Chapter 177: Playground

Chapter 177: Playground

I was extremely happy with how tanky I had become. I only wished I had a bigger monster form to mimic. Still, my chimeric evolution added flexibility to my forms, so I started to swell and grow my size far beyond the original earthshaker bear.

’It’s disappointing I didn’t manage to get a yeti or ogre profile from the dungeon; those looked really strong. I hope I can find something big and brutish down here.’

While I still loved magic, there was something inherently fun about turning into some giant oversized monster and smashing my foes. Speaking of magic, my [Glacial Aura] was clearly building up its effect as the ants started to become noticeably slower, and some of the weaker drones collapsed and began to freeze over.

To counter this, the royal guards started leaking heat from their bodies, a misty haze rising from their carapace as their bodies began to glow softly. They also started vomiting out flames to try to melt me.

Realizing she was trapped, the princess joined more directly in the fight and started fluttering around the large chamber and lobbing globs of spit at me, which seemed to react harshly with the flames present and further fuel their intensity.

’Okay, everyone, metal urchin!’

My body rippled and burst outwards with hundreds of protruding spikes. The full form of my seven [Pseudopods] formed and began more directly assaulting the two royal guards. Not to be outdone by their mandibles, my tendrils were tipped with fangs, claws, and weapons from various profiles as they started to pierce, crush, and slice into the ants.

Since I was the leader, I delegated full bodily control over the cores and decided to focus on the princess. She was fluttering around a lot more anxiously now, so I started firing my metallic needles at her.

She must have had either a danger sense skill or evasion as she promptly began dodging; unfortunately for her, all my needles were also explosive payloads, and it was easy to catch her off balance by detonating them once they were behind her or when they were glancing past her side.

The two royal guards flared up with even more strength when I attacked the princess and began pushing back. They ignored all wounds and attacks and just mindlessly pushed forward to eliminate the threat to their princess. Their berserker mindset was offputting, especially when I saw that some of their wounds began congealing and sealing up.

’Okay, team, let’s throw in some [Bloodrot]!’

The order was immediately received, and the metallic weaponry glinted with a dark maroonish tint. When the next batch of wounds was caused on the royal guards, their wounds started to fester, and that congealing goop was nowhere to be seen.

While I was happy to have countered their healing, I did start to receive a rather notable complaint from [Dissection]. It appeared these ants were quite valuable. I pushed the objection away and continued my fight; I was having too much fun right now.

I found myself toying with the princess, using the combat to get some thorough practice with [Nitro Slime] and some more advanced attacking maneuvers. By leading her around with needles and explosions, I could lure her into taking hits she really shouldn’t have; I also played around with the idea of leaving needles embedded into the wall and then only detonating them when she dodged closer.

This chamber had become my trapped explosive playground, and I was setting the rules.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The battle continued; the guards must have died at some point, as I noticed the chamber had become quiet except for the sound of explosions. At this point, the princess had stopped trying to attack and was frantically trying to survive the explosive gauntlet. However, my amusement ran out when the princess frantically abandoned reason and charged at a wall, trying to burrow furiously with her superheated mandibles.

I sighed, disappointed, and lashed out with [Cryo Slime] tendrils to drag her back. When the icy slime even grazed her, she violently trembled. Frantically thrashing, my tendrils began to drag her back into the room, but then she died far sooner than I expected.

’Huh... I knew [Cryo Slime] was effective... But that effective?’ I couldn’t help but wonder. ’Sure, she was damaged, with less than half her life force remaining, according to [Life Sight].’

I could have easily conquered this battle if I wasn’t so focused on leveling up and trying out my newer traits. [Dissection] was still giving me some attitude, but I shrugged it off, as the princess was in good enough condition to harvest fully. And while the royal guards looked like moldy sponges with numerous holes and Bloodrot festering, their mandibles were still in adequate condition.

As I ate and harvested, I looked over my notifications.

<Fire Ant Royal Guard LV 28 defeated. Experience gained.>

<Fire Ant Royal Guard LV 29 defeated. Experience gained.>

<Fire Ant Princess LV 11 defeated. Experience gained.>

<Quest complete. Payment has been deposited into your account.>

’I guess that might be why she died so easily. No royal guards, no special damage mitigation. Well, and these ants are super weak to Ice.’

I tried mimicking both traits at once, but it looked like I couldn’t cheat the system like that. The princess’s aura was from a strange gland, and it would affect any progeny. I tried using it myself, hoping my [Sub-Cores] could’ve been loosely classified as my offspring, but sadly, that was not the case.

The regeneration also came from a gland; while I could use it, it was a little impractical. With [Inferno Sac], I could send Mana into it to generate the flame nearly instantly, and this [Regen Gland] functioned that way, except at a much slower rate. Store and use later, rather than spend and use now. I tested to see if the fluid could be stored outside the gland, but it rapidly faded upon removal, even within my [Core Storage].

’An exploit fix?’ I guessed.

The princess also had egg laying... I ignored it.

’Trixie must never find out.’ I vowed.

The flammable spit was interesting. It was also stored in some gland sac thing, and [Dissection] seemed to be preserving it. I tried sampling it, but it didn’t trigger anything, so I just stored it in some canteens.

’I literally just bought these canteens before the teleport, and I’m emptying them already... I need to get more conventional storage.’

Then, I saw the final trait in the princess’s profile. I gasped.

<[Essence Sight]

See the natural flow of Essence in the environment.

Higher trait level allows further understanding of Essence concentration, elements, and condition.

Trait level determines detection range.>

’I knew another sight trait existed!’ I celebrated.

I tested to see if I could buy it, and it was compatible with my race! However, I rejected the purchase and instead opted to borrow it and earn it that way. Now that my race levels were more irregular in frequency, I needed some scrimping, especially if I wanted to potentially uncap or uptier a trait.

’It shouldn’t take too long to unlock it if I also borrow the human trait [Untapped Potential].’ I reasoned and shifted into a goblinoid form. ’Still... Why does the ant princess have it? I thought only spirits were involved with Essence.’

Thanks to [Chimeric Mimicry], I borrowed and activated the trait at level seven. The room erupted with previously unseen colors and substances; I quickly canceled the trait and recovered from the surprise.

’Okay... That was a lot of information...’

Instead, I borrowed the trait at level one. It was much more manageable this time, although it didn’t tell me much except that this room had Essence. I began gradually adding more levels to the trait; the slower pace allowed me to become accustomed to it and parse the additional information each level provided.

First, I understood the Essence concentration, then the primary element, and then, as more levels were added, I could tell what the minor elements were present. The final packet of information contained any recent changes to the Essence flow.

Putting this all together, I could tell this room had a high concentration of Essence, which had recently spiked. All the ant deaths explained that. Also, while the primary element was Earth, there was a lot of Fire element originating from below the chamber, and the egg pile was on the closest hotspot.

’So... The ant princess has this trait to find a good nest location?’ I reasoned. ’But... Then why didn’t the harpy queen have the trait? Or do harpies not care about their nest location as much. Or is it because they are monstrous humanoids rather than just plain monsters?’

Sadly, neither of the two profiles could answer the question, although, in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter other than to feed my growing curiosity.

’Speaking of curiosity...’ I thought as I stared at the Fire Essence source below. ’I wonder where this goes?’