The sun was setting as Loran removed the stone plate from the campfire, the various bits of Iron Ant meat sizzling on top. He waited for it to cool for a moment before picking up a piece with a wooden fork. After blowing on it a little to be sure it wouldn't burn him, he took a bite of the pale flesh.

"....Nope, still tastes like shit," he sighed.

Since Loran knew he was going to be spending a lot of time out in the grasslands hunting and eating Iron Ant Drones, he had gone to Aman and the rest of the cooking team to ask for recipes. They were all happy to help, even giving him one of their spare sets of cooking tools, and as near as he could tell he was following their instructions perfectly, but somehow everything he had eaten for the last few days still tasted awful.

"Seriously, why did that one taste like onions, I DIDN'T EVEN USE ONIONS THIS TIME!?"

Loran rested his head in his hands as he continued eating, unwilling to let the food go to waste since he would need his energy for tomorrow. He then heard a dull thump behind him.

"At least you guys like the food I bring you," he said, turning around.

Surrounding Loran's camp were three Mountain Goats, each chewing on the bodies of the Iron Ant Drones he had hunted that day. Since having them crush the meat out of the ant carapaces would make them lighter, Loran was more than willing to let them take the bulk of his kills. Less weight meant fewer trips back to camp, which meant more time to hunt and grind EXP. He had even started to use his campfire to melt off some of the chitin so he could focus on bringing back pure iron. The fumes tended to scare off the goats, but it was easy enough to find a new herd or convince them to come back.

As he waited for the rest of the goats to finish eating, Loran decided to check his menu.

[NAME]: Loran

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 24

[EXP]: 124240/4500

[STATUS]

{HP}: 150/150

{SP}: 190/400

[ARMOR]: 26

[END]: 30

[STR]: 20

[AGI]: 36

[DEX]: 26(-2.6)

[PER]: 30

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 3

[SKILLS]

[ANALYSE] Lv.10(Master)

[CRITICAL STRIKE] Lv.10

[DANGER SENSE] Lv.10(Master)

[HUNTER] Lv.10

[PICK FIGHTER] Lv.10

[PULL] Lv. 10(Master)

[SNEAK] Lv. 10

[SP BOOSTER] Lv.10

[SPRINT] Lv.10

[STALWART] Lv.10

'...It's beautiful,' he thought reflexively. 'To think that a simple six-digit number could make me so happy.'

Loran had spent nearly three weeks hunting nothing but Drones, and he had been doing everything physically possible to maximize his efforts.

He knew that EXP rewards were decreased with a greater level gap, so he refused to spend even a single Experience Point on anything other than Skills.

He discovered that Iron Ant Drones tended to seek out dead ants in the hopes of reclaiming their bodies, so he made sure to always have a few bodies on hand to use as bait.

But more than anything else, Loran knew that the greatest contributor to his current success was the weapon lying next to him.

[NAME]: Bladed Glove

[QUALITY]: Common

[TYPE]: Equipment/Weapon

[DURABILITY]: 72/100

[STATS]: 6 Armor

45 Piercing Damage

[AFFINITY/REQUIREMENTS]

STR: C/18

DEX: B/15

The Bladed Glove's appearance didn't quite fit its name, looking more like a bracer that extended over the hand, but that didn't make it any less effective.

When Rika had gotten a high STR player to help them break the Iron Ant Soldier Blade in two, another shard of iron had broken off. It was six inches long and at most half an inch wide, but the shard was decently thick, and since this had happened after Loran had asked them for a weapon he could use with his damaged hand, they were able to quickly come up with this design.

It was essentially just a bracer made longer than average with a hole to slide his thumb through and grip like a handle. The iron spike was fitted to a wooden shaft as if it were a spear, then the shaft was strapped to the top with leather strips. Finally, Rika layered fire-hardened leather around the entire sleeve, both to further anchor the spike and also to reinforce the armor.

The weapon was a little cumbersome, the leather was more than an inch thick across the entire glove and made it impossible to move his wrist, but Loran couldn't argue with its effectiveness. The iron spike could easily penetrate the hard carapace of the Iron Ant Drones as long as he aimed at some of the weaker areas. Even when striking at the hardest parts of the shell Loran could still break through, it just did less damage. It may not be able to lop off heads like the Iron Ant Soldier Blade, but it gave him more opportunities to attack overall.

"Alexx was right. As long as we can start equipping hunters with iron weapons, these Drones will barely be a threat to us anymore."

