Author's note:-

This is a very long chapter. it almost equals to the last three chapters on its own.

Enjoy...

Third Person P.O.V:-

D’sue ’The knight’ who was at the front holding the fort, was the first one to move out of the dark, narrow and unconventionally long tunnel. After him came James ‘The swordsman’, followed by everyone else. Because of the fireball attack and those still lingering flames, there was a lot of light inside the not so big and now crowded space. Though the pocket of space they were in right now was bigger enough for all of them to stand, but after they all moved inside, it became a bit congested.

They stood by creating a circle around the Ant’s now obliterated body. Everyone was looking at the heap of ash with sweat running down their necks. Yes, the heat and narrow tunnel played an important role in them sweating furiously, but the thought of Martha ‘The mage’ burning the Ant down back to nothingness had a greater hand in it.

The Archer ‘Roby’ was looking between the ash and Martha from time and time again, while frowning at the same time. While everyone else still just thinking about the power that Martha’s spell must have contained, or about the monster that was now no more, their leader moved.

Striding forward, while keeping his back straight and his long legs strong, he strolled near the ash and stopped. He moved his hand with the intentions to touch it, but just when his hand was about to touch the remains, it vanished. Though the movement of his hand was quite fast but the monsters remains flashed for a second and without giving him any time to adjust or even think, they disappeared.

He was unprepared for this. Who knew, the monster remains would vanish into thin air upon touching? Though the remains vanished, but without giving anyone even the time to blink, in its place a pair of mandibles appeared out of nowhere. This left their leader a bit shocked and he went into a state of trance. Being knocked into such a situation, not only him but everyone else also felt a bit bewildered by it.

Before coming inside this good for nothing cave for this hunting session, they had never heard about a monster’s dead burnt body vanishing into thin air and instead being replaced by a part from its body. Such a concept was really irregular and astonishing.

While everyone was think to themselves about what they had just witnessed, they heard their leader saying, “so, suggestions anyone? Though at the start, I thought this expedition would be a light one, but now my opinions are changing, bit by bit. From the design of this cave, to the monsters, everything here is a bit weird and eerie. I don’t know about you all, but from all the monsters that I have ever hunted, none of them disappeared in front of me and were replaced by a complete part from their body. So if any of you have experienced or heard about any occurrence like this before, then please do share. Okay.”

Their leader was right, monsters don’t just go ~puff~ when they die. No matter how strong a monster is or whatever kind of an environment it is in. A dead monster remains dead and they don’t resurrect, while its body also doesn’t disappear and is the reward for its hunter to harvest. So, this seemingly easy hunt now turned into a slug fest of tunnel crawling and mystery solving.

While everyone was still knocking their heads into a wall to find about the reason, someone spoke in a low almost inaudible voice, “But don’t dungeons usually have such a system of a dead monsters remains disappearing and item drop at their death?”

The one who spoke those words didn’t speak again. He remained quiet and stood at the place where he was standing without showing any change in his expression or anything. The reason for such a change in his attitude was because his surroundings and everyone else near him had turned obnoxiously silent. He knew that he had just said something that he shouldn’t have, but like to making mockery of his silence someone laughed.

Then one after another everyone started laughing and suddenly laughter rang out inside that extremely quite space. His unconsciously moved lips had lightened everyone’s mood. “Yeah, right, a dungeon really is what this place is. A dungeon that is so tasking from the very start, that even seasoned B rankers like us are having problems completing it moreover, we are still on the first floor. I don’t think there are any dungeons in the whole wide world which would provide such great obstacles right from the start. Though the monsters rank is almost nothing, but for beginners the trip to this place will turn into a trip to hell itself.” Martha said, while trying to suppress her laughter by closing her mouth with both of her hands.

On one side Martha was trying to control her over flowing emotions and on the other side D’sue was giving his opinion on the situation, “Yes, her words are correct. There are no dungeons in this world that had ever tried to be so full of misery right from the start, but the vanishing of our dear Mr. ‘Burnt to ash’ Ant also can’t be explained as a normal everyday occurrence. I think that we should keep on traveling deeper into the cave, and if it really is a dungeon then we are bound to fight with the dungeon lord, and if we do end up fighting with a dungeon lord at the end of this all, then we would have no need to look for answers about whether to kill or not.”

