It's nice to have the full council around. How long has it been since I saw them all together in one place? Even Antionette and Victoriant are here, now majestic tier six queens, with huge gasters for generating many, high-quality eggs.
It's actually the two Queens who speak up next.
"Things have been going well up there," Antionette tells the Council. "We've expanded to over twenty antcademies, with satellite nests built around each of them in the second stratum. However, we are beginning to push against claimed territory."
"Haven't we taken a lot of 'claimed territory'?" I ask.
"We have, but that was claimed by independent city states, which are now part of the Colony."
Good for them.
"We are now brushing against parts of the Dungeon claimed by the major powers, and we don't want to antagonise them."
I mean… we could…. No, that's probably a bad idea. Prosper in peace. This is the way.
"How are the… uh… former independent cities doing? They've come into the fold alright?"
"Well…" Victoriant shifts a little uncomfortably. "For the most part, yes, but the cities who were… persuaded… by the crusade…"
Good lord. What did those crazy priests do in there? Are those people suffering from trauma? Do they resent their ant overlords?
"What's the problem with them, Victoriant?"
"They're just very enthusiastic. Several of them were almost depopulated due to the residents volunteering to become soldiers in the Colony."
Oh. So… the opposite problem. How the heck did that happen?
"Alright then. So, things are going well up there, I guess. How about the Antcademies? How are they running?"
It's a good time to ask, given we have the architects of the entire program right here with me. Theresant and Florence are in attendance, each of them resplendent, tier five Brood Tenders, emitting a soothing aura that refreshes all of us.
Florence happily opens up, clacking her mandibles with obvious joy.
"We've made great strides in streamlining the rearing and education process. A thorough exploration of the various Skills and mutations that affect education and growth have resulted in us uncovering what we believe to be the best possible combinations. A fully grown hatchling has a significant statistical advantage over where they used to be, and their builds are much more refined."
"You still ask them what they want to learn, right? You don't just force them to become whatever we need?"
"Of course we don't, Eldest, but when we ask them what they want to be, the first question they ask is what we want."
Obviously, they're ants.
"You can't just fold at the first obstacle! You've got to push a little harder than that!"
"We do, of course. Usually, this results in them trying to divide themselves up according to what they think the Colony needs. They get quite grumpy about it."
Damn hatchlings. Accept freedom, dammit! I might have to chalk it up as a lost cause. Trying to get them to choose their own path in life seems pointless when they can't really be happy unless they feel like they're contributing to the family anyway. I wanted them to learn they could contribute to the family as well as choose their own path, but it doesn't seem to be sinking in.
"And how are the Brood Tenders handling things? No problems? You have enough numbers?"
"It's been very busy," Theresant says, without seeming tired at all, "but things are starting to slow down a little now. There's less expansion happening in the first and second stratum; with less new nests being built, we aren't having to establish new antcademies or brood rearing chambers. So, things are going very well."
Of course they are, you guys get to tickle the grubs all day long! I'm so jealous! How could you possibly be stressed!?
"Well, that's wonderful to hear. I almost hesitate to ask, but how many students are we graduating each week? Or are the hatchlings being produced on a monthly basis?"
"No, they are still being hatched weekly. It's difficult to say, but across all of the nests, we are graduating close to one hundred thousand students a week."
HOLY MOLY.
No, it's fine. I'm cool. It's cool. That's over five million a year. Five million of the most prime, primo ants this Dungeon has ever seen. That's… a lot.
"What about egg production and education in the third and fourth strata? We've captured a fair bit of land in the third. In the fourth, we have… this single mountain, but there's already a nest here."
"We aren't sure about that. There are Queens creating brood in the third right now, and The Queen has just moved here, but we aren't sure what effect the overly thick mana in the lower levels will have on the young."
"That's a good point, we should figure that out before we do too much. I like the caution in this instance."
Now I guess we can move to the big ticket item.
"It's no secret that I have a big project on the go right now. Fully cleansing the fifth stratum in order to allow for the Colony to make our way deeper into the Dungeon. It's not going to be easy, obviously, but if we can do this, we will shock the entire world and put the Dungeon on notice. Everyone will have to accept that we, the Colony, mean business."
Advant leans forward in her chair.
"That sounds nice and all, Eldest, but I don't think that's the real reason you want to do this."
"Of course not. If they capture one of us, they can corrupt us with their evil goo and make an entire colony of evil sludge ants. We don't have a choice but to remove that possibility from the Dungeon completely."
The rest of the Council don't really care about impressing the other empires of Pangera. Nor do they think it important to get them in our debt or any such thing. When I mention eliminating the chance of our siblings getting corrupted, they are completely bought in.
"It's going to take a ton of resources. I want to emphasise that we need to ensure we aren't shortchanging any of our other projects. Having said that, what we can spare, I want to put towards this. We are still in the opening stages, gathering information and testing potential solutions. When we sort things out, the call will come, and everyone needs to answer."
-x-X-x-
It's been a long time since I've seen some of these ants, but it's nice to see them again. Propellant and Coolant are here, and they have… most certainly changed.
"Alright, I have to ask, what the heck happened to you guys?"
The two mages both turn to face me, I think, it's kind of difficult to tell due to the visual obstruction over there.
"I'm not sure what you mean, Eldest," Coolant replies smoothly.
"Yeah, we're the same as always!"
I mean…
"You have what appears to be a small volcano on your back, Propellant. The air around you is shimmering with heat! How in the heck can you tell me you haven't changed?!"
"Oh, you mean the evolution thing. I wanted to be more fiery. I was absolutely inspired when you made that mountain explode. I'd never even contemplated the existence of such a level of heat. I had to aspire to reach that level myself!"
"I think what my hot-headed sibling is trying to say, is that we wanted to further specialise in our elements. When we evolved, we chose… rather extreme options."
"You think!? You're half made of ice?! Between the two of you, you're starting to make a localised weather system!"
The extreme heat coming off Coolant is coming up against the freezing air rolling off Coolant and turning into mist. I mean, it's cool and all, but it's spreading around the room and becoming a bit of a pain.
Of all the ants that I've seen reach the sixth tier, these two have certainly gone for the most outlandish choices. Most ants will stick fairly close to our base form, not really modifying it all that much. These two have not shied away from much more dramatic changes.
"So, the idea of becoming some sort of generalist mages never occurred to either of you?"
Coolant wiggles her antennae dismissively.
"Eldest, we of course considered the myriad paths available to the mage ant, but decided that it was necessary for at least some of us to explore the limits of direct specialisation."
"Yeah! Also, I can blow up stuff incredibly well."
"Thank you, Propellant, very helpful. As I was saying, this was a choice we made in order to further the knowledge of the Colony as a whole."
"Right. And it had nothing to do with the fact that the two of you have increasingly identified with, even obsessed over, your chosen elements."
"Of course not."
Right. Very convincing. I'll catch up with these two morons later, since they're slated to be involved with the fifth exploration, given their mana expertise.
Mendant and Frances are in attendance, of course, looking kind of irritated, as usual.
"How are the healers travelling? Do you have all the support you need?"
"To handle our current level of work? Sure. To cover an invasion into the most toxic and virulent place in the entire Dungeon? Obviously not."
Frances doesn't hold back and hits us straight with the bad news.
"You make a good point, we should get on that. Make note, everyone."
Yeesh, they're so touchy. I swear, if they weren't as busy, they'd just complain about being under-utilised. It's impossible for them to be happy, I'm convinced.
No matter how well we prepare, I expect the fifth is going to prove to be a greater challenge than we can possibly anticipate. There's a reason that virulent mana has proven so intractable over the millennia. I've only been exposed to it in a limited fashion and I'm fully aware of just how poisonous it can be. Even the slightest slip, the tiniest bit of exposure, could lead to an ant receiving a lethal dose. Medical help is going to be critical to the success of the mission.
The two core shapers, Bella and Ellie, are also here. They've been hard at work recently, coordinating with Solant and working on their wuffer design.
"How is the core shaper effort working out regarding the fifth's invasion?" I ask the pair. "You've done stellar work so far, and I expect it only got better while I was away."
The two are extremely pleased to receive compliments for their work, positively radiating pride as they reply.
"We've been iterating on the design and think we're ready for the next major test. You'll be taking some of our best wuffers with you when you embark on your mission."
"Excellent. I look forward to seeing how well they perform."
They did a great job eliminating the goop before, but actually going into the fifth is going to be a completely different story. They won't be cleaning puddles, or even pools of the stuff. They're going to be completely submerged in it. If they can't convert it quickly enough, they'll be corrupted and die before they can even get started!
Man, that would be rough. I certainly hope they're up to the task. Without more to be said, I turn to the others and address the group as a whole.
