Chrysalis

“This is disturbing news, Eldest,” Sloan and Victor don’t look pleased with what I have to say.

“Apparently, this is going on everywhere in the stratum right now, but as monsters, we are especially vulnerable.”

The two generals nod as they ponder this issue. The idea of having a hostile monster group raising a corrupted Colony to fight against us is certainly not a welcome one.

“We will take every precaution to prevent someone from being taken, and implement checks to ensure we can act swiftly to recover any of our family who are… but…”

The two look very uncomfortable as Sloan lays this out.

“But what?” I ask, impatient.

“It’s impossible that we would be able to succeed forever. Even if we get through two, three, ten waves without a single member of the Colony being captured, they only have to succeed once. In the long term, defence is not a viable strategy.”

I can see what they mean. We can fend off the Krath here in the fourth ten thousand times, but they only have to succeed a single time, drag a captive away and throw them into the sludge. From there, it’s only a hop, step and a jump to creating their own colony.

“We have to go on the offensive,” I say the thought out loud, and the two generals agree solemnly.

“Eradication of the Krath is our only viable path forward. We must exterminate them from the Dungeon completely.”

I understand, the fifth is a completely corrupted layer of the Dungeon, hostile to life in an almost comically extreme way. It’s going to be horrendous fighting down there, and without losing a single ant in

only one general who I think is going to be capable of making the hard decisions to run a

us to prep something like this,” I tell the generals, “so let’s do our best in the meantime, but start planning now. One thing I want to establish at the outset, I think Solant should be the one in charge of

be, but I definitely think they should give her strong consideration. I know the generals are reluctant to put their trust in the little general due to the odd way she thinks, but we’re talking about the ant who was prepared to poison the Eldest in order to win. To achieve victory in the fifth, that’s exactly the

them. “When there’s a tough slug monster, send for me and I’ll

will help a great deal. Thank

the way and park myself down in the central chamber beneath the nest. I’m not exactly close to the front lines here,

beasts from the fifth, be especially careful when engaging with them. If you have trouble driving them back, call for me

filth are disgusting, Master,] Crinis sniffs. [They leave

fight. That’s a good point actually, if you can safely burn off or otherwise destroy the terrain advantage, then make sure

the big ape

your lightning burning off slime and goop, alright?

[Punch.]

[Tiny...]

[Punch!] he insists.

firepower in those cannons, but if you get that close, you make yourself vulnerable to poison shenanigans. You have to be careful against

silence from the big

grunts. [Will be

about as good as I’m going to get

Crinis. If you stick a tentacle into one