Me and vice leader, we didn’t sleep at the night. And by the time we were going to, everyone else was woken up by the captains and we started marching.

I didn’t have that hard a time to stay away thanks to my sleep resistance which rose to level 10, and my stamina regeneration which also increased by a level, but it shocked me to see vice leader chilling out in the morning like a sleepless night was nothing to him.

Anyways, we started walking towards our home in the morning after filling our conserves to the fullest with our enemy’s fluids. The journey was long and because of our numbers, we weren’t able to run either.

That led to a slow walk and what was already a long journey felt and became even longer.

I walked with my team and we talked about this and that on route and while we were talking about what to do next, our carrie asked out,

“So who will be the leader now? I mean, I am ready to take the position if everyone is feeling stupid.”

“The hell we are!” Shout out our regulars and passed a smile.

I mean it wasn’t a really difficult question. We all knew that vice leader would be becoming our new leader, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Scouty snorted, gave our vice leader a pat on his back and spoke calmly,

“Of course vice leader will become the new leader. I mean who else did you think it would be? I am telling I can scout but I can’t lead. That’s not programmed into my small brain. ”

“Yes, Yes.”

“Ah! And here I thought it was my time to shine in the lime light…”

*Fufu*

Even I nodded my head at everyone suggestion, but when I looked at vice leaders face, he looked conflicted about something. I was sure for a second that he was constipated, but it wasn’t that.

I tilted my head in confusion and asked him what happened, and he sighed in response.

He stopped walking, and seeing him acting strange we stopped too.

I heard other ants whispering to each other while walking past us, but we didn’t give them a single glace. I had a bad feeling about this and like always my sensations hadn’t acted without a reason.

“I… am sorry everyone.” Vice leader bowed his head and spoke in calm but somewhat sharp voice. His voice was slipping and I knew that he was… crying.

“I- I won’t be able to lead the team.”

“Haha… my day has finally come, I’ll finally have a te… *Smack*”

“Fu…!” A small laugh escaped his mouth and scouty the clown of our team smirked in response.

Vice leader straightened his neck, and sighed. He lifted his hand to slap scouty, but ended his motion with a pat on his head.

“I’m leaving the team.” He spoke and gave us a nice surprise.

“WHAT!” Everyone collectively shouted other than me and scouty, because we already knew this was going to happen.

“But why? Don’t tell me because…”Carrie asked with trembling voice and vice leader answered him looking straight into his eyes.

“Yeah… I have always been following around chichi and joined or rather cofounded the team because of her, but… now that she is… Hah, so I am going to go back to my initial plan.”

“But then what will happ…!!”

The carry exclaimed, but right at that moment scouty placed his hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Our carry looked dumfounded at scout, but then gritted his teeth and didn’t speak after that.

“But don’t worry everyone, you have him now.” My former vice leader pointed toward me and said.

“He’ll be a great leader. Just give him a chance.” he said.

My team mates looked at me for a second then looked at each other, and nodded their heads.

“Yes, if it’s him, I think then…”

*Sigh*

I couldn’t help but sigh. My behavior attracted their attention and I told them, “I’m sorry, but I also can’t help you all. I am also leaving the team.”

“What?” They gave the same reaction, but with less intensity. They asked me why I was doing it and even captain asked me what happened, but I had a perfect reason for leaving. Actually I would have left after a mission or two, but leaving now was better than accepting the leadership now and then leaving afterwards.

“Actually I have been given a job offer by the captain of the scavengers. Though I still have some lev…” I was going to say that I had some levels left to grind, but I remembered that vice leader had told me to not tell anyone about it, so I hurriedly changed my words.

“So, I don’t want to accept now, and then leave you all tomorrow. I’m sorry.”

My team stared at me like I was a traitor, and then the carry started laughing.

“Congratulation, I guess. Well, good luck with your new job then. Goodbye.” He said that and started walking.

“You…!” Scout looked between him and us and went after carrie after nodding his head to vice leader.

Soon everyone else also left after saying their good bye, and only me and vice leader was left standing there looking at their backs.

“Why did he get so angry?” I asked vice captain and his reply made me understand his reason a little more.

“You know he had been together with us from the very start. There as a time when Chichi and I was part of another team and we met him there.”

He looked up at the sky ad reminisced about his old days, “We stayed with the team for two months and like this the team had disbanded. It was at that time that I got my offer and Chichi decided to create a team of her own. He joined us at that time and has been with us for till now.”

Sighing vice leader looked in front of him, trying to find carrie, but he couldn’t and shook his head to clear his mind. “He just didn’t want the team to disband. That’s all.”

I couldn’t believe when I heard it and shouted into his antennas, “What? The team will disband?”

He looked annoyed at me for a second, but still answered me.

“Yes. None of them has the qualification to form a team of their own, so they will either have to find someone with the qualification which is very difficult because that person would probably have a team of his own or one of them will have to rise up and form a new team. Now that is almost impossible.”

