Upping The Ante

98. Farewell, Surface. Hello, Crinis!

[How long will you be gone for?] Enid asked worriedly.

[As long as it takes to remove the threat.]

This is why I don’t like coming up here to the human camp. No sooner did I appear than people started gathering and pointing. Then the priest came at a run, his face flushed with excitement and began exhorting the people to pay their respects to me. In a flash, the humans were raising their hands or kneeling nearby as I nervously waited for Enid to show up.

I’m thankful the crowd maintained a respectful distance. It seems their fear of Dungeon monsters isn’t completely gone.

[Do you have any idea what is actually causing these monsters to attack the surface?] she asked.

[I’m not sure. I have a few suspicions, but I don’t exactly know what we’re up against. The colony, and by extension you humans, are not safe while the Expanse below us continues to send out these monsters. They need to be removed.]

Enid frowns as she ponders my words. Why am I even here? I could have just spoken to the queen and disappeared underground. Nobody here in the camp would have been the wiser. It isn’t as if they see me very often, I’m almost always underground already.

I guess Enid herself has been helpful and respectful. I don’t really have any reason to keep her in the dark. Since this expedition has a direct impact on their own safety, I suppose it doesn’t hurt to tell them.

Just… give me a little space!

[The people here seem remarkably well disposed toward ant monsters. Is that safe?] I’m forced to ask, as a child attempts to sneak closer and touch me, only to be snatched back by an adult.

Enid gives me an odd stare before replying.

[You and your colony have kept these people safe on several occasions. The only reason we have been able to settle here and start making a life for ourselves again is that you and your colony are here, taming the land and protecting us. Of course, we are grateful. With Beyn here, that gratitude is only getting more ingrained.]

Damn priest…

I’ll need to have words with him at some point, but for now, I’m worried he may just take it as some sort of divine visitation. The guy is just odd. I bit his arm off, how did he end up such a fervent supporter?

Enid hesitates before speaking again. [There are a lot of valuable resources that can be extracted from an Expanse. I was a merchant before, and I know the value of many things that can be found in the Dungeon. If you see something that looks special, bring it to me, and I can tell you about it.]

Hmmmm…

[I’ll think about it.]

Other than Biomass and monster cores, what else does the colony require? On the off chance that something useful can be found down there, I might keep this in mind. Still, in my mind, it’s far more likely to be helpful to the humans than it is to us.

After a few more words, I bid Enid goodbye and carefully back myself up to leave. The people reluctantly part to let me through, the priest’s voice raising to an even higher crescendo before I disappear out of sight. Somehow, not being able to hear exactly what he’s saying makes it feel worse.

Safely back in the nest, I feel far more comfortable. My people! It doesn’t take long to explain the situation to Mother. As always, she expresses concern for my safety but encourages me to do what is best for the family.

Naturally!

This ant doesn’t let his family down. No chance.

Farewells handled, Tiny gathers the still slumbering Vibrant, unexpectedly gently, in one massive paw and we drop in on a waking ball of death.

[Crinis, you look wonderful!]

[R-r-r-really, Master?]

[Absolutely. What a wonderful evolution! Such an incredible difference. You positively radiate power and strength. Surely you are my most potent servant.]

Crinis wiggles with glee.

[D-don’t praise me too much,] she says, embarrassed but also delighted.

[Nonsense. I insist you come over here so I can check on your core immediately!]

Buttered up by my words, Crinis shyly makes her way closer.

She looks pretty much completely the same.

The only difference is that she’s been promoted from tennis ball of infinite death and despair, to soft-ball of infinite terror and despair! To put that in other words, she’s slightly larger.

On the outside, nothing else has changed with her. The inside is a different story.

However, after reflecting on my attitude toward Crinis, I reasoned she would be nervous after evolving, so I thought praising her a little might put her at ease.

Practically vibrating with joy, Crinis allows me to place my antennae on her spherical main body and activate the Core Surgery skill.

When I finish piecing together her information, I get this:

Name: Crinis

Level: 1 (core) (II)

Might: 38

Toughness: 35

Cunning: 22

Will: 20

HP: 104/104

MP: 30/30

Skills: Advanced Shadow Flesh Manipulation Level 1 (II); Grappling Level 3 (I); Expert Shredding Level 4 (III); Tremor Sensing Level 3 (I); Dismembering Level 2 (I); Fear Inspiration Level 3 (I); Mana Manipulation Level 1 (I); Tentacle Walking Level 1 (I)

Mutations: Durable Shadow Flesh +5; Disintegrating Void Maw +5; Bottomless Dimensional Stomach +5; Dividing Tentacles +5; Ripping Spines +5; Macabre Teeth +5; Mana Sensory Gland; Shadow Magic Gland; Shadow Flesh Generator

Species: Special Death Ball

Skill Points: 1

Biomass: 6

Yissssss.

Look at the power of my pet!

Solid boost to all stats. Crinis isn’t a straight up hitter, but a support fighter. Tiny can smash through the walls. I want Crinis to be a bit more flexible.

The two new organs, Mana Sensory Gland and Shadow Flesh Generator, should be fantastic additions. She’s so strong for being only tier two! The advantages of her unique species perhaps? Or being a second stratum monster? It’s useful, at any rate.

It was a bit weird, but none of Crinis’ system-built evolutions included any mechanism to take away her primary weakness, a lack of senses. She’s supposed to remain sealed off from all senses except touch for the remainder of her existence, which just seems weird. Kind of feels like whatever decides the monster’s forms and paths, loves to come up with a concept and then stick with it to absurd extremes.

