Warning: Official policy states that no spoiler tags should exist on recap pages. Read at your own risk.
Volume 1: The Antventure Begins
Anthony dies, and is enveloped by white light, before hearing a Gandalf-like voice telling him that he will be reborn on the world of Pangera, as a Hatchling Ant Worker, with RPG-like stats. He awakens in a tunnel occupied by other monsters, and initially flees and hides, before beginning to ambush weak monsters for food. Looking around, he determines that he's about a meter long, and finds that he can acquire Skills by levelling up, advance them through repeated use, and mutate his body parts by eating and spending Biomass; he initially prioritises improved vision and stealth.
Exploring the tunnels, Anthony finds signs of human habitation, but when he approaches, he sets off an alarm and is driven off by their guards. The narrative reveals that the humans in question are part of the Abyssal Legion, who patrol the Dungeon and keep monsters down, and are expecting a large monster wave soon. However, as ant swarms are an exceptionally dangerous threat, they take the time to search for him and invade the nearby Dungeon in force.
In the face of the soldiers and mages, Anthony retreats deeper, and discovers a pheromone trail that he follows back to his colony over the course of several weeks. Along the way, he has some success in hunting some of the local monsters, reaching level 5 and being offered the chance to evolve, but instead chooses to condense a monster core, which gives him access to magic, though he lacks the Skills to actually cast any spells yet. He also encounters a camp of humans who are hunting monsters, and steals a cache of monster cores from them, which he absorbs to push his own core to its maximum, before once again raising his level to 5 and evolving, this time into a Mature Worker Ant, doubling his size and granting him a gland to lay his own pheromone trails.
Anthony finally reaches the colony as they intervene in a duel between a giant crocodile and an equally giant gorilla; he's perturbed by the risks they're taking, but assists them in taking down both combatants, though with casualties. The ants take him in afterward and give him the gorilla's core, which he experimentally chooses to reconstitute instead of absorbing, resulting in a small monkey that follows him around; Anthony names it Tiny.
The two of them start helping the Colony to hunt and fend off assaults, as well as Anthony intensely training his basic mana manipulation skills until he is able to start casting simple spells. However, Anthony also causes more casualties when some of his hunting is too aggressive and draws other ants into a difficult fight against an even larger crocodile; the Queen ant rescues them and tips the balance of the fight, but is disappointed with him. The hunts are effective, however, in gathering XP and biomass for the Colony, allowing a substantial increase in the Queen's egg-laying. The crocodile's core also turns out to be a "special" core, allowing Anthony to push his own core past its usual limit, although this is accompanied by burning pain from the overload, gradually fading to a persistent ache.
To avoid further casualties, Anthony turns to constructing a network of pitfall traps, with considerable success; both himself and Tiny grow rapidly, and he is even able to connect the traps to the Colony so other workers can harvest them. Tiny proves to be highly aggressive, leaping into combat with no thought for self-preservation, but capable of inflicting heavy damage with his fists and a lightning attack. Anthony is able to mutate his pheromone glands to enable full speech, not just general impressions, although only the Queen is able to fully respond in kind. He also reaches level 10, enabling him to evolve to tier 3, and with the additional energy provided by the special core, he gains additional evolution options. He chooses to become a Mind Ant, increasing his command of magic and granting him access to gravity magic, as well as creating a secondary brain to handle repetitive tasks like grinding Skills.
The number of nearby monsters steadily climbs, however, with constant battles breaking out, and Anthony takes Tiny with him to scout out the situation. They encounter Formosus, a member of the peaceful Sophos race, who telepathically informs him that there have been other reincarnated souls before, and that the increased monster activity is a sign of the coming wave, where monsters will continuously spawn out of the walls for weeks on end. Formosus also tells him more about the Dungeon, which extends all the way down through the planet, and about his bond with Tiny, who is bound to Anthony as a result of being reconstituted; the Sophos are masters of the art, customising cores to create powerful pets to defend themselves. Formosus then leaves to batten down the hatches in preparation for the wave, while Anthony flees to warn the Colony, though he inadvertently leads a number of monsters to the Colony's location in the process, causing a costly fight.
Anthony informs the Queen about the dangers of the wave, and she agrees to move the Colony to the surface to escape the constant spawning. He also begins training the Skills needed to alter cores as the Sophos do, and succeeds in fusing multiple cores into a special core, which he uses to push Tiny's core beyond its limit, immediately before Tiny evolves. The ants' journey to the surface is beset by monster attacks whenever the mana veins catch up to their digging, including a notable encounter with a powerful Crinis Inanis monster composed of just a mouth and a forest of shadowy tentacles, which leaves behind a core.
