Austronesia Empire, Imperial Majahapit, Jayapura Papua, Jayapura Mining Facility, Dungeon Level 1

1st Year of God, Monday, 2nd Week, Month Of Abraham.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The muffled pops of suppressed gunfire echoed down the corridor, catching Specialist Sergeant Eurylochus's attention as he glanced up and narrowed his eyes.

"Sergeant Pice, what's the situation?" he radioed into his communicator.

"[Fucking bugs! We've got some giant ants here,]" Pice's voice crackled over the radio.

"Need support? Over," Eurylochus asked, as he held his weapon ready, watching the doorway, where the distant sounds of gunfire were drifting out.

[Negative,] Pice replied over the radio, [It's over. Come on in, it's cleared.]

Eurylochus stood up from his crouching position and waved from everyone to follow, "Let's move in and see what we're dealing with," he ordered.

As they entered the room, Penelope coughed, her breath catching in the thick haze of gunsmoke that lingered in the air. With both teams gathered together, Odysseus raised a hand and cast a simple spell, sending a breeze through the room that quickly dispersed the smoke.

Over twenty plus corpses of ants, each the size of a large dog, lay scattered across the floor with their bodies twisted in death. The remaining honey slimes appeared to have been frightened off and had disappeared somewhere. The ground was wet with the leaking hemolymph of the dead ants as Penelope went up beside one of the bodies to snap a photo with her camera.

Odysseus bent over a dead ant and examined it closely, "The mana stones are usually found near the forehead or the thyroid," He explained, deftly using a dagger to saw through the tough exoskeleton of the ant's head, before digging into it and pulling a slimy yellowish mana stone out.

"Here," he said, tossing the finger-sized stone over to Pice, who rubbed the slime off the stone before examining it in the light of the moss.

"Nice," Pice remarked, turning to the others. "Well, what are you waiting for? Start harvesting the stones!" He then turned back to Odysseus. "What else is usable that we can salvage from these creatures?"

Odysseus nodded thoughtfully. "Well, the silk from their rear abdomens can be harvested to make cloth. The carapace, when treated, works better than leather and steel armor. Some artisans even use the ants' eyes for jewelry, and their eye cases can be turned into clear bowls. The mandibles make excellent saw blades."

"Damn, that's a lot of uses," Pice replied, watching as the team methodically cut into the ants to retrieve the mana stones. "Are they edible?"

"Oh yes," Odysseus nodded, "Though I've never tried it myself. I've heard they're quite tasty."

"Alright, listen up!" Pice called out to the team. "Stop butchering the bodies, the way you guys try to harvest the stones is making my eyes bleed. Sir Odysseus, can you have your golems transport the ants out to the main entrance? Let the experts handle the harvesting while we focus on exploring."

Odysseus nodded and began directing his golems to gather the ant bodies.

"And don't forget the bundles of honey slime silk," Pice added. "No point in wasting it."

The golems, each with a large wicker basket strapped to its back, carefully loaded the ant corpses. Once the baskets were full, the golems lumbered off towards the dungeon's exit with their burden secured.

While the others were occupied, Penelope took the opportunity to explore the room, her eyes scanning the walls for more carvings and drawings. She meticulously recorded each detail and did a quick measure and found the room to be roughly 20 by 32 meters.

"So, which tunnel do we take first?" Eurylochus asked, turning to Pice as the two leaders prepared to move out with their respective teams.

Pice pointed to the second tunnel from the right. "The ants came from there. It's probably the way to their hive." He approached the tunnel entrance, pulled out a piece of chalk, and drew a large ant-like symbol beside the opening, marking it with an arrow.

"Let's split up here," Pice suggested. "My team will take the rightmost tunnel, and your team will take the leftmost. Sir Odysseus, I'd like your golems to hold this room when they return, is that alright?" He glanced at Odysseus, who nodded in agreement. Pice then turned back to Eurylochus. "Once the golems return, take your team and explore the leftmost tunnel. Understood?"

