Despite the importance of the mission the Mother Tree has dumped on us, I don’t want the upcoming invasion to take away the main focus of the Colony, which is to continue expanding through the second and first strata to help build our capacity and strengthen our foundation before an eventual move farther into the third. With a wide chunk of territory in the third, we’ll have the resources needed to harvest the experience and Biomass required to produce more tier six ants.
Only then will we be strong enough to invade the fourth in strength and take hold of land there. Without those precious resets, we’d simply be too outmatched against the creatures born in an environment so rich in mana compared to ours. For the two weeks available, the Colony focused on bringing as many ants to tier five and six as possible, trying to power up an elite force capable of going toe-to-toe, mandible to mandible, against the termites.
And of course, things between us and the ka’armodo didn’t simmer down in the meantime, oh no, they only got more tense. A defensive fortification was constructed to protect the garden of the Mother Tree and manned with over ten thousand ants at all times. Even so, the reptiles and their bonded slaves never stopped poking about, arriving in small patrols or in a grand show of force, flinging spells at us only for them to be taken apart, or dissipate harmlessly against our shields.
And maddeningly enough, somewhere out there is that treacherous worm. I haven’t caught a sniff of him since the garden grew, and without Brilliant to help me trace the worm tunnels, I’ve very little hope of getting hold of his tail.
Although, interestingly enough, Sarah has volunteered to go to the fourth stratum and fight against the termites. Perhaps he’ll make an appearance? I mean, it would certainly be out of character for him to venture somewhere so dangerous, but I would have said the exact same thing about him coming to the third.
[Master, it’s almost time.]
[Huh? Oh, thanks, Crinis.]
For me, the past two weeks have been spent training and grinding, pushing my Level as high as I can in preparation for the test to come. It’s a been a gruelling regime of roaming far and wide with my friends by my side, hunting down every strong demon we could find. It was brutal, but it bore results.
In front us, a glittering portal bound by a great arch of wood through which are threaded golden veins of potent mana. The Grove Keeper hadn’t lied when he told us this was a significant investment on the part of their mother, the amount of energy she’s poured into growing this gate is nothing short of amazing. The fact she’s even capable of doing something like this is absurd in the first place! This must be how she can spread clusters of roots all over the place without any of them being connected to each other. Which means that not only are these gates capable of moving material objects through, like an army of ants, but also energy.
The Colony desperately needs to master the secret of these gates! If we could link all of our nests together…
The Grove Keeper stands at the ready in front of the gate, his eyes roaming over every detail and twist of the roots and boughs that make up the portal. Since it isn’t ready, I might as well try and hunt down something before I forget.
Where is she?
I dip my consciousness down into the flowing stream formed of the Colony’s Will. She’s going to be in here somewhere, though it isn’t always easy to spot. Her thoughts are just as slippery as the rest of her when she wants to be hidden. It takes a few minutes, but I catch a stray thought and I point with one leg.
[Over there, Tiny. Go get her.]
Like an excitable puppy thrown a ball, the giant, bat-faced gorilla leaps as if shot from a cannon, his powerful limbs slamming into the ground, crushing the stone as he bounds across the ground. As he draws nearer, he leaps high into the air before crashing down amidst the foliage on the edge of the garden like a fallen tree. The leaves and flowers rustle indignantly, but Tiny pays them no mind as he rummages about. After a few tense moments of groping at something beneath our line of sight, he grins and hauls up a wriggling ant by one leg.
[Good job, Tiny! Bring her on back!]
Filled with pride, he walks back as the Grove Keeper approaches.
[The gate will be ready in a few moments. Have you gathered all that you will take? It will not remain open permanently, an hour a day is all the Mother can maintain right now.]
That isn’t what I wanted to hear, but we were prepared for something like this.
[We’ll manage. Everyone is here, ten thousand of the finest.]
[Hmmmm. I hope it is enough.]
[Don’t worry about it. I’m going, aren’t I?]
He looks at me in a way that suggests my words might not have been as comforting as perhaps I hoped. How rude!
[The gate is ready,] he announces a moment later. [Move quickly.]
A qualitative change has come over the flickering space between the boughs. Where before it had been a hazy field of twitching energy, it was now a rippling window of golden light ten metres wide and ten high. An impressive feat for a plant, no doubt about it.
Behind me, the various members of the Council, along with the rest of the expeditionary force, wait in quiet ranks. Leeroy, Bella, Cobalt, Advant, Burke, and others have come to help guide their castes in this new environment.
“Alright then, a taste of the fourth stratum. Let’s go get it!” I declare before I begin to step forward.
As the portal looms larger in my eyes, I feel my heart pounding in my chest and the mana rushing through my body. I feel as if I couldn’t turn around even if I wanted to. I must step forward into the unknown. I don’t even have a choice.
77. The Realm of Myth
The first stratum is filled with beasts of all kinds. Vicious growls and the sounds of battle ring constantly here, in this, the weakest area of the Dungeon.
The second is filled with shadow and cold and death. A place of darkness where creatures of spun shadow swim and crawl through an endless maze where light is quiet.
The third is a realm of fire, smoke, and ash. Demons abound, and theirs is an alien and savage existence.
But in the fourth, the impossible begins to become possible. The concentration of mana is such that the rules of the world, of life, of existence as we know it become skewed. The realm of Myth. To enter this layer of the Dungeon is to step onto the precipice of a different universe.
Pulled forward like a fish with a hook in its mouth, I rush into the portal and am overtaken by a blinding light that washes away my vision and has me seeing stars. The texture beneath my legs changes, the temperature drops, and as the light slowly fades, I am left staring out into the impossible.
In front of me rises a mountain. An enormous, jagged and snow-capped mountain that rises from a floor so far below that I cannot see it and then continues rising to a height that boggles the mind. Mist and clouds shield the top, and unbelievably I realise it’s raining, faintly, but still, raining. I shield my eyes as best I can, since I have no lids to cover them, and stare in open-jawed wonder at the incredible scenery before me, heedless of the ants who begin to pour through the gate.
Between where I stand and the mountain opposite is a vast open space, filled with what I believe at first are incredibly dense clouds, but as it turns out, are something else entirely. They are floating rocks. Although ‘rocks’ isn’t really the word I think fits them best. These aren’t pebbles or even boulders, these are huge, practically islands. Each must weigh thousands of tons, large enough to host a small village. How in the name of whatever the heck passes for Newton on Pangera are these things FLOATING?!