Checking my status I noticed that from my level up I had two skills waiting evolution and decided to evolve them before moving on with my hunt.

So first up was Connections and the skill evolved into a headache. A living, breathing, and whispering headache.

It broke my perfect image in the eyes of my colony into that of a crazy ant and made others assume that I was delusional. I once even had people ask me where they could get the drug I was using.

The embarrassment and shame I felt that day, I still remember it all like it had happened just yesterday.

Anyways, seeing that connection was evolving, I waited for it to present me the options, but…

Skill Connections has reached its maximum level.

And is presenting you with the option to:

B%$#$#vg $%&IBj / %#%Fvhj3b49%*&#%

Clearly my expressions turned dark and I knew a headache was coming my way.

‘What the hell..! Is this a joke?’

“Hey, system, are you joking with me? This isn’t funny though. Hurry up and correct your interface, I am having problems checking…”

And from that moment started my worst nightmare.

No, I’m simply exaggerating things although she really was a headache in the start, but she soon grew to fill that cavity inside my chest.

Without asking my opinion the skill evolved.

*Ting*

[Error code-divine interference occurred.]

[Skill: Telepathic communication acquired.]

*Beep*

[Error occurred while transferring the skill data.]

[Removing skill Telepathic communications.]

*Beep*

[Error occurred.]

[Deletion stopped.]

[Blocking skill channels.]

*Beep*

[Error occurred.]

[Error code- 2B487C-56]

[Cant close the already established link.]

*Beep*

[Disabling the other linked channels.]

[Disable successful.]

*Ting*

[A higher existence is asking to open the channel with you. Do you accept:- Yes/No]

I gulped when I saw that message and without doubt voiced my thoughts with full certainty.

“No!”

*Beep*

[Error occurred. Cant block the link.]

*Ting*

[A higher existence is asking to open the channel with you. Do you accept:- Yes/No]

“No.”

*Ting*

[A higher existence is asking to open the channel with you. Do you accept:- Yes]

“NO!!”

*Ting*

*Ting*

*Ting*

.

.

.

I ignored the tings and everything, but it took the situation whole five minutes to calm down.

The thought of evolving the other skill completely left my head. And I focused once again on the task at hand.

But little did I know that a new parasite like skill had already bored its claws inside my soul, and had quietly settled inside my status.

Having turned into the second red ant who had probably woken up by then, I changed my expressions into that of one filled with grief and sorrow, and ran toward the next group. I yelled all the way, but made sure that the commotion wouldn’t attract more groups.

“Help me!” I yelled and saw the fifteenth pair abruptly moving their heads to look toward me.

“Wha…!”

“Hey what happened…! Why are you running toward us?”

Seeing my initial plan succeed, I move on to the second phase, which was to get in close quarters to them.

“Someone attacked us from the shadows. He killed my partner and wounded me too!”

I hurriedly showed my wounded leg to call sympathy from the pair, and from their expressions I understood that it had worked.

“What? The enemies are already here? Let me call the captain and…”

‘Fuck.’ I thought and hurriedly yelled out.

“No there is no need to do that! It is only a single ant. I don’t think we have to involve the captain because of a single enemy. We can handle him if you both help me.”

“So a single ant killed your partner and made you run away.” The earth ant mage looked at me suspiciously and continued with, “You still think we shouldn’t call the captain… you are suspicious…!”

He bluntly spoke that I was suspicious. I wanted to face palm at his simplicity, but seeing his eye turning I stopped myself from over reacting.

He then moved slightly and changed his stance from that of leisure to that of concentration. He looked and got ready to react in any way against me.

Seeing him turning oppressive his partner also looked at me perplexed.

“Hey, no need to act like that toward one of ours and you stop there for a second and we’ll…”

He saw me rushing toward them without stopping and frowned. He hid behind his tank like wall of a partner and shouted from behind him.

“Stop or I will have to retaliate in self defense!”

But it was already too late by then.

Activating haste, I became a blur and became invisible to their vision. I reached them in a single second and thought that I had succeeded, but right then the earth mage snorted and said,

“Humph! You think speed can win against my defense? Naive!”

“Earth barrier.”

And just as he finished speaking an earthen colored translucent globe covered them both behind it from every side.

I was already attacking and there was no way for me to stop in middle of my action, so instead of stopping I decided to move forward and opening my mandibles, I made a cut at the globe.

*Ton*

A wave originated on the barrier from the point of contact and travelled on it as if it was the surface of a lake and I had dropped a pebble into it, but unfortunately my attack did little more than hurting my jaw.

The barrier didn’t break. Hell, it didn’t even crack!

“Humph! I understand, you are one of those shape shifters. And it seems you have already killed some of our friends..”

“What?? Partner, open this barrier! I’ll roast this motherfucker right here, right now.”

The red ant who was behaving calmly until now suddenly turned hot and showed his nature, but the yellow ant simply shook his head.

“That is not going to be possible. I can’t dispel this barrier. Although it can block all the incoming attacks as it has very high durability, but it also stops us from attacking from the inside.”

“What, sh!” the red ant then looked toward me and spoke, “Consider yourself lucky boy, if this barrier wasn’t here then I would have roasted you… wait what are you…”

It’s not like I did nothing while the idiot duo conversed with each other.

Hearing that they couldn’t attack from the inside only made me more daring and did nothing else.

I went close to the ball and looked deeply at it. I thought that my skills, inspection or the evolved weakness tracking would help me out, but they did nothing of the sort.

And I had to resort to the old way of opening jars.

Seeing me getting ready to do something the Fire mage started yelling out.

“Hey what are you doing? There is no way you can break the barrier. Our comrades will be here soon. So, run away before they come.”

