Upping The Ante

2. Retreat from Danger

This stupid wave. Just how threatening does it have to get? I’m already a wrecked heap. A heap, I say!

Now the veins are extending into the escape tunnel, which will surely cause monsters to spawn right under our feet. In addition, we have to deal with these unknown threats from below. It’s enough to drive an ant crazy.

Ok, think, Anthony, what are you going to do?

Stay and fight? Against what! We have no idea what sort of horror is going to ascend that tunnel, eager to eviscerate our most sensitive zones. There is absolutely no way we stay here and battle it out against whatever is coming up. One of the first things I learned in this Dungeon was not to pick a fight you aren’t sure you can win.

Run?

Run where? The tunnel isn’t complete. All we can do is crowd into a dead end. They don’t call ’em life ends for a reason!

Only one choice remains… Hide!

“Quick! We need to cover up the entrance and seal this tunnel!” I shout to the workers around me.

The workers rapidly respond to my call to action, as they usually do. This is a family that can be relied on in a pinch.

A hundred workers leap into action, shovelling and hauling dirt with their mandibles to close off the remaining open section of the tunnel entrance.

From beneath us, bloodcurdling screams and the wild gnashing of teeth grinding away at the bones of still living foes echo endlessly. Certainly providing ample motivation to my own digging efforts.

What the heck is going on down there? Actually, I’m not sure I want to know.

It sounds like the monsters are experiencing a kind of existential terror I wasn’t sure the beasts had the capacity to express.

I’ve always had an urge to investigate, to explore the deeper layers just to know, just to see what it was like down there and what sort of creatures inhabited that space.

The ghastly sounds echoing from below have somewhat cured me of that feeling. To the surface, my fellow ants—and Tiny! Maybe we can find a mountain to climb when we get up there. Just to be higher up…

As we pile the dirt high, the gradual progress of the Mana veins continues to extend their baleful reach farther into the escape tunnel. The speed is still slow, perhaps only as much as thirty centimetres an hour, but just seeing them visibly growing is unsettling.

Is the Mana concentration still rising? Is that why they’re moving in this way? There is still too much I don’t understand.

Bah! Don’t think about it. Just dig!

I repeatedly urge the workers to move faster. Dirt flies and ants crawl all over each other in their eagerness to complete the task they’ve been given.

As the horrific noises from below continue to increase in volume, we seal off the escape tunnel, plunging ourselves into near darkness.

I’m still not satisfied. The muffled noises and vibrations passing through the loosely packed soil are enough motivation for me to continue stacking dirt against the entrance. I want to get some width between me and that room!

“Keep stacking that dirt, fellow workers. Start bringing it from the other end of the tunnel!”

I continue to exhort my fellow workers to keep piling dirt, trying to put enough earth between us and the horrors that will soon enter that chamber, that I’ll feel comfortable we are safe.

After ten minutes of constant hauling, the roars of monstrous combat receded. We managed to pack the dirt far enough back, that even the gradually extending tendrils of the Mana veins on the wall had been covered over. Any monsters that spawn in those walls will claw themselves out only to find they are still encased in dirt!

If they manage to dig themselves out into the tunnel, they’ll be easy pickings for the watchful ants.

The colony has entered a strange state now, completely sealed within a dirt cylinder. As the rest of the Dungeon is plunged into blood and madness, these ants and I exist in a separate, isolated container.

The worries I have are air and food. Though I’m not exactly sure how much air monstrous ants require in this world. Monsters live up to 10,000 kilometres under the surface in this world after all.

Food on the other hand… The colony has a voracious appetite, the need for sustenance is constant. Without being able to charge out and secure Biomass every few hours, we will eventually starve to death.

Exactly how long will Tiny last without food?

I’ll leave him asleep for now, if I can put off letting him know then I will…

After a period helping the digging, with the sounds rippling out from the queen’s chamber growing more and more muted, until the slightest of vibrations were felt, I decide to head to the front of the tunnel to check on our progress.

The queen and her dedicated cohort of workers have been furiously ripping into the soil and rock the entire time Tiny and I have been occupied with the defence. Her massive mandibles rip huge chunks out of the solid ground as she cheerfully encourages the workers around her to put forth their efforts. A lot of progress has been made! According to my Tunnel Map, which has reached Level two, the tunnel still has a long way to go before we reach the surface.

The smaller workers at this end of the tunnel are still vibrating with enthusiasm, fawning over their mother and vigorously transporting the loose soil farther back in the tunnel.

Have they taken a rest up here?

The escape tunnel has now become like a moving pocket of air within the solid ground, the dirt removed from the front is transported to the back and compressed as best as possible.

Quite an odd situation to say the least.

Taking my place next to the queen, I begin to furiously attack the soil, sending a blizzard of loose earth flying to shower the ants behind me, who gather it up enthusiastically before carrying it away.

Despite no longer having to fight monsters, I feel like the pressure of the wave has increased rather than decreased. The expansion of the Mana veins and the movement of monsters from below has really rattled me.

Firstly, the monsters from below. Why are they moving? It stands to reason they’re rising because they have been displaced by even stronger monsters from beneath them. Is there a possibility this upward migration will continue until those more powerful creatures rise to this level? Would even the surface be safe if that were to happen!

Secondly, the speed at which the Mana veins are moving. I can only think this is caused by the Mana at this level growing in intensity. If that intensity continues to rise during the wave, then what exactly are conditions going to be like after a week?

I estimate the wave has only been underway for a day and a bit at this point…

Casting aside my worries, I begin to periodically activate my Mana Sensing skill as we dig. The best chance of finding food is for us to pass by another tunnel and dig toward it, performing a raid on the monsters there to secure Biomass for the colony.

We have moved far past my previous Dungeon exploration, and my Tunnel Map is completely blank in this area of the Dungeon. The escape tunnel appears as a clean line pushing into unknown territory when I view the map in my mind.

The best chance of finding a tunnel is if I can detect the core of a powerful monster or perhaps sense the Mana flooding through the Mana veins.

I just hope it doesn’t take too long.