Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse
Chapter 127: Spotting Opportunities

The massive ant hill dominated the scenery. It rose between the titanic trees, shorter but thicker than all of them. It was built on a bed of dirt, and its slanted sides were teeming with conqueror ants. There were hundreds of them, possibly thousands.

Jack had no illusions of being able to rush the place. So what if the ants were only level 30 or so? There were so many of them that they could simply body-pile him and bury him under their corpses. Moreover, he understood by now that the world didn’t play nice. There were bound to be stronger variants inside the ant hill, conveniently waiting out of sight until he attacked.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like he had a choice. Gan Salin had mentioned that the tunnels to the next ring hid under special landmarks, and the ant hill was the only such thing he saw.

Should I wander the forest until I find another? he wondered. It was certainly a possibility. The issue was, there was no guarantee that the next tunnel would be easier to access. And testing would take time.

“What do you think, Brock?” Jack asked, leaning on one of the tree’s higher branches. “Do we stay, or do we go?”

Brock hung from a nearby leaf. One of his hands held onto the leaf’s stem, bending it to support his weight, while the other scratched his armpit. He considered it for a moment. Then, he let go of the leaf, landing on the wide branch underneath. He smashed his fists together.

“We fight?” Jack asked.

“Yes!” Brock replied. His throat still wasn’t used to speaking human, but he was getting more proficient as time passed. Jack was optimistic. If Brock could say two words, he could say all of them. Eventually.

“Alright.” He nodded. “We can scout the ants a bit. Outside the nest, I don’t think they can do much to us, even if they attack.”

It was funny. Once upon a time, he had to risk his life to take down the level 15 earth bears, facing each of them in drawn-out combat where the tiniest misstep could lead to death. Now, the prospect of facing a swarm of level 30 monsters didn’t even bother him.

Heck. Even his little monkey bro could easily beat up any earth bear, or even their leader, the rock bear. After all, Brock was now a level 37 Elite. He was even stronger than his own father.

Going down the tree was harder than going up. When they made it, Jack’s entire body was sore. Brock seemed fresh as a daisy.

“Bro!” he said, jumping up and down in excitement.

“Bro,” Jack replied, laughing. He looked up. The light of the mushrooms hadn’t dimmed at all during the few hours they’d spent climbing. Was there no night here? Or was the day just longer than Earth’s?

He hoped for the former, as he couldn’t see in the dark. The faster they got out of here, the fewer chances they would sink into a long night. Just one more reason to hurry.

Jack and Brock crouched into the underbrush. They moved around leaves the size of cars, hid themselves in waist-high grass. The ground was wet, even muddy at places, and the air smelled of moisture. It was also filled with extra oxygen, but Jack and Brock kept their breaths slow.

Intermittent buzzing reached their ears. They couldn’t tell where it came from, or what sort of bug produced it. They were trapped in an ocean of green. Predators could hide anywhere—hundred-foot centipedes crawling along the grass, praying mantises hiding between leaves, wasps descending from above. All sorts of creatures, known and unknown, could be lying in wait.

The only thought keeping them inside the greenery was that, as soon as they were out of it, they would be visible to all would-be predators. But was one enemy in the dark really better than ten in the light?

“Let’s go in the open,” Jack whispered. “I can fight off these things, but only if I see them coming.”

Brock quickly agreed, and they exited the bushes into a more open part of the forest. Besides the grass around their legs, they had good visibility of their surroundings.

Jack instantly felt much better. “Now we’re talking,” he said. “Keep your eyes peeled for surprises, Brock.”

The brorilla saluted like a soldier. Where did he learn that? Jack wondered.

Fortunately, no threats appeared on the way, though they did see three bees fly overhead, all around level 60.

They eventually made it back to where they’d first seen the ants. They weren’t there, but after a bit of looking around, they found them. They quickly retreated. This was a lot of ants.

Black and brown ants the size of large dogs formed a long line, partly concealed by the tall grass. As they approached the root of a tree, the grass stopped, revealing the ants in full display. They had six legs, fierce mandibles, a few short hairs all over their body, and two antennas rising from above their eyes. Their bodies were lean and wiry, with a thin torso and a thick behind.

They resembled Earth ants, just magnified a thousand times.

Their target was a hole in the base of the large tree. The ants streamed in endlessly, antennas raised and mandibles poised to strike. There were dozens of them, but they disappeared into the hole like stones dropped into the sea.

Jack narrowed his eyes and focused on his hearing. Thuds and low hissing screams came from inside the tree. The ants were attacking something, but what?

The answer became apparent soon. A conqueror ant emerged from the hole, carrying the corpse of a different ant. This one had heavier mandibles and was many times larger than the conqueror ants. Jack couldn’t inspect it, as it was dead, but it sure as hell seemed to be a different species.

They’re attacking other ants! Jack realized. Then, could it be…

He turned his gaze to the back of the conqueror ant line. A massive form lumbered in the distance, slowly approaching. It was twice larger than most other conqueror ants and had a pair of wings at its back.

A queen!

Conqueror Ant Queen, Level 39 (F-Grade)

Conqueror Ants are invasive species that can survive in most environments. Their colonies typically contain hundreds of workers, with larger colonies rising up to tens of thousands, along with multiple queens. If left alone, they will expand at great speed, annihilating anything in their path despite their relatively low individual Levels.

A Conqueror Ant colony is considered a peak E-Level threat. Immediate extermination is advised. Queens are the core of a colony, with each laying hundreds of eggs per mating season.

Jack didn’t need the System’s confirmation. Once upon a time, he had been a PhD candidate in biology. He was also focused on evolution. As a result, insects were his area of expertise. He’d studied them for years.

