The Reincarnated Vampire Just Wants to Enjoy Her New Life

Chapter 6: Second Floor

I spent the next while exploring alternate paths through the dungeon. The paths were pretty complicated, so my mental map had quickly become a jumbled mess. I could roughly remember the main paths, but since it seemed like the routes often intersected and split apart, it was tough trying to figure out where and how they crossed.

All along the way, I killed and ate and looted the monsters, as well as picked up the contents of any treasure chests I found. The monsters had gotten pretty easy to fight. My level was definitely higher than theirs, and their movements were pretty simple, making their actions easy to predict and counter. All the loot that I felt were worth taking were put into my backpack.

Just having a proper bag was making all the difference. It was easy to put things in quickly and safely, yet even when the stuff moved around inside, the bag itself was snug and secure, making it easy to fight without having to remove it. It wasn't perfect, and I kept a mental note of all the places where it needed improvements, like how I should've added little pouches on the waist-band to make it easy to put away little items like the coloured gems.

My biggest complaint was how the leather rubbed against my skin. If I didn't keep healing by drinking blood regularly, the skin directly touching the leather would've gotten raw after an hour of wear.

Since the danger to me was starting to get pretty low, I spent a lot of time trying to resist my urge to feed, but the progress hadn't been going so well. I tried to make my goal to wait ten seconds before eating after a kill, but waiting even a single second was beyond my self control until I had eaten to the point where I had started to feel bloated. By that point though, the urge had weakened enough that it felt like there wasn't much point in practising, but I did it anyways. I held a fresh corpse in my hands and breathed in the scent while resisting the urge to bite down.

I hoped it was helping, because every time I started to feel hungry again I wasn't able to stop myself from biting down immediately.

My exploration speed was going up as I got used to fighting and looting. By the time I returned to my home to empty my bag and clean up twice, my level had reached ten. [Fleet of Foot], [Create Acid], [Acid Resistance], and [Natural Weapons] had all reached rank 3, and I could fell the tangible benefits of them all. My movement was clearly faster, my acids were now strong enough to eat into the monster's flesh in seconds, and my claws developed an extendable aura that could cut through anything I fed them like warm butter.

In addition to that, I had learned the [Throwing Technique] skill after repeatedly throwing my weapons at monsters. The skill simply improved the strength and accuracy of my throws.

If I wasn't strong enough to beat the boss, I had no idea how you were supposed to figure that out without sacrificing entire groups of people to find out.

Every time I went back, I spent a little while working on my equipment. Little changes to my backpack, or replacing my chest wrap as I came up with new ideas. I added additional pouches on the bag to make it easier to use, but the biggest change for me was when I tried lining the entire inner surface where the leather touched my skin with rabbit fur. It was a lot of work to sew it so it didn't move around, but once I did that, the softness of the fur got rid of almost all the chafing all at once.

It was so effective that I considered trying it to redeem my failed coat, but I realized that the problems with it was far more than just the lining.

On the other hand, I tried making a chest wrap entirely out of a rabbit pelt, and it worked out great. So great that I ended up making a few spare and even some panties the same way. Those itched a little, but the results were better than wearing the pants without anything in between.

As I was working on the pelts, I noticed that the rabbit leather was much thinner and softer than the wolf leather. I wondered if panties would work better if I reversed the facing of the material instead. It was something for me to consider in the future when I remembered about it.

Once my gear was ready, I sped through the dungeon, using the shortest path I knew. I only brought my bag and a few of each goblin weapons. I didn't want to bring anything that would slow me down, but I figured the bag would be necessary if the boss loot ended up being big enough get in the way of fighting if I carried it by hand.

I ran past the monsters until I found the clearing right before the boss gate. I had found two more clearings like this in other places, and the only explanation I could come up with were that they were rest places. That said, I didn't need much space or time to prepare for a boss room. I still hadn't felt sleepy once since coming to this world, and my physical exhaustion would be blown away whenever I drank some blood.

