As excited as I was for acid moths… they weren’t ready by the time the girl came for another visit. She brought new gear again, this time it’s a wand. It was made from a few iron bars… or rather long cones, spiralling together to a point into a point. Silver lines running along the outer edges. The shape reminded me of a unicorn horn. She hits even harder than before. Interestingly, each time she strikes, even when she misses, the wand produces a spark that flies at a secondary target. With her added ability, she was able to thin out the additional rats.
However, she was not ready for the marbles and seeing time in action; I realised, neither was I. Sure, they spilled everywhere as expected, but quickly they became magnetic, statically charged, I suppose. They get pushed and pulled by shifting electric currents, pelting her from one side then magnetically pulling into her to repeat the process. Pure chaos. Chaos that worked to my advantage. Rats were small and close to the ground. They didn’t really risk accidentally stepping on one. The girls on the other hand? For her, It was almost like I was dropping a fresh bag every few minutes.
The fight ends and begin looking at the aftermath. She improved more than I did. Not enough to completely exhaust my rat reserve, but close. She took the loot and ate some strawberries, not all of them. Rather, she emptied her canteen, partially by drinking and partially by watering the bushes. They currently didn’t need it, but I don’t think she even noticed my drip irrigation setup. Regardless, eat them or take them. My gains are the same. After our post fight routine, she took a moment to play with the marbles. Manipulating them with a static charge and eventually packing a few into her bag. Oh, she is cooking up a counter… that’s for sure.
The ball bearings did dissolve that night, hopefully the ones she took did as well. The bag will grow them back in a few days, but I require something else. I habitually create another rat spawner, but before I do, an idea occurs to me. I improved my moths, perhaps I can force a similar growth on the rats? That sounds like a better plan. So what option do we have?I reach out into my mind searching for paths the rats could take. I see 3 clearly visible from where I am.
Assassin rats. Stealthy rats, who lunge with a quick burst of deadly force. Excellent for ambush tactics.
Almost just as reachable; pack rats, weaker but more numerous. Some special powers in larger numbers.
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Quite a bit further away are exploding rats. Not sure how they work… but something to do with sulphur.
No plague rats, huh? I suppose that’s more of a city thing. Regardless, pack or assassins. What path to choose? Ideally, I would go with both, but one should be enough. She already disposed of them in one hit, might as well go for body count. Pack it is. Costly, but it should be done in 6 or 7 days. 3 days’ worth of production won’t be anywhere close to the limit, but I suppose it will be enough to count as a new trick.
The two days following the fight were relatively uneventful. I named my champions, the moth Lilliana and rat Ania. First two names I could think of without naming them after someone or something. Task made significantly harder without access to the internet. Similarly, I cannot look into the meaning those names might have.
Two relatively uneventful days and my acid moths are ready. Lilliana imminently crawls into this new spawner. Whatever she does there, it doesn’t seem to interfere with the production of foot soldiers. Soon I have my first specimen: a slightly larger moth with neon green markings on its wings and belly. In place of a drinking tube, a more ant-like mouth, including short and thick mandibles. Of course, the really dangerous bit is the flesh-melting saliva acid. There is one more ability: Death thorns. When an acid moth dies, its acid splashes out around itself, hurting anyone nearby. Other acid moths are resistant enough to be mostly unharmed, but this could spell doom for regular ones.
They are more than I hoped for. I wonder how much the other types have to offer. How big would the warriors be? Would shimmer moths be spell casters? Maybe one day I will find out. For now, this will be a big shake up for my expedition game.
First, just one acid moth is enough to destroy a web and kill the spider, at least if death thorns are utilised. Not that I have much need for it. More importantly, a squad can take down birds. I can send them to guard my common moths, and should they have an encounter, a rat usually recovers what’s left of the bird. The bats hunt in packs, but taking a few out with spare acid moths and using rats to retrieve what’s left works out well. Hauling them into my territory for consumption meant I could send just one rat per bat, rather than the 10 to 15 it would usually take to eat the whole thing.
With how it’s going. I instructed my moths to build a 3rd spawner with the pulp they are bringing, rather than expanding the first one. Furthermore, as I was refining my strategies. Lianna emerged from a spawner. She underwent all the same changes as all the regular acid moths, with an even more pronounced size increase. On top of that, she has her own mana pool, slowly filling up. She can use it to hurl balls of acid. Oh, how this will change the expedition game~