Eurylochus nodded. "Affirmative."

As they finished discussing, Pice began marking the stone floor with his piece of chalk, indicating the direction each team would take, as well as the time of entry.

"Alright, Team 1, let's move out!"

Pice's team entered the rightmost tunnel, their lamps illuminating the twisting path ahead, while Team 2, under Eurylochus, stayed behind, waiting for the golems to return.

As Pice's team ventured deeper into the tunnel, they encountered more ants and honey slimes. After battling their way through, they reached a fork in the tunnel and chose the right path, marking their progress with arrows on the walls. Eventually, they stumbled upon a vast cavern filled with sand.

"Look, is that a chest?" one of the soldiers asked, his light catching a distant object. "Holy shit! I never expected to find treasure here!" He began to move toward the chest.

"Halt!" Pice barked, stopping the soldier's advance. "There could be a trap." He kneeled down and grabbed a handful of fine sand, letting it sift through his gloved fingers. "It's too quiet here."

Alerted by Pice's words, the team scanned the cavern cautiously, checking every nook and cranny as they slowly advanced toward the chest at the end of the seemingly empty cave.

"You two, check it out. The rest, hold position," Pice ordered.

Two soldiers nodded and cautiously approached the chest from either side, they made their steps as light as possible. One soldier signaled to the other, then used his rifle barrel to carefully flip open the square wooden chest. Both of them leaped back, on the guard and ready for any potential trap, but nothing happened.

One soldier exhaled in relief and straightened up, when suddenly, the ground under him exploded upwards, sending him flying head over heels several meters away.

Spitting sand from his mouth, the soldier who had been launched into the air scrambled for his weapon just as a massive, reddish shape began to emerge from the sand.

As the sand dust slowly washed off, revealing the dark red carapace of a giant centipede, Odysseus's eyes widened in alarm.



"Those are Poison-toothed Giant Desert Centipedes! Watch out for its poisonous fluids! A single contact could instantly kill a human!"

The colossal red centipede, towering over 10 meters, snapped its jaws, seemingly savoring the thought of the meal it will be having. Its three pairs of eyes eyed hungrily on the soldier who lay sprawled just meters away, and it scuttled forward on its many legs with its long tongue swirling around with eager happiness.

"Oh fuck!" the soldier cried out, rolling desperately across the sand to avoid the snapping jaws of the beast. "FUCK THIS!"

"TAKE IT OUT!" Pice yelled, firing at the centipede's side. The creature flinched in pain, but the 6.5mm rounds barely penetrated its thick carapace. "Fuck!"

The rest of the team opened fire almost at the same time, their bullets peppering the centipede and driving it back from the bruising pain of the bullet impacts. Though its carapace bore fresh cracks, the heavily armored centipede seemed largely unscathed, and furious that its prey had escaped. The stinging pokes from the other prey creatures only enraged it further.

With a sudden, terrifying leap, the centipede landed right next to the soldier, who had managed to scramble away, but was sent another few meters along with the sands by the strong force of the impact.

"FUUUUCK!"

The second soldier, who had been flanking him, dropped his rifle and, in one smooth motion, pulled an automatic shotgun from his back. He fired a barrage of explosive rounds that struck the centipede's rear just as it attempted to crush his partner with its jaws.

The force of the blasts sent the centipede tumbling against the cavern walls, and the deafening explosion left the soldier in shock, sending him rolling away holding his head.

"Are you trying to kill me or that thing?" the first soldier shouted, shaken.

"That must be a Champion monster!" Odysseus warned as three magic circles formed in front of his palm. "It's not dead yet!" He cast a lightning bolt directly into the dusty cloud, the sharp crack of lightning echoing painfully down the tunnels.

Suddenly, a massive wave of sand surged from the ground toward the soldier on the floor.

"Get out of the way!" another soldier shouted from a distance, and the soldier on the ground made a desperate dive just as the giant centipede burst out of the sand, spraying grit across the cavern.

