The Peerless Kobold - Chapter 206
“Thank you so much for helping us.”
“You arrived just as we were getting a little tired~”
A rugged-looking tanned man thanked them while the pale-skinned woman beside him scratched her cheek in embarrassment. Following behind them was a thin man in priestly robes and a petite mage.
“By the way, what’s she doing over there?”
“Ah~, she’s just doing her usual stuff, don’t mind it.”
As Ares exchanged a few words with the other adventurers, Muriel stood in front of the giant ant’s carcass and muttered to herself.
“Hmmm~, this isn’t a monster type often seen in these parts, right? But it looks familiar… T-this is a Valley Ant!!!”
As he stood beside the red-haired mage who suddenly shouted out of nowhere, Riberto, the one who killed one of the giant ants earlier, stared at the carcass in confusion.
“What’s a Valley Ant?”
“Th-this is dangerous, we have to report it right away!”
“Yeah, but that’s why you have to explain…”
“It’s a highly reproductive and dangerous species of ant monster that can cause a stampede if left unchecked!”
Everyone tensed up at the mention of a dangerous species for a moment until Ares picked up the conversation again.
“But it’s early winter, you know? Aren’t ants supposed to be dormant during this time?”
“No, these ant monsters are most active during this period until the snow piles up!”
Generally speaking, mere ants couldn’t be compared to their monster counterparts. If they hadn’t gathered enough food during the autumn season, then it’s no surprise that they would be active during this time.
If that’s the case, then they would attack the surrounding towns and villages before they go into dormancy during the winter.
(If I remember correctly, there are usually around 200 Valley Ants living in a single colony…)
Of course, unlike small, ordinary ants, only a few of them can lurk inside a burrow at one time. Nevertheless, they are still a threat that an adventurer cannot handle alone.
“But they aren’t that strong, are they? We were even able to force them back.”
The rugged-looking adventurer looked a little awkward, but he implied that they could have easily beaten the monsters back by themselves if they were in top condition. However, his statement was unfounded.
“You’re too naive. Those were only Valley Ant Scouts, that’s why they were weak and there were only a few of them. But if they were to attack the surrounding towns and villages, a hundred Valley Ants that are threat level Cs and the queen which is a threat level B would come rushing all at once.”
“… Seriously?”
The rest of the adventurers still looked half-convinced at Muriel’s words even though their companions who were also biologists froze in shock when they heard her warning.
“It’s that bad?”
“Well, we can’t really tell yet…”
“In any case, I have a feeling that Grau village and other places nearby might be in danger…”
Muriel is usually right about her hunches in these kinds of situations, so as a precaution, she and the other adventurers they met dropped by the nearest village. After they parted ways, she and her party visited the village chief, but… the response they got did not bode well.
“Hmm, dangerous monsters you say? The local village guards reported that they fought off several ant-type monsters yesterday, but I haven’t heard of such a threat.”
The village chief, Rechte, looked suspiciously at the adventurers who suddenly visited him and claimed that the village might be in danger. However, he took the red-haired girl’s words seriously because she was wearing a mage’s cloak decorated with an owl emblem made of mithril.
He suspected that if she were a mage who had studied in the Royal Academy of Magic, it wasn’t strange for her to have connections to nobility or court mages even if she were just a mere Adventurer.
He wasn’t far off the mark though, as Muriel was the only daughter of the Vest family, which is a local aristocratic household, and she is also a close friend of Ernesta who is a junior Court Mage in Riastize Kingdom.
But even if he had been rude to her, the “Tempest Witch” would not be involved with such a trivial matter. And although she belonged to a house of nobles, her father was not a noble but a famed adventurer and biologist who had explored the various regions in the west.
