Chapter 29: Dungeon Field Class (4)
“What kind of characteristics do Colossal ants have?”
While we were walking along the winding path, Velita’s clear voice rang out.
She acted as if the subtle confrontation from earlier had already been forgotten.
“Tesrad?”
Pressed by Anette, who urged him to explain quickly, he immediately opened his mouth.
“They possess a sturdy exoskeleton and powerful pincers, and they always move in swarms. In addition, they have a strict hierarchy and class system, and for the sake of preserving their species, they willingly throw away their lives. Beyond that, I do not know much more. My apologies, Princess.”
A subtle silence followed his words.
It was practically urging me to continue the explanation.
“Khmm.”
Since I also needed to explain it clearly to Allen, I let out a small cough.
“First, Colossal ants consist of the queen ant that lays eggs, the princess ant, the males that exist only for reproduction, the workers that take care of all miscellaneous tasks, and lastly the soldiers that exist only for battle. So, there are five types, but if you exclude the young princess ants, they can essentially be divided into four.”
Velita asked with sparkling eyes.
“Then the ones we just fought—were those soldier ants?”
“No, they were workers.”
“What? Those were workers?”
“Yes, soldier ants are as large as a person and their mandibles are developed in a way much more suited for battle. The difference is so obvious that anyone could recognize it at a glance.”
If you were unlucky enough to run into a soldier ant, even a human clad in sturdy armor could be sliced clean in two in an instant.
That was how sharp and powerful their mandibles were.
“In fact, when assessing the danger level of a Colossal ant colony, the size of the swarm matters, but whether or not soldier ants are present is considered even more important. That is why I think it’s unlikely they will appear in this dungeon field class. After all, we are still just first-years.”
Finishing my explanation, I paused for a moment and sharpened my senses.
Perhaps because we were getting closer to the cocoon chamber, there were now twice as many ants scurrying about on patrol compared to before.
Since I wanted to avoid encountering them if possible, our pace inevitably slowed down.
“And although it is extremely rare, there are also cases where mutants appear.”
“Mutants?”
“Yes.”
I slowly nodded.
“Some of them have sharp stingers or fangs, some spit deadly venom or strong acid that normal ants do not have, some create traps with sticky threads like spiders, or even roll themselves along the ground… Whatever the case, they possess forms and abilities that ordinary Colossal ants never show. They are so rare that if you bring back their corpses, places like the Magic Tower will purchase them at a high price.”
Including Colossal ants, mutant versions of monsters were far stronger than their ordinary counterparts, but the chance of them being born was equally low.
That was why they were classified and recorded separately, to be studied and noted with caution.
And soon enough, such mutant Colossal ants would be released in large numbers and begin wandering this dungeon.
“……”
Mutant Colossal ants, especially not just one but groups of them, were absolutely not something ordinary first-years could handle.
They would ruthlessly hunt down the scattered students throughout the dungeon, offer them as sacrifices, and devour whatever parts they did not need—bones and all.
“Then, may I ask just one more thing?”
At Velita’s question, I nodded.
“If it’s something I know, I will answer anything, Princess.”
“How are these mutants born?”
Her question made me close my mouth.
I did not know that much detail either.
“Well…”
Then, a story I had vaguely heard during my mercenary days suddenly came to mind.
Yes, that strange beastkin monster scholar had said something back then…
“This may be a little off-topic, Princess, but are you familiar with locusts?”
“Locusts?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“I do not know all the details, but I heard that depending on the conditions and environment at the time of hatching, their overall form, appearance, and habits are determined. You know, right? How they differ in wings or leg length compared to normal grasshoppers, and how they travel long distances…”
“Are you perhaps talking about the swarming locusts?”
“Yes, locusts. The ones that cause crop devastation.”
I wiped the sweat trickling down my face as I continued.
“Some scholars suggest that Colossal ants may also undergo such changes depending on the subtle conditions and environment at the time of hatching, leading to mutants. Of course, nothing has been definitively proven, so it is only a hypothesis.”
“I see.”
After a moment of silence, Velita murmured in admiration.
“Sir Lian, you are truly knowledgeable. I would believe it if you said you majored in monster studies.”
“You flatter me, Princess.”
After that, we pressed forward in silence for a while.
Just as sweat started pooling and breathing became heavy, Tesrad exhaled deeply and asked me,
“Hey, Gwendil. Are we there yet?”
“We’re almost there, just hold on a little longer.”
At my answer, Tesrad whistled lightly.
“But you really must have had something you were relying on, huh? Ever since you took the lead, we haven’t run into a single one of them. The pace did slow down a bit, but it’s still much better than fighting.”
“Guess it’s just luck.”
When Anette threw the words bluntly, Tesrad burst out laughing.
“Luck is a skill too, Ganetsa. Especially luck this outrageous. But still…”
Tesrad sniffed the charm hanging around his neck, then immediately frowned.
It was the deodorizing necklace I had distributed to everyone before taking the lead.
“Yikes, this smell is really terrible. Don’t tell me it’s going to cling to my clothes and never come off? I really like this outfit.”
“But like you said earlier, isn’t this still much better than fighting?”
“Well, true enough!”
While he chuckled again as if it were the funniest thing, Ganetsa pressed her lips tightly together.
