Goal: Removing the First Obstacle (2)
The soil around the entrance leading to the half-collapsed ant nest bulged slightly. Soon, the ground trembled finely, and soil and sand splattered around. The Espers brushed off the sand on their goggles and examined the ant nest.
“…What the hell?”
“Wh-why are there so many?”
“Ugh, disgusting.”
An uncountable number of ants were streaming out in lines through the clearly visible entrance. The Espers’ brows furrowed severely at the sight, which seemed to easily exceed hundreds of millions of ants. Even as the Espers hesitated, the ants continued to pour out relentlessly.
Tens of billions of ants began to densely fill the desert prairie and the sand beyond. Black dots wriggled all over the sand.
“Ah, I feel like throwing up. Isn’t this insane?”
“Wow, I’m feeling nauseous too.”
Hwang Ji-hyun and Lee Seong-rok forgot about growling and baring their teeth at each other as they dry heaved at the sight of the ant monster. An Jong-hyeok, who had been watching the entire situation, let out a shallow sigh. He instinctively felt that this would not be an easy battle.
“Team leader, what should we do?”
“Should we just burn all those things with fire?”
“Let’s burn them all with fire once they’ve all come up. Or I could create a typhoon!”
An Jong-hyeok shook his head at Lee Seong-rok’s boisterous shout.
“Forget the typhoon. Let’s wait and observe a bit more. It seems like they’re not all out yet.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Ji-hyun, can you check how many are still left underground?”
“Yes. I’ll try.”
Hwang Ji-hyun crouched down and placed her hand on the ground. With her eyes lowered, she read the movements in the ground that was still finely vibrating. Despite the countless ant monsters that had surfaced, she could clearly feel through her palm that just as many monsters were still swarming underground.
Frowning at the sensation, as if ants were crawling on her palm, Hwang Ji-hyun unnecessarily dusted off her bottom as she stood up.
“…There are many.”
“I can’t hear you. What did you say?”
“I said there are fucking many, Team Leader. We’re… screwed. I think we’ll become food for those crazy ant bastards. With that many, it’s entirely possible, isn’t it?”
An Jong-hyeok only blinked at her aggressive response, seemingly at a loss for words. Soon recovering his composure, he glanced at Sa Hae-geon standing nearby and sighed.
“No matter what, you should use proper and decent language in front of the rookie.”
“Oh, please. Team Leader, your way of speaking is even weirder. Since when did you use such affectionate and normal speech? Can’t we just go on as usual? The rookie has adapted enough by now. Right, rookie?”
“Yes. I’m fine. Please speak comfortably.”
Sa Hae-geon’s gaze, as he responded in a monotone, was directed at the ant monsters that were almost dominating the sand.
“But how are we going to deal with those things? What if they’ve developed resistance to fire like cockroaches?”
Despite his considerable dungeon experience, Lee Seong-rok kept asking questions, seemingly very anxious about the situation. Then he flinched at Hwang Ji-hyun’s fierce glare.
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“The Team Leader must have a plan. Wait a bit, Seong-rok. Why are you so worried?”
“No, I was just curious, so I asked…”
“You two, stop fighting. It’s quite a talent to fight every single day. Save your energy, you fools.”
Lee Cheol-min’s rebuke made Lee Seong-rok and Hwang Ji-hyun pout. As the tense atmosphere eased slightly, An Jong-hyeok spoke.
“First, we should check if they take damage from fire. Seong-rok.”
“Yes, Team Leader.”
“Get ready.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lee Seong-rok responded resolutely while looking at An Jong-hyeok. He planned to create wind to spread the flames widely and increase their power, timed with the use of his ability. Small flames began to appear one by one on the sand with An Jong-hyeok’s gesture.
With a short deep breath, Lee Seong-rok created wind strong enough to make their hair flutter. The fire created by An Jong-hyeok never goes out until he wishes it to. It might be different if it touches water, its natural enemy, but it never subsides to wind. Therefore, Lee Seong-rok always created wind with trust in him.
The strong wind swept over the desert sand, and the small flames blazed up into massive fires. The flames, grown as large as a house-sized wave, danced in the wind before spreading to the sand where the ant monsters stood.
The flames had a contagious quality. Therefore, Lee Seong-rok vaguely expected that they would cause significant damage to the ants who lived in colonies. However, he couldn’t help but let out a gasp at the scene unfolding before his eyes.