"I have to say, it's wonderful to see you all together like this again. It's been a long time, and I think I should say, you've done a wonderful job helping to lead our family into a bright and secure future."
They each clack their mandibles, some enthusiastically, some a little more subdued, as I give them a rare bit of praise.
"We've gone through some difficult times, and we will go through more, but you've all done your part to help steer us in the right direction. I'm really grateful for everything you've done."
After all, I basically created this council of twenty so I didn't have to make any decisions. That wasn't solely out of a desire to avoid hard work, it was also because I recognised I wouldn't have been any good at it. These ants have taken over the bulk of the work steering out of the trouble I habitually get us into. I'm grateful, deeply, and it's only right that I let them know.
-x-X-x-
Many members of the Council remain in the chamber to discuss the various issues plaguing the Colony across all the levels of our development. I remain among them for a while, just listening in and catching up on the issues beyond the range of my Vestibule. It would be nice if the organ had such tremendous range it would reach all the way to the surface. If that were possible, I'd know what was happening at every level of the family, even in the nesting chambers all the way up in the first.
I mean, it would be terrifying to be exposed to that much Will, from that many individuals, but on the other hand, I like to know what's going on around the place. From the conversations happening around me, I learn about things happening in Renewal, which is apparently getting much larger as even other communities who managed to hide and survive the assault of Garralosh hear about the thriving city and move in.
As the territory expands, we run across more mineral deposits rich with mana, or wood which has absorbed different attributes. With the influx of raw resources, processing has also had to be expanded, along with research to work out what can be done with the stuff.
This organisational chatter brings in Tungstant and Cobalt who want to talk about what they've learnt from examining the materials they purchased from the various markets around the fourth. Smithant is apparently losing her mind, sealing herself into the forges and testing everything she can in every way she can. I shouldn't be surprised, an opportunity like this isn't going to come around too often and she's completely obsessed with her craft. I'm sure she'll have a ton of new ideas after she gets more time to research. Now that Tiny has finished his evolution, a new set of armour for him would be amazing, and he'd get a ton of use out of it. It's not like he'll be evolving again any time soon.
Victoriant and Antionette are discussing potential nest expansions into the third with Sloan and Advant. Apparently, it's been too difficult to guarantee security up there, so the only nest producing brood is the massive one built underneath Roklu. The Colony has captured almost a dozen pillars since then, and nests are being constructed under each. According to Advant, things are looking much safer in the third now than they were. The demons within our land are settling down, going back to their normal behaviour, which is admittedly pretty chaotic. Which is weird, since the rest of the stratum appears to be having massive issues still. I might need to talk to Al about it, which I can do through the Nave at any point, I suppose.
Ahh, it's nice to hear about the family.
As much as I want to luxuriate here in the warm and fuzzy feelings the family brings out in me, it's time to get off my surprisingly comfortable chair and go out to make a difference. It's not enough just to hear about the family, it's also necessary to work for them and carve out a better future from this punishing world! Hah, as if the Dungeon has anything that can go up against this Colony.
Levering myself up, I exit the chamber as quietly as I can so I don't disturb the others, but I admit it's probably a fruitless effort. Outside the room, I find my three friends waiting patiently. Well, I find Crinis and Invidia waiting patiently, Tiny is asleep.
Well, if I'm honest, Crinis was probably spying on me through the shadows, so at least Invidia was waiting.
[Alright, you three, it's time to get up and get going! We've got a lot to do! Wake up, Tiny!]
The big ape stirs and blinks a few times, his bat ears twitching this way and that.
[We're going to go fighting.]
BAM! His eyes spring open in an instant and his body flares with electricity, sending it crackling along the walls. Up he springs, rolling his shoulders and cracking his enormous knuckles, jumping on the spot he's so excited to get going.
[That's right, big guy. We're going into the fifth stratum! A whole new place, filled with brand new monsters! Isn't that exciting!]
[Yes,] he affirms, grinning wide. [Can't wait to punch!]
Crinis is less enthused.
[Is that wise, Master? It's very dangerous down there. I've heard all about how… disgusting and filthy that place is. You will be fouled by the creatures that live there.]
[My plans are a little more ambitious this time, Crinis. I don't want to just go there. I don't want to just make it through to the sixth. I want to cleanse the place entirely. Let's walk and talk.]
I lead the way while Crinis latches onto my carapace, before surprising me and fading straight into my shadow. Tiny stomps along behind me since we can't walk side by side in these tunnels. The two of us are rather huge at this point. Invidia latches onto the ape's shoulder, flapping his wings every now and again to maintain equilibrium. In this fashion, I lead us back down into the depths of the nest, explaining on the way.
[The fifth wasn't always the way it is now. I've never spoken to anyone who knows what it was before, but everyone agrees it was corrupted at some point. Something managed to convert an entire stratum into a toxic sludge wasteland, so it stands to reason that we should be able to turn it back. If we can figure out what was done to the place, we can reverse it. Make sense?]
[It will be difficult. We don't knowsssss what wasss done. Nobody knowssss what wasss done.]
[You are not wrong, Invidia. No-one else has figured it out, even after several thousand years. However, I have a reason to believe that we will be successful where everyone else has failed.]
[And what is that, Master?]
[We're monsters,] I laugh. [There's nothing more adaptable, or more able to endure mana, than we are. There's never been a unified, organised and driven society of monsters like us in the history of the Dungeon. We are going to do things that nobody ever believed were possible, just wait and see.]
-x-X-x-
It takes a little while to find Solant, because she is doing what she always does, running around the place sorting out everyone else's problems. She's like an industrial strength iron, running over the military operation beneath the nest and pressing out every tiny wrinkle she comes across. Actually, the more I consider the image, the more it seems to fit. Solant is inevitable, a tide of logistical efficiency that no problem, no matter how small, can hide from.
As we move from chamber to chamber, tunnel to tunnel, we find nothing but an extreme example of pure ant organisation. There are troops training, running drills with the single-minded, relentless focus of insects. Supplies are being stockpiled, inventory constantly checked. Construction is everywhere, barracks chambers, hospitals, the works. The deeper we go, the more common it becomes, until at last we find the little general herself, overlooking a force of ten thousand ants running some sort of tunnel drill along with what looks like a hundred wuffers.
"What in the name of heck is going on here?" I ask, trying to figure out what the complex movements might be for. The whole battalion shifts forward, backwards, some ants hopping over others, some slipping underneath, then they rotate, making it seem as if I'm staring into a horizontal whirlpool as streams of my siblings swirl around the walls. It's dizzying!
"It's about managing the movement of mana," Solant says shortly, watching the drill underway like a hawk. Members of her personal squad are with her, as always, watching alongside, some annotating into a scent-book, literally taking notes.
"I'm going to need more than that. Don't we use mages to manage the movement of mana?" I ask, still confused.
Solant sighs and I resist the urge to thwack her.
"In the fifth, our greatest opponent is not the monsters we will face, although they are mighty and dangerous indeed, it is the mana itself. It is impossible, even for us, to produce enough mages to manage the flow of energy through an entire stratum. Even for small scale incursions, we have to do everything we can to reduce the burden on our wuffer auxiliaries, and the ant mages, to ensure they don't burn out."
"That all makes sense, sure, but I need you to explain the trippy scene in front of me. I feel like I'm getting vertigo."
"We are monsters with cores, so we absorb mana constantly."
"I get that much."
"Which means, our movement is capable of influencing, in a small way, the flow of energy in an area."
"Ohhhh snap. So if there's enough of us moving in a precise sequence…"
Solant nods, satisfied.
"That's right. With a force this large, we can create a flow, drawing mana in towards us, or pushing it out. When we want more toxic mana to be fed to the wuffers in the centre of the formation, we can draw it in without exposing ourselves. When the wuffers have purified all the mana around them, we can push that clean energy out into the surroundings, weakening the toxic energy around us."
Holy moly. This general is proving to be everything I hoped she would be. The campaign hasn't even started yet, but her out-of-the-box thinking is already paying dividends.
"That's awesome. I can't wait to see it in action. Well, get the troops together. It's time to sally forth into the fifth! I'm here and ready to go!"
Solant actually huffs a little as she clacks her mandibles. She huffs! At me!
"It will take a little time to get everything organised, Eldest."
"What? But Tiny is ready to go!"
[Show her, Tiny.]
He doesn't know who or what I'm talking about, but the ape doesn't fail to deliver, raising one brow, along with one tree-thick arm, and flexing.
"See?"
"Regardless of how ready you are, we haven't gathered the necessary team. There are many moving parts to this, Eldest. I'll get everything ready as quickly as I possibly can, but it will take some hours. Why don't you head down to the forward operating base and wait there? That will give you an opportunity to see what we're up against."