"Goddamnit!" The soldier coughed out more sand, quickly rolling into a crouch and opening fire his rifle on the giant centipede. "EAT LEAD!"

The second soldier, realizing his explosive shotgun rounds were not doing much effect on the monster, swiftly pumped the remaining shells out of his shotgun and reloaded with 12-gauge solid slugs. He raised the weapon and fired, sending a 35-gram impact discarding sabot slug hurtling at 400 meters per second straight into the centipede's side thorax.

The force and impact of the sabot slug punched through the centipede's tough carapace with a deafening crack, sending pieces of shattered exoskeleton shell and lead flying away, along with a spray of light-colored ichor. The giant centipede hissed in pain and rage, spinning around in its many legs as it searched for the source of its pain.

Its many eyes locked onto the soldier with the shotgun. Ignoring the searing pain and scorching heat from the lightning bolts striking its body, the centipede charged and ready to devour its prey that had dared to hurt it.

"Aim for all of its leg joints!" Pice shouted, and the surrounding soldiers concentrated their fire on the moving legs. In the next few seconds, hundreds of bullets managed to shatter the majority of its joints, causing the centipede to stumble and crash down to the ground as it got unbalanced.

The soldier with the automatic shotgun seized the opportunity anr aimed his weapon directly at the gaping mouth of the centipede before firing. The sabot slug tore through the creature's mouth, drilling out through the back of its main braincase and killing it instantly. The centipede collapsed just meters away, its surviving legs twitching involuntarily in its death throes.

"Fucking fantastic, people!" Pice praised as he reloaded his rifle. "Damn, this is one for the books!" He eyed the still-twitching centipede.

"It must have been some kind of guardian for that chest," Odysseus mused. "Most likely, there were more than one desert centipede here, but this one defeated the rest, allowing it to grow to this size and become the champion."

"How large do they normally get?" one soldier asked among the crowd as he shaked the sand from his uniform and gear. "I heard they usually appear on the beaches along the eastern nations."

"Normally, they only grow to about four or five meters, never as big as this before," Odysseus replied, poking the centipede with a random stick he found on the floor, making sure it was truly dead. "Look at that!"

The group gathered around, looking at what Odysseus pointed out. "Wow! That's one huge mana stone!" a soldier gasped as he shined his flashlight on the head-sized yellow-green stone embedded under the centipede's chin.

"Damn, we're gonna need the golems to carry this thing out," Pice huffed. "Oh, what's in the chest?"

Their attention turned to the chest at the end of the cavern, where they found a cluster of crystal-like bottles filled with thick reddish and dark blue liquids. A couple of age-stained scrolls tied with blue ribbons lay beside them.

"All that shit for just some drinks and papers?" Pice sighed, disappointment on his face. He had been hoping for some magical artifact, or a divine sword or something.

"Ohhh, those are healing and restoration potions!" Odysseus exclaimed as he picked up one each of the colored potions and examined them closely. "This red potion can bring someone back from the brink of death, and the blue one restores magical energy." He stated, gently unrolled the scrolls and studied them under the soldiers' lamps, "These appear to be spell scrolls, I need to study them more but these are at least Level 5 spells."

"Wow!" one soldier grinned. "That didn't turn out so bad after all." Even Pice nodded in agreement, after hearing what the potions could do.

"Alright, check your gear," Pice ordered. "I'm going to see if I can reach Team 2 over the comms."

After a short while, Pice cursed under his breath. "Damn these tunnels. Can't get a signal through. Alright, we're heading back to grab the golems and bring this trophy out."

Both teams regrouped in the dungeon's first room, taking a quick break for a cold meal and some field maintenance on their weapons. Over three hours had passed since they'd entered, and they had successfully mapped and explored almost the entire level.

Master Sergeant Pice finished his report to base, then hopped up on a rock outcrop and clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention.

