Ah, the empowered gravity bomb, infused with the overflowing Will of the Colony via my trusty Altar. Would there ever be a time I didn't threaten my own life when using this stupid ability?!
The bomb rips through the air, sucking in everything around it, creating a horrendous wind as the air races to fill in the void. My antennae flap wildly as I realise just what I've done and scramble to get my precious diamond carapace to safety.
Six legs scramble, scratching and scrabbling at the dirt as I struggle to turn myself around. I fired the damn thing pretty much point blank, and I barely get my face-hands pointed in the right direction when the spell detonates.
On the very edge of my peripheral vision, I see the bomb expand right behind me. Even a weak gravity bomb, when empowered by the Altar, can pack a serious punch, and sadly, this one is no different. I flex my legs, my core thrashing with wild energy as I explode forward with an empowered dash!
Of course, there's not enough room and I run face first into the wall. Damn it! Can't these tunnels be a little bit straighter?!
My face explodes with pain as the impact rattles through my carapace and shakes up my insides, but thankfully no major damage is suffered. My mandibles are stuck about half a metre deep into the rock, though… which is less than ideal.
HOOOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLL!!!!
The spell screams behind me, and I think I get a notification, but I can't even hear someone talking in my mind through the din. Besides that, my mind is preoccupied with not being sucked into the swirling void of doom, which is important.
Come on, come on, come on! Break, you lousy rock!
I try to yank my head free, only to find that my legs are no longer on the ground. As the ridiculous force of the pull exerts itself on me, my entire body has risen up off the ground!
I'm dangling in mid-air, with only my mandibles buried in the stone to keep me from falling horizontally to my death!
Come on, stone, hold! Hold, you lousy rock!
My minds spin, pumping out earth mana which I compress before using it to harden the stone around my trusty pinchers. If that stuff breaks, or even worse, comes loose from the wall, I'm toast!
I pull up every drop of mana in my core and shove it through the omni-elemental construct, getting sweet, sweet stone mana out the other end, which I promptly pour out until I'm buried up to the eyeballs in the stuff. It's terrifying, but I eventually reach an equilibrium, with my body held aloft, being pulled back into the danger zone, but the stone resolutely holding strong.
When the spell finally fades, my body falls to the ground and I go completely limp with relief.
Holy moly.
I've never been that close to the epicentre of a gravity bomb before, and I hope I never am again. That was terrifying! My legs feel like jelly, in fact I've got the shivers over my entire body. I'm almost glad I couldn't see directly behind me, peering straight into the void might have been too much for my poor ant heart.
And now I need to get my face free.
A Void Chomp manages to do the job, exploding the rock in front of me and showering me with dust and stone chips, several of which poke into my eyes. These soft orbs remain the greatest weakness of my body; I'm going to have to deal with that issue when I next evolve.
For now, I revel in my freedom and survival. Yes! Cheating death once again, Anthony! You might have had me once, but never twice! Take that!
Ouch.
A slight pain runs up my leg and I glance down to see what's going on, only to find one of those horrific drill-worms has latched onto my right-rear leg. In fact, it hasn't just latched on, it's trying to tunnel its way into my leg!
KILL IT WITH FIRE!
GRAVITY BO—now hold it a second… execute plan B!
DRAGON'S BREATH!
From between my mandibles launches a roaring jet of flame which I resolutely turn on my own leg, searing the little pest in an instant, while also roasting myself in the process.
How in the name of heck did that damn thing survive? Those slugs are nightmare fuel, I swear to Gandalf, the sight of them is absolutely terrifying. I trigger the regeneration gland to hopefully repair my leg a little faster before I adjust my position and send the searing jet of flame down the tunnel. If any more of those things lived through the bomb, then I want them fully roasted.
Only when the rocks are searing hot and every inch of the remaining goop I can see has evaporated do I dare to start to crawl forward into the wreckage of what the gravity bomb has wrought.
Not even the stone survived intact, the area is distinctly more spherical than it was before, and right in the middle is a glowing, compressing chunk of stuff that fell when the bomb ended. As for signs of the monster, surprisingly, there are some. The creature was a little lucky in that I didn't fire the bomb directly towards it, but in front of it, aimed at the little tunnel-slugs. Whatever these things use to grip, be they a 'foot' like a mollusc uses or some other method, it managed to hold on pretty well, but not quite well enough. Around half of the monster has been blitzed, the rest is a now roasted and steaming mess on the ground.
Sigh.
Better get a bite of it so I can check the profile. Eating these things is just as unappealing as fighting them.
-x-X-x-
I swear I lose HP when I bite into the thing. I take damage! That's how toxic these creatures are?! I defeat it using the power of a collapsed star and then roast the Biomass with the concentrated heat of a dragon's breath, and still, it's so poisonous my mouth stings with pain when I consume it!
I'm really starting to hate the monsters from the fifth. Like… really hate them. Everyone was all like 'oh, the demons from the third are the WORST, what with all the maiming and killing and obsessive behaviours'. PAH. Absolutely nonsense. The demons were and are great, Al is an absolute legend compared to these horrible things.
Fortunately, a single mouthful is enough to unlock the basic profile, and a single mouthful is all I'm going to take!
[Examin Dator: Swarm Host (VI). A deadly branch of the sludge elemental, this creature uses noxious, acidic gas to defend itself, along with its poisonous slime. However, the true threat is the plague drones it nurses within its flesh. These mindless parasites are extremely difficult to remove and will excrete potent toxins directly into the body of their unfortunate victims.]
Even gandalf thinks these monsters are too much, what the heck.
Swarm Host, huh? To say I'm not a fan is an absurd understatement. Yet another monstrosity I need to report back to the Colony about so we can avoid having to lop off segments of ant soldiers to remove these horrendous things. I'm not going to lie to you, I'd almost rather monsters from the sixth came up here and started punching us in the face than deal with this nonsense. Invasive toxin drones? Have mercy on me.
As I trudge back to the nest, I inform my comrades about the monster. Tiny strikes me as particularly vulnerable to this type of creature. If one gets onto him before he can burn it off with lightning, he might be in trouble. Only after I natter at him like a worried mother hen does he eventually and begrudgingly agree to be careful.
Crinis is absolutely scandalised that such monsters exist and that one bit me, then she swears to extract terrible vengeance upon the next one she sees. As long as I don't see what happens, then I don't mind. I get the feeling I would have nightmares.
Invidia is strangely silent when I tell him about it, and it takes me a little while to realise what's going on in his mind.
[No, you can't evolve to be a drone host.]
[I wantsssss the littlesssssss.]
[Sorry, I'm putting three legs down on this one, it's too gross. There's tons of stuff you want… literally everything, so there was no way it was going to happen in the first place. You need to start making a list of all the things you want in order of priority, because you only get the top five.]
The little dude is going to struggle when he evolves, that's for sure. Putting menu after menu of options he can't have in front of him is going to be torturous.
"These monsters sound… disturbing… Eldest."
"They very much are," I assure Sloan back in the central chamber. "Be extra careful around them, don't get too close. I also suspect that they may release a final wave of drones when they're finished off, which is another thing to watch for. Horrible things."
She cleans her antennae, dragging them through her elbow joints to soothe herself.
"The fifth stratum only gets more and more difficult for us to manage," she says. "We are going to have to shift our approach to almost everything against these creatures."
"Adapt and survive," I tell the general. "New enemies means new methods. I suspect that's only going to get more true the deeper into the Dungeon we get. Monsters will get more powerful and more specialised. We'll have to adjust on the fly to counter their strengths and exploit their weaknesses."
I leave the general musing and go back to my post, waiting for word of the next intrusion that I need to get up and deal with.
And then, this becomes my routine for the next week. Increasingly, the tunnels below the nest become filled with goop, slime and deadly monsters from the fifth and I sally forth, with flame and gravity to annihilate them with extreme force, only to return and rest while I can.
The more time passes, the more the Colony is required to engage in aggressive countermeasures against the encroaching filth. Burning off the tunnels isn't enough, even using multiple elements doesn't cut it. The invading mana is so infectious, even a smidgeon left behind will eventually multiply and begin to spread again. Mages are called in to sweep and decontaminate, purging every speck of poison without remorse. My family are required to perform regular aggressive actions, pushing out from the fortress to drive back the terraforming efforts of the slugs and their virus-like energy.
Alongside the ever increasing numbers of advanced monsters we see, things are starting to get pinched by the time the week is up. So many ants are rotating through the hospital system that it's been stretched to breaking point once again. Anyone with only minor acid burns and injuries is being sent back to their resting chambers and told to 'sleep it off' at this point. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, the tunnel having the most success at handling its own business without my intervention is Solant's. The little general has proven herself to be exceptionally capable at adapting to the situation and continues to hone her brutal level of efficiency down to the wire.
