Chapter 1245: The Family Ascendant

Chapter 1245: The Family Ascendant

It's nice to have the full council around. How long has it been since I saw them all together in one place? Even Antionette and Victoriant are here, now majestic tier six queens, with huge gasters for generating many, high-quality eggs.

It's actually the two Queens who speak up next.

"Things have been going well up there," Antionette tells the Council. "We've expanded to over twenty antcademies, with satellite nests built around each of them in the second stratum. However, we are beginning to push against claimed territory."

"Haven't we taken a lot of 'claimed territory'?" I ask.

"We have, but that was claimed by independent city states, which are now part of the Colony."

Good for them.

"We are now brushing against parts of the Dungeon claimed by the major powers, and we don't want to antagonise them."

I mean... we could.... No, that's probably a bad idea. Prosper in peace. This is the way.

"How are the... uh... former independent cities doing? They've come into the fold alright?"

"Well..." Victoriant shifts a little uncomfortably. "For the most part, yes, but the cities who were... persuaded... by the crusade..."

Good lord. What did those crazy priests do in there? Are those people suffering from trauma? Do they resent their ant overlords?

"What's the problem with them, Victoriant?"

"They're just very enthusiastic. Several of them were almost depopulated due to the residents volunteering to become soldiers in the Colony."

Oh. So... the opposite problem. How the heck did that happen?

"No, they are still being hatched weekly. It's difficult to say, but across all of the nests, we are graduating close to one hundred thousand students a week."

HOLY MOLY.

No, it's fine. I'm cool. It's cool. That's over five million a year. Five million of the most prime, primo ants this Dungeon has ever seen. That's... a lot.

"What about egg production and education in the third and fourth strata? We've captured a fair bit of land in the third. In the fourth, we have... this single mountain, but there's already a nest here."

"We aren't sure about that. There are Queens creating brood in the third right now, and The Queen has just moved here, but we aren't sure what effect the overly thick mana in the lower levels will have on the young."

"That's a good point, we should figure that out before we do too much. I like the caution in this instance."

Now I guess we can move to the big ticket item.

"It's no secret that I have a big project on the go right now. Fully cleansing the fifth stratum in order to allow for the Colony to make our way deeper into the Dungeon. It's not going to be easy, obviously, but if we can do this, we will shock the entire world and put the Dungeon on notice. Everyone will have to accept that we, the Colony, mean business."

Advant leans forward in her chair.

"That sounds nice and all, Eldest, but I don't think that's the real reason you want to do this."

"Of course not. If they capture one of us, they can corrupt us with their evil goo and make an entire colony of evil sludge ants. We don't have a choice but to remove that possibility from the Dungeon completely."

The rest of the Council don't really care about impressing the other empires of Pangera. Nor do they think it important to get them in our debt or any such thing. When I mention eliminating the chance of our siblings getting corrupted, they are completely bought in.

"It's going to take a ton of resources. I want to emphasise that we need to ensure we aren't shortchanging any of our other projects. Having said that, what we can spare, I want to put towards this. We are still in the opening stages, gathering information and testing potential solutions. When we sort things out, the call will come, and everyone needs to answer."