There was one good thing about exterminating ectognamorphs compared to other races. If someone wanted to wipe out a faction of humans, one had to kill every single one to be successful. Failing to do so risked that the survivors could keep reproducing and reviving the faction, with there even being a chance a talented individual could be born and make the faction more powerful than ever.
Such was not the case with ectognamorphs. Ectognamorphs needed a Queen to survive, and if all Queens died, so would the faction crumble. A common ant could not evolve into an ant Queen, so you could eliminate the entire faction as long as all of them were killed. So that is what Jake planned on doing. He usually didn’t like killing things too weak to even give him experience, but this time he would make an exception.
Leaving a nest of this size so close to Haven and within the territory of Earth humans lived on was simply too risky, and he had a hunch that after the Prima Guardian ordeal, the limitations of where monsters could go on Earth would be removed entirely. If that were the case, Jake would prefer not to instantly hear news of millions of termites swarming nearby cities or, worse, attack them from below with both D and C-grades. As the new World Leader of Earth, he had to do some things to protect the planet, right?
Sure, Jake had only seen two C-grades the last time he had visited, but there was one other scary thing about ectognas – their rapid growth. Due to funneling so many resources into their leaders, they often leveled up fast, so Jake wouldn’t be surprised if the Queen and Termite King he had encountered last time were now far more powerful.
Not that he was worried… because he had grown even more than he believed they possibly could have.
Jake flew down and landed on the ground right in front of one of the mounds. He kneeled down and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. As he breathed out, he unleashed his Sphere of Perception for a moment, getting a snapshot of everything a couple of hundred kilometers down into the hive. It was straining, but what appeared in his mind was a massive network with millions of termites everywhere. Moreover, the network expanded not just down more than two hundred kilometers but was also massive horizontally. Far larger than he could see even with his Pulse of Perception – as he had decided to call it.
He scanned the mental image quickly and located an area that stood out. Two, in fact. Egg chambers, one of them quite a lot further up than the other, with Jake suspecting the one further down was the one he had been to before. If there had come a new D-grade Queen or if he had just missed this chamber last time while killing the other D-grade Queens, he didn’t know, but what he did know was that both were in for a purging.
Jumping into a hole, Jake entered the tunnel system and just started running. He ignored anything in his way, not bothering with the termites at all. They were only F and E-grades at this layer, so they were not even worth his time to even look at. They would all die shortly if the Queens fell anyway.
Jake considered trying to just drill down or even use his newly gained Unblemished Arrows skill to see if he could just blow a massive hole in the ground, but he decided against it. Doing so would be far too time-consuming compared to just running through the tunnels. Ah, but he did create personal shortcuts here and there by blowing a hole through a wall or floor to enter another tunnel.
His utter lack of subtlety naturally made the termites aware of his invasion and put them on high alert. He didn’t really care much about it as he didn’t see much they could do about it, but he was soon proved wrong.While running down a tunnel, he spotted that the path in front of him was now blocked. It had not been during his Pulse. Blasting a hole into the tunnel below, Jake ran through that for a bit until he hit another thick barrier of earth. No… more than that. The soil and stone had been strengthened magically to make it harder to break through, which made Jake realize what these damn termites were doing: they collapsed their tunnels to stop his descent.
Sneaky bastards.
Not that it would stop him.
He began breaking down more walls, blasting more floors apart, and continued his descent at a rapid speed. Termites tried to attack him, but none of them could do anything as they were simply too weak. Soon, he approached the area where D-grades could be, and this area was also where he would find his first egg chamber.
Beelining for it, he saw how the termites multiplied, and high-level D-grades began barring his progress. They formed walls with their bodies, blocking the tunnel entirely. He also saw a few of the Royal Guards around, making it clear there was a Queen in the egg chamber ahead.
Looking at the wall of bodies ahead, Jake pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow. He didn’t hesitate as he fired a quickly charged Arcane Powershot, making the entire tunnel rumble as he blasted a hole through the wall of bodies, giving him an opportunity to use One Step to the other side.
A few more of these walls tried to stop him, but soon he reached his first destination. He blasted his way through a wall and entered a large egg chamber with Queen’s Guards and a single Queen.
