Chapter Seven: Leveled Up

Clack.

It seemed that soldier ants in the Ant Nest instance belonged to the category of elite monsters, so both soldier ants dropped items. The first one dropped a few coins, while the second yielded a piece of equipment—a helmet resembling the head of a soldier ant.

Above the helmet floated several ethereal words—Ant Carapace Helm.

Seizing the moment before the main ant swarm reached him, Li Yunfei quickly picked up the Ant Carapace Helm and called out, "Equip Ant Carapace Helm."

In an instant, the helmet vanished from his hand and appeared in the equipment slot above his head. On Li Yunfei's head, a dark helmet materialized out of thin air, with the mandibles of a soldier ant raised skyward, protruding diagonally on either side like the horns of a horned helm.

Or perhaps, the Ant Carapace Helm was, by nature, a type of horned helm.

A few seconds later, the main body of the ant swarm surged forth. Li Yunfei retreated while using the terrain to hack down the ants.

Fortunately, the ants didn’t rush in all at once, but instead advanced in a queue, one after another. Each ant kept a certain distance from the one ahead; unless obstructed, their formation remained orderly. This gave Li Yunfei the chance to slay them one by one.

He had nearly suffered earlier due to unfamiliarity with the soldier ants’ fighting style, but now, knowing what to expect, he would not so easily find himself in peril again.

Li Yunfei quickly found his rhythm, shifting left and right, his legs moving in a steady cadence, alternating his retreat while his machete fell in swift arcs.

In mere moments, over twenty ants had perished under his blade.

However, as more and more ants poured in, and with the added harassment of soldier ants, Li Yunfei’s rhythm was inevitably broken. The formation of the ants fell into chaos, and the canyon was soon choked with their bodies.

The ants attempted to surround Li Yunfei, leaving him less and less room to maneuver. Forced to retreat continuously, he had to dodge attacks while simultaneously slashing at his foes.

Li Yunfei noticed that while the ants’ heads were protected by chitin, the worker ants’ chitin was not particularly tough.

A single strike could break through, costing a worker ant about a third of its health. Three blows would finish one off.

The soldier ants, however, had much harder chitin. It took four or five strikes to break through their defense, and seven or eight to slay one. This significantly increased his stamina expenditure.

Thus, targeting vital points when fighting monsters was crucial.

Even so, this allowed Li Yunfei to test the defensive power of the Ant Carapace Helm on his head.

With the cutting force of his high-manganese steel machete, even a military steel helmet might not withstand a single blow, yet the Ant Carapace Helm required four or five hits to breach.

Clearly, the Ant Carapace Helm’s defensive power far surpassed that of a steel helmet.

Li Yunfei retreated while fighting, quickly making his way past the middle of the narrow canyon. By now, over thirty ants had fallen to his blade, including five soldier ants.

At that moment, a new threat emerged. The ground, now piled high with ant corpses, became a platform for those behind—ants began to climb over their fallen companions, advancing in layered waves.

"Yiyo yiyo yiyo..."

From above came the anxious cries of the little fox. Li Yunfei glanced up, his face paling at what he saw.

Some ants were climbing up the mountainside, making their way onto the rocky hill. This was no longer tenable!

Ants, after all, could ignore terrain. Their segmented legs were covered with bristles, like countless tiny barbs.

Combined with the static electricity generated by friction, this gave ants the ability to adhere to surfaces, allowing them to traverse vertical walls and even ceilings with ease.

Spiders, centipedes, and other arthropods were no different.

No, if this continued, he would soon be overwhelmed by the tide of ants.

"Red, run!" Li Yunfei made no further hesitation and turned to flee at full speed.

He had no choice—if he waited any longer, the ants would block his escape from behind as well, leaving him with no way out.

Thankfully, he was just a bit faster than the ants, though not by much.

Once he burst out of the narrow canyon, he recalled the little fox to the pet space, sheathed his dual machetes, and quickly retrieved his folding mountain bike from the system inventory.

With practiced speed, he unfolded and secured it, mounted up, and raced ahead, gradually widening the gap between himself and the ant swarm.

If only the system inventory could accommodate a motorcycle—then, with a mountain bike, he could have been even more at ease.

As Li Yunfei sped forward, he glanced back from time to time. The ant swarm was still relentlessly pursuing him.

No doubt they were following the pheromone trail he carried, tracking his scent.

But after a while, a smile slowly spread across Li Yunfei’s face.

He saw that once the ants emerged from the narrow passage, they reformed into a single-file line.

Ha! What fools.

He now knew how to clear this instance.

The Ant Nest instance, despite its apparent danger due to the sheer number of ants, was actually quite manageable once one grasped the pattern.

Li Yunfei squeezed the brakes and came to a halt, leaving the bike propped on its stand. He retrieved his twin blades, released the little fox, and dashed off to the side.

A pet left in the pet space could not gain experience. If he wanted the little fox to level up alongside him, she had to be out with him.

The little fox was faster than the ants—as long as she didn’t approach them herself, they couldn’t catch her.

Thus, Li Yunfei led the army of ants in circles outside the Ant Nest, pausing now and then to slaughter a wave. If he sensed the threat of being surrounded, he would immediately turn and flee.

Once the ants reformed into a column, he would stop and kill another batch.

After repeating this four or five times, just as Li Yunfei felt his stamina waning and was struggling to maintain his rhythm, a sudden coolness washed over him.

It was as if, in the heat of midsummer, he had drunk a bowl of chilled sour plum soup—utterly refreshing.

Fatigue vanished, and his aching limbs brimmed with strength once more.

He had leveled up.

After slaying nearly one hundred seventy or eighty ants, Li Yunfei reached level two, his status fully restored.

He hadn’t needed to kill two hundred ants to level up, because soldier ants contributed more experience than worker ants.

Naturally, the little fox leveled up with him; her former exhaustion was swept away, and she was lively once more.

At this point, the ant swarm still numbered over two hundred. During Li Yunfei’s slaughter, whenever their numbers dwindled, worker ants would scurry back into the nest for reinforcements.

The ants came in waves, fighting a war of attrition.

Though now fully recovered from leveling up, Li Yunfei wasn’t eager to keep fighting. He wanted to check what had changed after his upgrade.

Besides, after so many battles, both machetes were starting to dull and had notched in several places, reducing their lethality. He needed to repair his equipment.

Circling back, Li Yunfei returned to where he’d left his bike, scooped up the little fox to perch on his shoulder, and rode along the base of the flowerbed.

After covering some distance and leaving the ants hundreds of meters behind, Li Yunfei’s eyes lit up—a broad lake had appeared ahead.

What used to be a small puddle beneath the flowerbed had now become the perfect place for Li Yunfei to lose the ant horde.