Chapter 60 The first war - War never changes (1/2)

What is this madness Gandalf?! Why on earth are these d.a.m.nable centipedes barging in here?!

I guess it makes sense when I think about it though, the sounds of monster combat have been ringing through this area of trees for quite a while now, not to mention the powerful smell of the freshest food is permeating the area, filling the air with the rich and delectable scent of Bioma.s.s.

This place is basically the underground monster equivalent of a supermarket, its shelves laden with heaped goods, the most ripe produce, delivered direct from the farm, fully organic and ready for consumption.

It's hardly surprising that when the forest is, for whatever reason, pact to bursting with monsters the chaos would attract poachers, frenzied by the very idea of experience and food for the taking. Somewhere nearby there must be a centipede mound, similar to the one I'd preyed upon earlier, because there must be at least thirty of the horrible things here now, slithering and climbing over each other in their desperation to feast.

Perfect, just perfect. All I wanted was to snack on some part wolf part dragon monsters and here we are in some ridiculous melee.

What worries me the most is that this escalation of the battle will only increase the noise and draw even more monsters into the area. The only thing that could possibly make a monster turn a blind eye to this banquet is if a creature with overwhelming strength were to seize control of the field, scaring away compet.i.tors with its presence.

If that happens then the colony will miss out on this golden opportunity!

This is feast even larger than what we are able to harvest from the spark chimp tree. The shear wealth of Bioma.s.s and experience on offer would fuel the workers to hundreds of mutations, possibly even evolutions! The workers would benefit tremendously, growing in strength and sharpening their skills. Not to mention the food would allow the colony to raise hundreds of new ants.

Greed is exploding in my heart as I take in the sight of the monsters doing ferocious battle. Every single one of them is a bag of Xp and Bioma.s.s and I want it all. I want every bit of it.

There is nothing as ravenous as a colony of ants. On Earth regular, tiny ants are so abundant they represent almost 20% of the ma.s.s of all animals on the planet. There is no other creature that that consumes more of the world's tiny life forms than ants, they are the terrors of the undergrowth and all things are their food.

Here, in this world, we are larger, capable of feasting not only on the smallest of lifeforms, but on all of them. Every single one of them.

I can almost feel a heat rising in my body as I ponder the possibilities. Is there really anything that can match us here in this world? If my colony is able to grow and reach its full potential, is there anything that could resist us?

The colony right now is only a few hundred ants, only a single Queen.

What if there were five, six Queens. What if there were hundreds of thousands of workers? Millions? Billions?

We could sweep these caverns clean. An unstoppable wave of monsters that would carry all before it.

I'm not really a violent person, surely I wasn't in my past life, but now that I'm an ant and the colony has become my home I want them to survive. Not just survive, but to thrive, to reach their full potential. It could start here, right now.

As the centipedes crash into the back of the conflict, sandwiching the unfortunate rabbits between them and the ants I start to drop the emergency pheromone all around me. Instantly the nearby workers pick up the signal and start to copy me, blanketing the area with the scent. My antennae immediately explode with sensation as the same signal pounds into my senses over and over again.

Emergency! Battle! Defend the colony! Summon the workforce! Emergency!

The entire area is saturated with the message, I even see workers disengage from the battle to run back to the ant hill, spreading the trail all the way back to the top of the hill and down into the tunnels. Every worker will pick up the message, even those tending to the brood and the Queen. The Queen herself might even appear, much as she did last time.

It's definitely a risk if she were to come here. If she were set upon by gargoyles from above or even a giant bruiser like Tiny was or the t.i.tan-Croc, I'm not sure if she would be able to survive, I've no idea how capable she is in combat after all.