Chapter 577 Silent Halls

You might think it would be challenging to operate in a territory administered by ants. Indeed, I have heard many express such sentiments, going so far as to insinuate that I'm suffering from an affliction of the mind when I tell them otherwise. Any attempt to explain on my part is waved away as the ravings of a lunatic. Good thing they'll still trade, even if they refuse to engage in proper discourse. Gold forged by ants is still gold, as it turns out.

It just made so much sense! It took a little adjusting to, of course, but once I did, my business began to thrive! Perhaps I had an edge in that department, as I was far quicker to accept the new status quo than many of my competitors. The bribes? The under the table deals? Gone, overnight. You can't bribe an ant! There were many who tried, only to stand rather awkwardly, a purse covertly extended in one hand as a giant insect stared back at them, uncomprehending. The entire concept of commerce was foreign to their society. They didn't sell, or buy, or trade in any way, but once they understood the fundamental nature of it: fair compensation in exchange for goods and services, then they decided to ensure that that's what would happen! Any merchant who failed to see the light was hurt in the simplest and most profound way possible: crippling fines.

Overcharging? Half your business gone, overnight. Fraudulent goods? Half, vanished. Repeat offenders were out of business in a week. No matter how they tried to conceal their shoddy dealings, the ants always sniffed them out. They wailed and gnashed their teeth as they appealed to the council, but the ants didn't care. Why would they? When it was suggested that the penalties might be too onerous, they were genuinely puzzled and rejected any compromise. Since the seized materials were immediately and efficiently distributed to the poor in the city, there was a blossoming of support amongst the people for the new administrators.

Thus, a new playing field was created for the merchant Class. A place administered by uncorruptible, brutally fair and somehow almost omniscient creatures who questioned the very existence of business. With such dramatic drops in costs, the ants insisted the savings be passed on, 'fair' compensation, after all. The drop in prices allowed many who could never access my goods to now become customers, and the volumes I moved rose and rose.

For an honest businessman, nothing is better than working for ants!

Excerpt from "Letter to Bilanan of Tulson" by the merchant Chulo of Rylleh"

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It takes the Colony a few hours to search through the entire city thoroughly. Every building, every mansion, every room and every cellar is opened for insect inspection. Sometime during the process word comes back from the force the Queen led to the Legion fort informing us that it was empty. Not a single soul was found inside the walls. What's more, papers, documentation, cores, rare materials, all gone. Several forges and workshops were scraped entirely clean, not a piece of wire or pliers left behind to indicate what they may have been working on in there.

It's clear that they realised we were coming in advance and wiped clean all traces of themselves and their technology from the fort before abandoning it. How much notice would they have needed to pull that off? A day? Two? Did they realise what was happening once we began testing the defences around the city, or did they have some other means of detecting our presence? The possibility also exists that they were recalled in preparation for an assault on another front after receiving a call for aid from the golgari.

No matter which of those situations turns out to be true, it doesn't bode well for us. The gates were found within the fort, just as captain Wallace had suggested they would be, and were summarily taken apart and returned to the nest for further study. Lending further credence to his words, no other gates were found anywhere in the city, not even in the largest and most wealthy looking abodes. In this city at least, running a private gateway appears to have been too expensive to justify.

With our immediate mission complete and the safety of the Colony secured for the short term, the Colony begins to move out of the city. The headache of having to administer the city as part of the colony's territory also begins to make itself known as Beyn enters into negotiations on our behalf. He arranges for a full meeting of the Rylleh city council in the next day, decreeing how many ants will remain in the city and where they should go, what the guardsmen will be allowed to do and not do. It's a nightmare that I simply don't have the attention to detail to handle.

Besides that, I have my own council meeting to attend. We need to decide what the next steps are going to be given the conquest of the city has gone according to our best case scenario.

"We still have no idea where they're going to come for us from," Sloan grumbles.

"At least we can be confident that it isn't going to be from here. Which means the expansion and construction of the new nests can proceed," Tungstant sounds pleased at the prospect.

"I agree, we need to expand," I say, "not just across the second strata either. We can't afford to be ignoring any resource. We need more surface nests and to grow our reach in the first strata also. The more territory we can balloon into, the sooner we'll know where they're coming from."

The council reacts with muted surprise at my words. I suppose they didn't expect me to be advocating for reckless expansion.

"We can do that, Eldest. It steps our timetable forward a bit, but we can do it," Cobalt says.

"We also need to expand down," I tell them firmly, "there's a good chance that even though the first and second strata in this area are largely abandoned, that the richer territory beneath us is likely to have been claimed. There'll be more cities with gates, and races like the golgari, who've made their civilisation in the depths of the Dungeon. I think the direction of the attack will come from below."

"Pushing down is dangerous," Victor warns me, "the Colony doesn't know enough of what goes on down there."

"That's why I need to go," I say and before they can protest and I continue, "not on my own, not this time. I'll take Vibrant and her team, and I'll have my new protectors along for the ride."

I glare at Advant and she wilts a little.

"We need to send the strongest we have to uncover as much as we can, as quickly as possible. This is the best way to get the job done. I don't intend to take any unnecessary risks, but in my view, Dungeon exploration is key to our survival. Not only because of what we can learn, but because we need to continue to level up and evolve our people if we want to survive."

Myself, Tiny, Crinis and Invidia are still the strongest non-Queens in the Colony and we need to continue to power ourselves up to meet the threats that will face us. We can't be everywhere at once, so others need to step up with us, Vibrant being the obvious next choice.

"I advise that we push for further integration with the human village," Coolant interjects. "They've proven that they can be useful to be our face when we interact with non-Dungeon spawn and I think it would be wise to continue to do so."

I'm a little shocked to hear this coming from … not me. The rest of the council are happy to include humans?

"I agree," Ellie speaks up, "many of our advancements have come from interacting with those people, I'm sure there's still a lot we can learn. We could look at establishing new villages alongside each of our surface nests, to ensure that there's always someone to 'talk for us'."

"That's a greater level of cooperation than we anticipated embracing," Advant sounds unconvinced, "would they really be willing to accept such a thing? Where would we even find the people to populate new villages? They don't seem to be able to increase their numbers like we do."

The rest of the council nod as they consider this massive failing of the human race. I can't help but laugh inside. Yes, they aren't producing hundreds of new children every day like we are, it doesn't quite work like that for them! More's the pity, if we could churn out devoted human helpers at even ten per day, it would be a serious help.

"I'll scatter the scouts and get them ranging away from the nests, we'll shoot for as wide an area of coverage as possible," Burke tells the group. "With any luck, we'll be able to catch them coming a long way out."

"I'll lead a team toward the golgari territory," Wills offers, "they'll most likely come through that area."

"We should meet back at the main nest in around a week. Does that seem reasonable to everyone?" Sloan asks.

None of the members take any issue with that, and so the various council members disperse. Vibrant hops towards me, full of energy.

"Hey-hey! Ready to go and explore! Just like old times! I hope we go fast, we'll go fast right? Lots of ground to cover after all! Let's go, go, go!"

I'm already regretting this…

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