Chapter 362 Return and Nes (1/2)
”Are you returning to the colony, Eldest?” one of the scouts came up to ask.
”Yep! It's time for me to evolve.”
”With your permission Eldest I shall inform the council of this event.”
”Go for it,”
Once I reached the front I started to run into more and more scouts and soldiers, as well as other castes mixed into the small raiding teams. It appeared as if the colony was scaling down their raiding operations, withdrawing the forward squads to the nest in order to spend the final hours before the battle preparing and resting. Which made a lot of sense really. Ensuring the ground was prepared and the warriors of the colony where fresh would make a huge difference compared to the starved and tired horde monsters who'd been forced to march for a week solid on almost no food.
Even though the ants started with very poor stats, it shouldn't be forgotten that every ant was a tier three monster after having gone through the training program, the same tier as me. They didn't have the benefit of maxed evolutions like I had, but they were certainly a cut above the average monster in the horde. Bizarrely enough this fight would be a battle of quant.i.ty against quality, and the colony of ants would be on the quality side of the equation.
At least that was true for the general horde. Garralosh and her children were a whole different kettle of fish. That's where the Queen and I came into the equation. Hopefully it would be enough to tip the balance.
”Off to evolve are you, Eldest? Keep up the hard work!”
”When am I not working hard?!”
”That's the spirit!”
Gah! The closer we came to the nest the more ants we b.u.mped into. Running back and forth between the nest and the front, pa.s.sing messages and keeping eyes on the situation, or just returning to regroup or sleep. Each and every one of them was happy to chip in with a comment, which is nice on the one hand but gets exhausting after a few hundred repet.i.tions.
Even still, it was nice to be wanted.
My pets and I made sure to motor as quick as we could, but even so it took several hours to make it back to the nest. Colony activity continued to rise, we found workers digging here and there, soldiers patrolling and scouts rus.h.i.+ng here and there. It felt good to be back amongst the family again. The heart of the family.
I couldn't help but let my mind wander over what had occurred in the time I'd been gone. Had the Queen evolved yet? Had the defences been completed? How many new ants had been born and trained whilst I'd been away? I was also looking forward to the progress that had been made by the different artisan castes over the previous week. The ants were collaborating and pus.h.i.+ng themselves so hard that their speed of development was getting out of control.
When I tried to picture what the colony would be like in a year's time, I just couldn't. I knew that the ants would have incredible potential if I was able to increase their intelligence, but how could I have antic.i.p.ated that it would be this successful? If we were able to survive the coming battle, the sky would be the limit for my colony.
Or the centre, more to the point.