Terrain Advantage

The small fight earlier saw no repeat, yet armed with but a single adult guard Ingram dared not explore outside the cave, and with nothing to look at but rocks he decided to take a small nap while the queen did her job, perhaps by the time he woke up there would be many young guards crawling about

His sleep was dreamless, much like every other person who took rest within a virtual world, but it was pleasant and relaxing, until he was stirred awake by the many clicking sounds around

Opening his eyes he looked down, where these sounds had come from, finding many blood marred small critters staring up at him

"Ahh!"

Scared out of his wits he tried to roll away but they were a bit too heavy for him to do so, what with five of them mounting him, and just as he was about to swat them away they moved by themselves, scattering to the side so could stand

This calmed his heart down, enough to remember where he was and who these little things might be

"Right, I am a dungeon lord now"

He reminded himself, which might take some time getting used to

As for the small things? Well he supposed they should be the giant ants only they weren't so…gigantic

If the young guards were a smaller version of the giant ants then this was a smaller version of the smaller version, proving to be no larger than his palm

Checking their status provided the reason for this shrink

"Baby Giant Ants? So they go through three phases of growth before becoming adults?"

If you count being eggs which he probably slept through then he had to wait through four phases

Speaking of eggs, that was the first thing that came into Ingram's sight when he looked to the side, five of them laid behind the queen, that and the small pile of corpses in front of her

Confused he walked closer, identifying them as dead bodies of some red eyes rats, some larger than normal bugs, and the sort

"Weird, I didn't sense anything coming in"

That he tossed to him being asleep, moving onto different matters for now

The first was to check on the eggs, which he noted had no status to speak of, merely a screen with a timer on the verge of elapsing

"I can combine eggs?"

That seemed like an awesome option, an unanticipated one, but for now he wanted to see what would happen upon combining the baby ants

An action that was done in the blink of an eye, turning two baby ants into a young one

"Hmm?"

Something about their bodies was clearly different, since their mandibles looked not as sharp as they were big, while the legs were thicker than usual

"Oh! A variant"

He guessed, checking the improved status gleefully

[Name: N/A

Race: Young Giant Ant Worker

Lvl: 1

Power Rank: F

Stats:

STR: 15%

VIT: 15%

DEX: 5%

INT: 0%

WIS: 0%]

"?"

Clearly, there was something wrong, why had it degraded to a worker instead of upgrading? Was there such a possibility for variants or…

Perhaps a bit late but Ingram thought of a possibility and checked the other baby ants

"Oh…they are all workers…"

Looks like the rest of the race name flew over his head, not that he could be blamed, who reads through the entire status every single time?

"But then, where are my guards?"

He glanced over to the eggs, looking through each and every one of them, until he found one that had a different name

[Giant Ant Guard Egg: 00.02.34]

Of all five only one was a guard, the chances were slim

"Should I combine it or not?"

A fleeting thought, one that he quickly refused, after all what if the result favoured the worker? That was one less guard!

"I should just combine all the workers into one adult"

Two babies were made into one young worker and the two younglings were merged into an adult leaving him with one baby that he could not merge with anything yet

"Let's go"

Taking the giant ant with him Ingram had the intention of checking around the cave, leaving the guard to, well, guard the cave

Day had turned night outside, but the light was not too bad, two moons hanging in the sky did so much more than one could

"Hunting at night is not the best idea, but I don't want to just sleep all day long while the queen lays eggs"

He was playing a game, as such he ought to enjoy the game!

Still, cautious he remained, making the worker take the front while he lagged behind, giving enough space for him to make a run for it in case something came out, but not too much lest he gets attacked and it can't come to his rescue in time

The two moved for no longer than two minutes when they were met with the swishing of leaves as multiple things dropped down on the worker ant, with one dropping closer to Ingram, yet fleeing from him and pouncing on the forming dogpile instead

"Shake them off!"

