Before anyone was awake, I'd already made my way out to my workstation. I didn't have a particular plan for how I wanted to armor us, but I knew it couldn't hurt to add some actual protection that the surface creatures couldn't penetrate as easily. The three armored vests we'd been using while traveling lay before me. Mine and Daniela's had already been replaced after all the damage we'd taken while fighting, and we didn't have an unlimited number of them.

Instead of trying to figure out a way of attaching the Infused Chitin, I removed the Kevlar padding on the front and back of the vest. I marveled at whoever designed the things since it was a fairly simple, but effective, piece of equipment. It was all attached with Velcro. After those were removed, I used a bit of tape to attach the chitin to the front of the plates before strapping it back into the Velcro. It was a tight fit, but I didn't think it would fall out. I repeated the process with both me and Sam's vests. Then I replaced Danny's. Her torso was small and lithe enough that the large Smolder Ant chitin plates would have hampered her movement. Instead, I taped two of the smaller plates on the front section and one to the back.

With that done, and one last large plate left, I used a healthy amount of duct tape to fashion myself a shield. More of a buckler if I’m honest... If Alan saw my construction job, he would have probably had a heart attack. When Ben saw it, he was going to have one based on the amount of tape I'd just used up. I tested putting my hand in and out of the makeshift enarmes. It was quite snug, but with the tendencies with which things tended to attack us I didn't really plan to take it off while traveling. Comfort be damned over safety.

"Cutting quite the figure this morning, Ronny," my uncle said from the doorway. I spun to see the door pull close behind me and the man holding out two trays of breakfast food. A look through the cracks of the vestibule's wooden doors told me that dawn was well on its way.

"Thank you. I have every intention not to get eaten by an ant today," I said, unequipping the chitin shield and setting down my Enhanced Pickaxe with all due haste. As serious as I was about all the defenses I'd just made, I couldn't shake the feeling that my uncle had walked in on me or something. It was ridiculous, but the flash of guilt made me reflect on how much I had been avoiding him.

"Nothing to be ashamed of. I have every confidence that you three will return victorious, only to head out and return victorious again," my uncle said. He hesitated slightly, before placing one of the plates on my workstation. He didn't say anything else, just let his gaze drift over the scattered pieces of chitin and the dips where I kept the fire Infusions for easy access. He gave me a weak smile before taking his food to one of my stone benches.

To my surprise, Blobby stirred and wobbled his way over to my uncle. The slime jiggled its appendage in protest until my uncle conceded and tossed it a potato wedge. The lime gel shivered as the food sunk out of sight and my uncle giggled in response. I hadn't even touched my food yet.

"Ronan. I... know that things are awkward between us. I didn't come to the surface only to try to work on mending our relationship. What--Well, what I am trying to say is that you don't need to worry about me being here. I did come to the surface with my own tasks, but should you need me I will be there. Hopefully not out there," Dale gestured through the wooden door, "but if that is where you need me, then I will be there too."

"Why?" That was all I managed to say.

"You are my nephew, Ronan. You might not be my son by birth, but I raised you as if you were. I'm not trying to hold that over you like some kind of obligation that you have to love me. That would be unfair to you and uncharacteristically selfish of me. At least, I hope it would be uncharacteristic," he added with a slight smile. I couldn't help a snort-laugh from escaping me. He pinned me with his deep brown eyes. My increased Perception noted the tension in his shoulders and the gray in his five o’clock shadow.

"You have given me everything without anything in return," I said. Unable to keep the words from spilling out. "But why did you keep that from me? I would have loved you regardless. Knowing more about you... about mother and father. That was all I wanted for a long time and you had those answers all along."

"That's right. I should have told you the truth a long time ago. Elias wasn’t really enough of a reason to keep my mouth shut.”

My uncle went quiet for a moment, and I could practically see the gears turning in his head. “I... I was angry at Marcus for many years. I didn't resent him leaving or what he did to avenge your mother and free us, but he could have stayed. He could have stayed until he had to leave. It took me a long time to realize he didn't want to taint your future, or Sam and Danny's, with the horrors he'd committed. His presence was a reminder of what humans were capable of when something got in their way."

