Chapter 196

Ch . 196 Surrender

I continue down the crimson red passageway . I’m feeling overpowered by the unnatural atmosphere here . My partner is being unexpectedly quiet .

“Gaa…”

…It’s good that you’re quiet, however you could be a bit more mindful about where your head’s at . Since it’s quite narrow, my head will be the one scraping against the wall if you’re too close . My horns are throbbing but they won’t break, right?

Occasionally, my partner sneaks some quick glances towards the top of my head . She seems to be mindful of the ball rabbit’s illumination skill .

You were literally dangling the ball rabbit from your mouth just a few moments ago . Give it a rest already and just stay alert for any red ants .

As I advance, I see nothing that even remotely resembles the red ants from a little while ago . Maybe it’s because I wiped so many of them out last time?

I had annihilated them by using poison but none of them are lining the nest . The red ants will be able to heal over time as they also possess recovery skills .

I wonder if they’ve cooped themselves all up in anticipation of me plunging back into their nest, while planning to assault me all at once? They could at least have a few on lookout… But then again, they might be trying to make me lower my guard . They may have altered the inner layout of the nest as a countermeasure against me .

Now that I’m thinking about it, isn’t this my third time going in? It feels like such a long time ago that I entered the nest in order to escape from the huge centipede and got the shit beat out of me .

“Gaa?”

My partner raises her voice and tilts her head . Seeing that, I use [[Presence Sense]] and feel the faint signs of monsters at the end of the passageway .

Did I lose to this girl in terms of sensing their presence? Th-this doesn’t sit right with me . I’ll have to be a bit more alert .

Any monster that’s here is without a doubt going to be a red ant . However, this presence feels oddly weak . That’s why I was so late in noticing it . Its movements are sluggish and I don’t sense much hostility either . Has it been considerably weakened? No, this feels like there’s more to it… .

Before long, two red ants appear from out of the darkness at the end of the passage . The two red ants’ stop when they see me and the two nod towards each other .

“…Kucha . ”
“Kucha . ”

The two ants let out a cry, turn around, then point their butts in my direction together . They don’t try to run away and remain rigid .

Wha-what is this? Is this by any chance a display of courtship? I won’t be happy even if I’m popular with these red ants!

“Pefu . ”
[Surrendering-…]

Huh? Th-that’s a little troubling… If I’m unable to level up with the red ants then I won’t be able to catch up with the hero’s stats . Wha-what should I do about this?

Should I completely trample these red ants that have no will to fight? Back when I was hunting, the camels would always do something like this… However, I’m not completely resolved to use this opportunity to thrust my claws into the red ants’ backs .

Alright, I’ve decided . To say that I could get to this level by not killing red ants would be rude to Adofu who went above and beyond to save my life . Nina’s life is on the line too .

“Guo…”

I lift up my forefoot while letting out a growl .

The red ant hunt this time is like a match that’s full of openings . The higher my level rises, the more at ease I can be that everything will go according to plan .

I’m lucky to have here two red ants that are lacking the will to fight as my prey . This is fine . I won’t hesitate . I’ll quickly strike the back of the red ant’s neck, giving it an assuredly fatal blow .

If I disable one of them, I can beat the other one with ease . I shouldn’t try to take on both of them . But rather, I should bring down one of them without fail .

I ready my forefoot and aim at the nape of the defenseless red ant . Then, at the exact moment I put strength into my hind-legs…

“Gua! Guaao!”

My partner suddenly begins to rampage . She violently shakes her head left and right while raising her voice .

My posture collapses . I stretch out my foreleg to pin my partner down . My partner adeptly slips through my forefoot and stabs her horns into the base of my throat .

Wai- Hey! Seriously! Stop that!

“Guooo!!”
“Gaaaa!!”

We end up biting each other . Performing a biting feint, I purposefully swing my forefoot and miss while using that opening to thrust my fangs at her now defenseless snout .

I clamp down on her nose and jaw with my fangs, fixing her mouth in place in order to prevent her from opening it . I’ve won this fight . The differences in our abilities is too large .

“Gaaa…”

My partner lets out a frustrated groan through the gaps in her teeth . Seriously, cut it out .

Hearing the noise of one person playing two roles making a racket behind them, the two red ants turn around .

“Kucha…”

[Our great Queen, wise . Will overlook, compensation surely, able to prepare . Place negotiation, want you to . What you do?]

Ball Rabbit’s stable translation . It seems like the red ants seriously intend to surrender .

…However, as expected, their leader is a Queen Ant . No, I can’t affirm that it’s an ant just yet . After all, I did see that instance of a slime commanding Mahar Wolves . The possibility that other species have taken over command is not zero .

Even if they do say that they want to surrender, I want neither food, water, nor gold . What I desire are experience points . It doesn’t seem likely that their boss can easily prepare something like that for me . And I want it here before the day is over .

Besides, there must be a crapload of other ants besides the queen . If negotiations break down, then they will fight on the spot . If I end up going to war with a massive amount of red ants along with their boss in tow in such a vast space, then they’ll almost certainly swarm and kill me . A large flock of soldier ants is already more than a handful .
If I’m to meet their boss, then I’d prefer to raise my level and weaken their war potential .

As before, should I kill these two right now? No, but, there hasn’t been a single red ant here up until this point . It would be better to assume that the red ants have already gathered themselves all in one place . Taking down red ants on my journey through the nest while heading towards their boss… Yeah, I don’t see that happening .

If the other side is seriously willing to negotiate, then wouldn’t it be a better idea to just go along with it for the time being? Ball Rabbit’s [[Telepathy]] doesn’t lie . The chances of a surprise attack are low . I’d rather pretend to go along with their negotiation in order to be sure of the location of my opponents . Besides, there’s a lot of them . It’s a little cowardly, but it may allow me to take advantage of an opening .

Naturally, I’ll assume the worst and stay vigilant while moving accordingly . They may have some method of deceiving [[Telepathy]] . It’s possible that they’re trying to lure us into a trap .

For now, should I just go with the flow? I’ll pretend to not mind the outcome while pushing my request through and if they show any signs of suspicious movements, all I need to do is rampage around .

I release my partner from my mouth and turn to face the red ants .

“Gaa . ”

“Pefu . ”
[Guide, whether to negotiate, choose talk . However condition, kill all you immediate as soon as look like betray, let bite you once . ]

I will give the two guides status abnormalities with my poison fang . It’s important that I do this . Given that my level right now is low, both of these ants will be enough to sufficiently raise it . The moment this suddenly turns into a free-for-all, I can quickly take those two down and procure experience points from them . If such a thing happens, dealing with it then will become considerably easier . I’ll be able to judge if the other party is telling the truth depending on whether or not they’ll accept this .

“…Kucha . ” “…Kucha . ”

After the red ants once again exchange glances, they plod over here in a way that says [Can’t be helped] .

“Pefu . ”
[One at a time, come . ]

That’s also important . If both of them approach for me to bite them, but decide to attack, things could turn slightly dangerous . If it’s just one of them then I’ll be able to suppress them .

After I finish this, should I have them wastefully shoot their [[Clay Gun]] at the wall to deprive them of their MP? It’s from there that they then start guiding me to where their queen is at . If there’s an indication of anything suspicious, I want to be able to immediately exchange them for experience points using [[Wind Slash]] .