I swear I lose HP when I bite into the thing. I take damage! That’s how toxic these creatures are?! I defeat it using the power of a collapsed star and then roast the Biomass with the concentrated heat of a dragon’s breath, and still, it's so poisonous my mouth stings with pain when I consume it!

I’m really starting to hate the monsters from the fifth. Like… really hate them. Everyone was all like ‘oh, the demons from the third are the WORST, what with all the maiming and killing and obsessive behaviours’. PAH. Absolutely nonsense. The demons were and are great, Al is an absolute legend compared to these horrible things.

Fortunately, a single mouthful is enough to unlock the basic profile, and a single mouthful is all I’m going to take!

[Examin Dator: Swarm Host (VI). A deadly branch of the sludge elemental, this creature uses noxious, acidic gas to defend itself, along with its poisonous slime. However, the true threat is the plague drones it nurses within its flesh. These mindless parasites are extremely difficult to remove and will excrete potent toxins directly into the body of their unfortunate victims.]

Even gandalf thinks these monsters are too much, what the heck.

Swarm Host, huh? To say I’m not a fan is an absurd understatement. Yet another monstrosity I need to report back to the Colony about so we can avoid having to lop off segments of ant soldiers to remove these horrendous things. I’m not going to lie to you, I’d almost rather monsters from the sixth came up here and started punching us in the face than deal with this nonsense. Invasive toxin drones? Have mercy on me.

As I trudge back to the nest, I inform my comrades about the monster. Tiny strikes me as particularly vulnerable to this type of creature. If one gets onto him before he can burn it off with lightning, he might be in trouble. Only after I natter at him like a worried mother hen does he eventually and begrudgingly agree to be careful.

Crinis is absolutely scandalised that such monsters exist and that one bit me, then she swears to extract terrible vengeance upon the next one she sees. As long as I don’t see what happens, then I don’t mind. I get the feeling I would have nightmares.

Invidia is strangely silent when I tell him about it, and it takes me a little while to realise what’s going on in his mind.

[No, you can’t evolve to be a drone host.]

[I wantsssss the littlesssssss.]

[Sorry, I’m putting three legs down on this one, it’s too gross. There’s tons of stuff you want… literally everything, so there was no way it was going to happen in the first place. You need to start making a list of all the things you want in order of priority, because you only get the top five.]

The little dude is going to struggle when he evolves, that’s for sure. Putting menu after menu of options he can’t have in front of him is going to be torturous.

“These monsters sound… disturbing… Eldest.”

“They very much are,” I assure Sloan back in the central chamber. “Be extra careful around them, don’t get too close. I also suspect that they may release a final wave of drones when they’re finished off, which is another thing to watch for. Horrible things.”

She cleans her antennae, dragging them through her elbow joints to soothe herself.

“The fifth stratum only gets more and more difficult for us to manage,” she says. “We are going to have to shift our approach to almost everything against these creatures.”

“Adapt and survive,” I tell the general. “New enemies means new methods. I suspect that’s only going to get more true the deeper into the Dungeon we get. Monsters will get more powerful and more specialised. We’ll have to adjust on the fly to counter their strengths and exploit their weaknesses.”

I leave the general musing and go back to my post, waiting for word of the next intrusion that I need to get up and deal with.

And then, this becomes my routine for the next week. Increasingly, the tunnels below the nest become filled with goop, slime and deadly monsters from the fifth and I sally forth, with flame and gravity to annihilate them with extreme force, only to return and rest while I can.

The more time passes, the more the Colony is required to engage in aggressive countermeasures against the encroaching filth. Burning off the tunnels isn’t enough, even using multiple elements doesn’t cut it. The invading mana is so infectious, even a smidgeon left behind will eventually multiply and begin to spread again. Mages are called in to sweep and decontaminate, purging every speck of poison without remorse. My family are required to perform regular aggressive actions, pushing out from the fortress to drive back the terraforming efforts of the slugs and their virus-like energy.

Alongside the ever increasing numbers of advanced monsters we see, things are starting to get pinched by the time the week is up. So many ants are rotating through the hospital system that it's been stretched to breaking point once again. Anyone with only minor acid burns and injuries is being sent back to their resting chambers and told to ‘sleep it off’ at this point. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, the tunnel having the most success at handling its own business without my intervention is Solant’s. The little general has proven herself to be exceptionally capable at adapting to the situation and continues to hone her brutal level of efficiency down to the wire.

Sloan and Victor don’t want to admit it, but I can tell they’re impressed by the new Colony champion. Her methods are unorthodox, by the Colony’s standards, but she rates extremely highly on the most important metric of all: results.