The Necromancer Who Was Despised - The Necromancer Who Was Despised chapter 52

“A danger signal.”

The main communication method for giant ants is pheromones, but they also convey simple messages with strange sounds that only they can understand.

I knew it was mostly the sound of scratching their exoskeletons.

It seemed that the gatekeeper ant had sprayed a danger signal just before it died.

‘If it’s making a sound, it must have also sprayed pheromones.’

They’ll probably be getting ready for battle quickly inside.

“Let’s go in.”

The skeleton went in first, followed by Kayla and Athena, and then I followed them.

When I turned on the lantern, I could see that it was definitely a fairly large path.

Creak.

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There was already one giant ant there, and it seemed to be a worker ant.

Its mandibles were small, and its shell wasn’t as sturdy as a soldier ant’s.

It seemed to be the one that was in the closest room.

The skeleton charged towards it without hesitation.

Clack, clack!

The giant ant raised its body and gnashed its mandibles in a threatening manner, but the skeleton wasn’t going to be scared by that.

Scrape.

Instead, it ended up showing all of its weak points, and the skeleton’s sword cut through its weak joints, killing the giant ant instantly.

‘It would be useless for zombification…’

I could raise ants as an animated dead, but it didn’t seem like they would be of much help.

Their bodies were cut up.

I could fix and heal them by making them, but that would be too inefficient.

‘Hmm… I guess I don’t really need to strengthen their physical strength. It’s easy if I just aim for their weak points.’

This time, the buff I gave the skeleton was to increase its physical durability.

Even though I didn’t actually strengthen its physical strength, I was able to easily kill the giant ant by aiming for its joints.

“They’re surprisingly easy to kill?”

“Their individual abilities are very low.”

The giant ants in this area weren’t anything special.

The only thing that made them threatening was their numbers.

The fact that they didn’t know fear was also quite an advantage.

‘They’ll keep charging if they’re just given an order.’

When I explained that, Athena’s face tightened up again.

Thud, thud, thud.

“They’re coming.”

Just after we dealt with the first one, an enormous number of ants approached us, so many that I could feel the vibrations.

All the ants in the nearby rooms must have gathered, and there were quite a few of them.

Seeing the ants swarming toward us through the passage, Athena and Kayla immediately positioned themselves behind the skeletons, and I quickly cast a spell.

[Dark Ball]

The black sphere that left my hand flew forward and collided with the ants at the very front.

BOOM!

A loud explosion echoed through the passage, and fine dust flew up.

Even though more than ten ants were killed instantly, the ants trampled over their comrades’ bodies as if nothing had happened and charged toward us.

Snap.

The one at the very front seemed to be a soldier ant, judging from its large mandibles.

However, the skeleton dodged the ant’s mandibles as if it were nothing and slashed the ant’s head and thorax with its sword.

It then knocked away the mandibles of another ant that was charging at it with its shield and left the staggering ant to be finished off by Kayla.

Her sword was faintly glowing with aura, which seemed to be a measure to conserve mana.

‘It’s best not to use mana in the first place.’

If you aim for the joints, you can deal with them even without aura.

However, Kayla was not very good at handling mana, but she had two mana hearts and her body had been reconstructed, so her vessel was incredibly large and could easily handle that level of mana consumption, so I didn’t say anything.

‘Still, aura is definitely better.’

I glanced at Athena and saw that she was not fighting in the front like Kayla, but was cutting down the giant ants in time with the skeletons’ movements. However, her speed was much slower.

That was inevitable. Kayla could simply cut down any ant that got in her way, but Athena had to cut the ants’ joints precisely, so there was bound to be a difference in speed.

In addition, the difference in terrain and experience was also noticeable.

Kayla used her shield to block and deflect the charging ants, and silenced the giant ants with minimal movement. Athena, on the other hand, did not use a shield and had to focus on evading attacks, which meant she had to use more space.

That approach requires not only good senses and physical abilities, but also a lot of experience. Athena did not have much experience, so her movements were noticeably inefficient.

Furthermore, the terrain of the ant tunnel, with its limited space, meant that Athena was gradually being pushed back by the giant ants.

“Athena, use the skeletons! Use them as shields!”

“…Yes!”

Kayla advised Athena, who seemed to have had a similar thought to me.

‘Use them instead of a shield…’

That was a good idea. If she positioned herself behind the skeletons and attacked in time with their movements, the battle would be easier.

She would also have to dodge less, and the skeletons would block the front, giving her some space.

However, that would put more pressure on Kayla, but I didn’t have to worry about that.

‘She’s flying.’

As if to compensate for her previous leg injury, she was slaughtering far more giant ants than the skeletons and Athena combined.

Crush!

She was even crushing the giant ants to death with her aura-enhanced body and sturdy combat boots, making full use of her excellent leg strength that had been restored by the treatment.

Countless dead giant ants lay scattered around her.

‘…I should support Athena.’

I didn’t just stand there either.

Once the front lines were stabilized thanks to the efforts of the three units, I began to provide support where it was needed.

[Defenis]

[Charm]

Daphne, who deafens opponents, casts the true magic of charm on them in succession.

