In the month after the Worm Mages saved the Silver Ant Battalion, the Boreus started surfacing near the southern end of the glacier more frequently, dropping their pinkish-purple slime everywhere to signal the beginning of their hostile infestation. If nothing was done about it, the slime would slowly harden, solidify, and turn the entire glacier into a hellish landscape where the ground would squirm with critters and the air would be thick with hostile bacterial spores—cleaning up an infestation at that point would be impossible, and humanity would lose this territory for the rest of time.
“... Fifty-five heads in just a single morning, huh?” Utu said, arms crossed behind his head as the hunting group of twenty returned to the village, followed by a dozen extra helpers hauling the morning Boreus carcasses in. He stole a glance at Sparrow and Minki walking ahead of the group, snickering slightly. “You know, just let Minki sleep the rest of the day away. We don’t need you guys to help us anymore. The eighteen of us can handle the afternoon hunts by ourselves no problem.”
Minki mumbled something incoherent on his back, and Sparrow shuffled her weight around so she wasn’t too heavy on his shoulders.
“Are you certain?” Sparrow asked, half-mumbling himself. “You are all stronger, yes, but they are Boreus. A moment of hesitation… and they will–”
Ninmah whacked him on the head and Hijo kicked him in the shins, snatching the rope he was holding to drag his share of Boreus carcasses towards the kitchens. “We’ve gone from killing fifty Boreus a day to nearly doubling that within a single month. You need to rest with Minki as well. The infestation hasn’t gotten so bad that we need you babysitting Utu and the others every single day.”
He was about to click his tongue in protest, but at the very least, all the hunters looked serious about him not joining them for their afternoon hunts—so he nodded begrudgingly and let Ninmah organise the Worm Mages, evenly splitting the carcasses between the four cardinal kitchens.
It was just a bit past noon, the sun burning up the crystal wood village from right on top, so usually this was when the cold-loving Worm Mages would retreat under a roof to have their lunches. The chefs would dig up frozen meat from yesterday’s haul to turn into some variant of Boreus stew or Boreus sandwiches or stove-cooked rice with sprinklings of Boreus strips; frankly, there wasn’t much point to hunting any more efficiently than they already were. They quite literally didn’t have enough stomach space to eat more than they were filling holes in the ground with, and even Sparrow and Minki—soldiers trained to eat as much as they possibly could and then some more in the heat of battle—simply couldn’t digest more than one whole Boreus a day.
Maybe it was time he tried to shift the Worm Mage’s efforts towards cooking Boreus meat in ways that led to more points with the same biomass, but he wasn’t good at cooking at all. At least he’d told the chefs to experiment with different recipes until they could find the most point-efficient form of Boreus meat, but until then, he was almost always going to skip lunch. His breakfast sandwich was more than stifling enough for his stomach; if he ate any more, he’d probably come down with food poisoning or something of the sort.
Maybe there is a mutation further down the tree that increases stomach capacity.
While the chefs started warping around the entire village delivering lunches to everyone’s doorsteps, he reached the base of the bell tower and started walking up the walls—his last tier three mutation, ‘Segmented Setae’, was a generic mutation most systems offered that made minuscule claws grow all across his skin, allowing him to walk on hard surfaces as long as he wasn’t wearing any shoes. Of course, staying ‘upright’ while walking up walls required tough abdominal muscles and a strong core balance, so he’d been holding back from unlocking the mutation until he had enough strength to properly use it… but now that he had it, walking up the twenty-metre-high bell tower with Minki on his back wasn’t much of an issue.
At the very top, he kept his feet stuck to the tented roof as he shrugged Minki off, letting her cling to the roof herself. Even in a dazed and half-asleep state, her training as a silver ant scout kicked in—she kept herself from slipping with one palm stuck to the alabaster. The movement woke her up, though, and she jolted upright where she sat, scowling and squinting as she tried to assess her surroundings.
There was much to see sitting atop the bell tower twenty metres higher than the rest of Immanu, so he let her blink her drowsiness away for a few moments, taking a glance at his status screen as he did.
