Reincarnated as Child Chloe Bourgeois

~ 44 ~

Chloe's POV : 

I hear a notification sound, so I look up to see.

[Minor wave of Worker Ants]
[Level : F]
[Approaching now]
[Warning : Don't let them touch you, they are covered in poison]

. . . good to know I guess. . . All of us on our knees shoot up and get back into formation. 

~

Lila's POV : 

I summon Slither, and like that a bunch of giant ass brown ants come running at us. I tighten my hold on my short spear and watch as everything blurs together. I hear Chloe and Max shouting out spell after spell, the clash of everyone else's weapons against the worker ants armor, and watch as Slither distracts the worker ants long enough for one of the others to attack. 

I and Luka watch as Sabrina jumps down from the ceiling just for long enough to strike the ants with her daggers. Then Nino uses his shield to launch her back up again for the all sides assault to continue. 

At one point I watch from behind Nino but in front of Luka as Chloe switches from using spells to using enhancements. She attacks using a dagger and her magical staff as a shield when she has to. Chloe is a mage but she's as versatile as a slime, always changing shape. It's always beautiful to see. 

The assault goes on for what feels like hours as a bystander, but it was probably less than one. After that, I watch as everyone's system begins dinging as they level up, even Slither and I level up. Chloe looks up and shouts, "Nino, catch Sabrina!"

I watch as Nino caught Sabrina, guess she also ran low on mana, meaning she can't stick to the ceiling like she was. Slither slithers onto my shoulder  and coils around my neck. Quickly Sabrina, Chloe, and Max begin climbing the dead bodies of the ants. 

I ask Nathaniel quietly while watching them, "why are they doing that?"

Nathaniel whispers back to me quietly, "they are scavenging, the cores, blood, nectar these ants carry, the antenna, literally everything we collect here is worth some serious cash. It's why scavenging is almost as popular as being a hunter in general. This is a new age Lila, and once we high enough we can become as known as any star. But first, we gotta be smart about it, can't just rely on the royal money." 

Nathaniel patted me on the shoulder then went back to collecting the plants we were earlier, everyone did in fact. Me included. 

Nathaniel is right I guess, relying on their money could give us a false sense of things, though I know Chloe will help us however she can, Felix's family cracks down harder on his spending the more he does so, Nino has to watch what he does because of his families rules including regarding his funds, and Nathaniel has all his current money tied in investments. We need to make money that can't be taken away and audited by our family. 

Hunter accounts are bound by soul, not blood. So this is important for us to be able to live our lives as free as we possibly can. It's why we formed our group, hell, Chloe even changed the name of our group to the Celestials, and that group is completely anonyms. We are going under. 

Though Chloe's dad thinks we are the Royal S's, which is just a subgroup Chloe made for things like shows. Four of us were born in the spot light, so they stay there keeping watch over the shadows for us. 

Quickly once everything is gathered we quickly begin footing it back to the telepad. We are low on mana, we are adventurous, but our hunger for freedom doesn't make us stupid. The telepad activates once we touch it, then we are back to that temp place. Quickly the rest of us leave while Chloe begins filing paperwork with Max beside her. With him carrying around what would basically be a recorder, it helps. 

With the leveling up system, Slither will evolve or shed over night, and mana capacities extend over night, from Chloe's explanation, when the expansion happens it can cause some major discomfort, which is why it's not advise at all to level up too fast. If you do so, you'd be in agony. Evolution and expansions are what every dungeon raider, hunter, explorer, and in between. 

Quickly we all spread out, we don't just collect material from dungeon, we also collect material from those around us. I head straight to the Dupain-Cheng Bakery, and discreetly send Slither to watch and collect material. Having a summon is useful like that. I order a chocolate croissant then wait outside while Slither finds the information I need. 

Marinette Dupain-Cheng has been a repeated thorn in our side. Seeing through my lies, trying to frame Chloe, lying about Felix, trying to weasel Alya into Nino's arms. Time for some of her secrets to be known. 

I eat my croissant while I wait for Slither and people watch. The people of France are pretty weird from what I've seen hell the pigeon guy just ran past me like a bat out of hell. A few more minutes later Slither must have jumped off the balcony, guess Marinette got in, he fell straight onto my shoulder but he came with a book with an attached pen. 

Oh? I get up and begin walking, letting Slither eat the rest of the croissant, and begin reading the book while walking, deciding to be careful, I pull a different notebook, a copy book that Chloe got during that exhausting snake field trip. 

I make it to as safe a place as any, otherwise known as under a bridge near Luka and Juleka's house boat, and carefully pull the material off of Marinette's book or better yet, diary, and carefully apply the copy seal onto the blank area then once the copy seal on my book turns gold, I reapply the material on Marinette's dairy, then cover the attached pen in the copy potion. Here's hoping this works. 

Once I have everything ready, I walk back into the Dupain-Cheng Bakery and discreetly while Marinette is tearing apart their kitchen, I send Slither off with the diary again. Time to make her feel like a fool. 

Using summoner spell [Control] I use Slither to slip the Diary right next to where Ms. Cheng is looking, then Slither hides as she finds it. 

Ms. Cheng clicks her tongue in disappointment then says, loudly, "Marinette, Sweetie, I found your diary!" I hear her heels click on the ground as I unsummon Slither, letting him rest after all the work I made him do. 

I was about to turn around when Mr. Dupain notices me, damn, I prefer talking to his wife. . . eh. . . I doubt he'll realize who I am, oh well. Two birds one stone. 

I smile at him, feigning awkwardness, as he says "hi, what can I get for you today?"

I keep up the awkward smile as I say, "I was wondering if you got any tea?"

"Oh, yes, what kind of tea would you like?"

He clicks buttons on the cash register then gives me a black tea. I smile and leave, man still makes me sick. I toss the tea once I'm far enough away then I head back home, time to find out what make's Marinette tick aside from fucking stalking.