Chapter 223: A Dunce From the Masters of Spears Hides A Sword (2)

Most warriors believed that only swordsmen could achieve Body-Sword Unity, but they were wrong.

Tap.

Keter lightly leaped and twisted mid-air to stand on the ceiling. Then he angled himself so his head pointed toward the ground, and aura flared from his entire body. Instead of scattering, the aura whirled tightly around him, rapidly forming a distinct shape—an arrow.

Drrr!!!

He bent his knees. The more he bent, the more the cavern trembled as if about to collapse.

“Decameron, hold the cave steady with your mana so it doesn’t cave in.”

Even for Keter, if he were buried hundreds of meters underground, it would take a long time to climb back up.

Understanding this, Decameron nodded.

“Commencing.”

Decameron pressed both palms to the ground and released his mana. A net-like lattice of mana wrapped around the entire mine. Now that there was no risk of the mine collapsing, Keter shot up like a coiled spring. This wasn’t simply smashing down with raw force; this was Body-Bow Unity: the arrow was Keter, and Keter was the arrow.

The mine’s ground was far from soft. It was mostly stone and had some iron as well. But before Keter’s Union of Body and Bow, it was like ice meeting a red-hot iron rod.

Drrrr!!

He pierced through dense rock at blinding speed. Occasionally, other chambers or tunnels flashed past, but he ignored them as they weren’t the queen’s chamber.

“

Screee?!

”

Crunch!

An unlucky Soldier Rock Ant in his path was flattened like an actual ant. In just three seconds, Keter blasted through hundreds of meters of stone and reached his target, where the Queen Rock Ant’s mana was thick.

Thud!

Keter canceled the Body-Bow Unity and landed.

“Kiek!!!

”

The Queen Rock Ant glared up at Keter, the intruder who had dropped from the ceiling. She was larger than the regular Rock Ants but smaller than Soldier, yet her durability far surpassed theirs.

If a Soldier Rock Ant’s carapace was like amantir, the queen’s was like orichalcum. Her carapace was even triple-layered, as if she were wearing three suits of orichalcum armor. Her pincers and spear-like forelegs were just as strong. But her terror did not end there.

“

Ssshhhk!

”

Sensing danger, she sprayed acid from her mouth like a mist. Keter dodged.

For him, who usually tanked Aura Swords, to dodge meant this wasn’t just about it being dirty.

Sizzle...

The acid hissed, melting the stone floor without resistance. This was why Keter had dodged it: the queen’s acid could melt orichalcum itself. Aura Shield and even five-circle defensive magic couldn’t block it.

Ssshhhk! Ssshhhk! Ssshhhk!

The Queen Rock Ant kept spraying acid from afar. It was surprising caution for an ant.

“Let’s see... If I use Milky Way here, even Decameron won’t be able to keep the place from collapsing.”

Ant tunnels could withstand quakes, but it was nothing but a sand castle to the chain detonations of Milky Way.

“Aura Arrows won’t pierce your shell, and Milky Way will bury me alive as well. So this will do.”

As he nimbly hopped between acid jets, Keter snapped his fingers.

“Limitless Archery, Decameronth Form: Tusk.”

He had designed Limitless Archery to handle any opponent or situation, including heavily armored ones. The Milky Way was powerful, but because its force dispersed upon exploding, it was poorly suited against opponents specializing in defense. Limitless Archery, Decameronth Form: Tusk was created to break through the toughest defenses instead of Milky Way.

Keter stopped dodging the Queen Rock Ant’s attacks and drew Amaranth. On the empty string, aura and mana condensed into a single arrow. Compared to the crackling, explosive Milky Way, Tusk seemed unimpressive, with its blunt, rounded tip.

Voong...

On close inspection, however, the round tip was spinning. It made a sound reminiscent of tens of thousands of bees flying.

“

Kiekk!!”

The queen let out a mocking sound. Given her massive size, the tiny Tusk looked like an insignificant stick. Then, she did something unbelievable—she lifted her head as if daring him to shoot. That was a shrewd move, as the hardest part of a Rock Ant’s body was the head.

Of course, Keter welcomed the challenge. It was a head-on clash, the exact kind of fight he welcomed.

“It’s hard for me to control Tusk and aim it precisely, but this makes it a lot easier. Thanks.”

Twang.

Tusk shot forth like an ordinary arrow, yet its speed was beyond imagination.

Rumble!!!

Five shockwaves rippled out like rings. By the time the thunderous blast reached her ears, Tusk had already struck the queen’s head.

Crrrrunch!

The Tusk’s spinning arrowhead, having accelerated fivefold, relentlessly pounded against the queen’s carapace.

Clack clack clack clack!

Unlike the rest of her body, the carapace on her head was composed of five layers of orichalcum-hard shell, yet those layers shattered like glass.

Regretting her decision, she tried to twist her head away, but it was too late.

Swish!!

Tusk pierced through the queen’s fourth layer of carapace, but lost its power at the final layer and came to a complete stop. Feeling her last layer intact, the queen was relieved. However...

“Did you think it was over?” Keter smirked.

The queen tilted her head slightly, almost as if she understood him.

“Tusk strikes twice.”

The queen tried to ignore him and attack with her pincers, but she couldn’t, as a searing pain erupted from her head.

Ki... Kiek...

