Chrysalis

I need cores.

Like, super badly.

I need cores for me, I need cores for Tiny, I need cores for experimenting, I need cores to raise my skills, I need cores to fuse into more powerful cores for myself and for Tiny AND I need cores for my other side project!

CORES!

The number of monster cores we had extracted so far from the farm was a grand total of one! When Tiny and I went in there to cripple the creatures this morning we found a monstrous toad had already slaughtered most of the creatures inside. Tiny had excitedly rushed to engage it, charging up his lightning fist and exploded the foe with one punch.

Luckily he hadn't destroyed the core!

Still, one core every three days is not nearly enough to meet my needs! I refuse!

I just don't have a solution to this problem currently.

Tiny and I are currently resting in the nest. A contented bustle has come over the colony recently as the workers have been busy doing the things that workers love to do. Tending to the brood, expanding the nest, foraging for food. Our new anthill has become impressively large now, the top reaching towards the peak of the trees. I had to ask them not to make it any higher or we'll end up too easy to spot. Our main objective is to hide and ride out the wave after all.

I want no trouble, be it human or otherwise.

To my delight, the pupae have started to hatch over the last few hours, hundreds of new workers emerging to swell the ranks of the colony. When this generation finally emerges we will have reached the one thousand worker mark! A milestone in the life of a young colony to be sure.

This is nothing though. If we expand the farm a little and keep the supply of Biomass coming it won't be long until we reach two thousand, five thousand, one hundred thousand!

That was the other exciting thing to happen this morning, the Queen finally awoke from her rest. After a massive feed provided to her by the workers she got busy producing the next generation. Even as I rest I can hear the workers scurrying about madly with fresh clutches of eggs, stashing them into the egg chambers, fastidiously cleaning them and ensuring they are the right temperature.

means I need to advance the schedule of my project even faster. For that

around I see that it isn't Tiny snoring for once, though he is asleep, thick meaty arms flung over

grub and into an ant. Still ghostly white and translucent as its carapace has yet to harden the almost complete worker has started

guess I'll help the little thing out. It is normal for other workers to assist newborns break free of their cocoon, cutting away at the threads

own way out, but I don't really have any memory of my pupal stage, I really only

my sibling no less, break out of the casing by chomping away

see a little ant face poking out of the gaps and after a few minutes the brand

…

Small!

than a normal hatchling by about a third, which makes her very tiny indeed! There is something else odd about her

this one had a lot of pep but this seems

about this high energy hatchling she starts waggling her antennae around before locking onto me and rushing in my direction! In a few short moments she has raced across the ground and scrambled up onto my back before triumphantly positioning herself

….

This.

…

I hate thiiiiiiiis.

hell is this ant so attached to me?! Why is it so

don't know what to make of

out of my body. There is a faint concentration of

you kidding me Gandalf?! This little midget was born

that a monster ant can just flat out be born with a core? Tell me, swear on your pointy hat and

new passenger remains stubbornly

Sigh.

have to investigate