“Okay. So, everyone what do you think we should do now. We have two choices…”Expressions on their leader face got serious. Even though his face has been stiff throughout the journey, but his big eyes and hard face really looked scary at that moment. Everyone wanted to know, what kind of a situation they were in that their leader was acting so strange. After looking at all of them one by one he spoke, “What do you all think? Does it matter whether this ‘cave’ is a dungeon or not? And whether we’ll meet a dungeon lord at the end of this all or not? The only thing that we need to do is to kill everything that crosses our path and to determine whether the Queen sitting and waiting for us at the end is dangerous to our fellow humans’ survival or not. So let’s end this discussion right here, because I think, we still have a lot of distance to cover and we are already very tired. Now, I don’t want to fight with a Rank 5 or rank 6 Ant queen after depleting all of my energy and everything. Or would you all like to do such a stunt?”

What is a stunt? It is something which is deemed extremely dangerous and almost impossible to be done by normal humans, and in this case, them.

Everyone nodded their heads without flinching or even thinking about the content that he spoke of. They were too busy to not be the last one to express his or her approval to his decision.

Looking at them unconditionally and without any break nodding their heads to his actions, he also nodded his head once before asking, “So shall we move now? I think this much rest is enough for everyone, right?”

“Yes sir.” Was the answer that they all shouted without showing even a shred of disapproval.

“Ah! Someone please pick those mandibles before coming, okay. We’ll have to give these to the guild to verify our story.” He said while walking toward the tunnel, that lead to the inner parts of the cave.

Hearing him say that instead of nitpicking on who would hold the materials, D’sue bent on his knees and picked them up before keeping them inside a sack, hanging from his waist.

After traveling for 30 meters on a straight path they found themselves in a dilemma. On exiting the tunnel, they were not greeted by more monsters or any astonishing scenery, but by two more tunnels, leading to somewhere even deeper, darker and also colder. Now, they had to make a choice and decide which tunnel to take.

They stopped in front of the tunnels and pondered. Nah, instead of thinking whether to travel through the left tunnel or the right, they started bickering with each other.

“What now! Who was the architect of this dungeon imitating cave? Who decided to create such frustrating pathways instead of making a highway straight to the boss? Why! Why did he not die before creating this shithole?” Martha cried out when she saw the choice of multiple tunnels presented to them.

“Shut up! No need to waste so much energy on faceless anger. We already know you, so it won’t work. The left tunnel is the wrong one I think. Left means to be left behind-meaning death! why don’t we go right. The tunnel on the right side is already telling us that it is the ‘Right’ tunnels. So, why not go that way” Dust scolded Martha and gave her opinion while pointing towards the tunnel on the right side.

And this is how the never ending bickering of two young and stubborn mages started and this small fight continued to grow until it converted into full fledged rivalry, but this story is for some other time.

While the girls were fighting on which side to choose, the boys, excluding their prideful leader were holding a meeting of their own.

“So which way do you both think we should go? I personally think, we need to travel through te tunnel on the right side.”(D’sue)

“No, it’s left for me.”(Roby)

“KIllKil kkiill l liikkk kll k ik l lllll, lll , lll.”(Enco)

“Ah! This is also not a bad idea.”(Roby)

’Why do I fell that instead of following our leader, we are actually following his every word? And weren’t all of our problems solved, causes of his presented ideas?’ “Well, tell me what did he say?”(D’sue)

“He said, we should divide our party into two teams and go both ways that would save time and we’ll have to travel less distance in case of a trap or something.”

“Yeah, there is also the case of there being traps installed. Though we didn’t encounter any in the narrow tunnel, but these tunnels are big enough for us to walk properly. So, I also think that they should at least have one or two traps embedded, to make travelers attentive I guess”

“Hey, all of you come here!” All of them were still discussing between themselves about which way to go, when they heard their captain calling them to group up. Though sparks could still be seen flying between the girls, but their overall mood had calmed down. James ’The swordsman’ looked at everyone once before he pointed towards the right direction and said, “After listening to every one of your thoughts and ideas, I have decided that we are moving through the right tunnel.”

“Are we not going to divide and cover both of the tunnels at the same time? That would at least save us some time and what if one of the tunnels ends up being a dead end? Won’t it waste a lot of our time if all of us are traveling through the same tunnel with a blocked end?” D’sue suggested after hearing their leaders decision.

