I feel like I've been falling a lot since my time here.
The walls of the vertical shaft rapidly flash across my eyes but occasional tunnels could be found embedded in the walls. We were dropping down the chute for a while, until finally, the propellers slowed down, and the moving forge hit solid ground.
Upon landing, a small dust storm was created, but it quickly dissipated and the air cleared up.
I was again impressed by the surroundings, with a cave underground so beautiful and alive. Along the floor, moss covered almost every inch of rock, with small rays of light coming through the ceiling. The most suspicious thing was that there was live moss this deep in the caves, although everything was basically dead on the surface.
I step foot into a cave, and the sound echoes throughout the system. I could hear small droplets of water trickling from the roof of the cave, with small fungi growing across the floor and walls of the tunnel. There were also these brown stems, and upon closer examination, they were know as
Other than these things, one thing I noticed was a sort of pulsing light across these tunnels, as if something was being sent, but it soon stopped.
"Amazing, am I right?"
Kom asked as he walked up to me,
"It is, it is...now, what here is preventing you from exterminating the source?"
"As we walked forward, there were ants, but a lot larger than their normal size, a bit smaller than us dwarfs. We were able to dispose of some of them, but the more we walked, the number of ants exponentially increased, and we were quickly overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. Looking out though, there were these four special looking ants which seemed to be commanders."
So ants huh? I can already see where this is going, but something felt off. I decided to ignore it for now, as I could not pinpoint what was causing me this uneasy feeling.
"How'd you guys kill the ants?"
"We just smashed the regular ones, but the commander ants seem to have special armor."
"I see. Could you bring a team of ten of your best dwarves to come with us?"
"Of course, give me a minute."
Kom walks away back to the forge while Ranko and I walk forward a bit more. Looking outward, I could see that the tunnel system is a lot more complex than I initially thought, with tunnels extending in all different directions.
"S-sir, are we about t-to fight?"
"It seems so...but don't worry, I'll always pro-"
I can't finish the sentence. Looking at her makes my body practically freeze, its a miracle that I somehow strung together a semi-full sentence. Instead, I just nod my head and give a thumbs up, and that seems to make her content.
Kom and his crew came back, equipped with axes and shields, ready to fight. I motion for them to come and we start the expedition.
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Tunnels are usually narrow and consistent in size, therefore, it is difficult to move around a lot in tunnels. For a person like me, its a bad thing, but by using a kind of 270 degree formation, all sides are covered and I have room to move.
We met a couple of ants along the way, but they were easily squashed by the dwarfs. Some ants ran away, which was perfect, since they led us right to their nest. I could tell that the number of ants were steadily increasing, so I decided to focus on locating the four commanders. Walking through more tunnels, we finally reached an opening where the cave opened up to a larger size. Peeking around the side of the walls, I could see ants busying around, and I finally spot a commander ant.
Looking at its body, I could see a quite obvious weak point, its petiole, which connects an ants thorax to its abdomen. Shooting and killing this ant would obviously cause an attack, so I wait to see if I can kill two or more of them with one go. Still lying in wait, I see another commander and walking through a tunnel and back to the main nest, with a line of smaller ants following it.
That's two ants down, now where are the last two.
Panning my eyes across the nest, I could see the butt of a commander ant behind the structures of the main nesting site, so I determined that one to be insignificant. I kept looking for the last commander ant, but still did not see it, so I decided to kill two of the commanders first.
"I will kill the commanders, you guys focus on distracting the other ants."
Kom nods his head and sets the plan in motion.
I shoot two successive bullets at their petioles and the bodies of the two commanders split in two, killing them on the spot. The other ants of course see this, so they alert everybody and start running towards us.
Knowing that I could not do much because of the swarm, I use the charm of disguise and leave a clone of myself behind, and walk invisible towards the main nesting site. As I get close to the entrance, lots of ants run around me, but none notice me. I quickly dispose of the commander ant in the nesting site and all the other ants go crazy.
I look back and see the dwarves fending off the ants pretty well, giving me enough time to explore the nesting site.
Once all the ants leave I take off my disguise and finally get a good look at the nesting site. Honestly, it look very dead, and not as impressive as the caves. Walking around, I see eggs, but many were broken and some even squashed. I climb on top a massive rock, and looking down, I see something that shocked my eyes. It was the carcass of a massive ant, the queen ant to be exact, and notifications appeared.
A formicidae is just the name for an ant, and Gyne is the name of a queen ant.
Looking back at the carcass, it seemed like a massive bite was taken out of the queens body, and keep in mind, the queen ant was a decent bit larger than I am. The sense of uneasiness comes back to me from looking at this site, and upon observing the walls of the nest, I see bones. Bones were scattered everywhere along the walls of the nesting site, and each bone was almost as big as the queen ant.
I quickly ran out of the nesting site, only to see not a single ant. I look at the dwarfs and all of them seem completely fine, with Ranko safe behind Kom.
"Where did all the ants go?"
"After a while, they started running, I don't know why."
Right as he said these words, a rumbling sound can be heard.
"I think I know why now. Lets get out of here."
I quickly command everybody to run back through the tunnel and to the big cave, as rocks started falling from the ceiling.
After running for a while, we finally got out of that tunnel, and soon the tunnel closes up, as if no such tunnel ever existed.
I sat down on the floor and began thinking over what just happened. Why was the ant queen dead? What were those bones? The uneasiness?
Have we already stepped into the bosses trap?