Minnie looked at the screen in the inner world, which was perfectly showing all that was happening outside.

She heard her partner ask her about the decision to choose their first monster, but she didn’t feel like partaking in that useless endeavor and answered him just enough to state his thirst for information.

She clearly understood the meaning behind the choice and what it could mean for her, no their future. But she also knew that there was no way, literally no fucking way for them to get past the varied attacks that they would be facing in the upcoming days with just ants and bees. She wanted to believe in them puny little insects and her partner, but luck just wasn’t on their side.

She saw him choosing the ants as his first monster choice and summoned one of the basic ants right outside.

She really had no hope that an ant would be able to face the great white wolf of Devil’s foot forest. But still a small spark of hope ignited inside her, when she saw the amount of mana that was being gathered outside and perked her eyes to see the result.

The small spark soon turned into fire, when she saw the final summoned monster in front of her eyes.

The summoned ant unlike any other ant in the real world was twice as tall. Not only that, but it looked and felt more powerful too.

Its black exoskeleton, sharp sword like pincers, dangerous looking claws and a face which clearly meant business, really made her heart burn with hope and pump blood like a waterfall.

Excited, she decided to check the real difference, the difference between the power of this ant and its natural brothers, and what she saw left her stunned.

As the ant formed, the box showing its status appeared in front of Minnie and her partner.

Worker ant (Common)

The queen helps them grow. The soldier protects the queen and worker obeys them both.

…

Level 20 Race Insect

Rank 0 Species Black Ant

…

Skills Dig lv(5), Crush lv(3)

“The hell, what is wrong with this ant!”

Her reaction was natural and it truly surprised Mr. Core, when he saw the once sulking fairy, happy and kicking, flying around in front of him.

“What happened? Anything wrong?”

“Anything wrong?” she replied as her grin widened, and she subconsciously clenched her fists.

“Everything’s wrong here. How come this ant’s level is so high? Fuck high, this is probably the highest leveled ant in this world!”

“What?!”

If Rockies’ reaction before was just for the sake of it, then this time he was truly surprised.

“What, you think I am lying?”

“No, no.” He hurriedly denied her, though he felt a little doubt in his heart.

“Why would you even think that? But aren’t you exaggerating a little by saying this is the highest leveled ant. I mean sure there are more…”

“You know, sometimes I don’t understand whether you really don’t know anything or you are just have been playing with me all along.”

“Hey, what does that even mean?!”

She looked at him with her eyes squinted and spoke as her face turned to become like that of a fox.

“Anyway, moving on, to the answer of your question, in this world there is only one type of ant. And its species doesn’t have black in its name. It is spelled with as ant, just ant and the highest level ant ever recorded in the annals of fairies is 17 and that was their queen. Now you understand what I am saying?”

Rocky, seemingly confused, looked at Minnie and asked her,

“Then what is wrong with this ant! Isn’t its level a little too absurd?”

“That is what I am saying. Hell if I knew things would turn out this way, I wouldn’t even have cried like that. This is a goddamn miracle you know!”

“Oh, Shhh, Shhh, they are going to fight now.” He interrupted her.

“Yes, yes I can see that.”

She spoke while lifting his hands from her mouth.

“Let’s check the wolf’s power too. And see what kind of an existence it is.”

Interested in the possibility to examine his invaders status, he asked Minnie.

“That is possible?”

And she answered like a queen.

“You are a dungeon. This is your domain. There is no one or thing that can keep themselves hidden from you and don’t worry…”

“I know, in know, that is how the system works.”

“Smart Rockie…”

Then Minnie moved her arms and screen changed showing a miniature wolf at the side with its information hovering over its head.

White wolf(Uncommon)

They are the protectors of the jungle, the messengers of light.

They are prideful, travel in a pack and love their family to death.

Advised to not hurt one, as other Will follow.

….

Level 47 Race canidae

Rank 0 Species Wolf

…

Threat level D++

Skills **unavailable**

“Oh that…”

“Minnie isn’t its level a bit higher than our ant.”

They looked at each other and then looked at the screen and saw the wolf jumping and ripping the back of their protector with its claws.

“…”

“….”

And the wolf killed the ant by firing a wind blade on its neck. The ant which they thought would produce a miracle, turned into dots of light without living for even a minute.

“Shit, shit. This is too infuriating. Even though the ant turned into the best that it could be, it still didn’t cut it!”

“Don’t worry lets summon some more.”

The ant transformed into a series of light sand vanished leaving behind a mass of mana, which slowly travelled and got absorbed by the crystal.

He saw his reserved mana getting free after the ant’s death, and nodded his head.

‘That’s to be expected, I suppose.’ he thought.

Before he spent 200 dc and reserved 100 more of his mana to summon four more ant’s.

