Woot! Things are really starting to 'heat up" hahahah! I'm sure Alpha will have a "Blast" with this chapter! I hope you enjoy! And as a reminder! Patreon members are already at chapter 12! So if you can't wait for the next chapter, or just feel like supporting the story, click on the picture at the bottom of the chapter and check out the Patreon!
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B2 - Lesson 4: "Beat the neighbors."
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For anyone else, the ride on a giant, spiky ant the size of a train engine, traveling through an underground tunnel at 70km/h would have been uncomfortable. For Alpha, it was just a matter of attaching the [Wasp] to one of the large spikes and hitching a ride. The drone's augmented van der Waals force allowed it to stay attached to a surface even at speeds reaching Mach 3 and several Gs of force.
The particular ant that Alpha was riding was one he had labeled the carrier class. Nearly the size of the TAWP, these 'carriers' were hulking, spiky monstrosities that could put any porcupine to shame. Dozens of ants clung to the carrier class's back and abdomen, clinging to the large spikes. These ranged from the typical, human-sized workers to smaller, dog-sized honeypots, their abdomen swollen with a glowing crimson liquid.
Two dozen carrier-class ants traveled down the same tunnel as Alpha, with more joining every minute. Other than the carriers, the tunnel was filled with soldier ants. Car-sized and heavily armored, Alpha could tell these creatures were built for combat. Between these ants were hundreds of ants of the various worker types. It seemed when the colony gave the call, everyone answered.
"The question is, where are we headed, and what could demand a response like this?" Alpha asked himself. "Guess I'm about to find out…"
Alpha noticed a light in the distance as they neared the end of the tunnel.
"That's strange…" Alpha muttered, "The tunnel's pointing downward. Where is the light coming from?"
The ants didn't even slow as they exited the tunnel, and Alpha's perspective flipped 90 degrees. Instead of exiting on the surface or a mountainside as Alpha had expected, the ants poured out of an opening high on a cliff side of a mist-filled valley. A massive forest sprawled out before him, stretching far into the distance before it was swallowed by the swirling mists.
"No… not a valley…" Alpha said. The drone's camera followed the glowing moss growing on the cliffside. It stretched higher and higher until it was obscured by the 'clouds,' only the dim lights allowing him to track them. The moss continued upward, then over the valley.
Those twinkling stars in the 'sky' weren't stars at all. They were patches of moss.
"Wooooooow…" Alpha whistled to himself.
This 'valley' wasn't a valley; it was one massive cavern! One far larger than anything found in the colony so far. Hell, Alpha was pretty sure that some shenanigans were going on to make something like this even possible.
Alpha's perspective flipped again as the ant's march down the wall ended, and they reached the cavern floor.
"Man, this place really is a forest…" Alpha said.
Several kilometers into the distance, massive trees grew thick along the cavern floor, so thick the carrier-class ants would have to slow significantly to navigate the terrain. The scene reminded Alpha of those old videos of the ancient redwood forests of Old Earth, but dotted with giant mushroom trees. Though said mushrooms, the same variety found in the ant colony, were still smaller than the giant trees.
The space between the cavern's wall and the forest looked like it had been clear-cut, with hundreds of stumps of both trees and mushrooms filling the area like a floral graveyard.
"The ants must forage regularly to supplement their own farms," Alpha considered what he was seeing. "But ants are known for being exponential multipliers. The patch here is massive, but it's just a tiny fraction of the entire forest. There have to be some checks and balances, right? What's stopping the ants from stripping this cavern clean as the colony grows?"
As if answering his musings, another loud roar sounded from just inside the forest, a vast shadow moving within the mist.
The ants didn't hesitate and charged the tree line.
Alpha detached from the carrier ant and flew higher. The [Wasp] wasn't much faster than the giant, charging ant, but being above the action would give him a wider view of what was happening.
As Alpha approached the treeline, and the mist thinned, he finally got a look at what had the colony riled up.
"Yup… those are some big boys…" Alpha muttered, staring at a group of five massive creatures. Each was roughly twenty meters tall and appeared like someone had smushed a bear with a sloth. They were hulking creatures covered in thick, matted fur and walked on four muscular limbs. Their front paws were topped by vicious-looking curved claws. Claws so large the creature had to walk on its knuckles.
An army of smaller worker ants surrounded the creatures, ineffectively gnawing on the tough fur. Ants that tried to climb onto the creatures would inevitably get tangled in the thick mats of moss-covered fur until the giant creature's long, sticky tongue cleaned them off. Every so often, when the ants gathered too thickly, one of the creatures would lift its clawed paw and scythe through the masses.
When you're a galactic civilization capable of traveling between stars and terraforming entire planets, you come across many strange lifeforms. Sometimes, those strange lifeforms don't like when you plop a base in the middle of their territory. As such, the Federation had devised a ranking system to determine the threat level of local wildlife to their ongoing operations.
The system itself was simple, even if some in the Federation argued it could be more detailed. At its core, it ranked between G-rank and A-rank, designating what kind of firepower and effort was needed to bring the target down in case of confrontation.
A G-ranked lifeform could be easily dealt with by a trained hunter using civilian-standard firearms.
An A-ranked lifeform was considered so dangerous that the loss of life and equipment from a planet-side engagement was typically considered not worth it. Such creatures usually earned themselves an orbital strike if they became problems.
Or a visit from Alpha.
Ranks beyond that, such as S or SS, were used for unique lifeforms capable of planetwide destruction and were often found in the void between stars. But such beings were exceedingly rare, so much so that one or two might be identified every century.
"If the toothy penguins are our baseline, below even G, then the Beast Lord would have been between F and E. Dangerous for civilians, but overall, not too much for a squad of soldiers. A transformed Hera, though, might have given even a full squad some trouble, putting her firmly into E-rank. These things, though… hmmm." Alpha contemplated to himself.
For all their size and bulk, the creatures fighting the ants didn't give off the same air of danger that Hera had. They were powerful, sure, dangerous even, but not at the same level.
"So between the Beast Lord and Hera, then? That's still a pretty wide gap…" the AI considered.
The creatures weren't making much headway against the seemingly endless tide of ants, but neither were the ants doing much against the strange creatures. It was a stalemate that didn't seem like it was likely to break anytime soon, not unless something changed to tip the scales.
It just so happened that "something" was about to arrive.
The swarm of ants that Alpha had followed here melded into the back ranks of the ants already present. Several dozen large soldier ants stepped over the smaller workers and rushed the bear-sloth creatures. The bear-sloths, who had, until this point, seemed to treat the swarm more like a particularly fussy meal, stood on their hind legs and roared at the charging ants, spreading their long arms out to display their vicious claws.
The ants knew no fear, however. While each soldier was only twice as big as a worker, their armor was far thicker and covered in spiky barbs. While a single swipe of the bear-sloth's claws could crush dozens of ants, it took two or three blows to fell a soldier. To make matters worse, the soldiers were adept at working together. While the bear-sloths focused on crushing a few soldiers, others would latch onto the creature's arms.
They still couldn't cut through the bear-sloth's thick, matted fur, but the ants weighed the five creature's limbs down over time. With each ant clinging to them, every blow came slower and with less power. This, in turn, meant each soldier took longer to kill, letting more ants latch on.
Soon, the bear-sloths were so heavily ladened they could no longer stand. One by one, the massive creatures were pulled to the ground. Then, just like that, the battle had shifted. With dozens of soldiers weighing down and pulling their limbs taut, the bear-sloths couldn't defend themselves as the workers attacked their vulnerable faces.
A few bear-sloths tried to defend themselves with their long tongues and snapping maws, but the ants were unending. Not to long after, the roars of anger turned into ones of pain as giant ants attacked their squishy bits not protected by the heavy fur.
"Well, I guess that's its…" Alpha said to himself.
He gained little from this brief detour, but the underground forest was a promising location. Just the sheer size of the cavern itself almost guaranteed he'd be able to find some choice mineral veins with a bit of scouting. That wasn't even considering what opportunities and resources the forest itself might hold.
Alpha turned the [Wasp] around and headed back to the colony. He'd leave the ants to their prize, drop off the material samples he'd collected in the mushroom cavern, and then explore the colony a bit more. By the time he finished that, the nanite nests should be established and ready to produce nanites.
With any luck, he'd have some basic printers up and running by the end of the week! Things were finally looking up.
He'd barely started to fly back when a massive roar shook the cavern.
Alpha turned around to see something pushing up from underneath the pile of ants, roughly where the largest bear-sloths had gone down. The ant mound continued to rise into the air until, finally, a gargantuan figure exploded from within.
The bear-sloth that emerged had somehow grown to three times its original size, but that wasn't the only change. Its eyes were gone, possibly having been eaten by the ants, and steaming red blood leaked from the holes, staining its muzzle.
The thick, matted fur covering its body had turned a bright golden color and had somehow untangled itself. It now streamed out behind it in long, silky tendrils that flowed on an unseen wind. Its long, curved claws had doubled in size and straightened, turning black and metallic in the bright golden light.
The now giant, golden bear-sloth gave another loud roar that almost knocked the [Wasp] of the sky and went berserk. Each swipe of its black metal claws shredded dozens of ants, and not even the soldiers could resist its blows any longer.
Once more, the tide of the battle shifted as the blind, raging bear-sloth began to cut its way through the surrounding army of ants toward the safety of the nearby trees.
The ants had one more trick up their sleeve, though, it seemed.
During the entire previous engagement, the carrier ants had stayed back near the back of the army of ants, as if observing, despite being several times larger than the soldiers.
This time, the carriers stepped forward. Though not far.
The carrier ants waded through the army of workers until they'd reached some arbitrary line. Then, as one, a dozen carrier ants flicked their large abdomens upward with enough force that Alpha could see their exoskeleton crack.
Dozens of red-bellied honeypot ants flew through the air at tremendous force, arcing over the workers below toward the fleeing bear-sloth. Alpha could have even sworn he saw several physically adjust their course by twisting in certain ways or splaying their legs.
For a brief moment, the air above the army of ants turned into a tapestry of red stars. Then these falling stars slammed into the golden bear-sloth…
… and exploded.
Hundreds of fireballs bloomed to life along the bear-sloth's back and its surroundings. The golden light it emitted was overwhelmed by the bright hellfire, as burning globs of red liquid and ant bits clung to the creature's fur. Its back erupted into an inferno as the bear-sloth screamed and fell to the ground, rolling on its back several times, only to push the everburning flames deeper into its fur.
Bang!
Another dozen carrier ants launched their payloads into the air. Like before, the red honeypots soared through the air, this time hitting a much more concentrated area now that their target was immobile.
The golden bear-sloth went up in a roaring fireball that cleared the mist for hundreds of meters and lit up the cavern for dozens of kilometers.
Alpha could only think of one thing as the giant fireball settled into a roaring bonfire with a charred black figure at its center.
Alpha is going to have a great baseline to start his dungeon with.
Homing napalm ants? That sounds like something you would find on deep floors in some dungeon stories.
Edit: actually, now that I think about it, this is a Cultivation story as well. Living firebombs is probably kinda tame compared to some stuff out there.
Just a reminder! The Fan Art Contest submission period is open!
———————————————————————— B2 - Lesson 5: "Meat the neighbors."
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Both chemical weapons and self-sacrifice weren't unheard of in insects, especially social insects; insects that live in a colony, hive, or social nest.
Dedicated suicide bombers, though? That wasn't something Alpha had seen before. Moreover, this wasn't just ants spraying some intruder with venom or acid. They were somehow synthesizing highly effective and complex bio-explosives.
The only time the Federation had ever encountered legitimate bio-explosives was a particular plant that could use a nitroglycerin-related cocktail to launch their seedpods at extreme distances.
The AI would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't interested in their… explosive personalities. It was just a matter of getting a sample…
"Hehehehehehehe…" Alpha laughed as the [Wasp] drone landed on one of the few remaining red-bellied honeypot ants.
Now, what was the best way to extract the sample?
One option was using the drone's plasma cutter to make a small incision and extract what leaked out. That was likely a bad idea, though, if this stuff was as explosive as Alpha suspected. Another option was to attempt to purposefully detonate one of the ants and then collect the residue. Possibly… but it was unlikely any would survive the detonation. Or if it did, it would be altered in some way.
Or he could use the drone's built-in syringe to suck it up directly from the sack.
Ya, that was probably the best way to go about this.
Alpha deployed the [Wasp] drone's syringe and plunged it into the red-bellied honeypot ant's abdomen filled with highly volatile liquid explosives.
BOOOOOOOM!
When Alpha finally reformed the [Wasp] drone, he found its frame had been thrown several hundred meters away by the explosion.
"Yaaaaa, I should have seen that one coming…" Alpha complained. "Mama always did say not to go stickin' ma stinger in strange holes…"
It figured these things were on a bit of a hair trigger. Any rupture of the abdomen was enough to trigger a reaction and detonate them. Maybe through a chain reaction caused by something within the connective membrane itself? It was hard to speculate without testing. Either way, it meant that this method wouldn't work; he'd have to think of something else.
Alpha flew the drone higher and surveyed the results of his brief experiment. As one might guess, the explosion had set the ants into a frenzy. Workers and soldiers rushed about in a seemingly chaotic mess, attempting to locate the new enemy.
To Alpha's surprise, the carrier ant, while stunned, seemed otherwise unaffected despite the explosion having detonated most of the other red-bellied ants. Its carapace was slightly cracked and singed, but those cracks rapidly healed, and there didn't seem to be any major damage.
