Chapter 215: A Talk With an Ant 2
Chapter 215: A Talk With an Ant 2
—–
After having given a brief explanation and resume about what happened to the Demons and Beastmen of the Demon Continents, Daniel continued his answering of questions and explanations by going towards what had happened to the world itself.
Such explanations included how the Attribute Spirits of the World began to die incredibly fast, how the world began to twist and fragment, and how rifts within space and time opened, revealing twisted dungeons and labyrinths that led to other planes where monsters that the Heroes had never seen before emerged from within.
All of what was happening at this point was Bestellen’s and the Heroes fault, by stupidly wasting their time and effort in doing something so horrible, and then in Bestellen himself neglecting the safety of the world just to comply with its wicked desires, acquiring many Divine Authorities from the Gods he fought and sealed and then trying to maintain everything by himself, only to fail miserably and even end up weakened as a result.
“Well, although I am really angered over what is happening in Future Kritias, I can’t help but release a chuckle…” said Veronica.
“Yes, you got what you deserved, at least a bit of it,” said Ervas.
Ervas and Veronica felt frustration but at the same time a bit of joy in how all of Bestellen and the Heroes plans ended up failing terribly, and how they were now having a desperate fight to maintain the world of Kritias while fending off the constant armies of otherworldly monsters surging from within the labyrinths and dungeons that connected to Kritias through the rifts in space. It was as if a true Apocalypse had befallen upon them.
“It is obvious that he was not capable of reigning over all those attributes by himself, even with the help of his stupid subordinate Gods… Couldn’t he tell that?” asked Veronica.
“Indeed, he was born as a god of light, he cannot maintain the other attributes so easily, his specialization and the attribute he has been always maintaining was light, the other gods were specifically made for the other attributes… Such foolishness” said Ervas.
The Dark and Bright Gods all possessed the affinity for a certain attribute or element of the world of Kritias, and they governed it over as it was their only and strongest specialization. The governance over the attribute or the authority over them was the pillar of their continued existence, and it was extremely hard for such gods or any god who had chosen the desired attribute to simply change it straight away afterward.
The act that Bestellen did by weakening and sealing most of the Dark and Bright Gods while stealing their Divine Authorities was similar to destroying the pillars that maintained the world stable. Of course, many subordinate gods can also maintain the attributes, but none were as good and essential as the Bright and Dark Gods, while subordinate Gods could only be their extra support.
Even if you gather hundreds of newbies for a job, an expert in the field who had gathered experience for thousands of years will always be better at that job than countless newbies.
“He couldn’t tell it because he was blinded by ignorance, but although I blame him for mostly everything, I can’t say that he is at the fault of everything, he was born with such nature, with such beliefs, and with such divinity. I think that the creation of the Dark and Bright Gods by itself meant something else. They were born from within the corpses of the two Great Gods Anir and Kelsus, and also inherited part of their beliefs and powers… Although, just as Daniel stated earlier, Bestellen might have been encroached by the several fragments of Anir that he possessed fused into his soul,” said Veronica.
“He seems to not be capable of controlling the fragments like us,” said Ervas.
“W-Wait a minute… the fragments…?” asked Daniel.
Ervas and Veronica then raised their arms as they showcased the power of the fragments of Anir and Kelsus in their possession.
“This is Kelsus Dark Scales, it is a top-tier material for armor, and you can turn it into dust, add some of my blood, and make excellent blood potions with it,” said Ervas, showing his pale white arms as countless dark scales grew over it.
“And this is Anir’s Bone Marrow, it is a bit squiggly, but it is good meat that you can make into different preparations. Ah well, if you infuse a few million Mana, you can make it strong, almost like muscles, but I believe that if there is a Muscle Fragment, it should be more efficient than this, Ervas who can manipulate his bones receives a good strengthening by filling them with this,” said Veronica, as from within the inside of her empty armor, a large amount of red and twisting minced meat mass emerged grotesquely.
“That’s…! And you are fine with that, my lords?!” asked Daniel.
“Indeed, we are not sure why, but we simply had to tell them to be silent and they obeyed,” said Ervas.
“They’re obedient and useful. Ah, we got them after we ate that Demon God named Oggoth, he was a pain in the ass until a few weeks ago,” said Veronica.
“Ate… A Demon God…?” asked Daniel.
“Yes, we can do that too, I guess…” said Ervas.
“Don’t act surprised, you could already tell our power yesterday,” said Veronica.
“Y-Yes…” said Daniel, he was almost paralyzed in fear now.
As Daniel continued his explanations and answers, he finally reached the topic that Veronica and Ervas wanted to know, such as the cheat Skills of every coworker… and to say the least, all of them had several ridiculous ones, and those like Eustace were even given more than one. The amount was too much as the group of Heroes was over twenty, the discussion became a bit more heated as they discovered the cheat skill of Daniel, while Daniel learned about theirs being simply Appraisal.
“So your Cheat Skill was named Titan?” asked Ervas.
“Indeed… But against Gabriel’s God of Time Magic, it was useless, as he had evolved his Time Attribute Spells to the point that the resiliency that Titan brought to me was completely shut down by the manipulation of time over my wounds, bringing my quick death by his hands…” said Daniel.
“I guess this cheat skill also explains how you were still alive as a tiny ant even after having taken all that previous damage…” said Veronica.
“That is… right, Veronica-sama…” said Daniel.
