On our way back from the hole, everyone is surprisingly quiet, deep in their own thoughts. Learning about how deep that hole was, I also start to watch our surroundings more carefully.

The mountains that surround us are all terribly tall. Yet there is something that I do realize: they are a bit weirdly shaped. I can't exactly point it out, but something feels off about them, and now that I look, they start feeling off more and more.

"Maybe we should leave a bit sooner than expected. Me or Maya can carry Lily. I know she probably won't like it, but this place has started feeling off," Tess says, echoing my thoughts.

"Yes, let's do it," I agree with her. "I will check where we should go."

I split from the group and generate enough kinetic energy to push myself higher. Unlike before, it's much smoother now, and I lift off quickly yet somewhat stably. It's like I am applying a constant push instead of the short thrusts of energy that I used before. I continue to send more and more energy under me, and it starts getting colder the higher I am, so I turn some of that energy into thermal energy to keep myself warm.

The day is quite clear, so I can see a great distance. When I feel that I am high enough, I stop pushing and instead focus on keeping myself floating at a single spot.

There are mountains as far as I can see. In one direction, there is more snow; most of the mountains are totally covered in snow. On the opposite side, the mountains are getting smaller and smaller.

I spend a bit more time looking and then land back near the others, finding them with my [Perception]. "I think this is the way we should go, but I didn't see far enough. Can you check it?" I gesture the direction to Tess.

"I won't be able to get myself that high; you will have to help me," Tess shakes her head and puts her hand on my shoulder.

I put my arm around her waist and pull her closer. "Ready?"

She nods, and I push us up in the air, this time generating a bit more heat for Tess as well.

When we are high enough, I start keeping us afloat. "I have to say, the view is amazing," Tess says and collects some mana in her eyes. [Farsight] activates, and she carefully looks around. It takes her around one minute, and then she taps my shoulder. "We can go back."

When we land again, I let go of her. "So?"

"I think you were right; there seem to be fewer mountains, and they are smaller that way and there are also some plains far in the distance. So let's grab the others and start moving there. But Nat, we will have to rely on you to keep us from freezing in case it gets worse. I don't think Isabella will be able to keep her skill running so long, and some of us don't have high physical stats to endure that."

"I will be nice enough and do it, so no worries, Tess," I then look at Izzy. "Who is the better fire user now?" I poke at the little girl.

"You are just a radiator! My flames are much better!" Isabella fights back, but it's no use. I know the truth.

Even though I do it in a super janky way and waste more mana than she does, it doesn't matter with my reserves.

The best fire user in group 4 is me!

Or at least until Biscuit learns that plenty of food tastes better cooked and learns how to use fire skills as well.

To move as quickly as possible, Min-Jae lowers our weight with [Gravity Well]. Afterward, he and Tess try to keep the group from splitting apart as others either know how to lower their defenses and let Min-Jae and Tess use skills on them, or they just hold onto people who can do it.

Meanwhile, I'm the engine, and the blonde woman and young boy hold onto me while I continue to generate enough energy to move us through the air.

Dennis says it's the most ghetto thing he's seen since the start of the tutorial, and I can't help but agree with him.

It takes some time to get used to it, and I almost throw us against the top of one of the mountains. There is also an accident where Maya gets separated from the group and nearly crashes to the ground. For that, Min-Jae continues to apologize.

After a few dozen minutes, I get used to it, so I relax slightly and, while still generating enough heat to keep others warm, I create arms made out of pale blue mana and grab every member of our group. Either around the wrist, ankle, or waist.

Then I start moving faster and faster. My doubled-up mana easily allows such expenditure. To move faster, I also have to generate more heat, until Tess uses her skill to push against the wind, creating something like a bubble around us, and it becomes immediately quieter, and the wind becomes almost no problem.

Once in a while, I move us up so Tess can scout again, and we continue. Some members of our group dislike it. Actually, they seem to be hating it, but they have to clench their teeth and deal with it. The distance we have passed would have taken us days on foot.

While traveling, we also spot more holes similar to the first one we saw, and the mountains become weirder and weirder. It's as if they are man-made instead of created by nature.

But after a few more hours, we start seeing fewer and fewer holes, and the mountains become somewhat more normal again.

"Ant," Tess says out of nowhere.

What?

I stop us at the spot and turn us toward where she is pointing. In the distance, there is an ant looking toward us. The ant is dark red, and his antennae are moving from side to side as he holds onto the side of the mountain.

He is too far away for me to feel mana from him, yet his eyes seem to have some soft glow to them.