Sloan and Victor don't want to admit it, but I can tell they're impressed by the new Colony champion. Her methods are unorthodox, by the Colony's standards, but she rates extremely highly on the most important metric of all: results.
-x-X-x-
"We aim to advance in ten minutes. Make sure your squads are ready."
They had spent a week preparing for this expedition, training, theorising, testing. Bella and Ellie had worked overtime, stretching their knowledge of monster anatomy to the very limits, studying the cores of fifth stratum monsters with intense focus.
Solant's broodmates acknowledged her instructions and rushed off to carry out her word, only Leonidant remaining behind.
"How confident are you?" the scout asked.
"That's an unusually direct question."
"These are unusual times."
"Very true words."
Solant reflected for a moment.
"We really have come a long way, haven't we?" she said, cleaning her antennae carefully. "It wasn't that long ago the only thing we had to worry about was Tunnel Ball and completing our training exercises."
"The Eldest certainly changed that in a hurry."
The giant ant had thrown Solant and her broodmates into the thick of the conflict at the earliest possible opportunity. It had been a brutal learning curve, for all of them, but they had grown so fast as a result of the change, it was difficult to view it as a bad thing.
"I believe the Eldest was wise to place us here," Solant decided. "It's been an excellent opportunity to develop ourselves and be of use to the family."
"That doesn't answer my question. How confident are you?"
Solant considered the question for a moment.
"About half," she said finally. "It's lower than I would like, but we need to start testing our ideas sooner rather than later. More certainty will be hard to come by without taking a few risks now."
"We trust you," the scout reassured her general. "I'm sure we're going to be successful."
"Of course," Solant nodded, "we can't lose."
With a quick salute, Leonidant rushed off to join the others organising the column. Solant left them to it. She needed to focus on the bigger picture, not spend her time fussing over the minor details before they set out. No matter how much she wanted to. The more she tried to look over their thorax and check their work, the more her broodmates pushed back and told her to find something productive to do.
The little general completely believed in their capabilities, but it was hard to let go sometimes.
"You really are heading out?"
Solant turned to see Ellie and Bella, the two core shaper Council members, approaching from the nest. Each looked visibly worried, antennae twitching and legs flexing anxiously.
"We need to know sooner rather than later if we are on the right track," Solant said. "I believe in the work that you and your caste members have completed to this point. Without proper assessment, we won't be able to advance according to the timetable I have laid out."
"Timetable?" Ellie asked. "I thought we were working on solutions for the toxic mana and miasma for the wave defence."
"We are," Solant assured her, eyes focusing down the tunnel, but somehow looking far beyond. "For now, that is what we are doing."
Leonidant signalled from her place in the column and Solant turned to the two core shapers.
"I have to excuse myself, it's time to depart. I'll give you a full report the moment we return."
"Work hard!" Bella said. "I hope the pets will do us all proud."
"I'm sure they will."
So saying, the little general left the two behind and took her place amongst the column as it slowly began to move, picking up the pace as the thousands of ants slotted into line. A constant stream of scouts ran forward and back, alerting Solant and the other generals as to the situation further down the tunnel.
It was grim, as expected.
Solant had planned to move ten kilometres beyond the defensive line held by the Colony, moving out and down, closer to the fifth, but as reports rolled in, it seemed they would hardly need to travel at all to find what they were looking for.
Barely ten percent of the way into their journey, the column ground to a halt.
"Assume standing formation five, but tell the earth mages not to stretch themselves. If things go according to plan, we won't be here long," Solant instructed, and the runners raced to deliver her orders.
She moved toward the front of the long line of ants, running a keen eye along the troops as she passed. Was it a trick of the light, or did they straighten when they came under her gaze?
"It's even worse than we predicted," Sumant said, indicating forward with one antenna.
She wasn't wrong. The Colony regularly burned outward from the defensive line, but the distance had grown shorter and shorter as the wave went on. Now, barely a single kilometre from where they'd started, Solant was confronted with the full scope of what they were up against.
The slime was everywhere. Thick pools of mucous covered the floor of the tunnel, fibrous strands stretched every which way, forming a spider web of goop. It dripped from the ceiling, slid down the walls. Even the air was contaminated, dense with poisonous, acidic gases that made it difficult to see.
At this density, the toxic mana of the fifth was basically self-sustaining; the slime produced more of itself, spreading, pooling, growing thicker and more noxious by the hour. If nothing was done, it would creep all the way to the nest and then up through the fortress until it spilled out into the waters that surrounded the mountain. At that point, it would become someone else's problem, the brathian most likely, who would be forced to clean up and eradicate the mess lest another stratum fall as the fifth had fallen.
It wouldn't come to that, of course.
"Any monster sightings?"
"None, thankfully."
"Then we can deploy."
"Already?"
Solant gestured forwards.
"Are you offering to walk deeper, Sumant?"
"I'm… not."
"Deploy the first wave," Solant gave the command and in moments, the first wave of core shapers assigned to this expeditionary force were by her side, eager to prove their worth.
The pets, promisingly, looked hungry.
Bella and Ellie, along with their available caste members, had worked furiously, iterating dozens of times to come up with their current working design. A cross between a type of jellyfish the Colony had found in the lake and a caterpillar-like grub that feasted on the oversized vegetation that covered the mountainsides of the fourth, they were a weird looking monster.
Mostly transparent, the monsters were fairly large, bigger than all but the largest soldiers. They humped and wiggled along the ground in ungainly fashion at the urging of their core shaper masters. Solant watched intently as a dozen of them first encountered the toxic sludge the Colony was struggling to deal with.
They leapt at it, hurling themselves into the thickest pools of mucus and sludge, wobbling happily as they settled themselves into it. Almost immediately, their soft blue jelly-like bodies became tainted as the corrupting mana invaded them. The monsters welcomed it, soaking up the slime until they became a muddy, lurid green from top to bottom. Solant wasn't sure if the monsters were successful, or on the verge of breaking down, but the core shapers watched, unmoved, and so she did too.
It took time, almost five minutes, before the first signs of progress were seen. A faint tint of blue returned, right in the centre of the creatures' mass. The colour spread across the top half of the monsters until they were divided into a noxious green lower half and a wholesome, shining blue top.
Then the creatures revealed their faces, wide, cheerful eyes emerging from their jelly forms, along with a number of chubby tendrils that served as their mouths. The appendages were extended, and from the tips, they began to release a steady stream of bright blue gas.
"Wuff, wuff, wuff, wuff!"
The new pets seemed to chortle happily as they began to move slowly around the tunnel, soaking up the corruption and releasing their sweet, purified mana into the air in a constant flow.
"Seems like a success," Solant commented, her head already swirling with possibilities.
The invasion of the fifth might just be possible after all.
-x-X-x-
It turned out, monsters from the fifth didn't much like it when you took their slime away. An hour after first deploying the 'Wuffers', as the ants had begun to call them, much to the annoyance of the core shapers, they saw for the first time how the slugs would react when they saw someone messing with their precious goop.
How could Solant describe it? They went absolutely, one-hundred percent, without exception, gonzo crazy.
A fat toad monster hopped around the corner and saw the wuffers happily huffing and puffing, soaking up the slime and purifying it, and grew still. Naturally, the ants had sprung into action, recovering the slow-moving pets and taking up a defensive formation.
What they didn't expect was for the frog to unleash a mighty croak, the explosive exhalation filled with mindless rage, before it hurled itself headlong toward the massed ant position. Such was its anger, the monster fought completely heedless of its own survival, throwing itself recklessly into the jaws of the soldiers, trying to crush them with its mass whilst it lashed out with powerful legs, lashing tongue and toxic bile.
Many were wounded, despite the fight being thousands against one, and Solant was not pleased.
In the midst of reprimanding her soldiers for their slow reaction, and blaming herself for not foreseeing the situation, she sensed something might be a little off, and stared hard into the haze-filled depths before them.
"Let's pull back and fortify," she ordered crisply. "I want tunnel fort three dash two constructed in five minutes."
"That build is allotted seven minutes," her lead carver and fellow broodmate, Subutant, stated.
"We don't have seven," Solant replied shortly and the carver dashed away, issuing a flurry of instructions to her fellow builders.
"What do you see?" Sumant asked, bracing in the frontline along with the other soldiers as they began an ordered, step by step retreat toward the mountain fortifications.
"That frog would have been heard for kilometres through these tunnels," Solant replied, watching the haze intently.
"You think it was calling for reinforcements? It didn't seem that intelligent."
"I don't think it was calling for them, but I think they'll come anyway."
In just a few minutes, the basic outline of the tunnel fort was complete: sturdy walls, narrow opening, firing lines for spells and acid, along with channels for pulling back the wounded, had all been formed.
