“Information Overload”

—This one error message gave me a ton of information!

First, the name of the ant. It was an [Infantry Ant] monster, so like a foot soldier ant. Diving deeper into the name, these ants were probably social insect monsters, so if this one was an infantry unit, then it was probably being commanded by a higher unit. And that higher unit was probably the tamer, or at least that's how she was reading it. In all likelihood, it was the queen somewhere in the nest.

The follower system seemed to be structured kind of like a company or a business. There was a boss at the top who received profit from those below—in this case XP—and distributed that profit back down to the entire organization. Everyone cooperated as though they were all part of one whole. This also resembled how social animals like ants and bees functioned.

Maybe the [Subordinate] skill was actually developed specifically for these kinds of social monsters. Just like how ice wolves had skills like [Claw] and [Bite], special skills that were unique to monsters race. Well, maybe players could get them if they had bear arms or something, like their bodies were reconstructed with monster parts, maybe then they could learn these monsters skills too. But for the most part, they were limited to monsters. If that were the case, then even if they had the [Subordinate] skill, if it really was created specifically for monsters, it's possible they wouldn't have the prerequisite [Mental Magic] or [Summon] skills.

"Nah, that conclusion's way too optimistic…"

Maybe they didn't have them, but if they did, they'd be a real pain in the ass. The current Rare could probably resist an enemy's [Mental Magic] since she maxed out her MND, but that wasn't the case for everyone else. Thankfully, both [Control] and [Fear] worked on the soldier ant, so if Rare went alone, that would minimize any collateral damage.

"I'll be going in by myself. [Control] seems to work, and even if I brought more people with me, only the person in front can fight anyway," Rare declared.

"But Boss, if the ants all try to attack you at once, there's no way you can [Control] all of them, right? No matter how you slice it, it's too dangerous. You at least need to bring someone to guard you," Kerry argued.

"You should at least bring me. The cold makes them slow, so that would buy time for Boss to use magic," jumped in Marion.

"I think I should come too; my [Enhanced Hearing] lets me know what the ants're doing," Remy offered.

"The tunnels are dark, so I don't think my eyes will be very useful, but… Well, it's better to have more people to shield you, right?" Riley threw out hopefully.

In the end, all the humans would be going. The ice wolves couldn't possibly fit in the tunnel, so they would all be staying behind, watching the entrance to the nest to make sure the ants couldn't come take over the cave. The wolf pups could probably fit, but there was no point in taking them.

"Ah, before we leave, I should give you guys names," Rare commented.

She had put it off before, but she needed to name the ice wolves. Without names, she couldn't [Summon] any specific wolves. All she could designate was "ice wolf," but she wouldn't know which one would be summoned. Even though Kerry would be acting as her shield, if the tunnels opened into a larger area and the ants tried to crush them with numbers, there would be nothing they could do. If such a situation arose, being able to [Summon] an ice wolf could give them a huge advantage.

"First is you. You'll be [Hakuma]. And since you're a girl, [Ginka]. The kids will be, starting from you, [Mizore], [Arare], [Hyou], [Fubuki], [Kogome], then [Zarame]."

The alpha wolf that Rare first used [Subordinate] on was now Hakuma. The other adult ice wolf was Ginka. "Hakuma" refers to a catastrophic snowstorm. "Ginka" is a name that originated from likening snow to a flower. For the pups, Mizore and Hyou were boys while Arare, Fubuki, Kogome, and Zarame were girls.

After naming the wolves, the group entered the tunnel in the order of Kerry, Rare, Marion, Remy, and finally Riley.

The tunnel was cramped and dark; the five of them had to crawl on their hands and knees, so progress was slow. The ground and walls were smooth for some reason. The best guess she had for the material was limestone. But again, it was hard to imagine these round tunnels forming naturally in a limestone cavern, so something must have made them. If it were any other rock tunnel, then Rare in her starting equipment would have completely torn up her palms and knees, so she should at least express her thanks to whatever that was.

Even though it was smooth, crawling on the hard ground in reality would cause the skin on her knees to become calloused, which she would be afraid to risk since it would ruin her shapely legs. If something like that actually happened, she would surely be punished by her household. There were many things that she could only experience within the worlds of VR.

Without encountering any ants, the cramped tunnels finally opened up into a space where they could just barely stand and walk. While a few dozen ants could fit here comfortably, this also allowed the group to get into formation.

"This is where I caught the lookout ant before. On the way back, other ants probably saw the lookout was gone and came after me."

"I see. I wonder why there isn't a lookout or anything here now, then? After that incident, it should have been clear that there were intruders. Are they holing up in a more defensible location?"

If they had never been attacked from this direction before, perhaps they were overreacting. That was understandable considering the intruders were probably associated with their archnemeses, the ice wolves.

"It's still pretty cramped, but looks like we don't have to crawl anymore. Let's just keep going."

