Chapter 258 The feast, the grind, the spend (1/2)
There isn't much time and I still want to work on myself as much as possible. I have skills I need to grow and a whole heck of mutations I need to purchase to get myself in fighting shape.
I don't want to take my superiority for granted anymore. After losing half of my commercial district to a hostile takeover by the child of Garralosh, I know I need to wise up and get as strong as I can, as fast as I can. My family needs to protected until it can grow large enough and strong enough that it can take care of itself.
At that point I can sit back and relax and let the colony take care of me for a change. Maybe take a holiday. How does an ant take a holiday? I'll work something out. Do some digging for fun or something.
Vibrant and her posse are already in the Dungeon somewhere, farming their little hearts out, so I let the Queen know that I'm heading to the Dungeon for a day and make my way to the shortcut. As we make our way out of the anthill and towards the shortcut I can see the activity in the village, feverish as always. They have so many projects on the go I can't understand how they get the energy. They're working on the wall, still putting up buildings and somehow there are more people doing weapons training than there were before.
Apparently there's another Dungeon entrance out there somewhere that Morrelia knows about and she's going to start taking her crew down on short expeditions. Apparently having had the first twenty combat cla.s.sed individuals powered through the first levels is enough and now they can handle some short delves and power level their own people. With Morrelia and her people helping, I'm sure they'll be fine.
The shortcut is still sp.a.w.ning plant monsters and the odd beast. We smash our way through these freshly sp.a.w.ned beasts, barely stopping to eat until we reach the bottom and make our way into the expanse.
The scene here is very different to what I remember. The sound of vicious combat and the roars and growls of monsters on the hunt echoes throughout the s.p.a.ce. Very different to the eerie lack of activity that occurred under the suppression of the Croc.
Needless to say I like it a lot more now.
Without the newly sp.a.w.ned monsters being sucked in by the oppressive aura and send out in marauding waves the expanse is suddenly flush with life, the enhanced sp.a.w.n speed of the wave contributing to the vibrant atmosphere.
Perfect hunting ground!
Twelve hours later, Tiny, Crinis and I crawl out of the expanse towards the shortcut.
Why, why is it always so filthy!?
Once again I'm covered in a fragrant mix of dirt, ichor and swamp water. Tiny also looks quite ridiculous, his fur matted and wet, stuck to his body and covered in muck. Only Crinis is unaffected, a spherical blob of darkness, unsullied by anything unwanted.
How the heck does she do it?
The expanse had been full of activity, plants versus turtle hippos and various other monsters crawling out of the woodwork to battle. I checked in on the aphid population only to find them still relaxing, unchallenged on top of the foliage. It seems even in the aggression filled Dungeon, monsters won't bother killing a creature that will happily feed them so long as they leave it alone.