"Alright, we're almost done with this level. Just a little more to go." He pointed to the tunnel marked with an ant drawing. Each tunnel entrance now had images of the creatures they'd encountered, from stick figures of giant centipedes to slimes and ants. "That tunnel most likely leads down to the next level."

Apparently, the first level of the dungeon consisted mostly of Honey Slimes, Spider Ants, and Desert Centipedes. The two golems were busy wandering in and out of the tunnels as Number One transported the carcasses of ants and centipedes out of the tunnels, and Number Two ferried them out to the exit.

All the tunnels so far had led to either a cavern or a room, with some passages looping back or ending in dead ends. Of the four tunnels they explored, each contained a room or cavern. Unfortunately for Team One, only they encountered a Champion monster, while the rest dealt with groups of lesser mobs or harmless slimes. But other than the chest found by Team One, no other chests were found in other rooms, leading them to speculate that only rooms with chests were guarded by powerful monsters.

"Everyone ready?" Pice asked as the team members cleaned up their trash. "Alright, let's move out. Team One will be the vanguard, Sir Odysseus and Penelope in the middle, and Team Two will cover the rear."

Once everyone was in formation, Pice nodded and set off, leading the party down as the forward scout. Penelope waved her sensor wave, sending out sonar beeps every ten seconds, and the mapping program in her tablet automatically updated with a 3D rendering of the dungeon. Their lights cut through the darkness and illuminated the tunnels ahead just as a swarm of angry chirping ants charged out into the hail of thunderous gunfire.

"Watch your head!" Pice shouted from the rear as Squads One and Two engaged the ants. "They're crawling from the ceilings!"

"Argh, eat lead!" a soldier yelled, firing his rifle up to the ceiling, sending rock chips and ant parts rained down before his weapon clicked empty. "I'm out!"

"Switch!" Pice commanded. A second soldier from Team Two quickly stepped into the first soldier's position while the latter retreated to reload. The new soldier calmly aimed his rifle and fired single precise shots, each finding its mark on different targets.

The ants seemingly knew that these intruders were coming and had gathered in force, throwing themselves into the fray and gave their lives for more of their brethren to close in on the intruders. But their efforts were in vain, as hundreds of more rounds shredded through the suicidal ants' ranks.

Odysseus helped by casting spells and magical attacks over the heads of the crouching shooters by turning the terrain beneath the ants into soft mud, slowing them down greatly before unleashing bolts of chain lightning, which leaped from one ant to another, vaporizing them on contact.

Just now, the heavy thumps of footfall echoed behind the party, and Number One golem appeared. Odysseus quickly ordered it to attack the ants, and Pice ordered the men to clear the path for the golem to advance.

The runes on Number One glowed in response to Odysseus' command. Inside the core of the golem, a magical artificial lifeform, powered by Dragonite similar to the human's Artificial Intelligence, followed the many instructions drawn within its body, connected by the magical connections engraved in its body. Move forward, protect the people, and kill the enemy, etched into its magical matrix.

Magical muscles of rock and stone, twisted and stretched as Number One strolled forward, passing by the soldiers on its side. It raised its left arm equipped with autocannons, and its right arm pumped the firing handle up and down, sending heavy bolts down the tunnel. Each bolt pierced through the ants before exploding them into pieces by the rocket-propelled rounds.

The ants were too tightly clustered together in the tunnel that the small explosion from the explosive-round killed a few more ants with each bolt.

When its autocannon ran out of bolts, the golem swung its arms mighty, wallowing directly into the mass of ants, crushing and breaking the ants with each swing of its arms. The ants tried to bite and bind the golem with their spider silk, only to succeed in chipping some of its rock armor and the silk could not bind it tightly enough, allowing Number One to break free easily.

The soldiers supported Number One melee's attacks by firing at the sides of the golem to prevent the ants from surrounding it. Finally, the pressure dropped and the remaining ants retreated, leaving behind a field of a hundred dead, twitching ants.