They both anxiously waited for the ants to appear and to start the fight, but even those menacing looking new recruits couldn’t bring any difference.

And before the newly formed ants could even lift their legs, two of them died.

“Damn, Minnie this wolf is absolutely brilliant. Can’t I summon it somehow?”

“What Bullshit brilliant, he is a damn monster. Forget it, we are already spending so much, might as well call the big guy out.”

“What big guy?” then he noticed her finger hovering over the ant soldiers tab.

“Oh, that guy.”

Minnie hesitated for a minute, but then took a breath and summoned the ant soldier. Though she didn’t expect it and neither did him, but its status alone made a smile bloom on their face. They behaved as if sun had finally risen after a long dark night.

Worker Soldier (Uncommon)

The queen helps them grow. The soldier protects the queen and the worker obeys them both.

Remember a soldier ant is aggressive towards all the intruders.

…

Level 59 Race Insect

Rank 0 Species Black Ant

…

Skills Dig lv(5), Mandible shovel lv(9), Ram Lv(8), Sprint Lv(4)

“Fuck, this ant is out of this world.”

“Control yourself Minnie, control.”

He somehow held the arms of that floating and brought her back to ground, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t jumping with joy himself.

“Now we’ll see who wins this fight. Ah, yes, yes, control… How could I forget!” she slapped her face with her tiny hands and suddenly turned to face the owner and pleaded,

“Please give me permission to control that ant for now.”

“What you can control it?”

“Yes, now hurry up. I don’t want it do die too.”

“Okay, you have my permission. Did that work?”

And as if the world was answering him, a low hymn ringed in the air, which was followed by a round white ball about the size of a human skull coming out of the ground.

Rockie instantly felt a connection to it and saw Minnie placing her hands on it. She did that and closed her eyes and said, “You are dead now.”

In the real world the soldier ant roared wildly toward the wolf.

The ant then not behaving like its nature, told the other surviving ants to get behind him, dig into the surface and to wait for further instructions.

That he understood because, Minnie spoke every word loud and clear for him to listen and to his surprise the ants moved the way they were told.

‘I didn’t even think about controlling them at all. I have to say Minnie knows her stuff alright.’

Then the fight began and it ended.

Ant it left him bewildered, how one-sided the fight was. The wolf wasn’t even able to leave a wound on the soldier ant. All it could do was to keep jumping out of its way, to save itself, but even then it ended up getting caught into Minnie’s ingenious plan. The fight ended when the wolf flew out of the cave and out of the ants reach.

Minnie came out of the Terrance and grunted. He saw that she was enraged. But because he didn’t understand the reason, he simply asked her.

“What happened, you killed the wolf, so why do you look so pissed off?”

“Ahhhh…” she screamed.

“He ran away. Why else do you think I am pissed? We finally had a chance to make up for some of our losses, but that little…”

“Huh, what loss? The loss of those ants?”

“Hah, you don’t know, so let me tell you this. The only way to recover the price that we pay to summon our monsters is by killing the intruders and then absorbing their bodies.”

“What?” the new information left Rocky flabbergasted.

“Yes. Or we could keep them inside the dungeon and risk them getting near the core. Now why do you think I am, was… hah, look Rockie, we spent 350 Dc to kill the wolf but didn’t get anything in return, so what do you think, was this a profit or a loss?”

“But we did get to see the power of our ants, so I guess…”And hearing him say that Minnie sighed.

“Well, there is that too. Alright we can say that this monster was a blessing in disguise that let us see the potential of our ants, but we can’t let this scenario repeat again. Anyone who enters your domain can’t be allowed to return alive.”

He saw the seriousness of the situation, but still asked her,

“But what if someone didn’t come here to kill or harm us and just wanted to talk?”

*Pfft!*

“Are you joking with me? Who do you think comes to a cave filled with monsters to talk? Don’t be so naïve!”

She then saw his face sulk a bit and sighed. She then faced him, held his small hands and spoke tenderly.

“Don’t worry I am here, so even if no one came to talk with you, I’ll be here to listen and fulfill whatever whish you’ll have. So don’t worry, I’ll be there for you.”

“Okay.”

Rocky said and looked at the screen showing the view of the real world. The ants stood there like statues, the broken wall and the blood on the ground were clear clue about everything that had happened inside the cave.

He looked into the light coming from the hole seemingly lost into his thoughts. He stayed quit, staring into the light for some time, but then sighed, shook his head and thought,

‘If it wasn’t for Minnie would I have died already? And even if the wolf hadn’t touched me, others would have done so in the future.’

‘Ah! forget it.’

But just as he was going to turn, something shined from the corner of the cave and it attracted his attention.

“What’s that?” He mumbled.

“Huh, what?”

He didn’t look at Minnie and simply pointed at the thing in the screen.

