Level Up The Colony
Chapter 66: Rewards

Chapter 66: Rewards

"But the treasury’s drying up."

"Then bleed it differently. The world’s in a silent war; realignments are happening everywhere. Africa’s fragmented and we’re infighting more than uniting."

Someone added,

"A flower can only bloom if its core is healthy. But rot spreads from within. We need to cut the bad seeds... and watch out for the weeds leeching from all sides."

After that, the once-busy virtual conference slowly dimmed, each figure fading out until only the chairman of the Nigerian Bureau of Hunters remained.

He removed his neural connector, sleek and advanced, like a VR helm,, and exhaled heavily.

"Vanessa," he said, glancing at the woman seated across the bed.

"I’ll never get used to these ’calls.’"

She tapped away on a tablet.

"Did they pressure you about the raid’s failure?"

He waved a hand.

"Nope. And put that thing down; something is already up; that body’s for me tonight."

She smirked a little as he pounced, her pheromones already flooding the room like perfume and they both got wild on the bed.

---

The next morning, Timothy awoke unusually refreshed. He had slept through the previous day and felt... good.

Almost too good.

By 7 a.m., he was under the shower, and surprisingly, Gray had joined him, perched near the wall like a quiet, oversized guardian.

"Glad you believe in hygiene," Timothy muttered, scrubbing his face.

That’s when he noticed it.

A ring.

Wrapped around his right ring finger, silver-black, elegant, and undeniably not something he recalled wearing.

He stared at it.

’When the hell did I get this?’

He tested his arm, flexing his fingers and swinging them past his face.

It was impossible he wouldn’t have noticed this before, not during battle, not during any movement.

It shimmered coldly.

An intrusive, almost regal presence.

Then his gaze caught his nails.

Black.

Subtly stained, like ink that had seeped through his skin.

"...This wasn’t there before either."

He summoned his machete.

I held it in one hand and tested the grip.

Nothing obstructed him.

Yet... something had changed.

He couldn’t have noticed it at first, not because it was hidden, but because it had merged almost perfectly with the background colors, making it weirdly unnoticeable.

Timothy immediately tried to wash it off, but it didn’t work.

With more urgency, he carefully scraped at it using the edge of his machete, as though cleaning his nails.

Every piece that came off was black.

Not the irritating, ominous kind of black, but something that resembled an infection, one that seemed confined to his fingernails.

He quickly checked his toenails.

Thankfully, they were still normal.

Timothy exhaled, a sense of relief washing over him.

If it was only his fingernails, maybe it was manageable.

Maybe he could just call it a new aesthetic.

He glanced at Gray, and the events of the recent battle replayed in his mind.

So many questions buzzed in his head, yet none had answers.

Without hesitation, Timothy pulled open his status window.

---

[Quest Completed]

Do you wish to receive rewards?

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[You have leveled up]

[Silverback Termite (Gray) has leveled up]

[Silverback Termite (Gray) has leveled up]

[Silverback Termite (Gray) has leveled up]

[Silverback Termite (Gray) has leveled up]

[You have selected an item]

[You have received special rewards]

[You have reached level 30]

[Level 30 reward is now available]

[Silverback Termites have leveled up]

[Equipment: Scarf has increased in rank]

[Evolution is now available]

---

[Status]

Name: Timothy Walter [Evolution Unavailable]

Title: Goblin Slayer, Mount

Trait: Hybrid (Unstable) 2%

Level: 33

HP: 21,000

MP: 200

Fatigue: 30

Strength: 60

Stamina: 70

Agility: 60

Intelligence: 100

Perception: 60

Free Stat Points: 33

...

Ever since he got the system, Timothy found it hard to actually be surprised by the notifications.

If it were a phone, maybe he’d be ecstatic.

But no, most of what was shown wasn’t particularly useful at the moment.

They were simply... notifications.

Still, he made sure to check them thoroughly.

First, the quest rewards.

He immediately accepted them, slightly taken aback by the fact that he wasn’t required to take the heart or mana core, not that there was any to take.

His last World Shard quest reward had granted him the machete, and the extra bonus had been the Serpentine Orb...

Suddenly, Timothy opened his inventory.

The Serpentine Orb wasn’t there.

Or rather, it seemed like he never kept it there in the first place.

He remembered choosing not to hand it over to the Hunter Association... but couldn’t recall where exactly he had placed it.

