The Cave's Inside

They came to an agreement to go with Ian on account of they didn't have much of a choice and Trevor's condition did not give them much time to work on either.

But they had to postpone the departure time to allow Ian the proper rest so he could refill his mana reserve, having been depleted from whatever he was up to before he came back.

It took about a day and a half to get him to refill his exhausted mana reserve, a testament to how absurd of a mana reserve he is blessed with.

By the time he had completely refilled, night had met with them. They had to wait until dawn came before they started moving.

It felt like a good choice to postpone the raid to nighttime until you find out that Pharaoh ants are better adaptors to darkness than a majority of mystics were.

 Once he had recovered and dawn had arrived, they moved out in haste, carrying Trevor along with them.

They had thought of leaving Trevor behind so they could concentrate on dealing with the issue at hand, but that wasn't a very good plan to go with.

Ian informed them how far the distance was from here. Leaving Trevor behind alone increases the chances of him getting attacked by a walker.

And if he was, he wouldn't be able to fight back in his condition, nor would any of them be able to reach him in time.

We can also account got how troublesome it will be for them to go to and fro on the assumption that they somehow win against the entire ant colony to get to the exit.

So, they decided it was for the best that they take Trevor along with them, and then they would drop him off somewhere close to the ant colony.

That way, it would be easy for them to come back for him after gaining access to the exit. Possibly!

After a long run, they arrived at the place. They halted close to the location, a cave to be precise.

Standing guard at the entrance of the cave are two pharaoh ants, armed with spears and manding the place.

Trevor was hidden at a location thought to be safe. They couldn't afford to leave anyone to keep watch on him. From the brief rundown Ian gave them, they would need every manpower at their disposal to keep this a fair match.

Luckily for them, Fiona had other weapons tucked in her item box. Unlike the rest, she had come heavily prepared. Not for this occasion specifically. It just so happens that she always prepares herself ahead. That turned out to be a blessing for them in this situation.

She gave Ian a spear. It was what he asked for.

And Camelia, she gave him a mace.

Camelia excels as a battle axe warrior, but Fiona does not have a battle axe in her stock, a mace was the next closest thing to that.

For Aldrich, she helped refill his artefact quiver and then they were good to go.

Aldrich took out the two guards at the entrance by shooting an arrow at them from his hiding spot, and swiftly eliminating them by targeting their necks.

They did not even realize they were dead until the arrow had pierced through their neck and done its job.

Then, they fell to the ground, dead.

Having taken out the guards, they came out of their hiding place and moved over to the entrance of the cave.

"It's a long way down from here. Once we go in, we have to be careful not to get spotted by their patrol guards. Our main objective is the queen and no one else".

While Pharaoh's ants have a great deal of number advantage on their side, they all share a similar disadvantage which is their queen.

The queen is the brain behind their every operation.

You take her out and the lot of them fall, they die without any resistance.

Aldrich and his group know that, and so do the Pharaoh ants as well.

And that is precisely why the queen never makes an outside appearance and her lair is always heavily guarded by all sorts of ants, the powerful ones staying the closest to her.

It doesn't make it any easier that the ants share a similar disadvantage, nor does it help that they know about it because that only means they have the leniency to work on covering up for their shortcomings.

If they want to gain the upper hand here, they would have to preserve as much of their mana as needed by avoiding the little scuffle with the patrol ants they would encounter on the inside.

Instead, their main focus should be to get to the queen above everything else.

They set out into the cave, wet and damp, with Ian taking the lead as he is the only one with the slightest clue of what the inside looks like.

Camelia made it possible to move around the cave without getting spotted by the patrol ants wandering around the cave.

The inner part of the cave was meticulously dark with no source of sunlight around to shed light on their path.

A show of how acutely scary the night vision of the ants was.

Aldrich had no trouble discerning the dark with his clairvoyance.

Fiona relied on her innate danger perception senses to get her through.

Through this little excursion that had her life tilted on the brink of death, she has somewhat gotten a better grasp of how her innate skill worked.

The experience has also gotten her to the point where she could find her way around in the dark with it.

Though it paled considerably in comparison to the clover eyes that literally project the dark as no different from the light.

Ian being one of those geniuses, utilizes his owned primary element, the wind to guide him through.

And he also mixes in a bit of mana perception to discern incoming enemies.

As for Camelia, she got by with her owned primary element, Earth.

The cave is built out of earth and all she has to do is be connected to the earth to use it as her eyes and ears.

It's not an easy skill to pick up for an Earth elemental owner.

Luckily, Camelia was not just an earth elemental owner.

She is, after all, one of the few in the S class category.

This much should be doable for her.