She pondered on it for a bit looking at me then Tsuwo then me again. Not long before she opened her arms, grabbing both of us, hugging and swinging us around a little. More like a choke holding us with the strength she was exerting.

“Well shoot, Saku! I love it! Short and sweet, like having a fresh oppa fruit under the hot sun. Thank you so so so much ya majesty!”

“Ack- y- your welcome..! My, you have q- quite the strength in you!”

Saku finally released us and I huffed for air while Tsuwo stood unfazed by the hug-choke. After catching my breth I focused on Saku bringing up her status screen.

Name: Saku

Race: Fire Ant

Class: Farmer

LV  10

HP: 1,100/1,700 (green)

MP: 200/200 (blue)

SP: 400/1000 (orange)

Offense: 700 Defense: 2,000  Magic: 300

Skills (17):

[Hard Skin LV 7] [Strength LV 7] [Life LV 6] [Touch Sensory LV 5] [Smell Sensory LV 7] [Vision LV 3] [Movement LV 5] [Intelligence LV 5] [Fire-Breath LV 3] [Resistance: Fire LV 7] [Bite LV 7] [Intimedate LV 7] [Guard LV 7] [Dig LV 7] [Farming LV 8] [Construction LV 6] [Herbology LV 7]

She’s got two more skills than Tsuwo, but they are general life skills than combat skills. Specifies in growing plants and building things which goes well with her ‘farmer’ class. But her defense is 2,000! I was right on the nail with her going toe to toe with Tsuwo. Seems like we share similar skills: [Resistance: Fire], [Bite], [Touch Sensory], [Smell Sensory], [Vision], [Fire-Breath], and [Intelligence]. I’d assume it’ll be the same with most of the colony, probably ‘race’ has to affect the type of skills we are born with. Meaning anyone from the same race can share similarities in skills. The rest you’d have to… gain, or learn, or something.

“So you just gonna keep staring at my status or is there somethin’ else you need? I don’t mean to be rude to you, it’s just that we have a time limit on this poor plant I’m tryin’ to save right’ere.”

Oh. At this point I shouldn’t be surprised. So they can also use the ‘menu screen’ and check their statuses, probably not in the way I can though. But does she see the same screen I’m looking at or because I’m just staring into space that she can tell...?

“Oh, my name is Ariki by the way, please feel free to use my name. I also came here to let you know Azuwei is almost ready with the potion for the plant. I have complete faith that she’ll be here soon.”

“Ho ho, so that cute little youngin’ is Azuwei? Her name is just as cute as she always is. Welp, with ya majesty, Ariki, telling me that; I have no choice but to believe you like a leaf would trust the branch it hangs from.”

“I’m curious though, why is this plant so important?”

Walking around it, I see the colors slightly changing as I move. From afar it looked dark brown, but up close it is crystal-like in the way the light refracted and bent causing colors to morph around inside as I view it from different angles. Touching it made a weak whirring noise and the surface faintly lit up for a few seconds from where I had touched it.

“It’s Beautiful”

“Heh… same exact words from our last queen. We found this deep in the Black Lands, and our sweet queen took a real likin’ to this plant. It’s extremely rare as it is beautiful, so we decided to take it back with us. Shame that on the way that-”

“That what...?”

I turned to face Saku to see that she wasn’t looking at me, she faced the ground in silence. Unsure of what to say or do I look to Tsuwo, but she also averted my eyes. Glancing at the plant I walk up to Saku and place a leg on her head gently petting her in hopes of making her feel better. I give the sweetest smile that I can muster and chirp at her.

“Well.. in that case this plant means everything to me just as it means to you, so let’s work together in healing this wonderful plant okay?”

“My queen...”

“Ya majesty...”

“Please, just Ariki is enough. I may be your queen, but we are all in the same colony which means you’re all my precious family.”

Not long till Saku choke hugs me and Tsuwo in a sobbing mess. Feeling her emotions flow all out made me cry too, looking over I see that Tsuwo couldn’t help tear-up a little too. Although she kept her composure she cried with us. After a minute has gone by and the waterworks have finally dried up, Saku releases us rubbing her eyes.

“Hic… I apolohgize hic... It’s just been so long bottlin’ all that up, thank you ya ma-... Thank you, Ariki.”

“Apology accepted, next time... Please don’t feel any pressure to talk to me okay? I may be busy doing... Queen things, but I always have time for you all.”

