Chrysalis Chapter 1 The bleary days preceding the panic (114)

1 The bleary days preceding the panic (114)

Tiny finally wakes up after several hours of exhausting defense; his injuries have mostly mended, and the spark of battle has returned to his eyes. I am so drained that I can barely process a coherent thought, so I command him to hold the entrance until I return. Moving further back into the tunnel, I collapse onto my face, completely spent.

A wave of Torpor washes over me, feeling as comforting as a warm embrace or a heavy blanket.

My eyes remain open, yet my thoughts begin to decelerate, sinking like thick molasses until they reach a near standstill. This is the true rest of ant-kind!

I feel significantly rejuvenated when I wake up several hours later. The suffocating weight of my previous exhaustion has largely vanished. Between the rest and the Biomass I consumed earlier, most of my wounds have sealed shut, nearly restoring my HP to its maximum.

A pleasant surprise awaits me upon waking: a dark-colored gem. It is the core of the Jellymaw I took down. The colony must have extracted it from the leftover Biomass and placed it here for me, acknowledging that I was the one who earned the kill.

Such a thoughtful gesture! Truly, the workers are the finest siblings one could ask for!

Though I am tempted to absorb the core immediately, I hesitate and decide to postpone it. Instead, I bury the gem in the wall alongside the other cores I’ve stashed in the escape tunnel.

I hurry back to the front lines as quickly as possible.

I find Tiny standing cheerfully as part of the defensive wall, with workers scurrying over him. The poor ape is once again riddled with wounds, a clear sign that the monster wave hasn't slowed down at all during my slumber.

Indeed, the chamber ahead is still a chaotic battlefield of monsters fighting for their lives!

[Do you have enough energy for one more offensive?] I ask my ape companion.

Tiny snaps his head toward me, making eye contact and nodding with a wide grin spreading across his face.

I should have known; his love for combat is rivaled only by his love for food!

With Tiny’s assistance, I activate the Gravity Domain once more, and we work in tandem to purge the room. Once the area is cleared, I lead the workers out to harvest as much Biomass as possible, ensuring the colony’s food supply remains stable. Following my orders, Tiny drags a large portion of food into the tunnel and gorges himself before drifting off to sleep, resting while I take over the watch.

Thus begins our long vigil. Every few hours, we rotate, one resting while the other stands firm against the unending spawns of monsters. During my second shift, I took the initiative to clear out excess dirt whenever there was a lull in the fighting. I organized the workforce to move back up the tunnel while I guarded the entrance, collecting the earth shifted by the Queen and her excavation team at the far end. I then transported it to the Queen’s chamber and piled it up, partially obstructing the entrance.

This allowed us to narrow the tunnel opening while simultaneously creating more space within the escape route.

I didn't want to seal the entrance entirely; while the Dungeon spawns were a constant threat, they were also our primary food source. Every time I woke from a rest, my Gravitational Energy gland was sufficiently charged to maintain the Gravity Domain until nearly every beast in the chamber was dead, providing Tiny, the colony, and myself with the sustenance needed to heal and continue the fight.

However, there was a price to pay. Despite my best efforts and Tiny pushing his strength to the limit every time he was awake, we couldn't protect every worker on the front lines. Occasionally, a powerful monster would spawn and strike with mana or claws before I could intervene, or combatants would lose their way and tumble directly into the ant swarm. While those monsters were always swiftly dealt with, an unlucky worker or two would sometimes be killed before we could save them.

Each loss was painful. I didn't view these workers as mere tools or monsters different from myself. They possessed their own innocent, childlike intelligence, and I embraced them as family; I wanted to protect every single one. We had grown significantly tougher on the front lines, and several of my siblings had successfully evolved from hatchlings to workers as the hours passed. While scanning with my mana sensing, I even discovered that some mature workers had managed to condense a core! It was a milestone truly worth celebrating!

This relentless grind was providing benefits to the colony, even as it wore down our spirits.

The first major change occurred after four cycles of combat and rest.

Fortunately, I was the one on duty when it happened. Near the end of my shift, battered and weary from the non-stop fighting, I almost missed the warning signs. I had become so accustomed to watching the battle directly in front of me and sensing for heat signatures in the walls or the upper tunnel that I had nearly forgotten my original concern.

The tunnel below.

The passage leading deeper into the Dungeon had been mostly blocked off during the initial hours of digging the escape tunnel. I had never explored it, too anxious about what horrors might be lurking down there. I had grown so used to ignoring that direction that when the sounds of combat beneath me shifted, I didn't immediately understand the significance.

Initially, it was just a faint scratching noise buried under the cacophony of battle, and I barely registered it. My mind, dull from hours of vigilance, merely made a mental note before refocusing on the immediate threats.

But the sound grew louder over time.

Eventually, the scraping became distinct—a steady background noise to the frantic sounds in front of me. Then, the echoes from the lower chambers changed; the rhythmic clashing of battle was replaced by the frantic shrieking of maddened monsters and a deeply unsettling chewing sound.

It took a moment for my exhausted brain to realize the implications.

The monsters from the depths are climbing up!

A second shock hit me at that exact moment. Out of the corner of my eye, a shimmering light caught my attention at just the right angle, distracting me from the noises below.

What I witnessed made my blood run cold.

The mana veins, the very energy source of this Dungeon, are beginning to grow into the escape tunnel! As I watched these new veins spread, my dread intensified.

Not only were the veins growing, but they were expanding so rapidly that their movement was visible to the naked eye! It was slow, but undeniably moving!

This is not good….

HEADS UP!

If you are a new reader, please be aware that this is actually chapter 114, not chapter 1.

The earlier chapters have been compiled into a book for Amazon and are being removed from the web.

For now, you can still find them on Royal Road (until June), or you can access the entire novel up to chapter 900+ in epub format by joining my Patreon for $1 (also until June).

RinoZ