I'll leave the poll up for a few days more. We have a clear winner but what comes in second does matter since that will also be done!
As I keep stuffing my face, Granin and I discuss my various body parts and what might qualify as a good option for a 'reset' in my next evolution. I remain a little cagey about a few things, such as the existence of the Vestibule, but I try to be as honest as I can during our discussions. A few things get ruled out pretty fast....
2021-01-25 10:24:10 +0000 UTC
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This is one huge pile of food… there's no way I can fit it all in! I kind of want to call my pets over and have them indulge as well, but I feel bad about it since the Colony has gathered all of this for me. I guess I'll dive in and if there's any left when I'm done I'll make sure the others get their fair share.
[Alright gang. Get some rest but keep an eye out. I'll make sure you get your food later, alright?]
[Yesssss,] Invidia says but I can see his eye blazing with ...
2021-01-23 10:18:49 +0000 UTC
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I know this is well overdue and I apologise for that. But I've thought long and hard about what might be interesting to add to the poll and I've consulted with the patrons on discord to come up with a definitive list of what you, the readers, really want to see.
I haven't done a poll every hundred patrons, so don't mind that I've rolled two into one here (please). I trust that the options will be worth your while.
If you don't know the drill, pick the option of the short sid...
2021-01-22 23:06:49 +0000 UTC
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Double chapter release baby! Boom!
With the level milestone achieved, I take a quick break to celebrate and high five (with antennae) the team, before we begin the journey back to the nest. With the wave in full swing, we end up having to resweep most of the tunnels that had already cleared as the empty space was either taken up by monsters who had spawned elsewhere, or freshly spawned monsters already jumping out of the walls again. It's hard to imagine, but...
2021-01-22 03:48:01 +0000 UTC
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The death of the spider, along with all the 'cleaning' my pets and I had done on our journey was enough to push me to level 76, tantalisingly close to the goal. I was keen to get back out and hunting for experience, but the remains of the big spider were right in front of us and I refuse to let Biomass go to waste! This is a tier six monster after all! The four of us dug in and it in a short amount of time, all signs that the giant arachnid had been here at all were gone, vanished without a t...
2021-01-21 23:09:40 +0000 UTC
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As promised the new chapter of Necromancer has been added to the google doc.
In truth, the establishment of the Core Shapers by the Eldest proved over time to be a master stroke. At first, there many who decried the resources being sent to the caste instead of being used to nourish the next generation. Perhaps at first, this was indeed the case. As hardworking and talented as Elegant and Bella were in those early days, they lacked Skill levels, expertise and the raw...
2021-01-20 09:43:03 +0000 UTC
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Sorry folks, not a chapter (will be late, I'm so sorry! Chapter tomorrow, plus Necromancer to make it up to you.)
Just a reminder that the QnA with AgroSquerril will be on tomorrow. The stream link is right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjj8OQLFv7U
Hope to see you there for a chat and some great questions! :D
2021-01-19 09:32:54 +0000 UTC
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Tiny was more than happy to abandon his post for something more exciting and I think Crinis was just relieved she able to return to me without something dramatic occurring, such as me being sucked through a black hole into the hundredth strata, if that even exists. With the gang assembled, we set off into the deeper tunnels and it was rapidly apparent that things were starting to heat up within the frozen spaces of the second strata. Monsters were fighting everywhere. Shadow beasts in various...
2021-01-18 04:02:41 +0000 UTC
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I've been out here for hours and I still haven't levelled up. Oop, here comes another one. Thirty metres down the tunnel, the dirt bulges before crumbling away to reveal a newly spawned shadow crawler. Despite having six legs, I really can't approve of these things, their faces look like a mosquito, with a piercing snout almost a metre long. My minds churn and in a few moments a condensed fireball whizzes forward, smacking into the creature and detonating with a wave of heat that rolls all th...
2021-01-15 04:54:33 +0000 UTC
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When word finally came back from the satellite nests the sense of relief in the Colony was noticeable. Burke herself was the first to receive the message and made sure to pass it on as quickly as she could. The smaller nests had held up well, suffering no more than a few probing attacks intended to keep them in place. They hadn't been able to stock away Biomass as the main nest had though, the lack of food growing into a real problem over the course of the siege. Now that the wave was underwa...
2021-01-14 08:36:21 +0000 UTC
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They'd done it. The mage caste had put themselves through the ringer during the siege, their mages had battered their minds against the invaders until they bordered on shattering. It had been a painful regime of brutal mental warfare. What had made things even more difficult for the brainy caste of spell-slingers, were the research tasks draining their numbers. The Colony had decided that the gates and Dungeon vein removal projects were so critical, so vital to the future success of their kin...
