Chapter 58: Thank You, Dear Sister

They continued walking aimlessly through the forest for another few hours. Along the way, they encountered many insect beasts, which they easily killed through teamwork. Whenever they came across beasts that were too strong, Soldier Donald intervened and helped them take them down.

"This dungeon is great!" Aelonen said in amazement. "There are so many beasts around, and compared to the Wilds, most of these beasts don’t travel in groups. They’re completely alone. How amazing is that?"

Kelvin nodded with a smile. "I didn’t expect things to go this well either. Our harvest this time has been great. We’ve all increased our levels so far. If we continue like this, we might even reach our next evolution inside this dungeon!"

Everyone else had smiles on their faces. They had never expected such smooth progress.

"Look, Prince Kelvin, there are more beasts that way!" Kenna suddenly pointed in a direction.

Everyone turned around and saw a group of giant ants in the distance.

"This is different from before. These beasts seem to travel in groups," Max observed.

"Obviously. They’re ants. What did you expect?" Melvin added mockingly from the side.

"That... makes sense. Sorry about that." Max nodded, admitting that what he had said was indeed stupid.

"Isn’t this even better?" Kelvin smiled. "This way, we can hunt even faster. There are only three of them, anyway. How hard can it be?"

"Indeed." Aelonen nodded.

"Let’s go, then. Same tactics as before. Max, send some summons to distract them, and when they turn around, all of us will attack together. If there are any complications, Melvin will block their attacks while Denna provides healing and buffs," Kelvin instructed.

Everyone nodded.

Max waved his hands and summoned a few spectral wolves, sending them to attack the ants from the opposite direction.

Then, they hid and waited.

The wolves jumped onto the ants to attack them before quickly leaping away and distancing themselves in another direction.

The ants’ attention was instantly drawn to them as they all turned towards the wolves.

"Now!"

They jumped out from behind the trees and attacked the ants from behind.

Aelonen, Kelvin, and Melvin attacked with their swords, while Kenna wielded a short dagger in each hand. Max summoned even more beast spirits, sending them to attack the ants from all sides.

Denna stayed behind, raising her staff and casting spells to boost their attacks.

*DING!* *DING!* *DING!* *DING!*

Their weapons struck the hard surface of the ants’ armor and bounced back, leaving only shallow marks.

Contrary to what they had expected, the ants’ defenses were unbelievable. Their blades couldn’t penetrate the armor at all.

Seeing that their attacks had failed, they immediately jumped back.

"What was that!?" Aelonen yelled.

"Their defense is too strong. We can’t penetrate it at all," Kelvin added.

The ants turned towards them and screeched loudly.

"Not good! Donald!" Kelvin yelled.

Donald dashed forward from behind them and slashed at one of the ants.

*SCREECH!*

His blade cut deeper into the ant’s armor, causing green liquid to seep out, but it still wasn’t enough to kill it.

Donald spun around and struck another ant in the same spot, achieving the same result.

"Let’s go together! Target the injured spots!" Kelvin yelled.

They all rushed forward behind Donald, surrounding one of the ants and targeting the cut he had left.

*Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!*

Their blades sank deep into the ant’s body, killing it on the spot.

"It worked! Next one!"

They jumped onto the second injured ant while Donald attacked the third.

*Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!*

*SCREECH!*

*Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!*

In just a few moments, all three ants were lying on the ground without any signs of life.

"Sigh..." Kelvin released a deep breath. "Luckily, we managed to do it."

"These beasts are insane! How can their defenses be so strong?" Aelonen couldn’t understand.

"Their exoskeletons use a layered chitin-mineral composite that naturally disperses kinetic impacts like bio-laminated armor. Combine that with high-pressure hydraulic muscle sacs, and their strength and density scale exponentially," Melvin suddenly said from the side.

They all turned towards him in shock.

"What?"

"What did you even say just now?" Max asked.

"I just explained why the ants are so hard to cut."

"I didn’t understand a single word of that! How do you even know so much?" Max yelled back.

Melvin simply looked at him with a deadpan expression. "Read a book."

"Damn you!"

"Hey, Melvin, I didn’t know you were so smart. You should talk more sometimes," Kenna added.

They all nodded in agreement.

Melvin simply looked at them and remained silent. Talking more? That wasn’t his thing.

"Anyway, we should get going. And maybe we should consider avoiding these ants in the future," Kelvin suggested.

They all nodded.

Suddenly, they heard a screeching sound coming from behind the trees.

Looking in that direction, they saw a group of a dozen similar ants marching towards them.

"Not good! Run!"

They turned without a second thought and started running through the forest.

"Shit! We didn’t even get to take their beast cores!" Max yelled.

"Beast cores? Do you think we would’ve been able to cut them open and take their cores so easily?" Kenna yelled back while running.

"Stop talking and focus!" Kelvin yelled from the front.

After a few minutes of running, they could no longer see the ants.

"Did we lose them?"

"Not sure. We should hide for now."

They all climbed the trees and hid in the canopy.

"Seems like we lost them." After several minutes passed without anything happening, Aelonen spoke.

"Seems like it." Kelvin nodded.

They jumped down from the trees.

"What now?" Kenna asked.

Kelvin scratched his head as he thought about it.

"How about we climb that mountain a little? We should have a great view from up there, and then we can decide where to go," Aelonen suggested, pointing into the distance.

They turned towards where he was pointing, and not too far away stood a small mountain.

"Great idea!" Kelvin nodded.

