Now though, it looks a little different. Between a monster who can decide if a fight is too dangerous and tactfully retreat, or a monster who suicidally charges forward no matter what, which is more dangerous? In the short-term, the suicidal monster is a little dangerous, in the long-term, the sneaky one is by far the greater threat. In this world, the potential for growth of monsters seems nearly infinite. All we need is time and resources. For a monster, surviving to fight another day is the only thing that matters.
I’ll have to think about this development later. For now, the stupid monsters who decided to stick around shall become my food!
Tiny finishes crunching on his Biomass and turns his greedy eyes to the other monsters battling on the fringes of the cavern. None shall be let go!
The two of us catapult into the battle once more. Having discharged most of his electricity, Tiny is reduced to smashing his opponents with just his raw strength, whereas I have plenty of juice left in the tank.
Instead of chomping everything to death, I try and work on some new tactics. The Gravity Bolt combo I used on the lizard is just one of my new strategies. I have other ideas as well! The first is to test the Gravity Spear.
After launching a spear in the midst of a cluster of monsters, the pulling effect is strong enough that none of them are able to escape, instead being sucked into a comical ball of writhing monsters who stab and snap at each other viciously with no way to escape.
Hehehe. Now is the time to apply some AOE damage.
Shattering Bite!
CRUNCH!
Pouring forth my stamina, I manifest the two ethereal mandibles around the condensed monsters and savagely bite, crushing the creatures between them!
[You have defeated…]
[You have defeated…]
[You have defeated…]
It’s so easy, it almost feels mean…
This is the strength of the Mind Ant! Being able to wield these powerful spells and destroy my opponents with ease. It was this sort of effect that I’ve been striving for from the very beginning. Practicing my magic skills and prioritising the growth of my core, grinding away all of those hours and finally choosing this evolution. Sacrificing strength, sacrificing Toughness, all to boost my capacity to wield magic in this new world.
All of it was for this.
And it was totally worth it!
I start to run around the cavern, gleefully hurling Gravity Spears and running toward the hapless targets to crunch them with my mandibles. Even as my flagrant use of my own stamina and Mana mounts up and exhaustion sets in, I don’t stop until every monster I can see has been defeated.
So much fun!
I even went up a Level!
This trip into the Dungeon has certainly been profitable. Being able to cast my spells so smoothly in combat is so rewarding. I still feel it’s possible to bring them out faster, but I’ll need a lot of practice to make that happen.
I also shouldn’t overestimate my strength either. There will surely be some forms of counter to magical attacks, shields of some sort or magic dampening abilities. Just because I can beat up on these small fries, doesn’t mean I should start celebrating too much.
Keep it cool, Anthony.
With the main bulk of our work complete, we try and wrap up the rest of our task as quickly as possible. I get Tiny to help me locate any cores and I get him to hold onto them for me before we settle down to have a rapid meal.
The two lizards we defeated are undoubtedly the strongest monsters we fought here so they are the Biomass of choice!
[You have consumed a new source of Biomass: Os Lacerti. You are awarded one Biomass.]
[Basic profile of the Os Lacerti unlocked.]
[Os Lacerti: Bone Lizard. This monster is famed for the powerful armour covering its body, its immense physical strength and the devastating power of the clubbed tail. Although not too powerful, the beast is capable of simple earth magic spells, be careful.]
Yeah, now they tell us.
Drained but satisfied, Tiny, myself, Vibrant and Crinis enthusiastically tuck into the Biomass. I personally manage to pick up another fifteen points!
25. Anthony, Beyond Human
Overall, we managed to harvest six cores from the wide section of tunnel, including two tasty looking ones from the Bone Lizards. This has been an extremely profitable trip. It feels good to get Levels and Biomass again so freely. Now that I don’t have to worry so much about the colony surviving the terror of the wave, I’ll be able to head down here with Tiny every now and again in order to make sure my personal strength isn’t lagging too far behind.
I can already feel more heat readings from the walls growing with every passing second. A new wave of monsters is about to spawn, and I’d rather not get tangled up with them. I collect my passengers and tell Tiny it’s time to leave.
The big ape has mostly healed up after consuming all of that Biomass, but his fist still looks like it’s in rough shape. Not too surprising considering what he punched! More importantly, he looks relaxed and happy, something I haven’t seen for over a week now.
Being a little careful with ourselves, we begin the long trek to the surface, clearing out the monsters who spawned behind us after we descended. The two little ones are probably the members who gained the most from this trip. I’m not sure that eating more advanced Biomass expedites the growth of young monsters, but it probably does. I’ll be interested to see how much Crinis has grown tomorrow. Since Vibrant is a fully grown monster, albeit a small one, she will have gained a truckload of Biomass from consuming a creature two evolution tiers above her, perhaps as many as seventeen points!
Considering how limited her stomach capacity is, getting so many points from one meal is quite an amazing haul.
I climb out to the surface first in order to detect if there are any humans or other creatures around the opening to the tunnel. We need to be somewhat careful moving in and out of here, as we aren’t too far from the human settlement. Some caution goes a long way in avoiding unnecessary complications.
Since we’ve cleaned out the lower tunnels twice, there shouldn’t be too much there for the humans in the church to fight, just the very weakest monsters who spawned above where my new tunnel connects to the old one. Not only have I protected their lives, I’ve also robbed them of experience. Truly giving with one hand and taking with the other. Gwehehehe.
I haven’t really hurt them at all, and taking little steps like this to protect my colony, my family, is surely permissible, right, Gandalf?
Eh. My conscience is clean.
The four of us trek back through the forest—well, two of us trek back into the forest. I’m fairly certain Vibrant has fallen asleep on my head. Judging by the rhythmic expansion and contraction of the little ball on my back, Crinis has also.
Why I oughtta!
Ah, fine. They’ve had a big day, I suppose. The faster they digest that Biomass and grow, the sooner they’ll be off my back and working hard for the colony. Just you wait, you little freeloaders…
It takes a few hours to return to the anthill and things are perfectly peaceful on the journey.
However, when we’re almost there, faint sounds of battle attract my attention.
My heart slows as I recognise the sound of human voices shouting and the clash of steel. People are fighting near the colony!