Just in time.
The ants had barely taken their positions when the haze seemed to thicken, imperceptibly at first, then in a rush, growing so dense that Solant could barely see ten metres in front of her.
"We need wuffer mist," she ordered, and the core shapers grudgingly responded, the pets raising their tendrils and happily wuffing as they unleashed the sparkling blue vapour.
It was enough to prevent the miasma from flowing through the gap, but didn't break through the haze that filled the tunnel in front of them. As it turns out, it didn't have to.
Every ant tensed as they heard the first roar, then the second, the third, and more, and more. Squelching, wet gurgles of rage bounced off the slime-coated tunnel walls to reach them as Solant lost count of the different monster calls. There were dozens of them.
"Ice and fire the tunnel, one minute. Quick!" she snapped.
Mages dashed forward. The tunnel ahead was swept with an intense blizzard as fifty ice mages coordinated to drop the temperature well below freezing, pelting every surface with a barrage of frozen water. Thirty seconds later, they pulled back and the fire mages stepped forward, igniting the air itself in a furious blast. Rock groaned and cracked at the rapid temperature shift and the sludge sizzled.
The monsters screamed even louder, and much, much closer.
"Brace!" Solant roared as the fire mages cut off the blaze at the last second and scuttled backward, huge soldiers rushing forward to take their place.
The wall of chitin was four soldiers deep when the first slug arrived, screeching, its circular maw wide open and a 'tongue' of razor-sharp barbs projecting wildly forward. Prepared for the injuries, the soldiers lunged and chomped, their mandibles sizzling as they bit into the toxic flesh. Heedless of the wounds, the slug pushed forward, discharging a burst of slime from the pores on its back.
A flood of water from the mages cleaned out much of the goop, but it was stubborn and more than one soldier battled on with a sizzling, clinging patch of goop on their back.
The core shapers stepped up and their pets came alongside them. Opening their mouths wide, the wuffers shot forth blasts of pure gel that clung to the ooze whenever they came into contact, acting to counteract and neutralise the sludge.
The slug died, still burbling in fury, and the soldiers hastily pulled the Biomass into the temporary fort. The wuffers descended on it with apparent joy, settling atop the remains of the creature and absorbing it.
"Wuff, wuff, wuff!" they chortled.
Then came another slug, and another, then a toxin elemental, then a toad, then more, and more and more.
When it finally finished, Solant's force had been battered, bruised and almost broken a dozen times. The list of injured ants was far too long, and more than a hundred had fallen in the furious fighting. The price they had paid for the pitiful progress that had been achieved made her want to chalk up the battle as a loss, but in her heart, she knew it had been worth it.
Piles of fifth stratum Biomass, dozens of cores and the lessons learned were a rich reward indeed, not to mention what they had learned about their new weapons against the sludge.
Without the purifying mist and gel, it would have been ten times as difficult to hold off the assault. The sludge monsters had willingly thrown their lives away to try and coat the ants with slime and acid, to fill the position with corrupting miasma. Without the wuffers counteracting the poisonous mana, the ants would have been fighting abdomen deep in sludge, a battle they were sure to lose.
Even more promising, the transparent jelly-caterpillars were only tier three. The next time Solant returned, she was determined they would be tier six.
"Prepare the retreat," she ordered. "I want the most wounded to be returning under escort in the next two minutes. Everyone who is healthy will remain here and form the defensive line as we pull back."
She turned to the core shapers.
"You did extremely well, and your pets have proven invaluable. This expedition has been a resounding success. Retreat immediately with your charges, I do not want to risk them in the slightest."
As the core shapers moved away with their strange pets wiggling and humping along beside them, Leonidant, Subutant and Sumant gathered around their general.
"What do you think just happened, general?" the carver wondered. "We've never seen behaviour like that from the fifth's monsters."
"I have never been in a fight that intense," Sumant admitted. "We were an antenna's breadth away from being overrun at the front."
Solant considered for a while.
"We aren't the first to think of cleansing the toxic mana of the fifth," she said, "yet nobody else seems to do it, that we know of, at least. Why do you think that is?"
"Because the slugs go completely nuts whenever you try it?" Leonidant muttered.
Solant nodded.
"I think so. What we just experienced is but a taste of what awaits us in the fifth. The second we attempt to cleanse a single centimetre of corruption, every monster in a wide radius will rush at us in that same murderous rage."
Sumant shuddered.
"That's terrible."
"It's predictable," Solant corrected, clacking her mandibles thoughtfully, "and predictable is always to our advantage."
-x-X-x-
After Solant returns and the news spreads of the results, there's a mixed response amongst the Colony. Most of the generals, including Sloan and Victor, are concerned and cautious at the aggravated response of the slugs. So far, these are by a long stretch the most difficult to kill monsters the Colony has encountered.
The rate of attrition is downright awful. Soldiers, scouts and generals are on a constant rotation, recovering from awful burns to their mandibles. Mages are struggling to penetrate the slime defence using their basic elemental magic, leading to horrendously inefficient fights where we pour out ten times the amount of energy their opponents use to attack and infect our tunnels. Even the carvers are in fits, since designing defences that keep out the damned slugs and their corruption is proving to be all but impossible.
Me though? I'm absolutely thrilled.
We've proven that the incredibly infectious mana these monsters spread can be countered. That's massive. The weird jelly-pillars that Solant, Ellie and Bella came up with are pretty much useless for doing anything else, due to just how expensive it is to buy the organs that allow them to perform their cleansing function, but who cares? This is the Colony! We can spoon-feed them xp and cores until the cows come home if we have to.
I don't think they should even try to make them combat capable. If they get faster at vacuuming up goop and purifying it, that's all we need. When they get down to the fifth, they'll have to absorb literal tons of the stuff, gigalitres of toxic sludge just waiting to be cleansed. If they can counter-terraform, fill an area with self replicating anti-sludge, then they'll have achieved everything they need to.
And as for the super aggro response by the slugs? I'm with Solant, that's excellent.
"Bella, Ellie! Get me your wuff-squad, we're going out! You come too."
"What?" Ellie boggles at me. "Our teams just got back a few hours ago! They need to rest!"
"Don't give me that, they weren't even out for that long. I need you for a few hours, tops, and we need to powerlevel the little jellies anyway. These dudes need another two evolutions at least."
"But we haven't prepared for that," Bella tries to reason with me. "We need more time to study the organ and Skill options that will maximise their performance."
"We learn as we go. Hurry up!"
I'm not to be dissuaded and the two core shapers can only sigh and begin to round up their people as I bounce around eagerly.
[Crinis, Tiny, Invidia. I need you three to hand off your tunnels and come to me as soon as you can. We're grouping up and heading out on a quick trip.]
[Fight?] Tiny asks.
[Oh, for sure. It's going to be nuts.]
[Good,] the big ape huffs, and I can feel his grin over the mental connection.
[Where are we going, Master? Are you safe?] asks Crinis, suddenly worried.
[I'm perfectly fine, just get over here.]
In an hour, all the required parties have gathered and it's time to depart. The moment Crinis arrives, she glomps onto my carapace, whereas Tiny decides to stomp along beside me, with Invidia riding on his shoulder.
Behind us come the core shapers and their charges, who are, I have to say, rather adorable. Also, pretty dang slow.
We make our gradual, inexorable way down into the deeper levels, heading down the spiralling tunnel that leads roughly straight down from the fortress.
Of course, it doesn't take us long, once we leave the defensive line behind us, to run into corrupted land.
"Send forth the jelly-slugs!" I demand and the core shapers, somewhat reluctantly, comply.
As the pets wiggle their way forward, happily huffing and swinging their face tendrils, Ellie, Bella and the others watch nervously, knowing what's going to come next.
The pets leap into the sludge with reckless joy and I look on, fascinated, as they begin to draw it into themselves and purify it, releasing their cleansing mist from their tendrils. As the mist fills the air, it seems to neutralise the miasma, even wearing away at the slime and mucous that covers the walls.
Seriously impressive!
And the second we get spotted, by a slug, it goes completely berserk, gurgling and shrieking as it rushes towards us like a slimy missile.
VOID CHOMP!
CRUNCH!
Naturally, I obliterate it with an empowered void chomp before it can get too close, but soon enough, I can sense the shifting gravity as monsters in the area begin to rush towards us. At this point, I take a step back and urge my three pets forward.
[Time to get some XP, you three!] I tell them cheerfully. [As long as those jelly things keep working, there's going to be an endless supply of fifth stratum monsters to fight. So get ready!]
A broad grin splits Tiny's face as a fierce, burning light ignites in his eyes. For his part, Invidia reveals his broad, creepy smile, while Crinis rises up from my back, tentacles writhing as she moves forward.
