95. A Certain Moment (13)
Amid the silence filled with amazement, Esper Lee Cheol-min was the first to speak. He muttered in a dazed voice as if he couldn’t believe it.
“…There really is grass here?”
“Exactly. There are trees too. How can a place like this exist in the middle of a desert? Is it because it’s a dungeon?”
“Hey, didn’t you hear what the support team said? This is naturally occurring.”
“Ah, right. That’s what they said. Anyway, it’s fascinating.”
There really was lush grass and trees in the middle of the desert. Although the grass was short, it was amazing that such greenery existed in a desert. Esper Lee Cheol-min, who was tapping the ground with the toe of his shoe and looking around the grassland, tilted his head with a puzzled expression.
“But something’s strange.”
“What is it?”
“They call this a desert oasis, right? Didn’t the support team say that normally various animals and plants would inhabit this area? Then shouldn’t there be monsters too?”
“Umm… That’s right. The monsters… aren’t… visible?”
Esper Lee Cheol-min was right. In the not-so-large desert oasis, only a few types of plants were visible, with not a single monster in sight. Jong-hyeok, who had been silently observing the situation, asked the conquest support team.
“Are there any life forms being detected?”
“I’ll check.”
The support team Esper’s brow furrowed slightly as they tapped on their tablet screen, searching for something.
“…This is strange. It clearly shows that many life forms are being detected… They appear to be actively moving even now.”
“Let me see.”
Jong-hyeok, who received the tablet, also narrowed his eyes. He stared intently at the screen, lost in thought for a moment, then spoke.
“You said earlier that this is similar to the dungeon that the central center conquered recently.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Even though Field Team 2 conquered that dungeon, I know roughly about it. I remember the dungeon boss was an uncommon type, making the difficulty quite high. Is that right?”
“Yes. There are records indicating differences between this and the desert dungeons that appeared in foreign countries. While foreign desert dungeons featured monsters and dungeon bosses in the form of snakes, camels, or scorpions, the desert conquered by Field Team 2 at that time had a giant cactus as its dungeon boss.”
“A cactus…”
“So we assessed among ourselves that this dungeon has a similar form to that one… but something seems off.”
“What’s strange about it?”
“No life forms are being detected in any area outside the oasis.”
“How is that possible? That would mean all monsters, including the dungeon boss, are in this oasis.”
At Jong-hyeok’s words, the support team Esper cautiously nodded. Their face had turned pale, seemingly perplexed by the situation developing in a completely different direction from what they had expected.
The other team members who were listening to their conversation asked carefully.
“Then it would be disastrous to set up a base camp in the oasis…?”
“Are all those monsters really here? I can’t see a single one.”
No matter where we looked, there were no life forms visible except for the grass and trees. How could this be? Unless the monsters were so small they weren’t noticeable or had the ability to make themselves invisible…
‘…Wait. Small in size?’
Having only seen monsters that were either excessively large or bizarrely shaped until now, I had forgotten one possibility. If there can be extremely large monsters, couldn’t there also be extremely small ones?
I approached the oasis to confirm whether my guess was correct. When I suddenly started moving after standing still, Hae-geon hastily followed. He asked in a worried voice.
“Hyung, what’s wrong?”
“I need to check something.”
The soil of the oasis was clearly visible between the sparse patches of grass. I bent down to examine it, and sure enough—
“…Hae-geon.”
“Yes.”
“Can you see them?”
“See what?”
“These ants.”
At my words, Hae-geon bent down to check the ground. After straightening back up, he frowned. His expression looked as if he had seen something disgusting, and I had to swallow my laughter desperately.
Understandably so, countless rice-grain-sized ants were busily moving around the soil, appearing several times more repulsive than normal ants. Their overall appearance was similar to fire ants, but upon closer inspection, they were so grotesque and bizarre that words failed me.
Wings that were far too small for their bodies, jaws that looked several times tougher and harder than ordinary ants, eight large eyes, antennae twice as long as their bodies, scorpion-like pointed long tails, and a thin mucus-like substance—or was it body fluid?—covering their entire bodies.
“…Hyung, can we really call those things ants?”