"Check your ammo!" Pice ordered as everyone took a breather from the fight which lasted only twenty minutes but felt like hours. "Is anyone low on supplies or injured? Any casualties?"

"No sir, just a few minor injuries," a soldier reported.

"Good work, Number One!" Odysseus praised, patting the golem's arm, which Number One appeared to respond by giving a slight nod.

"We need to arm it with some melee weapons or a minigun," Eurylochus suggested from the side with excitement in his voice. "A sword, or better yet, a chainsaw, or both will be awesome! Hell, a bloody flamethrower too! It'd be unstoppable in these tight tunnels."

Number One seemed to glance at Eurylochus before turning back to Odysseus, who instructed it to gather the ant carcasses. The golem obediently began piling the shattered remains into its basket it was carrying.

"All set?" Pice asked after everyone refilled their emptied magazines and ensured they had sufficient ammunition. "Let's move out. The Dungeon Boss should be up just ahead."

The passageway gradually widened as the team followed the echoing sounds made by the frantic ants as they neared their hive. What began as a tunnel wide enough for four men abreast expanded to twice that width, leading them into a massive chamber dimly lit by patches of glowing moss.

Shadows of ants scurrying frantically around the opening could be seen cast by the light beams from the exploration teams. The air filled with angry hisses and chittering as the ants formed a solid wall, blocking the squad's advance into the room.

"Hit them with explosive rounds!" Pice commanded, and almost a dozen soldiers at the front immediately switched to shotguns, each firing an explosive round directly into the dense cluster of ants. The resulting force of the explosions and shrapnel tearing through the swarm, sending bits of ants parts flying all over the area

"Clear!"

"Go, go, go!" Pice ordered next, and the squad stormed into the opening in a double-file formation, spreading out to cover all angles as they cleared the opening. Penelope and Odysseus held back and waited for them to give the all-clear before cautiously entering the chamber.

But at that moment...

"SHRIEEEEEEK!!"

Penelope froze, her instincts screaming as she slowly looked up.

"W-What the...??"

Towering above everyone was the Queen Spider Ant, a monstrous thirty-meter tall creature perched on a mound of soil and rock like a grotesque throne. Its bloated body loomed over the chamber, with a massive ovipositor dangling ominously from its abdomen, supported by strands of silk anchored to the ceiling. The walls and floor were covered with hundreds of clusters of milky white eggs, while dozens of wriggling maggot-like creatures could be seen squirming all over the room.



"Okay, I should have protested more on coming here."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwkPrkAKzaA

Not long after the music began, a blade of wind suddenly smashed against a five meter large stone wall raised by Odysseus where most of the exploration team had taken cover behind, sending rock fragments and dust raining down on the pinned elf and humans as Pice leaned out and popped a few shots at the ants that attempt to flank them before dodged back to cover as another wind blade smashed into the barrier again.

The rest of the team had scattered when the Spider Ant Queen unleashed a barrage of wind blades with terrifying speed. One soldier was caught in the attack as his body was bisected by the invisible force and crumpled to the ground in a gruesome heap.

"Fuck! We have a man down!!" another soldier shouted, desperately firing at the ant queen's face, but his rounds had little effect.

With a shriek, the Spider Ant Queen sent out a flurry of wind blades at an even greater speed, slicing another soldier into pieces and splattering his blood and body parts across the ground.

The Queen then looked ahead and saw three soldiers preparing to fire rockets at her. As they launched their RPGs, she quickly erected a wind barrier, causing the rockets to explode harmlessly against it.

In retaliation, she unleashed two more wind blades at the soldiers, effortlessly slicing them apart in the next instant.

"Odysseus!" Pice yelled over the chaos, "Any ideas on how to take it down?"

"I'm not sure! She appears to have a wind barrier up!" Odysseus shouted back. "She's likely a wind element creature! We need fire-based attacks!"

