As the ants moved in, the Earthlord Python sat in one place and spat a cascade of small, brown balls into the air. They soared with unerring accuracy and struck the midst of the largest groups, each exploding into splinters and shredding the bodies of Caesar’s army. Some managed to stay alive, the fragments not hitting any vitals, and the Halo of Life helped restore them back to fighting condition. But he still winced. Over an eighth of his army had died in the barrage, not counting those who had been heavily wounded.

The python switched targets, seeing the reduced efficacy of its attacks. Brown energy flowed near its mouth and formed into a flurry of spikes which could not be dodged, only blocked by the healer’s fellow ants. It continued casting. As more and more ants perished to defend the Queensguard, two rank two soldiers appeared in front.

Soon, Caesar thought as he slunk closer. He waited until the python felt encouraged by its progress, almost tearing through the two soldier ants and finally killing its greatest enemy. Suddenly, a hippopotamus appeared and denied it the satisfaction. The reflected earthen spears soared back towards the mouth of the python, impaling the insides of its mouth in gruesome red.

It shrieked in pain and stopped casting, now slithering to fight in melee as the ants continued to move forwards. Barriers shifted to protect those closest, allowing them to shrug off a few swipes of its tail and exhaust the python further. To protect itself, it activated its facet, and a silent wind began to blow. Within seconds, a whirlwind of dust appeared, blocking the vision of his hippo from unleashing its more powerful spells onto the animal.

Although almost surrounded, it grew overconfident once again and swept into the crowd of ants with renewed vigor. Each lash of its tail swept the ants about, before it sank back into the dust to restore its stamina and cast spells without interruption.

More Fragmentation Orbs rained downwards, killing even more of his army and making Caesar breathe sharply. Fortunately, although powerful, it hadn’t yet mastered the skill of moving and casting at the same time, reducing its damage potential. Thus, when he ordered his minions to increase the pressure and when a Curse of Impotence fell upon the python, it found itself unable to wade through the mire of ants. Its thrashing increased wildly in intensity, splattering more ants onto the floor and launching them all over the area.

But that furor tired it even more. With the Earthlord greatly fatigued by its death throes, the rank two ants began to advance, although over half the army had died. Even though the python knew its death was likely, it still tried to escape. It carved a path away from the horde, leaving its dust storm behind only to face the hippo in direct melee. A half-hearted struggle ensued, as the behemoth tore chunks out of its body and allowed the Apex Predator Queensguard to inject its venom inside.

Caesar sprinted around and marked it before his minions killed the python. He then retreated and watched it die, thinking about what monsters to prioritize hunting.

As all Magic had its limits, the many spells cast had drained the python of its Mana before it was forced to fight hundreds of ants. His exhaustion tactic worked. Yet the enemy’s True Strike had been a major factor in this success, which a hydra didn’t need to cast before each area of effect spell. Caesar nodded, and realized he needed minions sturdy enough to withstand many Rare or even Epic spells in order to tire the hydra out. Thus, summoners became his best option, whose minions could still muster rank two stats although they lacked abilities.

[Notice]: Congratulations! Your Tomb Hippopotamus has leveled up to Level 26! +2 Free Stat Points

When a black wisp flew from the corpse and into his crown, he sighed in both relief and pain. Fortunately, around half the ants remained alive and could still fight the human encampment if need be. He put the two extra stat points into its Magic.

His new Earthlord Python slithered round and round its own corpse while he checked its status screen. Beams of light flared into the distance. His ant queen approached it to ward off her ants from attacking.

Earthlord Python: Rare

Level 35: 70 Free Stat Points -> 30 -> 10, 1 Perk Points

Ability: Geomantic Locus (A) – Rank 2

Facet: Dust Storm (B)

Talents: Earthen Sensing, Gigantism

Skills:

Geomancy – Earth Spikes, Fragmentation Orb

Divination – True Strike, Locate Enemies

Mana:

Strength: 15 -> 21

Agility: 12 -> 18

Vitality: 15 -> 25

Magic: 18 -> 25 -> 45

Willpower: 11

Spirit: 14 -> 25

[Geomantic Locus (A)]: An ability that designates a nearby area as the user’s locus of magic, bolstering the power and range of all Geomancy and Divination spells cast inside the radius while the user remains in contact with the earth. Cooldown is a day to shift the area to another location.

It also grants protection from negative effects of water within the radius, including spells, abilities, weather, and terrain.

[Dust Storm (B)]: A facet that causes a violent dust storm to appear for thirty minutes in a location within the user’s sight. Cooldown is an hour.

[Earthen Sensing]: A talent that allows this entity to detect things with high energy inside the earth.

Earth Spikes was an Uncommon area of effect spell, hurling many small spikes forwards with a short casting time. Somebody with above-average skill could turn it into a more focused damage-dealing attack by sending all the spikes into a desired spot. Fragmentation Orb cost four Spirit to memorize, one more than Earth Spikes, and resembled a Fireball with more range. He felt satisfied with this summon, which gave him mobile area of effect capabilities.

True Strike

[Effects]: A Divination spell which enhances the caster’s next attack with unnatural accuracy. Has a very short cast time.

