Sean had hoped the chitin addition to his shield would help them, that it might prevent the acid from eating through his defenses, but he had not expected just how crucial that change had turned out to be.
You have been struck by the spray of an Acidspitter Ant Worker (Enslaved) for 0 damage (5 base, corrosive, -100% due to chitin shield covering).
The first time he had blocked one of the sprays, which was really more of a quick jet with a hose than any sort of wide-angle spray (a fact that Sean was incredibly grateful for), he had immediately honed in on that new word in the description.
Corrosive: This damage type wears away toughness equivalent to its base damage until the targeted region is healed, or the material is repaired.
That single, bubbling green acid prompt had struck Sean harder than the first two ants they had slain had. It was a stark reminder that his toughness – his greatest defense in this world – was not the all-around perfect solution that he had hoped it would be. Nor was he able to dodge or block everything perfectly. The third one they took down, just two turns of the tunnel down from their starting location, managed to nail him in the right leg after it had saved its spray attack until they were locked in melee. Wrenching that one’s head downward had been a mistake, he reflected.
“Any more coming?” Gel asked, his clear dagger raised high. The tunnels were wide, but the dagger punched through chitin better than the battle axe did. It also left larger sections untouched, now that they were trying to preserve the bodies of their foes for materials.
“I don’t sense any.” Sean responded. “Clean me up again?”
“Sure thing.”
The slime surged across Sean’s entire body as he stood still. These ants had the unfortunate habit of dousing the pair in clouds of spores from the purple mushrooms on their heads every time they traded blows. It was disgusting, but there was never any prompt for it so Sean didn’t know if the act was an attack or not. Still, both his instincts and his inner paranoia had compelled him to have Gel consume the spores each time. Just to be safe.
The slime never seemed to mind.
When they were done, Sean dragged another worker’s carcass back to their original hole. They carved it up, ate it, and stored the remaining usable chitin off to the side with the rest.
Probably need another five or ten before Gel has enough mass to make some boots. Sean figured, after a quick conversation with his friend on his ‘gains’ from their last three kills. That’s not too bad. Though, this feels a bit too… easy.
Sean heard the sound of another worker’s legs scratching across the rocky floor down a nearby tunnel just as his pulse sense informed him of the newcomer. Instead of rushing to meet it however, he waited by the entrance to their section of the tunnels. Just off to the side.
The worker passed right by their tunnel towards another branching path as if nothing was amiss, not even stopping to check inside. Sean stared at it with his pulse sense as it wandered away, confused.
“Don’t ants swarm against invaders here?” Sean asked Gel. “Why aren’t there more coming after us?”
“Maybe they’re fighting something else right now.” Gel suggested with a surprisingly human-like shrug of his arm. “I don’t know how ants work.”
“Hmmm…”
There was something important to figure out there, but Sean decided to leave it for now. His instincts were shouting at him again, giving him all manner of advice on how to proceed. On how to clear the tunnels one by one, on how to double back and cover his tracks, how to map out and mark where he was going, and how to gauge when he might have been discovered by timing the frequency of his encounters as a baseline. He hadn’t asked for any of that information, but that didn’t stop it from coming. Much of it lined up with his military training actually, though this felt more… specialized.
Skeleton commando. Running around commando. Sean thought with amusement, even as he followed those same instincts after the worker. Stalking it silently and preparing to give Gel an opening to strike from behind.
It never even saw them coming. Gel’s knife caught it right in the brain, and Sean wrestled the rest of it to the ground as quietly as he could.
You have slain an Acidspitter Ant Worker (Enslaved)! You have gained one experient point.
To Sean’s surprise, just as he was beginning to release the worker after the death prompt’s appearance, the creature resumed its struggle. The purple mushrooms on its head trembled violently, its legs splayed out and scrambled for purchase, and the worker’s mandibles turned to reach for him as it tried to stand one final time.
Sean slammed it back into the ground with his full weight. The mushrooms on its head split open, and spores coated the entire tunnel as all three of the large caps exploded. Sean wished his mouth hadn’t been open. There were spores in his teeth now. But he had bigger concerns.
That little death-throw act hadn’t been a show, he knew. It had been a trap.
“Clean up.” Sean ordered, releasing his grip on the worker and jogging back towards their tunnel.
“Something wrong?” Gel asked as the slime complied. “Why aren’t we taking the body?”
