"Finally, we are getting out of this damnable mountain range."
"You don’t have to say that twice, I just hope that little noble lord won’t end up causing any problems for us when we get back."
"Who cares? We can just lay low for a bit, and everything will work out just fine, it’s not like we are that special among the rest of the local adventurers. The only one who might have to keep an eye open for anything is the leader. After all, he is a bit well known and might have been recognized by those two knights when they turned tail and ran while their lord was being carried of by the giant ants."
"Don’t worry about me, I doubt those two will have the time to cause me any problems after what happened to their little lord. Even if they try to blame the situation on me, I’m still an A Rank Adventurer and should be more than capable of keeping myself safe."
"As he said, nothing to worry about, we just have to get back to town and sell off the medicinal herbs and precious monster parts we gathered over the past week."
A few minutes before Scaly was alerted by someone entering the giant ant nest, a short distance from the base of the small mountain that served as the nest of the giant ants, a familiar group of adventurers emerged chatting with each other as they made their way in the direction of the giant ant nest. Not showing too much care for any potential attack from the giant ants, as they had already prepared themselves to use the things they had saved up just for this situation to get through the territory of the giant ants.
After all, though they were certain that the giant ants should be in a dormant state when they first arrived at the Thousand Spire Mountain Range, the same could not be said now that a week had passed since they had made their way through the territory of the giant ants.
But maybe more importantly than the week that had passed, the giant ants themselves had clearly been far more active than they had originally anticipated because of a certain unknown monster and the trap that Charles and his escort had stepped into.
Bang! Rumble~
It was at this moment that they suddenly heard what sounded like something crashing into the ground before what sounded like some kind of underground space collapsing violently as a result... And given their current location, the only underground space they could think of was the tunnels and large open spaces that had been dug out by the giant ants beneath the small mountain.
For this reason, upon hearing the loud sound, everyone froze on the spot as they stopped chatting with each other. Shifting into a far more serious state as they waited for an inevitable response from the giant ant colony below ground.
But... Even after silently observing their surroundings for a few minutes for any sign of the giant ants emerging to find out who or what had caused one of their tunnels to collapse, the group didn’t see a single giant ant emerging, something that left even Thomas, the expert on monsters in their group, bewildered.
His research and prior experience suggested that the giant ants should have long since appeared to not just find what was behind the commotion but also spread out to sweep through their territory for any potential threats.
They should already have found themselves facing off against the giant ants, but... There was nothing. Not even a single giant ant had appeared- no, not even the slightest disturbance that suggested that the giant ants had even reacted to the strange commotion that should have destroyed part of their colony had appeared.
Strange...
Silently moving his hand up to touch his chin in confusion at the strange situation, Thomas narrowed his eyes before observing his surroundings in far greater detail than before.
Ah! There really is something here! Hm... Let’s see... Signs of battle and more than just one...
Soon enough, finding some traces of battle that had been left behind by Scaly over the past few days all throughout the giant ant nest.
"Theres a dead giant ant over there!"
"Not just over there, I see at least a dozen dead ones over here..."
"No... This entire place is filled with dead giant ants!"
However, it wasn’t just Thomas who discovered the traces of battle hidden throughout the barren mountain side, as it didn’t take long before the adventurers around him began finding the corpse of giant ants around every corner.
From what had originally only been a single giant ant corpse, it soon grew to hundreds, as it was easy for anyone to see that some kind of bloody battle had played out on the small mountain while they had been busy in the interior of the Thousand Spire Mountain Range.
Not just that, but from the earlier loud sound from earlier, the battle might still be ongoing, with the giant ants being on the losing side from what they could see, with only dead giant ants being around without a single other monster.
Of course... What they saw was the aftermath of one of Scaly’s battles with the giant ants over the past week. The reason why these giant ants remained in place was because of the simple fact that none of the giant ants were edible.
Well... They were edible, so to speak... But... At the same time, they tasted awful. Making Scaly want to rather starve than eat the giant ants.
And given that she wasn’t an adventurer who might have seen the value in collecting certain parts of the giant ants to sell off at a local branch of the Adventurers Guild, the dead bodies of the fallen giant ants were simply left behind for the group of adventurers to discover.
It wasn’t that the giant ants themselves hadn’t tried to get those bodies back themselves, it was just that they had given up on doing so after realizing Scaly had decided to use them as bait to draw them out of hiding...
"Did the giant ant colony here fall...?" Muttering this to himself in a quiet voice as he walked up to observe the dead giant ants that had seemingly been cut through with ease through either a sharp claw or some kind of magic, Thomas could not help glancing towards the small mountain.
Although he understood how unlikely it was for a giant ant colony of this size to be wiped out given that they were well known for retreating and sealing themselves off in case they faced an enemy too powerful for them to handle, the collapsing sound he had heard earlier clearly suggested to him that the giant ant colony had already collapsed or at least reached a point where they no longer dared to leave the deepest part of their nest out of fear of being caught by whatever had caused the scene laid out before him.
Maybe the most eye-opening realization was the simple fact that whatever monster was behind the tragic state of the giant ants, should still be present somewhere on the small mountain. Potentially in the process of trying to dig out the giant ants.
That kind of monster, Thomas, really didn’t want to face off against, as he understood full well that only an S Rank Monster would be capable of doing what had been done to the giant ant nest.
And not some monster that had just barely reached the S Rank, but one that was far stronger than normal S Rank Monsters.
"..."
Realizing this, Thomas turned towards the leader of the group, who had clearly also realized what he had.
With this kind of terrifying monster potentially lurking just around the corner, there was no way for them to pass through the territory of the giant ants.
Instead of risking their lives continuing forward, it was much better for them to just turn around and either find another way out of the Thousand Spire Mountain Range or wait for the situation at the small mountain to calm down enough for them to safely leave the Thousand Spire Mountain Range and make their way to the forest on the other side of the small mountain.
But...
Just before the leader had a chance to voice out his plans, something changed- or more specifically someone appeared at the edge of their vision making their way into one of the passages that led into the giant ant nest.
Not just someone, but a large group of people at least numbering forty- if not fifty.
Although the group was too far away for them to make up where they were from, as they soon enough disappeared into the giant ant nest, it made the leader and Thomas realize that they might not be dealing with a powerful monster, but instead an expeditionary force that had been sent to deal with the giant ant nest.
Meaning... They should be able to still continue their journey through the territory of the giant ants.