BornAndTorn 30 Ants Adventure 1

Its existence is a joy to every curious child all over the world. It is the favourite toy for every little child for a reason. They are easy inflammable and produce a soothing crispy sound when they are crushed. They can be dismantled with ease as well. There are so many ways, that a modern child can be satisfied with such a simple Nagant.

The Nagant is a herbivore and coprophagous aswell. It mainly consumes seeds of small plants and the excrements of other animals. A Nagant colony consists up to 100 ants. After hatching out of their egg they either grow into a Workernagant or a Warriornagant. The only visual difference is that the Workernagant is smaller and its task is to gather materials to feed their queen with. If the queen is in danger the Warriornagant tries to distract the enemy and fulfil his destiny as cannon fodder.

After conducting several tests, we could safely conclude that this creature is incapable of using mana in any way, it is just stuck it its evolutionary state and failed to adapt. The main reason for that is its inability to wield mana. It does not show sign of intelligence at all, it just acts based on instinct and millennia without any natural predator left this strange being just able to gather food and dying standing still if they ever find themselves attacked.

This animal inhabits dark caves or digs itself a strange system of tunnels without any sense of direction. Once exposed to sunlight, a squirming reaction is visible. Furthermore, once the surrounding temperature reaches a certain level of humidity, they lose control over the body and are unable to move till they reach their demise.

The queens low fertility us partly caused due to the laying process lasting several hours for a single egg and the low rate of successful hatchlings that survive the first week. Those hatchlings die either to diseases or succ.u.mb to their bad genetical disposition. Or they just get eaten by their gluttonous queen.

The only reason this species continues to exist is due to their way above average lifespan. Something inside of them extends their lifetime by multiple times, it is speculation whether it some sort of exchange for the near inability to wield mana or being a remnant of the creatures of older times. Not much is known about the times before our glorious Ancestor appeared.

But while investigating an old abandoned nest several strange inconsistencies were found. It is built in an organized fas.h.i.+on and several other species were found in it as well. While every other nest is located deep underground, this one was on the surface shaped like a huge hill. This pile of Earth. took way too much s.p.a.ce for such a little colony, yet several mummified corpses of a nagant were found in there. But these nagants were much smaller when the nagants we know of today. Scientists identified this kind of ant as a distant relative, but after comparing the general physiology with our current nagant, not even a slight change could be found, just the difference in size was ma.s.sive. And this nest is the only one of its kind, there has not been any logical conclusion why only one kind exists in our glorious world.

To summarize the nagant is relict out of the dark times, being one of the only animals incapable of using mana. It is harmless in nature, way too weak to exist and it is just a question of time, till it goes extinct.

"So we can all agree, that this is the animal we intended to put in our game, right? A harmless creature, that is more of a feature and a toy for people if they ever find themselves bored of exhausting battles. Correct me if I am wrong, but that was the purpose we designed and used the nagant for. Then can someone tell me, why the nagant in our game does everything and I mean everything that it is not supposed to do?"

" All out of the sudden, this tiny, little ant became a flesh-consuming predator? You tell me, that this ant is capable of using advanced war tactics? Hiding in dead corpses, then popping out if their prey is near? They are even setting up ambushes, in groups. We are talking about a nagant,

an N-G-N-T. Who was the sick f.u.c.k, that made these beasts only target the nether regions of every player they encounter? And making them nearly resistant to magic, great idea. These ants are running rampant, they are just like locusts eating everything that gets in their vision. "

"I am already sick of asking every concerned parent of those ent.i.tled children, no dear parents our system does not actively target your dear children nuts. There is no need to worry, every damage that is felt only is psychological, there is no need to worry about him/her producing an heir. In general this only a temporal state of affairs, after all this is still the testing phase. We owe you our deepest apologies. it was never our intention that your dear little angels have their precious confidence crushed because they are unable to kill even a single nagant."

" We have to find a solution to this problem I don't care if we lose sponsors and revenue because those testers get repeatedly killed by nagants and we are not talking about a swift death, no those animals tear you apart and you feel every single bite of them. So dear Gentlemen if you don't want to find ourselves stuck in our little own world getting eaten by this a little creature until the end of time, you better find and fix whatever this mistake caused and prevent it from ever happening again."

