Chrysalis

This stupid wave! Just how threatening does it have to get? I'm already a wrecked heap. A heap I say!

Now the veins are extending into the escape tunnel, which will surely cause monsters to spawn right under our feet!

An addition we have to deal with these unknown threats from below? It's enough to drive an ant crazy!

Ok.. Think Anthony, what are you going to do?

Stay and fight? Against what!? We have no idea what sort of horror is going to ascend up that tunnel, eager to eviscerate our most sensitive zones? There is absolutely no way we stay here and battle it out against whatever is coming up. One of the first things I learned about in this Dungeon is not to pick a fight you aren't sure you can win.

Run?

Run where? The tunnel isn't complete! All we can do is run up towards a dead end! They don't call 'em life ends for a reason!

Only one choice remains! Hide!

"Quick! We need to cover up the entrance and seal this tunnel!" I shout to the workers around me,

The workers respond to my call to action rapidly, as they usually do. This is a family that can be relied on in a pinch!

A hundred workers leap into action, hauling dirt up to close off the remaining open section of the tunnel entrance, quickly shovelling dirt with their mandibles.

From beneath us the sounds of bloodcurdling screams and the wild gnashing of teeth, grinding away at the bones of still living foes echo endlessly, certainly providing ample motivation to my own digging efforts.

Actually, I'm not confident

of existential terror that I wasn't sure the beasts

just to know, just to see what it was like down there, what

me of that feeling, I have to say. To the surface my fellow ants (and Tiny), maybe find

further into the escape tunnel. The speed is still slow, perhaps only as

are moving in this way? There is still

about it! Just

flies, ants crawling all over each other in their eagerness to complete

the horrific noises from below continue to grow louder we quickly seal

are enough motivation for me to continue

stacking that dirt, fellow workers! Start bringing it from the

dirt against the entrance, trying to put an amount of earth between us and the horrors that will soon enter that chamber that I'll

the gradually extending tendrils of the mana veins on the wall have been covered over. Any monsters that spawn

to actually dig themselves out into the tunnel they'll be

As the rest of the Dungeon is plunged into blood and madness these ants and

much air monstrous ants require in this world, monster live up to 10000 km

The colony has a voracious appetite, the need for sustenance is constant. Without being able to charge out and secure

will Tiny last

him asleep for now, if I can put off letting him know then

from the Queen's chamber growing more and more muted until barely

and rock the entire time Tiny and I have been occupied with the defence. A lot of progress has

the Queen is still diligently digging, her massive mandibles ripping huge chunks out of the solid ground in front of her as she

workers at this end of the tunnel are still vibrating with enthusiasm, fawning over their mother and, vigorously transporting the loose soil