That said, once I reached the clearing, I backtracked a bit and intercepted the last group of monsters I blew past. They were chasing me, but didn't get far due to the difference in [Agility]. Three brown wolves. I took them all down with a single spear and drank their blood to top myself off and helped myself to their drops.

Throwing my cracked spear away, I took hold of a new one in my right hand and a sword in my left, then held my pelt of spare weapons untied so it would be easy to grab more if the boss fight ended up going worse than I hoped.

I faced the wooden gate. It was simple, yet robust. Just a pair of wooden posts combined with two side swinging doors with black cast iron frame and hinges. The heavy doors swung in silently when I pushed them. The lack of sound despite their size inversely raised the tension.

Behind the gate, the ground sunk down in the shape of stairs, and softly bent to the left. I took each dirt step deliberately and carefully. A trap after the boss door was crazy, but just because it wouldn't be done in a game was no reason why it wouldn't be done here as well.

But as luck would have it, there was no indication that there was such a cheap trap, and when I made a full 90 degree turn and out of sight of the gate, the ground opened up in front of me.

The floor was grass again, but the area was a large circular depression cut out from the plains. The walls were almost 10 meters high and made from packed dirt. There was another large wooden door on the far side, this time over two meters tall.

In between me and the door was a large brown wolf. This one had white stripes and was twice the size of the previous brown wolves, of which there was a pair of flanking the bigger wolf.

They were laying down as if asleep, but as my foot entered the ring, all three woke up and looked right at me as if they were some sort of machine that suddenly got power.

But unlike a machine, they started to growl and pace around, the smaller brown wolves trying to flank me as the bigger one approached from the front.

It was obvious that if things stayed 3v1 for long, I'd be at a serious disadvantage, so it was the first problem I needed to fix.

With that in mind, when I judged the spacing was good, I threw my bundled weapons at the middle wolf then sprinted towards the one on my right while the line of sight to the big wolf was obscured.

The wolf I charged at froze for a split second before charging at me, it's maw gaping wide as it snarled. For me who had seen the exact same thing dozens of times, it was a simple and easy attack to deal with. With a single thrust, my spearhead entered the wolf's eye before being pulled out immediately. I was careful not to let the stone blade hit the back of the wolf's skull as the bone was hard enough to shatter the brittle spearhead in an instant.

The wolf collapsed mid step, and it's body dragged along the ground gouging up the soft grass before coming to a full stop.

I didn't need to check to confirm that it was dead. Experience had taught me that was enough for these wolves.

The remaining two wolves realized what happened in the second they were surprised by my actions, and changed directions to charge at me directly, abandoning their previous strategy after it had so spectacularly failed.

Just like before, I counter-charged the bigger wolf. But this time, due to the positioning, the smaller wolf was behind and to the side of the boss.

A few steps in, I pulled back my arm and prepared another thrust. The large wolf saw this and instantly jumped to the side to avoid my attack.

Except that I had considered that would happen. Despite being creatures that simply spawn in the dungeon and fight intruders no matter how reckless it is, they did have basic learning capabilities and used their brains a little. I didn't know how much creativity they were capable of, but they were at least as intelligent as a real wild animal despite the fact that I'd never witnessed them retreat, no matter how bad things looked for them. It was as if they were compelled to fight any and all challengers.

That said, even if they would act taking your previous actions into consideration, their ability to adapt was poor from what I saw. They always picked from obvious counters, and just like that, the boss wolf dodged to the side when it looked like I'd try to thrust my spear straight at it.

Instead, I changed my grip on the spear and threw it at the smaller wolf like a javelin. Thanks to the [Throwing Technique] skill's adjustment, the spear flew straight and true. The wolf tried to move out of the way in the last second, but was unable to avoid the spear from impaling it's side.

Without slowing down, I closed the remaining gap and slashed upwards with the sword in my left hand. The serrated stone blade easily ripped through the monster's neck, but was unable to go through it's spine in a single swing. Not like it was needed, with both it's windpipe and major blood vessels in it's neck severed.

The sword on the other hand was in bad shape, and I didn't need to look at the spear I threw to also know that there wasn't much life left in it either.