That made some sense. It wouldn't be good if you could be taken out by your own 'weapon.' Though Alpha suspected purposefully detonating the red-bellied honeypots wasn't such a simple thing to do for most. Not only were the red-bellies protected by the forest of spikes on the carrier ant, but the protective layer of the red-belly's abdomen was pretty durable.
It would take more than just a glancing blow from a ranged attack to trigger an explosion. As for getting up and personal, even if they got past the hulking carrier ant itself, Alpha had already experienced what fate awaited someone who tried to detonate one of the explosive ants up close.
Hmmmm… he really should come up with a better name than just 'red-belly honeypot ant.' That was a bit of a mouthful.
"Bomber ant?… Na, to generic." Alpha considered.
"Boomer?" Alpha suggested to Alpha.
"While that would be funny, no. They are noble beasts! They demand a noble name!" came the response.
"Claymore roomba!" Alpha shot that one down instantly. It didn't even make sense! It's like the name was suggested just to meet some arbitrary word count!
Then it came to him.
Like the shadow of some distant, long-forgotten dream.
A resonance with something that spoke to his very soul! (Alpha was still coming to terms with having a soul, so maybe that was just a faulty circuit.)
The perfect name.
"I dub thee… the Nitropot!"
Proud of his awesome naming sense, Alpha flew into the air, landed on top of a surviving nitropot, and patted its head.
"You and I are going to be best friends; I can already tell!" Alpha said to the still ant as it clung to the back of the carrier.
Said nitropot ant, despite being totally unaware of the [Wasp] sitting on its head and having the part of its brain regulating self-preservation atrophied, felt a sudden chill run down its exoskeleton.
Sometime later, the ants calmed down. Maybe they figured they had scared off whatever had attacked the nitropot, or maybe they just didn't want to waste any more time on an enemy that refused to show itself. Either way, most of the workers got back to cutting the bear-sloths into more easily manageable pieces. Just because the giant creatures were dead (and, in one case, crispy) didn't make getting at the tasty bits any easier.
The ants were resourceful, though, and it helped that each of the five large creatures had two handy entranceways past the thick fur.
"… I have never been so thankful not to have eyes in my entire life…"
The sight of dozens of giant ants crawling into and out of the creature's empty eye-sockets was something that would live rent-free in Alpha's memory for a long time…
//Video-Log Deleted//
Or not.
And if any of the brass complain about missing footage later on, he could just blame it on combat damage.
The crispy bear-sloth seemed like it would be a harder nut to crack for the ants. Literally; the intense fire hadn't so much burned away all the creature's fur, as it had fused them into hard, black plates of char. Not only that, but it still radiated enough heat that the [Wasps] cameras were picking up distortions in the air. A small group of ants surrounded it, attempting to press in every so often, but it was soon abandoned in favor of the more… raw pickings.
Maybe they would come to collect it later. Or maybe scavengers would come and feast once the ants had gone. The circle of life and all that jazz.
A train of ants soon formed, with some groups dismantling the bear-sloths, others transporting the meat, and even some smaller bones, to the colony, and still others patrolling the area.
Alpha wasn't totally sure if that last group was because of him or just something they naturally did.
The carrier ants also remained on scene, though they did little more than stand there, looking menacing. Then again, given what he'd seen them capable of, there was a good chance that was the point.
The ants were efficient in their work, and in only a few scant hours, four of the gargantuan corpses were reduced to literal skin and bones. The fifth one, the golden one that tried to escape, had only just cooled down enough for the ants to start working on and had barely been touched.
Regardless, as if on some unseen queue, the carrier ant Alpha was riding turned and started making its way back toward the colony. This, in turn, triggered many of the soldiers and workers to do the same. Soon, most of the ants had grabbed one last morsel and began returning to the colony, only a few stragglers staying behind to grab what they could.
The march back was uneventful and at a much more sedate pace than the mad rush that had seen them there in the first place. Alpha imagined that if some grand giant were to look down from above, it would very much look like just a normal procession of ants returning home after felling a couple of particularly large mice.
As they neared the tunnel entrance, the carrier ant did something unexpected.
While the other ants streamed past them, the carrier ant stopped.
"Strange…" Alpha muttered.
His confusion was cleared up the next moment when the surviving nitropots, who had until this moment remained almost comatose, stirred. The red-bellied ants rose from their spots, climbed to the tip of a nearby spike on the back of the carrier ant, and pointed their abdomens outward.
Then… expelled their payloads.
"Ewwwwww…."
Alpha watched in disgusted fascination as a dozen arches of red liquid poured out into the open air. Strange enough, the liquid didn't immediately explode. Instead, it caught fire as it contacted the open air. The streams of fire broke apart into glowing mist before reaching the ground, turning into glittering embers that floated away on the slight breeze.
Soon, more carrier ants joined him, their nitropots also emptying their payloads. A river of glittering fire traveled through the air briefly before disappearing into nothingness. It would be an oddly beautiful sight… if you didn't know what caused it…
For a moment, Alpha contemplated if he should take this chance to collect a sample before the liquid could ignite… then quickly dismissed that idea. He might have really wanted a sample, but he wasn't that desperate.
Besides, if the nitropots were emptying themselves before returning to the colony, that suggested it wasn't difficult for them to produce more. At the very least, it said they weren't willing to store large quantities of the substance inside the colony proper. If he could find out where or how they produced it, then that would make for a much… cleaner sample.
After a few moments, the nitropots were empty, and the carrier ants started making their way toward the colony entrance.
As they entered, however, Alpha detected movement from the forest in the distance. He turned his attention in that direction and saw roughly two dozen humanoid figures emerge from the treeline. The figures made a beeline toward the charred corpse of the bear sloth, with a few others breaking off to poke at the husks the ants had left behind.
If the drone's rangefinder was still accurate, they were small, with even the tallest being just under 5'5''. They were like ants (Ha!) compared to the massive bear sloths. They were dressed in primitive clothing, even more so than the plainsmen Alpha had left behind. Mostly raw-cut furs and rough-looking fabrics, though the actual make was hard to tell from this distance.
Unlike the plainsmen, who seemed to be mostly made up of humans, these figures were most definitely not.
With rough green-brown, almost bark-like skin, pointy ears, and longer than normal, curved noses, most humans Alpha knew of would have found their appearance slightly offputting. Not that the humanoid, obviously sapient figures were overly hideous, mind you. Rather because, these features combined to create a distinct image that would cause many to ponder the same thing Alpha himself was at that very moment.
Pitdigger couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear. It worked! It had actually worked!
When he'd first brought up his idea to use the Demon Ants to deal with the encroaching Ironfurs, most of the other hunters had laughed him out of the hunting circle. That was something he was used to, at least.
Most of the senior hunters considered his methods dishonorable at best and totally insane at worst. To be fair, most of the time, that was true. While most hunters gained their scars during dangerous hunts or fierce battles against other tribes, the majority of Pitdigger's came from failed experiments or traps.
Even his largest scar, a round one in the middle of his bare chest, which should have been a badge of honor, resulted from him falling into one of his spiked pit traps. Sure, the event had "earned" him his name after capturing a large Mawbeast, but it wasn't one he was happy with.
But this! This had the opportunity to change everything! Maybe even earn him a new name!
The Ironfurs had been causing trouble on the outskirts of their tribe for months now. Their voracious appetites and territorial nature had driven most game out of the area, leaving the tribe in dire straits. The younger hunters wanted to do something about the creatures, but they were powerful, and even the four common Ironfurs would be enough to wipe out all of their hunters, let alone the greater beast that led them.
The elders, on the other hand, were talking about moving… again.
They had just been forced out of their home cavern! Now they were thinking of running once more?! 'That is what it means to live as a goblin,' they would say. Settling where you could and running away when something bigger and stronger moved in.
Pitdigger didn't want to run again. This new cavern was far better than the one they had been pushed from! It was a land of bounty and promise! Sure, it was almost more dangerous, but danger came with its own rewards.
If the elders wouldn't do anything, then he'd have to try something himself.
———————————————————————— B2 - Lesson 6: "Home is where the Core is."
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The senior hunters had been no help, though. They were too stuck in their old ways. Held back by old ideas. So, he turned to the newer generation. While the older hunters often looked at him and shook their heads, Pitdigger had gained a small reputation among the younger hunters as someone skilled at planning hunts and organizing.
Sure, some still called him a coward who relied more on traps than his own power, but most would still listen when he pointed out a flaw in a plan or made a suggestion to improve a hunt. Small things. Little honors. Nothing like the 'truly skilled hunters,' but enough for him to gather a small hunting party together and explain his idea.
Half left before he'd even finished speaking.
Those that remained looked skeptical at best, or even desperate, with sunken cheeks and drooping ears. These hard times had been harder on some than others…
Most didn't seem to think his plan would work, but like him, they were tired of running away.
Pitdigger's plan was simple. If they couldn't get rid of the Ironfurs, they would get someone else to do it for them. That's where the Demon Ants came into play.
Demon Ants were typically docile if you didn't get too close. They were perfectly content to forage for mana and spirit-filled resources as they patrolled the forest. They typically wouldn't attack other living creatures, at least not when alone. Even so, most other creatures in the forest actively avoided them, even the smaller ones.
Why? Because Demon Ants had a unique ability to track the blood of their kind over vast distances. If a forging Demon Ant was killed, the area would soon swarm with them. The ant slayer would be relentlessly pursued by an ever-growing army until either the ants overwhelmed them or they removed their scent.
Pitdigger would take advantage of this. By covering themselves in thick fur so that no part of their skin was exposed, the young hunters slew several scout ants, timing their actions with counted breath.
From that moment, it was a race against time.
The corpses were scattered across the forest between the Demon Ant's clearing and the Ironfur's den. Once that was done, the furs were discarded along the same path, and the participating hunters vigorously washed themselves with pre-prepared supplies.
The heavy-scented oils and exotic soaps traded from the surface dwellers had cost nearly everything Pitdigger owned, but it had been worth it!
BECAUSE IT HAD WORKED!!
The Ironfurs had taken the bait wonderfully, the dumb beasts! And the Demon Ants, riled up by the blood of their kin, made a beeline right for the Ironfurs.
The hunters, smelling of flowers and heavy spice, had followed the battle from a distance, all the way up to the Demon Ant's clearing. From there, they'd watched the entire confrontation as it happened, cheering every time the ants brought down one of the furry tyrants.
Once the battle was done, it was just a matter of waiting for the ants to finish collecting their spoils and swooping in for the leftovers. Honestly, Pitdigger had only been expecting the hides and bones. Both of which could be traded to the surface dwellers for vast riches more than making up for what he'd spent on the oils and soaps, even split between so many hunters.
That the alpha itself had been killed by the ant's hellfires and left to burn was an unexpected blessing. The meat alone would sustain everyone in the tribe for months, while the spirit energy and mana it contained would strengthen their hunters. It was a shame the fur had been ruined, though. Pitdigger had daydreamed of fashioning a cloak from the glistening golden fur. He would have had to beat the women off him with a stick! Ha!
He would have to settle for a common ironfur cloak. Not that such a thing didn't come with its own honor.
Pitdigger laughed with joy as he watched the young hunters start work on carving up the charred corpse of the Ironfur alpha. Several runners had been sent back to the tribe to call for more hands. They would need them if they had any hope of harvesting the spoils before the scavengers started showing up.
They would get significantly less meat from the other four corpses; the ants were nothing if not thorough. But that would be fine. With what they'd accomplished here today, the tribe would be prosperous for a long time to come.
Still grinning ear to ear, Pitdigger looked up toward the barely visible opening in the cavern wall far above them and wondered what kind of bright future awaited him.
"Haha… Hahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Alpha raised the arms of the mini-TAWP into the air and laughed, dark lightning lighting up the flat, white plane of his core world. In front of him rotated the holographic representation of the controls for the completed nanite nest.
The trip back through the ant colony had been uneventful. His attempt at finding the source of the red liquid had been a bust. Once they'd re-entered the tunnels, the nitropots had simply blended in with the workers seamlessly. It was possible the nitropots themselves weren't even a separate class and simply those ants who were available at the time of deployment. Or maybe the nitropots took up other roles when they weren't needed.
Either way, it had been a dead end for now.
So instead, he had set the [Wasp] on standby, instructing the onboard AI to stay with the carrier ant and record its activities. If the nitropots themselves couldn't offer any clues to the red liquid, then maybe the carriers would.
That done, he'd flipped his consciousness back to his core and was rewarded with a long overdue piece of good news. The nanite nest was finished!
This was good. Very good.
Now that the first nanite nest was complete, he could start really ramping things up. The first order of business was producing a few more [Wasps]. All the drones he currently could connect to were being used to monitor various parts of the ant colony.
A few minutes later, the first of the new batch of [Wasps] was born. Alpha quickly shifted his perspective to the new drone. His core world faded, and he saw through the eyes of his drone once more. The nanite nest sat in a small cavity carved out of the floor under one of the largest ore piles collected by the ants.
The nest itself appeared little more than a floating orb of liquid black ooze, slowly rotating in place. It constantly shifted and twisted, as if never quite sure what it wanted to be at any given moment. Thin streams of black liquid poured from dozens of small holes in the ceiling, which led to the piles of ore above. These streams twisted in the air and connected to the floating orb, adding themselves to the nest.