The ant is as big as a bus.

The creature twitches and, with movement that is surprisingly quick, he dashes toward one of the immensely deep holes nearby and climbs inside.

"Nat, I think we should leave, quickly," Tess says, and without answering, I collect more of my mana than before and push us away from where the creature disappeared.

Fucking bus-sized ants.

Sure, normal ants are somewhat cute as they try to pull a big leaf and as they call their friends to collect some sugar from the ground, but this?

They are massive, meaning that it's easier to see the details of their faces. Short hair-like things sticking out from some places. Metallic-looking carapace with eyes that seem so lifeless yet so dangerous.

Currently, dozens of them pop up on the mountains all around us, probably from the holes that are ever-present here.

The creatures move quickly and continue to appear in places we pass by. They do not attack, just watch.

"Fuck, do you think these mountains are anthills?" Aaron says out of nowhere, and I nearly crash us against the mountain. This can't be, right?

I check once again but soon find that the boy might be onto something, but it can't be right? There are thousands of these mountains.

Soon we enter the trap; there are a few dozen ants between us and where we are going, and even more jump from the side around us.

Most of them are around level one hundred, with very few being closer to one fifty.

At first, they stand on their legs and bend their bodies slightly, shooting yellowish mana from their bottoms at us. The attack is seemingly organized; all the ants attack at once.

I move us away from the first attack, and Tess uses her [Psychokinesis] to push away the projectiles that are about to hit us.

Then I notice a few ants turning and starting to attack their own, and I realize that Sophie has already started working, and her attack does surprisingly well.

At first, the ants ignore their own tearing them apart, biting off their legs, or shooting yellowish acid-like substances at them, so multiple ants die. But then, with movements that feel full of anger, they turn against ants controlled by Sophie and attack them, ignoring any attack that lands on them and even ignoring us. They literally tear apart the four ants Sophie took control of, and when they turn back to us, they seem angrier than before.

I continue to focus on avoiding attacks and flying us higher and away from them while others deal with defense or with attacks on them. High in the air, the attacks become much less dangerous, and after a while, I feel others calm down slightly.

Then flying ants come at us, only a dozen of them but each even bigger than the ones from before. The only difference, other than size, is that they seem a lot thinner and have massive wings that flicker at immense speed.

Min-Jae's small projectiles shoot toward the monsters, and I even feel that he is trying to increase their weight with his skill, but they are hard to hit. Even Biscuit helps by creating a single, long purple mana tentacle that attacks the ants' wings, successfully causing some damage. I can also sense him sending telepathic messages to the ants. Hopefully, he's not asking them for food but perhaps calling them assholes.

Tess's javelin, filled with red and white lightning, pierces through the air and one of the ants; then it flies back and kills another one while returning. At the same moment, two of the ants turn around and start attacking their own, while even Isabella's blue flames blaze up and hit the closest ant which is immediately set ablaze and starts falling down while burning and twitching, covered in blue flames.

Another javelin trailed by lightning flies, and one more ant dies. Just a few more seconds and they are dealt with, their dead bodies falling to the ground.

"Nat, can you go faster?" Tess asks.

Huh, who does she think I am? I'm still limiting the speed we are moving at to not make them vomit all over me. Our current speed is nothing.

"Yes, that is not a problem. Why?" I ask her.

To that, Tess points toward a dark cloud far behind from where we came. Hmm, what's with that?

I turn to her and she still solemnly continues to point there, "Not a cloud," she says.

Huh? I look again at the not-a-cloud thing and notice that it's moving weirdly.

Oh, I see.

My heart thumps wildly and I use more energy to move us away from that. From thousands and thousands of flying ants that darken the sky and head right toward where we are.

I ignore screaming; I even ignore Maya's unladylike throwing up as I continue to move us between the mountains and sometimes changing the direction a bit to avoid smaller groups of flying giant ants.

It takes us an hour to get rid of the goddamn ants, and it's good because I already start feeling my mana depleting to dangerous levels. The amount of maneuvering and my lack of experience lead to inefficient use of kinetic energy for flying. Then, I have to spend additional mana to create more energy while also heating the area around us and using mana arms to hold others, which is quite draining.

It's nice training, of course, and it became a bit more fun when others stopped screaming every time we almost crashed against something.

But at last, the ants stop following us and stay in the mountains or anthills, or whatever I should call them. The ants stopped right after we reached the plains. They just sit there right before the plains and continue looking toward us soundlessly while snapping their mandibles and moving around angrily.

Yeah, screw you too. It's dead certain I will be back.