Legion Ants.
Monsters defined as Soldier Ants, Worker Ants, and Queen Ants.
Individually, they weren’t anything special, but due to their large numbers during the combat phase, beginners had a hard time dealing with them.
Of course, that was the story of D&A, a turn-based game.
Ludens, now a reality, transformed the genre into real-time action with no turns.
—Zzz, Zzz, Zzz, Zzz, Zzz!
Giant soldier ants, comparable to large dogs, clashed their mandibles together and charged at us.
There were only two of them, not as many as the Legion Ants in the game, but facing two heavily-armored Dobermans charging at you wasn’t something to be taken lightly.
“Enio, as I mentioned earlier, please. Use 《Shadow Bind》 to restrain them. Victoria, you take the left one with 《Lightning Strike》, and I’ll handle the right.”
“Darken.《Shadow Bind》.”
As Enio rolled her foot, her shadow, previously spread beneath her like a snake, intertwined with the shadows of the ants, traversing the jungle.
—Zzz, Zzz, Zzz, Zzz, Zzz!
—Zuuuu!
The suddenly frozen giant soldier ants twitched their bodies left and right, appearing confused. Seizing the opportunity, Victoria drew her staff.
“Burn up, 《Lightning Strike》!”
A mass of gathered light shot out from the tip of her staff like bullets.
This was Victoria’s basic attack spell, a fast-casting deterrent with a damage coefficient of 75 in the game.
In reality, it effortlessly pierced through one ant’s torso like a bullet splitting the air.
Pew, pop.
—Direct hit…
Now, only one remained. Taking advantage of the ant trapped in Enio’s shadow, I drew a sword from my hip.
Chilling.
As soon as it touched my hand, a creepy chill ran down my spine.
Ignoring the tingling sensation in my numb body, I flicked my muscles. It felt like a spring, long compressed, was suddenly released.
“Cutting the light.”
Shack-!
It was a short and concise movement, even in my own judgment.
Simultaneously, the giant soldier ant’s body cleanly split into two halves, and blood and entrails spilled out.
Splat, splat!
It was a truly gruesome sight.
If it were the old me, I might have felt a bit queasy.
But this Victor guy didn’t even change his expression after killing a large ant.
“Did any blood stain the sword? It’s surprisingly efficient.”
After confirming Tyrfing’s blade, I sheathed it back into its scabbard.
Sreung, Tak.
Smoothly, with a satisfying sensation of being drawn in.
At the same time, my body felt significantly heavier.
“…”
Probably the recoil effect of Tyrfing’s ability. Originally, it reduced 10% of health per swing, but in the reality of Ludens, it felt like my health was rapidly decreasing with each swing.
So, if I didn’t use any buffs, would I die after nine more swings?
Of course not.
Eating the soup increased health and restored energy.
-Jangling
The ant corpses disappeared, leaving behind some pouches and exoskeleton parts.
“Nike, collect them. Legion ant exoskeletons have various uses.”
My statement caused Victoria to furrow her brows, seemingly disgusted by something.
“Why are you taking the ant shells? Are you going to cook with that too?”
Her expression conveyed a strong aversion, as if she had heard something terribly unpleasant.
To clarify any misunderstanding, I decided to explain.
“They’re used for making armor. We can’t keep wandering around in ordinary school uniforms forever.”
Ludens’ school uniforms were quite high-performance, designed not to tear or get dirty easily, thanks to a magic spell.
In reality, the uniform I was wearing was exceptionally durable.
Perhaps it was a setting to answer the question, ‘Why do they go to dangerous dungeons in school uniforms instead of armor?’ – ‘Because the uniforms have good performance.’
Dungeon Academy, where everyone wears full plate armor.
Both men and women clad in armor suits.
Would you like to see it?
However, as time passes, stronger monsters and episode bosses appear in the field, so it’s better to upgrade items with materials dropped in the field to deal with them.
You can even reinforce the school uniform.
Something like the ‘Powerful Nightmare Ludens School Uniform’.
Anyway, we continued to face the soldier ants in this manner.
Finally, when the number of defeated ants exceeded twenty, Enio asked.
“By the way, Victor. I have a question. In this jungle, besides ants, there were swamp snakes and… what was it again… monkeys? Yeah, monkeys. Haven’t they shown up? Wasn’t there supposed to be a reason?”
“That’s right.”
“But strangely, it seems like only ants are appearing?”
Enio’s question had some merit.
Originally, this dungeon featured snakes, monkeys, and ants.
However, we were only encountering endless ants in battle, without any traces of snakes or monkeys. What was even more peculiar was this.
Woooom-.
We heard a sound like helicopter blades spinning.
Of course, there were no helicopters in Ludens.
When I turned my head, I saw a winged ant sticking to a tree in the distance, seemingly observing us.
“That one…”
While I was lost in thought for a moment, Victoria spoke up.
“That winged ant looks exceptionally sharp, doesn’t it? There are three types of ants here: worker ants, soldier ants, and queen ants. So, could that one possibly be the queen ant?”
I shook my head.
“That one is not the queen ant. That is an Ant Officer.”
「Ant Officer – Communication」
A named monster that commands soldier ants.
Originally, this monster didn’t appear in the 「Tropical Jungle」.
It was supposed to be an enemy in the 「Ant Kingdom」, a dungeon with a recommended stat level of 200.
