Chapter 288 House of Wraith(2)

[What's wrong?] Synthia asked

[There are over a dozen high Imps creating a domain in City A. I'm not sure which family they are with, but if I had to guess, they are with Askalad.] Castiel replied

[Fuck, just what we need.] Sera replied and Castiel was surprised at the outburst

[Calm down Sera.] Synthia said

[I'm so close to evolving, I only have two levels and this happens. What a pain.] Sera said

[You guys don't have to leave. Continue grinding levels and send everyone that's not evolving or managing the mining back here. We are not sure just how hostile these guys are yet, and I'm not sure if we wanna pick a fight just yet. But it would be a good idea to have a few of the others here as a show of force. I'll use the [Monocle of Appraisal] to see if I can tell which family they are from.] Castiel said and a monocle with golden rim and translucent blue glass appeared in his hand.

[Alright, I'll send them back tomorrow along with the divine ores we gathered. Start producing weapons as quickly as possible, we need them more than ever. I'll check up on farming group to see if anything unusual has happened.] Sera said, before ending the conversation. Castiel quickly fastened the Monocle on the spyglass and extended it causing a small golden screen to appear. He poured a lot of holy energy into the Monocle until he turned pale, but he got the result he wanted. The golden screen turned black with red letters as it displayed the High Imps was displayed.

'Wraith!!! Fuck, that's not much better than pride.' Castiel thought when he saw the family the High Imps were from. What's worse, due to using the monocle, the imps now sensed his gaze. One of them turned around and smiled right at him, and he could feel a wave of demonic energy hit him, and it wasn't only him.

"Did you feel that?" One of the humans asked

"Y-yeah, what was that? It...it felt like a demon was staring at me." Another one said obviously frightened, and Castiel gritted his teeth

'Even from miles away, I can still feel these war loving maniacs bloodlust.' Castiel thought as he continued to watch the high Imps and they simply went back to work...like they couldn't be bothered with them anymore.

'Fuck.'

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In the mountain, or rather the giant ant hill, all the Angels except for Claire who was busy monitoring the mining team, who were still afraid of the ants. The others were roaming deep underground hunting down the ants, who even though tamed, still had the instincts of beasts. Even with the orders from the queen, they would still fight back when attacked or seeing their comrades being attacks, but otherwise they didn't attack. Additionally, not all of them possessed [Golden Adamantine Affinity], but different variations of metal. Some of them even possessed metal affinities with elemental attributes such as [Aqua Brass Affinity] or [Infernal Bronze Affinity]. That is to say, the hunt was not easy.

"Haaah." Kate shouted as she slashed the legs of an ant with her duel blades, but the ant jumped in the and spat acid towards her, which she quickly dodging. An ice arrow struck the ant in the eye, freezing it's eye and causing it to scream, before Kate thrusted her sword and a piercing blade of light struck through it's body.

"Phew, these guys are getting tough. It's almost like they are adapting to our attacks." Kate said as she got off the ground and looked at the spot the acid hit the ground. Unsurprisingly, the ground melted into a puddle of sizzling goo.

" I know, they are reacting way too quickly to our attacks compared to before." Roxy replied as they started carving the soul crystals out of the ants.

[Your party has slain a level 3 Holy Metal Ants. Your party has gained 27,120 exp. You have gained 4,520 exp.]

The ant queen gained the skill, [Memory Retention] once she evolved into a tier 5. This skill allows her to retain the memories of dead ants and combined with [Hive Mind], she could share these memories with the other members of the colony. This allowed the ants to adapt to the enemies attacks, making it easier for them to survive. Also, the queen gained the ability [Attribute Adaptation], which allowed her to pass down certain physical attributes of the prey she has consumed to her offsprings. This has created some really bizzare looking ants like some with thick fur, some with bird like wings, six spider eyes, wolf paws or some with red or icy blue carapaces instead of the usual golden one. This was also the cause of the varying affinities among the ants.

"Let's head deeper. We only have a day before we have to head back and I want to evolve by then. Some real trouble is going to come out way soon." Sera said