cried out for help, her soldiers couldn't come to the rescue since they were kept in place by Raksha and Kuu. And just like that, without having any ability to defend against the female human slashing the spear at her, the queen couldn't stop the cuts that keep appearing all over her body.

Only when the queen didn't try to dodge her attack anymore did Sheila stop her assault. By then, the few soldiers that somehow survived Sheila's onslaught moments ago, have also decreased to a very small amount, to the point one can count them in two hands. Even so, their will to go and help their queen didn't diminish by tiny bit at all. Perhaps, it was because of not-fearing-death conditions they have at the moment that they somehow managed to wounded Raksha while Kuu is fine but still considerably exhausted. And because of Kuu's unique 'body,' Raksha didn't get much wounded on its body as most of the time, the former always took the blow in its place.

"Raksha, come here and eat this."

Woof!

Upon hearing its name being called by its master, Raksha turned around and hurriedly speed toward her, ignoring the fact that it is still wounded. Once it arrived in front of Sheila, Raksha looked at the top of her palm and noticed that there's a single bean at the center. Sheila smile before urging it to eat the said bean. The bean is called Healing Bean; the title is pretty much self-explanatory, however, it is only for tamed monsters. She had once tried eating it, thinking it was the same unique bean from that one anime, even before finishing reading the details.

As a result, nothing happens, absolutely nothing happens. Because it is clearly written there in the details that it was only for 'TAMED MONSTER ONLY.' Since the health potion doesn't work on them for an unknown reason, she decided to look for another healing item in the shop back then before the fiasco at the branch. And this Healing Bean is the one she found. Sheila could clearly remember that this bean is never there in the shop, at the very least not before she got the taming skill. 

Since Raksha had eaten the same bean before, it didn't become confused like the first time as it immediately gulps it down the throat the moment she throws it in its mouth. Sheila knew it started taking effect when she saw the wounded closing down, albeit slow yet effective. While that was going on, the soldiers didn't attack them, but instead, they go straight to their injured queen. Though they wish to help their queen lessen the pain in her injuries, they aren't healer but more of a warrior instead.

They can't do anything other than screeching at Sheila for hurting their queen this badly. They don't care about how many soldiers have died during the battle, a soldier can simply be breed again, but that's not the case for the queen; If the queen dies, their nest is done for.

Although she didn't have that much expectation to begin with, Sheila still tried to communicate with the queen by speaking at it.

"Can you understand my word? If you don't want to get killed along with your soldiers, why don't you surrender to me? If you can do that, you can save your soldiers and yourself."

Sheila muttered in a sober tone, not too loud, but good enough for the latter to hear her. Although the queen couldn't comprehend the human's language, it somehow could understand the intention in her words, judging how it has lowered its guard a little bit. That was unexpected, or maybe, as expected? It's a Boss, after all. At some point, she might be able to converse freely with Boss before the battle when she reached a high floor. There's a possibility of that.

While the queen seemed to be conversing with her soldiers, Sheila pulled the unused note out of her inventory in preparation. If the queen has a bit of intelligence in its head, it should have understood that resisting against her would only lead them to their death. Even if it didn't care about its own life, how about the soldier? Although both didn't care about their own life, each of them actually worries and wants the other to live which complicated things up. If the queen managed to imposed her will of resisting against her to the very end to its soldiers, it might not be good for Sheila as her initial plan is to tame the queen, not to kill it.

Five minutes later, it seemed the queen and her soldiers' discussion has come to an end, judging how both of them had stopped their antenna-brushing meeting to stare at her. If Sheila had been a normal girl, she would have freaked out getting stared by this many creepy-looking giant ants. It can get pretty unnerving, truth to be told. If she had been affected by it, she would not have been able to fight with them properly in the first place. Because she knew they would just respawn again after dying under her hand, Sheila didn't give it a second thought.

"So, will you surrender to me? If you agree to my offer, nod your head."

Though she looks calm and stoic outside, internally, she's nervous. Although she believes they would just respawn even if she ended up killing them, Sheila didn't know why but, she had an inkling that the next time the queen respawn, it won't be the same one standing in front of her. 'If the queen decided to fight until the very end, I will beat it up to the point it's unable to resist and then, I'll use that weakness as an opportunity to forcefully tame it. I didn't choose this because of the success rate for this is too low. If it is just a normal mob, that might not be a problem, but a Boss is a different existence entirely. So please, accept my offer, Queen! I already have a name for you, you know?! And for your information, it's an amazing name!' 

The queen stared at her for a moment, and just as it was about to reject her offer and fight to the last blood, a memory of the past suddenly emerged inside its mind. It was a promise between different species for survival, and the said promise was—

Sheila couldn't help but widen her eyes when the queen decisively nodded its head to her offer. She didn't think much about it and instead, immediately threw the note straight toward the queen while the latter stood there on the spot, not making any movement to avoid it. When the note finally touched upon its head, unexpectedly, the queen and her soldiers suddenly started to shine before both of them disappeared into the note. With a heavy breath, Sheila stepped forward and picked up the note on the ground with expectation in mind.

『 The ??? Queen of the Giant Ant successfully tamed! 』