[Bloodfield Farmer] Redd had lived a long life so far. Meaning he had spent a lot of it waiting. Waiting and watching. It became habit at a point, but when you were raising children that was not usually a bad thing. It made them feel safe, but also like they had to do things on their own. That made healthy children, in a world that sometimes seemed mad.

The kind of madness that the sight before him was now bringing to mind.

The whole trip here Redd had taken a backseat, letting the young ‘uns take what risks they may and level through the process.

That time was now over. Not as in Redd was going to take over, but rather that he was now going to be contributing fully. The prior reluctance stemmed from the fact that having someone high-level like Redd around was usually a genuine handicap to progressing a young Class.

However, this situation more than called for it. In all his many years, more than fifty but probably not sixty yet, he had never seen the like. Not out here, without moving toward neither settlement nor battlefield.

The damned things were just milling about. Not aimlessly however. But in very specific patterns. What young Harold and Birgir’s Sten had mistaken for very limited patrols were actually the warrior ants being busy at work, supposedly etching according to some plan, because the Mantis were watching carefully and punishing the ones making mistakes. One had even been picked up and thrown through the air to land in a crashing heap, never to rise again, when it repeated a mistake just after having been reprimanded.

They had been watching for half an hour now. Livia had decided they should all keep completely silent and wait until getting back to the carts to discuss their observations, since Mantis were known to have good hearing. They need to know a couple of things as of now though.

Redd had led the way with his long strides and Livia was now lying next to him where they watched from the forest, so he leaned in to whisper.

“Livia, the Mantis are good at picking up individual sounds out in the open, but a forest is nothing but cacophony for them, if we keep things quiet it is okay to speak.”

The young woman nodded, and then proceeded to spread the word. The people who had observations to share agreed on an order to speak, since Redd let it be known he needed to speak first.

“They have come through the valley entrance where the river exits, or they would have been discovered before now. They will not risk patrolling ahead, since Skills may well pick up on their presence. That is if they recently arrived. Within days a [Druid] or [Ranger] of some kind will discover them, if not directly then through animal companions hearing the word,”

He looked around at the young faces filled with trepidation all around, and he knew they needed to be calmed if they were going to be able to do something to delay things here until a real force could arrive.

“We will not be discovered here, as long as everyone is aware of the danger and do not give us away. They are taking a tremendous risk bringing such a force here, and they will be quick to leave should their mission fail. Until that happens they will be dogged however. Them not moving ahead in haste proves their goal is right here. Does anybody have ideas of what they are up to, Casters?”

Kalle was the one most familiar with rituals, although he was the definition of a novice, not to mention this was supposedly something from a different [System] altogether. But they did use the same building block of magic energy, and the massive pattern being etched with the four sinkholes at the center was giving him a very specific impression.

“I cannot be positive, but it looks like a locus of power to me. They are trying to manifest something, and it cannot be anything small with the way they are spreading it so carefully.”

The grim whispered words made them all look back at the activity with renewed interest.

Redd spoke again. “Then it is either a summoning or they are making a Rift, neither must be allowed. I am sorry, we will have to take a few risks, but help is bound to arrive soon.”

They all shared worried looks at that. Except for the two leaders who took their positions too seriously to be anything but outwardly calm. And the Captain.

“If anybody needs to talk things out, or feel that a panic is coming on, you need to speak with a friend or to me before you risk doing anything rashly. This is a crisis situation, we will be requiring complete cooperation so everyone makes it through alive.” Ronia was feeling like an extension of Redd at this moment, but also much more relatable. The two were usually attached at the hip, but it was clear they had specific tasks in mind during situations of this nature.

Livia took over. “Yes, we will put up a camp much further back with the carts where we will sleep and stay, but someone will need to be here to watch as well, and if we are doing anything to that pattern then we leave any materials we might need here as a forward camp,”

They took one final look at the busy ants and then started to head back.

It was time to start making a plan.

As they returned to the carts, and shared what they had seen with the people who did not feel up for a first-hand view, Redd told them he would stay behind to watch as the rest of them set up the camp, but to go ahead and start figuring out any disruptions they could think of.

