My pulse rose as I approached the ants cautiously, trying to eek out how close I could get before I started getting swarmed. I was confident in my ability to outrun the creatures, but that didn’t mean I wanted to get close without at least knowing some basic info.

  To be fair, it appeared that they either knew about me already, since I could see a buffer zone of them coalescing in a small crowd near the closest point of their line to me. Three of them, slightly larger than the rest, turned toward the others and then back to us. Their six feet scuttled on the rocky ground as they headed our direction.

  “Why only three of them?” I mused out loud.

  “Beats me. Doesn’t seem like an attack though.”

  “So I shouldn’t attack yet?”

  Hesitation. “Hmmm. Take out your weapons, but I think we should give them a chance.”

  “A chance for what? The ants can’t speak, dude.”

  As it turned out in just a few seconds, I was incorrect in my assessment. As much as I complained about human speech a few days ago and how weird it was to get used to, I quickly became used to the weirdness of humans. That included looking onto monsters with a human’s viewpoint.

  And the human’s viewpoint told me that the damn ants should not speak, which turned out to be wrong. The damn ants spoke.

  “Hail, intelligent beings! You are in the presence of Queen Majorica’s army. State your business, or we ask you to leave our abode.” Said the ant that stood the most in front, his front legs swishing in the air wildly as it spoke.

  Mark and I completely stopped what we were doing and watched them, not even bothering to mask our surprise. I watched them with wide-open eyes for a moment, the cogs in my brain turning, trying to understand. By the gods, the system did say that they were intelligent, but that felt like an understatement. Why the fuck did they speak?

  “Oi! Gonna speak or not?! Hey, Jack, were we incorrect in assessing their intelligence?”

  “I’m not sure, Anthony. The Queen’s mandate clearly states that a creature that looks like a human but with unfitting features should be an intelligent player, but this one-”

  Hey, I stood right there! Those ants spoke in a funny way, though. “No, no. I’m intelligent. Just trying to process seeing talking ants.”

  The one in front of me looked away from its colleague, his pure-black eyes centering on me once again. “What? Never seen a talking ant before? Not much of an explorer, huh?”

  “I’ve never met an ant at all until… now. Lived under the ocean before.”

  “Under the ocean? And why would someone choose to live in water when the mushrooms offer such bounty? Truly weird, you players.”

  “Hey! The ocean is a beautiful place too, okay? I was a king there, you know! No opponent could face me on equal footing. Truly an apex predator.” I smiled, and pointed a finger at me. “You are looking at another king, for that matter!”

  The ants seemed to stop for a moment, as if it was their turn to try to understand some weird information. “You. Another royalty? We have not been told what to do in a situation like this...” They turned away into a small huddle of bodies, and proceeded to rub their antennae against each other’s, a form of communication so weird that I decided not to even think about it .

  Mark looked at them, and then hovered closer to me. “You’re going a bit far with this ‘Royalty’ bit, don’t you think? What if they could be friendly, and this will be the thing to set them off?”

  “But I am a king!” I smiled.

  “Are you? Do Peacock Mantis Shrimp even have a king or queen like the ants do? Shrimpie, please. For all we know, they could decide that what you said offended them and just swarm you here. Sure, you could fight them off, but we might not need to do so, and you’re possibly ruining our chances. I beg you, think of what you say a bit more.”

  Sheesh, did he not see what was happening right in front of him? I could see it already. They would surely take me deeper into their hive, and treat me like visiting royalty. They seemed to really care about the hierarchical order of things. Finally, I’d be treated as I should have been from the start.

  “Just watch and learn, Mark” I said, giving him a thumbs up, and looked at the ants that finally turned back to me. I also, coincidentally, ignored Mark’s exasperated sigh and face-palm.

  “Who has your royalty been speaking to, if I may ask?” Asked the biggest ant of the three. Anthony, as the other called him. What a weird name for an ant.

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  “You might not know, I’m afraid.” Explaining that I could see a surly human that could not leave my side seemed like too much of a hassle, honestly.

  Mark’s face was priceless. He looked ready to choke me to death right then and there. Did he not see the ants? They looked ready to serve, and I would treat them so. Breaking the charade would only make them suspicious, if anything. It totally didn’t have anything to do with the fact that I enjoyed myself so much doing this.

  The ants took my refusal in stride, and continued on. “We have converged and then came to a decision. Our majesty has not decreed on what to do in the presence of other royalty, so we have decided to take you to her for an audience in the royal chamber. You will be heavily guarded, and we will make sure your majesty is protected from all threats internal and external. If you should not desire so, then we will escort you to the entrance of the cave.”

