HC:Pacifist | Ch. 141 - Glue Gun

Nothing happened.

Inspect!

Even after trying again, Roth couldn’t inspect the ants’ crops. Roth frowned. The blindfold. Even though he could still get system notifications, he couldn’t inspect items. He scratched his beard. Was this a good idea? Should he just take the blindfold off? He shrugged. He wasn’t really in a hurry now, was he? He was out of the reach of Pegasus. He would just come back later and see the specs on the items.

The question was how he’d find this place again. Back in his days of gaming in New Earth, there had been some system commands that he had memorized. Sometimes, it was helpful to be able to send a system command without having to use one’s hands. Having to look for a potion in an inventory or coordinates on the map when surrounded by enemies and swinging weapons left and right was suicide. It had been years, but hopefully, he remembered the command he needed.

“Save coordinates.”

Nothing happened.

“Pin map.”

Pin added to your map.

Roth pressed a palm to his heart. That was good. This way, he could save much time tracing his steps back here. He really wanted to see the consumables’ specs. Even though his eyes were covered, his broker’s nose smelled the sweet scent of profit.

Roth started imagining the kind of products that he could get from this city. The ants were farmers and herders. Just here, there was the potential for a series of products that he could export. If only Soros were here to see this.

As he thought of Soros, he had an idea. Antioch was a city. It wasn’t a human city, but a city nonetheless. If that was the case, Antioch had to have the same infrastructures considered vital everywhere else. Since there were NPCs and crafting facilities like this fungi farm, if Roth's hunch was correct, there had to be an auction house. Maybe there was even a teleportation gate!

After all, every human city had a teleportation gate. It wasn’t too farfetched to assume the treeants would have one here too. If that was true, he could easily escape Pegasus’ siege! He addressed an ant passing by. Unfortunately, without using his eyes, he couldn’t inspect it. But he was still trying to unlock the title, so old-fashioned introductions would have to do for now.

“Hello. My name is Pax.”

“Hello, martyr. I had heard the gossip about a human roaming Antioch, but I can see now that the stories are true. My name is Alex.”

“Excuse me, Mr. Alex.”

“Ms. Alex.”

“So sorry.”

Roth had forgotten that all worker ants were female. Males were very few, only bred for the purpose of reproduction with the queens. “I was wondering; I'm trying to understand how the city works and was hoping you could point me in the right direction.”

“All is good. But make it quick. I’m busy.”

“Of course. What ant isn’t? The colony needs our whole-souled work!

Alex is pleased that someone notices the importance of working for the colony.

+1 reputation with the treeants.

“Do you have a teleportation gate?”

“We do.” As Roth heard this, his heart skipped a beat. He had found a way out! The ant’s following words instantly shattered his expectations. “But it’s off limits to visitors.”

“But can’t I…?”

“I’m sorry, martyr. You’re a friend of our people, but the expenditure of bioenergy required for teleportation is massive. We only use it in emergencies.”

“Of course, it is…” It seemed they wouldn’t let him use their teleportation if he didn’t unlock some sort of requirement. Perhaps he needed to gain more reputation points.

“What about an auction house?”

“It is in soft-scent, thick-bark, pine-tree #3.”

“I beg your pardon?” Was this an address? Could it be? “Is the auction house inside one of the woodland trees?”

“Of course. How else could we operate advanced technology if not using a computer? Human, are you right in the head? If you’re going to waste my time with pointless questions, I will just leave.”

“Sorry. I don’t know what got into me. And how can I get to soft-scent, thick-bark pine tree #3?”

“It's easier if I show you.” A series of images flashed in Roth's mind. The ant directed him telepathically through the route he would have to take. There were many directions to take. Roth lost track after the fifth curve left.

Coordinates for Antioch’s auction house added to your map.

He sighed in relief hearing the system’s narrator. There was only one small issue. He couldn’t see the map right now! He was blindfolded.

“Huh. Thank you.”

The ant took off, rushing to its destination. Roth let out a deep sigh. It was just as he feared. It wasn’t going to be that simple to complete his quest.

After talking to Alex, Roth confirmed that Antioch wasn't just an underground ant's nest. It was even more colossal than that. It was a network of trees connected by a myriad of tunnels. It made the city even more humongous than Roth had imagined. It also made it annoying because getting anywhere would take him a ridiculous amount of traveling.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t see the map right now. Since he was limited by his sense of sight and couldn’t access the map, he took another approach. He turned to the nearest ant.

“Excuse me, can you point me to the nearest workstation?”

“Of course. It’s good to see someone who wants to work. Here.”

Since he had asked for the nearest, the number of turns and directions were much easier to digest. He was only a few intersections away from the location. “Thank you! Have a good day of work!”

“Of course. What else would I do with my day?” The ant scurried off, and so did Roth.

