I didn’t bother to reply to her statement. I could see she’d already made up her mind. All I could do was hope it wasn’t needed. But then again, I didn’t know if combat would be necessary in the first place. I imagined it would, but I couldn’t be sure.

For all I knew, these elves they mentioned were a bunch of bandits as well. If that was the case, I’d probably let them fight this out by themselves.

“Going to search for bear. No time to lose.”

“I understand… please be careful, Kealyna. I know you’re in a hurry, but stay safe.”

Her words made me feel warm inside. Her concern for my wellbeing… it was indescribable how it felt. I truly didn’t know…

All I knew was that I did not like her putting herself at risk. It twisted my heart to know she could be wounded, or worse…

Therefore, I went out to search for prey. I needed to find a bear, and an insectoid that was classified as titan. It would probably have to be very, very large. I had no idea where I should even start looking, which is why I decided to go for the bear first. I would ask Cellestra if she had any ideas later on. She did have at least some experience with insects. Even if it was only to feed her tarantula.

I headed to the river and then upstream. If anything, I could go as far as I wanted without getting lost. The extra two levels of leg strengthening would really help me cover however much distance I wanted to.

And so I skittered along the stream, hoping to run into a bear that was out fishing.

Why did fishing seem to be a recurring theme in my new life?

The first thing of interest I ran into was a wolf drinking water. Sticking to my plan, I decided to take a large circle around it, through the vegetation to the right. It didn’t spot me as I went past it and continued my journey.

This blessing was turning out to be quite the struggle. On my trip upstream, I ran into many smaller animals that came out to drink and simply went about their business. It made me realize just how hard it had become to find suitable prey. I even started wondering if the wolf would have given me any experience in the first place.

I ran into another wolf, which I once again avoided, and cursed in my mind for having to find a bear in particular. I walked for hours without luck. Eventually, I had to turn around, or I wouldn’t be back home in time before nightfall.

I skittered back to Cellestra’s house hopelessly. It wasn’t like I hadn’t made any progress today, but I wanted to do more. I was eager to do more. With only a week to work with, I had to make the days count. Once more, I cursed the need to be very specific in my hunts.

When I was about halfway back on the way to my new home, I heard an annoying buzzing coming from the forest.

With nothing to lose, I decided to investigate what was going on.

I had to make a way through the vegetation in order to observe the area where the buzzing was coming from. Beyond the plants was a dirt open area with very few trees. The thing that stood out most, though, was a massive pile of dirt in the center. I quickly made it out as a giant ant-heap.

Ants that were about the size of a thumb were currently fighting the largest wasp I’d ever seen. The creature in question was about two feet from head to stinger. The wasp was buzzing around and killing the smaller ants with stinger and mandibles.

The ants grouped up and fought back, but it seemed the wasp above them was too agile to be hit by their short-range attacks. They even started climbing on top of one another and forming chains in order to reach closer to the flying creature.

What I had before me was a golden opportunity.

I quickly brought up the list of available enhancements and asked my blessing for the spider lightning spell. I then upgraded it to advanced, costing me 35 points.

I slowly crept closer as more masses of ants emerged from the hole on top of the dirt pile. Neither the ants nor the wasp seemed inclined to give up the fight. The wasp was far greater in strength and was bringing down many of the smaller insects.

I was not going to let this opportunity slip by.

I was curious to see the power of this spider lightning spell. Because there were so many ants coming out of the dirt pile, and many more in combat with the wasp, I imagined that if I could chain the spell’s effect on as many ants as possible and then hit the wasp with it before canceling the spell, I would be able to do immense damage to it.

The ants did not seem nearly as powerful as the wasp, though, so I would have to be careful not to kill them with the spell before I was ready to unleash the final shock.

I would try to use mana manipulation to keep the damage to the terrestrial insects as low as possible while my spell was expanding.

I had everything figured out in my mind. Now, it was time for action. I refreshed my barrier spells, just to be sure, and went to work.

I got within range of where I knew the spell would hit. I then started the channel on an ant that was standing in the back row of the sea of ants that was swarming the place.

I watched as an arc of lightning slowly crept forward from me to the ant that was targeted. The spell was slow…

It took about five seconds for the spell to reach the ant. I estimated the distance it had to cross to be about fifteen feet. Once it connected to the creature, it then spread from the ant as lightning crawled its way to nearby enemies. I saw many tendrils of electricity spread away from my first target and then connect to others. One by one, the ants were starting to get connected by a web of lightning.

It seemed my mana manipulation was doing an excellent job of making sure that this spell did as little damage as possible. The ants hardly even noticed the spell. They simply kept attacking the wasp with all means they had available, which, frankly, wasn’t a lot.

The web of lightning spread and started to envelop tens of ants, then hundreds. The number of insects that were caught by it increased exponentially as an entire sea of creepy crawlers became connected. Then, the tendrils started to reach for the wasp.

From multiple ants came tendrils that reached for the sky, for the wasp that was buzzing above them. They all connected at the same time. As soon as I felt them connect to my target, I unleashed the spell’s final shock.

A massive wave of blue and white energy flowed through the ocean of ants in a ripple that was blinding to the eyes. The wave went hand-in-hand with a ridiculously large number of kill messages showing up in the blue square before me.

Then, the wave reached the wasp.

It was hard for me to see what was going on because of the spell’s blinding side effect, but I heard, and partially saw, the wasp literally explode into thousands of tiny bits. What was once hunting the ants now felled because of them.

I saw many kill messages show up, but at some point, they abruptly stopped. I knew there were far more messages that should have popped up, but they didn’t for some reason. The final messages that showed up were for the wasp’s death. That, and the message stating I’d earned an achievement, which came to my relief.

You have killed a Colossal Forest Killer Wasp: EXP+389

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 7!

You have been awarded 50 EP.

Achievement earned: The Exterminator

Kill any insectoid that is classified as “Titan” or bigger.

You have been awarded 100 EP

You have been awarded 300 EXP

Requirement for future evolution complete.

The sight of my spell…

Immediately after reading these messages, I thought back to my spell and how it had finished hundreds if not thousands of insects in a flashy display of pure power. The spectacle that I had observed… it was beyond words.

Then, a new message popped up before me.

Processing...

And another.

Calculating...

Elysa, what is going on?

Not all creatures you’ve just killed have been processed yet. Because of the number of insects killed in such a short amount of time, the numbers may take some time to finalize.

I looked over at where I had unleashed my spell and only observed blackened dirt. The ants had stopped streaming from the dirt mound, and the ones that had been outside had completely disappeared, their bodies literally evaporated when I unleashed the spell’s final effect.

Its power with that many targets was undeniable.

It was completely devastating.

And it wasn’t even at its highest rank.