Ambush
"Remember, Geo! If an enemy tries to attack you, you must activate the barrier!" Ace said to Geo while inspecting the situation.
"Mmm," Geo nodded.
After discussing with everyone, They agreed to hunt some ants after having lunch. The time difference between their local time and in the game is 5 to 6 hours. It was realized by them because after they logged in to the game after having lunch, the game world was already dusk.
After listening to Sofia's explanation about granite ant, they formulated a tactic. They didn't know if it would work well, so they wanted to test it. They decided to lay an ambush after dusk when most ants would already come back to their nest, based on Sofia's new knowledge from the library.
There were many bushes and not too high trees around the nest entrance. When many ants had already entered their nest, Ace's family could wander quietly in the cover of darkness.
For Ace who had extraordinary senses, the darkness of the dusk couldn't prevent him from leading everyone to find an ambush point without being noticed.
They chose an ambush point not too near from their hill, but not too far either. They didn't want the trace of the ambush to lead the ants to the hill if they battled around the hill. However, being too far away from the hill would be very dangerous if they met enemies that they couldn't face. So they decided to lay an ambush about 200 meters from the hill, so they could retreat immediately to the hill if they were forced to.
Jumpy stayed still on top of a thick branch of a tree. Under it, Sofia, Geo, and Cloud were sitting silently. The three looked nervous waiting for their first fight in the game. Sampson hid behind a bush 3 meters in front of the three.
As for Ace, he was crouching behind another bush alone.
They had been waiting for about 15 minutes, and some groups of ants had passed a few meters from their location a few times without noticing them. The ants walked in 3 to 5 per group toward their nest.
Ace nodded,
'He is starting again!' Ace said in his heart, annoyed. He decided to inspect the situation again. He then heard some movements. Something was approaching them.
He then looked in the direction where the voice came from. Then, he saw it. An ant was walking alone.
<
Ace had already prepared everything before. In his belt, two jack cards, a queen of clubs card, and two joker cards.
There was an interesting thing that Ace just found out. If he put three random cards and two joker cards inside the slots of the belt, the joker cards would be considered as supplementary cards that can form the best combination that can be constructed. For example, if he put in cards with the following value 2 of diamonds, 9 of clubs, and Ace of hearts, the joker cards would be considered as 2 ace cards, so he would get three of a pair combination.
For his current combination, he got pretty good boosts
[For making a four of a kind combination, you get these effects:
• Agility x 1,7
• Strength x 1,8
• MP recovery x 2]
Although the bonus to his strength was a little wasted, the boosts to his agility and MP recovery was very helpful. What made him a little depressed was that his attributes that were boosted were random.
Before he sparred with his brother, he got boosted in his Vitality, Physical defense, and magic defense. He had tried several times to put in some combinations. What he found out was, the combination only determined the total amount of the boosting.
The attributes that were boosted were always random, and they would change every hour. So, even if he changed the combination several times in a few minutes, what was changed was only the total boosting that he got, not the attributes.
Besides that, he also prepared a jack of hearts in his left hand and a 10 of spades cards in his right one.
Sampson said on the party chatting channel. He then moved to the open space between the bushes until he could see the ant clearly. Actually, he was still behind the bushes, if someone looked from different directions.
He then pointed his spear to the ant that was 7 meters from him. His finger and his spear then shone.
The ant then was pulled to Sampson's spearhead.
*stab*
-35
Sampson frowned, The damage that he dealt seemed to be fewer than he had expected. He didn't dare to use 'roar', as it would attract other ants. He then tried to pull his spear.
The ant was surprised. It then turned his body to bite Sampson. But Ace's card attack came and hit its head. And delayed its attack to Sampson.
*Bam*
-46
The attack was successful, but Ace didn't feel good. What he had thrown was Jack of hearts. It should bind the ant, but it didn't. Ace thought it failed to take effect because his level was lower than the ant's. He then threw another jack card from his belt.
*Bam*
-46
It successfully bound the ant. It fell down and could only wait for Ace's team to deal more damage.
After that, Jumpy jumped to the ant and started to attack it, Sampson also attacked the ant continuously. Sofia also shot her mana ball.
-10
-13
-33
-14
-25
-34
Ace didn't want to be left behind, threw 10 of spades with his right hand and joker card with his left hand. He changed the joker to become 10 of hearts.
-78
-78
Four seconds later, the ant died when still bound by Ace's card effect. A white crystal then appeared and floated atop of the ant's carcass.
"We did it!" Geo jumped in excitement.
"Yeah!" Sofia squatted then high-fived with Geo.
The team then moved to the hill quickly.
Half a minute after that, 5 ants that were attracted by the commotion came and after finding that nothing was wrong. They went to their nest.
***
"That was close," Sampson said while looking at five ants that had entered their nest.
"That was dangerous. However, the harvest that we got was pretty bountiful. My experience bar has risen to more than 16% full. After defeating 5 more ants, we will level up. And we also got a white crystal and the ant's carcass," Ace said jubilantly.
"So, will we open the crystal first or hunt more ants?" Sofia asked.
"I think we should hunt at least until we level up. It will be good if we can level up before dinner," Cloud said.
No one had another opinion, so everyone came back to hunt some ants.
***