This meant that something had changed, deviating from what I knew and altering the monster spawn locations.
I heard that there were dungeon and difficulty changes in the newly added DLC. It was easy to understand if it was added then.
“Maybe the difficulty is a little higher than what I said before.”
Of course, that’s not a problem.
* * *
After walking for a while, a spacious open area suitable for resting appeared.
I decided to put our baggage down and catch our breath.
At the same time, I firmly reiterated our goal.
“Again, we’re going to hunt one elite monster located in the middle point and then retreat. Even if we only go up to the halfway point, the rewards should be quite substantial, so there’s no need to worry.”
Of course, what I was aiming for wasn’t the rewards from the elite mid-boss but the field where it was located.
For me, that place was a veritable gold mine.
Woooom-.
However, the flying ants were a bit troublesome.
The fact that there were so many commanding officers, named monsters, was unexpected.
“Victoria, it’s your turn.”
“Got it. ─ Burn up, 《Lightning Strike》!”
Pew, pop-.
The ant hit by Victoria’s magic collapsed to the ground.
Thanks to her early acquisition of 「Arkwright’s Staff」, Victoria’s offensive abilities were sufficient to be called a mid-game powerhouse.
—Zzz…
Ants kept falling.
「Ant Officer – Operation」
Communications and operations.
So far, we had discovered and hunted two Named.
The fact that there were so many officers…
“Victor, is there a problem? You’re doing well, right?”
Victoria seemed to sense a bit of anxiety from me as I remained silent.
The tropical jungle echoed with strange creatures, heat, swarming ants.
And supplies were running out.
For someone like Victor of Steel it might not be strange. But for an ordinary person, the sense of unease wasn’t unwarranted.
“Victoria, how many more times can you use ‘Lightning Strike’?”
“About three more times.”
“Enio, you should have about two uses left for ‘Shadow Bind’.”
“Right.”
“‘Shadow Pierce’ should have around five uses left.”
“That’s correct. But about ‘Shadow Pierce’… No, there’s no point in asking about it.”
Enio laughed, seeming unusually cheerful.
Was there something to be happy about in this situation?
In any case, the remaining skill uses of the party members were quite limited.
To replenish them, special potions or food need to be consumed.
Otherwise, one has to rely on occasional mid-save points called ‘Altars’ that appear inside dungeons for a recharge.
However, as far as I knew, 「Tropical Jungle」 did not have Altars.
Hoping for such a miracle was not advisable.
I couldn’t cook the food that increased skill uses right now either.
What should I do?
If my predictions were correct, the mid-boss of this dungeon was not a ‘Queen’ but an ‘Empress’.
The superior monster to the 「Queen Ant」 – the 「Empress Ant」.
As mentioned earlier, it was the boss that appeared in the dungeon 「Ant Kingdom」.
Originally, it shouldn’t appear here, but considering the large number of officer ants, the appearance of the empress was certain.
The setting was that only the Empress Ant could create officer ants.
It seemed they had raised the difficulty overall with the DLC.
Interesting.
If they put so much effort into revamping the hidden dungeon that was neglected, the DLC price, which was criticized for being expensive, made more sense.
That’s when it happened.
—Thud!
“Ah, watch out!”
A spider that was peacefully on Nike’s palm jumped somewhere else. Simultaneously, Nike also headed towards the nearby bushes, following the white spider.
“Stay there!”
“Nike, you’re the one who is leaving the front line.”
To prevent any potential danger, I followed Nike.
However, Nike’s steps stopped only a few seconds later.
“Wow… Victor, look at this!”
We found something strange right next to the resting area.
A stone statue covered in ivy and moss.
I knew the name of this.
“It’s an Altar.”
In dungeons, there were occasionally statues that restored health or granted effects like ‘Increases attack power for 20 minutes’.
That’s precisely what an Altar is.
━Kkkkkkkk!
The white spider climbed back onto Nike’s palm.
“Sword and staff… it looks like the Altar of the God of Adventure. Hey, little spider, did you guide us here?”
—Hiooong…!
A spider making strange noises guided us to the Altar?
Whether it was true or not, it didn’t matter to me.
“Let’s do some maintenance.”
When I touched the Altar, I felt a surge of energy in my body.
Enio and Victoria, too, shivered, muttering things like “It feels good.” or “Thanks to the grace of the gods.”.
The dialogue when encountering an Altar in the game was exactly the same.
With everyone now reinvigorated, I spoke briefly.
“Now, everyone should be on guard. The existence of an Altar means there are enemies nearby to be cautious of.”
It could be a boss room or something like that.
Is it a common rule in old games that a resting area appears just before the boss room?
In reality, a sweet scent was spreading strongly around my nose.
The sweet scent of a mixture of various fruits.
This was evidence that the monsters I wanted were nearby.
Following that scent, as I walked slowly, a colossal ant, on a pyramid, rather than a boss room, appeared into view… No, in this case, it would be more appropriate to call it a termite mound.
Well, it’s a term used in the legends commonly found in South America.
The high altar where sacrifices are made.
At the top of that massive structure, a bizarre entity was sitting, laughing.
“You must be the challengers making this jungle lively. Come, welcome.”
…Who are you?
No, there was no need to ask; the words were already displayed above its head.
「Nightmare Empress Ant – Kucl’kan」
