The Antventure Begins

34. Camping Out

Moving with extreme caution away from the lake because, let’s face it, I’m fair game out here and there are many monsters who would love a slice of this delectable pie. In the war for survival, Stealth is still my most powerful weapon.

I’ve been able to gather quite a bit of Biomass, probably more than usual for a creature of my Level. Operating as a scavenger, picking up the rewards when others have done the dirty work. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work very well for XP.

With the exception of the completely bizarre battle between the Wolf Dragon pack and the Claw Centipedes, I’ve had to carefully pick and choose my prey in order to get XP and that remains the case.

It would be nice if on this trip I can successfully carry out a hunt on my own and defeat my opponent one-on-one. I need the confidence boost as much as the XP. I won’t be able to stumble across wounded opponents forever.

Keeping myself as hidden as possible I dart from cover to cover, keeping all of my senses sharp.

After that last stomach full I’ve returned to full HP and my antennae are showing no signs of the extensive damage it endured during my last fight, and my leg had healed long ago.

This forest really is strange. Every time I turn a corner, I see something weird I hadn’t seen before. Like this bright orange fern looking thing. The tip of every branch has a thin tendril of an almost weblike material hanging down to the ground.

Won’t be touching those!

Out of curiosity I flip a stone using my mandibles towards that plant, but nothing happens. My wariness doesn’t totally dissipate though. It’s possible the plant will only react when something organic touches it.

Instead of standing about eyeing off a fern I keep going.

I come across a few different creatures as I move in the general direction the hunters left in. A large pack of small, ape-like creatures were congregating around a particularly large tree. I give those guys a wide berth.

If only I had the support of more of my kind! Seeing these large groups of smaller monsters really gets me down for some reason.

There were also a few Wolf Dragon cubs on the prowl, yet another group I couldn’t take on.

Feeling a bit stifled by my inability to find something I can fight I decide to do something I wasn’t able to do before.

Climb a tree to scout around!

Finding a nice-looking tree, I use my claws and the potency of my Grip skill to swiftly make my way up and have a look about.

Ohhhh. I can see so much farther now. Behold the power of my improved eyes!

There’s a hill in the distance with a few shapes on it. Possibly tents? This could be the camp of the five hunters…

I shall investigate!

With my destination in mind, I continue to snoop about while making my way towards that distant camp. I don’t want to start any combat while those hunters are around. If they come over to investigate, I’m going to be really dead, really fast.

Eventually I make my way to the foot of the hill and start to take things very slowly, darting from cover to cover and avoiding any sound or sign of monsters.

About halfway up the shape of the human hunters at the top of the hill come into focus. They appear to sit in a circular shape on stones and bits of wood they’ve put together as chairs. Maybe they’re sitting around a fire pit or cookpot.

There’re three separate tents arranged in a semicircle around their seating area. A few large backpacks are strewn about the place, along with some monster remains they’ve been able to hold onto somehow.

A line has been strung across two poles. At first, I think they’re hanging their clothes from it but when I stare a little harder, I realise its monster hides are hung up to dry.

Clearly this group is here to hunt monsters and take cores and materials back to the surface for profit.

Deciding to watch them, I settled into a good position.

Now that I’ve identified where the camp is I have a crazy idea forming in my mind. Patience is a virtue to the monster. This is the first instruction in my creed.

After a few hours the humans begin to gather equipment, preparing to head out. They strap on armour, check the edge of their blades and banter back and forth.

Then something interesting happens. As a group they step out of the camp and once they are about ten metres away, they pause while the mage concentrates and prepares her staff. She focuses for an extended period, runes appearing and rotating around the head of her staff before she taps the foot of the staff against the ground.

Immediately a few stones I hadn’t noticed before flare around the outskirts of the camp, glowing brightly for just a moment before dimming again.

Once this has been completed the group heads towards the lake.

It seems they are just farming the lake, ambushing the unsuspecting monsters who have gathered, then returning here to wait until the lake has gathered together the monsters once again.

Fairly efficient way to slay monsters I suppose.

Just to be sure, I shadow the group until I’m certain that’s where they’re heading, then I double back and head towards their camp.

You guys must have harvested a lot of monster cores, eh? Be a shame if something were to happen to them…

Gwehehehehe.

I’m very wary of the spell that was cast as they left, however. I’m sure an alarm would go off or I’d be melted on the spot or something equally horrible.

There is no way I’m walking over that barrier.

I’m willing to try going under it though. Behold the power of Level five Digging!

Working furiously, I start to dig with all my might. I probably have a little over an hour if we account for the time to travel to the lake and back, as well as fighting and scavenging. Plenty of time to dig myself a small tunnel.

My mandibles work at lightning speed. Empowered by my Digging skill I can shift a surprising amount of dirt with each chomp, and it isn’t long until I’ve dug under the magic boundary and into the camp.

Muahahahaha!

Curious, but aware that I don’t have that much time, I start to poke my nose into the tents to inspect the stuff. More bags and goods meet my eyes. It appears the mage and another member of the group are sharing one of these tents together.

There are food supplies stored in a bag but that isn’t what I’m looking for. Using my mandibles, I grab the bags one by one and try to shake them open like an angry dog.

I don’t have hands! How else am I supposed to open them?

After ten minutes of shaking and tearing at their bags I manage to find what I’m looking for. Buried in the bottom of one pack was a smaller leather sack sealed with a drawstring pulled tight.

Not tight enough to stop these chompers!

After puncturing a hole in the bag, the precious wealth spills out before me.

[Compatible monster core detected. Would you like to reinforce your core or reconstitute a monster?]

Nice monster cores you have here, guys. As they say, finders keepers!

They have over twenty monster cores and I start absorbing them one after another. After I take my fourth one, Gandalf throws water on my burning joy.

[Monster core has reached capacity for your current stage of evolution.]

Dammit, Gandalf!

There are still seventeen monster cores left here! How could you do this to me? Despite running out of time I can’t help but agonise over the incredible bounty before me.

Eventually, I push the cores together using my claws and try to scoop up as many as possible in my mandibles. Due to how cumbersome my jaws are and how small the cores are, I’m only able to grab four.

Although my heart is bleeding, it will have to do.

Retreat!

Like a thief in the night, I scamper away with my treasure, crawling through my tunnel and then running down the hill and back into the forest.

I don’t go too far until I find a particularly large tree and dig a deep hole in an area shielded by the exposed roots. Inside I bury my pirate’s gold and carefully conceal my handiwork.

Hopefully I’ll be able to come back for these after I’ve evolved.

Good thing I can’t smile, otherwise my face would hurt. What a haul. Thanks, you stupid humans!