[Rarity]: Uncommon

[Memorization Cost]: 3

[Mana Cost]: 10 Mana

Locate Enemies also cost three Spirit and pulsed the nearby area in a radius. Above-average casters could recognize the signals generated by the spell and realize the general power of those caught within, which included Rarity, Level, and possibly more.

Caesar watched the python spin around without pause, thinking if he should keep the Free Stat Points or place them into its Magic to maximize it for this rank. Although materials which granted Magic appeared relatively rare compared to physical stats, it still felt worth it for him to withhold it in case he needed more Spirit. With a level this high, it wouldn’t level up anytime soon without going to a rank three dungeon or killing many Level 30 individuals.

It looks pretty traumatized by its own death. Caesar sighed at the devastation, giving tender looks to his minions while tallying the losses and gains. A majority of the ants had died, and yet, a human encampment still awaited them. Even so, he decided not to give the ants the loot they had secured and opted to use it for himself instead.

The heart of the Strangler King gave a single point of Vitality to even rank two people who consumed it: something absolutely critical to achieve rank three. At the start of rank two, Rare entities like humans had a maximum of twenty-five points in their core stats. However, they only received forty Free Stat Points at their maximum level of forty, which could not push them to fifty stat points in two different stats. Thus, to rank up, they needed to make up the difference with materials like these.

Only herbalist geniuses could enhance the efficacy of this material to grant two Vitality, which was out of question for Caesar. He consumed it and felt the energy roam throughout his body, giving him his twenty-eighth point after a few minutes.

The other animal packs they had fought contained different materials inside their bodies, some of which gave stats to the ants. Yet, a skilled herbalist could make them suitable for human consumption, giving those same stats to humans instead. He decided to store most away for later, until he had enough practice to do so himself. Three sets of weaker materials went inside one pouch for practice, while three other sets which bolstered Vitality went inside another for when his skill reached an acceptable level. Those would be his primary focus.

The remaining two sets went to his ant queen, who ate them for an additional point in Strength.

Sacrificing the ant legion made his heart ache, and he vowed to never have to sacrifice his skeleton mage nor his wolf. Especially Max. A rank up for the mage would be in order soon, while the wolf needed something else to become a fighter worthy of his team. He decided to listen to some of the rumors he had heard before, of animals suddenly becoming stronger after eating different materials found in the wild. Naturally, this would need plenty of testing before he actually fed them to his wolf.

His ants picked out the flesh of the Earthlord Python as its essence core watched in panic. Caesar put up his hand and allowed it to keep most of its corpse intact, yet still let his ants give him the most important piece of its body: a golden-brown ball which grew near its back. Also called a geomantic locus.

[Item]: Geomantic Locus – Rank 2

[Rarity]: Rare

[Effects]: A material imbued with energies of the earth, or a catalyst for rank 1 abilities. Grants Magic when consumed.

Did the hippo have something like this too? My mistake. He had been so preoccupied with the other loot in the hidden dungeon that he forgot to even attempt to dig out something from the hidden boss’ body.

The python drew close to him and stared with pitiful eyes.

“Do you also want us to bury it?”

It nodded. Caesar frowned at it, and it slunk back in fear.

“We don’t have time. Leave it, unless you think you can dig better than the ants.”

It turns out it could. With its newfound obsession generated by the presence of its own corpse, the python frenziedly tore at the ground and dug a deep hole before pushing the body into it. Supported by the larger ants, it only took about half an hour for the snake to complete its task.

Caesar took a short nap throughout, allowing his Kelpie and Tomb Hippo to regenerate a bit more Mana for the next possible fight. The Apex Predator sidled up next to him and began to investigate his body. Perhaps it felt that they might have a better chance of a clean escape if it could apply its facet better to him. It too, did not want more ants to die.

The Ripjaw Ant Queen had spawned two Princess ant larvae beforehand the series of fights, who by now had consumed enough material to fully grow. If all went smoothly, they – along with the two Queensguard – would lead the ants inside the dungeon while Caesar summoned their queen for different tasks. If successful, they might provide him with another surprise, although he didn’t expect much without his support.

It was time to leave. They headed towards the exit of the dungeon, where plenty of men and women in Order of the Fox equipment stood and watched their surroundings. Most were very bored, as they themselves didn’t expect anybody to flee here. Not only did the victim have to kill his captors first, but he’d also have to evade the diviners who could track them across the entire dungeon. That low likelihood, coupled by an early detection system, made these guards lazy.

The ants surrounded the area, waiting for a signal to attack: the Earthlord Python itself. They cared not about previous enemies, only that their queen approved. If nothing happened within an hour, they’d retreat.

Under the effect of the Apex Predator’s facet, Caesar vanished from sight, smell, and sound. He snuck into the midst of the enemy camp in less than half an hour and looked around. Greed welled up in his heart and he decided to move towards the most heavily guarded place. With over half his time remaining, what could go wrong?

----

After Alta, disguised as Gollj of the Fox Cult, had told them about his “masterful assassination” against a member of the Pax Society, they invited him to their meeting spot in another barren area of the city. Before going, he went down to the man’s corpse in the cellar and cut the head off with a precise slice, then used Masquerade on it. Now, it looked more like her own face before.

The fake “Gollj” slipped out of the house carrying a lookalike of Alta’s head in his hands. Hopefully, this would give the Doppelganger a few more weeks to stall out the situation before Caesar arrived. Or possibly, set a trap.