Chapter 1420 – Healer Troubles

I report back to Solant, and as always, she accepts the bad news with equanimity, as if she were expecting it all along.

In any case, I’m happy enough to leave her and the rest of the boffins to work out what they want to do going forward. I mean, this is going to throw a serious wrench into our time frame, there’s no way around it. Continuing to expand will be more difficult than ever, due to the thickening toxicity around us, and more dangerous than ever, as a result of the vents creating deadly pockets of death right in the heart of our territory.

I don’t envy the decision makers with this one, absolutely not. The worst part is, we can’t even determine what might have caused this to happen! Do the vents always do this? Is it a response to our presence in the area, or the cleansed mana we’re creating? Or is this a defence system the Krath created? All of these are possible, and we don’t have a way to determine which might be the true cause.

The fifth stratum is such a mystery to everyone. Those who know the most about what’s going on down here are the least likely to share that knowledge with a group of monsters. Namely, the Legion. The Colony doesn’t really have a choice except to slam our heads into the fifth after taking all the precautions we can.

“Try and stay still!” Mendant yells at me.

“Huh? Oh, Mendant! I didn’t notice you were there. How’ve you been?”

“How have I been? I’ve been trying to heal you for the last five minutes!”

Not just Mendant, but a whole group of ten healers has been crawling on my carapace as I walk around.

“Is it really necessary for me not to move?” I ask, exasperated. “Does it make a difference?”

“It makes it easier to concentrate,” Mendant replies, snapping her mandibles irritably. “Now sit down!”

“Fine…”

It’s an odd sort of sensation, having a bunch of irritated medics crawling over my carapace, occasionally thwacking me with their mandibles. Do they not get enough sleep? How long are their shifts? Maybe the healers have a poor diet or something. They are persistently grumpy, it’s becoming the defining trait of the entire caste.

“Give it to me straight, Mendant. How bad is it?” I ask, with more than a hint of sarcasm.

“Bad,” she snaps, poking around at the base of my antennae.

“Hey, that tickles!”

“You’ve been regenerating yourself over and over again in such a short span of time. The wounds haven’t even healed the first time before more regeneration fluid is applied. Even for a monster, there are limits to how hard you can push your body.”

“There are?” I say, surprised. “I thought I could just heal forever.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Well, you can’t! Not without repercussions.”

“Such as?”

“Such as weakening the damaged areas of your body over time.”

Oh no! Not my precious carapace!

“You were worried about your carapace, weren’t you?”

“Uh… maybe?”

“How about the more delicate and sensitive parts of your body? Like your eyes and antennae?!”