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

existential terror that I wasn't sure

urge to investigate, to explore the deeper layers below just to know, just to see what

have to say. To the surface my fellow ants

baleful reach further into the escape tunnel. The speed is still slow, perhaps only as much as thirty centimetres an hour, but just seeing them visibly growing is

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

about it! Just

workers to move faster as the dirt flies, ants crawling all over each other in

below continue to grow louder we quickly

satisfied though. The muffles noises and vibrations that pass through the loosely packed soil are enough motivation for me to continue stacking dirt against the

bringing it from

workers to keep piling dirt against the entrance, trying to put an amount of earth between

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 are still encased

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

within a dirt cylinder. As the rest of the Dungeon is plunged into blood and madness these ants and I exist in a separate,

have are air and food. I'm not exactly sure how much air monstrous ants require in this world, monster live up to 10000 km under the

voracious appetite, the need for sustenance is constant. Without being

how long will

if I can put off letting him

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

workers have been furiously ripping into the soil and rock the entire time Tiny and I have been occupied with the defence. A lot of progress has been made! According to my tunnel map, which has reached level two, the tunnel still has a long way to

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

still vibrating with enthusiasm, fawning over their mother and, vigorously transporting