Roth wondered how other players would fare in this city. If he hadn’t been friends with the ants, he would have been shredded to pieces by their patrolling soldiers. Even though the highest-level players were in their 50s, there was no way they could travel freely in Antioch unless they built a relationship with the treeants first.

Following the ant's directions, Roth kept heading downward, deeper into the city. He wondered what kind of workstation he would find here. He had forgotten to ask what they did there. He really should do so next time. Otherwise, he risked being sent from larder to larder or from fungi farm to fungi farm.

Roth found the place and waited for the turtle ant to open the door for him. But even with the door closed, his mind could peer through the wall and glimpse what was happening. When Roth used his mind’s eye to navigate the colony, he could only see the ants, not the cargo they carried. He couldn’t feel mindless objects. He could only tell the difference between an ant that was carrying nothing from one that was loaded with cargo from the sense of effort that leaked into their mental waves.

But this time, he could see what the ants were carrying even from this side of the wall. They were tiny motes of light. What could it be? He focused his full attention on one of them. And almost jumped back as it spoke back to him.

“Ba ba ba, ma. (Burp)”

What? It sounded like a baby. Could these be the colony’s larvae? In the meantime, the turtle ant opened the door, and Roth followed the other ants, waiting to get in. Now, within the chamber that housed the workstation, he approached one of the adult ants and spoke to it.

“Hello, I’m Pax.”

“Hello, martyr. I’m a little busy now.” In a gentler voice, the ant continued, “Here, here, little one. A little more. Good. Good job.”

“What are you doing?”

“Weaving.” Roth’s heart skipped a beat. Weaving? He had just found the ant tailors. With renewed excitement, Roth decided to squeeze every drop of information he could from Antioch’s tailors.

“And the baby is helping?”

“Oh yes. Without its silk, we could never weave. I’m sorry, are you planning to talk more to me? I need to focus here. I’m trying to finish an order for a mantle. It’s for one of our soldiers.”

“Sure. Don’t mind me. Can I watch you working?”

“Fine.” The mental attention of the ant was now entirely focused on the baby on its lap. “Yes, little one, more silk, please. Good job. Good job. You’ll be a strong ant one day. Good.”

Roth gasped. Ant workers were using the colony’s larvae as glue guns! They used their antennae and gentle mental commands to encourage the larvae to excrete silk. Didn’t that break child labor laws? Were even the babies put to work in this place? Honing in on the mental waves of the baby, he detected nothing but joy. They were enjoying the work.

Something else he noticed about ant weavers is they all worked as a team. He couldn’t sense one single ant in this whole chamber who was working alone. There was always a team of them cooperating. It was a similar sight to when he had first visited Tailor Street in Hilsford and had seen that team of tailors making a tent. Too bad that he could only see the workers and their glue guns. He wished he could see how they were spinning the silk and the objects they were making. The urge to remove his blindfold was stronger than ever, but he quieted it down.

He had to be patient to unlock some title from this. For now, he issued a voice command to pin this location on his map. He’d visit again later.

He observed the ants and the larvae together. He saw one of the tiny motes of light closest to him lose some of its shine and eavesdropped on the conversation.

“Good job, little one. You gave it your all for the colony. Now, let’s get you filled up with yummy food so that you can have the energy to make more silk. OK?”

The ant took the larva to a corner and then picked a shinier one filled with energy and silk. Having seen this, Roth noticed many other adult ants doing the same thing. Their glue guns had run out of battery and needed their diapers changed.

He noticed ants coming from a tunnel, bringing larvae full of silk. They dropped a full larva, picked up a spent one, and traveled back into the tunnel. Where were they taking them? He decided to follow after them.

As he did, Roth realized that the trail of ants carrying the larvae was heavily guarded. There were ten times as many ant soldiers guarding the tunnels and many more checkpoints where turtle ants stood ready to block the tunnels at a moment’s notice.

The trail was going ever downward toward the heart of the colony. After walking for several minutes, Roth found the biggest concentration of soldiers he’d seen yet. There were whole squads of them patrolling the entrance to the chamber where the weaver ants were taking the tired larvae.

Fortunately, none of them stopped him. Roth sighed in relief. It was a good thing he had been the one to discover the city and the race. This had earned him more than enough reputation points to be granted access everywhere in the city except for the teleportation gate. He still needed clarification on that. After all, a teleportation gate was a vital infrastructure. It was one of the most accessible structures in human cities. Why was it so hard to access it here?

He was met with the brightest chamber as he followed the ants. There were millions upon millions of tiny little motes of light and a choir of crying, burping, and baby talk. Hundreds of thousands of workers were also attending to all the babies everywhere, bringing them food from the colony's larders and cellars.

What was capturing Roth’s attention the most, though, were the massive, brilliant presences that were blinding his mind. He had found the queen’s chambers.

Ch. 140 - Wool Over One's Eyes

INDEX 

Ch. 142 - Palatial Skirmish