Chapter One-Hundred and Forty-Two: Storming the Beach

"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!" Drake shouted loudly as he exited his tent, the sun just passing the horizon.

He continued to shout until people began to exit their tents. Some who needed sleep left their tents with groggy expressions and rubbing their bleary eyes.

Others who had not slept like Drake left their tents with more subtle expressions, yawns, and some light stretching.

"W-what is this wake-up call…." Chelsea grumbled, rubbing her eyes, as she brushed her hand through her hair.

"It's time to get going! Ants aren't going to kill themselves! And we have breakfast ready already!" Drake smiled.

"Breakfast…?" Sherry said in a zombie-like tone, her eyes suddenly brightening at the end of the word.

"Yup!" Drake said excitedly, "You get," he announced pulling a bowl from his inventory, "Portage! And it's happy to see ya!" Drake smirked, handing her a bowl of food.

"Really? Mulan? How long have you been wanting to use that one bro," Bjorn chuckled, walking up behind him.

"Not too long. Ok maybe a while, I'll admit, but it's still a good one," Drake laughed, pulling out the real breakfast he prepared overnight, "Eat up quick everyone we have a long day ahead of us, and the magic school bus will only wait so long before Mr. Liz Ard gets angry."

"It's too early for this many references…." Megan mumbled, exiting the tent behind Chelsea.

"It's never too early! And get used to it, you all decided to hitch your wagon to mine for the next 60 days. That means my jokes for 60 days, 24 hours a day, 1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds all day every day," Drake smirked, nodding his head satisfied.

Megan's face paled, "What have we agreed to…."

"You really knew those numbers off the top of your head bro?" Bjorn asked, taking a portion of the breakfast and sitting down.

"Nope, I had to count. Used all 20 of my digits, took most of the night," Drake joked.

"I can believe it," Bjorn laughed.

"I was joking…"

"I wasn't!" Bjorn laughed even more loudly.

Drake scoffed, turning to the latecomers who were trickling in.

"You all need to wake up faster, you missed my jokes," Drake said disappointed.

"Oh no….." Claire said sleepily, "Whatever shall we do…."

"Well, aren't we cranky…." Drake said with a smirk.

"I didn't get any sleep… Sorry," she amended embarrassingly.

"Sall good," Drake said, walking up to her and bringing her in for a hug, "You don't have to worry so much, I'll be there to protect everyone of you."

Claire's face flared red as she blushed, her head nodding slowly.

"Y-yeah…"

"Awake now?" Drake laughed looking down at her.

"Ugh, get a room… It's too bloody early for that hogwash…" Jacqueline said, coming out of the tent.

Drake smiled, and shot a ball of lukewarm water at her, drenching her head to toe.

"What the fuck?!" Jacqueline screamed.

"Oh my bad thought you wanted me to wash the hog," Drake smiled.

"I fucking hate you!" she roared, turning to go back into the tent to change.

"So I've been told," Drake laughed.

The rest of the group gathered relatively quickly and finished their breakfast before Drake rounded them up. The group finally read to depart a few hours after dawn.

Drake looked at them all, his face serious for once.

"Listen up," he addressed them, "We are going to split into two groups, only the essentials are going to be with me. That's Claire, Amir, Megan, and Tom," Drake began, looking at each of them.

Tom perked up, surprised to hear his name, pointing at himself and smiling.

"Yes Tom, I'll be needing you this time around to protect the supporters. So don't fuck it up," Drake chidded, "The other group will be everyone else. Theodore will be in charge, and Bear will stay as auxiliary support for the landing pad we are going to be setting up. First I will go in and clear as much as I can and gauge how many and how strong the Ants are. I didn't plan to have everyone come at first but that's changed and we are going to do this right. Once I've cleared enough of the Hive to confidently say we have good ground I'll come back and we will move further into the Hive," Drake continued.

"From what Natto has told me, this will be a battle of attrition like I have never seen before. I allocated around 30 days for this whole adventure but it looks like it's going to take much longer," Drake explained.

"So what's the plan when we get there? Ya just ganna kill everything?" Hudson asked.

"Pretty much. We can't have Bear help actively unless he absolutely needs to," Drake explained.

"Why's that?" Chelsea asked concern in her eyes as she looked at Bjorn.

Drake cursed, having to take the fall for his slip up, "I want to horde the experience honestly. And Bear has been nice enough to let me so I can catch up."

Chelsea scoffed, crossing her arms, but nodded.

"When we get there, I'm going to sweep the area. Theo, Chelsea. I'm going to need you both to scout the area, let me know if there is anything dangerous around I need to flatten," Drake instructed.

They both nodded back to him.

"After that, I'm counting on you and your boys Hudson to set up a base of operations that we can work out of. I'll set up an earthen fortress, but the defenses are all up to you, got it my man?" Drake explained.

Hudson sucked on his front teeth with a snap, and nodded his head.

"No worries there, my boys'll take care of it. Haven't been up against no ant yet but, I'm sure we'll handle it just fine," he assured.

"Everyone else, you're job is to stay safe until we are done. The goal is the horde, but I won't risk anyone's life but my own to obtain it. Even if I have to knock you out myself and carry you back here before I go do it," Drake said sternly, looking each one in the eyes, making sure his determination to do so was conveyed.