" It was supposed to be so easy, yet strange things keep happening, that we have no explanation for. Those children are busy trying to test how often they can stand getting tackled by a nagant. I would be worried as well if my children pa.s.s their time by letting creatures tackle their weak spot over and over again. Our product is able to offer a diversity of several interesting topics and those morons keep counting how often they can endure the pain in their d.i.c.ks. I know men in that kind of age always have to prove themselves, but dear Lords in the highest heaven, why did they decide on that? And even some women decided, to take part in that compet.i.tion as well if that stuff gets public, I will not have to tell you guys, that even if I do not kill you on the spot, other people will gladly do it. We are representing the Church, the famous families and in general only the best that this world has to offer. Just a slight misstep, that tarnishes their name and before we notice it, our heads will role. So for the sakes of our heads, find a solution.

"I will try to prevent this thing from ever landing in the public eye, as long as possible hopefully you found a way till then."

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While certain publishers were contemplating their life choices and were busy making plans to escape the whole unsightly mess, that they foresaw. The beta testers were having the time of their life, they were not even questioning why such the nagant turned into a vicious predator. They did not even think about, why in such a serious simulation, such a thing would exist. They were busing crowning a victor in a fierce compet.i.tion that they dubbed "b.a.l.l.s of Steel"

"b.a.l.l.s of Steel" is a simple event. It is about the showcase of superior will and a testament of the unyielding nature a warrior has to have. One Man one ant, standing in front of each other. The bug would continuously target the crotch until the player falls over and gets eaten. Several spectators would count the score and note it down. The result then would be put on the high score list if you stood your ground successfully. This whole trend started, when a brave soul tried to kill those ants with magic and was caught by surprise as one launched a sneak attack on his groin, but his fighting spirit forbad him from giving in and he kept on standing and thrown spells. The one ant that executed the attack went forward and attacked the man again, aiming for the same spot again, while the rest of the ants just stared at the single insect. It was an unspoken compet.i.tion, both species putting their pride and body on the line and any interference from the outside would mean eternal shame.

The first fight ended after close to 1 minute, even though the brave soul tried to fight back in the beginning after noticing that his spells were not working at all, he just tried to fight and dodge. He was able to withstand a total of 4 attacks without strengthening his body with mana before succ.u.mbing to the 5 one. He has beaten quite miserably but still boasted about his achievements and everyone wanted to laugh at first but felt the sudden urge to surpa.s.s that simpleton. Even though the record has been broken quite often, he enjoys his fame for being the innovator of such a great sport. Haniball Barkas, a man that became a trendsetter.

But right now, the whole audience was left speechless and baffled because not only was the current record shattered by a wide margin it also was a girl that endured over 20 attacks of a single ant, before just falling straight over. At first, they even belittled her, for trying to compete in a man's sport but after she did not even flinch once during the whole ordeal, people became awestruck. The previous record of 12 was nothing in front of her, no one wanted to admit it, but most men wanted to bow their head in shame.

After the minutes slowly pa.s.sed, she comes over with a glee plastered all over her face. She was not tall or small either. Her physique was quite pet.i.te, but there was a firm layer of muscles on her body. Her face was quite soft yet showed traces of facing difficulties. Her violet eyes were looking all over the place silently judging everyone. She did not show any signs of maturity, it was like the whole world would spin just for her and she acted like she was ent.i.tled to such a treatment. With her head held high and a n.o.ble aura, she moved forwards. Everything was beneath her and every single thing had to bow before her. That was her way of living.

" And here I thought, that those men were something special, yet even a single frail woman like me, easily surpa.s.sed them. It is no wonder that our dear parents just feel ashamed off of our current generation. At first, I was searching for a potential husband, but after witnessing this humiliating results, I was forced to show you guys how unmanly, you guys are. I could take all my sisters and they would easily, score higher in that little compet.i.tion of yours. Yet even after 12 little hits you guys fall over and die. How is this country supposed to exist if you are in charge of defending against the monsters? I am so ashamed of what this country will become. If I look at you guys I just feel pure disgust. I pity your parents for having giving birth to you, expecting something good and yet you were the result. I cannot fathom how much disappointment they must have felt upon seeing you"

She returned giggling to a small group of females, disappearing from the view of the crowd. The crowd did not swear or point fingers at her for ridiculing them, no after their pride was hurt a desire began to burn inside of them, a fire that would not extinguish until they have broken the record. Even if the male ego is frail, it is also the biggest sort motivation in their young lives. If you continued to observe, many males started to show more tenacity and willpower. They continued to improve their personal scores step by step. Even after the record was finally broken, they were so focused on improving they did not even take much notice of it.

