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.

going on down there? Actually, I'm

existential terror that I wasn't sure

to know, just to see what it was like down there, what

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

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 thirty centimetres an hour, but just seeing them visibly growing

still growing?! Is that why they are moving

think about

flies, ants crawling all over each

horrific noises from below continue to grow louder we quickly seal off the escape tunnel, plunging ourselves

vibrations that pass through the loosely packed soil are enough motivation for me

dirt, fellow workers! Start bringing it from the other

continue to exhort my fellow workers to keep piling dirt against the entrance, trying to put an amount of earth between us and the horrors that will soon

we've managed 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 those walls will claw

dig themselves out into the

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

much air monstrous ants require in this world, monster live up to

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

long will Tiny last without

can put off letting him

the digging, with the sounds rippling 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

cohort of 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!

Queen is still diligently digging, her massive mandibles ripping huge chunks out of the solid ground in front of her as she cheerfully encourages the

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