Chapter 319 Reunite with the family (1/2)

By the time we came within reach of the colony's scent trails I'd managed to level external mana manipulation twice, and we were completely exhausted. Tiny was stumbling with every step, the poor guy was the heaviest of all of us by quite the margin and the hard running had worn him down. Stamina had levelled again for me at least, but only the once, proving just what kind of ridiculous effort was required to get that skill to level up.

Crinis had declined to evolve on the journey itself, preferring to use the time riding on my back to contemplate her skills, Bioma.s.s spend and the direction she wanted to take in her all-important evolution. When I could spare it, I turned my own thoughts to the possible upcoming evolution. I had no idea how the colony would be able to bring down a monster like Garralosh but if I was to do my bit, then I needed to be as strong as possible. Getting six levels in a short amount of time would be difficult without any higher tier monsters to chomp on but it wasn't impossible.

The first scent trail I came upon tingled against my antennae as the pheromones registered on my sense of smell.

”Bioma.s.s source in this direction has been exhausted. >:)”

More scent-mojis!

Looks like the colony has been raiding towards the north in search of surface monsters to fuel the colony's growth. They must have been successful if they managed to wipe them out. Hopefully the workforce was ready to begin to hunt in the Dungeon, if they hadn't already. Vibrant had been taking her personal posse of workers down there for a while now, but the full time raids needed to start en ma.s.se. We didn't have much time and the colony needs to grow as much as possible.

Morrelia and I discussed briefly how much time it would take for Garralosh to arrive at the village and she gave us a week. Maybe a little more. It was a heap of time, and precious little at the same time.

We slowed a pace a little, this close to the finish line. The scent trails became thicker and more frequent the closer we got until we started to run into small patrols of workers.

”h.e.l.lo Eldest!” they greeted me, ”work hard!”

I'm always working hard dammit!

”How are things with the colony?” I called to them as we pa.s.sed by.

”Busy!” one of them called back.

Wise guy.

It's a colony of ants! Of course things are busy!

Morrelia must have noticed something about the interaction because she reached out to me over the mind bridge.

[Do you talk to each other?] she enquired.

Ugh. Letting the humans know more about the colony could be a risk but also a sign of trust. It's not as if they could overhear what we say to each other, so I don't really see the risk in it… Perhaps I've just grown to trust Morrelia a little more over our time together, which is possibly what she wanted out of this expedition. At any rate, I decide to answer the question.

[We do] I admitted, [we can talk to each other using our pheromones. It was pretty basic at first but has grown more complex lately. We can talk pretty much as well as humans can.]

Better, if you include the development of the scent-moji.

[What did they say?] she asked curiously.

[I asked how things are with the colony and she told me it's 'busy'.]

Morrelia stared at me for a moment before throwing back her head and laughing.

[It's a colony of ants!] she chortled, [of course they're busy!]

Exactly!

Fifteen minutes later we parted ways, Morrelia to head to the village and myself toward the colony. The workers were thicker now, bustling here and there and it wasn't long before the saw the anthill in the distance.

What in the name of great googly-moogly!?!?!