Chapter 66: Ant Hill Dungeon Part 3

"I've got a proposition for ya." Derrick said with the faintest smile on his face. His sudden approach had definitely gotten Roberts attention and he was just glad the annoying knight in shining armor didn't immediately start to threaten him like many of the other members of his group had done whenever they crossed paths.

"What are you doing here Derrick? It's already bad enough you've been kill stealing in the last ant wave, now you want to cause even more trouble." Robert glared at him while frowning.

"Hey, hey we were just taking out the ants that were a threat ya know. Nothing personal about it. Besides if anyone was kill stealing it would have been that pair with their pet beast. They might as well have taken all the kills for themselves ya know." Derrick said with a smile. Many of the people thought over the comment and were a bit surprised that for the most part Derrick spoke the truth. They were all just too stunned to realize it at the time.

"They just showed their strength in the face of battle unlike your group that stayed as far away as possible while only targeting ants on the verge of dying." Robert said reminding everyone of the difference between Joshua and the raiders group. "Trying to make it seem like he was in it just to steal kills from us won't work on me."

"Fine, fine you've got me there." Derrick said with a faint smile and the others glared at him a bit in return. "Though he will be stealing the dungeon right under our noses at the rate things are going."

"What do you mean?" Someone shouted from Roberts's group causing Derricks smile to grow even more now that he had some of the people hooked on his words.

"Well a pair of people that strong wouldn't come here just to kill a few ants. I mean look how they easily handled an entire wave of them. There is no way that they are going inside just to farm more ants. They don't seem like the types to waste their time." Derrick explained getting nods from the rest of the group. "So if I had to guess I'd say they've gone on inside to look for the dungeon, after all ya got to expect people like them to go after dungeons and not just the small things."

"So what's your point? Nobody has found the dungeon to this place since people started coming to this area and it's been well over a year at this point. Anyone that stays in there to long gets chased off by a tide of ants before they can even sniff a path leading towards a dungeon. You should know that better than anyone else with all the time you've spent searching." Robert said with a slight smile as he watched Derrick frown a bit at his insinuation.

"Well nobodies been able to bring along a beast that can single handedly kill a tide of ants either. Hell that turtle could be even stronger than the spider for all we know and you're going to tell me you think a wave of ants is going to get in their way?" Derrick asked causing others to nod at his remark.

"Get to the point Derrick." Robert said with a frown.

"My point is with all the time we've spent at this damn ant hill how are we going to let two new guys just walk in here and claim the dungeon. They'll get the experience boost they'll get the fame, they'll get the system points, and if you hadn't forgotten they'll get the first clear as well. That means a high grade skill that won't be up for grabs after the first run is completed." Derrick said while letting a little of his anger shine through.

"Then what do you think it just belongs to you then?"

"No, but I sure as hell aint going to let some newbies get it without even trying myself. Is that what you want? You want to just sit aside and let them claim the dungeon? Is that what you all want?!" Derrick nearly shouted. At this time members of his guild had come over to back him up and there was a clear tension between the two groups. The two sides stared at each other for a moment before Robert held his hands up to get his side to calm down and Derrick followed up soon after.

"Since you came to us I'm assuming you want our help in catching up to them and finding the entrance to the dungeon then. Though I highly doubt you would actually want any of us to be a part of getting the dungeon for ourselves." Robert said.

"Of course not, I'm only doing this for my guild, but that doesn't mean you won't get a fair shake. Hell any group that goes in with us will get their own shot at claiming the dungeon, but at least we'll all actually get a shot with my plan." Derrick said now turning back to his fake friendly persona.

"Then what's your plan big shot?"

"Simple, we follow their trail at first since I get the feeling those two aren't going to have much trouble finding the dungeon entrance. Of course they'll have a big head start on us, but once we actually find the dungeon that will all change now won't it. We can fight together until we reach the dungeon and then at that point which ever group clears it first gets the spoils." Derrick finished explaining. He waited and watched as Roberts's side of the crowd seemed to be murmuring to each other as they discussed things. He even saw other smaller groups that had walked over to find out what was going on agree to his idea.

"Alright fine, we'll go with your idea, but when we're fighting together to find the dungeon I expect your group to actually fight instead of standing in the back and doing nothing but stealing other people's kills." Robert said getting a chuckle out of Derrick.

"Sure no problem. We'll fight together up until the point where the dungeon appears…deal?" Derrick said with an out stretched hand.

"Deal." Robert simply replied with the others behind him nodding along.