[Isoptera Queen – lvl 175]
He felt the hatred from the ectogna but paid it little mind. They were a threat he had decided to remove.
Jake raised his hand towards the Queen as energy gathered. A giant blast of destructive arcane energy burned through the egg chamber, destroying every single egg, Queen’s Guard, and even the Queen. Nothing was left alive within the chamber as the blast faded, except for the pulsing veins of pure arcane power lining the walls.
The last time Jake had been there, he had struggled a bit with all these D-grades, but now they weren’t even worth pulling out a weapon to kill.
Moving on, he continued his hive dive, destroying anything in his way. His speed picked up despite armies of D-grades trying to impede him, corpses lining the tunnels from their futile actions. Deeper and deeper he went, not stopping for anything – not even to pick up the cores. He didn’t need more D-grade cores, not even from Queens or their guards.
Due to the sheer size of the tunnel system, getting to his destination was still annoyingly long, and on the way, he occasionally released pulses to search the surrounding area. To his annoyance, he found that he had severely underestimated the network these termites had created.
He even spotted what looked like another D-grade egg chamber, making him realize that clearing out the entire nest was too much for him. Sure, he could probably do it alone, given enough time, but with no comprehension of exactly how large this hive was, it would be foolish for him to attempt. Unless he wanted to potentially waste weeks, if not months, just running through tunnels killing D-grades.
Jake stopped in the tunnel and found a small crevice he went to stand in. Activating Arcane Stealth, he hid as he took out a walkie-talkie to contact Miranda – one made by Arnold, of course.
“Hey, got the time?” Jake asked, not wanting to impose.
“Depends entirely what for,” she answered within a few seconds.
“I am right now exploring the termite plains we talked about a while back, and it is far larger than I had first anticipated. I am talking absolutely massive, expanding hundreds if not thousands of kilometers horizontally, and who knows how deep. I am aiming for the C-grades, but-“
“I understand,” Miranda said in a serious tone. “I will get on it immediately. Leaving a nest of ectognas alone seems like a very bad idea.”
“What do you plan on doing?” Jake asked. “It is huge… sending a few parties like Neil’s won’t be enough unless they plan to live down here for a while.”
“First, we will need to survey the situation, and I know just the man for the job,” Miranda answered.
“Let me guess, Arnold?” Jake said semi-rhetorically.
“Naturally,” Miranda confirmed.
“Good. I will continue my dive down the hive to take down some of the C-grades further down. See you around,” Jake said.
“Gotta say, I am proud you actually contacted me like this and didn’t just ignore the potential ramifications of leaving a nest like that alone. I am incredibly prou-“
“Cya!” Jake cut off the connection by tossing the walkie-talkie back into his storage. He didn’t have time to get bullied for prior bad decisions when he was on an extermination mission. While others from Earth could handle all the D-grades, Jake knew few could kill C-grades, especially not on their home turf deep beneath the ground.
With confidence in Miranda taking care of things, Jake went out of hiding and sped up his dive. Trying to stay stealthy was impossible since he had to break down walls of soil and termites to get to his destination. Down and down he went until, finally, he felt the environment shift.
He was now in C-grade territory.
The mana here was different and far more vibrant, and as he entered this area, he also felt the auras of C-grades. Plural. They were waiting for him.
Jake frowned as he realized he had underestimated this termite hive. Presences were hidden, and while he couldn’t pinpoint how many there were, he knew It wasn’t just a dozen or two. It was hundreds, all of them organized, no doubt delaying their assault till he made it further down the tunnel system in case he wanted to escape.
Yet… he didn’t feel even a shred of fear. Instead, he continued to make his way down the hive, releasing pulses occasionally to keep track of the termites. Through the snapshots, he saw himself become surrounded by squads of large termites, with three to five members in each group. Tunnels were cut off, and soon enough, Jake felt their approach.
Jake moved quickly as he blasted through several tunnels until, finally, he made it to a large cavern he presumed to be natural, filled with greenery. Sense of the Malefic Viper made him aware of several herbs, making him question if this was some garden set up by the termites, but he didn’t have much time to ponder on it.
Standing in mid-air, Jake looked towards the wall of the cavern as parts of it crumbled, revealing four large forms. Each one was about the size of a horse, with large mandibles and thick carapaces. On the outside, they didn’t look that impressive… but they were indeed C-grades.
