Chrysalis

Fanatics aside, there's plenty of stuff going on and not much time in which to get it done. With so many ants furiously working, I decide the best place for me is out of the way on the surface.

Well, I say surface, obviously I'm not climbing all the way out of the Dungeon. I head up until I break through and find myself sitting under the shade of the enormous Mother Tree, her branches and canopy spread out above me.

The fourth stratum really is a beautiful place to be. The mountain islands that rise up out of the crystal blue waters tower impossibly high. In between, the floating islands, with their endless waterfalls, drift amongst the clouds. Clouds… this far underground…

It's a bit nuts.

Truly, the power of mana makes anything possible. These impossible mountains, with their crags and cliffs, their forest-covered slopes with rivers and valleys. From who knows how deep to touching the roof of the stratum kilometres overhead, each one is absolutely titanic. And there must be thousands of them.

I can only see a few from where I stand, but I assume that they go all the way around the world. The size of the place is just ridiculous. The fact that the Mother Tree managed to take over a mountain for herself, basically consuming it, is utterly absurd. A feat that the Colony will soon have to replicate.

Our first priority on this stratum will be to establish our own nest, which means we'll need to conquer a mountain for ourselves! One that we can shape as we please, and fortify until it becomes an impregnable fortress of doom.

Luckily, I have a mountain in mind, and it isn't far away.

The termite nest will soon be available. Free real estate, as it were. We'll have the added benefit of living directly under the branches of the Mother Tree, cementing our alliance yet further. We don't actually know how this area is oriented with the rest of our territory, which isn't a huge issue, but it's nice to have all of our land vertically integrated.

Once we have our own functioning gates, it won't matter, all of our land will be one hop away from all the rest of it!

Gweheheheh.

Speaking of gates… I wonder how Brilliant is getting on with it all? She's obviously made great strides in her knowledge of dimensional magic. I don't yet know if she has the specific Skill for it, but I'm super impressed with her ability to sniff out the secrets that have so far evaded us. There's been a team of the finest ant mages trying to puzzle out how gates work for months, but the little champion has made more progress in a matter of weeks!

Good to know my naming sense hasn't weakened. I was worried she'd let me down there for a bit, but she came through in the end!

badly. It really wasn't her fault, and was totally out of

Hmm…

is indeed a lot going on down there. Plans are being laid, hospitals built, for ants and for humans, strategy hammered out. The scouts are having the worst of it. A wide scale skirmish is taking place as the ants push out into termite

can feel them now. Earth mages are straining to break apart the stone in a series of controlled collapses while scouts cover them with long-range fire. The scene is repeated in dozens of tunnels as the Colony seeks to

fighting beneath the ground for a while

you doing

I mean, working hard here and

to see you

yourself… I can put you back

contributing with such diligence

"That's right."

when they were just grubs. How dare they get so uppity with me! It's not like I didn't nearly get myself

building up here?" I ask

us to magic up a

"Well… yes."

estimate of the volume of stone required. Once I have that, I can work out

I stare.

calculate how much mana

That sounds… different.

antennae dismissively, already looking out over the wide waters between us and the distant shore of

how much mana is required to create a cubic metre of stone, so if we can estimate the stone required,

"It's that simple?"

She clacks her mandibles.

why. Ambient mana has an impact, local affinity has a strong effect, proximity to other stone. That's an interesting one, actually. Creating new stone near older rock is much easier, but making it near newer rock, like something we conjured, doesn't have much of an impact. Other elements are important too, for example, creating stone and