Extra 1: A Match-Pump and Her Loyalty
I am Ann.
The queen of Killer Ant.
A few months ago, I was told by my mother, the queen, to live independently.
Killer Ant is a monster that has the characteristics of an ant.
Due to it, the queen will give birth to the new queen during a specific cycle.
When the children born reached adulthood, some of the soldier ants will follow them to build their own colony.
By increasing the numbers, it will ensure the survival of their species.
Honestly, it was troublesome.
At that time, I have neither knowledge nor motivation.
But actually, there’s another reason why I don’t want to go outside.
That is because…
No one can blame me for slacking off, and the low-rank soldier ants can eat as much as they want.
Isn’t that the best.
However, it didn’t last long.
All the queen born in the same cycle as mine has already left to build their own colony.
The only one left is the next generation queen and me.
The younger queens, while pointing at me, whispered something.
Something like how I’m falling behind others and a middle-aged woman. But I don’t mind about it.
sniff
That’s right.
I don’t care.
It’s a peaceful life.
Later on, my mother has had enough of me, kicked me out of the colony.
sniff
Not knowing which way is right or left, my aimless journey begins.
Usually, you can take along some escort and a few soldier ants, but since I’m incompetent, I was literally released into the wild alone.
I want to cry. sniff sniff
How many days have passed since then?
While carefully hiding, so as not to be found by the human, I walked east and west.
We, Killer Ant, are weak.
If not slightly lower, our own power is probably the same as a wild animal.
We are species that have to group together to demonstrate our real power.
Even so, here I am all by myself..… sobs
Admittedly, it’s not a good influence to stay home forever.
I kept on walking while hunting foxes and rabbits in the forest.
Suddenly, a bear attacked me by surprise.
I move as fast as I could.
For a lazy from the colony, I’m pretty agile, I must say.
Then, I reached a place which seems to be a wilderness.
It’s a quiet, comfortable place with not a lot of people.
There are only dragons and big crows flying in the sky. But it’s not a big deal, though.
Unlike other ants, my body color is slightly whitish.
Depending on the location, supposedly the protective coloration will help me to fly under the radar.
Fortunately, there’s no other Killer Ant. So, I decided to build my nest at this place.
But it’s still doesn’t make any sense.
Why does my kind doesn’t make their nest here?
And why the presence of other monster is minimal…
The Eld Desert.
Also, called the Land of Death both by the human and monster. It’s a place reigned by two great monsters, the Accurate Crow and white flying dragon.
All this time, I’ve been living a comfortable life. So, I’m entirely unaware of the danger of other monsters.
Even after I went outside, that doesn’t change at all.
That’s why I thought of building my nest here.
If there are any other Killer Ant, I would definitely give them an advice『Do you want to die? 』
But right now I’m alone.
There’s no one for me to talk or give a piece of advice to.
Thus, my life in the Eld Desert begins.
And one day, I tasted the hell of this world.
A day after I finished my nest, it was immediately destroyed by some sort of attack.
Luckily, I manage to avoid it. I will definitely die if I was late, even for one second.
What on earth is happening?
Covered by the smoke, I saw it.
A figure of a white flying dragon circling high above the sky.
That thing.
There’s no doubt. It bombed my nest.
The proof is when it releases its breath, it turned the whole place into a burning field.
There’s nothing else I can say except I was lucky to be alive.
However, my body is in horrible shape.
I have to eat something.
Eating ordinary rabbits or rats won’t do at all.
I need to prey on something that has a lot of magical power.
I wonder how long I wandered after that?
Then I came across another nightmare.
An Accurate Crow.
A huge furious crow near a nest.
I’m scared. I’m so afraid.
Not good. This isn’t looking good at all.
I’m going to die. Really, really, really dead.
I will surely be killed if it found me.
When I looked closely, I realized that there are several empty, broken eggs in the surrounding.
It must’ve been eaten by another monster.
That’s why it’s so mad.
I tried to escape to avoid being noticed.
However, I was further despaired.
A white flying dragon.
It was there in front of me, the one who destroyed my nest.
But somehow I got off without a scratch. The white flying dragon didn’t even look at me. Instead, it headed straight towards the Accurate Crow.
I was further injured by the aftereffect of the fight between the two powerful monsters.
I’m already in bad condition.
If this goes on, I will definitely die.
I don’t even know where I’m going anymore.
But I don’t want to die.
I kept on walking for days and days using everything I had left.
Finally, I remembered the Eld Desert.
I feel like killing me at that time when I didn’t seriously listen to my mother’s story.
In the middle of nowhere, I found a cave.
I took a deep breath and went inside.
And my last despair was waiting there.
An earth dragon.
There was a legendary existence before.
A legendary monster which I’ve ever heard only in a story told by my mother.
A symbol of power, an apex, reigning at the top especially among the four species of Dragon King.
It is so rare that even the existence of it is doubted.
Despair comparable to the white flying dragon and Accurate Crow has appeared.
Is it going to eat me?
I think so.
I heard that the earth dragon is an omnivore. Instead, I’m sure of it. Please don’t eat me.
The earth dragon roars.
「Gyaaaaaaaaauuuuu」
At that moment, I realized something.
I’m going to die here.
But I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die yet.
The only thing I can do to resist is desperately raised my voice.
Save me, please. Just let me go.
But it can’t hear it.
I felt the magical power coming from its mouth.
It’s the breath.
This is the end.
If I were to received that blow, I will end up leaving this world without a trace.
But, I’m still alive.
Just as I was about to wonder why it stops its breath at the last moment, a magic stone fell over on my head.
I’m saved. If I eat this, I can recover a little.
While I was eating the magic stone, the earth dragon didn’t attack me.
I wonder why?
Perhaps…. it wasn’t really going to do that.
Does that mean it used the breath before to drop the magic stone?
Such a question was raised.
Then, I was convinced.
It withdrew and came back with a massive amount of magic stone.
The earth dragon gave me a lot of it.
Each time I consume the magic stone, I became stronger.
Thanks to it, I now have higher intelligence and stronger sense.
Also, I can now use thought transmission.
Still, there’s something been bugging me.
Why?
Why didn’t you kill me?
Even with thought transmission, the earth dragon doesn’t reply at all.
He just simply turned around, going back to his nest.
But to me, it seems like his back is saying,
“Follow me.”
I see. So the dragon is going to make me into his subordinate.
I was sure of it.
Although there’s some misunderstanding, still, in the end, I became his subordinate.
And I was given a name.
Ann.
That is my name.
My one and only name.
There’s another thing he told me.
“I leave the top (the upper part of the dungeon) to you.”
I trembled with delight.
Not only did you healed my wound and made me stronger.
But also entrusted me with your dungeon!
Now I know why the soldier ants help their mother to such a degree.
The reason why they are so happy when working.
The joy and happiness of being needed.
Is what I think.
I have to repay him.
I have to raise an appropriate achievement for this name.
As a start, I decided to lay eggs for soldiers.
A regular Killer Ant usually required the reproductive act to do so, but thanks to the power received from Jiryuu-sama, it was possible for me to grow and become parthenogenetic.
I greatly appreciate it.
Even if it’s for the sake of increasing the number of soldiers, I won’t let any male touched me other than him…..
The eggs hatched and my children were born.
The number increased more and more.
Listen, my children!
We have to repay that man!
Jiryuu-sama!
I, no, the children and I will protect you even if it costs our lives.
Because that is my mission as your subordinate.
MC 「The top floor has become quite noisy lately… Oh well, whatever.」