We didn’t meet anyone on the road to the trees, but my senses kept on flaring as if something was going to happen in the near future.

I used perception, but nothing came up.

Twenty minutes later we started climbing the wall they call tree, and moved further and further away from the ground.

And this climb increased the last level that [Climb] needed to reach its maximum level.

{Climb has risen to lv 10}

{Climb has reached its maximum level}

And is presenting you with the option to:

Be strong or Be fast

Ants are already strong, so I simply decided to go with fast, because although ants are fast there are faster things in the world.

*Ting*

[Skill: Haste gained.]

Haste: allows you to go faster than you already can. But be careful or your legs might break. Its side effect decreases with every level up.

{Iron grip has become lv 8}

I gave the skill a Wisk, and the next moment I was walking right next to the team leader at the front.

The effect was that great.

And I didn’t feel a thing. ‘Maybe the side effects only kick in when I use it for prolonged times.’ Is what I thought, and it was proved to be true later that day.

I looked around to check our vicinity and the only thing which attracted my attention was a mountain with a big hole leading inside it.

{Map2.0 has risen to lv 4}

We kept our eyes open, and tried to stay away from the bee’s area, while I saw things that were too big to be true.

“We need to follow this branch to the next tree and the next and after travelling through five such trees we’ll be at our home. So stay silently and walk quickly, okay. We have a long way to go.”

{Intermediate knowledge has risen to lv 3}

Everyone nodded their heads, and no one said anything. But just then my senses started flaring once again.

Understanding that something was wrong, I whispered it into the ears of the team leader, who instead of getting mad happily replied saying, “They are finally here.”

I didn’t understand who she meant were here, but then saw the vice captain and the fire ant getting ready to bring their respective powers to display.

I also got ready for whatever was coming and my hair stood up from excitement.

{Anticipation has risen to lv 6}

I activated my sensitive hearing, used clarity, activated haste, concentrated on the surrounding, and with my perception on full throttle, I finally found out what it was.

{Sensitive hearing has risen to lv 4}

I detected ten Fireballs similar to the vice captains attacks, flying toward us from our backs.

“Duck.”

I shouted and made a complete 180 degrees turn, as the fireball aimed at my head went past me stinging me in the process.

*Ting*

[Skill: Fire resistance gained.]

{Evade has risen to lv 9}

My concentration peaked at that single moment, when I saw 10 black ants running towards us.

My perception perceived a similar amount of ant coming from beneath the branch, some jumping from the branches at the top and 10 coming from the front.

“It’s those motherfucking black ants!!”

“Hey, I am a black ant too. Now team, adapt defensive formation. We need to hold on until they come.” Team leader ordered as the enemy black ants neared us.

{Perception has risen to lv 5}

{Basic military formation has risen to lv 4}

I tried to make a plan of action as fast as I could, but nothing came to my novice mind.

“Haaha, Now you are dead.” The enemy leader of the black ants for some reason spoke the words when he saw me with a wicked smile on his face.

It confused both me and my team.

And at the same time my perception detected another volley of fireballs, which I evaded splendidly, but then one of our carriers who wasn’t able to dodge the fireball at the time, got squarely hit by it on the back of his head.

{Evade has risen to lv 10}

{Evade has reached its maximum level}

This skills route is preselected.

*Ting*

[Skill: Dodge gained.]

Dodge: Makes dodging easier. Nothing else.

{Revenge has risen to lv 3}

Fury took over me, as my eyes turned read, and my legs started steaming with haste.

“Don’t!!” Team leader yelled, but my mind under the effect of fury and concentration refused to listen to anyone, and simply concentrated on the enemies.

I took a step forward, reached the Black ants coming toward us and punched the one in the middle in his gut, but it acted before my punch could hit it, and even with the combo of fury and haste, he defended against it.

I didn’t give it time to make a move, and moving to its back, bit at its bottom. My mandibles tore through its bottom like butter, but before I could kill it another barrage of fireballs came to haunt me, and I had to move, leaving the ant behind crying in pain.

{Haste has risen to lv 2}

{Bite has risen to lv 9}

I moved past the line of black ants at speed they could although see, but not react too.

“What the hell is that?”

“Is that a variant too?”

And midst the reaction like these, I reached the mage circle.

And fortunately for me there were no ant soldiers waiting to protect them. There were ten of them, and all of them were simple low rankers.

I directly and brutally bit ones head off, and stabbed another in the eye.