I'm tempted to unload a thwack just to emphasise the necessity of good attitudes, but I think that's only because my head still hurts from the treatment mother unleashed upon me. I'm seeking to transfer my aching head to someone else and that's not fair. I'll be the bigger ant and refrain from such childish behaviour.
"Alright, fine. We'll meet you down there."
"Oh, I won't be there."
THWACK!
"What do you mean you won't be there?!"
"Ah! Eldest, was that really necessary?"
"Answer the question!"
"I have too many things to worry about here! Our preparations are reaching a critical stage and I have to make sure that everything runs perfectly. You'll have capable members of every caste in your team, I'm sure you can manage them just fine!"
"Alright, fine. But you watch yourself."
I tap an antenna against my own head then stretch it out to tap against Solant's.
"Make sure you keep your head on straight."
The little ant steps back, glaring up at me, then sighs.
"Good luck down there, Eldest. It's going to be difficult."
"Hah! I was made for difficult."
So saying, I turn away, and lead my three friends down towards the deeper tunnels. It doesn't take long before we reach the main shaft, prepared by the Colony to pierce deep into the web of tangled tunnels below the nest. Despite the number of troops committed to this project, it still isn't possible to keep the shaft free of monsters, so we run into opposition quickly, though it doesn't last long.
Eager to stretch his muscles, Tiny is more than happy to leap across the open expanse, smashing everything to bits. Seemingly without effort, he unleashes his meteoric fists, or simply grabs hold of the foes and obliterates them against the hardened stone walls.
When we reach the bottom, the light is dim, the number of ants around us are few, and the mana is thick. Filled with life energy, the tunnels are awash with plants, and though dim, the light here is intense, filled with a subtle power imbued by the density of mana.
And there are monsters. So many monsters. Clearly, the Colony still has a lot of work to do down here before the tunnels are properly cleaned out. Ah well, we can contribute a bit.
-x-X-x-
It's always fun to watch my three loyal friends stretch their 'legs' after an evolution. They've grown immensely in power, as is befitting a monster moving from the sixth to seventh tier. Unleashing them upon the monsters in those tunnels is like putting a group of wolves against a field of mice.
Despite their natural advantages, born with bodies that are stronger, faster, more mana-rich, these creatures do not have the advantage of maxed out, carefully considered evolutions.
Tiny, of course, is the first and most enthusiastic of the three to throw himself into the fighting. The hulking brute has grown truly enormous now, so large he would make a normal gorilla look like a toy. Due to his sheer size (and mine), we have to stick to the bigger tunnels only, eschewing the smaller ones to avoid getting stuck. Whenever he comes across a monster, he bounds forward, knuckles pounding into the rock as he bellows his challenge. Some monsters are smart and run, slithering away to places he can't reach, but the larger ones turn to fight, roaring back. They don't last long. His fists lash out, not just with incredible power, but absurd speed. Left, left, right, left, right. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM. A flurry of punches, a staccato burst of light as his Skills activate, and his opponent is already reeling. Disappointed, the big ape slumps his shoulders a little before his ears twitch and he rears back for a mighty uppercut that flings his opponent directly into the afterlife.
And all the while, the lightning is crackling, rippling across his arms. Every time he punches, it blasts outwards, lightning bolts hammering into his target along with the fists of light.
Compared to Tiny, Crinis and Invidia don't get as much of an opportunity to shine, but they still contribute as we continue to make our way down through the tunnels. As a creature of pure shadow, Crinis can be… just about anywhere. Her ability to stretch and fold her body in on itself was creepy before, but now it's risen to a whole new level. At tier six, she could fold her entire body down into a little ball, then erupt into a forest of tentacles, her three maws appearing from deep within the mass. It was a horrifying jumpscare that proved to be an effective hunting tactic, but now… now she doesn't even need to physically be present.
She's a shadow.
And if that weren't scary enough, she eats light.
When she enters a new tunnel, if she wishes, the light, despite its thickness, fades down to almost nothing. The tunnels fill with darkness, and Crinis is simply gone, her body spreading throughout the shadows. When the monsters begin to move, her tentacles strike. They lash out from the walls, from the floors, from the darkness, from the monsters' own shadows.
Once her tentacles have grasped the target… well… we know what happens. I don't need to describe it, right? We know. What I find most disturbing, is that the remaining Biomass, now neatly cut into bite sized sections, is pulled into the shadows, and I can hear her chewing.
It's… it's an experience, alright.
For his part, Invidia seems happy to relax, casting spells to support when he feels it's necessary, healing Tiny, exploding a few things and generally helping everyone out. I don't know why, but it's comforting having him around, and we enjoy a good chat as we make our way deeper and deeper, following the pheromone trails.
And man, is it deep. The Colony has done their best to create a 'highway' system that more or less spirals downwards, but even so, it takes us almost a day before we reach the forward base. These tunnels are deep, way deeper than I thought they were, but eventually we arrive, a little worn out, a little wounded, ready for some rest and refreshment.
The forward base isn't anything to speak of at this stage, a nest in the early stages of construction, the entrance built into the tunnel wall with rudimentary defences in place around it. What it does have, is a garrison thirty thousand strong, along with some of the human troops and priests to fight alongside.
The generals clearly felt it was dangerous enough here that they wanted every advantage, including the aura buff provided by the priests when we fight alongside the humans.
This is a dangerous place to be, and I can already sense why.
[You guys head into the fort and get some rest,] I tell Tiny, Crinis and Invidia. [I've got something I want to check out.]
Tiny and Invidia are happy to go, but Crinis hesitates.
[You won't do anything silly, will you, Master?]
[Hah! Don't worry yourself. Look, you can come with me if you want. I was just—]
[Thank you, I will.]
[Aaaaaalright then. Sure. Come along.]
Sheesh.
The scent trails have been laid down many times, clearly indicating what I'm heading towards, but even without them, I would know. My mana sense is blaring warning signals, ringing the alarm in my head as it senses something unbelievably dangerous.
And it isn't far away, only a few hundred metres.
Soon, I arrive, and look down at the entrance to the fifth stratum.
There are less and less of these passages the deeper we go. For every five connections between the first and second, we only found one between the second and third. From the third to the fourth, that number cuts to another tenth. From the fourth to the fifth, we've only found this single passage.
The floor slopes down sharply from all angles, creating a well thirty metres across that drops straight down for almost twenty metres, but then the thick life mana just… terminates. At that point, the tunnel is filled with a bubbling miasma, a toxic sludge so thick it's almost a solid. I can see it creeping up the sides, little fingers of goop trying to latch onto the smooth walls of the well, as if the mana itself was trying to climb up into the fourth… as if it were alive.
My senses are warning me that even a touch of this stuff will mean a painful death.
Holy. Moly.
This is going to be rough.
-x-X-x-
To my surprise, it's Brendant, a soldier of the Council, who leads this expedition. Soft-spoken and reserved, she isn't usually one to put herself forward for an operation like this, preferring to work diligently in the background. Not that I'm unhappy to see her, she's steady and reliable, as well as powerful, being a tier six ant with maxed evolutions.
"Brendant, good to see you! Is this the whole force?"
She comes down accompanied by what appears to be five thousand ants, along with a force of five hundred wuffers. We aren't holding back on this one. Those five hundred pets represent an enormous sum of cores, but purifying the mana of the fifth is far too difficult without something custom-built for the job.
"This is all of us. We aren't meant to go too deep, or for too long. We've done a fair bit of testing to determine the potency of the mana and whether it's possible to survive down there, but we haven't done any exploring. That's what this expedition is for. Do some preliminary mapping and get some data back to the generals about the environment and the effectiveness of our countermeasures."
"Hey, Brendant, why are you talking to me as if I don't know what we're here for? I know exactly what the mission is about."
The smaller ant shifts a little on her six legs.
"It doesn't hurt to have a reminder before the beginning of a mission, Eldest."
"I'm not going to fly off the handle and invite some sort of invasion by insane slugs! I can be cool. Everything is going to be fine."
"As you say, Eldest."
Gah! There's never any trust.
"How long until we depart?" I ask.
"Give us an hour or two for final prep and we should be ready to go."
"Fantastic. I'll leave that to you, I'm going to dip my toe into the fifth and see what it's like in there."
I can tell Brendant wants to say something, but she refrains, merely giving me a nod and turning back to her business.
[Come on, guys. I want to check out the fifth. Let's see what it's like!]
[Master, I really don't think…]
[Fight!]
[Yessssss, letssssssss.]
[Sorry Crinis, you're outvoted.]
Led by myself, we rush over to the entrance and find two other ants peering down at the well.
"Propellant, Coolant. I didn't expect to see you two down here already."
