Clearly, those ants who are dedicated to this area of study have been raising the rank of their Skills like crazy. I wonder what on earth Smithant is going to be able to make for me in the end? My hopes are getting higher the more I consider it.
“What’s this place?” the hatchling asks as we approach the new section, the spicy tang of fire, ice, and other elements brushing against my antennae the closer we come.
“This is where the smartest and most insane ants of the Colony come to unlock the secrets of Mana!”
“Smarter than me?” she appears doubtful.
THWACK!
“Of course they’re smarter than you,” I scold the hatchling as she rubs the top of her head with one claw. “You just hatched. Tiny is probably smarter than you.”
“He is not!” she flares up.
“He’s smart enough to listen, now shush. This section of the nest is for magic-related research. Mostly mage ants and carvers in here, though there are plenty of others mixed in when there’s a need. Healers are frequent visitors, for example. Nobody has more expertise with healing and restorative magic than they do, obviously, and their services are often required to help repair damage from experiments that… don’t quite work.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Daily, or so I’m told. Let’s go!”
“I can’t wait!”
Rushing down the last section of tunnel, the hatchling draws still the moment she fully enters the first chamber. A central area with many smaller workrooms splintering off like the spokes of a wheel, the arcane energy swirling through the air is so thick you can almost taste it. Sparks fly from one room, belching flames from another, freezing winds with shards of ice from yet another. The glow of runes emanates from everywhere around us, producing barriers, light, heat, channelling Mana, and all sorts of things.
To my Mana Sense, this chamber is a chaotic dance of energy that dips and twirls everywhere in tiny eddies and massive currents. The sheer amount of Mana is staggering, taking in all that the dregs of the wave have to offer. Looking closely, it’s almost as if some of these enchanted arrays are actually assisting the flow of Mana, bringing more into this chamber from above and below in order to power the many experiments going on. Is that something we can do now? We can gather Mana from the surrounding area using enchantments? Stack them together to produce a flow of Mana?
In a round… I’ll say desk, in the centre of the chamber sits a rather important-looking ant busily scanning through what I recognise as records that have been imprinted with scent. She appears to be filing. Have we invented ant secretaries now?
“Oh! Eldest!” She starts when she sees us approach and hurriedly slides all the documents to one side. “Welcome to the research hub! I don’t think you’ve visited before. Is there anything in particular you’re looking for?”
She’s not the only one to notice our presence. Quite a few ants are sticking their heads out of the many chambers, watching my entrance with rapt attention. It’s strange; I can feel their eyes on me in quite a literal sense through the Vestibule, giving me access to their impressions even as I witness their reactions to my being here.
A few are hoping I’m here to help them with their project or admire the work they’ve already done. I don’t think I can be of much help, considering that when it comes to actual meta-knowledge of the Mana system in this world, I’m sure they are far more advanced than I am, even if my magic Skills and stats are higher than theirs.
“I’m just here to have a sticky-mandible. Stick my antennae in and have a look at what’s going on. I’m showing the hatchling here what the Colony has been doin—wait… Where did she go?”
Dammit, I was distracted by all the attention I was getting and wasn’t watching her for a split second. How the hell did she manage to identify that moment and take advantage of it so precisely? I hope she doesn’t become an unnamed one, she’d have godly Skills of catching people off guard. I scan and I identify her thoughts coming from one of the side chambers.
“Found her,” I tell the flustered receptionant and rush off to one of the openings.
Inside, I find a large team of possibly a hundred ants working furiously around one of the captured gates, reassembled in all of its glory for the Colony to work on. Where the heck is she? I know she’s in here somewhere…
“Ah, the gate project,” the receptionant says from behind me. “This continues to stump the finest minds we have in the Colony, I’m afraid. Despite having found the correct matrix to draw Mana into the gate mechanism itself, without any understanding of how to properly apply said Mana, it simply dissipates over time, no matter what we try.”
“You know about this?” I ask her, a little surprised.
“I know about all the projects,” she confirms, clacking her mandibles with pride. “I have to in order to properly manage this research division.”
Not a receptionist… a mage, who’s probably the most knowledgeable of all of them in here. I really shouldn’t pre-judge my insect brethren.
“Can you tell me a little more about this project?” I ask as I scan the room with multiple senses for the little runaway.
“As I’m sure you know, Eldest, the gate project remains a high priority for the Colony. There are three teams this size working on a gate, but progress has been painfully slow. Part of the problem being we simply don’t know how spatial constructs work. As you can imagine, creating constructs from scratch, without any guidance from the System, is practically impossible.”
The Mana constructs are like works of art smashed into intricate architecture. I can’t even be sure if there’s a series of logical laws that underpin their construction or if they’re just randomly assembled and work via… magic.
“Has an attempt been made to construct a spatial array from nothing?”
“Of course, those efforts continue. Extensive study of every known construct is a major focus of ours.”
I should probably drop by and produce an image of some kind of the Omni-Elemental Construct, if that’s at all possible. I’m sure they’d love a gander at that.
“Well, it’s important that we—THERE YOU ARE!”
Standing proudly atop the gate is the tiny hatchling.
“This looks so cool!” she yells.
100. Spatial Senses
“Get down from there, you little varmint!” I yell.
“What even is this thing?” she yells back, scurrying about on top of the gate, poking and prodding with her antennae, inspecting every nook and cranny.
“It’s some sort of spatial gateway that allows instantaneous travel across vast distances, and we are trying to learn how it works so we can link our nests together. Now get your butt off of there before you break something!”
Reluctantly, she starts to climb down, still excitedly examining whatever she can.
“You can practically feel the power rolling off that thing,” she exclaims when she finally reaches the bottom. “It’s incredible! Why doesn’t it work?”
Her question catches me mid-thwack and I pause before regretfully retracting my antennae.
“A big part of the reason is that no ant has managed to unlock the Spatial Mana Specialisation Skill. Upon learning that Skill, and then ranking it up, knowledge of how to create and utilise Spatial Mana Constructs will be granted by the System, and by studying those, we are far more likely to be able to understand how these things work and then build our own.”
She looks confused.
“We didn’t build this?” She points at the gate with one claw.
“Of course not. If we could already build them, how would we not know how to get them working? Obviously, this gate was made by others, and we are trying to unlock its secrets. It isn’t enough to learn how to operate it. We need to learn how to construct our own and operate those. Only then will we be able to establish a gate network throughout our territory and connect our nests.”