Chapter 121 - 121. Insect Swarm
"It's coming from the left as well!" Jeanny added.
"It's bloody coming from every direction!" Bluedaze said as she saw many Giant Ants coming towards them from the back as well.
Jack could see several of the red dots scurrying closer from his rear, he turned around and executed Swing. Four Giant Ants were cut through, their appendages were sliced apart. The Giant Ants were mostly level 12, Jack's high damage completely surpassed their defense tolerance that it created the dismembering effect even when the monsters' HP was still high. The Giant Ants which lost their legs became unable to move around, Jack continued to deliver damages to them with ease.
The other members started engaging the Ants as well. Light from Magician spells started flying around, lighting up the cave in a chaotic manner. Melee Fighters and Rangers hacked and slashes at the Giant Ants which got close.
"Hah! They are nothing!" Warpath said with pride as he danced around slashing the Giant Ants using his two swords.
Jack noticed the damages inflicted by Warpath. The damages by his second sword on his left hand was much lower than his right hand's sword. Could it be that his left sword was much inferior? But Jack didn't think the guy would keep around such a low-level common weapon.
Curious, Jack asked Peniel in his mind, 'the guy there, who used two swords. One of his swords dealt much lower damage. Is it because of the sword's quality?'
Jack could feel Peniel shifted her attention to Warpath, she then answered, "No, the sword he used are both uncommon grade and pretty high level. His off-hand deals lower damage because he does not possess the dual wielding skill?"
'Dual Wielding skill?'
"It's an elite class' skill that enable the user to deal same damage on both hands using one-handed weapons. You will find out later as more of you reached elite classes."
'I see. By the way, you can identify weapon's grade and level by only looking?'
"Heh, do you just realize how awesome I am?" Peniel replied with pride.
'Yes, yes, you are the greatest,' Jack said weakly.
While he was chatting with Peniel, Jack never stopped combatting the Giant Ants. The group pushed forwards among the swarms of insects. Thought the monster's numbers were large, each of them was weaker than normal monsters. Thus, with the group's skills and high levels, they were never really in danger. However, Jack could see a large swarm that was bigger than the current one was incoming.
"Haha, is this all there is to a dungeon? You should have contacted me earlier, then we would have cleared this dungeon sooner!" Warpath was showing off his arrogance once he found that the monsters were weak.
"Be careful! There are more coming!" Jack warned the others.
"Worry about your own self!" Warpath scorned. "Don't lump me together with the likes of you. These monsters are nothing in my eyes!"
As his words ended, most of the first wave of Giant Ant had died at their feet. But then they heard a low rumble from the depth of the tunnel. The torchlight was not bright enough to illuminate further parts of the cave.
Selena threw a Mana Bullet into the depth of the tunnel. The light showed countless red eye reflections at the far end. Their hairs stood on ends as they gazed at the sight. The numbers in this next swarm were easily three to four times the previous encounter.
"Formation!" Selena immediately yelled.
As the Giant Ants were all coming from the front this time, Silverwing's team move forward and they stood side by side with Queen Magenta's team. The Fighters and Rangers were at the front while Magicians hid at the back.
When the Giant Ants came into view, they could see larger ones amongst them. Jack scanned them and found out that they were level 13 Giant Ant Warriors. They had slightly redder tints on their carapace armor, and their mandibles were longer, with addition of two large antenna protruding from their heads.
"Be careful of the large ones!" Bluedaze exclaimed, "they are Giant Ant Warriors. Their HP and defense were not much different from the normal Giant Ants, but they hit much harder. Try to take them out first!"
The Magicians on both teams casted their spells at once when the swarm of ants came into range. When their spells were on cooldown, they tossed their standard range attacks unceasingly. Jack reckoned they must have brought items that could replenished their staff's or wand's ammo to be able to keep throwing range attacks like that without worry.
The spells and range attacks all hit the Giant Ants, but the tide was too much for their attacks to have any effect. The swarm kept on coming without slowing at all.
Once they got closer, all the melee players unleashed their skills. Almost every fighter used the Swing skill, including Jack. Causing damages to all the front raw insects who had arrived first. They then tried to keep as much Giant Ants as possible at bay, preventing them to pass through their line onto the Magicians behind.
But there were just too many of the insects. Several still got through. The Rangers then busied themselves, running around to kill the Giant Ants that came towards the Magicians.
The Giant Ants HP was not high, Jack only needed less than ten normal hits to kill one. With his speed, he could deliver normal attacks very rapidly, hence he managed to kill a lot of the Ants since they came into contact. Silverwing's people were amazed by Jack's high damage. Wicked Witches' group on the other hand, were not aware as Jack was positioned at further end from their side. Jack tried not to use his skills except for Swing as he did not want to attract too much attention yet.
It took them almost fifteen minutes to clear out the swarm. Although there was no casualty, they were not without scratch as well. Many had their HP reduce to half. They immediately take advantage of current reprieve to consume some recovery items. They didn't know if the next swarm would be appearing soon.
"This is strange, the difficulty was slightly harder than our previous entry," Bluedaze said.
"That's right. We usually met such large swarm after further into the dungeon," Selena added.
"Could it probably because we have more stronger members now? That the dungeon was adjusting its difficulty based on the people who entered?" Sinreaper conjectured.
"Good thing is that the monsters' level remains the same," Jeanny said. "If they only increase the numbers, we should still be able to manage. It just meant we will burn through our recovery items faster."
"That's right, we should fight more conservatively," Sinreaper said. "Let's advance with caution, we should avoid combat if possible. Our target is to reach the end of the dungeon where the Boss is located."
The others nodded their agreement. After they had enough rest, they continued onwards. They again came to a fork. This time, there were three paths. Instead of randomly choosing one, they opt to send their rangers first. Since there were only two rangers on the team, Silverwing and the female ranger from Wicked Witches each took one path to scout. The rests waited behind.
After three minutes, the female ranger came back. "There are many Giant Ants that way. I do not recommend it. Have Silverwing returned?"
"No, he is still on the other path."
"Then I will go scout the third path," the female Ranger said.
Another minute passed before Silverwing was back.
"There are some Giant Ants, but it doesn't seem to be too many. We should be able to handle them easily," he said. Before he was about to ask about the female Ranger, she appeared from the third tunnel.
"This path is worse, we shouldn't go there," she said with a pale face.
"All right, let's go through this path then," Queen Magenta pointed at the path Silverwing had scouted.
They all then walked in.
Jack was helpless, if they could trust him, he could have told them which path had the least monsters' presence from the start. But he knew it was pointless, Warpath and Queen Magenta would not follow his advice, and he might end up exposing his treasure, so he just kept quiet and went with the flow.