The giant ant tried and succeeded with ease, flinging the small things away

One landed next to his feet and he finally recognised it up close, it was a possum, with sharper fangs and claws but still a possum

Seeing him it climbed to its feet and growled deeply, raising its pitch in a threatening manner

He took a step forward and it took one back, yet the next second it suddenly turned over and became stiff

"Playing dead?"

Somehow that was weird, making Ingram feel nervous, enough to roll backwards

Thud!

In his place landed an even bigger creature of the rodent family, only this one was no beast but a real monster, standing on its hind legs it reached up to his shoulders, tail ending with a pointed bone much like a stinger, not to mention the crazy sharp teeth and claws

It screeched and the shuffling of feet came about, enough of a reason for Ingram to turn tail and run, his worker left for dead

Still, the ant was not dismayed, instead it turned to deter his chasers, allowing him seconds of retreat before enemy backup overwhelmed it, giving them room to chase him down

They were certainly much faster than him, so much so he barely managed to reach the cave before they entered his sight once more, and that was even with the few second headstart

"Come with me"

He told the guard, having it hold off on the defence and crawl deeper into the cave

The rats came to a short halt outside, sniffing on the black rock, but as if they sensed something one of them screeched with glee, riling up the others to run forward faster than their earlier chase

"Here is good enough"

In the middle of the narrow path Ingram had the guard stop

"I'm depending on you, don't let them get past this point"

The guard clicked its mandibles in preparation, ready to defend its home, queen, and lord with its life

The sound of feet came once more, and soon the rats filtered in, but the small path proved to be an obstacle, allowing only one of them in at a time

They seemed not to care however, the first one in pouncing on the guard like they did the other ant

Sharp claws left white marks that could very well tear open the carapace soon, that is if the mandibles deterred it not

A sharp squeak came when the guard bit into the huge rat, drawing blood on first hit, much unlike its worker comrade this ant specialised in combat, as such the rats who failed to see past their hunger were not expecting the mandibles that couldn't do much harm to be so lethal, lethal enough to end one of their own within no more than three such bite

"Step back"

In order to continue the battle Ingram had the guard move inward so another rat could step up, moving over the dead corpse to take its place

This time the sharp weaponry of the ant guard was not underestimated, even so the outcome remained the same, despite ripping open some wounds the sharp claws couldn't do as much damage to the hard exoskeleton as the mandibles could to vulnerable flesh, rendering yet another one dead

"Again, step back"

And so the scene repeated itself for the third time, only by the end something occurred out of expectations

While the two were battling it out another rat stepped over the not yet dead comrade and jumped on the guard's body, tearing to its heart's content

"Get off"

Jabbing at the big rodent Ingram managed to steer its attention away but noted the lack of power behind his punch, angering it without any real damage

But a threat he was perceived, garnering a few swipes that he barely dodged, once, twice, and a few more again, until he noted his speed was just enough to bar any hits, as long as he paid enough attention that is

Thankfully he did not have to bother, the guard, feeling its lord being attacked, shook its body hard, and the already moving rat lost its footing and fell to the side, jammed between the solid wall and hard exoskeleton, to make matters worse it was within reach of those bloody snappers, putting a quick and struggle free end to the smart aggressor

Soon the one it was already fighting fell as well, and after only one more died the rats seemed to have fled the place after realizing victory was a long shot

"Whew, that could have been close"

Patting his guard resulted in a part of the battered shell falling down, a testament to the hard fought battle as well as the near death had they chosen to press forward

"This would have gone down much differently had they been able to use their tails"

His use of the narrow path was not only to reduce the number of enemies, but most importantly to render those tails unusable, those things seemed to be the creature's main weapon and one he didn't doubt could break through the hard shell

"Come on, carry these things back to the nest, we cant have you outnumbered again when this is your races speciality"

He could almost see it, an army of giant ant guards, flooding the forest and turning the place upside down, what they couldn't beat they would dogpile until the place turned barren of any other species