The way back to the other group wasn't eventful. But what Aenon found after reaching it wasn't something he was prepared for. The ants had sealed themselves in using the ceramic substance, and no matter which direction he tried approaching from, he couldn't get in. Aenon could still feel the hasty activity within the enclosed space using his Sovereign's Eye, but he was unable to interrupt. It gave him a bad vibe. The ants were preparing something, that much was certain. But he didn't know what.

He turned towards the direction of the Queen's Guard, who he could clearly sense hurtling their way towards the sealed group. He dived into the Shadow Realm just as they appeared and made a beeline for the reinforced wall. A wall that they ploughed through effortlessly like it was made of paper. But there was one Queen's Guard missing, and when Aenon scanned his surroundings, he noticed it was far away near the entrance to the anthill. Before he could theorize what it might be up to, a massive explosion rocked the entire tunnel system.

BOOM

Nasty vibrations emanated from all over as Aenon sensed further explosions from all around him. The injured member of their group had sacrificed itself to trigger a chain reaction that started collapsing the tunnels one by one. Which meant the only way left for Aenon was straight ahead.

"Alright, I'll hand it to you," Aenon said calmly while stepping into the cavern. "You got me good this time."

Only a handful of ants were left alive in the room, the rest were all consumed by the Juvenile who had grown to an enormous size. His earlier calculations for how long this thing would need to transform had been way off.

The three queen's guards were between Aenon and the ravenous Juvenile who had not stopped scarfing its food. He felt certain fluctuations within the ant's body but was uncertain what it implied. One thing he did feel was the rising temperature of the enclosed space. It reminded him of Borin's forge but was getting much worse by the second. He had to create a thin layer of mana around his entire body just to tolerate the heat.

Aenon's Mana Sense made his vision light up with extreme brightness. The entire place was saturated with fire wisps. He watched with fascination as the abundant fire mana started mixing with the other wisps to form their hybrid versions. The fire wisps mixed with earth wisps to form hot pools of lava, while the scarce water wisps interacted with the heat to form steam everywhere. Right before his eyes the entire place turned into a lava field that resembled the inside of a volcano.

And yet the Queen's Guard didn't charge. They maintained their defensive formation as the Juvenile began to change color. As it finished eating the last of its kin, it transformed into a towering creature having ten legs with razor sharp claws at the ends. As the transformation ended, Aenon's Sovereign's Eye was assaulted with the repulsive oily feeling of Corruption. He took a fighting stance, expecting an attack. But Aenon was bewildered when the former Juvenile grabbed its defenders with its massive claws. One by one it devoured the three within a few bites and continued to grow stronger.

An extremely hot current of steam emanated from the new creature as its carapace turned a dark shade of violet. But the transformation didn't end there. The creature started shedding its limbs till only four remained. It had transformed into a humanoid form, complete with facial features and limbs having five digits each. The only way to tell the being wasn't a human was by its carapace that covered most of its body like armor.

Aenon cast Identify to see what he was dealing with, but the results worried him. He was expecting a Queen. Not whatever this thing was.

<Ant Monarch | Level ???>

"I must thank you," a disturbingly gravelly voice came from the ant. "If not for your timely interference I could never have reached this form."

The Ant Monarch flexed its fingers as if it was feeling the sensations for the first time. It started moving around casually while inspecting its body, totally ignoring Aenon who stood to the side with a deep a frown below his mask. This was…unexpected.

When Aenon didn't respond for a while, the Monarch turned to face him. Its eyes had multiple green pupils which were disconcerting to look at. It smirked at Aenon and started chuckling.

"I see that you are a jack of multiple arts," the humanoid bug scoffed. "I may not be a master of the fire element yet, but my proficiency in it is much higher. And even though you have obscured your level, I can tell that I out level you significantly. Which means you are…not worth my time. I will give you an opportunity to swear fealty to me. At least that way you may survive. After all, I am a benevolent monarch."

Aenon didn't respond, merely staring coldly at his opponent. He could feel the soul of the creature, but it lacked an Aura. Which meant it wasn't above level 200, and neither was it an Awakened. He started walking towards the creature, who now had an amused smile on its haughty face. Aenon stopped a few steps before it and looked up into its eyes.

"A jack of all trades is a master of none," Aenon said calmly. "But is still better than a master of none."

At that exact second, earth spikes erupted from all around the Monarch. Its eyes widened in surprise as it attempted to get out of the way. But it couldn't since it was blocked from all sides by invisible barriers. Aenon had used his Physical Barrier Spell to form walls around the ant. The barrier wasn't strong enough to contain it, but that wasn't what he was going for. They were just a way to gain a fraction of a second's worth of delay. He capitalized on it by trapping the ant's movements in a complex array of earth spikes.

