Chrysalis Chapter 4 Raid

The hunger is absolutely killing me!

As a former human, I never anticipated that excavating would be such an exhausting ordeal. However, my current form allows me to shift a staggering amount of earth compared to my old self. Between my excavation skill guiding my natural instincts and my mandibles functioning like high-powered shovels, I can carve out tunnel space at an impressive rate.

All this physical labor is putting a massive strain on my hollow stomach. After Tiny woke up, I had him gather my monster cores before putting him to work packing down the soil at the rear of our tunnel. Even though he ate not too long ago, my ape companion is clearly famished as well.

I can't even fathom how the Queen is holding up. She seems perfectly fine, though, happily biting through the dirt and motivating the group with her boundless optimism.

Truthfully, my focus isn't entirely on the digging. I’m activating my mana sensing skill as often as possible, desperately hunting for any trace of a food source! On the bright side, this constant cycle of scanning and tunneling has improved my abilities—mana sensing has jumped up two levels while excavation rose by one. On the downside, I still haven't detected a thing.

According to my mental map, our escape route continues to pierce upward and outward into the unknown. I’m a bit anxious about our eventual exit point; the only thing I’m certain of is that we’ll be several kilometers away from that guarded entrance I stumbled upon earlier.

Just as I’m starting to feel truly dejected by the lack of results, I finally get a hit.

At long last! A nibble on the line!

Because my skill level improved, the distance at which I can successfully perceive mana has also expanded. It’s a stroke of luck, as I doubt I would have caught this signal otherwise. Right on the very fringe of my perception, I can just barely feel the faint ripples of mana. I can't determine if it's a strong or weak signal yet; I'll need to move closer to get a precise reading.

It has been hours since the colony last had a meal. Furthermore, if I ignore this signal, there is no guarantee another source will appear within range of my mana sensing before we hit the surface. If that happens, the entire colony might starve to death!

I won't take that risk. We need to change the tunnel's direction. I turn toward the Queen.

"I've detected a source of food!" I inform her. "We need to slightly adjust our course to reach it."

The Queen halts her digging and turns her head toward me. I view this as a gesture of politeness, considering that as an ant, she doesn't actually need to face me to see me with her compound eyes, nor does she need to face me to communicate via pheromones.

"Do you know what you have discovered, child?" she inquires.

Honesty is the only option here. "I have no idea, but we might all die of hunger in a few days if we don't find sustenance soon. If we let this opportunity pass, we might not get another one."

The Queen reflects on this for a moment before waving her antennae in an affirmative gesture. "Your words are wise, child. Show me where we must dig."

After using my antennae to probe and my excavation skill to feel out the terrain, I recalibrate our trajectory. I begin curving the tunnel toward the mana source I sensed.

By constantly adjusting our path as we get closer, we should be able to position ourselves right above the source. Then, I can dig a short distance downward, allowing Tiny and me to scout it out without putting the workers at unnecessary risk.

The signal I detected is roughly two hundred meters away. Carving through two hundred meters of dense rock and earth is no small feat, even for a colony of monstrous digging machines like us.

It takes approximately five hours of grueling work to push the tunnel toward the mana. Throughout the process, I keep my consciousness focused on my Dantian, reaching out with my senses to catch the outward-echoing ripples.

As we draw near, the shape of the mana becomes distinct. It doesn't take long for me to realize exactly what we've stumbled upon: a tunnel, and a relatively narrow one at that. A wave of relief washes through my thorax as the shape is confirmed. This is ideal! A tunnel lined with mana veins is guaranteed to be crawling with monsters—also known as lunch. Given the narrowness of the path, the monsters there should be a manageable size.

After scanning the area several times, I detect only a few small cores moving around before they drift out of range. This is the best possible outcome. We might even be able to harvest some cores while we're at it!

Once the main tunnel reaches the right spot, I give the Queen the correct heading to keep the colony on track while I start digging a separate, short passage downward toward my meal—I mean, the tunnel...

[Tiny! Get up here and prepare to eat!]

I swear it takes less than ten seconds for Tiny to bolt from one end of the tunnel to the other. Drool is literally leaking from his bat-like face as he gently shoves his way past the workers to reach my digging site.

....

I probably shouldn't have summoned him so soon. This ape is far too hyped up. The ravenous hunger in his eyes is intense enough to turn everything in this tunnel to ash. I invited him to a fight and a feast; I should have anticipated this reaction!

It takes me ten minutes to tunnel down to the prey chamber. The entire time, Tiny is fidgeting impatiently, tearing at the walls of my small tunnel to widen it so he can fit through more easily.

Suddenly, the dirt in front of me collapses, and the pungent aroma of monsters hits my senses.

[Tiny! It's dinner time, buddy!]