Soon enough, the torrent of sludge arrives. Heaving masses of liquid goop. Toads as big as I am. Slugs dropping hunter-killer mini-slugs. Even a dense floating cloud of gas with a core comes at us. I mean, seriously?
Naturally, my three allies deal with the problem the only way they know how: extreme overkill.
Tiny's punches have only continued to grow stronger as he sends fists of light the size of cars crashing out into the oncoming beasts, striking down monsters ten metres away from his actual hands.
Invidia hisses to himself as he lasers and explodes everything he can, his minds working like a tireless symphony conducting an opera of boom.
Crinis… well… we know what Crinis does.
And whenever they can, I have them fling a barely living monster back for the little jelly-pillars to climb on and deliver the final blow.
Gweheheheh. This is excellent.
-x-X-x-
"Wuff, wuff, wuff."
I don't know why, but these new pets the shapers have designed seem to have such a positive outlook on life. There's a gleam of simple joy in their eyes as they wibble and wobble about the place, soaking up vile goop and emitting their mist.
After evolving, they're a bit bigger, but not by as much as I expected. It makes sense on reflection, what would they need Might for? Or toughness? They have one job, and all their evolutionary energy can go into that.
"Why did you make these guys so cheerful?" I ask Bella as my comrades continue to go to war against the enraged fifth stratum beasts in the background.
"Do they… need your help?" she replies, looking nervously over my shoulder.
"I'm sure they're fine."
"There seems to be a lot of screaming…."
"That's the slugs."
I do check before I reply, of course I do, but I snatch my senses away as quickly as I can. Even still, I continue to hear Crinis raving in my mind.
[FILTH! YOU DARE CONTAMINATE THE MASTER'S AIR! I WILL RIP UNTIL YOU CAN BE RIPPED NO MORE!]
Shudder.
"Well… we didn't, really. I don't think we spent any time shaping their personalities at all. Perhaps it's come about as a result of their function?"
"What, as cleaners?"
She shrugs helplessly with her antennae.
"I don't know, Eldest, I legitimately can't explain it. For whatever reason, they have just… come out this way."
I look again at the little guys, gleefully wibbling into whatever pile of foul, noxious slime they can find and soaking it up like a paper-towel, wuffing away the whole time.
"Their efficiency has really gone up," I observe, impressed.
Bella flinches as another explosion goes off, probably closer than we would have liked. Invidia hisses with satisfaction as rock and debris trickles down from overhead, so I know it's fine.
"Yes, they had evolved just enough to perform their duty when Solant… and you… took them out. Originally, we'd wanted them to have at least reached this stage before field testing."
"Am I crazy, or is the mist more potent as well?"
Acting as a counter to the goop, as well as the invidious mana of the fifth, the mist is… difficult to describe. Wherever it touches the poisonous gas, the two just seem to… cancel each other out. As it rises into the air and reaches the strings of mucus attached to the ceiling and walls, it eats away at them until they shrivel up and vanish.
"That's their mutations, along with boosting organs they gained at this tier. We thought that the most critical issue for them would be how much cleansing mist they can produce per unit of slime consumed. If they aren't ahead of that curve, then they need to absorb more slime than they can produce mist. Since the slime is self-propagating, they need to be making much more mist than they are eating slime."
"Are they ahead of that curve now?"
"No, it will take another evolution before they are just ahead of breaking even."
Huh…
Well, from what I can see, the experiment is a raging success! The wuffers are doing a stellar job eating slime, and it just so happens to be summoning an endless buffet of experience for my pets, which is fabulous! I can't wait to see what their Levels are like once this rampage is done. Fingers crossed they'll be getting close to the tier seven evolution. In fact, I have my suspicions that Invidia might already be there, or at least very close.
Man, they really are going crazy over there. The shockwaves from the continuous explosions, punches and the shrieks of Crinis' victims are absolutely deafening. I think I might need to head over there and check things out.
"Excuse me for a minute, I'm just going to make sure those three are alright."
"Of course. N-not at all, Eldest."
The two scouts are more than happy to let me, remaining behind with the small team of shapers they've brought with them, the actual 'masters', or 'mistresses', I guess, of the pets.
I climb my way forward, scoutting carefully over the remaining patches of ooze to find that things are as busy as I thought they were. In fact, I've never seen anything quite like this.
The three of them appear to be almost literally holding back the tide against a tsunami of sludge, slime, frogs and slugs. The tunnel is full of them. Full.
[Holy moly! Why didn't you tell me it was getting this bad?!]
[GOOD FIGHT!] Tiny roars, excitedly.
[The experience. It ssssshall be minessssss,] Invidia insists.
[DIEEEEEEEE!] Crinis screams.
Alright… so they're getting a bit greedy. That's fine, we can work with that.
[Shove over a bit, then, make a little room for me. I'll help out, and I'll do my best to make sure that I'm not taking too much of the XP, alright?]
Tiny and Invidia begrudgingly agree, while Crinis continues to shriek and fight, a forest of tendrils lashing out at the monsters ahead of us.
Doing my best not to fall, I grip tight to the stone and make my way onto the ceiling, hanging upside down. I hope my grip training pays off here, otherwise I might look very foolish….
Thankfully, I don't immediately fall flat on my face, and I manage to find an angle I can fire above Tiny's head and out into the mass of creatures ahead of us.
I do my best to provide some cover fire, lobbing gobs of lava at the oncoming tide, blasting them with the occasional bolt of lightning and generally making a nuisance of myself as best I can. Naturally, throwing gravity bombs in this sort of congestion would be stupid, and defeat the purpose of supporting my allies, since the whole point is to give them the experience.
The relentless fury of the fifth stratum monsters is something to behold, though. Time and time again, they throw themselves bodily at us, only for Tiny to batter them away, or Crinis to snatch them out of thin air, at the last second. If Leeroy saw this sort of behaviour, she'd think she's found some kindred spirits! They have no regard for their own lives whatsoever. It's as if they consider the slime and ooze to be more important than themselves. Weird.
After an extended period of this, I notice something worrying.
[Crinis! How low on shadow flesh are you?]
[DIIIIIIEEEEEE—wait? What?]
[Shadow flesh? How much do you have?]
[Oh! I'm… I'm almost out.]
I was worried about that. The number of tendrils she's been able to extend has been steadily decreasing for the last five minutes. I immediately start pulling out gravity mana, condensing and shaping it.
The slugs are a bad matchup for Crinis. She needs to touch them to hurt them, which means she gets poisoned and constantly has to shed the toxified flesh. Her reserves of flesh are massive, but not enough to endlessly sustain herself.
To be fair, Tiny is looking pretty tired as well. He's not an endurance athlete, he's built for maximum power.
Invidia… seems fine. He can cast spells like this all day.
[Pull back when I say so,] I warn them, [I'll drop a gravity field and then we run for it. Ready? Now!]
-x-X-x-
"Something strange is happening," Zluth said, his voice burbling as if rising from the depths of a particularly thick bog.
"Oh?" Shozzl replied, not particularly interested.
Zluth continued to operate the array with his numerous, spindly limbs as he leaned closer to the readout.
"Many of our monsters are being lost under D-6. Too many."
"Which mountain is D-6 again?"
"It's next to D-5."
"I know it's next to D-5, you slimeless stooge. How does that help me?"
The fierce, primal anger that dwelt within all his kind boiled up in Zluth now, hissing within his slug flesh. He suppressed it. Those who surrendered to the rage too often soon found it became more difficult to resist. It was hard to find a role within the tribe when one had a nasty habit of biting off the heads of one's partners. And those without a role were meat for the pits.
"D-5 is claimed by the tree, huccop," he spat, a thick wave of mucus overflowing from his mouth. "Remember now?"
A little life came into the eyes that had previously drooped on the end of Shozzl's eyestalks. Life, and hatred.
"Damn tree. Even now, she defies us."
Zluth continued to operate the array, but subtly turned one stalk to monitor his partner. She was getting a little too heated, and a little caution was called for.
"We should go and investigate," he deflected, folding away the device and sliding it within the folds of his protective layer of slime flesh.
"I won't," Shozzl declared.
With an irritated burble, Zluth turned to behold his partner, once more allowing herself to sink back into the bubbling acid pool. He cursed. Of all the Krath he could have been partnered with for ranging, he got Shozzl, the most useless drip of slime in the Slee Tribe.
"If you don't, I will be forced to report your lax attitude to the shaman," he said acidly.
Literally acidly, the gas that emerged along with his words would have melted a human face in a tenth of a second.
"I personally will rejoice as you are digested within the bowels of the Blubbeast, perhaps you will find your spawn mother there. I'm certain she still lives," he concluded, eyes curving into wicked, crescent moons.
