Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)

Volume 5 - Ch 2.9

I thought that this was only going to be a matter of a messed-up perspective, but much to my displeasure, it turned out that this was not the case, and that this thing really was that friggin huge, and the closer we were getting to it, the more uncomfortable it was making me feel. No, not in the sense that it was creepy, because it really was not. But it was definitely scary and unsettling, and I did not want to look at it longer than it was absolutely necessary. Yup, for as long as I was thinking about it as little more than an oversized beetle, looking at it was reasonably manageable. This is not an ant. This is a beetle. A big, black, shiny beetle, not a bug and not anything in between. *sigh* yeah, right as I thought, thinking about it like that is not going to cut it.

Thats because soon after I started thinking that this was not a bug, but a beetle instead, it was not long until my mind began screaming at me that theres no way that this thing could ever be a beetle, because there was just way too many differences between the two that my mind could not ignore them, no matter how hard I was trying to force it to

Uwaaah, this thing is so disturbing from up close, especially those jagged areas on its legs that continue to squirm around even as it stands still, and those giant beady eyes at the sides of its head are not making the situation any better, not by a long shot! Yeah, this is an ant alright! A big, disturbing, disgusting ant!

Okay Michio, calm down. It might look disturbing, but other than that, it is just an ant. Sure, it might be way bigger than the ants that I am so used to seeing, but other than that it is just a regular ant. that can also poison you if you allow it to get too close, so you know what? Here is what I am going to do: in order not to let that NT Ant to get too close to me, I immediately thought about Water Ball and used and launched it at the disgusting critter from afar. A ball of water slowly materialized itself over my head and then was sent forward through the Labyrinths cave in order to meet the NT Ants ugly head head-on. Throughout all that time that it took it to reach the target, NT Ant did absolutely nothing in order to dodge it or even try to move to the side. It just stood there and took that hit, probably because it did not see it coming, or at least that is what I like to believe. Whatever the case with that may be, the fact remains that the attack connected with the NT Ant properly, splashing all over it, doing a nice bit of damage.

Phew, I sure am glad that this magic attack of mine actually worked. I was afraid that this NT Ant is was going to turn out to be more intelligent than the regular ant and that it would avoid my attack at the last possible moment, but thankfully nothing of the sort happened, so I gladly took that as an encouragement to press the attack, so I launched a second Water Ballat it, which also ended up hitting its mark without any issues.

All of that makes me think that these NT Ants are just the same as any other monsters, and instead of having some semblance of intelligence and capitalizing on it, they move while being driven by little more than pure instinct. And honestly, what was I expecting? After all, this is nothing but an oversized ant, and something is telling me that NT Ants are not like the warrior ants and are more like worker ants, because if it was like a warrior ant, then it would have moved in to attack me as soon as that first Water Ballhit it, and if it was a warrior ant, then I definitely would have had a harder time with it, because fighting something that would be jumping at you all aggressively while every one of its attacks can poison you is not my ideal scenario of a fight with a monster.

As we got closer to it, I tried to estimate its total length, and it was something around one meter a worst, I think? That alone made this monster even more disturbing, which was a thing that I never thought would be possible, and yet, here we are, so I reacted in the only way possible: by shooting yet another Water Ballat it.

It worked flawlessly this time as well. If it is just going to continue standing there and taking it without any attempts at fighting back, then so much the better for me I say, and scoring myself a free and easy kill is never going to be something that you are going to see me complaining about. I then shot yet another Water Ballat the NT Ant, and this time the damage it sustained finally resulted in me defeating it.

Since Water Magic was this monsters supposed weakness, then it would stand to reason that by continuously using it against it, I will be able to bring it down faster than it would have taken me if I was not using the Spells that it was weak against. If I use the attribute that a given monster is weak to against them, does that mean that I am dealing double the usual damage to them, or perhaps even more? Anyway, the NT Ant fell over and died, disappearing in a cloud of green smoke. And once it was gone, a truly terrifying drop item has been left behind by it: it was a poisonous needle.

And yet, even though it was looking all ominous and venomous and all that kind of stuff, Sherry still walked up to it and picked it up as if that was the most obvious thing to do in the world, which made me feel slightly confused. Can she really do that? Is she going to be okay? Is she not going to get poisoned just by holding onto this item? And wait, is she.. is she heading towards me with that thing?!

Here you go, master, the Drop Item that the monster left.

T-Thanks, but. Are you certain that this thing can be touched without any kind of protective measures? Are you not going to get poisoned just by holding onto it?

Oh, so you are actually familiar with the Drop Items that are left behind by NT Ants, master? I understand why you would be concerned, but fear not, it is perfectly safe to be keeping the Drop Items from NT Ants in your hand without any protective equipment, because while these Drop Items are indeed poisonous, they are not going to be posing any threat to both people and animals alike unless they are going to be directly ingested into your system by eating them.

So according to Sherry, touching the items that came from the poisonous monsters that are also poisonous with my hands should be fine as long as I do not decide to eat them, huh? Well, I am certainly not that crazy to be trying something like that, but I think that I am going to thoroughly wash my hands more than once when we get back home from this Labyrinth excursion.

I still had my fair share of reservations, but I ultimately accepted the item from Sherrys hands and took it into my own, and then it was the time to carefully inspect what that thing actually was. As it turned out, Poison Needle was a black, conical object that was about five centimeters long. I also wondered if the tip of it was going to be sharp like a needle, but much to my surprise, it was not.

So you are saying that if I wanted to get poisoned by it, I would have to ingest it orally first? In that case this is the opposite of how it is with snakes and their venom.

Is that so?

Yes, it is.

I heard that even though the venom that snakes use to poison the prey that they sink their fangs into is usually deadly, it is actually made out of a certain type of protein that can be properly digested if consumed, and that info would check itself out because of how snakes hunt. They are doing so by sinking their teeth into the unsuspecting prey which is then paralyzed and robbed of its ability to run or defend itself, and in the moment where it is the most defenseless, snakes then devour their prey whole.