Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 364: The Golden Swarm [II]

Ethan watched as Uncle Jed’s blade chipped after only a few swings. He finally understood—these golden creatures weren’t just ants. They were solid masses of incredibly dense alloy. More and more Gold-Eater Ants swarmed toward Uncle Jed, forcing him to retreat and parry. The ants moved in layers, rolling over each other in a wave-like attack.

"Uncle Jed, where’s your spear?" Ethan called out, seeing how clumsy and desperate his movements had become. All at once, he remembered the spear he’d given him. Uncle Jed hadn’t been carrying it these past few days, and Ethan had completely forgotten.

"That night, I stuck it in the ground and couldn’t find it!" Uncle Jed shouted back.

Ethan knew exactly which night he meant—the night of the Meteor Fall.

"Catch!" He rummaged through his pack and pulled out a spear-shaped weapon. This was an Artifact-tier survival spear from the Carnage Faction. He’d planned to trade it for something valuable the next time he ran into LongerThanLuffy. But now there was no choice. What good was a weapon’s worth if you lost your life?

Uncle Jed reached for it without hesitation. The spear was shaped like a sea dragon, the tip protruding from its gaping mouth. The shaft looked like the dragon’s scaled body, covered in bumpy ridges for grip. When Ethan first held it, he immediately realized weapons here had real weight, unlike in Ethereal, where everything felt weightless until you were too weak to lift it and got a cannot wield message.

Compared to his Twilight War Spear, this weapon was still light, but it was no toy.

The moment Uncle Jed’s hands closed around it, his entire posture shifted. He transformed. The spear moved like a living serpent, darting from its lair. Every ant that came near was swept aside. A few that touched the tip simply exploded.

"What a spear!" Uncle Jed exclaimed, his eyes bright. He knew too well how hard the Gold-Eater Ants were. Nothing could pierce their defenses, yet this spear was slicing through them with ease. It had to be divine-tier.

Even as he marveled, he felt a pang of alarm. Where had Ethan gotten so many weapons? On the Sea of Death, all the blacksmiths were concentrated in four cities. Iron ore was scarce, and smelting technology was crude. Even a simple iron blade marked a person as powerful. Back in the Butcher Tribe, he’d spent years making do with stone tools. The silver spear he’d used in the Forgotten City was merely iron, yet people had schemed to steal it.

Now armed properly, Uncle Jed became a force of nature. For a while, he held back the relentless, rolling attack. But more and more Gold-Eater Ants converged from every direction, and the pressure mounted. A single human’s strength, no matter how fierce, couldn’t hold off a swarming species forever.

Clank, clank, clank... Thud! A deep, massive sound echoed from afar. At the edge of Ethan’s Soul Sense, something gigantic broke through the sand. Two enormous claws erupted from below, slamming to the surface with a crash that made the ground tremble. Ethan froze, hand still on the air valve key. What in the hell was this thing? Its head alone was at least thirty meters wide.

The creature looked eerily like the mole crickets he’d seen back on Earth, but in all his life, Ethan had never heard of one this size. He’d already been shocked enough by the fist-sized ants. The Deathstalker Scorpion, seven or eight meters long, had seemed monstrous enough. But this—this was beyond belief.

"Ethan... this is a migration. We’re blocking their path," Uncle Jed said, his voice strained. "If they were just foraging, the Ant King Guardian wouldn’t be here. That means the Gold-Eater Ant King itself is close. We have to run. How much longer until you’re ready? We can’t deal with that thing."

Even as he spoke, the creature hauled itself fully from the sand. Thud! Another colossal head burst out next to it.

"Get in!" Ethan snapped. He yanked the car door open, climbed into the driver’s seat, started the engine, shifted gears, and floored the accelerator in one fluid motion.

"What the—" Uncle Jed began, seeing the vehicle already rolling forward. He swung his spear in a wide arc, scattering the ants, then turned and sprinted after the car.