Gently petting her felt like I was petting a big bear compared to petting the little puppy, Azuwei. I swear I may have heard Tsuwo go ‘Hmph’ under her chirp, but I wasn’t gonna prod her about it now. 

Tsuwo is probably a Tsundere, which I half expected considering strong girls like her usually have some hidden personality (Plus her name has ‘Tsu’ in it!). Maybe I should give her a head pat too as thanks for guiding me around.

“Alright, we should get going. I still have two more ants to name and I don’t wanna keep you from keeping this precious plant from dying. I shall assist however I can after I finish my initial business and tour with Tsuwo. So don’t hesitate to ask me for anything understood?”

“I hear you loud an’ clear, I’ll keep you in the loop about the plant. But the last ant you’re visiting is the one in the room full of shinies right? Could you ask her to lend over some crytikes? Running low on stamina here”

“Crytikes? Okay, I’ll let her know soon as I can.”

Following Tsuwo’s lead, we journey downwards this time reaching the deepest part of the dirt home. We approach a large opening resembling the maw of a giant creature. Although it was too dark to see the hallway, inside a faint golden light omitted from afar beckoning us to come inside. The moment we step foot inside the hallway torches lit up one by one showing the straight pathway to the golden light.

“Are we.. safe to walk through here??”

“Don’t worry, I shall guard you with my life. But this is her lair where she keeps all the shinies, it’s like this because she asked for it to be built this way. In her lair no harm will befall ants of this colony.”

Keeping real close to Tsuwo, I look around taking in the dungeon aesthetics of the huge hallway.

Well if she wanted to keep any trespassers out, this is a way to go. Everything just screams danger and ominous, did she evolve into an ant dragon and made this lair to protect her ‘treasure’? Wait does that mean we can evolve? Maybe I can find a way to… evolve into a humanoid form of an ant queen. Hmmm… would I keep my big butt and legs but have the upper body of a human, like a centaur or… would I just be mostly humanoid with insect antennas? Weeell long as I can gain my pretty face and gorgeous hair again I’ll be set.

After a bit of walking we finally entered a room about half the size of the ant hill home. Almost blinded by the amount of shininess the huge open room possessed. There wasn’t just gold; there was silver, copper, iron, gems, glass, whatever had the capacity to shine was piled into here. Not only that…

“Eek!?”

“My queen?”

Took me a second to notice that beneath the enormous amount of riches and shinies were piles of skeletons serving as the foundation. Littered across the floor were human skeletons and others that I couldn’t tell what they are. Surprisingly, the stench of death hasn’t burned my nose off (if I had a nose). Good thing, all the ‘smelling’ is left to my antennae and only then I don’t actually smell the smell. A bit shaken seeing skeleton piles of my former race, but I kept my body tense to keep myself together as I walked with Tsuwo across the narrow pathways. There was a small single-file passage unburdened by shinies or skeletons and after a bit more walking we reached the heart of the entire room. In the middle stood a single desk, and an ant behind the desk seemingly writing on something.

“The queen has hatched and is on official business, she wishes to personally greet you”

“My, coming all the way out here for me. I am flattered, your highness. Please have a seat while I prepare you an oppa fruit”

The ant’s coat was more purplish-red with long slim pincers that curved at the tip, other than that she was about the same size as a normal worker ant. The way she sat was almost posh giving her a stern professional air about her.

“The journey was quite relaxing so it was no trouble to come this far, I wanted to get to know my precious subjects personally.”

We sat down in front of the desk as the ant pulled out two large fruits out of nowhere. The fruits were bizarre, colored in bright purple with yellow dots and shaped like a cylinder. She cut the fruits into even pieces with her pincers with the knifeworks of a chef. She neatly places the fruit pieces on a leaf plate before setting it down in front of us.

“Wow, such precision in your cutting, I assume this has to do with your skills?”

“Yes, precisely. My skills in [Cooking] and [Blade] are both LV 7. It was thanks to the arduous training I’ve gone through to obtain these wonderful skills. Plus enjoying fresh cut oppa fruit is a delight fit for your highness.”

Despite how presentable she has made this fruit, it still screams danger. I’m guessing this is extremely poisonous to humans, but a delicacy among us ants. I wonder if she killed humans by feeding them this? That would make her like a malevolent ant witch in the woods… I wonder if she poisoned any princesses lately.

Gulping down my nonexistent saliva I take a bite after watching Tsuwo eat a few pieces.