[// STATUS]
[Name: ‘Sparrow’, Human]
[Class: Worm]
[BloodVolume: 5.4/5.4 (100%), Strain: 1162/1869 (62%)]
[Unallocated Points: 479]
[Strength: 9, Speed: 7, Dexterity: 9, Toughness: 6, Perceptivity: 6, StrainLimit: 1869]
[// MUTATION TREE]
[T1 | Wormhole Core]
[T2 | Vibrational Senses | Wormic Bones]
[T3 | Segmented Setae | Rigid Annuli | Sclerite Jaw]
[T4 | Proliferating Septa | Salt Epidermis | Filtering Gills | Omnidirectional Ocelli] 450P
… He had enough points to pick a tier four mutation, and while, again, he had consulted Ninmah to figure out what each of them would probably do, the mutations were starting to become complicated. Ninmah could tell him what ‘gills’ and ‘epidermis’ meant, as well as the individual meanings of some of the other words, but combined? She had no idea what the mutations did either. The fact that most of the Worm Mages already had their tier fours unlocked didn’t matter; they’d lived with their mutations for so long they couldn’t easily tell him what they could do that he couldn’t do.
So, unless he could suddenly find a book in the library that had more information on worm physiology—and he’d already tried many, many times—he’d basically be going back to guesswork, hoping the mutations meant what he thought they meant.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
If the Brightworms made the systems to help humanity defeat the Swarm, then they should have included some sort of… mutation description.
Any one of these tier four mutations could severely cripple me if I unlock them in the middle of a fight, so maybe I should just unlock them as soon as possible to get used to them?
The safe bet, of course, was still just to pour eighty percent of his points into increasing his strain limit. If nothing else, the mutations and abilities of the worm system burdened his body far more than his bullet ant system ever did, so more stamina would always be helpful. Nearing two thousand levels in strain limit, he could now make three fist-sized wormholes in a day and sustain them for a while, too—what he couldn’t do with high strength and speed, he’d make up for with superior endurance and stamina.
In conclusion, he should probably pick at least one tier four mutation soon—if not only to get used to it—but for the rest of his points, he could simply stick with increasing his strain limit for now.
“... I do not think we are accomplishing anything by hunting only a hundred Boreus a day,” Minki mumbled, pulling her knees up to her chest. So high up above the village, the afternoon winds whipped her short hair from side to side, but it didn’t seem to bother her; she narrowed her scarred eyes down at the village, pursing her lips. “I do not understand why all of you have given me so many points to ‘catch up’ to you, either. Is having one more person capable of hunting with this ‘worm system’ so important that you are all willing to slow your progression for it?”
“If I were the only one giving you a share of my points, then it would not be worth it, yes,” he said bluntly. “But if all hundred and eleven children give you five percent of their points every single day, it is not so much of a deficit. Within a single month, you have unlocked all your tier three mutations and are in the exact same boat as me—it was a worthwhile endeavour, considering your very presence brings reassurance to the hunters and helps them hunt even more efficiently.”
She tried not to let her scepticism show, but her lips thinned nonetheless. “I doubt I am that instrumental to the children here. They are all… unbelievably powerful–”
“And still prone to panic,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “You are an expert at deep infiltration. You know how to pick your fights and when you should retreat. With you leading the hunting group, the children are more able to leave dangerous Boreus patrols be while picking off only the weaker patrols. Sometimes, even I make the wrong call and force them into fights that cost them more stamina than effective. Result: today, we have both been kicked off the afternoon hunting group for straining ourselves more than necessary.”
Minki was quiet.
Then she averted her eyes and looked away, staring out at the sea of clouds beyond Immanu’s borders.
“...You are a mere bullet ant soldier after all,” she muttered. “Carpenter ant builders have exceptionally high strength to erect massive outposts even in the heat of battle. Mortar ant troops can shed spores that feed our fungus buildings and mortars and propagate the growth of the bullets we use. Silver ant scouts have fast legs to infiltrate Swarm territory and return vital information. Of the four battalions the General could choose to bring with him to Hagi’Shar, I still do not understand why he brought only a single Bullet Ant Battalion to supplement our forces.”
