Chapter 1756 – Invasion!

“We’re under attack!”

“Impossible!”

“The walls are cracking, you fool!”

Zullz wanted nothing more than to consume the idiot he’d been put on watch with, but clearly this wasn’t the time to indulge in a fortifying snack.

He had no idea what was occupying the scouts so much that they hadn’t bothered to report an assault approaching the Slimeground, but he hoped they were dead for it.

“Wait here and see if you can see what’s happening,” he snapped to his moronic associate, “I’ll go and report to Sluthziss.”

But, as Zullz went to turn, he realised his counterpart was already a dozen metres up the tunnel.

“I’ll do it!” he called back as he vanished into the darkness.

Zullz cursed and spat hot, boiling acid onto the nearby rock.

“Smart enough when he wants to be,” he gurgled furiously. Now he was certain, when he got back to the Slimeground, he was going to eat that fool and he didn’t care if he got reprimanded for it.

Once more the walls shook, threatening to dislodge Zullz from his position. He tightened the grip of his foot on the wall and tried to assess. Something rather large was ripping through the stone, and probably bashing into it to help loosen it. Could it be a random monster from the tunnels? If they caught a whiff of the Krath, some monsters would try to break into a Slimeground to try and feast on the slugs within.

However, such creatures were usually diverted long before they came close to a Krath settlement. It was unthinkable that the scouts would be so lax in their duties they would endanger their safe haven from the tunnels. Had the ants invaded and destroyed the scouts? All of them?

That didn’t make sense either!

Fangs clenched, anger boiling away inside him, Zullz decided he had no choice but to investigate. Staying put could put him in danger, while reporting back to the Krath’sizz without anything to say was a certain death sentence.

An experienced slug, he took the proper precautions, flattening out his body and camouflaging his skin, shrinking in and disguising the mana he contained. Only when he was certain he was completely hidden did the slug begin to descend the entrance to the Slimeground.

A winding passage designed to trap even the slightest trace of scent escaping, the entrance was designed to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening. Zullz had to be careful, since the rock around him began to crack and break faster and faster the farther he travelled.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Finally, a section just below him fell away, revealing the extent of the damage. Whatever was doing this, it had reached halfway to the Slimeground already!

Something monstrously large reached up, horrific jaws scything through the rock with contemptuous ease mere metres in front of Zullz’s face. Resisting the urge to exclaim in shock, he backed up the passage rapidly, trying to get a better look at whatever this was.

A monster of some sort, obviously, but what? It didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen before, but that didn’t make sense, he knew every monster that inhabited these tunnels. Was this an invader from a lower stratum? Surely not, there wasn’t a wave!

Again, the jaws cut through the stone, snapping through it as though it were soft fungus, forcing Zullz back. Then there was a pause. Concerned, he retreated a little further.