"Explain to me please, why you would ever think that sticking your head into a blast furnace would be a good idea?" I demanded of the hatchling, still dangling from one of Crinis' tentacles.
"I wanted to see what it looked like inside!" she protests.
"Inside? Inside is nothing but fire, superheated gas and liquid metal!"
"REALLY?!" she goggles at me. "Sounds awesome!"
"Yes," I nod sagely, "it IS awesome. It will also melt your face off and yo...
2021-05-24 10:22:38 +0000 UTC
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The hatchling is practically vibrating with excitement as she watches all the action and I can already sense the thought of running off to explore further forming in her mind. This little thing! She needs to chill out, yeesh! Rather than toss her to Invidia for time out, I head off her burgeoning escape attempt by offering to take her deeper into the nest so we can watch the process bear out further, an offer she readily agrees to.
It take a little while to follow the looping tunnels, b...
2021-05-22 10:28:00 +0000 UTC
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[Alright Invidia, you can spit her out now.]
With a wet splat the hatchling is deposited onto the tunnel floor in front of me still dripping with demon saliva. With a shiver she begins to shake her legs and abdomen in an attempt to cleanse herself of the goo. She has a little success before furiously cleaning her antennae, dragging them through the elbow joints of her front legs over and over again to clean the delicate hairs that line the appendage.
"I really thought we were gett...
2021-05-20 07:58:16 +0000 UTC
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"You must be kind of a big deal, huh?" the hatchling observes, staring up at a giant statue of me carved from glittering stone.
"Ahem! You can ignore that. Come on, we have more interesting things to see."
"This is amazing to look at," she says as I drag her away, "I wonder who made it?"
"So do I," I grumble.
One of these days I'm going to catch that blasted artist and give them a piece of my mind. Of all the things they could have devoted themselves to, making statues...
2021-05-19 11:34:55 +0000 UTC
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While the hatchling enjoyed a little solitary education, we moved back out beyond the defensive lines of the territory to drive back the swarming monsters for possibly the final time. The mana levels continued their slow draw down and with every hour that passed the spawn rate of monsters began to gradually recede. I was hugely relieved that we had managed to get through this wave without having to confront any monsters of too high a tier. My last evolution had really driven home to me the ex...
2021-05-18 07:01:59 +0000 UTC
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Universal education. It's a desirable principle, but how many times has it been achieved on Pangera in any meaningful way? The only large society to apply this idea in a wide scale, to my knowledge anyway, is the Colony. Though it might not last long, the education every hatchling receives is certainly intensive, covering almost all aspects of operations within the Colony. The curriculum is focused on the breadth of knowledge an ant will need to fit into their society, how to work and fun...
2021-05-17 11:38:37 +0000 UTC
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The thing about the tunnels in the second stratum is that they're freezing cold, like really cold. What's more, when you get this deep, they reek of death mana, which when combined by the near total darkness makes them a rather unpleasant place to be. It's like being in a graveyard at night where it's permanently raining. As an insect, I can't say that this is the most pleasant environment for me, though I don't suffer as much as a regular ant would.
I mean, the entire Colony would have...
2021-05-15 11:24:28 +0000 UTC
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"How long have you got?" Advant asked, her scent distracted and her antennae wavering busily back and forth.
"Not long," replied Brendant, similarly occupied, "I'm only off shift for under an hour and I had to travel to get here."
"I also have a lot of places to be," Victor looked tired but a determined light sparkled in her eyes.
"I don't know why you don't have that much time, I usually have heaps of time. Although I suppose I do move a lot faster than you. Maybe you just ...
2021-05-14 11:47:40 +0000 UTC
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The battle yet raged, a full hearted defence of the Colony demanded the attention and resources of every caste and every council member worked (almost) around the clock to ensure the family would ride through the trouble, greater and stronger than ever before. In many ways, the current Colony was like an egg, a hard shell on the outside, protecting what lay within from the storm as they grew and developed.
Although the war was waged against the Dungeon in a constant battle of attrition,...
2021-05-14 11:47:07 +0000 UTC
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"You could have told me what was coming," she groused to her father as they settled into a more private setting, "I might have worked a little harder if I'd realised what the Legion was looking to put me through."
The commander actually laughed. Laughed! She was so befuddled by the rarely heard full-throated chortling of the man who raised her that she couldn't even glare at him properly.
"You've literally been working yourself to the bone since we got here," he eventually stifled...
