Adam cautiously looked over the edge of the hole leading down into the ant nest. None of the ants that had chased him from the hole earlier were on the surface. He could still feel some beneath him with Sense. They scurried back and forth just at the edges of his perception. If they felt his presence they didn’t show it. It was now or never, he jumped.

He landed with a thud, his legs absorbing the impact. Nothing leapt at him. He could feel something farther down the tunnel in front of him, but it veered off and disappeared.

Something was headed right toward him from behind. He turned and saw a giant ant round the bend in the tunnel. It charged him the moment it saw him. A hit from Wind Blast finished it instantly. Three seconds later almost like clockwork when Wind Blast came off of cooldown another ant came around the bend, it met the same fate as the first.

Adam killed several more ants this way. No sort of general alarm seemed to have been raised yet. He might be killing them too quickly, one on one the ants had barely any time to react beyond seeing him and then dying.

After a while the ants started to show up with longer gaps in between. Adam wanted that efficiency like he had experienced earlier, always having a target to attack. But he didn’t want to be overwhelmed like before, and he was wary to leave the proximity of the hole in case he needed to beat a hasty retreat.

He decided that it was worth it to take a look farther in, provided that he felt comfortable being able to make it back to the hole without delay. He choose the side of the tunnel that most of the ants had emerged from so far.

Glowing fungi lit the tunnel growing from the ceiling. Adam wondered if some form of light being everywhere was just a law of nature in this world. They were very convenient in lighting his way.

Two more ants appeared and Adam dispatched them with a slash of his dagger and a Wind Blast. Two at a time would be easily manageable, aside from those soldier ants, or a swarm.

He traversed the tunnel easily. When he came to forks or splitting paths he always took the one on the right. That would make retracing his steps easier if he needed to leave.

Something lunged at him from a side tunnel, it was a Soldier Ant. It took him on the shoulder dropping him down to 94%, the first damage he had taken since reentering the nest.

He slashed at it and hit it with Wind Blast, reducing its HP to 51% then 20%. It wasn’t dead yet, Adam tightened the grip on his dagger.

“Forward Slash!”

Adam slashed the ant, his dagger splitting a rent in the ant’s thorax. It died.

Adam had been neglecting to use his dagger skill. It consumed stamina, something he needed to run away with. His basic attack did such good damage, thanks to his dagger. And his magic wasn’t too shabby either. Also he had learned that lesser stamina potions were a thing with some trial and error.

Another Soldier Ant came for him. Adam slashed it with his dagger, and then instead of using Wind Blast he used Forward Slash. The ant died. His basic attack already took 49% of its life, and Forward Slash was basically a stronger basic attack that consumed stamina. It was strong enough to let him kill Soldier Ants in two attacks at least.

Adam continued on. The majority of the ants were the weaker giant ants, but soldier ants were mixed in occasionally. It wasn’t much longer and the ant population seemed to dwindle, with the soldiers disappearing altogether.

He entered a chamber and noticed a stream of ants heading into a neighboring tunnel system. They were all Soldier Ants, and they ignored him. A larger ant passed by, its exoskeleton was bulkier and it stood a head taller than the others.

[Armored Ant - Level 7]

If the colony's defenders were ignoring him and heading somewhere else, that must mean that something else was threatening the colony. Something they deemed more of a threat than him.

Adam tried to follow the train of ants but one of the soldiers lunged at him. He dodged to the side and felled it with a basic attack and Forward Slash combo. Another ant tried to attack him but he dodged and ran along in the gap left by the ant he had killed. All he had to do was run faster then the ant chasing him, but slower then the ant in front of him, easy.

Before too long the tunnel changed from compacted earth to loose broken soil. It looked as if this new section was recently excavated. They entered a chamber and the ant in front of Adam was incinerated in a torrent of fire.

“Holy shit,” Adam sputtered and leapt to the side.

The train of ants didn’t stop. They scurried toward the center of the room. A large burning cat-thing was standing on a mound of burnt rocks, a large basketball sized egg beneath it.

[Ignis Felidae - Level 45]

The firecat looked something like a puma mixed with a bobcat. It was long and sleek like a puma, its muscles obvious under its short umber coat. Flames extended from its face beneath its ears, and from the tips of its ears and tail.

Ants swarmed around the firecat, it swiped at them, its claws erupting into flame as it clawed at them. Ants died with each swipe. It roared shooting out a cone of fire turning a swath of ants into ruined char.

While it appeared to be holding its own, ants were still attacking it. It was surrounded on all sides, yet refusing to move from its rock pile and egg. The cat’s HP was only at 33%.

Adam leapt into the fray. It was slow going. He could only kill one Soldier Ant with every Forward Slash rotation and it was on a three second cooldown. He supplemented it with regular attacks and Wind Blasts. Some of the ants turned to attack him. Several potions later he had finally made it to the firecat guarding the egg. It was in bad shape, it’s HP at 7%.

One of the Armored Ants latched on to its hindquarters and pulled it down, two Soldier Ants jumped on top biting with their mandibles. Adam killed one of the soldiers, and hit the other with Wind Blast drawing its attention. The firecat turned and blasted the Armored Ant with a breath of fire turning it into cinders. Adam finished the second soldier. Rainbow light swirled around him.

[Congratulations you have leveled up to Level 4.]

Adam killed a Soldier Ant and then another, his attacks were stronger, and even a Wind Blast and basic attack combination were enough to kill them.

The firecat collapsed beside Adam. Its HP was down to 3%, but then it dropped to 2%. It was bleeding profusely from a myriad of wounds covering its body. It turned its head weakly to Adam.

[Quest - A Mother’s Love.