The Queen remained on her throne of dirt, sweeping her scythe-like arms and throwing more deadly wind blades at the intruders. Odysseus managed to conjure another stone wall, providing cover from the deadly blades of wind, while one soldier dragged a comrade who had lost an arm by the wind blade barrage back behind the barrier, where the team's medic quickly began tending to his injuries.

Suddenly, a wind blade sliced through the thick anti-spalling cover, penetrating the graphene armor plating and inner trauma plates of the medic. The blade cut deep into his upper chest and shoulder, the shockwave shattering his collarbone and ripping open the surgical-like cut.

Blood gushed out as the medic screamed in pain. Fortunately, Penelope came to his aid and quickly ripped off his armored vest.

"Hold him still! [Minor Heal]!" Odysseus cast a healing spell, placing his hands over the gaping wound. The wound closed slightly, but the degree of damage was too much, and blood continued to flow freely. Penelope slapped a couple of bandages over the wounds while the spell started to work on the wound, repairing as much damaged tissue as possible.

"He's going into shock!" Penelope shouted as she dug out a tranq shot from her own medical supplies from her own first aid kit and jabbed the shot into the meaty portion of the soldier's thigh while Odysseus cast another healing spell to stabilize him. Penelope next grabbed the soldier's medical bag, pulled out an automated external defibrillator device and placed the electrode pads on to his chest, startlingly white looking, against the amount of blood staining his body. "Come on!"

"Eurylochus, take your team and suppress the Queen from the left on my command!" Pice yelled over the sound of gunfire and monster cries. "The rest of you guys, handle the minions! NOW!"

Eurylochus' team, sheltering behind a rock formation, swung out from cover and unleashed a barrage of gunfire at the Spider Ant Queen, causing her to shriek in irritation as hundreds of 6.5mm rounds hammered her exoskeleton,

"Fire in the hole!!"

The shout rang out from the distance as Eurylochus, wielding a rocket launcher, fired an anti-tank rocket directly at the Queen. The projectile struck her soft ovipositor, puncturing it before exploding, and jets of slimy fluid burst out as the Queen let out a deafening, high-pitched scream.



"SHRIIIIIEEEEEEEK!!"

The Queen's scream was so piercing that it momentarily stunned the explorers.

"What the fuck!?!?" Pice yelled, covering his ears and wincing in pain. Fortunately, everyone was wearing earplugs for protection against gunfire and the high pitch scream did not badly damage their ears. "Now what?"

The Queen jerked itself violently and shook her rear end, ripping the gutted ovipositor off and started to climb down her throne.

The next moment, hundreds of her soldier ants emerged from the gaps in the walls and ceiling, swarming around her alongside the few remaining heavily depleted worker ants and the horde charged toward the humans.

"Enemy incomi-"

Before the warning could be completed, an ant leaped onto the first soldier it reached, impaling him with its mandibles and ripping his body in half. The rest of the squad opened fire, unleashing a torrent of bullets upon the advancing swarm.

The Spider Ant Queen retaliated, launching a flurry of wind blades. One soldier was dismembered on the spot, while four others fell within seconds as their bodies were torn apart by the deadly blades.

"RAAAAARRRRRRRR!!"

"Hit them with explosive shots!" Eurylochus roared as he recovered from the Queen's sonic attack. He raised his rifle and fired at the Queen, but the bullets only left minor marks on her armored thorax. Explosions erupted among the ant ranks, and yet the swarm continued to rush forward, killing more men of the team.

"[Chain Lightning!]" Odysseus shouted and cast a spell. A bolt of lightning streaked out from the opening of the cavern, jumping from one ant to another, roasting them where they stood. "I'm not strong with fire-based spells!"

A charge of lightning leaped onto the Queen, but she dismissively deflected it with a sweep of her forelimbs, shattering the lighting charge into a shower of sparks.