I stood there silently and thought what it all meant for our team and asked vice leader with trembling voice, “Th-Then what will happen to them?”

“Now they can only join scatter and join other teams. That’s the best they can do to live on.” He spoke with a hint of melancholy and tiredness to is voice.

Vice leader looked at m worried face and patted my back. “Don’t worry they will be alright. Though they won’t be able to do mission together as a team, but they are capable enough to hold their own against anyone. Also, now that I am not your vice leader, you can call me Genma. That’s my name.”

Our conversation ended there and we started walking again.

I reminisced, thinking about the short but wonderful time which I had spent with my late team. I spent next fifteen minutes to calm my mind and then opened my notification center.

I had leveled up once during the last skirmish and had quite a lot of skills unlocked and pending for evolution. Seeing that it was a simple walk to the mound now, I decided to use the given time and evolve them.

I first checked the various unlocked specials skills. There were four of them and the one I liked the most was the unlocked skill of High luck.

The First notification was for foresight, but instead of hyping me about the future or anything, it made me confused instead.

[Foresight’s special skill: Vision unlocked.]

Vision: Now, you can see the truths.

‘I don’t understand. What is this philosophy about? Though with the kind of skill foresight is, its unlocked skill won’t be a shabby one.’

And with that I moved forward with the next one. Next were sensitive hearing and Equilibrium. Their upgrades were okay. Not too good, not too bad. They were free skills, so I had nothing to hate about them, but just a little later I understood that they were worth more than anything else I had.

[Sensitive hearings special skill: Sound waves unlocked.]

Sound waves: You have understood that sound doesn’t travel without a medium. It needs those grains sustaining life to travel as much as you need them to live. Hearing has increased by 100%. Now no obstacle can hide a sound signature from you.

Your map has been upgraded to show the position of every living thing around you that produces a sound.

But it had one more function, which was to display everyone around me on my map. The information of sound waves allowed me to locate the origin of all the sounds around me and the system automatically used map to show their location to me. But it took me quite some time to know this. Because I didn’t open my map until we reached our home.

Next was equilibrium, but its special skill wasn’t anything special. The main reason I said that was because very few insects attacked with blunt forces, everyone had extremely sharp weapons, and there was only one person who was slamming ants around and that was me.

[Equilibriums special skill: Shock absorption Unlocked.]

Shock absorption: Equilibrium doesn’t only allow you to redirect the forces working against you, but also help you to absorb some of them to reinforce your attacks. You can absorb 40% of the blunt forces acting against you. Force absorption strains your body. So don’t overdo it. Percentage of absorption, increase by 4% for every level of Equilibrium.

And finally it was high luck. Like always, I had no expectations of it. Actually I don’t keep expectations because I don’t want to get hurt afterwards from having demands too high.

[High lucks special skill: Increased chance Unlocked.]

Increased chance: Increases the probability of your skills manifesting by 10%

{The probability of vacuum ball appearing has risen from 30% to 40%}

But the result it gave was a pleasant one.

“What?!” I cried out while walking, and stood out like a sore thumb in the middle of the army.

I felt vice lead… no Genma looking at me curiously. I gestured him that it was nothing and he nodded his head in response.

I looked back at my status and pumped my fist into the air, only in my imagination though. Why was I happy because the 10% increase meant that the probability of vacuum bomb appearing had increased by 30% in one go. It wasn’t normal at all.

I controlled my breathing and after a few energized huffs and puffs I noticed that it was time to evolve my first tier skills.

And upon checking it turned out that I had 11 first tier skills still left pending for evolution.

Nervous and excited at the same time, I started with my two masteries and ended up with a single enemy attack from the sharp weapon mastery and a crowd control skill from the martial arts mastery.

And understood the fact that the various masteries needed at least one skill at the maximum level to evolve, otherwise it always gave an error.

{Slash has risen to its maximum level},

{Basic sharp weapon mastery has risen to its maximum level}

{Basic sharp weapon mastery has evolved to Intermediate sharp weapon mastery.}

*Ting*

[Skill: Cross slash gained.]

Cross slash (Tier 2) Is a manifestation of mana, which not only allow you to harm an opponent at a distance, but also increase the sharpness of your weapons by imbuing mana into it. +25% damage done per slash. +10% piercing damage, +Stun effect, +knockback effect, Cost: 2Mp/ cross slash.

{Slam has risen to lv 10}, {Push has risen to lv 10}

{Basic martial arts mastery has reached lv 10}

Basic martial arts mastery (10) has evolved to Intermediate Martial art mastery (1)

Slam & Push Has reached their maximum levels

And are presenting you with the option to:

Combine or reinforce

*Babump*

My heart rate elevated when I saw that combine option. All of my combined skills had proven their worth and I loved them for their flexibility. There was no way I would have said no to such a delicious offer after having tasted the result once.

