And he did.
The head fell.
All of the ants' attention had been fixed on the green creature, and that moment of distraction proved fatal. As the severed head struck the stone, a sharp echo rippled through the chamber. Every head turned at once—ants and goblin alike.
The goblin frowned, eyes narrowing. Enemy or ally?
The answer came quickly. The creature before him had killed an ant.
His expression eased.
Encouraged by the unspoken alliance, the goblin advanced and—slash.
A second ant's head hit the ground.
The Hollowkin glanced at him, a crooked smile forming.
The goblin winked back and raised a thumb with his free hand.
The ants reacted instantly. Antennae brushed against neighboring antennae—signals passing in a rapid chain until the entire group understood.
They split.
The main force turned towards the goblin. The weaker force redirected towards the Hollowkin.
The first group attempted to encircle the goblin, but he controlled the space well, sweeping them back with the reach of his spear. After several failed advances, one ant suddenly crouched. Another sprinted forward, using its back as a springboard.
The leap caught the goblin off guard. He froze for a fraction of a second, then raised the spear horizontally to block.
The collision was brutal.
The ant was deflected—but the spear cracked cleanly in half
The goblin stared at the broken shaft.
Defenseless.
Meanwhile, the Hollowkin noticed that the ants were not the veterans. But the replacements.
At first, it was manageable. He danced between them, sidestepping, retreating, keeping them from getting too close.
Then the goblin ran.
He tucked his tail and fled, throwing the Hollowkin a single apologetic glance over his shoulder.
He chose to live.
"Fuck," the Hollowkin muttered.
With the goblin gone, the remaining ants redirected. The full force came for him now.
They tried to encircle him again. He refused to let them. Step back. Sidestep. Adjust. Survive.
They changed tactics.
Two ants crouched. Two more sprinted, leaping from their backs.
He smashed one aside with the pommel of his dagger. The other landed on his arm and—chomp.
This time, his arm didn't come off.
The fabric stretched inward, resisting the bite—but the pressure kept increasing, bone-deep and crushing. He slashed at its antennae and limbs.
[You inflicted poison on your enemy]
The ant didn't scream. Its remaining legs convulsed violently—and it bit down harder.
"Fuck!"
He hammered its head again and again with the pommel. The body twitched, then sagged.
He didn't finish it. He didn't have time but was certain it was going to die.
The other ants didn't even look at their dying comrade. One stepped over it. Another crushed it underfoot as they surged forward.
"Heartless"
Two more launched themselves at him. He kicked one out of the air, sending it gliding into stone. The crouched one never rose—
*Slash of the Assassin*
Its head fell.
The last attackers used the stones as launch points. He knocked them back with his palms—but made a mistake.
The ant he had sent flying earlier latched onto the back of his leg.
Pressure. Crushing. Relentless.
"AAARGH!"
Enraged and desperate, he stabbed again and again until the body finally went limp. It was gore, raw and ugly—but survival demanded it.
The remaining ants fell quickly. Two clean executions.
Silence followed.
The colony's main force was gone.
The rest would fall.
Leaving the corpses where they lay, the Hollowkin turned toward the nest.
No hesitation. No time.
[Time Limit: 6 hours]
He arrived quickly.
The guardians fell almost immediately.
Slash of the Assassin made short work of them—clean, efficient, merciless.
He slipped deeper into the nest and began his descent.
First came the false tunnels. Then the main artery, from which countless subsidiary passages branched like veins.
Slash of the Assassin.
Again.
And again.
It felt as though a wolf had entered a sheepfold.
Lives were reaped left and right. Ants scattered, antennae flailing, panic spreading faster than he could follow—but it didn't matter. The colony was already doomed. Even without him, it would collapse.
Still, for the sake of survival, he had to finish it.
The main tunnel gave way to individual chambers. Then came the disposal room—still choked with litter, bones, shells, and rot. He didn't slow down.
The timer urged him onward.
[Time Limit: 2 hours]
He descended further and entered the warm chamber.
The brood room.
An ant tending the larvae turned towards him—and he knew at once.
A veteran.
Its carapace was scarred. One leg dragged. An antenna twitched unevenly.
So this was what became of those who could no longer fight.
Reassigned.
He use his skill again
*Slash of the Assassin*
He paused. Just for a moment.
His gaze lingered on the larvae.
They twitched faintly, pale and soft, packed together in their warmth.
His foot hovered.
He told himself he had no choice. That the system demanded it. That survival required it.
He stepped down.
A dull, wet pressure answered him.
He didn't look away as he stomped again. And again.
When he was finished, the chamber was silent.
For now, that lie was enough to keep him moving.
He descended again.
Deeper.
Until he reached the final chamber.
The queen's room.
[Time Limit: 1 hour]
He paused for a single second, then entered.
