Chapter 192
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Chapter 192: The Despairing Pair
Three days have passed since those damned ant monsters gnawed off our legs.
The wounds have long ceased bleeding and fully healed. Yet with our severed limbs discarded and these ant creatures not heading toward any town, our legs will remain this way forever unless we obtain that precious magic potion capable of regenerating lost limbs.
These past few days, the ant monsters seemed to avoid human detection – traveling by night while resting in their anthills during daylight.
Why would they fear being seen by the human race?
Given their level of strength, wiping out an entire village would be effortless for such monsters.
Damn it all! Neither Martina nor I can comprehend the motives of mere monsters.
No… more accurately, we can’t fathom the schemes of that woman called Army Lady.
Indeed, that woman must share an inseparable connection with these creatures. Moreover… she’s likely a beast tamer!
Monsters can indeed be domesticated if raised from infancy.
Thus was born the beast tamer profession – successfully trained monsters become battle pets sold to adventurers. But monster rearing demands exorbitant costs, carries tremendous risks, and requires massive investments of time and energy.
Consequently, few beast tamers remain in towns – their numbers even fewer than Pharmacists who craft potions.
Over the years, they’ve only succeeded in taming twenty or thirty monsters total.
For all these reasons, the profession may soon vanish entirely.
Given how arduous monster taming is, how does that woman simultaneously raise monsters while leveling up? And… could she have tamed all these dozens of ant monsters?
While it seems unbelievable for one person to tame so many, Martina and Sylvestre can conceive no alternative explanation.
Failing to solve the riddle, they abandoned the train of thought.
Moreover, we’ve barely eaten these past two days.
What little we’ve consumed was monster flesh – no… monster entrails…
The ants devoured all proper meat, tossing only the leftover organs our way.
Gods! That revolting, nauseating stench still haunts me!
But starvation left us no choice.
Damn damn DAMN! If we escape, I’ll slaughter every last one of these cursed ants!
Though… that assumes we can escape at all. Damnation…
Worse still, the ants seem to be taking us toward the Granville Monster Forest…
Should we enter that monster-infested Granville Forest, any hope of rescue grows fainter.
In our crippled state, we’ll either die by ant mandibles or fall prey to other forest monsters, won’t we?
This realization sends waves of despair crashing over us.
…
Upon entering the forest, Sylvestre grew even more astonished. The goblins and Granville Wolves they encountered didn’t attack the ant colony – rather, they turned tail and fled at the mere sight of them!
Though not all monsters fled from the ants.
They also crossed paths with a massive long-tusked brown bear – one of the few powerful monsters dwelling in the Granville Monster Forest’s outskirts.
Judging by its massive size, this long-toothed brown bear was undoubtedly a high-level Class C monster. Even at their peak condition, Sylvestre and Martina stood no chance against such a creature that surpassed them not only in defensive capabilities but also in raw strength.
A high-level Class C long-toothed brown bear would probably give the guildmaster himself a migraine, wouldn’t it?
This colossal beast might actually be capable of defeating the ant colony. If so, perhaps they could seize an opportunity to escape during their battle…
Better yet, if both sides suffered heavy losses, they might even get a chance to deliver finishing blows and gain enough experience to level up!
Leveling up would significantly improve their chances of escaping this accursed forest.
As Sylvestre entertained these hopeful thoughts, he watched in astonishment as the Earth Digging Ants remained motionless while the despised Weak Ants charged forward instead.
Swarms of Weak Ants leaped onto the massive long-toothed brown bear, tearing at it with their mandibles.
Contrary to expectations, these supposedly classless Weak Ants were holding their own against the formidable bear.
The bear’s powerful swipes failed to kill the Weak Ants – the resilient creatures simply stood back up to continue fighting, appearing to sustain only minor injuries…
Could these Weak Ants possibly be… Class C monsters as well?
Sylvestre shuddered at his own realization.
No… that’s utterly preposterous.
Wasn’t the Weak Ant Tribe universally known as classless, feeble monsters? Among all forest-dwelling creatures, only slimes ranked below them in the hierarchy!
Just as Sylvestre dismissed this absurd notion, he and Martina witnessed the enormous long-toothed brown bear finally collapse with a thunderous crash under the relentless assault of the Weak Ant swarm…
"Monsters… These are absolute monsters!"
Sylvestre turned to Martina, finding the normally arrogant woman trembling uncontrollably, her lips quivering with terror.
If these Weak Ants were truly Class C monsters, then the yellow ants surrounding them must be… at least high-level Class C, possibly even Class B creatures?!
…
From that moment onward, Sylvestre and Martina abandoned all hope of rescue.
Short of deploying an entire army with numerous adventurers, they couldn’t imagine anyone in their town capable of saving them from this predicament.
On the fourth day…
The procession entered the Fog Zone.
Both Sylvestre and Martina paled visibly.
They recognized this territory.
The forest’s Fog Zone, infamously dubbed the Death Fog Zone, represented one of Granville Forest’s most perilous regions – dangerous even by the forest’s unforgiving standards.
The monsters dwelling here weren’t merely higher-level and more powerful than their Fog Zone counterparts; they were notoriously cunning ambush predators.
Adventurers foolish enough to explore this area weren’t celebrated as heroes but ridiculed as suicidal madmen.
What business could this ant colony possibly have here?
Don’t tell me… they’ve established a nest within this deadly territory?
Perched nervously atop their Earth Digging Ant transports, Sylvestre and Martina scanned their mist-shrouded surroundings, dreading the sudden emergence of monsters from the fog.
After mere minutes of travel, shadowy figures materialized through the mist.
They’re here!
Sylvestre and Martina’s hearts nearly stopped.
But instead of hostile monsters, what emerged from the fog was… another ant contingent?!
Rough estimates placed their numbers over a hundred.
Among them, the glossy black specimens two or three times larger than Weak Ants could only be… Military Ants? These creatures possessed combat abilities just slightly inferior to Granville Wolves, but typically appeared in numbers exceeding their lupine counterparts by factors of ten or even a hundred – forming truly terrifying monster legions!
Under normal circumstances, any adventurer spotting such monsters would be obligated to immediately report them to the guild.
If the Military Ants merely shocked Sylvestre and Martina, the massive Iron Armored Ants leading the group left them utterly dumbfounded.
Iron Armored Ants!!
They’d only encountered these formidable ants in monster encyclopedias before. Never had they imagined seeing so many in the Fog Zone.
But… weren’t they supposed to be solitary creatures? What were they doing cooperating with other ant species…?
