Chapter 16: Shocking Discovery

Dududduududududgdudgugud

The entire cave continued to shake as more and more debris fell above the ground.

Xerel dug back to the hole where he had popped off but due to the earthquake, the pathway that he was supposed to enter had disappeared.

'Shit! An ant tunnel has so many tunnels that can spread out like roots but all of those tunnels ends up in a dead-end and there's only one path that leaves to both the entrance and the exit, how am I gonna find the correct path?'

He clicked his tongue and chose a random entry hole on a wall and as he scurry around deeper, he was met with a dead end.

'Fuck! I could choose to break away from the ground and dig up but that'll take me forever due to the earth in this ground being so hard to dig without using proper tools! It'll take me more than an hour to dig up considering that I might be hundreds of feet below underground, maybe thousands!'

Xerel retreated and returned to the dome and chose another path but after 55 minutes of going back and forth, he couldn't find the exit.

Ting~

[BASAHRA'S PIT WILL NOW CLOSE IN 00:04:31. PLEASE LEAVE IMMEDIATELY]

'I only have 5 minutes until this entire dungeon closes. Despite this dungeon being different than the dungeons on Earth, I know very well the terrors of being stuck in the dungeon. If I get stuck here, my only option would be to die but let's not waste my Life Packets like that. I need to escape.'

Xerel rambled his mind and started checking his inventory if he could find something useful. His eyes were focused on a reddish-black orb on the last slot.

"I can't believe I get to try this out so early."

Ting~

[Chimera Ant Core

Rank- Gold Primordial

Type- Monster Core

Morph- Transform into a Chimera Ant and obtain all of its attributes and physical properties]

[DO YOU WISH TO MORPH WITH THE MONSTER CORE? Y/N]

'Ants are one of the best species that can navigate their direction, maybe morphing into one would get me out of this place.'

"Yes!"

Ting~

The monster core began to levitate on the air as the light it glowed shunned brightly. The core burst into shards and stuck into Xerel's skin like a magnet attracting iron filaments

As the shards dug into his pores, his body began to change abnormally.

His skin peeled off and the muscles shred leaving only the skeleton and organs in his body.

Unlike the painful process from the tome of knowledge, this body modification didn't hurt one bit.

The skeletons began to change form into a flat and shell-like shape as the muscles that had been shredded went inside the skeletal hollow shell.

It was a gruesome yet painless process and then the white bones that had turned into an exoskeleton changed into a blood-red color and spikes and thorns grew around his body.

The humanoid skull had deformed into an ant head as he grew antennas and wide curved lenses. And teeth turned into pincers that opened sideways.

The process ended in no more than 2 seconds as Xerel felt a lot different than normal.

'I feel taller, faster and.....that's about it.'

Xerel observed the changes in his body and he had become the exact copy of the Chimera ant as a window panel appeared in his view.

Ting~

[YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY MORPHED INTO THE CHIMERA ANT]

Ting~

[Player: Xerel

Level: 587 (+99%) (+52 (14%))

Class: None

+Title: One in a million (4 more titles)(+1 title)

Race: Morphed Human/Chimera Ant

State: Curious, Amazed

HP: 37,750/37,750 (1,000,000 HP) (+10000)

MP: 1348/11160 (+2000)

STR: 2017 x2 (+200)

AGI: 2097 x2.5 (+200)

INT: 1116 (+200)

DEF: 1255 (+200)

Status Points: 0 (+530)]

He had earned 50 levels from killing the chimera ant and added with the experience gained and 2 levels from the dungeon rewards, it settled him with 53 levels as a result.

Ting~

[WHILE ON MORPHED FORM, ITEMS ARE INELIGIBLE TO EQUIP]

'While in this form, my health skyrocketed to a million points, my strength and agility have been multiplied by a few folds but although I can't equip any weapon or armor, this is enough. Let me check my skills.'

Ting~

[CHIMERA ANT EXCLUSIVE SKILLS:]

[Screech of Terror-(A)(AOE/DB): Let out a scream in a wide area, inflicting FEAR into the targets for 10 minutes.