I did investigate simply giving Crinis some eyes. The cost is quite high, and when I thought about it, that does make sense. Eyes are complex organs and require significant brain matter to process the visual signals with any sort of clarity. So rather than use up the bulk of an evolution simply sticking eyes on Crinis, I opted to give her a different sense.

The Mana Sensory Gland works much like magical sonar or a permanently active version of my own Mana Sense skill. She’ll be able to visualise Mana sources near her, which will of course include monsters who are filled with the Mana generated within their cores. Combined with her Tremor Sense, she’ll have a unique set of senses that are completely her own.

Then the Shadow Flesh Generator. Being a shadow beast, her body has a different make up than beast-type creatures, and shadow flesh comes with its own properties. Malleable, strong, flexible, all good stuff, but it isn’t that tough. Rather than try and make the Shadow Flesh more defensive, largely a waste of time, make it easy to replace!

With the increase to her Might and Toughness stats, Crinis has experienced a boost in her mass, meaning there is more Shadow Flesh packed into her. This gland will effectively provide a high-speed regeneration option should she start to lose tentacles or have holes shot into her. After spending a heap of time mucking about the choices, it was the best healing option I could find.

The Shadow Magic Gland is her own choice. Seems she may have been inspired by me a little and decided to go down the road of inherent magic produced in a gland and controlled magic utilising the raw MP from the core. She has a natural affinity with shadow magic anyway, so this is a smart choice.

Very satisfied with what I’ve found, I withdraw my senses from her core, only to find Crinis hovering unusually still.

[Great job, Crinis! I’m super proud of you. The choice of the Shadow Magic Gland makes a lot of sense. Great work!]

[HRCK!]

…What?

Ah, she broke.

Peering closer, she’s gone into silent, vibrate in place mode.

Too much praise. She couldn’t handle it all. I’ll need to give controlled doses of positive reinforcement over the next week or so to build up some level of tolerance within her, because this is just ridiculous. I gather her up in my mandibles and flip her up onto my back. It’s time to go and we can’t wait any longer!

I’m excited for the upcoming challenge but at the same time a little nervous. We are throwing ourselves into the great unknown in order to protect the colony from harm. Something about it just makes my ant heart sing. Going to have to watch out for this feeling in case it motivates me to do something stupid. I get up to enough of that on my own.

At any rate, there isn’t anyone else in the colony who could handle this level of danger, so it has to be me and the crew.

In order to ensure we don’t miss any waves, we take the long way down, sweeping the tunnels clean and using the creatures we find to get a little extra XP in the bank before we get to the Expanse. If we can Level up even one skill by one point it might help more than we expect. To this end I use my new Bite attack, Ripping Bite, exclusively. This ends up in some… messy combats. Crinis seems to approve, but I’m personally not as much of a fan. At least the skill is accruing experience.

In this way it takes us a number of hours to reach the Expanse deep beneath the surface. When we approach, Vibrant finally begins to show signs of stirring from her slumber. Her body has undergone a number of changes during the journey, including a rather dramatic increase in size—at last!

I can’t wait to take a look at her status and see what she chose.

As we post up outside the marsh Expanse, I decide to put Crinis on guard duty while the rest of us open up the shortcut, clear out a small section of tunnel and nestle down for a short break.

We need our wits about us for this next test. If Vibrant is going to be fighting alongside us, I want to make sure she’s got the right stuff after evolving.

It doesn’t take long for her to wake up and regain her normal energy.

“Hi, senior! How long did I sleep?”

“Well, I’d say it was—”

“Wow! Where are we? Did we move somewhere?”

“Uhh… yes. Tiny carried you. We came down—”

“Thanks, Tiny! I wasn’t heavy, was I?” She rushes over to Tiny, tapping him vigorously with her antennae.

The big ape just looks down at her for a moment before reaching out with one big finger to poke her on top of her head.

“Hey! Hee-hee! You’re the best, Tiny!”

“Just come over here for a moment, would you,” I grate out.

Full of beans, she bounces over to me and stops, still managing to wiggle from one foot to the other as she awaits my instructions. No matter how far she evolves, I don’t think her high energy level is ever going to change.

“I want to take a look at your core and see what your stats are like. Is that ok?”

“Sure-sure!”

All right then.

Bringing my antennae forward, it’s time for Core Surgery once more!

After a bit of fiddling about, I put together her status:

Name: Vibrant

Level: 1 (core) (III)

Might: 52

Toughness: 38

Cunning: 25

Will: 22

HP: 76/76

MP: 55/55

Skills: Advanced Digging Level 3 (II); Advanced Acid Shot Level 6 (II); Grip Level 4 (I); Crushing Bite Level 5 (II); Advanced Dash Level 2 (II); Exo-Skeleton Defence Level 3 (I); Stamina Level 2 (I); Piercing Chomp Level 4 (II); Leap Level 2 (I)

Mutations: Enhanced Reflective Exo-skeleton +10; Savage Mandibles +5; Accelerated Legs +5; Focused Eyes +5; Foresight Antennae +5; Burning Acid Gland +5; Widened Command Aura (Formica) +5; Frequent Explosive Energy Gland +5; Pheromone Language Gland +5; Slow-release Regeneration Gland +5; Inner Carapace Plating; Speed Aura Gland

Species: Major Soldier (Formica)

Skill Points: 6

Biomass: 5

What the heck is this? Her physical stats are already higher than mine…

And by so much!