We left the mound and I once again came to the real world.

I took a deep breath, and the freshness swelled my spirit.

“Come on, we’ve got a long way to go!!” team leader said looking at me, and one of the soldiers replied to her.

“Let him be! Don’t you remember how you used to behave when you were new?”

“Shut up!!”

{Connections has become lv 4}

The team was created by the leader and the vice leader who knew each other since their nursery days.

The others joined after, as they passed working as a scavenger and finally gained enough experience to apply and get her own team sanctioned.

This is less like a team and more like a family where everyone knew everything about everyone else.

{Connections has become lv 5}

I asked her what a blood sucker was, and she replied saying it was a blood sucking insect that dwells on the moving mountain.

But she didn’t tell me anything about this moving mountain, no matter how much I asked her and neither did the others. They just smiled at me, as if they wanted to prank me or something.

On the map I could see that we were going the opposite way to the trees we went toward last time.

{Map has become lv 9}

And as we kept going forward their lack luster behavior completely changed and they became quite and vigilant.

Their sudden change in behavior made me become vigilant too.

*Ting*

[Skill: Vigilance gained.]

{Focus has become lv 9}

The grass became denser and denser as we walked deeper and deeper. And at one point it covered more than enough sky to make the pass become darker.

{Vigilance has become lv 2}

The first carrier ant touched my antennas and told me the reason.

“From here starts the territory of the Green choppers. You don’t want to mess with them.” He whispered.

Another carrier joined and further elaborated, “You see the grass is their territory, while the plane is ours, and the trees belong to the bees. Although, we aren’t in war with them, but we also aren’t in a healthy relation with them either. Especially with the Bees. The choppers are cruel and the bees are mean. So we need to stay quiet, and quickly get through from this patch of land.”

{Common Knowledge has become lv 5}

I nodded my head and had only just taken another step, when something stabbed my heart and stopped my breathing.

I understood that it was my ant sense flaring,

{Ant sense has leveled to lv 10}

{Ant sense has reached its maximum level}

And is presenting you with the option to:

Perceive or Dissimulate

I didn’t need to dissimulate, but perceive whatever it was that I couldn’t with just ant sense.

*Ting*

[Skill: Perception gained.]

Perception: You used to sense intents, now you detect them.

*Rustle*

And then senses detected something which my eyes couldn’t see. It was green, no, maybe it wasn’t, but it surely it had the eyes of a killer.

I told the team leader that I saw something.

“Ah! Don’t be like that there is no way we will meet one chopper in the outer areas of their territory.”

{Vigilance has become lv 3}

{Fear resistance has become lv 8}

But looking at my pale face, she shook her head and asked me what I saw.

I told her it was a bulky, over 2 inches big and had wings.

“A big brick like face, closed sharp looking jaws, was sitting on two long spiky legs and had black stripes.”

She gulped when I nodded my head, and the others stopped in their tracks.

{Foreboding has become lv 6}

“Don’t stop!” she whispered. Don’t let it know that we already know it’s here. Keep walking it hasn’t attacked us yet maybe it’s just a guard or…”

*Tick*Tick*Tick*

And we saw a shadow passing over our heads and dropping into the grass somewhere in front of us.

{Fear resistance has become lv 9}

{Breath control has become lv 5}

I stopped my breath and tried to hear what it was doing and heard the grass getting churned under its feet.

{Tracking has become lv 2}

{Sensitive hearing has become lv 2}

“Run back, hurry up, he’s coming!!!”

And as if that was the clue for it to attack, it came jumping, more like flying with its mouth wide open.

Fortunately his targets were none of the other ants, and unfortunately it was directly coming for my head.

{Vision has leveled to lv 10}

{Vision has reached its maximum level}

And is presenting you with the option to:

See Far or See Wide

The skill up came at just the right time and I had no delusions to go for seeing far.

*Ting*

[Skill: Clarity gained.]

Clarity: Your eyes take more than your brain can handle, but allow you to see world like never before. Use wisely.

‘Simply Great.’ I thought, but the skill helped me out when I needed it to, and allowed me to dodge the coming missile.