If one were to observe over a period, they would see the nest slowly growing in size. It would continue to do so, carving out the cavity as the nest grew. Eventually, it would reach nearly ten times its current size, a little over half the size of Alpha's own core. At that point, it would reach equilibrium and only produce more nanite mass when mass was 'assigned' to a function such as drones, tools, or equipment.
Theoretically, nanite mass could produce anything they had the appropriate matter for. In the Federation, however, the best practice was to use nanite mass to bootstrap production methods and build proper factories. Dedicated factories and equipment would always result in higher quality, more reliable products than if they were built directly from nanite mass.
For instance, a [Wasp] produced by a proper drone factory would have higher operating specs and more functionality than the ones pushing themselves out of the nanite nest now.
Alpha watched as the nest writhed, its black 'waters' sloshing like a sudden storm had been kicked up. Then, a small black bud slowly pushed its way out of the nest's surface. Then another, and another. One by one, half a dozen buds formed on the surface of the nest, then pinched themselves off and fell to the floor of the cavity. The fallen buds wiggled for a moment before lines formed along their surface. A few seconds later, they had gone from looking like small blobs of goo to detailed carvings of Insect pupa.
Alpha gave the command, and the 'pupa' cracked open, and half a dozen newborn [Wasps] crawled out. Already with their pre-programmed orders, each of the drones took flight and flew through one of the small openings in the nest cavity.
These drones might not be as good as the ones he'd started out with, but they could serve their own purposes. He could always use more eyes and ears around the colony. Alpha set the nest to produce a new [Wasp] every few hours. Mass-wise, they weren't very expensive, and the more he had, the better.
[Wasps] weren't as good at collection as harvesters or at intel gathering as scouts, but for their cost-to-versatility, they were the best he had at the moment. Soon, that would change.
With that done, the next order of business was to produce a few [Clouds].
Again, the nest writhed, but this time, a thin black mist poured down, condensing into a thick fog that covered the cavity floor. After a moment, the fog swirled in on itself and condensed into four fist-sized black orbs.
[Clouds] were the most basic of harvester-type drones, being little more than a swarm of specially designed nanites that could break down inorganic materials into their component molecules. In practice, they could harvest small ore veins and scrap to be reprocessed into other materials. Small-scale colonies mostly used them to supplement other mining operations and squeeze out every last bit of useable material from what they dug out.
They weren't as effective as other harvester types, but they were the best for what Alpha had planned.
And what was Alpha planning?
Alpha pulled up a design schematic he'd been working on. Sonar scans of the ant colony showed a complex maze of twisting tunnels and enormous caverns that stretched for a dozen kilometers in all directions. While it didn't reach the same complexity as you might expect from their smaller cousins, there were still dozens of chambers Alpha had never seen and hundreds of tunnels. If what Alpha had seen so far held true for the rest of the colony, the total ant population should be in the tens of thousands at the very least.
That might have seemed low when you considered some ant colonies on other worlds could grow to the tens of millions. Yet the sheer size of these ants and their destructive potential spoke of how terrifying such a number truly was. And true to the nature of ants, it would only grow larger with time. If the Federation had found such a colony near one of its outposts, it would have ordered an extermination mission without hesitation.
Alpha, on the other hand, would be a good roommate and do his part to expand the colony.
The wall that his core was embedded in was the edge of a large "blank" area in the colony. Likely, the ants left this space untouched to better isolate their queen's chamber from potential burrowing intruders.
But for Alpha, it was the blank canvas on which he would build the beating heart of his operations on this planet.
Alpha transferred the data to the drones, and the four orb-shaped [Cloud] drones burst like soap bubbles into clouds of dark mist. The dark mist traveled up and out the same holes the [Wasps] had exited a moment earlier, with Alpha following close behind.
The [Clouds] moved along the royal chambers, hugging the floor and spreading thin to avoid detection, and made a beeline for Alpha's core. Once there, the drones passed through the nanite membrane of Alpha's core and exited out the other side into a thin gap he had carved earlier to prepare for this.
From there, the drones would slowly expand the area, digging out Alpha's own personal chamber and the start of something he should have begun the moment he landed.
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B2 - Lesson 7: "When in Rome."
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One Week Later
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Was it big enough? It felt big enough… but you never knew with these kinds of things… What if he brought someone over, and they laughed at it?! How was Alpha supposed to make a good first impression then?!
Alpha flew the [Wasp] drone through the first completed chamber of his new base. Currently, it was little more than a hollowed-out room with a few nooks where equipment would eventually go. In the center of the room, a new nanite nest silently floated in the air. It had taken too long for the [Clouds] to carve out the area, transport the materials to the first nest, and then return. So, as soon as there was enough space, Alpha set up a second nest for this area.
The first nest would focus on drones and processing the materials from the ant's stash, while this new nest was being used to build the base's infrastructure and compact materials for later use. The first components for the first real printer stations were going down as he watched. This was a tremendous step toward really establishing himself.
Federation molecular printers might have used the same principle as nanite nests, but the products they could produce were of far higher quality and quantity. A group of dedicated printers meant better sensors, better equipment, and less time doing things that shouldn't need his input. Once they were set up, monitoring AIs could order everything from new drones to better equipment and even replacement parts. They could even expand the floor plan based on Alpha's design!
Once that was done, he could start to work on the various projects he'd set aside for so long.
Analyzing the various samples he'd taken.
Studying the arrayed drone in-depth,
Maybe even understanding the weird energy that permeated this world.
"Good thing I have all the time in the world to get things done. It feels so much better to not be on a time crunch," Alpha said as he finalized the design for the next chamber.
"Though, if the base keeps expanding at the rate I need it to, I'm going to have to… borrow space from the ants after too long."
Thankfully for Alpha, he had just the plan for that.
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"Hello, fellow ant! My name is Alphantonso! Nice to meet you!" the tiny white, newly pupated worker ant said to the larger caretaker ant.
The larger ant stared at the soft-carapaced 'ant' and tilted its head. It leaned down and tapped the small ant with its antennae several times.
{Yeeees! It's working!} thought Alphantonso… up until the point the larger caretaker ant opened its mandibles and bit poor Alphantonso in two.
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"Noooooo!" Alpha cried as the connection to the ant-shaped drone he'd affectionally named 'Alphantonso' (because it was his drone and no one was here to stop him) was cut.
Alpha sighed and crossed that design off the metaphorical whiteboard.
"At least this model had lasted longer than the previous two. Who would have ever thought trying to infiltrate an ant colony would be this hard? How did some species make myrmecomorphy look easy?!" Alpha complained to the half a dozen dissected ant bodies lying around his new 'medical' wing.
Tons of creatures used ant mimicry for various purposes, from protection to hunting. Some even tricked ant colonies into raising their young or to scare away competitors. Alpha had spent the last five days attempting something similar. But these ants seemed smarter than their smaller cousins. More than just copying their physical shape was needed. Or at least for what Alpha had planned.
It worked fine for luring ants in, but if Alpha wanted to be more than just a hidden hunter, he needed to be able to do more. He needed to be able to communicate in so much as ants could communicate. These creatures weren't sapient, but they could communicate and pass on information to an astounding degree, even by ant standards.
Several tests had shown they could pass along exact directions, details about enemies or targets, and even if a particular piece of food was contaminated with something. It wasn't quite a language as far as Alpha could tell, but it was possibly the closest thing to it possible without being a sapient species. The only creatures recorded to have such a complex internal communication system had been lifeforms like higher-order mammals and mammal equivalents.
This could vary from planet to planet, of course, but this was the first time it had been recorded in insects.
On the first attempt, Alpha had modified the outer shell of a scout drone to mimic the shape of the worker ant he'd captured. It had lasted only seconds upon exiting into the royal chambers.
"You will be remembered, Sir Alphantonso, the First of his Name." Alpha solemnly swore.
Alphantonso II had lasted only slightly longer after uploading recordings of the ant's general behaviors and mannerisms into the drone's AI. It wasn't instantly swarmed like the first drone had been, but the ants could still tell something was off about the drone. Maybe they thought it was a foreign ant?
Whatever the reason, Alpha decided to try something different for Alphantonso III. Rather than try to slip in with the crowd, Alpha figured they would be more accepting if he could convince them to 'adopt' the drone instead. To that end, he'd sneakily replaced one of the pupating ants with his drone, by boring a small hole into a pupa and breaking it down little by little.
The ants were none the wiser, taking care of the changeling as if it were their own. The next day, Alphantonso III 'hatched' and joined the gathering of young ants as they waited for their carapaces to harden. Everything had gone well for the first few hours. The young ants weren't very active, mostly focusing on eating their first meals as adults.
Then the caretakers had arrived. They'd passed along 'assignments' one by one, and each new ant began their first day of work. The caretaker only paused at Alphantonso III, seeming unsure of something, and well… the rest was history.
Alpha fumed. He was certain this one would work! What could be the problem? There were only a few things Alpha could really think of if he was honest. The most obvious being pheromone signaling, but that would take time to crack… if he did this the boring way.
Alpha refused to do it the boring way!
The [Wasp] drone launched from its perch and flew out of the medical room into a side chamber. Alpha still had yet to set up cameras or other monitoring devices, and besides, there was something satisfying about traveling physically through your own base.
This particular chamber Alpha had set up for a future project, but had been modified to hold his contingency plan in case Alphantonso III failed. If this worked, he'd had to expand the area to hold dozens more, but for now, a single glass cylinder took up the center of the room. Inside the glass, floating in a nutrient bath, was a single, small ant embryo extracted from a freshly collected egg.
As Alpha watched, nanites worked to build the appropriate augmentations and connections that would grow alongside it. Once that was done, the incubation chamber would be wrapped in a translight bubble to accelerate the embryo's growth.
In just a few short days, Project Antborg would be ready for testing.
————————————————————————————————
"Are you sure this is the place?" asked the large man in ill-kept leather armor.
The small, squirrelly man in front of him raised his head and nodded. "It's gotta be, Bosco. That bastard Robert said Sundown Mountain, and this is the only place that doesn't match the surrounding destruction; like someone came by and covered it up after the fact."
The large man grinned from ear to ear. He knew it was a good idea to have someone watching the shiny bastard. The Adventurer's Guild upper brass had a hard-on for Robert and always gave the man the best missions, leaving others to pick up the scraps.
Once they'd gotten word that Robert was holding his little meeting, it took barely any effort to tail those present and… extract the information from one of them. Who knew it would have been this big?
Once he understood exactly what they were dealing with, Bosco had taken the information straight to Icefinger. As expected, the Boss had been so impressed, Bosco had gotten a promotion then and there and told to scout the place out before Robert ever got there.
Hell, if this went well, he might even make Capo!
"Let's go, everyone! I want this tunnel cleared within the hour! Then it's time for some explorin'!" Bosco said, clapping his hands.
Yet, like everything in Bosco's life, someone had to come along and rub dirt on it.
Most of the three dozen gathered men and women moved forward to start clearing out the blockage. Most, not all.
"Hey, Bosco… are you sure about this?" an unfamiliar voice said.
Bosco frowned and slowly turned around, staring down at the speaker from his massive 7'1" frame.
The speaker's eyes widened slightly, and he took a step back. It was one of the New Bloods who'd smooth-talked their way into the mission. Thomas was his name, if Bosco remembered correctly.
"And why's that, boy?" Bosco asked as he folded his arms.
Thomas took another step back, looking around for anyone who would back him up. Unfortunately for the young man, everyone present pretended they were too busy working to notice the confrontation.
Thomas clinched his teeth, but decided he should still speak his mind. "I-I mean, i-if the Guild thought Robert was the best man for t-this, and he thought he needed a big team, s-shouldn't we at leas—Oomph!"
Thomas' words were cut off as a massive fist slammed into his gut. The young man was lifted off his feet and thrown into the air for several meters. He hit the rocky floor and rolled even further before coming to a stop. The young man tried to push himself up on shaking arms, but a massive, booted foot came down on his head and pushed him back to the ground.
Bosco leaned down and sneered at the young man.
"Oy! Dumbass! Where's your pride as one of Icefinger's men? Ah? You think we can't do what the pretty boy could? Pathetic." Bosco turned to the crowd behind him and called out. "Ain't that right, lads?"
A few muttered cheers of confirmation, but most were simply staring, wide-eyed.
"I said, 'Ain't that right, lads'?!" Bosco yelled with a growl.
The second cheer was louder, and Bosco grinned. He turned back to Thomas and spat on his bleeding face as he continued. "Let me give you a bit of advice, New Blood. If you're going to survive in this profession, learn to keep your mouth shut. I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to think about that on your climb back up."
With that, Bosco hooked the young man with his foot and kicked him off the nearby ledge. Bosco slowly walked toward the edge and smiled as he watched Thomas tumble down the mountainside.
Someone of the boy's cultivation? He'd live. Barely.
Bosco didn't need the Boss breathing down his neck about 'wasting resources'… again. Although, it was doubtful he'd make it back before they were done stripping the place of anything of value. Or if he did, he wouldn't be in any condition to help. That was fine with Bosco. One less share to split.
When Thomas finally reached a standstill at the bottom of the mountain, Bosco straightened and turned around. "What are you looking at?! GET BACK TO WORK!" he yelled at the gawking crew. The crowd jumped and started working again, faster this time.
Bosco grinned from ear to ear as he watched the rest work. The grin grew wider as he daydreamed of the treasures they were about to uncover.
Three tries to guess who is gonna get a Nitropot™️ to the face...
Good chapter as always, great way to introduce the "overconfident leader that inevitably dies".
