Chapter 19: Night Swarm

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Race: Beast

Species: Arsenis Ant [Explorer].

Title: [Loyal Vassal].

Rank: 2

Level: 20

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HP: 607/607

MP: 269/269

Strength: 100 Stamina: 55

Defense: 54 Intelligence: 30

Vitality: 63 Wisdom: 10

Agility: 39

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Skills:

{[Poison resistance lv:?][Collective mind lv:?]

[Hormone secretion lv:?][Iron jaw lv:?]

[Explode lv:?][Hunter's Sense lv:?]

[Exoskeleton lv:?]}

Weaknesses:

{[Fire damage lv:?]}

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'...F**k'

"Kiiiih!"

Upon noticing Marcus' presence, the Arsenis ant wasted no time and immediately charged towards him at full speed.

Marcus rolled on the ground managing to dodge the giant ant's powerful jaws, which embedded themselves in the tree where he had been resting a few moments before.

*Chomp!...Crunch!*

Due to the pressure exerted by the powerful jaw of the Arsenis ant, the wood of the trunk was destroyed, leaving deep bite marks in the tree.

'Damn, if that thing manages to bite me it will snap me just like a branch!'

Marcus evaluated his options. While it was still daylight the ant would be superior to him in every way so he couldn't run away and since his Mp was already depleted he couldn't use magic. But he didn't have much time to think either.

"Kiiiih!"

After crashing into the tree, the Arsenis ant shook its head and resumed its attack. This time Marcus was unable to dodge and was shunted by the huge reddish beast.

*Chomp! Crush!*

'Argh, my arm! You son of a …!'

In a desperate attempt to stop the ant's powerful jaws, Marcus used his covered left arm as a shield, but both his arm and the armor protecting it were shattered in an instant, as well as generating a lot of pain.

But that instant was more than enough. In a split second, Marcus opened his inventory, took out a short spear, and with all his strength stabbed the horrible insect's mouth in front of him.

*Shik!*

"KIIIIIIHHH!"

The Arsenis ant shrieked in pain as the spear that entered its mouth penetrated past its brain and exited through the top of its head and a nasty yellow slimy liquid began to flow from its wound. But the insect was still alive.

"KIIIIIIHHH!"

In a desperate attempt to remove the weapon from its body, the Arsenis ant thrashed violently, knocking Marcus to the ground, trees, and rocks in the area.

But despite the giant insect's violent movements, Marcus had no plans to let go of his spear until one of the two finally died.

'Seriously, do me a favor and just f**king die already!!!'Marcus thought as he clung to the weapon with all his might.

The minutes ticked by and slowly, Arsenis ant's movements became weaker and calmer.

'Phew, finally it... Huh!'

Just when Marcus thought it was all over, he noticed that the ant's abdomen was swelling to almost triple its original size and only continued to get bigger.

Marcus immediately dropped his spear and hurried to free himself from the grip of the huge insect, but only managed to walk a few steps when the ant's swollen abdomen exploded, staining all around him with viscous yellow blood very similar to pus.

....

{The user has killed an [Arsenis ant] for the first time, 587 additional experience points will be awarded}

....

{You gained 5873 xp}

...

{You leveled up}

...

{You gained 34 stat points}

...

'Iugh... No f**king way, this sucks! Now how am I going to clean this sh*t up?!.... Ugh, it even got into my joints!'

Marcus didn't manage to escape in time and got caught in the explosion so he was also covered with the sticky pus released by the ant. But besides getting completely dirty nothing else happened.

'Wait... If I remember correctly, I saw a documentary where some ants exploded their abdomens to release poison or acidic substances...Hu, good thing I'm immune to poison.'

Without paying too much importance to what had just happened, Marcus extracted the core from the dead ant's corpse, wiped off the yellow mucus covering its body as best he could, and set out to find a place where he could rest until his wounds were fully recovered.

****

....

{The levels of solar energy in the environment have decreased.}

...

{All user's stats and skills return to normal.}

...

