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Chapter 1499 - Sprint
🕑 Added 2024-11-29 02:50:36 +0000 UTCHoly moly, the fifth is no longer mucking around. Mana levels continue to rise, and I have to say, if I thought the fifth was unpleasant before, it’s completely awful now. As the toxic mana grows more dense, everything that makes it world-renowned garbage gets upgraded in the worst possible way. It invades my body more effectively, seeping into me faster than before and doing more damage when it does. Not to mention it replicates itself faster and is harder to break down.
Fun-fun in the sun-sun.
Then, to top it all off, the acidic effect is much, much stronger, which means my carapace is constantly steaming and my eyeballs are melting with upsetting rapidity. I mean… really! I spent so much time working on my eyes, getting them to the point where they would be useful, and now I spend my time wandering around with eyeball sludge dripping down my face since the lousy things can’t hold together for more than a few seconds.
Naturally, this makes me effectively blind while I’m out fighting in the tunnels, which is less than ideal. Oddly enough, I can still be fairly effective thanks to the combination of mutations that I have.
I sense danger from my right, my future-sight antennae tingling in warning, so I leap back and unleash the Starcrusher.
BOOM!
I can’t see what happens, but I don’t sense danger anymore, so I’m assuming it was dealt with. Several of my mind-constructs are conducting constant sweeps, maintaining my external mana sense to identify monsters before they can reach me. They confirm there’s nothing nearby, so I keep moving.
I don’t want to move too far from the safety of the Colony, though not because I’m unable to see properly. After all, with my upgraded Tunnel Mapping Skill, I have a precise bead on my location at all times. I can see how far I am from the cleansed mana zone down to the centimetre.
Surprisingly, there’s one other mutation that has proven to be useful. Even if my eyes are in a constant state of disrepair, I can still ‘see’ intent coming towards me. Just like my foresight antennae, it allows me to know something is coming just before it happens, helping me get out of the way or snuff out the threat before it becomes too large of a problem, even if it’s not quite as clear as it would normally be.
It’s been days since I upgraded my Skills, and since then, I’ve been back on rotation out in the tunnels pretty much constantly. If I’m not fighting, then I’m being treated after coming in, getting some rest and then heading back out again.
The attacks on the fortress have intensified beyond the point I thought was possible. If someone told me the wave had already started, I would have believed them. More Krath have arrived, pushing their numbers higher than they were before we caught so many, and they have been busy. Our Dungeon Seers are reporting the Krath have been manipulating the tunnels to create spawn points all around the fortress, about a kilometre or two away. It’s hard for us to reach them, but the monsters that spawn are almost guaranteed to get close enough to sense the Colony and charge in, enraged.
In addition, the increased monster numbers means more Biomass, experience and cores have been added to the local ecosystem. That means more evolved monsters coming our way with better mutations and higher levels.
I’m not a fan.
[Come back, Eldest. We’re ready to seal up the tunnel.]
[Ok.]
Just for fun, and not because I hate this place, I fire off a gravity bomb, gaining no small measure of satisfaction from the shrieking howl of wind as it flies off and detonates a safe distance away. Take that!
Having extracted my petty vengeance, I retreat back to the safe-zone, sagging with relief as I finally stop melting. I trigger my healing gland again as a team of healers grumpily climb onto my carapace, smacking me with their antennae until I give in and flop down onto the ground.
“Fine! Fine! You win.”
“We’re healing you,” one grumbles.
“The patient should sit still and be quiet.”
“You don’t even have eyeballs; you lack more than one common sense.”
“Oi, that was unnecessary,” I complain, but they pay me no mind.
“How is it out there, Eldest?” Tungstant asks me.
If there’s anyone who looks more rough than I do, then it’s Tungstant and Cobalt. They’ve been getting rest, but it doesn’t seem to help them much. The two are so run down they look like ant-shaped puddles, oozing from one place to the next.
“It’s bad,” I tell her, not bothering to try and conceal it. “The wave is close. Spawn rates are getting out of control. The Krath are being sneakier, but they don’t have to do as much as before. As long as they point all these monsters towards us, the work is done.”
“The upper third of the fortress is finished, at least,” she tells me. “With your help, we’ve been able to close off the last few tunnels much more rapidly. I’m hoping our pace will accelerate over the next week rather than slow down.”
“You and me both.”
With me inside, the build teams set to work on the final touches. The wall of the fortress is being formed a hundred metres within the edge of the safe-zone, which keeps the builders relatively safe. Having said that, already there are monsters pressing against the blue mana, disgorging rivers of sludge and trying to eat away at it.
