Chapter 13. Fire Ants and Experience Points Explanation.

Chapter 13. Fire Ants and Experience Points Explanation.

In another part of the forest, in a deep cave not too far away from Liu Shu, a seductive woman lay on a bed made from leaves, branches, and a handcrafted sheet to insulate her from the cold, rocky floor.

In addition, about twenty bugs the size of a large dog crawled around and carried mushed food in oval shapes, stacking it probably for the woman to eat later. All these insects had six legs, a large thorax, and a pair of large and powerful mandibles.

They were ants.

The seductive woman was also not very human-like. While she was the shape of a human woman, she had compound eyes and a pair of long antennae sticking from her forehead. Inside her mouth, there were a set of powerful teeth and fangs.

Her body was the size of an average female, and the dress she wore had a reddish texture and also looked like many layered carapaces. This dress was also opened on the back, allowing for her own extra appendage to stick outside.

It was an extremely thick and large thorax attached to where her tailbone would be.

The color of the carapace matched her eyes and hair, a beautiful red color.

She was the <Fire Ant Queen>.

After resting for a few hours, the Ant Queen woke up. Her compound eyes didn't have eyelids, as they were attached to her face, so the first thing she did to wake up was soak her face in water, cleaning the accumulated dirt that impeded her vision.

Looking around at her little children moving, she sighed, looking a bit bored. 'Another uneventful day.'

When her children saw that she was awake, a few of the youngest approached and began crawling all over her. This made the bored Ant Queen smile, and she used her clawed hands to pet them. "Good morning, my children."

While she spoke with sound, her antennae similarly secreted pheromones to communicate with the least developed children.

After she crossed the Level 10 boundary, there were almost no challenges left in the forest. It was not easy protecting her ant colony until she went from a <Level Nine Fire Ant Queen> to a <Level Ten Fire Ant Queen>.

However, after finally crossing that boundary and gaining a humanoid body, there were almost no creatures in Golden Sap Forest who even dared attack her nest.

Therefore, the Ant Queen focused on increasing her proficiency in her skills, especially her egg-laying capacities. It had been a few years since she started this routine. By now, she had a few skills at the max level and was ready to be upgraded to the next tier, but she lacked comprehension and experience points.

While breaking through the tier could be said to be as simple as using experience points, that was not entirely the case for non-World Tree creatures. First, one needed to understand the skill's essence, and then one needed to study how to improve it.

That's why many beasts who were born with F Rank skills were stuck in this rank generation after generation. Reaching an F+ Rank from an F- Rank was not difficult; it was a matter of time, but evolving it to an E- Rank was the complicated part.

The reason creatures became human-like as they increased levels and gained intelligence was exactly this.

A creature without intelligence would never be able to overcome the limits set by their birth. But, on the off-chance that one creature from that species was born intelligent enough and managed to increase enough levels, they would eventually develop their species toward a new place.

The current strongest beings were creatures of the past whose ancestors managed to consecutively break through these limits.

Froorar nodded. "It's not the Myconids, it's not the River Beavers, and it is not you either... Did the Rose Fairies take action?"

Ignatia frowned when she saw Froorar turn around to leave. She spoke chillingly. "Hey, do you think this is your nest? You came, injured my children, killed one of them, and now you want to leave?"

Froorar stopped and looked back menacingly. "I killed it because it was getting annoying. I didn't have any intentions of killing any of them, so what's the problem?"

Ignatia's lips split into a murderous grin far larger than a human's anatomy would ever be able to make. "Do you think that you are invincible because you've reached Level 11?"

Froorar stomped the ground, making it crack, and smiled coldly. "I do think I am. What can you do about it? Go ahead if you want to challenge me and lose half your colony. I could do some roasted ant-meat for dinner."

Ignatia's hair flowed as Aether Mana and Anima Energy gathered around her. Froorar's face changed when he realized something, and he became serious. "You are also Level 11?"

Ignatia looked at him coldly, but after a few seconds, she snorted and dispelled her energies. "Leave. Next time, call me before you hurt my children, or I'll visit your nest with them so that they have a feast. This is my last warning, Froorar: If I hear that any of my children have died at the hands of any of your people, I won't rest until your species has been eliminated from the Golden Sap Forest!"

Froorar squinted, but he didn't say anything. He knew that Ignatia's ant army easily crossed a thousand units. Even if they were generally weaker than Thornstrides, their innate ability to spit inflammable substances and work as one could literally drown a stronger creature in a fire.

Froorar killed that Level 7 Ant because it went crazy and attacked him. If not, as he did with the rest, he would've just injured them. Moreover, he also had confidence in her Level of advantage. But now that he knew that Ignatia had caught up with him, he became cautious.

In short, provoking the Ant Queen wasn't worth it. After giving her one last look, Froorar turned around and entered the forest again.

Ignatia looked at his disappearing figure and got thoughtful as she approached her dead child. 'Something happened to Fraar?'

Her lips arched, and she ordered, her compound eyes gleaming with interest. "Scouts, search around the area for clues of what is happening. Focus in the east area."

A few dozen black and green ants scurried out of the nest and entered the forest, perfectly camouflaging with their surroundings.

Ignatia smiled and sashayed her wide hips away, the large ant appendage swaying behind her. "it seems that the stale forest is about to become fun again. My colony will thrive in war and grow."

Then, Ignatia calmly entered her nest and went to the nursery. She saw a few empty spots where there weren't any larvae or pupae and moved her ant appendage.

Ignatia squinted and smiled in pleasure as she placed 20 new <Soldier Ant Eggs>. 'Ah, so refreshing~.'

[You've gained 8 Experience Points after laying 10x <F- Rank Fire Ant Soldier Egg>, 7x <F Rank Fire Ant Soldier Egg>, 2x <F+ Rank Fire Ant Soldier Egg>, and 1x <F+ Rank Fire Ant Warrior Egg>.]

Ignatia tilted her head. 'Warrior? Lucky~, three of my children are in F+ ranks today! Moreover, one of them is a very rare warrior! One of those can fight against three normal F+ Soldiers~.'

She patted those three eggs lovingly with a happy smile and kissed the Warrior egg. Then, she returned to her room and lay back on her comfortable bed, starting to eat the accumulated food so that she could lay more eggs tomorrow.

'I wonder what interesting things will my children find?'