In any case, if we stay fighting here, the corridor is going to end up completely blocked by ant corpses. Ronan keeps doing his thing, focused on the drain spell. He doesn’t notice me watching him, and I don’t want to interrupt him either.

  Fine. Then we move forward without asking him for confirmation.

  “Advance. We can’t afford to get pinned here,” I order, putting as much confidence as possible into my voice.

  Turns out I have quite a lot of it, because my group obeys without hesitation.

  The tank raises his shield and advances, stepping past the ant corpses. And by corpses, I mean both the ones the ants have pushed aside so the tunnel doesn’t become completely blocked, and the ones that keep dropping dead in front of him as we move forward.

  Ronan maintains his spell. He advances with us, and I see those two-colored streams of energy flowing from the ants into him.

  Brutal.

  I need to ask him how much it costs per second to maintain, and how much he drains per second.

  Damn… could something like mana burn from Magic exist here? It was a card game from Earth — I used to play it with my parents when I was very young. At one point they removed that rule, but while it existed, if you had more mana than your limit at the end of your turn, it would burn you and make you lose life.

  I don’t remember anything like that from the otome game, but then again, I don’t think what Ronan is doing is normal either.

  Though of course, if he also steals life, maybe mana burn wouldn’t matter anyway.

  But no — that can’t be the case. Otherwise, drinking a mana potion could make you lose life if it gave you more points than you were missing. And that’s not how it works.

  Anyway. Focus.

  Returning my attention to the incursion, I glance back to check on the rear guard. The shaman seems to be doing everything he can not to show how disconcerted he is.

  “Everything okay, Grung?”

  For a moment it looks like he doesn’t realize I’m speaking to him. Then he reacts and answers:

  “Great Sage, I find it astonishing how easily you are dispatching the ants. Your sergeant, Ronan, wields a level of dark magic akin to that attributed in legend to the ancient demon lords.”

  I shrug.

  “Yeah…”

  Well, at least he didn’t mention the shortening of his name.

  I turn back toward the front because I don’t want to trip over a corpse.

  The pup, meanwhile, is still ahead, eager to finish enemies before Ronan drains them dry. The two orcs in the vanguard, along with the goblins armed with spears, are doing the same.

  After a few minutes, no more ants arrive.

  Out of curiosity, I ask the pup to share his sheet with me. He’s leveled up. Now he’s level 9. How many ants did he kill? Three hundred? Four hundred?

  Anyway, not the time to dwell on it. We continue forward.

  Are you okay? I ask Ronan mentally.

  This worries me.

  Of course, my lady. I can maintain the spell indefinitely since it costs one mana point per target but also drains one point per target.

  In the Blue Mountains dungeon… you could only do that one at a time, right?

  The spell improved and became area-of-effect, but only drained life from targets. Which meant I could only maintain it while I had mana.

  And how did you improve it again?

  Because we haven’t gone back to dungeons.

  My lady, I am always experimenting and training. Are you not?

  Uh… you already make me do that with the bricks.

  That reminds me, my lady, when you opened the tunnel and closed it again, quite some time passed. How long does stone control last?

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  Indefinitely, until I decide to release the spell.

  Then do not worry, my lady. You can increase your stone magic very easily. Activate the spell, have some goblins bring carts of rock and others carry away carts of bricks. You only need to remain seated while you make them. Efficient and simple.

  Even though we’re communicating telepathically, I practically have to bite my tongue to avoid answering him with something rude.

  That he spends all day looking for ways to improve his magic, fine. But leave me alone. I have vassals for a reason.

  No way, Ronan. We already have the quarry. I’ll find other ways to improve my earth magic. Besides, I don’t think I’ve progressed that much just by making bricks.

  Ronan says nothing in response, and soon we reach a fork. Everyone stops as soon as the tank does.

  “What’s happening?” I ask.

  “Which way do I go?” the orc replies.

  Uh… My earth control and stone control don’t let me sense beyond one hundred meters, so I wouldn’t be much help figuring out the correct path.

  “Keep right. We are heading straight toward the queen,” I hear Ronan say confidently.

  “Uh… okay.”

  Stoong doesn’t look convinced, but he obeys immediately, and we follow.

  And how does Ronan know? Did he send one of his friends ahead?

  Ronan, how do you know the right branch leads to the queen? I ask mentally.

  The ant I am riding is telling me which way to go.

  He’s riding an ant?

  Okaaay. Yes, he’s riding a red ant, probably one of the ones he drained. Well, since there are four goblins between him and me, and the ground is covered in dead ants, I hadn’t noticed.

  Fine. No comment. Ronan is Ronan. I should be used to his tactics by now. I don’t know why I imagined something like him sending one of his skeletal mice to map the tunnels. This is clearly more effective, and safer for his little friends’ unlife.