Like the polished professionals they are, the build teams work as a harmonious whole. The giant frames have already been established and connected to those above and below. Enchanted plates of steel have been carefully set in place, and the ants have worn away the stone. The tunnel now features a twenty metre-wide-chasm, the final links of which they now break away. With the tunnel and fortress now severed, the earth mages move into place and begin to complete the final stonework. Gradually, all the rock they’ve prepared flows over the frames, moving like mud, then hardening. In only ten minutes, the kilometre-wide tunnel has been completely sealed.
“Another one done,” I note to Tungstant.
It’s not completely done, though. The earth mages will spend another two days working on the outer shell, adding more layers of rock, hardening and compressing them.
Comments
Matt
I wonder if it would be possible to get a bonus chapter which is just the current character sheet for Anthony. That way the people who like stats can look at it without breaking the flow for everyone else.
Brandon14754
The issue isn't that the krath aren't creative but that as far as we know they don't have to tool set like the colony for digging massive holes correctly and their "army" that does most of the work doesn't take directions from the krath, the krath just put them close enough to want to attack on their own but now all they'll see is a wall with no purification mana so they won't just charge at the fortress like before making it harder for them to manipulate to even head in the fortresses direction let alone attack it
alt31415
Ya'll are being rather unimaginative. Like, if the ants - not even Anthony, just the ants - had to attack a suspended fortress like that they'd figure something out. You can bet the powered-by-hatred Krath will too.
Anthony Romanov
The entire Fortress is suspended from the 4th ceiling and secured by massive chains and at least 20 meters gap from any solid object with walls that isolate mana and thick stone wall on outside! Not to mention blue mana all around it! Nothing less then a flying monster can reach it and then I suspect there are active defensive weapons all around the Fortress. And not forget that all this is size of a city of atleast 20km^2
alt31415
They can, Anthony's given them 5th-strata cores before. It's the biomass they can't use properly.
Brandon14754
If stored in purification mana long enough they should be clean
Rahsheem Reid
Having been around since chapter 400ish I’m just enjoying the ride. With every new endeavor I’m all in and ready to see what comes of it.. Anthony is my favorite main character and I am just happy to be here.
Brandon14754
that's not to mention it repelling the corruption and purification mana(so monsters won't immediately charge at the base any more and it's not connected to the fifth so the krath and any monsters wanting to attack the shell would need to fly to the shell or jump and hold on then try to dig through it, we've seen the krath dig tiny tunnels but not enough to bring an army through, so probably they'd be sensed by the colony and killed
Brandon14754
other species and sapients can't dig through stone like the ants can, to them a wall of stone is close to permenant
taukid
Assuming they can touch or use cores from the 5th
alt31415
Why would they not need to defend them? It's not like the Krath are gonna give up.
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
CentaureHeart
Technically it should go faster and faster. Once the tunnels are sealed they don't need to be defended so they can relocate all of their forces to the other places. There is definitely going to be other pushes from the Krath though.
Anthony Romanov
Now that cores were mentioned. I realize how insanely much Colony getting cores from fifth!
Brandon14754
I wonder if the krath have ever lost this much territory? iirc even the legion said their bases weren't nearly as big, iirc it's a 20 km radius so they basically captured a major US city's worth of land
Loulatsch
The krath reaction to the fortress is going to be so amusing
andwhyisit
Racing to the finish is not possible. The only way that wall is getting finished is if the Colony buys enough time. Everyone is going to be finding their limits by the time this is all over.
strainge guy1
The common sense joke was good
Grey Knight Lord
No, Solent has made it clear they cannot rush. Rushing means mistakes, mistakes mean delays, delays mean death.
alt31415
Krath: "Alright, these invaders have been here for TOO LONG and this 'mana factory' they built was the LAST STRAW! Time to rouse the legendary guardian, a high-powered tier 9. No way a tier 7 mythic can handle that!" Anthony emerging from the fortress as tier 8: "Yo."
alt31415
Come on come on! RACE TO THE FINISH!
clovis
Gosh I can't wait to see what happens when they finally complete the fortress, which if i recall correctly was alluded to as a mana heart quite a few chapters back.
Brandon14754
Glad to know anthony has seen red dwarf
Buck
Won’t be long now until the fortress is complete. That will surely enrage the Krath even more than they already have been.
Grey Knight Lord
If this is just when the wave is near breaking, then anything not of the 5th Strata will just melt no matter how strong. Maybe a Tier 8 Mythic Fourth Strata Monster can endure, but not for long. Edit: If it’s been a few days since he leveled his skills, and spawn rates are rising, and more higher level monsters are throwing themselves at the fortress, it means more levels. He needs to get to Tier 8 and fast so when the colony pushes deeper into the 5th he can fight the native tier 8s.