Shozzl shot out of the acid with a chilling shriek, eyestalks blazing red with her mindless anger, and Zluth raised his limbs for the contest.
Ten minutes later, his stomach roiled unpleasantly as he slithered through the slime-soaked tunnels, rising up to the fourth stratum.
However lazy and stupid she was, Shozzl had certainly cultivated a potent acid. Zluth's digestive tract groaned and contorted in pain as it was eaten away and reformed itself, struggling to break down the flesh of his former partner.
"Just what is going on up here?" he muttered to himself, checking the readings on his detection array once more.
The monsters spawned above were going absolutely berserk, which only happened when someone tampered with the blessed filth of the fifth. This in and of itself wasn't unusual, the so-called 'civilised' races always beat back the slime, but as far as the Slee were aware, this mountain was empty except for those useless termites. Having collected useful samples already, they had hoped to clear out the bugs and nurse a ripe pit of filth within its cavernous halls during this wave. At the last second, they would allow it to overflow out into the waters and contaminate them thoroughly. A glorious, yet temporary triumph of corruption.
As he grew closer to the disturbance, Zluth began to move more stealthily, elongating his body to ten times its original length and burrowing himself into the ooze. Faster and more agile than a slime-snake, he powered forward, his mucus-drenched foot propelling him at great speeds as he rushed towards the source of the disturbance.
He felt it long before he saw it. Vibrations, travelling through the slime and even the rock below. There was a battle going on, close.
Careful now, Zluth slowed his pace and retracted his stalks, bringing his eyes close to his own acidic flesh. He stuck to the shadows and the deeper pools, cautiously advancing, wanting to see what it was that had taken up residence above his tribe.
Perhaps it was nothing… a group of fourth stratum monsters, spawned by the wave, had attacked the slime and triggered this rage. Except that didn't explain why it was still going on. The monsters of the fifth were inherently superior to those of the fourth. When the two clashed, it was inevitable which side would win.
No, Zluth had to investigate. This wave was an opportunity for the Slee that he refused to let slip through his claws.
An almighty THUMP rocked the tunnel and he almost slipped from the wall in his surprise. What was that?! Surreptitiously, he extracted his detection array and manipulated it with his ten spindly limbs. Whatever fighting had been going on above was now over.
So suddenly? The readings relating to the gathered fifth stratum monsters were completely gone. Somehow, they were all dead, in one moment. This wasn't good. Something strong enough to do that wouldn't be easy to dislodge, this could ruin the efforts to corrupt D-6.
Acting with extreme caution, the Krath waited, and waited, before he finally crept up the final few tunnels and extended one eye stalk up to examine the site of the battle.
It was flattened. Everything was flattened. The floor of the tunnel itself had been crushed down to a plane, along with everything that had been on it. Zluth cast his one eye across the scene in disbelief. In one second, with one spell, presumably, something had done this?
He dared go no further, though he longed to catch a glimpse of the monster responsible. That wasn't how the Krath operated. He retracted his eye, flattened himself, and turned on the spot, shooting off through the sludge with the speed of a whip-crack.
The tribe needed to be informed of what had occurred. Their initial goals may need to be reassessed, but perhaps something even better had fallen into their mouths.
A wicked grin crossed his fangs.
There was no such thing as a powerful enemy that the Krath couldn't turn into a better ally, and Zluth may have just located a wonderful target.
-x-X-x-
The art, first mastered by the Sophos, those unfortunate and criminally ignored peoples, of creating and raising 'pets' is generally underutilised on Pangera, as a rule.
Naturally, there are certain cultures and societies who make great use of pets and the various Classes and Skills that aid such a build. However, these examples, I will attempt to prove, are the exceptions that prove the rule. There should be far more pet based delvers than there are, currently, and I have devoted years of research to discovering why.
One curious wrinkle in the discussion is the widely available knowledge of just how powerful and useful such a pet can become, given the right circumstances. The guardian beast of the Golden City is almost as famous as the city itself, the Light Phoenix Rammon. The mythical Sirens of the brathian conglomerates are another well documented and frequently discussed example. Every citizen of the many cities within the fourth stratum is aware of these monsters and just how strong they are, so why do so few attempt to raise one of their own? Even those who fight within the Dungeon for a living?
Now, of course it is unreasonable to expect that any individual or small group could hope to create a tier eight or tier nine pet, as Rammon is rumoured to be. The cost in cores would be astronomical, not to mention the difficulty of finding a mythic grade core. Such things are priceless in the truest sense, as they simply cannot be bought.
But a tier five pet? Or even six? This is more than achievable, and there are many examples of even individuals who have succeeded in doing so.
-?????Excerpt from 'Cultivation of Pets. Why not?' by Larian.
[I feel like that trip was extremely profitable! How are your Levels looking, gang?]
Invidia practically purrs with satisfaction.
[I am Levelssssss one hundred and sixty.]
[Oh snap! Well done, Invidia! You're ready to go! How about you two?]
Tiny stares at me.
[What level are you?] I prompt him.
He stares some more. I stare back.
[Tiny, what is the number on your status screen, next to where it says 'Level'?]
He narrows his eyes a little, then shrugs.
[Dammit, Tiny! You don't even know what Level you are?!]
I get an enthusiastic thumbs up.
[I'm level one hundred and thirty five, Master,] Crinis interjects. [Since we evolved at the same time, he should be roughly the same as I am.]
[Thank you, Crinis, that's very helpful.]
She wriggles with joy while I stare at the big ape, frustrated. How in the name of heck can he not even know what Level he is? I'm going to raise the amount of intelligence he has to keep in the next evolution, I'm dead tired of him being this stupid.
What's especially frustrating is that I'm pretty confident he isn't this stupid. He has enough brain matter to be able to read the numbers off his own damn status sheet! For that matter, he has more than enough to talk in more than single words or small sentences. I think he just chooses not to because that's all he's used to. Or perhaps he can't be bothered putting effort into something that doesn't involve muscles or punching.
Putting the issue of Tiny and his brain aside, I'm extremely pleased! One of my friends has reached the necessary milestone and is ready to go! The others are close, super close. Hopefully, they'll be ready to evolve by the end of the wave, and the four of us will be the same tier once again. Exciting!
[I hope you don't mind waiting to evolve with the others, Invidia,] I tell the floating eyeball. [It'll be better if the three of you can do it together.]
[I wantsss it nowssss,] he says, eye glowing an ominous green.
Of course he does.
[But think about it. There'll be a big celebration when Tiny and Crinis evolve together, which will be even bigger if you evolve with them. Do you really want to miss out on that?]
Invidia literally has a brain the size of a human bedroom, and I can feel the heat radiating from his pocket dimension as his eye narrows and he ponders what I said.
[Big celebrationssssss?] he asks.
[Oh, massive. Huge.]
[I wantssss cakesssss.]
[You will get them, for sure.]
His little fingers wriggle with glee.
[Yesssss,] he hisses softly.
Nice. Won him over easily enough.
[I'll have the three of you keep up your work on tunnel duty, even you, Invidia. It'll help the Colony and you can keep improving your Skills. Ranking those up is just as important as evolving. Don't forget to keep building up that stockpile of Biomass as well. You can spend big once you evolve.]
Something I always forget to do. Not this time! I've been slowly chomping away throughout the wave, and I'm banking up some big time points. It's unfortunate that the fifth stratum monsters are such a pain in the gut to eat. Some of them are downright too toxic to even try it, which is cheating, if you ask me. Stupid slugs.
Once we make it back safely within the protective borders of the Colony, I say goodbye to the wuffers and tap Ellie and Bella with my antennae.
[Fantastic work, you two. Go and have a chat with Solant, let her know how it all worked out, I'm sure she'll be fascinated to hear about it all. Keep working on improving your design and don't be afraid to take risks. If you need extra cores, let me know and I'll try and rustle some up for you. The whole family will be counting on your work to get us through the fifth.]
[Thanks, Eldest!]
The two of them appear extremely chuffed with my praise and race off full of beans, which is nice to see. I've always believed in the core shapers and I know they do more for the Colony than most suspect. This is really a great chance for them to shine and I'm sure they'll make the most of it.
[Alright, enough dallying! There's slugs to blast! Let's get to it.]
Obviously, that includes me as well. Not too long later and I'm once again ensconced in my tunnel, holding off the ever-encroaching wave of slime and goop whilst diligently training my Skills.
The only difference is that this time I do it all while hanging upside down. I will raise my grip Skill's rank this time, I refuse to let it go!
-x-X-x-
Well, what the heck is this, then?
After another week of battling against the rising tide of the wave, it's kind of nice to see something new, the monotony was really starting to get to me.
I mean, I've been hanging out in this tunnel, quite literally, for so long that I'm starting to think of getting some furniture installed. A bed, perhaps a nice chair to lay my admittedly massive frame on, a table for snacks at the very least.
