{Fire resistance has risen to lv 17}, {Pain resistance has risen to lv 23}

{Heal has risen to lv 3}

{High health regeneration has risen to lv 5}

{Will power has risen to lv 14}

*Level up*

[All skills level up by 1.]

I was checking the notifications I had gained from surviving the dome, when I suddenly heard a familiar voice asking me a not very nice thing.

“Ho-How come you are still alive and kicking?”

I flinched when I saw that it was my vice leader and noticed that he looked somewhat… abnormal.

“Well thanks for wanting me dead, but what’s with that pink glow?”

“Huh, Ah, I didn’t mean it like that, but you can see it, the glow I mean?!”

*Huff*

I scoffed at his answer and pointed out, “What do you mean, whether I can see it? Its acting like a beacon and lighting you up like a target that everyone should be attracted toward.”

{Mood influence resistance has risen to lv 9}

“Ah, even my mood resistance is increasing just by being near you! What the hell happened to you leader?”

But instead of answering me he looked at the ground and slowly mumbled, “Oh! it’s a long story.” Before his spirit once again shot up and he yelled out, “Forget that, and tell me how did you destroy the dome and came out alive without any injuries?”

“Injuries?" I checked and saw that all the burns that even heal couldn't cure were completely gone and remembered my laatest level up.

"Oh! I have a skill heal that helped me regress some of the injuries, and the rest of them were taken care of by my level up. Now that I see…”

I looked at the place where the enemy mages were once standing and saw that their existed only a black smudge and nothing else.

*Gulp*

I shivered with excitement and astonishment at the destructive ability of the unlocked option, but right then my otherwise sane vice leader asked me an unusually stupid question.

“Wait a minute, you leveled up from killing the mages?! But when did you rank up?”

I could only look stupefied at my captain’s sincere and stern gaze, and think to myself, ‘Did he get hit in the head or something.’

Seeing that he became suspicious of me for some reason and got his guard up, I hurriedly explained that I wasn’t a ranker yet and urged him to explain why he was acting in such a way.

He took his sweet time and asked me several question like who I was, the names of my friends, whether I knew who had asked me to join the team and only after I answered every single one of them correctly did he let go of my neck which he was absolutely in the mood to break.

“What the hell was that about?” I asked him, while massaging my neck and he opened his mouth to say something, but then looked back.

“There are too many ants here.” He said and turned to face me.

I saw a glint forming in his eyes and his face turning cold. Having lived through countless battles myself, I knew something was wrong about the whole situation, and silently activated my various skills.

Mind reading didn’t work on him for some reason, and then I saw him lifting his hands.

Seeing that he was acting, I got ready to defend myself. Sure he was my vice leader and I liked him a lot, but I loved my life more.

But my dangerous thoughts of his betrayal didn’t manifest to become reality, and instead of attacking me, Vice-leader simply turned me toward the dome and asked me to walk slowly and to not act suspiciously.

“Let’s go into the dome.” He said.

I wanted to ask him what this all was about, but the Dome wasn’t that far and I decided that I might as well just enter it.

Though I did notice his eyes opening wide when he saw the amount of destruction I had caused to the Dome, but he didn’t ask me anything and once we reached exactly at the middle, he asked me to stop, turn and to face him.

“Okay, this is enough. Now tell me everything. Tell me all about for how long you have been leveling and what your current level is. But first confirm my doubt again; Are you really not a ranker?”

I didn’t know how to respond to the situation. At one side was my heart which was telling me to answer his questions, and on other hand my brain was telling me to run away.

Stuck between a hard and rock place, I decided to give my vice leader a chance and started answering his questions.

“No, I am not a ranker yet. I gained my first level during the invasion. I killed three soldiers and leveled up. The second level up came upon killing the blood worm and…”

I told him how and when I had gained all of my levels, and saw his face getting stiffer and stiffer and by the time I told him that I was level 7 he had completely turned into stone.

He looked as if a master sculptor had sculpted his shocked appearance onto a stone and placed it in front of him. He didn’t speak anything while I was speaking, and the first words he spoke after hearing me were, “But that’s not possible.”

I was going to ask him what was not possible, but he asked me one more question which was even stranger than those other ones.

“Firstly tell me do you have mental corruption resistance or not?”

I looked, no stared to burn a hole through him, but seeing him being serious, I sighed and decided that no matter what he asked, I’ll just answer him and we’ll see where this was going.

“Yes, I do.” I answered and he nodded his head, before asking, “So how high is it. Has it reached level 5 yet?”

Once again, the thoughts asking me 'where is all of this was heading' appeared in my mind, but I still honestly replied to him.

I told him that my mental corruption had long ago evolved into the Intermediate realm, and he spurted out saliva directly at my face, which I had a lot of difficulties dodging, but in the end I successfully did.

“Even uncle’s resistance has only recently reached lv 20 and he has been working on it for the last seven years.” He mumbled and then lifted his head to look me dead in the eyes.

“SO, what about Mind control resistance and thought influence resistance? I know you have them, just tell me how high they are.” He asked me being slightly excited, but mostly nervous.

Sighing I answered him, feeling bored and an itch which was urging me to yell at him to just get to the point.

And he gave me the same stupified reaction once again upon hearing my answer.

“How the hell did you grow your mind control resistance to lv 8?! That’s just absurd to even think about!”

I was going to explain, but he cut me short and stared telling me the real reason.

“So I can’t tell you much right now. Not without getting permission, but I can tell you about the level ups and how they work in our colony. Many questions will emerge I your heart and you’ll think that I’m lying and everything, but don’t speak until I finish my explanation. Okay”

I nodded my head and he started.

“Firstly, don’t yell after hearing this, but novice ants don’t level up.”

