Hmmmmm.

The battle against the ka’armodo is over. Well, I say battle, more of a skirmish, really. They probably scried me acting all weird and thought they might as well see if they can knock me off. Capitalise on my apparent weakness.

I was able to quickly persuade them that I’m just fine and dandy, so they left without committing much. If I’d been a bit smarter, I could have flopped around some more and really baited them in.

My new mutations got a nice road test at least, can’t complain about that. The resonant properties of my carapace and inner plating were on full display, reacting to my gravity magic and empowering me further, creating a harmonious cycle that made that sweet purple mana so efficient to use.

I can create a well to lift myself into the air, and some of the energy feeds straight back into the mana gland, some of it hardens my carapace, some of it helps regenerate the carapace, and to top it all off, it gets slightly condensed for free on the way out.

I’ll take it!

My dream of becoming an all powerful gravity ant is well on the way to being realised, which is extremely exciting.

I still have a few issues that need to be tackled, some kinks that need ironing. Careful thought will need to be put in befo-

[Look, will you stop laughing?! I’m trying to think!]

Nearby, Sarah, the Asura Rage Bear of legend, is collapsed on the ground wheezing and huffing her massive bear heart out.

[Ha-hah! I mean… the legs… I can’t!]

Her stubby legs rise up and kick helplessly.

[It’s not that funny! Look, none of my siblings are laughing!]

They are, however, continuing to not look at me directly.

[The way… the way you drooped down… I-I-hah!]

Further gales of laughter roll from the bear as I stand nearby fuming. I knew it didn’t look great, but I had to test it out against the lizard enemy when I had a chance! Such an opportunity doesn’t come around every day, after all.

From the reaction, I probably should have held off until I found a way to achieve a more graceful hovering pose. Eventually, Sarah manages to contain herself long enough to get back to her feet.

[I haven’t laughed like that in… goodness, I can’t remember how long. When did you even figure out how to float like that?]

She almost breaks again when she mentions the floating, but manages to contain herself, barely.

[I was able to purchase the gravity magic Skill after I evolved. I can create localised gravity wells with it that I use to pick myself up, cancelling out the gravity of the planet.]

[O-oh. Tha-that’s… super neat. Really. I-I’d just…]

She takes a big breath.

[Try and work on… the dis-distribution of… of the gravity… across… across your b-body. That way you’ll be… a li-little s-straighter.]

She got through it without busting a gut. I almost feel like clapping. Judging by the way her fur is standing on end and the expression on her face, as if she’s got a fat salmon wedged in her throat, she’s working hard on keeping the laughs in. I appreciate the effort.

[I know it looks dumb, alright! I just wanted to test it when I had the chance. Sheesh.]

[I’m sorry. It was just so unexpected!]

I can imagine. I need to try and steer this conversation back to more serious topics. The sooner we can leave this incident in the past, the better.

[So have the ka’armodo been active along the border recently? Probing attacks, that sort of thing?]

[Not recently,] she says, trying to match my tone. [Ever since we received word that a wave was coming, they’ve been much more quiet. If you’d asked me that a week ago, I would have had a different answer for you. Clashes between patrols, little forays into Colony territory, there was always something going on.]

Makes sense. Tensions were rising here when I left for the fourth and nothing had really happened to cool them down. If anything, me getting the Colony involved in the little proxy war they had going with the Mother Tree was a clear escalation.

[Now that a wave is coming, everyone is probably going to batten the hatches,] I predict. [We’ll be the same. After all, we can experience explosive growth during a wave if we manage our resources properly. We don’t want to be fighting external conflicts if we can avoid it.]

And thanks to Brilliant, we’ve gotten word of this wave faster than ever before. A huge win! There should be enough time to get our farms and defences ready for the insanity to come, though it’s likely to be close.

[I’ll leave you be then, Sarah. Good luck with everything out here. Don’t hesitate to come and find me if you need me.]

[Thanks, Anthony,] she says. [I’m okay. I wasn’t happy about how things ended, but I know there’s no one to blame for it. I’m… happier now than I have been for a long time. I just want things to stay this way for a while.]

[Sounds good to me.]

I give her a friendly wave, and a wave to the rest of the patrol as well before I head on my merry way. There’s a ton of things to do around the place, and I'm having trouble trying to work out on my own exactly where the Colony would like me to be.

Complicating matters is the Call. You’d think the pain would be getting better over time, or I’d be getting used to it, but that is just not the case. If anything, it’s getting worse.

The Call is just so persistent, it just never ends.

Every time I manage to push it out of my mind, it comes roaring back when I least expect it, demanding I go deeper into the Dungeon. If I’m not careful, I find my feet are already moving before I can think about it, running to throw myself into a tunnel and descend.

I hate it.

The gang and I make our way back toward Roklu, the heart of the Colony’s territory in the third, and I try to catch up with Sloan about plans for the upcoming wave.

[It’s going to be a complex situation,] she tells me when I can get a minute to talk to her. [We want to farm monsters in the second and third stratum primarily, but the issue with the demons is really tangling our legs.]

[Why’s that?]

[Because we don’t think the fighting will die down during the wave, we think it’s only going to get worse. From all the intelligence we’ve been able to gather, the spawn rate of demons explodes during a wave, which means the plains will give rise to far more tier four and five demons. It’s from those demons that the roaming warbands are gaining the most recruits, picking them up before they reach a city. We think lower tier demons are more susceptible to the corrupting influence.]

[So those rampaging groups of demons will get bigger and stronger.]

Led by those tier eights, that’s going to be a problem. I have more questions, though.

[What about the fourth? What are our plans there?]

The little general shrugs.

[Not much we can do there. We aren’t strong enough to challenge the fourth, especially not during a wave. We’ll hunker down and defend as best we can.]

I sigh.

[Sounds like I’ll be most needed here on the third then.]

Which sucks. The hook in my guts yanks persistently to a steady rhythm.

Descend. Descend. Descend. Descend. Descend. Descend!