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Chapter 1707 - A Harder Kind of Sale
🕑 Added 2025-10-29 01:00:11 +0000 UTCIt wasn’t easy for Merchant to get in touch with people from the Church of the Path. It wasn’t easy for Merchant to find someone willing to admit that such a person even existed on Green Mountain.
Which was so obviously absurd, with them having an entire cathedral dedicated to the faith in there, that she honestly respected their dogged refusal to speak.
Of course, that didn’t mean it was impossible. What Merchant knew, better than anyone else in the Colony, was what money was, and most importantly, what it could do. Mistress Enid hadn’t shied away from teaching her student about the… darker possibilities of the marketplace.
Money was an incredible thing. It held value so much greater than its practical use, or even its scarcity. It could be used to buy goods and services, but that was the most basic, most simple of its applications.
Money had hands. It could open doors and windows that would otherwise remain shut, creating new possibilities and opportunities.
Money had ears. It could buy information and knowledge that would otherwise remain totally inaccessible. Locked lips were everywhere in the world, but money was a master key.
Perhaps most importantly of all, and least understood, money could speak. It could be a whisper, a murmur, dropped in the right place, at the right time. Or it could be a shout, a deafening burst of sound that commanded attention and respect, drawing the light and focus away from other, less deserving things.
Understanding money and how to use it was how Merchant knew where the Grand Priest Alir Vinting was staying. It was also how she knew that a message had been delivered to the Priest this morning, hidden on the tray under his cup of tea.
Knowledge she shouldn’t have possessed. Access she wasn’t supposed to have been granted.
It was also how she found herself in a warehouse on the dockside of Green Mountain, seated behind a table in the far corner, sipping her own tea, and waiting.
The people who had smuggled her in hadn’t really known what they’d done, only that they’d been well paid not to know. Ignorance and silence. Just another two things that many did not realise were on the market.
Perhaps she should have felt in danger, taking such a risk, coming to such a hostile place. Yet, she didn’t. Not at all. Safety, after all, was always for sale, even for her, even in a place like this.
When a man emerged from the darkness, she wasn’t surprised, and when he sat down at the table across from her, she wasn’t afraid.
“Alir Vinting, Grand Priest of the Path. Welcome,” she said.
Although she had never met him before, she was confident this was him. There weren’t many allowed to wear those robes, and none of the others in the Mountain who were had any reason to be here, speaking with her.
“This was not something I expected,” the man said, as he drew back his chair and sat down. “A civil discussion, with one of your kind?”
There was something about the eyes that Merchant had learned to identify. Some people were open with their distrust of monsters. They shied away, or their lip curled with disgust. She didn’t mind that. Obvious reactions for people with deep-seated distrust for a kind of being that they had lived in fear of from the moment they grew old enough to learn they existed.
She could work with those people, try to bridge the gap, try to create tenuous bonds that could strengthen over time. Or she could try to make them see her as something else, something other than a monster.
But there were others, skillful enough to hide their true face. These were the merchants, the traders and the travellers with experience enough not to show what they were thinking on the inside. Most of the people she dealt with were like this, and it was much harder to tell who felt a strong prejudice against her kind and who didn’t. She’d learned, there was always a tell. It was so much harder to lie through the eyes.
From the day she had been born until now, Merchant had never seen a gaze so cold as the one Alir Vinting levelled her way.
She was not a person, she was barely an entity, in his eyes. He regarded her as less than a human would regard a pet cat, less than they regarded a table.
There was both hatred, and avarice in those eyes.
Suddenly, Merchant didn’t want to engage in her usual patter. She didn’t want to perform, or engage in the subtle back and forth of negotiation. She would spend the absolute minimum amount of time necessary in his presence.
“We have one of your priests,” she said flatly. “Soon we will have more. If you want them back, this is the price.”
She took out the paper, slid it across the table, then retracted her leg lest it get too close to the thing sitting opposite.
“You expect us to pay ransom to retrieve our priests?” Alir said as he reached out to take the paper. When he saw the number written within, his eyebrows climbed. “Well now, that is hardly civilised.”
