Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Eight

Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Eight

Looks like everyone will be home in about a week. Well, probably not Tarl, but everyone else. I’m looking forward to it. Leo and Honey haven’t been home in forever, feels like, and Queen and Thing seem pretty eager to get back to their home labs, even if their latest titles suggest they should be out and about, saving lives.

Personally, I’d love to see those titles gather dust, but I’ll probably need their medical talents again eventually. I even have projects that will hopefully not involve surgery and triage, and not just for my Enchanter and Alchemist. Those two I want to have look into the composite armor more, and see just how much they can enchant it, especially with full access to my nodes and plenty of time.

Leo, I want to organize more expeditions to keep an eye on the forests and mountains around me. Seeing the Southwood get to patrolling his borders makes me realize the fog of war has probably crept back in around my own territory. Poe does a great job still, but having them work together gets me so much more information.

And speaking of information, Honey is going to have a field day when she gets back. She apparently gave some of her bees standing orders to keep an eye on the library and report to Poe if anything happens, and it looks like something has happened. There’s a new librarian! She looks every bit the shy nerdy scribe according to the reports, and also looks good enough at tending books to not just go and reorganize everything on the first day.

In fact, she seems gearing up to do the opposite. Yvonne has been working to implement a version of the dewey decimal system and impose order, which has been slow going, but effective. I don’t remember the specifics of all the categories, but the basic concept of organizing by categories and using numbers to make it theoretically infinitely expandable is easy enough to remember. Actually putting the numbers on the books is a bit more difficult, but Honey’s bees are able to write clearly at a small scale. It’s not laminated printer quality, but it’ll definitely work.

While I don’t exactly have projects for Aranya, Yvonne, Ragnar, and Aelara, they’re still intending on coming home at the same time, and bringing the kobolds with them. If those four aren’t careful, maybe I will be able to rope them into something to help out the kobolds. Or maybe my antkin, come to think of it.

The kobolds are still arguing a lot about what they specifically want to do, but Aranya is feeling pretty confident they’ll want to join with the ratkin or spiderkin, with only a few expected to want to live on the surface. Sure, they’d like freedom, but the surface is so open and scary! Underground might also be scary, but at least it’s a scary they understand. So yeah, with the kick in the pants of having a deadline, it looks like most of them are deciding to give me a chance.

I wonder if they’ll want to help with the antkin, or maybe feel special kinship with them. My newest enclave is still trying to find its proper place, with the progress bars stagnating at about the 25% point. I’m pretty surprised about that. They seemed pretty on the ball to me, but that’s way earlier than the spiderkin were having problems.

It’s not too difficult to see why, though. My ratkin and spiderkin seemed to have a pretty good idea of what they were when advancing, but the antkin are having a bit of an identity crisis. While they seem pretty interested in the idea of interacting with outsiders, they are all over the map on how to actually do it.

They’ve basically split into factions, though I haven’t been able to identify any leaders among them. Maybe that’s why they’re having troubles? The leaders of my other enclaves don’t seem too worried, but I still think I should see if there’s anything that can be done, so I ask Teemo to pop in and see if he can figure out if anything is wrong, or if I’m reading the room wrong.

“At least it’s cooled off in there a bit by now,” comments Teemo as he makes his way to the enclave. After their initial construction blitz with forming magma, they’ve eased off a lot on building, letting the heat slowly dissipate. I wonder if they’ll try to tame a couple tundra wolves or something. I’m pretty sure that’d be a solution that flies in the face of the laws of thermodynamics, but what is magic for if not at least mocking the natural laws behind their back?

Whatever long term solution they come up with, they don’t seem to have one yet, or at least not one Teemo notices as he starts wandering the enclave. The larger central receiving room is a lot less busy than it was, with most of the magmyrm having split into tunnels for their own little factions.

There’s a ranching faction who seem to be mostly concerned with domesticating... basically every denizen they can get their little pincer-hands on. The tunnelbore ants aren’t a surprise, they were using those from day one to expand and shape the colony, but they’ve also picked up several slimes, a pair of wyrms, and what looks like a swarm of spiders. I imagine they were using the wyrms to help with construction, but I don’t know what they have planned for the slimes. The spiders are easy enough, at least: they’re also after silk.

Teemo shakes his head. “Nah, Boss. You think leadership’s holding them back?”

It seems like the most obvious answer, right?

“Sure, but what’s the obvious solution? There’s a lot of groups wanting to do their own thing, so we probably shouldn’t just put one of them in charge, right?”

I chew over the situation, feeling like something about it is familiar. Is there an overarching theme the antkin can unite behind? On the surface, there’s not a whole lot to go on. Ranching, Medicine, Alchemy, Enchanting, Engineering. Some will make things, but not all. Some are more of a service, some are more magical, others more scientific...

Hmm.

“Feels like you’ve got something. Care to share with the rest of the class?”

Pft, you already know what I’m thinking of if you’re putting it that way. They’re all trying to learn in their own fields. It’s like a big disorganized school. Well, a disorganized college. Some have already chosen their majors, others are still trying to figure it out.

Teemo nods at my train of thought. “So organize them like a big school?”

Couldn’t hurt. Five colleges, each headed by a Dean, with a sixth acting as Headmaster. Probably pull that one from the undecided, so nobody gets too much power. It’d allow for ties, but that’ll just mean they need to argue it out more.

Teemo hums as he processes the basic idea. “That sounds like something they can work with. And if it doesn’t work, Aranya’ll be back before too long anyway.” He heads off to suggest it to the ants, and they’re pretty eager to try it. They’re all smart enough to see something needed to change, but couldn’t think of anything that would still let them have their burgeoning identity.

I chuckle to myself as they get to work, jokingly calling it Antpimple Academy in my mind. Teemo perks up at that, making me quickly respond.

Don’t you dare suggest that name to them!

My Voice chuckles. “Who, me? I’d never! That’s a terrible name anyway. It should definitely be Ratblister instead.”