An aging Ignis Felidae has come down from the sacred Burning Mountain to have her final litter of offspring of her life. Only a single egg was laid by this legendary creature. The mother’s den was invaded by giant ants, and she has not the strength left to defend her egg. Protect the egg from the invaders.

Rewards: Ignis Felidae Egg.]

[Do you accept this quest?]

Adam looked over at the mother, she had already died. The egg sat nestled amongst a pile of blackened rocks, nothing was left in this world to protect it. Adam turned back to the pop-up.

[Quest Accepted.]

Adam launched himself at the nearest Soldier Ant, stabbing it in its eye lense and hitting it with Forward Slash. He moved on to the next, slashing it and casting Wind Blast. That was two dead ants. Two dozen more swarmed toward him.

He lashed out striking one, taking it to 30%. It attacked him back biting him with its mandibles. Several more joined in pushing him back as they attacked. He stabbed the injured one again, killing it.

Several more scurried past heading for the egg. Adam cursed. He hit one with Wind Blast and then vaulted over two ants to hit the other with Forward Slash. They turned and attacked him, he was trapped in a crush of chiton covered bodies. He finished an injured ant with his dagger and drank a potion.

He had to do whatever he could to keep them away from the egg. More ants were coming, over a dozen still left from the previous wave. It was probably possible for him to keep himself alive, but protect the egg too?

Adam racked his brain. He didn’t have the skills or the raw power to overcome the ants. That only left his item creation ability, but how could he leverage it? He’d need items that could deal damage like skills.

Adam tried several combinations of items from video games he’d played in his past life. He tried scrolls and crystals. It was challenging to work the interface with mental prompts while he fought, but he did what he could. Finally he tried Fire Bomb.

A red sphere appeared in his hand the size of a baseball. It looked like it was made out of some kind of compressed paper. Adam threw it a few ants deep into the oncoming swarm. He didn’t want to be too close to it when it went off.

It exploded in a brilliant plume of fire that fully engulfed the Soldier Ant that it had hit. The targeted ant died instantly and all of the ants around it were set on fire. This could work.

Adam made more tossing them several into the row of ants behind the ones he was fighting. They died setting the ones all around them on fire, including the ones in front of Adam. He slashed one of the burning ants, over half of its HP was gone from the blast and it was losing more by the second. It died from the attack.

This could definitely work, thought Adam. There were so many ants though. He couldn’t attack the number of burning ants fast enough to kill them before more replaced them. He started supplementing his skills in place of basic attacks to kill them. It felt like a waste but they had to die as fast as possible.

Adam created more bombs killing the back row of ants and setting alight the ones attacking him. The work became methodical. His dagger and wind magic proficiencies each raised a level as he fought.

Adam wasn’t sure how long he had been fighting for. Or how many ants he had killed. His supply of potions was almost exhausted when the last ant finally died. They were piled up all around the chamber in burned piles of charred remains and ash. Sometime during the fight his dagger level had gone up again. It was now at 4/100 along with wind magic.

[Congratulations the quest A Mother’s Love is complete.]

That must mean that the egg belonged to him now. Adam picked his way through the bodies of the ants, the smell was something else entirely. He reached the egg, it was pretty big for an egg, like a large pumpkin. Adam felt sorry for the mother firecat, how did she lay this, also Adam was a little confused as to why cats were laying eggs. It must be a quirk of this world. Everything in this world might lay eggs after all.

Adam touched the egg, it felt uncomfortably warm. He pulled his hand back and large crack split the egg where he had touched it. Adam cried out and jumped back. He was sure that he hadn’t touched it that hard. More cracks ran up and down and from side to side across the eggs surface. It was like watching a thunderstorm, except every bolt of lightning was frozen in time.

The egg shattered and a wet ball of fur rolled to a stop in front of Adam. It unfurled itself into a small copy of the mother firecat, minus the fire.

[Golden Lion - Level 1]

What was this? Had he been duped? Maybe the father had been a golden lion? The cub before him was a golden wheat color, not the burnt umber and flames like the mother had been.

The small lion, puma, or cat-thing looked up at Adam. It meowed at him.

[Baby Golden Lion has imprinted on you. You may now use it as your pet without the appropriate class. Would you like to make the baby Golden Lion your pet?]

It seemed like a win to Adam. Get a pet without presumably needing to be some sort of pet class, like a hunter or beast tamer or something. He accepted. Both the Golden Lion and Adam were bathed in a golden light.

[Pet acquired. Give your pet a name.]

A pop-up appeared before Adam to enter a name. Great he thought, this was always the hardest part in games. It also proved to be the hardest part in real life. What do you bake something, especially some fantasy creature that you just met.

Adam thought for a moment. He wasn’t sure how much time he had before they would be discovered again. Also he needed to make it back to the escape hole. Also how did one even control a pet. Did it understand the language he was speaking, it was a newborn. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to potty train it or anything like that.

Adam decided on Iggy.

[Iggy - Level 1]

Adam checked Iggy’s information. All of her stats were 2, not bad for a level 1 creature, hopefully she would have good attribute growth. Iggy knew the skills Claw, which just seemed to be a better basic attack like Adam’s Forward Slash. She also knew Balance which was a passive ability that basically reduced fall damage and let Iggy resist knockback effects. She also had a Rank A in a proficiency called Felidae Nature. Maybe she had kept something from her mother after all? There was another passive skill as well.

[Familial Bond - the pet and its owner are bonded as family. The pet will retain a portion of its owner's attributes as bonus attributes. It will also become enraged if its owner is in danger and will do anything to protect them.]

Iggy looked at Adam again and yawned, revealing some very sharp and very pointy teeth.