1,000,000 souls.
2,000,000 souls.
3,000,000 souls.
5,000,000 souls.
…
At last, Rei experienced what it felt like to be rich.
But at the same time, it was obvious that the Thousand-Legion Ant Hill in front of him was gradually being squeezed dry.
The black ants being born from it were becoming increasingly sparse.
Originally, he could farm over 100,000 souls in half a minute.
Now, after an entire minute, he could only gather about 50,000 souls.
Even with five million souls, it still felt far from enough.
If he used Soul Explosion at 150,000 souls per cast, he would only be able to unleash it 33 times before running out.
At the very least…
He wanted to farm 100 million souls first.
However—
It truly felt like the monster tide in this space was almost completely drained.
Rei couldn't help but wonder.
If this continued…
would it still be able to produce black ants at all?
Rei looked toward the ant hill.
Ever since advancing to Death Priest, his perception of the world had become sharper.
The colors in his vision were distinctly different from before his advancement.
He could now see things ordinary people couldn't.
The monster tide really had grown extremely thin.
"Haha! I'm back!"
Just as Rei was worrying, a cheerful voice rang out from behind him.
He turned around.
Sure enough—it was Akasei.
"Akasei, you're finally back. I was worried other adventurers might discover this place."
Akasei laughed loudly.
"Haha! Don't worry about that. When I went out earlier, I already blocked the area off."
As he spoke, Akasei also looked toward the ant hill.
"Oh? The monster tide really has thinned out a lot. As expected of a Thousand-Legion Ant Hill."
Rei nodded.
"Yeah. I was just worrying about that too. With the monster tide thinning, the ants it produces are becoming weaker and fewer."
Akasei looked at Rei, who genuinely seemed troubled.
Kid…
Why does this feel like the kind of problem a villain would have?
"So," Akasei said, "I found a place."
The moment he finished speaking—
He lifted the entire ant hill with one hand.
Then he stood in front of Rei.
Black ants tried to approach him, but they couldn't even crawl onto his body. The moment they got close, they died instantly, shattering into black powder.
Holding the ant hill in one hand, Akasei casually drew a light slash with his greatsword.
A massive tear in space opened before them.
Carrying the ant hill, he stepped through the rift.
Rei paused for a moment.
Then he followed him outside.
The instant he stepped through—
he suddenly felt his collar being grabbed.
"I made some preparations earlier," Akasei said. "It's a bit far away, so I'll just take you there directly."
Then—
BANG!
Rei felt the world spin violently.
The surrounding scenery blurred into chaotic streaks of afterimages.
His organs churned violently.
Fortunately, the sensation didn't last long.
Only a few brief moments later, he felt solid ground beneath his feet again.
But his head was still spinning.
Everything around him seemed to rotate endlessly.
Rei collapsed to the ground.
Even so, he still remembered to activate every shield protecting his body.
Then he took a pill from his storage space and swallowed it.
When purchasing medicine, Rei preferred pill forms rather than liquid potions.
Pills were easier to consume.
You could even keep them in your mouth and swallow them at the exact moment you needed them.
Liquid potions, on the other hand—
required you to open the bottle and drink, which could be fatal in a critical moment.
After the incident where his Random Teleportation Scroll had been torn apart before he could use it, Rei had started preparing for situations where he might be interrupted mid-action.
Now inside his storage space—
there were hundreds of potions of every type.
Over one hundred Random Teleportation Scrolls.
Monster corpses categorized neatly.
Even numerous preserved specimens.
Unfortunately—
high-value magical artifacts were extremely expensive.
Even with 210,000 gold coins, the money disappeared quickly.
Rei didn't have many of those stocked up.
After swallowing the pill, Rei's dizziness instantly vanished.
He stood up and looked around.
This appeared to be a man-made cave.
The space was perfectly rectangular and orderly.
Behind him was a straight corridor. Judging by the rock walls lining the passage, they were likely inside a mountain.
"I carved out this cave myself," Akasei said.
"If you want to raise monsters, locking it up here and periodically clearing them should work fine."
Rei looked around.
The area was enormous.
It was probably several times larger than the sports field at his high school.
More importantly—
the monster tide here was extremely dense.
"Akasei, you're really smart!" Rei praised sincerely.
The moment Akasei heard the compliment—
his ears practically perked up.
His expression turned radiant.
His head lifted so high it seemed like it might reach the sky.
"Haha! Of course I'm smart! Did you even need to say that?"
Oh~
Looks like that compliment really hit the mark.
Calling him smart had clearly landed a critical hit.
Akasei wiped his nose proudly.
"But we still need some precautionary measures," he said.
"Just in case it causes unnecessary destruction."
Akasei took out a cyan scroll from his backpack.
The scroll glowed faintly.
A marking seal shot out and imprinted itself onto the Thousand-Legion Ant Hill.
"Akasei… you use scrolls too?" Rei asked.
Akasei sighed.
"What can I do? In this world, there are always things warriors aren't good at."
"Actually, for things like tracking marks, aside from tracking magic, archers have marking arrows, observers have surveillance gaze, and alchemists can make luminous tracking reagents."
"But the scrolls that guy Iz makes are way better than the usual market junk."
"Of course, I'm not saying warriors are weaker than mages."
Akasei…
If you hadn't said that last line,
I wouldn't have thought that at all.
After the tracking mark was placed—
Akasei began pulling out large stone slabs from his storage space.
Each slab was completely jet-black.
They clearly weren't cheap materials.
"I'll cover the material cost. We're buddies."
"But next time we go drinking, you're paying."
Whoosh!
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD—
Rei didn't even see how Akasei moved.
One slab after another shot through the air, embedding themselves into the cave walls.
Within a few seconds, the entire earthen cavern had transformed into a sealed chamber lined with black stone.
"Rigid Blacksteel," Akasei said.
"It can withstand the attacks of Fourth-Tier monsters."
Only then did he place the ant hill down.
BOOM!
With a dull thunderous sound, the ant hill settled firmly at the center of the chamber.
Next, Akasei tossed out a crimson short sword, stabbing it into the ground before the ant hill.
A scarlet magic circle expanded outward.
It rose like a pillar of light, enclosing the Thousand-Legion Ant Hill inside.
"This is a Spirit-Sealing Dagger I had someone enchant for me."
"With this in place, it shouldn't be able to get out."
"Even if it somehow does… I'll immediately sense it."
Rei realized something.
Even though Akasei was a warrior, he still carried all kinds of tools and items.
Every profession had its strengths and weaknesses.
Things a class couldn't do naturally were often compensated for through equipment and items.
Akasei's rapid series of actions left Rei dazzled.
But once everything was finished—
it meant one thing.
The Thousand-Legion Ant Hill had officially become
a monster they were raising in captivity.
..
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