Chapter 278

From a cursory exploration, it seemed that neither Aarenfrit, Jeanne, nor Athena had made it this far yet.

If it were Jeanne and the others, it would be fine, but Tatsuro didn’t want to use [Level Eater] near a stranger—especially a sharp-witted man—so they decided to handle it themselves.

{It’d be easy to wipe them out, but if possible, I’d like to get some SP from the queen Armare}

{That means we need to capture that one alive, right?}

Nodding to Ai’s telepathic words, Tatsuro readied his Rifle Staff but held off on using magic.

“Based on past patterns, the queen Armare probably has Magic Detection as well, so a preemptive magic attack might be noticed immediately. Ai, you take the first shot.”

“Got it! Then I’ll take out the guard Armars first.”

Ai extended her folded Great Scythe from her waist, reaching out from the tunnel into the large chamber while activating the derived skill of Scythe Arts, Stealth Camouflage, to make her bow invisible. In an instant, she nocked an arrow and activated One Shot Multiple Penetration Lv. 4.

The arrow multiplied into five, aiming at the guard Armars surrounding the queen Armare.

“I’m shooting. Ready?”

“Yeah, I’m good anytime.”

“Three, two, one—here goes!”

Despite the casual call, the arrows flew straight like beams of light, accurately piercing the heads of the guard Armars, penetrating through and killing those behind them as well.

Using Trajectory Correction Lv. 3, Ai forcibly adjusted their paths, tracing a trajectory around the queen Armare.

As a result, by the time the queen Armare noticed, all the guard Armars were annihilated.

The queen then ordered the regular Armars to protect her, issuing a cicada-like “Ziiiiii—” sound.

But at that moment, Tatsuro’s magic activated. Before the queen could reactivate her Magic Detection, which had been disrupted in the confusion, countless icicles rained down from the ceiling like a hailstorm.

“Ziiiiii—”

Since they were merely falling, the guard Armars might have only been injured. However, the regular Armars couldn’t withstand such an attack. Compounded by the momentary pause caused by the queen’s command, they were mercilessly pierced and killed by the icicles.

The queen, though pierced by icicles in various places, suffered little damage due to her thick, hard skin, which prevented the icicles from reaching her flesh.

Immediately, she began producing new eggs, enhancing them while opening her mouth toward the source of the magic she had sensed, preparing to unleash something.

“Please!”

“Zibibibibii—”

But as Tatsuro’s voice rang out, a safeguard he had placed on the icicles activated. The icicles piercing non-vital areas like the legs or hips suddenly increased in weight abnormally.

The impossibly heavy icicles pierced through her thick skin, stabbing into her flesh and boring holes into the ground with a thud.

“Is that Gravity Magic?” Ai asked.

“Yeah. I wasn’t sure if it fell within the scope of elemental magic, but I tried it, and it worked fine. So I had the icicles on standby with that magic. With that amount of mana, it only works for a moment, but it was enough.”

The Gravity Magic had already exhausted its mana, and the icicles returned to their original weight. Still, the ability to remotely manipulate an object’s weight with a single word, even briefly, was incredibly useful.

Convinced it could be applied in other ways, Tatsuro watched as Ai shot through the newly laid eggs with her bow. Avoiding the corpses of the slain monsters as much as possible, he walked toward the nest’s master.

“Ziii—Zizizi—”

“Sorry, but no more eggs.”

“Zi—”

Despite her battered body, the queen kept trying to lay eggs. Tatsuro fired a small laser at her ovipositor, mixed with explosive magic, causing it to shatter in a tiny explosion.

The nearly three-meter-tall ant-like creature writhed in silent agony, stirring a pang of pity in Tatsuro.

“If you’d been in a less populated area, we might not have met like this. But we can’t let you expand your nest so close to a town. It might just be human ego, but accept it as survival of the fittest.”

Knowing she couldn’t understand, Tatsuro spoke anyway as he activated [Level Eater].

------------------

Level: 33

Skills: [Oviposition], [Spirit Division: Giant Arm Shockwave Lv. 3], [Egg Enhancement Lv. 2]

[Magic Detection], [Corrosive Poison Lv. 2]

------------------

“Oh…”

“What’s wrong? Why the weird noise?”

“It’s not that the skill levels are high—it’s just that the skills themselves are high-rank…”

“What do you mean?”

“Because she has better skills than the weaker ones, her level doesn’t rise easily. That’s why all her levels are low, totaling only 12. Man, mental math’s a breeze… sigh—”

“Guess the guards might’ve had more SP.”

“Yeah. I thought she’d have a ton, but I might’ve miscalculated.”

As the saying goes, “regret comes too late.” Even though they hurried to finish before Aarenfrit arrived, Tatsuro reflected that they should’ve been more cautious and took it as a lesson for the future.

------------------

Level: 33

Skills: [Oviposition], [Spirit Division: Giant Arm Shockwave Lv. 0], [Egg Enhancement Lv. 0]

[Magic Detection], [Corrosive Poison Lv. 0]

------------------

“Alright, Cardina. Put her out of her misery.”

“Peewee—Peewee—”

Jumping out of Ai’s pocket in Child Form and shifting to True Form, Cardina unleashed a Dragon Wing Blade slash, severing the creature’s head and freeing it from pain.

