{Skill: Roar has changed into Skill: War cry.}

War cry A Roar can silence everyone and attract their attention, but a Leaders war cry can lift the spirits of their comrades, make them believe in the impossible and can even tear down enemy forces from the ground up. Every level up increases the area of effect and the time its effect last for.

Effect:

All allies in 1meter radius of you gain +30% health regeneration, +15% Mana regeneration, Doubles their defenses and increase their attack power by 10% for the next one minute.

Cost: 5Mp

Satisfied with the changed skill, I walked toward my next pair and they turned out to be even stupider than the previous one. They welcomed me without asking any questions and even gave me the stubs on their own.

They even said things like, ‘a brother should help others’.

But calling them stupid was a mistake which would have taken my life if it wasn’t for my own agenda. My Mind read laid bare their inner thoughts and allowed me to see how cunning and ferocious they actually were.

The red ant actually had the ability to form a mental connection with his partner, and they made quite some devious plans behind the scenes.

While on the outside they said words like, “Oh don’t stand there alone, come join us. Let’s kill the bastards together.” With a smile on their faces and acting real friendly toward me, and on the inside… They or rather the red ant showed his real character.

‘Hey if we kill him then won’t a contender for the prize decrease?’

‘But he is our brother! I don’t want to kill our brother if we don’t have too.’

‘Shesh! Don’t act like a kid and think about it carefully; like a man. Didn’t you say you wanted money to enjoy with that lady bug in the red grass lane.’

‘That is a different thing!’

‘Is that really so different? Killing him will increase our share and we’ll get a better pay. And then there’s the chance of us reaching the highest kill count too.’

‘But…’

‘Okay let me ask what he is here for.’

“So brother how come you are here?”

I told him that I used up all of my regeneration stubs and he said, “Oh, I see.”

{Mind read has risen to lv 6}

And he once again went back to talk mentally with his partner.

‘See! He used all of his stubs, that means he has attacked more times than us, which means he has more kills than us. We need to kill him. It’s the only way.’

My face twitched in between their conversation and just as the other one said okay, I bit at the red ants head.

“What the he…??”

I snorted when I saw him trying to conjure a fireball, and punched him in the gut.

{Punch has risen to lv 3}

“Pfft…” he spurted out saliva from my punch and stopped breathing for a second.

My eyes meet with the yellow ant, and at the same time I bit at the head with all of my strength.

*Snap*

{Intermediate Mandible mastery has rise to lv 3}

A loud noise erupted as my mandibles closed and struck each other. Following which the red ants head fell onto the ground.

A fountain of fluids erupted from his neck and covered my face. I smiled as the fluid splashed on me and forming a devilish smile spoke to the yellow ant,

“Don’t worry it will be painless.”

{Eye of Terror has risen to lv 4}

The yellow ant ended up soiling himself when I said that, and that only made my decision firm.

“Sorry brother, you just choose the wrong colony to take birth in.”

He crawled backwards screaming, and tried to jump down into the pit, but a caught him and activated root.

My feet got firmly planted into the soil, and he gulped when he saw my rage filled face.

“Just die.”

{Root has risen to lv 3}

{Slash has risen to lv 7}

I changed into the yellow ant thinking his frailty would help me in the long run, and it proved to be true too. I ate another stub to regenerate my mana and got back to my hunt.

{Shape shifting has risen to lv 3}

The next pair didn’t even turn around after they initially checked me coming toward them.

Their action left me thinking.

‘Are they that confident in their strength?’ I had thought, but it turned out they were simply idiots.

I Activated dissolve and spiked them directly through their heads.

<>Critical Hit!<>

The red ant died right there, while the yellow ant endured through it.

He abruptly turned his head to look at me, but I kicked his head back into his initial position.

{Dissolve has risen to lv 7}, {Spike has risen to lv 6}

I once again tried to stab through his head, but failed and activating dissolve took a bite at his neck.

“Ahhh!” He screamed as my skill dissolve worked like a charm against his sturdy defense.

He did try to move about, but I used my legs and bound him to the ground. It took time, lots of time to dissolve his sturdy exoskeleton, but once my acid burned through, the rest was as easy as cutting through paper.

Mandible cut and its special effect tore through his neck, and his head too looped through the air and fell a little distance away.

Having killed the ant I looked around to see where he had stowed his stubs, but I didn’t find anything. But just as I was about to move away, my chest started feeling warm.

Having experienced perception before I knew what this was. I followed my senses and walked to my left. The more I walked the warmer my chest got and soon I reached a stone which looked clearly out of place.

Even my inspection skill told me that something was wrong with the place. I lifted the stone and there the seeds were.

I picked up their mana regeneration seeds and moved onto the next target.

{Dissolve has risen to lv 9}, {Mana regeneration has risen to lv 4}, {Treasure sense has risen to lv 6}, {Perception has risen to lv 18},

The fifth Pair appeared too vigilant and had their guard up, even when there was no one in the groove other than the ants from their own colony. I had to sneak onto them from the roof, and do a surprise attack.

Upon reaching right above them, I did a mandible wave which pushed them onto the ground and made me soar toward them.

{Mandible wave has risen to lv 3}

My spear turned leg pierced through one of them, killing him on the spot, while the yellow ant attacked me with earthen spears of his own.

“I was right! Someone really is after my life!”

I didn’t partake in his delusion and dodged the dangerous looking earth spears. I moved left, slid down, rolled across and finally jumped over his head. I fell behind him and using the force from my fall, I turned four of my legs into spikes, which ate through my small mana reserves like a parasite and stabbed all four of them into his abdomen.

{Reflex has risen to lv 9}, {Dodge has risen to lv 4}

“SHeahhh!”

He screamed and struggled, but I didn’t stop there and tore through his exoskeleton like it was paper.

