[Sooo, you want to tag along a bit more closely when I’m moving around?]
[In short, yes.]
Uuuuughhh. Another member of the entourage? I’ve got more than enough people following me around as it is! Corun appears to sense my reluctance and jumps in to back Torrina up.
[Look, we don’t need to get in the way, and we certainly don’t need to be up front and fighting or anything. Just to be in the general area so we know what’s happening and can approach you when we feel we have something to contribute. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?]
I think about it.
[You know what, that sounds pretty good. You’ve got a deal.]
I extend an antenna through the door and they both shake it solemnly before returning to their tea. I excuse myself and get back onto the pheromone trails. Things to do, ants to see!
Back into the bustling tunnels and my first port of call is the industrial district. The crafters have turned this section of the nest into their own empire. The mining efforts of the colony have expanded to cover hundreds of square kilometres of Dungeon, and every extracted scrap from the field is brought back here for processing.
Tons of material are hauled into this section of the nest each day, and the fires burn all day and all night, melting the slag, extracting and purifying the metals. It’s hot, hard work, but the smallest caste of all is more than up to the task, using tools and ingenious devices, even magic when their frames aren’t up to the task. Buried deep at the end of this maze of workshops, I find the remarkable ant I was told to find.
“Smithant, I presume?”
A relatively large crafter, obviously tier four, is busy in her own private workshop working on several things at once. With one leg, she’s poking and prodding at her forge, manipulating whatever she has heating in there, with another, she’s working her pulley hammer, pounding a sheet of heated steel into shape, using her mandibles to grip and bend the material, whilst also using magic to inscribe runes onto yet another, finished piece. I’ve heard about working hard, but this is insane! More to the point, she doesn’t seem to realise that I’m here.
“Hello there? Everything alright?”
Without pausing in her work, the ant snaps at me.
“I had a rest two days ago! You mandatory rest enforcers are getting more insufferable by the week! I can’t be asleep, and fulfill the order the council has placed for armour at the same time now, can I? So shove off?”
“Two days, eh? Sounds like someone is well overdue for a nap.”
“I TOLD you—Oh.”
Dropping her work to face the doorway fully, Smithant finally sees who has come to visit and the realisation is written all over her face.
“When we’re done here, you’re going to sleep. No arguments,” I warn her.
She deflates a little.
“Yes, eldest.”
“I’ve seen your work, the suit you made for Leeroy? Amazing! I’m told you also enchanted it yourself?”
“That’s true…” Full of fire only a moment ago, the crafter is now quite shy when it comes to taking a compliment. “But that suit is nothing! Complete garbage compared to what I can make now. My enchanting and smithing keep Levelling, and the refinements I can make will improve the durability of the metal and the efficacy of the magic by fifteen, maybe even twenty percent!”
“That’s not a small amount.”
“It’s just the beginning.” The more she talks about her work, the more animated she becomes until her passion is burning just as hot as the forge behind her. “The more we expand, the better-quality ore we find, and as more time passes, the better we get at processing it. I feel like the metal I get improves every day I crawl into my workshop. And the better the metal I work with, the faster my Skills climb! I’ve even heard there’s a team of crafters working on a more efficient anvil and hammer design.”
She pats her still glowing anvil with her claw.
“Much as I love the old thing, it’s hard to keep up with demand.”
I’m a bit surprised.
“Aren’t there more crafters who can work with you? At the very least support you?”
The usual solution the colony attempts to employ is to throw greater numbers at the problem. Generally works out okay. I don’t see why this situation would be any different. Smithant clacks her mandibles in irritation.
“Most of the crafters still don’t see the need for armour on ants. We have a carapace, after all.”
“But even the council seems to find it useful!”
“They still haven’t ordered anyone to assist me, and until they do, I don’t think anyone will bother. I’m the only one working on armour in the entire colony.”
What nonsense is this? The most talented smith in the entire colony, slaving away on her own without support! This is worse than madness!
“That’s going to change,” I tell her. “Anything that helps to keep our people alive is something that needs to be explored. A carapace isn’t going to be enough for the fight that’s coming. I’ll put the word out that this is to become a priority. I don’t think every ant needs a full set of armour, but defensive enhancement is something I want every frontline soldier to have. After I next evolve, I’ll get you to make me a set as well.”
Time for the antdustrial revolution to reach an entirely new phase!
62. The Simplest Way
The centuries following the event that came to be known as the Descent, when the System applied itself to the peoples of Pangera, remain shrouded in darkness. The Cataclysm that came afterward destroyed almost all records, but those scraps we have access to speak of great upheaval, followed by an age of enlightenment before the Dungeon opened on the surface.
Like most things that fall into a civilised society’s hands, the System was seen as a weapon that would give a tremendous advantage to those who were able to master it first. This is largely conjecture on my part, but it is highly likely that the people of that time engaged in the same sort of questionable practises that were seen in the post-Rending era, when people sought to recapture that which was lost.
In that time, it was unheard of to die of old age, not just because of the many conflicts, but allowing a person to pass away naturally would waste a tremendous resource. It was common for children to execute their parents as they lay on their deathbed in order to inherit the experience gained for the kill. Compared to other atrocities, that practice could be considered mild. Slaves were forced to endure unimaginable horrors in the name of experimentation, all to secure an edge over competitors.
Many hoped the storied ‘golden age’ would re-emerge after the age of suffering and secrecy, but in many ways, that veil still remains. Knowledge of the System is hoarded between societies, faiths, even members of the same delving teams have been known to withhold what they’ve gleaned of its inner workings. Builds, classes, fusions, any piece of information can lead to a competitive advantage.
And that is meaningful. The System allows a person to rise to unbelievable heights. With the power of Mana, and the knowledge of how to wield one’s inner strength, incredible feats become possible. Firing blades of light from your weapons, weaving the elements, or even bending light with one’s mind. Those few who managed to scale the heights and achieve the pinnacle, the highest Level, the most powerful classes, all had a deep, lasting impact on Pangera. Many founded their own kingdoms, others destroyed empires that had existed for centuries.