Noah's mandibles snapped closed with a powerful chomp.
CHOMP!
[You have defeated a magical beast: (?).]
[Warning: due to the magical beast... You won't gain any experience.]
Do you know how monsters are spawned?
Well, you might say it's either from being directly born from other monsters. Which, in a way, does make sense if you think about it. In fact, that's how anyone might answer the question.
But. And I mean, buut. Why not think a bit deeper for a second—what if there were other ways?
After all, if Noah remembered correctly from the manhwa of Solo Leveling... before the Rulers, Monarchs, and all the magical beasts, demons, or monsters came to life—
There was only one single entity aside from the ambiguous concepts like the light and darkness.
The Absolute Being.
A being so powerful, it created both the Rulers and the Monarchs. The Rulers, born from light, were the saviors—the protectors of the world. And in parallel to them, the Monarchs were born to destroy the world.
Noah's mandibles snapped closed with a powerful chomp again.
CHOMP!
[You have defeated a magical beast, (?).]
[Warning: due to the magical beast being... You won't gain any experience.]
And also, that motherfucker was the sole core reason why the Rulers and Monarchs fought for eons. Because that bastard was bored.
You read that? He was fuckin' bored!
Well, aside from that... what Noah was trying to get at was simple.
If the Monarchs and Rulers fought for eons without a break—how the fuck were their armies never diminished? Like, did those magical beasts and Rulers' armies or whatever just reproduce like crazy? So they can keep fighting?
Now, don't get him wrong. Noah was pretty sure that somewhere in the story, there might have been some actual lore explaining that.
But Noah always liked to theorycraft whenever he read interesting stories.
Noah's mandibles snapped closed with a powerful chomp again...
CHOMP!
[You have defeated a magical beast, (?).]
[Warning: due to the magical beast... You won't gain any experience.]
Now you must be wondering why the fuck the system keeps announcing this weird-ass notification again and again? And what's it even related to the situation here?
Well, the answer is pretty interesting, if Noah has to say.
Noah stared at the swirling mass of darkness in front of his eyes, his mandibles just inches away from the dark vortex.
The vortex was small—probably around the size of a thick, round tire of a car. Not tiny like a ball, but not enormous either.
And at the center of that vortex, he could see a tiny purple ember glowing faintly—slowly but surely shaping into something bigger.
But before the purple light could form fully—
CHOMP!
[You have defeated a magical beast, (?).]
[Warning: due to the magical beast being slain in the process of fully forming. You won't gain any experience.]
Noah looked blankly at the system notification, his eyes narrowing as he read the information again and again in his mind.
Then, he took a deep breath, before exploding with a burst of excessive energy. "I knew it! I fucking knew it was a spawn point." Noah yelled, raising his front legs high to the rock ceiling above.
His years of making schizo theories finally coming true. As he found this discovery—a spawn point where the monster forms without any need to be directly born from the process of reproduction.
Ruby was beside Noah, glancing at him with a deadpan expression, her antenna flicking in the air as she shook her head with a sigh. Beneath her long red ant legs, several corpses of demons laid lifeless. Their bodies shredded until it wasn't recognizable what they must have looked like.
Noah and Ruby were actually doing their job like normal, exploring this volcanic region while hunting any unfortunate demons that came into their radar. And they were keeping at that, until both Noah and Ruby had sensed a buzz of action in the air. Resounding from a large rugged mountain, directly from into the center.
Of course, Noah might have ignored the sound if it was just a single monster, but no. It wasn't. The vibrations coming off from that place were so disturbingly loud, almost like there was a huge battle of dozens and dozens of demons, packed into a small place where they all fought and killed each other.
So, Noah and Ruby decided to dig through the mountain with their mandibles, until they reached the place where the loud and disturbing vibrations were coming from.
And oh boy. Noah wasn't disappointed with what he had saw. Dozens and dozens of demons, cramped in a small cave formation, were clashing against each other. Each demon was different—some taller with long spiky claws, others small and agile, biting through the flesh of their enemies.
But fortunately or unfortunately, the demons were only around the rank of E or D, the strongest being a low C-rank.
It didn't take much time for Noah and Ruby to quickly take care of them. Maybe only 30 minutes until every last demon was shredded with Ruby's sharp chomps or burned with Noah's acid.
In that single battle, Noah had also gained more skill upgrades. Like his acid shots (lv2) reached acid shots (lv5), the first skill to reach the max level. The same goes for his other skills as well, like his antenna sense (lv2) had reached (lv5).
And aside from his skill upgrades, the most interesting find was definitely the swirling mass of dark vortex in the corner of the place.
