Reminiscing About Passive Gains

The ladies went ahead of him, killing Ants left and right and of course, Vincel wasted no time joining them.

He wielded his Dagger as Zay'in had instructed: like an extension of his fist. Like an instrument just to make his punches sharper.

Eventually, with everyone in the group doing their part, they were able to clear their path of every single Ant that had emerged from the walls.

Now they were just standing in the midst of large Ant carcasses with different kill marks and shapes.

Kills made by Delphyne had slice marks. Usually clean off.

Kills made Alessia were butchered. Cleaved into gruesome halves. It was a miracle she did not destroy any of the cores of her kills.

Kills made by Yvette had dart incisions that, on occasion, got pulled out when she pulled back her dart from her victims.

Kills made by Hal had dagger stabs either to their heads or their underbellies.

The distinct looks of the kills made it easy to allocate spoils. But before they could get to the topic of spoil retrieval, Vincel became very aware that he was being stared at.

'It's expected. I've basically been outed as 'Not a Mage'' Vincel thought with a sigh.

Delphyne spoke first.

"So, Miss Zay'in lied to us then."

Vincel sighed. This time more audibly.

"Well, not exactly. I mean, I do know some spells"

"How many?" Alessia asked.

Vincel closed his eyes.

"Two" he answered.

"Valid," Alessia told him.

Vincel opened his eyes in surprise.

"It is?"

Alessia shrugged with the almost imperceptible tremble of her breasts.

"Yeah." she said.

Yvette weighed in.

"Spells are not easy to come by. Knowing two, one for Attack and one for defense is quite on brand with an E-rank Mage, to be honest."

Vincel's brows furrowed.

"E-rank mage?" he mumbled.

Yvette didn't seem to have heard him as she continued.

"I'm more interested in the element of your spells. It's nothing like any element I've ever felt and I've felt my fair share of strange ones.

I once met a Sound Mage."

Delphyne took a deep breath, which considering the smell of Ant carcass and goo all around them, was probably not a good idea.

"You know a couple of spells and you look like you can cast them well, but you didn't move like a proper Mage and you didn't think like one.

You can't even provide the ranged support we need"

"So- what, You want to send me back?" Vincel asked her.

Delphyne looked at him like he was crazy.

"What? Why would we do that? Proper Mage or not, we appreciate the extra help."

"Okay then," Vincel said with a smile.

He turned away from the ladies and his mind went to the System.

'Status Screen'

<User Status Screen Updated>

[Name: Vincel Grey]

[Race: Human]

[Job: Arcane Initiate Lv.2 {144/200 Arcane Shards}]

[Specialization: None]

[Title: None]

[HP: 74/75]

[Arcane Mana Reserves: 60/125]

[Strength: 7]

[Stamina: 5]

[Agility: 7]

[Resistance: 5]

[Job Skills: Arcane Augmentation Lv.1]

[Spells: 2 {Indicate for more information}]

[Stat points: 0]

...

'So according to the System, I killed forty-three ants. I lost count at 19 so I'll take its word for it.'

Vincel looked around at the massive number of ants that had been killed. Especially by the trio of ladies with him and he let out a breath.

'Damn, if only I was still getting passive Arcane shards. I bet I'd have leveled up by now. Maybe even leveled up twice.

That said, if I keep up this pace, I should be able to level up soon.'

Vincel didn't feel tired. At least not by much. The small injury to his side wasn't even a bother.

The bodies of the Ants were a treasure trove.

Not only did every single one of them have cores that could be sold, but their metal pincers could also prove an important crafting material. E-Grade but still profitable.

Even the goo they oozed could be useful as potion ingredients. According to Yvette at least.

The group worked fast.

Vincel got Forty-three Cores and the same number of pincer pairs which he put inside his Satchel.

The Satchel Inventory appeared and Vincel saw that everything he had stored only took up two squares.

And they were labeled as;

[E-Rank Burrowing Ant Beast Cores. x43]

[E-Grade Burrowing Ant Pincers. x86]

'Burrowing Ants huh? A fitting name, I suppose.'

The ladies all had pouches. Small things that they were able to stash inside their clothes. Even Alessia was able to keep hers inside her skirt waistline without it being visible at all.

Of course, all the pouches had more space than they let on and the trio was able to store all their gains and keep it away with no one being the wiser.

Yvette was keeping hers away through the cleavage of her gown when her eyebrows began to twitch.

"They are coming!" she said.

"More Ants?" Delphyne asked as she unsheathed her sword.

Yvette nodded.

"There's something coming with them too. Something huge"

Vincel had been about to take out the healing Elixir Zay'in had given him to use to heal the injury to his side but that instantly became a secondary issue as the familiar *clack* sounds became increasingly close.

"Oh yes! Let them come!" Alessia announced and twirled her axe threateningly which caused her breasts to jiggle but somehow, they jiggled threateningly and did not detract from her aura of aggression.

The moment the first Ant got into the light of the lamp on the wall, Alessia dashed forward and cleaved it into two while Delphyne dashed forward and began slicing.

Yvette stayed right where she was and began twirling her Rope-dart but as she did, her eyebrows remained furrowed and Vincel knew it was because of the 'something huge' she had mentioned earlier.

Vincel still had his dagger in his hand. It was what he had used to rip our beast cores from his kills.

He gripped it tight with the blade pointing towards his elbow and got ready to get to fighting when the entire path began to shake.

The shake became increasingly more violent to the point where chunks of earth started to break off from above and began to fall in chunky earthy rain.

And then, they saw it or more accurately, they saw its head.

It was just like those of the many ants all still scurrying about but was more than five times larger.

The two large, black, and soulless eyes appeared to have other smaller eyes within which gave the creature a scary image.

Unlike the smaller (in comparison) ants, this new arrival had three pairs of pincers instead of one and when they came close together, they looked like the claw digger of an excavator.

Its hairy-looking legs (at least the two that were visible so far) appeared large, almost muscular while also tipped with single-digit claws that appeared ready to tear into its victims.

Yvette paused her Rope-dart twirling and gulped as she whispered.

"The Ant Queen"

*Bang!*

The sound came from behind the Ant Queen and five seconds after, the population of the smaller ants increased.

They were now even coming out from up above and landing with pincers clacking and ready to stab.

"Nggh"

With a groan, Vincel leaped back which was fortunate as an Ant landed right where he was a second ago. He stabbed it but was instantly faced with the sheer amount he would have to kill.

[One Arcane Shard recovered]

And so he got to work...

So did the ladies.

Now that the creature she had sensed had shown its monstrous self, Yvette adopted a battle-ready look, and with wide swings of her dart, she was cutting multiple Ants down. Or at least cutting off their pincers to render them harmless and ready to be squashed.