Monster Antinomy 101

After things calmed down, the villagers thanked the group for the aid. Asher overheard some people talk about how some soldiers went into the dungeon and got chased out by the ants. The ants followed the group out of the dungeon. Thankfully, most of the villagers knew how to fight, so the injuries were at a minimum. It was understandable since most of 

Since the group killed three ants, the town gave their corpses as a reward. Asher placed the three ants into his inventory. The ants disappeared into tiny fragments of light. Asher barely survived. He would have been ripped in two if it were not for Herta's magic item.

The group found the inn and got two rooms for the men and women. Kel grumbles about paying the total price when they help protect the town. 'It is not like we did a lot. We killed three of them. The townspeople kill 5 of them.' Asher thought to himself. El prepared the money; he would split anything the group did not spend among them. So, Kel wanted to save every cent they could.

The plan was to rest and recover tonight and begin the dungeon diving tomorrow. Once the party was all settled in, Kel called them in for a meeting. "Now we can say we are here; let's talk exploration strategy." Kel took command, passing a file of information on some of the creatures in the dungeon and a map of the dungeon. "The dungeon is known as Achane's Cavern. Most of the monsters inside are insectoids and are mostly weak to fire. We have maps of the upper three levels, but after that, information is sparse."

Asher looked over through the file. When he said insectoids, he was not exaggerating. Each one of the monsters was a massive version of an insect. Twin-horned Beatle, Berserker Cricket, False-moon Moth. The idea of half of them made Asher's skin crawl. But the description of the environment was what caught his eye. It was rich in life-elemental and enhancement-element ether.

'Enhancement... Now that I think of it.' Asher called up his inventory and stopped at the Ant corpses.

[Fiend Hill Ant Corpse]

Quality: intermediate (Burned-deceased)

Description: The body of Fiend Hill Ant. It is scratch and burn from its final battle. It has an enhancement-type monster core that has yet to be removed.

'Thought so... The ant was an enhancement-element monster.' The ant did not seem to have any distinguishable qualities of another element. However, its durability was terrific. It used the enhancement element to strengthen the exoskeleton, explaining why Ura's attack did little to it. 

"The main entry positions will be Killa in the front, Melos and Herta next, Veras, Ura, and I bringing up the rear. Veras, you are in charge of collection, so be quick about putting away any monster corpses and moving back to formation." Kel went over every contingency. By the time he was done, Asher felt drained. The information fried his brain. Kel was thorough in his planning.

When the meeting ended, Asher breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone had the afternoon to relax until they went to the dungeon tomorrow morning. Asher asked the lady who ran the inn if they had a storage room that he could use to dissect the ants that they had received. Thankfully, the inn had a storeroom behind the inn just for it.

Asher summoned the ant's corpse and laid it in the center of the storage room. The ant had to be twice Asher's size. Its exoskeleton was pretty and looked like a polished stone. Asher tried his scan skill.

[Scan Complete]

Fiend Hill Ant Corpse

The hard exoskeleton is valued for its pretty color, making it valued for jewelry and women's armor. Due to the constant supply of enhancement magic during life, the carapace can withstand much force without breaking. Many medical and alchemic practitioners could use its organs in medicine and alchemy.

Asher moved his hand over the carapace with no resistance. The surface was smooth to the touch. He had cruelly drowned this ant with an arrow of water. So, there were no scratches on the outside. He summoned a knife from his inventory. "I don't think it should be that different from a regular ant. If I remember correctly, ants have all their organs in the back." 

Asher carefully cut into the ant using the knife. The shell was like plates of impossibly strong armor. The small knife had no effect, not even scratching the surface of the ant. "How the hell were the others able to scratch this thing?" Asher found a seam along the exoskeleton. It was narrow and barely wide enough to force a knife between the plates.

The knife slid through the seam with little resistance. As Asher cut, he was able to pry the armor open. The exoskeleton consisted of two pieces: an upper and a lower plate. Once Asher removed the upper plate, he could dissect the rest of the ant. Asher tried to drain the ant by cutting into the flesh as he had with the drill horn boars, but to his surprise, there was not a drop of red blood. Instead, a watery clear liquid came out. In his past life, he had butchered a lot of animals, but insects were not on that list. "Is this normal?" Asher focused on the liquid. 

[Scan complete] 

Name: Fiend Hill Ant Hemolymph

Description: The circulatory fluid of a monster ant. This liquid performs much of the circulatory function within the ant's body. Because of its high saturation of enhancement-aspected ether, alchemists can use this liquid as a base for many potions.

The internal organs were similar to what he vaguely remembers from his high school biology class. Asher did not know much about ant biology and no more than a diagram he saw once in a textbook. He wondered if this was the same as the ants in his old world. The thorax contained the main organs. Asher found the core near its heart. It looked like a lightly tinted glass orb. It was about as big as a basketball. "Wond.0er why it is so big? The ant is supposed to be an intermediate-level creature." Asher scanned it.

