My mind came awoke in darkness, in the state of complete blankness, unaware of my surroundings, past or situation.

I spent a couple of seconds in serenity before my body also starting waking up.

It was cold around, and dark. The air was completely still and crisp. No scents. No pheromones. No nothing.

Something resisted my movements as I tried to get up, but that sticky something fell apart without much struggle upon pulling. I looked around and found the place familiar yet not. There was soft, grainy dirt under my six feet and not a single source of light, yet the place was lit up. And there was nothing around. Empty was the chamber. Not a soul in sight. There was, however, an anomaly eating into the emptiness.

The ominous sphere was calmly hovering at a distance, waiting.

Waiting for what? The thought filled my mind, and words escaped it faster than I could think them.

“Waiting to show you the end,” They meant.

And as if the door holding my memories had been opened, the past, my decisions and the struggle, everything popped into my head, freezing me for the slightest of seconds before filling me with a shiver of frightful panic.

The stimulation brought me completely awake, sensitive, and on the edge. I clenched my mandibles, on the haunches, ready to defend, when the realization that I was (very much) alive struck me, and that I was alone.

I . . . survived?

I found it hard to believe.

How? I questioned looking at the stillness around, but there were no answers to be found. No clues, no mantis, or the parasite. I have been moved, I thought, looking back at the sphere and the implication of its presence.

I waited, then spoke, “So, this is it?” I asked the sphere, not searching for answers anymore, simply speaking my mind.

However, I knew there were more bugs in the dungeon. I hadn’t even defeated a third of them yet. If the mantis was the last boss, which I didn’t believe to be true anymore, then where were the rest of them?

On the other side of the sphere, perhaps, along with the core I need to destroy?

I moved on. Although I couldn’t solve the mystery behind my survival, there was no point in wasting time. I found relief upon checking my body and finding it whole again. My legs had regenerated, and so had my cracked exoskeleton and mandibles. My pools were also full, strangely including stamina.

Now, I was in an awkward situation. The sphere was my way out, but also possibly into danger. There was, however, no timer hovering in my sight, implying the sphere and its destination being the only path available. There was no longer an option to leave the dungeon. I had to proceed; Hence, the awkwardness.

Although there were no timers, there was however a dim blue message hovering and buzzing lightly at the top dead center region of my sight, suggesting me to take a look — which I did.

Spoiler: Notification Log

Notification Log:

Acute sense has risen from level 7 to11

Sight has risen from level 12 to 15

3-D maneuver has risen from level 10 to13

Overdrive has risen from level 14 to 15

Control has risen from level 1 to 2

Prediction has risen from level 22 to 23

Memorize has risen from level 19 to 20

Vengeance has risen from level 15 to16

Higher poison has risen from level 19 to 20

Tenacity has risen from level 12 to 15

sturdy has risen from level 10 to 16

Confidence has risen from level 1 to 3

High luck has risen from level 21 to 22

Chance has risen from level 18 to 20

echo has risen from level 16 to 17

mana vision has risen from level 13 to 14

Photogenic memory has risen from level 9 to 10

Meditation has risen from level 12 to 15

Inventory has risen from level 7 to 8

Transformer has risen from level 2 to 3

High blunt resistance has risen from level 13 to 15

High pain resistance has risen from level 22 to 23

High health regeneration has risen from level 20 to 23

High mana regeneration has risen from level 13 to 14

High stamina regeneration has risen from level 22 to 24

Wind cannonball has risen from level 22 to 23

Cancel has risen from level 12 to15

{Floor third cleared.}

{You have filled the graveyard of fear with your cowardliness and buried the despair keeping you cowering in front of your nightmare.}

[Reward: Parasitic slimes mana core has been added to your inventory.]

Experience has been granted for clearing the final floor of the dungeon: Graveyard of Feelings.

Congratulations, you have leveled up!

Congratulations, you have leveled up!

You have achieved level 10.

The path to further perfection has opened.