My eyes turned red as I remembered the face of my team leader, and activating fury slashed its abdomen apart.

I started eating him in anger, while he screamed and struggled to move away.

He tried and tried to move out of my clutches, but I didn’t let him go and bit, bit, bit until I reached his thorax.

The bite, chewing, engulfing, roaring, and gnashing teeth did help me overturn my fury, but it was already too late for my opponent.

{Fury has risen to lv 15},{Intermediate mandible mastery has risen to lv 4},{Mandible cut has risen to lv 11},

I looked at his pitiful head and sighed seeing that it was the only thing left of his. I had already eaten him up till his front legs. His fluids drenched me and the ground alike, creating a symphony of horror between us.

“Hah, hah, hah…”

I took deep breaths as emptiness surrounded my heart, and made me forget where I was for a moment.

I stared absentminded at the wall behind the dead ant, who had his last legs extended in front of him. Probably trying to grasp for hope which wasn’t anywhere near us. His body stored his last moments of struggle in perfect shape.

A solemn drop of water escaped the clutches of my eyes and rolled out silently down my cheek.

I let it be and hoped that the ever extending void that had formed inside my chest would stop expanding without notifying me beforehand, but like a free bird, it only soared and made me weak in the knees.

I rested there on the ground for five minute, before I finally stood back up, with resolve filled mind and started walking again.

{Mental influence resistance has risen to lv 7}, {Willpower has risen to lv 11}

[Willpowers special skill: Mental Influence resistance (max) unlocked]

{Mental Influence resistance has risen to lv 25}

[Skill: Mental Influence resistance (25) has evolved to Skill: High Mental influence resistance (1)]

I checked my status and saw my experience hovering at 65% and nodded my head. My mana was full, my stamina was also full. And once I started walking, I became a hurricane that swept through the fire breathers like a demon.

Pair 6, pair 7, all the way up to pair fourteen, didn’t even get to see what was happening or who took their lives.

No they actually did see me coming, but because they were too busy either attacking the ants in the cavern or meditating they didn’t notice me. And by the time they did find me, it was already too late for them to act against me.

Screams erupted and blood showered into the cavern, but a few drops of blood didn’t matter to the warriors dragging their legs through the blood filled mud.

Spike turned out to be more useful than I had thought that it would. Not only did it help me tear apart my opponent’s defense, but it also showed most amount of growth in all of my skills that I used.

I slowly took out my spear turned leg from my twenty eighth kill and sighed. I finally checked my skill gains and sighed once again.

{High Stamina regeneration has risen to lv 6}, {Spike has risen to lv 11}, {Equilibrium has risen to lv 8}, {Deter has risen to lv 9}, {Mandible cut has risen to lv 14}, {Slash has risen to lv 9}, {Stealth has risen to lv 5}, {Haste has risen to lv 12}, {Perception has risen to lv 20}, {clarity has risen to lv 15}, {Air bullet has risen to lv 4}, {Mend wave has risen to lv 4}, {Fire resistance has risen to lv 10}, {Basic martial arts has risen to lv 9}, {Foresight has risen to lv 8}, {Prediction has risen to lv 6}, {High luck has risen to lv 9}, {Fast processing has risen to lv 10}, {Reflex has risen to lv 11}

[Spikes Special skill: Extension unlocked]

Extension: The spikes which were once bound to your various body parts can now be unleashed from everywhere.

[Fast processing’s special skill: Cereboost unlocked.]

Cereboost: you have reached the point with fast processing where your natural brain speed has evolved and improved. You think faster, you act faster, you react faster. A boost to your overall thinking ability.

[Reflex’s special ability: Acrobatics unlocked.]

Acrobatic: You know something has changed. All that movement didn’t simply make you agile, but has allowed you to have a firmer grasp over your body. Flips, which were once the bain of your species will from now onwards are your specialty.

Gulping a mouthful of saliva, I looked down into the pit and saw that our captain was now fighting with a different, more agile and acrobatic ant.

I looked around to see where that motherfukcer who had killed my…

After five minutes of acute concentration and focus I found the limbless, headless body of the enemy brute captain lying or rather being crushed under the feet of hundreds of ants slugging with each other.

‘Being crushed like an insect is all that you deserve.’

I saw neither his head nor his limbs, but that overly toned body allowed me to recognize him.

It was him. He had died. I sighed with mixed feelings. Although I was happy that my captain had killed him, but the little voice inside me grew cold and distance as if its wish had been left unfulfilled.

Yes, I wanted to slay him with my own hands, but neither did I have the courage nor the strength to do so. Even so I felt disappointed. Disappointed that my team leader… That she had died by his hands.

Sighing I saw the captains fight and noticed that his opponent although wasn’t stronger than him, but he was fast enough to dodge past all of his attacks. His slim and sleek body allowed him to narrowly escape past captains attacks.

But my captain also wasn’t in his top condition. His condition clearly explained the effort he must have given to kill that piece of shit!

Bu it wasn’t like he was alone.

His friend, our colonies very own genius red ant was helping him here and there, between fighting against two enemy captains on his own.

Different colored skills were flying all over the place every five seconds, and at least one ant was dying every second.

The cavern had long turned into hell and the guardians of hell were destroying everything with their every move.

Captains ‘Fire breather’ titled brother was trying to help him, but he also had it difficult. As every time he tried to move past and toward his friend, a massive and extremely hot fireball would always find its way toward his back.

Their fight was intense and looked dangerous, but it looked more like a catch and run game than a fight.

“What am I doing? I don’t have time to waste.” I gave the fight one more looked before I checked my status and saw that I had already become lv 6 and my experience bar was standing tall at 20% experience to level 7.

I had a lot of skills waiting evolution and decided to see if I could gain something useful out of them.