I don't believe I was much of a tea person when I lived as a human, although it's becoming increasingly difficult to remember anything from that time, but I have to say, the Colony really knows how to brew a nice cup. Lately, I've only been getting more and more bored since the number of fifth stratum beasties crawling up from below, as opposed to being spawned in the tunnels nearby, seems to have slowed dramatically.
The freshly spawned monsters are irritating, sure, but they aren't nearly as dangerous as the ones who have more evolutions, mutations and Skills. Thankfully, that's relieved a lot of the pressure on the nest, allowing the fatigued and injured ants to recuperate and get back into the fighting. Hooray all around. But as the mana intensity has continued to rise, to frankly quite absurd levels, the moment we run into something from even deeper in the Dungeon has inevitably drawn closer, and I think I may have just found one.
My first hint that something was coming brushed against my antennae, causing them to twitch in surprise. It's been a long time since I've smelled anything other than foul goop, so a hint, a mere whisper, of fresh air was more than a little welcome. Then worrying.
The tunnel ahead of me remained stubbornly contaminated, despite my regular burn-offs, the air thick with a toxic haze that made it difficult to see too deep into the distance. Ironically, the green gas became my early warning system, as it began to stir and shift. I noticed tiny little eddies at first, which I could dismiss as nothing, but then they grew and grew until there was a chaotic swirl of noxious gas. Green clouds billowed this way and that, to the point I had to summon a gust of my own to prevent the stuff from blowing onto me.
Getting it in your eyes is not recommended, I have to say. I know from painful experience. Seriously, my next evolution is going to have to resolve my eye situation. I'm tired of being encased in impenetrable diamond, except for the soft, squishy orbs I see with.
It doesn't take long for the fumes to be vortexed away by whatever is coming down the tunnel at me, and I feel a tingle of excitement begin to spark around my core. Something new. Something interesting! Hopefully not something too dangerous!
My mana sense is going a little haywire, so it definitely isn't too weak. In anticipation, I drop down from the ceiling, landing with a heavy crash that sets my joints to shaking. Forgot I can't really pull that off at my current weight. My legs also need fixing, I've long outgrown these basic, first stratum materials!
When the monster finally arrives in front of me, I am genuinely confused by what I'm looking at. It's purple, it kind of looks like a ball of lightning, and it's surrounded by an azure cloud that swirls in a constant vortex around the sphere at its centre. Before I can even express my surprise, things get weirder.
The lightning ball… thing… changes shape, morphing into a crackling lightning beast that looms over me. Interestingly, there is still a tether of sparking energy connecting it to the original little ball, still surrounded by that swirling cloud. Is that where the core is? It's tricky to get a good mana reading from this creature, its disparate form seems to mask its true centre.
Then, I get another shock! It reaches out to my mind, and I allow a sliver of a connection to form.
[H-hello?]
[What manner of creature are you?]
I mean… rude? I'm standing right in front of you, the perfect pinnacle of all things awesome and ant!
[Formica Sapiens. I'm an ant. Are… are you intelligent?]
The storm and lightning, even in this monster form, boil with indignation.
[More so than you, it seems.]
This dude has serious attitude problems. I've met pride demons he could give a run for their money. If demons had currency.
Despite the four-legged energy monster filling the tunnel and glaring down at me, I'm not too worried, this isn't its real body. For whatever reason, the monster has decided to project this form.
[I'm assuming you aren't from around here? Not a native to the fourth stratum, or fifth, from the looks of you.]
The monster doesn't seem interested in answering my questions.
[You possess a powerful core, brimming with mana.]
[Why thank you, yes. I'm a mythic monster, I'll have you know.]
[I will take it for myself.]
[You'll what now?]
[Fear not, ant. I will end you quickly, your power and Biomass will find a better use in me.]
Okay, so no matter how intelligent a monster gets, when we get down to it, not much changes, I suppose. Monsters only want one (two) things, and it's disgusting. Biomass and cores. And experience. Monsters only want three things, Biomass, cores, experience, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope!
Wait.
[Just like that? We're going to throw down? If you lose, it won't be me that gets chomped on.]
[If such is my fate, I will accept it. Now die.]
So saying, the monster formed of crackling purple energy retracts once more into that writhing orb surrounded by a cloud. Then I get a face full of lightning.
It's not fun.
Yeeeeeeouch! I can literally feel my eyeballs sizzling as I roll to the side, pump my regeneration gland and spin up my mind constructs. This chap is not playing nice, and that lightning, it was so fast my antennae could barely keep up with it! Somewhat blinded and not a little bit irritated, I lunge forward, snapping my mandibles shut around the orb of energy, only for them to harmlessly pass through it and crash together having done no damage. No harm to my opponent anyway, but they appear to have created a convenient conduit for it to channel more lightning into my body.
Ouch! You damn… orb… thing!
Clearly, I need to make use of non-corporeal means of attack. In that case, let's try a more powerful bite!
VOID CHOMP!
-x-X-x-
At this point, I'm not sure how I manage to still be shocked at the effect of the empowered Void Chomp. The fact that it all happens right in front of my face is a little unnerving, and I'm not ashamed to say I'm still not used to it.
Nevertheless, the screaming void appears, my jaws close with a shattering, calamitous sound. Black jaws of pure energy form, crashing down a dozen metres from the front of my face. The orb… seems unimpressed.
The entire cloud evaporates, the lightning cloud too, only to reform twenty metres away, still crackling with dark purple light.
Well, that was a little disappointing. I'm not convinced that my opponent took no damage, surely it hurt them, even if only a little bit, but it certainly didn't have the effect I'd been hoping for. Broken chunks of rock fall from the roof as the tunnel groans under the effect of the void chomp.
After reforming, the enemy bathes me once again in its lightning. I don't enjoy it.
The magic attack comes so fast, even my absurdly enhanced reflexes can't do much to get me out of the way, and once I get hit, the energy ripples through my body, sizzling me, inside and out. With the healing fluid still bubbling through my system, my health starts to recover quickly after the lightning has burnt through my system. Thanks to the bountiful number of ants nearby, my regeneration gland is already almost full, so I trigger it again immediately.
Man, this fight is really exposing just how weak my defences against magic-based attacks are. I've been fighting them so far by using my mind to break down the mana, but this monster just has such a weird mana signature.
Nevertheless, I commit my minds and reach out, trying to take hold of my opponent and break down their energy. It's immensely difficult. I feel like I'm trying to take hold of a fish coated in butter inside an ocean of maple syrup. When I do manage to get a 'finger' on the lousy thing, trying to draw out any of the power is like ripping a mountain up by the roots.
[Surrender to me. Your efforts are in vain.]
Seriously, the attitude on this guy.
[You aren't exactly getting far yourself. How long can you afford to sit around here failing to beat me?]
[You will not be able to heal yourself forever.]
The voice is calm, confident. It seems to believe it's done this dance before and will triumph eventually. I've got bad news for this monster, I can do this all day, but explaining why would be a right pain in the thorax, so I don't bother replying and instead lunge forward for another bite.
Only this time, I inject gravity mana as my mandibles snap shut.
Once again, the storm breaks apart and reforms, but this time, it looks a little unbalanced, a little more… chaotic. The lightning contained within the azure clouds sparks and spins with increased agitation, leading me to believe it didn't much enjoy the added gravity mana.
In gratitude for my generous donation, the cloud unleashes another blast of lightning, bathing me in the crackling energy for a good five seconds. When it fades, I'm steaming, quite literally, but the damage is already healing. I didn't even bother trying to dodge this time, instead I preemptively used my minds to try and divert or deflect the oncoming attack.
It's just… weird. This monster is dumping so much energy, so fast, it's almost as if it isn't playing by the rules. How in the heck can it do it? There must be some sort of Skill or organ involved. To unleash the amount of mana this thing is cooking me with, I would need a significant amount of time, and the build up of energy isn't exactly difficult to detect. My opponent is just throwing a bucket full of water in my face, but I never see them fill it up!
However, what they can't seem to do is move all that fast. Or perhaps it just doesn't feel the need to? Regardless, an empowered dash puts me right in front of the monster and I lunge once again, mandibles blazing as I inject it with concentrated gravity mana once again.
[Do not pollute me!] the agitated ball of lightning roars. [Keep your foul taint away!]
[Excuse me? First of all, gravity mana is amazing. Second of all, keep my what away from you? I'm not sure I have one of those.]
The monster doesn't reply, but roils even more violently, blasting me once again with lightning, which I endure. I'm starting to suspect this monster isn't as evolved as I first thought, or is running underpowered for some reason. Perhaps it didn't move through the fifth completely unscathed and has lost a great deal of its power? Considering I'm not even deflecting these lighting blasts, simply healing through them, I really shouldn't be sitting pretty as I am.