“It is Capital law. All Forward Armies assigned to reclaim territory within the continent must bring at least one Bullet Ant Battalion with them.”
“We face Boreus,” she whispered. “What good is the bullet ant soldiers’ specialty against the Swarm?”
“...”
He didn’t have a particularly good answer for her, so he didn’t respond. She took his silence and ran with it—pointing due west where the glacier could be seen in the far, far distance.
“Three months ago, we, of the Silver Ant Battalions, were ordered to determine the location of the Boreus nest and return the information to the General at all costs,” she said. “After two months, we narrowed the location to around the northern end of that glacier. If my comrades made it back to the General safely, then you can expect a few things to happen over the course of the next month or two.”
She pointed the exact opposite direction, eastwards towards the sea of clouds.
“Immanu is located three thousand metres above sea level: one thousand metres from the surface to the bottom of the sea of clouds, then two thousand metres from the top of the sea of clouds to the borders of this village,” she said. “Once the General catches wind of the Boreus nest’s location, there is no doubt he will order the construction of a base camp at the bottom of these mountains. If we presume my comrades reached him with the information a month ago, then he will most likely have the camp constructed within another month. He will move everyone into this camp, and afterwards, he will begin his march up to this village.”
He narrowed his eyes, staring eastwards alongside her.
“Why?”
“Our first attempt at the construction of a forward outpost ended in failure because we did not anticipate the Boreus’ strength and numbers,” she explained, nodding at him slowly. “You and many other soldiers were left behind as a result. However, now that the General is no longer underestimating the Boreus, he will not opt for close-range combat if he knows where the Boreus nest is. He will attempt to march the entire Forward Army up to this village and use it as a stronghold. Then, he will have the mortars replanted and shell the Boreus nest all the way from here—thereby minimising casualties and resources that would otherwise be lost in a direct confrontation.”
“... It is an efficient strategy,” he agreed. “The mortars have a shelling range of two kilometres. As long as the Mortar Ant Battalions have ample time to aim and triangulate the exact location of the Boreus nest, they can bombard it to shreds within two to three months. The Carpenter Ant Battalions would have to secure this tiny village with barricades to prevent any counterattacks in the meantime, but with the blackrock mountains surrounding Immanu, this is a natural stronghold capable of funnelling the Boreus through specific chokepoints in the west. Holding this position would be easy.”
“Yes. You understand. Therefore, I do not understand why you must rely on these children to exterminate the Boreus nest.”
He knitted his brows together. “I am not relying on them.”
“You are,” she countered, turning to face him directly. “Your order was to exterminate the Boreus, correct?”
“Correct.”
“And you understand these ‘worm systems’ the children have given us are extremely powerful?”
“I understand.”
“They cannot keep us confined. Right here, right now, with me leading the way, we can warp down to the General within a day if we so desire.”
“I know.”
“Then, the most effective way to exterminate the Boreus is by utilising our new abilities for the General,” she concluded, her eyes sharp, steady, and sincerely puzzled; he didn’t break eye contact with her. “You understand the General’s plan. With our warping abilities and the ‘wormholes’ you can already semi-create, we can hasten the process of replanting mortars in Immanu. We can warp the entire Forward Army up here in weeks instead of months. Our systems can change the tides of war between humanity and the Swarm, so why are we staying up here by ourselves, hunting meagre numbers of Boreus in an entire week that the Forward Army can decimate in a single day?”
“...”
It was a good question.
This one, he had an answer for.
“Follow me,” he said, rising to his feet and using the stock of his rifle as a crutch; his thighs still burned a little after all the warping he’d been doing the entire morning. “I assume you, a silver ant scout, are well enough for a bit of light traversal exercise.”
Minki looked at her for a long time before standing as well, stretching her legs. “It depends on the level of intensity. What will we be doing?”
“We have the rest of the afternoon off, so I will show you a special place.”
“That is?”
“Where safe training goes to die,” he said plainly. “But the children of Immanu call it Death Rope Passing.”