Chrysalis

It's time to get down to work and we have a long laundry list of things to do.

When Crinis revives, I put her on guard duty and take Tiny topside. The first order of business is to lend our muscle to the villagers as they struggle to make space for the growing number of refugees.

With Tiny's significant physical prowess we were able to fell trees and clear a wider area for the villagers to use. My own expertise in digging is also put to good use, flattening out terrain, digging foundations for a few larger buildings and my supreme +15 mandibles are tested for the first time cutting stone.

Turns out there's a decent layer of usable stone a few kilometres from the village. After clearing the dirt around the area I charged my mandibles will mana and utilised the incredible sharpness to cut out blocks that were then transported on rollers to be used in some more advanced construction.

Despite working fairly feverishly, I did notice the Morrelia had taken up the role of drill instructor, she had cleared a space outside the village as a rudimentary training court and was absolutely shredding the hide off a surprising number of grinning villagers.

Looking at the smiling faces of those men and women only reinforced my impression of these people further.

These villagers are crazy.

No matter how hard she drilled them, running laps, practicing sword strokes, spear practice, physical exercise, they enthusiastically threw themselves into it with seemingly boundless positivity until they fell over. At that point, another group of villagers would arrive, drag the victims into the shade, give them some water, and then jump into the training themselves.

When I approached a frazzled looking Enid about the puzzling behaviour, she was happy to explain it.

[This is a chance for them to change their lives. Most of these people were farmers, labourers, servers or cooks before they were forced to flee. With classes like that, they have little agency in being able to control their own destiny. Simple people like us are reliant on the more martial classes to protect us and as such we are always dependant.]

face towards the training fields, she

to step up and protect themselves, their families and strike back at

me, a complicated look on

since they started following you. There are weapons, metals, a smith has arrived and Beyn has been freely sharing his knowledge of classes and skills. Out of nowhere we have a monstrously strong trainer and

at

rubbish are you?

her near white hair back from her

producing miracles at the rate you have been, I'm not going

me like that

just made her

any regard I develop for

[You better.]

kept a closer eye on the villagers and it was true that they did seem to have a large amount of pep in their step, and not only those training with Morrelia. All of them were working

homes and certainly lost family members

and provided enough raw materials to keep them going for a while yet. Those with construction

retreating to check on Crinis and tickle the larvae some more it was time to take a few villagers into the Dungeon. Not before I chased down Vibrant to see what on earth she was up to. Turns out her little retinue of workers had swelled to nearly ten and they were madly dashing about above and below ground, rustling up food. They'd kept the grubs so fat they positively gleamed

the other day, workers

had enough time to get the new ants up to speed and properly trained before another wave of hatchlings landed on my head.

on struggle street, the nest raided, workers slaughtered, chased from their nest and it's only now that we