Rebirth of Abium

Meanwhile, Abium got stunned as he saw the goblin and instantly threw a Fire orb at it. A second later, everyone saw a humanoid green monster let out a shrill cry as Abium's 'Red orb' spell exploded on its face and fell on the ground.

"Well, we are in little trouble now," Abium said while cursing his luck and turned his attention towards the chaos mark. He didn't think that Goblin Zack would bring him trouble even after his death.

Without any delay, he activated his spiritual scan and saw multiple red dots were coming towards their direction.

'Tsk, annoying pests!' Abium frowned a little and signaled everyone to get ready for battle. He wasn't afraid of being surrounded by an army of goblins. He and his new team members were pretty much powerful enough to kill first-tier shamans without any difficulty. But if they met another goblin Zack, they would be thrown into a tough position.

'Moreover, getting surrounded by an army of goblins will expose our location to the enemies.' Abium thought to himself and spoke,

"Don't hold back and kill all these pests. I think these goblins will only sense this chaos mark when we move near towards them."

Everyone nodded their heads and got ready for the battle.

Within a few seconds, a total of 20 more elite goblins swarmed through the nearby bushes and appeared in front of them with an aggressive look in their eyes.

But before those goblins could take a step forward, Umi pointed her snowy finger at them and cast her Crystal Ice needle spell. A piece of small needle-like ice appeared from her fingers and moved towards those goblins, leaving afterimages behind. Within a second, the crystal ice needle entered into those goblins' heads one by one and started killing them. A second later, twenty goblins' heads exploded in unison and fell on the ground.

Abium was beyond shocked by her action.

'She is learning quickly. If not for that shackle, she would be pretty much invincible. Hmm, her two second-tier spells are more than enough to kill first-tier mages.' Abium nodded his head in amazement and began to teach her a few tricks about fighting. While teaching Umi, Abium didn't forget to search for the exit to the fifth layer. He also found out that the fourth layer had other monsters lurking in the woods and started exploring more cautiously.

On the third day, their group met a large Red Ant type monster which was around 100cm tall. Even Abium hadn't heard of any of these types of giant Red Ant-like monster and became confused. Only after a short discussion with Azolla, he found out this Ant was not a monster but a normal living mutated insect from another plane. After following the Ant for some time, they found a group of Red Ants.

'But I don't think hundreds of ants will pose a threat to us.' He thought inwardly and soon saw a few 'Mind worms' were attached to some of those ants' forehead and became warier of these Mind worms.

'Mind worm is scarier than I thought. Wait!... Did those goblins also have Mind worms attached in their bodies?' A horrifying thought appeared in his mind, and soon he blurted out,

"What if these mind worms already parasitized these living creatures in this dungeon?"

"How is that possible-?!" Hearing his question, Edith retorted instantly, but soon her eyes widened in shock.

"Could it be?" Rizz and Fennelis stared at each other and asked in unison.

"Why not? We already saw these parasites are appearing everywhere, right?" Abium frowned.

"Then, we must move with extra caution," Fennelis said and soon turned her head towards Cedric.

'Did he hide some information from us?' A suspicion appeared in her mind. But soon, she dismissed that thought. Even if Cedric hid some information from others, she didn't think he would outsmart the elven kid.

The group didn't dare to stay near the Ant group and began to search for the exit cave in the fourth layer towards a different direction.

But to their worst luck, the path they chose to search was where the Red Ant colony was.

'Why are there no worker ants nearby?' Abium stood there with a concerned expression while looking at the entrance to an ant nest. It looked almost similar to the exit tunnel, but few Ant soldiers stood there guarding it.

'Is this the path to the next layer?' Abium pondered and soon thought of finding out with his own eyes.

He didn't mind killing these pesky ants and quickly conjured a few red balls of fire. After a slight hesitation, he threw those at all those ant soldiers and killed them instantly.

"Let's go." Abium signaled others to follow after him and stealthily crept towards the Red ant nest that appeared a few meters away. After that, the group entered the narrow tunnel, which moved downwards, and soon met a few worker ants on the way. After silently killing those ants, they continued their walking.

But their group saw the tunnel split into two and then fell into a dilemma about choosing the right path. Abium didn't hesitate to use his 'Seer's intuition' spell and chose the path on his right side. After another hour of the journey, they met another group of worker ants. It was an easy task for them to kill those ants, but Abium felt something was not right.

His guess was right on as they moved further into the dark tunnel. Unlike the last time, their group noticed hundreds of ants swarming from inside while screeching aggressively.

Everyone's complexion began to go pale. Facing those hundreds of monsters, Abium knew they had no other choice but to face them head-on.

"Get ready," Abium spoke in a grim tone and soon threw a ball of fire into the tunnel.

A massacre began, and six-legged red monstrous ants started to fell one by one. Abium's group didn't hold anything back and brutally killed all those hundreds of ants.

As Abium killed the last one, he heard Azolla's concerned voice inside his head,

'Kid, go back. Otherwise, you all might get killed by these ants.' Hearing her words, Abium got startled a bit and quickly asked,

'What do you mean by that?... Why didn't you mention..? You... You forgot to warm me, didn't you?' Abium's face went pale as he thought of Azolla's unique ability and almost shouted at her. But quickly, he stopped himself and waited for Azolla's answer.