But I was still in a fight. Stopping my feet wasn't an option, so without confirming anything, I rolled to my left before spinning around.

"Grraah"

I was right. The boss wolf snapped at where I was just standing. If I hesitated even a little, it would've gotten a piece of my side, if not worse.

The wolf growled lowly as it once again slowly circled around me, this time just simply trying to find an opening rather than having any sort of strategy.

Me on the other hand, after losing both weapons to the second wolf, was unarmed.

...

(As if)

While short in range, my claws were far stronger than the cheap goblin weapons I've been using this fight. Not only that, but my fangs were able to crush bone as if they were everyday biscuits. Not like they tasted any good like wholesome biscuits.

(Actually, I want some crackers with liverwurst)

The fact that all my favourite foods were basically inedible to the current me made my heart cry. Recreating any of them in this world was entirely pointless.

The wolf on the other hand had lost it's patience and lept at me.

I cleanly dodged to my right. Such a slow and predictable move had no chance at touching me. When it's attack failed, it tried again immediately, but I dodged to my left.

But after repeating it a third time, I lost my balance and fell onto my butt.

Seeing it's chance, the large wolf pounced at me, eager to tear my throat out.

But rather than crying out in despair, I cracked a smile.

My left hand reached behind me and grabbed the first sturdy thing it touched and I swung it clear at the wolf's face.

I had lured the monster to my weapon cache, and now a goblin sword was striking right at it's face.

But to my surprise, the wolf saw my attack bit down on the sword, shattering it. With my new weapon gone, it tried to bite me again.

While I didn't expect that, the time it took to reopen it's mouth was enough for me to follow up and stabbed my fingers, or to be exact the claws on my right hand into the wolf's shoulder, cutting right through the bone and sinew.

The force pushed the wolf back, but I didn't let the space between us extend. Instead, I pulled on it's wound and bared my own fangs, burying them in it's neck.

The monster struggled as I fed, enjoying the richest meal I had in my new life. The struggles turned into spasms, which eventually turned into twitches, and finally disappeared entirely.

All too soon, my meal had ended. Despite it's larger size, the boss wolf wasn't enough to fill me. As my [Blood Sucking] skill went up, so did my speed at sucking blood as did my capacity to drink. Drinking quickly was always great if my prey was still alive when I started, but I kept half regretting not savouring the taste more. Then again, it wasn't like I had the self control to not slurp up my meal as fast as I could.

The larger capacity I had gotten was a double edged sword as well. On one hand, it allowed me to drink much more and acquire skills much faster, as I didn't have to stop eating just because I was full as often. On the other hand, it made it harder to control my eating, since it took longer for me to get full. I really hoped that I wouldn't start getting fat because of my appetite.

(How many calories is blood anyways?)

Shaking the stupid thought out of my head, I remembered that there were two more wolf corpses. Without sparing a thought, I lept to the closest and hungrily ate my heart out, then again on the last wolf.

But I found that the other two wolves weren't as satisfying anymore. The boss wolf tasted much better, and while it wasn't like the smaller wolves suddenly started to taste worse, but they just weren't as palatable.

(Is it like eating cheap mac and cheese all your life then suddenly getting a taste of high class food?)

But then again, I had high class food once as part of a celebration, and it sucked.

I gathered my weapons again and took out another spear, my old trusty spear.

As I did that, all three monster corpses disappeared and left their drops. The smaller wolves both left fangs. I was tempted to just leave them, since I had a pretty big pile of them just sitting around back home. The boss on the other hand gave me something new. At least a little new. That was it's pelt.

It was the wolf's entire pelt fully processed and ready to be used. The fur was surprisingly soft considering it came from a wolf, but the leather underneath was very tough. Markedly tougher than the hides from the other wolves.

But these properties made it hard for me to use. The fur was nice, but the leather was too stiff to use as clothes. I could remove the fur and use the leather as some sort of armour, but that also felt like a waste, and that presumed that I could actually make equipment from it that both worked decently and wasn't a pain to use or wear.

