Chapter 401

Chapter 401: Race to the Ant queen.

The moment Blake’s team went through the right tunnel, Bradly and his team let out a sigh of relief, as they began organizing themselves.

The race to the queen ant had officially begun, but Bradly and his team were not too confident about winning the race.

Although they were greater than Blake’s team in number, after witnessing the speed at which Blake alone cleared the army ants, they felt they were the ones that we’re outnumbered.

The only good thing about the situation was that they were closer to the queen’s chamber, while Blake’s team had to take a longer route.

...

At the right tunnel.

“The queen ant is the most important thing in the colony, so aren’t we meant to increase our pace?” Castiel asked when he realized that Blake had no plans of increasing their pace.

.....

“There is no need to be in a hurry, at worst we would be right on time to kill-steal the ant queen. For now, I want to test something out.” Blake said as he brought out the hilt of a whip.

“Isn’t that master seal?!” Shock was written all over the faces of Brian and Castiel as they stared in disbelief.

“Yes, it is.” Blake replied.

“How... how did you get it?” They couldn’t help but ask.

There was no adventurer that hadn’t heard of the bidding war that occurred during the recent adventurer association auction because of the Master seal.

They even knew it was stolen from the Karius family by a member of the League of assassins, so Brian and Castiel were beyond shocked that it was in Blake’s possession.

“You remember when I tried to save that bootlicker during the beast tide?” Blake narrated how he had forgotten the ring and opened it not too long ago.

“Shouldn’t you have returned it then?” Brian asked.

“Not at all.” Castiel said. “What do you think the Karius family would do when a commoner comes out of nowhere with their stolen artifact?”

“To put the blame on him.” Brian said I realization.

After the master seal was stolen from the villa of the Karius family and the news spread, they automatically became the laughing stock of the entire city. So to save face they wouldn’t hesitate to accuse Blake of hiring Xander.

Since Blake was just a commoner, it would be easy for the Karius family to grease some palms that would get him convicted of theft and other crimes.

“So rather than go through all that stress, isn’t it better to hold it until I finally get caught?” Blake said with a wry smile.

The fact that he was in possession of a stolen property made Blake feel uncomfortable, but throwing it away would not only be dumb but there were chances that it could be traced back to him.

“So what do you want to test?” Brian asked.

“Just one thing.” For safety reasons, Blake could only use the Master seal in unmonitored areas. So this was his first time testing the artifact.

[Name: Master seal

Quality: Mid-epic tier

Owner: Blake

Artifact type: whip

Passive abilities:

Amplification: Master seal amplifies beast tamer spells to double its power.

Beast linguist: Master seal grants the user the ability to communicate with beasts as long as it is in possession.

Master’s will: A passive AOE spell that suppresses every beast below the knight rank causing them to be docile.

Active abilities:

Abating whip: Master seal forms an energy whip that drains the vitality of anything with every hit, but has double effects on beasts.

Binding chains: Master seal produces energy chains that would wrap the beast and drain its vitality.

Beast contractor: The user is granted the power to form contracts with beasts. It could be by convincing the beast or forcefully taking control of it.

Note: The level of the user should be at least the same as the beast, and the chances of it working would increase the weaker the beast becomes.

Drawbacks:

1st drawback: Once the artifact was being used, the user would hear the thoughts of all the beasts within the area.

2nd drawback: Master seal needs to be charged with beast crystals before use. If it isn’t charged before use, it would use both the users’ mana and soul energy to work.

???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????

Note: Soul energy recharges just like mana but at a very slow pace. The more one’s soul energy reduces, the less mana capacity, physical strength, mental strength, and spell power one would have.

3rd drawback: Master seal was that after the artifact has been used, the user would begin exhibiting the characteristics of the last beast he had contracted for 24 hrs.]

After reading the abilities once again, all he now needed were test subjects but luckily for them, they met more than 15 soldier ants in less than a minute.

[Seems those that escaped had already reported to the queen ant and her troops had already been deployed.] The system stated.

‘Let’s see how it goes.’ Blake said as he walked up to army ants with Master seal in his right hand.

On Sensing the aura and vibrations coming in front, the 15 soldier ants charged forward.

“Attack the intruders! Attack the intruders! Attack the intruders!”

Due to the 1st drawback of the master seal Blake was simultaneously hearing the thoughts of the 15 soldier ants, but they were nothing compared to when he used Mental boost.

When they got within a certain range of the intruder they suddenly paused and their thoughts seized.

“It really is worthy to be called an epic tier artifact.” Blake was more than impressed by the passive skill of the master seal.

He tried communicating with the ants, but the only reply he got was the order given by the queen ant.

“I am not surprised, they are simple-minded creatures when on their own.” Blake thought

*************************************************************************************

Check out 3_Sins_Studios works: Deviants and Reborn in a Magical World: From Cultivator to Mage.

The account is a group work from me and two other authors. I hope you like it.