By the System it hurt. It had ever since he'd lost it in that one moment, where the shining picture he had painted of himself had been ripped away along with his limb. Even now, several days later, Beyn was at a loss to explain exactly what had occurred at that time.
The fear that had gripped his heart, when that monster had burst into the middle of his sermon, he could recall it perfectly even now. When the beast had remained so still, so accepting, that fear had been replaced with wonder. It was as if the holy System had been speaking to him directly, offering itself to him, asking that he accept the fruits of its blessed creations!
What joy! What reverence! In that moment Beyn had felt as if he had touched the foot of God!
The surging emotions that had blazed in his heart as he had brought the church screptum down on the head of the offering had been so powerful he almost shook now just recalling it.
He had been so wrong.
His visions of a grand destiny, of being a prophet of the system had been torn away as that terrifying monster had darted forth, so quickly he couldn't even see it, and brought those serrated jaws down on his arm, shearing it away with ease.
Since that moment he had barely spoken, the haunting zeal in eyes had intimidated the townspeople to the point they couldn't meet his glare. They had taken him to the apothecary for treatment and left him there, speaking softly as they passed by his door. To be honest he needed no physical healing. The spell performed on him by the godless monster had closed the wound. To do better would require a powerful specialist in the healing arts to regenerate his arm.
Even in his dazed state, laying in his bed, Beyn was able to pick up bits and pieces of information from the nervous conversations he overheard.
There was trouble at the capital, fighting in the streets. People had been fleeing the city until the gates had been barred. The Queen was dead. The Queen was alive. It was a coup, it was an invasion, it was the Dungeon rising for a second cataclysm.
On the second day he heard that the town council had called a meeting to discuss the crises.
Slowly the blood began to stir in Beyn's veins. He couldn't lie here forever. The system, his god, was stirring, he could feel it. He must be a part of the events to come, and he would be! Casting off his blankets, stood and strode out of his room with purposeful steps.
As the wounded priest strode through the town the people subconsciously turned their eyes away, doffing their cap or offering a brief curtsy before moving out of his path. They could not bare to meet the righteous zeal ablaze in his eyes.
The priest marched through the town to the mayors house, sweeping open the door with his good arm and entering with long strides.
Inside a huddle of the town's dignitaries huddled around the desk of a beleaguered fat man, the livery of the mayor hung over his silk robes.
The mayors eyes brightened when he saw Beyn enter.
"Ah! Look gentlemen, our good priest in the faith has arisen from his convalescence so quickly! This is cause for celebration, we should delay this meeting until after we have properly toasted this happy occasion!"
Several people in the chamber erupted in cheers whilst others sighed, heads falling into hands. The owner of the market, Mrs Ruther, attempted to protest the suspension of discussion but to no avail, the mayor hand already called on his servants to go and fetch wine for his guests and be quick about it dammit!
Contempt flickered in Beyn's eyes but he quickly suppressed it. This idiot would do anything to get out of his responsibilities and drink. A few more years of soaking and his family wealth may just run dry, with the wine soon to follow.
"If it please my lord Ebruis, the discussion should not be delayed, it is for the purpose of conversing with you and the council that I have arisen from my rest" Beyn smoothly interjected.
The quivering intensity in his voice was unnerving enough that even Ebruis could not deny it.
"Oh… Oh very well. Are you sure you would not rather rest father Beyn? You do not appear to have even had a chance to change your robes" the mayor spluttered in a feeble attempt to put off his work.
"Do the robes of my faith, marked with the blood I have shed in the name of the System offend you, Lord Mayor?"
The fat man paled in fright before raising his hands and shaking them in protest. "I dare not father! I intended no such thing!"
"Very well then. If I may" at this Beyn took a vacant chair and gestured towards Mrs Ruther, "I would be grateful to you Mrs Ruther if you would appraise me of what has occurred in the last two days. Have the monsters threatened us?"
Somewhat surprised at being called on the elderly matron took a moment to gather her dignity before replying. "They haven't father. We've not seen so much as a leg of those ants since they marched into the forest after you were…. Attacked."
After saying this she quickly met Beyn's gaze before flicking her eyes away, as if scalded by the fire she saw there.