2021-01-13 04:15:51 +0000 UTC
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The conversation with the bruan'chii Grove Keeper was disappointingly short, but enlightening. There was precious little time before the wave and the tree-people didn't want to be caught out in the open. Apparently the 'mother tree' wasn't able, or didn't want to, maintain all the vegetation that she had caused to grow through the tunnels during the wave. I was a little shocked to learn that every leaf, vine and flower I saw was in fact as extension of the one tree. Since she's a monster like...
2021-01-11 08:10:57 +0000 UTC
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Discussions progressed at a rapid pace after my initial, rather embarrassing speech. There was a ton of things on the go around the Colony and still too much that we didn't know. The status of the two satellite nests was still unknown, how exactly we were going to handle training the surge of hatchlings heading up to the surface, the huge amount wounded that still needed caring for. Several things were easy to take care of. We made sure to issue an emergency recall of all aphids who were curr...
2021-01-09 09:48:38 +0000 UTC
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The process of 'peeling', or 'folding' Dungeon veins in order to create low mana density zones within the Dungeon was possibly the most important technique developed in the history of sapient habitation of the world below. Without this method, it would difficult enough to live at any depth during times of normal mana concentration. During a wave, it would impossible to exist as any settlement would be forced into a constant state of warfare as monsters leap from the walls, roof and floor....
2021-01-07 10:08:49 +0000 UTC
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It's here people. Chapter 700 is just around the corner, and that means QA - revenge of the squirrel, is on the cards.
It'll be held on the 20th at 2pm AEST. Which is 3am GMT.
If you don't know him, the wonderful Agro Squerril, who creates a ton of audio books for web series (with permission from the authors) will be hosting and if you want to add a question, you can post it here: htt...
2021-01-07 09:49:03 +0000 UTC
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My reaction must have given something away, Granin was always quite good at reading me. Amazingly so considering I don't have facial muscles and therefore no expression to speak of. Perhaps his many decades of experience working with monsters has given him some sort of sixth sense.
[What's your level?] he asks.
[Bit rude, just up and asking like that, isn't it?] I feel exposed.
He grunts.
[Keep your false modesty. There's a whole nest of ants here who need your strengt...
2021-01-06 01:28:06 +0000 UTC
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Legs are something I grow back easily enough. The cracks and damage to my carapace is going to take significantly longer, especially considering how I'm totally out of juice in my regeneration gland. The inner plating will help a ton though and before too long, I'll be back on my feet and out there working with my siblings in no time.
…
BUT I DON'T WANNA! I'm tired dammit! The Legion has been gone less than an hour and I still don't have a full complement of legs! Give me a brea...
2021-01-05 07:14:05 +0000 UTC
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Titus was relieved to find Morrelia had been returned as promised not an hour after the Legion had withdrawn from the battle. The instant the surge of mana had arrived, Titus had stood down in his fight with the Keeper and the bruan'chii had stood aside. The purpose of the tree-people had been to stimy the Legion and their mission had been accomplished. The Keeper had been gracious, but the leaves had not, rustling with obvious happiness at seeing her enemies fail in their task. Titus didn't ...
2021-01-05 03:41:09 +0000 UTC
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This one was hard to write. Hopefully it came out ok.
By Gandalf I'm tired.
BAM!
Stop hitting me, dammit!
DOOM CHOMP!
Just like every time I activate the Skill, a team of Legionaries with heavy shields leap forward, activating a host of abilities and anchoring against each other.
CRUNCH!
Despite my mandibles biting deep into the metal slabs these muscle heads call shields, I once again aren't able to penetr...
2021-01-04 06:55:07 +0000 UTC
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Reaaaaaally wanted to end the arc on this one but just couldn't fit it in. I think you'll see that the chapter has a satisfying end. At least I hope so.
Grove Keepers were unreasonably strong. How exactly they were born, the Legion wasn't sure. They weren't monsters, as such, none of the bruan'chii were. They were not spawned of the Dungeon and unlike the ants, they weren't created by a 'parent' monster through the traditional means. This was why the Legion d...
