Such a scenario would definitely be horrible for all Martial Squire adventurers. Just traveling in the Shionel Dungeon would become a menace to all Martial Squires. Though he wasn't sure how likely such a scenario was, he wasn't worried either. With Kane's Void Step and his Riemannian Echo and other tricks, the ants would never be a problem when traveling the dungeon.
His eyes suddenly widened as a smirk formed on his face.
"What is it?" Kane threw him a wary look.
"You don't sound pleased,"
"You look pleased," Kane retorted. "Which, inside the dungeon, does not bode well for everyone else."
"That's slander," However, Rui's smirk had not dropped yet. "I just had the most brilliant idea, Kane."
"It's simple," Rui turned back to the ant mountain. "These ants are gathering esoteric ore deposits as food from across the dungeon floor. Due to the fact that dungeon floors are abundant in esoteric ore deposits, they haven't left the floor yet. However, if the esoteric ore deposits disappeared, then they would most likely leave the dungeon floor in search of more esoteric ore deposits."
"That makes sense," Kane nodded slowly. "What exactly does this have to the plan?"
"If such a thing were to happen, then we would be the least affected, correct?" Rui asked him. "After all, we have Riemannian Echo and your Void Step. We can just sidestep any ants we run into."
"Right… So what exactly is your pla-" Kane paused as realization dawned on him.
"Have you figured it out yet?" Rui smirked. "If the only reason they haven't left the floor is because of a surplus of esoteric ore deposits then what do you think they're going to do if all of the ore deposits in the floor and in their stockpile disappear… like if we took them?"
"They'll probably leave the floor in search of more esoteric ore deposits…" Kane murmured. "Thereby causing a ton of problems for the other Martial Squire adventurers who'll be frequently running into them in this section of the dungeon!"
"Exactly," Rui smirked. "Problems for all the other Martial Squires, most of whom are either patroned by a force that is allied with Chairman Deacon, or is hunting us for the bounty that Chairman Deacon has placed on our heads. We ourselves won't suffer much."
"That's a diabolical plan," A mischievous smirk emerged on his face. "You don't to purposely avoid killing even a single ant so that when we plunder and harvest every esoteric ore deposit in this floor, they'll leave the floor in search of more esoteric ore deposits running into and clashing with adventurers."
"It will also hinder their exploration rate and we'll be able to get much ahead.
"Nice plan," Kane nodded. "Let's get going with it then."
"Wait," Rui paused. "Let's verify that the Void Step technique actually works with these ants."
Kane frowned. "It might not?"
"Maybe," Rui replied. "Misdirection only works on sentient beings with a developed sense of awareness. As for whether ants fully satisfy this condition… is debatable."
Rui was not an expert on ants as he had no background in them. He didn't know if his concerns surrounding ants were sound, but it was because he had no idea about them that he wanted to make sure that they weren't caught off-guard when they treated into ant territory.
Thus, he wanted to take some precautions and verify its reliability.
"There's an isolated ant there," He pointed in a direction. "Let's go test it with that."
"Makes sense," Kane nodded.
The two of them sky-walked all the way across the floor in the direction that Rui pointed.
"Woah," Kane murmured as he activated Void Step. "That's bigger than I expected."
The ant was even larger than either of them.
"Yeah, and at that size, it must insanely strong. Ants have one of the single highest physical strength-to-body mass ratios, meaning they can lift a weight that is exponentially greater than their own body weight. So this ant can probably lift a building with ease."
That made Kane wary. He was aware that neither he nor Rui was that strong at their current stage in the Squire Realm. Martial bodies of Martial Squires naturally grew stronger due to the natural conditioning that came with mastering stronger techniques. The increased healing factor essentially meant that the natural strengthening that came with each round of healing made them grow stronger in the long run.
But neither of them had reached the level of strength where they could casually lift buildings with just raw strength and no Martial Art techniques.
"Alright, let's approach," Rui and Kane walked closer, keeping Void Step active.
It was to their relief that even when they were one meter from the ant, it did not react.
PAT PAT PAT
"Even touching it is possible," Rui murmured as they kept moving to keep the technique active. "Good. I guess it does have a fully developed sense of awareness and self-awareness."
The two of them backed away from it, distancing themselves from the ant.
"Alright, so I guess that means we can begin with the same strategy as always?" Kane asked, glancing at Rui.
"Same strategy for all the esoteric ore deposits that haven't been extracted by the ants," Rui mentioned. "If we want to get the stockpile of esoteric ore deposits at the center of the ant mountain, then we need to make sure that we're perfectly prepared to time that. If you run out of gas in the middle of the ant mountain, then you're probably going to die. I don't know if I can even protect myself, let alone both of us inside the ant mountain being swarmed by thousands of Squire-level ants."
Kane's expression grew severe. He appreciated that Rui was dead honest with him and informed him of the stakes involved.
"Let's finish all the remaining esoteric ore deposits before we handle the deposits stockpiled by the ants, then," Kane told him.
"Agreed," Rui nodded as the two of them immediately got to work.
