Spending the entire night enjoying themselves around the fire, the group of adventurers ended up waking up later than normal, as only Thomas had remained vigilant throughout the night before ultimately succumbing to sleep when the first rays of light appeared in the morning. Leaving only a simple magic barrier in place to guard them and warn them in case a monster attempted to attack them while they were asleep, something that didn’t end up happening, as their wild barbeque had ended up scaring the surrounding monsters away. The few that had been curious or tempted by the smell of grilling meat having long since ended up joining the ones already on the fire about to be consumed.
"Haaa... How I wish I could spend every night like yesterday; a pity we didn’t bring any ale on the journey..."
"Hey, are you perhaps forgetting that we are on an expedition. Not at the local tavern."
"I know... Still, it has been a while since I could eat till I burst like yesterday. Not to mention, all that meat cost me nothing except the few spices we brought along.
"Hehe, don’t worry, when we get back, I will make sure to invite everyone to a good drink at the Flying Pearl."
"The Flying Pearl!? Now talk about luxurious, when did you get enough to feast in a place like that!?"
"I didn’t... Yet..."
"Ah, indeed, if this expedition succeeds, we brothers will have more than enough to go wild in a place like that."
Waking up a slight groan to the voices of the different adventurers chatting with each other about what to do when they returned from the expedition, Thomas used one of his arms to support himself up to a sitting position before he took in the chaos that had been left behind from the wild feast yesterday.
Undoubtedly, the wild monsters would jump with joy when they left this place, as a lot of half-eaten monsters and entirely untouched monsters ready to be thrown on the grill were scattered all over the place.
After all, though it was a lot of food, they wouldn’t bother bringing this along with them on their journey, as there would be no lack of monsters for them to hunt down along the way. Adding useless weight would only slow them down unnecessarily.
Shaking his head at the thought of the second feast that would take place after they left, Thomas soon enough turned his attention towards the leader already in the process of preparing to leave. Clearly, he had already checked out the situation of the giant ants and determined that they had left like he had predicted them to do yesterday.
Still, to ensure that nothing ended up going wrong later when they had to pass through the territory of the giant ants, he decided to check on the situation himself. Knowing that he would have a far better idea about the state of the ant colony compared to the leader who had nowhere near the same level of knowledge about monsters as he had.
In the end, he could only conclude that the leader had indeed judged correctly. The giant ants had completely withdrawn overnight. Showing no sign of emerging unless they ended up being disturbed like they had been the day before, something that was unlikely to happen unless another strong new monster made its way past their territory.
The reason why it could only be a new monster from outside being that the local monsters would have long since learnt to avoid the ant colony and their territory. Only weaker monsters with lower intelligence or simply avoid other dangers, decided to approach the giant ant’s territory. Avoiding danger most of the time due to them being too weak to attract any serious attention from the giant ants outside of their hunting season.
Because of this, after a quick breakfast that was composed the different leftovers from the barbeque party last night, the group of adventurers resumed their original journey like nothing had happened. The only change compared to their original approach being that they were keeping a far closer eye on the ant colony and any potential movement from it.
Like this, the group continued to slowly get closer to the ant colony, before they finally stepped onto the base of the small mountain that served as the nest of the giant ants. From there, they did their utmost to slowly follow an already arranged path around the base of the small mountain that would allow them to enter the deeper parts of the mountain range without having to pass through any challenging monsters along the way.
Under normal circumstances this would have been impossible, as they would have had to spend potentially weeks fighting powerful monsters to enter the Thousand Spire Mountain Range. Wasting most of their resources in the process before they got to the interior where the different special resources and medical herbs, they had come in search of were hidden.
But this time around, taking advantage of the inactive state of the giant ants, they would be able to slip inside the normally deadly mountain range without using any of the resources they had prepared before the expedition. Essentially skipping the most difficult part of the journey and getting to the area where the precious resources were located.
A real opportunity for these adventurers to earn a lot of money without too much effort... And all of this was because these adventurers had decided to team up with someone knowledgeable about the local demon beasts like Thomas...
Rumble~
"Hm? That sound- Don’t tell me, did the giant ants notice us!?"
But as the group were halfway past the giant ant nest, the ground beneath them suddenly began shaking, as one let out a shocked and terrified exclamation that instantly caused everyone to panic as they looked towards the nearby tunnels along the base of the mountain that led into the depth of the giant ant nest. Unease clearly visible on their faces, as the leader turned towards their expert, Thomas, for help.
"Don’t worry, it isn’t the giant ants emerging, it should just be some building activity from inside the nest. If we keep our current pace and don’t recklessly provoke them, we will be fine."
Different from the rest of the group who had begun to panic, Thomas didn’t show the slightest bit of fear as he patiently explained what was happening to the group of panicked adventurers. Allowing the group to calm down a bit, as they noticed that no giant ants had emerged from the tunnels yet.
But even then, knowing that these ants were expanding still made them somewhat uneasy, as they understood that this ant colony would undoubtedly become an even larger threat in the future if it continued to grow.
Even if no ants beyond B Rank had emerged from this any colony so far according to the Adventurers Guild, the threat level of this single ant colony had already reached the top of the A Rank, with some staff at the local guild branch even suggesting that A Rank Giant Ants might appear in the nest in the near future, something that would promote the danger of this nest to the S Rank.
"""..."""
Filled with a clear sense of unease even after the reassurance from Thomas, the group ultimately managed to continue forward like originally planned. The few who lacked behind out of fear from the rumbling below their feet where they now knew countless giant ants were working tirelessly to expand their nest, didn’t dare linger behind for too long. Fearing that a giant ant might emerge from the ground to capture them and drag them below ground at any moment.
A fear that wasn’t entirely unwarranted, as along their journey through the territory of the giant ants, Thomas had the group stop, as a few giant ants poked their heads out of newly constructed entrances to their nest. Allowing them to just barely avoid detection as they continued moving forward.
The chance of them being discovered being very real, as there were a few times when Thomas hadn’t caught signs of the emergence of the giant ants fast enough, as the leader had to step forward to drag everyone behind a nearby rock to avoid being spotted.
Overall, the journey through the territory of the giant ants was nothing short of nerve-wracking for the group of adventurers, as only the leader and Thomas had any real way to notice these giant ants ahead of time. One relying on knowledge, while the other relied on pure instinct alone.
The rest essentially had to move forward not knowing when a giant ant wouldn’t suddenly pop its head out of the ground to jump scare them.
But even with all of this, the group ultimately managed to successfully traverse the territory of the giant ants without being discovered. The only real cost being that a few of them ended up with a newfound fear of ants.