The mage looked approvingly at my actions, then with one gulp, sucked out his 'cocktail' and began to talk about my new homeland. I listened to the otherworldly wisdom of the ancestors while I, bit by bit, consumed the beetle's leg.
The spiders did indeed arrive in this world six thousand years ago, bringing with them the standard set of food sources of the time. After a while, the colonies spread across the world and mostly settled in rocky caves that they themselves dug. The general scheme of food production was as follows: hunter spiders ventured outside the nest and gathered plant materials. These materials were ground up, and a special fungus was planted on them, which produced its first crop in just a couple of weeks. The fungi were then fed to feeder beetles—one of which I was currently devouring with both chelicerae.
Of course, beetles were far from the only food spiders could eat. Rather, it was food that could provide the spider's body with all the necessary nutrients with minimal effort. Besides beetles, spiders did not disdain the meat of land animals, plant fruits, and even the feeder fungi themselves.
Such a cycle of food reproduction could not be called optimal, but it ensured the food security of spider civilization for six thousand years. What had changed? The reason was simple—global warming. Initially, over five hundred years, the air temperature on the planet steadily increased. Given the overall humidity of the climate, this only increased the production of biomass. But about seventy years ago, the 'Hour X' arrived.
On Earth, a similar development scenario was described as 'atmospheric boiling.' The increase in sea surface temperature led to the formation of a massive typhoon. Moist air rose to record heights, where atmospheric pressure could not contain the expansion of water vapor, leading to its re-evaporation. As a result, enormous masses of relatively warm air rose into the stratosphere and partially evaporated into space. Replacing them, cold air descended into the lower atmosphere.
At an altitude of ten kilometers, a temperature of minus fifty degrees is quite normal. But when this air descended, the entire land and a significant part of the sea's surface were instantly covered with ice. Thus, another ice age began in this world.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
The speed of air cooling was so great that animals feeding on warm-loving plants froze to death without having time to digest their food. Similar remnants, by the way, were found on Earth in the stomachs of mammoths discovered in the permafrost in Yakutia. In general, nothing unusual happened in this world, but now all the land around the spider colony was covered with snow. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that this place was almost beyond the Arctic Circle. During the thaw, such a location could quite support a small colony. But now, biomass supplies from the surface had almost dwindled to nothing.
Initially, after the cold snap, spiders survived by gathering leftover vegetation from the surrounding area. But then the problem became so apparent that it was decided to 'hibernate' until better times. At that time, there was still hope that the cold would end soon. Most of the colony's population was culled, and the smaller part fell into hibernation, coming out every few years to replenish nutrient reserves in their bodies.
And now, seventy years after the surface catastrophe, a catastrophe occurred underground. All food sources were almost completely depleted. The nearby surroundings were thoroughly cleaned out, and the spider queen decided... to resort to another idiotic 'last measure.'
In short, the plan was to grow a squad of scout spiders, give them worker reinforcements, and send the whole crowd far away, hoping they would dig up enough food and then bring it back to the colony. Hearing this plan, I couldn't help but burst into hysterical laughter.
"Why are you laughing?" - The mage stared at me in bewilderment.
"This 'rescue plan' of yours is just a way to kill off the colony faster. In a way, it makes sense. Better to die quickly while engaging in futile activity than to drag out your agony for hundreds of years."
"This plan was devised by the Queen herself!"
"So what?" - I asked, puzzled, looking at my interlocutor.
"Questioning the orders of a superior is a mortal sin." - He explained, as if it were self-evident. - "If the Queen made such a decision, we must not discuss it but carry it out."
"Uh-oh... It looks like the situation here is even worse than I thought. But, in principle, we can use this expedition as part of a real plan to save the colony."
"You already have a plan?"