CH 76

Chapter 76 The Terror of Sheer Number

After a blissful moment, we proceeded to the lower floors while hunting Green Calfs in order to improve our food in the future

I feel sorry for the cows, but… I can’t compromise after knowing that taste.

If you’re an adventurer, you have to put aside your feelings!

We also hunted other cows indiscriminately, so we have too much meat… but it was like this during orc leveling, so there’s no need to worry about it.

There are three people in our party who have Item Box, so there’s no problem other than the rumor about Mental Break spreading.

Minotaur

Rank: B

Skills: Axemanship 61, Body Strengthening 54, Roar 1

During the hunt, we also encountered a Minotaur.

However, Ian said the meat isn’t delicious, so I lost interest in it and killed it with one blow….

According to Ian, the meat aside… the axe, which is a rare drop, is made of high-quality steel, so the purchase price is reasonably high.

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However, it’s too heavy that you can’t bring it back unless you have an item box or a magic bag, so this monster is treated as a miss.

While enjoying the exercise (hunting), I realized that time had passed, so we decided to rest on the 24th floor tonight and we made preparations for camp.

The meadow area is bright all day long, so we can still explore if we want to, but it’s not good for the two children if they don’t sleep properly at night.

When we were resting while eating Nina’s cooking, which makes us happy just by eating it, we heard strange sounds from afar.

「…… These sounds are still small, but they are gradually getting louder. They’re coming this way…?」

Since we’re on this floor… maybe they are ants…?

「They are most likely ants. For now, let’s prepare for battle, Master.」

「You’re right.」

While feeling irritated because my break time was interrupted, I instructed everyone to clean up and get ready for battle.

The sounds gradually grew louder, and eventually, the horizon was dyed black….

「As expected, it is a swarm of ants. They are not strong individually, but they act in group of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands… so it’s said that they are the most difficult enemies in this meadow area.」

There are too many of them after all….

「There is no way to survive other than escaping to another floor, right?」

「That’s right, Esther.」

Basically, monsters in the labyrinth don’t move between floors, so they won’t attack you if you escape to another floor.

Hmm….

「Can we win this? There are more of them than I expected…. Even if we keep shooting wide-range attack magic, I don’t know if we’ll be able to hold out until we’ve defeated them all…」

Even the monster room has 1000-1500 monsters, so it’s clear that it’ll be a tough battle.

Moreover, their weakness is fire magic….

It’s not a good match for our party, which is good at water magic and wind magic.

Our current location is near the center of the 24th floor, so whether we go to the upper floor or lower floor, it’ll take more than 2 hours.

But with our abilities, we should be able to escape easily, so I think it’s best to avoid fighting.

「Unfortunately, we have no choice but to fight. In front of the ants, I can see the adventurers running this way… (Master and I aside, Nina and Esther can’t abandon them.)」

Ah, he’s right….

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I can see battered adventurers running this way.

Judging from their state, I don’t think they can keep running for more than 2 hours.

I have a promise with Mona-san… and above all, I can’t tell the two children, who’re looking at me with a worried face, to abandon them.

We’ll be saved for sure if we abandon them, but… the two children might suffer later, thinking that maybe we should have saved them….

Welp, I guess we have no choice but to prepare for battle…

「It can’t be helped, let’s fight. If we defeat them one by one, we’ll be overwhelmed by their number and lose for sure, so we’ll be shooting big magic while drinking potions to recover.」

「「「Yes!」」」

「It’s a swarm of ants! Run away!」

The adventurers shouted so when they noticed us.

…… Even if they’re in a dangerous situation, it seems that they have no intention of dumping the monster on us.

They don’t seem like bad guys, so I shout back to them to reassure them.

「We’ll buy you some time! Just keep running to the upper floor!」

「That’s reckless… no, it’s the enchanter’s party…? Are you sure you can do it!?」

「No problem! If it gets dangerous, we can at least run away!」

「…… Thank you!」

The adventurers pass by us.

Now….

「Let’s go. Water Cyclone! Water Cyclone!」

There’s no end to it no matter how much we defeated them….

We’ve been shooting wide-range magic for more than two hours, but the ants show no sign of decreasing.

That said, the magic isn’t wide enough to suppress a swarm of hundreds of thousands, so we’re already surrounded by a large number of ants and we can’t escape anymore.

Ant

Rank: D

Skills: Body Strengthening 13, Bite 15, Cooperation 12

Soldier Ant

Rank: C

Skills: Body Strengthening 31, Bite 20, Coordination 12

General Ant

Rank: B

Skills: Body Strengthening 48, Bite 33, Command 15, Coordination 12

「Nina, rest a little in the middle! The three of us will protect you in the meantime!」

「I’m sorry! I’ll be back soon! Phew…」

So far, no one has been injured, and we’ve been putting up a good fight, but… Nina is already at her limit mentally.

When we were leveling in the monster room, she only fought for less than an hour at most… and since her MP is low, it puts a heavy burden on her body.

「Air Tornado!」

Esther’s MP is low just like Nina, and his skill level is also low, so he can’t use cyclone magic that has a wide attack range and he’s having a hard time.

He’s still doing his best with his guts, but I don’t know how long he can endure it….

I and Ian have a lot of MP, so we have no problems so far.

But if we keep fighting like this, we’ll be the first to run out of strength.

I wonder how to overcome this difficult situation….