Volume 2: Upping the Ante
After several days of non-stop digging, the Colony succeeds in reaching the surface — unfortunately in the middle of a church, triggering a brief confrontation with the priest, before the Colony departs into a nearby forest. Exploring nearby, Anthony encounters a scattering of hostile monsters, but also a peaceful and reclusive species of creatures that are able to fuse with the nearby trees. The "branchies" direct him to a point where he can dig a tunnel to connect to the Dungeon and continue farming, including providing a source of mana-infused water so that some of the monsters will form cores.
One of the new hatchlings, whom Anthony narrowly rescued from the wave, becomes attached to him, and turns out to have been born with a core, so Anthony trains her up and gives her more cores, naming her Vibrant and persuading her to gain pheromone language. He also trains his core manipulation until he's able to give the Crinis Inanis core a custom evolutionary path, and reconstitutes it as his second pet, Crinis.
The Colony then comes under attack by the Queen of Liria and her guards, who have stumbled across it and begin slaughtering the workers. Anthony and Tiny break the assault and capture the queen, who, after adjusting to the idea of a sapient monster, hires him to help her reclaim her throne, having just fled from a coup. However, after he succeeds in killing her enemies and restoring her to the throne, both sides betray each other: the queen commands her guards to attack him, hoping to conceal the evidence that she collaborated with a monster, and Anthony reveals that he has already sent Tiny to steal the stash of hundreds of monster cores promised in payment. He and Tiny break out, and the Colony escapes to unclaimed territory, quickly establishing themselves and starting to hunt.
The Abyssal Legion finally finds the Colony's original nest, but is unsure where they went. Instead, with the dungeon wave in progress, they abandon the surface and travel deeper into the Dungeon, where their newest batch of recruits suffers from mana poisoning, until they undergo a treatment that rebuilds their bodies and adapts them to live in the deep Dungeon (and become dependent on its plentiful mana), marking them as full Legionaries who can help to hold their forts against the endless monsters.
Anthony continues Level Grinding, taking his followers deeper than the other ants and fighting their way through a garden expanse full of hostile plants, until he and Vibrant and Tiny are all ready to evolve with special cores. Anthony evolves to tier 4 and chooses the Dispersed Mind Ant, granting him a third brain and a coordination cortex to help manage them. During his evolution, the voice of "Gandalf", which introduced him to the world, speaks to him again, congratulating him on his progress. "Gandalf" informs him that there are occasionally others plucked from Earth and brought to Pangera, but they have to have a degree of insanity in order to adapt to the transition. Anthony's past is revealed to be rather messed up, abandoned by his parents as a teenager and starving to death because he gave his last food to his ant colony instead of himself, but he's upbeat about it. "Gandalf" also indicates that it is possible for them to meet in person if Anthony goes deep enough. Anthony is very pleased with the results of his evolution, and is able to train his magic Skills much more rapidly, but also finds that he can no longer survive indefinitely in the low mana levels at the surface.
With his core manipulation Skills improved by practising on the cores taken from Liria, Anthony executes "The day that changed Pangera", gaining the Queen's permission to alter her core to produce different eggs. In exchange for reducing some of their physical stats, lowering the egg-laying rate, and extending their hatching time, he is able to give them the intelligence of a young human child, and full pheromone language. He also reworks their evolutionary paths, dividing them into soldiers (including leaders and scouts), support (including queens), and artisans (including mages). He also persuades the Queen to purchase more mutations to compensate for the drawbacks.
The Colony is then surrounded by humans, who turn out to be refugees; after the Colony left, monsters driven by the wave, especially the crocodilian spawn of Garralosh, surged up and destroyed the kingdom of Liria. The priest whom Anthony injured led some of the survivors to follow the Colony south, since the ants had spared them and helped the Lirian queen in the past. Anthony is frustrated by the intrusion at such a critical time for the Colony, with the new generation of eggs about to be laid, but he allows them to settle nearby, and sets up a pheromone barrier so the ants will keep away.
He then delves back into the Dungeon for level grinding, this time joined by Crinis, who has matured enough to enter combat, and proves to be supremely effective against hordes of weak monsters. They find a new swampy expanse, but one swarming with Garralosh spawn, including a highly evolved Garralosh Praeceptorem crocodile radiating an oppressive aura of fear, and they initially retreat, returning to clear it in several stages once they've mutated more and Vibrant has evolved (into a Greater Soldier, with physical strength, a command aura, and especially speed). After destroying the crocodiles, Anthony finds that the expanse is populated with aphids, which he hopes to farm as a source of easy biomass. The Praeceptorem also leaves a "rare" core, more potent than a special one.
The human village on the surface prospers, with the ants clearing out the other monsters nearby and Anthony providing occasional assistance. Under priest Beyn's leadership, they develop a religious awe of the ants. More refugees continue to arrive, followed by Morrelia and her adventuring party, who are distrustful of the ants; however, after talking to Anthony and watching the Colony fight off the ongoing waves of monsters, Morrelia tentatively accepts their presence.