2021-05-11 10:58:39 +0000 UTC
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The third stratum remains a point of fascination for many researches due to several of its unique properties. For similar reasons, the various powers of the world make it a priority to establish and maintain vast swathes of territory within this region of the Dungeon. The first reason for this is obvious: the world pillars. To my knowledge, no successful attempt has ever been made at destroying one of the vast columns that support the overworld. Whatever material they are made of, it cert...
2021-05-10 12:03:31 +0000 UTC
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Another one coming today.
The heat was pervasive, radiating out from the rock around her, from the open pits of flame that guttered and belched smoke in the distance and from her own suit. With a grunt of effort, Morrelia brought her twin blades forward, driving them straight into the chest of the frothing demon in front of her before she stepped back, smoothly withdrawing the glimmering steel as she did so.
With a flick of her wrists she sent the bubbling ichor o...
2021-05-09 20:59:40 +0000 UTC
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Travelling the wildlands of the uncultured south wasn't pleasant, dear reader, not at all! The depredation! The sheer lack of fortified beverages! I jest, readers, of course I jest. Who am I, after all? Tolly! The bold explorer of the unknown! Despite what I may have been lead to believe by the general discussion amongst the ladies in my circles, the trip wasn't nearly as terrible as I might have thought. Rolling hills, green grassland, forests alive with birds and wildlife. I wouldn't go...
2021-05-06 10:17:59 +0000 UTC
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Whilst trying to do everything I can to distract the vortex of water I keep my focus internal, driving and shaping the mana as best I can to create the most powerful fire spell I've ever attempted. The spell shape isn't too complicated, not compared to the heavy lifting I've been doing lately making things like the omni-elemental construct. Even so, seconds trick past I race to create it whilst Invidia does his best to deflect and dodge a barrage of water based attacks.
For his part, th...
2021-05-05 12:03:40 +0000 UTC
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Now that it's in front of me, I can sense it far more clearly, the aura of mana that had been spread throughout the tunnel has concentrated in one area, the hidden core of the monster now exposed and pulsing with power. This beast is no small fry, tier six certainly, and most likely not from the third strata. Not wanting to allow this newcomer to make the first move, I draw deep on my core, pulling out all the mana I can and feeding it into the construct, shaping and condensing it at the same...
2021-05-04 11:47:17 +0000 UTC
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With the pupa safely ensconced within Tiny's muscular arms, we move at speed through the nest and back out to the front lines again. I've been doing this walk a great deal lately and I swear it gets busier every time. The vast farms that have been constructed are still teaming with ants, collecting the enormous quantities of Biomass and cores that flow endlessly every day. How on Pangera we manage to consume all of it, I have no idea. There must be a ton more hatchlings being trained in the s...
2021-05-03 08:03:07 +0000 UTC
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Much like Tiny, Crinis wasn't satisfied with her initial rampage and pursued her opponents deeper into the tunnels. I use the word pursued in the literal sense since they were actively running away from her at that stage. On some level, it was fascinating to watch, since there didn't seem to be much defence against the ghost tendril attack that she used to directly attack the minds of her foes. Once she managed to drill those tentacles into their heads, the opponents would go slack before the...
2021-04-30 11:23:38 +0000 UTC
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What follows is an hour in which Tiny goes completely berserk on every monster unfortunate enough to poke its nose into the tunnel in which we stood. So quickly was he mowing down the lower tier shadow creatures that he ended up pushing forward several hundred metres trying to find a challenger. He did eventually come across a lithe demon with scythe-like arms and a menacing aura. I almost stepped forward to take it on myself, but the moment he saw it, Tiny was off like a shot, bellowing his ...
2021-04-29 07:56:52 +0000 UTC
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Travelling the lands of the Colony was not something I was too eager to undertake. My decision to pursue this venture was only made after repeated, and passionate, requests from you, my dear readers. I was as intrigued as all of you, I'm sure, when word of this strange new place reached my ears in Derinon. A land of people cooperating with monsters from the Dungeon? It was scandalous! The old biddies and I were all too happy to titter over tea and imagine what such a place would be like. ...
2021-04-28 06:18:48 +0000 UTC
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It's not only the pets that need to get some mutating done, I'm in the same boat myself! Whilst I haven't been packing on the Biomass at the moment, I've been making sure I keep a steady intake in order to continue accumulating points and there's plenty that I can do with them. I'm not planning on pushing anything to +30 just yet, not even my precious carapace, since there's still much lower hanging fruit that I can reach up and grab with almost no effort. Upgrading my stomach would be good, ...
