Chrysalis Chapter 1888 - Fruits of her Labours

As it turned out, Hippocrant was also a tier five ant monster now, having evolved during the wave. It had proved necessary to take the leap, in part because she needed the assistance of further organs and mutations to be useful in the fifth, and also in order to specialise further in the mysterious Bio-mana.

Needless to say, the type of healing required in the fifth was rather demanding. Ants who had been contaminated needed to be cleansed of any toxic mana urgently, and then receive enormous amounts of healing in order to repair the damage done to their internals.

It just wasn’t something a tier four healer was cut out to do.

As for the Bio-mana, Hipprocant had found the stuff to be just as fascinating and rich with possibilities as she’d been led to believe, but it was exceptionally difficult to work with. After consulting with Coolant and Propellant, among other esteemed mage ants of the Colony, she’d shaped her evolution to allow her to better investigate this strange new type of energy and see what she could do with it, the first ant in the Colony to have done so.

Still, she hadn’t had much time to work on it. For weeks she’d been running from one hotspot to the next, trying to keep her family members alive while they stubbornly threw themselves into harm's way over and over again. It really had been endless, and a rather harsh awakening to just what the members of her caste had been put through in this stratum.

Now that it was finally over, she was hoping to get more time to conduct research while improving her healing Skills at a less frenetic pace.

“Would… would you get off of me?” she demanded tiredly.

“I’m trying to carry you!” Ascendant laughed. “I swear I can!”

“No you cannot, now let go of my carapace, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Will not!”

“Will so!”

The argument ended with the two of them tussling in the corridor, grabbing and biting at each other while the other ants just stepped around or over them. It wasn’t really a fair fight, considering one was a healer and the other a scout, but then it wasn’t really a proper fight at all.

“Alright, I won’t try and carry you,” Ascendant declared in a huff, extricating herself and hovering just off the ground, her wings buzzing loudly. “But you walk so slowly! It’d be faster if I carried you.”

“We’re only going to eat, what’s the rush?” Hippocrant grumped as she picked herself up. “And since when did you wear clothes?”

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“It’s a scarf!” Ascendant said, flipping it around her neck. “Isn’t it great?”

“It’s fine, I suppose.”

Perhaps there was some unspoken bond that had been formed while they were still eggs, but Hippocrant found herself feeling strangely comforted by the presence of her bouncy sibling. Even if she found the boundless enthusiasm of her sister somewhat exhausting, and her disregard for personal safety aggravating.

“Now that the wave is ending, do you have any idea where you’re going to go?” she asked Ascendant, genuinely curious. “I’ll be staying here in the fifth for the time being, I need more time to study Bio-mana and see how it can be used. Do you want to stay down here?”

“I do!” Ascendant declared, then slumped a little in the air, “If they’ll let me.”

Hippocrant nodded, sharing her sister’s frustration. The two of them were still so young, the Colony wanted to look after them and treat them gently, not letting them do anything too risky. She herself may have been in the fifth stratum, but she’d been heavily protected the entire time, not allowed to set a single leg anywhere near the actual fighting.

The two made their way through the fortress to the mess hall and lined up with the rest of the ants, accepting their portion of Biomass in their mandibles and carrying it back to their table. Sitting on the chairs, they ate their meal, consisting of locally sourced Biomass from the fifth, served with increasing frequency to the ants, Hippocrant had found.

“I’m sure they can find somewhere here that you can fight,” she said as she munched on the food. “You’re fifth tier, surely that’s enough to get experience and Levels.”

“I may have to ask Solant,” Ascendant said, a little unhappily. She was still a bit intimidated by the cold and logical general. Then she brightened. “Or I could speak to the Eldest!”

“The Eldest? I think they’re getting ready to go to the sixth. If you want to talk to them, you’d have to do it quickly…” Hippocrant thought. “I suppose if the Eldest said you could stay, then Solant would have to let you…”

It was worth a try. Hippocrant would much rather her sister was somewhere nearby so she could keep a compound eye on her at the minimum. Without someone looking after her, the idiot would probably fly straight into the mouth of a waiting monster without even noticing.

“In fact,” she said slowly, “if you’re going to go down and see the Eldest, then I’ll go with you. My research can wait a little while.”

“Oh great! That’ll be fun!”

Ascendant had a habit of rapidly pulsing her wings when she was happy, even if she was sitting down. Even when she was in torpor. It wasn’t that loud, but it did move a significant amount of air around, causing Hippocrant’s antennae to blow wildly around her head.

“Stop that,” she grumped, finishing her meal. “You’re disturbing the table.”

“It’s fine,” Ascendant said happily, chomping on the last of her Biomass. “I’m inspiring others to take up flying and become my followers.”

“You followers?” Hippocrant asked her.

She personally didn’t. She was busy enough as it was and didn’t want to waste her time dealing with others following in her footsteps.

“Of course! Flying is fun, and when you do fun things together with your family, they become fun!”

All Hippocrant could see was a rapid rise in flight-related injuries occurring across the Colony. She sighed.

“More work… great,” she muttered.