The two mages remain side by side, though the air swirls violently between them as the two extreme temperatures they produce clash.
"We've come to do some testing regarding the mana," Coolant informs me.
"They wouldn't let us go down there with you. Too much risk," Propellant snaps her mandibles in irritation.
"It's a sensible precaution," Coolant tells her sister.
"It's weak! We're the strongest mages in the Colony, we should be down there!" Propellant bites back.
I keep to myself that I'd rather have Brilliant on her own than the two of them. That little mad scientist is an expert at sniffing out answers to difficult questions, but risking her on our first trip would be absolute madness.
"I agree, there's no reason for you to go down this soon," I tell them. "Be a little patient, there'll be a million of us down there before too long, you included."
It'll take at least that many to establish any real foothold, considering the odds we're up against.
"Well, I'm going to poke my nose in, see what the fuss is about," I declare, only for the two mages to immediately question me.
"What? Why?" Coolant demands.
"You know what that mana will do to you?" Propellant bursts out.
"I've been exposed to the mana of the fifth before, don't worry about it."
"It's not quite the same, Eldest," Coolant insists, "this is the original item, not a reproduction produced by a monster. You'll find exposure to it will be… uncomfortable."
Uncomfortable? I don't have a problem with being uncomfortable. I've got the Call! I'm constantly uncomfortable! Although, right now, as I'm on the verge of descending to another stratum, I'm in less pain from it than I've felt in ages. In fact, I'm almost free of pain! It's such a wondrous, heady feeling, I honestly don't care what the mana feels like.
"It'll be fine, I'll be down there for just a few seconds. A minute, tops."
[I'll go first guys, you wait for me up here. Be ready with the healing magic, Invidia. I'll be counting on you.]
[Yesssssss. Count on me moressssssss.]
[Uh… okay? I will?]
His eye gleams with happiness and warmth.
[Goooodssss,] he hisses.
And over I go. The passage down is pretty much vertical, so I grip on for dear life and head face first towards the bubbling goop that separates this layer from the next. On the way down, I remember an important point.
"Uh, Protectant and friends. By no means are you to go down there with me. There's absolutely no way you'll survive the exposure without support."
"And what makes you think you will?" Protectant mutters from somewhere close to my antennae.
"Because I'm a heck of a lot larger and stronger than you lot? If I take damage, Invidia can heal me. If all of you take damage, there won't be enough healing to go around. You just have to wait this one out."
They aren't happy about it, but for once, I'm actually right. The twenty bodyguards remain at the halfway mark of the tunnel as I continue to descend.
Quickly, I arrive at the barrier, my antennae almost brushing against the surface. Holy moly. From here it really does look like a complete mess, a thick soup of sludge and poison that writhes as if alive.
To my mana sense, the tunnel before me may as well be filled with radioactive waste. The energy just doesn't feel right, as if it's tainted, damaging, even to other forms of mana. Now that I've come this far, I'm not going to hold myself back. I'll be heading down here with thousands of my siblings soon enough. As if I'd ever do that without checking its safety for myself first.
Unwilling to waste more time, I decisively poke an antenna straight into the muck.
Hmmmm.
Hmmmmmmm.
Yep. Just as I thought. It burns like I stuck it straight into acid. That's not enough to tell me anything, I need to go all the way in.
Onward!
-x-X-x-
Rushing forward in one great leap, I plunge my entire body into the atmosphere of the fifth. Despite the thrill of exploration, of taking part in another adventure in the Dungeon, I can't say this is a pleasant experience. If I were to liken to anything, it's like sticking my head straight into a toilet.
A toilet filled with acid.
My entire body burns. My carapace is on fire, my antennae are frying away, the joints in my legs are in immediate pain. Worst of all are my eyes. They are immediately attacked, consumed by the toxins which never relent in their attack.
Even more disturbing than the physical discomfort is the feeling I get from the mana. It's invading my body constantly, those fingers of poison stretching inside, attempting to corrupt me from within. It's… awful.
Yep… this is absolutely awful. No wonder people consider this place an uninhabitable wasteland of death. It is an uninhabitable wasteland of death.
I trigger my healing gland, welcoming the sensation of the icy cold healing fluid rushing throughout my frame, pushing back the damage caused by the environment of the fifth. At the same time, I put my brains to work, seizing the invading mana and purging it before it can do much damage or begin to propagate itself. With these measures in place, it still absolutely sucks to be here, and I probably couldn't maintain it indefinitely. Putting aside how absurdly painful it is, without sufficient Will from the Vestibule, I'd eventually run out of healing to constantly repair myself.
Forward, forward, forward! I press on, eager to break through to the end of this entrance and take a glimpse of the true fifth stratum. It really tests my grip, the walls are far slipperier down here than they were in the fourth, but I hold firm and manage not to fall.
Luckily, considering the condition I'm in, I don't see any monsters in the tunnel itself, which I'll take as a win. After carefully scuttling down the wall for almost a hundred metres, it finally comes to an end and opens up into a wider cavern below.
For the first time, I lay eyes on the fifth stratum, and all I can say is: it's gross.
Interestingly, the space is less like a chamber and more like an enormous tunnel. Hundreds of metres across, perhaps even a kilometre, and just as deep, it's massive, on par with some of the largest I saw in the first and second. Filling that space is the most disgusting kind of 'life' that I think I've ever come across. Seeing it in all its glory, I get a clearer picture of what the terraforming slugs were trying to achieve when they invaded the fourth.
There's a river of virulent green mucus. Just… like… a river of it. I can't even say it's flowing… it looks more like it's seeping. Within that thick sludge, I can see eel-like creatures slithering over each other, covered in suckers and mouths rising up every now and again to breach the surface.
Throughout the chamber I can see thick strands of slime, some connecting the ceiling to the floor, each emanating a visible aura of decay. Swathes of mould in bright, sickly colours carpet the surfaces, rippling as something within moves through them. Or perhaps the mould itself is moving? Monstrous mould would be the least shocking thing I'd expect to see down here.
It takes me a little while to find the rest of the monsters. The air is filled with a thick haze of yellow-green… steam? Mist? The monsters themselves blend into the environment quite well, but as they move around, I start to pick them out.
Creatures move amongst the sludge, blending in, eyeing each other as they survive within the toxic atmosphere. Weird, snail-like creatures with eye stalks piercing through their own shells slither here and there. A frog monster with an absurdly large maw prowls around, bright blue venom dripping from between its fangs. Fluttering here and there, surprisingly, are butterfly-looking creatures, each the size of a small horse, their wings blending in masterfully with the toxic air. It's almost easier to see them from the mist they disturb as they fly as opposed to looking for their bodies.
There's many more monsters, but what catches my eye is instead the vents I see in places around the tunnel. Each looks different, but they all appear to be doing the exact same thing: spewing a dense cloud of toxic mana directly into the tunnel. As I watch them closer, I see that my first assumption wasn't quite right. They are sucking in mana, and then expelling it, before repeating the process. When looking at the flow of energy throughout the whole tunnel, it's almost like the entire thing is breathing, a vast push and pull of mana that is cycling… somewhere?
At this point, I can't bear to be down here any more, and turn around. I trigger my healing gland for the second time as I climb upwards, and it does a decent job of battling against the acidity burning away at my body. Repelling the mana is taking far more of my mental energy than I expected, with almost half of my mind-constructs dedicated to the job. Since not even a single mote of the stuff can be allowed to exist within me, the minds have to work super hard scouring for every tiny trace of energy. If I was more sensitive to mana, it probably wouldn't be as hard, but I'm lacking both a high enough rank mana sense, and any of the myriad organs that assist with detection.
When I eventually break through the barrier back up into the fourth stratum, I almost gasp with relief.
[Holy moly. It's awful down there.]
[Master! You're hurt!]
[Of course I'm hurt, just being down there is enough to hurt. You're going to have to be very careful. I'm not sure how vulnerable your shadow body is going to be, but if the acid eats into it like it did my carapace, you'll have a rough time.]
"What was it like, Eldest?" Coolant asks me when I crest the exit of the tunnel again.
"Bad," I reply bluntly. "It's going to be a heck of a job purifying that place. Impossible, many would say."
"What do you say?"
I clack my mandibles.
"I say, we can do it in a year."
-x-X-x-
I felt a little bit foolish listening to Advant a few hours later as she explained how our trek into the fifth was going to work. More specifically, as she outlined the many layers of protection the Colony had provided to keep us safe in that horrific environment.
"Everyone is to ensure they have six of these enchanted leg guards on at all times," she informed the gathered ants, glaring at them. "No, it is not selfishness to take six, it is the bare minimum requirement to keep you alive so you might serve the Colony. Any individual found to be wearing less than six at any time will be put on vacation for a month. Do you understand?"
