Lewd skill in a filthy world

The crawling insects in the dungeon where Shin had been thrown into were still tangled in a gruesome fight with his clones, while he remained crouched in the suffocating darkness. Their screeches, the crunch of broken exoskeletons, and the wet, sticky splatters of green blood painted the entire scene like a massacre from hell. His clones were weaving through the swarm of ants, mowing them down with their blades, and slicing them mercilessly.

But then… something changed.

The ants stopped moving like a colony. They paused.

And then, they began to step back, shifting to the sides as if clearing a path.

Shin's instincts flared. His skin prickled. Something heavy had just entered the air.

[DING!]

[Titanomyrma Colony King Detected!]

[Rank: S]

[Side Quest Activated: Defeat the Titanomyrma King to gain an A-rank Skill Card!]

The system notification popped up just as a thick, purple aura began spilling out from one of the tunnels in the wall. The ants all lined up perfectly, clearing the center of the battlefield for their king to arrive.

At the far end, Shin's two clones stood side-by-side, their gazes locked onto the incoming power source, silently, but ready.

Then it emerged.

The Titanomyrma King.

The moment it appeared, its presence suffocated the air itself—exactly what one would expect from a beast colony king.

It was twice the size of the soldier ants. A monster in every sense of the word. Its skin, no, its armored shell shimmered a dull, metallic ash. It's two long antennae twitched over it's head, sweeping across the battlefield, scanning the terrain like living radars. And when they pointed toward Shin—it knew.

It had found him.

It didn't even glance at the clones. They had no heartbeat. No soul. No real presence for it to detect or worry about.

But Shin, hidden in the shadows, his heart pounding and blood rushing, was a different story entirely.

"How long… has it been… since a creature dared paint our walls with Hiveblood?"

The voice didn't come from a mouth. It was something deeper. A vibration in the bones.

Shin's breath hitched.

He couldn't believe what he just heard.

This thing… could speak?

It speaks?

No. This one's different… this is no ordinary beast. It thinks!

He chuckled inwardly. The aura alone… it was on the same level as the stone Tsukuma he had barely escaped from. Maybe worse.

His thoughts shattered when a gust of wind–violent and laced with a blur of purple shot toward him.

Too fast.

He didn't even see it move.

Before Shin could react—

BAM!

A brutal punch cracked across his jaw. The Ant King's metallic fingers had curled into a perfect fist, heavier and more powerful than even Lilian's gauntlets all to hit him. Shin's head slammed into the stone wall behind him, and for a moment, all he could see were stars. His vision turned white, followed by a blinding headache that made his ears ring and blood trickle from his nose.

The Ant King's crimson eyes burned with contempt and fury.

"Oh, humans…" it hissed, clicking its mandibles in disgust.

"The Queen stirs in her rest. Her dreams foul with the stench of slaughter. All because of you."

Shin couldn't even hear it clearly. The high-pitched screech from the blow was still echoing in his skull, muffling the words. Never in his life had he been hit that hard.

The King raised another arm, of which it's arms were lined with sickle-like mandibles behind the elbow, twitching like hungry claws.

But before it could strike at Shin—

Clang!

One of Shin's clones slashed at its back with a rusty sword. It snapped instantly. The blade crumbled like paper, falling in useless shards at the King's feet.

The King didn't even twitch.

It swatted the clone with the back of its hand, then lashed out with a sharp hook behind its elbow, shattering the clone into a puff of smoke. Its broken blade tumbled to the floor uselessly.

The other clone lunged with a dagger, while Shin summoned another behind it. The two flanked the King and struck in unison, but the King growled in frustration, it's sensory rods twitching violently as it turned, extended a palm, and released a devastating blast of fire from its arm.

The attack was so hot it incinerated both clones instantly.

It has the ability to release fire beams? Shin thought, but that moment it had spent firing his clones was all he needed.

He gritted his teeth, grabbed the dagger he had tightly, and charged in.

He slammed it into the King's chest—straight into its heart.

He had expected the dagger to bounce off it's metallic skin.

But it sank in. Not deep. Not enough to kill.

"Guess Sylvia's weapons are better than she gives herself credit for…" he thought, pushing the groaning in annoyance ant king back just enough to break away, yanking his dagger off it as his body trembled, limping toward the wall, his mind racing.

