Chrysalis

So... I mean.. It’s a little odd...

I was a human before after all. I may not have lived what people would call a ... normal life ... but hey, I went to school, a bit, I saw people, I ate human food.

Now I have a giant ant Queen staring down at me and insisting that she and my many siblings are my family now.

...

For some reason I’m surprisingly ok with that.

I had a pet ant colony as a human, I kept them contained and fed them, watched the colony grow and cleaned out their spaces for them. In some ways they were the most constant members of my household, I certainly saw them every day, which wasn’t really true of anyone else.

Perhaps that is why I don’t really mind being an ant.

If I’m going to be a member of this family then I have to do my best to save them!

I start thinking out loud.

"Ok then, Queen, I don’t think we are uh, strong enough to survive the wave. If our nest is invaded from the outside as well as the inside, we could be completely wiped out!"

The Queen looks concerned and taps me with her antennae, urging me to continue.

"I think we need to move the colony! We have to get somewhere ... else. Somewhere safer".

"Do you know where we should go child?"

Err.... No?

We live in the Dungeon, and from what I’m told the entire place is going to become a death zone for up to a week!

I don’t even know that the surface will be safe from the impending danger!

...

may be safer than the

suicide, but with my Tunnel Map I can clearly see where the entrance I first encountered the humans is. If we can

...

get the colony to relocate to the surface there’s definitely a chance that we all get killed by those

we stay down here, will

we have to

as my thoughts run circles inside my head. My resolution firms as I see

dig a new tunnel to the surface!" I

bombshell,

Then she responds.

the

...

course, how could she possibly

existing Dungeon passages

is simple enough that she can understand what

pauses for another moment, her monster intelligence mulling over this suggestion. I wait nervously

surprise

suggest child. Where should the family

to cooperate. I’m not exactly sure how the pecking order works in a monstrous ant

worker finds a good place to move the nest, they’ll lay down a trail and start moving the brood. If other ants find the trail, they will go and check it out and if they agree with the first ants opinion, they will join in, eventually when enough workers have agreed on a course of action, it will happen. It isn’t always

a helpless creature at the mercy of the workers. If anything, she is probably closer to what most humans think an ant Queen is like on earth, in charge, making decisions

to direct the workforce, it’s clear that they can understand my pheromone language to some extent, perhaps she

shake these thoughts out of my

it. Once that is done I’ll start digging the tunnel, if you can help get

brightness of the forest has diminished. The mana is continuing to recede, just as the Sophos had predicted. The forest is going to grow even dimmer, perhaps

before retreating back to the security of the nest, leaving the workers to do what they do

away, the workers are doing just that, continued to comb over the battlefield and collect the spoils of war. As more times goes by the number of

If the workforce becomes stronger

I didn’t have any brothers or sisters that I knew of in my last life, going from that to having