"We understand!" the ants chorused back, fear in their eyes. They did not want that vacation.
"We will begin distribution of the rings while Coolant explains their function, pay attention!"
Many small carvers with boxes clutched in their mandibles began to run up and down the assembled ranks of ants, handing out sets of rings, adjusting them to fit, and ensuring each ant had one on each leg before they moved to the next. All the while, Coolant's calm tone washed over us.
"The rings combine two properties that will be beneficial in the fifth. The first promotes regeneration. The atmosphere of the fifth is completely toxic and will eat into your bodies like a potent acid. Particularly vulnerable are the joints."
She's not wrong. Mine are still stinging.
"This constant healing effect will be able to mitigate the damage, but not overcome it, so be wary. We aim to limit our exposure to the toxic mana as much as antly possible, but we expect things to be chaotic down there. All of us will be exposed at some point. The second effect is a complex piece of enchanting that will help prevent the virulent mana of the fifth from slipping into your body."
I really should have grabbed some of these before I went down there.
"As you know, this mana will propagate itself and literally eat you from the inside out. As monsters, we constantly draw in mana from around us, which means we are always at risk of absorbing this dangerous energy. Should it get into your core and begin to multiply, we will be unable to save you. Make sure it doesn't come to that."
She eyes everyone seriously.
"To that end, all mages will be constantly sweeping with their mana sense. It is vitally important that any ant touched by the mana be cleansed immediately. Now, I will pass over to my sister, Bella, who will explain the measures taken by the core shapers to protect us."
A somewhat nervous-looking Bella steps up in front of the crowd, unused to being in the spotlight. In fact, she is so circumspect, I hadn't even noticed she was here until this moment. Even the Will I get from her is quiet.
"H-hello everyone. As you… as you know, we have been hard at work on the Wuffer initiative, trying to maximise the ability of these pets to purify the mana of the fifth."
She gestures with an antenna, and one of her fellow caste members ushers one of the happy blob monsters forward. The creature wuffs contently as it undulates over the ground, radiating positive energy like a little blue ball of gooey sunshine.
"This is our current template for the tier five wuffer design, and it is much more efficient and effective than before, but I want to emphasise to everyone that they are incredibly fragile in combat."
Where before she had been hesitant and timid, once she's begun talking about her beloved pet, Bella speaks with vigour and confidence.
"Which means you must protect them. Protect them like they are brood, or a Queen. They are your lifeline in the fifth; without them, the mana will overwhelm you in a matter of minutes."
She glares at the assembled ants for a moment, then she realises what she's doing and begins to hesitate again.
"Please," she says.
Of course, I'll defend the wuffers with all of my spirit! We need them to stay alive down there, after all. Coolant steps forward again.
"We expect the monsters of the fifth will have an… extreme reaction to our attempts to cleanse the atmosphere. They were maddened by it during the wave, and we anticipate they will hate it even more in their home stratum."
That's a good point, and one I'd kind of neglected. The monsters of the fifth were not pleased when we disrupted their toxifying operations. Memories of maddened, berserking slug monsters come flooding back to me. Good times.
"And lastly," Advant steps forward, "it is critically important that no ant is lost. We will take headcounts every hour we are down there. Always move in squads of ten and watch out for your sisters. If a single one of us is captured, it could spell disaster for the Colony."
At this reminder, my attitude becomes grim. As the leaders go over the final details of the operation, my mind wanders back to the poor soul that was lost in the Golden City. I'll never allow such a thing to happen again. I fully intend to dedicate a dozen of my mind constructs to monitoring the Vestibule at all times. The second an ant is captured, I will know about it.
Never again will I let a member of my family be taken from me in that manner.
Eventually, I too am fitted with the enchanted rings, as are Tiny, Invidia and Crinis. It takes a bit of work to get them onto the ape's fingers, given how thick they are, and a bit of work to get them onto Invidia's, given how thin they are. For Crinis, she doesn't need the size changed, since she can adjust the size of the tentacle they sit on at will.
I decide to keep an eye on how well the gear works for them, since it was specifically designed for ants, and I ask Invidia to pay strict attention to himself, Tiny and Crinis while we're down there. Crinis has some mana manipulation, but Tiny has literally none and will need someone else to protect him from that vile influence.
[Of courssssse. I will alwaysssss help friendssssss.]
Well… that's really decent of him!
-x-X-x-
The wuffers go first. Well, that's not entirely true, I go first, since I can survive down there, for a while at least, without any help. Once I plunge myself back into the goop, I don't descend this time, but wait as the entire contingent of wuffers is lowered down the tunnel after me.
All five hundred of them.
All mooshed together, they don't appear like separate monsters at all, but rather one big, blobby, ball of cheeriness as they wuff wuff away, perfectly content with the world. The moment they touch the mana of the fifth however, an arcane-chemical reaction takes place.
The happy pets don't change at all, but the mana around me certainly does. Like a pump is suddenly turned on, there is a massive whoosh of energy as the wuffers suck in a huge quantity of the poisoned mana. Clinging to the side of the tunnel, it's like I'm inside a sewer and someone just flushed a whole mess straight into my face.
It's unpleasant, is what I'm saying.
Once the creatures have taken in all they can, the flow settles down and things return to normal. I nervously wait to see if there's any activity from below, but the monsters down there seem to be chilling for the time being. After about a minute, something changes. From above, the wuffers finish purifying the mana of the fifth, and release that cleaned energy above themselves.
Then they descend a little and the process starts again.
At least I'm not subjected to that massive influx like I was the first time, but rather a slow and steady descent as the wuffers form a solid mass, not allowing a single drop of corrupted energy to slip past them, and filling the tunnel with clean, pure energy for the ants to climb down in.
Fortunately, forming a plug in the way they have has seemingly prevented the natives below from sensing what we're up to for the time being, which is a good thing, since I have to fight them off by myself if they decide to come up here. I mean, things are bound to go straight to heck once we reach the opening, but for now, we descend peacefully.
The rings are really helping take the edge off the pain of being in the fifth. Are they enough for me to sustain myself down here permanently? Nope. I'm still literally on fire, all over my body, being burned constantly by acid, which isn't the best. I'm also still being invaded by toxic mana, which would devour me if I left it alone for mere minutes. But the rings are helping mitigate both problems, just enough that they become significantly more manageable.
Planning and preparation, they actually do help!
Bit by bit, we lower ourselves down, the five hundred strong blob of wuffers doing their work until we reach the lower end of the tunnel. I bring myself down into the chamber itself and perch on the roof, out of trouble's way. Things are pretty much the same down here as they were when last I saw them, but I know that's about to change.
The second we unleash the converted mana into this larger arterial tunnel, things are going to go straight to heck. In preparation for that moment, we wait here for a while, the wuffers working away to build up a larger bank of 'clean' mana in the tunnel above.
I feel a mind bridge connect to me.
[We're ready, Eldest. Prepare for descent.]
[Got it.]
Then the contact breaks and I spin up my minds, ready for battle. We have to be careful using mind bridges down here, every type of mana is vulnerable to corruption from the atmosphere in the fifth. I didn't believe it when I heard it was so toxic we couldn't even make a gate down there, but apparently Brilliant ran tests to confirm it. This mana is so virulent, every other form of energy it comes into contact with will become foul and no longer work, or worse. In the case of a mind bridge, the mana will seep into it, then trace the bridge straight back to your brain. Nasty stuff.
A few seconds later, the wuffers break their tight formation, creating a gap in the middle as they squish themselves against the sides. Through the hole they've created, purified blue mana slowly falls down into the sludge of the fifth. Both forms of mana are thick and slow-moving, like syrup or molasses, but when they come into contact with each other, they fizz, each trying to eat into the other. As the blue mana spreads, it stretches thin, then pools down to the floor of the cavern where it begins to balloon and spread.
And the monsters go crazy.
As the mana comes down, so too, do the ants. In a constant stream, they drop through the gap to land in the growing cover of the purified energy, and then unleash their ferocity upon the local monsters. The creatures native to this stratum are in the process of going completely berserk. The moment they sense the 'foreign' energy seeping into their world, it's as if a switch has flipped. Screams of terrifying rage echo off the tunnel walls as a flood of molluscs, crustaceans and other bizarre creatures come charging towards us, held back only by the rapidly increasing force of ants securing their position beneath the entrance tunnel.
Well, them and myself, I suppose. I throw myself into the battle, jaws gnashing, mana churning as I use my mass and aggression to hold off as many of the beasts as I can. Void Chomp after Void Chomp is unleashed, carving huge chunks out of the largest and most threatening monsters who seek to assault my brethren.