2021-01-03 09:50:00 +0000 UTC
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When the gates finally fell, they fell with a resounding 'boom' that echoes from the walls of the tunnel. Might seem a little excessive to knock the damn things off their hinges, but that's what the Legionaries decided to do anyway. Perhaps they felt the width of the nest entrance was a reasonable width for them to engage in and I have to agree. The tunnel approach to the nest narrows as it approaches the gate, stays the same for a short distance before it opens out into the chamber beyond. T...
2021-01-03 04:38:20 +0000 UTC
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The massed ranks of my siblings can only watch as the gate bulges and buckles under the immense weight of the pressure the Legion is applying. Exhausted and weary, the last fighting fit ants on this side of the nest stand ready for the final conflict. Once those gates come down, this will be the final stand. If the Legion manages to break through this point, they'll be able to separate into smaller teams in the narrower tunnels where we can't hope to apply the numbers needed to defeat them. T...
2021-01-02 06:40:35 +0000 UTC
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Titus watched the battle unfold from the rear of the formation. The irregulars had formed up once again and begun to execute another charge. Using them as shock troops, charging, pulling back, charging again, was a brutally effective tacti the Legion had long made use of. It was hard on the half-monsters, it terms of effort and casualties, but it was a role they seemed to relish. The ants had held up remarkably well against the punishment, but as he had expected, they were being ground down.<...
2020-12-31 10:39:49 +0000 UTC
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RAGE! RAAAAAAGE! That damned worm! How could he do this to us?! After everything we did for him?! He's food. FOOD I TELL YOU! If I ever get my mandibles on that worm I'll feed to him the larvae myself! The mere thought of the brood being destroyed by the golgari makes the mana in my body boil like the lava I'm spitting out of my mouth. He let them in to egg-laying chamber?! With MOTHER?!
I'm so damned angry I'm going blind! I'm going to bust a vein at this rate! Is that even something I...
2020-12-30 07:05:31 +0000 UTC
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Brendant dashed into the depths of the next, the emergency pheromone trails screaming against her antennae with every step. The brood was in danger! The Queens were under assault! Every nerve in her body was on fire with desperate rage. There wasn't a single ant in the Colony who wouldn't put their life down to protect the brood, including the Eldest, and now they flooded from every inch of the nest toward the breach.
She burst into the egg-laying chamber to find a scene of utter chaos....
2020-12-28 05:25:31 +0000 UTC
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"Something isn't right," Sloan suddenly scented out loud.
Coolant looked askance at her sister as the two of them continued to hang outside the second gate facing the golgari invasion. She could tell the general wasn't discussing with her but thinking out loud, so she remained silent and waited.
"They've formed up, but they aren't approaching us, why is that?"
One of the two ants most central to the Colony's planning of this siege was more than a little offput when she saw s...
2020-12-27 10:45:00 +0000 UTC
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At least those crazy malformed humans were good for experience. Whatever the Legion did to turn them into… what they were, they certainly seemed to lack the finely tuned discipline of their more regular compatriots. After I'd demonstrated the ability to rip into them using my Doom Chomp, cutting down several at a time, they continued to come, almost ant-like in their eagerness to sacrifice themselves for their allies. If they'd just fought defensively, been a bit more cagey in front of me, ...
2020-12-26 10:31:55 +0000 UTC
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Grey and his opponent, the High Blade Kooranon Balta, studied each other, their experience and observation Skills provided a constant stream of information as they continued to feel each other out. Using his rank five Keen Eye, Grey could see every muscle twitch, every exhalation of breath in excruciating detail. The golgari wouldn't be able to twitch a toe without the wolf-folk being able to tell him how many millimeters he'd shifted it. Not just sight, every sense was pushed to the limit of...
2020-12-23 09:16:05 +0000 UTC
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Coolant and Sloan watched, gobsmacked as the fight unfolded before them. At first it seemed as though everything had gone well, after Grey had walked out and spoken with the Golgari, the kneeling form of the Shaper, Granin, had risen to his feet, had his bindings broken and painfully jogged his way toward the gate. It was clear at that point that the negotiations had been a success. In the distance, the small camp the golgari had erected was disassembled by the mages and the two figures of th...
2020-12-22 12:17:30 +0000 UTC
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Titus watched the battle unfold from the rear ranks of the Legion column, his experienced eye catching numerous flaws in execution that any outside observer would fail to notice. He couldn't prevent the slight twitch of his eye at the sight. They can't help it, he reminded himself, his Legion was still green, not used to working together and lacking proper drill experience. The auxiliaries were even worse, though it was more common for the shock troops to show such a lack. Former prisoners sl...
2020-12-20 11:45:20 +0000 UTC
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