The only thing I could think of using it that fully took advantage of it's properties was a rug. It would be soft on my feet and wonderful to lie on, but tough enough that it could survive a long time being walked on.

It felt like a pathetic way to use such a nice pelt, but it did take advantage of all it's properties.

But such things were for later.

Once I packed everything into my bag, I turned to the door at the far end of the boss arena.

Just in front of it, a treasure chest was standing where there was empty space before. The chest was much nicer than any of the chests I've seen so far. It was made of lacquered wood and the metal keeping it together looked like was made from polished steel.

As much as I wanted to rush over open it, I couldn't ward off the worry that it might be a trap.

Maintaining as much distance as possible, I poked the lid with my spear. When nothing happened, I tried applying pressure and cracked the seam open. Since nothing still happened, I opened it all the way then jumped back just in case.

But nothing happened.

I was relieved that nobody had seen it. I was the only one there after all. Nobody else could see what I did.

I stepped over and had a look at the contents.

What greeted me was a pair of black leather boots. They were sturdy, with thick soles and a medium high ankle. The style kinda looked like something I saw soldiers wear in those old world war one pictures.

I cleaned my feet the best I could and quickly put them on. The inside were soft and warm, and the laces tied up cleanly. The fit, just like for my pants, were perfect. There was definitely some sort of adjustment made so that any equipment I find fit perfectly.

With those thoughts in the back of my mind, I stood up and tried taking a few steps.

My gait was unsteady. It had been a while since I last wore shoes of any kind, and despite how well they fit, not being able to feel the texture of the dirt under my feet was a bit unnerving. But it was much better to go around in boots than bare foot, so I had no choice but to get used to it.

The ankles were a bit stiff, making sideways motions difficult, but front and back, as well as rotations weren't a problem.

Happy with my new loot, I headed off to see what was beyond the big doors.

When I pushed on the large double doors, just like last time, the fact that it didn't make a sound was a bit unnerving.

Beyond the door was a set of stone stairs carved out of the stone tunnel itself. It ran down in a loose spiral to the left. I took each step slowly to make sure that I didn't miss any traps or ambushes.

In the end I didn't find anything of the sort, and instead after descending what felt like two or three floors, I reached a wide cavern. It was perfectly circular with a domed ceiling. To one side was a familiar sight, quietly spraying water like nobody's business.

It was a carbon copy of the fountain room at the beginning of the dungeon.

The familiar sight had released all the tension in my body, and without a second thought I stripped down and jumped into the fountain to wash up. I wasn't too dirty, but the feeling of dried blood on my body was a bit annoying.

If there was a fountain here, then that suggested that there was a fountain behind every boss room. Be that as it may, that didn't mean that I could wash up at any time as I wanted, as there wasn't any certainty that I wouldn't get lost or stuck somewhere. I needed to take advantage of the fountains every chance I got.

After a bit of relaxing in the cold water, I put my gear on again and moved out through the other tunnel.

What greeted me was...more tunnels.

Once I got past the initial winding tunnel that had the same shape as the one at the beginning fountain, the passage opened up drastically, but only to reveal more tunnels.

This one looked like it was carved out of a different type of rock. The fountain room was a nice medium grey, but this was more of a dull red/brown. And the walls weren't nearly as smooth either, like it was carved out roughly.

On a certain level, it felt like the dungeon had finally started.

A few turns later, I encountered the first monster of the second floor.

I felt like leaving the dungeon immediately.

What lay ahead basically looked like a giant earthworm. It was a good four meters and wiggled in that creepy squish and push style. It's head reared up and looked at me with whatever it had that was considered to be it's senses.

But what happened next sent goosebumps across my whole body.

The end of it's head opened up, revealing three circular rows of teeth.

(Nope nope NOPE!)

I just turned around and hightailed out of there, back to the fountain room, stripped down and dove in. The very sight of that monster made me feel dirty and I obsessively scrubbed my body.

I could hardly believe that such a monster existed. It didn't look strong, but it's appearance just sent shivers down my spine.

There was a good possibility that the entire floor was filled with similar monsters. At the very least, the floor was some sort of cave, so all the monsters were probably of cave or underground types.

