[Black Burrow of the Diligent Ants]
A Fourth-Tier dungeon.
Of course, before the sacrifice it had been called the Black Burrow of the Diligent Ants. As for what it would be called after a sacrifice… Rei had no idea.
"It's actually a Thousand-Legion Ant Hill."
After following Rei into the dungeon, Akasei looked at the black mass ahead and couldn't help sounding surprised.
Rei spread out Sea of Fire, Shadow Swamp, Mud Mire, and Overgrown Thorn Fields in front of him.
The surrounding forest quickly burned into a blazing wasteland.
Standing at the center of a massive encirclement of black ants, layers of shields formed around him—one barrier stacked atop another.
In the distance stood a gigantic ant hill.
From it, countless black ants crawled out in endless streams.
They spread across the ground, climbed over burning trees, and stained the entire land pitch black.
Some of the ants were only thumb-sized.
Others were as large as fists.
Yet even the tiny thumb-sized ants were already First-Tier monsters.
As for the fist-sized ants—
they were Second-Tier monsters. While perhaps weaker than normal Second-Tier creatures, their sheer numbers formed something resembling an army.
"Akasei, you know what that thing is?" Rei asked.
He didn't recognize the Thousand-Legion Ant Hill.
Even though he had read many monster compendiums, there were simply too many monsters in the world to remember them all.
"I do," Akasei replied. "But this is my first time seeing one in person."
Whoosh!
Rei's area-of-effect magic was extremely powerful.
At present, Rei had mastered more than 150 spells.
Among them, spells primarily evolved for wide-range offensive attacks included:
Sea of Fire
Dense Thorn Growth
Flame Surge
Multi-Chain Lightning
Tidal Wave
Icewind Howl
…and twelve such large-scale spells in total.
Meanwhile, the shields surrounding his body were not purely defensive—
many of them also possessed offensive properties.
As Rei slaughtered the black ants, he stored their corpses inside his storage space.
These ant corpses were too small to use as Death Substitute bodies.
But as a Death Priest, corpses always had their uses.
Akasei explained:
"The Thousand-Legion Ant Hill can absorb wandering monster tides and convert them into a massive ant army."
"This type of monster only appears during the Months of War and Flame."
Oh?
A monster that appeared only during specific months?
Rei had read about such creatures before.
They were usually quite special.
For example—
during the Harvest Month, a monster called the Lucky Rabbit could appear.
Rumor claimed that if you cooked and ate it, it would grant extraordinary luck.
Of course—
that was merely a rumor.
The existence of the Lucky Rabbit itself was rumored.
And the supposed effect of eating it was even more doubtful.
Still, each month reportedly had its own special monsters.
"So it can continuously convert monster tides… meaning as long as it stays alive, it will keep producing these ants?" Rei asked.
Akasei nodded.
"In theory, yes."
Rei checked the number of souls he possessed.
Just moments ago he had a little over 300,000 souls.
After less than a minute of killing ants, that number had already risen to 460,000.
He had discovered it.
A perpetual soul-farming machine.
Akasei noticed the excitement in Rei's eyes.
"…You're not thinking what I think you are, are you?"
Rei smiled innocently.
"Haha… Akasei."
"Can this dungeon… be preserved?"
Akasei glanced at the ant hill in front of them.
If some random Death Priest had asked him whether they could keep a monster like this alive for soul farming…
He would have cut down both the person and the monster together.
But since it was Rei asking—
"Well," Akasei said slowly, "once a dungeon is discovered, it's reported to the Adventurers' Guild to prevent it from becoming a major threat later."
"Dungeons that are intentionally preserved usually have special value."
"For example: mutated dungeons, suspected entrances to monster nests…"
"…or dungeons that have been tampered with by a Death Priest."
Akasei glanced sideways at Rei while saying that.
Rei awkwardly turned his gaze elsewhere.
"But if the dungeon is sealed, it can be kept around for a longer time."
"You'd need at least a Level 4 Mage to place the seal."
"With the reputation of our adventuring party, we could probably get approval."
Akasei then asked:
"But do you really need to keep it?"
Rei stared at the Thousand-Legion Ant Hill.
"Not necessarily."
If he mutated other ant-type dungeons, there was a chance one might produce another Thousand-Legion Ant Hill.
But there was also a chance that none of them ever would again.
When it came to probability, Rei had strong reservations.
In his previous life, he had worked for Tencent.
He understood better than most how disgusting probability mechanics could be.
When you wanted something—
it never appeared.
When you didn't want it—
it showed up constantly.
Instead of gambling on unknown odds…
it was better to seize the opportunity already in front of him.
"Akasei, I plan to farm souls here for a while."
"Then we'll mutate the remaining ant-type dungeons."
"If none of them produce something like the Thousand-Legion Ant Hill…"
"I'd like to keep this one."
After a brief pause, Rei asked another question:
"Or… do you know any way to tame monsters, or raise them like livestock for personal use?"
During the short time they had been talking, Rei's soul count had already risen to 560,000.
These ants truly were endless.
Although—
Rei did notice something.
The ant hill's spawn rate seemed to be slowing slightly.
"Taming monsters… there actually is a way," Akasei said.
"But that requires a Secret Scroll class—the Contract Summoner."
"As for raising monsters…"
Akasei stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Oh."
"There actually is a simple solution."
Rei blinked.
"A simple solution?"
Akasei grinned.
"Just take it with you."
"Take it… with us?"
"Why not?" Akasei shrugged.
"Monsters don't suddenly die just because they change locations."
"If all you want is to farm souls, just move the monster somewhere else."
Rei paused.
He realized he had been thinking too rigidly.
He had never even considered taking the monster out of the dungeon.
Come to think of it—
he had never seen any description saying monsters couldn't be taken out either.
Normal people simply never thought of doing such a thing.
Rei suddenly remembered something.
"Right. There's no exit here."
Akasei glanced behind them.
Then he drew his sword and slashed through the air.
A rift immediately opened in front of him.
"The exit isn't gone," Akasei said. "It's just sealed and hidden."
"If you're strong enough, you can open it yourself."
He then turned toward Rei, who was still surrounded by swarms of ants.
"I'll head out first and find a good location."
"I'll come back for you later."
With that, Akasei stepped into the rift.
His figure vanished.
The rift, however, remained open.
Rei checked his soul count again.
It had already reached 900,000.
Finally…
he had accumulated a substantial reserve.
A Soul Explosion fueled by about 100,000 souls could kill a Fourth-Tier Catastrophe-class monster.
With his current reserves, he could theoretically eliminate ten Catastrophe-class monsters in a single dungeon run.
But—
that still wasn't enough.
The more reserves he had, the better.
He needed enough power that he could flip the entire table whenever he wanted.
..
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