“They really… aren’t affected. But I didn’t expect them to be unaffected in this way.”
“Impossible… Is that even possible?”
The monsters, sensing the fire, moved busily before quickly clustering together. Because of this, they thought they could handle them all at once, but… the monsters on the outside formed a semicircle like a massive wall, protecting the ants inside from the flames.
The Espers were startled by the bizarre sight, as if a black line had risen and moved from a drawing paper. It was astounding that despite being creatures that lived in colonies, they would sacrifice their own bodies to protect their group in such a way.
“These crazy bastards…”
Hwang Ji-hyun muttered in a voice full of bewilderment. But there couldn’t be a more appropriate expression.
The number of monsters damaged by the flames seemed to be less than a fingernail’s worth of the entire group. In other words, if they only used fire, they would have to attack the creatures countless times.
“…Team Leader, what should we do now?”
As Lee Seong-rok asked this, the monsters suddenly began to cluster together. The sight of numerous black dots gathering together made it look as if a single line had been formed.
Eventually, the monsters merged into what looked like a giant foot and faced the direction where the Espers stood.
“Wh-what? What are they doing now?”
“How on earth can ants transform?”
While the Espers expressed their bewilderment, the giant foot began to advance. Each time the monsters moved, the ground vibrated with a booming sound. As the situation began to unfold in a completely unexpected direction, An Jong-hyeok frowned.
At this point, they needed to end the battle quickly. The longer the fight dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became for the Espers. They should have anticipated that the ant monsters might employ such a tactic of clustering together to fight.
An Jong-hyeok commanded the team with a stern face.
“Lee Cheol-min and Kim Je-gon, deploy shields, and offensive Espers, stand by inside.”
“Yes, sir!”
Lee Cheol-min and Kim Je-gon stepped forward to create a double-layered shield, and the other Espers, including An Jong-hyeok, entered inside. Almost simultaneously, the giant foot formed by the monsters came down on the shield as if to crush it. As the slightly flexible shield dented a bit, Lee Cheol-min clicked his tongue.
“Wow, what tremendous power! It seems stronger than the alligator we saw in the C-class dungeon.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to be an Esper who dies by being stepped on by ants…”
“Stop worrying about getting stepped on to death. We can still hold out. What do you take me and Je-gon for?”
“Isn’t this a good opportunity while they’re clustered together? Let’s just burn them all with fire!”
“Hey, stop saying ‘let’s burn them with fire’! It’s becoming neurotic, Seong-rok.”
“Given what we’ve seen them do, that’s not a very good method. Even if we tried to burn them now, they’d probably evade it the same way as before.”
However, it was also true that no suitable method to handle them all at once came to mind. All the opinions they had shared the entire previous evening had turned to nothing the moment the ants became a giant foot and moved. For now, it seemed best to at least use Hwang Ji-hyun’s ability to contain them. An Jong-hyeok looked straight ahead and spoke, swallowing a sigh.
“Ji-hyun, can you trap the monsters in an earth wall?”
“Yes. I can trap them, but… they’re too close to us right now.”
“Leave that to me and Seong-rok. So it’s possible if we just create some distance?”
“Yes. I can do it if they just get off the shield.”
“Alright. First, we’ll trap them, and then…”
The person commanding the team must always consider ways to conquer dungeons by using abilities minimally and efficiently. This is to ensure that no Esper experiences a runaway crisis. That’s why, when such unexpected situations arise, leadership ability is properly evaluated.
An Jong-hyeok, having organized his thoughts, looked at Sa Hae-geon.
“Hae-geon, let’s fill the inside of the wall with water. Is that possible?”
“Yes.”
An Jong-hyeok nodded at Sa Hae-geon’s brief response. Sa Hae-geon would be a great help in carrying out the method he had come up with.
However, variables always tend to appear unexpectedly. Today was exactly like that.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
I’m kinda just startled at how one dimensional their thinking is. Because of how they believe they should think of how to use their abilities minimally and efficiently, they waste time and let their enemies adapt and strategies against their abilities. If Hageon were to let himself loose, he could flood the colony and fry them. I know that the soil and dirt can absorb electricity but it would have also eliminated the ants in the process since they inhabited there.