With his visit with Lilia concluded Marcus thought about his next plan of action.
'Hm, should I just go back to the royal investigator office and take orders from Wade… No, I have a skillset unlike anyone else that is perfect for handling this situation. If it was any other type of monster this might not work but even monster ants have the same weakness as the ants back on Earth, their queen. Just like in a game of chess as long as I take the king, well queen in this case I win the game.'
With his course of action decided Marcus began walking towards the northern city walls and the ice ant hill.
While it would normally be suicide for one person to infiltrate an ant hill and make their way to the queen, with Marcus' ghostly abilities he can easily slip into the queens chamber and assassinate her.
'Once I kill the ant queen the other ants will lose their intelligent leadership and their ability to reproduce. After that it will only be a matter of time until the forces of River Landing mange to overwhelm the remaining ants.'
After around thirty minutes of walking Marcus came to the large wall that protects the northern part of River Landing.
With a quick look around to make sure no one was watching him Marcus once again reverted to his ghost form and passed through the wall unabated.
Coming out on the other side Marcus saw the lines of ants marching around in search of prey, and also making sure that no one from River Landing escaped.
However, with Marcus' ethereal and invisible abilities he slipped right past the ants and floated towards the large snow-covered hill in the distance.
When he got closer to the ice ant's mound Marcus could finally appreciate the size of it. The mound was easily over four hundred feet tall, and at least five hundred feet wide at the base.
Of course, this was only what was on the surface and the depths that the ants would have dug out could be astronomical.
Looking around Marcus noticed hundreds of the smaller worker ants moving in and out of the large openings into and out of the mound, with the occasional larger soldier ants monitoring the perimeter.
'Looks like the average level for the little worker ants is around four while the soldier ants average around ten. I have not seen anymore of those large ants that are around the size of a tank, but I can only assume that the one that came to fight me was not the only one. In fact, if what Wade told me was correct and the queen is around level forty there are probably even a few ants in the thirties down here as well. Not that it matter to me anyway since I will simply be slipping in and assassinating the queen.'
With his reconnaissance of the outside of the mound completed, Marcus floated towards the closest entrance he could find and went into the tunnel.
Marcus had ultimately decided to use the ants own tunnel network since he did not want to get lost underground and completely lose his bearings.
Floating along Marcus continued to follow the tunnel along with a line of ants until he came to a branch in the path.
One of the branches was leading up while the other went down and the group of ants Marcus was following split into two groups.
'Which way should I go, if it was an unintelligent ant, I would go down a hundred percent of the time, but there is the possibility that the queen has an ego and decided to take up residence at the top. Checking the top of the mound will be easier, so I should go down and hope that instinct trumped vanity for this queen ant.'
Following the tunnels that led deeper into the ant mound Marcus tired following a group of ants that were carrying the corpses of local monsters and beasts such as goblins hoping they would lead him to the queen.
Unfortunately, the only thing he found was a room full of frozen corpses that were slowly begin dissolved by the ants' acid, that would have made Marcus hurl if he could.
Quickly exiting the room Marcus decided not to follow the ants carrying corpses anymore since he had no desire to see such a grotesque scene again.
'That was appalling, I am glad I cannot smell right now. I should have known better than to follow those ants, I was just hoping that they had the queen's lunch or something.'
After shaking his head in order to forget the image he had just seen Marcus once again set off in search of the queen.
Floating down tunnel after tunnel Marcus was beginning to get fed up with all of the dead ends, he had encountered when he finally made it to a room that proved he was going in the right direction.
In front of him was thousands of eggs, that were being tended to by the smaller corgi sized worker ants.
Looking around Marcus was hoping to find the queen in this room but was ultimately disappointed.
However, he did make a discovery seeing for the first time since he had entered the nest one of the larger tank ants.
Giving it a quick appraisal Marcus found that this ant was actually a few levels stronger than the one he had encountered on his way to river landing sitting just below him at level twenty-eight.
Figuring that since he had entered the egg nursery the queen must not be far off Marcus descended to the bottom of the room where he found a tunnel leading farther into the depths of the mound.
Floating along Marcus found another half dozen nursey rooms before he finally entered into a massive chamber that, was completely covered in ice.
Looking around Marcus soon saw his quarry sitting on a massive throne made of ice surrounded by around a hundred of the worker ants that grooming and catering to the queen.
Unfortunately, along with the queen ant who was formidable in size being over ten feet tall sitting down and forty feet long, there were three other imposing ants that had formed a triangle around the queen.
Each of these ants were around twice the size of the tank ants and when Marcus attempted to check their levels, he found that he could only see the level of the weakest one who was level thirty-five.
'Those must be the queen's royal guards; they are quite formidable in their own right. Along with the queen and two of her royal guards I have no idea what their levels are. But I should still be able to dispatch the queen with a well-timed heightened thunderbird strike since being a higher level does not necessarily mean being stronger.'
As Marcus approached the queen planning to deliver his strongest spell from above, he noticed that the antennas on top of her head began twitching before she cast her head upwards looking straight at Marcus.
With a slight look of fear creeping onto his face Marcus looked back at the queen hoping that it was just a coincidence that she had looked up.
Unfortunately, this was not the case as Marcus soon received a telepathic message from the queen.
'You there spirit leave at once, I know not why you have invaded my kingdom, but I have no qualms with you. I recommend you hurry up and leave less you anger me, I haven't the time to deal with you I must make it south quickly.'
Marcus stared at the queen for a minute while she stared back at him. He was hoping that she would take her attention off of him allowing him to strike but she was trained on him with no intention of allowing him free reign in her chambers.
Acting decisively Marcus floated up feigning that he was leaving and once he passed through the layer of ground separating the queen's chamber from the next, he immediately turned around and went back into the queen's chamber.
With his strongest spell tingling at his fingertips Marcus passed back into the queen's chamber and was about to unleash his heighten thunderbird strike when the queen looked up at him and a cold mist shot towards him.
Marcus figured that he would be fine since the attack should not be able to affect him while he was ethereal.
However, when the mist hit, he suddenly felt his soul freeze up as he was covered in a layer of frost.
Marcus began plummeting towards the ground his soul seemingly too heavy to float any longer.
Bracing himself Marcus solidified his form before impacting into the floor of the room.
Using his physical form Marcus was no longer burdened by the weight of the frost covering his soul but he could still feel its icy chill that was attacking his very being.
Standing up Marcus looked towards the queen still hoping to complete his objective. Unfortunately, now that he was tangible and visible again every other ant in the room honed in on him including the three powerful royal guards.