Chrysalis

"Fall! Fall, you interlopers, invaders and unbelievers! You are the nutrients provided by the Dungeon to grow something greater! Your Biomass will be the building blocks used to construct the new Path! The new way! Go in peace, under the mandibles of the Colony!" Beyn orated, his sonorous voice rolling through the tunnels like wind.

"Give it a rest, would you?" Isaac muttered, working his spear relentlessly alongside the soldier ant next to him.

Why he wasn't back on the surface patrolling the quiet streets of Renewal and enjoying the new ale being brewed up there, he still didn't know. Instead of relaxing and putting his feet up, here he was in the Dungeon, fighting alongside the Colony and the several other surviving members of the town guard, getting an earful from the mad preacher while they were at it.

After another five minutes of fierce battle, the sudden rush of shadow beasts was finally put down and Isaac gathered his people rest. He pulled off his helmet and wiped the sweat from his brow as the others did the same, patting each other on the back and sharing any levels or Skill improvements they might have gotten.

"Friend Isaac!" came a voice from behind him.

"Ah, plops," he cursed before turning with a smile to see the one-armed priest approaching, hunched over due to the weight of the shield he bore on his back.

Isaac pulled a face.

"I'm not sure you really need to be carrying that thing around," he said, "Do you even get a strength bonus from your class?"

"I do not," the priest said, breathing heavily. An hour of yelling hadn't winded the man in the slightest but carrying an oversized shield for twenty metres knocked the air straight out of him. Classes, what a thing. The vagaries of the System were nothing new to Isaac, he was born and bred in it, had never known a life without it. "… but the burden is light," Beyn gasped, "as I am strengthened by my faith. The shield of righteousness is my burden to bear, as decreed by the Great One directly."

"Did the 'Great One' really decree that?" Isaac asked sceptically. "That's not exactly how I remember it."

"would you rather

you do

"That's not the point!"

more than a little unusual for him to this flustered and

man?" he asked, "you don't seem

normally moved and spoke with such purpose and determination that the normal hesitance and vulnerabilities of youth were invisible in the man, burned away by the heat of his conviction. In this moment, Isaac was reminded that he was, in fact, the older of the two of them. The priest was a young man, fresh out of church training and settling

him, leaving him looking more like a

not mana sickness is it? Have you been back

his head

No, I'm fine. l'm being

looked at him carefully, trying to encourage him

then with growing

hard to train, and likely powerful as it advances, but they hunger so desperately for the next improvement, the next chance for the System to illuminate this glorious path. They take risks, they push too hard and no matter how I try to warn them, their eagerness and enthusiasm overtakes them. Several members of my church have been sent to the surface for healing and extended rest over the last week, their own actions slowing rather than speeding their progress. I find it hard to blame them, since I too share their desire for

In terms of hours on duty, they exceed every single one of the guards, even the

plops that'd been for Isaac. As the citizens of the underground city had grown more and more accustomed to life under the 'rule' of the ants, the more they had grown to like it. To the poor and working people, the Colony were liberating heroes. When Isaac had formerly opened the ranks of the guards to volunteers after the siege, there had been a flood of applicants. It was a good thing the Colony had decided to foot the bill, since Isaac wouldn't have the first clue how he would even attempt to

never actually found a use for all the gold

and need a great deal of teaching, lest they do or say something that tarnishes the image of the Great One and undoes our work spreading the word. This has been a nightmare to manage and it has

Isaac got a clear look at how lined and webbed with