They surrounded me, the little ants. Their antennae waved wildly in the thick air, mandibles clicking in giddy rhythm. Their little bodies shivered not from fear, but uncontainable relief.
"He did it!" one cheered, bouncing on his legs.
"We're alive! We are actually alive!" Another added, brushing against my side.
They looked at me not as just their commander, but something more. I saw it in their trembling eyes. I was their savior. And for a moment, it felt… good. Not pride. Not power. Just the certainty that they were all safe. All three. It was almost like watching your kids or little siblings, after coming home after a stressful long day of work. Their smiles melted a memory deep into my brains, their little laughter.... just like my sister's.
I patted each of them gently with my forelimb, antennae brushing theirs. "You all did well," I said softly. "Especially you, who lead them." I patted the ant once more, glad that Royal Command worked in conveying my message. They leaned into the touch, one by one. They were small. They were tired. But they were alive.
Then—
crkk...
The ground shifted. Stone groaned. From the mound of crushed rock and loosened soil, a leg moved. Then another. A battered head slowly rose from the wreckage, mandibles twitching. His limbs trembled under the weight of his own defiance, but still he forced himself upward.
The cricket.
His breath came in staggered gasps, wings cracked, eyes bloodied and wild. "You…" he hissed, wheezing. "You think… a bunch of measly little ants like you…" He coughed violently, legs scraping at the ground. "...can defeat me!!"
They little ants instinctively stepped back, antennae flaring in alarm. Even in his broken state, the sight of him clawing his way out of death stirred their primal fear. But I remained still.
"Do you know," he spat, "how many I have kil—"
[Mana Cost: 4 MP — Silk Shot]
A bolt of silk launched from my abdomen.
Thwap!
The sticky threads bound his open mouth, sealing his words in an instant. He choked, muffling curses into the webbing as he thrashed. I stepped forward. No hesitation. My reasoning clouded by a parent's rage. How dare he tried to kill one of them. I drove my mandibles deep into the back of his neck.
Crunch.
He spasmed once.
Then stilled.
[System Notification: Large Cricket Annihilated.]
His blood seeped into the soil.
The tunnels fell into silence.
We stood there for a while, breathing in the weight of what we had survived.
Ding!
[System Notification: To gain rewards you must bring the corpse to the core.]
The others were silent. Then, one by one, they let out sharp, victorious clicks once more. We were all injured, to some extent. Exhausted. But alive. The air was thick with the scent of crushed roots and dried blood. I looked at the cricket's massive form, half-crushed by the ceiling. We couldn't leave it here. Not when the mana it held could mean the difference between survival and extinction.
"We're taking it back," I said.
They nodded. We started to dig, each of us biting into the soil and rock with tired but determined mandibles. The path we carved wasn't perfect—it twisted and shuddered, but it held. At the front, I followed the hum of the Mana Core, the pull of energy growing stronger with every inch. It took hours. Maybe longer. Time felt different underground. When we finally broke into the chamber, the glow of the Mana Core bathed us in silver-blue light. The moment the cricket's body touched the edge of the core's influence, the air trembled.
Ding!
[System Notification: Core absorption in progress.] [Cricket biomass contains unique neurological and sensory tissues. Processing...]
[System Notification: Mana Core Absorption Boosted. Recovery increased from +15 to +25. Max Mana increased from 100 → 125.]
[System Update: New Skill Unlocked — Tremor Pulse (Active)]
-Releases a low-frequency vibration through the ground, detecting movement and lifeforms within a radius of 20 ant meters or 20mm. Range and clarity scale with Intelligence and Mana. Mana Cost: 10 MP per use.
[System Update: Passive Skill Unlocked — Combat Insight (Passive)]
-Grants strategic awareness in the midst of chaos. Slightly increases evasion and counter-efficiency during skirmishes. Bonuses scale with Intelligence.
I blinked as the knowledge sunk into my head like it had always been there. The vibrations… I could feel everything. Every twitch, every shift in the stone. The world was speaking. And now, I could listen. The others just smiled, too tired to speak. One of them collapsed against me, barely conscious. They looked like adorable little children, slowly drifting to sleep. "I should probably give them names. I wonder what they would like." I yawned as I too lay down, sleep's warm embrace wrapped around me once more, and I welcomed it.