Jack did not mind encountering huge swarm like the one before actually, as it provided large numbers of monsters with low HP. He could harvest large number of souls to fill up his Container of Souls in this way. The others were also helping him get the souls as he could get them even if he was not the one killing the monsters. He just needed to stood close enough when they died.
Just from the last two swarms he had collected 72 souls. With the additions of the souls he still had left in the Container, added with the ones he collected from the Monsters during his travel this morning, he had 112 souls in the container. Already 10% from upgrading another basic skill.
He made a mental note to go look for Giant Ants hunting ground outside of this dungeon when he left. If he could find such large swarm of easy-to-kill monsters, he could quickly fill up his Containers of Souls.
As they proceeded, they met another wave of Giant Ants, but as Silverwing had mentioned, it was something that they could dealt with easily. They continued on and met a few more small waves.
When they met another fork, they repeated the previous strategy. They progressed slowly but surely, in this way, they saved up many of their recovery items, allowing them more stock for when they reached the Boss.
After another two more forks, they came into a large cavern hall. The ground disappeared into a deep chasm which they could not see the bottom. The path forward was a rock bridge that connected with the other end. The rock bridge was only around seven meters wide, so not much space to maneuver. They broke into two teams again like the first setup, the Wicked Witches group walked at the front while the White Scarfs group was following from behind.
They were worried that the rock bridge might not be sturdy enough so they walked slowly. The rock bridge was not supported by anything below, it was hanging from one end to the other. But after walking on the bridge for a while, they found it to be pretty solid. They then walked forward with a more relax manner, except for Jack.
However, Jack’s concern was not about the rock bridge sturdiness. His worry came from the red dots in his radar. The radar showed an ample number of red dots along the bridge, but he did not see any monsters. There were no moving creatures on the bridge except for them.
He turned his head to look around, he did not see anything except the vast chasm that seemed to be bottomless. Was the radar broken? He thought.
“Looking for something?” Sinreaper asked when he saw Jack’s strange behavior.
“Nothing,” Jack answered, but he was still feeling unsettled. The radar had always been correct all this time, there was no reason for it to give wrong information at this time. If he could not see the monsters represented by the red dots on this bridge, could it be…
A realization came to him. He slowly lifted his head up. He could see some shadows wiggling on the ceiling of the cavern. Sinreaper and Bluedaze who had been aware of Jack’s strange behavior, followed his gaze to the ceiling. They could also see that there were some things above.
“Above!” Bluedaze warned the others.
It was not known whether it was due to Bluedaze’s shout, or that the monsters had decided to assault at this time. Dark figures started falling down from the ceiling. The things fell right in the middle of their formation. The things scurrying back to their feet, the fall didn’t cause them any harm. The teams could see that the things falling were Giant Ants.
At the same time, there were more Giant Ants came out from the side of the bridge. They had been crawling at the bottom side of the bridge, waiting for a coordinated strike with their brethren that came down from the ceiling.
Although taken by surprise, everyone in the team was an expert. They didn’t panic by the ambush. They immediately started attacking the nearest monsters. But because the Giant Ants appeared from all directions, they could not keep their formation. They were losing HP as they attacked the Giant Ants.
Jack used Swing to cut a large number of Giant Ants, but he could hear Bluedaze and Sinreaper from behind were having trouble as they were not melee class. Honeycomb and Silverwing tried their best to protect them but they were also having trouble themselves fending assaults from all directions.
Another Giant Ant came falling near Jack. In this condition, he decided he should get serious a bit. He used Power Strike on the falling Giant Ant, it hit the creature and threw it far away, over the bridge and into the pit below. Seeing it, Jack thought of an idea.
He looked around and saw a Giant Ant that was climbing up from the edge. He dashed to the creature. He sent a cut on its legs before he shoved a strong kick towards its body. The kick didn’t cause any damage, but it pushed the Giant Ant away from the bridge. Without anything to hold onto, its body starting to plummet into the abyss below.
“You don’t need to kill them, just push them into the pit!” Jack yelled at the others.
Everyone immediately realized that it was a viable solution for the situation. They then proceeded to attack and pushed the Giant Ants to the edge before sending them plummeting down.
They continued to push forwards by pushing the monsters aside and sending them off the bridge. The Magicians and Rangers used their attacks to stun or stop the Giant Ant’s movement while the Fighters used their strength to push the Giant Ants off the bridge.
But the Giant Ants kept falling from above and crawled up from the side. There did not seem to be an end to them no matter how many they pushed down the pit.
“Keep advancing!” Silverwing told them. There were too many Giant Ants to deal with, they could only try to get to the other side first.
More of the Giant Ants stacked in their front and blocking their way, which slowed down the advance of Wicked Witches team. White Scarfs team which had been staying a distance behind them had now arrived by their side.
Silverwing immediately gave the order for them to combine formation, “two fighters at the front and two at the back! Strength based fighters to the front to force our path forwards. The other two with more dexterity behind to prevent the monsters from approaching. Rangers and Magicians at the middle to support Fighters in the front!”
Warpath was already at the front, his ego did not allow him to move to the back.
“I have invested much dexterity to my stats, I will guard the rear,” Jeanny said as he brandished her spear and stab at the monsters coming from behind.
“I have put much of my free points to my strength stat,” Honeycomb said as she looked at Jack.
“Go,” Jack told her. He was sure that both his strength and dexterity were higher than hers, but he preferred to stay behind rather than fighting beside Warpath. Honeycomb ran to the front, using his shield to slam and pushed at the Giant Ants while kept on slashing at them.
They continued pushing forward little by little, while innumerous Giant Ants had been pushed down to their demise. There were just around ten meters left till they reached the other side. As they focused on pushing the Giant Ant, they did not realize a large shadow appearing on the rock outcrop above the entrance to the other side of the bridge.
When the team got closer to the entrance, Honeycomb finally saw the thing lurking above.
“What is that?!” She exclaimed in horror.
The shadow didn’t linger anymore once it knew it had been found out. It jumped forward into the middle of the group formation. The players immediately scurried forward to avoid the thing from landing on them. Jack and Jeanny was too far back, so they wouldn’t be able to follow, they moved back instead.
The female ranger from Wicked Witches unfortunately failed to follow the group pushing forward. She was late and the large monster landed on her. The multiple appendages stabbed at her and used its weight to pin her down to the floor. She screamed from the pain. The large monster was a giant insect with black carapace. It had two layers of large and thick carapace that extended from the middle of its back. The carapace looked to be very tough.