“Those spores are all over the tunnel now.” Sean answered, picking up his pace at the urging of his instincts. “It’ll take too long to clean, and if I’m right–”
Sean’s pulse sense reported three more incoming just as he ducked down the passage back to their makeshift hideout. Two were workers, their circulatory systems matching that of the other ants almost exactly, but the third…
The third walked on two legs.
It was humanoid, or at least it was as near as Sean could tell. Two arms, two legs, a head, and a chest. It was smaller than Sean was, perhaps only five to six feet tall. But it ran with the ants towards the one they had just slain.
What the hell? Sean didn’t know what was going on here, but he was determined to find out. Is it part of the colony? Do they enslave humans, too?
The slime warrior resolved to take a look once he was sure there weren’t more coming. It would be a fool’s move to jump before he knew what the extent of this response would be. Sure enough, another pair of giant ants came around the corner not long after. They surged down the tunnel towards where the other worker’s spores had exploded.
“If they come down this way, we hold the passageway.” Sean told Gel. “We won’t be able to climb out with them after us, but if we can hold the entrance then we might be able to block it with their bodies.”
“Got it.” Gel confirmed. “We’re not leaving now though, are we? There’s good food down here, and it’s all coming to us! We don’t even have to do anything.”
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“Only if we get swarmed.” Sean admitted. “Otherwise I want to figure out what’s going on down here, and that thing that was chasing us isn’t likely to come looking underground anyway. We’re probably about as safe as we’re likely to get in these tunnels.”
“Assuming we don’t get eaten.” Gel agreed happily. “But I will take those odds. I don’t fear my food, my food fears me.”
A few quiet moments passed in the stillness under the sands as Sean waited for Gel’s ‘food’ to do whatever they were doing next to their fallen comrade. He heard no form of communication. No scratching, no crying out, and no orders given from the humanoid one. He was just about to go out and check when his instincts stopped him. An instant later, a heartbeat showed up on his pulse sense.
It was that same humanoid again, approaching their way again alongside one of the ants. They were moving more cautiously now, and Sean didn’t need his instincts to tell him that they would be searching their section of the tunnels.
“Get ready.” He told Gel. “Incoming in ten… nine…”
Sean counted down their opponent’s approach as they neared the entryway. He stood perfectly silent, allowing the humanoid to pass before–
Gel struck first.
The slime’s clear battle axe swung in a clean, true arc, lopping off the head of the young human male the instant he stepped into the room.
You have defeated a Human Sensor-Symbiote (Enslaved)! You have earned 1 experience point.
A face covered entirely in purple mushrooms to the point they grew out of his eyes, mouth, ears, and nose rolled across the rocks, its expression unreadable. Sean leapt forward, shoving aside the body and placing his chitin shield between themselves and the worker ant. Just in time. Acid splashed against it, and the next few seconds were quick and brutal.
Outside of the acidspitters’ spray attack, they had learned by now that the worker ants were incapable of damaging him. They could hurt Gel if they managed to get ahold of his right arm, but the pair of them had adjusted their methods accordingly. Sean’s left hand ended the creature’s life, and he felt a distant echo from within it - like the low note of a piano ringing out across a stage.
“What do you make of this sensor-symbiote thing?” Sean asked his friend, once they were sure no more were coming. He lifted the mushroom-covered head, looking at the deceased man’s body which was similarly covered. Dude is positively covered. “He still edible?”
“Absolutely.” Gel asserted confidently. “Shove him in here.”
“I’m not eating human face. No matter how much of him is mushroom now.” Sean stated flatly. “Also, are you sure about this? You’re not worried about dealing with his memories?”
“I’ll–” Gel faltered for an instant, but then the slime’s earlier determination crushed his fear. “Yes. I am. Absolutely. Now just… bring that morsel over, will you?”
“Sure thing.” Sean grasped the body and brought it towards his chest, allowing Gel to reach some of his mass out and begin consuming it. The process was slow compared to just straight eating given how little extra mass Gel had to work with right now, but the slime warrior was adamant on this point. He would not be chewing on any human faces. That was just a step too far.
Gel has absorbed a Human Sensor-Symbiote (Enslaved), earning 3 total mana and 1 experience point. Due to the ‘Flesh Bonding’ trait, you have been granted the same boon. You have gained 3 mana and 1 experience point!
“Woah.” Gel said, speaking as if the slime was talking from somewhere far away. As if his attention was distant. “This guy didn’t have a brain, or even a skull left really. It’s all mushroom in here.”
