As much as the crafter wanted to leap into further work, to practice each and every new pattern she'd learned to tease out all of the little morsels of information that could only be learned through application, she knew she couldn't. She was the first Blacksmith to reach the rank four Skill and therefore the first to unlock the new Skill specialisations, which meant she had certain obligations to the Colony.
She packed away her tools and shut down her workstation before stepping into the tunnel and hunting down the organiser. The ant turned to her with a quizzical tilt to her antennae.
"I didn't expect to see you out of your room. I suppose you must have ranked up Blacksmithing?"
The crafter nodded.
"I did," she confirmed, "and I have a few new Skill options to report."
"Excellent news. I'll fetch the brood tenders."
She scurried off, leaving the crafter to wait. Thankfully, it wasn't long before she returned with a pair of eager brood tenders who took over the moment they entered the chamber.
very proud of you! The very first in the Colony to
new Skill unlocks as well! We'll have to go through your status in detail to ensure we can pinpoint the
System, since they were the ones most involved in teaching it, but their mothering nature slowed the process down significantly. It was several hours later before the crafter, near her limits, was finally able to return to her
without rest, her fire burned unending and the ring of clanging metal sounded again and again as she worked in a fever. Her mad spree was only brought to an end when a team of five workers forced their way into her
to inspect the fruits of her labours. The last day and a bit was little more than a blur in her memory, so she was quite surprised to see the sheer volume of different patterns and pieces she'd produced. Her two new Skills had
was something standing
running out of time,"
"I'm closer than I've ever
of resources you're consuming has increased, with nothing to show for
mandibles, the supervisor indicated the sheer amount of armour bits and pieces
to source materials for you. If you want to continue this project, then you need something to show for it, and soon. The voices of those who are displeased by the waste are growing louder by the day. Inefficiency isn't something the Colony
we supposed to develop something new without experimentation and failure? How am I
test again. Hundreds of ants had been committed to sub-optimal Skill and mutation builds in an attempt to unearth new fusions or combinations. Yet, they accused her of
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