As always, the system popped up again, this time with a multi-option reward.

---

[Quest Reward]

[Choose 1]

[Blessed Box]

[Cursed Box]

---

Seeing the options, Timothy immediately thought of the obvious.

"The blessed box gives blessings and the cursed box gives curses... Maybe not to me?"

"It would be cool to be able to lay actual curses on others," Timothy muttered, already thinking of the potential uses and implications.

"Blessings through..." he added thoughtfully, the only thing coming to mind being riches and more riches.

Then the system prompt refined the descriptions:

---

[Blessed Box]

Grants you what you want

[Cursed Box]

Grants you what you need

---

The phrasing was simple.

Despite that, Timothy still leaned toward the Blessed Box.

On the other hand, he chose to put it off for now and scrolled to the next notification.

He and Gray had both reached level thirty, which meant another reward was waiting.

His own level rewards usually came in strange or unexpected forms, so he decided to check Gray’s status instead.

What hit him first, however, was the Colony tab; he had forgotten that there was more than one Silverback Termite under his command at the moment.

---

[Colony] <5>

Silverback Termite (Gray) – Lv. 33 [Evolution Available]

Scout – Lv. 3

Mind – Lv. 3

Predation – Lv. 1

Trainer – Lv. 1

...

Timothy stared at Gray’s panel for a while but couldn’t determine what had changed aside from the Mind skill increasing to level 3 and the "evolution available" indicator.

He wasn’t sure how evolution worked, was he supposed to give the termite space or something?

He didn’t linger on it long.

He could just ask Gray later.

Instead, he opened the statuses of the other termites.

---

Silverback Termite (...) – Lv. 6

Silverback Termite (...) – Lv. 6

Silverback Termite (...) – Lv. 6

Silverback Termite (...) – Lv. 6

---

They were all at level 6.

That made sense, he had leveled up six times in the dungeon, the most he’d ever leveled up at once.

None of the others had an evolution trigger, and they hadn’t gained any skills at level five either, just like Gray.

He needed to name them though.

Thankfully, they were all male, which made it slightly easier.

Still, Timothy didn’t want to choose names at random, he wanted something with meaning and impact.

He thought for a while, and then:

---

Silverback Termite (Rex) – Lv. 6

Silverback Termite (Vox) – Lv. 6

Silverback Termite (Pax) – Lv. 6

Silverback Termite (Lux) – Lv. 6

---

Yep.

Those were the names he settled on.

This time, the choices weren’t impulsive even though he didn’t understand what the names meant.

They just felt right.

And to differentiate them, he decided none of the Silverbacks would have names longer than three letters.

It was a kind of informal ranking, Gray was the eldest, the leader, so he was four letters.

Not that he didn’t trust the others.

Now it was time to check his own level 30 reward and he had a feeling it would be good.

It always came in the form of a skill.

And this time, it didn’t disappoint.

---

[Skills]

King <Unknown> – Lv. Max

Dash – Lv. 2

Pheromones <Passive> – Lv. 4

Armament <Enhanced> – Lv. 1

Tenacity <Passive> – Lv. 1

Colony Genesis <Active> – Lv. 2

Force <Passive> – Lv. 1

Mana Control <Passive> – Lv. 1

Escape <Passive> – Lv. 1

...

Timothy had completely forgotten he was still in the bathroom, grinning from ear to ear.

He hadn’t seen the full description of the skill yet, but he had a rough idea of what it did and that alone was enough to excite him.

...

[Escape <Passive> - Lv.1]

Escape a lethal blow once.

Cooldown: 2 hours.

...

It was the first skill he’d gotten with such a simple description yet it came with a cooldown, which meant it had serious power.

Even better, it could be leveled up like his other skills.

A wide smile bloomed on his face.

He moved on to the next notification: he had selected an item.

This was right after he killed the bride.

The system had allowed him to choose anything from that chamber, but before he could decide, it declared he had already made a selection.

Curious, Timothy rested his hand on his jaw, absentmindedly stroking his non-existent goatee.

He had a habit of making low expectations so he wouldn’t be too disappointed by the result.

Then he looked at the item the system displayed.

A projection appeared, revealing a dark silver ring. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

It displayed its name, rank, and effects and Timothy was stunned.

It was the exact same ring he was already wearing.

What shocked him more, though, was its rank.

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