  We continue advancing without incident for a while. The tunnel’s dimensions don’t change; I assume the ants excavated it. Then Ronan speaks again:

  “At the next one, go straight.”

  “Understood,” the tank replies.

  Even though he has better visibility than I do because he’s at the front, he still can’t see beyond the reach of the torches. When I soon hear him gasp in amazement, I smile to myself.

  The next intersection must have just appeared. What does he think, that Ronan has incredible eyesight and can see hundreds of meters into the darkness?

  The necromancer’s voice pulls me from my thoughts.

  “Careful. As soon as we cross, they will attack again from both sides.”

  “Understood.”

  Exactly as he predicted. Once we advance into the new branch, a massive assault comes at us from both front and rear.

  I’d bet the orcs are thinking what an incredible strategist Ronan is, what talent he has for warfare and predicting enemy movements.

  Both tanks, Stoong and Gragar, raise their shields and block the ant tide.

  Hmm…

  They were waiting in both branches. No matter which one we chose, they were going to use this pincer tactic.

  Though yes: thanks to Ronan, we’re in the correct tunnel.

  “Tanks, hold those lines. Grung and Totem, buffs to keep them standing,” I say, stepping fully into my role as leader.

  I don’t give Ronan any orders, he’s already casting drain again. I watch the streams of energy flowing into him from ants both ahead and behind.

  Honestly, I don’t even know if he has cast something else, like an exhaust spell. With us in a narrow tunnel and the tanks doing their job perfectly, it doesn’t even seem necessary.

  The ants fall quickly. Then I hear the totem shout:

  “Behind—get down!”

  He launches a fireball, leaving another ant burning and illuminating the brutal number of red ants charging toward us.

  “Don’t waste mana like that,” I order. “There are more of them than us, and this isn’t an extreme enough situation to go all out.”

  Of course, I’m not standing with my arms crossed this time. Sure, I won’t gain XP like the goblins, orcs, or the pup; but they need me.

  While reprimanding the totem, I fight with sword in hand, helping eliminate the ants attacking from behind, severing heads with precise strikes. I don’t channel mana. Since Ronan immobilizes them, I can strike cleanly at the joint between head and thorax. Two goblins move in to help, pushing the ants’ heads upward with their spears and making my job even easier.

  “Ronan, don’t worry if you kill them. I want to move faster. We can’t stay here all day.”

  Understood, my lady, he replies mentally.

  Honestly, I don’t notice any difference until about ten minutes later. Seriously, thank goodness they move aside the corpses of their sisters to approach, or we’d be buried. In fact, it would have been a good ant tactic—crush us beneath their own dead.

  Anyway…

  After those ten minutes, everything accelerates.

  Ronan? I ask mentally.

  My lady, I believe I leveled up the spell.

  Damn.

  You need to touch the stone slab with me present when we return to the academy.

  Right, the ants start dying faster. They keep coming, but before long we finish them all off.

  Wow.

  I’ve been fighting alongside the rear tank, who carries one of the torches. I borrow it briefly and extend my arm toward the tunnel ahead. It is filled with corpses, heaps of red ants covering the ground as far as I can see.

  Like I said, if they hadn’t moved their fallen sisters’ bodies aside, we’d be in serious trouble.

  Without a doubt, I assume the front looks the same.

  “Stoong and Gragar are strong,” the shaman tells me respectfully, “but you and your necromancer sergeant are exceptional.”

  Me? I’ve barely done anything. But of course, I’m the leader, and the one the totem calls Great Sage, a title he has also adopted. He must believe I’m far more powerful than Ronan.

  Ahem…

  For a moment, seeing my own progress, I almost believed it too. But this brutal area drain with a mana feedback loop?

  Please. What I really wonder is whether my friend Beatrice ever fought lich Ronan—and if she did, how she defeated such a monster.

  Anyway, we begin moving again. Silence surrounds us. I think we’re all still processing what we just did. How many ants have we killed?

  Okay… the pup. I ask him to let me see his sheet. Not even discreetly; I’m among my own.

  Level 9, at 51% progress toward the next level.

  If he follows human progression, you need 2,981 points for level 9 and 8,103 for level 10. Fifty-one percent of 8,103 is 4,132 points. I didn’t notice what percentage he had before, but he easily gained 4,000 points from these ants and maybe 2,500 from the earlier ones. Like I said, I don’t know how much XP an ant gives. Five? Ten? What has the seed of evil finished off here, 650 mobs? 1,300?

  I definitely haven’t killed that many with my sword. Not even close. Probably not even two hundred.

  Anyway…

  The divine beast’s leveling process is going very well so far.

  AngelNersus.