  I gawked at them. Two options, so different yet equally enticing. I could either just leave the ants be, leave in relative safety, and just try to go and find my team from there. But the other option, the chance to get escorted straight to the boss, was even better. Who knew if I’d ever get a chance like this again? I probably wouldn’t even have to fight, not unless I really wanted to.

  “Shrimpie. NO. Do you not understand this chance? The risks? Crudia and Dusk are not here. It’s quite likely to be a boss way stronger than the Carp queen. This is our only chance to-”

  I ignored Mark. I liked the guy a bit more than a week ago, but it was still clear he didn’t understand my capabilities in full. “Of course, I would love to meet your majesty. It is the quest with which I came here, after all!”

  The ants bobbed their little heads at that, and then bee-lined straight to the line of ants. “Make way, make way! A royal procession is underway! Make way!”

  The ants, not completely stopping their task of bringing food to the colony, just walked around the three ants, turning their heads to watch me as I approached.

  Mark got right into my face, his tone not aggressive, but clearly agitated. “Shrimpie, you are risking my life with this. Do you even realize that?”

  “Weren’t you the one to propose fighting as many bosses as we can? This is one served on a silver platter.”

  “We are a week in. They are 6 levels stronger. This hive is probably HUGE. And you’re alone. I like taking good chances. I don’t like doing suicide. And I like it even less when a stubborn Mantis Shrimp is the reason I die.”

  “I’m not stubborn!” At least I didn’t think so. My reactions and convictions were perfectly fitting!

  “Seriously? That’s the part you’ll oppose?”

  Sigh. “Listen, the boss will probably just meet me, okay? I’ll talk to the queen, analyze her, and if we don’t like our chances, then we’re out. I either get some items to fight Xila, or we get an escort.”

  He sighed. “This is what it’s about? Xila? The damn Mantis?”

  What did he not get? “Kind of? But it’s not just her.”

  “What is it then?”

  Geez, having human feelings was weird sometimes. “I guess I’m… a bit angry? Envious? That I didn’t get that evolution. That I fell behind. I want to do better, Mark. I’m going to be the ruler of these players, of course, but it makes me angry that I cannot achieve something like that already. And I want to catch up as fast as I can, before everyone like Xila gets even further ahead.”

  He got silent then, and followed me in the air as I myself followed the ants deeper through a tunnel. Wherever we were heading, the ambiance did not change much. I liked it that way.

  “I’m… sorry that you feel that way, Shrimpie. I really do. But going to a fight you’re not sure you can win is just too risky. There are other ways to catch up. Hell, I’d bet my money on you being in the top 50 players.”

  “Not good enough. I’m the strongest, yet the items the others have are like cheats.” I told the ant Anthony to carry on as he turned to me once again, asking what I was saying. Did he just mutter something about me being weird?

  “But it’s a good step forward, Shrimpie! And this is just the first floor too! We can catch up later. You’re doing great, dude. You’ll do even better as we move on from floor to floor. Christ, you’re max level already, and we’re only a week in.”

  “Wait, I’m max level? When did that happen?” I did not see the notification, even! I quickly opened the menu and spent the last two points on strength.

  “During the fight with the mushroom guys. But listen. You don’t need to take fights like this, okay? That’s my point. I think it’s already a bit too late on this one, so let’s see how it will play out, but please, try to listen to me later. I do, and will continue to do, everything to make you win this tournament, okay? I promise.”

  I looked up at that. “You promise?”

  He hovered to be in front of me. “I do.” He put up his hand, and professed his pinky finger. I knew what that meant, a silly human gesture that the kids did when truly locking in a promise. It seemed to fit Mark to do something like that, funnily enough.

  I grinned, and copied the gesture. My finger clipped through his, of course, but that didn’t matter. The intent mattered more than the gesture itself. He was right. I was strong, stronger than I’ve ever been. If I wanted to win this thing, I’d need to get my head in the game, or at least let Mark do so for me.

  But that could come later. This whole discussion took a few minutes, during which we continued to descend through caverns and tunnels, and now a different sight stood in front of me.

  The next cavern was larger than most, circular and easily 200 meters across. The walls were completely full of larva that were attached to the walls, the bodies of future ant workers glowing blue from within. And at the center of it all stood a blue mushroom, larger than all of the ones I’ve seen so far. It easily occupied almost all of the space that wasn’t close to the walls, and its blue color was even more blue than anything so far.

  “We have arrived!” Said Anthony, his little legs scurrying to carry him into a small opening in the mushroom stem. “Please wait while we announce your presence to the Queen.

  What exactly the queen was, I could not say yet. But its presence? It was seeping out of the walls, washing out anything else. I could smell nothing. Focus on nothing. Only on the thing beyond that wall.

  Surely it was the strongest being I’ve seen so far.