Thankfully, this awkward moment is resolved in the best way possible when both of the humanoids collapse to the ground, passed out. My siblings around me react with general confusion before they shrug their collective antennae and grab the two prisoners to take back to the Colony for questioning. I do step in to ensure that we take their supplies back with us, which a few soldiers and scouts step forward to do. I imagine these two are going to want some clothes when they wake up.
A detachment of thirty return to the nest while the rest of us continue to make our sweep. The monsters are densely packed here in these tunnels and even with our mage ants teaming up to firebomb the hazardous corals, webs, seaweed and various other deadly things that fill up the space here in the second strata, it takes time.
It's taken me a long time, but I'm finally starting to get the hang of this place. It's always freezing cold, which isn't ideal for us ants. There are many species of ant who hibernate in the winter, we aren't fans of low temperatures at all. Fire magic provides some relief, the ants huddle around flames that burn constantly around the mages when they need a little warmth. Apart from the cold, the dark is the second issue. It's oppressive, and every ant who's come down here has been drilled to train their mana sense, regardless how poor their mental stats may happen to be. Relying on our completely rubbish natural eyesight would be a recipe for utter disaster!
I know that some members of the Colony have been experimenting with different mutations for vision. Rather than doing as I've done, and just brute force quality mutations to try and bring back something akin to human levels of focus from a compound eye, they've been switching to infrared, or hyper-sensitive movement detection, or vibration vision.
Almost all of which sound cooler than what I chose. Not being able to see was a real point of stress for me after I spawned in the Dungeon! I needed that comfort!
After spending another half day poking deeper into the Dungeon, sweeping out tunnels and expanding our map, I decide to pull the pin and drag Vibrant back to the nest. We profited a lot in terms of experience and Biomass, I even managed to force the secret squad to level up, which is a hidden bonus, but we failed to detect any sign of the coming invasion, and meeting aside, I don't want to get much further away from the rest of the family in case the invasion sneaks past us.
So back we go, it takes a while to retrace our steps, we pushed a fair way down, but after a nearly a day of climbing, we make it back home to the nest.
"What. In the name of heck. Are you wearing?" I say to Leeroy.
"Armour."
"But… why?"
"To keep me alive."
"I get that… Just… I mean, has it worked?"
"Extremely well."
She sounds miserable admitting that.
"And there's a group of you that wear this?"
"Five of us now."
That's is literally tons of metal being forged to make that much armour…
"So this is the Leeroy squad then? Your team? What are you called?"
"I didn't want us to have a name," Leeroy hedges.
"But someone came up with one anyway?" I press her, "surely a team with this many resources poured into them has got a name. The council loves naming stuff."
They seem obsessed with it these days.
"Maybe someone did…" Leeroy mutters.
"Out with it Leeroy," I demand, "it can't be that bad."
"… The Immortals."
"Oof. That's rough, Leeroy," I try to comfort her. I know that the idea of being immune to death would be a miserable situation for her.
"Do you really mean that, Eldest?" she perks up.
"No. I hope you live for a thousand years before you finally die in a tunnel collapse or something. Stop being stupid." I reprimand her. "You're not a hatchling anymore, you need to live and work."
"I suppose so," she says, but I can see her heart isn't in it.
"Look on the bright side," I relent, "now that you have this armour and a group to work with, odds are the generals are going use you on the frontline in the upcoming battles. You'll be right in the thick of the danger, where the fighting is hottest! That doesn't sound so bad, does it?"
"I suppose not…" I can see the gears turning in her head. There's absolutely no chance the generals will send her in without some plan to extract her out again, but I can let her dream a little I suppose. I'm too soft dammit!
"By the way, Eldest, you were supposed to pay a visit to Smithant at some point soon, she's really excited about it."
There's a hint of ill feeling in Leeroy's pheromones as she mentions the name, but I don't recognise it.
"Who's this?" I ask.
"Smithant, the crafter who came up with this idea," she raps her helmet with one antenna for emphasis.
"You mean it wasn't Tungstant or Cobalt who came up with this?" I'm genuinely shocked.
"No, they hated the idea. This one nutter was obsessed with it and now I'm stuck with this."
Fascinating!
"I'll definitely pay her a visit!" I tell Leeroy as she turns to leave. She waves a weary antenna back at me and I continue on my way deeper into the nest.
The place is absolutely jumping with activity. Even more crowded than before, the many layers of pheromone trails have been overlain with all new scents. Construction teams for nests two and three, resource transportation and storage trails, even a tea room!
Hold up. A team room?! I have to see this. So thinking, I turn from my path toward the council chamber and scuttle along, following the path around the many twists and turns of the nest until I come to an area on the outskirts of the nest. The tunnels are thinner and more narrow here, to the point I just barely squeeze in, my legs pinched up against my sides. The chambers are smaller too, with doors on them for some reason. When the heck did we start making doors?
When I make it to the end of the trail and stick my head into this so called 'tea-room' I realise exactly what this area is for. Inside, I find Enid, Beyn, Torrina and Corun engaged in conversation, seated in comfortable wooden furniture, replete with cushions, around a dainty table. The entire room is bedecked with all the trimmings of a fine human home, with cupboards, fine china and a tea pot lovingly wrought in the shape of an ant's head.
After a moment of whipping up a mind mana construct, I intrude into what was clearly a cosy conversation.
[You lot are all looking very comfortable. Any work getting done around here?]
They've seen me already, hard not to notice such a shiny head poking through the open door, not to mention my size.
[A great deal of work, in fact,] Enid snaps back, a little waspish. [Some of us have been negotiating on behalf of your Colony for the entire day against stubborn, greedy, idiotic merchants and over-privileged morons.]
I twitch my mandibles in surprise. It's unlike Enid to be so rude!
[Ah, thanks Enid. How'd it all go? The Colony brought you in to do all the talking, I suppose. Wasn't my idea, you can't blame me.]
The old mayor sighs and raises a hand to massage her brow as Torrina and Corun sip their tea, content to observe rather than contribute.
[I apologise, Anthony. The talks have been glacially slow, and it doesn't help that I have to explain the details in excruciating detail to the ants immediately after I finish haggling with the damn delegates.]
I can imagine my siblings are quite interested in learning about this sort of thing. Negotiations between rival powers aren't something the Colony has had to deal with in the past. Come to think of it, no ant would have had to deal with these issues in the history of Pangera.
[If they're being difficult, surely there's a few things we can do to hustle the dialogue along?]
She thinks for a moment before a slow smile dawns on her face.
[If you have the time, I'm sure we can work something out…]