{Evade has become lv 6}

My view toggled from blurred and pixilated sight, into a better than before, but static vision. I even managed to save my neck from being grabbed by the monster, as it flew past me and away into the grass once again.

{Clarity has become lv 2}

{Movement has become lv 9}

The others looked at me completely horrified.

“How did you!! No ant has ever…”

“Stop with the bullshit and run if you don’t want to die!” Team leader slapped the shaking ant, and we ran for our lives.

Though I didn’t get a chance to appraise it, I had full confidence that it wasn’t an enemy that we could defeat just with the ten of us.

*Ting*

[Skill: Confidence gained.]

And when I thought that we would be running into the grass forest to hide, team leader took us out of the grass and into open area.

The others had even paler faces in the open, than the time they we were in the grass.

I felt that something was wrong here.

{Perception has become lv 2}

My soul was screaming to run back from the open, and the feeling couldn’t be compared to the one from the chopper.

{Fear resistance has become lv 10…11…12…}

But my curiosity took slightly over my otherwise wise mind, and the funnel on the ground attracted me.

*Ting*

[Skill: Charm resistance gained.]

“No!” the others screamed, and stopped me from going down the beautiful spiral

{Charm resistance has leveled to lv 2}

My vision cleared and my perception finally kicking a strong sense of dread reached my heart as for the first time I looked into the pit with clear vision.

All my hairs stood up as I saw shadows, hundreds of shadows of ants screaming at me.

{Perception has become lv 3}

*Fuu*

A severe headache attacked me and I canceled perception when the grasshopper once again came jumping from the air.

*Ting*

[Skill: Dizziness resistance gained.]

It leaped over the other members of the team, and doing a parabola came to grab me with its arms open.

My eyes saw him closing the distance between us, but the headache stopped me from moving.

{Dizziness resistance has become lv 2}

I couldn’t do anything as my I heard team leader yell now and my head started falling backwards.

The long legged ant scout then pulled my leg and out of the hoppers way, as it fell into the funnel with a boom.

{Anticipation has become lv 5}

I expected it to come back up jumping with red eyes, but instead I heard it shriek.

*Shriek*

My head becoming normal, I stood back up and walked up to the funnel to see what was going on.

Team leader tried to stop me, but I said it was okay and walked to the edge, and saw how scary the real world really is.

*Shriek*Shriek*

There it was the hopper who was used to playing with small and harmless ants sinking into the pit.

{Fear resistance has become lv 13… 14… 15…}

{Overwhelm resistance has become lv 8}

It was held, and being chopped in half by a huge, really huge, about 10 times the size of my mandibles huge, pale yellow colored jaw.

I gulped thinking which outrageous monster could have such a huge jaw. And I observed the dot hovering over it.

{Appraisal has become lv 6}

Spoiler: Charmingly cruel Ant lion(uncommon)

Charmingly cruel Ant lion(uncommon)

Level

9/15

Phase

Larvae

Rank

1

Job

Assassin

Health

7/7

Stamina

19/19

Skills:

Bite(7), Command(3), Battle Tactician(6), walk(5), Dig(10), Burrow(6), Shovel(6), Charm(2), Jaw of death(1), Patience(7), Clear mind(2), Stamina regeneration, preservation(7), Breath control(5), Vision(2), craftsman(3), Soul collector(8), Sneak(8), Hide(4), Instant(6)

Stat Tier: J

Strength

11

Intelligence

1

Agility

3

Wisdom

2

Dexterity

9

Luck

1

Charisma

6

Vitality

3

My eyes opened wide when I saw that its Stat tier wasn’t K, but j, and understanding its meaning I shivered. I actually shivered.

My eyes met with the sinking hopper, and thought that if my team hadn’t stopped me, then I would have been the one sinking to the ground instead of it.

{Trust has become lv 9}

“Let’s go. We have work to do.” Team leader spoke and started walking toward our destination.

The long legged scout came and placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Let’s go. There are too many things about the outside world that the ants other than soldiers and scavengers don’t know. This is nothing in front of what you will see at our current destination.”

And following the leader we once again started travelling toward our mission site; towards the moving mountain.

{Anticipation has become lv 6}