As soon as the pool of clean energy grows large enough, Tiny, Invidia and Crinis descend, adding their considerable firepower to the effort. In a moment, lightning fists, shadow tentacles and masterful explosive magic are helping to keep back the tide. Once the full five thousand ant brigade has made its way down, we are no longer content to hold; instead, we push out, claiming more space.
Then, and only then, do the wuffers descend, settling into the centre of the formation, happily chuffing away as everything goes to heck around them.
Soon enough, channels of toxic energy are dug out, sending a steady flow of corrupted mana towards the cheerful pets, who consume it, then expel pure mana back out, which in turn continues to spread, growing the 'safe-zone' in which we can operate.
The purification has begun.
-x-X-x-
To purify the fifth's mana is an absurd idea, a comical suggestion. It's impossible, everyone knows it's impossible, and not because we haven't tried, or made half-hearted attempts. Hundreds and thousands have died, enough resources to bankrupt an empire have been spent, over several attempts, some by individual empires, some by conglomerates of several major powers.
All have been unsuccessful. Not only unsuccessful, but unmitigated disasters. Even when these efforts managed to gain a foothold, they were eventually snuffed out, unable to hold their ground against the unrelenting pressure placed upon them by the fifth. The monsters there will not abide any change to the environment, which is itself a horrifying ordeal to overcome.
Then, there are the Krath tribes, roving bands of sadistic killers, who will unleash unspeakable torment on any they capture, breaking the will of would-be invaders and sending them running back to the safety of the fourth. Against these factors, purifying the fifth has become nothing more than a dream within a dream.
Yet, when the great ant spoke of it, I couldn't help but have hope.
- From the private notes of Rathwyn Werilos, Mage of the Tower
You know, now that I'm here and everything's underway, I have to say, the fifth, despite everything I've heard about it… really sucks. I hate it here. I can't believe even the mucus-ridden toxi-snails actually enjoy living here. Take a vacation in the fourth rather than trying to melt my face off, maybe you'll learn how to relax!
Once the perimeter is… somewhat secured, the carvers begin to fortify and lay down the experimental 'track' we intend to use to feed the wuffers. After all, they're helpless little things, unable to fight at all, every drop of evolutionary potential and energy was required to create the incredibly unique set of organs and mutations required to not only tolerate the toxic mana, but purify it. As such, they're supposed to remain protected, nestled in the middle of our formation.
To keep them safe, but let them work, we need to create a steady flow of contained 'goop', aka fifth stratum mana, to feed to our happily chuffing wuffers. The answer the carvers came up with was a sweet track system. Each section slots into the next and powers up, extending the reach of the formation and drawing in more energy, feeding it back to be cleaned.
It's simple to work and versatile enough that only a little shaping is required to smooth out the ground before we can lay down the track. The end result is that we can easily expand the formation as the clean mana extends further outwards.
Behold, the incredible engineering of the family!
However, that's not worth anything if we can't defend it. Defending our territory is becoming harder and harder every second as more and more native monsters sense what we're up to. The second they do, they come screaming out of the shadows, twisted with rage, and throw themselves into our defensive formation with no regard for their own safety. So long as they can spread the poison and push us back, they don't even care if they become biomass.
For the moment, we have an overwhelming force. With myself and the three amigos present, we're easily able to outpunch the local riffraff. What makes it difficult is the atmosphere of the fifth. I can endure it for a while, but I'm a little different than the others. Having an exo-skeleton is a serious advantage since it takes the acidic effect a lot more time to eat through it than it would skin and muscle. My joints are vulnerable, as ever, but compared to the others, I've got it easy.
Tiny has a thick covering of fur, but that's no defence against the omni-present acid. Every time he so much as sticks a finger outside the slowly expanding bubble of clean mana, he has to snatch his hand back as it begins to sizzle. Even Crinis has a hard time. Her flesh… shadow… I mean… is it even flesh anymore? Whatever. It's a lot of things, but it ain't that durable, so if it's exposed to the acidic atmosphere, it starts to burn away rather quickly. Even worse for her, it's hard to replenish what was lost using Biomass down here, since every monster is some variety of poisonous or toxic to eat.
Invidia… needless to say, the eyeball with his little fluttery wings and noodle arms is the weakest of all of us, physically. Were he exposed to the atmosphere for even a few seconds, he might lose a limb. Thankfully, he's the one who is the least likely to suffer, since, as a master mage, he doesn't need to go anywhere near his targets in order to blow them up.
For the most part, I remain almost completely outside of the cleansed mana, working to push back the monsters before they can reach the rest of my family. Every now and again, I duck into the safe zone, just for a little breather and to give myself a thorough scan, to ensure I'm clean of toxic influence.
Little by little, we expand our control until our safe zone covers the width of the tunnel and begins to extend further outwards.
It's at this point where the expansion begins to slow. Not because we're being pressed too hard, but because the war between the purified mana and the toxic energy of the fifth is beginning to reach an equilibrium. Despite the fact the energy cleaned by the wuffers is designed to eat into the energy of the fifth on its own, it's still susceptible to being corrupted by the fifth. When the two energies meet, a war begins as both try to consume the other in order to propagate itself.
With our cluster of five hundred wuffers, there's only so much they can do to push back against the overwhelming amount of mana present here.
Not helping is the local fauna. The bile toads and mucus snails are able to perform much the same terraforming tasks that they did in the fourth, puking up dense clouds of toxic energy to eat into the purified zone. Even when we finally put them down, half the time they explode into filth, or little slugs break out of them, leap at us and then explode into filth.
This place just doesn't like being clean, basically. It's fine, we aren't expecting to succeed, or even kick start the process. This is simply the first test, a trial run, as we prepare for the full invasion. By the looks of things, it's quite successful so far!
-x-X-x-
Zluth could hardly believe what his eyestalks were seeing. Just to be certain, he extended them up from the pool of muca-sludge he'd currently flattened his body into a little further. The same sight met his gaze.
The ants from above… had descended?
And not just descended… they were… attempting to taint the fifth!
It was so absurd it almost made him want to laugh. It was so infuriating it almost caused his slug flesh to boil. How dare they? HOW DARE THEY?!
No, no. It wasn't time to let the rage run loose, this was a time for cunning, stealth and schemes. As much as he wanted to scrape these filthy insects to shreds with his radula and gulp them down, he needed to be patient. After observing, he would report back to the tribe and they could plan together how to deal with this… incursion.
The thought of the joy the tribe would soon experience as they tore these invaders apart… it was almost enough to slake the endless rage that burned within his kind.
Zluth controlled himself, applying his iron will and pulling in any sign of his mana, holding himself tight and small. When he was convinced his own energy signature was indistinguishable from that which surrounded him, he began to move. Compressed flat, his slug body was only a few inches thick, and he undulated over the ground like a sinister puddle. Amongst the mould, slime and sludge that coated every surface in the fifth, he was impossible to see.
After covering a dozen metres, he extended his eyes once more to take in the surroundings.
Gug-gug-gug-gug… these ants really were putting in all their effort. Such organised and pretty ranks. A neat and clean army, polished and prepared for the task at hand. It was so much nicer to break things that were well made.
But the filthy, poisonous energy they were bringing with them. How were they making it? It offended his senses on a fundamental level. The primitive Dungeon spawn were already drawn to it, seeking to eradicate the unwelcome mana in which they could not live. With little effort, Zluth could direct many, many more spawn towards this tunnel, burying the insects in a tide of mucus and bubbling slime.
First, he needed to see, just what were they doing to make this energy? As all the Krath knew, the mana of the fifth was special. It nourished them, but was anathema to any creatures from elsewhere in the Dungeon. To the Krath, it was their greatest defence, and their most valuable weapon. Time had proven over and over again just how difficult it was for outsiders to handle it, so how had these ants succeeded in bringing their… disturbing mana down here?
He retracted his stalks and undulated across the surface until he came to rest in a patch of bright red mould. With a thought, he excreted a layer of slime to coat himself, matching the colour of his surroundings perfectly, then tentatively extended his eyes once more.
Only to see a giant, giant ant nearby.
With a pop, the Krath retracted his stalks and remained perfectly motionless, hoping he hadn't been seen. He knew that ant, he'd seen it before! He pulled all sense of his presence tight and close, preventing any trace of his existence from leaking out.
His only way to trace the movement of the massive creature was through the vibrations in the mould beneath him. After a minute, the ant moved away, travelling closer to the area of foul mana. Heading back for a breather, perhaps? No matter the reason, it relieved the pressure on the hidden Krath, and once again he dared to take a look around him.
One stalk rose from his mass, taking a rapid glance in all directions.
