### Chapter 31: A Single Coin
"10,000,000 Volts!! Discharge!!!"
BOOM———!!
Squeak squeak————!!
A large number of ant-like monsters were cooked by the lightning and fell to the ground.
"Phew!"
Riku let out a breath and looked up at the large door not far away.
"Finally here. I'm exhausted!"
Half a year ago, he accepted a 10-Year Quest to clear out a dungeon.
This dungeon was occupied by a swarm of ant monsters that occasionally attacked human villages and even towns. Over the past decade, more than a dozen towns had fallen.
Initially, he didn't take this mission seriously. He accepted it seeing the generous reward, as he was best at clearing large numbers of monsters.
But upon arriving, he realized he had underestimated this mission. This dungeon was not only unfathomably deep but also filled with a massive number of ant monsters.
This wasn't a dungeon; it was an underground kingdom. The place was just too huge.
He started clearing them out step by step, but the ant monsters were nearly endless, immensely strong, and had super high defense. Some could spray corrosive liquid that could corrode rocks in an instant.
Some could self-destruct, with the explosion power comparable to a missile.
During his first attempt, he was chased out scurrying like a rat and returned in failure.
The reason was that there were too many monsters. Killing them required higher voltage, thus consuming more stamina.
If he hadn't run, he might have perished there.
From then on, he knew this mission wouldn't be easy. He began clearing the dungeon every day.
He killed a large number of ants daily, clearing them for a whole month. But then he found that the number of ants didn't seem to decrease at all, making him suspect the dungeon ants were respawning.
Later, through secret observation, he found out that after he left, those ants took away all the corpses of the dead ants.
Riku guessed they were feeding these ants to the queen, using them as nutrients to lay eggs.
So he had been working for nothing for a month, delivering big meals to the enemy every day, which made Riku extremely unhappy.
So from then on, every time he killed ants, he turned them all into ashes.
Several times, he even fell into traps set by the ants and was almost buried alive. If not for elementalization, he might have really perished.
A few times, hundreds or thousands of ants self-destructed together. The power was comparable to a small nuclear bomb, and he almost died.
Even so, it took him nearly five months to clear out these ants, leaving only what was behind this door uncleared.
"It's time to end the battle."
Lightning particles gathered on Riku's fist, and he punched the large door.
BOOM————!
The dozens-of-meters-high door exploded open.
Riku stepped inside and saw dozens of giant ants, about ten meters tall and holding weapons, standing on both sides. At the far end was a beautiful woman who looked very similar to a human.
At this moment, this beautiful woman's eyes were filled with anger: "Mage, my Ant Clan has not offended you. Why are you trying to exterminate my clan?!"
The Ant Queen was furious. Since this guy arrived half a year ago, he had been massacring the Ant Clan. She set traps several times to lure him deep inside, but this guy seemed to be able to see through them and didn't fall for them at all.
Initially, she could use the corpses of the Ant Clan to lay eggs and constantly produce troops to fight him. But later, this human mage burned all the corpses.
This led to a slow increase in the number of the Ant Clan.
She had accumulated troops for many years, planning to use them to conquer human nations and even take over the entire continent. Unexpectedly, they were all gone.
"You didn't offend me or mess with me, but I accepted the job to clear this place. Since I accepted the mission, naturally I have to complete it."
Riku wasn't surprised at all that this monster could speak. In three years, he had encountered countless monsters that could speak.
Compared to talking monsters, a talking Happy was much rarer.
"Also, you attacked villages and towns, killing countless people. It's only right for me to kill you, isn't it?"
"Hmph! Only right! You humans are far more evil than us monsters. You hunt monsters, and you eat them all. You only allow humans to kill us, but don't allow us to kill humans?!"
"Pfft!"
Hearing the Ant Queen's words, Riku couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"You're laughing?!"
The Ant Queen glared at Riku.
Riku waved his hand: "No, nothing. I just think for a monster, you are quite eloquent. But what's the use of saying all this to me? Do you expect to convince me with reason not to attack you? Impossible. If you have last words, you can say them. If not, I'm going to start."
The Ant Queen became even more furious, her beautiful face turning hideous as she shouted the order: "Kill him!"
The giant ants smashed down towards Riku with their weapons.
BOOM————!
The ground exploded, showing the immense strength of the ants.
"10,000,000 Volts! Discharge!!"
Riku jumped up, powerful lightning radiating from his hands and landing on these giant ants.
The giant ants' bodies paused slightly, then continued to attack Riku.
"30,000,000 Volts · Hino (Thunder Beast)!!"
Riku's left hand released a giant wolf-shaped lightning bolt.
BOOM————!
The giant wolf-shaped lightning smashed into a giant ant.
The giant ant was sent flying, but it quickly stood up again and continued to attack Riku.
"Eh?!"
Riku was a bit surprised this time. 10,000,000 Volts had almost cooked all the previous ants.
Yet 30,000,000 Volts didn't kill these giant ants.
Since 30,000,000 Volts wasn't enough, he needed higher voltage.
Riku gathered lightning in both hands and then clapped them together in front of him.
"60,000,000 Volts · Hino (Thunder Dragon)!!"
"ROAR————!!"
A Thunder Dragon roared and rushed towards the Ant Queen.
Several giant ants immediately stood in front of the Ant Queen to block.
BOOM————!!
The Thunder Dragon was steadily blocked by the giant ants and then dissipated.
At this moment, the Ant Queen laughed maniacally: "Hahahaha! Stupid brat, did you think I would wait here without any preparation? These are the Ant Clan warriors completely insulated against lightning that I created at the cost of tens of thousands of my kin. Your lightning will have no effect on them. Die here completely! Hahahahaha!!"
Riku patted his little heart, acting scared: "So that's it, insulators! You scared me. I thought you really created some incredible monsters that could even withstand 60,000,000 Volts. Scared me so much I almost ran away."
Hearing Riku's words, the Ant Queen was instantly confused: "...Did you not understand what I said? Your lightning is useless against my warriors."
"I understood! But lightning being useless doesn't mean *this* is useless, right?"
As Riku spoke, he pulled out a shiny silver coin from his pocket.
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