According to the crafters who extracted the iron from the shells, most of the reinforcement came from what were basically veins of iron running through the shell like a net. As a result, the defenses of the Iron Ants could be summed up as having a thick shell of chitin to resist attacks and a mesh of iron to give stability when the carapace was cracked. This certainly made them tougher than anything in the valley, but it just wasn't enough against pure iron weapons.

"If the design was reversed, an iron shell reinforced with chitin it would definitely be tougher, but then it would probably be too heavy for the ant to move," Loran thought out loud. "...Actually, that much exposed iron would probably rust too, so that wouldn't be an option either."

The more he considered the situation, the more he couldn't help but compare the Iron Ant Drones to a puzzle boss, an enemy that seemed invincible when you try to fight normally but had some trick or weakness to defeat them. They may still have their numbers and their high attack power, but for such simple-minded creatures, their greatest strength was definitely their near invulnerability.

"Although, that only applies to the Drones, not the whole species."

Loran turned his head and stared at the giant mountain off in the distance, unable to imagine it as anything less than a massive anthill.

The discovery of the Iron Ant Soldier was a dangerous reminder that as strong as the Drones were, they were just scouts and resource gatherers. The offensive capability of the Soldier was on another level, and there might be others with different specifications.

"There might actually be a defensive subspecies with a more iron-dense shell, or maybe an offensive ground unit that focuses on STR." Loran considered other possible ant types for a moment but soon stopped with a shrug. "I guess that would all depend on how game-like these ants are."

From a game design perspective, it made perfect sense for the Iron Ant nest to have other, more dangerous subspecies to essentially act as mini-bosses, posing a challenge before the players make their way to the queen.

However, such a thing was unlikely from a realistic perspective based on how innately powerful the Drones and Soldiers were. If nothing was strong enough to get anywhere near the nest, then there would be no need to have more powerful guards. Even the queen itself was likely to resemble real-life ant queens that only exist for reproduction.

"I guess that's just another reason to not kill the queen, it would just be a disappointing fight."

In truth, very few of the players even considered trying to kill the Iron Ant Queen for a number of reasons. Not only would doing so mean having to fight through a literal army of Drones, Soldiers, and who knows what else, but it would also make it harder to acquire iron in the long run.

The ants instinctively dig up iron and carry it wherever they go, the players just needed to take it from them. Essentially, the massive amount of labor necessary for mining and transportation is already taken care of, getting rid of the ants would mean having to do those things themselves.

Loran heard another thump from behind him, followed by the sound of the Mountain Goats walking away from his camp. Turning his head he saw that they had finished eating all of the Drones he had. This group of three had helped Loran several times during his hunts and by now they knew that once the eating was done he was going to toss them into the fire. He had been surprised when it happened the first time, but it was understandable. Melting off the chitin was basically burning plastic, even he didn't want to be anywhere near those noxious fumes.

Normally he would have stopped them from eating all of the Iron Ants, but his pack was getting full, he would need to make the trip back to camp tomorrow.

Forcing down the last of his awful food, Loran threw some of the chewed-up carapaces into the fire as he worked on cleaning his cooking tools. It would take some time to extract all the iron, and he wanted to set out early for what he knew was going to be a very long and boring hike back to the village.

~~~~~

"Why does iron have to be so goddamn heavy..."

Extracting the iron from the Drone carapaces may have let him get more hunting done, but that also meant that his pack was now stuffed to the brim with the much heavier material. With his 20 STR, it wasn't so bad, but that didn't change the fact that he was carrying over 200 pounds of metal across more than 40 miles(1). Add to that the weight of his tools and supplies, and frankly, Loran was surprised the pack hadn't broken by now.

He had left his camp a few hours ago and the sun was starting to rise higher into the sky. Between the weight on his back and the growing heat of the sun, rivers of sweat were starting to run down his head.

Fortunately, he knew that the journey was halfway over since he spent the previous day walking. Unfortunately, his supply of dried food was empty after this morning's breakfast. He wasn't going to be in any danger of dying from hunger, but an empty stomach was just going to be one more annoyance that he was going to have to deal with.

"Honestly, once I get back I need to take a break for a few days," he grumbled. "I mean, I have more EXP than anyone has ever had at any one time. I can afford to take a break for a few-"

*DING*

Suddenly, before he could finish his sentence, a notification appeared before him.

"Huh? What did I...do..."

Loran felt the blood drain from his face as he opened the interface, shining a bright gold with the following word across the top in big bold text.

[VERSION UPDATE 1.01.02 INITIALIZED]