“How the Church of the Path feels about us isn’t something we worry about.”
“You should,” he said, crumpling the paper and dropping it to the floor. He leaned closer. “Giving us ammunition to use against you is profoundly unwise.”
“As if you would stop firing arrows just because we didn’t shoot back,” Merchant clacked her mandibles with distaste. “I suggest you pass our message back to your superiors. I don’t think your fellow holy men and women will feel all that comfortable in our presence.”
“Is that a threat?” Alir asked.
“No. This is the threat: if you take too long, we might figure out how to do to you what you do to us. I wonder how you would taste after being refined into an elixir, Grand Priest? Disgusting, I’m sure.”
The priest merely chuckled.
“You can try, I suppose. I assure you, it cannot be done, but news of your atrocities will surely spread far and wide.”
“We are done here. Leave.”
Perhaps sensing that she would have him removed if he didn’t go of his own accord, Alir stood, then bowed, hand to his heart, before turning and striding out of the warehouse. As soon as he was gone, Merchant began to clean her antennae. Pulling her antennae through her elbow joints was soothing, and the routine calmed her mind.
“Ugh,” she said. “I need a smoke.”
Comments
absoluteZero
Bro he needs to be made into an elixer that's for sure.
andwhyisit
No. If the Colony went there then the Path would exploit this knowledge to make the Colony out to be an existential threat to all non-monster races. Alir is truly abhorrent, but in this regard he is correct, converting a priest to elixir would benefit the Path more than it would the Colony. The whole point of this exercise is to stop Green Mountain from kidnapping ants without instigating a war. Yes, there will be a war eventually, the Path won't stop after all, but the Colony can't afford another war while the campaign in the fifth is still ongoing. I know the priests of the Path make your blood boil, and there is plenty of bloodlust in the comments as a result, plus a bit of impatience from the one-chapter-per-day schedule, but maybe you really should put your emotions to one side and think about this logically. How does what you are suggesting benefit the Colony in any way?
Sly Trickster
Wait till they get a class option that will allow them to use the mandibles they created as paladin weapons! Oh the glorious chomping to come! Praise the Great One!
Gonvas
While Church of Path wants to cause untold amounts of suffering in exchange for XP, the Colony, gives them a 2nd chance and a new start from 0.
Gonvas
The Colony was never one to enjoy suffering. We even got an excerpt about them not liking to fight as sapients but being kinda forced to (going after a defeated foe). If they were to use the ritual, I imagine it's an altered version that works on sapients and doesn't cause death and all the pain the original causes. Something that "only" takes away the classes, stats, skills and levels. Pretty much a status reset. The only suffering comes from the realisation that U have to start from 0. IMO, this would be a great way of getting revenge without having the Colony turning into monsters.
Arlano
I am waiting for the other ants to take the weird evolution that Anthony refused, like swarm, energy being, or brain ant.
Kris Piskorski
very idealistic view of warfare for survival, psychological warfare is part of the game and always has been
Kail311
More than that, they cleanse the territory they occupy. The dungeon radically changed the spawned monsters in those areas and considering the last time the Fifth spawned them was eons ago then the monsters are wholly unique and only available in colony controlled space. We only saw a brief look at them but scholars would love an in depth study. Idk what resources you get out of a Stratum that's basically one large organism but again, totally unique and probably highly valuable.
Navarog
Any Queen aparance will be a good one. We are so starved with a lack of Her, as Anthony is starved with lack of grubs.
Navarog
I think he meant that this ritual don't work on humans, only on monsters. Which would imply they tried.
Silent Consent
Maybe we need an Assassinant. Heavily modified tiny flying or distributed swarm evolved ant to liquify troublemakers in their sleep.
Silent Consent
Oh, it can be done. Brilliant knows how they did it and even if it doesn’t work to produce the elixir they can still be drained until they expire. They should start the psychological and magical breaking of the priest regardless. Then they can liquify him to exp later. I love how he describes his own ritual though.