The conditions resembled the brood chamber—but only at first glance. There was warmth, light, and a sense of order, and that was where the similarity ended. The light came from bioluminescent fungi, dotted along the ground and tracing shallow grooves in the earth.
The smell was familiar—damp soil, tinged with iron.
The walls were marked by dark stains, and in places the surface glistened, sticky to the eye.
When he looked at the queen's attendants, a trace of pity surfaced. They were few in number. Injured. Some limbless. Their state was clearly his doing. And if even the queen's companions looked like this, it was obvious—the colony was already dying.
One worker cleaned her.
Another dragged prey towards her mandibles.
A third stood close, body rigid, serving as her guard.
There was one more, sitting apart, unmoving. Its body was intact, untouched by labor or battle.
What a freeloader, he muttered. As for the queen—she did resemble the others. She was of the same species, after all. But the proportions were wrong.
She was larger than any of them—larger even than him. Her head was small compared to her massive body, and her abdomen was elongated and swollen, resting heavily against the ground. On her thorax were a pair of blunt stubs—remnants of a time when she had wings.
The ant queen pressed her antennae against the nearest attendant.
The message passed instantly—from one to another—until her command spread through the chamber.
Attack the intruder.
They obeyed.
But—
*Slash of the Assassin*
One fell.
Another tried to move, wounded, limping—
*Slash of the Assassin*
They were already broken. Injured, exhausted, incomplete. They never stood a chance.
The skill pulsed faintly inside him, on the verge of ranking up. He could feel it.
Then the queen moved.
Slow. Deliberate.
Each step she took made the air feel heavier, denser, as if the chamber itself resisted his breathing. The hollowkin tightened his grip around the dagger's handle.
His heart pounded.
*Ba-dump*
*Ba-dump*
Closer.
Closer.
His anxiety spiked with every massive step—until she stopped.
What is she—
A green liquid spilled from her mandibles.
It sprayed across the walls. Across him.
"AAAARGHHH!"
Pain—different from anything before.
Burning.
Where the liquid touched, his fabric dissolved, eaten away, leaving smoking holes behind. Not all of it corroded—but enough.
If she hit him like that again… more than once…
He jumped forward.
*Slash of the Assassin*
She dodged.
Again.
*Slash of the Assassin*
Another miss.
Useless.
Worse—costly.
Every use drained him. Each activation made his limbs heavier, his breathing rougher. The skill was no longer efficient.
So he adapted.
He aimed lower—antennae, joints, anything that wasn't armored. Wherever the blade could bite.
It hurt her.
But it didn't kill her.
She stopped again.
Another stream of green fluid burst forth.
This time he dodged most of it—only a few droplets landed on him. They didn't burn like before, but the itch crawled beneath his skin.
Again he attacked. Legs. Joints.
Still not enough.
She stopped.
Again.
—A pattern.
He waited.
The moment she spewed again, he moved—cleanly, perfectly. Not a single drop touched him.
Sparks flew as his blade scraped against her hardened exoskeleton. He struck again and again, desperate for a decisive hit.
She stopped.
He didn't.
He rushed forward and drove the dagger into her eye.
The queen convulsed. Her antennae twitched wildly, her massive body grinding against itself, sending violent vibrations through the chamber.
"No one is coming for you now, Queen"
He was wrong.
The motionless ant—the one he had dismissed—lurched forward with stiff, mechanical movements. It slammed into him, knocking him to the ground.
He stared, stunned.
He forgot about him
He thought he was decorative. Useless.
The next instant, the queen clamped her mandibles shut.
Crushing the ant's abdomen.
Crushing his.
"You idiot," he thought wildly.
"She's sacrificing you—can't you see?"
There was no awareness left in the ant's eyes.
It was dying.
And it was killing him with it.
But he didn't give up.
This close—his skill couldn't miss.
With the last fragments of his sanity, he activated it.
*Slash of the Assassin*
Again.
*Slash of the Assassin*
Again.
Again.
Again
Until—at last—The hardened head separated from the body and fell.
He pushed the suicidal drone aside, still flabbergasted, and stared at the flood of notifications:
[You leveled up and gained a GENE POINT/GP ]
[Your skill Slash of the Assassin ranked up and became INTERMEDIATE ]
[Congratulations! You purged the Amblyopone colony ]
[You received the Parchment of the 5 Low-Level Monarchs ]
So many notifications hit him at once that he didn't know where to start. He took them one by one.
A smile slowly crept across his face, growing wider with each passing second. He was already thrilled about leveling up—but his skill ranking up? That was a cause for celebration.
Then his smile faded as he read the third notification. It confirmed that he had completed the task. A sigh of relief escaped his mouth.
[Parchment of the 5 Low-Level Monarchs ]
He willed it to appear, and it popped out of a small black void, landing neatly in his arms. He opened it with both hands, and inscribed upon it were the following: …