Rest of the experience will be withheld until you evolve.

I have time. I explained to my tired mind. Enough time to get through and become something different . . . something more.

The others are waiting. The urge to return, however, had grown stronger than before.

Tiny’s waiting. So is Bill and Pyro and Genma and Dark and—

I couldn’t bring myself to believe that captain was also waiting for me.

The blame was on me though. It’s always me.

The decisions, none are right or wrong. They all lead to the same destination. Only the path differs. And I had chosen my path the moment I had forced the others out of the dungeon. There was not much regret, however. You do the things you have to do; the words hadn’t been any clearer. But I couldn’t part with the sadness of it all. Give it some berth and it becomes you, making things difficult, as it was becoming for me in the dungeon. Therefore it is important to be brave, to have a vision, and the strength to keep going. It is important to know yourself before deliberating on the choices. After all, decisions create character; one wrong step and the person crumbles.

It is ending soon. I decided and moved on to strengthening myself, to face what was to come.

There were a few skills to evolve thanks to the levels gained, but as was the ongoing trend with the second tier skills, most of them didn’t meet the requirements.

Deter needed Stealth to reach its maximum potential, while Wind cannonball asked me to first learn the second tiers of wind and mana manipulation. Air bullet awarded 2.5 points to my intelligence and wisdom stats, whereas soul damage resistance awarded .5 points to my vitality and wisdom, but both similarly refused to evolve.

Then High health and High stamina regeneration awarded me with 25 points in health and stamina and evolved into Higher Health and stamina regeneration version of themselves.

And Foresight and Prediction combined. The result was something fairly unique.

Foresight has reached its maximum potential.

Prediction has reached its maximum potential.

They have combined to create Future vision.

*****

[Future Vision][Passive][Tier-3][Lv-1/50]

[When the line of fate aligns and your soul yearns for the truth, the path will appear.]

[The levels only determine the clarity of the vision and not the probability of their appearance.]

[Effect: You earn .4 points in your intelligence stat every time the skill gains a level.]

Swim was the only skill left to evolve after them. But before I could get to it, the world wrapped me in its infinite glow and snapped to halt with me in its grasp. A convulsing vision tinted in a mosaic of distorting lights erupted in my head depicting chaos. I was a part of the vision. There was fire: burning, melting, evaporating fire. I was alone. If there was anyone present with me they had long crumbled away and fueled the flames whose bright tongues were long enough to touch the sky.

I sensed something approaching from the west. Hot destroying wind pecked on my fear, growing in strength. It was far, the thing approaching. But it was coming. There was no pain, but the reason for my dread was shockingly tangible. It had barely come closer when my body and mind both crumbled away to the flames of agony burning around me, throwing me out of the vision and back into the dungeon.

I sharply inhaled upon waking up, filling my body with cool and calming air. I was back and there were no fires burning around. No shadows. The sphere was still rotating and the chamber empty. I was still alone. The vision had ended; however, the fear remained. It was shocking, the vision, something undeniable and unimaginable. It took me some time to realize that I was and had been safe, that it was just a vision of my future, something possible but yet to be. That didn’t help.

Something’s coming. Though my inner voice said and there was no denying it. The disaster was coming, but the vision felt nothing like a disaster to me. It was like being in the presence of death, of God.

Sometime later, I was back to my pending skill evolution, but not unfettered like before. I was going through the skill, swim, but couldn’t concentrate. The skill being of tier-one had revealed its two evolutionary paths and I mindlessly chose one option, evolving the skill into Dynamic propulsion.

[Dynamic Propulsion][Active][Tier-2][Lv-25]

[It allows you to convert your mana into a jet of water to propel you forward inside water.]

[The jet uses 5 mp/sec]

My unawareness was an insult to the choices and skills. Something I chided myself for. Although the result wasn’t horrendously incompatible with me, the inability to remember the other option worried me and that helped me get back on track, to get serious. Even if there was no danger around, to mindlessly go through skill evolutions —my main source of strength— was a disgrace to what they represented and their importance.