"Come on Claudia, don't be so mean to them, you just wanted to rile them up and don't even get me started on the way you broke their high score, numbing your senses with ice magic is totally cheating." A young freckled girl was teasing the perpetrator, who caused the anguish of many young men.

" It was only specified that you are not allowed to use magic during the whole process, I finished my spell before I began the compet.i.tion, so technically it is all legal, just because they don't do it does not imply that I have to do the same right? I still could have increased the high score by 1-2 with ease but I did not want to feel the pain all at once after my nerves became active again. Those boys are m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.ts, not me, I am just a fine lady. It was all for their sake, after all, they can show how "manly" they are to impress us simple maidens I am just doing them a favour. Am I not magnanimous?"

The young girl could not hold in heartfelt laughter, upon seeing Claudia acting so righteously. She answered shaking her little head:

" You may be able to play those guys like a fiddle, but do not take me for a fool. Your primary focus was to spark their hurt ego as you get to watch their repeated squirming and suffering. That is so much like you, you were always ready to manipulate others for your own entertainment. But alas I am not better in any way, because watching these morons getting attacked in their manhood is quite a refres.h.i.+ng feeling."

" Eve, I am not as selfish as you portray me here, I did it for our sake. To remember the good old days, when we were still able to roam every day, everywhere. Now we only can meet up online, after having finished our ch.o.r.es. I miss those days, where it was us against the world, we could freely decide what or what not to do. Somehow I just want to feel like being in control for once. Getting always told what or what not to do is so sickening."

"You guys are living just 5 minutes apart from each other and you are the one bossing around everyone in our household, the only thing that you were told to do in the last few days is to not cause so much trouble" another girl chimed being quite annoyed. She was a bit taller than Claudia, and the whole atmosphere around seemed to be frozen. While Claudia had her golden hair tied to a bun, her golden hair was dancing in the wind, reaching shoulder length. The resemblance between Claudia and her was uncanny. She did not show any signs of n.o.bility and her bearing was free of any haughtiness. A spectator would feel a deep unnerving chill, whenever they would just see her as if her presence alone could freeze time as well. There were no emotions visible on her face, just gold blue eyes staring at Claudia.

"You are always so serious, Samantha, always so uptight. Relax and enjoy the moment, you are always thinking about how to get stronger and stronger yet forget that other humans do exist as well. At first, people were referring to you, as the Ice Maiden, proclaiming to marry the one who bested you in a fight, but any men you beat was left there in humiliating fas.h.i.+on. Its no wonder people call you the "Icy virgin" instead"

For the first time anger became visible on Samanthas face and throwing her 2 hands wildly around she nearly screamed: " Who dared to give me such a humiliating nickname, I will kill him with my own two hands."

Instead of hearing a name a laughing fit was the response she got.

" Jeez, you are so easy to tease, acting all holy and always focussed on repaying the glorious deeds the Church did. Everywhere you go, you just train and train, there is nothing else for you. Let me give you a bit of heartfelt advice as your dear sister, we will all be on the frontline sooner or later, so enjoy the time here instead of madly killing monsters all day to increase your ranking score. I mean I have no clue, why you are so insistent on getting that first ranking in the first place. Let daddy pull some strings and you will get personally trained by the Church as well. It does not seem worth it to me going through such a ha.s.sle, those monsters here are no threat to you anyway. How do you want to improve yourself, if you just kill stuff that you were already able to kill when you just learned magic. Next thing you tell me that you are training so that you can beat those monsters to death as well, like a barbarian."

Even though the anger was still visible on Samantha's face, she sighed and started to speak in more composed tone.