As expected, their levels didn’t increase, but they earned better experience points than from average monsters. Cardina returned to Child Form and slipped back into Ai’s pocket.

They then collected all the corpses into the [Infinite Item Field]. Though the materials were low-grade, they could be converted into resources using the recycling feature of Item Box +7 if they became a burden.

“Hiiiin—”

“Sorry, are we late?”

“No, it’s fine. We just finished.”

“Yup, totally fine!”

As they finished collecting the corpses, Jeanne and Athena emerged from one of the many tunnels, waving their front legs or hands as they spotted Tatsuro and Ai.

Reuniting after a few hours, they chatted about what had happened when Ai suddenly noticed something.

“Hey, what’s that?”

“Hm?”

“Neigh?”

“What’s that?”

In the direction Ai pointed, something was embedded in the deepest wall of the chamber, its surface exposed.

Carefully excavating it with magic without touching it directly, they found a transparent, fist-sized crystal orb with a reddish tint.

“We saw something like this with the bee monster, right? If I recall, it was a queen bee’s egg, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, so this must be the same. Probably a queen Armar’s egg”

“What do we do with it? Hand it over to the Adventurer’s Guild?”

“Nah, let’s keep it. If we stop time in the Infinite Item Field, it won’t hatch.”

“Planning to start an egg collection or something?”

“It’s pretty nice-looking, so it’d probably make a good display”

For Tatsuro, it was just his hoarding instinct kicking in. Unlike the jelly-like eggs, this one could fit in the Infinite Item Field, so he stored it as a rare item.

“Alright, let’s get ready to head out.”

“Huh? Aren’t we going back the way we came?”

“We’ve confirmed the deepest layer with our own eyes and defeated the queen Armare. Now we just need to collapse the nest from the outside.”

“But how do we get out?”

“I’ll use Earth Magic to dig a tunnel upward and make some stairs. Honestly, I’m tired of walking through tunnels.”

“That’s your reason? Well, I get being fed up with tunnels”

With no objections, they enlisted Athena and Cardina in Child Form to help with Earth Magic, quickly constructing a diagonal staircase to the surface.

Bright light poured in, and Tatsuro and the others squinted as they looked up.

While checking the staircase’s strength with Dispel Magic just to be safe, Aarenfrit finally arrived.

“Whoa, this is impressive! Looks like an easy way back!”

“Thanks. Alright, everyone’s here, so let’s head up.”

“So it seems everything’s wrapped up. I wanted to show you more of my Curse Magic, sensei… what a shame,” Aarenfrit said.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go. Hurry up, or we’ll bury the nest with you in it.”

Ignoring Aarenfrit’s genuine disappointment, Tatsuro climbed the stairs with Ai, Jeanne, and Athena. Shrugging, Aarenfrit gracefully followed, robes fluttering.

“Alright, we’re here!”

“Yeah. After being in that burrow so long, standing on solid ground feels good.”

“Neigh”

“Sure does.”

As Tatsuro and the others celebrated their escape, Aarenfrit emerged about five minutes later. His theatrical walking style slowed him down, but since it caused no real harm, they welcomed him lightly and had him step back.

“What’s next, sensei?” Aarenfrit asked.

“Blow up the hole and bury it.”

“Explosions—You can use explosive magic too, sensei?!” Aarenfrit exclaimed.

“Well, yeah.”

“I heard your staff is unusual, sensei.”

“Hm? Yeah, maybe.”

Not in the mood for serious answers, Tatsuro pulled out his Rifle Staff from the [Infinite Item Field], holding it in his right hand and triggering all its cores. Holding Ai’s hand with his left, he brushed off Aarenfrit’s comment.

Aarenfrit seemed puzzled by why Tatsuro held Ai’s hand, but Tatsuro ignored the curious gaze and sent a beam of light from the Rifle Staff down the stairs.

The beam branched into every tunnel connected to the deepest layer, and after about thirty minutes, it spread throughout the entire nest.

“Phew—done. Alright, it’s dangerous, so step back.”

Leading everyone while emitting light from the Rifle Staff like a white line, Tatsuro retreated. Activating Multiple Thinking, he used a new thought process to check for people nearby with Dispel Magic.

“All clear. Here we go—three, two, one—explode!”

As Tatsuro’s voice echoed, the beams of light expanded, filling the entire nest with light.

A massive underground explosion followed, with a muffled BOOOOM and tremors indicating its scale. The tunnels collapsed, and the ground sank slightly.

A subsurface scan confirmed all tunnels were buried, and the few remaining stragglers were obliterated.

“All Armars and Armare exterminated. Nest destroyed. All clear.”

“Good work, Tatsuro.”

Still holding hands, Ai wrapped her arm around his and kissed his cheek to comfort his fatigue.

Jeanne and the others were used to their public displays of affection and paid it no mind. Aarenfrit, uninterested in anything unrelated to magic, was unfazed by their behavior.

However, he was awestruck by the massive explosion Tatsuro had just pulled off, marveling at the immense mana and control required.

With a dreamy expression, he gazed at Tatsuro with something akin to—but not quite—romantic admiration.