Tristan's heart raced as he saw the giant crystal ant climbing up the tunnel toward him. He quickly gnced around and analyzed the ant's speed.

  'Damn, it's much faster than I am at climbing. There's no way I can escape this.'

  Tristan stopped pressing his legs against the tunnel wall and began to fall toward the ant.

  [Dark Bde]

  As Tristan collided with the ant, he struck its head with his bck bde, but to his surprise, it only chipped a few of the crystals on its head. Not only that, Tristan thought he would be able to knock the creature off bance with his weight, but when they collided, the ant had no difficulty staying firm on the tunnel wall.

  The creature's mandibles tried to sever Tristan's leg, but he managed to escape with a powerful leap in the tight tunnel.

  'This monster has many advantages here!'

  'At least I could tell that it's organic inside.'

  Tristan quickly started thinking about how he could defeat his new enemy. He remembered his knowledge of normal ants.

  "Normal ants have poor eyesight, and their antennae are sensory organs they use to smell. If this monster has simir characteristics, I might have a chance."

  Tristan began to fall again toward the crystal ant. This time, he used his bck bde to cut the ant's antennae. When he did this, the ant went berserk, thrashing around inside the tunnel, but he wasn't finished with his attack yet. Now, he aimed for the rge compound eyes that were not protected by the crystals.

  His bck bde pierced the creature's eye and drove deep into its brain. After a while, the ant's movements ceased, and its body plummeted down the tunnel.

  Tristan let out a sigh of relief.

  He began to think about what had just happened.

  'What if there are more ants? If that ant made all those holes, then the situation is resolved, but if it was some kind of scout and there's an ant nest nearby, we're doomed.'

  Without wasting more time, he quickly started climbing up the tunnel.

  ***

  Near the hole where Tristan had entered, the group members were waiting for him.

  Yue occasionally looked at the hole, and Lan had a serious expression on his face.

  Yue said excitedly, "I hear something coming."

  After a while, they saw Tristan slowly emerging from the tunnel.

  "DUSK!" Yue excimed in a loud, happy tone.

  "You did it, kid!" Zhou Lan said.

  Lan grabbed Tristan and lifted him out of the hole, raising him into the air. But noticing his uncomfortable expression, he pced the child back on the ground.

  Tristan sat down, let out a tired sigh, and began to expin to the others what he had seen.

  "I found a magical beast digging a tunnel. It was a giant ant, about the size of a dog, and its body was covered in crystals."