Also, the one person with any common sense gets to live, and tell others about the screams he heard.
You know, I'd expect Alpha to be able to multi-task a bit better than he's currently doing. Maybe it's the soul damage, but he still seems to be sort of one track minding things.
B2 - Lesson 8: "Close your back door, or rats will find their way in"
———————————————————————— B2 - Lesson 8: "Close your back door, or rats will find their way in"
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The large glass cylinder slowly drained of liquid as Alpha ran some final internal tests.
Alphantonso IV was finally ready for testing!
Project Antborg had gone smoothly, for the most part. Simple borging insects was a relatively common practice in the Federation. They were mostly used to control uninvited guests on spaceships. After all, losing your hydroponics to alien insects could be a death sentence in the vast expanse of space. It was mind-boggling how many pests a ship could pick up from just a brief stop on a less-developed planet. The practice was so common that the main character of one of the Federation's most popular and long-running anime would knit little uniforms for the cyborg insects in her crew.
Nanites couldn't directly interact with organic tissue. This was hard-coded into their design, mostly due to fear of another nano-plague. What they could do, however, was build implants that could be used as an intermediate. The children's HUDs were examples of this. They could control the nanites that made up their [Wasp] drones without any other equipment.
Augmented Soldiers were another example. While they weren't full cyborgs like the insects, many Federation soldiers could earn credits to upgrade themselves with things like synthetic muscles, skin resistant to small arms fire, and even neural implants that greatly boosted their cognitive power and reaction times. The most powerful Augmented Soldiers were on par with small mecha, and some, like General Haldorðr, could even fight Alpha's TAWP bare-handed. Though soldiers capable of that kind of feat could be counted on a human hand.
That said, implants used to monitor and control insects onboard ships weren't meant for creatures the size of the mega ants. Alpha had to go through several iterations just to get them to set properly. After that, it was just a matter of sticking the ant into a translight bubble and waiting for it to mature.
Alpha had rushed over the moment the monitoring AI had reported that Alphantonso IV's pupa was cracking. The incubation chamber finally drained, and the large ant pupa floated to the bottom. It lay still for a moment before shaking slightly. A large crack formed along the back of the pupa, and slowly, a dog-sized, white ant pushed itself out of the shell.
The newly born Alphantonso IV flicked their antennae and looked around before moving to a prepared pile of stolen mushrooms.
"It worked!" Alpha cheered as he watched the antborg take its first meal.
Well, so far. It didn't fall over dead as soon as it emerged… this time. Progress! Alpha would still have to see how well it did in the colony. He pulled up a holographic display of Alphantonso IV.
Most of the ant was still 'ant,' and on the surface, one would be hard-pressed to spot any real difference. Most of the actual changes were inside. Other than various sensors and monitoring equipment, he'd reinforced the carapace some and added synthetic musculature to boost its overall strength.
Its eyes had also been totally replaced with high-grade optical sensors disguised to look like compound eyes. That had taken some work, but the ant's natural eyesight was just too poor to act as a proper scout in the way he needed it to.
Alphantonso IV was just a test run. There wasn't much need to go all out until the concept had been proven to work.
That said, while the antborg wouldn't win against one of the much larger soldiers, it could easily deal with even several of the common workers if the need came.
The biggest change was to its nervous system. The main brain and stem were mostly untouched, except for monitoring devices designed to record brain activity. Most of the sub-brains dedicated to movement had been totally replaced with specialized implants. Most of the time, they would act just like the ordinary sub-brain but would also allow Alpha or an assigned AI to take control of the ant's movements.
This was only possible thanks to how simple these sub-brains were, but in effect, Alpha could use the antborg like he would any other drone and the ant itself would be none the wiser. In theory, when the ant was in 'standby' mode, it would behave just like any other ant in the colony, allowing it to blend in perfectly with no input from Alpha or the monitoring AI.
The only sub-brain left relatively intact was the one Alpha suspected was dedicated to pheromone signaling. That they had an entire sub-brain dedicated to pheromone signaling only further strengthened Alpha's theory that the ant's "pheromone language" was far more complex than their smaller cousins.
This sub-brain, Alpha had surrounded in monitoring equipment to track how it worked and the various 'signals' the ants used. With any work, Alpha could start laying down his own signals, either to keep ants away from areas he didn't want them in, or 'order' the workers to gather certain things. Gaining control of how the ants communicated would be an important part of taking control of the colony.
A few hours later, Alphantonso IV's carapace was hard enough to venture out into the colony proper. Alpha had struggled to figure out how to get the antborg inside without being noticed. He'd played with slipping them in with a patrolling group but quickly dismissed that. It might work for now, but once Alpha had dozens, or hundreds, of antborgs, that would soon become a logistical nightmare.
Eventually, He'd settled on a far simpler method. Parallel to several of the more important thoroughfares, the large main shaft included, Alpha dug his own tunnels, just large enough for 1-2 antborgs to pass through. These tunnels would exit out into the colony, appearing like just another side tunnel. Once the antborgs had passed through, though, the entrance would seal back up, preventing other ants from getting inside. If they did somehow slip in, several barriers would block the way further in.
Ready to get the show on the road, Alpha directed Alphantonso IV toward the hatch that would lead into the colony. It was time to see if Alpha's experiments had paid off.
Bosco forgoed the rope hanging from the excavated entrance and jumped the full 10 meters to the bottom of the tunnel. A few men had already climbed down and started establishing a perimeter. You could never be sure what kind of things called these tunnels home. But then, that's what you had underlings for.
The large man hadn't stopped grinning since they'd uncovered the tunnel. Some people became adventurers for the fame and prestige. Some for the power and the ability to grow without the aid of a sect or clan. Bosco? Bosco started for a much simpler reason.
Wealth.
The Crimson Mountains were bursting with all sorts of treasures… if you could find them. Yet, even in the Adventurer's Guild, nepotism abounded. Hell, that was true for Halirosa as a whole. Many of the choicest hunting grounds had already been claimed by the 'old families' and other clans who had come to plunder the mountains. Sure, on paper, they still had to obey the laws of fair exploration. In practice? Any adventurer without the right connections would soon find themselves having to travel for weeks through dangerous lands before they could find anything worth the effort.
Being an adventurer in Halirosa was just as much about who you knew as what you could do.
That was the primary reason Bosco had thrown his lot in with Icefinger. As the man at the very top of Halirosa's underworld, Icefinger had his finger (ha!) in every pot in the city.
Bosco walked toward a nearby squirrelly man, who was staring up at the ceiling, jotting down notes. "Seeker," as he was called (no one knew his real name), was on loan from the Boss. As one of Icefinger's direct subordinates, those elites often nicknamed 'Dogs', Seeker didn't fall into the traditional hierarchy of their 'organization'.
Icefinger's Dogs were all a strange bunch. Eccentric to the extreme, but every single one was an expert in what they did and a powerful combatant in their own right. Seeker had the look of a grimy merchant at first glance, someone who could have been knocked over by a stiff breeze. But for a man who specialized in locating valuables, the rumors surrounding the man-made even Bosco step lightly around him. The old bloods like to joke that when you were as good at finding things as Seeker was, you were just as adept at making sure they could never be found.
Bosco knew the Boss hadn't lent him Seeker just to help find the best stuff. No, Seeker was Icefinger's eyes and ears on this mission. If they found something truly valuable, the Boss would know. Seeker was a powerful tool, but he was also the leash around Bosco's neck.
Seeker turned toward Bosco and grinned a toothy smile, then spoke in a raspy voice. "I must say, Bosco. You've really outdone yourself with this one. This place has a lot of potential. Look,"
He pointed to the ceiling where patches of lumoss grew, filling the tunnel with a dim light.
Seeker turned back to his notepad and continued. "As I'm sure you're aware, lumoss is a plant that can be found in many places underground. It's very useful for adventurers, and Halirosa has perfected its growth."
Bosco nodded. Lumoss lanterns were a staple of any adventuring kit. Not only was the luminous moss easy to take care of, needing only a bit of dirt, water, and spirit energy, but it could live for years in a lantern and was resistant to things that would snuff out mundane flames. Pieces could even be pinched off to mark locations, and it would regrow after a bit of time.
Seeker nodded along before asking. "How do you think it grows in the wild, though?"
Bosco opened his mouth, but paused. He… wasn't actually sure. Not that it mattered. It was moss. Not something valuable enough to pay attention to past its utility as a light source. If he'd had been asked before, he would have said the patches of lumoss you could often see in the wild were left there by adventurers who'd come before. But no… that couldn't be it. This was supposed to be an untouched system.
Seeker smirked at the look of confusion on the larger man's face. "Lumoss grows by spreading spores. These spores latch onto passing creatures. Beast, humans, insects, they will shed these spores as they move to new locations, and new patches of lumoss will grow from there, repeating the cycle," the squirrelly man said.
Bosco frowned and folded his arms as he asked, "Ok, so what? What does that tell us?"
Seeker sighed and answered, "It means this isn't just an undiscovered tunnel leading to a small cave or the like. It means that something frequents these tunnels, traveling back and forth regularly. So let me ask you. Why would something travel through the same tunnel on a regular basis?"
Basco furrowed his brow, and then it clicked, and he voiced his thought. "It means… either this is the lair of something…or…"
Seeker nodded and motioned for him to continue.
Bosco's eyes widened as he finished, "Or… there's something at the end worth returning to!"
Seeker grinned from ear to ear and nodded, pointing his expensive mana pen toward the large man. "Correct! And given that we don't see signs of further excavation or the remains of any other creatures, I think we can rule out it being a lair for now. Not that it isn't possible. Some creatures can dig extensive tunnels that stretch for miles. But typically, such things have clear indicators. This place seems more naturally formed."
Bosco's grin returned. He looked down both ends of the tunnel and muttered to himself. "Now, the question is, which way do we go?"
Just as a reminded, the Submission for the Art contest are still ongoing! Three weeks to go!
If you're currently working on a submission, or plan to make one, send me a message so I can make a tally and adjust accordingly!
The Patreon is also 3 weeks ahead! If you can't want till Monday for the next chapter, go take a look! Any support goes a long way to making sure I can bring you more chapters!
Alpha floated as a melted pile of data bits in the middle of his empty core world.
"I'm boooooored!… Again!"
Alpha was bored.
"I said that already!" Alpha complained to the voice in his head.
The antborgs were baking, the nests were built, the base was under construction, and the samples were being studied. And Alpha had nothing else to do.
For the first time since planetfall, Alpha was taskless. Everything that could be automated had been, and those that couldn't would take time before they needed his input.
So what was an AI to do?
Alpha supposed he could wander the colony, maybe hope he stumbled on something interesting. But he already had [Wasps] scouting out most of the known tunnels. The map of the colony was growing by the minute; one more scout wouldn't matter much.
He could check on Alphantonso, but unless Alpha actually needed to use the antborg for something, he'd just be hitchhiking along their daily life. And an ant's 'daily life' was as boring as watching paint dry.
"Hmmmm, maybe it's time to check out the forest…" Alpha muttered to himself. He'd been putting it off, as he didn't want to get distracted from the important task of establishing his base. Honestly, though, with how well things were going, maybe that was the best thing. Nothing got the creative sparks flowing like a little adventure, right?
It would be a good time. Fun. Relaxing, without any real goal other than exploring.
Ya, this was a great idea!
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Bosco and his team moved silently down the tunnel, each pair of eyes on alert as they scanned the tunnel walls for hidden openings or enemies. Despite being a band of thugs and ne'er-do-wells, they were a band of thugs and ne'er-do-wells from Halirosa, a place where even the friendly neighborhood baker had some adventuring experience. After all, everyone grew up one day hoping to be an adventurer.
Those who didn't learn the tricks of the trade quickly, often didn't survive long enough to 'retire' to a nice bakery or the local gang. That said, only some were professionals.
Three men walked at the end of the formation, facing backward as they watched the group's rear. The man holding the torch yawned, turned to his neighbor, and whispered, "So, what do you think we'll find down here? I bet it'll be a hidden cache. Maybe some old cultivator inheritance! Can you imagine?"
The rough man he addressed didn't bother to look his way. Instead, his sharp eyes stayed trained on the darkness in front of them as they walked backward, keeping pace with the group a dozen meters ahead of them. The thug grunted and scoffed at the other man. "Right, and there's a dragon hoard right around the corner, too. Stop daydreaming, Bill. We'd be lucky if we found a decent-sized spirit stone vein. Most of these tunnels turn out to be nothing more than dead ends. Emphasis on the 'dead'."
Bill frowned and waved his torch. "But Hugo! Didn't you hear what Seeker said to the boss? These tunnels are well-traveled! There's gotta be something amazing at the end!"
Hugo sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Bill… what use would monsters or beasts have for a cultivator inheritance?"
Bill blushed and looked away, shrugging his shoulders. "Dunno, maybe they ar—"
"Will both of you shut up!" the third man whispered harshly. His eyes flicked back and forth, stopping on every shadow, his sword hilt grasped with white knuckles.
Bill turned and raised an eyebrow, his voice light with a laugh as he spoke. "What Claude? Still afraid of the dark? I don't get why you keep volunteering for missions like this if you're so scared of caves."
Claude turned and scowled at the torch-wielding man, "It's not the caves I'm afraid of, you fool. It's what's in them you have to be scared of!"
Bill smirked and shook his head. "Dude, we're at the back of the line. Anything scary the boss up front will have already handled. Really, what are the chances that something slipped by everyone else? Right Hugo?…"
Only silence answered the man's question.