"I'm going to try to find him," I sobbed. There were tears streaming down my face that I hadn't even realized I needed to shed. As much as I wanted to be mad with my uncle, I believed every word he said. He'd always been nothing but sincere with me. When my mother had come up, he'd always deflected like everyone in the Bunker, but he'd cared. He cared about my rock collection, he worried about my hopelessness and he tended to our futures. Not just mine, but everyone's in the Bunker. Alexia and June may have been the doctors of our physical bodies, but Dale Terrigan was the heart of the Wildwood Bunker.

And I realized that I wanted him to be the heart of Wildwood Camp. The warm fire and comfortable bed that we returned to after facing the horrors and enemies of the surface. My uncle pulled me into a hug and I continued to sob into his shoulder for a long minute. As I cried, I felt many of the chains I'd put on myself spread out. I didn't have to carry burdens alone while surrounded by people who cared about me.

"Then I hope with all my heart you find the brother I lost," my uncle whispered. The moment ended abruptly as my uncle and I were tackled to the ground by a lanky blonde’s fierce hug.

"Yay! Finally," Sam shouted as he wrapped his arms around us.

"Samuel!" my uncle cried in surprise before breaking out in laughter.

"Hey! I didn't approve of this dog pile!" Daniela jumped on top of Sam, knocking us apart like a bowling ball to human pins.

An excited Blobby and a confused Anthony hovered at the edge of our group, unsure of how to deal with the mound of humans. Ben smirked from the doorway while Ava held her head in her hand.

"Was it too much to ask everyone to be professional right before our kids head out into giant ant territory?" Ava asked, head still in her hand.

"Would you rather they leave tense, or relaxed? Come Ava, you don't want me to tell Juan you've been nitpicking again?" Ben joked. Ava immediately straightened and coughed into her hand.

"Right, I suppose a little lightheartedness is beneficial at times. Are you children ready to go? I will hope you all return by sundown if at all possible."

"Let's go kill some ants!" Danny said excitedly. Anthony chittered at her. "I mean, some bad bugs!"

---+---

"These are pretty sweet, Ron," Sam said, knocking on the chitin under his vest.

"How come you two got the big plates and I got the small ones?" Danny complained as she adjusted her vest. Even with the smaller plates, it was bulkier than before and she struggled a bit to get it on. When I pointed to her twisting and turning to try to get into the vest, she sighed in defeat. "Fair enough."

"Here is an empty duffle for any sweet loot you guys might find on the way," Ben said. "Are you sure you want to leave Anthony behind, Danny?"

The ant was hovering next to Ben, using its antenna to check out the fire mage still struggling with her armor.

"I don't want to risk him getting mixed hormones or pheromones or something and attacking us. I haven't scouted out this way, so it may be entirely possible that we need to run away and I don't want to worry about leaving Anthony behind," she answered once she was finally able to adjust her armor. "Plus, I think having him give you a hand while we are away will be good. Don't want something to come knocking without you all having something to protect you."

"You do see this rifle in my hands, yes?" Ben said, hoisting the gun onto his shoulder.

"Sure, but things out here have shrugged off bullets more times than I want to think about. Anthony brings a little bite to your group."

As if the Fire Ant had been waiting for the word, he snapped his mandibles loudly, causing Ben to jump. He glared at the giant ant but his gaze softened when he looked at us. Blobby had been waving at the gathered adults since we'd started standing at the edge of the woods. I need to spend some more time explaining human norms to it, I thought to myself.

Regardless, we packed up our supplies and water and made our way into the woods. Less than ten feet into the trees, we walked through a near imperceptible bubble of energy. Neither Sam nor Danny reacted to the change, but I had my suspicion that we'd just crossed the Entity's area of influence. While the implications of that weren't clear to me, I was content to know that the Entity had been keeping the camp safe through its efforts.

The rest of the trip was an exercise in patience and attention. Unlike our first few ganders through the woods, particularly when we went to retrieve the Entity Cluster, we paid rapt attention to our surroundings. I walked at the head of the group, keeping an eye on everything at ground level, while Danny and Sam alternated in keeping an eye on the foliage overhead and our surroundings. Blobby just did as Blobby did. The slime rolled a ways forward past us, waved its appendage and settled to wait until we met up with it. The gelatinous blob repeated the process for the whole hour free of encounters.

Throughout the whole week I'd been so concentrated on training that I hadn't even bothered to check my Status. I knew we hadn't absorbed any Pith or Dreg, so I went straight to what I was most interested in.