Fwoosh!

The arrow, which she thought had stopped, suddenly surged forward again, piercing through the final layer and plunging into the soft, tender flesh beneath.

Drip...

Green fluid spilled from the punctured head.

As he dismissed Amaranth, Keter said, “Tusk has two arrowheads. When the outer head stops, blocked by armor, the inner spike-like head emerges. It absorbs the force that stopped it and releases it as thrust for a second strike.”

Keter flicked his fingers and winked.

“This arrow pierced a thirty-centimeter-thick orichalcum wall. Consider it an honor to die by it.”

Historically, subjugating a Queen Rock Ant required armies of thousands and hundreds of knights, with even six-star Grandmasters needed to deliver the killing blow. Even with thorough preparations and a force on the scale of an entire war, these battles produced hundreds of casualties, including dead Masters. And yet now, at this moment, it had been killed by one person with a single arrow. The Queen Rock Ant collapsed, slowly but surely.

Thud!

Keter approached the fallen Queen Rock Ant and gently patted her head. It was his own way of showing respect to a worthy foe, even one he had slain...

Squelch!

...or at least, it would have been, if he were the type to show respect to his opponents.

* * *

Keter slipped his hand into the Queen Rock Ant’s head and stirred around before pulling his arm back out. In his hand was a jewel-like orb.

“Nice! As expected, an Inner Essence Pill!”

High-tier monsters often possessed a crystallized mass of natural energy, creating an Inner Essence Pill. These pills held mystical properties beyond even the finest elixirs.

Gulp.

Keter tossed it into his mouth without hesitation. Normally, because of the Survival of the Fittest technique, elixirs had little effect on him, but an Inner Essence Pill was different.

Vwooom...!

The natural energy built up by monsters was a different kind of power from the aura or mana cultivated by humans; it was pure, condensed power. Most Inner Essence Pills simply boosted aura or mana, but rare ones could fortify the body or even expand the vessel of the soul. A select few even granted strange abilities, and this one seemed to be doing just that.

As Keter absorbed the pill with his eyes closed, he felt changes stirring within his body.

I thought I’d just get a bit of aura and mana... What's this?

He had gained about five years’ worth of aura and three years’ worth of mana, but that wasn’t all. He could feel his bones hardening. It had already been as strong as steel, but now, after consuming the Queen Rock Ant’s pill, it felt closer to amantir. However, that wasn’t even the main change.

Keter suddenly picked up a pebble at his feet and popped it into his mouth.

Crunch, crunch.

He bit into the stone like it was an apple. No matter how strong one’s teeth and jaw might be, chewing a rock should have been impossible. Even if he somehow managed to swallow it, humans couldn’t digest stone. That was common sense, but as Keter chewed the hard rock, saliva from his gums began dissolving the stone, making it into a soft jelly.

“Hah, my saliva turned acidic? That could be useful for surprise attacks.”

He quickly understood how it worked: normally, it was regular saliva, but when triggered or consciously willed, it became acidic.

“I bet I could make my blood acidic too.”

Since wasting blood seemed pointless, Keter decided to test that out in real combat later.

“This life’s going well. I had only ever heard rumors about special side effects from Inner Essence Pills.”

He had eaten a few Inner Essence Pills before his regression as well, but he had never gained any special abilities. Yet here he was, gaining one from the very first pill in this life. He didn’t know whether it would be practical in battle, but having something new to use was enough to lift his mood.

“And the good news isn’t over yet.”

He searched the queen’s chamber thoroughly. In the center lay a grotesque egg-laying pit, and to one side, piles of glittering gems. Most were raw ore and gold nuggets, but there were also plenty of gold coins and jewel-studded trinkets.

Like crows, Rock Ants liked shiny things and collected them. They collected gold and gems they found when digging tunnels and offered the biggest and most beautiful gems to their queen.

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“So the Oath of Death is supposed to be here...”

He didn’t care how that artifact had ended up in the Queen Rock Ant’s possession.

“It would be stupid to dig through all this.”

Even when dormant, an artifact still emitted traces of mana. As long as he focused on that, picking it out among the countless trinkets wouldn’t be hard.

“Somewhere around... here. Hm?”

Clatter clatter.

Something felt off to his fingers. It wasn’t hard, but soft and threadlike.

“What is this?”

Keter pulled...

Clang! Clink!

What came tumbling out of the jewel pile was a man’s head. It was obviously a burly man, and it wasn’t even severed.

“...”

“...Who are you?”

Keter was speechless. He hadn’t expected this at all. The man, who had been buried in the jewels, stared at Keter with pearly eyes.

“I am the Jewel Fairy. Thank you for rescuing me. In return, I will give you all these jewels.”

Slap!

The man’s head snapped to the side as Keter slapped him.

Normally, slaps were meant to humiliate rather than harm. However, Keter’s were different, carrying enough force to make even a seasoned veteran scream like a frightened kid. The moment it landed, it sent a searing burn across the face and a shock-like pain rippling through the entire body.

Yet the man withstood it, showing remarkable composure.

“Please don’t hit me. Even fairies feel pain.”

Anyone could see he was just a human male, yet he shamelessly clung to calling himself a fairy.

“Heh. Interesting guy.”

Anyone else would’ve called him insane, but Keter found him intriguing.