Defeating them probably wouldn't be much of a problem, but when all my weapons broke, I'd have to fight those things with my claws. I didn't want to touch such monsters though. That worm looked pretty slimy, and I wouldn't be able to clean myself off until I returned to the fountain.

But an even worse image cropped up when I imagined my hands covered in goo after killing one of those worms with my bare hands.

(Did these guys have blood in their bodies?)

The resulting image in my head make me pull my knees in and shiver. I really didn't want to know what those worms tasted like, but if I couldn't control myself after killing one...nope. Definitely nope.

If I didn't want to go through such an experience, the only way to make sure was to avoid killing any of them.

The thought of going an entire floor without any XP or new skills was a bit depressing, but it was better than the alternative. I just had to make up for it on the next floor.

With my mind made up, I force myself out of the fountain and get fully equipped once I dried my body the best I could. Once done, I reached the beginning of the cave floor then took off at a quick jog. I wanted to sprint, but I doubted I could last long doing so, and even the shortest route to the boss room would probably take a while if the first floor was any indication.

I saw the creepy worm again and it reared it's head at me when it sensed my presence. Without giving it any chance, I ran past it, giving it as wide of a berth as I could, then kept going.

One after the next, I continued to do the same thing. There were giant ants and millipedes as well, all gross once made so big and I felt like my goosebumps had turned into a full allergic outbreak or something.

Running constantly and taking one sharp turn after the next soon became a heavy burden on my body, but I didn't dare to slow down while any monster was in eyesight. I took short breaks in side rooms, but didn't stay for long. I didn't know if monsters could enter these rooms, but if a few did, they'd block the entrance and I'd have no way out without killing them, defeating the entire purpose of running away from them in the first place.

Not only did I avoid the monsters, but I avoided treasure chests as well. I didn't have the time to check for traps on them nor did I have the leeway to carry a bunch of extra loot just because I got greedy. I did consider dumping the pelt I got from the previous boss, but decided not to, since it wasn't too heavy to be a big deal while it stayed in my backpack.

I found a circular room with the same size and shape as the safe zone by the boss door on the first floor. There, I lay down to rest, reasonably confident that I didn't have to worry about any monsters trying to get in. It never happened in the first floor, and I needed a break.

I also needed a meal. My stomach was getting angry at me after running for so long without a meal, but I refused it with all my might. It was one thing if I had brought something, but since I didn't, I couldn't fill myself. There was no way I was going to touch any of those gross oversized creatures. The very thought of drinking their fluids made me cringe.

Once I was fully rested, I took off again, blindly searching for the boss door.

Without any way to track the time though, I had no idea how long I wandered for. There was no sun or moons, and I never got sleepy, so there was no system in place for me to guess how long I'd been running around at, especially since I'd been leveling up so much on the first floor that any baseline based on my my experiences while I was outside wasn't helpful.

As I my breathing had gotten coarse with exhaustion, I finally found the gates to the boss, and right beside it was another safe room. I gladly entered the room and lay down to rest for the second time since starting my run on this floor.

My stomach's protests had gotten louder again, now that the burning feeling in my over stressed legs had started to fade, but I refused it like Stalin refusing to feed the Ukrainians.

I massaged my calves and thighs though the thick material of my leather pants. Fortunately it seemed like vampires didn't sweat, so I didn't have to worry about feeling sticky and gross, but despite not having fought once on this floor, I still felt dusty and dirty.

Well, I was sitting on this dirty floor and leaning on this dusty wall, so it was bound to happen.

I was looking forward to washing up in the fountain after beating the boss.

But I wasn't looking forward to facing the boss at all. Regardless of the difficulty, it was likely to be a stronger version of one of the monsters I had already seen on this floor. I really hoped it wouldn't, and maybe I'd fight a big mole or something, but such thoughts were nothing but escaping from reality.

(Moles are cute though. At least the cartoon ones I used to see online)

When I felt like I had fully recovered, aside from my stomach, I headed to the boss door. Despite resting, my body felt a little weak from the hunger, but I ignored it.

