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.

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

there are experiencing a kind of existential terror

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

have somewhat cured me of that feeling, I have to say. To the

gradual progress of the mana veins slowly extending their baleful reach further into the escape tunnel. The speed is still slow, perhaps only as much as

why they are moving

about it! Just

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

louder we quickly seal off the

through the loosely packed soil are enough motivation for me to continue stacking dirt against the entrance. I want to

stacking that dirt, fellow workers! Start bringing it

an amount of earth between us and the horrors that will soon enter that chamber that I'll feel

enough back that even the gradually extending tendrils of the mana veins on the wall

the

As the rest of the Dungeon is plunged into

worries I have are air and food. I'm not exactly sure how much air monstrous ants require in this

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

long will Tiny

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

of time helping the digging, with the sounds rippling out from the Queen's chamber growing more and more muted until barely the slightest of vibrations can

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 go before

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

the tunnel are still vibrating with enthusiasm, fawning over their mother and, vigorously transporting the loose soil further