Despite primarily being a [Farmer] for most of his life, he had spent time in the army twice. But he never rose above sergeant, he was just too good at staying in the thick of it and making sure others and him both made it out the other end.

But the experience had not amounted to being part of much planning. He was mostly told where to aim and which Skills to expect, while the advanced orders were left for other more elite infantry.

Which meant he was feeling at a bit of a loss, as he had never met a warrior ant who would not charge him before, certainly not because it was busy doing work. They usually saved that for after they won the day. Even then it was mostly carrying stuff off.

Hopefully the young ‘uns would have some good, if half-baked ideas. Discussions like that always got his mind going.

As he turned back he nearly stumbled on a hidden root. Damned if I don't miss the leg.

The raid plans that Redd was expecting were not… Non-existent, but they were far further down the list of plans than he would have thought, and he found he had little to contribute besides his Skills and combat prowess.

It seemed that if there was one thing this [Guild] did not lack for it was creativity. Livia and Oscar were used to working together and had a great rapport, and so stood for most of the ideas, but the rest all contributed useful info on their Skills and observations made from earlier.

They were going to start off like this: Alfred had collected all manner of seed and berry, and combined with the aid of Algernon, who was happy to help in exchange for goods and services, they were going to smear them with a pungent paste that would not start smelling until the coming dawn's sunrays struck them directly. At that point they would attract all manner of birds who would go crazy for them and who might possibly start to dig deep in their fights for more.

Algernon just needed to drop them under cover of night, and they would get a chance to gauge the Mantis commander’s reactions.

They would be doing the same, once things calmed back down, with a fungus that Alfred had spotted some ways back and just needed time to collect. The Voracii fungus looked almost like an orange paste with small concentric patterns at intervals, known to have just a hint of magic, the way it grew was from coming into contact with extra dry foodstuffs and combining it with water in the air to grow like fire in a barn. It did not feed on either material, but grew from the process of the moisture being absorbed into the completely dry stuff.

It made it a nightmare for armies, and these ants seemed reluctant to disturb the wilderness more than necessary, lest they risk discovery, so they were bound to have plenty of rations. Hopefully the resulting lack of food would force them to divert a workforce and slow them down, not to mention speed up their discovery if the nearest human settlements had not been alerted already.

That was day one. Day two they would need to get creative, but to start off they were going to try and find a tunnel network beneath the field. The sinkholes certainly indicated that parts of it was hollow, and with some luck they would be able to sneak Roldy underneath some of the ants to make a tiny hole using [Ruptured Earth] so he could then unleash his [Spore of Dreams], forcing the ants to make mistakes that resulted in their potential deaths.

Livia was expecting that day to end with making them build a perimeter of some sort to keep out any further disturbances.

That was when they themselves would need to start killing if there were still no signs of a human force approaching.

The plan then was to use Kalle’s [Telekinetic Push] to throw rocks at the barrier from angles they were not expecting, hopefully making them send out a patrol, if not several, to scout for any arrivals. That would be their chance to divide them even further, with the use of Hyde's darting quickness and possibly Skills like [Escape Room], which should prove effective since Kalle knew the ants to be vulnerable to mental Spells from their previous encounter. If the opportunity then presented itself they would take out smaller groups and see how that made the army react. All as far from the direction of their camp as they dared go.

Of course, if anything indicated that the army had suspicions in the direction of the expedition's camp prior to any of these steps, the plan would be off unless it looked like things were truly escalating into a magic disaster. Then Redd was planning to go in alone with any volunteers, to either stop them or die trying. This was if things went as they expected, and the Mantis chose to prioritize the mission above diverting too many forces for dealing with a small annoyance like theirs that refused to go away easy and was clearly looking to waste time.

Their group was all worried despite feeling like they had some solid planning for the day to come. It was still a huge risk, and everyone knew that if the Mantis were known to be better commanders then none of this would have been feasible in the first place.

But before any of them would actually be willing to risk their lives to stop what was happening… Redd was going to have to explain what the hell a Rift was.