Weak-willed targets will have their health decrease by 80%.

Mana Cost: 3000

Cooldown- 20 minutes]

[Spiracles-(A)-(AOE/DB): Release a thick fog around a wide area that poisons the target by 1% of their health per second. Their senses will be blocked inside the fog and weakened by 20%.

Critical damage is increased by 300% and accuracy is increased by 500%.

Mana cost: 3000

Cooldown: 1 hour]

[Shrapnel-(P)(DB/DMG): When dealing damage, a thorn is left on the wounded part of the Target's body and moves inside to deal internal damage. Internal damage is dependent on Target's internal defense and base strength of the player.]

[Shrill-(P)(BUFF): When not dealing damage for 10 seconds, become invisible and movement speed increases by 100%.]

[Feaster-(A)(DMG): In the next minute, claws are sharpened increasing damage by 90% and ignoring magic and physical defense.

Mana Cost- 4000

Cooldown: 2 hours]

[High Frequency-(P)(BUFF): Due to the very sharp senses of the Chimera Ant, you can distinguish the surroundings better and can see through the Target's body]

"Just as I was expecting! Now, how do I use [High Frequency]? The heck?!"

Xerel was shocked as his vision changed. Due to numerous pupils on his lenses, he could see in a convex sight that although looked nauseating for a normal person, it helped Xerel look at the target both front and back. In his eyes he could also see through the formation of cracks and holes around the dome in a widespan of view and the corpses, he could see a transparent look inside them like an x-ray except what he could see was far detailed, the organs, vessels, and liquids inside even the presence of Mana could be seen!

"A-amazing..."

Xerel couldn't help but be in awe as he began to scan his surroundings, there were only 3 minutes left until the entire dungeon closes.

He looked on his right and found a crack on the wall that lead through the exit above so, in no time of waste, he hastened through the crack.

Although the tunnel was quite small, using his sickle-like claws, he dug through the dirt like a drill as he made his way up.

Dudududgdudgdudug

The ground started to shrank as it formed earth around the hollow parts of the dungeon so the tunnel he was crawling gradually became smaller and smaller at a very fast rate.

Fortunately, his speed and strength were a lot stronger so he manage to drill through even the smallest tunnel.

Khieeeeeeeekk!

He screeched loudly and drilled nonstop as now that only 10 seconds remaining he strike his way above.

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Boom! The ground broke loose as the sands explode revealing a humanoid insect flying in the sky.

Xerel flew mid-air as he panted. The cyclone on the ground disappeared as the area returned to normal. He flew back down to check the area and the once hollow ground had turned solid.

'That was dangerous!'

He thought to himself as he let out a stretch. Being in the body of a humanoid ant, there were differences and similarities. Xerel felt lighter compared to his human body and he also lost the sense of pain but he could still feel if his body was damaged.

His breathing was also different, normally he'd breath on his nose and mouth but now, his entire body was releasing and absorbing air so this meant he was more energetic than usual.

'By having a light body and hard exoskeleton, lifting 20 times my weight is as easy as strolling in the park while carrying a child. Let's try this newly improved body of mine!'

With his wings flapping like a jet, he zoomed around the desert. He flew higher and higher as he come close to a floating island the size of a pyramid.

Bang!

A single punch destroyed the entire island into cobble rocks that spread far as it lost its floating effect and fell on the sky.

'I just destroyed an entire landmass and I hardly even put an effort on that punch!'

Xerel was exhilarated as he continued to destroy more floating islands and one peculiar island exploded as a serpent-type monster scurried to find its invoker.

Tsaaaaah!!!

Ting~

[Aerial Serpentine

Rank- Primordial 1

Level- 680

HP- 79,990,870/80,000,000

State- Invoked]

"Finally! My first test subject!"

Tsaaaaah!!!

It growled at Xerel and released a gust of sharp wind. These waves of wind were hard to see with the naked eye and being hit with one would slice one in half like a hot knife in a butter.

