RinoZ
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Chapter 1057 - Fame and Fortune pt 4
🕑 Added 2022-10-10 10:41:34 +0000 UTCThe ant stared at them. Rillik, Elly, Drake and Lacos stared back.
A pause.
Rillik swore viciously, then began to turn the boat around, not bothering to hide his frustration.
“Let’s just kill it and get on the mountain,” Drake said. “There’s only one.”
Rillik didn’t bother answering, still openly cursing.
“There is never just one,” Lacos quoted the advice their leader had imparted earlier in the day, then he pointed over the monster.
Drake turned to see where his friend was pointing, it took a moment, but he eventually noticed several sets of antennae poking from behind trees or around the edge of a bush. It was like the ants were hidden, but not so well that they wouldn’t be found if you actually tried to find them.
The ant in front of them clacked its mandibles several times, the sharp, percussive noise ringing out in a rhythm that felt distinctly like mocking laughter.
“Ah, shut up you damn monster,” Rillik growled as he hauled on the oars.
The rest of the crew slumped in the boat.
“That’s the fourth time we’ve tried to land today,” Elly groaned. “How are they always waiting for us when we get there?”
“I still think we could force a landing,” Drake grumbled. “They’re only ants.”
Lacos held his chin in one webbed hand, pondering.
“Dozens of groups have made landfall already, maybe hundreds. The ants should have their… jaws? Do they have jaws? Their jaws full dealing with those mercenary groups, but still, we are met by a large number whenever we approach.”
Rillik finally stopped cursing and laid off the oars for a moment, staring back at the ant still standing in the open, watching them.
“This is why I never trust jobs without enough information,” he spat over the side, “and why we play it as cautious as we can until we learn more.”
“We’re just wasting time,” Drake said, “other groups are out there earning money and we’re just getting laughed at by an oversized insect.”
The young man fumed in his seat, glaring at the mountain as he clutched the hilt of his sword. Rillik sighed.
“Patience. Where is your patience? Do you have debts I don’t know about, Drake? If this is about money, talk to the group, we can help you out.”
A little anger bled out of the man, but he still simmered as he turned around.
“No,” he said quickly, “nothing like that.”
“Then sit down, shut up, and be patient. By the Path, how many times do I need to show you the folly of rushing in blind before the message starts to sink into your thick head? Are other groups on the mountain? Yes. Are they making money? Yes. Will they all make it back? Not even close. Every group is going to take heavy losses today, you mark my words.”
“What do you mean?” Elly asked. “I get that we didn’t expect it to be ants, but isn’t that a good thing? They’re first stratum monsters, not fourth, and they have strong cores. This should be easy, right?”
Rillik just shook his head.
“Don’t be stupid. Stop and think for a minute, would you? You see a monster from the first stratum laughing it up on the fourth and you think you’ve found a free buffet? Don’t be daft. And look at the way they behave. I’ve taught you to analyse monsters, what do you think we are actually seeing here?”
The three younger mercenaries considered the evidence they’d gathered from a morning of trying to reach the shore without being detected.
“They’re organised,” Elly said after a moment. “There’s a watch on the shoreline, there has to be. Except that doesn’t make sense… don’t they have bad eyesight?”
“They aren’t showing normal signs of monstrous aggression. Baiting tactics, laying traps, even openly taunting us. All signs of intelligent behaviour,” Lacos stated thoughtfully.
“There’s no doubt they’ve been monitoring us somehow,” Drake said. “It’s possible they even have some sort of primitive tracking device like we use.”
The others looked at him as if he were insane, but Rillik only nodded.
“Ants. Smart ants. What will the Dungeon think of next?” he groused, still a little red in the face from anger. “There’s thousands and thousands of the little buggers lighting up that mountain like a maypole, an ocean of gold to mercs like us, but it’ll be incredibly dangerous to try and take it.”
They sat in silence for a long while until Rillik finally sighed.