“This is a dungeon. It’s entirely possible.”
“They’re too disgusting. I feel uncomfortable.”
“What? Look at the sky or something. Are you very uncomfortable?”
“I think I’d feel better if you held my hand.”
It was clearly a ploy, but I decided to go along with it since he was putting on a blank face while acting spoiled. I reassured him as I held his firm hand.
“They do look pretty gross. Regular ants are already creepy, but these are seriously bad.”
“I feel better now that I see your face.”
“…Good. That’s fortunate.”
While responding to Hae-geon, who casually said such embarrassing things, Hae-yoon came over to where I was and asked.
“What are you two doing there?”
Normally, I would have let go of Hae-geon’s hand, but I was also feeling disgusted after seeing the creepy ants, and Hae-geon didn’t seem willing to let go, so I answered while still holding his hand.
“There are strange ants here. Or more precisely, monsters.”
“Monsters?”
Jong-hyeok, who accurately caught the word “monsters” from afar, approached me.
“Do-min, you just said monsters, right?”
“Yes.”
“You saw monsters? Where?”
“I saw them here among the grass. Based on their appearance, they definitely seem to be monsters.”
“In the grass?”
Jong-hyeok asked, bending down to examine the grass. When he straightened up moments later, deep wrinkles had formed between his eyebrows. With a serious expression, he looked around the oasis and the desert beyond it, then strode toward the conquest support team Esper.
The team members looked at him with puzzled expressions, as his demeanor was unusually urgent.
“Can you determine how many monsters there are in total?”
“Normally, that would be possible… but strangely, it’s not working today. The tablet doesn’t seem to have any issues though.”
“What if the number of monsters is excessive?”
“No. Even if there are many, we can determine the number with the tablet. Perhaps not in the past, but with today’s technology, it’s possible. We should be able to confirm on the tablet even if monsters cover this entire desert.”
“What if these monsters are the size of rice grains or even smaller?”
At those words, the conquest support team Esper’s face hardened. Their fingers, which had been wandering aimlessly, hurriedly tapped the tablet. After manipulating the tablet for quite some time to check something, the support team Esper sighed.
“Could it be…”
“The ground of that oasis is crawling with fire ants.”
“Ants? Team Leader, is the dungeon boss an ant?”
Esper Hwang Ji-hyun abruptly interjected into their conversation. She tilted her head, puzzled by the heavy atmosphere between them, and asked.
“Isn’t that good if they’re ants? They’re small and move in groups, so couldn’t we just burn them to death? Isn’t it simple?”
“Monster ants aren’t that simple… They live in colonies like real ants. Their survival ability and tenacity are also remarkable. If they’re fire ants, it’s even worse. Fire ants never let go of prey once they’ve targeted it. They also have the appetite to eat everything without leaving even a bone fragment. They’re definitely not easy opponents.”
“But come on, they’re still insects. Insects that can be killed with fire.”
I watched cautiously before adding a careful comment.
“There was a thin body fluid covering them. Based on that, I think they might have some resistance to fire.”
“What? Even for monsters, that’s cheating, isn’t it?”
“If fire doesn’t work on insect monsters… Team Leader, what should we do?”
In response to Esper Lee Seong-rok’s worried question, Jong-hyeok replied as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“Since the ants are only in the oasis, we should set up our base camp a bit away from it and rest while we think about this together. Just walking in the desert consumes a lot of energy.”
“Those things won’t chase after us, will they?”
“Given their species characteristics, they might follow if we drop food while eating.”
“You heard the team leader, Seong-rok. Be careful, okay?”
“You should be careful too, seriously. I eat very neatly, you know?”
“Really? Just let me see even one crumb on your lips. I’ll bury you in the sand.”
“What? No… Team Leader, Esper Hwang Ji-hyun is bullying me! Team Leader, if I get buried, can it be processed as workplace harassment for industrial accident… Oof, mmph!”
Esper Lee Seong-rok, who had been shouting loudly, was dragged away with his mouth covered by Esper Hwang Ji-hyun’s hand. Jong-hyeok watched them with an incredulous look, then shook his head and walked away.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
