468 An Unique Vampire And Vicious Ants!
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“You see, Vampires simply can’t eat normal food, but she can, and even digest and enjoy its flavor.” Said Lucifer.
“They can’t?!” Asked Partner.
“Yeah, this is probably something you acquired by begin a former Undead risen by Maria, who has special Titles that enhance undead raised by her.” Said Lucifer. “The same way I evolved into my own type of dragon as well. It could be possible that in the future the necessity to drink Humanoid’s blood would be gone as she ascends into a higher being.”
“Oohh…” I said in surprise. “That would certainly be nice to be honest…”
“I’m sorry for being such a big burden.” Partner sighed, apologizing.
“Ah… No, you’re not a burden.” I said, head patting her. “You’ve been my partner all this time, right? Without you I don’t know what would had happened to me when I just became a Ghost. You’re not a burden, I am just worried but… I know we’ll eventually be able to get through this.”
“Master…” Partner felt slightly embarrassed. “Thanks… I might be a bit annoying at times, I apologize… I am still learning…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine, you’re a good girl-“
As I head patted Partner, I suddenly heard the bushes nearby moving intensively. There were nobody out of our camp right now. And the presence behind the bushes got suddenly so strong a dark aura emerged from within it.
“SHAAA!”
Suddenly, an enormous one-meter big ant with black, metallic exoskeleton and red eyes jumped from the bushes, pointing its sharp jaws at Partner. The creature exuded an enormous aura of Miasma, could this thing be related to the other we fought some time ago?!
However, Partner’s reflexes were in another level completely. In a split of a second, she grabbed a spear and swung it horizontally, parrying the Ant’s attack and generating a shockwave generated out by pure force, throwing the ant away with great dexterity.
BAAAM!
“SHAAA….”
The creature hit the ground as one of its jaws shattered, leaking a blue liquid from within. The rest of its exoskeleton gained several cracks as well. Partner’s Parry Attack was surprisingly powerful!
CLANK! CLANK!
The jaws of the ant resonated like clapping metal, it was a deadly beast, but the Parry Attack really left it half dead right now. It was certainly not strong like the one I fought, and that one was humanoid-shaped, while this one looks like just an oversized ant.
Maybe I can check its status now?
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[Abyssal Parasite Legion Ant Worker: Lv34] [Rank: B-] [Status: Bleeding, Desperate]
A Worker-type Ant member of the Abyssal Parasite Legion Ant Colony. These monstrous creatures lay their eggs inside powerful monsters, where they devour them from the inside and then hatch by absorbing their hosts strength.
They naturally wield and possess the power of miasma and chaos, which they absorb from the environment where these elements are incredibly rich. Such monsters cannot exist without it, and often protect the source of Miasma with enormous colonies built out of the crystallization of Miasma. Even Worker Ants are ferocious fighters.
Skills: [Miasmic Aura] [Crushing Jaws] [Black Steel Exoskeleton] [Ant Worker] [Venomous Acid Spray] [Pheromone Call] [Dark Bullet] [Red Eyes of Intimidation] [Shadow Sneak]
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It was really those damn ants! Without thinking it twice, I swung my hand and unleashed a blast of darkness, hitting the creature on the spot.
BOOOMMM!!!
Of course, I also erected barriers to protect everyone else. The explosion was rather loud and powerful, leaving a hole in the ground.
“I-Is that thing dead?” Asked Partner, slowly getting closer to the Ant.
When the smoke dissipated, the charred body of an Ant with most of its body splattered in the floor appeared. That thing was more than dead, it was decimated.
“It’s deader than dead.” I said with a nod. I double checked the HP, which was down to zero.
Ding!
[You earned 40000 EXP]
“Oh, I guess it grants 40k EXP… It is not bad at all for a small Worker Ant.” I said with a smile, quickly walking towards it.
Seconds after, I suddenly noticed it was beginning to rot. As if it was slowly melting into a pond made out of Miasma. I quickly decided to store the entire thing inside of my Inventory, fearing that it might hurt somebody in our party due to its mutagenic toxicity.
“Just what… was that?” Asked Lucifer while feeling strangely nervous.
“Well…”
At the end, we sat down and I explained things.
“Another Ant? It showed out of nowhere this time!” Said Lucifer.
“According to what I read from the description of the monster; they form colonies near sources of Miasma. Without it they cannot live.” I said with an intriguing tone of voice. “To be honest I am rather concerned, but we might end up finding a colony if we move forward. Also that thing had a Pheromone Call Skill, so it might had called for allies, we should probably move away from here and try to sneak around to see if there’s really a colony in this dungeon floor.”
“You’re right, let’s go.” Lucifer agreed.
“Hm, it would be better to get moving then.” Emeraldine agreed.
“Then let’s do it.” I said with a nod.
“Yeah! I want to beat those damn things for interrupting my moment with Master…” Partner seemed rather resentful against the ants
Like that, we quickly decided to sneak around, moving forward into the forest, and slowly getting into the area I felt the Miasma was becoming stronger. There was an enormous black aura coming from that place, the sky itself turned purple and black in color, and the entire environment smelled like acid.
Emeraldine and Partner had to wear their special Living Armor suits, which I enchanted with some magic to make them even stronger and more Miasma-Absorbent. I guess you could even call these things something like special suits to walk across Miasma, although they were “alive” as Living Armors.
And right there, in front of all of us, there was an enormous tower built out of purple, black, and red crystals, as high as 200 meters, with many crevices and countless black ants walking across all of it, transporting prey and even hatching from living monsters they used to lay their eggs into…
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