Chapter 1457 – Slippery Slugs

Once I’ve got the all clear from the healers and assured Crinis that I’m not dead, nor have I been teleported to some distant, horrific part of the Dungeon, I’m free to go on my next errand!

Namely: find some Krath and make them regret showing their slimy faces around the Colony! There’s several locations where Solant suspects the Krath might be gathering, each of them toward the deeper end of our spreading influence. Which only makes sense, why would they head closer to the fourth, where our influence is at its strongest?

After my failure with the snake-slug, I’m keen to vent some frustration, but I’m wary that if I go overboard, I’m likely to regret it. The slugs are wily enemies, and I have little doubt they’d jump on any opening I give them, so I need to be cautious.

I move through the tunnels with confidence, marvelling at the incredible work the Colony has done in such a short span of time. The logistics network that Solant painstakingly designed is paying dividends everywhere I look. There’s a constant flow of materials moving outward from the hubs that have been constructed along the vertical shafts that cut through the heart of the fortress to be.

Ants, humans, and members of the various other races, recruited from their communities among the independent cities of the Dungeon, all work in harmony, an endless march of materials delivered to the hundreds of build teams swarming all over the occupied territory. I can already see dramatic change in the tunnels I go through.

What was once rough, natural Dungeon has been converted into the smooth and wide tunnel structures that the Colony prefers. Roads, chambers, walls, defences, everything is being constructed at once, some parts way ahead, others lagging behind. Most important of all are the channels and wuffer platforms, each a feat of engineering that I certainly wouldn’t want to attempt to build.

After saying hello to everyone I pass, I check in with the general in charge of the tunnel I plan to venture out into.

“Hey there, general. Oh shoot, I didn’t expect to see you here, Victor!”

The general waggles her antennae irritably.

“And why would that be?”

“I thought you were managing things up in the fourth.”

“Sloan is up there at the moment and things are going fairly smoothly, so I’m here.”

“Trade with the brathians is going smoothly? No trouble from the Silver City?”

The author’s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I almost ask about the Church of the Path, but manage to stop myself. Brilliant is looking into that mess. Which reminds me, I need to check in with her to see how things are going. I’ll make that a priority once I get back.

“There haven’t been any major issues. The brathians have been busy smoothing everything over to the best of their abilities, and we are starting to receive payment for our efforts, which is gratifying.”

“Good number of cores coming in?”

“More than I expected,” the general concedes.

I take that to mean it’s way more than she expected. A good thing, considering all the effort we went through to get our mandibles on those things.