The plan for me to stay behind alone and trigger the trap was adopted despite a little opposition.
“Still, leaving only him behind is…”
“Right. It’s too much for all of us to run away while leaving one person behind.”
Before David made the decision, people spoke as if they were against it, but a strand of relief lingered on their faces.
David knew that well too.
Instead of offering comfort like the others, he handed back the backpack he had taken.
“You’ll need it more.”
Inside the backpack he returned was the space-expansion box.
Rather than useless consolation, he had given back what I needed right now.
‘Is this his way of apologizing?’
If I died here, this box would be left here too.
If that happened, would he just come back next time and retrieve it?
In any case, his consideration was a great help to me.
After handing over the backpack, David went to the passage where the group was, and I was left alone in the stone chamber.
No, there was one other person besides me.
“Cough. Cough. It hurts. I don’t want to die.”
The former businessman lay on the floor, bleeding profusely.
But the people preparing to leave ignored the fact that he was lying there.
As a traitor, he was now nothing more than bait.
Instead of looking at him, the people turned back to me one last time.
The Black young man and the macho middle-aged man wore apologetic expressions, and Heewon was shedding tears.
The Latin man raised his thumb with an admiring look, and David saluted me with an expressionless face.
At the atmosphere, as if I were facing a solemn final moment, I could only laugh inwardly.
Because I had no intention of dying.
In the scene that seemed to have a funeral march playing in the background, one person waved with a bright face.
“You’ll come back safely, right? When you come back, I’ll give you a present when we get to Earth. You can look forward to it!”
At her out-of-nowhere words, I finally burst out laughing.
“Haha, yes. I’ll be sure to accept it.”
If my guess was correct, she was someone I shouldn’t get close to.
But there was no reason to pretend not to hear when she said she would give me a present.
It didn’t matter whether her words were sincere or just empty flattery.
They were perfect for dispelling the gloomy mood.
‘Even if it’s put on, if it’s a beauty’s smile, maybe that’s not so bad.’
Thanks to her, I was able to wave at the departing group.
After saying their goodbyes, the people left like arrows.
“Now then, shall I hurry?”
There wasn’t much time.
The ant monsters were right in front of me.
“First, the bait is ready.”
The artifact was the most important bait, but the businessman was a fine supplementary material in his own way.
Since both were prepared, I had no worries on the bait front.
“Now it’s time to activate the trap.”
I checked once more the black stone tied to the spear shaft.
There had been no time, so I had tied it clumsily, but even when I shook it hard, the black stone did not fall off.
Drrrrrr.
As I was confirming that the black stone was secured, a faint vibration and the sound of footsteps began to come from inside the stone chamber.
They really were right in front of me.
I immediately moved toward the blocked passage.
After stepping into the passage, I turned around right away.
The place where I stood was just in front of the boundary between the stone chamber and the passage.
To the side, I could see the broken wall.
A distance I could barely reach if I extended the spear fully.
I could also glimpse the groove inside the wall.
“If I thrust the spear out, my hand might end up inside the stone chamber…”
I was worried, but there was nothing I could do about it right now.
I stood at the boundary of the stone chamber and waited for the monsters to rush in.
Drrrrrr.
The vibrations and the monsters’ footsteps grew louder and louder.
‘It’s enough to give me a headache.’
My senses were screaming at the monsters’ approach.
For the senses that warned me of danger to scream like this…
They were enemies I couldn’t face barehanded.
“Honestly, this is still insane.”
Whatever reason I gave, I had ended up staying behind alone in front of over a hundred ant monsters.
It was only natural that the group who left first looked at me as if I were already dead.
If this had been before I came to this planet, I would have said I was insane too.
“Has the thirst I’ve been hiding all this time exploded? Or am I drunk on power?”
If not, then it must be because of that sound calling me.
I raised the spear and aimed at the groove visible through the gap in the wall.
‘Wait.’
It was not yet time to activate the trap.
The time to activate the trap was when the monsters had flooded into the stone chamber.
Drrrrrr.
Kraaaaaaah!
Right now.
The ant monsters began forcing their bodies into the stone chamber.
The passage the ant monsters poured out of and the passage I was in faced the same direction.
To my eyes, the ant monsters seemed to be bursting out from beyond the broken wall.
The ant monsters that rushed into the stone chamber also had no way of knowing that I was standing in this passage.
Even if they had known, it probably wouldn’t have mattered.
Because all the monsters that rushed into the stone chamber charged toward the center of the room.
As expected, what the ant monsters were aiming for was the metal rod, the luring artifact.
That artifact was still in the businessman’s arms, so the ant monsters had no choice but to rush toward him.
The man’s screams stopped.
Drrrrrr, kraaak! Krrrk! Crunch!
His screams were buried.
Amid the monsters’ roars, footsteps, and the sound of prey being chewed, the last scream of a human could not be heard.
Buried beneath the monsters, the businessman was nowhere to be seen.
By now, there probably wasn’t even a shape left of him.
It was a metal rod that looked sturdy, but in that chaos, it surely wouldn’t last long.
Once the artifact broke, the monsters piling up in the center of the stone chamber would be released again.
Most of them would chase after the group again, and the rest would scatter in all directions.
And in the process, they would find me.