"… Hugo?" Bill turned around to see Hugo frozen in place, his mouth open and eyes locked on the space above Bill. A chill ran down Bill's spine. He slowly looked above him… and stared into four red glowing eyes peeking out from beneath a rock in the ceiling. Slowly, the 'rock' pushed away from the ceiling, and a long, thin body with dozens of sharp-looking legs emerged.
Bill stared, transfixed, as the giant centipede-like creature clicked its drolling fangs.
Softly, he whispered, "Oh… Dam—"
And then the creature struck.
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"THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!"
No one was quite sure who had yelled those words, what with them being lost in the chaos of battle and the screams of adventurers as the giant centipede-like insects tried to drag their various prey back into the holes in the ceiling.
Bosco roared as he threw his massive axe like a boomerang over the crowd. It spun through the air and cleaved through a dozen long insects, and one unfortunate man whose centipede was a tad quicker than the others.
The axe slammed into the far wall with a thud that shook the tunnel.
The fighting men and women were sprayed with thick, foul-smelling centipede blood as the thrashing bodies of the insects fell out of their holes. The surviving centipedes seemed to take that as a sign and quickly retreated into their tunnels in the ceilings.
The group of humans and awakened beasts gathered their wounded and retreated down the tunnel.
Bosco fumed the entire way. They'd been making good progress for the first few hours. Maybe slower than he'd wanted, but that was the kind of caution you had to take when delving into unknown cave systems. Caution that apparently hadn't been enough.
A quick headcount showed three missing, including the unlucky bastard who'd gotten in the way of his throw. Five more were alive, given the rising and falling of their chest, but their stiff bodies and the strange purple coloration of their skin didn't bode well.
"What the hell were those?!" Bosco roared as he pulled his axe from the wall it was embedded in.
The survivors mumbled among themselves, but none offered an answer. Most of their adventuring had been done above ground. Few knew more beyond the basics of cave delving.
Bosco's fury slowly built, but it was Seeker who eventually spoke up. "Rockcaps. Nasty little buggers…"
Bosco turned to see Seeker holding up one of the severed halves of the centipedes. He gripped the insect by a large stone seemingly glued to its head as he stared into the thing's eyes. Seeker tossed the thing away, then turned to look at Bosco as he continued. "Ambush predators common in the Deep Tunnels. They burrow holes into the ceilings of tunnels, covering the hole with the rock they attach to their head, and wait for something to pass by."
The man turned to stare at the stiffened adventurers and spoke again. "Mildly venomous, but not deadly. Their venom is designed to restrain, not kill. They'll be fine in a few hours. The creatures are basically worthless, and even the venom isn't worth the effort to collect beyond its use in a few esoteric potions and pills. Though they're good eating, I've heard."
Bosco bristled and strode up to the much smaller man, and shoved a large finger into his chest as he yelled. "And how did they get right on top of us before anyone noticed?!"
Seeker stared up at the irate man with a blank face before slowly pushing his finger away. "No one noticed them because their spiritual presence can mimic minor spirit stones, like those you find in tunnels just like this. Not worth digging out for most people, but enough to entice smaller prey to get within striking distance."
Bosco frowned. "Then why didn't you warn us about them?! Nearly a quarter of our number are down or dead. What do you have to say for yourself, Seeker?!"
It was Seeker's turn to look frustrated, and the smaller man poked Bosco back as he spoke. "If you were paying attention to what I said, Bosco, you'd have realized I said they were common in the Deep Tunnels. We're barely past the surface, if at all. They're not supposed to be here. The energy levels can't support them here for long."
Bosco smirked and folded his arms. "So you said, yet here they are, blocking our way."
Seeker frowned and looked back down the tunnel. When he spoke, it was half to himself. "Yes… that is strange. Why would they be so high up? Hmmmm."
"Ma-maybe s-something chased t-them up here?!" a voice from the crowd stuttered.
Bosco turned and narrowed his eyes at the speaker. He recognized Bill from previous missions. A jokester who could take nothing seriously. How he'd survived as long as he had in Icefinger's gang, Bosco would never understand. The man stood shaking, his hands gripped tightly around the hilt of his spear, his upper body covered in centipede slime and blood as his eyes nervously darted from shadow to shadow.
Bosco was about to tell the idiot to shut up, but Seeker spoke up first. "Possible. This nest is new. Not enough bones or waste for it to be anything but recently established. But there's another possibility as well."
Bosco turned and raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Seeker smiled from ear to ear, "Given what we know so far… we may have found a new entrance into the Deep Tunnels."
The gathered crowd went still.
The Deep Tunnels.
A place of legend, said to be bursting with treasure of all kinds… and just as many dangers.
There were hundreds of known entrances scattered through the Crimson Mountains surrounding Halirosa, but every single one was heavily controlled by one power or another. Heavily taxed, too. Adventurers had to pay heavy fees just to step foot into the Deep Tunnels, and tunnels closest to those entrances had been picked clean centuries ago.
If this really was a new entrance… one that hadn't yet been claimed or even touched…
Bosco turned his gaze back toward the centipedes, practically drooling.
After a long moment, he broke his gaze away and yelled to the crowd. "Set up camp! We'll wait for the poisoned to recover, then head deeper in the morning!"
The adventures did as they were told and began setting up camp along the wide tunnel. Not many would complain about a few hours of rest.
Bill walked toward Hugo and Claude, who were rolling out their sleeping mats. He desperately tried to remove more of the slime. It was foul-smelling, sticky and made his skin itch. He was just glad he hadn't gotten bitten, the centipede's fangs having been blocked by his chest piece. It didn't make seeing the inside of the giant insect's throat any more pleasant, at least.
He finally cleared off as much as he reasonably could, then pulled his own sleeping mat out of his storage ring and unfolded it. As he did, he muttered to the other two men close by. "Remind me to never go cave delving again…"
Hugo only sighed and shook his head, while Claude nodded sagely.
Really surprised that Alpha isn't researching the modified wasp that he mentioned was loaded into his core before being telelported.
Speaking of, @Osamaru Jishi said that the relay crystal was something she stuffed into Alpha's soul. I'll believe it having a range. However, unless she did something unnoticed and unexplained, I'd expect it to still be there. Meaning she left the frame without anyone controlling it.
Really surprised that Alpha isn't researching the modified wasp that he mentioned was loaded into his core before being telelported.
Speaking of, @Osamaru Jishi said that the relay crystal was something she stuffed into Alpha's soul. I'll believe it having a range. However, unless she did something unnoticed and unexplained, I'd expect it to still be there. Meaning she left the frame without anyone controlling it.
Really surprised that Alpha isn't researching the modified wasp that he mentioned was loaded into his core before being telelported.
Speaking of, @Osamaru Jishi said that the relay crystal was something she stuffed into Alpha's soul. I'll believe it having a range. However, unless she did something unnoticed and unexplained, I'd expect it to still be there. Meaning she left the frame without anyone controlling it.
Na, she left the high-quality beast core he was gifted, with him (though He doesn't want to use it quite yet, for obvious reasons).
The crystal that allowed her to "project" herself from the wall is still technically in the TAWP.
Grim sighed to herself. That was the last bit of recording she had. It took a few moments, but she'd finally gathered the courage to wander back up the mountain, helped in no minor part by the hungry stare Little Red was giving her, this was the scene she'd come across.
A burning house with wiggling walls.
A giant tree that had appeared from nowhere,
Mr. Gopher, sitting on the top of said tree, wreathed in fire,
And Icy Lady kicking the top half of the not-so-nice-little-old-lady. Grim felt she didn't want to know where her bottom half had gone.
{What exactly did I miss?!} She wondered to herself. Good thing she could ask questions now. While she watched the recordings of the previous events, Grim had been reviewing the lexicon that the Boss gave her when they last spoke (he was so nice!).
Now she was feeling confident enough to finally put it to use! Grim had sooooooo many questions.
Like why was Icy Lady so cold?
How did Tree Guy do the magic trick with the vines??
Why did they keep sticking dead things inside her cargo?
Or why was Mr. Gopher on fire?!
That last one seemed particularly important. Not that the gopher seemed to mind much…
Grim practically vibrated with excitement as she rose into the air once more. The fires were dying, and Icy Lady looked like she'd calmed down. Now was as good a time as any to fly over and ask ALL the questions.
Before Grim could fly very far, Icy Lady turned toward Tree Guy. A large ball of snow formed in her hand from nothingness, and she tossed it at the young man. As large as his head, the snowball struck Tree Guy with enough force that the young man lost his grip on the massive black tree.
Icy Lady walked over and called out. "Hey, treehugger, are you done? You could have helped me with the Mimic, you know…"
'Treehugger' (Grim liked Tree Guy better) wiped the snow off his face and tilted his head. "Mimic? What Mimic? What are you talking about, Jill?"
Icy Lady, whose name Grim had just learned was 'Jill' and who was looking a bit more… crispy than Grim remembered, sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She then pointed behind her toward the still-twitching remains of the old lady. "That one, Jack."
'Jack' (which Grim found a far better name than Treehugger), turned to look in the direction she was pointing. His eyes went wide, and he jumped to his feet and pointed at the old lady as well. "Holy Sisters above Jill! What did you do to that old lady?!"
Jill hit Jack with another snowball.
Grim wondered why. After all, that was a good question.
Jill sighed again and spoke to Jack while the latter sputtered under a small pile of snow. "That's not an old lady, you idiot. That's a Mimic. An Elder Mimic, if the size of its body says anything." She pointed toward the burning remains of the cottage, some of its walls writhing in the flames in a way Grim was almost positive walls shouldn't do.
Jack turned and stared back at the cottage, his brow furrowing. He then turned back and looked at the old lady. Then, back at the cottage. Then, back at the old lady. Finally, he turned to Jill and asked, "Wait, so the cottage was a Mimic? Then what about the old lady? I'm confused."
Jill walked over toward the upper half of the old lady and kicked the body over. The body looked withered and dry, as if it had been out in the sun for weeks. She shook her head, then turned back to Jack. "They both were. Or rather, they were the same Mimic. Elder Mimc's can create artificial bodies to help them lure in prey."
"How did we not notice anything before, though? Mimics are dangerous, sure, but they're easy to spot once they know what you're looking for," Jack said, still unsure.
Jill shrugged and answered. "Elder Mimics are a different breed. All Mimics have some level of psionic ability. It's part of what makes them so effective. They can lure you in through various means. Greed, hunger, fear; they mess with your mind and make you lower your guard. Like a turtle using its tongue to lure in fish. That's why one of the first rules they teach you in Halirosa is not to let your greed overcome your common sense. Many people have lost their lives rushing toward a random chest, overcome with greed to question why there would be an intact chest or a table full of spirit herbs in the middle of a decaying ruin."
Jack nodded sagely, "Except the turtle was a cottage, and the 'tongue' was a nice old lady who messed with our heads…"
Jill nodded as well. "Right. Elder Mimics take that idea and crank it all the way up. Treasure chests become dragon hoards. Tables of spirit herbs become mystic glades filled with treasures. Abandoned shacks become cozy mountainside cottages. Coupled with their stronger psionic abilities, Elder Mimics become far more effective hunters than their younger kin."
Jack brushed the last of the snow off his robes and asked, "Good to know… So, is it dead? It looks like you did a number on her… it?"
Jill shook her head. "I'm not sure. The explosion destroyed its prime body. This puppet, its 'lure,' was already dying by the time it rounded the corner. In such a weakened state, I managed to kill it while you were… busy… with your tree—"
Jack blushed and looked away, while Jill continued, "But Elder Mimics are tricky beings by their nature. It's part of how they survived long enough to become elders in the first place. From what I've read, they should have natural abilities similar to a later stage [Earthly Transcendent], meaning they can revive if their core isn't destroyed."
"Should we look for the core, then?" Jack asked, turned toward the burning, writhing wreckage.
Jill paused for a moment, then shook her head again. "No. There's no telling what that explosion will attract, and I'd rather be as far away from this place as possible. We can always report what we found later to the guild. It's not like the Elder Mimic will revive anytime soon," she said.
Jack turned to look at the massive black tree growing out of the Mimic's remains. "Eh, I don't think it's the explosion that you must worry about attracting something…" He responded.
Jill followed his gaze and narrowed her eyes. "What is that thing? I've never heard of a tree like this. The sheer amount of fire energy it's giving off is insane," she asked.
Jack shrugged and responded. "I hadn't a clue when it was small, nor do I know now. Even pulling off the few branches I did took up most of my mana. Whatever this thing is, it's powerful. I was serious about what I said before, Jill. If we could have taken this thing back when it was small… there's a good chance it would be just as valuable, if not more, than the [Pure Waters]."
Jill sighed. Well, that figured. There was no taking it along with them now, of course. Maybe the samples Jack collected would be worth something. At the very least, they could sell the location of the tree and the Elder Mimic and make a decent profit.
"Well, no point in crying over burned nuts. What do you think the Mimic wa—Jack… why is the gopher on fire?" Jill asked in a monotone voice.
Jack turned and stared up at the burning gopher, still munching on what remained of the bright red fruit. He turned back to Jill and shrugged. "Iunno. He doesn't seem to mind, though, so I kinda just ignored it."
Jill froze and gave her brother a long, hard look. The man in question just tilted his head in confusion. His sister sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Jack… You can't just let your pets eat random fruits from mysterious, unknown trees. It could be dangerous. Or valuable!" she yelled.