"Well then we best get prepared to head inside then. Don't want those two getting too far ahead of us and we especially don't want the trail they leave behind getting overrun by ants. Let's all head inside in ten minutes." Derrick said before the members of his guild rushed off to get prepared. Robert simply nodded and his people followed the same example. Derrick smiled to himself after seeing his plan work so easily. Even though Robert was an upstanding guy in most regards even he wasn't going to just stand aside and let someone else take a public dungeon without fighting for it himself. In the end all Derrick needed from Robert was help getting in the place and finding the dungeon. From that point on they could split ways and Derrick would take every advantage he could to make sure the dungeon clear ended up in the Raider's Guild's hands.

After a few minutes they had all grouped and followed the entrance that Joshua and Lilly had gone inside earlier. The path didn't seem any different from any of the other paths that they had taken before and several of those had either lead them to a dead end or right back to the outside of the ant hill in some elaborate way. Derrick was certain they were following the path of Joshua simply because of the clear footprints of the giant spider that was moving alongside them. He was surprised they hadn't run into any sorts of ant trails which meant that for some reason Joshua and Lilly were able to avoid the ants or an even crazier thought was the idea that the ants were avoiding them.

It took a long time of following the trail and the entire time they hadn't run into any groups of ants as if they were afraid to go in the direction of the path for some reason. After a while they finally came across something that was completely different from any other path they had seen in the ant hill before. A wall that usually meant a dead end was now laid out crumbled on the ground in front of them. The path was recently broken apart from what Derrick could tell and the only footprints going through the area belonged to the giant spider along with Joshua and Lilly. "See I told you those two would have found something different." Derrick said with a grin as he looked back towards Robert. Robert just huffed in response before they proceeded further down the newly created path.

They followed the path for a little while until the group came across a scene like they had never seen before. It was a large area filled with several ants that were blocking their path forward. There were also some other weird creatures, but that wasn't the main thing Derrick noticed when looking at the place. The main thing he noticed was the large amount of damage done to the area near the other side of it. There were several ant corpses and flames were still burning some of the structures built by the ants. There was water all over the place and all of the ants were running around frantically trying to fix all the issues that were going on. Even the flying ants were carrying stuff from place to place to keep them from burning do to the slowly dying fire.

Even with all the damage there were still quite a few ants left to stand in their way, but Derrick grinned at the situation since it wouldn't be all that much worse than an ant wave. They had the space to mover around and position unlike inside the tunnels so they wouldn't have to flee right away the moment the ants noticed them. The group decided to bravely charge forward and clear their way through the large amount of ants. The moment the ants realized there were more intruders they dashed over to fight them. The knights stood out front and stopped the ants charge while the others started dealing as much damage as possible.

At first things seemed to be going incredibly well, with them slowly pushing forward at a steady pace. Problems didn't start to arise until the flying ants came over and started attacking from the air. People that were out of position would be picked up and dropped from high up in the air into the swarming group of ants below. Of course the mages had turn their focus to taking the annoying flying ants down, but in the end they were more of a hindrance to the group than anything. The large aphids also started causing problems as they charged over and it took two tanks to slow them down enough for the others to start killing them.

The fighting raged on for what felt like hours, but finally the group made it all the way to the other side where the path continued and they had killed most of the ants in the room. They had lost a few people, but for the most part everyone was intact and they could make their way further inside. Just when they thought everything was going their way more ants came crawling into the big room from the ceiling and with the amount coming they would be hard pressed to survive for very long. Derrick and Robert urged everyone to hurry forward as they rushed up the new path that they could see the large spider and another large creature most likely being the turtle were moving along.

They came across several large dead ant bodies that were far bigger than the worker ants they had come across earlier and it was a good sign that Joshua and Lilly had found the right place to go. They charged up the path while staving off the ants that were following them and the chase went on for a while until they finally saw a light up ahead. They rushed towards the light and emerged into a large crater on the top of the mountain. They all rushed out into the crater and turned around to see several ants stop at the end of the path and look at them menacingly. They would have stopped to take a break, but they were playing catch up at this point and were still a ways behind the group they were chasing.

They found a stairwell and quickly headed down until they finally reached a path that lead to a slightly larger room where most of them could fit inside. In the room there were five doors, but one of them was locked with a glow to it. Derrick guessed that meant that was the path that Joshua had taken. "Well I guess this it, we'll split up from here. Best of luck to ya." He said with a smile before leading his group through one of the doors. It locked behind him and a smirk appeared on his face. He was finally in the dungeon and he was going to do everything he could to make sure he cleared it first.