Attributes:

Strength: 1.41

Mobility: 1.31

Perception: 1.53

Refinement: 1.13 > 1.16

Containment: 1.93 > 1.98

The gains to my Refinement and Containment were small, meager really, but it was a trackable improvement. My mana still regenerated a percent every few seconds, and I didn't feel like I could cast more or but the constant drain of using my magics passive ability or activating my pickaxe would be just a bit easier.

While I had my Status opened, I focused on the LPS. A brief glance at my map told me we'd traveled almost a mile northwest. The only signs of life we'd encountered were trees and more trees. The further we went from camp, however, the more scorch marks we saw marring the bark of the oaks and pines around us. Another thirty minutes and we ran into just the markers of fire ant presence we were looking for. Cleared trees.

A clearing composed of translucent off-white sand and scattered debris sprawled for miles before us. The transition from woods into sandy ground was nonexistent. There was a tree line even sharper than the one at the Bunker. Scattered amidst the sands, we saw hundreds upon hundreds of the Quotient 0 ants milling about. They dragged chunks of plant matter and non-descript piles of rot out of sight. We skirted the tree line to finally spot flattened ant piles. Holes big enough to fit the Smolder Ants led underground and out of sight.

"This is not just sand, this is ash," Danny whispered. The woman was rubbing the white substance between her fingers. I shuddered as I looked back at the field all around us and the sheer amount of destruction the ants represented.

"Let's stay out of the way and observe. This is... more than I expected. We might have to retreat and entrench ourselves even deeper in the camp before heading out again," I said.

We moved to a small grove a ways from the tree line and observed the ants in the distance. Every so often, a scouting group similar to the one that had attacked Danny would come from the edge of the trees to the east carrying a spider corpse. There was a military efficiency to the scouting groups that contrasted sharply from what the smaller workers were doing. From what I could tell, it almost looked like the weaker workers didn't have much of a will until one of the larger ants approached them. Wondering if that was potentially something we could exploit, we continued to watch the creatures go about their business.

One group of scouts scurried empty handed out of the woods not far to our left and we all tensed as they passed us by. As they crossed paths with another group that had been coming from the spider's territory both paused briefly and exchanged antenna waves before heading north further into the cleared space. As I tracked their movements, I could have sworn I saw a gout of fire rise out of the ground in the distance.

When no other scouting groups appeared for over thirty minutes, I got an insane idea. As if they'd read my mind, my two friends immediately had counter arguments. My hands went up to halt the initial deluge of protests.

"How else are we supposed to get stronger? I don't want to take the risk, but doing nothing means this is a wasted trip. As much as I feel the benefit of training our Skills, the Entity is right. Quotients are going to be our best bet at survival. Plus, more Dreg means more energy for it and Traits for us," I said, meeting my friend's eyes.

"There is no guarantee they won't retaliate," Sam said.

"They've already attacked us. In mass, if you need me to point to the stockpile of materials and Infusions we got from it. If more than we think we can handle come at us, then we’ll retreat. Twiddling our thumbs isn't going to get us anywhere."

"Ah, bork. Ronan, if I get bit because of you we are going to have some words when we get back to the camp," Danny said as she climbed one of the nearby trees.

Sam just shook his head, but used his Skill to bring two person-high, thigh-thick stalks of death to our side. Raising berms of spiked earth to either side of us, I created a funnel to limit how many ants could come directly at us without climbing or being impaled. Once we were set up and our mana restored, I turned to Blobby.

"I need you to watch Sam's back okay? I'm still not entirely sure what you can do, but defend him like you would me. Got it?" The slime gave a little headless nod and rolled to be right behind Samuel. His vines hung limp over the crown of spikes I'd made for defense, but I knew they would respond to his commands.

With a deep breath, I walked out onto the sand-ash. Only a few feet into the Ant's territory, a dozen Quotient 0 ants spotted me. Like the horde of senseless insects they were, they charged. Bracing my left leg, I called forth a spell chain on my shield arm. Just before the ants reached me, I heaved the ground beneath them with . Three of the rat sized ants actually took to the air while the others weren't able to stop their charge and crashed right into the mound of hardened sand-ash.