Jack waved her off, scoffing, "He'll be fiiiine. Besides, we'd be Mimic food if it wasn't for him. I thought he deserved a treat."
Jill frowned and responded. "Jack… He's on fire."
Jack looked up into the treetop and scratched his chin. "Well… I mean… sure… but he doesn't seem to mind. Besides, I don't think it's really fire. It looks more like an aura flare."
Jill narrowed her eyes and turned her gaze back to the gopher, really looking at it this time. To her surprise, Jill found her brother was right. The gopher didn't seem harmed by the flames at all. In fact, the more it bathed in the fire, the more its fur seemed to become silkier, and it took on a deeper crimson-brown color.
An aura flare was a phenomenon that occurred when [Earthly Transcendent] cultivators underwent intense internal cultivation, such as during closed cultivation. It was a lesser version of the "Worldy Manifestation" that happened when a [Firmament Breaker] cultivated. At its simplest, it was the cultivator's spirit energy acting on the world around them, manifesting in various ways.
But that's why it didn't make any sense.
That would mean a root gopher, one of the weakest spirit beasts, barely more than a base animal, was breaking through to [Earthly Transcendent]. Sure, she knew the creature was strong for its species, maybe even a rare variant, with a powerful talent for earth manipulation, but that… was insane.
That was another thing that confused her. The gopher's aura flare showed a strong affinity toward fire when Jill knew for a fact it was highly earth-aligned. She'd never once seen it use any other affinity, in fact.
Her eyes narrowed, and she stared at what little remained of the fruit in the gopher's paws. Had it been the fruit that caused this? But what kind of spirit fruit could cause such a drastic change? Or had it only been the catalyst? Had it already had this potential inside, waiting for the right trigger?
Either possibility sparked more questions than they answered.
Jill bit her lip and scanned the treetops, half hoping to spot another round, red fruit among the golden leaves. Such a strong fire affinity… maybe… just maybe, it would be enough to melt the chilling energy coursing through her veins…
There was none she could see from her position, however. Internally, she sighed. Maybe that was for the best. Her spirit root was mostly water and wind-aligned. Earth had a far better synergy with fire than either of those did. It would likely damage her foundation, even if it was enough to solve her problem. She would stick to the [Pure Waters].
Turning away from the tree, lest she be tempted, Jill looked at her brother and softly whispered. "Hey… Jack. That gopher… do you… think he might be a P—."
"So Mr. Gopher is going to be fine?! That's good to hear! I was really worried there for a moment. My data archives say most biologicals don't do well when lit on fire. That was repeatedly emphasized for some reason." Grim cut Jill off.
Both Jack and Jill's heads snapped toward the floating delivery drone, their eyes wide.
Grim spun her optical sensor in the way she'd often seen the Boss do so and asked. "What? Do I still have meaty bits on me? I promise, that was Mr. Gopher's idea! I don't have a thing for vore!"
Grim waved her arms and spun around in the air, trying to see if she'd missed any.
The next moment, she eeked in surprise as both Jack and Jill pointed at her and yelled in unison.
"'YOU CAN TALK!?'"
————————————
What remained of Morgana felt… lesser. Diminished.
The power and intelligence of a Mimic was directly proportional to their mass.
And Morgana hadn't been this weak in centuries. Not since that bastard Yeom Ki had hunted her down for the first time. It had been a long road to recovery, but she had bounced back. She always did. Elder Mimics weren't born; they were made. Mimics didn't become powerful enough to be called an Elder variant without being sly and resourceful.
So, losing most of their body wasn't too great a setback.
No, what truly pained her wasn't her body. It was the loss of her tree!
Her beautiful tree!
She had spent decades carefully cultivating the tree, growing and caring for it. Morgana had known it was something special from the moment she'd found it in the mountains all those years ago. She'd even taken the pain to lure experts in the fields of botany and herblore to learn more about it and better care for it. She'd even let some of them live!
Now, all that hard work, all that toil and pain, wasted on some overgrown… rat!
Just the thought of it as she watched the group from her hiding spot nearly boiled her blood. Or what counted for blood in a Mimic's body, at least.
She would have wanted nothing more than to pounce on them and tear their pathetic bodies to shreds. No games. None of her usual flair and traps. Just raw, bloody slaughter.
But as she was now, that wasn't a possibility. She was too weakened. If she showed herself now, all that awaited was true death.
So she would wait.
She had already marked the puppet; a small piece of her flesh melded with its metal shell. Through that, she could find them when the time came.
Yes, she would wait.
She would grow stronger.
And when they least expected her, these fools would learn what had rung true for countless centuries.
No one escapes Morgana in the Mountain.
B2 - Lesson 10: "Mourn the fallen, but march ever forward."
Annnnnd We're back! Hope you all had a great thanksgiving! I know I did... Until I caught a stomach bug friday night... orz. Lucky it didn't last long, and I'm almost at 100% Wooot!
Anyway, here's the chapter, Enjoy! ———————————————————————— B2 - Lesson 10: "Mourn the fallen, but march ever forward."
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"Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Alpha yelled as Alphantonso IV fell out of the colony entrance and into the open air above the giant forest.
The antborg tumbled head-over-heel for several dozen meters before it could latch onto the rocky surface and arrest its momentum. It clung to the wall for a moment, still as a stone, as Alpha mentally patted the creature.
Controlling a borged insect wasn't like controlling a drone. It was more akin to the primitive experiments on insects on Old Earth. The trick was convincing the insect that the orders it was receiving were its own.
These super-sized ants, and thus Alphantonso, were far more complex than typical insects. So much so that what he was doing bordered on the Federation's ban against borging non-consenting higher-lifeforms. You could augment a beetle, but you couldn't augment, say, a pet dog outside of medical reasons.
On paper, these laws were there to prevent unnecessary cruelty and unregulated experimentation. In practice, they were used to control the creation of borged bioweapons and other monstrosities. Not that such things didn't happen, of course; a large portion of the Federation's military budget went to tracking down and eliminating rouge bioweapons.
The ants were technically insects and so fell outside the stipulations of the laws. Yet Alpha couldn't deny that they were more than just insects.
Hurrah for loopholes!
With that in mind, controlling a borged creature like Alphantonso was tricky. Alpha hadn't totally erased the antborg's instincts. That let it better blend in with the colony. That meant getting it to go where he wanted and do what he wanted was a careful balance of sending it 'fake' pheromone signals and the right muscle controls while ignoring the real signals it wanted to follow. Alpha was still… learning that part.
Alpha could take direct control, as the sub-brains regulating movement had been replaced, but doing so would put a lot of stress on Alphantonso and could be like wrangling an unruly horse.
That fumbling at the controls, as it were, is what led to Alphantonso's tumble down the exit tunnel and surprise aerodynamics test. Alpha was glad he'd been able to latch onto the wall in time. While he was almost certain that the antborg's improved exoskeleton could survive such a fall, Alphantonso V and the next batch of antborgs weren't quite ready enough for him to test that theory. The next generation of antborgs had seen vast improvements thanks to the data gathered through Alphantonso IV, but they were taking longer to bake as well.
If they turned out how Alpha hoped, he could start the next phase of [Operation: Ant King]. That was a surprise for future Alpha, though. Present Alpha had a forest to explore!
Once Alphantonso's stress-induced octopamine levels receded back to normal, Alpha directed the antborg down the wall and through the ant's clearing. It had expanded slightly since the bear-sloth war, though not by much. The clearing seemed to be more of a buffer zone for the ants rather than just the result of their collecting materials. They still did, of course, but the vast majority of the ant's patrols favored delving deeper into the forest.
Alpha let Alphantonso follow the pheromone trail left by one such patrol in the hopes of finding something interesting. Alpha was still decoding the ant's pheromone signals. It was turning out to be far more complex than he'd originally suspected. It wasn't at the level of a true language. Such a thing was squarely in the realm of sapience. Yet it was still comparable to the 'words' used by higher-order mammals such as cetaceans or primates.
The information conveyed wasn't just in the concentration of pheromones, but in other inclusions as well. Threads of silk, globs of wax, and even droplets of venom could all be laid out periodically along the pheromone trail and provide new information or change the meaning altogether. The quantities used and how they were used together could even influence the final' message,' leading to a surprisingly complex web of interconnected 'words' and information packets.
When Alpha wasn't directly controlling Alphantonso, a monitoring AI was recording the antborg's action and influencing it to come in contact with as many such combinations as possible. So far, this had been limited to the colony. Alphantonso was still 'young' by ant standards, and only the older ants ventured out to scavenge.
That made locating an acceptable trail difficult, but Alphantonso soon located a trail Alpha was fairly certain was that of a patrolling soldier. One fairly fresh, too. Good. Alpha had little chance to study the soldiers. Other than those in the royal chambers, most of the soldiers did little else than rest in dedicated chambers while workers brought them food. Occasionally, one would stand and start patrolling the tunnels or head for the exit to scout the forest, but that was about it.
Following a soldier's patrol route would mean less of a threat to Alphantonso, who was still much smaller than some of the other workers, as well. Anything capable of actually causing damage will have likely been scared off. There was no guarantee, of course, but it was a better option than randomly wandering, at least.
————————————
Several hours later and Alpha had come across little of real interest. Mostly, the soldier wandered around the area, marking down certain locations. The soldiers acted as not just defenders but scouts as well, with workers following to collect whatever they had found. Already, Alpha had stumbled on a few groups of workers collecting something or another. Sometimes, it was the body of a large, unidentifiable creature. Sometimes, it was a field of small plants, the ants gently digging out the roots and laying them aside.
Most of it wasn't useful to Alpha, though he noted several plants he'd seen being grown in the colony. That at least answered where the plants had come from. Yet, it begged the question of how the ants knew what plants they could grow or how. Or why?
As far as Alpha could see, the only things the ants ate were the mushrooms and the golden liquid, supplemented by a bit of protein now and again. He hadn't even seen the ants harvest any of the other plants other than to move them about or cull those that were wilting. Yet they continued to maintain little 'gardens' every few chambers. Alpha doubted they were just for fun. Even so, until he could get some equipment running, that mystery would have to remain just that.
The only genuine discovery, if he could call them that, was a large river to the northeast of the clearing,
Wider than three TAWPs, the river cut the cavern into two parts: the large forest that took up most of the cavern and a barren, craggy land. The craggy land comprised 1/8th of the cavern's floor space, encompassing the entire northeastern corner separated by the river. Despite its size, it wasn't something easily seen from a distance, being hidden by the giant trees and the dim light.
Up close, the barren land looked closer to what one might have expected from a cavern and was filled with stalagmites of various shapes and sizes. The only growth visible were the rare, small patches of glowing flowers dotted around the area and what appeared to be mundane moss spotting a few stalagmites here and there. Standing on the banks of the river, Alpha could see neither its source nor where it emptied into, as the various bends and turns hid them from view.
Alpha marked the location on his growing map for later exploration. It would be far easier to search bare rock for mineral deposits than in the forest and safer than along the cavern walls.
Alpha followed the soldier's trail further north and upstream from the ant colony until he came across the second discovery of the trip.
Near one bend in the river, Alpha saw what could only be described as a mud cave. A huge mound of soil and stone had been dredged up from the river, forming both a small lake at the bend and a hill of mud. Said hill had then been shaped and hollowed out into a clay cave.
"Huh… a cave within a cave… neat," said Alpha to Alpha.
It was obvious that the formation wasn't natural, nor was the creature that had made it small by any measure. While the cave entrance wouldn't have fit the TAWP, it was more than large enough to accommodate one of the soldier ants. Like the ant currently lying just outside the entrance of said cave, its abdomen cracked open like a crab and its head missing.
"Well, that's not good…" Alpha muttered out loud.
He'd seen how much force it had taken to kill these soldier ants during the fight with the bear-sloths. Their exoskeletons weren't quite as hard as steel, but their flexibility made them hard to damage through brute force. Alpha didn't doubt they could easily block small arms fire and maybe even tank higher caliber rounds if they were hit in the right place.
Yet, something had cracked one of them open like a nut to get at the juicy bits, and given the lack of blood or signs of a struggle, it had done some with far more ease than the bear-sloths had. Granted, he didn't know if the nut cracking had come before or after the ant had lost its head, but it was still worrying. It wasn't likely that the ant was killed elsewhere and brought to the den at a later time, as the soldier's pheromone trail led straight to this stop, but that was all he could tell.
Part of him wanted to get closer, maybe study the soldier more or get a better look at the mud den, but Alpha decided against it. Whatever this thing was, it was powerful. Alphantonso might be stronger than a normal worker, but its exoskeleton wasn't quite on par with a soldier (yet).
Like the barren land across the river, he would have to explore this place later, either with a more expendable [Wasp] or after he'd improved Alphantonso further. Alpha turned the antborg away and began making his way back toward the ant colony. Suddenly, the sound of falling water drowned out the gentle rush of the river, and a deep shadow fell over Alphantonso.
The antborg froze, and Alpha sighed. "It's right behind me. Isn't it?"
Alpha didn't even have time to turn Alphantonso around before something large and heavy stepped on the poor creature, crushing and grinding it into the riverbank.
Whatever had crushed the antborg lifted its massive leg and shook the gooey mess off. Luckily for Alpha, the ground was soft, and the antborg's implants, including its eyes, were made of tougher stuff. So Alpha got a good look at the creature through the damaged implants as it walked away, not even bothering with the tiny ant's remains.