"Cough' I apologize, kid. Let me explain about these ants' nature a bit.' Azolla let out a cough awkwardly and began to change the topic. Abium rolled his eyes at this artificial spirit's behavior and sighed helplessly. He had learned much about ordinary artificial spirits in the past few months and knew Azolla was indeed special.

'Damn it! If someone from Arcane Empire heard her making excuses, those mages would definitely die from head explosion.' Abium shakes his head and began to ask,

'Can you explain about these Red Ants?'

'Oops! I forgot once again. From the records, I learned these Ants always live in colonies and rely heavily on chemical communication in the form of pheromones. They use some magical sensory energy from their antennas when communicating. Communication between individuals is necessary for any species, and for ants- whose colonies have been known to contain as many as million worker ants- this is no different.

Ants use pheromones in many different ways, such as 'danger' pheromones upon death by alerting nearby ants or creating chemical trails from their nest to promising food source. Other ants in the colony use their antennas to detect these pheromones and respond accordingly. So, you just entered into one of these ants' nest and killed hundreds of ants.' Azolla stopped for a moment and added casually,

'If my guess is not wrong, thousands of ants are on their way to this place. They mostly will act instinctively to protect the queen so these ants wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice for the colony.'

Hearing those words, Abium got stunned, and soon his face went white. At first, he thought these ants were not worthy of his attention and neglected the core issue. But now, he understood their might. Every colony had a massive number and could even destroy a kingdom if this mutated colony appeared out of this dungeon. But what worried him more was the Mind worms attached to those ants. He could tell these worms didn't devour these ants' original souls and appeared to be merely manipulating these creatures.

'What to do? Should I really have to go back after coming all this way down?' Abium began to feel a headache as he pondered over the issue and soon made up his mind.

'I will use 'Seer's intuition' spell to find an easy way.' Abium thought for a bit and began to move deeper into the tunnel. The tunnel split into two or three ways from time to time and move like an endless loop. But with Abium's Seer's intuition spell, their group managed to evade the worst possible outcome and finally found the exit after 24 hours of constant fighting. Everyone, including Abium, became excited upon seeing the exit and sprinted towards the bright light.

As Abium was about to move towards the exit, he felt an uneasy feeling. He halted his footstep and signaled everyone to stop. Abium's sudden action made others' excitement to disappear in an instant and soon replaced with wariness.

Without giving any explanation, Abium closed his eyes as if he was in meditation and then let his consciousness enter the mysterious throne hall. A second later, he appeared inside his other soul form. After that, he controlled his soul form and moved towards the mysterious fountain to see the near future.

Within a second, Abium opened his amber eyes in the physical world and let out a cold breath.

'Shadow!' Abium muttered to himself in shock and quickly took out his new Scarlet short sword and put it on his waist. After that, he gave a signal to everyone and stepped cautiously towards the exit.

The group soon walked out of the endless tunnel, entered the fifth layer, and stood there with a stunned expression on faces. Well, they couldn't be able to hide their emotion even after hearing Abium's warning.

The fifth layer was filled with endless beautiful forest, which could captivate one's eyes with one glance.

Pleasant blue joy birds' singing sounds echoed everywhere along with howls of wolves formed into a strange melody. The song of Nature gave warm feelings to those who listened to it and let their minds walk into their imaginary world. Many varieties of plants, trees, and vines covered the dense woods and looked beautiful. Branches and leaves moved due to the strange winds, which almost looked like they were dancing for the Nature song.

Pink and yellow-colored beautiful flowers bloomed in many areas, suddenly shredded their petals, and gave a welcoming greeting to the unexpected visitors to their land. But what made those guests relax their guard was the strange red fruits hanging in those trees, giving off a delicious aroma to the surroundings. The only one who stood with a calm expression was Abium. His eyes were cold and ruthless. He didn't dare to relax even a bit and silently waited.

In a second, a dark humanoid creature around 2 meters tall appeared in front of them and gave a sinister look with its creepy red eyes. It had four shadows like arms and two legs. Abium also saw a unique silver-lined worm attached to that shadow's forehead, and its unique white eye stared deep into Abium's eyes.

Abium didn't hesitate to activate the scan function, and soon a blue screen appeared in front of him.

[Name: ????

Age: ????

Race: Shadow Fiend

Health: Parasitized

Class: 2nd Tier Warlock

Affiliation: Lawful Evil

Attributes

Strength: 8.9

Agility: 9.9

Vitality: 9.0

Mana: 864.0

Spirit: 432.0

Spells

Bloodline spells: Shadow teleport, Nightmare curse, ????,?????,?????,?????.]

Abium suddenly felt uneasy and stared cautiously at the humanoid creature that appeared in front of him. Its skin was black, and it had two red horns on its forehead. Its eyes were deep endless void-like black, and those two voids could even devour one's memory just by the look.

But what made Abium take a step back in caution was that strange threads appeared from its claw-like hands, and those threads seemed to be connected to everyone's shadows.