That goes to say, he knew what was happening. Some ant species were hostile against their fellow ants, especially if they were a different species. If they located another colony in their territory, they would attack and destroy it.

However, some species were even crueler. They didn’t just destroy an enemy colony. They invaded it, culled its numbers, and stole their eggs. They would take the eggs back to their own colony, and when they hatched, they would use pheromones to brainwash the captured hatchlings into slaves.

Additionally, they might not destroy the colony, but conquer it instead. In that case, they would send one of their own queens into the enemy colony mid-battle. The queen would take advantage of the chaos to reach the chamber of the enemy queen and murder it in heated combat. If it succeeded, it would then coat itself in the pheromones of the dead enemy queen, essentially taking her place as the ruler of the colony.

The enemy ants would tend to her and her brood, unaware that their real queen was long dead, until she and her children killed them all.

The animal kingdom was brutal—or, as some would say, nature was metal. No wonder the Animal Kingdom faction was so tyrannical.

Jack and Brock watched the invasion from behind some leaves, unable to tear their eyes away. Soon after the conqueror queen entered the enemy nest, a few conqueror ants emerged, carrying green, pulsating sacks—the enemy brood. They skittered back towards their own nest.

The attack died down soon after. The conqueror ants stopped coming, and a few emerged from the nest to retreat. Some of the opposing ants chased them for a while, giving Jack a chance to inspect them.

Carpenter Ant, Level 37 (F-Grade)

Carpenter Ants usually make their colonies inside trees. Their heavy-set mandibles can be used to dig through wood, hence their name. They aren’t particularly aggressive, but their bite can easily cut off limbs.

He barely suppressed an exclamation. He knew carpenter ants! They were one of the most wide-spread variants on Earth. Did the System translate their true name to something he would recognize, or did many sapient species individually settle on the same name for these ants?

The latter made sense. Carpenter ant wasn’t the most difficult of names to come up with.

But in that case, Jack wondered, could conqueror ants exist on Earth as well, just with a different name?

He thought back to everything he had seen. He inspected the ants’ behavior and appearance with a biologist’s eye. There were many details he noticed but didn’t care about before—their multi-segmented antennas, their uneven thorax… Coupled with their highly invasive behavior and other patterns, he quickly narrowed it down to one species.

Argentine ants! he exclaimed mentally.

They were one of Earth’s most invasive ant species. In fact, human traveling had accidentally spread them around the world, and they were currently at war against pretty much all other ants. The various argentine ant colonies didn’t fight each other. Instead, they used superior, cruel tactics and stratagems to kill any other ants they came across, slowly but steadily conquering the insect world.

They were assholes.

But Jack knew about them. He’d studied them. New excitement bubbled in his heart—the equivalent of finally using the pythagorean theorem outside school. He could put his theoretical knowledge to good use!

Take that, society! Who’s a nerd now? he thought with a smug smile.

Ants were scary, but less so if he knew their ins and outs. In fact, Jack was half-certain they could sneak through without much trouble. He knew some tricks.

However, even with a plan, infiltrating an ant colony was a terrifying prospect. Things would be much easier if they took the time to pick off the ants, hunting and killing them by the dozens outside the colony. That would make infiltrating much easier.

But did they have time? Gan Salin had said they should hurry, that these higher rings had no opportunities, only danger.

“Hmm,” Jack muttered, cupping his thin. “What do you think, Brock? Should we risk hurrying, as Gan Salin advised, or take our time whittling them down so it’s safer?”

Brock considered it for a moment. He then gave Jack a doubtful look.

“What? You disagree with something?”

Brock nodded.

“Why?”

This was trickier to respond. Brock pretended to run in place, then trip on something and fall on his face. He then wagged a finger from side to side.

Jack frowned. “Hurrying is no good? But Gan Salin said—” He stopped. His eyes flashed. “Wait. Brock! You’re a genius!”

Brock stuck out his chest—though he seemed a bit confused, too. Jack continued.

“Why should we hurry? Gan Salin said what he said, but there has to be a reason for this ring’s existence. If I was the creator of Trial Planet, I wouldn’t go through all this trouble just to test the survival skills of people. I could easily do that before sending them to Trial Planet. No, this ring can’t be useless. Even if there aren’t any treasures here, there has to be something. And I think I see it. Look around you, Brock.”

Brock looked around, seeing nothing. He scratched his head.

“Exactly!” Jack said excitedly. “Mindless enemies ranging from the middle of the F-Grade to the low E-Grade. Doesn’t this remind you of something? It’s goblins!”

Brock looked at Jack. He reached out to touch the human’s shoulder. He twisted a finger around his temple, then gave a gentle smile. He seemed to say, “You’re crazy, but that’s okay.”

“No, Brock.” Jack laughed. “What were goblins? Weak enemies, stupid, and lacking humanity. Level up material. That’s why they were so common during the Integration, and that’s why this ring exists. It’s a sharpening stone! It’s so weaker E-Grades can gather levels and battle experience, using their superior minds to outsmart and overpower the insects. That way, they level up fast, and they practice real combat at the same time. The creators of Trial Planet tried to mimic the Integration’s mechanisms!”

Finally, Brock’s eyes lit up a little. Jack grinned.

“Why should we hurry? This ring may have no treasures, but it’s a treasure trove by itself. Master Shol warned us against using experience balls in the E-Grade, and the deeper rings of Trial Planet will no doubt require us to have extraordinary strength. Where else will we find such a perfect hunting ground? Moreover, a hunting ground where I know all enemies by heart.”

He smashed his fists together, eyeing the far-off conqueror ants. “Let’s go, Brock. It’s time to fight to our heart’s content.” He grinned savagely. “It’s time to level up.”