RinoZ
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Chapter 1692 - What Solant Wants, What Solant Gets
🕑 Added 2025-10-08 01:00:04 +0000 UTC“Isn’t it obvious?” I say waving an antenna. “I’m heading to the fourth and dealing with those chumps who’re sniffing around our territory. Our siblings are in danger of being captured! Haven’t you heard?”
“Yes, of course I’ve heard about it,” Solant says calmly, “but why are you going to deal with it? So far, the delvers have failed to capture a single one of us. They are hardly a threat. Meanwhile, we are battling the Krath on multiple fronts right here in the fifth. We need your help.”
An ant has no facial muscles, and is therefore incapable of frowing… or having any expression at all, but you’d be amazed what you can communicate with antennae. I wave them in a pattern that suggests ‘what the heck are you on about, you nutter?’, while prodding Solant and her crew to start moving up the tunnel.
“I haven’t got all day, let’s skitter and chat. Come on, get moving.”
It takes a bit of prodding, but I get them moving and start crawling along behind them. This tunnel really is a tight squeeze.
“Are you struggling against the Krath? How bad is it?” I ask.
“So far, we are holding on,” the general replies. “We’ve made progress and our territory has expanded greatly, but the further we go, the more Krath come to fight us, and the more area we have to defend. The fighting is intense. It didn’t help that your guardians refused to leave your side during your evolution, so we’ve been without their strength as well.”
“So… what? You want me to ignore the situation in the fourth stratum and get straight into the fight down here? Is that what I’m hearing?”
Solant remains calm in the face of my rising irritation. Cool and collected, she is, as ever, a logical, unruffled calculator and decision-maker.
“I am in no position to tell you what to do, Senior,” she tells me. “I only ask that you prioritise our area of greatest need. So far, we have lost nothing and no one to the delvers in the fourth. Every minute there are casualties in the fifth. Allowing the capture of our siblings in the fourth would be tragic, allowing the capture of our siblings in the fifth would be catastrophic for all of Pangera. It is clear where you can serve the most good.”
She isn’t wrong, not in the slightest. The logic is fairly unassailable, I can’t deny that, and I certainly have a bone to pick with the Krath. Staying here and heading straight to the frontlines to smash slug faces in is undoubtedly the correct thing to do. But I’m not going to do it.
“Solant, one of our sisters was taken by the Church of the Path, you know that, right?”
“I do.”
“And you know what happened to them?”
“I do.”
Of all the ants in the Colony, I feel like I’m the one who knows the little general best. It’s almost impossible to know what she’s thinking and feeling at any given moment. Difficult to read, even for an ant, Solant keeps her cards very close to her thorax. Yet, despite her reserved nature, I know she feels a deep sadness and anger when she thinks of the sibling we lost in the Twin Cities.
“I swore that would never happen again. Not even a single time. It shouldn’t have happened once, I’ll be dead and eaten by centipedes before I let it happen twice.”
I clack my mandibles fiercely, the sharp crack echoing through the tunnels and setting the loose stones around us trembling.
“Never again, Solant. I don’t care what else is happening around the Colony, I refuse to allow anyone to use my family that way. The simple fact that they are trying is enough to make my blood boil and my carapace burn. If they actually succeeded, I would crush their mountain flatter than a pancake. I intend to put so much fear into them they won’t make another attempt for a thousand years.”
My inner fury is starting to show in my pheromones, and no one else says anything as I speak my mind.
Solant is right, but I don’t care about being right. The mere thought of a sister of mine suffering through that pain, being consumed in such a foul and evil way. I can’t stand it.
Green Mountain should be praising the skies and kissing the ground for their incredibly good fortune. If they had taken a single member of my family, there would be no going back for them. The Silver City might be out of my reach, but the Green Mountain is not. I’d pull every ant out of the fifth for the assault if I had to. Some things simply cannot be borne.
“I’ll be back to help in the fifth as soon as this is dealt with,” I assure the little general. “Think about where you want to use me. I think I’m going to be a lot more effective against the slugs than I was before. But you’re going to have to wait.”
There are a thousand thoughts and schemes behind the many lenses of Solant’s compound eyes. She wants to say something, she wants to persuade me, but I can see her realise that there’s no point and her energy would be better spent elsewhere.
“If you must do it, make sure you do it right, Eldest,” she tells me. “You may never rise this high in the Dungeon again. Make sure they get the message, so even if you aren’t here, they’re too scared to come back.”
She points an antenna as we come to the end of the narrowish tunnel.
“Go that way and you will find the path up to the fourth. Good luck.”
So saying, she’s off. I’m not surprised, she’s got places to be and things to do. Come to think of it, so do I, especially with this hook in my guts. It gets worse every step.
Turning, I head up the tunnel and move toward the fourth.
Comments
Pockman
Get ready for a rematch, golden dragon guy!
CherMi
She isn't in charge of the second threat, though. She's in charge of the fifth and wants victory by any means necessary. That's how her nature as a champion was explained and that's what we're seeing.
Nachotoad
So Solano’s position makes sense from a immediate threat perspective: A single success by one that threat would be catastrophic, a single success by the other would be terrible but would not spiral into an existential threat. But from a long term strategy standpoint I think she is wrong. From a long term perspective you have two intolerable threats (as far as Anthony is concerned) one of them can be threatened into backing off while the other can not. So better long term plan seems to be blip up there, put the fear of The Eldest into the lesser threat, then focus on the Krath.
Gabus Deux
Yeah lol, like "oh. They figured out how to do it too. . . . WAIT THEY FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO IT?!"
Nathan Patrick
Really hoping they capture a priest and send back a full elixir to the church
Jac Onue
If I recall, it was that the Silver City got stripped of its silver, but the ants left the golden city (royal district?) be.
