Second World

"They're bloody coming from every direction!" Bluedaze yelled as Giant Ants came down the tunnel behind them.     

Jack's quick inspection showed that the Giant Ants surrounding them were mostly level 12. He turned around and executed Swing, slicing right through the legs of four Giant Ants. Jack's high damage so thoroughly surpassed their defense capacity that he dismembered them even though their HP was still high. The dismembered Giant Ants could not move around, so Jack finished them off with ease.     

The whole party was frantically fighting Ants. Light from Magician spells flew everywhere, chaotically illuminating the cave. Melee Fighters and Rangers hacked and slashed at any Giant Ants that got close.     

"Hah! They are nothing!" Warpath exclaimed with pride as he danced around slashing the Giant Ants using his two swords.     

Jack looked over due to Warpath's shout. The guy's martial expertise was indeed notable, but Jack noticed a peculiarity on the damages inflicted by Warpath. The damage dealt by his left-hand sword was much lower than his right-hand sword. Jack briefly wondered if the left-hand sword was inferior but didn't think that made sense.     

Curious, Jack thought to Peniel, 'the guy there, who uses two swords, one sword deals much lower damage. Is it because of the sword's quality?'     

Jack could feel Peniel shifting her attention to Warpath; she then answered, 'No, the swords he's using are both uncommon grade and pretty high level. His off-hand deals lower damage because he does not possess the dual-wielding skill.'     

'Dual-wielding skill?'     

'It's an elite class' skill that enables the user to deal equal damage with each hand using one-handed weapons. You will find out later as more of you reach elite classes.'     

'I see. By the way, I didn't know you could identify a weapon's grade and level by only looking.'     

'Heh, are you only now realizing how awesome I am?' Peniel replied with pride.     

'Yes, yes, you are the greatest,' Jack said weakly.     

While chatting with Peniel, Jack never stopped battling the Giant Ants. The group pushed forward through the swarms of insects. Though the monsters had superior numbers, they were weaker than other monsters the group had fought. Thus, with the group's skills and high levels, they were never really in danger.     

"Haha, is this all there is to this dungeon?" Warpath laughed arrogantly when he found that the monsters were weak. "You should have contacted me earlier; then, you would have cleared this dungeon sooner!"     

Most of the first wave of Giant Ants had died at their feet.  However, Jack's radar showed him a larger swarm approaching.     

"Be careful! There are more coming!" Jack warned the others.     

"Worry about yourself!" Warpath scorned. "Don't lump me together with the likes of you. These monsters are nothing in my eyes!"     

As his words ended, they heard a low rumble from the shadowed depth of the tunnel where their torchlight didn't reach.     

Selena threw a Mana Bullet down the tunnel. Its light reflected off countless red eyes at the far end. Their hair stood on end as they gazed at the sight. The numbers in this next swarm were easily three to four times bigger than the last one.     

"Second Formation!" Selena immediately yelled.     

Silverwing's team moved forward and stood side by side with Queen Magenta's team as the Giant Ants were all coming from the front this time. The Fighters and Rangers took the lead while Magicians stood back.     

When the Giant Ants came into view, they could see larger ones amongst them. Jack scanned them; they were level 13 Giant Ant Warriors. They had slightly redder tints on their carapace armor, their mandibles were longer, and they had two large antennas protruding from their heads.     

"Be careful of the large ones!" Bluedaze exclaimed. "They are Giant Ant Warriors. Their HP and defense aren't much different from the normal Giant Ants, but they hit harder. Try to take them out first!"     

The Magicians on both teams cast their spells when the swarm of ants came into range. When their spells went on cooldown, they tossed their standard range attacks unceasingly. Jack reckoned they must have brought items to replenish their staff's or wand's ammo to throw range attacks at that pace.     

The spells and range attacks all hit the Giant Ants, but the tide was too great, and the swarm entered melee range without slowing.     

All the melee players unleashed their skills. Almost every fighter used the Swing skill, including Jack, damaging the entire front row of insects. They then tried to keep the Giant Ants at bay to prevent them from passing through their line to the Magicians behind.     

But there were just too many insects. Several still got through. The Rangers left the front line and turned to kill the Giant Ants approaching the Magicians.     

The Giant Ants HP was not high; Jack needed fewer than ten normal hits to kill one. With his speed, his attacks were rapid. He managed to kill a lot of Ants since the battle started. Silverwing's people were amazed by Jack's high damage. Wicked Witches' group, on the other hand, was not aware as Jack was far away from them. Jack tried not to use skills other than Swing as he did not want to attract too much attention yet.     

It took them almost fifteen minutes to clear out the swarm. Although there were no casualties, they did not get off without a scratch. Many had their HP reduced to half. They immediately took advantage of the current lull to consume recovery items. They didn't know when another swarm would appear.     

"This is strange; the difficulty was slightly harder than on our previous entry," Bluedaze said.     

"That's right. We only met such a large swarm further into the dungeon," Selena added.     

"Could it be because we have stronger members now? Maybe the dungeon adjusts its difficulty based on the people who enter?" Sinreaper conjectured.     

"That should be the case, since you didn't brought me in previous entry," Warpath said. Jack felt like heading over and knocking the guy's head.     

"Good thing is that the monsters' level remained the same," Jeanny said. "If they only increase the numbers, we should still be able to manage. It just means we will burn through our recovery items faster."     

"That's right, we should fight more conservatively," Sinreaper said. "Let's advance with caution; we should avoid combat if possible. Our goal is to reach the end of the dungeon where the Boss is, not to kill ants."     

The others nodded their agreement. After they had enough rest, they continued onward. They came to another fork. This time, there were three paths. Instead of randomly choosing one, they sent their Rangers to reconnoiter. Since there were only two Rangers on the team, Silverwing and the female Ranger from Wicked Witches took two paths to scout. The rest waited.     

After three minutes, the female Ranger came back. "There are many Giant Ants that way. I do not recommend it. Has Silverwing returned?"     

"No, he is still on the other path."     

"Then I will scout the third path," the female Ranger said.     

Another minute passed before Silverwing returned.     

"There are some Giant Ants, but it doesn't seem to be too many. We should be able to handle them easily," he said. As Silverwing was about to ask about the female Ranger, she appeared from the third tunnel.     

"This path is worse; we shouldn't go there," she said with a pale face.     

"All right, let's take this path then," Queen Magenta pointed at the path Silverwing had scouted.     

Jack was helpless. He could have told them which path had the fewest monsters from the start, but he knew it was pointless; Warpath and Queen Magenta would not follow his advice. He didn't want to expose his treasure anyway, so he just kept quiet and followed along.