Both are magic that falls under curses, so those with low magic resistance were easily affected.

‘Charm also uses pheromones to some extent.’

At level 3, it is not possible to cast it widely, so it must be cast on each individual. However, when it was used against those swarming around Athena, their aggression instantly disappeared, and instead, they had the effect of hindering their own allies.

[Regeneration]

In the case of regeneration, it was magic that I, as a black magician, used against the undead.

The skeletons, who acted as a shield for Athena, began to suffer more and more wounds on their bodies, unlike before.

It was an inevitable situation. The giant ents that filled the surroundings restricted their initial active movements, and in such a situation, the skeletons couldn’t be in good shape because they had to act as a shield for Athena.

That’s why I had to support Athena while also managing the skeletons at the same time.

-Kiyaak!

Meanwhile, the specters clung to several giant ents and continued to drain their energy.

A little while later.

The passage was filled with the corpses of giant ents.

The first wave was easily decorated with victory.

“This isn’t all, is it?”

It was just that all the monsters in the first room had come out.

The giant ent’s nest, an anthill, was composed of several rooms and passages.

The situation would be spreading quickly, and as we killed all the monsters here, the giant ents that heard the news would rush in.

“It’s fortunate that we dealt with them quickly. If we had been slower, reinforcements would have arrived before we could deal with them.”

If that were repeated several times, we would have to continue fighting without rest until all the ants were dead.

“For now, let’s go deeper inside. It’s not a good situation to face them here.”

The surroundings were filled with the corpses of giant ents.

The wide passage was half blocked.

“Looks like we killed almost a hundred?”

At Athena’s words, I nodded in agreement.

“Good job. Keep it up like that.”

“…If it weren’t for you, I would have been pushed back earlier. I couldn’t have dreamed of maintaining the front line. Thank you. I’m alive thanks to you.”

It’s not wrong. If that had happened, Kyla would have been surrounded by giant ents.

‘Well, even so, Kyla would have survived.’

The figure she showed today seemed several times stronger than when her legs were not in good shape in the past.

It was enough to make me realize anew the importance of legs in battle.

Now, even if I fought with all my might, it would be impossible to defeat Kyla.

‘Even with the skeletons and specters.’

Well, if there are many corpses in the surroundings, there is a small chance that I will win.

Even so, it would only be about 20%.

I realized anew how lucky I was to have acquired Kyla.

Maybe Kyla will shine more than Athena.

Of course, Athena is also growing tremendously, and I have one more potion to give her, so it’s too early to judge.

‘Because even in the recent battle, her growth was visible.’

Kayla was also growing, which was a problem.

It was a happy thing for me because my two colleagues were growing together as a result.

It was close to the fact that I made both of them.

We passed the body of the giant ant and went deeper into the ant nest.

“What? Ugh, what is that…”

“It seems to have been a food storage.”

Athena started, and Kayla answered calmly.

Maybe the guys who were here were the ones who were just wiped out by us.

“Wow… It doesn’t look that strong… It’s not normal. There are orcs too.”

“Maybe they are wanderers. Even a moderate orc tribe doesn’t fight with giant ants.”

They tend to avoid each other.

“Hmm… There are humans too.”

It was a pretty gruesome sight, half-eaten.

Some of the painful expressions remained, as if they had been torn apart just before they died alive.

There were other monsters, plants, and beasts as well.

When we were wandering through the passage to find another room because this place was empty.

Thud, thud.

The ant nest started to ring again.

The party took their places naturally, and the hunting pattern was the same as the previous battle.

The problem was that the number of approaching ants was too large compared to before.

‘It seems that the news has reached the bottom.’

What I was worried about happened.

The guys who first ran were just trying to buy time, but the guys who came after that didn’t come several times, but rushed in all at once, so there was no time to rest.

“Save your stamina!”

The party also seemed to have figured out the situation, so they responded by acting a little more calmly instead of their voices.

Most of the ants that flocked were worker ants, but it seemed that many of the soldier ants were stationed in the first room.

‘We wiped them all out.’

So the battle itself was easier than before.

In particular, Athena showed a noticeably improved performance thanks to her recent experience with the skeleton, and thanks to that, I was able to spread magic to where the ants gathered instead of worrying about Athena.

However, the number was too large.

‘It’s already over a hundred.’

The narrowing of the passage was noticeable.

I could see Athena’s breath getting faster little by little.

It seemed that she was a little bewildered by the unexpected number.

I wanted to take the energy from the specter who was flying around there, taking the energy of the giant ants, and give it to Athena.

Swish, gulp!

As a result, Kayla’s burden increased, and Kayla, who noticed the situation, began to act a little more brilliantly.

Screech!

Athena stepped back quickly and fortunately avoided a direct hit.

It was thanks to the fact that the skeletons blocked a considerable number.

“Acid… !”

I expected it, but I wasn’t vigilant as it didn’t appear on the first wave.

It was a pain in the neck to add long-range support to this situation.

Thus, I quickly said,

“Slowly, retreat!”

Kwaak! Chwaak!