“What about traps then? I know myself and I can’t distinguish between a trap and normal floor at all. What about you? Do you think you have the ability to find every trap that there might be and take your team to the other side of the tunnel without harming them? And what if those ants attacked one of the team in hundreds or even thousands, what will happen then? Are you going to give your life and save everyone else?”

“Yeah, but Enco ‘The assassin’ can easily find all traps. With his hel…”

“But I also need his ability, so I am taking him with me. Tell me, what do you think now?”

D’sue was left a bit shocked, when he really thought about a situation where he and his team members were being overrun by ants. After thinking a bit more, he sighed once and nodded his head to give his approval.

Then they carried on with their previous arrangement and with Enco ‘the assassin’ and D’sue ‘the knight’ at the front, they entered the right tunnel.

This tunnel, though not big enough to be considered huge, was wide and large enough for two full armored knights or four full vested assassins to walk side by side.

The open space that still had flames burning from Martha’s attack, lightened their path, but as they continued to move forward and deeper into the tunnel, the darkness again clung onto them with an even eerier and colder attitude.

After feeling the need to get the fire burning, James’ the swordsman’ asked Martha to produce a light source with enough radiance to increase their visibility inside that dark domain. Her face, which was clearly shrouded with fear and sulkiness, lightened up with excitement and happiness after hearing that. She quickly got to work and created a floating ball of light the size of a small head. There was clearly some difference between this light ball and the skill that she had used before to kill the ant.

Her new ball of light looked more like a shining crystal than compressed fire. Its surface was smooth and even though there was light, but no one felt any heat emitting from it. Even though the ball was already formed, but because of feeling having a heavy weight removed from her chest, she didn’t stop using her mana and instead let it freely flow into it. Cause of this, the radiance emitted from it became so strong that, it nearly light blinded them all, and only after being reprimanded by almost everyone except the assassin did she came back to her senses and hurriedly lessened her power input and decreased its glow.

“What was that? Didn’t I tell you to not make it too powerful? Scratch that! Why did you suddenly increased its power? Do you want to blind us all? Huh.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. It’s just that, after hearing that I could get rid of this stubborn darkness, I got a bit excited and ..heehe… it happened. I’m sorry.” She bashfully said.

“*Twitch* are you sure you are sorry? Cause it really doesn’t look like that to me at all.” James said with clenched fists and twitching nerves.

“No, No! I really am, didn’t I decrease its radiance to repent!” she hurriedly replied back.

“*Sigh!* okay. Let’s just carry on walking. I don’t know how long this tunnel really is.” Roby interrupted between them to calm the situation.

“Kiilll.”

“The tunnels end is near.” Roby’ the archer’ spoke without letting anyone to ask him to interpret the assassin’s words.

“The tunnel ended already? Is the boss here?”

No one responded to that and instead continued to walk forward until the exit to the tunnel really came. They exited the tunnel, almost yelling and jumping, but what they saw afterwards, gave them a big headache.

“Why are there even more tunnels now. Were two tunnels not enough? What is happening here?” Martha yelled out loud, just after coming out from the tunnel.

“Yes, what is really happening here? We encountered no more ants in the tunnel. There were also no traps. Is this really an Ant colony? If so, then how come there are so few monsters inside here?”

“’Few’ is not the right word. There are no monsters here at all.” Dust spoke calmly while she still looked the same as she did before entering the tunnel.

Martha couldn’t hold her curiosity and spoke while looking at Dust, “Is this because of it being a newly established colony?”

Seemingly to her excitedly asked question, their leader spoke while looking at the ceiling, “Hah, A new colony? Do you know how, many eggs a queen can lay in a single day? You probably don’t know, so let me tell you. A queen can give birth to almost 20000 young ants in a month. So going by that, and the time that has passed between the explosions, there should be atleast 600 ants here, but till now we have experienced… nothing.” He spoke, almost belittling himself.

D’sue almost cried out after hearing that. “What?? 20000 ants in a month now that is more than 160 Ants per day! If what you said is really correct then, it will be a disaster! We need to find this queen as quickly as we can and kill her before she lays even more eggs and create even more obstacles for us!”

“So, is this the reason why you have been telling us to hurry up, through all the expedition and have been saying we don’t have any time and such?” It was dust who asked that to James with a set of light shining inside her eyes.