The doors gave way silently to the pressure I gave off.

With my hands, not my eyes.

This time there wasn't any stairs leading down, and instead the boss room was directly in front of me. It seemed like that change was because this floor was underground and the other was above ground.

Technically they were both underground, but the first floor had the appearance of being above ground.

What stood in front of me was a giant ant with a bloated rear end, flanked by four of the more normal giant ants.

"It's an ant with a huge ass"

I weakly chuckled at my bad joke as I tried to escape reality once more.

Unlike last time, I hadn't had time to get plenty of experience fighting the normal version of the boss monster, so I wasn't sure how to win this fight.

Ants, like all insects, had an exoskeleton, meaning that they were basically naturally armoured. This most likely didn't mean much to my claws, but I flat out refused to expose myself in such a way where I'd be deliberately covering myself with bug goo.

The only alternative was to find ways to beat those monsters with my weapons before they all broke. As long as the next floor wasn't disgusting like this one, fighting bare handed wasn't a big deal. Rather, even fighting bare handed was technically impossible since I always had my claws.

Looking at the monsters in front of me, there was a high likelihood of my weapons breaking against their exoskeletons. At best, they'd break through and mutually destruct, but that didn't seem very reliable. The weak points of an exoskeleton were it's joints, obviously, as well as the eyes.

Those were the way to go.

I took a spear in hand and my spare weapons together in my left hand, wrapped in a wolf pelt in such a way to make them easy to pull out, though I risked them falling out if I wasn't careful.

With nothing more I could add to such a vague strategy, I charged straight away at the closest ant.

Once I got a few steps past the doorway, the fat ant, one I presumed was the queen, moved it's antennae and the other four charged in response. The ants weren't nearly as fast as the wolves, but their gaits were more stable and had less openings. Not only that, but there were more of them.

When I got close to the closest bug on the right, I sidestepped on the outside and thrust my spear straight behind it's head. The stone spearhead tore into joint between it's head and thorax, but the strike wasn't deep enough, so while the big insect staggered, it didn't stop moving, and tried to aim at me while I turned away to reposition.

But ahead of me was the ant closest to the one I struck. It had moved from the wounded monster's right to it's left, as if it anticipated that I'd go that way.

It opened it's mandibles threateningly, but I didn't worry about that, and instead thrust my spear out at it's compound eyes.

The spear impacted a lens, but the shaft shattered under the repeated pressure, leaving only the spearhead left slightly embedded. While the bug was stunned from my attack, I swiftly threw a kick out at the remains of the spear partially embedded in the ant's eye before using it as a springboard to create some distance.

The stone shard was thrust into it's head from the impact, strength clearly was leaving it's body as I backpedalled.

To my left, both unharmed monster bug were in the middle of circling me, while the first ant bared it's mandibles threateningly while approaching from the front.

The smell of the blue fluids that were seeping out of their bodies made my stomach yell out louder in my ears than ever. Before I knew it, I was licking my lips. It wasn't the usual red blood, but it was similar enough to evoke the same response from my body. But I was in a life or death struggle. The fact that I was now being attacked from two fronts was painful, as my eyes kept glancing at both the wounded and dead arthropods rather than trying to keep track of all the living enemies.

I shook my head to clear it even a little.

My spear wasn't working very well. It didn't have the power to penetrate the eye or joints very well. The other weapons were more risky due to their shorter range, but had the power to make up for it.

I quickly removed a goblin sword from my weapon bundle and faced off against the ants as they continued to close in. I went into a run again, and again towards the first ant I attacked. But this time it was ready for me and reared it's body, threatening me not only with it's jaws but it's front most legs as well.

Since it had stopped moving due to it's new pose, I easily sidestepped it and got to it's blind spot. No matter how wide an ant's vision was, there was no way it could see anywhere where it's eyes didn't cover.

With a quick series of steps, I jumped and ran onto the monster's abdomen and placed my sword in beside it's neck and pulled the serrated blade back against the joint.