'Ha finally, I was getting tired of having only one hand,' Marcus thought as he circulated necrotic energy through his body to recover from his wounds.

He was currently huddled inside a hollowed-out tree, 5 meters(16.4ft) above the ground.

After his encounter with the giant ant, it wasn't long before the sun began to dip below the horizon and the nocturnal predators came out to hunt.

Fortunately, Marcus had been able to find shelter and was now recovering from his injuries.

'Okay... System, open only my general stats.'

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HP: 625/625

MP: 2000/2130

Strength: 75 Stamina: max

Defense: 57 Intelligence: 213

Vitality: 62 Wisdom: 78

Agility: 74

Stats points: 34

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'Alright... For now, let's put 10 points in INT and then...'

[INT 213»223];[MP:2130»2232]

Marcus looked at his stats and immediately began to distribute his points, but after raising his INT he hesitated for a while before continuing.

'Please let this work...'

[STR 75»83]

[DEF 57»65]

[VIT 62»66];[HP:625»666]

[AGI 74»79]

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'It worked?!'

After Marcus evolved into a combat semi-lich, he received a strange notification from the system that his restrictions had been removed by the [Monarch of the Eternal Garden].

At first, Marcus didn't know what these "Restrictions" were, but after thinking about it for a while he deduced that it was about his inability to raise his stats.

But, as Marcus had been several weeks without leveling up, he had not been able to corroborate this hypothesis until now.

Although Marcus had no idea who the [Monarch of the Eternal Garden] was, he was more than sure that it was responsible for his arrival in this world.

In fact, it was only after Marcus learned of the existence of this mysterious being that things began to make sense.

At first, Marcus thought that his inability to increase his stats was because he was undead. But that didn't fit his situation either.

From what little knowledge Marcus could glean from Bairus' book of necromancy, most of the undead in this world were incapable of evolving or gaining more power through their own means. Of course, there were exceptions, but common skeletons were not one of them.

However Marcus had the system with which he could evolve, gain new abilities, and, despite having some restrictions, it was more than clear that the system was using certain powers to go against the natural laws of the world.

This only became more evident after the restrictions on his status were removed. But this was not necessarily a bad thing.

Sure, Marcus still had his doubts about the [Monarch of the Eternal Garden], but at least now he didn't have to wait to evolve to increase his stats.

Also, because of the solar energy, Marcus' combat ability was dropping to the level of a common skeleton as long as it was daytime, not to mention the damage from being exposed to sunlight. But now he could increase all his stats and thus raise his strength level during the day which increased his survival rate significantly.

'Although I'm still weak, I'm no longer a useless skeleton!... Well at least at night. But with a 90% decrease...It will take quite some time until I can have the ability to fight properly during the day.'

*Tremble, tremble, tremble*.

At that instant, the entire jungle began to vibrate and the trees began to shake. As the tremors became stronger, the sound of hundreds of footsteps could also be heard, as if it were a great stampede.

*Tremble, tremble...*

But from one second to the next the tremors stopped.

'What was that... Sigh, I hope it's not another Titanic Centipe-'

*BAAM! Creack! BAAM!*

*Cranch! Crunch! Cranch!*

'What the hell?!'

Suddenly, the tree Marcus was standing in had begun to tremble and shake violently as if someone was trying to chop it down with an ax.

But when Marcus looked through the gap in the tree to see what was happening he couldn't help but be surprised.

5 meters(16.4ft) down, on the jungle floor, was a swarm of hundreds of Arsenis ants trying to take down the tree he was standing on. But that was not all.

At the end of the swarm of hundreds of insects was also an ant that was three times the size of normal sentinels.

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Race: Beast

Species: Arsenis ant [Warrior].

Title: [Loyal Vassal][General]

Rank: 3

Level: 32

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HP: 1288/1288

MP: 1040/1040

Strength: 212 Stamina: 109

Defense: 201 Intelligence: 104

Vitality: 128 Wisdom: 15

Agility: 71

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'But what the...?! That thing has almost twice my stats! Aaaaah, I don't have time for this!'