{Stab has risen to lv 7}

Lifted him from his neck and slammed him onto the one on the right.

*Ting*

[Skill: Lift gained.]

I then jumped up, and with my legs pointing down straight I dived.

I didn’t activate feather fall, neither did I evade the fireballs coming from below.

And midst a shower of firecrackers and some skill up, I stabbed the body of the ant on the ground with my legs and tore through him.

{Slam has risen to lv 4}

{Stab & Pierce has risen to lv 8}

I Dodged past three fireballs, and punched another in the gut, he bent [ > ] and the one standing behind it timed a fireball at my face.

*Bam* It exploded and my face got covered in smokes.

“Well, done kid. You have done it.” The enemies shouted.

{Equilibrium has risen to lv 2}

{Fire & Pain resistances have risen to lv 4}

{Iron skin & hard body has risen to lv 9}

*Ting*

[Skill: Health regeneration gained]

My blood boiled as my inner voice reprimanded me for getting hit, moreover on the face.

The sound of me gritting my teeth reverberated in the area, as the enemy mage flinched and my leg moved.

Moving at a speed which the simple mage wasn’t made, neither trained to see, my leg covered the distance between his head and the ground in under a second, and was just about to pierce his face when I heard…

“If you don’t want them to die, then stop now!!”

{Decider, Bare handed mastery has become lv 9}

{Revenge has risen to lv 4}

{Fast processing, concentration has risen to lv 2}

I froze in the middle of my motion with leg having just entered the eye of the scared and pissing fire ant.

I looked back and saw that the team leader and others had already killed 15 of the enemies, but had ultimately lost to the enemy numbers.

That one carrier who had gotten fire balled on his head was dead, and the rest looked battered too.

I glared at the enemy leader who snorted at my action.

{Glare has become lv 8}

Then I looked away and my eyes meet with the team leaders, and her eyes didn’t tell me to give up. They instead said,

“Yell!!”

And I yelled at the top of my voice. Not only me, but the other members joined us too.

{Yell has become lv 7}

“What are they doing?”

The enemy leader couldn’t understand at first.

“Hey scout, what are they trying to do?”

But he soon understood it when he heard the sudden buzzing, and a second later the scout standing to his left had a stinger sticking out of his chest. The leader’s eyes instead of meeting with the scout instead saw the compound eyes of a squash bee. Who after looking at him in confusion shrieked, and flung the scout down from the tree.

“Fuck! Why are the bees here already?” The enemy leader stepped back in fear, as the bee opened her jaw, and tilted her neck to the side.

“Are you stupid? Did you really think that you would use a scout, and we wouldn’t know about it? Our scout is also very capable you know. No, actually he is the best scout in all of the scavengers. And now, you will pay for your foolish action.” Team leader taunted him.

And I finally notice that what my perception had been picking up from the start were signals of her releasing pheromones all this time.

*Ting*

[Skill: Pheromones gained.]

[Skill: Pheromone manipulation gained]

“Bees have a very strong sense of smell, you know.” She said with a smirk, which pissed the enemy leader off.

And then her voice got drained under the constant buzzing of the bees.

Looking up I saw that there were hundreds of bees flying over our head, and covering the sky.

“Come on, let’s go. Let them handle these bees.” Team leader shouted, and I complied with the orders.

Biting the head of one fire ant, I ran toward my team, as the murder of the enemy scout bit the head of their captain, and became aggressive toward the ants near her.

I moved without looking at my constant skill up messages and sneaked past the bee in frenzy, and saw the others jumping down from the branch.

My heart leapt out of my mouth when I remembered how high we were, but my perception caught their signal, and looking down I saw that they had safely landed on the tree leaves just beneath the branch.

And I jumped to follow them. I saw the happy face of team leader suddenly turning from happy to pale, as she yelled about something, but I couldn’t hear her as with my anger calming and a headache from using all of those skills in conjecture, had come to bite me back.

{Dizziness resistance has risen to lv 3…4…5…}

*Ting*

[Skill: Faint resistance gained.]

The last of the scenes I saw were of me ascending upwards, flying in the air as the faces of my team member once again got further and further away. I saw some of the other bees holding the enemy black and fire ’mage’ ants in their legs, and taking them back to their honey comb.

I understood that I had been kidnapped and was being taken to their home, but my depleted stamina didn’t let me recover from my headache, as my vision got hazy and I lost conscious.