He then elbowed his partner and whispered, “It will hold on right?” and made me giggle.

But the absolute confidence that the boar like earth mage showed did made me hesitate and to get my priority straight.

‘Okay, let’s do this. Let them come. I’ll handle when the time comes. And if it comes to that, I’ll simply jump down into the cavern.’

Having made my mind, I used my fist skill, midst the crying from the red ant and the snort of the barrier master.

I activated Mandible wave and…

*BOOM*

The ground shook, dust scattered, and I got pushed back.

Which confused me. I hurriedly looked up to see what became of the barrier and saw the fire tongued brat covering his eyes with his hands and shivering.

The commotion from the skill soon died down and he peeked form behind his façade of strength.

“Haaha, like hell someone like you can break my buddy barrier. He is the strongest barrier master in our colony!”

“No, not the greates…”

“You really think you can break the break? Even I your father can’t break it so how can a plebe like you do anything to it? Just try and leave a scratch before our comrades arrive. Ha-ha, Imbecile!”

His taunts worked like a charm and made me angry.

I ate a seed to get my mana back to its highest heights, and attacked once again.

This time no wave attacked the barrier, and instead Mist came gushing out of my body, and soon covered the barrier from all the sides.

*Shh*Shh*SHh*

The barrier soon started emitting sounds akin to a hot surface having touched water.

And just when my mist covered it formal the sides smoke started rising form the barrier and it started trembling.

“Big brother, do something! Do something, it’s going to break! IT’S BREKAING!”

“Just shut up and see for yourself. It won’t break so easily. Though I have to say this skill of his is rather dangerous.”

It felt good to see that sly fox trembling inside the barrier, but even the acid mist failed to destroy the barrier.

“Fuck!”

“Fuck!”

“FUCK~!!”

I bellowed out my anger on the barrier with punches, kicks, snaps, slashes, but nothing worked on it.

Gritting my teeth, I decide to use one last skill before moving on without killing them.

I opened my mouth and took a deep breath. I was going to use air bullet and see whether its penetrating ability would allow me to break the barrier or not.

And while I was taking the breath, I realized something.

From the start until now, I had been preparing the skill in steps. Like,

Usually I first breathe in all the air that I can, and then compress it inside my mouth.

While mana does its thing and compress the air, the quantity still only attains the upper limit of my lung capacity.

And having seen so many red ants firing super size fireballs, I understood that I was wrong.

I had been using the skill wrongly. No, I simply never understood its essence of the skill.

Opening my mouth I inhaled air, but didn’t breathe it in and instead started the compressing procedure outright.

The process was tough, too tough and the compressed air bullet started getting out of my hand, but, my blessings played a very important role and helped me in handling the pressure.

*Ting*

[Skill: Mana control gained.]

*Ting*

[Skill: Wind manipulation gained.]

[You have reached a point in your understanding of the skill Air bullet that has transcendent the skill and basic level system.]

*Ting*

[Skill: Wind Cannon ball (Tier 3) acquired.]

Wind cannonball: If a bullet can Wound and puncture upon contact, a cannonball can outright destroy the target itself Effect: Deals +100% Shock damage, +300% Blunt damage Cost: 4 Mp/standard ball.

And with that skill evolve notification, my skill preparation ended.

Mana gathered and restricted wind from getting loose. At the same time the air I inhaled compressed to the limits and twenty seconds later a ball the size of my eye hovered outside my mouth.

“Wha… What are you doing?”

But, I didn’t listen to more of their bullshit and let loose my fury.

*Wush*

The ball flew toward the barrier in a straight line and struck like a meteor.

*Tiang*

The barrier which could handle my mandible cut like a boss, didn’t even hold on for a second and shattered like glass in front of it.

“What the he… Gwack…Ahhh!”

I stared mesmerized at its power, as it didn’t stop at the barrier and directly struck the earth mages chest and exploded.

*Boom*

A very loud sound, as if someone had brutally struck a hammer on a metal plate, rang out and wild raging wind exploded out from the ball.

“Ahh!!!”

The red ant flew backwards, rolled on the ground and screamed.

“Fuck!”

Even I had to get low on the ground to save myself from getting blown away.

I finally looked toward the pair when the wind subsided and what I saw left me tongue tied.

There was a huge hole, a hole bigger than the size of the cannon ball itself, and the mage had no chest left to speak of.

His partner, the fire mage tried to wake him up, but like hell he was waking any time in this lifetime.

Fluids dripped out of his hole and fell to the ground. If the skill description explained how dangerous a skill I had gotten my hands upon, then the destruction or rather the damage it caused truly explained its worth and its cost.

“Ahh! Stay away, stay away…!” The red ant screamed.

His yells were loud enough to attract the attention of others, but what could I have done. After all the commotion created by the wind cannon wasn’t anything small either.

The red ant was simply too scared to act like his level, and lost his life too easily.

A simple and efficient stab from a spike which magically appeared from the ground thanks to the extension option, silenced him, but unfortunately, the others or rather everyone else was already coming.

I had enjoyed killing them silently, but I knew from here onwards it would be a slug fest.

I decide to evolve the last of my pending skills in preparation for the upcoming fight, and hoped that noting out of ordinary would happen.

{Learning has reached its maximum level}

And is presenting you with the option to :

Imbed or substitute

‘Imbed, what, and where would I…? Moreover substitute what?’

Those options were too much for my small mind to comprehend. Though I did try to understand the relation of the option to the skill, but I ended up with nothing other than lost time in the end.

Lost in thoughts, I decided to substitute my learning or whatever the hell it was, and the system gave me a nice surprise gift to send me into the upcoming fight.

*Ting*

[Skill: Echo gained.]

Echo: Creates an echo for all magical skills you use, free of cost.