[You’ve entered the hidden entrance: Anthill Monotony]

‘What the hell?’

It was dark, unnaturally so to someone who’d never had their vision strpped away from them. Hecate slowly sat up and observed what little of her surroundings she could which was only a few feet in front of her.

“Shit” she mumbled as she felt her eyes start to adjust, first it was slightly- enough to see the outlines of the walls around her, eventually the girls eyes adjusted to the light- or lack thereof and she was able to see her surroundings.. What she saw surprised her; a mural around 8 feet in every direction that depicted something spectacular.

‘Whoa” she gasped.

A beautiful figure wearing a pure white gown, it had a regal crown that floated a few inches above its head and a matching veil that obscured its face from vision. Surrounding the divine figure were thousands of marks- I could only assume these were it’s subject’s.

[Notice: You’ve discovered an artifact of an ancient past, as the first to do so a multiplier is applied.]

[A New title is germinating]

[The complete Story has been delivered to your inventory]

“What?” her face turned ghastly. “Isn't this a cliche development??” Regardless of her words she reached into the status screen in front of her and pulled out a thin book with the tite: “The Supreme Queen’s Path.”

Turning the page, she was met with one of the murals that was on the walls surrounding her.

“The Girl who’d soon be hailed as the Supreme Queen was only that; a young girl. She cried when her home was destroyed, she prayed to the constellations when she struggled along the Kings Path, she felt remorse when she killed the other King’s, and she dreaded the downfall of her subjects.”

“Traitors, They Betrayed us. They don't deserve mercy.” suddenly a voice spoke to my head. “The Crown- put it on.”

for some reason I did what it said.

[You’ve qualified to walk the Kings Road. Select a Modifier:...]

[The Supreme King- Lana’at Viel]

[A Constellation has offered to Sponsor you: The Heavenly Scribe- Metatron]

“What kind of fantasy novel is this??” Shouted Hecate in exasperation. “I'll finish this some other time.”

Closing the leather book, she examined the rest of her surroundings before quickly walking through the only visible passageway. The tunnels she followed were dull and uninteresting- “Isn’t this the type of place where I’d be attacked by monsters?” she stopped. “Ah…” Hecate thought for a moment, “Did I already kill them all?” After realizing that she wouldn't be having any fun soon Hecate continued to trudge along.

The Desolate Wasteland; Above Ground.

“This place is unbearable!” shouted a small girl with blond hair. “You aren’t even doing anything, you have no right to complain. That is, Unless you want to walk yourself?” replied the silver haired giant whose shoulders she sat on. “Ah- Im good! sorry Sol.” the small girl replied. “That's what I thought.”

“This is it” the man started. “We should be able to find her from here.”

“Summon: The Third.”

[Summoning “The Third” Contracted ◾◾◾◾◾]

What appeared in front of the pair was a small man around 6 inches tall, riding an infant crocodile with a chibi goshawk on his right wrist.

“What can I do for you my King?” asked the small man.

“I need you to find someone, a girl named… Hecate.” responded the giant.

The small man closed his hollow eyes for a few moments before looking back at his summoner.

“She’s about 4 miles in that direction, and… she’s fighting something.”

“Gah!” the girl threw a solid hook. The creature in front of her easily dodged it and punished it with a deep blow to her stomach, launching her backwards into the wall behind her. “Shit, Who are you?”

The creature let out a deep chuckle. “The name’s King Myrmidon of the Ant’s.” its voice was laced with malformed chirping.

The creature had the form of a human just much larger, its skin was an unnerving red and it had two large horns protruding its forehead. The monster held a giant spiked club in its hand and wore a defenseless posture. “I’m gonna enjoy eating you.”

Hecate stood up from her position on the floor and started to think. ‘What should I do, how am I supposed to kill this? Its battle strength is much higher than mine.’ Her thinking was cut short when Myrmidon swung his giant club down towards her “Clairvoyance!”

Hecate’s vision quickly turned grey as time around her moved to a standstill.

[Because of your low proficiency, only one hundred possible futures are shown.]

The monotone voice played in her head but the voice wasn't registered, Hecate was too focused on finding the right future. Death, Death, Death. All the futures she saw ended in her failure. “Shit, this is really bad.” the girl searched through the futures desperate to find just one road to success, and finally… a variable. Her average survival time of most of these possible futures was roughly one minute but she found a single possible future with almost double that.

A grim smile crossed her face before she stopped using the skill. Hecate took one step to the left and Myrmidon’s club narrowly missed her head, instead- the spiked object hit her shoulder, ripping off her arm in the process.

A blood-curdling scream escaped Hecate’s lips as she grasped at the place her arm used to be, she fell to the ground and tried to push herself as far away as possible from the inhumane monster, sadly her efforts were for naught as the creature caught up to her in seconds.

“Oh? Would you look at that- it's a shame that I can't eat you whole but at least I can enjoy a mid-battle snack.” The monster then grabbed the girls arm and swallowed it. A look of desperation crossed the young girl's face as all of the future she had seen had been exhausted, before an idea rooted itself in her head, she reached into the pocket dimension that housed all of her items and pulled out a familiar orb that she had gained from killing the tortoise.

Without hesitation Hecate slipped the orb into her mouth and swallowed it whole.

[A Spirit Orb has been ingested.Your power is sufficient, the dormant spirit has become subservient. All spirit skills are available. Two new stats have been opened; Endurance, and Spirit. Your Endurance and Vitality have increased by 6.]

“Spirit Skill: Acidic Guard”

As Hecate said this, a green fluid encapsulated her. “Ha! I see, You’re trying to fight back, well let me tell you- it’s not gonna work!” Myrmidon stated before swinging his club down onto her.

[Notice: A foreign object has tried breaching the Guard, the foreign object has been neutralised. The Guard has been exhausted.]

A Scream similar to the one that Hecate let out earlier breached Myrmidon’s lips as his the entirety of his club and his hand had been completely destroyed by the acid.

Myrmidon stumbled and grasped at his stub. “You're pretty clever, I’ll give you that.”

Hecate stood above the collapsed Myrmidon as he desperately tried to stop the bleeding. “You're not even worth my time.” she sharpened the fingers on her remaining hand before shouting the name of a skill she had never used before.

“Gyrate!”

Her remaining arm started to spin at an extremely high speed as her sharpened fingers started to combine into a single rigid point turning her arm into a makeshift drill. She pulled her arm back before thrusting it forward, penetrating the monsters chest and drilling directly through its heart.

[You’ve exterminated a Unique Named Monster, Your Level has risen. your name is now on the leaderboards. A save point has been created.]

Hecate stood over the quickly disappearing corpse of the monster that had devoured her arm before letting go and collapsing to her knees. She slowly moved her body, throwing the items that Myrmidon dropped into her inventory before a monotone voice filled her head. [Your Exhaustion has been pushed past its limits, you’ve blacked out.]

End of Arc 1.

Current Stats:

Endurance: the pure essence of defense

Spirit: Spirit is the life essence that allows her to use the skills of spirits she’s absorbed. Similar to mana.

The spirit of the Wasteland Poison Tortoise gives access to the skills that the Wasteland Poison Tortoise could use in its lifetime.

Spirit Skil: Acidic Guard is a skill that wraps the user in fluid acid and anything that tries to breach it will be destroyed, most effective against flesh.

Current Quests: