Chrysalis

"With your permission Eldest, I will leave the council and begin to organise a workforce to prepare our initial fortifications" Tungstant said.

I waved an antennae in approval and the small, dextrous ant climbed up the wall and out the roof of the chamber in a moment.

"Alright then. Pitfall traps, tunnels to attack, I like all of these ideas. What else have we got? How is our magic firepower coming along?" I asked.

The two mages in the room, Propellant and Coolant, shifted on their feet as they became the centre of attention for the council. The mage caste hadn't had a lot of time to build up their raw magic handling skills, and were without the benefit of my own extensive spending on brain power when it came to evolutions. Having said that, they were no slouches in the brain game and were able to choose their own elemental gland on evolution. So there had to be some juice there.

"The number of mage ants we have to work with is still limited" Coolant hedged.

There were over a thousand ants in the colony at this time, there were like a hundred new ants being born every day. How few mages could there be?

"How many are we talking about?" I asked.

"Five" Coolant said flatly.

"Five?!" I sputtered.

"Oh, seven including Coolant and I" Propellant offered helpfully.

Holy moly.

mages? When fighting against a huge horde, like the one coming to kill

it in my mind's eye already. Tunnel entrances falling in to reveal teams of mage ants who blasted the front ranks of the horde with deadly fire, torching dozens of monsters with flamethrower like magic before retreating through the tunnels which collapsed behind them, leaving decimated and crispy ranks

informed me, "Large numbers of scouts

could understand, but

the skill paths from scratch and explore methods to raise up the future generations of mage ants" Propellant told me ruefully. "We didn't anticipate a need for a number of mages at this stage and wanted to take more time

would have been

say: Quantity, is a quality all of its

horde that's coming our way, I need to help with that so I can reach my second objective, which is to level

your next evolution, Eldest?" Victoriant asked, sounding

more levels. If we're going to battle against creatures as strong as those coming our way, we're going to need every little advantage we

ability to chip away at the number of weaker monsters but tackling anything stronger is going to be beyond us for a time. If the Eldest can evolve then that task

to dump all of the hard work onto me, didn't you?

high extent in the lead up to this crisis?" I asked the gathered council, "If we

entirely, surely?" protested Florence, the to

cease food gathering operations completely" Sloan assured her, "but rather that we divert a

back, though she and her fellow Brood Tender were clearly not happy. I understand

ensure that the hatchling training program continues to run unabated. Each new hatchling deserves the best possible start we can

same time, something you can only do with extensively upgraded compound eyes, one of

the hatchlings still makes little sense to them I suspect, thankfully by virtue of being old

be ready to move out for a few hours will you, Senior?" Sloan asked

for the last few days and I suspect it's going to be hectic for a week or