Drake waited a moment for anyone to say their objections but when no one did, he turned and shouted.

"Alright! Let's get this field trip on the road!"

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After a few hours of walking, making sure to not tire out the people in the group who didn't have physical type classes. They made it close enough to the Ant's nest that both Bjorn and Drake were able to sense groups of beings in the distance.

"Alright here is where we stop," Drake announced, turning to face the group, "Hudson can you and your boys set up a perimeter? I want your drones scouting at all times while I'm gone," Drake instructed.

"Sure thing, boss man," Hudson nodded, beginning to summon his completed Drones, his two Large Robot Bodyguards taking to the edges of the group.

Drake looked over to Bjorn, "I'm ganna get going, don't you go killing anything unless you have to alright?" he said in a whisper.

"No worries bro, I could use a little vacation," Bjorn smirked, "Don't go getting yourself dead. I don't want to have to go on a rampage and become a planet eating super hulk anytime soon."

Drake gave a chuckle and gave one last look at the group before snapping his mask into place, his hair and tattoo's flaring to life shimmering to a brilliant yellow hue.

"I'm off, everyone stay alert!" Drake ordered, before taking a step in the direction of the Ants in the distance, disappearing from sight in an instant.

"Always so dramatic…." Chelsea scoffed.

"Really? I thought that was pretty tame for him honestly," Tom countered.

Jacqueline scoffed from behind Tom, "Bloody simp."

"Hey! I don't want to sleep with the guy! I'm just being observant!" Tom yelled in defense.

"Could have fooled me," Jacqueline laughed.

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Drake rushed forward, his aura picking up more signatures of what he assumed were the Ants than he could make out. The sheer number of them almost melding into one large blob.

"That is seriously a lot of monsters," he said excitedly, despite the number of them, "I guess they like being out in the sun? There weren't any out and about when we came here yesterday."

"I am not sure on the behavior of the Ants but that certainly could be the case. I urge caution, there are quite a few of them…." Natto explained.

"A few? There has to be thousands just here on the surface," Drake scoffed, "At least I can blow them up, and hope it starts a chain reaction."

Drake continued to run forward quickly bursting out of the treeline as he saw an ocean of red in front of him. But he heard a sigh in the back of his head.

"Please do not tell me that was your plan…." Natto grumbled.

"Yeah they have explosive sacs for butts, why wouldn't I think I could blow them all up?" Drake replied honestly, touching down in the head of a Tyrant Warrior.

[You have subjugated Tyrant Ant Warrior Level 24] [Experience Earned, 5,000 TP Earned]

[New Quest! Subjugate 3000 Tyrant Ant Warriors [F Rank]

[Reward: Experience, TP. 2 Random Warrior Skill Stones, 20x Strength Pills]

"You imbecile, they are born with Fire Resistance! They have a fire sac, why would you think they would not be resistant to their own method of attack?!" Natto shouted at him.

"I don't know… I guess I thought about it like the snakes? They aren't resistant to their own venom," he explained honestly, looking at his surroundings that had now turned into an endless sea of pincers and red carapaces, "Also… isn't three thousand a bit much? Did the quest adjust itself or something?"

Natto sighed once more, but explained nonetheless, "Yes, it would seem it has adjusted because of the influx of monsters. That should not normally happen… This tutorial is quite the anomaly…" she mused.

"I don't think that makes me as happy as it should," Drake scoffed, clapping his hands together.

"Yes, well, you have more to worry about than that for now. Drake! Please! The Ants!?" Natto screamed, the Ants beginning to convene around Drake.

"Huh? Oh, yeah I got it," Drake mused, casually summoning lances of ice as they began firing rapidly in multiples of ten in every direction, as he walked forward stacking up both experience and kill credit as many other quests began to pop up as he did.

[New Quest! Subjugate 5000 Tyrant Ant Workers [F Rank]

[Reward: Experience, TP]

[New Quest! Subjugate 1000 Tyrant Ant Nursers [F Rank]

[Reward: Experience, TP, 20x Health, Mana, Stamina Potions]

[New Quest! Subjugate 1000 Tyrant Ant Foremans [F Rank]

[Reward: Experience, TP, Random Piece of F Grade Equipment]

[New Quest! Subjugate 2000 Tyrant Ant Foragers [F Rank]

[Reward: Experience, TP, 100x of various Seedlings]

[New Quest! Subjugate 500 Tyrant Ant Reaper [F Rank]

[Reward: Experience, TP, Random F-Grade Weapon]

Drake continued to very slowly whittle away at the Ant's ranks.

After a few minutes, he was left unable to think as more and more flooded forward towards him.

Another half an hour, and he was forced to bring out his staff, in need of the regeneration and buffs.

An hour more, and he was regretting not asking for buffs from Megan and Claire, wanting to save them for a more urgent fight that could possibly happen.

One more hour and Drake had killed thousands but his status was spent, and there was no end in sight, he had begun to lose to himself. Not realizing just how many Ants there truly were, he had not rationed his status appropriately.

"Fucking god damn it!!! There's just no end!"