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.

heck is going on down there? Actually, I'm not confident

down there are experiencing a kind of existential terror that I wasn't sure the beasts I'd seen had a capacity to

always had a urge to investigate, to explore the deeper layers below just to know, just to see what it was like down there,

feeling, I have to say. To the

into the escape tunnel. The speed

concentration still growing?! Is that why they are moving in this way? There is still too much

about it! Just

faster as the dirt flies, ants crawling all over each other in their eagerness to complete the

grow louder we quickly

and vibrations that pass through the loosely packed soil are enough motivation for me to continue stacking

Start bringing it from the other end

of earth between us and

pack the dirt far enough back that even the gradually extending tendrils of the mana veins on the wall have been covered over. Any monsters that spawn in those walls will claw themselves out only to find

they manage to actually dig themselves out into the tunnel they'll be easy pickings for

a dirt cylinder. As the rest of the

ants require in this world, monster live up to

the need for sustenance is constant. Without being able to charge out and

how long will

for now, if I can put off letting him know

out from the Queen's chamber growing more and more muted until barely the slightest of vibrations can be felt I decide to head to the front of the tunnel to check

been occupied with the defence. A lot of progress has been made! According to my tunnel map, which has reached level two,

is still diligently digging, her massive mandibles ripping huge chunks out of the solid ground

are still vibrating with enthusiasm, fawning over their mother