Chapter 61: Plans Derailed
It was shocking that the Adamantine Ant Scout could reduce the durability of an A-rank weapon this much.
——
The user has successfully killed [1] Adamantine Ant scout
+70 kill points
——
Jason twirled the knife with one hand while putting his other hand in his pocket and began to walk toward his scout. He spread his mana through the area and used it to cover the dead scout’s body. He was going to have to get a stronger weapon sooner or later - preferably another dagger. But for now, this would just have to do.
"Resurrect."
Jason called out to the ant that he had killed, and it immediately tore itself out from the body and screeched in obedience.
——
[Adamantine Ant Scout]
[Pawn Rank II]
[Upgrade Points: 0/5]
[Upgrade Limit: Rook Class Rank II]
[MP: 300]
——
Jason told it to grab the crystal from its body before ordering it to go and join the others in dealing with the enemies.
Once it was gone, Jason threw the new crystal into his Alternate Dimension before he looked ahead with his [Predator’s Gaze] once more. The skill allowed him to see clearly for a kilometer in any direction, so he was more than capable of picking up any movement from the distance. After Jason made sure that there was nothing around, he climbed back on his scout and took off for the fight.
But even though Jason could see clearly for more than a kilometer, that didn’t mean he could see through objects, and this meant he completely missed the appearance of a single ant scout that had been hiding behind a tree to avoid his gaze. The ant scout had seen what Jason did to the previous scout, and it immediately hid itself in the bushes to make sure that Jason couldn’t see it.
The scout had been coming from the eastern entrance, and Jason’s presence here told it that the northern entrance had been overrun by intruders! It had to get to the colony and report this before the intruder reached them! The ant slowly emerged from its hiding spot when it was sure that Jason was no longer paying it any attention, and it took off into the sky to reach the eastern entrance!
Boom!
All of a sudden, the ant felt an immense pressure press down on it as its entire body shook! It turned around sharply and screeched in fear as it saw Jason’s blood-red eyes glaring at it like the fucking devil himself!
The ant immediately doubled its effort and dashed away from the scene! It was far away from Jason, so it knew that Jason wouldn’t be able to reach it before it reached the next entrance, so it just kept going!
Jason clicked his tongue in irritation as he watched the ant fly away. He thought about going after it, but he knew that there was nothing he could do that would allow him to reach the ant before it got to the next entrance, and chasing after the ant would take him too far away from the Legion and ruin his plans. The only thing that Jason could do now was to go back and come up with a new plan of action based on this development.
——
The user has killed [10] Adamantine Ant Workers
+300 kill points
——
Jason ordered his subordinate to keep going, and the ant screeched as it started flying back toward where the Legion was finishing off the last of the ants.
Jason knew that the scout that escaped would warn the colony about his presence, but he wasn’t really bothered because he had already blocked out two of the entrances to prevent them from escaping.
Now, he had to make a new plan that would allow him to handle both of the remaining entrances at the same time. Jason currently had over forty thousand kill points, which would allow him to take at least one more Rook Rank I and then boost some of the Pawn Rank IIs to Rank III. If he did that and then sent the second Rook towards the second entrance, then they could launch a two-pronged attack.
The second Rook and its subordinates would attack the eastern entrance, drawing all the attention of the ants inside the colony to them. Since they all had extraordinary defenses, Jason didn’t have to worry about them dying easily.
Then, while that was shaping on the eastern tunnel, Jason with the first Rook and the rest of the Legion would make their way through the southern tunnel. They’d kill their way through the ants there and then they’d head for the center of the hill where the Queen was resting.
Jason came up with this plan on the spot, and from how quickly the situation was developing, it was the best he could do for now. Jason reached the scene of the battle between his ants and the ants from the colony, and he saw that all the regular ants had already been wiped out by his legion.
The dead bodies of the regular ants littered the area, and the Legion members were already starting to gather the Magic Crystals from the ants’ bodies before bringing the dead carcass to the center of the field. Jason hummed when he realized that it was the Rook that had made the others start working, and the Rook was also making sure that they didn’t get distracted and did their work properly.
’Did the monster get more intelligent when it evolved? The ant wasn’t capable of this much reasoning before.’
The way it was now, the Rook had an intelligence that was on par with a mid-iq human. It could reason for itself and it had enough intelligence to come up with new tasks to accomplish after the previous task was finished.
Jason thought on this for a few seconds before he simply decided not to think about it too much. Jason was glad that the Rook was starting to take initiative. This meant that Jason didn’t have to worry about using up his stamina to order the Legion around for simple matters like these again. The Legion would follow the orders of any member that was higher than it in the hierarchy.
As he reached the Legion, he took the Magic Crystals that they offered him and he put them into his Alternate Dimension before he quickly spread his mana out towards all the bodies on the ground and gave the order.
"Resurrect."
Boom!
The entire region pulsed with power as Jason’s mana flew through the air, and at the next moment, the ants all let out screeches as they were pulled from their bodies!
——
[The user has gained 51 [Adamantine Ant Workers] subordinates]
+408 MP
——
[The user has gained 10 [Adamantine Ant Soldiers] subordinates]
+1500 MP
[The skill [Mana Frenzy] has grown stronger.]
——
[The user has gained 4 [Adamantine Ant Scouts] subordinates]
+120 MP
[The skill [Adamantine Hide] has grown stronger.]
——
Rank: A [81%]
——
STATISTICS
Strength: A [37.5%]
Stamina: A [43.1%]
Agility: S [7.1%]
Durability: S [1.2%]
——
Jason frowned when he saw that he wasn’t yet an S Rank. Even after killing this many ants, he was still only at eighty-one percent, and he knew that he would have to kill at least three times this same amount again before he could make it up to S Rank.
’The stats are really one-sided because of how the ant’s stats are distributed. Most of it is going to Agility and Durability.’
If it was this difficult to get into the S Rank, Jason could only wonder how hard it would be to make it into SS Rank. As you get stronger, the differences between the ranks become more and more apparent. That is why there were only five SS Ranks in the entire world and only ten S Ranks in the whole of America.
It was only through relentless effort and good potential that you were fortunate enough to make it up to those ranks.
But Jason didn’t care about any of that. He was going to make it up to those ranks and surpass them before long, he swore it. If his father’s warning was true, then his family was going to be in danger soon. He needed to get stronger to make sure he could handle anything that attacked them.