Sha! Sha!....

Having sharp Mana sensitivity, Xerel could see the trajectory of wind blades as one by one, he dodged them with ease.

"That's all you got?"

Tsaaaaahh!!!

It screamed at Xerel's provocations. Its body whirled with the wind like a tornado formed around its slithering body as it moved straight towards him.

Xerel opened his inventory and pulled out a vial of blue liquid as he threw it in the air and swallowed the glass vial whole.

Ting~

[MP: 12160/12160]

'Now that was refreshing!'

His Mana immediately filled up.

Wuooooounngg!!!

The serpent cyclone collided with Xerel but no explosion occurred as he traverse through the cyclone.

His quick movement made it possible for him to not be harmed by the circular blades of wind and even if the cyclone had covered the entirety of the serpentine, he could see through the veil using his x-ray eyes.

"[Feaster]"

His claws increased their length as a crimson red aura surround the blades. At a blinding speed, he arrived at where the weak point was shown, and like a sharp dagger, he stick his clwas through the weak point as the scales were being drilled like candy glass.

[5,668,980!]

Tsaaaaah!

It cried in pain as its hide had been broken. It waggled its body to remove Xerel but Xerel dug his claws deeper into the wound dealing more damage.

He could sense thorns flying out of his hands as they move through the body of the Serpentine like parasites as more and more damage indicators appeared on its head.

[-1,990,876]

[-768,998]

[-2,766,355!]

Tsaaaaah!

It screamed and squelch a handful of blood as it fired a beam of sound towards Xerel but before the sound could reach him, Xerel dived into the open wound and entered it's body.

'I'll ruin your insides so bad that you'd wished you'd rather have never-ending gonorrhea!'

He drilled through the muscles and organs slicing and turning it into a sack of gore and mush and the serpent couldn't do anything as no matter how loud it screamed and fought, it couldn't kill something on its insides.

Like a giant snake had just swallowed a running chainsaw, it started to vomit its organs that had shredded so bad that it lost its flying abilities and soared through the skies, falling like an airplane.

Xerel didn't stop his massacre as the entire insides of the Serpentine had been hollowed out and as soon it crashed through the ground, it immediately died before it could even hope to go berserk.

Ting~

[YOU HAVE KILLED AERIAL SERPENTINE]

[+546,789,000 EXP]

[LEVEL UP]

[LEVEL UP]

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Although he only gained five levels and nothing more, Xerel was satisfied. He left and escaped the body of the serpentine by drilling a hole through its skin and escaped. He was so satisfied that he didn't bother getting it's Runestone.

He was covered in guts and blood and speed up a bit to remove the stains. He was now in another terrain which is a more swampy place as the ground was very soft and had a lot of gravel around. His nose began to twitch as a charred odor bothered his sense of smell.

'Smoke?'

He averted his gaze to the source of the smoke he had suddenly smelled and from a few miles away, there was smoke rising in the middle of the forest.

'There's no way that this is a humanoid, most of the humanoids I've seen are smart and dignified, unless this was a premature humanoid, there's no way they would start a campfire in the middle of the forest knowing what formidable monster would appear.'

"Not that I'd care but let's check and see who it is."

Xerel was currently in his invisibility state as he went in the direction of the smoke. As he traverse through the forest, he could see a lot of monsters slowly going in the direction of the smoke which he expected to happen.

'There are a lot of monsters that are low-level, but it seems like the title effect won't work in my Invincibility state, they don't even feel my Mana and presence!'

Xerel leisurely walked through the forest and as he arrived at the location of the fire, his expression widened in shock.

'Because of how tall the trees are, I couldn't even tell that there's already a pile of dead monsters covering up like a wall! Who is this person?'

Xerel sneaked through an open pathway and he was surprised at what he was seeing.

It was a blonde man dressed up in a fallen Knight armor as he held a great sword. He was covered in green blood from the monster he had slain but what surprised Xerel a lot was his features.

'A human?'