2021-04-27 06:32:52 +0000 UTC
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The soft glow of evolution is gradually fading and the two of them are looking significantly different. Well, Tiny is, at any rate. Crinis remains blobbed up in a small ball, wobbling slightly as whatever internal changes that are taking place complete themselves. My first pet and friend in this Dungeon, the giant bat-faced ape, has continued his trend of getting more absurdly muscular as time goes by. Another increase in size has him looming over the room, his considerable bulk taking up alm...
2021-04-25 09:47:42 +0000 UTC
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The society of the Colony was alien to me at first, as one may well expect. The differences in origin between I, a surface born sapient of the Iron Sands, and the ants who made up the insect empire (as I like to call them. They dismiss the title and refer to themselves exclusively as 'the Colony' or 'family'), are obvious at a glance, and so it was difficult for me to make heads or tails of their dealings for a goodly while.
An example would be the lack of a clear chain of ...
2021-04-22 08:40:44 +0000 UTC
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The first time I met Anthony, I honestly didn't think much of them. Insect type monsters were weak, such was common knowledge. In fact, that knowledge was so common, that it was some time before I realised I didn't actually know much about that branch of monsters, I had simply dismissed them out of hand based on the collective poor disposition toward them. After working with him and sensing his potential, I spent a considerable amount of time digging through the archives and studying the ...
2021-04-21 08:18:27 +0000 UTC
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The wave ground on as Tiny and Crinis continued their evolution, the ants of the Colony working industriously as they always did. The never ending spawns of monsters were a blessing and curse, disrupting all usual business, but flooding the nests with Biomass and cores that were in turn used to fuel the further expansion and growth of the Colony. Queen's toiled, eating and laying eggs that were taken by the brood tenders and nursed in their protected chambers. Once hatched, each larvae was ca...
2021-04-20 11:28:53 +0000 UTC
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With Tiny and Crinis asleep in the evolution chamber, I feel as if something of a weight has been lifted off me. Not in the sense that I don't have to worry about them anymore, I'll always be worrying about them, but it's nice that they're going to be as strong as I am now. With a group of potent, maxed out tier six monsters running around together, we'll be able to fight off the depredations of the wave far better than before, and even the threat of a tier seven rising to challenge the Colon...
2021-04-19 10:44:04 +0000 UTC
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By the time her master returned, her perfect, wonderful master, Crinis was practically vibrating in excitement. What a wonderful day! What a precious opportunity! To have her dearest master devote his care attention to her evolution on a personal level, it was far more than she, a mere servant, deserved! But she would happily accept, in fact, she wouldn't dream of saying no! Such a chance wasn't to be squandered.
Her master walked toward her, his carapace shining so beautifully as the d...
2021-04-16 06:25:09 +0000 UTC
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The master spoke long with the stone people and Tiny did his best to pay attention. What had been done to his core seemed to help his concentration, and he was able to follow the conversation better than before, but he still felt a little itchy all over, but there was nothing nearby for him to hit. All that he could do was sigh and flex his fingers into his favourite shape: a fist, lamenting the noticeably less bulging muscles in his forearms as he did so. He just had to patient, he comforted...
2021-04-15 11:34:00 +0000 UTC
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The thing that must first be known about the Demon Cities, is that they are constantly at war. At war with each other, at war with themselves, at war with the great civilisations of +, at war with the very real limitations of time and space. It is a point of contention amongst most contemporary scholars exactly why this might be the case, and there are many fruitful avenues for enquiry. Is it a product of the unique living environment the demons find themselves in? That is to say, a produ...
2021-04-14 10:27:38 +0000 UTC
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Hey there folks!
Thought I'd put a post up of this incredible artwork from reader and hyper-talented artist Rhyu!
You can hit them up on twitter here https://twitter.com/rhyuart?lang=en and let them know how much you like it!
Look at Anthony! So shiny!
2021-04-13 23:34:27 +0000 UTC
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It takes a day of near constant fighting to help the Colony shove back the wave to the outer defensive walls and once again the endless defence against the monsters continues. It's all worth it though. Every hour, the family is harvesting ridiculous amounts of Biomass and cores from the farm zones, and our savage, one sided tactics are ensuring that the frontline soldiers, generals, scouts and mages are getting a constant flow of experience.
The number of tier four ants is steadily incr...
2021-04-13 11:22:48 +0000 UTC
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