HC: Pacifist | Ch. 255 - The Warriors (Patreon)

Roth’s figure appeared in a world of white. The buildings were made of chalky stone, and snowy clouds enveloped the city in a heavenly blanket. The city was as busy as Sapphira, Hilsford, and Greensburg. He’d arrived in Nimbus City, one of AstroTerra’s ten Sky Islands.

Seeing the city's basic, plain horizontal layout made Roth consider how different this region was from Rock Canyon and its pit-shaped cities. According to what he had read online, these islands hovered in midair, powered by some long-lost technology, slowly moving along predetermined fly paths. 

It was said that on clear days, they could be seen from ground level. It was a rare sight, though. There was something about the technology powering these flying behemoths that attracted clouds. Only on exceedingly clear days could one spot a Sky Island from ground level. Roth hadn't seen one so far. In his defense, however, he spent so much of his gaming days cooped up in sewers, caves, and dungeons that the islands and the weather weren’t at fault here.

Around the main body of the island were floating crags orbiting it, like satellites around a planet. Roth could see at least three of them from the teleportation pad. These were homes to different species of birds and had nest dungeons. 

As Roth had his horse take off toward the giant building marked as the auction house, he couldn’t help but notice that several players here had a race he hadn’t seen before. Their noses were longer, almost beaklike, and they had feathers along their arms. He guessed they were skylings, a race that gave bonuses to players when above a certain altitude and allowed for short flight.

Your treeant colony has reached its second landmark: an army of 10 treeant soldiers.

[Level up!]

+3 strength;

+2 intelligence.

Your treeant colony has learned a new skill: [Bite].

Bite (Common)

Description: Ants’ mandibles are incredibly sharp tools. They learn to use them to defend themselves and to hunt other creatures.

Skill effects: 

Active: Scales with strength.

Your treeant colony has learned a new skill: [Hunt].

Hunt (Common)

Description: Ant soldiers and workers know how to cooperate to kill prey.

Skill effects:

Passive: Aura effect. Damage and resistance of worker ants improve if ant soldiers are nearby.

His colony had grown yet again. Despite what he had asked them, they were learning to wage war. The thought of his pet killing other creatures troubled him, but he could do nothing about it. Sighing, he entered the trading square and dumped all the minerals and gemstones he’d purchased. 

Due to how rare these materials were here, he sold them for double the price he had paid for them. He also started investigating what race in Nimbus City he could befriend. He tried to stay focused on his mission, but his mind kept conjuring images of the poor souls that dared to get in the way of the Leafies. A fate similar to the blue caterpillar that had invaded Antioch awaited them.

*

The cocoons shook. They were almost out now. Unlike the workers who always struggled to break free of the silk encasing, the powerful mandibles of the newly emerged soldiers cut through it as if it were butter. 

Their bodies were twice as big as the workers and were only dwarfed by the queen. Their exoskeletons still needed a few moments of air exposure to harden fully, but their deadly mandibles were in full working order.

As the hungry soldiers feasted on what was left of a fly's carcass, the Lord of the Acorn prepared for the next expedition. Their numbers had increased again, and some nanites already showed signs of overexertion and probably wouldn’t live much longer, which urged the Lord to secure more supplies. 

The Lord remembered the words their benefactor had conveyed. “Don’t fight. Peace,” he had said. Impossible. There was no peace for a treeant lord. Managing a colony was an uphill battle. There was always the constant demand for supplies and an ongoing fight between mortality and birth. 

“Stay safe. Grow,” were some of his other commands. Now that they could do. This was a land filled with treasures. There were enough resources here to secure their prosperity. They would harvest them while maintaining discretion and safety.

By now, a third of the space inside the acorn had been occupied with two larders, a nursery, a hatchery, two disposal chambers, and the necessary tunnels to connect them all. It was a significant part of the seed. However, thanks to the lord's instincts in engineering, it didn't compromise the strength of their castle’s walls. 

Half of the workers were about to start on a multi-purpose chamber that would serve either as an armory or as a farm, depending on how things progressed. The other half expanded the moat, connecting the surface to the underground gate. This was an invaluable space to butcher prey. 

The Lord planned to dig landfill chambers soon and move the garbage from inside the castle into underground dumping facilities. This would promote the colony's health while allowing them to remain hidden. Even if the predators stumbled upon their tunnel, thanks to the new batch of warriors that had entered the colony, they now had the means to fend them off. 

It was time for the next expedition. When out on an expedition, it was important to balance collective and individual thinking well. Even though the Lord's thoughts were more complex, they were still sluggish due to the limited number of neurons available. Additionally, whenever there was an expedition, distance slowed thoughts even further. It was important to assign directives and mission parameters to each ant and wait for their instincts to do the heavy lifting of the processing power. 

The directives were simple: Protein. That's what they were out for—preferably dead prey, but live if need be. With the available resources, they could hunt weaker targets. The Lord of the Acorn didn’t forget to warn the newly born soldiers about the looming praying mantis juvenile they had spotted before. 

