Notifications

Congratulations! You have cleared the open dungeon Giant Devil Ants. You have received the dungeon loot box. Because you have killed all mobs in the dungeon, solo, you have received the title The Exterminator. You have leveled up to level 16.

The body of the queen lay in front of me, unmoving.

Dead.

Soft dings alerted me to the multiple notifications I had gotten from killing the boss. Apparently, this had been an open dungeon, and I had cleared it.

Groaning, I collapsed onto the floor and watched as the queen devil ant disintegrated into a flurry of sparkles.

On top of the loot bag it dropped, I had received another reward for killing it, including a yellow, present like box with a small ribbon tying it together.

Item Window

Name Dungeon Loot Box - Devil Ants Grade A+ Information Open the box to see your rewards!

Before lifting the lid, I activated Aligned Perception v.1 to see through the box.

A pale, yellow aura surrounded it, and surprisingly, it didn’t become translucent. Frowning, I looked around, wondering if maybe me perk wasn’t working?

Everything else had turned semi transparent, so why hadn’t this box? I could even see through the loot bags on the floor, which held various weird shaped items.

What was really weird though, was the crimson aura surrounding me. It, too, was pale, but a very, very dark red.

Deactivating Aligned Perception, I slowly lifted the lid of the box. A bright light emerged from it, blinding me, then disappeared and a couple of notifications filled my vision.

Notifications

You have opened Dungeon Loot Box - Devil Ants. You have received a Giant Devil Ant Egg. You have received Weapon Upgrade Stone x2. You have received an Armour Upgrade Stone. You have received Minor Healing Potion x3. You have received 10000 EXP.

The items appeared in my hand, tumbling from my grasp and onto the floor, spilling everywhere.

“The heck? Where did these come from?”

By this time, I was sick of things appearing and disappearing into thin air.

I collected them, and seeing how my health was still at a measly 20%, decided to drink a healing potion.

Just in case.

Not because I wanted to try it out or anything.

The potion itself was a small glass vial filled with a red liquid, looking exactly like healing potions that I had seen in video games.

“Well, here goes nothing! Cheers to staying alive!”

I unscrewed the cap of the potion and chugged it.

A warm feeling swept through my entire body and yes, I glowed for a second, before feeling rejuvenated. My HP shot back up to 100 and I wondered if this, a minor healing potion, could heal so much HP, how much would a medium or even a major potion heal?

Now renewed and back at full HP, I gathered up the rest of the items on the floor, most of which I hadn’t seen before. I made sure to inspect the items before packing them carefully into my haversack.

Item Window

Name Weapon Upgrade Stone x2 Grade A Type Item consumable Use Increases the grade of any weapon by three Information A rare stone that has the ability to improve weapons. When a weapon’s grade is improved, the damage may increase. Weapon upgrade stones have been known to sell for as much as 700 gold a piece. Name Armour Upgrade Stone Grade A Type Item consumable Use Increases the grade of any armour by three Information A rare stone that has the ability to improve armour. When an armour's grade is improved, the armour points may increase. Armour upgrade stones have been known to sell for as much as 800 gold a piece. Name Giant Devil Ant Egg Grade A+ Type Egg Use Houses a giant devil ant Information ???

Again? Something Aligned Perception couldn’t identify?

I was pretty darn happy with the upgrade stones, as now if I sold just one of them I wouldn’t be in debt to Mei, and I could maybe afford to purchase some more items - this time not the weird things in Mei’s shop (no offense to her, of course).

The egg itself was warm to the touch, with a very smooth feel. It was scarlet, laden with a black swirling pattern on the sides. Inside it, a cluster of soft, pulsing lights could be seen through the shell.

“Wonder what this is?”

I proceeded to shake the poor egg, then remembered that it probably housed a living creature.

“Ok. Let’s not do that. That was kind of stupid.”

Shrugging, I packed the egg into the haversack with the rest of the items and trudged toward the queen’s loot bag. Once tapped, it dropped a handful of items, some of which were quite useful.

Item Window

Name Giant Devil Ant Queen's Leg x4 Grade C+ Type Consumable Use x2 speed buff for 5 minutes when consumed Information A spiky, hard item dropped from the devil ant queen. Not very tasty, but has very good properties. Name Devil Ant Breastplate Grade C+ Durability 40/40 Armour Points 8 Restrictions Strength 10+ Information An unnaturally light breastplate made from the giant devil ant queen - second form's shell. It has very high protection, yet no speed debuff. It's also surprisingly flexible and light, which allows it to be used by any class. Name Vial of Giant Devil Ant Queen's Acid Grade B- Type Consumable Information A very strong and toxic acid that can melt most materials.

The armour appealed to me the most. Grinning at my first actually decent piece of armour, I took off my tunic and slid it over my body. The purple black armour came to a rest softly over my shoulders and seemed to wrap around my body as I wore it. It was warm, but not too warm that I would overheat. When I touched it, the material seemed to bend, but if I hit the material with enough force, it would constrict and stop the blow.

Once again, I packed the rest of the items away into my bag, which by now was becoming quite full. I really needed a bigger one, or something that could help me store a large quantity of items.

“What a waste.” I muttered to myself as I gazed over the hundreds of fallen loot bags on the floor, courtesy of the giant devil ants I had slain.

Sighing, I picked up my haversack and trudged off to the town.

Wait. I froze.

Where was the town?