An explosion happened in my mind.

“What?!” I yelled out and his face crumbled.

“Now, I know this probably came as a surprise to you, but Novice ants don’t gain level or experience form killing other living things.”

“But then how do they??“

“Shh. Just listen, I’m getting to that part. Novices don’t level up, they mature over time.”

I tilted my head in confusion and he changed his wording.

“I mean they naturally rank up in a minimum of one and maximum of four months. Those who don’t mature, stays as a novice forever.”

He then shook his head and continued.

“But the problem with your level doesn’t end at that. Not only are you leveling up after killing other life forms, but the speed you are leveling up, it’s too similar to our speed of leveling. It’s like you are gaining levels like a ranker, maybe this is the reason for your strength.”

I wanted to retort, and tell him that I wasn’t strong, but he scoffed seeing me acting up.

“Yeah, if someone who could destroy the dome single handedly while being confined inside of it is not strong, then maybe the rest of us should just go back to the nursery alright.”

And that made me keep my mouth shut.

“Anyways, about your level ups; I think it’s better, No, just make sure that you don’t tell anyone about it and tell me once you reach lv 10. I want to know whether you also get the half-evolution choice or not. Now that I have said all that wanted to say, could you please tell me how in the world did you break the Dome? Was that a skill?”

I saw his curious face and spoke scratching my head.

“Ah! Well, you can say that.”

I smiled softly and checked the skill I had unlocked right at the death doors.

{Wind Cannonball has reached lv 10.}

[Wind cannonballs Special skill: Vacuum Bomb Unlocked.]

Vacuum bomb: When in work, The wind cannon ball instead of releasing raging winds all over the place, will instead create a low pressure zone at the point of contact and suck all the matter toward itself. The cannon ball will then compress all the energy and release it in its initial direction of motion.

There is a 2% chance of your Wind cannon ball changing into Vacuum bomb.

High luck improves the probability of Vacuum Bomb appearing from 2% to 30%. Once the probability reaches 100% Wind cannonball will evolve into Vacuum Bomb.

If it wasn’t for this then I would have only been able to come out of the dome without my body.

I remembered how it happened and shuddered once again. I thanked high luck for allowing my first wind ball to turn into the vacuum ball. If it had failed then I was sure that me turning into carbon was a done deal, finalized and signed by the devil.

I shook my head and looked at the destruction which the Vacuum ball had caused and shuddered.

All the enemy mages had been obliterated and only a black smudge was left in their place.

‘Well, they got a taste of their own medicine.’

But who knew that the vacuum would not only attract all the fire toward it, but even compress it enough that the dome wasn’t even able to withstand the heat produced by the ray for a single second.

Vacuum ball was actually a two stage skill. First stage was to create and fire it, the second and the main stage was where it made contact with the object of choice, suck all the matter from the surroundings and then fire it of like a laser beam.

But as I was lost in my own thoughts, I felt a slap on my back, which brought me out of my stupor and then Vice–leader hugged me.

I wanted to push him away from me, but his words struck at nail which team leader’s death and pinned onto my heart and made me sad.

“Thank god you are alive. Thank god, even you didn’t leave us too.”

He didn’t let go, and I let him silently shed tears on my shoulder. This moment became a silent secret between the two of us, and made me understand a little the kind of ant our vice leader was.

He then let go and we walked out of the dome and coincidently at the same time an ant climbed over the wall and reached the groove. He looked at us, smirked and went ahead after nodding his head.

I squinted in confusion, as I couldn’t understand what was happening, but that was just the start.

Following that even more ants came over the wall, stopped into the groove before climbing over.

But no matter who came, they all smirked at me and captain before going out.

I didn’t understand at first what was happening and shuddered thinking that maybe they had misunderstood. I hurriedly moved away from Vice-leader, who smacked me in the head in response and yelled out.

“That is not it you idiot! Just look out the groove and you’ll see.”

I didn’t let him get near me, walked over and looked out of the groove. The scene stunned me. All the ants in the groove were climbing over the wall.

It was like someone had opened all the cell doors in a prison, and told the prisoners that they were free. The ants from my colony were behaving like the prisoners who had finally been freed.

Vice leader came close and gestured me to look up, I followed his lead and saw that the ceiling was gone. All of our allies were being eaten by the blue sky and warm light coming from the hole in the ceiling.

“So that’s it.”

Vice leader placed his hand on my shoulder and spoke looking at the bright sunlight giving hope to our broken hearts.

“You don’t know this, but your actions today saved the lives of everyone who were confined in the cavern. If you hadn’t taken the initiative to risk your life to kill those cowards in the groove, then we would still be confined in the cavern waiting for our deaths at their hands.” He nodded his head with sparkling eyes.

“Come on let’s go.” He said and started climbing with our other brothers and sisters.

I looked down once and saw our three captains fighting, no, finishing their fight with the last two captains of the enemy forces.

The enemy soldiers were trying to stop our brothers from climbing the walls, but with most of their forces rushing out from the tunnels and leaving the cavern, they had no chance to accomplish that.

Having seen that the fight inside the cavern was a flame about to blow off, I too started climbing the walls and soon reached outside the fake mound and into the open wide world, where the real war was going on.

I saw my vice leader and our team waiting outside for me.

“You came. Then let’s go.”

Saying that vice leader stared walking toward the battle which had already been turned into a one sided slaughter.

Far away was the enemy forces trying to stop our six thousand strong ant army and failing to do so.

And if that’s wasn’t all, then there was us, who still had near two thousand members alive and getting ready to claw at their tail.

Though the enemy forces were able to keep our army at bay, but with the inclusion of us in the fray, the balance which they had created easily tipped to our side.