“He had a lot of mana for a dude rolling around without a brain.” Sean commented, feeling vindicated at the enslaved humanoid’s name on the prompt. “Sensor-Symbiote”. “Whatever’s down here clearly knows something is up. It’s looking for us now.”
They had been covered in spores again from the fight, and Gel quickly dissolved them.
“Hmmm… It’s confused. It doesn’t know where we are.” Gel said, his attention still unfocused.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I caught a glimpse of what’s going on down here from that one. The memories were embedded in all those caps inside his skull, just right there for the taking. Didn’t even have to digest them.” Gel seemed to come back from whatever memory he was viewing. “There wasn’t much mind you, but I’ve got a rough map of the tunnels near us and–and! I found where they’re keeping some food. There’s also a room with a bunch of loot in it that I think the fungus doesn’t know what to do with.”
“So the fungus is controlling all the ants?” That matched with the ‘enslaved’ part of the prompts, but Sean could have sworn that dynamic worked differently back on Earth. Maybe he had skipped that particular National Geomaphic episode. “Do you know where the main body of it is?”
“Nope.” Gel said brightly. “You thinking we should kill it?”
“Freeing monsters from enslavement is kind of our thing.” Sean pointed out. “Unless you don’t care about ants.”
Gel’s response was instantaneous. “I do not, but I do care about freeing creatures from tyranny, and this is starting to feel like one tyrannical fungus. It was all up in that poor thing’s skull. Nobody should be forced to eat things they don’t want to eat!”
Sean did not comment on how that sounded, but kept the conversation going as they started consuming the other worker and adding its chitin to their pile.
“Alright, how about if we just ate the shrooms sticking out of their head? Think that would work?”
“We could try.” Gel agreed. “Assuming the ants let us do that. If they’re anything like that human was – Dave? – then once it’s in their brain they’re definitely too far gone to save. We would have to get to them before the infestation takes hold.”
“So we need fresh recruits to free.” Sean nodded, the logic making sense to him. His instincts already giving him all sorts of ideas on how to foment an ant-surrection once they had a few on their side. Maybe they wouldn’t have to fight the whole nest after all. “Easy enough. Where’s that food room? I say we check there and the supplies room first, and then see if we can find any more of those symbiote humans to eat for more clues.”
“Just a few tunnels down.” Gel reported happily, swinging his weapon around in broad arcs. “I am all in on this plan. Food first, I love it.”
“Perfect.”
They managed to track and take down the other ants Sean had seen earlier with little trouble. Using the mass gained from them and the chitin pieces they had stored up, Sean was able to craft a reasonably passable set of chitin leg armor to cover up the area he had been struck earlier. There wasn’t enough mass left for boots and the rest of their chitin wasn’t quite the right shape for it, but seeing how easy both were to obtain down here Sean had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before he had a pair.
He was also rather relieved to have a constant source of fresh, easy-to-kill mana. It made the time he spent following his instincts and creeping cautiously through the tunnels easier to digest without the constant worry of his time limit. They didn’t run into any more sensors, though they did encounter another two workers that were apparently acting as guards standing in front of the food room. Both were quickly dispatched. Once they were consumed, the pair went inside.
The ‘food room’ turned out to be a decently sized tunnel that opened up into a much wider cavern. That much, Sean had expected. Storage rooms were always bigger than you might think. What he had not expected however, was what the ‘food’ turned out to actually be.
“Why do I feel like today just got a whole lot more complicated?” Sean asked, as he strode into the center of the cavern with his shield raised and orbs roaming around the room, wary of a trap.
“I don’t know about more complicated.” Gel said, raising his clear dagger, still dripping with the dark green internal fluids of the two workers they had just consumed. “More delicious, maybe.”
Once he was sure there weren’t any ants hiding off to the sides, Sean lowered his shield. He looked down at the ‘food’ laid out in neat rows before them. The bound and restrained forms of the ants’ prisoners… one of whom was the clearly unconscious form of the owl-man they had seen before. The Gold Spire paladin whose friend had nearly obliterated them with a single blast. The rest of the ‘food’, the few still-conscious prisoners who could manage it, looked up at him with fear and resignation in their eyes. They began to whisper amongst themselves.
“It would be easier to just eat them all, wouldn’t it?” Sean asked, though he knew what the slime’s answer would be.
“So much easier.” Gel responded brightly. “It would go against the whole ‘rescue and revolt’ theme we have going on right now, but none of them are ants and they all look delicious so I’m good either way.”
The slime warrior sighed as more of the prisoners stirred awake. He had been right.
This was going to be complicated.