"Wow, there really are a lot of them. I suppose that tracks for ants," I remarked, as I peered out through a row of bushes.

"<Yeah, are you sure you want to take on this many? Who knows how many more of them are inside>," Muttered Superbia warily.

It's been almost eight months now, and I was currently staking out a large ant Monster colony.

There were scores of Giant Ants and Giant Flying Ants in sight, around a massive, towering anthill.

There were a handful of Soldier Ants outside the anthill too, likely tons more inside. There's almost definitely a Queen Ant somewhere in there too, and hopefully, at least a few King Ants.

Every ant Monster colony apparently only has one Queen Ant at a time. Giant Ants evolve into Giant Flying Ants, but Giant Flying Ants have two possible evolutionary routes.

The first, and more common route, is that they evolve into Soldier Ants. And in much rarer cases, they evolve into Queen Ants.

And if a new Queen Ant appears, the current one is killed and the new one takes its place. And if a Queen Ant is killed and the colony left without one, the rest of them start attacking each other, creating a highly stressful environment to force as many evolutions as possible, until a new Queen Ant evolves.

Queen Ants' primary purpose is reproduction, but the older the get, the more their rate of reproduction slows down, that's why older Queens are killed off as soon as new ones appear.

Anyway, if all goes well, this should be the last Monster territory I target...my stats aren't too far from reaching their peak at this point, and these ant Monsters should be more than enough to cover what's left of my growth potential.

"Alright, let's get started, shall we?" I suggested, stretching my arms up as I glanced back at the others.

"<As you command, Master>."

"<Won't let ya down, Boss>!"

"<Very well, my Lord, if I have to>."

"<Yeah, let's do this>."

"Now, then...<Descent>," I chanted, as I cracked my knuckles.

I spread out my wings and flew up, Acedia following after me as ascended into the air, before hovering above the scores of Ants, focusing my gaze on the Soldier Ants-...hm?

Weird...for a brief moment, I thought I sensed someone staring at me.

Did I imagine it?

Hm, I'll have to keep an eye out, just in case I didn't. But for now, let's begin the attack...

"<Command: Kill Each Other>."

Chaos erupted below as a few dozen of the Soldier Ants zipped out and began tearing the other Monsters apart, a deafening cacophony of chitters and screeches ringing out as the Soldier Ants massacres several Giant Ants and Giant Flying Ants.

A number of the Giant Flying Ants began flying up towards us as they took notice of us, charging this way aggressively.

"Acedia."

"<Understood>," He nodded, before unleashing a fierce barrage of crackling lightning bolts, shooting down the incoming Monsters.

Luxuria zipped out from behind the bushes we'd been hiding behind, atop a cliff overlooking the massive anthill, before swooping down towards the swarm of Monsters below...

"<Now, Demonic Art: Bewitching Mist>," She chanted, a pink mist erupting around her and blanketing dozens of the Monsters, disorienting them before she began blasting them with Negative Energy.

Superbia and Invidia entered the fray as well, sliding down the cliff.

Invidia used the Stealth Skill to turn himself invisible as he reached the bottom, as Superbia generated a spear and shot towards a cluster of Giant Ants that had grouped up, lunging forward as she closed in and slicing them apart with her spear.

I took aim and began blasting the anthill with a fierce barrage of Negative Energy, which Acedia used his lightning to shoot down the Monsters flying towards me.

Large chunks of dirt fell off the side of the anthill and plummeted down as I continued to blast the imposing structure, deep cracks spreading out across it, before a massive swarm of Giant Flying Ants and Soldier Ants came zipping out of the anthill.

"<Command: Kill Each Other>," I chanted as I focused on several more Soldier Ants, before firing off a massive beam of Negative Energy as they began attacking each other, blasting a wide hole through the side of the anthill.

I have to admit, this is fun...I can't let loose with Negative Energy with such reckless abandon inside a Dungeon, but I have absolutely no reason to hold back right now.

My Mana recovery rate has also increased a lot, I regain 1 MP in approximately ten seconds or so, and I've grown more efficient with channeling Mana and casting Magic, so it'd take a lot to use up all my MP as I am now.

Hm, this is probably going to take a while, more and more of them are emerging from the anthill, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

I'm guessing the anthill probably extends underground too.

Acedia and I split up before long, zipping through the air as too many Monsters appeared to shoot all of them down while hovering in the same spot.

We shot across the air while continuing to fire at them, steadily shooting them down bit by bit...they've got enough numbers to overwhelm us, if this was an enclosed space.

But since we're in an open area, Acedia, Luxuria and I weren't having any trouble keeping our distance while we blasted the ants.

Invidia's making great use of his Stealth to remain undetected while cutting down the ones on the ground, and Superbia was more than holding her own too.

They've mostly just got Giant Ants to deal with, and at their level, they aren't going to struggle against Low Level Monsters.

I deactivated Descent once I had about a minute left with it, using Negative Energy to propel myself around instead.

I was generating a lot less speed without my wings, but I was still fast enough to keep the Monsters from catching up to me.

Time steadily ticked by, the Monsters dropping like flies, nearly the entire around surrounding the anthill covered in a large, growing pile of corpses, and by the time an hour had passed, their numbers were finally showing signs of slowing down, less of them emerging from the anthill, the outside of which was pretty thoroughly devastated at this point.

Hm? Ah, there we go...

"It's about time. Looks like we've finally got some King Ants joining the party," I remarked with a smirk, as four of them came into sight, emerging through one of the openings we'd blasted through the anthill...

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