The Golden Experience Point [Part 1]

Chapter 14: "Information Overload"

—This one error message gave me a ton of information!

First, the name of the ant. It was an [Infantry Ant] monster, so like a foot soldier ant. Diving deeper into the name, these ants were probably social insect monsters, so if this one was an infantry unit, then it was probably being commanded by a higher unit. And that higher unit was probably the tamer, or at least that's how she was reading it. In all likelihood, it was the queen somewhere in the nest.

The follower system seemed to be structured kind of like a company or a business. There was a boss at the top who received profit from those below—in this case XP—and distributed that profit back down to the entire organization. Everyone cooperated as though they were all part of one whole. This also resembled how social animals like ants and bees functioned.

Maybe the [Subordinate] skill was actually developed specifically for these kinds of social monsters. Just like how ice wolves had skills like [Claw] and [Bite], special skills that were unique to monsters race. Well, maybe players could get them if they had bear arms or something, like their bodies were reconstructed with monster parts, maybe then they could learn these monsters skills too. But for the most part, they were limited to monsters. If that were the case, then even if they had the [Subordinate] skill, if it really was created specifically for monsters, it's possible they wouldn't have the prerequisite [Mental Magic] or [Summon] skills.

"Nah, that conclusion's way too optimistic..."

Maybe they didn't have them, but if they did, they'd be a real pain in the ass. The current Rare could probably resist an enemy's [Mental Magic] since she maxed out her MND, but that wasn't the case for everyone else. Thankfully, both [Control] and [Fear] worked on the soldier ant, so if Rare went alone, that would minimize any collateral damage.

"I'll be going in by myself. [Control] seems to work, and even if I brought more people with me, only the person in front can fight anyway," Rare declared.

"But Boss, if the ants all try to attack you at once, there's no way you can [Control] all of them, right? No matter how you slice it, it's too dangerous. You at least need to bring someone to guard you," Kerry argued.

"You should at least bring me. The cold makes them slow, so that would buy time for Boss to use magic," jumped in Marion.

"I think I should come too; my [Enhanced Hearing] lets me know what the ants're doing," Remy offered.

"The tunnels are dark, so I don't think my eyes will be very useful, but... Well, it's better to have more people to shield you, right?" Riley threw out hopefully.

In the end, all the humans would be going. The ice wolves couldn't possibly fit in the tunnel, so they would all be staying behind, watching the entrance to the nest to make sure the ants couldn't come take over the cave. The wolf pups could probably fit, but there was no point in taking them.

"Ah, before we leave, I should give you guys names," Rare commented.

She had put it off before, but she needed to name the ice wolves. Without names, she couldn't [Summon] any specific wolves. All she could designate was "ice wolf," but she wouldn't know which one would be summoned. Even though Kerry would be acting as her shield, if the tunnels opened into a larger area and the ants tried to crush them with numbers, there would be nothing they could do. If such a situation arose, being able to [Summon] an ice wolf could give them a huge advantage.

"First is you. You'll be [Hakuma]. And since you're a girl, [Ginka]. The kids will be, starting from you, [Mizore], [Arare], [Hyou], [Fubuki], [Kogome], then [Zarame]."

The alpha wolf that Rare first used [Subordinate] on was now Hakuma. The other adult ice wolf was Ginka. "Hakuma" refers to a catastrophic snowstorm. "Ginka" is a name that originated from likening snow to a flower. For the pups, Mizore and Hyou were boys while Arare, Fubuki, Kogome, and Zarame were girls.