If they hit Tiny? They’d rip through the muscle-bound idiot. The poison doesn’t really matter once his soft, tender flesh is taken into account. Ah well, good thing he has Invidia backing him up and a kind, diligent master to pick up after him.
Eat flamethrowers!
Twin jets of blue flame burst out from before my mandibles, roasting the arachnids where they stand. The creatures clack their claws and try to run, but I keep the fire trained on them until they collapse, cooked to perfection. Of course, the sudden flare of light only brings more of the damned things down on our heads, but it’s all fun and games.
[You have defeated a Level 14 (III) Sagitta Scorpionem.]
[You have gained XP.]
A little bit of experience never went down the wrong way. Going to take a heck of a lot more to evolve if all I get to fight are tier threes, though. I’m fairly confident there are much higher tier monsters above our heads. Maybe a few fives, perhaps a six? No more than that, though. I doubt a seven could manage in the Mana here, certainly not at peak condition.
The skittering menace is really starting to mount at this point. Dozens of the sneaky buggers are angrily snipping their fangs as they scramble through the coral and leap from their webs. Normally I wouldn’t worry about these sorts of numbers, but we have to be cautious due to the venom they possess. Which means we need to deploy excessive measures.
[Tiny! Invidia! Let’s see the light show!]
[HHHURRRRRAAAAAAAA!]
[I’ll take their soulsssssss!]
[…Can you actually do that?]
I don’t get a response from the little demon, as he’s already focused on unleashing his special combination attack. I say special, when really it’s just the two of them going nuts with the largest power output they can manage in a short time frame.
In practical terms, that means Tiny unfurls his wings and leaps into the air, lightning crackling all over his frame with such intensity I can barely stand to look at him. After charging up the voltage, he lets it rip and unleashes twisting ribbons of sizzling electricity around himself. The bolts seek to ground themselves through the nearest monsters, who quickly find themselves attracting far more lightning than they’d like to see.
As he does this, Invidia begins to do what I haven’t let him do since I reconstituted him, which is charge up his eye laser. Explosions rock the stone as the envy demon weaves his magic of destruction, all the while his one eye grows more and more bulbous and luminous. It isn’t long before it starts to feel as if we have a bright green lamp of extreme power beaming out into the dark. Being the crafty little demon he is, Invidia lines up the maximum number of spiders he can before he finally unloads the spell.
It’s just as destructive as I remember, shredding through stone, spiders, scorpions, and everything else that happens to get in the way. Invidia himself delights in the destruction, wiggling his stick-thin arms over his eye as his too-small wings flap and flutter to keep him aloft. Between the two of them, we manage to clear away the swarm of monsters. Though naturally, thanks to the incredibly bright nature of their efforts, we’ve only called down another wave.
[Crinis, time to go to work.]
[Yes, Master!]
Her bubbly, chipper tone is completely at odds with the grisly nature of her fighting style, Crinis begins to unfold herself even further, extending tentacle after tentacle into the gloom. The descending spiders find themselves caught in an altogether different sort of web, one that coils and twists, that grips and squeezes. If that were all it did, it wouldn’t be so bad. But no, after that, the barbs come out, followed by the tearing and grinding. Mere tier three creatures have little hope of standing up to Crinis, not unless their numbers are truly absurd. I still need to unleash the odd jet of flame, usually at monsters coming toward us across the ground, but Crinis takes care of the majority of those above over the next five minutes.
Even though I can’t see everything that goes on up there, I can hear the spiders start running away in terror, so I can take a guess at what it was like.
[Uh, good job, Crinis.]
[Thank you, Master!]
So saying, she gathers herself into a blob of pure darkness once more and drops down onto my abdomen, glomping onto my carapace and making herself at home.
[Oof! Alright then. Let’s start a slow retreat back to the group and see how we all went.]
With my pets in tow, I begin to retrace our steps to the agreed meeting point. There are still many monsters about in the darkness, and we deal with them as they appear. A lot of precious Biomass is left behind, but I’m hoping we’ll be back to collect it before it dissolves into the Dungeon. It’s more important that our little strike forces get together and assess our progress than spend time gobbling down food. There’ll be plenty of time for that later!
Before long, I run into Vibrant and her group, already crunching the numbers and assessing the situation. Well, her generals are doing that. Vibrant herself is running around between groups of ants, checking that everyone is well, asking if they need help, and generally sticking her antennae into everyone else’s business.
“Vibrant!”
“Eldest! Hi-hi! How’d you go fighting the nasty things?”
“Uh, well, I suppose. How about you and your team?”
“We did good! Really good!”
Somehow, I doubt she has the numbers to back that statement up.
“Alright then. Let’s go through it…”
50. The Great Working, Part 1
Deep beneath the surface, under layers of rock and stone, burned a flame that had never been seen on Pangera before. No ordinary flame, this. It did not burn, yet its heat was unbearable. Had no colour, yet glowed bright with the light of molten steel. Made no sound, yet contained the ringing of a thousand hammers on a thousand anvils. The flame of insect industry had roared to life within the colony of Formica Sapiens, and its intensity grew day by day. Such that, should it continue unchecked, it would consume all the world.
The eldest had commanded his siblings to look upon the humans, on their sciences, Skills and craft, and learn from them. The colony had done their utmost to comply, as they always did. No effort was spared, no question left unasked, and every observation was discussed, disseminated, and dissected so that every kernel of wisdom would be extracted.
The blacksmithing trade was one that the colony had initially dismissed. What need had they for tools? Their mandibles could dig better than any spade! Cut rock better than any pick! Not only that, what need had the ants of swords, spears, or axes? Their bodies were not soft and weak like the humans. The opposite was true! Where the humans sought to compensate for their sagginess with more solid materials, the ants were already armed and armoured from birth! What need had they for metal?
Yet, there were other concerns. Many valuable minerals could be found in the Dungeon. If the colony learned to extract and refine them, trade became possible. As knowledge of construction grew, the ability to manipulate metals became more valuable. As Skills at finer manipulations were uncovered and Levelled up, more detailed metalwork was possible. Suddenly, the ant smiths were called upon to make brackets, fittings, moulds, and pins for any number of widgets. Yet the initial assessment still rang true within the colony: they did not need smiths to forge arms nor armour.