None of the spikes pierced the carapace or even attempted to. Merely restricting its movement while Aenon gathered air and fire wisps into his hands. He mixed in a healthy dose of gravity wisps in and shot the amalgamation at one of the gaps in the impervious armor.

BOOM

A massive shockwave rocked the cavern followed by an angry pained screech from the Ant Monarch. Its left arm was severed right at its shoulder and was jettisoned into the wall at supersonic speeds.

The entire thing happened in less than a second, showing how advantageous it was to have savant level Mana Manipulation. Aenon couldn't even think of trying this combo before since he would need several minutes just to channel the Spells. The explosion also shattered the earth spikes and Physical Barriers that were trapping his opponent. But instead of attacking, the horrified creature retreated a dozen paces, its former confidence broken as well.

"What's the matter, my benevolent monarch?" Aenon said with a predatory smile on his mask.

"You will pay for that," it shrieked in anger and pain. "The only reason you got me was because I underestimated you. You will regret not ending my life with your surprise attack."

It took a stance and charged at Aenon with blinding speed which he couldn't keep up with. Aenon barely managed to put up his arms in defense. But his body couldn't handle the punch. It was Aenon's turn to get knocked back into the opposite wall. The impact left a massive crater while also breaking his right arm in two different places.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He groggily crawled out of the hole, only to be knocked to the right as another punch landed on his face. The impact tossed him several dozen feet away and broke more bones. Luckily his mask protected his jaw.

Aenon's entire body was in pain as he lay on the ground. He couldn't even lift a single finger as he agonized over his broken body.

"Overconfidence goes hand in hand with pain and ruin," a female voice came from his left.

The System Nurse was standing near his head with her hands crossed. She had an extremely disapproving look on her face. The world was frozen in time, as was apparent from the floating shrapnel in his field of vision.

Aenon couldn't even reply to her as the Nurse continued, "You were no doubt warned not to take on those who were an evolution grade higher than you. Just because you were able to beat that Guild Leader, someone who has a low-grade evolution, you felt you could take on anyone?"

The question lingered in the air as Aenon tried and failed to move his body. He too was affected by the time spell, only his consciousness free to listen to the lecture.

"That bug too was overconfident, allowing you to just walk up within striking distance," the Nurse berated further. "And you…instead of using that opportunity, you decided to show off? That spell combo you used could have ended the fight, had you aimed the spell at the creature's eye socket. But no. You had to have a pissing contest first, didn't you? Do you know how many supreme geniuses have fallen because they were overconfident in their skills? They too felt superior and unbeatable. Only to fall to mundane attacks or weak opponents."

Aenon listened in silence, unable to refute anything. His recent successes had indeed made him a bit arrogant.

"I understand," he replied mentally, acknowledging his mistake.

And he meant what he said. He wasn't prideful enough to ignore his faults when pointed out by someone. He would accept them wholeheartedly, and work on improving. He focused inwards and entered his soul space. His consciousness floated next to his avatar, which he took over and approached the invisible barrier that represented his sealed stat multiplier. If the Ant Monarch had a higher-grade evolution, then the only way to match that was to somehow remove his limiter.

He observed the barrier closely using both his Soul as well as Mana Sense. Only then did he notice that the barrier had a rune script so complex that he couldn't understand any of it. This was yet another facet of his abilities he had neglected. He had the knowledge seared on his brain, but he didn't understand even a fraction. He resolved to work on it the next time he had the chance.

He studied the patterns closely, every inch of the barrier. Even though he didn't know what the symbols meant, he noticed the mana flowed in a particular pattern. There were multiple pathways the mana followed, but all the lines eventually converged to a single point. He stood before the spot, deep in thought. It looked like the spell form he had created with Nocthrya, but more complex. This was no doubt a keyhole, which meant he needed to make a key. He started working on trying to create a mana shape that would fit the keyway.

Time meant nothing to Aenon as he was lost in the excruciatingly frustrating task. He dug deep into the locked knowledge to find the right symbols to form the key. But he always fell short, noticing small inconsistencies in the shape of the letters that made the script. Unbeknownst to him, his work was observed by two entities, who had very different reactions to his work.