Already weakened, the stone sword teeth made quick progress on the monster's flesh. But being as fragile as it was, the shaft snapped mid strike.

In a panic, I kicked off of the ant and created some distance, but to my relief, the monster simply shuddered for a second before collapsing. It looked like I had severed something vital.

There were two normal ants left plus the queen. The queen hadn't moved once since the beginning.

(Is it one of those 'I've fallen and I can't get up' scenarios?)

I smirked at the thing that looked so fat it needed a powered electric cart to move around.

As if it understood that I was thinking poorly of it and wanted to prove me wrong, the big ant really did rise up and lift it's bloated rear. My eyes turned into globes at the sight. I couldn't imagine how such thin legs could support a body like that, but the monster had already proved me wrong, and had started to approach me.

It from in front and it's two remaining subordinates from behind. I was perfectly sandwiched in between.

From a positional standpoint things weren't looking good for me, but in reality the queen was so slow I could entirely ignore it. It was as if it was moving entirely on sheer will power, which if it wasn't a monster I would applaud and maybe even cheer it for.

So in other words, rather than a three on one, it was more like a two on one with my blood thirst being an annoying spectator jeering and trying to provoke the actors, or rather just me.

I took out an axe and circled around the ant corpse that was lying in between me and the remaining two threats.

With my legs pumping at full strength, I approached the monster on my right, the closer of the two. As I closed in on it, the arthropod raised a foreleg and tried to stab me with it.

But such a slow and predictable move had no chance at working on me. I stepped to the side and ducked under. The leg simply impaled the stone floor where I was just at a split second before, whereas I was now underneath the monster at kissing distance.

Not like I'd do something like that to such a creepy creature.

Instead, I spun and used my whole body to swing my axe up, driving it through the ant's neck. The joint split apart spraying bug goo all over the place to my displeasure.

Not entirely dismembered, the head flopped down, held by a small piece of flesh with pieces of my stone axe head embedded in it.

Without any time to lose, I used the dead ant as cover to retrieve another sword to deal with the last remaining ant.

Legs stabbed all around me as the monster desperately tried to get to me, who was still trying to extract myself from under the dead monster's corpse.

The difficulty in trying to evade in that situation taught me how poorly planned my last move was, but with a big shove, I lifted the stiff body off of me and escaped with only some minor scratches.

The corpse flopped back down with a big *fwump*. The last ant monster was partially entangled after the sudden movement, and I didn't let that go for.

Squeezing in between the ant corpse legs, I climb it's body with a bound and jump onto the last surviving ant. I grab the base of one of it's legs for stability, then swing my sword as hard as I could across it's neck joint, severing it in one go.

"Wah!"

Suddenly losing it's control nerves, the now dead ant flopped down, it's weight overcoming any tension left in it's legs. With me still on it, I fell as well and bounced off of it's carapace and rolled on the ground, getting covered in more ant juice sprayed out from it's open wound.

With all the enemies down, my tension had started to fall, and the sound of my hunger had suddenly started to scream out loud, desperately trying to urge me to feed. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't avert my eyes from the fresh ant corpses.

*skitter*

But as deafening as my stomach was, it didn't cover the fact that the sound of ants moving around hadn't stopped.

I looked behind me only to see one more ant monster still alive and moving towards me.

It was such a minor threat that I had forgotten that the ant queen existed. It was hard to see it actually hurting me, but it was still an enemy. That alone made it possible for me to push my hunger back and concentrate on finishing the fight.

But the queen was slow, extremely slow.

I took out another axe and with a jog, I circled around it and got behind the monster. It tried to turn around to face me, but when the other ants weren't fast enough to avoid exposing their rear to me, there was no way the sluggish queen could.

Without any reverence to royalty, I jumped onto the monster's bloated abdomen and climbed on top. But instead of continuing to the thorax to cut the head off as I intended, I noticed that the top of the abdomen pulsed with a regular rhythm like a heartbeat.

Intrigued, I lower a hand and touched the surface. Even to my hand it felt just like a heartbeat, although the shape was completely different.

A small corner of my mind registered that there was drool dripping from my chin.

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