"Yes, we should do that!" Kenna added.

"Let’s go!" Max exclaimed.

Together, they walked towards the small mountain, but when they were only a short distance away, they suddenly heard a voice from above them.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

Looking up, they were stunned to see several people on top of a tree.

It was Lilith and her party.

"Eldest sister? What are you doing here?" Kelvin asked.

"Shut up and climb. Quickly!"

They had no idea why her voice sounded so urgent, but Kelvin decided to listen to her.

Although he was greatly afraid of his elder sister, he also knew that she wouldn’t trick him for no reason.

While standing on a thick branch, Aelonen looked around and felt a familiar chill. He always felt disturbed whenever he met Princess Lilith and her party.

Looking at the young men and women around her, he saw the same thing as before. Everyone in her party had a dead, emotionless look in their eyes, as if they weren’t even human. As far as he could remember, they had never spoken a word and always obeyed Lilith unconditionally.

Because of that, he could only assume that she had somehow brainwashed them into obeying her, making him even more afraid of her.

"Prince Aelonen, there’s no need for that expression. We don’t eat people," Lilith said with a smile.

"U-Uh, yes. Sorry." Aelonen scratched his head.

"Again, what are you doing here, eldest sister? And why did you stop us?" Kelvin continued to ask.

"Are you stupid or something? You can be here, so why can’t I? Also, take a closer look at the direction you were heading in." She pointed towards the nearby mountain.

Kelvin looked but couldn’t see anything unusual.

He shook his head. "I don’t see anything. What are you— Shit!" His eyes suddenly widened as he stared at the small mountain.

Everyone else noticed it as well and took a sharp breath.

"Hiss!"

"To think we almost went there! That’s horrifying!" Kenna and Denna nearly cried.

What they saw shattered all their earlier plans.

What stood in the distance wasn’t a small mountain at all. It was an anthill!

"T-Thank you, dear sister. You saved our lives today!" Kelvin felt a chill run down his spine just thinking about it.

"Anyway, we should get going. This place isn’t safe." After looking around and making sure there were no ants nearby, Lilith spoke before jumping down from the tree.

Her party members followed without question.

Kelvin looked at his party and Aelonen for a moment. "I think we should follow them, at least until we reach somewhere safe."

"Agreed." They all nodded before jumping down from the tree and following Lilith.

"Ehm... Eldest sister, did you guys fight the ants already?" Kelvin felt the need to check and warn her if they hadn’t.

"And what do you think?" She looked at him in annoyance. "Since we’re here so close to their home, we’ve naturally fought some of them already."

Kelvin flinched. "S-Sorry. I was just making sure. They’re really tough."

Lilith nodded. "Indeed. I never expected their defenses to be so strong. For now, we can only avoid them."

Kelvin nodded back.

They continued walking for an hour before stopping at a clearing.

"This place should be safe enough. We should go our separate ways from here." Lilith turned towards Kelvin as she spoke.

"Yes. Again, thank you for earlier."

Lilith nodded. She was about to turn around and go her own way when they suddenly heard a sound from behind a tree.

*KHSSSS!*

They all turned in that direction, only to see a gigantic praying mantis coming their way. The creature was larger than a tree!

"What in the world is that!?" Kenna yelled, taking a step back.

Lilith looked at the creature for a moment before raising her hand.

At her signal, three figures instantly darted out from behind her. They were three of her party members.

One of them moved in a blur, like a shadow, before jumping onto the mantis’s back. He raised a fist and struck the creature, releasing a thick black smoke that surrounded it and disoriented it.

The second figure circled the mantis’s legs several times at incredible speed before darting behind a tree and pulling her hands back.

Instantly, numerous threads appeared around the creature’s legs, restricting its movements.

The third figure jumped onto the mantis’s back, right beside the first one. He raised his giant hammer into the air before slamming it down.

*BOOOM!*

The hammer struck the mantis directly on its back, forcing it to fall to the ground.

The second figure circled the mantis once more before pulling her hands back, causing even more strings to appear around the creature’s body and completely restraining it.

The mantis started screeching on the ground, but it was unable to move, no matter how hard it tried.

Lilith calmly stepped forward and approached the creature with slow steps.

When she was just a step away from its head, she raised her hand as purple energy began enveloping her palm, forming a sharp claw.

She extended her hand and grabbed the creature’s head.

The purple energy seemed to seep into its head, making it screech even louder.

After a moment, the creature’s struggling decreased, and its legs started twitching.

At that moment, Lilith tightened her grip.

*CRASH!*

The creature’s head was crushed instantly.

Aelonen, Kelvin, and his party couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The fight had been so fast and effortless that it was terrifying.

Aelonen gulped loudly. He once again reminded himself never to provoke that scary woman.

Lilith pulled back her hand and opened it, revealing the beast core in her palm.

She stored it away before retracting her claw and looking at Kelvin.

Kelvin shivered under her gaze. "W-What is it, eldest sister?"

"Why are you still here? Didn’t I say we should go our separate ways?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Y-Yes! We’re just about to leave!" Kelvin said while the others behind him nodded repeatedly.

*BOOOOM!*

Suddenly, a loud explosion filled their ears. All of them instantly turned their heads towards the source.

Their mouths fell open at the sight.

The small mountain in the distance, which had turned out to be an anthill, was completely engulfed in crimson flames, and explosions continued erupting all around it.

"HISS!"

"WHAT THE..."