Chapter 107 - 105 – Three Heads.
The dim cavern finally fell silent, save for the faint crackling of web remnants still dissolving into nothingness. Rusty surveyed the battlefield, his glowing eyes sweeping over the fallen arachnid's massive form. The air still reeked of decay, but as a being without a nose it didn't bother him much. Instead, he focused on assessing the aftermath.
Pieces of the corrupted arachnid were strewn across the cavern floor, faintly steaming where the radiant energy had burned away its necrotic magic. The once formidable monster, a whole rank above him, now lay in pieces. Its grotesque abdomen was partially reduced to ash, its limbs sprawled lifelessly like shattered branches.
"Well, Rusty,"
Aburdon broke the silence, as the quartet looked over the battlefield.
"Congratulations on not dying, luckily all this noise didn't attract the other spiders, otherwise we would be in trouble."
The monsters outside the cave seemed too afraid to peek inside. The reason likely had something to do with the D-rank monster. Rusty assumed they were hesitant to enter its territory, similar to the group of insectoid monsters he had encountered back in the dungeon. Those monsters, too, avoided invading each other's personal space - at least until he disrupted the balance and, with Gleam's help, eventually killed them all.
" ( ˶°ㅁ°) ! "
"You've managed to reach level ten?"
Rusty ignored Aburdon and focused on his friend Gleam. A quick glance at her status screen confirmed it - she had reached level ten. This meant she could undergo another evolution. The realization prompted him to check his own status, though killing the monster hadn't been enough to push him to the next milestone. It had, however, rewarded him with multiple levels. Now at level thirteen, he was less than two levels away from returning to the Soul Forge.
"That's great! I wonder what the choices will be!"
"(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)"
Gleam was clearly thrilled with her progress; she had been stuck in F-rank for far too long. Just as before, Rusty could review her evolutionary possibilities. This time, though, Aburdon and Alexander were also present to offer their advice. Although the battle had just ended, they appeared to be safe for the moment. Rusty turned his attention to Gleam's display to examine the possibilities for her evolution.
| Lesser Horned Myrm Ant Queen [ Insectoid ] [ E ]
| A rarer horned variant of the Lesser Queen of the Myrm Ant species. Once fully grown, it becomes immobile to focus solely on producing offspring.
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