"This is disturbing news, Eldest," Sloan and Victor don't look pleased with what I have to say.
"Apparently, this is going on everywhere in the stratum right now, but as monsters, we are especially vulnerable."
The two generals nod as they ponder this issue. The idea of having a hostile monster group raising a corrupted Colony to fight against us is certainly not a welcome one.
"We will take every precaution to prevent someone from being taken, and implement checks to ensure we can act swiftly to recover any of our family who are… but…"
The two look very uncomfortable as Sloan lays this out.
"But what?" I ask, impatient.
"It's impossible that we would be able to succeed forever. Even if we get through two, three, ten waves without a single member of the Colony being captured, they only have to succeed once. In the long term, defence is not a viable strategy."
I can see what they mean. We can fend off the Krath here in the fourth ten thousand times, but they only have to succeed a single time, drag a captive away and throw them into the sludge. From there, it's only a hop, step and a jump to creating their own colony.
"We have to go on the offensive," I say the thought out loud, and the two generals agree solemnly.
"Eradication of the Krath is our only viable path forward. We must exterminate them from the Dungeon completely."
From what I understand, the fifth is a completely corrupted layer of the Dungeon, hostile to life in an almost comically extreme way. It's going to be horrendous fighting down there, and without losing a single ant in the process…
There's only one general who I think is going to be capable of making the hard decisions to run a campaign like that.
"It's going to take time for us to prep something like this," I tell the generals, "so let's do our best in the meantime, but start planning now. One thing I want to establish at the outset, I think Solant should be the one in charge of the fight. It'll be unconventional, and our opponents are renowned for their slipperiness and cruelty. We need an unconventional general."
I won't straight up tell them to use Solant, I'm not in charge of the Colony and I don't want to be, but I definitely think they should give her strong consideration. I know the generals are reluctant to put their trust in the little general due to the odd way she thinks, but we're talking about the ant who was prepared to poison the Eldest in order to win. To achieve victory in the fifth, that's exactly the attitude we need.
"I'm going to try and position myself centrally," I tell them. "When there's a tough slug monster, send for me and I'll take care of it."
"That will help a great deal. Thank you, Eldest."
So saying, I find a spot out of the way and park myself down in the central chamber beneath the nest. I'm not exactly close to the front lines here, but at least I'm equally far from them. I reach out to my three companions to inform them of the situation.
[If you run into any dangerous beasts from the fifth, be especially careful when engaging with them. If you have trouble driving them back, call for me and I'll come help. Don't think that what we've seen so far is as bad as it's going to get.]
[These filth are disgusting, Master,] Crinis sniffs. [They leave disgusting slime and putrid mana everywhere they go.]
[I get the feeling they do their best to spread it as much as they can; makes it easier for them to fight. That's a good point actually, if you can safely burn off or otherwise destroy the terrain advantage, then make sure you do, but not at the expense of draining your resources too much. Got that, Tiny?]
[W-what?] the big ape grunts.
[Don't use all your lightning burning off slime and goop, alright? You'll struggle to fight against those monsters without it.]
[Punch.]
[Tiny...]
[Punch!] he insists.
[I'm not underestimating your fists, big guy, I know you've got some firepower in those cannons, but if you get that close, you make yourself vulnerable to poison shenanigans. You have to be careful against these monsters, they don't fight fair.]
There's a brooding silence from the big ape before he replies.
[Okay,] he grunts. [Will be careful.]
That's about as good as I'm going to get from him.
[You be careful too, Crinis. If you stick a tentacle into one of these creatures, they might poison you through it.]
[I've already had to cut off several of my own limbs, Master.]
[Oooookay. Well… make sure you don't run out of shadow flesh, then. Invidia, you should be fine if you just keep blowing everything up or melting it with your eye laser.]
[Thessssseeeee beastsssss. Too greeeeedy.]
[Yeah, I'm not a fan of them either, buddy. Give them the business for me.]
[Yessssss. They shallsssss be mineeeee!]
A bit unusual for Invidia to be making a moral judgement about the monsters he fights, but hey, the Krath suck, what can I say? How impressive, they even managed to get an Envy demon to think they're terrible. Perhaps I should applaud.
After making sure my precious comrades are aware of what's coming, I turn my attention to the Vestibule and what it has to tell me. Naturally, I want to focus on the battles my siblings are undergoing against the fifth stratum monsters, but something else catches my eye and distracts me.
Stupid guards. They're multiplying!
Where before I had two stern golden statues taking up residence within the Nave, now there are four. Two more people have picked up these strange classes, and I've got no doubt that they are part of that pilgrimage gone wrong. That damned priest, he's never going to stop causing me issues! If I could get him to shut his mouth for a week, I'd be satisfied.
I don't have time to deal with it now. I've got other things to focus on. First off, let's see how Solant is going.