Grumbling to myself, I descend through the main shaft of the nest, through the queen’s chamber and into the area my pets and I have made our home. It’s been somewhat expanded recently, mainly to accommodate Tiny and allow us a little more space in fighting off the Dungeon monsters that have swarmed up the tunnels periodically over the last week.
My pets and I have been training our skills, using our shortcut to venture deeper into the Dungeon and harvest Biomass for ourselves and the queen. We’ve seen significant gains in pumping up our new skills and our overall combat effectiveness has risen as a result. I’m quite pleased that my pets now have properly allocated Skill Points and mutation advancements, even if it took way too much effort to finally get them there.
We ran into serious trouble twice during our escapades. When Tiny and I ventured down, leaving Crinis on guard duty, she had to fight off a wave on her own. Thankfully the ants from the chamber above became aware of the ruckus and rushed down to support her. By the time Tiny and I returned it had been cleaned up and casualties were minimal. We were a bit more cautious after that and tried to make sure no monsters were able to slip past us.
Still, the second time, through some twist of tunnel, one of the waves managed to find an alternate access point to the surface. We had no idea they were up there until the colony engaged and started calling for reinforcements. When the Queen’s Guards in the chamber above started moving out, we were alerted and rushed out with them. Eventually we were able to find the monsters and defeat them, but not before a significant number of workers had been killed in the engagement.
The human refugees had almost been caught up in it. When the battle raged, the fighting had gone right to their doorsteps. Being saved by the colony seems to have driven their affection for ant monsters to even greater heights. When workers wander past their growing encampment, they bow respectfully and cheer. It’s getting a bit unnerving.
We’ve been even more careful since then.
I would’ve rushed straight into the Dungeon and shoved my mandibles through those stupid crocs’ faces if I could, but I wanted to make sure the colony was safe first. That was a few days ago now. We’ve been quietly building our strength since then, getting ready to launch our invasion and claim the marsh Expanse for ourselves!
Nobody messes with my family and gets away with it!
Entering the chamber, Crinis and Tiny get ready for action. Crinis has extended her tentacles down the tunnel for more than a hundred metres, stretching her strange flesh to the limit in order to detect vibrations.
[Bring it all back, Crinis. Time to get ready to fight]
[Yes, Master.]
The little tennis ball of boundless hunger begins to retract the thin, wire-like tendrils she had painstakingly extended down the tunnel back into her body. When the task is done, she inflates herself to her combat size, ready to unleash destruction upon our foes.
Tiny has long been primed. His hands clench and unclench repeatedly as if he can’t wait to allow his fists to go to work. The silver hair on his arms is already beginning to rise as electrical current begins to flicker across his body.
Ever since advancing his skills, Tiny has become even more obsessed with fighting, if that were even possible. I think that now he knows he can advance his skills again there’s even more relish to be had in the thrill of battle.
Actually…
Where the heck is he going?
Unable to contain himself anymore, the ape dashes down the tunnel, whooping with delight!
[Damnable ape… Let’s go, Crinis!]
Rushing after him, Crinis and I hurtle down the tunnel. In front of us, Tiny moves with impressive speed, hands and legs flailing with a strange grace as he propels his massive frame like a hairy, overweight gazelle.
I should never have told him about the Dash skill…
With us hurtling down and the monsters rushing up, it doesn’t take long for the two sides to crash into each other like speeding trucks.
Boom!
94. The Boys (and Girls) are Back in Town
As Tiny smashes into the front of the monster wave, a voice calls from behind me.
“Hey-Hey! Wait for me, senior!”
Vibrant…
As Crinis joins Tiny on the front lines, the little ant motors down the passage behind us to catch up and I sigh internally.
It isn’t that we’ve been ignoring the little thing lately or trying to leave her behind. It’s more that she’s become a little too reckless. Flinging herself into combat and trying to get her mandibles dug into the flesh of our opponents. The result of such behaviour is that she nearly gets smashed by Tiny or eaten by Crinis as they rampage. Crinis doesn’t have a way to communicate with the little worker. As friendly as they are with each other, they don’t share the same bond that Crinis and Tiny do. I’ve confirmed with Crinis multiple times that within a certain range, she can sense my location as well as Tiny’s. This prevents her from ripping into Tiny as they fight together.
“Vibrant! You need to wait here with me for a second.”
“Whaaaaat? I want to fight!” she complains. “Look at big sis, Crinis! She can fight so well already. I want to be like that!”
Sigh.
This is the source of the problem. Her former partner in smallness, Crinis, is all grown up and wrecking faces, whereas she has yet to evolve, still a Superior Hatchling, not really capable of contributing to tough fights like these.
“Tell you what. You go up to the ceiling and fire acid to get some Skill Levels, and we’ll save a good chunk of monsters for you to finish off. After all this time, you’re fairly close to your next evolution. If we can manage it, you might even be able to evolve today.”
“Yaaaaay!” she cheers like a happy child and rushes up to the ceiling to begin raining acid down on the horde of onrushing monsters.
Well, at least she’s happy. Vibrant has been something of a restraint on our strength since she isn’t really powerful enough to wade into situations like this and come out alive. These shadow beast monsters are simply a cut above the kind of prey us ants would normally have to deal with.
If she can evolve again, then perhaps she’ll be able to hold her own. She’s certainly had enough Biomass to upgrade all of her body parts to the limit by this stage since we’ve been pumping her full of food for so long. Considering the regular feasts that have been delivering themselves to us on a regular basis, as well as our own farming activities, I’ve managed to pile up 163 points of Biomass that I need to spend.
This will be the last upgrade before our assault on the marsh Expanse, so I need to make it count!
Whatever the crocs can do, I need to do better.
Charge!
Eager to continue training my skills, I rush up the wall and begin weaving my magic.
[Make sure you guys save a lot of monsters for Vibrant to finish off, ok? We want her to evolve today if possible.]
[Yes, Master.]
[Grrrnnn.]
You’re that unhappy about only being allowed to punch the monsters mostly to death, huh, Tiny? Get over it, man!
Moving onto the ceiling where Vibrant has already taken up a position to hurl blasts of acid into the fray, I take a moment to size up the situation.
The tunnel is packed with onrushing shadow beasts. These guys are almost entirely low tier monsters that are yet to evolve, but due to their nature as monsters from a deeper level of the Dungeon, they cannot be compared to Centipedes and Coral Slugs in terms of their lethality.