"More troubling than the monsters, as strange as that is to say is the disturbance in the capital. We haven't had a reliable message out of there all day. Fighting in the streets, the soldiers setting fire to the merchant district, blood on the steps of the castle. It sounds dreadful. The people are too scared to work, gazing at the smoke rising over the walls from dawn to dusk!"
With his good hand Beyn gripped his chair so hard his knuckles cracked.
"This disturbance in the capital is more important you say? More important than the agents of the Dungeon rising from beneath our very feet?" more than just passion, hatred now dripped from every word from the priest's mouth, causing those closest from him to draw away from him.
Mrs Ruther gathered herself before she retorted, "there hasn't been a single victim of those monsters in this town but we hear of hundreds dead inside the city. Most of us have family in there father, I'm terribly sorry for your injury, we all are but we've got more pressing issues than those ants!"
At this Beyn rose to his feet and burst out loudly. "For the first time in a thousand years the Dungeon has reached up and delivered its servants to the very surface and you are distracted by petty fighting in the city?! Do you not see the grander destiny that has been laid out before us?"
A few people shifted uncomfortably in their seats at these words. Mayor Ebruis attempted to calm the agitated priest. "You did say something similar at the church two days ago father, and, well, that didn't turn out… so well?"
Beyn turned his blazing righteous gaze on the mayor and then at the others one by one until all had turned from him and were silent.
"At first I believe that the great System had called on us, had blessed this town by delivering his greatest blessing, experience, to raise us up and forge us for a new purpose. I still believe that is the case! This!" here he waved the bandaged stump of his arm in the faces of the council, "was my misjudgement. I had foolishly believed that the System had delivered its fruit to us and all we had to do was pluck it but no, there are no gifts within the System, only rewards! Rewards that are rightly earned and so I was punished for my transgression!"
Ebruis waved his hands to try and relax the priest but it was to no avail.
"We have to take up arms, can you not see that!?" Beyn exhorted the council, "those hideous beasts, led by that demon ant shall return. Not only this, more will come! I assure you! Our trial is not yet complete! The people must be told. We must rise to this test!"
After these words Beyn strode forth, leaving the flabbergasted council behind. He marched to the town square where he began to preach with mesmerising power, stretching the limits of his Oratory skill to bend the hearts of the people.
A crowd slowly gathered, and that evening, when several monsters emerged from the hole in the church he urged the people to arm themselves and led the crowd personally in a great charge up the hill into the building wherein those creatures were defeated.
The people roared in triumph and celebrated their victory but Beyn was unmoved. He asked that a watch be put on the church and turned his gaze towards the forest.
A new pov for you. It's our new friend!
I need cores.
Like, super badly.
I need cores for me, I need cores for Tiny, I need cores for experimenting, I need cores to raise my skills, I need cores to fuse into more powerful cores for myself and for Tiny AND I need cores for my other side project!
CORES!
The number of monster cores we had extracted so far from the farm was a grand total of one! When Tiny and I went in there to cripple the creatures this morning we found a monstrous toad had already slaughtered most of the creatures inside. Tiny had excitedly rushed to engage it, charging up his lightning fist and exploded the foe with one punch.
Luckily he hadn't destroyed the core!
Still, one core every three days is not nearly enough to meet my needs! I refuse!
I just don't have a solution to this problem currently.
Tiny and I are currently resting in the nest. A contented bustle has come over the colony recently as the workers have been busy doing the things that workers love to do. Tending to the brood, expanding the nest, foraging for food. Our new anthill has become impressively large now, the top reaching towards the peak of the trees. I had to ask them not to make it any higher or we'll end up too easy to spot. Our main objective is to hide and ride out the wave after all.
I want no trouble, be it human or otherwise.
To my delight, the pupae have started to hatch over the last few hours, hundreds of new workers emerging to swell the ranks of the colony. When this generation finally emerges we will have reached the one thousand worker mark! A milestone in the life of a young colony to be sure.
This is nothing though. If we expand the farm a little and keep the supply of Biomass coming it won't be long until we reach two thousand, five thousand, one hundred thousand!
That was the other exciting thing to happen this morning, the Queen finally awoke from her rest. After a massive feed provided to her by the workers she got busy producing the next generation. Even as I rest I can hear the workers scurrying about madly with fresh clutches of eggs, stashing them into the egg chambers, fastidiously cleaning them and ensuring they are the right temperature.