I thought I faintly heard the sound of someone grinding their teeth.
“……”
Meanwhile, Allen followed silently right behind me.
In his hand was the mace I had lent him.
We kept moving forward.
Along the way, we let scouting ants pass by several times, navigated branching paths, and found cleverly hidden entrances as we advanced.
After quite some time had passed—
“…My god.”
At last, we arrived at the cocoon chamber.
“Phew.”
And unlike me, who had somewhat expected it, the others could not seem to hide their shock.
It was because the scale of the cocoon chamber was beyond imagination.
“How many… how many of these are there?”
“More than that, it’s this wide?”
Even Tesrad and Anette could not conceal their astonishment as they looked upon the hundreds—no, thousands—of cocoons.
When I glanced over, Velita too had her lips pressed tightly together as though she were deeply pondering something.
In the meantime, I reached out my hand toward one of the nearby cocoons.
‘As expected.’
Its form was distinctly different from ordinary cocoons.
It was unmistakably a mutant cocoon.
When I held one of the talismans Yuran had given me close to it, I was able to grasp its state with greater certainty.
To put it objectively, if five or six of the creatures inside hatched at once and attacked, even I might not be able to avoid struggling.
And there were nearly thousands of such cocoons.
Above all, the time required for them to hatch had almost run out.
It was sheer luck—cutting it perilously close, but still just in time.
‘So that’s how he managed to prepare a horde of monsters without being discovered by the other faculty members.’
To prevent the catastrophe that had been set in motion, I first needed to obtain answers to several questions.
One of them was, “How on earth did Rahma manage to hide so many monsters inside the dungeon without being detected?”
This was the answer.
Rahma had moved the Colossal ant mutants into this place while they were still larvae and raised them into adults.
As with most insect-type monsters, when they were not yet adults their presence was so faint it was practically nonexistent, which was why he could smuggle them in unnoticed.
‘Even the faculty said they had quite a hard time with these creatures…’
At the time, since I had not yet escaped the dungeon, I did not witness it myself, but I heard that the sudden appearance of mutants had thrown the academy into a state of emergency.
Just the thought of this many cocoons hatching and rampaging all at once was dizzying.
“This looks much worse than I imagined. Is it really fine to burn them all? No, more than that—how did I not notice this huge number of cocoons at all? Was there some kind of concealment spell?”
“Princess.”
Tesrad let out a faint laugh of disbelief, while Anette quietly looked at Velita.
She nodded.
“Burn them. All of them.”
Having decisively reached a conclusion, she turned to Tesrad.
“Tesrad, is it possible?”
“…I am sorry, Princess, but I fear I will have to disappoint you once more. My ability is insufficient to burn this many cocoons all at once.”
The blue-haired mage murmured with a bitter expression as though his insides hurt.
“If this were an open plain or wasteland, I might manage, but in a cave like this there are too many restrictions and calculations to account for. More importantly, since there are other students here besides us, we must be all the more cautious in case something unexpected happens.”
“Hmm…”
Velita nodded slightly.
At that, I reached for the bag I had not opened even once until now.
Inside it were firebombs and specially refined oil, packed full.
“How about using this?”
“What? What is… whoa.”
Tesrad whistled softly and tilted his head.
Then he stared at me with a look of genuine disbelief and asked,
“Unbelievable. You actually prepared and carried all this with you?”
“There’s nothing wrong with being thorough.”
“Still, this is practically obsessive… ah, sorry.”
Muttering that, Tesrad glanced at me and gave an awkward laugh.
“That came out wrong. I didn’t mean it badly, it’s just… you know, right? I was impressed.”
“Yeah, I get it. Don’t worry about it too much.”
Tesrad apologized but still clicked his tongue as he looked at the miscellaneous items stuffed inside my bag.
Since I had prepared all sorts of things just in case, he seemed to think I was simply meticulous.
“With this, it should definitely be possible.”
“Good.”
Velita nodded.
“Then let’s hurry. If we waste time, we don’t know when the Colossal ants might come rushing in.”
Following her words, we began sprinkling oil everywhere and setting up firebombs.
The plan was for Tesrad to launch fireballs into the center and several other points, which would spread the flames through the oil and ignite the bombs, causing a chain reaction of fire and explosions.
Though Colossal ants were roaming throughout the cocoon chamber, they seemed too preoccupied with tending to the numerous cocoons to notice us even when we passed right beside them.
Instead of provoking them, we focused entirely on laying down oil and bombs.
“Good.”
At last, when everything was ready, Tesrad wore an unusually tense expression.
“Then let’s begin.”
With those words, he quietly raised his staff and began chanting.
Before long, his tightly closed eyes opened, and from the tip of his staff, multiple fireballs blossomed like flowers, floating and swaying in the air.
“Hup!”
With a short shout, the fireballs shot forth one by one along different trajectories toward the cocoons, as if they had been waiting for the signal.
Fwoosh.
Almost simultaneously, flames burst out from more than a dozen places, and as the fire spread rapidly along the pre-laid oil, Velita slowly nodded.
“Very well done, Tesrad.”
Then she turned her head to look at us all and said,
“Now, let’s run away… no.”
She let out a small giggle.
“Now let’s all get the hell out of here.”