Maria opened her eyes and woke up,

"Am I dead..?"

She groaned in pain

Her body still hurt like hell so she guessed that she was still alive.

When Juan saw this help, he smiled and helped her lean on the wall.

"You're finally awake, don't move or it will hurt a lot"

Maria nodded at him and asked, "What happened to the raid?"

Juan answered her, "You fainted so I had to carry you back to the entrance of the cave and rest for the time being"

Maria got sad and asked for forgiveness,

"I'm sorry, It's all my fault again."

He shook his head and said, "No, it's fine, I was going to rest anyway before going to kill the queen ant".

Juan consoled her not to blame herself and asked her "Are you hungry? Do you want to eat?".

"It's okay, I'm not hungry" Maria thanked him and shook her head.

Growl~

Juan looked at Maria and smirked.

Maria's face was beet red and she lowered her head in embarrassment.

Seeing this, Juan let out a little laugh and stood up. He took the meat from a horned wolf that he grilled with the campfire and gave it to her.

Maria who was lowering her head couldn't resist her hunger, she tried to take the meat from Juan but she realized that she couldn't move her arm.

She then looked at him with a face that says, 'I can't move, please help me out'.

“Hahaha!” Juan laughed when he saw her face. He smiled mischievously and sat next to her.

Maria saw this and her cheeks were slightly red. She hesitated a bit before opening her mouth slightly.

"Aah.." Juan opened his mouth wide indicating that she had to open her mouth wider.

Maria, now irritated, opened her mouth wider, while Juan moved the meat closer to her mouth.

Maria took a small bite, chewing before swallowing it. She licked her seductive pink lips and took a few more bites.

Gulp

Juan stared at her and gulped,

Maria tilted her head and asked, "What? is there something on my face?"

Juan used this chance to tease her and said, "No, I just thought that you look super cute."

Her face turned beet red in an instant, she blushed and stuttered "Wha- what- what are you saying, you stupid idiot."

Juan was grinning widely,

She found out that she was being teased by him and took a big bite from the meat, chewing it while pouting.

Juan looked at her in amusement and found her behavior cute, "Why does this remind me of something?" he thought.

Gulp

Maria finished eating and glared at Juan,

"Humph.", She stopped glaring at Juan and peeked at him from time to time.

Juan ignored her and started eating, he ate the part where she ate and deliberately showed it to her.

"You..."

Juan acted innocent, he looked at her in puzzlement and asked "Is there something wrong? Do you want to eat more?"

Maria blushed and got played again by Juan. She looked at him angrily and shouted loudly, "Die, you stupid idiot!"

It took her a long time to calm down. By the time Juan finished eating, she finally calmed herself down.

Juan stood up and looked up at the dark sky.

Juan yawned, he stretched his sore muscles and said, "It's nighttime now, you should sleep first."

"Hmph, you don't have to tell me that," Maria said, but she followed what he said anyway.

It was probably because she's tired and injured or either she's just a quick sleeper but she fell asleep very quickly.

Juan glanced at her sleeping soundly,

He yawned and murmured, "I guess I have to rest too."

...

Time passed quickly,

Opening his eyes, Juan woke up. He stood up and stretched. This was the longest time Juan spent on a mission outside the city and it was the same thing for Maria.

He glanced at the side, "Maria? you're awake".

Maria was long awake and her body didn't hurt a lot anymore when she moves. At least she can defend herself a bit or run when an unexpected situation occurs.

She nodded, she looked at Juan and said, "Are you going to continue on your own?"

"Yeah", Juan replied.

Maria was worried and said, "But isn't it too dangerous to do it alone?".

Juan assured her and said confidently, "It's okay, I'm stronger than you think".

Maria was still not convinced and said, "But..".

Before she finished talking, Juan smiled at her and said, "What, are you worrying about me?"

She blushed a bit and got angry at him while saying, "Hmph, I won't care for you even if you get lost".

She turned around, pouting her cheeks.

Taking his sword and bag, he laughed a little bit and continued where he left off.

He entered the cave again, but this time he was alone.

Juan didn't think that it was bad, he was used to being alone anyway. It was better this time as he didn't have to take care of his teammate so he can do this faster even though it will be tiring to collect the materials without help.

Thank god, they already have most of the materials needed and he just needs to kill 2 more power ants and the queen power ant to finish the mission. So he can go back home and train.

He was still on a mission but he was already thinking of training again. He couldn't help it, as the feeling of getting stronger while training is addicting.

Juan shook his head, no other thoughts were needed. He just had to focus on his goal now.

With a light stone hanging on his waist, Juan continued walking deeper into the cave.

Along the way, he found many dead power ant corpses, which were the ones he and Maria killed last time. Green blood was everywhere, It was a good thing it didn't smell that bad, or Maria a noble would've complained like a kid a lot.

...

Juan went back to the place where Maria got injured and fainted.

He headed deeper into the cave.

Soon, after walking for 2 minutes. In the deepest part of the cave, he found a massive place and countless power ant eggs.

He scanned the place and searched for the Queen. He found the queen guarded by two power ants who has a slightly larger body than a normal power ant.

