From within the darkness, the rustling sounds grew louder—like thousands of tiny legs moving in unison. Ren sharpened his hearing, and within seconds, his eyes caught movement along the cave walls.
A swarm of insect monsters emerged from the cracks in the stone—soldier ants the size of grown dogs, their sharp mandibles gleaming under his headlamp's light.
"Ants, huh... Of course, they're not just ordinary ants," Ren muttered, adjusting his grip on his assault rifle.
The ants moved quickly, clicking their razor-sharp mandibles in a disturbing chorus, as if warning the intruder who had dared to enter their domain.
But Ren had no intention of backing down.
With practiced precision, he raised his rifle, aimed at the center of the swarm, and pulled the trigger.
Three consecutive shots exploded through the cave, the sound echoing down the stone corridor. The first bullet pierced through the leading ant's head, its upper body bursting apart in a spray of green fluid.
The insect monster staggered and collapsed, but the others didn't stop.
The remaining ants charged forward fearlessly, their lifeless eyes glowing in the dark.
Ren pivoted slightly, shifting his aim to a new position, and fired again.
His high-caliber bullets tore through legs and bodies, severing limbs and shattering hardened exoskeletons as if they were nothing more than brittle shells.
But there were too many of them.
Ren swiftly moved backward, continuing to fire as he searched for a more strategic position.
"If they're behaving like normal ants, then there has to be a queen behind all this."
Ren kept moving, cutting down wave after wave of ants that blocked his path. With quick and precise movements, he dodged their snapping jaws while landing lethal shots at their vulnerable points. Each bullet hit its mark, causing explosive bursts of green, sticky liquid.
Yet, despite three magazines emptied, the swarm kept coming, as if endless.
(This won't stop if I just take them down one by one.)
Ren realized that if there was a soldier ant army, then there had to be a queen.
After several minutes of navigating through the dungeon's narrow tunnels, he finally arrived at a massive chamber, completely different from what he had seen before.
Inside, thousands of ant eggs were scattered across the floor, glowing faintly under his headlamp's light. The cave walls were coated in sticky, slimy nests, and at the center of it all—
A colossal Ant Queen, bloated and monstrous, her oversized head towering above the horde of guardians protecting her.
But what caught Ren's attention even more was the metallic glimmer spread throughout the chamber.
Among the nests and eggs, he saw the very mineral he had been searching for—the key material he needed to complete his fusion reactor.
Ren chuckled, his eyes gleaming as he gazed at the precious resources before him.
"So this is where it was hiding."
But before he could move any closer, the soldier ants surged toward him again, defending their queen with unwavering ferocity.
"Damn, you're really not going to let me take it that easily, huh?"
Ren reached for his belt—pulling out a homemade grenade designed with fragmentation-based explosions.
Without hesitation, he pulled the pin and lobbed it directly into the heart of the nest.
The explosion rocked the chamber, obliterating dozens of eggs and sending the Ant Queen sprawling with severe injuries.
Unlike her warrior ants, the queen was far less durable—and as her body weakened, the remaining soldiers began losing their coordination.
Without the queen's command, the swarm fell into chaos, some even turning on each other.
"Perfect. Now, time to start mining."
Ren immediately sprinted toward the glowing mineral deposits, pulling out a custom-made portable drill—a lightweight yet highly efficient tool he had engineered himself.
With skilled precision, he began extracting the rare ore, carefully separating the unnecessary fragments while only taking the highly stable, energy-rich portions.
A soft blue glow pulsed from the mineral, signaling its immense energy potential.
"With this, I can finally move forward with my project."
Once he had gathered enough minerals, Ren scanned his surroundings. The soldier ants were now completely disorganized, some running aimlessly, others turning hostile toward each other.
There was no reason to stay here any longer.
Ren checked his equipment, secured the precious materials in his backpack, and prepared to leave the dungeon.
As he walked toward the exit, a chilling sensation crawled up his spine.
His instincts screamed at him.
There was something else here.
Without hesitation, Ren raised his rifle and aimed his headlamp's light down the dark corridor ahead.
The bright beam pierced through the shadows, illuminating a massive figure lurking in the darkness.
There, lying in wait, was a monstrous reptilian beast, its obsidian-green scales shimmering like gemstones under the light. Its massive jaw, lined with razor-sharp fangs, twitched slightly as it stared back at him.
Ren's breath hitched.
A monster that wasn't supposed to be here.
Basilisks usually thrived in tropical ecosystems, in humid jungles, not in rocky underground dungeons .
Yet, the fact that one was blocking the only exit meant that something was very, very wrong with this dungeon.
The monster's slitted, golden eyes narrowed, locking onto him.
The air grew heavier, suffocating.
Ren immediately turned his gaze away, dodging its paralyzing stare by sheer instinct.
"Shit... So this is why this dungeon is way more dangerous than expected."
A Basilisk wasn't just physically overwhelming—its petrifying gaze could paralyze or even kill those who stared into its eyes for too long.
Ren tightened his grip on his rifle, shifting into a combat stance.
"Alright... Looks like getting out of here won't be as easy as I thought."
The massive serpent let out a low, guttural growl—
Then, in a flash, it lunged forward.