The Antventure Begins

44. Something Never Seen Before

Tribune Aurillia stared hard at the captive mercenaries, bound hand and foot, sitting on the ground before her. Two Legionaries stood guard on either side of the ragtag group, hands resting on blades, ready to execute their duty at any moment.

“You’re trying to tell me that a small acid spraying monster ambushed you, destroying your shield as you raided the lake and then followed you back to your camp, stealing a number of monster cores by digging under your wards.”

Nystina, the mage, nodded vigorously.

“That’s right. I never even managed to see the little bastard.”

Aurillia massaged her temples. “For some reason I’m not even that surprised to hear about mercs getting outsmarted by a monster.”

“Hey, screw you!” one of the larger men in the group shouted. “Who ever heard of a monster that smart here in the first Expanse?”

He did have a point, usually monsters in this area had exceptionally low Cunning. There were a few evolutions that made for large and relatively dangerous foes but almost all of those sacrificed other stats to enable that size and strength, which meant the monsters here were almost universally stupid.

“Putting that aside, you should have received the notification to vacate the Dungeon we sent days ago. Why is your party still operating in the Forest Expanse against Legion instructions?”

The group shifted their posture and avoided looking the domineering Tribune in the eye.

Aurillia cursed at them internally. Are you children?

“Uh, I think our communication crystal malfunctioned,” the mage finally offered. “We didn’t receive any messages.”

“And when you noticed that every other hunting party had vacated the area you didn’t find that strange? Or were you too distracted by the profits you could make having the entire Expanse to yourselves?” Aurillia said sarcastically.

She turned to one of the Legionaries standing guard and nodded curtly.

The soldier stepped forward, crouched, and punched the mage viciously across the face before turning to the largest of the fighters and kicking him directly in the chest. The man fell backwards, gasping for air as he lay in the dirt.

“You can’t treat us this way,” another of the fighters protested. “We’re registered members of the Mercenary Union.”

“Noooo,” Aurillia drawled. “You’re an idiot merc scum who got greedy and are going to pay the price.”

She turned to a Centurion awaiting instructions behind her. “Seize any materials from the Dungeon in their possession and confiscate their licences. Children who can’t play by the rules don’t get to play at all.”

Having passed her judgement, she stared at each of the mercenaries in turn. “If they complain too much, feel free to give them a little more Legion ‘hospitality.’”

Shaking her head, the Tribune walked away. The mercenaries had been found a few hours earlier, retreating to their camp after farming cores at the lake. It wasn’t unusual for them to try and push the Legions authority to the limit. In recent years the Legion had made a special point of pushing back.

Of course, as soon as they did the Mercenary Union started crying foul to the queen about the abuse of authority. Just another thing for the commander to worry about.

She found Titus yelling at the trainees and directing them to the makeshift training yard they established as part of their camp. The exhausted young men and women began pairing up and sparring. The commander watched them sternly, barking out instructions whenever he noticed a mistake.

Aurillia joined him and explained the strange testimony she received from the mercenaries.

“Doesn’t this sound weird to you? Why would there be such an intelligent member of this species so high up in the Dungeon? Do you think this might be the same one the trainees saw close to the surface?”

Titus stood silent for a moment, chewing over the facts in his own slow and methodical way.

“I think it is,” he said. “Seems like too much of a coincidence that there would be two of them. If we agree it’s the same one, then how in the hells did this one ant survive our sweep of the tunnels to make its way here and then survive the monsters once it arrived? This monster has shown almost human levels of intelligence.”

The Tribune nodded in agreement. “For a creature as unevolved as this to show such a high-Level of Cunning is unheard of. Should we consult Alberton on this?”

The commander grunted. “He’d love to study a specimen like this, but we don’t have the time to waste. We need to clear out as much of the Expanse as we can and locate the nest of these creatures. If our little smart ant has made it this far then there’s a chance we’ll find it there and we can exterminate it along with the rest.”

He paused to bellow further criticism at his trainees before continuing. “We’ve seen monsters with close to human intelligence before. Judging by the number of offspring in the area we should surmise that old prick Garralosh has been around here at some point recently. Make sure the hunting parties are on alert, she shouldn’t be able to show her face this high up in the Dungeon but some of her higher-Level offspring might.”

Garralosh and the commander had run into each other a few times deep underground. The titanic and ancient creature was known to be the oldest and most powerful monster under Liria. Monsters that old and strong were unable to come this high up in the Dungeon due to the Mana being too thin to support their incredibly dense and powerful cores. Creatures like that had evolved so many times they effectively received a name from the system itself.

There were a number of scars on the beast’s thick hide from the very axe resting on Titus’ shoulder. The old croc was clever though, and extremely cautious, slipping out of the traps they prepared for her without taking fatal damage.

“Something feels wrong,” Titus said, disrupting his Tribune’s wandering thoughts.

“Wrong, Commander?”

He nodded towards the forest below them. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the forest look this bright. Spawn points are spitting out monsters almost as fast as we kill them, and the wave still hasn’t broken. It doesn’t feel like it usually does.”

Aurillia reluctantly agreed. “It does seem to be building in intensity faster than usual. What do you think it means?”

“I’m not sure. I just know I don’t like it. This wave is going to be a big one. We’d best be prepared for the worst.”