Chapter 783: 783

“You must be kind of a big deal, huh?” the hatchling observes, staring up at a giant statue of me carved from glittering stone.

“Ahem! You can ignore that. Come on, we have more interesting things to see.”

“This is amazing to look at,” she says as I drag her away, “I wonder who made it?”

“So do I,” I grumble.

One of these days I'm going to catch that blasted artist and give them a piece of my mind. Of all the things they could have devoted themselves to, making statues of me seems like a tremendous waste of time! I don't even mind that they decided to become an artist, the carvings are all breathtaking, I just resent being the subject of so much of the work! There's tons of other amazing ants in this Colony! Every damn one of them is a hero in my book! Carve them for a change!

Alas, my plea goes unanswered and the number of carvings featuring my visage seems to have only increased within the nest over the duration of the wave. Clearly the artist has been locked in here with nothing else to do…

“Now, something for you to think about,” I say in an effort to distract the young one in my care, “is what sort of work you might like to do for the Colony. A worker? A soldier? A crafter? There are nine different castes that you could evolve into and each have their own specialities and jobs that they perform best at. Workers become brood tenders, healers or Queens. Soldiers become majors, scouts or generals, though we usually just call the majors soldiers and crafters become carvers, mages and core shapers.”

Eyes full of wonder as we navigate through the tunnels of the nest, the hatchling listens intently to every word I say, nodding to show she understood what I'd said.

“The brood tenders care for the young, the next generation of the family. It's their responsibility to care for the eggs, keeping them at the right temperature, keeping them clean, right up until they hatch. Then they tend the larvae, feeding them, cleaning them, tickling them and playing with them until they become pupae. Once they hatch, the tenders educate them, much as I'm doing for you now, up until they join the Colony as fully grown members. It's the most important task within the Colony and one they take very seriously.”

“Why aren't I being taught by them then?” the hatchling asks curiously, “aren't they supposed to educate new ants?”

“Yes they are,” I confirm, “you're something of a different case, and I'll get into why that is later. Ah, here we are.”

The brood chambers are as warm and cosy as I remember, filled with the motherly love of the brood tenders as they care for their flock of grubs and eggs. I spy Florence beavering away on one side of the chamber and wave her over.

“Hey Florence. Recognise this little one?”

The council member leans closer before leaping back in shock.

“Is it? It can't be?! Not this soon!”

“Accelerated feeding program,” I proudly declare. “Although, we could probably describe this particular grub as being somewhat impatient. Honestly speaking, I was surprised myself when she went into her cocoon.”

“Do I know you?” the former grub in question peers up at Florence.

“Let's just say you were a little difficult to take care of,” I pat her on the head. “Just thought I'd drop in as we give the little one a tour,” I say to Florence. “How are things looking here?”

“Busy as always,” she says, keeping one wary eye on the hatchling as though she might disappear at any second. “We are always ramping up to meet future growth. No matter how much we plan and expand, we never seem to get ahead.”

“The hunger to grow and expand is a natural thing for all species I think,” I tell her, “it's just that we can do it about nine hundred times faster since we're monster ants. How long does it take to get a fresh egg to academy graduate right now? I'm curious.”

She thinks for a moment.

“From egg to hatching takes a day or so, depending on temperature. Just about all of our incubating rooms are fully enchanted now, so temperature hasn't been an issue that we've needed to deal with for some time, such a time saver. After that, a little over a week as a larva in optimum conditions, then a week as a pupa, and roughly twelve hours to fully emerge from the cocoon and harden. Then off to the academy where our current program takes them to tier four in three weeks.”

So from literally nothing to a tier four monster in just over a month. And not just any run of the mill monster, nonono. These ants have perfect mutations for every evolution. They form their cores at tier one. They benefit from an array of mutations that provide bonus stats to them on birth. They gain bonuses to skill level gain and growth speed thanks to the loving care and education provided by the tenders. Despite being one of the weakest species in the Dungeon in terms of individual strength, and the fact that hatchlings in the Colony are even further physically weakened thanks to me putting all of that potential into their brains, our graduates are powerful, intelligent and fearless.

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It's a damn impressive result for a single month.

“I'm impressed as heck, Florence. A month? Holy moly. And that's thousands of ants graduating every single day isn't it? I've no idea how you did it.”

Florence wiggles her antennae, happy to receive the compliment.

“It's been difficult,” she admits, “working out the logistics has been the hardest thing. The food supply, transport, maximising our harvest of cores. It's all worth it in the end though,” she clacks her mandibles with joy as she watches the grubs roll about and play with their carers in the dim light of the brood chamber.

“Pretty damn impressive, eh?” I give the hatchling a nudge as she stares curiously at all the goings on in the chamber.

“It is,” she agrees, eyes drinking in the sight of the tenders at work. “How many eggs are being lain per day right now?”

Florence doesn't pause for a moment.

“Six thousand.”

“Wait, WHAT?!” I exclaim.

Without batting an antenna, she starts to tick off the numbers on one foreleg.

“In total there are fifteen Queens operating in the Colony right now. Three in this main nest, two each in the two satellite nests, and the next eight have been prepped and are distributed amongst the territory in safe holds. As of last week, every one of those Queens has reached tier five, with the Queen being tier six. For the tier five evolution, the Queens didn't go the same path as mother, for obvious reasons, and instead have chosen to increase their egg output, Biomass efficiency and stat gain for their offspring. Currently they are each outputting four hundred eggs a day. We estimate that may climb to one thousand eggs per day at tier six.”

Holy moly! So that's..

“Forty two thousand eggs a week!”

“That's right,” Florence nods.

The hatchling look suitably impressed at hearing the raw numbers, beholding the vast amount of work the tenders do. Then she tries to escape…