Chrysalis

The Legionary camp is a hive of activity. Patrols come and go in a steady stream under the watchful eye of the officers. The monster suppression has been difficult on this expedition, preparations for the wave are not going as smoothly as the brass had expected.

Tribune Aurillia was concerned. Her experience and expectations were continually being defied, the situation at hand refused to conform to historical norms.

Every day squads left the outpost and moved into the expanse, exterminating monsters and hunting down spawn locations. Whenever a spawn point was found the Legionaries would trap it, killing the monsters the moment they were formed from the Dungeon.

This was the typical procedure employed by the Legion when preparing for a wave, the goal was to reduce the number of monsters before the wave broke as much as possible. Trapping the spawn points in normal times would drive mercenaries and Dungeon explorers insane, effectively reducing their ability to earn income, but the Legion took no chances when it came to a wave. Every monster they could reliably kill they would.

Something was different this time. For every spawn point they were able to identify and neutralise, another four would pop up the next day. Despite martialling more resources and bringing reinforcements down from the surface they were simply unable to kill monsters quickly enough to meaningfully thin them out.

Even the commander had acted, entering the Forest Expanse on his own and emerging several hours later covered in gore with a small bag full of cores on his belt.

Aurillia chuckled at the memory. Several trainees had asked who was going accompany the commander as he was preparing to leave. The senior Legionaries had just looked at them as if they were insane. If anyone could keep up with him they would be welcome to go.

Emerging from the woods came the ten person strong trainee unit, returning from their scouting assignment. Aurillia knew they’d be sent to do reconnaissance on the far side of the expanse. Locating the ant nest remained a priority of this expedition, despite the unusual circumstances propagating each day.

The weary soldiers marched single file through the gate, shoulders slumped under heavy backpacks, eyes red from little sleep. Their uniform leather were scuffed and stained in several places, indicators of battle and combat.

The tribune approached the squad. When they saw her coming they stopped and snapped out salutes, their discipline bringing a smile to the weathered features of their officer.

"What do you have to report?"Aurillia said.

been appointed the leader of this particular squad. She stepped

them. Uniform dirty? Go run laps. Poor form when saluting? Two hours in the training yard. Make a mistake in

as a squad to scout the far side of the expanse. Fighting their way

her

ago. We identified four spawn points in the surrounds and were able to effectively seal

from her waist bag and presented it to Aurillia, saluting once more as she

as she accepted the case. Clearly the trainees were starting to

eyes quickly over the lists and numbers her experience allowing her to

she asked as she stowed the parchment in its case once more. The paper would go to the administration auxiliaries, the bean counters who tallied all of

the ants despite all of their searching. What concerned them most was the punishment that

range and efficiency" she paused before continuing, "it is still possible that the ants are operating in the area we were sent to search but we failed to locate them, I recommend a team be sent to scout the area again

the faces of her squad members had gone pale. Their minds were spinning with the possible penalties that would be heaped on their heads for not only failing but

said, they’d just hoped

the tribune simply nodded. "Trainee Mirryn, you may dismiss your

they made their way to the tents reserved for resting. There wasn’t much recreation of

on the back as they walked away Mirryn couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive towards her officer. Tribune Aurillia had the reputation of a demon in normal times, in the Dungeon she had proven to be five times as

the younger trainee to walk beside her as she turned and wandered deeper into the camp. As they walked they passed the workshop area of the camp. Here, diligent Legion craftsmen and women worked to process raw materials harvested from monsters. There was little priority given to collecting resources on this expedition, killing the monsters was far more

powdered or heated depending on their properties. The Deep Legion seldom sold anything they collected in the Dungeon, preferring to give their own craftspeople the

working auxiliaries. These men and women would never be

going back out to scout tomorrow" she raised her hand to cut off Mirryn when she saw the other was about to speak, "no, not because of any failure on your part. The commander and I have determined that it is becoming too dangerous in the expanse to send out small squads anymore. You’ll