11: Chapter 11 Temporary Teammates, Rift Ant Nest

After leaving the Seventh Frontline Camp the next day, the density of the ruins began to gradually decrease.

Lin Yan kept his footsteps light, creeping forward along a dried-up drainage ditch for nearly twenty minutes.

His primary goal now was to find a large group of monsters. Heartsteel required striking weak points, so the most suitable prey were those gregarious monsters, allowing him to crazily farm HP and experience.

The problem was that he had no map and no means of perception, so he could only blindly head toward the center. After circling around for most of the area, most of the monsters had been cleared out by others; he had only encountered five Rift Wolves scattered about.

Even with good luck, it took several minutes to find one, with long stretches of empty time in between. At this rate, by the time the Dungeon time limit was reached, the stacks of Heartsteel wouldn't be very high. He needed targets that were more densely packed.

Just as Lin Yan was crouching behind a broken pillar, planning his next route, a deliberately lowered voice drifted over from behind the ruins on the right.

He instantly went silent, shrank back, and pressed his body against the shadow of the broken pillar. A few seconds later, the voices sounded again. They were human voices; at least three people were talking, their tones urgent, as if they were arguing about something.

Lin Yan did not reveal himself immediately. He followed the shadow of the broken pillar to the other side of the ruins and observed through the gaps in the concrete fragments.

There were four people—three men and one woman—wearing the same federal uniform as him. They were not from the same Safe Zone; the school badge patterns on their chests were completely different, imprinted with "No. 23 Safe Zone, No. 6 Public Awakened Middle School."

Leading them was a young man with a crew cut and a sturdy build. Behind him stood a tall, thin boy wearing glasses, who was half-crouched on the ground, drawing something in the sand with his finger.

Further back was a girl with a ponytail, holding a standard short blade in each hand. The last person huddled at the end of the line; he was the shortest, clutching a round shield in his hand, looking nervous.

"I told you, heading east is a dead end." The tall, thin boy with glasses looked up and pushed up his lenses. "There are footprints of at least 10 Rift Wolves over there, and one footprint is especially large; it's likely an elite grade."

"Then where do you suggest we go?" the boy with the crew cut asked with a frown.

"You remember that patch of hardened soil we just bypassed, right? It's covered in holes, dense and packed. I scouted it; there are at least a hundred Rift Ants hiding underground."

"Level 3 gregarious monsters. Their individual stats aren't very high—250 HP, 30 Attack."

"The problem is that there are too many of them, and they are fast and small, making them hard to hit. If they swarm us, we won't be able to hold them off. With our current setup, going up there is just suicide."

Rift Ant, Level 3 gregarious monster, over a hundred of them.

Behind the broken pillar, Lin Yan took in every one of these keywords. This was exactly the type of gregarious monster he hadn't been able to find after circling around for most of the area.

"Then don't touch them," the boy with the crew cut shook his head.

"But each Rift Ant gives 30 experience points, and they are much weaker than others of the same level. Farming thirty of them is nine hundred experience points. We can lure them out little by little, and if we encounter something strong, we can just run. A large Rift Ant nest like this is hard to come by!" The tall, thin boy said with obvious reluctance.

"How about we find more people to form a team?" The tall, thin boy stood up and brushed the sand off his hands, his gaze sweeping casually around. "There's bound to be some other lone Awakened who..."

His words cut off.

Because when his gaze swept past the direction of the broken pillar, it locked right onto Lin Yan's line of sight.

The air froze for two seconds.

The boy named Chen Qi stiffened, and a low exclamation escaped his throat: "Someone's there!"

The boy with the crew cut instantly pointed his dagger forward, lowered his center of gravity, and assumed a standard defensive stance. The girl with the ponytail crossed her short blades in front of her, and the short one immediately raised his round shield to his face. Within a few seconds, all four of them entered combat mode.

At the same time, Lin Yan felt a trace of extremely weak energy sweep over him. It wasn't an attack, but rather some kind of detection. This energy lingered on him for a split second, then snapped back abruptly.

Scout Talent.

"Behind the broken pillar, one person." Chen Qi reported the coordinates in a low voice, a thin layer of sweat seeping onto his forehead. "Wait—"

His voice suddenly changed pitch. The information transmitted back by his Scout Talent exploded in his brain, causing his pupils to contract sharply.

"What is it?" The boy with the crew cut didn't turn his head, his eyes still fixed on the direction of the broken pillar.

"His HP..." Chen Qi swallowed, his voice sounding a bit dry. "It's at least over 3,000."

The air froze for another second.

The boy with the crew cut's fingers, which were gripping the dagger, loosened slightly before tightening again. "3,000? Are you sure? How much HP did that Level 3 Elite Rift Wolf we encountered earlier have? 1,200?"

"How would I know!" Chen Qi's voice was very low, but the shock in his tone couldn't be hidden at all.

He Ming poked half his head out from behind his shield, his voice trembling: "Then why are we still holding our weapons? If a monster with 3,000 HP really wants to attack, how many hits can the four of us take combined?"

The girl with the ponytail didn't speak, but her gaze switched rapidly between the direction of the broken pillar and her teammates, the blades of her short swords dipping slightly.

Since he had already been discovered, staying hidden would only make him look suspicious.

Lin Yan walked out from behind the broken pillar slowly, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, holding his dagger with an underhand grip, without assuming any aggressive stance.

"Just passing by, not here to cause trouble."

All four people saw his appearance at the same time: a physique a size larger than theirs, the mottled battle scars on his iron bone breastplate, layers of bite and claw marks, and dark red patches on his pant legs that had turned black after being soaked in wolf blood.