NyxWell
Theory. I think that one of the siblings is going to be caught and brought through a gate before Anthony can stop it and he’ll then raze the silver city. I don’t remember which chapter but one mentioned that it gets razed and Anthony is the only one really capable of destruction on that scale and I doubt he’ll ever be on this floor of the dungeon again so we might see some city crushing.
Twin
I have a feeling all the ground around the mountain is going to be gone and green mountain will become green stalagmite
Buck
Nice to see Anthony express his feelings regarding what the Church of the Path did to their sibling in Silver City to Solant. He makes it clear where the priority lays and heads off to take action. Green Mountain better prepare. TFTC!
Dan K
Tbh I’d just send Crinis after those raider groups. They would swiftly learn to fear the dark.
andwhyisit
When Solant said "you may never rise this high in the Dungeon again" she likely meant that by Anthony's next evolution the call would be too much for him to go any higher than the 5th.
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Ruwa
That mountain is going to cease to exist
Anthony Romanov
Green Volcano Mountain?
Anthony Romanov
Green Mountain about to get a new Green Sea! Next to it!
Forrest Williamson
Rammon, and yes, The Child Emperor. Just went through a few days of re-reading the entire series to catch up. He's 'lost' a couple of fights, but mostly just ones he felt he should run away from. First meeting of the Legion, the Empire of Stone chasing them down from his capture, things like that where it wasn't an actual fight, but he kinda lost/had to run away.
Ian Jones
They do need to extinct the Krath though, specifically for their ability to turn any creature into a thrall. They said previously if they were able to turn an ant they could then produce their own corrupted ants. I don't remember exactly how it was explained though, I just know they're a plague left by an ancient, kinda like the demons. But the demons are more apt to coexist, while the Krath only consume and corrupt. Just my two cents
S10NN4CH
The THWACKS of JUSTICE must be meted out!!
Tsunami
Anthony needs to role up to the mountain while some ants play End Boss music in the background. A proper entrance.
Roombot
“If they actually succeeded, I would crush their mountain flatter than a pancake. I intend to put so much fear into them they won’t make another attempt for a thousand years.” The word of the Eldest. Amen. And he has the might to follow through on that threat too.
Dailion
Was the fight against Raul(? (sorry I forgot the name of the child emperor's pet, that was the title of the ruler of the silver city right? child emperor?), anyways, is the fight against the reviving bird the only one Anthony has lost?
Hayden Leech
“If you must do it, make sure you do it right, Eldest,” she tells me. “You may never rise this high in the Dungeon again. Make sure they get the message, so even if you aren’t here, they’re too scared to come back.” Dude I hope he sets that stratum on FIRE!!!
eryos
The purple lake is one of the signs left by the 20th ancient. Seeing the lake is a difficult task since anything that gets close enough is immediately pulled in by a huge suction force. Ancient scrolls say that before the lake existed there was a mountain, and that the 20th ancient erased it because "it is spoiling the view." excerpt from the 'journey of the 20th ancient,' by Granin Lazus
Vampiric Dust
I don't agree with Solant and I'm starting to rather dislike Solant a lot. The war in the 5th is not remotely that important to dedicate so much effort and resources to it. There is zero benefit to the Colony fighting the Krath. We have had 0 mention of anything remotely useful, they cannot consume the biomass of the 5th, and they're stuck within the purified mana. Other than the purified Chal, they really haven't gained anything while losing ground in the 4th. Honestly, I don't get it. It makes no sense to care so much about the 5th. The only thing they need to do is ensure a path from the 4th to the 6th. They don't need to conquer the whole of the 5th nor do they need to extinct the Krath. If the Legion and Church of Path come, they'll be a billion times more a threat than the Krath who entirely rely on corrupted mana to win, which the Colony has effectively neutralized. The Krath are no longer a threat to the Colony. Unless the whole species organizes against them, they no longer feel remotely like a threat. The fact they did so well without Anthony and his pets mostly proves Solant is just a greedy moron whose obsessed with winning whatever battle is in front of her while she ignores literally everything else. She's starting to seem like the dumbest ant in the Colony rather than the smartest. Even Vibrant looks smarter than Solant now.
Shaitan
Crusade time! I assume this war has to involve the invasion of silver city otherwise they won’t be able to stop the guardian from wrecking the ants in the future (if this will be the last time the mc is on the 4th)
Forrest Williamson
Maybe like start the machine, then after turning the 'video' off, ending their misery or imprisoning them. Maybe something like "This is the Path you chose" just to be all pun-ish.
alt31415
Make sure they get the message, Anthony.
RinoZ
That's.... that's kinda messed up >:(
eryos
“Never again, Solant. I don’t care what else is happening around the Colony, I refuse to allow anyone to use my family that way. The simple fact that they are trying is enough to make my blood boil and my carapace burn. If they actually succeeded, I would crush their mountain flatter than a pancake. I intend to put so much fear into them they won’t make another attempt for a thousand years.” Anthony is starting to sound like a proper ancient
Forrest Williamson
I know he's not that sadistic, but I would kinda love for him to capture one of those Path priests with a nameless one (since they try to erase all of their own presence aside from shadow, where nameless ones excel[not touching or alerting a single delver]), and send the Church of the Path some kind of video message of them being used in one of those nectar farms Brilliant was able to get/maybe reproduce. Would be valuable data for Brilliant, after all.
Taijusoup64
Righteous anger Anthony is good too
Brandon14754
He'd definitely be this high up again if he needs to go flatten their mountain
blucube 14
Thanks for the chapter! Oh boy, Anthony's angry and i look forward to seeing his wrath.
No_Creative_Name
Yeah, I’d kinda forgotten he felt the suffering she did. Makes sense, and seeing angry Anthony is always a pleasure.