"Uncle Jed—hurry!" Ethan leaned out the window, waving him on.

"You damn kid, wait for me!" Uncle Jed bellowed, pumping his legs as fast as they would go.

"Wait? Wait for what?" Ethan shouted back, pointing behind them. "If you tell me that thing can’t fly, I’ll wait for you."

"Damn... it can’t fly—it really can’t fly..." Uncle Jed panted. He glanced over his shoulder just as the Ant King Guardian shuddered and began to move. It was faster than the smaller ants by far, and as it advanced, all the others split away, surging around it like a tide.

Ethan spotted the gap immediately. This was his chance—he wouldn’t have to slow down and risk the ants swarming the rear.

But then he narrowed his eyes. "It really can’t fly?" He’d seen mole crickets on Earth lift off.

"Really!" Uncle Jed shouted back, nearly tripping over his own feet.

"Oh... then you can’t boss me around anymore, and you can’t stop me from eating lunch!" Ethan yelled, half out the window. He hadn’t forgotten how Uncle Jed once made him train with steel plates strapped to his back and refused to let him eat.

"You little brat... you hold grudges too much!

Not letting you eat was for your own good—to push your muscle potential to the limit," Uncle Jed called, still sprinting.

"Oh?" Ethan lifted an eyebrow, half convinced. "Really?"

"Really, really..." Uncle Jed was clearly desperate. Ethan finally pressed the clutch and let the car slow to a crawl.

"All right... I’ll believe you this time."

Uncle Jed leaped inside. Though the ants had scattered, they were still pursuing from every direction. Suddenly, a faint blue light glimmered in Ethan’s eyes, and a cold, invisible pressure burst outward—Blue Dragon’s Intimidation.

Buzz... Uncle Jed’s heart clenched. Somewhere in the distance, he heard a hollow, resonant dragon’s roar. The front ranks of Gold-Eater Ants slammed to a dead stop, as if they’d run into an invisible wall. The ones behind crashed into them in a chaotic heap.

Ethan stomped the accelerator. The Predator Beast X shot forward, pinning Uncle Jed against his seat.

"Heh heh..." Ethan grinned back. Uncle Jed knew, without a doubt, the kid had been playing him.

"What was that ability you just used? Why didn’t you do it earlier? I was out there fighting for my life!"

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Earlier? Then you wouldn’t have had time to get in the car."

Uncle Jed fell silent, though his thoughts were churning. He knew those creatures were controlled by the Ant King and had no minds of their own. If Ethan’s power only worked once as a disruption, using it too soon could have made them immune, just like the kid implied. For all Ethan’s laid-back attitude, he clearly wasn’t as thoughtless as he acted.

Meanwhile, Ethan, still flooring the gas toward Nora, was thinking privately,

’If that little Dragon in the egg hadn’t reminded me, I would’ve forgotten I even had that skill.’

The effect was just as Uncle Jed suspected: only effective as a surprise. A second attempt probably wouldn’t work. What surprised Ethan most was what the Dragon had told him—the Gold-Eater Ants carried a faint trace of dragon blood. He couldn’t imagine how ants and dragons could ever be connected.

Up ahead, Nora and Dot were still running when they heard a beep behind them. Ethan leaned out the window, waving both arms. Nora turned in surprise as the strange boxy machine rolled toward her. Uncle Jed flung the door open, and as they passed, he scooped up Nora and Dot in one fluid motion.

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In the distance, the Ant King Guardian had pulled far ahead of the main swarm and was barreling straight for them. Its lumbering strides were somehow faster than the Predator Beast X at top speed. As soon as Nora and Dot tumbled into the car, Ethan glanced back, then looked forward with a glint in his eyes.

"Hold on tight..." he said, his voice carrying a note of excitement. Uncle Jed and Nora exchanged an incredulous look. What’s there to be excited about at a time like this?

Then Ethan flipped open a hidden panel near the gear shift. Inside were ten bright red buttons.

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