The most conspicuous thing was the scar on his right arm that extended from his wrist to above his elbow; it had scabbed over but hadn't fully healed, looking like a twisted, dark red centipede.

The boy with the crew cut's gaze lingered on the scar on Lin Yan's right arm for a moment, then he slowly sheathed his dagger.

He was able to be a team leader not only because of his talent but also because of his ability to judge people. The battle scars on this person before him couldn't be faked; every claw mark on the iron bone breastplate showed that he had been fighting in the Dungeon for a long time.

Combined with what Chen Qi said about "at least 3,000 HP," he had already mentally categorized this person as "absolutely not to be provoked."

"Where are you from?" He stared at Lin Yan's chest, where the school badge should have been, leaving only a piece of torn fabric.

"District 7."

"From District 7..." The boy with the crew cut muttered. "I'm Zheng Tong, Class C Talent, strength-oriented, and I'm currently the leader of this squad."

He pointed behind him. "The scout with the glasses is Chen Qi; his talent is the Class C Perception Tentacle. He can scout resources and monster distribution, detect the general attributes of monsters, and lure monsters."

"The girl with the ponytail is Su Wan, Healing Talent. The one with the shield is He Ming, Defense Talent. Our configuration is quite complete, but we lack someone who can deal high damage."

Zheng Tong continued: "You heard it too; we passed by a patch of hardened soil earlier, and Chen Qi scouted that it was full of Rift Ants underneath—Level 3 gregarious monsters, about a hundred of them. We didn't dare to touch them; there were too many for us to hold off."

"But compared to other monsters of the same level, Rift Ants are very weak, and the probability of them dropping low-rank dimensional crystals is not low, and their carapace fragments can also be sold for star coins."

"We have a scout who can find and lure monsters, a healer who can provide backup, and we can also detect monster attributes and resource points."

"I can see you're very strong. Chen Qi said your HP is over 3,000, which is higher than an elite monster. Are you by yourself?"

"How about it? Want to form a team? We'll go over together."

Lin Yan was silent for a few seconds. The team in front of him had a complete configuration; the scout could find monsters and control the pace, and the healer could provide backup.

Forming a good team was a required course for an Awakened. An individual's talent was limited; with the coordination of other teammates' talents, things would be much easier.

And what he needed most right now wasn't equipment or potions, but a large number of monsters.

"Fine. We don't need to lure the Rift Ants one by one; we can lure them a few at a time. I'll set the pace for luring the monsters." Lin Yan paused. "Rift Ants have 250 HP; I can basically one-shot them."

Zheng Tong's eyebrows raised slightly. One-shotting a Level 3 monster—if someone else had said that, he definitely wouldn't have believed it. But the battle scars on the person in front of him, combined with what Chen Qi had just said about his "HP being higher than an elite monster," left him with no confidence to question it.

Chen Qi pushed up his glasses and said to Zheng Tong in a low voice: "Although my Scout Talent can't see his specific attributes clearly, it's a certainty that his HP is over 3,000."

"A single Rift Ant's attack is only 30 points; biting him is like a tickle. If he says he can one-shot them, it's highly likely true. For him, Rift Ants are just for farming, and we can tag along and get some scraps."

Zheng Tong reached out his hand: "Alright, we'll do as the boss says. Temporary teammates, until the Evacuation Point."

Lin Yan shook his hand. The boy with the crew cut had a strong grip, but Lin Yan barely felt any pressure. With 9 points in Constitution and the muscle fibers already being reshaped by Heartsteel's physique bonus, his physical strength had already opened up a qualitative gap from other Awakened of the same level.

The five-person squad proceeded northwest along the route marked by Chen Qi. Chen Qi walked at the very front, crouching down every few dozen meters to check the traces on the ground.

Su Wan walked in the middle of the team, looking back at Lin Yan, who was at the very end, from time to time. From her angle, she could see the scar on Lin Yan's right arm that hadn't fully healed yet. That someone with HP higher than an elite monster could actually get injured meant the monsters he had encountered before were far more terrifying than Rift Ants.

"Has your wound been treated?" Su Wan asked.

"Natural healing." Lin Yan replied concisely.

Su Wan took a small bottle of light green simple disinfectant from her waist bag and handed it over. Lin Yan glanced at it, took it, and thanked her.

After walking for about 30 minutes, Chen Qi raised a hand in front.

Everyone immediately lowered their bodies and pressed against the nearest cover. Lin Yan looked forward over Zheng Tong's shoulder.

A patch of hardened soil larger than a basketball court spread out in front of them, its surface covered with dense holes; in some places, they were so dense that the holes were only one or two centimeters apart.

A faint, sour, rotten smell drifted in the air. Scattered at the edge of the soil were the white bones of several unknown monsters, the surfaces of the bones covered with tiny tooth marks. The dense tooth marks looked as if they had been gnawed by countless little mouths at the same time, making one's scalp tingle.

The Rift Ants were smaller than Lin Yan had imagined. They weren't the size of a house cat like the Rift Rats, but only slightly larger than a palm, about fifteen centimeters long.

They had six long, thin legs, and their bodies were covered in dark brown carapaces, almost blending in with the ground on the dimly lit soil. They moved very quickly, and when there were many of them, the rustling sound of them crawling on the soil merged into one, like the sound of wind blowing over a sandy area.

"This is it." Chen Qi lowered his voice. "There are about a dozen patrolling on the surface, but the vast majority are still underground. The patrolling ants are easy to lure, but once the ant colony underground is disturbed, the reaction time won't exceed five seconds."

"If the person luring the monsters doesn't run out of the alert range within five seconds, the entire nest will swarm out, so the pace of luring must be controlled."