This means I means I need to advance the schedule of my project even faster. For that though… I have to have cores!
As I clack my mandibles in irritation I'm suddenly distracted by a noise. Turning around I see that it isn't Tiny snoring for once, though he is asleep, thick meaty arms flung over his face like a hairy teenager. The noise instead came from the pupa stashed with us in our private chamber.
The cocoon has already begun to take on a distinct thin shade as the young larva inside has gone through its remarkable metamorphosis, transforming from a grub and into an ant. Still ghostly white and translucent as its carapace has yet to harden the almost complete worker has started to slowly move, twitching it limbs and stretching out for the first time.
I guess I'll help the little thing out. It is normal for other workers to assist newborns break free of their cocoon, cutting away at the threads with their mandibles. The very first workers in the colony will have this task performed for them by the Queen herself.
I think I can vaguely recall having to bite my own way out, but I don't really have any memory of my pupal stage, I really only became aware of myself after I had emerged.
At any rate, I cheerfully help out the new member of our colony, my sibling no less, break out of the casing by chomping away at the outside carefully, removing sections of threads at a time and clearing the way for the hatchling to emerge.
Gradually I see a little ant face poking out of the gaps and after a few minutes the brand new worker stands proudly before atop its own casing!
…
Small!
Why the heck is this worker so small!? She looks smaller than a normal hatchling by about a third, which makes her very tiny indeed! There is something else odd about her as well. I'm not sure exactly what it is, as a worker she seems a little, energetic? She is practically bouncing around already and she only just hatched!
I remember as a grub this one had a lot of pep but this seems ridiculous.
Before I'm even finished internally complaining about this high energy hatchling she starts waggling her antennae around before locking onto me and rushing in my direction! In a few short moments she has raced across the ground and scrambled up onto my back before triumphantly positioning herself between my antennae and thwacking them insistently with her own.
….
This.
…
I hate thiiiiiiiis.
Why the hell is this ant so attached to me?! Why is it so different than the others?
I honestly don't know what to make of this behaviour.
This worker is just so odd. Out of sheer curiosity I flip on my mana sense and extend my mind out of my body. There is a faint concentration of mana in a place that I did not expect. Right on top of my head.
Are you kidding me Gandalf?! This little midget was born with a core?! Tell me it isn't true!
I struggled for that core, I worked hard for that rock! Now you're telling me that a monster ant can just flat out be born with a core? Tell me, swear on your pointy hat and rad staff with the shiny crystal on it that it isn't so!
Despite my protests my new passenger remains stubbornly clung to my head, core on board.
Sigh.
I will have to investigate this later.
For now I poke Tiny awake and make my way out of the nest, tiny hatchling excitedly riding on my scalp the entire way.
Trying to put the distraction out of my mind I try to turn my mind back to most pressing issue.
Cores!
Damn worker on my head… No! Don't get distracted!
From what I know a monster can form a core when they are sufficiently saturated with mana and then sacrifice an evolution in order to form it. How the freeloader on my scalp managed to get enough mana before she was even born, not to mention the evolutionary energy acquired by amassing levels. I'll have to put this exception to the rules to one side and focus on what I know!
I myself increased my mana concentration by drinking mana infused water, which judging by how the monsters were addicted to that stuff it isn't an unusual way for monsters to get dat mana.
Soooo. If I can introduce a source of mana water to the farm it might have an effect in increasing the number of monsters able to form a core?
Worth a shot!
Fortunately I created the farm right next to a source of mana water! So convenient…
When we return to the pond I see a few Branchies standing in small groups but they quickly scatter and hide after we arrive. I swear there are a few new young trees growing near the edge of the pond. Have they been planting baby branchies here?!
Hmm. I'll have to be careful not to disturb their local environment. For all I know the branchies require this pond to sustain their lives. Better to be cautious.
In the end I excavate a shallow channel that leads to the farm tunnel and I get Tiny to line the bottom with stones that he smashes flat. We then head down into the farm and disable all of the monsters before hollowing out a small pool directly under the tunnel entrance.
Hopefully this works!
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