Expedition

In the plains of death, the ant folks are a formidable species that strike fear into the hearts of the most adventurous travellers. These red humanoid creatures possess great physical strength and impressive resistance to magic, making them a challenging foe for any adversary, including the acolytes from the tower.

Living in large nests near the Citadel, the ant folks operate as a collective, working in perfect harmony with one another. Their hive-like mentality allows them to communicate telepathically, allowing them to coordinate their movements with pinpoint accuracy, leaving no room for error. Once they are attacked, the whole nest would swarm towards you in order to eliminate the threat.

The ant folks' social intelligence is matched only by their high reproductivity rate, enabling them to quickly replenish their numbers after a defeat. This makes them a persistent threat that is difficult to eradicate completely.

The ant folks' nests are well-fortified, making it difficult for any outsider to penetrate their defenses. Despite their fierce reputation, however, there are some other intelligent beasts who have attempted to form alliances with the ant folks, recognizing the value of having such powerful allies. Goblins, for instance, tried to do so But these alliances are always fragile, as the ant folks remain fiercely independent and protective of their own kind. Once they grow past a certain threshold, the ant folks would betray the alliance and swallow up their allies to grow their numbers. Countless goblin tribes were annihilated that way.

Those who are unlucky enough to find themselves at odds with the ant folks quickly learn that they are not to be taken lightly. The combination of their immense physical strength, impressive resistance to magic, social intelligence, and high reproductivity rate make them a formidable foe that few are willing to face head-on.

According to the rumours, the ant folk queen had already broken through the magus realm. As if there was an implicit ceasefire between Magus Rutherford and the queen, it seemed like neither magus-level powerhouse was involved in the endless war between acolytes from the citadel, and the ant folk soldiers.

It was not hard to understand the thought process behind Magus Rutherford's passivity. The ant folks provided the acolytes with a harsh environment, where they would have to give their all for the sake of survival. As for the ant folks, their high productivity enabled them to learn from the combat with the acolytes, and grow stronger as well. On the long run, both parties would benefit a lot from those skirmishes.

*CLANG*

In one of the outer nests of the eastern plains of death, the [Turtle Crew] was once again hunting the ant folks. Dozens of ant folks were lying on the ground, lifeless. Facing them, a party of four acolytes worked in harmony. Greem had changed his fighting style. He no longer used a great sword, but used a one-handed cross sword harmoniously with a massive shield, allowing him to block the incoming speark-like limbs of the red humanoid creatures.

Although the ant folks could overpower four to five human adults, Greem was capable of achieving the same feat. As a body refinement acolyte, his physical strength, agility and vitality all surpassed that of the average ant folk warrior. Casting the beast sense spell, he could easily block the blows of two to three ant folk warriors at the same time, giving enough margin for his allies to finish them off with powerful attacks.

Blocking the incoming thrust of an ant folk warrior that had grown too impatient, Greem quickly rushed forward and unleashed the hyena heavy cleave knight killing technique.

*SPLASH*

While he lacked strength to cut through an ant folk warrior's body, he could easily injure them by targeting the joints of the exoskeletons. Its nervous system cut off, the ant folk warrior wambled for a while, allowing Greem to finish it off, beheading it in a powerful blow.

The remaining two ant folk warriors rushed towards him, in an attempt to avenge their kind, but the green-haired Elazar moved forward and spat an acidic cloud. Although it was not a fast projectile, she had come close enough for the spell to hit the target. The antfolk underestimated the spell and continued to charge towards Greem regardless of the ominous cloud. By the time it got out of it, the ant folk started to twitch uncontrollably and started to melt over a span of twelve seconds, before crashing onto the ground.

By the time it fell, the third ant folk warrior had long since been burned to ashes from Swale's infamous [Column of Fire], a spell that even a body refinement warrior like Greem would not be able to survive if hit. This spell possessed one of the most incredible offensive power among zero-circle spells, and Swale mastered it, allowing her to cast it under four seconds.

"Great job!", Swale commented as she picked up the carcass of the nearest ant folk. From the lack of reaction in the cave, it seemed like they had fully cleared the nest. Of course, it was nothing but an outer nest, but taking care of it in less than a day was something they could have never thought of achieving a year ago

As always, Elazar crouched forward and started to gather the blood essence of the ant folks. As a bloodline-type acolyte who had inherited the bloodline of an acidic alligator, she could grow her magical power merely by ingesting blood essence. Although the quantity required were huge, she benefitted a lot from the repeated hunts of ant folks, to the point that she was nearing a breakthrough.

Unfortunately, the bloodline path was filled with a lot of hardships, the first one being the lack of bloodline purity. Being the descendant of a long-lasting magus family, she possessed very low bloodline purity, which prevented her from breaking through to the intermediate acolyte realm, in spite of having ingested enormous quantity of ant folk blood essence.

As for Swale and Ourin, they merely picked up the magical cores from the bodies. Although they were common items in the region, there were plenty of individuals, especially from the three great factions, who would gladly purchase them or exchange them for magical resources.

As for Greem, he was not one to let go of benefits either. He gouged the eyeballs of those humanoid beasts, and put them in a pouch. After refining and detoxifying them, he would be able to cook those organs and eat them. Eyeballs were especially nourrishing, as they were full of proteins and vitamins. Over the past year of hunting ant folks, he also realized a hidden benefit of eating them: his reflexes improved dramatically.

Following his plan, Greem proved his worth by replacing Spark in a couple of expeditions. Slowly but surely, he revealed his strength and intellect to Swale and the others, exceeding Spark in all aspects. After a couple of months, Spark had recovered to a certain extent, but Swale did not accept him back, causing rumours to spread in the tower. Spark then challenged Greem to a life and death duel in an attempt to regain his honour and place in the [Turtle Crew], but Greem finished him off publicly, earning himself Spark's belongings.

Thereafter, the party's strength and teamwork soared, as they completed expeditions on a weekly basis. After an entire year of hunting together, Greem no longer was a stranger in this party, but a core member that could not be replaced at all.