The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

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Even with their senses restricted, they were able to finish off all the ants in short order, but they weren’t able to stop the ants from calling out for reinforcements, and what they dubbed soldier ants arrived.

This ant type had thick armor plating as their chitin and seemed more built for defense. Their exoskeletons resisted their initial attacks without effort.

They were all surprised when, as if given a signal, the ants raised their heads and spat out a stream of liquid at them.

Matt cast [Bulwark] to block the spray, but he could feel that something was wrong.

Before he could identify what was off Liz said, “The liquid is trying to eat away at his spell. Assume their spit is corrosive. Don’t let it land on you.”

After that, they stayed behind Matt, who focused on defense, while the other three peppered the soldier ants with attack after attack.

It took them a few minutes, but they eventually managed to kill the ants without getting hit.

The Genesis Energy they received was more than enough to put any question of avoiding the hive to rest. Each soldier gave nearly a quarter the Genesis Energy that the large bat had.

Seeing that, they were forced to reconsider the designation of sub-boss that they had given it earlier.

Genesis Energy was a new energy type, and they didn’t know what was considered normal for a monster to give, but these ants gave enough that they didn’t even consider leaving.

Finding one of the tunnel’s entrances, Matt cast [Flamethrower] into it and kept the spell going until the ground shifted and the flames started to wash back on them.

Liz tsked over their AI. “So, they aren’t stupid. They closed the tunnel when we tried to burn them out.”

Matt shrugged, “Well, worth a shot to try and drown them.”

That also didn’t work, and after a minute of Matt using [Create Water], the ground shifted, and the water started to back up.

The four of them were forced to scout around looking for a third entrance, but this time, they went inside instead of trying to flush the ants out.

Sadly, the ground around them was like most of Minkalla, and only an inch or two of the surface layer earth was usable by [Earth Manipulation], which meant that they couldn’t dig their own way through the ground.

They encountered their first soldier ant in the large tunnel, and it rushed them, taking their attacks on its armored head without flinching. It tried to chomp on Matt, who used his Concept’s repulsion effect as it tried to bite down, keeping the jaws at bay.

It felt like he was trying to force back the pincers by hand, and after only a heartbeat, he knew it was a losing battle. But Matt still did his job long enough for Liz, Aster, and Susanne to attack the more vulnerable mouth of the monster.

Susanne’s attack arrived first and cracked the chitin of the ant, which tried to reel back, but Matt flexed his Concept further, forcing the pincers open and past their normal breaking point.

It was then that it tried to spit at him, but he had [Bulwark] ready, and it caught the corrosive liquid before it could touch him. Liz’s and Aster’s attacks landed immediately afterwards, hitting the monster in its eyes. Aster’s icicle penetrated to its brain and ended the monster’s struggle right then and there.

Matt stepped back as Liz went to collect the monster’s spit in a special vial that was nonreactive to most corrosive liquids. After taking a sample, they proceeded down the tunnel, fighting when they had to, but thankfully, the tunnels were small enough that they didn’t have to fight more than one of the ants at a time. So long as they took their time, they were easily able to kill them.

There was only one mistake when an ant came out of a tunnel that was hidden from their spiritual perception.

Seeing that, they inspected the wall around it and found another hidden tunnel. With their spiritual senses so restricted, and without any other senses to rely on, they missed what would have normally been blindingly obvious.

Inside, a massive crystal jutted out of the ground and pulsed with Genesis Energy. As they approached, information flooded their minds.

The idea of a fight was like a siren’s call and warning mixed.

A challenge room.With the crystal sparkling ahead of them to their spiritual senses, they turned to inspect the rest of the room, but didn’t find anything unusual. Matt approached the crystal and held his hand a couple inches from where he sensed it, probing the challenge with his spiritual sense and getting feedback about the contents within. It felt like…fighting overwhelming odds, a single massive obstacle, cooperation and assistance from others, and a sense of proving you could do it on your own. The reward, in turn, carried the sensation of teamwork, even when alone.

“I think it’s Ants vs. Elephant,” Matt decided. “It’s either that, Army vs. Dragon, Over the Mountain, or Abomination Civil War. Given the location, and the exact sense I’m getting from the crystal, I’m willing to bet it’s Ants vs Elephant.”

Ants vs. Elephant was definitely on the better end of challenge rooms they could face. Ostensibly, the goal was to take down a massive elephant, around peak Tier 15 in strength and Tier 16 in defense, with the aid of a massive carpet of giant ants. Doing so would complete the challenge and reward them a hefty amount of Genesis Energy, no matter the time of completion. And if they were fast enough, they would earn themselves a trinket or two as well.

The ‘normal’ strategy for Tier 11’s, and even Tier 14s who couldn’t punch through Tier 16 defenses, was to help out the ants however possible. They would largely wait for them to, through teamwork, whittle down the elephant’s defenses over the course of a few hours before delivering the final blow. Left entirely on their own, the ants would kill the elephant after about 12 hours, and taking that long was considered a failure by Minkalla. If the battle took six hours, it refunded the Genesis Energy bet on the challenge, but nothing else. Killing the elephant in ten minutes was considered a ‘full’ win.