[Scan complete]

name: Enhancement Core (intermediate)

Description: A core from a monster ant that used substantial enhancement magic. It can be processed into an intermediate enhancement mana crystal.

"Enhancement. How hard will my skin become if I can use the same skill? " Asher looked at the discarded exoskeleton plate.

[Scan complete]

Name: Fiend Hill Ant Exoskeleton

Description: The exoskeleton of a fiend hill ant. Over its life, it reinforces its outer shell, strengthening it. The hardness of the exoskeleton can determine the age of the ant.

Asher dissected the ant to its core pieces and repeated the process with the other three ants. He then drew a diagram of the ant's internal organs. It was like Asher thought, except for the core. It was almost identical to what he remembered about an ant's shape. Asher could only vaguely remember the image of the diagram in his textbook. He was an avid reader in his last life, even staying at the library after school hours to read books. The longer he stayed there, the less time he had to stay in that house. Asher toyed with the core in his hand, turning it over as a familiar voice floated from behind him. It was soft and twisted, like multiple people trying to speak at once. "It hurts...Please make it stop."

Asher froze as the voice repeated its statement. Asher grips his knife. He felt the hair on his neck stand up straight. Asher felt someone get closer, another presence that inched closer. Asher closed his eyes, waiting for the presence to get closer. He could feel it inch by inch. He could picture it in his mind. The bony and grotesque finger moved closer and closer to his neck. 

Asher's eyes snapped open as he twisted around and slashed with the knife in his hand. Herta jumped backward as the knife narrowly missed her. Asher let the knife fall from his hand and clamor on the ground. "Oh gods... Herta... I am sorry- I didn't mean..." Asher's mind was racing, trying to grasp some thread in his mind to stabilize himself.

Herta looked stunned but relaxed, seeing Asher's confusion. She patted him on the shoulder. "It is okay. I must have startled you. See, no harm, no foul." Herta laughed it off, showing that she was not affected. However, she silently asked herself what kind of life this kid would have had to live to be like this. He should not have known she was there, but his instinct was to attack like he was in danger. 

She looked around at the organized parts of the dissected ants. "Did you do all this? You can dissect monsters!" she said with shock. "That is impressive. Where did you learn? All the materials look good quality, with little damage."

"My dad taught me. I used to help him." Asher lied. He was not the best lair, so his voice trailed off as he was not confident in his on-the-spot lie. Unfortunately, Herta took this as a painful voice from a child who had been through so much.

Herta decided to try to change the subject as quickly as she could. "The others are going to be very happy. Usually, the breakdown cost comes out of our commission. Do you know if any of the parts are valuable? We get paid off commission, so the better the materials we bring in, the better the paycheck."

Asher sighed as he relaxed. He was not good at making up lies on the spot, so he was happy Herta decided to question him further. "Beyond the monster core, the eyes and organs are good alchemical ingredients. The exoskeleton is probably the most expensive. Blacksmiths can use it for durable armor, and its color makes it valuable." Asher paraphrased some of the things he had read from his system.

He provided specifics, noting that alchemist could use the heart as an aphrodisiac or crush the eyes to make a potion that improves eyesight. "Do we need all that?" She pointed at the several buckets full of the clear blood liquid. Asher was thankful for the equipment he was made to carry, including many containers. "Do you need help disposing of all that mess?" 

"That is the ant's blood. It is beneficial as a potion base." Asher stated flatly. He began to put each of the items back into his dimensional pocket. Asher smiled as he was happy that all items had disappeared into fragments. He has tested the inventory several times but has never reached the limit of what could be contained in his dimensional pocket.

Herta looked at Asher. To her, this kid was smiling like a manic as he smirked and poured the liquid into a magic canister to store it for later. She felt sick looking at the cute face and smile like that. "So, where are you from? Since you just joined, I don't know much about you. Like where you met that familiar. It is so cute." Herta asked out of interest. Most people did not join the Merceries team unless they were criminals, refugees, or dreamers. 

It was common for merceries not to give out details about their past. They usually joined because no legitimate business would hire them due to past crime, or they would lack the connections to get one. The final option was someone like Herta. Her grandmother raised her and did not feel the little town was big enough for her. So, she went to a big city and became a mercenary. She had heard all the horror stories from the other female mercenaries. Most of them faced prejudice or harassment from their team, so she is thankful she ended up in this tight group of friends. 

Asher was distrustful of the woman. He thought she was asking him too much about his past. Asher calculated the probability that she knew he was lying about his identity. He had never indicated that he was not Veras, but was she asking all these details? Asher turned his back to Herta while considering how he should answer.