Swim, however, was the last skill to evolve and only special abilities of the second tier skills remained after it, depressing me further.

Photogenic memory has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Simulation has unlocked.

[Simulation][Special]

[Allows you to simulate a part of your past to perfection in your mind.]

*****

Mystify has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Confusion has unlocked.

[Confusion][Special ability]

[A provoked target has a small chance of getting stuck with status effect: confusion.]

*****

Sculpt has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Tools unlocked.

[Tools] [Special]

[Special sculpting tools become available as the skill grows]

*****

Reflect magic damage has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Absorb unlocked.

[Absorb][Special ability]

[You now have a small chance to absorb 10% mana from the reflected spell.]

*****

Ghost lick has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Energy drain unlocked.

[Energy drain][Special ability]

[This special ability expands on the parent skill and fills your stamina by 2% with every kill, allowing you to continue your rampage without stopping.]

*****

Reveal has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Hidden option unlocked.

[Hidden option][Special ability]

[It unlocks a third choice to the evolving tier one skills.]

*****

Excavate has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Geometrical shapes unlocked.

[Geometrical shapes][Special ability]

[This allows you to excavate geometrical shapes in the strata and beyond.]

*****

Mana rope has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Braid unlocked.

[Braid][Special ability]

[It strengthens the rope created without increasing mana consumption.]

*****

High pain resistance has risen to level 25.

Special ability: Invulnerability unlocked.

[Invulnerability][Special ability]

[It allows you to enter the state of physical pain invulnerability at your liking.]

*****

Mana influence has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Mana Control unlocked.

[Mana management][Special ability]

[You are one step closer to being able to control mana.]

*****

Mana bestowal has risen to level 10.

Special ability: unlocked.

[Sharing][Special ability]

[Now you can share your mana with other living beings.]

*****

Mana extraction has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Recycle unlocked.

[Recycle][Special ability]

[It allows you to recycle mana from the skills conjured and successfully dissolve them.]

If I’m asked to name a special ability from the recently acquired that I liked the most, I would say Invulnerability without a doubt. There is nothing greater than being able to ignore pain and keep going during a fight.

In the wake of the skills, I was left with a feeling of emptiness. What else can I do to prepare? I asked myself. There was the option to complete evolution, but I had hesitations. Not only was I in hostile territory, but there was also the consideration that evolution takes time—a lot of it. Last evolution had me sleeping for days in order to recover from the strain which comes with evolving. Who is to say the same thing or worse wouldn’t happen again? Although, unlike the previous times, there was no timer looming over my head to limit my rest period, having just survived the trap laid by the dungeon had my hair and antennae still perked.

There was however another option I could try; one which could boost my strength by a few margins without putting me in great danger. I’m talking about cultivation. I had recently received the notification informing me that my mana had finally reached 300 points and I could cultivate to the third stage if I wished. I had long met the other requirements, but my mana pool had been stalling me forever. Now, I could finally temper my body a step further, if I wished.

I did.

I sat down forgetting my woes for a second, and started actively meditating to calm my excited mind. Peace slowly descended and I attained the state of calmness. The first thing I did after that was to memorize a few instances of heal. I filled five separate slots with the golden energy to reverse the damage I would be receiving during cultivation and moved on to the next step, which was to control the mana flowing inside me and equally distribute it throughout my body. Once achieved, the only thing left to do was to explode the mana according to the instruction and staying alive.

I activated Invulnerability, looked around for signs of any mischief, and exploded the mana upon finding the chamber still as a corpse.

A bold -300 HP in bloody red came floating in front of my eyes when the mana exploded. My limbs ballooned and boiled. My body caught fire, exoskeleton melted, antennae turned to dust and mandibles fell off. I felt nothing. There was no pain. Nonetheless, I perfectly sensed the vibrations spreading through my body during the process. Strength left me stranded. I couldn’t get up; even breathing became laborious.

