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 confident that I really want to

of existential terror that I wasn't sure the beasts

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

below have somewhat cured me of that feeling, I have to say. To the surface my fellow ants

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

are moving in this way? There is still too much that I

think about it!

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

noises from below continue to grow louder we quickly

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

that dirt, fellow workers! Start bringing it

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

tendrils of the mana veins on the wall have been

into the tunnel they'll be

colony has entered a strange state now, completely sealed within a dirt cylinder. As the rest of the Dungeon is plunged into

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

constant. Without being able to charge out

long will Tiny last

asleep for now, if I can

growing more and more muted until barely 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

ripping huge chunks out of the solid ground in front of her as

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