I mean, it hurts like heck, but I'm in no danger of dying any time soon.
[Let's see if you like gravitational mana after this!]
After compressing the mana and cooking up the spell, I unleash a gravity well, empowered with the full force of the Altar behind it, directly on top of the uppity monster.
What I hoped would happen is that it would be smashed to smithereens on the floor of the tunnel, crushed under the weight of the well. What actually happens is that it sinks down, fairly rapidly, and is then pressed into the ground, dispersing against it.
[Release me!]
So… underwhelming, in the end. I approach and look down at the cloud and lightning, slowly spreading out over the floor, largely with confusion.
[Shouldn't you be like… crushed?]
[I will escape and return this humiliation a thousandfold!]
It's only then that I finally twig to what's going on.
[You're mostly just energy, aren't you? Not much of a physical form at all. Darn.]
Look, I never finished school, but I'm fairly sure that energy still has mass. Not much, but a little. Sort of. My overwhelmingly powerful gravity well is enough to flatten most things, but to this monster, who appears to be… basically just energy, its physical components likely hidden in a pocket dimension, it's barely enough to press it down to the ground.
But that's enough? It can't really move under its own power that well at the best of times, so within the gravity well, all it can really do is spread out and float off, cursing me as it retreats.
Dumbfounded, I just watch it go. Such a strange interaction….
-x-X-x-
The wave approaches its climax, and usually at this point, the Colony would be completely overwhelmed with literally thousands of monsters spawning and rushing at our territory, but for some reason, things are a little more relaxed this time around.
For one, fifth stratum monsters aren't coming up and trying to melt our faces off and terraform the tunnels with comically toxic goop, which is nice. I mean, we still get them spawning, but that's not as much of a problem. Then there's the distinct lack of sixth stratum monsters. Other than the one I fought, the Colony only ran into a handful of them, none of which seemed to be operating at full strength. It's a curious state of affairs, but one that is certainly to our benefit.
Whatever the cause, I'm not going to complain. The Colony is absolutely raking in the Biomass and cores, luring and annihilating mythic-beast monsters of the fourth as fast as the lousy things can pop out of the ground. Which is fast. I've been keeping to my tunnel and training for the most part, trusting that someone will come and get me if I'm needed, but when my surprise guests arrive, I hadn't seen anyone for days.
Hanging from the roof and practising my spellwork, I'm more than a little surprised when a large, shaggy head pokes into my tunnel, followed by a large, shaggy body.
[Sarah! What the heck are you doing down here?]
[Ah! You're on the roof.]
[Don't tell me you didn't see me just because I'm upside down. I'm enormous.]
[I just didn't expect it is all.] She hesitates a moment before asking, [Do you have time to talk? I know you've been busy, during the wave and all.]
[I'm surprisingly free, to be honest, and I'd love a chat! I can get some tea and cake delivered if you'll give me a second.]
[That sounds nice. You should bring some for Odin as well.]
[He's here?]
I look around, but I don't see him anywhere.
[I think he's shy.]
The lithe form of the demon leaps out from behind a pillar, twisting and flipping in the air to land beside the massive bear.
[I am not shy,] he says defensively after joining the conversation. [I am being stealthy. A true assassin should always seek to conceal their movements.]
[And does a true assassin enjoy cake and tea?]
[... They do.]
[Great.]
In short order, the three of us are hunched around a flat rock I conjured up, sipping tea and nibbling on oversized baked treats. Sarah, the Asura Bear, neatly slices her cake with her claws, then pokes a digit carefully through a piece and brings it up to her muzzle, chewing thoughtfully.
[It really didn't take long for the Colony to discover jam filling, did it?]
[Tell me about it. They've been going nuts for jam over the last few weeks. When someone thought about sweetening it with extra sugar, all was lost.]
We chat back and forth for a while, as Odin watches us, his eyes burning with a dark purpose. Or maybe he has gas. I don't know.
[How are things in the third?] I ask.
The giant bear huffs.
[It's chaos,] she says shortly. [Pretty much as bad as you'd expect. Thankfully, the Colony has things mostly under control. The wave is making it too difficult for the ka'armodo to try and cause trouble, and the incidents of rogue demons are dropping precipitously, for which I'm grateful.]
She shudders.
[The demons turning on each other. More than they usually do… it's been terrible. I'm glad it seems to be stopping.]
I carefully avoid thinking about my Nave, and the demons who've popped in there. I especially don't think about all the Will I was collecting from demons last time I was up there.
[That is good. I thought you were putting down roots up there. What brings you to the fourth stratum?]
The big bear shifts uncomfortably, then lowers herself down to lap at her tea, giving herself time to think. She leans back with a sigh.
[I think… it might be time for me to evolve,] she says finally and I immediately perk up.
[Oho! Really? That's exciting stuff! Crinis, Tiny and Invidia will be evolving soon as well, you might as well do it at the same time as them!]
She nods, reluctantly.
[Yes, I'd heard that might be happening. I thought if I was going to evolve, then I should consult with Granin and the others beforehand. Since they're coming down here to advise those three, I should be here and talk to them at the same time.]
[You came down a whole stratum because you didn't want to make your own appointment?]
It seems ridiculous.
[I just didn't want to bother anyone,] she defends herself, clearly flustered. [Besides, I've never come down this far and I wanted to see what it was like.]
[I definitely recommend you head up to the walls and take in the view,] I encourage her, [it's really something. The shining waters of the lake, the towering mountains reaching up toward the ceiling above. There's clouds, and islands. I mean, floating islands. It's crazy.]
[I went straight up there. You're right, it's incredible.]
I turn to Odin.
[And what brings you here, little guy?]
[Excuse me?]
[Ah. Didn't mean to be rude. What brings you here, Odin?]
Compared to Sarah and I, he's a midget! The guy is clearly built for speed and stealth, not my fault he's so small.
[I am here to support the creature of perfection that I– I'm here to support Sarah.]
[Nice.?Well, when you evolve, don't forget my message for Arconidem.]
He flinches.
[I hoped you'd forgotten about that.]
[Fat chance.]
[Well, welcome aboard, you two. I hope your evolutions work out great. While you're here, you may as well help out with the defence, stock up on Biomass and all that good stuff! Also, let me know if you need some cores. I'm sure the Colony has a supply tucked away that you can draw from.]
[I wouldn't want to impose.]
[Nonsense, Sarah. You're part of the family! In fact, I might be able to scrounge together a mythic core for your evolution.]
[Oh. I have one of those.]
[You what?]
[We found a demon rampaging on the plains a few weeks ago. It… I… well. I have a mythic core.]
[Nice!]
-x-X-x-
When the mana starts to drop, it drops fast. One second I'm up to my eyeballs in the stuff, absolutely drowning in energy, the next it's receding so quickly I feel like I'm going to get swept down a stratum if I don't hold onto the ground.
So. That's it? Just like that?
Hanging from the top of my tunnel, I feel relieved and a bit… disappointed? Look, I'm not asking for the Legion to come knocking on the Colony's door every wave, but I kind of expected something. This wave has ended with a murmur rather than a roar.
Ah well, it is what it is.
I drop off the roof, stretch out a bit, clean my antennae, then walk back into the nest. Time to go find something else to do, I suppose. Back in the central command chamber, the generals are running around like mad, as always. I find Sloan right in the middle of it all.
"Hey there, Sloan. What's happening?"
"The wave is ending," she says, obviously distracted.
I poke her on the head with an antenna.
"Yeah… so why is everyone so busy? Shouldn't you be winding down? Slowing your roll a little bit? The wave is over."
She sighs and turns to face me properly.
"The wave being over means the siege has ended. It's once again safe to venture out of the fortress and into the tunnels."
"Right. So?"
"So we have to get back to exploring the lower tunnels and completing the lower sections of the nest as quickly as possible! If we can leave our safe places, then so can everyone else!"
Ah.
"Do you really expect we'll come under attack? I hadn't heard of any impending threats…."
"We shouldn't assume we'll have forewarning of an impending attack, Eldest. Better to be prepared. If you'll excuse me, we are in the process of organising over a dozen expeditions."
"Make sure you send Solant out there," I tell her and the general pauses for a second before she nods in agreement.
A little practice in the field is exactly what the little general needs after this protracted defensive battle. Leaving the generals to it, I go find a nice nook to tuck myself into, out of the way, and let the Will of the Colony wash over me.
So many individuals, each with their own desires, yet all pulling in the same direction. It's amazing, when I allow myself to indulge in it, just to feel the unity of the Colony. I may be the only creature who gets to feel it like this in the entire lifetime of my family, which is a real shame. Others can see how well my siblings work together, the thousands and thousands who cooperate, seemingly flawlessly, at so many tasks, but seeing it as I do is entirely different.
