Chapter 51: Adamantine Ant Hill
"Sorry, ma’am. I lost him in the New York subway."
[... Elaborate.]
"He’s gone, ma’am."
[People don’t just vanish into thin air, Agent 47. I believe I told you to keep an eye on him no matter what! Did you think that was a joke!?]
The agent swallowed and she let out a calm breath before saying that she didn’t think it was a joke. This was serious, and she was sorry for what happened. On the other side of the call, the superior clicked her tongue before she tapped her hand against a desk and finally spoke up.
[We’ll have to bring this to the higher-ups. In the meantime, continue looking for him and report anything you find back. If he reappears, I want you on his tail immediately.]
"Yes, ma’am. I won’t let you down again."
[I hope you keep to your word this time, agent. For your sake.]
Beep!
The call cut off and the agent narrowed her eyes at the phone and clicked her tongue in annoyance before turning back to the dark tunnel with a frown. She watched the darkness inside the tunnel closely, trying to see if there was any sign of movement in there, but after a long time without seeing anything, she let out a suffering sigh and turned away to leave.
The agent was sure that Jason was somewhere around here. So she only had to wait and watch until he reappeared.
...
A harsh wind blew across the vast surface of a mountain. The various trees and shrubs on the mountaintop swayed with the winds, and the pale white clouds floated across the blue sky, serving as a backdrop to the green mountaintop.
Jason arrived at the top of the mountain with his eyes narrowed into a small glare. His red eyes trailed from left to right, covering the entirety of the mountain and checking for any signs of movement.
The mountain itself was extremely large. It covered nearly four kilometers, and its slope wasn’t that steep, which allowed Jason to walk on the surface without falling.
A message from the system suddenly appeared.
...
New Mission: Clear the Adamantine Ant Hill
The user has entered the Orange Gate: Adamantine Ant Hill. Clear the Gate and kill the Gate Boss in order to complete the mission.
Rewards:
+20,000 Free Kill Points
1 Active Legion Skill
1 S Rank Artifact
Second Page of the [Book of The Apocalypse]
...
’Twenty thousand!?’
Jason’s brow rose in shock when he saw what the system was going to give as a reward. He only got a thousand kill points from the system when he cleared the Red Gate, so seeing this many KP all at once was shocking.
But seeing the system give him this much also worried him for a different reason. The system always gave him rewards that were proportional to the battles that he fought. That meant the system believed he deserved this many points if he managed to clear this gate.
’What the hell did I just get myself into?’
According to the superhumans that had gone into Orange Gates before, the boss of an Orange Gate was an Eldritch Rank. That was a monster capable of destroying an entire country on its own if it managed to break out of the Gate and reach the real world.
The monster in a Red Gate was only a Disaster Rank, which was a city-level threat, so the Red Gate was nothing when compared to the Orange Gate.
The difference was so vast that even the regular monsters in the Orange Gate—the mobs that were only there to serve the Boss—were almost as strong or even stronger than the Boss of a Red Gate!
So right now, Jason was going to be facing off against multiple Red Gate Bosses as well as a monster that was so strong it could destroy the entirety of America if it wanted to!
A grin began to stretch across Jason’s face as he realized this Gate was going to be nothing like the Red Gate. This was far more dangerous than he could’ve ever imagined.
’Adamantine Ant Hill. What do I remember about ants from school? Okay, yeah... There are usually three types: workers, soldiers, and scouts. And then there’s a queen that oversees all of them. I’m sure the queen will be the final boss I have to defeat. But before then, I have to figure out a plan. I can’t just dive head-first into their cavern without a plan, it’ll be the end of me.’
Jason narrowed his eyes into a glare as he crouched behind a tree and looked around. His wolf was standing guard to make sure he wasn’t ambushed from behind, and Jason decided to keep the other wolves in the Alternate Dimension for now since they would only draw more attention to him.
He needed a plan of action, but he couldn’t do that without more information. Right now, the only thing he knew about this Gate was that it was an Ant Hill. He didn’t know how many ants there were or how strong they were.
Jason only had thirty-four monsters on his side, but the ants would likely have far more than that. Ants always had high numbers in a single colony.
So, the best thing Jason could do now was to get more information. Jason remembered that he was able to figure out the layout of the Moonlight Wolf Gate when he spoke to the wolves in his Legion. Whenever he resurrects a subordinate, the subordinate comes with the knowledge it had when it was alive.
So if he wanted to get more information about this Gate, he would need to find one of the monsters that lives here and make it his subordinate.
Jason hummed as he began to think up a plan.
The system hadn’t chosen Jason as the King simply because he was wearing the necklace. Before choosing Jason, the system had scanned his body, mentality, and personality, and it had discovered that Jason had all the right attributes needed for a King. Jason was authoritative and steadfast in his decisions. He had enough intelligence to form plans on the spot and he was capable of stepping back and looking at the bigger picture, even in the most dire situations.
Traits like these were what a King needed to ensure they succeeded, and Jason was starting to nurture those traits without even being aware of it.
’I need to draw out one of them. If I can get one of them and kill it, then I’ll know what I’m dealing with.’
Jason remembered that the wolves had scouts that would go around and search the Gate for any intruders, and he knew that the ants would have something similar.
Jason sent a mental command to the wolf that was watching his back and sent it back into the Alternate Dimension. Then he called out a Pawn Rank I wolf and sent it out with a new order.
The wolf yipped in agreement, and Jason watched as it slowly began to trek out from behind the cover.
The plan was simple. The scouts were likely going to come around soon, so Jason would draw their attention using the wolf. When the scout was close enough, Jason would attack it using his other wolves and then resurrect it to make it his subordinate.
Jason kept track of the wolf using his [Predator’s Gaze]. It was still bright outside, but there were multiple trees around the mountaintop, so the floor was covered with shadows, allowing his wolf to move around unimpeded.
Jason lay in waiting as silently as possible as he listened for any sign of movement around. He wouldn’t rush things by making the wolf move too quickly. Jason only wanted to lure a single scout here, and making too much noise would draw multiple.
Two minutes passed, and then another three minutes with no movement and Jason was close to giving up on this plan when he suddenly heard something in the distance.