Daniel’s Titan was his Cheat Skill given to him by Hekaton, the God of Transmigration, it was a Skill that gave him three different effects, being ‘Titanic Body’, which gave him the ability to greatly resist the damage of any kind, ‘Titan’s Great Recovery’ that gave him an automatic HP Recovery, but this didn’t recover lost limbs or wounds that were too open, and lastly ‘Titan’s Resiliency’, which gave him the ability to maintain his strength even after being deadly wounded, and even let him fight for five seconds after receiving a fatal wound that should kill him, as long as it wasn’t in the head or separate his head from his body.
Indeed, it was an incredibly powerful Skill, it was really deserving of being called a ‘Cheat Skill’.
Through this power Daniel became an incredible tanker and the living shield of Eustace, Veronica and Ervas recalled him after he explained his powers, he was the annoying muscular guy that was always sticking with Eustace while taking all the hits for him, however, they managed to wound him enough for him to fall back from the frontlines with their utmost efforts… Although they did not manage to kill him.
“Even with Titan’s Resiliency you weren’t able to fight back Gabriel?” asked Veronica.
“No… Gabriel has a power over Time that fairly exceeds any mage ever seen before, and perhaps is even greater than some of the subordinate Gods of Kritias, and even… the Bright and Dark Gods after he received the divine protection of several Demon Gods…” said Daniel.
“Just how ridiculous is that guy? Manipulating time is really broken” said Veronica.
“He wasn’t able to just warp all the time of existence, but he was able to create a very wide ‘Time Domain’ where he was able to manipulate time to his liking… Eustace had something similar, named ‘Light’s Domain’, he managed to resist most of Gabriel’s attacks by using his own domain to fight back Gabriel’s…” said Daniel.
“He will be very tricky to fight against…” said Ervas.
“We’ll have to get very strong by then, so let’s keep working hard,” said Veronica as she petted Ervas head.
Daniel stood as he glanced at the two split souls with awe, their interactions, and personalities, alongside how they treated each other as siblings and also were such different with each other moved his heart. He could not help but admire Veronica and Ervas, they were way too admirable and fascinating, perhaps even greater than Eustace.
After the long interrogations were finally over, Daniel was finally allowed to get back to his Colony, as Ervas and Veronica introduced him to the rest of the Kingdom, the many facilities, and the people.
“This is the people that you will protect from now on…” said Ervas.
“But you and your colony are fair too weak yet, so intensive training will be given to you starting tomorrow, that will be on another person’s hands, though…” said Veronica.
“I will do all I can to become stronger and serve you as much as I can… It is the least I could do…” said Daniel.
“Hm, I’m hungry, let’s go grab some lunch,” said Ervas.
“Ah, there is a bento shop near here, let’s go,” said Veronica.
Daniel and his family rested inside of Veronica’s armor as the two split souls had lunch, they also brought several bento boxes for Daniel and his family, which moved him even more than he already was.
“Even after everything… they’re still such benevolent people…” thought Daniel. It was simply a few bento boxes, but for him, it meant way more.
—–
[Name: Daniel.
[Race: Small Silver Armored Ant.
[Titles: Leader of the Ant Colony.
[Type: Bug/Material
[Rank: 3
[Level: 074/100
[Job: Apprentice Ant Warrior.
[Job History: Apprentice Ant Soldier, Ant Soldier.
[Level: 068/100
[Health Points: 445/445
[Mana Points: 385/385
[Strength: 246
[Defense: 300
[Magic: 190
[Resistance: 162
[Agility: 420
<Passive Skills>
[Memory Retention: Level 3]
[Special Five Senses: Level 7]
[Soul Form: Level 1]
[Mental Corruption: Level 6]
[Dark Vision; Level 5]
[Superhuman Strength; Level 1]
[Rapid Healing; Level 3]
[Enhanced Body Parts; Exoskeleton, Jaws; Level 3]
[Health Points Enlargement; Level 3]
[Abnormal Status Resistance; Level 5]
[Physical Damage Resistance; Level 5]
[Hunger Resistance; Level 7]
[Self-Enhancement: Colony (Ants): Level 5]
[Self-Enhancement; Following (Veronica): Level 1]
[Self-Enhancement; Following (Ervas); Level 1]
<Active Skills>
[Charge; Level 3]
[Mineral Devourer; Level 5]
[Armor Technique; Level 3]
[Shield Technique; Level 3]
[Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 2]
[Grow; Level 1]
[Surpass Limits; Level 4]
[Coordination; Level 3]
[Commanding: Level 5]
[Colony Form: Level 4]
[Colony Attack: Level 3]
[Mana Control: Level 2]
[No-Attribute Magic: Level 1]
[Fire Attribute Magic: Level 1]
[Light Attribute Magic: Level 1]
<Unique Skills>
[Titanic Body: Level 8]
[Titan’s Great Recovery: Level 7]
[Titan’s Resiliency: Level 8]
[Qadall’s Divine Protection] (Hidden)
*Just like Veronica and Ervas, Daniel had his Skills reset when he reincarnated for the third time, only some of the Skills that he was given from the very start remained with him alongside their levels, such as his ‘Cheat Ability’, that is divided into three Skills.
A thing to note is that just like Ervas and Veronica, he possesses the Samsara System, so he can both Rank Up and Change Jobs, even if he’s an Ant-type monster.