Although immune to pain, the near-death situation panicked me. However, calmness kept me focused. One instance of heal to contain the fire melting my exoskeleton, another two for my limbs, one to grow my exploded abdomen, and the last one to fill my health pool. I waited for the notification congratulating me of completing the third stage, and dumped my leftover mana into heal to counter the damage I had suffered.

Congratulation! You have completed the Final stage of body tempering.

It is hard! Hard and dangerous, this path toward strength, but don’t falter now. This is just the beginning.

*****

Reward: +10Strength, +5Agility, +5Endurance, +2Vitality, +1Intelligence.

Your breath has strengthened: each point in vitality is now worth 12 points of Hp.

Your exoskeleton has hardened and body grown stronger: each point in endurance is now worth 1.2 points in defense, and gives stamina to the ratio of 1 to 6.

Strength returned in waves, filling the depths of my body which had never before felt the fire. My exoskeleton expanded, growing to cover even my limbs and abdomen. My silver cast was darker in shade than before, implying the presence of strength.

The stats gained through tremendous in itself weren’t even half as impressive as the increase in their worth. These changes had single-handedly increased my health and stamina pools by a fifth! I couldn’t have gotten a better reward. Though it was disheartening to find that third was the last stage of body tempering, the message of it being just the start however kept me optimistic; though how I would get to the next step was a worry I didn’t consider for the moment, for I had other more important things at hand.

On the dungeon side of things, there were still no surprises. The timer didn’t magically appear and neither did any messages ring in my head forcing me to act. Seeing how the chamber was still motionless, the greed to go through with my evolution did convolute my mind, dividing my thoughts into two opposite groups. One train of thoughts wanted me to do it, to evolve and complete my preparations; the other side, however, was against evolution, stressing that the risk was greater than the reward.

The stalemate broke when I put the variable named bugs into the equation, and then I was rushing through the motions of evolution without stopping. One me against hundreds of them, it would have been foolish to not be fully prepared. It was as much a decision made in preparation, as it was a push from the rush which hadn’t yet settled, and also Greed.

I didn’t forget to use the whole of my mana pool to memorize some skills. Falling stars and wind cannonballs took precedence over everything else. Once I was done with the slots, only evolution remained. Calmness didn’t allow me much excitement, but whatever emotions managed to get past it had me expectant.

[As a silver ‘trap jaw’ ant, you are inherently attuned toward light element and mana related prowess.]

[Please choose a category to evolve: Intelligence /Agility]

The process started as the last time. Previously, I had chosen agility over strength; this time I chose Intelligence, because of my mana needs. The dungeon had already taught me how important it was to keep my mana filled and intelligence was the stat that was directly in relation with.

[Please choose:]

-You have reached an unbelievable 10 points in intelligence and possess skill: Mana manipulation (lv-3), Battle sense (lv-3), Reckless courage (Lv-3), & Title: Berserker, at rank 1; specie: [Berserk silver ant] (Unique) (Tier: F) is available.

-You have reached an unprecedented 20 points in Intelligence and possess skill: Mana manipulation (Lv-5), Heal (tier-2) & Title: Savior; Specie [Grand ant] (Rare) (Tier F) is available.

-You have reached unobtainable 25 points in intelligence and unlocked skills: mana manipulation (max), Poison manipulation (Max), Acid manipulation (Max), Pheromone manipulation (Max); specie: [Origin ant] (Primordial) (Tier: F) is available.

-You have reached 30 points in intelligence. No evolution available.

-You have reached 40 points in intelligence. No evolution available.

-You have reached 50 points in Intelligence. No evolution available.

-You have reached 50 points in intelligence and surpassed 25 points in all six of the other main stats (Strength, agility, Wisdom, endurance, constitution, and vitality.)

[You have far surpassed the limits of an ant.]

[You have reached the point of transcendence.]

[Species: [Gradient ant] (Transcendent) (Tier: E) is available]

My choice couldn’t have been made any easier. Yes. I chose to become the reaper of everything tiered E. I chose to transcend my roots.