Yes, the giant ant had retreated, a powerful monster, that one, a prime candidate for the pits. As for the rest…
Ah! He could see it. Those disgusting, jelly-like pets were here, being fed a constant stream of potent fifth stratum mana through enchanted channels of some sort. Hidden deep in the middle of the ant formation, they were relatively safe, and seemed perfectly happy to consume the energy they were being fed.
The sight of it was enough to ignite the rage within Zluth. Doing such a thing to the mana of his home… it was… sacrilegious. It was the virulent mana of the fifth that would overflow and coat the entire Dungeon in its filth. They would be the ones to change Pangera, not the other way around!
A savage glee tickled within the Krath as he thought of what would come next. The entire tribe would put aside their bickering and backstabbing once they heard of this. With the full might of the tribe, they would crush this incursion and throw the ants into the sludge pits. These creatures seemed industrious; they would make excellent slaves.
Satisfied that he'd seen enough, Zluth retracted the stalk and began to flow over the landscape once again.
He felt a slight tremor in the air, directly above him.
He didn't know why, on many occasions he had ignored such disturbances, but this time, Zluth's instinct screamed at him to move, and so he did. Every nerve in his foot fired at once and he flung his compressed, slug body to one side.
BOOM!
A heavy mass crashed to the ground where he had been as something speared into the mould patch he'd been hiding in. The ant had spotted him somehow!
With no need to maintain the pretence, Zluth extended both stalks, one facing forward, the other behind as he pushed himself for more speed.
The massive ant was watching him, its antennae twitching as it set off in pursuit.
Gug-gug-gug-gug-gug.
Did it really think it could keep up with a Krath in its natural domain? Foolishness in the extreme. Zluth decompressed himself a little further, allowing him to use more of his strength as he began to zip across the surface of the tunnel like a slimy missile. In moments, he'd accelerated to top speed and hurled himself into the mucus river, plunging straight to the bottom.
Once inside, he gripped tight to the river floor and began to move against the current. After a few minutes, he was already a kilometre away, moving fast. It had been closer than it should have been, but soon the entire tribe would descend on this place, and they would make these ants pay for their desecration.
-x-X-x-
Things are looking pretty decent down here. Well, by 'things', I don't mean the environment, that's for sure. It still sucks down here. Big time. But, the work of the Colony has been immensely successful. We've been able to maintain our foothold here in the fifth for two days, and I've spent the last few hours taking a break within the cleansed mana zone, poking the wuffers with my antennae.
Everytime I give them a prod, they wobble like sentient jelly, wiggling in delight and happily letting out their little 'wuff wuff wuff' noises. It's not as fun as playing with the brood, but it's a pleasant distraction from the madness going on at the edges of the territory.
"Surely you've had enough of a break now, Eldest," Advant says. "When are you going to get back out there?"
I turn my attention to the powerful, tier six soldier, who is also taking a break from her duties on the frontline.
"By 'back out there', do you mean out into the toxic poisonous mana of the fifth? Because, just in case you weren't aware, I've been running in and out of that stuff for days now, and it's rather draining."
That's putting it lightly. When I finally decided I'd had enough and sat down for a rest, I was shocked to discover just how many little pockets of invasive mana had managed to take root inside my body. A single speck of fifth stratum energy is enough to kill me if left untreated, but after the relentless pressure I've experienced, even with so many mind constructs monitoring, some was still able to slip through the net.
I managed to purge myself after a great deal of effort, but it was a sobering reminder of just how careful I need to be down here.
"I'm aware of that, Eldest, more than aware." She looks out at the area surrounding our little bubble, the only pocket of safety amidst an entire stratum of madness and death. The locally spawned monsters are still coming at us as soon as they can, crawling, rolling, clambering, worming their way through the tunnel to throw themselves at the Colony and destroy what we have created. It almost reminds me of fighting during a wave. Not quite, the spawn rate around here isn't enough to properly mimic the sheer insanity of fighting out in the Dungeon during a wave, but the feeling of being under siege is extremely familiar.
"Do you think they're ever going to get tired of that?" Advant asks me.
"The slime monsters? No. Though, I expect there are some smarter creatures who can resist the urge to go completely berserk when they see what we've done. I expect they still hate it, but they may act a little more carefully."
The soldier waggles her antennae.
"Do you mean the Krath?"
I shake my head.
"Obviously they'll be a challenge, probably the biggest, but as far as I know, they aren't the only smart monsters down here. This deep, there's sure to be some old monsters with a more intelligent approach."
"Just another thing for us to overcome," Advant replies, grim determination clear in her tone. "No matter how many of them there are, they won't be able to overcome the Colony. We'll succeed here, I have no doubt about it."
"Why would you? We've decided to do something, so it's going to get done." I too cast an eye at the madness still happening all around us. "Eventually."
The fifth does not want to be conquered, that much is clear. Unfortunately for it, I don't intend to allow for a choice.
"Do you think they're going to be satisfied with the progress we've made? I notice the boffins have been recording and measuring non-stop for the last few days."
A particular frenzy has come over them in recent hours in their measuring and testing. I'm not too familiar with all of it, but I know that the main thing they're interested in is how well the purification process is going. It's the hinge around which this entire operation will swing, and the only reason we're down here is to see how well our current plans are working.
"How much longer until we leave?" I ask the soldier in charge.
Advant considers for a moment.
"Not long, I think. We pretty much have what we came for. Solant is going to be very interested in all the data we've gathered."
I look over my shoulder to the wuffers, still cheerfully working in the centre of the formation. Without these creatures, we don't have any hope of success. Fingers crossed, they're up to the job. It's been a little eye-opening to see just how small a space five hundred of them can keep pure. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but I was expecting more than this.
Advant notices my gaze.
"I wouldn't worry, Eldest. The wuffers are still a work in progress. With further refinement, and higher tiers, we'll see what they can really do."
"How much refinement is left? I thought they'd been working on them for more than long enough."
"The organs and processes at work here are extremely complex. The five hundred wuffers we have here aren't the same, there are three main designs being tested in this expedition. Purification rates and cleansed mana density are all being measured in order to help decide which methods are the most promising for evolution into tier six."
Man, I'm so glad it's not me having to put all this thought into things. Because I wouldn't, and I think everyone can admit that. With a logistical genius like Solant around, and the thousands of mages, generals and core-shapers pouring their efforts into this, I can feel relaxed that the i's are being dotted and the t's are being crossed.
"Give it a few more hours," Advant says decisively, "no need to overstay our welcome."
I push myself up onto my feet.
"Alright. I might as well get out there again."
~~~
Zluth's heart was filled with vicious glee as he returned to the scene of the crime. His tribe had reacted with predictable fury and outrage when he had returned to them. It was difficult to keep the grin off his face as he imagined the painful future in store for the invaders. With his tribe behind him, he rushed to the upper echelons of the stratum.
Slowly, he extended his stalks, keen to see just how far the ants had extended their reach.
And saw, nothing. The insects were gone, leaving no trace they had been here at all!
-x-X-x-
Morrelia was very grateful not to be on a boat any longer. She would serve no matter where the Legion chose to send her, but she much preferred to have her feet on dry land. However, she didn't necessarily think her current position was any safer.
"Relax, tribune," Chyron chuckled. "Unless these monsters are a lot more bloodthirsty than you've said they are, we are not under threat."
The younger woman restrained her glare, as this was her commander.
"I still believe we should exercise caution. We did directly attack their leader in plain view. They could easily use that as an excuse to eliminate our entire Legion."
She tried not to make her words sound too clipped, but she failed miserably, causing the veteran commander to bark out a short laugh.
"If they kill us, they'll destroy the reputation they've laboured so hard to build. You can't be an enlightened, peaceful species of monsters and murder entire legions at the same time."
"With respect, commander, if we were to die here, would anyone know? We are directly beneath the Colony."
It had been a difficult march, plunging this deep into the tunnels beneath the ant mountain, but commander Chyron had proved her strength and that of her legion. The soldiers under Morrelia's command had performed admirably, even better than she had expected, and the force had scythed its way through the monsters.
The difference between this and the Liria Legion under commander Titus was stark. It wasn't that her father was a poor leader, far from it, but that the gap in experience between the rank and file was that wide.
So now they were here, deep within territory newly claimed by the Colony, close to the entrance to the fifth stratum.
"We would get word out, I can assure you of that," Chyron stated with absolute confidence. "You're being too much of a worrywort, tribune. We are here to complete a mission. Focus on your duty, not these extraneous concerns."
Morrelia swallowed her anger. It wasn't her place to bicker with the commander, even if she did feel the woman was being somewhat cavalier with the lives of her soldiers.
"How are we supposed to complete our mission here, commander?" she asked tightly. "The target is in the fifth stratum, while we are here in the fourth."