Of course I decided to combine and create something unreasonable strong.

*Ting*

[Skill: Rhythmic Quake gained.]

Rhythmic Quake (Tier 2) The trigger to activate this skill is by slamming your legs in a rhythm on the ground.

It will make the ground tremble and knockback everyone around you. Damage: Stun effect(5secs), Blunt damage(50% of your attack power), +knock back effect, The damages increase with each level up. Cost: 1Mp/5sec.

I looked around and saw that it was already noon. It had taken me the whole morning to go through those skills. I still had many skill evolutions pending and decided that no matter what, I would finish them before reaching our home.

So was taunts number to evolve and it gave me a very nasty surprise.

{Taunt has reached its maximum level.}

{Taunt has reached its maximum level}

And is presenting you with the option to:

Attract or repel.

‘Is it about the monsters? I think it’s about whether I want to attract their attention toward me or not? So it will grow up from being a single target to a crowd control skill too. Actually…’

I thought about the Rhythmic Quake skill that I had just gotten. ‘Don’t they actually suit each other perfectly? Like a fly attracted to fire only to get burned in the end. This will be great!’

The skill description alone hyped me to attack a horde of monster with the combo of Rhythmic quake and Taunts Evolution and I hurriedly choose the option to attract.

*Ting*

[Skill: Taunt (Tier 1) has evolve into Provoke (Tier 2)]

Provoke: Provoke will stir up strong emotions in the hearts of all the monsters around you. Using the skill while in midst of strong monsters could lead to untimely death. Please use wisely.

“FU, FU…” I took deep breaths and looked around to see if anyone was looking at me. Actually I wanted to laugh out loud and brag about my skill, but the conflicting emotion inside my heart stopped me from doing so and I moved forward to the next skill on my list.

Reading has reached its maximum level

And is presenting you with the option to:

Grow sensitive or Intelligent.

It was a hard choice to make, but also easier at the same time because I had perception to take care of the sensitive side, but had no skill related to the actual growth my intelligence.

But my heart wanted me to choose the first option and that is why it was a very difficult decision.

In the end of a massive brain storming and ant discomforting growling and groaning, I decided that Intelligence it would be.

*Ting*

[Skill: Intellect Gained.]

Intellect: You have become a clever person.

[Intellect, Intermediate Knowledge, Advanced military formations are combining together.]

Would you like to go through with the process: Yes/ NO

Obliviously it was a yes, and with that appeared my first broken skill. Really broken actually, considering I had blessings which increased my skills levels at every level up, and I was gaining levels everywhere like they were up for free. It was a truly broken skill.

*Ting*

[Skill: Knowledge (Base skill) has been created.]

Knowledge (Base skill) It is the Essence of everything you learn in your life. Every level Increases you knowledge stat by 4.

I was too busy trying to hide my elated expressions from all the soldiers walking with me that I forgot to ask what a abase skill was.

But it was already hard enough, my heart was pumping blood at the speed of a rocket and my body was getting too out of hand, but fortunately I had Willpower and it soon brought me down of my high horse and allowed me to walk without tip toeing.

Anyways, the next skill was revenge and it evolved into vengeance without asking my opinion; just like a real villain.

Vengeance (Tier 2) Revenge is for kids; Men hold a personal vendetta against their sworn enemies. +200% strength, Agility, Defense against those you truly hate and can’t live under the same sky with. Skill: Vengeance strike will be available.

Skill: Soul death will be available.

A truly evil skill it was. But a useless one too, because there weren’t many whom I hated enough to obliterate from the face of Monsteralia

Anyways, next up was muscle memory. I had high hopes from this and it proved my conjectures to be true too.

{Muscle Memory has reached its maximum level}

And is presenting you with the option to:

Attack others or Defend you

‘I knew it.’ It was quite easy to understand actually. Reading the sentence easily gave away the intent of the skill.

The whole option thing could be read like, ‘Muscle memory is presenting you with the option to either defend you or attack others.’

Means the skill which was already similar to an automatic response will evolve into an entity which would either defend myself or automatically attack others.

It wasn’t a hard choice after that per se. I already had a lot of attack skills and with my skill slots, what I needed was a defense skill which would protect me against dangers which would creep up on my spine without me noticing them or perceive them at the very last moment.

*Ting*

[Skill: Auto Defense gained.]

Auto Defense (Tier 2) Your body will move on its own without any signal from your brain to protect your soul container at all cost. The higher the level the smoother the reaction would be.

I was going to check another skill when I collided with the one walking in front of me.

I lifted my head to see what had happened, and noticed that we had already reached our home.

The sun had set, and moon had come up over our heads, but we were home.

I saw the commander flying in front of us with a smile on his face. I knew a speech was coming, but he didn’t speak too many things, and only said, “Everyone… We are home.”