­I woke up an unknown time later relieved to be still alive. It had been a very big gamble, to evolve in the hostile dungeon, but the result was worth the risk. I was floating inside some kind of fluid in pitch darkness and could feel the tightness that comes with strength. It was exfoliating, the sensation that I could rip the bugs apart with my mandibles alone. And it wasn’t just my physical strength that had had a rise, but so had my senses. My range had grown further and precise.

Where there was strength, however, there was also hunger. I was ravishing, empty of stomach. Evolution had consumed all of my stamina. There were hunger pangs, them I shut off with invulnerability and broke out of the cocoon keeping me in dark.

There weren’t many options to go to. The sphere was there, rotating, waiting. I entered it. The hunger had me weakened, but I wasn’t worried about that. Remember, I had said that invulnerability was the best skill I had received from the recently unlocked abilities? I’m not taking my words back, just saying that energy drain comes right behind it at second number. It was going to bring me back to full health.

The spheres darkness swallowed me in from the neutral zone and spat me out in a wide and open hollow inside the strata. It was a natural pocket with gleaming wet stone walls. Pointed crystals were jutting out of the walls near the arched ceiling, while down under and right at the approximate center of the cavern was a floating shard glowing coolly in a prismatic wave of colors, filling my surroundings with light.

—Welcome challenger.

A heavy rumbling voice said. I ignored it in order to sweep the cavern for hidden enemies.

—You have changed tremendously, I notice.

It continued, while my senses found no one around. No bugs or the owner of the voice.

—Do you want to destroy me?

It suddenly asked.

“Yes,” I replied, applying various methods to find out who I was talking too.

—Even if you can return back to the company of your friends?

“Yes.”

—why would you do such a thing?

“Because of the danger you represent and the lives you took.”

—But everyone kills. It’s the nature of flesh to die and rot and soul to leave the container. I have simply sped the process. You can’t blame me for that. Even you kill to survive. Do you not?

“Don’t compare me with your cowardly self. I kill to survive. Whereas you take for sport and create from them mindless puppets. We are Not the same.”

—You are wrong, Jack. I’m neither a coward nor I take other's life as a sport. You, however, need not know the reason behind my doings. Tell me: Do you really believe you have what it will take to destroy me?

“You don’t have to worry about that. With no one to protect, how are you thinking of getting rid of me?”

—That will change the moment you touch me. And you will die then, Jack. But fret not. I’ll not destroy your body. You are strong; unbelievably strong for an ant. You will make for my finest pawn yet. But your worth is far greater as a case study than as a pawn. You will make me stronger in more ways than you can imagine.

“I see.”

—Then go on. Show me your rage and bring forth your vengeance. Let me see the hate of a messily ant.

“There,” I said, turning toward the shard. That was the only source of liveliness in the otherwise lifeless hollow. I had tried everything and in the end, it was appraisal that managed to find what I was looking for. The crystal shard was the core I needed to destroy. Although it was suspicious as to how the thing was floating or had grown consciousness, that didn’t stop me from acting.

It had asked me to touch it. I, for the first time in a long while, conjured a wind cannonball, aimed and fired, hitting the floating shard dead in the center. But the core didn’t shatter. In place of the destruction I was hoping, the system rang in my head to warm; and vigilant I grew.

[You have challenged the dungeon core.]

[Your challenge has been accepted.]

[The core has entered the sate of absolute invulnerability and can’t be harmed until the challenge is completed.]

[Survive and earn the right to destroy the core. Die and you lose everything.]

[Beware. The hunt has started.]

The dungeon shook and holes opened in the walls of the cavern as the core started shining golden. The buzzing of wings filled my surroundings. I caught a tug from the hole behind and rushed to meet its occupant.

The curtains were raised, the plot was told, and only the act remained to be played. This was the struggle to decide the farm’s future, our future. I had but one thing left to do: to win.