[Isoptera Warrior – lvl 201]
Several more tunnels opened up all around the cavern from all sides as Jake was truly surrounded. He counted more than sixty groups, making the total number of termites over two hundred. All of them were between level 200 and 205, and all their attention was on Jake as they prepared their attack. Energy gathered within each of them, preparing to strike.
Jake just smiled.
He had met many C-grades already, and one thing had become very obvious from all these interactions. The qualitative difference between variants only grew with every grade, the difference between the weakest and the strongest becoming a nearly impossible gap to cross.
And these termites? They weren’t even real monsters in his eyes. They were at the lowest rung and nothing more than disposable footsoldiers to the C-grade Queens of the hive. So despite being surrounded and outnumbered hundreds to one by creatures of his own level, there truly was no need for fear.
A dozen figures pounced at once, making Jake scoff at their attempt. He barely moved as he dodged all but one that he caught by its back legs and swung into another, sending both falling toward the bottom of the massive cavern.
Using One Step, he then avoided more than a hundred brown beams of highly consensed earth mana, surprising him a bit. They were meant to just incapacitate me for a moment… and also get hit.
Damn termites and their full willingness to sacrifice their own to land a blow on an enemy. It was like fighting insect versions of the Holy Church.
Pulling out his bow, he decided to clean up before it was time to continue his dive. The cavern was chosen because it allowed him enough space to move around while not getting locked down, as while he didn’t fear these termites, that didn’t mean he would come out unscathed after getting hit by a beam from a hundred.
Dodging a few more beams, Jake began to pick off the ranged termites first. Splitting Arrow was released, blowing up on five of them, sending them all flying back into the tunnel they had come out from. Shooting quickly again, he promptly charged an Arcane Powershot. It hit one of these five in the head and tore it straight off, making it fall to the ground. It died only a few moments later.
*You have slain [Isoptera Warrior – lvl 202] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*
“Unimpressive Vitality,” Jake muttered to himself as he stepped down and teleported right in front of a termite that stood in a group of five. Two katars appeared as he stormed forward, arcane mana revolving around both blades. In less than a second, he stabbed the termite a few dozen times, each stab several meters deep due to the arcane energy.
*You have slain [Isoptera Warrior – lvl 200]*
Mandibles descended from above as one of the large monsters tried to tear off his head. He dodged and rolled beneath its body as he stabbed his new Nanoblade up into the body of the termite. It smoothly went in, the Blackpoint enchantment truly doing work. While he was at it, he also tested the mana burst.
Infusing the katar, all the energy stored was released instantly. Jake had not infused it himself after getting it, so he wasn’t sure how much mana it could contain, which is why he was a bit surprised when a massive explosion resounded above him, the termite blown up into hundreds of pieces from within.
*You have slain [Isoptera Warrior – lvl 204] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*
So that’s definitely workable, Jake grinned as he went for his next target. Sadly, he would have to recharge the Nanoblade again to release another burst, so till then, it would just be an impossibly sharp katar. Truly a loss.
Jake continued his rampage as he killed termite after termite, truly indulging himself and getting used to his newfound power while also trying to find his limits. He soon found that it only took a few arrows coated with his blood to kill a termite, with one probably being enough if he was fine with waiting for the poison to do its work.
After firing an arrow, Jake felt another termite from behind. For a moment, he considered just blasting it away but decided against it as he smiled. Turning around, he put away his bow as two large mandibles snapped at him.
Jake raised both his hands and met them straight on. He felt the impact on his palms as the sharp mandibles hit them, but he could only grin. “Better Strength than Vitality, but still lower than me.”
He pulled hard as he raised his leg, kicking the termite in the face. The two sharp mandibles ripped as Jake tore them off, only to promptly return them as he leaped forward and stabbed them into the head of the termite – each of them functioning as the Fangs of Man.
The termite staggered for a few seconds before it fell over, dead.
*You have slain [Isoptera Warrior – lvl 203] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*
Jake was forced to teleport again as more beams came for him, the swarm of termites not looking like it had reduced in number at all. Releasing another pulse, Jake counted them. Two hundred and thirteen C-grade termites remained.
I give myself an hour.