Chapter 148 The Ant Nes (1/2)
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Chapter 148 – The Ant Nest
Currently, Fatty and Liu Lan were deep inside Thousand Cave Ridge.
“A hundred bottles, still too few,” Fatty was a little dissatisfied as he checked the amount of Royal Winged Ant Venom.
“Let’s get more of them then,” Liu Lan closed her eyes and spread out both arms to embrace the breeze. She took a deep breath, and said, “Mhm, it’s much better out here than spending all day sitting in that dog-eat-dog office. Fatty, how about we adventure into Thousand Cave Ridge?”
“Why not?” Fatty nodded joyfully.
Since the structure of Thousand Cave Ridge was too complex, the system didn’t publish a detailed map of it. The players could only rely on themselves when exploring the place.
The two picked a random cave and entered from there. The tunnel had a lot of twists and turns as it extended downward. As they continued walking, the light became dimmer, and the distribution of Royal Winged Ants gradually grew denser.
If Fatty were by himself, he wouldn’t need to fight the mobs. Instead, he could have just gotten in using Stealth With Liu Lan, however, they needed to clear out all of the monsters on the way.
It wasn’t as if they didn’t benefit, though. In fighting the mobs, they were able to acquire more venom as they went.
Truthfully speaking, the Royal Winged Ants couldn’t be judged by their name, as they were remarkably weak and hence unworthy of the “Royal” title. Their drops were so inadequate that they could rival those of the hens from the Beginner’s Village. In fact, the two only got numerous trash drops after killing so many ants. Ignoring the fact that the Royal Winged Ants were too troublesome to fight, no one would still want to farm such worthless mobs unless there was a particular quest for it.
“Ahh, another mediocre boot. Why are all of these drops so insignificant?” After taking the time to kill yet another ant, all that it delivered to them was a pair of heavy-armor boots, causing Liu Lan to become incensed at the mere sight of the drop.
“Just accept it. How can there be any good sources of money in such a poor place?” Fatty didn’t even lift his head as he quickly cleared out the battlefield.
A moment before, the wave of ants became a bit too many, at about fifty ants. Fatty could have escaped with Stealth, but Liu Lan would have died already if not for Wheat risking its life to gather the majority of the ants’ aggro.
“Humph! Screw it! If I knew of the trouble these ants would be giving us, I would have learned Heavy Ride. Let’s see if you little shits could bite me then!” Liu Lan gritted her teeth and muttered loathsomely. A knight’s real strength can only be fully displayed on the battlefield, where thousands of them charging all at once could effectively destroy any powerful foe. Even so, without a priest to heal them, it would be a tragedy for a knight to grind alone.
As the two walked along the passage, they heard a series of buzzing sounds coming from further down the tunnel.
“Are we actually so lucky? We reached the Royal Winged Ants’ nest after picking a random cave?” Liu Lan asked in amazement.
“It’s possible that there are multiple caves all linked to the ant nest,” Fatty grew excited, “We hit the jackpot today, here comes another boss!”
“Oh, yeah! Kill the boss, get the drops!” Liu Lan was just as enthusiastic.
“When did ya learn my catchphrase?” Fatty looked at Liu Lan, shocked.
“What do you mean ‘your’ catchphrase?” Liu Lan rolled her eyes at him. “How do we get in?”
“We fight our way in, of course,” Fatty fiddled with his dagger. “Wheat, lead the way.”
“Poor little Wheat…” Liu Lan was full of sympathy for the rat.
“Squeak, squeak!” Surprisingly, Wheat turned around and squeaked at Liu Lan. Its two beady eyes blinked pitifully.
“Ah? It can understand what I say?” Liu Lan exclaimed and looked at her Lightning Bird, “They are both Yaos, why isn’t Sparky as intelligent?”
“That’s because Sparky doesn’t have an inner core,” Fatty kicked Wheat ‘the Actor.’ “This brat has been crafty for all its life; don’t let it deceive you.”
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
Hearing the familiar noise coming from ahead, Fatty furrowed his brows, “You are just an ant, but please tell me, why can’t you behave and crawl like an ant? Why the heck do you fly around like a bee instead?”
Very soon, two Royal Winged Ants flew over as Fatty silently put up his guard. These two ants differed greatly from those they had fought while traveling through the cave. Not only were their heads a lot bigger, but their bodies were also coated in a layer of dirt-yellow fur while their mouths also bared two sparkling golden laniaries.
“Holy crap, what huge golden teeth, we’ve hit the jackpot!” Fatty yelped as he tossed Appraisal on the newly found monster.
Golden-Tooth Ant
Level: 45
……
Notes: A mutation of the Royal Golden Ant. It has two large golden teeth that can crush through solid stone.
“Fatty, you take one, and I take the other,” Liu Lan said before eagerly charging forth. As a guild master, all she had been doing since coming to Black Tortoise City was compete with the other guilds. If Liu Lan wasn’t grinding with her guild members, she was leading them in a boss fight. Liu Lan was so fed up with how controlled it was as she never had time to properly fight a mob on her own.
“Will you be able to hold your own?” Fatty’s incredulous tone made Liu Lan very displeased.
“How could I not? Don’t forget, I used to be ranked ninth on the rankings, although only for a few days,” Liu Lan reminded in a proud tone.
“So what? I used to rank first,” Fatty said contemptuously. What the heck are the rankings? Lord Fatty never cared about that stuff either way.
“You?! Humph!” Unable to win the verbal fight against Fatty, Liu Lan let out her frustration on the Golden-Tooth Ant. She urged her Fire Cloud Panther onwards and loudly shouted, “Charge!”
While her Charge’s small probability to Stun didn’t proc, the attack still caused heavy knockback, causing the ant to roll backward helplessly. A huge number popped up from its head.
–314
“How’s that?” Liu Lan turned to Fatty and asked smugly.