Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The atmosphere was heavy in the court of insects. Nobody dared to speak up after hearing the report of what happened during the campaign. What was supposed to be a glorious invasion turned into a catastrophic failure.

Although the loss of foot soldiers was negligible, their elites had taken a heavy hit, and most of their generals came back with heavy wounds. One even lost his life. The silence came with heavy pressure. Had they been able to, the insectoid advisors would have been sweating under the gaze of their king.

"The queen is not amused." the booming voice said with a force that made glittering dust fall from the bio-luminescent mushrooms at the ceiling.

While the foot soldiers were merely things created with the power of the dungeon, the elites were her descendants, and the generals were direct offspring. It took an immense amount of energy to give birth to offspring of such level, which meant that the Mantidae general and the heavily injured Gryllotalpidae general were actually their greatest loss.

The advisors were shaking in their boots. They knew someone would have to pay for this, but the water scorpion that had originally suggested this campaign had miraculously vanished after the troops set off. Everyone could only silently curse him and themselves for going along with it for some inexplicable reason.

Only the regal-looking mantis-monster was not afraid to be punished, as the only one who suggested taking caution and scouting the camp beforehand. Still, he was not happy. He was grieving a loss as the general who died was his great-great-grandfather.

The silence was broken by a messenger moth making its way to the figure hidden in the darkness of the throne.

"Enter," the booming voice commanded in a booming voice.

The gates opened and a moth scout entered. It had a petite frame and used its big wings like a cloak. It walked down the aisle between the row of advisors and knelt down before the throne. At the wave of the king's hand, the scout started to report.

"We lost contact with the entrances on the upper levels. All people we sent have gone missing. The commanders on-site suspect the softskins have started infiltrating the nest. They ask for permission to dispatch elite troops to stop their advance."

Everyone was silent until the moth finished its detailed report. They were taken aback. It had barely been a day since their combined force clashed with the softskins and was forced to retreat. They had lost a third of their elites when they attacked in a group. Now they asked to split them up and send them to their death?

On the other hand, they couldn't just let an enemy force carve a path of blood through their territory and do nothing. They had learned from their mistake. Before, everyone was eager to support what seemed like an obvious decision, only to be taught a lesson. Now nobody wanted to step forward and suggested what obviously had to be done.

"Any suggestions?" the booming voice asked in the room. "No?"

At this point, the king had already made the decisions, but he wanted to see if any of the advisors had the confidence to step up and suggest it, too. His question was a test, not a genuine answer for a solution.

"Your highness..." the regal mantis stepped forward.

"Speak."

"Once again, I suggest practicing caution. We don't have enough information on the invaders, except that they are strong enough to leave no witnesses. I suggest we rely on numbers instead of strength to find out the strength of the enemy."

The king was pleasantly surprised that the mantis had not only the gall to stand up, but also refrained from uttering utter garbage, but an actually usable suggestion.

"Elaborate."

"Yes. I suggest we send a legion of foot soldiers together with a detachment of Zygoptera Scouts to several of the entrances for reconnaissance. With these kinds of numbers, the scouts should have a greater chance to get valuable information and escape. Even if the foot soldiers get wiped out, it's still a smaller price than sacrificing elites for such a task."

Using several legions and a huge number of Zygoptera Scouts was a bold suggestion and had the room split in mutters of agreement and disagreement. Even though the lower breeds used as foot soldiers were just beasts spawned with the power of the dungeon, it didn't mean they came at no cost.

It was not exactly what the king had in mind, but it was a suggestion good enough to be used. From his perspective, any elite unit was worth a lot more than a legion of cannon fodder.

"We shall proceed with your suggestion."

…

In the beginning, Monique had been weirded out by the Faer and the fact that Seth had technically revived them. The golems were one thing, but that their Tower Master had already made the step to creating people was hard to swallow.

They were all people from other worlds, which made them feel like time travelers that were completely unfamiliar with their culture and world. There were also many with not quite human features, or from straight-up fantasy races among them. However, after interacting with them, she soon realized that they were also just people.

Most of them had a military background and a tragic past, but what else they managed to remember of their lives seemed like normal relatable experiences. Although there was a setting-in period, with Minas Mar already being a hotpotch of people, it didn't take long for them to find their place.

Now Monique was tasked with leading five parties, a group of 40 Faer, in their attack on the hive. It was time for the Faer to farm levels and the field teams had been split up to accompany them in case elites or generals appeared.

Everyone else only had one party to look after, but Monique had been given command over a fifth of the Faer. She had tried to argue against it, but Seth had been quite adamant about this.

"If you lead a bigger force and prove your strategic abilities in combat, I'm sure you can rank up to become Athena's chosen in no time!" was what he said.

This was why such a big responsibility was forced onto her. The only silver lining was that she was given the teams with the most military experience. Each team leader under her had been in a commanding position in their past life and proven their leadership quality during their time in Minas Mar.

They were able to give good counsel and follow orders. It made her job easier, but her responsibility all the heavier. If she messed up even with this setup, it would be her responsibility alone. So far there had been no problems.

Her troop of Faer had been shuttled by Python and invaded one of the big hive structures that were sticking out from the cliffs of the canyon like tumorous growths. At first, the insect monsters inside these hives had given them a lot of resistance.

This had also given Monique the chance to experience one of the strengths of the Faer. They had frighteningly high base stats and were able to ignore more injuries. The mandibles, claws, and other weapons of the insect army were too weak to dismember them.

In a horrifying display of strength, they completely ignored any flesh wounds. Even if their faces were melted off by acid spit, they didn't even flinch as they kept swinging their weapons and casting their spells.

Despite being the smallest in number, the mages of the Faer may very well be the most frightening unit among them. They were just as tanky as the warriors, were almost impossible to interrupt while casting, and used powerful magic that wiped out entire rooms of insects at a time.

They also had no problems with the stronger insect monsters that would appear as leaders and magicians on the enemy side. The only drawback was probably that their level only increased slowly. Even when they were tirelessly wiping out beasts 20 levels higher than them, their level barely rose.

So, while the Faer were occupied with pest control, Monique made sure nobody was able to report back. It was the best she could do, as the current enemies would not help her level up. She could only check her level with a sigh.

She had hit lv.90 in the recent battle, but even killing the Mantidae General had only given her 30% to lv.91. These lv.70 and lv.80 mobs barely put a dent in her experience bar. It seemed like the needed experience increased exponentially starting with lv.90.

There was nothing she could do about this for now. Instead, she concentrated on improving her skills and mastering those given by Athena to become stronger. <Athena's Spear> was especially useful to take care of those that tried to flee

It allowed her to throw a copy of her spear. Although the power of the copy was only 25% of the original at lv.1 of the skill, it was more than enough to take care of the stragglers.

Currently, they had left behind the hive structure and entered the dark tunnels that lead into the rock of the canyon. Whereas the hive structure still had halls with skylights in the ceiling, these tunnels were barely illuminated by a kind of exotic mold or lichen that grew at the ceiling.

A shadow appeared beside her, one of the very few assassins among the Faer. It was a very slim, agile harpy beastman.

"I have found a massive group of insects up ahead, marching in our direction."

"How many?"

"It's hard to estimate as their clog the tunnels. It's a hair-raising sight..."