Mice dominate the dungeon

Big Ears had no idea what George was thinking, and continued to question him at his own pace.

"Anything else interesting?"

Dardo's question brought George back to reality from his daydream.

"There's another thing that has a significant impact on the town..." George kept it a secret.

"What is it?" Big Ears asked curiously.

"That's Mr. Dardo, your arrival is truly remarkable!"

"....."

Faced with Dardo's lack of response, George, who had been trying to curry favor, scratched his head somewhat awkwardly.

Big Ears, hiding in the shadows, was also scratching its head in frustration. It had no idea who George had mistaken it for, so it could only pretend to be deaf and dumb to avoid saying too much and making a mistake.

After a moment, Big Ears continued, asking:

How much do you know about the tenth level and deeper areas of the dungeon?

This was one of the pieces of information that Boss Twitch had instructed them to gather.

"Are you heading to the deeper parts of the Ash Dungeon?!"

"..."

Big Ears was taken aback by George's question and his mind raced.

Just as Big Ears was racking his brains, trying to come up with a reasonable reason.

Standing in the mine, facing the deathly silence, George couldn't help but swallow hard, realizing his slip of the tongue and overstepping of boundaries.

He became somewhat smug after learning that there was no conflict of interest between him and Dardo.

If he keeps talking nonsense, he might really offend Lord Dardo... George wiped the sweat from his hands.

George then tactfully changed the subject, breaking the silence in the mine by speaking directly:

"Lord Dardo! I don't know much about the area below the ninth level of the Ash Dungeon..."

"Firstly, I'm not strong enough to go to the deeper areas; if I did, I'd just be cannon fodder," George said self-deprecatingly.

"Secondly, the Adventurers' Guild has also issued a notice advising adventurers below the Gold level not to go to the floors below the ninth floor, and they also do not sell the corresponding maps to lower-level adventurers."

Actually, George wasn't completely cut off from information about the area below the ninth floor.

The tavern and the guild are both places where all sorts of people come and go, and with so many people, all sorts of messy things happen.

George had heard a lot about the Deep Zone, but most of it was just hearsay or rumors spread while drinking and bragging, and he couldn't tell how much of it was true or false.

Rather than admitting you don't know, it's better not to spread misinformation to Dardo.

Otherwise, if something goes wrong, you'll be the first one to suffer.

"I see..."

Big Ears was disappointed upon hearing this, as he would have to seek information about the area below the ninth floor from other sources.

After a moment's thought, he said to George:

"Mr. George, your news is of great help to me!"

"Of course, I won't take your information for nothing."

Upon hearing this, George quickly waved his hand and said, "It's my honor to serve you. As for payment, I don't really care..."

"You really don't care?!"

No sooner had George finished speaking than Big Ears immediately raised a question.

"Lord Dardo, I was just being polite, don't take it seriously..." George thought awkwardly to himself.

Noticing the awkwardness on George's face, Big Ears chuckled:

"Come back here in the next two days; you might find something unexpected!"

George was overjoyed; this time he had learned his lesson and quickly bowed respectfully, saying:

"As you command!"

Big Ears didn't linger any longer and quietly left the mine, returning directly to the park to report the information it had gathered to Boss Tucci.

When George looked up again, the mine fell silent once more, as if the conversation had never happened.

George did not relax and remained in place to wait until a quarter of an hour later, when he was completely certain that Dardo had left, he collapsed onto the mine floor.

George looked as if he had just been pulled out of the water; his clothes were completely soaked.

Although he looked quite disheveled, George now had a genuine smile on his face.

He hadn't felt this relaxed in a long time!

--------

First Division, the burrowing ant nest.

"A little to the left... Ugh, too far to the left! Do you even know what 'a little' means?" Tucci said impatiently, "Just a tiny bit, not too much, not too little! Just a tiny bit!!"

"Why can't I understand?"

At this moment, Twitch was controlling his clone mouse, directing a group of cow-horse-rat mice to place the city wall in the appropriate position.

"Oh~ no, no, uh~ yes, yes, um... still not right!"

After Twitch's roar, the logistics mouse finally understood what he meant and was able to accurately place the wall in the designated position.

With the general layout already given, Tucci no longer gave detailed instructions.

Twitch lifted the water pouch and took a swig, then surveyed the entire cave.

Since the second ant nest was wiped out, he has occasionally devoted some of his energy to the first branch, and now he is personally building up the defenses to prevent a repeat of the same mistake.

In addition, he had the scout rats explore the entire cave, but they did not find a third ant nest.

Even so, Tucci was still not entirely at ease, and slowly withdrew his gaze to look at the queen ant beside him.

Are there any other ant nests in this cave now?

The queen ant wriggled her massive body and said:

"It's gone... Before my wedding flight, there was only an anthill here."

By this time, Tucci had also mastered the language of the burrowing ants: "What about your batch and the ones after?"

The queen ant explained softly, "Of all the burrowing ants that flew off to their nests, only I and one male ant survived."

"Looks like you're in pretty good luck," Tucci teased.

The queen ant shook her delicate head and said, "The reason I was able to survive and become the queen ant was actually due to the help of other external forces."

Tucci squinted and tentatively asked, "Was it the first queen ant that helped you?"

"Hmm..." The queen ant didn't hide anything and said, "If it hadn't helped me survive the initial hunger, I probably would have died in the ground long ago."

"That's why I'm seeking revenge for it..."

Twitch smiled at the faint hint of hatred in the queen ant's tone and then asked it the question that had been nagging at him.

"When did you arrive here?"

The queen ant tilted her head back and thought for a moment before giving her answer: "It should be the week before you attacked my neighbor's queen ant."

Tucci quickly did a quick mental calculation and immediately retorted:

"wrong!"

"Wrong timing!"

"From the time I hunted down the first queen ant to the time you invaded my territory, the time span wasn't long!"

"You couldn't possibly have produced so many burrowing ants in such a short time, especially since they would already be in their mature stage!"

Tucci's face gradually darkened, and he looked down at the queen ant at his feet with a fierce gaze.

"You dare to lie to me!"