Finally, after who knows how long Aenon succeeded. The moment he fit the mana construct he had painstakingly made, the barrier created a small opening through which intensely dense mana flowed in. And with it came pain. He was flung back into his body—which was still lying on the hot floor—where he saw the world finally resume. The Ant Monarch walked towards him with a confident strut.

Aenon felt his body gushing with immense power. His wounds didn't heal, but he was able to use his overtaxed muscles to hold his broken bones in place. As he stood up, the smirk vanished from his opponent's face.

Aenon cracked his neck and turned to face his opponent. He summoned his daggers while staring coldly at his prey.

"Let's start round two, shall we?"

* * *

System Nurse

The two women stared at the screen showing Aenon standing up despite his body being broken. The System Nurse had a concerned look, while the System Admin had the same impassioned expression. The Nurse had received an update from her copy about the status of Aenon's injuries. But she was too scared to bring that up in front of her boss. Ever since their last interaction, she was terrified of talking anything about Aenon's state, too worried about how the blonde-haired woman would react.

"Your copy interfered with the fight," the cold heartless voice of the Admin echoed around the empty hall.

"I…," the Nurse stammered, trying to come up with a response. She didn't know how or what to do. Her core directives were to help Aenon, but she was severely limited in what she could do. She was wracking her brain for a solution, when the Admin spoke up again. But the words shocked and confused her.

"Good job," the Admin said.

"I am sorry, what?" the draugr replied in bafflement.

"Providing lifesaving assistance, or resources he didn't earn himself isn't allowed," the Admin explained. "But providing guidance and the occasional slap on his head when he gets full of himself is fine."

The Nurse blinked, unable to understand the contradictory behavior of her boss.

The Admin continued staring at the screen that showed Aenon clashing with the ant monarch blow for blow. The boy was still lacking in terms of raw stats, but he made up for it with his ingenuity in battle tactics. He set up counter traps on the fly which didn't let his opponent leverage their full power. But even then, it would be a close battle. The boy had managed to partially unseal the restriction placed by the System Admin herself. But the resulting surge of stats was tearing his body apart.

The System Nurse detected no less than 15 tendons that had ripped apart, with more being added by the minute. The only hope he had was that the Ant Monarch was racking up an equal number of injuries from his relentless assault. This was a true battle of attrition, where the last one standing would be the victor.

"His body won't hold out much longer," the Nurse commented nervously.

"No, it won't," the Admin commented emotionlessly.

"His chances of winning are dwindling," the Nurse added with an almost pleading tone.

"They are," the Admin said. "He has a 20% chance of winning if he ends the fight in the next seven minutes. They will fall by 5% for every minute longer the fight goes on."

The tone the Admin used was very analytical. In fact, the Nurse showed more emotion even though she wasn't really a living entity.

"I don't understand…," the nurse began to say, finally losing her composure. But she was interrupted by the Admin who completed her sentence.

"Why I refuse to help him even though I want him to succeed?"

The Nurse didn't know how to respond to that. So, she just nodded weakly. The Admin didn't respond for a while, staring at the battle with the same hollow gaze. The Nurse was confused by so many things—Aenon's seemingly supernatural control over spell forms, his ability to influence souls, or even his relaxed demeanor even in the face of impossible odds. But the thing that perplexed her the most was the conflicting nature of what the Admin seemed to want.

It was obvious the Admin wanted a strong void user to emerge. And yet, she refused to provide any material support or guidance. Going as far as to declare that she would eliminate Aenon should he fail. Even now, as the boy's body was being torn to shreds by his own power, the Admin refused to interfere.

"The boy will suffer loss and defeat," the Admin finally started to talk again.

The screen showed the battered body of the Ant Monarch.

"He will be broken beyond belief."

Aenon stood on the other side, his body equally ravaged.

"The odds will forever be stacked against him."

The battle had come to the penultimate stage. The two stumbling enemies charged each other one last time.

"But only if he manages to get back up, will he be qualified."

The clash ended with the two standing on the opposite sides of the lava filled room, their backs to each other. As one, fountains of blood and ichor erupted from their bodies, the result of their engagement. And as one, both collapsed to the ground.

For an excruciatingly long time, neither body twitched. The Nurse's nervousness peaked until at last the boy moved. A finger at first, followed by a hand, until finally he managed to force his broken body to stand. The Nurse was astonished as Aenon dragged his feet towards his opponent. As he stood before the corpse of his fallen enemy, his gaze didn't show pride or happiness at his accomplishment. It held the same cold indifference as always. It finally clicked in the Nurse's mind, what that look reminded her of.

She turned to the Admin and saw the same expression. Except this time, there was a subtle smile too.

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