Antelligent Design

50. Just Barely

Holy mother of all that is good and gracious in this world, puh-lease let me make it alive! I’m burning up. The light is fading. My soul is running before the light! Is that you, Mum? What is that, you say? You wish I’d never been born? Get the hell out of my death vision, human mum! Bring out my real mother, the queen!

Gawd, I’m delirious. Which is interesting since I’ve actually not quite run out of Mana in my core yet. I’m down to vapour, make no mistake, but not quite out of gas.

No, wait. Check that, just ran out.

Oh my word, it hurts! I feel like my soul is suffocating!

[How much farther, Crinis?]

[I don’t know, Master, I can’t see!]

DAMMIT.

[Tiny! Do you know how much farther we need to go?]

[Hurts…]

[I KNOW that! More than anything in this world, I know it! Do you have any idea how much farther we have to run!]

[…No]

I swear by all that is sacred and loved in this world, Tiny, if I survive this, I’m going to shrink your muscles until your arms are limp noodles and you have the brain power of two young Einsteins. You won’t be able to fight and will have to sit around sipping tea, discussing the latest in particle physics. Only then will my wrath be sated!

It can’t be that far away. I feel as if we’ve been running for ten hours. Though that can be attributed to my panic and anxiety. If I were to try and guess, it would have to have been closer to two hours.

Argh! Holy smokes! That tickled me right in the pain zone. How to describe the pain of having an empty core? It’s as if my magic lungs are barren and I’m in a vacuum. No matter how hard my core tries to pull Mana in, it just isn’t getting anything near enough from the air above ground. My monster body consumes far more Mana to operate than can be replaced outside of the Dungeon.

I need to get down below, fast!

I shove the pain into the back of my awareness and focus on pushing my little legs until they’re on the edge of snapping. I don’t care if they break, as long as I get below ground and away from this agony!

As he so elegantly communicated, Tiny is suffering also. Crinis isn’t quite at the point where this is going to be an issue for her, but after a few more evolutions it will be. Wait, is that the sign pillar Morrelia told us about?

Ten feet tall, the stone column stands to one side of the cobbled road, words and arrows carved onto its surface. Fantastic! We’re close! I circle around the edifice and find an arrow that points away from the road into the surrounding woods.

That’d better be it. If I could read the native language, it would help.

[Quick, Tiny, this way!] I holler before sprinting away. Trees and branches fly past my face as I motor with all of my might. I’m not willing to Dash in case the drain on my core is increased, but I’m sure as heck going to run as fast as possible!

How’s my HP looking? GAH! Already down 10%? This is ridiculous!

GO-GO-GO-GO-GO!

Up ahead, a stone structure rises before us. A small fort in the middle of a forest. A ludicrous thing in normal times, but now, a lifesaving fortress of blessed Mana.

I run straight at the fort and then straight up the wall. Once I crest the moss-covered stone, I behold the most glorious sight of my life. Inside the walls, cut straight through the earth, is a wonderful crack, dim blue light leaking out of it. Precious Mana! Without a shred of hesitation, I leap from the wall and scramble toward the crack, Tiny not far behind.

You can’t quite describe this place as a ‘fort.’ More of a guard post, maintained to keep an eye on this particular crack in the ground. Not wide enough to be considered a Dungeon entrance, and not worth the cost of excavation, the kingdom must have decided to leave well enough alone and not worry about it.

But I will!

The pain is excruciating, but I grit my mandibles and bear it. It’s time to dig!

The entrance to the Dungeon here is only a foot wide, not enough for me to slither into, and certainly not enough for Tiny to back his commercial barge into. There is only one choice!

DIG!

Embrace the zen of ant living and dig, you Mana-less insect!

My face-hands pummel the soil at a relentless pace, dirt and stone flung into the sky as I whip my body back and forth, a rhythm of soil extraction achieved in a blink of an eye.

And with each blessed mandible-load of dirt, the sweet, sweet touch of Mana flows more smoothly out of the Dungeon and into my parched core. It still isn’t enough, each second that passes is a new kind of torture as I almost get enough of what I need but it isn’t sufficient to quench my thirst.

Dig! Dig! DIG!

Tiny is there too, his massive hands scooping out enormous amounts of earth before he throws it over his shoulder. In a short amount of time, we manage to dig out a bowl-shaped basin deep enough that both Tiny and I have our heads below ground level. Still, it isn’t enough. We concentrate on digging a narrow tunnel straight down, following the crack into the Dungeon with the idea of widening it out into a chamber once we’re deep enough.

The deeper we go, the more Mana seeps into our cores, until finally, sweet relief is at hand.

At that point, we collapse in a heap.

It’s a few hours before Morrelia finds us. I awake to the sight of her head poked down the impromptu tunnel we’ve dug.

Ugh.

This is what I imagine a hangover feels like. I feel gritty and sore across my entire body. After a few hours of torpor at the very least, I’ve managed to recharge my core back up to capacity, my feet helping to recharge the batteries once I’d managed to jam them into the crack.

All six of my legs twitch as I stretch them until the joints crack. There’s still some residual pain from the damage I sustained when my core was empty. I wonder what exactly causes that damage? Does my body fall apart at the cellular level without Mana to sustain me? Does the core draw on the energy contained within my cells to protect itself from damage when there isn’t enough Mana for it?

Interesting questions.

[Tiny, how are you doing, bud?]

The big ape grunts and raises one massive hand to slap over his head. [Better.]

[Fair enough.]

Above me, Morrelia has been pointing to her temple and gracing me with her traditional scowl as I’ve taken my time to stretch.

Hey, I nearly died. I deserve a little rest after that sort of existential crisis. Did I bring the problem down on myself? Yes. Yes, I did. I’ve resolved to try and address my shortcomings, namely my stupendous idiocy, in future, to the extent of my ability. I wonder if there’s an evolutionary option that would add common sense to my list of abilities?

I could really use that.

I sigh wearily and craft the necessary Mana to form the Mind Bridge with Morrelia.

[Hello, Morrelia. What is it?]

She snorts from her position hanging upside down in a tunnel. [Slept enough down there, Anthony? Any chance you want to get off your lazy backside and do some work?]

[Hey! I’ll have you know my business district is diligent and flourishing! We’re very excited to be announcing the delivery of new products that will cause our target demographic to positively melt!]

Bemused, Morrelia shakes her head. [As usual, I have no idea what you are talking about. We have serious business to deal with. I’ve found the tracks of another group of monsters heading north. By the looks of things, there’s a massive Garralosh type monster with them. If we hurry, we might catch up to them before they make it to Liria.]

Well now. That does sound interesting. Another one of the big momma croc’s eldest children caught gadding about on the surface?

How delicious.