Chapter 492: Chapter 492: Ant Eggs

The Ant King slave writhed, convulsing all over its body, its mournful howls weak and feeble. Purple-black liquid seeped from its bloodshot eyes. In a short time, the Ant King slave collapsed like a corpse, its six legs twitching sporadically.

“Remember your status!” Song Jian said coldly to the Ant King slave with the language of the Abyss.

The Ant King slave’s level now surpassed Song Jian’s, making the probability of a rebellion even higher. However, the superiority of Song Jian’s strength ensured that even without a slave mark, he could easily kill it.

Feeling Song Jian’s chilling aura, the Ant King slave finally snapped out of its bloody frenzy. Staggering to its feet, it hung its head and let out a series of appeasing hisses after Song Jian paused his punishment.

“Continue forward, kill all mutant ants!” Song Jian commanded.

The Ant King slave obediently let out a low hiss and led the way down the corridor.

The nest harbored even more mutant worker ants, and the connected tunnels spanned over a hundred kilometers in total. However, within the tunnels, the mutant ants were unable to surround Song Jian as before. Now, he only had to face two at a time, greatly reducing the pressure.

Any mutant ants appearing within the tunnel could only hope to escape. As Song Jian advanced, the bodies of many dismantled mutant ants were left in his wake.

The number of souls collected by the Ant Soul Orb had surpassed six hundred. Song Jian had already slain enough mutant ants, and the only objective remaining for the epic quest was two mutated Ant Kings.

Song Jian knew that mutated Ant Kings only resided at the deepest parts of nests. Therefore, no matter how diverged the tunnels were, he persistently chose to delve deeper.

Soon, at a crossroad, Song Jian wanted to go straight ahead, but the Ant King slave stood at another entrance, emitting a low hiss at him.

“What, you choose this path?” Song Jian asked. The Ant King slave gave a slight nod, glancing back at its path before returning its gaze to Song Jian.

“Fine, I’ll trust you this time!” Song Jian laughed.

The Ant King slave had never behaved like this before. Clearly, the tunnel it had chosen contained something of interest.

They continued along the path chosen by the Ant King slave. Before long, a large swarm of mutant ants rushed out, swelling like a long black snake attacking Song Jian.

Upon seeing so many mutant ants, Song Jian was unperturbed and even a little joyous: “Looks like there’s something valuable ahead, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many soldier ants guarding it…”

The Ant King slave charged ahead, Song Jian at its side. From the Ant Soul Orb he wore emanated a faint gray aura which rendered the mutant ants charging towards him sluggish, as though bewitched, and their sturdy shells became brittle. With one swipe of his sword, blood geysered from the cracks in their shells.

The intelligence of the mutant ants seemed low. No matter how many they were, they only charged forward one by one. The remaining ants could only emit anxious hisses and spin around in place, not even capable of spraying acid. Only after their vanguard was eliminated, the following ants would charge to fill the gap.

The majority of the mutant ants’ attacks were absorbed by the Ant King slave. Thanks to the weakening effect of the Ant Soul Orb, the damage caused to the Ant King slave was minimal, but it cut down the ants as easily as slicing through butter.

The number of soldier ant souls captured by the Ant Soul Orb kept increasing — six hundred, seven hundred, eight hundred…

With every step Song Jian took forward, there were two or three corpses of mutant ants under his feet. If this place were open, there would already be a mountain of these corpses. If it were a situation like the previous cavern floor, he would have been engulfed by the swarm.

It was thanks to the narrow pathway that Song Jian could kill so many. His movements became numb, and he swung his longsword mechanically, mindlessly reaping one mutant ant body after another. As soon as his skill cooldowns were up, he would throw them towards the mutant ants in front of him without even looking.

Like most players, Song Jian once fantasized about such a situation, where monsters would line up for him to kill.

However, after experiencing it in reality, Song Jian felt somewhat overwhelmed. This kind of hunting was indeed convenient, and the battle experience accumulated fast, but seeing the endless line of mutant ants was a deep blow to his mentality.

Song Jian even doubted whether he would fully exterminate the mutant ants in front of him. It was like laboring on a factory assembly line.

This grueling battle lasted over two hours. Song Jian had used up all the consumable items in his inventory, and the durability of his equipment had fallen to a third.

When Song Jian killed the last mutant ant, he slumped to the ground, feeling like he could not get up again.

“If I hadn’t leveled up halfway through, I probably wouldn’t have made it.” Song Jian looked at his 25th level status, a wry smile crossing his face.

The Ant King slave had now reached level 28, and Song Jian had leveled up too. The level 30 monster had given him a plentiful bounty, but as Song Jian’s level went up, these rewards would decrease.

Now, the most abundant item in Song Jian’s inventory was the blue-quality ant shell, a key material for producing Mutant Worker and Mutant Soldier Ant equipment sets.

With the ant shells Song Jian had currently, he could produce dozens of sets. Unfortunately, he still had not obtained the set recipe.

“The information about the Mutant Worker Ant equipment set came from the Shadow Circus Troupe, perhaps the set recipe can be obtained from there.” Song Jian thought to himself as he lay on the ground.

After a short rest, Song Jian continued onward, reaching the end of the tunnel.

A huge cavern opened at the end, filled with white ant eggs over a meter tall. From afar, there were at least thousands of densely packed ant eggs.

“Is this the incubation room for the mutant ants?” Song Jian asked in surprise.

The Ant King slave let out a joyous hiss and charged towards the cavern.

It rushed to an ant egg, bit into the white shell fiercely, tearing it open to devour the immature young ant within.

“You lead me here just to pig out yourself?” Song Jian gaped in astonishment at the Ant King slave greedily consuming the eggs. After a moment, the Ant King slave, which was enjoying a lavish feast, suddenly felt a chill go down its spine. Turning its head, it looked at Song Jian who had murder in his eyes.

“Squeak squeak squeak~” In a panic, the Ant King slave quickly rolled an ant egg to Song Jian’s foot, pointing to it and chirping as if offering a treasure.

…