And now, we are finally here.
With Noah yelling around at his new discovery while Ruby played with a rock with her front legs beside him in boredom.
After a small moment of excitement, Noah calmed down and gazed at the dark vortex with thoughts. "Never thought my schizo theories would come true one day." Noah shook his head, chuckling lightly.
"Anyway, but why is there a spawn point for demons in the first place?" Noah clacked his mandibles in thought.
Of course, he knew the basic reason for that—for demons to be born. But Noah also had another possibility.
"That motherfucker, the Absolute Being must be the reason behind this." Noah clacked his mandibles, humming in thought.
And honestly, that might be the case. The Absolute Being was one hella of a cruel and self-centered existence, who had created the Rulers and Monarchs for his own entertainment. So creating this sort of spawn point for demons to keep spawning wasn't a far-fetched idea.
After all, the motherfucker didn't want his source of entertainment—the war between Monarchs and Rulers—to ever end. So, he must have created these sorts of spawn points all over the domains of Monarchs in order for their armies to never be diminished. And so, the Rulers and Monarchs keep fighting the meaningless war, and the Absolute Being kept having his entertainment, until the Rulers finally pulled up and shoved up all their spears directly into his bum.
Noah shook his head, throwing the useless thoughts away, focusing on the more interesting stuff here. "Well, this spawn point isn't that bad actually." Noah hummed.
"The spawn point basically pumps out demons and monsters here. It's practically an endless supply of food and bio-points." Noah smirked, his mind already cooking a masterful idea.
"We can keep this place as a demon farm." Noah said excitedly, turning his head to look into Ruby's eyes. Ruby stared back, not minding how excited Noah looked.
"And once the other ant workers start coming through the portal, we can lay a pheromone trail here, so they can find this place and keep it as a hunting farm. Basically, our problem for food shortage ends with this plan!" Noah explained, his eyes glittering with excitement as he gestured in the air with his front legs wildly.
Ruby stared at Noah's behavior, not a single word, nor any pheromone signals. And even though she might not have understood a single thing Noah had said, seeing Noah jump around like an overly excited kid, she clacked her mandibles softly, as if smiling.
After Noah's excitement died down, he finally settled, his body relaxing, antennae swaying lazily in the air. The chaotic buzz in his mind slowly quieted as he took a long look around the cave.
The place was a mess, to say the least.
The rocky chamber was wide—big enough to house the Queen comfortably, yeah, the ant Queen who is almost as tall as a large tree—but the walls were jagged and cracked, sharp stone spikes jutting out randomly from all angles, making them look pretty nasty. Some sections of the cave ceiling were crumbling, large chunks of rubble scattered across the floor. Stains of dried blood and demon bones piled and scattered across the rocky terrain, a clear sign that demons just after being spawned were in a constant battle of life and death.
Still, Noah's mind churned, thinking about some workarounds.
"With a little bit of work, this place can be pretty useful." Noah muttered, staring at the rock chamber with his compound eyes. "If we seal off those passages where we had dug to enter inside and then shape them into a tunnel system, where the entrance and exit would only be used by us, then that will be very efficient."
Noah pointed at the ground. "And if we flatten out the ground, maybe dig like a big-ass hole where the demons would directly spawn and get thrown into the pit. In that way, they won't be able to climb up, and even if they did—from above, our ant brethren would have the advantage to kill them off easily. And then, they can easily drag demons out as a secure food source."
With that, Noah finally nodded one last time, thinking the plan wasn't that bad. "Yeah, I think I cooked here, didn't I, sis?" Noah asked, looking at Ruby with a smug clack of his mandibles.
Ruby stared at Noah, cocking her head in confusion.
"Oh yeah..."
After a long moment of pause, Noah sighed, deflated. "Well, aside from that. We should go back now. I don't even remember how long we stayed in this realm, hunting demons after demons without any measurement of time." Noah's antenna drooped slightly, waving in slow exhaustion. His black exoskeleton was starting to itch from the prolonged dryness in the demon realm air.
It was true. Between the fighting, the mutations, and the pile of monster corpses they had left behind at their makeshift food chamber—who the hell knew how long they'd been in this realm for? Hours? A full day? Noah couldn't tell anymore. Time was already getting blurred in Noah's mind.
He glanced at Ruby.
"Alright then, we should head back now, Ruby." Noah said softly.
Ruby turned her head toward him, her antennae flicking with what looked like shared fatigue. Even she looked like she was done with the day.
As Noah and Ruby started walking off, Noah wondered, "I wonder how the Queen must be doing?"