Bea had only brought me a little bit into the forest, which by now I had long past. I had been unconscious when Percy first brought me here, so I had no clue which direction Barli lay in terms of this clearing.

Then I remembered Kimi.

“Kimi, do you have a navigation function?”

“Yes, I do. However, you must map it out first with your eyes. Once you’ve seen a place, I can store it into a local map which you can access at any time.”

I frowned, then my intelligence saved me.

“But that’s only because we’re now one, right? Last time, when I was unconscious and brought to Barli, you were still apart from me.”

“Yes… I get where you’re coming from. However, if I showed you the way back, that would be cheating, wouldn’t it? I’m not supposed to give you any advantage over the other players, and doing this would be so. Aren’t your friends coming to get you anyways if you didn’t return by today?”

Well damn. It appeared that my console fairy had some sort of a moral compass, and was strictly bound to the rules.

“And how do you know about that?”

“Remember, I see everything you see, hear everything you hear. I’m a part of your mind now too.”

See everything I saw? That was kind of… gross.

“Ew, ok you didn’t need to tell me that. Now I’m getting disturbing thoughts of you.”

Sighing yet again, I strolled into the clearing and chucked my bag on the floor.

Today was going to be another long day.

* * *

Night had just about come by the time I finished collecting all of the loot into a pile in the middle of the clearing.

It was massive.

I hoped that Bea had brought another dimension with her, because there was no way we could bring all the loot back by hand.

The majority of the loot consisted of ant legs, strength potions, ant abdomens, which were worth only a little coin each. Though when I put them all together and I actually had a decent amount of money. Estimating that each leg was 1 coin each, the strength potions were 15 coins each, the abdomens 5 coins each and I had about a hundred or so of each of them, meant that I had quite a haul.

Apart from that, I had also managed to decipher what titles were. So in short, after reading a very, very long information sheet, they were permanent buffs that can vary from broad, to very specific.

The three titles that applied to me’s information were shown in another, very informative, screen.

Titles - Ikite Dorau

Name Pegasus' Blessing Buffs/Debuffs +100% affinity with horse-type creatures. +20% attack/defense damage when using light skills, weapons or armour. Information A very rare title that a pegasus can grant to one person during its lifteime. This title is very useful, mainly for light users. Name Rata's Blessing Buffs/Debuffs +50% EXP earned Information A mythical title that is received when one gains a skill from a legendary beast from Heaven. When Nata’s Blessing and Bata’s Blessing are applied to the same user, another mythical title will be gained which is much more powerful. This title is very useful for those wishing to level up fast. Name The Exterminator Buffs/Debuffs +50% damage against bug-type creatures. +50% damage when in combat with more than 5 opponents at once (+10% more for every opponent after 5). Information A title granted to one who manages to exterminate an entire colony of bugs by themselves.

“Ikite!”

Bea’s faint voice came from my right, alerting me that, finally, this day would be over.

“Here! I’m here!”

I shouted back towards her, hoping to get her attention before she went somewhere else.

“Ikite?”

This time her voice was questioning, so I knew that she had heard me.

“Here! Here! Follow my voice!”

A few moments later and she arrived, riding on… the baby pegasus?!

“Ikite! You had me so worried you know? Why haven’t you gone back home?”

Then she saw the pile of ant legs, the acid-scorched ground and raised an eyebrow.

“Well, looks like you’ve got some explaining to do.”

* * *

The walk back to the town was short, yet peaceful, knowing that I had done a great two day’s worth of grinding and reaped some pretty sweet rewards.

Bea had changed much too, during the five days which I hadn’t seen her for. She had upgraded her gear with money that came from someplace I didn’t know about. Now wearing a dyed elk hide jacket, courtesy of me, patched green cargo pants and sexy red high heeled boots, she looked truly spectacular, which I told her.

A few accessories, such as bracelets and rings hung around her arms that served her for much more than looks, including a handy inventorial ring, which stored up to a thousand items of any size. How it worked went beyond me, but at this point I was just glad to have someone to carry my items for me.

Apart from that, it appeared that she had leveled up to 15 too, and acquired some mastery for a few of her skills.

However, the most notable thing she had done during her time, was actually training the little pegasus child. Apparently, he had bonded to her and was now her familiar, although he couldn’t do much except carry us around. A quick check to his profile told me that he was a measly level 3, so not that useful in combat, yet his wings made up for it, being able to fly us high and fast.

“Next time, don’t go so deep into the forest again. At the outskirts, level 5-10 animals are all you will find. If you go as deep as that again, you might come across some druids or golems, and believe me, they won’t be happy to see you.”

Percy had chosen to immediately scold me as soon as I got back to Barli, acting like an overprotective father.

“Jeez Percy, calm down. I was fine, alright? I even got some new skills and leveled up some!”

I flashed him a reassuring smile, which he did not return. Instead, he gave me another disapproving frown.

“Don’t. Go. That. Far. Into. The. Forest. Again. You hear me?”

He raised his arm up threateningly and I was actually scared. He was level 55 after all. I had a right to be scared of him.

“Ok, ok, I promise I won’t go that deep unless someone is with me.”

At this, I gave Bea a wink, yet just like with Percy, no reply.

“Hey. Don’t wink at me. I was scared for you too, you know?”

Sigh.

Two worrywarts? One had been enough. At least my promise seemed to have done the trick.

“Good. Now back to your lodgings and I’ll see you here tomorrow morning, for some sparring. It’s time to see how much stronger you’ve gotten after 5 days of training.”