Fleshy Fruits

Click click click!

"I'm happy to see you again too"

Welcomed by the ant colony Ingram felt somewhat better, the future problems were for the future, for now he would enjoy what the game had to offer

"Now that I am here it is time we get back to work"

Though work never stopped for these little critters

"Move the food into our new storage room"

Rugged and unlit was the dug place, unlike his room where glowing shrooms were carried to light it up

"You and you, come here"

Splitting two servant ants from the transportation line Ingram cracked in knuckles in preparation to finally combine them

"Been holding off on this for a while but now we got numbers, it is time to see what you become!"

Ready the first to merge he did, and then the other's merge circle he did not press, only stared at

"....Two?"

He shook his head and looked again

"No, that's too low, something must be wrong with one of you"

He called another servant ant

"...Another"

Seeing that the result was the same when trying to combine with either he called for one more, then another, and before long all twenty three servant ants under his command were lined up before him, and no matter how he crisscrossed their merge chance, or his fingers, the most he saw the number rise to was 4%

"How can it be four"

All those plans he had conjured were going down the drain

"Just how many ants must I waste"

Sure he would get tons but those would at some point be used for war, hoarding them up just to merge them seemed like a terrible and inefficient idea

"Here I thought I was overpowered"

Reality, or rather, virtual reality check put him in place, there was no place for overpowered traits, at least not unless he found some trick to success

Just to check however he merged two guards to try and combine them with the royal one

"The hell are you?"

Ingram questioned upon seeing the result of his merge, where were the scythe like front legs, what happened to the reflective exoskeleton, and what in the hell was this bigger than normal guard?

Well, rather than wondering he did a status scan to see what had become of his to be royal guard

[Name: N/A

Race: Giant Ant Elite Guard

Lvl: 1

Power Rank: F

Stats:

STR: 31%

VIT: 40%

DEX: 3%

INT: 3%

WIS: 0%]

"So it is another species huh"

One that was weaker nonetheless

"Why do I feel like my trait is becoming less and less powerful as I use it more"

With an irritated breathe Ingram dispersed the crowd of ants, mounted the royal guard and made his exit in the middle of the night

Now it might be dangerous to go at this time of the day but the things he was looking for would only appear now, plus he trusted his royal guard to be capable of slicing anything that might come along

It was quiet for the most part, only the occasional rustle in the trees, with nothing yet daring to come out

Ingram would sometimes see shapes hidden along the branches, which he could more or less guess what was there, ignoring them as they were none of the targets he had in mind

"Found you"

Until he saw the small ball nestled between large fruits, making out its colour under the moonlight to be different from the rest

With his command the ant guard knocked hard on the tree, a couple of those hits caused the large head sized fruits to come falling down, among them that different coloured one

"Are you gonna reveal yourself or must I crack you open?"

The fruit like creature shivered as it noted both predators looking straight at it, knowing its cover had been blown

Rolling backwards it unfurled itself to run away with small legs that suited not its size, contrary to the huge mandibles reminiscent of a stag beetle

The royal guard blocked its path with its leg, which the creature decided to gnaw at since there was no other option

Clank!

Surprisingly its one bit chopped at those hard scythes, but then it just kept a hold of the leg even as the ant lifted it, stuck to it like a clipper

"Cute antics"

Ingram laughed, since the bug was no longer running away he could put to action what he came out to do

"Let's see, they said to gather all your mana to your hands"

Going off one of the many posts he read by the players Ingram imitated the actions that a certain tamer class player had taken to subdue his first creature

The technique of using mana was not entirely new to him, similar ways were employed in the previous game he had spent most of his time on, and so after merely a few seconds a baleful aura was covering his hands

Moving his hands toward the bug he allowed his mana to cover it whole

"That's different from what was described"

Watching as the bug stiffen up and twitch occasionally he recalled the description of what was supposed to happen

"Supposedly it would stare at you, in a form of nonverbal communication, before deciding whether or not to be your companion"

This right here looked like he was forcing it into submission

"Maybe because I'm a dungeon lord"

Going with that as the reason Ingram waited for quite some time before its large mandibles let go of the ant leg, dropping to the ground and curling back up into a ball

"Was it a success?"

A status scan was used to check

[Name: N/A

Race: Bungee Bug

Lvl: 5

Power Rank: F

Stats:

STR: 50%

VIT: 5%

DEX: 1%

INT: 1%

WIS: 1%]

"Explains the vice grip"

That strength stat alone was worth this trip, not to mention it had a lot of uses not demonstrated since it was scared earlier

"Okay, time to get some more"

Since he was already in the area where these large fruit trees spread Ingram spent the rest of the night hunting for these little critters, though the haul was not as large as he would have liked it to be, what with them being somewhat hard to spot

Squeak!

In the middle of his hunt one of those large rats he grew to both like and dislike jumped down, its pointed tail aimed straight at the royal guard's face

With no time to give out an order he watched as the guard blocked with its front leg before slicing the creature in half with the other

"...Next time disarm it, I want to try capturing this one"

Another one of his targets for this trip was this annoying rodent who had become a steady supply of food for his ant hill, but also a pest that kept popping up everywhere he went making Ingram certain this was their territory

Squeak squeak!

"Oh, I forgot you guys travel in packs"

Seeing four more jump down surrounding them he smiled at this good fortune, at least he wouldn't have to go looking for them

A flurry of tails was shot at the guard keeping it busy blocking the three at the front while another came around, intending to backstab this hardy nemesis

"Oh no you don't"

Grabbing hold of one of his bungee bugs he grabbed it by the tail, swinging it around like a yoyo before shooting it forward, and to the rat's surprise the tail extended, acting much like a grappling hook

The strong mandibles met the bone tail causing the latter's movement to impede, what more the rat was now stuck in an awkward position where its rear faced the enemy

"Ready for another one?"

Ingram smirked somewhat playful, sending another set of deadly mandibles at the pitiful creature causing no small amount of pain

While he held down the one at the back his royal guard managed to slice one of the tails giving it enough room to start on the offence, with its sharp legs and the scissor like mandibles the three rats were made into minced meat in no time

"Okay, hold this one down"

The guard turned slowly, its mouth clicking menacingly, causing the rat to shiver, and then scream as it was bitten once more in the buttocks

"Sorry for this, I'll make it up to you later"

He promised, meanwhile sending his mana toward the creature

This time the baleful aura did not cover it whole, not even lasting seconds before disappearing

"? Not enough mana?"

He wanted to try again but nothing converged in his hands, clearly out of spiritual juice

"What a bad timing"

With no way to subdue it he finished the miserable thing

"Let's go back, nothing else to do here"

With his new friends, Ingram made way toward his dungeon, excited to test his trait on the newcomers