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.

on down there? Actually, I'm not

are experiencing a kind of existential terror that I wasn't sure the beasts

explore the deeper layers below just to know, just to see what it was like down

I have to say. To the surface my fellow

the mana veins slowly extending their baleful reach further into the escape tunnel.

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

think about it! Just

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

we quickly seal off the escape

through the loosely packed soil are enough motivation for me to

fellow workers! Start bringing it from the other end of the

put an amount of earth between

to 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

dig themselves out into the tunnel they'll be

a dirt cylinder. As the rest of the Dungeon is plunged into

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

has a voracious appetite, the need for sustenance is constant. Without being able to charge out and secure Biomass every few hours we will eventually

will Tiny

for now, if I can put off letting him

helping the digging, with the sounds rippling out from the Queen's chamber growing more and more muted until barely the

been occupied with the defence. A lot of progress has been made! According to my tunnel

massive mandibles ripping huge chunks out of the solid

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