He thought about whether to tell them about it or not, but ultimately he said, “Unfortunately, it’s a yes. This is the reason why I have been urging you all to travel faster and not stopping much for rests. Because while we are talking here that queen might be laying eggs and giving births to more ants. *Sigh* even an Ants can be a very tough enemy to have you see.”

“So tell me, what should we do now? Because no one knew before how dangerous the situation could turn into I decided to follow the safe path but I don’t think that it is possible now. In the second tunnel we only had two options to choose from. So even if we had encountered a dead end or traps we could always have entered the other tunnel but using such a crude way to do things now will only waste more time and nothing more.”

“Killl Kill llik lIk kikiklllll l ll lllil.”Instead of looking at the speaker, everyone turned their heads towards Roby, as if demanding an explanation to whatever he just said.

And to their eager expression and looking at the tensed atmosphere; Roby explained, “Yes, I think the reason we did not encounter any ants in the second tunnel was because, all the ants are right now waiting for us beside their queen and the more time we waste the better their chance will get to drive us out, or to kill us all.”

“So what do you all want to do? Do you want to move in pairs now? Do you all think that you can kill a horde of ants? Even though we encountered no ants and traps in the that tunnel, but that doesn’t mean that well be able to reach the queen before and without facing any difficulty at all.” He was going to continue lecturing them about how troublesome it would be to travel through unknown territory with only two people and such, but when he saw every one of them looking at him with resolute eyes and determined faces, he gave up.

“So you all are not going to let this go are you?” he asked with his left brow slightly lifted.

“No sir, we are not.” Even their different pitched, loud and high tone voices joined together and turned into a single resolute cry full of determination. Their respect toward their leader turned and grew to new heights. To the questions that they had no answers to were answered, and their mind that was trying to find faults in his decisions and behavior before, also sobered up. They understood how difficult it must have been for him to not show the agitation and tension that he was feeling because of the queen. They knew if they knew about such dangers from the start of the mission, then they probably would have backed up and ran away before even joining this hunt.

At this moment no one hated or complained to him for not telling them about the real risk that this job involved, because they accepted the mission with their own conscious. No one pressured or forced them to complete this mission. Even when guilds master ‘Arnold’ explained to them about ants and their colonies, they were still blinded by the hefty reward and instead of walking away at that time they decided to kick the reason away and chose to go for instant success.

Looking at their resolution he sighed once, before speaking in a hard and low tone, “So, let’s make the pair that would enter the tunnels. Though our party was haphazardly created, but after traveling through thick and thin together we all have some idea about each others strengths and weaknesses. Though it is an exaggeration to say that I know everyone’s in and out’s, but believe in me about this and don’t ask me to change your partners, who will accompany you through this test.”

Everyone looked at each other once and stayed like that for a sec before nodding their heads in approval to the decision that he would take.

“Okay. Then D’sue and Martha are together. With your defense and her attack power, there is nothing that can obstruct you. Enco you and Dust are together. Now Enco, don’t run away and try to kill everything on your own like you did with the bandits. She is an earth mage, so depend on her for the defense when needed and don’t rashly try to challenge everything on your own. Roby you will come with me. Between all of us you are the weakest one. So, I’ll take care of you, unless the monsters attacking us becomes more than I could handle. As for the problem of this darkness, I think Martha and Enco will have no problem solving that. With Martha’s Light ball and Enco’s… vision you all will have no problem.”

“But, Sir, what about you? We both teams have someone to the fight the darkness, but you…”

“Don’t worry about me and Roby, we’ll manage. I’ll just have to create one torch and that will be it.”

He picked a stick from the ground and asked Martha to create a ‘Mana burning fire’ on the top end of it. Because this fire uses mana as fuel therefore until the mana is not completely exhausted it would keep on burning. He gave one such torch to Dust and kept one for himself and started walking towards the middle tunnel.

“Come on Roby we are taking this tunnel. Between the other two tunnels decide one between yourselves and start walking. We’ll meet on the other side of the tunnels. Everyone, don’t act recklessly and be safe. If you think it’s not possible for you to carry on, then run back toward the entrance and rush back to the guild to call for backup. And if the tunnel any of you ends up with a dead end, then do rush and enter one of the other tunnels. I think to defeat the queen we’ll need everyone’s help.”

When his speech ended he once looked back at everyone, smiled before turning back to face the dark pit with a torch in his hand, lighting his path.