Juan silently unsheathed his steel sword and held it tightly,

Swoosh-

Juan sneaked up on the guard ant who had spotted him and slashed its neck using the sword in his hand, green blood flowed and it fell to the ground with a thud. This was the priority of a fight: to kill the queen, he needed to kill the guards guarding it first. Juan was reminded of it the moment he encountered them.

Creak, creak-

Squeal-

With a grotesque cry, the other guard ant found him and screeched loudly. It charged at Juan and tried to bite him with its horrifying jaws.

Barely dodging it, Juan leaped above it and swung his steel sword.

Slash-

The guar ant's head fell to the ground and Juan landed perfectly, He looked at the gigantic ant standing amongst them.

The Power ant queen.

The ruler of this Power ants cave.

It looked at Juan with terrified and angry eyes. She could smell the blood of her children on this puny human, the Queen ant was the final boss of this trial.

“Why don’t you fight me head-on?”

Though he did not expect it to understand his words, he was confident that his intention was conveyed. Sure enough, the Queen ant stared at him with her blood-red eyes and walked towards Juan.

Stomp, stomp—

The size of the nearing Queen ant was enormous. Unlike a usual Power ant, who has the size of a wolf and had deep red carapaces, the Queen ant had a build that was many times taller than Juan. Furthermore, its body was entirely made of pure white carapaces with a tint of yellow.

“You should have done this earlier,” Juan said, but he was glad to see such a reaction from the Queen.

It was too late, the Queen ant was all alone now.

Their Queen was deep in the cave, and the Queen seemed to have no intention of going out and taking action so they used this chance to clear out the small fries first.

His opponent had the strength of a low-level warrior, but he didn't care as he already defeated and killed an intelligent mid-level warrior. Let alone a monster with no intelligence who only follows its instincts.

He gripped his sword harder and look at the huge ant in front of him. His eyes constricted, he focused his strength in his legs and Juan leaped.

He jumped a few flights of stairs in a flash.

Slash-

Stab, stab-

Juan’s steel sword stabbed deep into the back of its head.

Splash, splash-!

Juan stabbed the queen continuously, but none of his blows were deadly. If he got ambitious, one direct hit from the queen might end him if he wasn’t careful.

Slowly and steadily. No matter how small the stabs were, if they accumulated, the enemy would eventually fall. If the opponent were superior in health, Juan would definitely crumble when going head-on. Thus, he needed a more flexible fight.

Screeeech-!

The queen ant couldn’t stand it any longer and had an outburst. At that moment, the queen ant had gotten more agile. Her pure white skin turned red.

Soon enough, the queen ant dashed towards Juan with its huge body leaving him no place to dodge.

Fwooom-!

Juan’s figure flew up as the strong wind ripped the still air. The huge power ant's queen looked up following Juan’s figure. The queen couldn't stop its charge in time and crashed to the wall.

Boom-!

It shook its head in dizziness and took a step back,

Juan's figure bounced forward and he said, “Bingo.”

A throwing dagger that he picked up from one of his previous fights was in his hands. Juan held the dagger and aimed it at the queen’s head the moment he reduced the distance between himself and the chief.

Swooosh—

The dagger went flying as soon as he threw it hard.

Stab-!

Screeeech-!

The queen ant screeched loudly and tried to take off the arrow stuck in its head by shaking its head.

Juan grabbed his steel sword after throwing the dagger.

“I said to end this quickly, right?” This time, Juan used all his strength in attacking the queen with his sword. He went above the queen's head and widely swung his sword.

Swooosh—

Thud-!

A fountain of green blood flew out, drenching his whole body in green liquid.

Sheathing his sword, Juan took out a sharp knife and opened the queen's head.

"This is going to be annoying," Juan murmured, as his face was covered in green blood. He looked at the glowing slightly bigger red core of the queen power ant and compared it to the normal ones.

This should be worth a lot, he then proceeded to collect the antenna of the queen ant for the mission requirements.

Juan stored all of it inside his bag and took out his sword again as he remembered that he had to kill all of its offspring to prevent them from hatching into troublesome ants.

"Phew- that was tiring"

Juan then went back to meet Maria at the entrance of the cave.

...

Going back didn't take that long and after 6 minutes of walking, he finally saw the light at the end.

Not long after he left the cave, Maria spotted him and waved her hand at Juan. Juan walked faster and went close to her and asked, "Were there any trouble while I was gone?"

While covering her nose Maria shook her head and said, "You should worry about yourself first, you stink"

"Oh, I almost forgot about that"

Juan found a water source nearby so he quickly went there and cleaned himself.

"I'm done!"

5 minutes later, Maria heard a voice behind her. She looked at him and said, "Now at least, you look better".

Juan opened his bag, showed its contents to her, and said, "I got everything, It's best if we go back the earlier the better"

Maria agreed and said, "I'm ready, I already packed everything up in advance".

Juan smiled and said, "Ok let's go"

Maria summoned her pure-white horned horse and hopped on its back while Juan took the lead.

...

It didn't take long going back as they sped up during the journey while taking short rests. On the way, they tried their best to avoid battling any more beasts as it was useless.

2 days later,

Outside the huge City gates.

Juan breathed a sigh of relief and shouted, "We're back!".

- End of chapter 8 -