They formed a line in the same order as before and proceeded down the tunnel. Kerry was on guard, wielding her one-handed sword; Remy and Riley also unslung the bows from their backs. Before, Marion might have taken out some kind of weapon as well, but now she just watched her surroundings with empty hands. Maybe she could use some kind of item that helped her with magic. It might be faster to steal one from someone; they certainly didn't have the funds to buy one.

They had to walk as quietly as possible so that Remy's ears could track the ants' locations.

"Ahead of us, I think there's lots of them. Even though there's so many, they're not moving much, so maybe an ambush…?"

Finally, there might be a battle. Rare kept her mind focused, ready to order Marion to let loose a chilling spell or to use [Charm] herself in a wide net. Without leading with the single-target [Stupefy], the success rate would decrease, but if there were a lot of enemies, rather than guaranteeing success one target at a time, she would prefer to try lowering their overall combat strength by using a low-success spell over a wide area.

They came to a slightly more spacious room packed tightly with clamoring ants. There wasn't a central light source, so it vaguely appeared as though the floor was covered in a lumpy, shiny black mass. Rare wasn't particularly bad with insects, but that sight still made her feel an instinctive revulsion. However, if she considered that in some hours they would all be under her command, maybe it would seem rather dependable instead. She should probably refrain from counting her chickens before they hatched, though.

The ants should have noticed that they were there, but they still hadn't moved; perhaps they'd received no orders. Maybe the queen or whoever had a plan in mind, but Rare didn't intend to wait to find out.

"[Charm]."

Nearly all the ants turned at once to face Rare. They were the ones that failed to resist [Charm]. The ones all the back in the back were larger, and only about a third of those successfully resisted. It was way more effective than she predicted it would be.

"Marion, if you would."

"Yes, Boss."

Marion took a step forward. Her [Freeze] filled the room, and since the vast majority of ants just stood there, unmoving, the few who had resisted [Charm] were helpless. [Freeze] wasn't a particularly powerful spell, but if its numerous targets couldn't move, then it was child's play to affect them all. Marion's INT was quite high compared to a new player's. If Rare considered the ants all players who had just started the game as well, even though it wasn't a combat spell, they shouldn't be able to resist Marion's magic. The cave Rare first ended up in was home to a unique boss. Right outside the cave, there was another one. In that case, where were all the weak trash mobs for her early progression? In all likelihood, she believed they were these ants.

Shortly thereafter, frost started to form on all the ants. The only things in this room that could still move were Rare and the catkin girls.

"Drat, I should have turned that boar skin from earlier into a coat."

It had gotten quite cold in these tunnels. Plus they'd have to step on all these frozen ants in order to proceed, too. It wasn't so bad that she couldn't suck it up, but she had to be ready to expend a lot of stamina weathering the low temperatures.

"Well, I didn't originally plan to spend that much time on this little romp, so let's just hurry up and get this over with."

They had left the captured ant with Hakuma and the wolves; when they departed, it didn't seem like it would thaw out any time soon. Maybe Marion's INT was so high that they would remain in suspended animation until the freeze status was lifted. Or maybe the nest's temperature was low from the start, making it take longer for things to thaw. As for the ants in this room, they probably won't be able to move for at least a few hours. This room had become much colder than the wolves' lair as well.

This battle concluded without issue. She might even say it went too smooth. Really, no one even executed a "real" attack at all. According to Remy, there was another room filled to the gills with ants up ahead. So then, before those ants came here as reinforcements, Rare's group should go and repeat what they just did here to wipe them all out. If they acted quickly enough, it was possible the queen wouldn't know about what happened here yet. If they could make it to her before she realized their strategy, that would be perfect.

"All right, let's go. Be careful, but be swift."

After that, they continued through a number of cramped rooms with low ceilings, each time using the same method to take out the ants there. Having seen more of the nest, Rare confirmed the layout of the tunnels and rooms was as she guessed. There were many branches, but she hit on the fact that the rooms serving more important functions were located as far away from the entrance as possible; that being the case, they wanted to keep delving down into the earth whenever they could.

They had incapacitated a considerable number of ants. They had gone without stopping, and while it was completely one-sided between their combat strength and the overwhelming effectiveness of their spells, they had still earned a ton of XP. Each ant was only worth about 4 XP on average, but they had already accumulated 400.

"Nn… Up ahead is different from the rooms before; there isn't a big group of ants, there's only one."

Apparently they had completely wiped out the defense network. Unless they had arrived at the wrong room, like an egg room or food storage, it was the queen's room. Guess she didn't have any royal guards or anything like that.

"All right. Time for the big finale."

**

TL notes:

Hakuma: 白魔 is literally "white demon," but is also a term that refers to heavy snowfall

Ginka: 銀花 for "silver flower," as described in the chapter, it's simply a poetic description of snow

All the wolf pups were named in katakana, but given the theme, I'm confident these are the correct kanji:

Mizore: 霙 for "sleet"

Arare: 霰 for "hailstone"

Hyou: 雹 for "hail"

Fubuki: 吹雪 for "blizzard"

Kogome: from 粉米雪 (kogomeyuki) for "powder snow"

Zarame: from 粗目雪 (zarameyuki) for "granular snow"