" You make it look so easy, it is my duty to prevent as much death as possible. If I get to command people, I will not stand as my subordinates die left and right because of my negligence, that is why I spent my time training. Giving up on my own comfort or the safety of my comrades, I will pick my own comfort in a heartbeat.

Besides what do you take me for? A brute? Who in the right mind would train his body in a world full of magic?"

"Regardless whether your sentiment is right or not, it is quite hard to train, if your so-called subordinates are busy testing the limits of their t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es," Claudia said grinning.

Samantha began to look back in disgust and then a deep frown seemed to appear on her forehead.

"I will get wrinkles if I have to train with people like this all the time and n.o.body likes to marry an old wrench. I just wanted to let them train against a pack of wolves, it is an easy exercise for improving team coordination. But to no avail, men will find a way to f.u.c.k it up in the end. "

Well, then spend some time with your dear sister, you may even call it a bonding experience to get a better grasp at what your team is thinking."

After having no more excuses left, she was forced to comply with her sister's reasoning. A little smile escaped her lips.

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As they were moving away from the spectacle, they started to gossip about all the new rumours that got to their ears. About the mysterious Call-Me-daddy2 and how a certain person reputation went down the drain, after trying to compare with Call-Me-daddy 2. Even about the latest developments on the frontlines. Until they started to talk about all the newest rumours surrounding "Primal Survival".

" Have you heard, about the rumour of the young miss from the Merediem family, wetting her pants? Apparently, she was so scared by just a single creature. This creature ma.s.sacred her 100 subordinates and then just walked pa.s.sed her. It was as if magic did not have any effects on it."

"As if stuff like that exists in the first place, this is just another cheap trick to gather some attention. This is supposed to be a realistic depiction of reality not a fabrication of old myths."

"At first I was just like you, believing it to be just a scam, but then because of some strings I pulled someone sends me a video of her perspective directly and afterwards, she deleted every other trace of it happening, saying it was way too stressful to remembering that strange creature. After watching only a small bit of it I was sure that it was not just a rumour. Take a look, I send you the video.

At first, there was just the young miss busy jumping on something, with a bright smile on her face. Afterwards, many magic spells were cast and aimed at the membrane, after the mult.i.tude of spells left no visible damage, the young miss started to use her best effort and strongest magic to set it ablaze, but the membrane was only pulsating a bit otherwise there was no reaction, to the extent that any spectator would guess that it just an item devoid of any life.

After the flames died down, they forgot about the rest of the video, in their eyes was just this savage grin, giving everyone single one of them a feeling of impending doom. The grin belonged to something, that they have never seen before. Its silhouette was ´resembling a human baby, its general shape was the embodiment of terror. 2 blades were attached to its arms and 2 tall wings were growing out of the body. covered in a pitch-black sh.e.l.l it was looking at straight into their souls. They found themselves caught helplessly. They have never seen something like these eyes. It was the kind, that just the thought of resistance alone felt useless, it was crushed before it could fester. It reached the deepest part of the soul and left an imprint of raw pure terror there.

It came closer and closer, but looking at the camera a look of disappointment flashed over its face. It just walked pa.s.sed the camera and started to ma.s.sacre the exhausted soldiers with ease cutting off limbs left and right. It looked effortless as if it was just a casual performance. Cries of pain were growing louder as the ground was covered in a red hue. But instead of expecting the sweet release of death, the mangled men were devoured by bugs, torn to shreds until they were no more.

Those bugs were the perfect fit for such a heinous creature, they were as dark as the deepest night and had a big white eye on their backs. While each bug was just the size of a small finger, their mere presence was deeply unsettling. The slow clacking of their little teeth in antic.i.p.ation of tasting human flesh. Their behaviour when consuming their prey, it was looking like they were actually savouring the taste and enjoying the moment. The slow twitching of the eye, on their backs, as if it was alive.

There was nothing left of the once proud men. Only the heavy steps of that walking nightmare were audible and yet again it slowly came closer to the young miss. Despite its face not clearly visible, you still could tell, that everything that it just did was beneath it as if all that suffering had no relation to it all. The forehead was flaring up in different colours, but it only became visible after the creature looked at the helpless girl for one last time. Opening its wings it started to spread his wings and fly away without any kind of worry in the world.