Treeant workers pushed with their hind legs, and their skeletons groaned under the strain, but they moved the pebbles blocking the exit. This time, treeant soldiers marched out and formed a perimeter around the entrance. They kept their backs to each other and their mandibles outward toward whatever enemies would dare attack them. The workers followed in an orderly fashion. 

The Lord of the Acorn split up the soldiers into five teams of two. One team would stay behind as gatekeepers and the others would be deployed. Even if two soldiers weren't a mighty deterrent, they could still buy enough time for backup by retreating into the tunnel. Whatever predator attacked would have to go through their sharp mandibles first. 

In the worst-case scenario, the nanites would close the castle gate so that no predator could get in to harm the queen and the young. The Lord left a few workers to help carry food into the colony if need be and sent four teams of nine workers led by two soldiers, one in the front and the other in the rear of each convoy. 

“Food,” came the warning from one of the ants in the form of pheromones and a mental message. It was a seed. The Lord marked it. 

“Food.”

“Food.”

“Food.” 

Due to the growing numbers of ants and soldiers, they could cover the ground more quickly. Additionally, since the giants had recently visited this land, they had walked all over, spreading seeds from distant plants and bringing them closer to the colonies' hunting grounds. Like before, the Lord held off on harvesting these until they could find protein. 

From the moment they started the military, the consumption of resources had escalated. They needed animal protein. After several minutes, there was finally good news. 

“Food.” 

It was another fly. Something had half-eaten it, and the rest of the carcass was hidden under a litter—a common strategy for lesser creatures who couldn't build cities and had to hide their resources in plain sight. Given that it was only half a fly and much had already been dismantled, the Lord of the Acorn had the party retrieve it immediately. Whatever predator could kill a fly could probably make quick work of the scavenging party. It was important to leave its hunting grounds sooner rather than later. 

“Food.” More messages about seeds. 

“Prey.”

The Lord of the Acorns zoned in on the party that had stumbled upon prey. It studied their target through the eyes of the different soldiers and workers. It was a massive creature covered in dark purple rings. Even though it was much longer than it was taller, its height made the soldiers look up. It slithered and squirmed as it left a trail of ooze and slime. 

The Lord of the Acorns searched its instinctual memory and found records of these creatures. They were juicy and nutritious, and they didn't put up much of a fight. The most they could do was run. 

The party carrying the half-fly received orders to drop this lesser resource. All the available ants were summoned, and even the gatekeepers were called to arms. After the search party had executed a thorough sweep of the area, they had found no dangers, so the Lord was willing to sacrifice this layer of defense for the extra lethality. As for the squad that had located the prey, they circled it to scare it into the kill box that the Lord would prepare.

The slithering worm was still oblivious to their presence. This was a tactile creature that only responded to skin stimuli. It was blind and deaf, making it all the more easy to hunt it. The squad attacked as soon as all the troops signaled they were in position. The soldiers led the charge, digging their mandibles into the worm's soft body.

Bite!

Bite!

Immediately, it jerked, terrified by the jolt of pain. The treeants were still weak and could only inflict slashing damage. Poison required complex amino acids that came from bountiful nutrition; it was something beyond them for the moment. Therefore, they would need to bleed the prey to death.

Bite! 

Bite! 

Bite! 

The workers joined the assault. The worm accelerated as much as it could, trying to outrun the ants. Even though the ants were smaller than the soldiers and could cover less ground, they were still fast enough to catch up with the worm and deal one more strike into its supple flesh. 

Bite!

Bite! 

The worm was scared and in pain. It moved as fast as it could. The treeants herded the creature deep within their turf, right before their castle. The worm stampeded forward, and soon, she was not only being bitten in the hind. 

Bite! 

Bite! 

Another squad attacked, terrifying the worm and causing it to coil into itself and turn in another direction. 

Bite!

Bite!

The ten treeant soldiers had converged. The first soldier managed to get on top of the worm, and no matter how much it moved it, it kept biting. More treeant soldiers managed to do the same, piling on the damage. The more bites the worm received, the more furious it got, but soon, its strength faded. Running had exhausted it, and the relentless attack only weakened it further. Soon, it only had the strength to perform slight jerks. 

The treeants had hunted their first prey. This was the richest treasure that their colony had ever captured. The combined power of 50 ants that could carry many times their weight began dragging the worm. They managed to pull the prey through the moat gates and place it in the chamber where it would be butchered and dismantled. The Lord immediately sent the troops out again. There was still the valuable fly corpse to retrieve.

Upon arrival, they found that the carcass's original proprietor had returned. It had a shiny, thick shell that could deflect the power of their mandibles. They were no match for this foe. Not yet. The Lord had them retreat immediately. 

As a team of workers dismantled the prey underground, the Lord of the Acorn kept the gate open and organized a trail that ran through every seed spotted earlier. The treeant workers collected seed after seed under the watchful guard of the soldiers. Their longer legs and slightly better vision allowed them to detect danger from afar. If predators approached, they would quickly sound the alarm, and the workers could retreat into the colony. 

Once they collected enough protein and seeds to fill their larder and accommodate the colony's next level of expansion, the Lord of the Acorn had the colony close the tunnel. It had been a very successful first hunting expedition.

Ch. 254 - Muddy the Waters

INDEX

Ch. 256 - Elections?