"They'll be back up soon enough. No one can stay down there for long."
Morrelia herself had stayed down there for a period of months, but Chyron could occasionally fall guilty to the same pro-Legion bias that some of the higher ups were prone to fall into. It was something the Legion actively guarded against, underestimating their foes was something they hated, yet even so, it crept up occasionally.
"The Colony has proven themselves to be remarkably adaptable. I remind you, commander, the stated intention of the Colony is to cleanse the fifth stratum. I have little doubt they are attempting to do so as we speak."
"I quite agree with you," the commander nodded, "and we are here to confirm whether or not the target has survived the attempt. As unfortunate as it may be, we are in a poor position to complete our objective. It is far more likely the fifth will do our work than our legion is to succeed, unless the situation changes."
It was unlikely the Legion would attempt to engage Anthony within the fifth itself. Despite the presence of Legion facilities within that stratum, it wasn't as if they campaigned there. The fifth was simply… too inhospitable.
At that moment, a scout approached the command area, breathless after a hard run.
"Reporting, commander!"
"Speak."
"We've confirmed the ants have withdrawn from the fifth. They don't appear to have suffered casualties."
Chyron nodded as if that was what she'd been expecting all along.
"Do we have any idea how successful they were down there?" Morrelia asked the scout.
"Successful?" the scout looked at her as if she were talking complete gibberish. "What do you mean?"
"Were they able to make any progress in cleansing the fifth?"
"We… uh… we have no way to tell, tribune," the scout reported.
It was clear that nobody expected the Colony to get anywhere in this endeavour, and to be honest, that was the sensible position to take. Yet Morrelia knew better than most just what the Colony was capable of.
If there were any group to pull off something as insane as this, it would be them. Commander Chyron turned to her with a raised brow.
"You think it would be worth investigating to see what progress they have made in the fifth, tribune?"
Morrelia hesitated for a moment before she then nodded.
"I do," she affirmed. "The cleansing of the fifth has been a dream for all of Pangera for thousands of years. Any attempt should be studied in the hopes that we get closer to succeeding."
Chyron pursed her lips as she considered the matter.
"In theory, how would you seek to obtain this information? We can't go into the fifth and follow them, not with our current equipment."
Morrelia pointed in the direction of the ant forward base.
"I would go and ask them."
The scout and Chyron both responded with blank expressions, as if their minds had not prepared them for such an approach. Morrelia shrugged.
"I know it sounds ridiculous, but the Colony is attempting to open lines of dialogue with everyone they can. There's no reason for them to keep their progress a secret."
"We are their enemies, are we not?" Chyron responded dryly. "Typically, one doesn't share information with their enemies."
"If they are in any way successful in their assault on the fifth, then the Colony is likely to want to share that with us to try and reduce our hostility towards them. In the unlikely event they succeeded in their mission, then they would win the approbation of the entire planet."
The commander considered this with narrowed eyes.
"What's stopping them from just lying to us?" she asked.
Under normal circumstances, not an unreasonable question. For here and now? There was a clear response.
"Because the Colony doesn't lie," Morrelia responded firmly.
Certainly, they never had that she was aware of.
Chyron considered her with a thoughtful gaze.
"Very well," she determined. "You, tribune, will be our liaison in this matter, if they are willing to accept you. Go, with a minimal guard, and see if the monsters are feeling talkative."
-x-X-x-
When people play sports and get together after a game, they're all standing around drinking… sports juice… or whatever, talking about the game and clapping each other on the back, it's always such a heartwarming scene, such an inviting feeling.
Not that I would know, I've never been a part of something like that in my entire life. In my human life, anyway.
However, this here, this must have been what that would have felt like. After our successful effort spelunking the fifth, the entire advance team withdraws up into the tunnel. No ant or wuffer is left behind, all our records and observations are collected, no fuss, no muss, no misses. In every sense of the word, a successful mission!
The generals are happy, the mages are happy, the core shapers are happy, the soldiers are happy. The healers are not happy, because… healers… but also because there were many cases of mana contamination that had crept under the radar and needed to be taken care of.
In terms of downsides, that's probably the biggest one to come out of the scouting operation. Despite all our precautions, it still wasn't enough. Many of the frontline ants, our biggest and bulkiest soldiers, experienced some level of exposure to the toxic mana of the fifth. It's not that surprising, really; all they have to do is poke a leg out of the safe zone for a fraction of a second and bam, contaminated.
How exactly we're supposed to counter that, I have no idea, but I'm sure the boffin, big brain ants will be able to figure something out.
"Eldest, we aren't scheduled to do another exploratory mission for another week," Advant tells me, walking up with a fair bit of pep in her step. "Obviously, we want you and the guardians to be a part of the team. More specifically, Solant wants you as part of the team."
"Well, if the great general wants me along, who am I to say no?"
She's getting too big for her carapace, that Solant. She's cruising for another thwacking! But obviously I'm going to go along, what else am I supposed to do? I mean, there's a ton of work to do cleaning out and securing the tunnels beneath the nest, but the invasion of the fifth was my idea in the first place. I demand to be in the centre of the action!
"Are we going in with a similar sized team next time around?" I ask.
Advant shakes her head.
"No, we'll be scaling up to around double the size. A thousand wuffers, ten thousand ants. The core shapers, carvers and generals will make modifications to our strategy in the intervening time. Hopefully, things will go just as smoothly next time."
From her tone, she certainly doesn't think so.
"How long until the Krath catch on to what we're doing?" I ask. "They're bound to work it out eventually."
And when they do, things will get much more complicated.
"I'm sure they already have," Advant waves away my doubt. "Certainly, it's in our interest to act at all times as if they are fully aware of our actions. Our next entrance into the fifth will be significantly more difficult."
"Something to look forward to, then."
Of course it was always going to get more difficult. The first mission was an unprecedented success; it couldn't possibly continue in that vein.
[You happy to go back down there, gang?] I ask my three friends.
Tiny gives me a clear thumbs up, while Crinis and Invidia both tell me using more conventional methods that of coursssssse they are more than happy to go back.
I can tell the fighting wasn't super satisfactory for Tiny. He had to remain inside in the safe-zone, only able to blast things outside with the light extensions of his punches. He much prefers to hit things directly, but it seems the quantity and variety of bizarre monsters we had to fight has mostly made up for it.
As I discuss our experience with my closest comrades, a scout rushes up to Advant and I.
"Eldest! We have something to report. Someone has come looking for you!"
It doesn't take long for me to find her, roughly a kilometre away with a few other Legion soldiers by her side.
I cheerfully reach out with a mind bridge, only to be rebuffed by the head gear. Sheesh. How does she expect us to converse? You want me to write things down? I don't even know how to spell in this place! Unless she can smell pheromonal language, we're going to be totally out of luck.
I came over with a bunch of ants as well as the crew, so the small group of Legionaries are looking rather pathetic compared to the firepower we have on our side. I hadn't intended to try and intimidate them, but it certainly doesn't look that way.
I stop roughly fifty metres away from the soldiers and plop myself down into a comfortable position, waiting to see how they want this to play out. I assume they came over to talk and not launch an ambush or something, although the Colony is swarming the surrounding tunnels, just in case. So if they want to talk, they're going to have to figure out a way to make it happen.
There's some discussion between Morrelia and her troops, none of whom seem all that happy about the situation. As discussions continue, Morrelia becomes more and more visibly frustrated, until finally she relents to whatever is being proposed, though with ill grace. At that point, one of the soldiers removes their helmet and reaches out to me with a bridge.
[Hey, what's up?] I ask, keeping it friendly.
[We would like you to bring a human here to act as an intermediary.]
[You're worried I'd pull some weird mind shenanigans?]
[I know not of these shenanigans that you speak of, but we would like to minimise risk when communicating.]
I mean, understandable, and it wouldn't be the first time, but these Legion chumps are really getting under my carapace. And clearly, it's bothering my good friend Morrelia too, since she looks so unhappy at the idea of having to bring someone down here to speak with her.
[No, I don't think we will,] I say. [It's dangerous down here. These tunnels aren't secure yet, far from it, and we are close to the fifth.]
Which I would bet three legs they already know.
[So, if you want to communicate with us, then I insist you do so directly. We are just as vulnerable to mental manipulation as you are, don't forget. The risk is taken on by both parties.]
There's more discussion between the soldiers at this. I wouldn't really call it an argument, since it's clear that Morrelia is in charge, and eventually she makes the final decision and takes off her helmet. I snap a bridge into place immediately.
[Is that really Tiny?] she asks me.
As if sensing his name was spoken, the gorilla flexes his impressive biceps.
[That is definitely Tiny,] she laughs in my mind.
-x-X-x-