And then the video fades into black, leaving the spectators dumbfounded, questioning whether what they just saw was real or just a bad dream.

"I refuse to believe that this is real, I reject even the notion of such a thing existing". Claudia said in a denying fas.h.i.+on. Each one of them needed some time to realize what they just witnessed.

"Let us calm down first, it is useless to get into a hysteric fit because of such a stupid creature. I mean we treat it as if it had human intelligence and judging by literally any other monster in existence it is most likely quite stupid. "

The two other girls nodded and began to remember all the encounters they had with the monsters here and could only shake their head because of their baseless panic.

" Though despite our initial error of judgement this thing truly is interesting. It does not look like any animal be it modern or historic I have ever seen or heard of. If I had to make a comparison I would say its like a mix out of many different animals. This seems like the most likely given the cause of such a thing even existing, though this still does not explain why the general outline is that of a human. Though that is just scratching the surface, of what is really strange. Most animals just hurt everything that they come across, they don't differentiate if you are young or old, male or female. they just attack you. But this kind of creature was showing great restraint, it did not kill her subordinates right on the spot, instead, it immobilized them by cutting off their limbs. All that just so the little bugs could consume them, there seems to be great importance attached to this fact." Samantha calmly a.n.a.lyzed after returning to her usual mood.

"Those are the things that I can safely tell." she continued

"But there are some things I can not get any gist of. That creature is so thoughtful, yet leaves a witness behind. I can not fathom what the reasoning behind it is. Normally an intelligent being of this world would kill every witness. Dead men tell no tale after all. But it just straight up looks at her and then calmly flies away. I really don't think that this monster is a chauvinist.

While there was still a bit of tension left in the air, that stupid remark forced a little chuckle out of Claudia and Eve. The existence of such a monster is a real challenge to their imagination but just the pure thought of such a monster having complex thoughts and judging it by human standards is something so stupid, that they did not notice it before. After all, they are in a scripted reality, where they literally cannot die at all. Such a scary monster does not seem so scary any more if you really think about it. It is just a monster that seems slightly more intelligent than other monsters. So while the first impression of it may seem to induce fear because of its contradiction to everything known beforehand, its existence is something that is only possible in this kind of world. All it will ever amount to be will be a work of fiction.

Eve suddenly got an excited expression on her face and she began to grab both of them by the hand and pull them away from the crowd. Confused by her sudden actions to light squeals escaped their lips before they were even able to question the sudden action a cheerful voice answered.

" Come on, we never had an adventure like this. Nowadays we are required to act serious and mature nearly all the time. The duty here, the obligations there. I totally agree that we have to face our destiny sooner or later. But this may be our last big journey, the last mystery we are able to solve before adulthood comes cras.h.i.+ng our doors and tearing us apart. I refuse to acknowledge any kind of reasons not to. So let us gather some more information on this little creature.

Before the even could realize what was happening to them, they found themselves pulled away from every onlooker and in the distant forest.

"Why are you bringing us into this forest?" Both of them asked perplexed.

" You guys are so intelligent, yet fail to see the obvious. At first, there are those nagants that behave like a completely different species and now there is this bug-boy. It is common-sense that there has to be some kind of connection between the two. I mean everything was normal before bug-boy happened and now you tell me a mutated ant does not seem like an unlikely occurrence anymore.

Before you start criticizing my idea, think about it. Where did the first ant appear from? It was inside a forest. Why did no one find the bug-boy even though nearly every cave is full of players? It is because it is not there anymore and the only area that is not that well explored in the woods. So do I need to continue or are you starting to believe me?

Claudia suddenly had a slight epiphany and nodded her head.

" Ah I get it, you want to take advantage of the fact that most bugs are currently busy duking it out with the boys. So while they are occupied, we sneak in and scout the area in order to locate this monster. Other than that weak magic has no effect on those bugs directly, but we as ice mages can hinder their movement and can avoid most of the fights that way. As for the rest of the monsters, Samatha will take care of them with ease. While we may not be able to search a big area due to our limited group size, it does not take away our mobility. All we have to do is search systematically. I really like your approach Eve"

As the girls marched into the woods they were not sure, what their little search would lead to.