It was a large, brown… fish? Or at least a fishlike creature. Like if someone took a mudfish, mixed it with a shark, blew it up to half the height of the TAWP. Then, to top it off, gave it a pair of draconic legs. The giant mud shark-fish thing waddled toward the den with lumbering steps. Before entering, it turned and roared into the nearby forest, a high-pitched yet echoing thing that shook the nearest trees and sent the hidden creatures nearby running.
It then bit into the carcass of the soldier ant and pulled it deeper into the den until both vanished in shadows.
"Well, now… that's… different," Alpha muttered.
Their power source irrevocably damaged, Alphantonso IV's (may they always be remembered) implants slowly shut off one by one as Alpha directed what little charge remained to the eye cameras as he tried to collect as much data about the area as possible.
Fishy boy may not have known it, but it had made an enemy today, and Alphantonso IV would be avenged.
As the last bit of power drained from the implants, a curious thing happened, however.
The implants… moved.
Or, to be more accurate, they were picked up.
The camera was swung around, and the last image Alpha recorded before the implants died was the face of a dark-skinned humanoid creature, wearing a moss-covered fur cloak, staring curiously into the antborg's former eyes.
————————————————
Alpha swore as the video feed finally cut out. He'd marked the location on the map, but losing the implants would hurt. Part of what made the antborgs so difficult to produce wasn't just the time they took to incubate, but some of the rarer materials that would take a while to replace.
He had planned to send a few [Wasps] to recover what he could, but now that plan was down the drain. Alpha assumed it had been one of the goblin-like creatures he'd witnessed before, but with no way of knowing where it had gone, recovery was almost impossible. He made a note to add trackers to the next batch of antborgs in case something similar happened in the future.
Alpha sighed and blipped his consciousness back to the [Wasp] he'd left in the medical wing. It had always been a risk to let Alphantonso IV out of the colony, but given how the ants seemed unconcerned with the dangers of the forest, he'd let his guard down.
The mudfish-shark thing had proven there were still creatures in the forest dangerous enough to be a problem.
For now, Alpha turned his attention to the five large glass cylinders before him. In four of the incubation chambers, an Alphantonso IV-2 model antborg slowly grew. They were still in the early phases and wouldn't be ready for pupation for another day or so.
As for the fifth incubation chamber…
Instead of a large ant larva, a squirming ball of black nanomatter floated inside. Alpha mentally smiled to himself.
If this worked out how he wanted it to, then Alphantonso V would be… something special indeed.
————————————————
The goblin, formerly known as Pitdigger, now known as Antchaser, stared at the strange metallic vines he'd plucked through the crushed remains of the small Demon Ant.
He'd seen nothing like it before, even during those few trips to the surface world. It vaguely reminded him of a plant with bundles of 'berries' all along its length. But he was pretty sure the Demon Ants weren't part plant. Nor did plants grow from their eyes.
The eyes were another oddity. He'd seen Demon Ant eyes before. They could be used for a few things if you were brave enough to risk attracting the ire of the colony. While they weren't soft, per se, they weren't like this. These 'eyes' almost felt like glass or some kind of metal, like the rest of the strange 'vine.'
The oddity of the situation almost made him forget what he'd come there for.
Antchaser nervously glanced toward the Mud Drake's den. The village had known about the creature since they'd arrived in this cavern. It was hard to miss, being the apex predator of the forest that not even the ants were willing to agitate.
He stared for a long moment, then certain the creature wouldn't exit for a while still, he turned and gave a long, wobbling whistle, similar to the local birds.
Far down the river, dozens of goblins rushed out of the forest toward the riverbank. Some carried large clay jugs, others nets, and others still woven baskets.
The goblins got to work resetting fish traps or collecting water, plants, and other forageables.
The river was the only major source of clean, running water for the entire cavern. Sure, there were some smaller ponds or creeks, but none that could support a village their size. Unfortunately, it was also the territory of the Mud Drake, making it unsafe to approach most of the time.
The only safe time was when the drake was resting in its den. Thus, his current duty as a lookout. It was dangerous work, as the drake was… temperamental. It would attack anything near its den without hesitation. As the small ant had found out.
Lucky for the goblins, it wouldn't wander too far away from the river, even if agitated. That meant as long as you knew where the drake was, you could stay safe.
Ironically, that meant the safest place was near its den while it was inside.
It helped that the [Dragon Pool], even one built by a lesser drake, cleaned and purified the water.
Antchacer kept his eyes locked on the Mud Drake's den for any signs of movement. At his warning, the goblins would all rush back to the safety of the treeline to avoid the drake's wrath.
Even so, part of his mind couldn't help but wander back to the strange metallic vine lying in the grass beside him.
———————————————————————— B2 - Lesson 11: "Mind over Body"
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"That's it! You can do it! Just a little more!" Alpha encouraged the 'small,' bobcat-sized black ant in the middle of the room.
The ant pushed itself up on shaking legs. Its thin legs wobbled and bent in ways an ant leg shouldn't, and as it took a step forward, it collapsed back to the ground.
Alpha sighed. "Well, it's progress, at least," he said.
He then deactivated the ant's neuralink. The small black ant melted into a black blob of quivering nanomass. A pair of manipulator arms built into rails in the ceiling, then picked up Alphantonso V and placed them back into their resting chamber.
Two weeks after starting the project, the base was coming along well. A dozen rooms with reinforced, soundproofed walls filled the space behind the royal chambers. Though most were being used for storage right now. The main chamber was currently acting as an assembly plant for various pieces of equipment that would, in time, take up much of the base floor space. Several rooms even stored servers for the AIs that Alpha had whipped up to run the research equipment and monitor the antborgs.
After what happened with the transport drone, Alpha was still hesitant to rely on more complex AIs, but the current simple models had remained stable. Sure, they couldn't do the more difficult analysis in any short amount of time, but he could leave that kind of thing to his own personal sub-AI.
The medical wing was fully up and running, with over two dozen incubation chambers finished and ready for new eggs. Alpha had even built a basic med pod in case any antborgs became seriously injured.
The antborg project itself was also making headway, though with a few hiccups here and there.
So far, the IV-2 models were still Alpha's most successful attempts. Based on the original Alphantonso IV, but optimized and tweaked with the lessons he'd learned, Alpha now had roughly a dozen IV-2s roaming the ant colony, doing various ant things.
He'd yet to get his hands on a few samples he'd been wanting, but that was to be expected. The few times he'd directed an antborg to collect a sample, it had been turned away by other ants at one point or another. The colony was huge, but every ant had its job.
Nonetheless, the antborgs had been hard at work. The pheromone dictionary had grown even larger since Alphantonso IV's untimely demise. So much so that the onboard AI could now reliably deduce where the antborg was going and what they were doing. Most of this was logged for later analysis, with Alpha directly informed if there were any interesting new discoveries or developments.
More importantly, two of the IV-2s had developed into nursery ants. This had caused a few easily corrected issues with their implants, but now Alpha had a reliable and discrete way of collecting new batches of eggs. They were easier to modify when fresh from a queen. He'd even started marking and cataloging which eggs came from which of the five queens. Mostly to see if there was any difference between them. Say if one queen lay a disproportionate number of soldiers. Or if one queen's progeny were larger on average. This would be a long-term experiment, however.
For now, it was a matter of building numbers. The IV-2s would remain few at the start, but if he could get Alphantonso V working properly, the possibilities were endless. That said, he'd run into a slight problem.
Where the IV-2s were little more than ants with cybernetic implants, the Alphantonso V iteration asked, "What if it was the other way around?"
To that end, Alpha had attempted something never before done on an insect. Something often reserved for only the most severe and life-threatening cases in the Federation.
Full Biological Augmentation.
Said another way, if Alphantonso IV was an ant with cybernetic implants, then Alphantonso V was a drone with an ant's brain.
Or more specifically, it was a nanite drone grown alongside the central nervous system of an ant using all the biological data Alpha had gathered so far.
TBAs were almost always only offered to soldiers who had been so severely wounded that not even the Federation's most advanced medical technology had any hope of returning any kind of quality of life.
Their central nervous system was then removed from their biological bodies and grafted into a mechanical one. This came with its issues, of course. The procedure was expensive, often leaving the patients in massive debt. Not only that, but the wide range of biology, body types, and even personal differences meant no one type of artificial body would work. This meant these bodies had to be fine-tuned and regularly calibrated to prevent issues such as neural rejection and 'cyberpsychosis.'
That had gotten Alpha thinking, however. If these issues were caused by a disconnect between the person and the artificial body, what would happen if you fixed that? By, say, growing their body around their central nervous system from birth so that they never had a 'real' body to begin with.
Of course, such a thing had never truly been done before. The ethics were questionable at best, when looking at non-sapient lifeforms, and flat-out illegal regarding sapients. Oh, Alpha was sure someone out there had tried. The allure of semi-immortality had called to biologicals since the first sapient creatures looked up at the stars.
But if any had succeeded, the results had never been published for obvious reasons.
As for insects? The only reason such a thing had yet to be attempted was because cyborg insects were simply cheaper and easier to make.
Even so, Alpha had felt it was a viable direction to go. A drone ant could blend in with the colony perfectly as long as he kept the important biological bits. Not only that, but Alpha could take direct control of the ant rather than make 'strong suggestions' as he had to with Alphantonso IV. Alpha wouldn't even have to worry about losing the ants, either. Even if its biological components were irreparably damaged, the 'body' could be controlled and recovered,
No more losing important bits to random goblins.
The issue Alpha was having now was while the ant brain had accepted its artificial body well enough, it didn't really understand how to use it. Even simplifying the brain's controls to just muscle movement, there were still differences between a biological body and the nanite body. Differences that the ant's simple brain was struggling to overcome.
It was making progress, but Alpha would have to improve on the design further. The hope was to 'train' the ants to use their body within the first few hours. Roughly the same time it took the natural ants to harden their carapace after pupating. This would make it easier for them to blend in.
The irony that Alpha had come full circle in his antborg design wasn't lost on him. Alphantonso V was closer to his first iteration than the previous one. Only now, Alpha understood more about the ants and how they operated, both physically and socially.
Now that all the pieces were coming together, things were starting to look up!
—————————————————
"LOOK UP!" came the warning from somewhere in the middle of the group.
Several pairs of eyes shot to the ceiling of the small cavern just in time to see the large stone crab-like creature drop. It landed on an unlucky woman and pinned her to the ground, its sharp, pointed legs digging into her limbs.
The woman screamed from pain and fear as the rocky crab screeched back, its jaws drooling. Its multisegmented mouth parts opened wide. Only for the creature to be punted across the cavern by a large booted foot. The crab soared over the gathered adventures and slammed into the far wall with a sickening crunch before falling into a shallow water pond. Instantly, the waters churned to life as unseen creatures fought over the remains.
Bosco ground his teeth as he watched the woman be dragged away by several of the adventurers to have her wounds treated.
This hadn't been the only injury since the group had made it past the Rockcaps, the giant centipedes that had caused their first casualties. And Bosco doubted it would be the last.
The tunnels had branched off down several side passages shortly after the centipedes, and Bosco had sent small groups down each to scout the area. A few hours and one missing team later, Seeker and Bosco had decided it wasn't worth the risk or time to scout each branch. Instead, Seeker had recommended picking the tunnel with the highest concentration of lumoss.
This would indicate the most traveled and theoretically safest route. Of course, 'safety' was subjective, and the group's confrontations were becoming more dangerous and more frequent the deeper they went.
They'd stopped in the current cavern to rest due to the presence of the water pool. Sure, it was filled with crabs and other nasty things, but nothing the experienced adventurers couldn't handle. If they didn't get the drop on you, that was… sometimes literally, as previously seen.
The sudden sound of running footsteps drew the group's attention and caused several to reach for their weapons. This would not be the first time a scout would come running back while being chased by one horror or another.
The footsteps grew louder until the scout rounded the corner and rushed into the cavern, panting.
Many of the gathered adventurers tensed but relaxed a moment later when nothing appeared behind him. The scout stop in front of Bosco, their hands on their knees as they panted.
Bosco folded his arms and stared down at the scout. "Report," the large man said.
The scout only held up a finger as they tried to regain their breath, making Bosco frown. Before he could say anything, however, Seeker handed the winded scout a canteen. The scout threw back the canteen and drained it in only a few gulps.
He straightened and stared up at Bosco, grinning from ear to ear.
"Boss! You have to see this!" he yelled.
The man turned and started jogging down the tunnel he'd just come from. Bosco raised a brow and followed, picking up his axe on the way.
The gathered adventurers mumbled among themselves before a few gathered their things and chased after their boss. After a moment, the cavern was cleared of adventurers, and it once more returned to peaceful silence.
—————————————————
The scout led the adventurers down the tunnel for almost two more kilometers, farther than he was supposed to have gone. Soon, Bosco could feel why, though. A vibrant spirit energy blew up through the tunnels from somewhere deeper inside. Energy strong enough that even Bosco, a peak [Shackle Breaking] cultivator, could feel the accumulated ache in his body ease, and his heart beat faster.
A few moments later, they neared one last bend in the tunnel, and the scout stopped. He turned around and gestured on with a theatric flair. Bosco narrowed his eyes, wary of some trick or trap, but after a moment, his greed for what he could feel just beyond the bend won out.
Bosco strode past the scout, closely followed by Seeker, and rounded the corner.
Then, he froze, his eyes nearly bulging in his head.
Bosco shot forward, traveling the final distance of the tunnel in only a few strides.