*BAAM! Crack! Creack!*

*Cranch! Crunch! Cranch!*

The ants charged and bit the base of the tree over and over again until the trunk was so destroyed that it could no longer hold it and slowly began to fall backward.

With no time to think, Marcus used all his strength and jumped as far as he could, trying to reach the branches of the nearest tree.

But the distance was too great and, just when it seemed that he was about to fall in the middle of the army of ants...

'Shadow Whip!'

Marcus cast a spell and instantly a long dark shadow came out from his right arm. The shadow stretched out until it reached and curled around the nearest tree branch.

The shadow whip began to shorten and thanks to his acrobatic skills, Marcus managed to reach the tree branches without any trouble.

*THUD!*

The other tree made a thud as it was finally shunted, but the ants only resumed their attack by ramming and biting the tree where Marcus was currently standing.

*BAAM! Creack! BAAM!*

*Cranch! Crunch! Cranch!*

Why are they attacking me?! Wait... is it because of the other ant I killed today?'

Marcus clearly remembered the moment he killed the giant ant and how he was covered in yellow pus. What he didn't know was that even if they were the same species, not all Arsenis ants were the same.

When the larvae of the Arsenis ants were born they immediately formed a mental link that connected them to the queen and the entire colony. With this bond, the queen of the hive was able to choose how each larva would evolve to meet the needs of the colony.

In a way, Arsenis ants were a species with a complex caste system and each caste possessed its own set of special skills.

The ant that Marcus had killed belonged to the Explorer caste, whose role was to survey the territory for threats. But when the Explorers were killed they would explode, releasing a mixture of pheromones in the process.

These pheromones were intended to guide the rest of the ants to the killer in order to eradicate any possible threat that might be a risk to the colony.

*BAM! Creack! BAAM!*

*Cranch! Crunch! Cranch!*

The ants attacked the tree once again, but Marcus wasn't going to stand idly by and wait for this swarm of insects to kill him.

'Okay, motherf**kers, you messed with the wrong skeleton... Shadow Lances!'

*Weng Weng*

The air around Marcus distorted and five long shadows appeared behind him. In an instant, the shadows changed shape and became five dark long spears.

After his battle against Bairus, Marcus had obtained some documents about darkness magic, and necromancy. So after many weeks of practice, the mastery of his magical abilities had increased and he was now able to use multiple level 2 spells.

And now that it was night, Marcus was finally able to make use of his magical abilities to their fullest.

*Whoosh!... Shik, Shik, Shik, Shik, Shik.*

Marcus swung his hand and in a second the dark spears rushed down penetrating the heads of five Arsenis ants impaling them on the ground.

Marcus continued to create more shadow spears and before long several ants were skewered into the ground.

But the ants didn't seem to mind the fact that their comrades were being killed and continued their attack.

[MP: 1751/2232]

'Tch... At this rate, I'll run out of mana before I've killed half of them!'

Although attacks like energy missiles and shadow lances were incredibly effective, their mp consumption was huge and, while they certainly worked in 1vs1 battles, the ant numbers were more than Marcus could handle.

'I'll have to change tactics... Dark Swords'.

Two shadows came out of Marcus' hands. The shadows began to compress and solidify into a pair of incredibly sharp black swords.

....

{The conditions have been met.}

....

{The effect of the title [Adversity Overcomer] has been activated}

....

'Not enough... Self-reinforcement, Necrotic Mantle, Negative Blade, Minor Undead Reinforcement.'

Marcus cast all the Buff-type spells he knew and, along with the effect of the title [Adversity Overcomer], his physical stats were doubled and both he and his black swords began to emit a dark purple glow.

*BAAM! Crack! Creack!!!*

*Cranch! Crunch! Cranch!*

Finally, under the continuous attacks of the colossal ants, the tree gave way and was knocked down.

But before the tree hit the ground, Marcus jumped up, circled in the air, and landed on the back of an Arsenis ant.

*Slash!*

The giant insect's head flew through the air as the dark swords flashed with a cold light forming a horizontal slash, splattering the creature's internal fluids everywhere.

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