“That. I just saw it.”

And as if the screen had understood his command, it zoomed to the object till everything else slid away and only That covered the whole screen.

“OH.” They responded surprised and intrigued.

“I didn’t know that was possible.”

“Neither did me.” Minnie replied.

“Well, it’s a good thing anyways, but what is that?”

Minnie looked closely at the thing for a second, before she understood what it was.

“It’s a Bracelet.”

“A Brace- what?”

“Oh it’s nothing much. Just an accessory these humans and others like them like to wear. Though some have quite unique options and skills imbedded, but those ones are too rare and this one looks too… crude and low quality.”

But she didn’t stop there and continued explaining the origin of said accessories.

“You know one fun fact about these accessories and even the weapons that them humans use?”

“What?”

“It’s the Dungeon Monsters who drop them sometimes on their death.”

And as if she was filling a case against him, he protested.

“But how is that possible?”

She only smirked in return.

“Hee, why do you think I was crying before?”

He just shrugged his shoulders in response.

“Because humans like to explore dungeons” She emphasized the word explore, made a face as if she was telling a ghost story and continued saying, “Though you are just a newborn and will probably be given some time to grow, but they will come back to reap the profits after some time, and then you will have to give rewards to your invaders for defeating your monsters.”

But he just couldn’t understand her thought, and voiced his complained.

“Now why would I reward someone for killing my monsters?”

To which Minnie replied back saying, “It’s like a give and take relation. The humans will let you live and you will reward them for killing the monsters.”

“But why do I need their protection?”

And she smirked hearing that.

“Humph, you don’t know, but the humans are despicable, biased and cowardly creatures. They only care about things which they deem to have some worth, and everything which points to their own destruction, they nib it out from the bud.”

He couldn’t understand hear reasoning, and shook his head mumbling, “What does that even mean?”

“It means that until you become strong enough to handle an invasion by a whole army of humans on your own, forget about not giving bribes for your life and hope that you being first of your kind will have some worth in their eyes.”

Hearing her say human this, humans that made his mind hurt. He saw his pride ant standing outside and asked her,

“Umm, who do you think will win in a fight between a human and a wolf?”

But her answer made sweat run down his face like water.

“That’s easy. A human of the same level as the wolf can level it quicker than your soldier.”

He had some pride and she broke it and what was left of it was professionally collected and burned in the flames of hate.

“That… so how many humans are in this army of theirs? Surely there are no more than 10, right?”

“pfft!”

“Haahaa… ten… haaha… oh please don’t joke like that. The army off the biggest empire in this world has more than a million soldiers working. And there are many beings who are over rank 4. Understand what I am saying.”

“…..”

“Well don’t worry. We have time. After all, every dragon was once an egg too.”

Taking a deep breath he let all of his worries slide away and sighed, before mumbling, “Hah… this world is weird. Anyways, what should I do with that bracelet thing?”

She saw him pointing at the screen.

“That, just absorb it and it will simply enter into your inventory.”

His search, but net him any answer about those two words, and when Minnie looked, she saw him lost into his own world.

She looked into his eyes and said, “You know you can just ask me. No need to burden your immature mind so much. Well, inventory is something only you have. It is where all the equipment or non biological things which you will absorb from now on will get stored. On the other hand absorb is a skill that every dungeon has and it allows a dungeon to eat only dead bodies, and grow strong.”

As if he had understood the Dao of eating, he nodded his head and asked,

“So how should I use this skill?”

“Just look at the thing and say absorb.”

“Just that?”

“Easy isn’t it? Well that’s the perk of being a dungeon. Now, Shuu, eat it and come back. We have a dungeon to create.”

It was just a command, a simple word of connected alphabets, but that simple word changed his fate. Though his destiny had already changed the moment, this seemingly innocent and young core had scored its first kill, but the actual turn in time happened, when he absorbed that rough and rusted piece of metal.

Though what had to happen would have happened eventually, but his simple usage of his skill flung him into a battle, which otherwise had nothing to do with him.

Rockie like a well behaved child listened to her mother and followed her command. He zoomed out, looked at the dirty looking bracelet, and said absorb.

The floor vibrated for a split second before the bracelet sank into the floor. He happily nodded his head, but just as he looked back the sound of a heartbeat ringed into his head, and his world turned black.

*****

“Minnie, where are you….”

“…..”

His surroundings suddenly turned Ink black and he lost his vision. It was like he had retuned back to the state before he met Minnie. He looked around to find her, when he suddenly felt something running past him.

“Hey, is that you??” With trembling voice he spoke.

But silence prevailed and that made him impatient. Then after half a second something answered back

.

.

“KKKKkkkkk”

Shivers ran down his spine, because he understood that he wasn’t alone in the dark.

“FUCk……” and the race for his life began.