Chapter 1331: An Unusual Meet and Greet

Chapter 1331: An Unusual Meet and Greet

"Tribune Morrelia, Tribune Joshen. I trust you are prepared for our upcoming engagement?"

Morrelia just nodded, but Joshen snapped out a salute.

"Of course, Commander. Your briefing was very thorough."

Arrayed in his spotless dress uniform, her fellow Tribune was, as usual, the very picture of a dedicated officer. Morrelia, on the other hand, had just come from the field, and she looked like it. Chyron gave her a critical glance, but she just shrugged carelessly. The ants absolutely wouldn't care what she looked like. What she smelled like was much more important.

Judging from the faint whiff in the air, Joshen was wearing some form of scent, and she couldn't help but wonder what the ants' reaction might be when they detected it.

For her part, the Commander was, as always, wearing her armour, fully armed, her helmet tucked under one arm and glaring. In truth, it was difficult to say she was glaring, since that was her usual look. Morrelia had only seen the Commander angry a few times, but on those occasions, her normally severe expression turned positively thunderous.

Right now, the Commander was definitely tense. The Legion had given approval for them to work with the ants during their assault on the fifth, but critically, the Colony itself had to approve. It had been surprisingly easy to arrange a meeting, but they'd been made to wait until they were to speak to someone with... the authority to agree to their participation.

Now, it was time for the meeting to take place, and they were about to depart from the Legion camp, which had already begun being struck.

As Chyron stepped outside, Morrelia and Joshen fell into position behind her, matching her stride and staring straight ahead, even as they scanned their surroundings. Alongside them, twenty fully armoured Legionaries were arrayed, stomping in unison as their magically enhanced Abyssal plate boosted their physical strength.

Not far outside their camp, they found a gathering of ants, no more than a dozen, which was unusual. This deep in the Dungeon, the ants usually moved in groups of several hundred. Morrelia had seen their patrols with her own eyes, swarms of ants who moved as if they had a single mind.

No words were exchanged, the ants simply turned and began to walk, matching pace with the Legion as they travelled. It wasn't hard to interpret their intention: follow us.

Commander Chyron frowned severely, and Morrelia felt compelled to step forward and whisper in her ear.

"It's culturally important to the ants to get enough sleep. They won't disturb someone who's resting if they can help it."

If anything, that only caused Chyron to grow more irritated, and Morrelia understood why. She was probably thinking the ants didn't consider this important enough to wake their translator.

The young man in question was busy nodding and rubbing the back of his head as the ants no doubt berated him for his lack of timing. She wondered which mage was communicating with him.

After a minute, he stepped a little closer to the Legion and executed an awkward bow.

"Hi. I'm Jern. I've been asked to translate for you. I'll pass your words onto Solant. So you can... say what you want."

He was clearly uncomfortable having so many eyes on him.

"You'll pass on my words?" Chyron asked him. "How? You don't look like a mage to me."

"I can talk using scent, like the ants do, thanks to my Class."

Chyron's eyes narrowed, doubtlessly curious about exactly what Class this was. He didn't look like one of the ant priests, that was for sure.

"Very well. Let the general and I talk."