With a menacing sweep of her forelimbs, the Queen sent two wind blades directly at Odysseus, who barely managed to leap aside as the blades collided with the rock, exploding in a cloud of dust and fragments. The force of the impact shattered the sides of the opening, leaving deep gouges in the walls where the blades had struck.

"Odysseus!" Pice roared, "Goddammit, as usual, there is always some fuck up in Intel!" He dropped his rifle on its sling and pulled out a metal box from his back, ducking out from behind the badly degraded stone wall. Leaning forward into the recoil, he fired a larger rocket launcher at the Queen.

The armor-piercing tungsten steel core rocket punched through the wind barrier around the Queen, its wind magic slowing the power of the projectile by half, but not stopping it.

Soon enough, the rocket slammed into the Queen's chest, dumping all its remaining kinetic energy into the armored tip driving deep into her exoskeleton before exploding. The blast rattled her internal organs, sending the Queen into violent spasms and vomiting out bile from her massive jaws.

"Damn, I should have shot that bitch up with my anti-tank launcher more," Eurylochus grumbled as he pulled himself up, switching over to the metal box as well, pulling out a larger rocket launcher and joining Pice in taking down the Queen.

The Queen stumbled backward as the hard hitting High-Explosive Anti-Tank rounds shattered both its forelimbs which she used to block the barrage of bullets, and spasmed as two more HEAT rounds blast blew her segmented neck apart, tearing her head off and a small pulsing fountain of ichor spurted from the Queen's severed neck. Her remaining legs kicked and spasmed as her heart continued to pump hemolymph, still not knowing that the brain was already dead.

A cheer erupted from the team as the Queen stopped her movements, laying on her side with her massive body collapsed and curled up like a ball beside the mound of rock and dirt.

"Fuck yeah! Humanity wins again!" one soldier shouted, driving the flagpole of the Austronesian Empire through a dead ant.

"We hadn't lost a single man before this floor, and now we're suffering 21 casualties," Pice said, surveying the bodies of their fallen comrades, most of them bisected by the Queen's wind blades. "Over 100 troops, and we've lost more than one-fifth of our men. It's a damn shame."

"Uh, Captain, are those supposed to be moving?" a soldier asked, pointing his weapon at the moving eggs. "Are they hatching?"

"Shit," Eurylochus cursed as the egg casings began to crack, and a slimy whitish ant crawledout. "Arghhh!" He swung his machete, slicing and hacking the newly hatched ant in half. "Damn, it is not over yet guys and gals!"

"Incoming!" another soldier yelled as more eggs began to hatch. "Destroy the eggs! Don't let them hatch!"

Penelope and Odysseus, having stabilized the wounded soldier, joined the fray. Odysseus scooped up a handful of rock fragments from the floor and whispered a spell.

"[Rock Spike!]"

He hurled the stones through a magic circle, transforming them into dagger-sharp spikes that shattered clusters of eggs, killing the ants before they could hatch.

Meanwhile, Penelope, her hands sticky with blood, picked up the injured soldier's dropped rifle and fired at the monsters with impressive precision.

Dozens of soldiers switched their guns and fired their shotguns loaded with explosive rounds, shredding huge clusters of eggs and hatchlings.

"Come on! Have some!" one of them shouted, unleashing a barrage of shotgun shells.

A lightning bolt streaked out again from the rear, rupturing more egg clusters as Odysseus continued unleashing his magical attacks.

"I think I'd rather fight a Demon Lord than these disgusting creatures," he grumbled as he casted another spell. "[Chain Lightning]!"

The magic circle flared to life as another bolt of lightning streaked out, jumping from one egg to another and incinerated everything in its path.

It took them roughly half an hour to clean up the cavern, and after half an hour, a platoon of soldiers had joined in on the cleanup up when the Lieutenant Colonel at the Operations Center deemed the situation critical enough to dispatched reinforcements in.

"Talk about showing up late for the party," Eurylochus muttered, shaking his head as he watched medics carefully strapping dozens of injured soldiers onto stretchers and transporting them out gently while a total of twenty-one body bags can be seen laying in the middle of the field.

