"Look, it might not have turned out how you expected, but you've still done a lot for the Colony. You can't let this keep you down forever."

"…"

"I mean, is it really that painful? Being alive? You've given yourself a whole new opportunity to fight for the Colony and help your family. Think about all the difficult struggles and hard work that we have in front of us, you'll be able to be there and shoulder your part of the burden. You might even have the chance to face down an opponent stronger than yourself once more and… you know… die… again… over and over."

"Are you making fun of me Eldest?"

"Would I do that?!"

"Yes. The healers have been laughing at us for a week straight."

"Hey, I'm not like them, alright? I want you to be happy, I just don't want you to get killed trying to achieve that."

"What if that's the only way that I can achieve happiness?"

"Then too bad. You think we worked so hard to bring you up to tier six so you could go ahead and die after one battle? You must be outside of your head, Leeroy!"

THWACK!

"Ouch! Hey, weren't you trying to cheer me up?" she protests trying to protect her head from my vicious antenna.

Oh, right.

"It's hard not to get annoyed when I see you sulking. Your siblings are all working their butts off and you're lazing about feeling sullen because you're still alive! How ridiculous can you get?!"

"The Immortals just want to serve the family in their own way. We all agree on our perspective!"

"The issue I have is that you want to serve the Colony once. I made it clear to you soon after you were hatched exactly what I thought of that. Well, I suppose in the end you've got your wish, you'll be able to die for the Colony as much as you want now!"

Leeroy collapses back onto the ground again at my words, the way she's been ever since she and her fellow immortals realised just what they'd done when they evolved. I can finally understand the waves of hilarity that the healers have been experiencing since the news spread. The idea that these particular ants, more desperate to sacrifice themselves than any others, have instead made themselves almost impossible to kill, is just too delicious for words.

I actually took a look at Leeroy's core to take a glance at the specific organ that they purchased, the Phoenix Fire Organ. To be honest, it's a powerful piece of work, a very expensive gland to be sure. From what I understand they didn't buy it but instead were offered it as part of the evolution they chose. As a consequence of so much value being put into this one element, the rest of their evolution was fairly sub-par, most of the Immortals did the smart thing and poured their spare evolutionary energy into stats to compensate, making themselves tougher and stronger which went a long way to helping them stay alive long enough for the Phoenix Fire to charge.

It's not as if they can't die, they absolutely can, but due to their specific circumstances, they've made it so much harder. The only way for them to be destroyed is if they are defeated too quickly for the organ to charge up. It takes time to build the energy necessary to 'resurrect' them from near death and return them to perfect health, the organ simply can't remain that charged permanently, it'd break down in minutes. The other way is to put them down again just after they heal, since it'll take much longer for the Phoenix Fire to return to full power a second time.

The problem is both of those strategies rely on overcoming the absurd toughness of the Immortals. Their carapaces are all highly mutated and the vast bulk of their stats are in Might and Toughness, making them extremely durable. On top of that, the armour produced by Smithant only gets better as time passes, making it even more difficult to actually put a wound on these ants! Killing them twice? Not even a tier seven was able to do it!

Which makes it even more hilarious that this happened to Leeroy of all insects.

In the future, as they mutate and improve the organ further, who knows how difficult they'll be to defeat as they continue to grow? I never would have thought it, but the Immortals have actually turned into a powerful and useful force for the Colony. I expect them to see a lot of deployment when we start expanding into the third stratum.

"Look, I didn't come over to try and give you a motivational speech. I want you off your backside and back to work along with the rest of your group. There's a ton of work to do and soon enough there'll be more fighting to do. If you keep wallowing in your own self-pity then I'm going to pick you up and drag you around the third stratum myself. If I even hear from someone that you've been slacking off then I'll return from the edges of explored territory to whack you on the head. So pick yourself up and get back to it."

For a moment longer the soldier remains flopped on the ground, a dejected example of an ant.

"Fine," she says as she starts to pick herself up.

I watch her stand with a critical eye, one antenna still raised threateningly.

"By the way, I don't want you to warn the Immortals who haven't evolved to avoid this species that you've picked. Nobody can tell them what to pick."

"What? They'll end up picking this one for sure!"

I shrug.

"That's their fault then. I'm not saying they can't pick the one they want; I'm saying the exact opposite. They can pick whatever they want, without influence."

Leeroy fumes a bit but she can see where I'm coming from. She eventually nods in acceptance.

"Alright then. Go check in with Advant, I think she had something that she needs you to do. It'll be a little while before your new armour is repaired so you'll have plenty to do helping with building until it's time to fight again."

Having dealt with the Leeroy problem I finally release a deep sigh. The moment she and the other Immortals had arrived in Orpule they'd been a solid weight dragging down on the Vestibule, their misery sinking into me through the Will they provided me. I had to do whatever it took to get them moving and back on the go just to stop them distracting me! I mean, I didn't enjoy seeing Leeroy be so miserable either, but it's not like she didn't do it to herself. I probably could have cheered her up by promising that she could go and fight an ancient or something and get smashed to paste twice in a second, but I refuse to play into her stupid obsession! The sooner she gets over it the better!

All right then, where's the crew? I need to get Sarah, Brilliant and my friends together, it's time to get out and get levelling again. I won't rest until the latest champion of the Colony has risen to the point where she can contribute to the Colony!

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