Chapter 313: Chapter 313: Level 10 breakthrough- Is it really possible? (5)

"I guess it’s our turn now," Elias said while going after his makeshift bow with eagerness.

Clara went for the throwing knives too, with a thought of whether she could pierce that thick skin or not.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down a little," Theo spoke with an amused smile.

"The last tamed beast is not done yet?" Theo spoke.

Both Clara and Elias thought about it only to look at the small hole at the far side of the camp.

They couldn’t see a single ant anywhere near the worm.

"Are they done?" Theo asked through the bond only to get a few emotions through it, making him smile.

"Help me flip this worm" Theo spoke, making them both move instinctively.

They went near the worm while making sure not to get near the puddle of blood.

Theo started pushing, making Elias go and tell the ape to help, but it was not anywhere near, so the three humans did it instead.

When the worm was flipped, both Clara and Elias took a mere second to notice something was wrong. They moved back with horrified expressions.

Clara pulled on Theo’s hand in instinct, making him get back, but look at the situation with pride.

When they flipped the worm and got the side that was on the ground face up, they could all see the worm had a lot of small dots all over this whole side.

It had a lot of soil attached to it too, but they were sure that these "dots" were oozing out blood from them.

Elias got a little close to inspect the situation. From where they were standing, it just looked like the worm had caught a deadly disease.

But when he looked from a nearer spot, his very soul shivered.

These holes were not really holes per se, but small chunks of flesh ripped out by something.

And by the looks of those thousands of holes, they could tell what was the cause.

"Careful where you step, Elias," Theo spoke while looking down. "Many of the ants are near you."

Elias just casually looked down and saw all those heads bobbing out from small tunnels in the ground, and it felt like each one of them was holding a piece of meat in their mandibles, eating it aggressively.

Elias made his way back and Theo took his dear time to look at the results while the others were just horrified.

"It seems the ants can do a lot of damage inside the ground too... them piercing its skin is a good chance for us."

Clara gulped and looked at Theo. ".... If this many attack at the same time, it would help get the worm bleed out a lot faster, young master."

"All right, all the ants are to head back to the colony and continue with their task," Theo spoke, and the ant queen gave the order to them normally.

All the big heads popping out of the ground went down, but Theo found some of them plucking out moss chunks from the ground before moving back.

But the ant queen sent out a few new images, making Theo halt his good mood.

"Hm... this is not good," Theo spoke with a hand on his chin.

The duo looked at him and before they could say anything, he spoke again.

"When the ants started tearing off the skin, it seems all the blood that could come out started pouring inside the tunnels... the ants could have drowned, but the quantity of the blood was not that much for now," Theo spoke out loud.

"That does sound like a problem," Elias said while thinking. "This gigantic worm here has lost most of its blood by now. If we attack a new one, it will just drown all the tunnels if they were to bite off so much of its skin."

Theo nodded but went to look at Elias’s bow again.

"Well, we can think of a solution later. Let’s see what we can do right now," he spoke and signaled to Elias, who smiled.

He equipped his bow and stretched the string while looking at the worm.

Theo could tell the strength needed to hold that string for long was a lot, and soon enough, when Elias’s hands started to shiver, he pulled his hand away, making a speedy arrow go forward.

CRICK

Right at the impact, the arrow directly went inside the worm’s body, but no one was that happy about the conclusion.

"... It’s not that deep," Elias spoke with a dissatisfied tone, only to equip another arrow and shoot.

This time, the arrow went inside the worm’s body again, but was at the same level as the previous one.

"..."

"Well, that’s an outcome, Elias. Look at the blood coming out," Theo spoke while pointing at the arrow-injected poor worm.

"Thank you for trying to cheer me, but what’s bad is bad. I will train a lot before the attack happens," Elias spoke in seriousness and bowed deeply.

Theo wanted to tell him that there was no need, but seeing how determined he was, he just went silent and nodded. Sometimes a man needed extra motivation or pressure to move forward.

Now came Clara, who nodded to Theo before equipping two daggers, one in each hand.

"I don’t know if they will stick or not, but I will show you a technique that will only work when the target is so big," she spoke before moving them back and shooting them out with finesse.

Theo saw each of the daggers move in a straight line and hit the worm’s body.

Most of them hit its skin and deflected, while one of them stayed inside, but Theo was shocked beyond measure.

"You really are a good dagger thrower, Clara. There is no way I can make all four of them move straight toward a single target," Theo spoke in appreciation.

"Hehehe~" Clara couldn’t help but giggle in happiness. "You’re giving me too much credit, the daggers did next to no damage."

"Well, that is because these daggers are not of a quality that can help take down a level 12 beast, Clara," Theo spoke, but soon, realization hit him and he looked at Elias too.

"Wait, you both had good attacks just now. It’s the fault of the equipment," he said with a hand on his palm.

Both Clara and Elias looked at each other and nodded.

"They are okay, young master," she spoke.

"Oh? Then tell me, if you had better ones, would you have torn through this skin?" Theo asked and then moved to Elias.

"And you, tell me what kind of other arrows are available in the market. Are there any poison ones?" Theo asked.

"Errr..." Elias lost his words for a moment as he was surprised.

"There are too many varieties and I don’t know all of them. But there are many poison types in the arrows, there are ones that explode too, and ones that can freeze something from the inside for some while," Elias started pointing at all the different kinds, making Theo shake his head in disappointment.

"This is the last time you both are feeling like this," he spoke with serious eyes, the eyes they both knew they could do nothing against.

"Our circumstances didn’t let us get the best equipment... but the next time, we will enter with the best ones. I will make sure of that," he spoke again.

Elias was going to speak again, but he saw the look Clara was giving him as if knowing what he was going to say.

"Thank you, young master. We aren’t feeling anything inadequate right now. Just being given this opportunity to get inside a gate and to get to level 7 this early proves what I have been saying right now," she stated, making Elias lose his words.

She knew he was the practical kind, saying things that were too practical at the most non-needed times.

"Same feelings, young master," Elias spoke too, making Clara look at him with a prideful smile as if it was all her work.

"All right, it’s my turn now. Only my sword here is the best equipment among us three, let’s see what this can do," Theo spoke before stepping back.

Both of them could tell what he was going to do, so they moved back too.

Theo unsheathed his sword and with a deep breath, he took a sprint and bent his knees. He hopped up in the air with the hyper jump skill.

Theo jumped up with a "bang!" and moved the blade of the sword downward.

It was as if he was running in the air and moving toward the worm with speed, when instead, he had just jumped with a sprint.

Clara couldn’t help but get jitters all around her body. The level of skill Theo had reached after coming here, she was sure it wasn’t possible in the castle.

One thing was always right. That pleasure and growth cannot go hand in hand. One needed to be sacrificed for the other to move forward.

Just like that, Theo moved down toward the targeted worm and used all his strength to puncture the blade inside its skin.