“What’s more, you haven’t realised exactly what they’re doing. Why are the ants hidden, but not hidden well? They could tuck themselves underground and you’d never know they were there, but instead they’re almost out of sight. They want us to see them, they don’t want to fight. If a crew is too stupid to look, or underestimates the danger, they’ll blunder in and get chomped, but someone with eyes to see will notice and back off.”
“Why would they do that?” Elly asked.
“They’re just buying time until the big bug wakes up. The whole lot of them are playing defence. If we landed in force, they’d probably just go underground and force us to go down there and fight them. I hate this.”
The group fell silent as they absorbed what their leader was saying. A gloom fell over them as it began to look as if this had been a wasted trip after all.
“There has to be a way,” Drake said, “we can’t come out here and go back with nothing. They’re just ants. We can bait one out, fight them on the water, or flood their tunnels. We still have options. All we need is a few cores to pay for our trip.”
He did his best to sound reasonable, but beneath the surface was an undercurrent of tension that was obvious to the others.
“Drake,” Rillik said seriously, “this is your last chance to come clean. Why are you so desperate for money right now? Cough it up.”
For a moment, it seemed as if he might say something, but then his face closed over, his expression growing stony.
“It’s nothing. I just don’t want to have wasted all this time.”
Rillik sighed.
“Look, we may still be able to salvage something, but it’s going to depend on what everyone else is going to do. Damn it all. It’s so much easier when the monsters are stupid.”
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
Brandon14754
patreon always charges around the first of the month so it's usually best not to start in the middle or the end if you care about making the most of your donation.
Grey Knight Lord
Damn. I should have waited for next month.
Brandon14754
The base schedule iirc is give or take 5 chrysalis chapters a week and 1 BoD chapter a week, the BoD chapter is usually Wednesday night or Thursday morning PST(us west coast). There was a flood warning issued that he told us yesterday so the chapters might be slower or not at all if electricity goes out or something.
Grey Knight Lord
So what is the update time? I just bought the patreon and I now am dying to see the moment the ‘big bug’ wakes up.
Brandon14754
Personally I don't really think so cause we've not been shown they know about the congregation, even though I have suggested before they might through beyn I don't think it very possible. Though reading back drake was the first to spot the job then whistled loudly to get everyone's attention to the job. I still think it more likely that during the few hours before they left for the main merc city or at the bender, or during the 2+ days on the ship he somehow got in debt or heard a rumor that is making him so shifty or eager. Like maybe he heard there's someone important on the ship who is looking for new recruits and will pick from people who distinguish themselves on this journey. He might not like how Rilik runs the party so looking to jump to a more successful party.
Brandon14754
I've seen so many series that either stopped thanks to writers block or just had a terrible/annoying ending because the author couldn't write a satisfying ending while keeping up the speed of release so they choose speed over quality. Or even where the authors health slows or kills the novels. EX: Author Wiz with Reborn: Apocalypse, Reili with Nanaomancer Reborn, and Warmaisach with Lightning Is the Only Way. If Rinoz wants to slow down release I'm not gonna complain even though for the past like 2 years Chrysalis has been my favorite story.
Nathan Patrick
Anyone else get vibes that Drake may have a vendetta against ants or the colony, or that he is a member of The Path and he has a mission to oppose the growing congregation that the colony has "started"?
