Chrysalis

Thankfully, this awkward moment is resolved in the best way possible when both of the humanoids collapse to the ground, passed out. My siblings around me react with general confusion before they shrug their collective antennae and grab the two prisoners to take back to the Colony for questioning. I do step in to ensure that we take their supplies back with us, which a few soldiers and scouts step forward to do. I imagine these two are going to want some clothes when they wake up.

A detachment of thirty return to the nest while the rest of us continue to make our sweep. The monsters are densely packed here in these tunnels and even with our mage ants teaming up to firebomb the hazardous corals, webs, seaweed and various other deadly things that fill up the space here in the second strata, it takes time.

It's taken me a long time, but I'm finally starting to get the hang of this place. It's always freezing cold, which isn't ideal for us ants. There are many species of ant who hibernate in the winter, we aren't fans of low temperatures at all. Fire magic provides some relief, the ants huddle around flames that burn constantly around the mages when they need a little warmth. Apart from the cold, the dark is the second issue. It's oppressive, and every ant who's come down here has been drilled to train their mana sense, regardless how poor their mental stats may happen to be. Relying on our completely rubbish natural eyesight would be a recipe for utter disaster!

I know that some members of the Colony have been experimenting with different mutations for vision. Rather than doing as I've done, and just brute force quality mutations to try and bring back something akin to human levels of focus from a compound eye, they've been switching to infrared, or hyper-sensitive movement detection, or vibration vision.

Almost all of which sound cooler than what I chose. Not being able to see was a real point of stress for me after I spawned in the Dungeon! I needed that comfort!

After spending another half day poking deeper into the Dungeon, sweeping out tunnels and expanding our map, I decide to pull the pin and drag Vibrant back to the nest. We profited a lot in terms of experience and Biomass, I even managed to force the secret squad to level up, which is a hidden bonus, but we failed to detect any sign of the coming invasion, and meeting aside, I don't want to get much further away from the rest of the family in case the invasion sneaks past us.

So back we go, it takes a while to retrace our steps, we pushed a fair way down, but after a nearly a day of climbing, we make it back home to the nest.

"What. In the name of heck. Are you wearing?" I say to Leeroy.

"Armour."

"But… why?"

"To keep me alive."

"I get that… Just… I mean, has it worked?"

"Extremely well."

She sounds miserable admitting that.

group of you that wear

"Five of us now."

tons of metal being forged to make that much

squad then?

want us to have

someone came up with one anyway?" I press her, "surely a team with this many resources poured into them has got a name. The council loves naming

obsessed with it these

someone did…" Leeroy

with it Leeroy," I demand, "it can't

"… The Immortals."

know that the idea

you really mean that,

die in a tunnel collapse or something. Stop being stupid." I reprimand her. "You're

says, but I can see

I relent, "now that you have this armour and a group to work with, odds are the generals are going use you on the frontline in the upcoming battles. You'll

send her in without

you were supposed to pay a visit to Smithant at some point soon, she's really excited

feeling in Leeroy's pheromones as she

"Who's this?" I ask.

who came up with this idea," she raps her helmet with

Cobalt who came up with this?" I'm genuinely

idea. This one nutter was obsessed with it and now

Fascinating!

visit!" I tell Leeroy as she turns to leave. She waves a weary antenna back at me and I continue on my way

with activity. Even more crowded than before, the many layers of pheromone trails have been overlain with all new scents. Construction teams for nests two and three, resource transportation and storage