Before that happened, I had to stop those things.
I thrust out the spear I was holding.
The spear advanced soundlessly past the broken wall and arrived before the groove.
‘As expected, it’s a little short.’
To insert the black stone at the spear tip into the groove, I had to put my hand inside the stone chamber.
If I could have done what I wanted, I would have just thrown the spear like this.
There was no choice.
I could only pray the burn wouldn’t be too serious.
As long as my hand wasn’t rendered completely unusable, there should be a way to treat it once I got to Earth.
If we kept obtaining dark energy one after another, a “healer” who could treat people might appear here too.
In any case, I could no longer back down.
Right now, when most of the ant monsters that had swarmed in had entered the stone chamber.
I bit my lip and stabbed the spear in.
The black stone entered the groove.
Click.
There was no sound, but it felt as if I had heard one.
I felt the energy move from the black stone.
The pattern inside the groove and the patterns around it began to glow.
Lastly, lightning struck.
Flash.
I’ve described it at length, but the black stone entering the groove and the lightning striking happened at the same time.
My vision turned white.
Countless bolts of lightning filled the stone chamber.
The lightning racing along the walls, floor, and ceiling began to fry the monsters gathered in the center of the chamber.
Kyaaaaaaaak!
The monsters’ screams pierced through the thunder and reached my ears.
The operation was a success.
But I still couldn’t let go of the spear.
The moment I let go, the black stone would slip out of the groove.
Even if my hand was fried by lightning, I had to endure it now.
‘I can endure this much pain. I’ve endured worse. No matter how much it hurts…’
“Huh? It doesn’t hurt?”
Right now, my hand was inside the stone chamber.
The inside of the stone chamber was filled with lightning.
My hand should have been roasting in it.
But my hand was fine.
It wasn’t that I was fine even after being struck by lightning.
“The lightning didn’t hit me?”
Unable to trust my senses, I had to confirm it with my eyes again.
Amazingly, there was no lightning around my hand.
‘Was I lucky?’
At first, I thought I had stretched my hand into a place without lightning.
That wasn’t it.
When I moved my hand slightly, the lightning drew back a little.
The lightning had clearly avoided my hand.
It was incomprehensible.
It wasn’t as if lightning were alive.
“Can it control where the lightning flows in real time?”
It seemed like it might be possible if you did something with conductors and the like, but this wasn’t Earth, so I doubted that was possible.
However, this place was also a ruin.
A place filled with all sorts of divine wonders.
For now, since it helped me, I decided to just think of it as magic.
‘If I put more of my body in, will it avoid me too? Would it be okay if I moved around?’
That thought suddenly occurred to me, but I couldn’t test it with my own body.
Right now, I had to prepare quickly.
Because the energy contained in the black stone was almost gone.
The black stone had grown murky, and the pattern in the groove and the patterns around it that had been glowing were also losing their light.
The lightning that filled the stone chamber was weakening too.
‘The fuel efficiency is worse than I thought.’
In novels and the like, they could even run power plants with this stuff.
Here, it couldn’t even last a few minutes.
Of course, during those few minutes, it had been frying nearly a hundred ant monsters, so contrary to my thoughts, the effect wasn’t bad.
On top of that, more than half the ant monsters that had entered the stone chamber were already dead.
Not all the ant monsters that chased us were the sturdy soldier ants we had encountered in this ruin.
About half were the ordinary ants—or scout ants—we had seen outside.
The ordinary ants couldn’t withstand the trap in this stone chamber.
There were about fifty ants left.
Like the ants I had seen here before, all of them were groaning after being struck by lightning.
Even so, they were still just as dangerous.
I hurriedly took something out of the box.
**
Crackle, craaaackle. Crack…
The lightning that had filled the stone chamber finally stopped.
The ants that had been dazed began pulling themselves together one by one.
Unlike when they had entered the stone chamber, the ant monsters looked around.
The ants were bewildered.
Because the energy that had been luring them until moments ago could no longer be felt.
It was because the artifact had been shattered by the lightning, but the ant monsters had no way of knowing that.
Even if they knew, it probably wouldn’t have mattered.
After hesitating for a moment, the ant monsters made a decision. Since they had come this far up, they would chase the enemies who had invaded their home.
The scent of the enemy still remained thick.
The ant monsters began moving toward the passage that led to the surface.
With steps slowed by injuries from the lightning, wearing armor that had weakened, the army of ant monsters slowly advanced.
One ant monster following the army turned its head and looked toward another passage.
The scent of the enemy was faintly flowing from that direction as well.
The ant knew well that the end of that passage was blocked.
Still, it seemed necessary to check the scent.
It was just as it was about to move its feet with that thought.
It saw a corpse lying in the middle of the passage.
A corpse of its own kind, an ant.
A corpse roasted by lightning, just like them.
A sturdy warrior had been struck down by lightning and died like the worker ants.
No, after smelling it, it had been killed by the enemy.
The enemy scent it sensed now must also be the scent of the enemy who had killed its comrade.
The warrior ant tore its gaze away from its dead comrade and began chasing after the companions that had gone ahead.
A short while later, all the ant monsters had left the stone chamber.
Twitch.
The ant corpse lying in the passage moved, and a person crawled out from inside it.