MrrC
Great point - for those who didn't look it up: It's this "The defensive strategy of the Colony is a brutal one. Though they shy away from attrition warfare in principle, they have been known to engage in it when the grim calculus of war is sufficiently in their favour. If you are losing ten soldiers for every ant you kill, then that isn't a fight that will go well for you. However, committing meat to the grinder is often the only avenue that the damned insects will leave open for you. The records are filled with example after example of the superiority of their defensive construction. The generals have a saying: "Leave three ants on a rock for two days and you'll find an impregnable fortress when you get back." The folly of rushing to engage the fortifications of the ants has been proven time and time again. Their mages are well trained and strong, adaptable and with excellent coordination. The spell barrages that would-be attackers are forced to endure are harrowing. If you manage to neutralise the mages with your own, no easy task, then you still have the literal rain of acid to deal with. Their artillery ants are capable of firing the stuff a kilometre, spraying wide areas with a mist that will strip flesh from bones if given the chance. Suppose you manage to overcome that obstacle, you advance into their fortifications, likely an anthill since that's their favoured configuration, then what? A bloody grind of a battle where you are forced to assault layer after layer of walls, traps and pitfalls, that's what. The ground will open up behind you to vomit out hundreds of ravenous monsters, rivers of acid will explode out of nowhere, bursting from concealed storage chambers and flowing down the hill, literally taking the feet out from under you. It's a nightmare, but it's not impossible. With sufficient numbers, grit and clever tactics, you can overcome this hurdle. But what have you won? The answer is nothing. You have conquered the outside of the anthill, which is nothing. All the things they want to defend are INSIDE the hill, which means the true test is yet to come. Fighting the ants within the tunnels of their own fortress-hills is some of the most brutal fighting I've ever seen in my forty-year career. I've witnessed veteran soldiers come out of those tunnels as shivering wrecks, completely broken from the experience. It's dark, it's cramped, and at any time, from any direction, a veritable horde of terrifying monsters could burst out through the walls. Fighting the ants outside is hard enough, within the narrow confines of their nests? They turn into another beast entirely. My official recommendation for assaulting ant fortifications is this: don't. Establish ranged superiority and throw stuff at it until it crumbles into dust, then burn the dust until nothing remains but a puddle of molten rock. It takes a long time, requires a massive concentration of valuable assets, but it’s the only way that works."
xXChrisdogXx
As great as that would be producing as many chapters as he does is already really impressive, if he did them daily he would have no time irl and the quality would definitely dwindle like what Nathan said
Nathan Quitugua
I don't think its a matter of money...its a matter of being able to write and produce a quality chapter.
Colin C
something like the prelude of "Chapter 863 - Assault On Orpule pt 5" is what they are getting
Greyg
They wake up in comfortable beds with an ant plushie confused
Qwokka
Anthony: "How's hangin?" You forgot how peaceful he is actually xD
Koala Man
Lol the other merc’s attacking the nest , when they get herded into the intricately carved and well appointed cells after being captured with ease . These guys aren’t legion after all . And then their faces when a guy With antenna on his head shows up to tell them about how sinful it was of them to attack the colony
Israel Rodriguez
Perhaps they join the growing antmancer army.
Yuri Enoi
I bet they are going to be even more shocked when they discover the tea and biscuits
Yuri Enoi
It was Drake
Runaway_Cactuar
right around the time when the Immortals encircles them~
Bruce
When they realize too late that they fucked up.
CUI13
I wonder when the mercenaries are gonna find out that the ants have mages
James
I know I don't have that kind of money, but Rinoz, why not just name how much it would cost to get you to update everyday because I bet one of your patreons can afford it and I am DYING to see Anthony again. It's so bad I've reread chrysalis since he went to sleep and he is still ASLEEP😭😭😭
Asekhan
_Everybody_, underestimate the ants, until they actually fight them, that is
Cindermoth
Oh nice, I'm super hyped to see what will come of this.
LuffyBR
And I thought the mercenaries would stand a chance, even pressing the colony hahaha. I knew I was probably overestimating them too much, but this is frustrating. Basically, they are effective useless if their oponnents are sentient (I am purposely hyperbolizing, for drama effects).
Nathan C
You describe Rilik as being "red in the face" at one point, but isn't he Golgari?
Niels Valkenborgh
I'm really looking forward to their POV when "the big bug wakes up".
Brandon14754
Really looking like drake is gonna die. Also even Rillik is still underestimating the ants, a lot of if not most of the people who already landed are probably dead or captured.
Anthony Romanov
And they fail recognize that monster ants can have HUMOR. Humor is not something that controlled monster would do. Only free thinking and communal sentient would do and that they are organized, should be sending bunch of alerts to them. And that 1st level monster made it's way all the way to 4th level without it being general knowledge says that they done it in record time. Spells a very bad time to poke the anthill.
Frank Moore
Thanks! The poor fools.
Nemelor
Blessed day of double chapter
Per Färnlöf
A double? Niice