"Damn, I'm exhausted," Odysseus said as he stood next to Penelope. He glanced at her and noticed the fatigue in her eyes. "How are you holding up? Any injuries?"

"I'm fine," Penelope replied, raising her blood-covered hands. The crimson stains reached up to her upper arms, soaking into her vest and uniform. "All this blood is from the soldier we helped."

"Good to hear," Odysseus said with a relieved smile.

Penelope then noticed blood on Odysseus' forehead. "What about you? You're bleeding."

"Nothing serious," he shrugged. "It was already healed by my magic, but I haven't cleaned it up yet."

"Let me help," Penelope offered.

"Be my guest," he replied.

While Penelope was cleaning up his wound on his head, Pice walked up to Odysseus, "How are you, sir Odysseus?" He asked the elf.

"I'm doing just fine, Captain. That was quite an experience, though," Odysseus said with a grin.

"Damn it, you elf," Pice muttered in exasperation. "Please take care of yourself. The Lieutenant Colonel, the Emperor, hell, probably even the Elf Queen, will have my hide if anything happens to you!"

"Haha, I'm alright," Odysseus chuckled, brushing the dust off his clothes as he stood. "And well done on taking down the Queen!" He watched the newly arrived troops clearing the dead ants and pointed to the dirt mound where the ants had nested. "The entrance down to the next level should be over there."

"Is it going to be this hard every time?" Pice asked, watching many soldiers on stretchers disappear into the tunnel leading out of the room.

"Hmmm, my theory is that because no one has killed the Queen for many years, she grew stronger and stronger over time," Odysseus guessed, "We're likely the first to enter this dungeon in hundreds of years."

"Wait, so if or when the dungeon 'respawns' the Queen will be easier to kill next time?" Pice asked with a raised eyebrow. "But that would mean all the Boss monsters and Champions on the next level will be even tougher than usual?"

Odysseus nodded. "If my theory is correct, then yes. The monsters will have many years to grow their strength, and we will be the first to encounter them. But there should be a good catch to this, the stronger the monster, the better the materials it provides," He gestured to the Queen's corpse. "I suspect she has a very high-quality Monster Core inside her."

"Great, just great," Pice muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "Damn, I hoped this would be a walk in the park with our modernized weapons. I can't even imagine how you elves fought these monsters with just cold steel and lived to tell the tale."

"That's why mages are highly respected and in demand," Odysseus said with a wink. "Magic makes it easier to clear a dungeon."

Pice shook his head again, this time in mild resignation, and waved Odysseus off. "Go take a rest," he said before turning to the troops. "Alright, you pukes, I need volunteers!" He began pointing at random soldiers who were loitering around. "Yes, you, you, and you. And yes, YOU! There's no one behind you, stop looking!"

Pice led the chosen soldiers to the Queen's dirt throne, handing out entrenching tools. "Carry your entrenching tools and start digging that mound up," he ordered, and the soldiers quickly got to work, shoveling away the dirt. Before long, they uncovered a large pair of doors embedded in the mound, and the soldiers worked faster, excited at finding the door.

"Hey, everyone," Eurylochus called out, drawing the attention of the explorers. "We found these buried or dropped here around the room."

At his feet lay a large pile of treasure, from pieces of gold and silver coins, gemstones of all shapes and sizes.

"We also found a lot of mana crystals," he added, shining his lamp on another, even larger pile nearby. "In fact, there are dozens of these mana stones all over the place. I'm guessing they came from either monsters the ants hunted or ones that died naturally over time."

Odysseus walked over to the pile of mana stones and picked one up, examining the thumb-sized, greenish crystal as it glittered prettily under the lamplight. He dropped the stone back onto the pile and rubbed his hands together, grinning at the ragged but victorious group.

"Now isn't this the best part of exploring a dungeon?" he said with a smile. "Loot."