Overwhelming

The cavern saw a great deal of activity during the day, young ants carrying the food delivered from the forest to the queen, adults constructing another room to the side, meanwhile the new guard ants stood watchfully over the entrance, ready for any intruder that might come along

The place was looking more and more like a genuine ant colony, until night came along

That's when Ingram had them all huddle up inside, while he and his trusty guard looked over the entrance from the narrow passageway

There was a lot of rustling out there, something he came to notice inside the forest as dusk neared

An uneasy feeling gripped at him when he couldn't quite catch who was lurking around so he decided to call it a day, yet the rustling only grew louder as he neared the cavern, following all the way to the entrance

"What the hell is out there"

There was nothing at day time that could threaten the combination of the defensive servants and the offensive guards, he could not say the same thing about those nocturnal creatures though, he just hoped they were not out of his league

Squeak!!

A familiar sound reached his ears and before he recalled what it belonged to the sight of those pesky large rodents entered the dungeon

"It's those rats again?"

Had they come here in revenge or was this place inside their territory? Either way it was somewhat of a relief to Ingram

"At least it is something I could handle"

With the nervousness taking hold of him gone he had the guard retreat, allowing them into the choke point that robbed any advantage their tails provided,

The large rats barged in menacingly with red eyes, clawing at the guard only to be fended off by the hard carapace, in retaliation the mandibles cut it up in a few seconds

"Hm?"

Ingram noted the guard getting hit more and damaged further than the last time this happened, which was confusing since it was the same type of opponents

"Maybe their levels are higher?"

That would make sense, stats progressed as one levelled, and his guard just hit level 4 so it was really low, in fact it shouldn't be able to fight these things if their tails had anything to say about it

"Retreat, you behind me, climb over the wall and the over"

Finding an opportunity as the next rat fell he had the battered guard switched

Squeak!

The next rat seemed to have other plans as it swung its tail up, smashing down the new guard from the wall, hard enough that Ingram could see the green blood seep through a caved in carapace

"Crap, get back here!"

The order went unfulfilled as the ant that had fallen on its brethren could only wiggle the many feet in its upside down position, now even the guard underneath it could move much since it was busy fending off the nasty rat who put them in this position

With the situation taking a turn for the worse, and the risk of losing both guards uselessly becoming a possibility, Ingram decided to make his move

"Come on, merge successfully…"

His breath was held as he combined the two guards with that 80% success chance, it might seem good but that was a one in five chance of getting nothing, which was why another guard was already standing between him and the merging two, just in case they failed and the rats pounced on him

Click click!!

Much crispier clicks than usual were heard, making him believe the merge was successful, and the rat's body being thrown into the air headless confirmed it

He had the guard standing sentry move behind him so he could see, and oh what a sight it was

"...."

It had only been a few seconds but there was a pile of bodies forming in front of him, behind it he could hear the slicing of flesh as another one was added to the growing collection

"Wait!"

After standing in amazement for a few seconds he realised the newly merged ant was exiting the choke point, no matter how strong it might be he did not believe it could completely withstand the onslaught of several of those tails

"Come back!"

He ordered the thing behind the wall of dead flesh, hoping it had not gone berserk

Thankfully the sound of flesh being diced came to a halt, and in the next second the pile before him was toppled, making him panic and run backwards before he could get squished

"That is not what I meant by come back!"

Berate the ant he did, despite the menacing features it had come to acquire

Sharp front legs that could rival its previous mandibles which were now more like scythes than anything, an exoskeleton that gave off a clean sheen despite being tainted with blood, the successfully merged guards had become extremely lethal

There was a scratching sound that came from behind, probably the rats trying to cut it with claws that might as well be blunt, making the guard climb the wall in an effort to turn

"Don't!"

But it was too late, a tail was already coming down on it

Clank!

Only to be blocked with those sharp front legs, meanwhile the ant cocked its head to the side, as if wondering what the matter with its lord was today

"Oh…nice, well, umm, just continue to choke them here, don't overextend"

He ordered, finding no reason to hold back this too strong of a servant

'How is it so strong after one merge?'

As far as he could tell it should be on the same level as the ant servant, but this thing was in a league of its own

'Let's check its stats'

[Name: N/A

Race: Giant Ant Royal Guard

Lvl: 6

Power Rank: F

Stats:

STR: 55%

VIT: 65%

DEX: 30%

INT: 10%

WIS: 0%]

"Royal?"

He knew what royal ant guards were but expected some sort of other ranks to appear before them, it felt like he skipped some evolutions on the way

"If every guard I merge is like this then, well, I just might be a little too overpowered"

He did not believe for a second that these things were easy to get, not with the way it was butchering those rats

"At least I hope it's not"

So far everyone assumed the game to have an above average difficulty, if it suddenly turned out to be so easy then he would have wasted months of allowance for something he did not enjoy

"I should check the forums when I wake up, or news"

Since it was the third day already he would wake up in a few hours, whether his trait was overwhelming or it was the game that was too easy he would find out soon