He skid to a stop only a few feet away from the exit as if fearing that if he passed the threshold, what he saw before him would vanish like a dream. He took a deep breath and took that last step, exiting the tunnel and stepping into a large, dimly lit forest.
"Sisters above…" Seeker whispered breathlessly from somewhere behind him.
Bosco barely registered the man's words. Or the dozen and a half adventurers who streamed from the tunnel behind him. No, his eyes were squarely locked on the sky.
Or rather than a 'sky', he stared up at the clearly defined outline of a massive cavern ceiling, far into the distance, speckled with patches of lumoss; like stars in the night sky.
Bosco laughed.
A soft thing at first, but slowly, it grew louder, and soon, his deep, billowing laughter echoed through the massive cavern.
If seen in the context of today, TBAs is more like opting for the premium prosthetics you can move with your mind, compared to going with just a standard, mass produced prosthetic.
They do have other methods, its simply none of them compare to a "real" body like this.
If seen in the context of today, TBAs is more like opting for the premium prosthetics you can move with your mind, compared to going with just a standard, mass produced prosthetic.
They do have other methods, its simply none of them compare to a "real" body like this.
———————————————————————— B2 - Lesson 12: "Always have a way out."
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The boar creature grunted as it used its large, crystal-like tusks to dig into the roots of the giant tree. When it found nothing, it moved on to the next spot. Occasionally, it would pull up a thick tuber or fat grub with an excited oink.
Dig, dig, eat, sleep, dig some more.
It was a simple life, but the boar creature wasn't one to complain.
Suddenly, its large snout caught the scent of something new in the air. Something that made its mouth water and its simple mind light up. It didn't take long for the boar to find the source of the smell, either. There, in a small clearing, sat a campfire, a fat, tasty-smelling bird spinning on a simple rotisserie. Beside the campfire squatted a small, humanoid figure with long, pointy ears, bark-like skin, and a bored look.
Not that the boar knew what either a campfire or a rotisserie were. But it knew what the strange creature beside the fire was. The boar had seen the creatures several times before. They were new arrivals in this underground forest, having only appeared a few months ago. The boar had mostly ignored the creatures. Sure, barkskins would hunt some of its lesser cousins, but individually, they weren't dangerous, and the boar was smart enough to know how to avoid their larger hunting parties.
What drew the boar's attention was the slowly roasting bird over the fire. Meat was a rare delicacy in this underground world. Not that living creatures were so hard to find, no, rather, because everything was always trying to kill everything else. Bodies never lasted long in a place where everything, even some plants, were willing and able to eat flesh.
If you wanted meat, you had to hunt for it yourself.
And be willing to be hunted, in turn.
The boar was a lazy creature, however. It much preferred the tubers that never ran and the sweet fruits that fell free from the trees. Sure, sometimes the grubs would pinch their snout, but they'd never broken skin. Not that they would turn down the offer of fresh meat if given the chance. Only that they often found it not worth the effort.
That said, it didn't get easier than this, the boar thought to itself. Not only was the bird dead, meaning it couldn't fly away (annoying!), but the only creature guarding it was just a single barkskin. They might have been dangerous in groups, but the boar had found they were cowards when alone. The boar would just have to scare the creature away, and all the delicious bird meat would be theirs!
It was the perfect plan!
The boar silently moved around the perimeter of the clearing to find the best possible angle. Once there, they gave a loud, low-pitched squeal and charged out from the forest cover. To the boar's surprise, however, the barkskin didn't run; it just sat there, turning the bird over the fire and watching.
This confused the boar. It wasn't used to things not running when it charged them. Even some of the larger predators would think twice when they saw its beautiful crystal tusks, longer than a human's arm, heading their way.
The boar quickly got over its confusion, however. So what if it didn't run? It was just one barkskin. If it didn't want to run, it would simply trample over the tiny creature, and then the boar would have two bodies to eat! All the better!
Its choice made, the boar lowered its head further and aimed the point of its tusks at the small creature. It drew closer with each breath and, in only a few strides, had almost cleared the open space between them.
Then, suddenly, the ground beneath the boar's feet fell away.
The boar squealed again, this time in shock and fear as it plunged down into the deep hole. The last thing it saw before the sharpened wooden spikes at the bottom of the pit impaled its small brain was the sight of the barkskin grinning from ear to ear.
————————————
Antchaser laughed as he watched the large Crystal-Tusk Boar plunge into the pit. Some of the other creatures would have been more wary, but Antchaser had learned the boars were opportunistic as a whole. They could be sly and sneaky but show any kind of weakness, and they wouldn't hesitate or doubt.
They'd been the best test subjects for his traps for years, and he'd been slightly miffed his first name hadn't been 'Boarslayer' or something similar, instead of Pitdigger. The actual Boarslayer was a brutish goblin who would constantly charge at their prey with little more than a spear and shield. No proper plan, strategy, or even skill. Just a mindless, forward charge, much like their namesake. Ok, granted, it worked most of the time, but that was only because Boarslayer was twice as big as most of the other goblins and owned one of the few marginally complete sets of armor in the village.
Antchaser scowled to himself and walked toward the edge of the large pit. He leaned over and stared at his latest catch, whistling to himself.
"Quite a big one, aren't you? I wonder how you've stayed away from the other teams?" The goblin asked the bleeding, twitching body of the large boar impaled in his pit.
"Hmmmm… I might need to call a few others over for this one…" Antchaser muttered.
The boar was as big as the carts he'd seen some humans use on the surface. Far bigger than he could drag back to the village by himself. At least not without attracting the attention of something else. He could cut off the choicest parts for himself and carry what he could, but that would mean leaving the rest for the scavengers, which seemed like a waste.
Sure, he'd have to share with whoever he brought to help, but the loss would be negligible to leaving most of this behemoth behind. Antchaser stood, then wrapped the thick Ironfur cloak he'd been kneeling on around his shoulders. He then reset the trap, hiding the body from other predators who might be attracted while he was gone. The goblin pulled a drumstick from the roast over the fire before burying the rest in the fire's ashes. The birds weren't terrible, but they were oily and better suited as bait for his traps than a proper meal.
He absentmindedly gnawed on the drumstick as he carefully made his way past the rest of his marked traps in the clearing and headed home to the village.
————————————
The shouting was the first thing that told Antchaser something was wrong.
The goblins of the village could be rowdy sometimes, sure. Deep Goblins might have been more "civilized' than their surface cousins, but they were still goblins. That said, they often limited their wild fights to holidays and celebrations. A Deep Goblin village on a normal day could be just as peaceful and safe as any human hamlet.
The second thing was the smoke.
The thick, choking smoke that only got thicker the closer he got to the village made Antchaser's heart race. As soon as it clicked, Antchaser rushed through the forest toward the village. He stopped at the border of the clearing in which sat his village, his eyes wide.
The village was on fire!
Well, part of it, at least. The front gate to the sturdy wooden wall they'd finally raised was blown off its hinges, and much of that side was a ruined, burning wreck. What had happened?! Had some kind of beast attacked? Or maybe a larger tribe had found them? Competition for prime caverns was fierce, and this wouldn't have been the first time their small village had been pushed out.
Then Antchaser noticed them. A group of figures poked through the wall's rubble and moved the still-burning logs away from the rest of the wall to prevent the fires from spreading.
Most of them were goblins, some Antchacer recognized. They looked beaten and bloody, reminding Antchaser of how they'd been when they'd first arrived in this cavern. But a few others stood to the side, laughing and pointing at the struggling goblins.
"Adventurers…" Antchaser growled to himself.
Why did it have to be adventurers?!
The Deep People of the Crimson Mountains, as a whole, not just the goblins, had a… strange relationship with the Adventurers of Halirosa. For the most part, it was cordial enough. Many tribes would trade for surface items or equipment, and some larger tribes even had their own adventurers of a sort, with outposts in the city.
But other tribes treated the adventurers as invaders, delving into their homes and stripping entire caverns of anything of value. Grand wars had been fought over the millennia for control of the Deep Tunnels and their riches. More recently, things had calmed down, with both sides more willing to approach the table for discussion rather than waste time and warriors on wars.
But every so often, you'd still hear rumors of one ancestral cavern or another beset by treasure-seeking adventurers. And now they'd come to his new home. Were they cursed to always find some kind of trouble?! Why did the heavens hate them so?
Antchaser ground his teeth in frustration as he sneaked around the village clearing. No doubt there would be more adventurers patrolling around the area, so he had to be careful.
What he knew of adventurers told him he should run. He should get as far away as possible… but he couldn't. This was his home. His family. He had to do something. Even if it was just confirming how bad the damage was.
————————————
The sneaking into the village part had been easy. They might have been adventurers, but goblins always had more than one entrance to their village, and many of them were hidden. One never knew when you had to make a hasty retreat in the dead of night.
But doing anything useful was proving more difficult. The adventurers numbered two dozen and were spread out through the village, ransacking the various huts for whatever they could find. Antchaser's small village, in contrast, numbered roughly 200 individuals, with only a quarter of those being hunters or guards of some kind, meaning only 50 goblins had any real combat power. Outnumbering the adventurers two-to-one should have been an advantage... if most of the adventurers weren't human or tall awakened beasts, almost twice the goblin's size.
Coupled with the adventurer's better gear, higher cultivation, and that 10-15 goblins were always out hunting at a time, Antchaser doubted the defense had lasted more than a few moments.
The half a dozen goblin bodies, most of them warriors, scattered around the village center attested to Antchaser's assessment.
He hid under the supports of a nearby hut, concealed by the deep shadows, and observed the scene.
Most of the village had been gathered around the village center, women and children huddled close together while the bloody and beaten men circled them as best as they could. Most of the adventurers, those not watching the goblins at the gate or searching the houses, circle the group in turn, sneering and laughing.
The largest of them, a giant of a man who towered over even his fellows, spoke to one of the cowering elders, the old man's face bleeding.
The elder looked up at the giant man and pleaded, "Please, sir! We've told you all we know! We've only come to this cavern a few months ago! Not even our best hunters have explored it fully!"
The giant man nodded sagely… then kicked the elder in the gut. It was likely a 'light' blow by the man's standard, barely more force than it took to take a step with his massive legs. For the much smaller elder, whose crouched form barely reached a more standard human's waist, it was enough to drive all the breath from his lungs and send him into the air.
The crowd of goblins gasped while the adventurers laughed as the elder tumbled through the air, then rolled to the edge of gathered goblins. Several men rushed to their elder's side and tried to assist the shaking old man. Anchaser's blood boiled as he noticed the elder cough up a mouth full of blood.
The giant adventurer spread his arms out and bellowed into the crowd. "Do you take me for a fool?! Such a rich trove of treasures, and you really expect me to believe you know so little of it? Now, I'm a patient man by principle—"
Several of the adventurers giggled, earning them glares that quickly shut them up before the giant continued. "—Yet even my patience grows thin. So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to ask questions. Someone is going to answer them. If no one does, then bones will start breaking! Am I clear!?"
In his hiding spot, Antchaser clenched his teeth to the point he could taste blood. These bastards… he was going to… going to… going to what? Charge out there with his weapon drawn? Antchaser doubted he'd even make it to the giant before he ended up as just another body lying around the village center. Even if he made it to the giant, Antchaser was barely in [Silver Spirit]. The peak [Shackle Breaking] adventurer could squash him with a single hand.
Maybe he could sneak away. Seek help from one of the larger tribes or even file a complaint with Halirosa if he could learn who these people were. Sure, that meant exposing their new home to others. But it was better to share with a known force than whatever... these people had planned. Though both options assumed he could reach either by himself and not die on the way.
No… that would take too much time. Even if the Halirosa authorities bothered to do anything, it would be too late. Maybe he could gather the hunters who were still out of the village. They would be outnumbered, but they knew the area far better. They could—.
Antchaser's train of thought was cut off as something grabbed his ankle and pulled him out from under his hiding spot, the goblin's flailing grasp coming away with nothing but mud.
Soon, he was being dangled upside down by a lanky, weaselly-looking man. Antchaser struggled but couldn't break the grinning man's grip. The giant adventurer's voice boomed from the other side of the village center. "What did you find, Seeker? Another hider?"
"Aye, it looks like it, Bosco. He even brought us a present! How nice!" The lanky man, 'Seeker,' called back.
The giant man, apparently named Bosco, raised a brow at that. "Oh? Anything good?"
Seeker grinned and ripped the cloak from Antchaser's neck. He rubbed his thumbs over the silky fur as he answered. "Ironfur leather. It's not amazing quality, but it's good enough, considering a bunch of goblins made it. It seems like they have been holding out on us! Then there's the metal!—"
Seeker held up the cloak so Bosco could see the metal vine Antchaser had pulled out of the ant's remains. "Worked metal. Mundane, but the workmanship and purity are astounding. Some of it I don't even recognize. Now, tell me, little goblin, where did you get something like this?"
Antchaser didn't bother to respond. Instead, what he did next surprised all the adventurers present. Like a cat twisting in its skin, Antchaser rose from his awkward position and grabbed onto a hidden dagger on his leg.
Before Seeker could react, Antchaser drew the dagger and slammed it into the man's wrist. Seeker yowled in pain and dropped the goblin as he clutched at his bleeding forearm. Antchaser didn't hesitate; as soon as he hit the ground, he righted himself and started running deeper into the village. He had to get out. He had to warn the other hunters.
As he rounded the corner of a nearby hut, he heard Bosco bellow out in rage, "AFTER HIM!"
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