He knew one stab wasn't going to kill it, if anything, it barely tickled.

And he knew the King didn't care about his clones. It cared about him.

That gave him an idea.

That was something he could use.

Everyone knew ant logic. They were protective. Territorial. Unforgiving when it came to threats against the Queen.

It was a gamble. It might not work.

Hell, it might only work after he's dead.

But it was the only card he had left, and honestly, the only thing he could come up with in the heat of the battle.

He summoned another clone right in the shadows where he'd just hidden before. And unlike the others… it didn't charge.

It picked up a broken blade and crawled into one of the tunnels.

Like an ant.

Thanks to his earlier massacre of soldier ants, Shin had picked up:

[Ant-Burrowing Skill acquired!]

Now the clone could dig and move through tunnels just like the enemy, fast and untraceable.

Meanwhile, the Ant King began walking toward Shin, its metal feet clicking with each heavy step.

"Running away?" it sneered. "Pathetic. Every human dies in this place. Bones crushed. Flesh devoured. But your kind always returns. Always dies again."

Shin spat blood, gritting his teeth.

"You're really talkative for a bug."

His voice was weak, but deliberately loud.

It had to be.

"But let me tell you something.

Humans? Yeah, we're stupid. We poke things we shouldn't. We fight monsters we can't kill."

The Ant King's gaze narrowed, stepping onto the blood trail Shin had left behind, curious to listen at the stupidest reasons this little human was barking.

"We might be stupid, but we're clever too." Shin continued.

"And when a smart human opens his mouth, don't listen to what he says."

He forced a chuckle through the blood.

"Because he's probably just… buying time."

The Ant King stopped, its eyes twitching as its heart skipped. Its antennae vibrated violently, picking up distress pulses.

[+0.001 Ant-Sense ×20]

[+0.001 Burrowing Instinct ×14]

[+0.001 Jaw Grip Strength ×18]

Notifications popped up to Shin.

The King gasped!! The Queen was in danger!

"So what's it gonna be, ant king? Kill me and let your Queen die? Or go back and protect what really matters to you?"

The King's fury boiled, fists clenched.

For a moment, it looked like it might still go for him.

But…

"You bastard!! I'll kill you if anything happens to the Queen!!" it roared, blurring away with a burst of purple aura.

Soldier ants followed instantly, stampeding into the tunnels.

Shin dropped to one knee, gasping for breath.

"Beast Ant King or not… you're still a stupid ant. And protecting the Queen takes top priority over killing an enemy…"

**

Inside the Hive's Heart

The clone had reached the Queen's chamber.

A massive cavern greeted it, lit with a soft, pulsing glow which felt like stepping into the belly of a living creature. The walls were veined and slimy, coated with glowing egg sacs and patches of pheromone-rich fungus.

After slicing down a few guarding soldier ants, the clone paused at the sight ahead.

The Queen.

A colossal and immobile grotesque thing. Her abdomen was as large as a boulder, swollen and fused to the nest. Wet popping sounds echoed as eggs slid from her body in constant rhythm. Her eyes were cloudy, her body unmoving, concentrated only in her egg-laying trance.

Nurse ants that were fanning the queen, and licking toxins off her froze as they noticed the intruder.

The clone wasted no time.

It pushed them aside and drove its blade into an egg sac.

Pop.

A hot, slimy splash.

The Queen's body tensed violently. Her antennae twitched in warning. A loud pulse reverberated through the hive with a hive-wide distress cry.

And just like that, the King and all.the soldier ants that were up against Shin lost their minds, their instincts screaming for them to go and protect the Queen.

**

Back in the cave, Shin staggered forward, dragging himself.

"I'm not gonna survive if I stay here… I can't go back. That Tsukuma freak will finish the job."

He glanced at the dark corridor ahead.

"Should I go deeper?"

"Maybe I'll meet something worse."

"Maybe I'll die."

No time to think.

If he was going to die… then he'd rather die moving than be eaten alive while waiting.

Shin grit his teeth, turned, and began limping deeper into the dungeon.

Behind him, the entire colony boiled with rage.

And ahead of him… the next nightmare waited.

TBC