Chrysalis Chapter 4 Raid

This hunger is absolutely unbearable!

During my time as a human, I never would have guessed that excavation could be this exhausting. However, I’m able to shift a staggering amount of earth compared to my previous life. My mandibles function like a pair of high-powered, organic shovels, and when combined with my excavation skill guiding my instincts, I can carve out tunnel space at an incredible pace.

This heavy labor is really taking a toll on my empty stomach. Once Tiny woke up, I tasked him with gathering my monster cores before putting him to work packing down the loose soil at the back of the tunnel. Even though he ate not that long ago, my ape companion is also clearly famished.

I can only imagine what the Queen is going through. On the surface, she seems perfectly fine, happily biting through the dirt and lifting everyone's spirits with her relentless optimism.

I have to admit, my focus isn't entirely on the digging. I’m activating my mana sensing skill as often as possible, scouring the area for any hint of a food source! On the bright side, this constant cycle of scanning and digging has improved my abilities; mana sensing has jumped up two levels while excavation has gained one. On the downside, I still haven't found a single thing.

According to my mental map, our escape route continues to spear upward and outward into the unknown. I’m a bit anxious about where we’ll eventually surface, but at the very least, we should be several kilometers away from that guarded entrance I stumbled upon earlier.

Just as I’m starting to get truly discouraged by the lack of results, I finally pick something up.

At last! A hit!

As the skill level increased, the range at which I can successfully detect mana has also grown. It’s a stroke of luck, as I doubt I would have caught this signal otherwise. Right at the very edge of my perception, I can just barely feel the faint ripples of mana. I can't determine if it's a strong or weak signal yet; I'll need to get closer to get a precise reading.

It has been hours since the colony last had anything to eat. Furthermore, if I ignore this signal, there’s no guarantee another one will appear before we hit the surface. If that happens, the entire colony might starve to death!

I won't take that risk. We need to redirect the path. I turn toward the Queen.

"I've located a food source!" I announce. "We need to slightly alter our course to reach it."

The Queen stops her work and turns her head toward me. I view this as a gesture of politeness, considering that as an ant, she doesn't actually need to face me to see me with her compound eyes, nor does she need to face me to communicate via pheromones.

"Do you know what it is you have discovered, child?" she inquires.

I can only be blunt. "I have no idea, but if we don't find sustenance soon, we might all starve within a few days. If we let this opportunity pass, we might not get another one."

The Queen considers this for a moment before waving her antennae in approval. "Your reasoning is sound, child. Show me where we must dig."

After using my antennae to probe the surroundings and feeling out the terrain with my excavation skill, I shift the tunnel's trajectory. I begin curving our path toward the mana source I sensed.

If we periodically adjust our heading as we get closer, we should be able to position ourselves right above the source. Then, I can dig a short distance down to it, allowing Tiny and me to scout it out without putting the workers at unnecessary risk.

The signal I detected is roughly two hundred meters away. Carving through two hundred meters of dense rock and earth is no small feat, even for a colony of monstrous digging machines like us.

It takes approximately five hours of grueling work to push the tunnel toward the mana. Throughout the process, I keep sinking my consciousness into my core, reaching out with my senses to catch the radiating ripples.

As the distance closes, the nature of the mana source becomes clearer. It doesn't take long before I realize exactly what we’ve stumbled upon: a tunnel, and a relatively narrow one at that. Relief and joy surge through my thorax as I confirm the shape. This is ideal! A tunnel lined with mana veins is guaranteed to be crawling with monsters—also known as lunch. Because the passage is narrow, the size of those monsters should be manageable.

After scanning the area several times, I detect only a few small cores moving around before they drift out of range. This is the best possible outcome. We might even be able to harvest some cores while we're at it!

Once the main tunnel reaches the right spot, I give the Queen the correct heading to keep the colony on track while I start digging a separate, short shaft of my own. I need to push downward toward my meal—I mean, the tunnel...

[Tiny! Get up here and prepare to eat!]

I swear it takes less than ten seconds for Tiny to sprint from one end of the tunnel to the other. Drool is already leaking from his bat-like face as he pushes past the workers to reach my digging site.

....

Maybe I shouldn't have summoned him so early. This ape is far too hyped up. The hunger burning in his eyes looks intense enough to reduce everything in this tunnel to cinders. I invited him to a fight and a feast; I really should have anticipated this reaction!

It takes me ten minutes to dig down to the prey chamber. The whole time, Tiny is nervously hopping from foot to foot, tearing at the walls of my small shaft to widen it so he can fit through more easily.

Suddenly, the dirt in front of me collapses, and the pungent scent of monsters floods my senses.

[Tiny! It's dinner time, buddy!]