“OH WOW! This is so mmm! No wonder you praise this fruit so much!”

Eating a couple more pieces I notice the happy faces of the two ants as they enjoy their share of oppa fruits. Letting out a sigh of content I pat my tummy.

“Ahh… that was really delicious, thank you for that wonderful dessert.”

“As always your [Cooking] is amazing.”

“I am deeply flattered to be complemented by your highness and her strongest soldier. So your official business, my guess is that you’ve come to name me as well?”

“Yes, I have. How did you know?”

“Take a look at my status and you’ll see. I do have one selfish request, is that you make my name... Pretty too.”

Gah... I also never expected this ant be another world version of my homeroom teacher. The wooden desk, the way she holds herself, the way she talks, heck strangely even the looks despite being an ant. I can feel that she’s shrewd and very aware of everything, wouldn’t be surprised if she found out my secret. Not to mention all these shinies... Just as greedy as my teacher, but I still couldn’t hate her because behind it all she had a good heart. Long as she keeps her greed in check, that is.

Name:

Race: Fire Ant

Class: Slayer

LV 10

HP: 1,500/1,500 (green)

MP: 1,000/1,000 (blue)

SP: 1,000/1,000 (orange)

Offense: 2,000 Defense: 1,000 Magic: 700       

Skills (23): [Hard Skin LV 5] [Strength LV 5] [Life LV 5] [Accuracy LV 7] [Touch Sensory LV 7] [Smell Sensory LV 7] [Vision LV 5] [Movement LV 7] [Intelligence LV 6] [Fire-Breath LV 3] [Resistance: Fire LV 7] [Bite LV 7] [Movement Increase LV 5] [Cooking LV 7] [Blade LV 7] [Shadow LV 5] [Intel LV 7] [Weakness Exploit LV 7] [Increase Damage: Humans LV 5] [Increase Damage: Sects LV 4] [Ambush LV 5] [Vampry LV 3] [Assassinate LV 4 (Shadow+Ambush+Weakness Exploit+Blade)]

My God what 23 skills? She’s dangerous, it’s obvious because of where we are but.. ‘Slayer’ as a class. Her skills are deeply catered to One Hit KOs, she even has [Assassinate] created by 4 specialized skills instead of 3 this time! [Intel LV 7] is probably how she knew what I was doing. It’s kind of scary to think of how many she must have killed to get to this powerful.

“Very well, I shall arrange a name fitting of your request.”

I took another long look at her as she kept her stern eyes on me.

“Does Gyoma satisfy your request?”

“May I ask why, Gyoma?”

“Well… the aura about you is something special, I get a sense of wisdom and dedication. Gyoma is what came to mind because of that.”

She looked at me as if she was looking into my soul seeing if what I had said is what I truly meant. The intensity of her stare made me sweat internally. She then clicked her jaws and wrote down on something.

“Very well, I accept. To be honest your naming leaves much to be desired, but at least you put your heart into what you say. From this day forth I, Keeper of shinies, shall be named Gyoma. The head of our troops is Tsuwo. The knowledgeable scientist, Azuwei. The constructor and farmer, Saku. And your highness.. As she prefers, Ariki am I correct?”

“Wha- How-.. Ahem.. Yes, you are correct, I do prefer that you all call me Ariki. Are you perhaps writing this information down?”

“You are smarter than you look, yes I am. Information is important, it can sometimes cost more than the shinies I have around me. Humans tend to have that way of thinking, makes it easy enough to take… or rather ‘have them place an early investment’ on my behalf.”

Which confirms my theory with these skeletons and her greed, I’d hate to get on her bad side if anything.

“Don’t worry, Ariki. Despite my… extreme hobby of collecting. I am first and foremost loyal to you and the colony. I wouldn’t dare raise my jaw against you no matter my mood.”

OH GOD, Can she read my mind!?

Gyoma let out a small chuckle then proceeded to pull out a bag placing it on the table. The bag pulsated light from within.

“This is what Saku requested. Crytikes, able to replenish a moderate amount of stamina and mana. Quite a common carry for human adventurers and a common find inside strong sects. I see that taking care of the plant without rest is finally taking a toll on her.”

“Thank you, I shall take this to her when I finish the tour for my queen.”

“Time is precious so I’ll just need to see one more ant then I’ll relieve you to do that important delivery.”

“Understood, which ant did you need to see?”

“The last male ant.”