Chien Do
To all of you calling for the Colony to do the same to the Church: do you build the gas chamber to kill Nazis? If the answer is yes, you know you are a Nazi right? I bet you would break your arm trying to Heil Hitler if you were in Germany in 1940s. Fighting to protect oneself is normal, reveling in violence, pain, suffering on your enemies is just proof that you are sicko.
BelligerentGnu
Healing magic, and failing that mutations.
BelligerentGnu
I look forward to his death.
CherMi
Waiting for Merchant to start posting bounties on priests of the path
Hayden Leech
So. Aside from territory. Has there been any return on the investment for the crazy amount of resources they poured into the fifth? They should be harvesting crazy shit from that stratum and bringing it to the fourth. Chyron said the colony controlled way more territory down there than even the legion. They basically have a sealed space station fortress down there. The colony has BORDERS! There has to be some kind of benefit.
carson
I picture Alir like the priest from Quasimodo.
Hayden Leech
I kind of wish the colony may never made that threat. And just did it. Give the Alir priest a vial of elixir one day. “We thought the church might like a sample of our latest product! It’s a new line, I took a risk on it but I really think it will take off. We call it “ Al le carte Priest”. “It’s a shame the main ingredient is so rare but you know what they say! Scarcity breeds profit!”
giann flroesca
I think she already does but she just doesn't know it yet.
Slapjack
Merchant needs the Protectant bodyguard squad treatment
ChildConsumerServices
So sad to learn that Merchant died of lung and thorax cancer at only 3 years old due to her severe ciggette abuse 💔 may her spirit be bargining with the devil for a place in heaven 🙏🙏
David Harshman
I wonder if the priest says it can't be done because it was tried or if he's assuming that because of dogmatic belief that only monsters were given by the Dungeon for the purpose of XP gains?
Magnus
I think the Core Shapers might be able to help improve that process too. There are monsters that produce biomass, so it'd be interesting if they could make a monster that can drain the XP out of others. Maybe a carnivorous plant that traps/holds them? Might even be able to create plant monsters that knock them out and use dreams or hallucinations instead of physical torture to extract the XP. Would be even funnier if the priests survive the process but end up as level 1. That might actually be a pretty good deterrent. Anyone who trys to capture ants to boost their levels ends up loosing all of them instead.
Sean
Anthony will insist Merchant be force evolved to tier 7 just so she can be thwacked
ZaneofBane
The colony wouldn't. The priests won't be hasty with some of their own men's lives on the line. The priests may do it later.
SuperNewbie
Am I crazy or would this not have been a perfect opportunity for one of the sides to do something underhanded? Capture Alir? Capture Merchant?
Draynar
i want to see merchant and the general ant interact. have a feeling they would really understand each other
mach laaw
This is actually really interesting to delve into...can you call it humanification when in reality most stories in general give human attributes to the inhuman and then do vice versa for human characters?.... Isn't it just kind of how story works in general..
Yeslek Nnamhctits
Oh merchant, I cannot wait for the queen to get her antennae on you, let the royal thwacking be held, for all to behold.
Pockman
I shivered. That thing scares me at times.
Tag
Why does Merchant feel like the Section 13 of the Colony?
Sly Trickster
Your thwacks are coming Merchant. Mark my pheromones, they are coming.
blucube 14
Thanks for the chapter! I really look forward to when the ant priests get to punch some path priests. Ah the chaos is shall be so nice.
Anthony Romanov
I kinda want Brilliant to turn some priests into XP Goo and send to the Church! Just to play with their minds. 🤯👹
Sparaten
If they find a way they can just spread the information to humans and other species. Whowould believe that the colony spread it. People would just think that the priests got desperate due to the coming cataclysm just like the Kalomodo.
Babuui
Intriguing
Vampiric Dust
The humanification of the Colony is really going into overdrive. I miss the Colony seeming more intelligent monsters than humans in ant bodies. Learning the human side of the ants only after experiencing the terror of their monster side.
alt31415
Good riddance to bad Alirs.
Buck
Alir is a nasty bastard. Ugh.