Millions of individuals, each with their own vision, their own wants and needs, all working to better the life of the ant next to them. It's beautiful. Truly, the ant is…. The ant…
Why are there humans here? And I think I know which ones!
Nestled within the endless stream of energy coming from my siblings, I find a few threads that are ever so slightly different. Sure enough, when I take a closer look, I find out just who has come to visit. It doesn't take long for them to find me, either. A procession of robed priests, each with antennae rising from their hoods, make their way into the chamber before they congregate nearby. Not close enough to bother me, but not so far that they aren't around if I decide to talk to them, they group up and begin some sort of bowing and kneeling ceremony.
They talk, shouting and weeping openly, but thankfully don't use any pheromones, so none of us ants are all that bothered. I decide to just ignore them, hoping they'll go away eventually.
More and more humans are arriving, warriors for the most part. It appears that now the wave is over, the humans have decided it's safe for them to come and live at this level. That's handy. Incorporating the ant priests and human soldiers alongside our own forces will help return them to full strength, taking advantage of the powerful buffs of the clergy.
If it saves a few lives, then I'm willing to put up with a bit of chanting and kneeling. In moderation.
[Alright then, gang. Time to assemble. Come and find me.]
It doesn't take long for my friends to gather. Crinis, Tiny and Invidia all look weary after the long weeks of fighting. The big ape is singed in places, still-healing wounds marking his enormous arms and shoulders. Crinis glomps onto me the moment she's in range, moulding herself onto my carapace and retracting all of her flesh until she's about the size of a beach ball. It's not always easy to tell how Invidia is feeling, but I can detect signs of weariness from his eye and the way he lethargically flaps over to join the group.
Nevertheless, I feel a sense of satisfaction radiating from each of them.
[So… have you guys reached the magic number?]
Tiny narrows his eyes before he slowly raises one arm and flexes it, then nods. Crinis is a little more vocal.
[Yes! Only a few days ago, Master!]
[Well done, you two! Sensational work!]
[Praiiisssssee.]
[You too, Invidia.]
Well this is great news. The whole gang is ready to evolve.
[I'll send word up to Granin and the others straight away. And I have to get the cores prepared. Taking in a mythic core is… difficult, but you'll be fine, I promise! You should start thinking about what you want from your evolution as well, build up some ideas to talk to the golgari about, then they'll be in a better position to help you.]
All three of them acknowledge me, but I can feel they're struggling to match my energy.
[Well. It'll take a few hours for the triad to make their way down, so you guys should probably just have a snooze and rest until then, alright? Great work. You've earned a break.]
In moments, the three of them are snoozing, Crinis on my carapace, Tiny leaned up against my side, and Invidia perched on one of my antennae.
The gathered priests seem to have launched into a frenzy of chanting and kneeling, but who cares? Honestly, it's been a while, I might as well grab myself a little shuteye as well.
-x-X-x-
[Right, who's going first?]
Sarah, Invidia, Tiny and Crinis are all lined up in a large cavern outside the room where the three golgari have situated themselves. After a day of rest, feasting and contemplation, it's time for them to have a conversation, make their final preparations, and evolve to tier seven. Granin and the others are ready to receive them, we just need to work out the order.
Of course, nobody puts their hand, paw or tentacle up.
Sigh.
[Sarah, how about you? You've been waiting to evolve the longest, after all.]
[M-me? I'm… I'm not sure I'm ready.]
[Watching the others go first isn't going to make it any easier,] I tell her gently. [Rip off the band-aid, if you remember what those are, and get it over and done with.]
[Of course I remember band-aids. I'm not that old,] she huffs and rises to her full height. Full height on four legs anyway.
[I'll go first,] she says, determination growing as she pads forward through the entrance.
Odin watches her go with shining eyes, and I can't bring myself to imagine what is going through that weirdo-demon's head.
~~~
[An Asura Bear is quite a strong monster, and there are several known evolutions that lead from it,] Granin mused as he slowly turned the pages of the volume in front of him. [It all depends on what direction you would like to take. Destruction? Rage? Domination? Rending?]
With each word, the large bear flinched back from the golgari at the desk a little further.
[If I might interject,] Torrina said, [I don't think Sarah is particularly enthusiastic about violence.]
[I would say the opposite is true,] Corun nodded. [She hates it.]
Granin blinked.
[Oh.]
He looked down at the page in front of him.
[That will pose… difficulties… going forward.]
Embarrassed, Sarah hung her head, her wet nose almost brushing the chamber floor.
[It's not that I'm against it, as such,] she tried to explain herself, [it's just…. I've lived in fear of my anger for so long now. I don't even remember choosing to evolve into an Asura Bear, I was lost… rather… I ran from reality for a long time.]
The three golgari looked at the great bear with sympathy. Of all the souls taken and reborn as monsters, Sarah's by far seemed the least suited to the purpose. Such a gentle soul did not belong in a place like this.
[Recently, I've been able to control it. At least a little. The Colony has given me something I want to fight for. Friends. A family. They take care of me and don't ask anything in return, despite what I almost did to The Queen. I want to be helpful, and if fighting is the only way I can do that, then I will.]
Granin nodded appreciatively.
[That's admirable,] he said. [I'm ashamed to admit it, but the time you've spent with the Colony has done more to heal your wounded heart than decades under the care of my fellow Shapers.]
He bowed at the waist, bending his large frame over the desk.
[I can only ask for your forgiveness.]
The great bear snuffled and waved a paw back and forth.
[Oh, please don't mind it.]
Granin straightened and turned his attention back to the volume before him.
[Well then, let's return to our purpose. Corun, you have the report on Sarah's mutations and Skills?]
[I do. Thank you for letting us have a look at your core, by the way.]
[It's the least I can do. You're being so helpful to me, after all.]
"I'll tell Anthony that the next time I see him," Granin grumped out loud, drawing a shushing motion from Torrina.
[You've got incredible strength, which is emphasised by your mutations. Indomitable Beast Musculature was a good choice, giving you explosive,?along with enduring, power. Combined with your species, this gives you the ability to power through deep into a fight. The reset to your claws was also a wise decision.]
[I didn't really choose it, though….]
[No matter. Scarlet Keratin is responsive to Rage energy, increasing their effectiveness. Your mutations have increased their durability, rather than their attacking power, which I think is also smart. As an Asura Bear, you don't need help cutting down your enemies, but you do need your weapons to be able to endure your strength.]
[I did used to break a lot of claws,] Sarah looked down at the twelve inch long claws extending from her paws. [I'm glad it doesn't happen anymore. Healing always takes a long time.]
[Which is something of a weakness in your current build,] Corun nods. [You don't have any real means to heal yourself, which is something you should definitely seek to address in your next evolution. Even a simple regeneration gland could go a long way.]
[Anthony is a prime example of how effective even a cheap organ like that can be,] Torrina chipped in, [but for Sarah, I think a more comprehensive regeneration package would make more sense.]
[Why is that?] Corun frowned.
[Because the more hurt she is, the more likely she is to succumb to her rage.]
The glittering ore-coated golgari turned toward Sarah.
[Right?]
The big bear hesitated, then nodded.
[That's true.]
More and more, she had become able to resist the frenzy when joining battle, something she'd never been able to do before. As she gained injuries, and her fear began to mount, her grip slipped further and further.]
[Once the Rage Heart has been engaged, you gain tremendous strength and the ability to push through any amount of pain or injury, similar to the berserk state employed by the Classes which bear that name. As you become more damaged, you sink ever further into the rage, which empowers you further, making you even more reckless. When there is nothing left to fight, or your body is completely exhausted, you finally return to yourself. You also return to yourself if you recover your damage past a certain point. Am I right?]
After considering for a time, Sarah nods.
[That's true. The Colony keeps a team of healers with me whenever I go into battle, and they try to keep me from getting too hurt. When they're around, I don't succumb nearly as much.]
[There you have it,] Torrina says with satisfaction. [Going forward, I think it would be a good idea for Sarah to have inbuilt regeneration, along with healing resonance organs to allow her to be in control of her own pain levels. This will give her another mechanism she can use to control her rages.]
[Is it… not possible to be free of them? At all?] Sarah asked hesitantly.
[It's not.]
Granin delivered the news in a flat and direct tone of voice, before he softened the blow.
[The Rage Heart can be weakened, mitigated, the energy inside can be drained away to serve other functions, but doing any of this will weaken your build at a fundamental level. All of the best evolutions you'll be presented with are going to lean into the Rage harder than before. Our belief, is that your growing confidence and self control, combined with some countermeasures, such as what Torrina has suggested, will enable you to be in control as much as possible, without weakening you.]