My pickaxe whipped through the air as I pushed the pick through one, two and three of the crashed insects. I didn't bother to shake the small creatures off my weapon before I swung it wide. The ants caught on the other side of my swing flew through the air like small smoldering projectiles.

One of the ants that had flown up with my initial cast managed to wiggle its way into my personal space to clasp onto my left leg. A hiss escaped me, but all I did was punch down with my shield and the creature was crushed. The burning pain lingered in my left, but it had reminded me that while fragile to my current powers they could still swarm me. And swarm me they did.

My initial engagement had only drawn a dozen, but I could already see two more groups of ants surging in my direction. A spell chain formed in my shield hand again and I splayed my hand out while focusing on the surviving ants of the first group. All but one of them got a sand-ash rock right in the gob. The last remaining one I stomped on before hightailing it back to my friends.

It was a good proof of concept for how I could deal with creatures, but I wasn't dumb enough to think I could keep a whole swarm off alone.

"Aggro!" I yelled as loudly as I could without risking my voice echoing through the Fire Ant territory.

"We can see that, rock brain. Get a Bump and get ready to tank," Danny called from above. I could barely see the woman as she hung, legs clasped around a branch, spell chains poised on both hands. Her fists were closed, which was unusual for how she cast her Skill, but I didn't pay it much mind.

Sam wordlessly tapped my leg with his healing Skill and sweet relief flowed through me. The attack had done a mere 5% damage, just a shade more than getting peppered with exploding plastic while Infusing, but every percent counted. Just when I took my spot at the head of the funnel, fiery death rained down on the approaching ants.

As if Daniela had fired a shotgun, stone pellets shredded several of the incoming ants with a single cast. The closed fist suddenly made sense as I watched the brunette release a handful of tiny gravel that was instantly hit with her Skill's kinetic and thermal force. From experience, we knew that fire against fire wasn't as effective, but Daniela had come up with a counter to that weakness without even letting us know.

Atta girl. DPS for the win! That was all the time I had to focus on my friend before the survivors of her attack reached me. A vine came in and slapped away any Fire Ant trying to flank me, while I kept a steady core workout. That is to say, I swung my pickaxe left and right while keeping my legs firmly planted on the ground. Each time I was on the backswing with the widened chisel head of my weapon, I lashed out at any ant that got over eager.

This went on for less than two minutes, but my muscles burned from the effort of keeping the tidal surge of ants from reaching us. Thankfully, only a few ants remained scattered around us. Danny dropped down from above, crushing one underfoot before she ran two of them through with the Wolf Fangs we'd acquired on our second day on the surface. I hadn't even noticed she'd had those on her.

"You guys better rest up, I saw another wave of them heading our way," she said, finishing off the last straggler.

I plopped to the ground, groaning and flexing my hands. The start of some serious calluses were making their presence known. "Should we retreat?"

"If you think you can handle another round of that, I think we'll be good. Blobby didn't even get involved in the fight." Daniela pointed to the slime which appeared to be shaking its appendage like a cantankerous old man shaking a cane. Not getting to fight had apparently bothered the gelatinous tendril.

"Here, take a Bump, Ron. I've got to rest up but then I'll be good to go," Sam said as he passed a flow of refreshing energy through me. I hadn't realized his Skill could restore exhaustion and muscle aches as well as it did, but that would be something to experiment with in the future.

"Based on that response, I am going to say you are all down to hit this next group." My friends gave me sweaty but fierce smiles. Daniela's smile faltered when she looked back at the ants. A surge of fear-borne adrenaline jolted me to my feet. "What's wro--"

The words died in my throat as I watched the horde of Ants pause at the edge of the treeline. One of the ants in the swarm stood out from the others. My Perception let me glean its information even from our distant spot.

The information itself wouldn't have inspired the chill down my spine. It was what the ant did next. As if it had decided its compatriots were part of a buffet bar, the large creature snapped the heads of several Quotient 0 ants with its powerful mandible. Before our very eyes, Pith ejected itself out of each corpse and the dog sized ant swole inch by inch. As if having sent a command along its pheromone lines, another of the ants snacked on the buddy adjacent to it. Soon the twenty-ish horde had turned into four mean insectile drones.

The lead ant who'd taken control morphed one last time before its information updated before me.

"Form up!" I shouted just as the cannibalistic elites surged in our direction.