บท 60: Plunder

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Soldier Ants are very easy to recognize, the simplest ways are either their sizes or colors. The Worker Ants are at the size of a normal horse carriage, while the Soldier Ants are at least twice if not bigger than them. Worker ants have a bright red shells covering their bodies, while the Soldier Ants have maroon colored shells.

Another visual cue is that Soldier Ants had a pair of wings. The wings starts from the upper body of the ant and reaches the end of their body. It is colored green and mostly transparent, one could also see vein-like patterns across the wings.

Raven activated his ocular technique to gauge just how strong this Soldier Ant. Once he made an accurate judgement, he relaxed since he knew that this one won't be able to see through his concealment. This was evident by the busy screeching of the Soldier Ant towards the Worker Ants, it was probably handing out orders and didn't even noticed him.

After some more screech from the Soldier Ant, Raven saw it left and the Worker Ants resume their movements. He breathed a sigh of relief and continued to move. He constantly reminded himself to be careful, specially he was in proximity of multiple ants. This was a very daring move but he had confidence in himself and knew that he can pull this off.

Raven tailed one of the worker ants closely and ended up arriving as what seems to the Nursery. He briefly surveyed the place and found nothing worth his interest so he left. Back on the previous section, he once again tailed another worker ant and arrived at another place.

This time it was a bit more special. While it might be strange for these ants, but they do have a tendency to hoard things, mostly shiny objects. And Raven arrived specifically where they keep most of that.

The ant he was following just rotated with the one present here, now only him and the ant he followed was left. He waited until the ant turned it's back against him and started patrolling the place, he used that opportunity to move and go closer to the hill of shiny objects.

His eyes glittered at the amount of treasure they managed to hoard. Gems, crystals, weapons, armors, clothes, he even saw some high grade spatial rings in here. Just how long have this ants been around to gather all of this!? Well, doesn't matter to him, since they were kind enough to leave it here then he had no qualms about taking everything that he could.

Raven moved slowly, making sure that the ant wasn't looking his way. He placed his hand on one of the spatial rings and stashed it away. Fortunately, placing things inside his ring doesn't make any sound, or else he would screwed by now.

Raven picked the items he absorbed carefully, he made sure that when he stashed something away, the thing on top of it won't fall.

So far, he managed to get a handful of gems, a bunch of crystals, five spatial rings, 9 pieces of armor, and 5 kinds of weapons. As for those shiny clothing, he left them behind. Of course, Raven was far from stopping there. Each time that the ant wasn't looking, or was on patrol, he would seize the chance to stash away as many items as he could.

After 30 minutes of plundering, the size of hoard hill in front of him visibly shrank, but the ant remained ignorant about it. Thank god for it's low intelligence, the only thing in it's mind is probably it's duty and nothing else. This specifically made it so easier for Raven.

But now, Raven was in quite a pinch. His concealment would soon run out. The time he took from the camp all the way inside the colony took 15 minutes already, so in total he had 15 minutes left before it lose it's effectiveness.

Raven had to make a decision as early as now, should he continue with his plunder or get out if this place as soon as possible?

'Oh wait nevermind, I forgot I have three batches of Concealment Powders. Hehe, I'm an idiot.'

Raven slapped his face because of his stupidity, he can't believe that he forgot something so simple. He then decided to move out from the line of sight of the ant and re-apply the powder on his body. Once that was done, he now had nothing to worry about. He then went on and proceed with his grand plunder.

***

"Huge harvest, huge harvest, lalalalala~"

As soon as he went outside of the ant hill, Raven hummed a made up tune reflecting his current mood. When he went inside, he wasn't expecting to be rewarded at all, he was just merely satisfying his curiosity. Never he would've imagined that he will get a Wyvern's fang and a bunch of shiny treasures inside.

Raven actually didn't take everything away. He made sure to leave those shiny clothes that were completely useless to him and since his time was extended, he made sure to cover his tracks in order to not raise any unnecessary alarms. Well, that might fail since the treasure hill was reduced into a mere mound of shiny clothing but still, at least they would suspect each other and won't connect anything to him.

Although Raven didn't get the chance to go deeper into the colony or meet the ant queen, it was totally fine for him since he didn't need to anyway. He had already figured out everything once he saw the Soldier Ant.

Previously, Raven was actually surprised that Lord Ants would ever think of building their colony inside the kingdom, since usually they tend to start somewhere rather discreet and build their forces there. Their predatory instincts might be awoken because of their bloodline, they were quite a cautious bunch and often stay away from creatures that could ruin their home.

This is why the sightings of Lord Ants greatly piqued his interests. He already knew that something was up, which was the reason why he wanted to go here, training is actually the second thing that he wanted.

"The queen should be reaching that stage huh? This place might be a little lively than what I first expected."

Raven sighed as he marched back towards the camp. As soon as he reached the camp, he immediately went towards their camp was somewhat surprised to see that everyone inside is still under that meditative state. He glanced at the incense and saw that it was already reduced into ashes. He quickly checked their status up using his ocular technique and saw that there's nothing wrong with them.

"Must be in state of Extreme Relaxation huh? It would be quite rude to interrupt them."

He sighed in relief when he realized that they weren't in danger. They just entered the state of Extreme Relaxation which is why they haven't woken up until now. Extreme Relaxation is a mental state quite different from a meditative one where they would only recover their lost energy. Once one entered this state, their bodies will relax to the point where their minds would be focused on that wonderful feeling alone.

The benefit of entering this state besides from the one mentioned earlier. Extreme Relaxation promotes not Recovery but Restoration. This process cures the hidden damages, previous stress, prolonged exhaustion and many more, allowing the body to restore itself into the top condition. Contrary to everyone's belief, one could actually train themselves to enter and exit this state freely, but since it was probably the first time they experienced this, then they don't have any control at all.

Raven stepped outside and decided to prepare a meal since he was in a good mood right now. He went outside once more and took out some cookwares and a crate of meat that he had. Raven decided to stew the delicious meat of the ants for an hour to make a mouthwatering soup. He also threw in some vegetables and some condiments to add more flavor profile in the dish.

While the soup was boiling, Raven decided to inspect the spatial rings that he managed to plunder from the colony. He received a total of fifteen rings and there's no way that all of them would empty right?

He took out the first one and peeked inside, the result was rather disappointing. This spatial ring is almost broken since the space inside is completely unstable, aside from sacks of gold and some stacks of Gold Papers, he didn't find anything else.

He let out a disappointed sigh, dug a small hole on the ground and placed the spatial ring there. The he took out the next one. This time, he was impressed. This is an A-grade Spatial Ring and completely usable. The space inside is ridiculously wide, he figured the he might be able fit a mountain in here.

There are chests filled with gold papers as well as some smithing necessities inside. The materials are in preserved state as well, he figured that he might be able to do something good out of these materials.