The Antventure Begins

98. Digging Commences

Gathering the large Python core—it’s definitely from the Python, judging by the tail section next to it—I bring it to the rest of my hoard and transport them all into the first trap network, burying them with my Death Rabbit core.

This is the most precious harvest of the battle. Great plans are in store for these resources! I need to work quickly though.

Before beginning that work, I make one final trip to the field to gather some Biomass for myself and collect my now almost spherical ape. Are you made of rubber, you stupid gorilla! How do you fit so much food in your stomach?

Tiny appears happy to simply lie on his back, rolling about gently in contentment, his distended belly proudly displayed to the forest canopy.

Really classy, Tiny, you surely are living your best life.

By this time the industrious workers have done a fairly good job of picking the field clean. I head back to the condensed gobstopper of Biomass forged by my Gravity Bomb.

Standing over it, I have to say it doesn’t look that impressive. A small ball that doesn’t really look like meat or food of any kind. The ball is a kind of orange colour, streaked through with different layers and the occasional splash of other colours. Peering closer, it reminds me a little of the planet Jupiter from images I’d seen in textbooks.

Tentatively I try again to lift it. No success. Most of the Biomass of two giant monsters is packed into this little ball. There must be easily over a ton of material in there. Not all that surprising, I can’t lift it.

I’ll have to eat as much as I can here and now!

Crouching down, I start gnawing the hell out of the thing.

Om nom, nom, nom, nom.

Yield to me you damn sphere!

Om, nom, nom, nom, nom!

[You have gained one Biomass.]

This is going to take a while. I feel like a dog chewing on a bone…

NOM NOM.

After a solid twenty minutes of chewing, I’ve managed to gain six more Biomass. The rate at which I was able to extract the food was slowly starting to increase towards the end. Chipping away at it seemed to loosen up the Biomass a little. With more time, I’d be able to get a whole lot more, but I can’t afford to hang around.

I just have too much to do!

The food does a lot to re-energise me, helping to close over my smaller wounds and refresh my mind somewhat. I still desperately need to sleep… It’ll have to wait a bit longer.

Having eaten, I hustle back into the nest and make my way down to the queen’s chamber. Ants are desperately running about, passing food around, feeding the larvae and presenting Biomass to the queen.

The only problem is she shows no interest in eating.

I can subtly tell the workers are distressed by this. A small pile of Biomass is growing in the queen’s chamber, and the workers are wandering back and forth with no real idea on how to proceed if the queen won’t start eating.

When I bustle in, the queen perks up and pushes through the crowd of workers towards me.

“Are we ready to dig?” she asks, the concern thrumming in her ‘voice.’

“Good to go!” I hope my tone is enough to reassure her.

I move over to the slowly dimming walls of the chamber and start to feel out the dirt with my antennae. I’m relying on my Excavation skill to guide my instincts and detect the best place to start digging.

In my Tunnel Map, the entrance where I encountered the humans is marked roughly two kilometres to the… let’s say west. That isn’t far enough away to be certain we are clear of human settlements.

I don’t know if the entrance I found is in the middle of a thriving city or a cow paddock. Just knowing humans are there means we need to surface a good distance away. That means we need to dig not just up, but diagonally away from that entrance.

There’s a patch of wall that feels the most promising to my tingling instincts and I start digging. I want to pitch the tunnel upwards about twenty degrees. By the time we reach the surface we should be a long distance away from that dreaded entrance.

If we run into an already established tunnel, we’ll have to back up, close off a section and dig around it, we cannot risk exposing our escape route to the wave.

Even as I dig, the glowing blue veins that have penetrated all the way here to the heart of the colony glow brightly in my face. Towards these curling lines of light, to which I once felt such fascination, now only dread remains.

As I begin to remove the dirt, the lines fade and vanish on the soil that is no longer connected to the wall, as if it were part of a circuit that had been disconnected. When the Mana fades, the dirt looks perfectly ordinary, as if there had been nothing different about it before.

“We should dig our tunnel here, your majesty!” I use my antennae to indicate the angle we should dig. “If we dig in this direction, we might be able to escape the worst of the wave. Get the workers to dump the dirt in the tunnel leading down from this chamber, if we can block monsters rising from deeper down, that would be a bonus!”

Having said my piece, I take a clod of dirt in my mandibles and retreat to the lower tunnel where we battled the Berserkers. If more monsters like them, or worse, were to attack during the wave, we would be in serious trouble.

Even this long, spiralling tunnel has become filled with the Mana veins. When the wave breaks, and if Formo is correct, this entire tunnel would start to spawn monsters.

We would surely be wiped out had we not been forewarned! I have to make sure I pay the Sophos back for their help if the chance ever arises.

Returning to the queen’s chamber, I’m shocked to see the queen herself digging away at the wall.

A nervous swarm of workers is bustling around her, even climbing over her in their attempt to render assistance.

She’s gently encouraging the workforce with her soothing voice. “Come, little ones. Let’s dig a new tunnel here. Dig quickly, children.”

Although they cannot reply to her, the fervour of the workers to respond to her words clearly demonstrates their understanding. The workers are practically vibrating with eagerness, and it isn’t long before a long chain of ants has been established, feverishly digging away at the wall with the queen’s assistance, while others cart away the dirt and dump it in the tunnel below.

Watching the ant’s furious pace, my clenching heart eases a little in my chest. Perhaps we might be able to make it after all. They may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, but when it comes to work ethic, I can’t imagine anyone being able to beat a colony of ants.

I have to work just as hard!

I’m so exhausted, my mind feels wrapped in a fog… No! No time to slow down, there is too much to do and only a little time in which to do it.

I’ll leave the digging to the colony for the time being. There are other things to prepare for the upcoming struggle that the others can’t handle.

Emerging into the first trap network, I find Tiny has settled himself down to happily sleep off his meal. This ape has gotten seriously larger. It won’t be long before he reaches his full size at the pace he’s going. Considering the amount of Biomass he packed into himself today, it wouldn’t surprise me if he wakes up another foot taller.

Snoring softly, the little bat face seems too peaceful when asleep. It’s a little difficult to associate this restful scene with the hooting, battle crazed gorilla I’d witnessed not long ago.

I’ll let him sleep. Better he gets rest while he can.

Digging away a patch of soft earth, my treasures are revealed. The cores.

Looking down at the glittering, gem-like spheres, my heart slowly begins to burn with anticipation.

If the Sophos can engineer such powerful pets, then why can’t I?

And if I can, then what’s to say the whole colony couldn’t?