Volume 3: Antelligent Design
Anthony's team returns to level grinding (with advice from Beyn about the best ways to train skills) and building monster farms in preparation for the nearly-hatched next generation of ants, and Crinis levels enough to use the "Special Death Ball" evolution that Anthony designed for her, gaining the ability to sense magic (since she lacks normal sight and hearing).
The first twenty new ants hatch, and Anthony receives a system announcement that they are considered a new species, Formica Sapiens. He is given an option to convert himself and the whole Colony to the new species, and fearing division and infighting, he accepts. He then takes the hatchlings through the monster farms to let them quickly gain levels and Biomass, discovering in the process that they are all suicidally selfless, over-eager to die for the Colony. After considerable talking, he is able to help them see the potential of serving the Colony more alive than dead, although one of them, whom he names Leeroy, still struggles to adapt to the idea. Nonetheless, they are all able to quickly level up, form their cores, and evolve into mature ants, choosing a mixture of the available evolutionary paths and beginning to organise and lead the Colony. The existing ants gain the ability to speak, due to the species change, and show similarly self-sacrificial attitudes, but the Queen helps Anthony to instruct them in keeping themselves alive.
Anthony ventures into the Dungeon again, and retrieves a number of aphid cores, which he painstakingly fuses together to create a template for an Aphid Queen (with the intent that the Colony will be able to farm them); the ant Queen reconstitutes the core as a pet. He also has to intervene when the smarter workers ignore his pheromone barriers and abduct most of the human population on the surface, but fortunately they brought the humans back alive (so that the Queen could gain experience by killing them), and Anthony, after halting the impending slaughter, turns it into an opportunity to tell the humans about the Colony's new sapience.
The Colony's scouts then report unusual activity on the surface, and Anthony goes with his pets and Morrelia to investigate. They find that Garralosh herself, a tremendous crocodile, is on the move, supported by a lizard-like Ka'armodo and bringing hordes of lesser monsters, and is gradually headed toward the Colony. Anthony participates in a number of guerrilla strikes to slow them down, although their numbers are so great that it makes little difference, and the Ka'armodo's servants begin targeting him specifically.
The ants make a stand in the anthill, with the Queen taking on a rare core for an enhanced evolution, and Anthony absorbs both a special and rare core — which overloads him to the point where Crinis has to literally hold him together, to stop him bursting apart, until he can use the evolution menu. However, his tier 5 evolution is ultimately successful, becoming a Juvenile Colony Paragon empowered by the collective will of the Colony, and he is able to defeat Garralosh with gravity magic.
The Ka'armodo, Ivran'tep, attempts to intervene, but spares Anthony upon learning that he is a reincarnator, which Garralosh also was. In the aftermath of the fight, he visits Anthony and tells him about the "conclave of the Red Truth", which is a cult spanning multiple nations, seeking to raise up a monster powerful enough to descend to the core of the world and join the other nineteen "Ancients". Ivran'tep indicates that he has been watching over Garralosh in case she could succeed in that quest, but with her gone, Anthony has the potential to do it (though Anthony is not keen).
Volume 4: Between a Rock and a Carapace
The dungeon wave finally recedes, with the Colony distributing aphids to make up the shortfall in food supplies, and Anthony goes to visit the Sophos, while Morrelia leaves and joins the Abyssal Legion, under her father, Commander Titus. Formo is pleased to see Anthony, and tells him more about their pets, but also advises that as a tier five monster, Anthony now needs to head down to the second Dungeon stratum to find enough ambient mana to survive. The second stratum turns out to be a realm of darkness and cold and poison, where Crinis excels, but Tiny struggles; however, all three of them are able to farm a considerable amount of levels and skills. Unfortunately, they are ambushed and surrounded by a group of rock-skinned Golgari, an intelligent non-monster race, who capture Anthony and Tiny, while Crinis escapes.
One of the Golgari, named Granin, reveals that he is another Ancient worshipper, part of the Cult of the Worm, which has members seeded throughout the Golgari, and that Ivran'tep alerted him to Anthony's presence. Granin wants to support Anthony in becoming the twentieth Ancient, but other members of the cult have more aggressive ideas, and force all the candidates whom they have gathered into a death tournament, so that the winner can gain the experience and Biomass from all the others. Anthony meets two of them who are fellow reincarnators: amiable but ruthlessly pragmatic James (a giant earthworm), and powerful but fearful Sarah (a bear). Sarah is inclined to trust the Golgari, who rescued her from madness and solitude when she first arrived in the Dungeon, but James helps Anthony to plan an escape.
Anthony defeats his first few opponents, including a magic-specialist Envy Demon whose core he reconstitutes as his third pet, Invidia. Crinis then leads the Colony to him, enabling all three reincarnators to escape, as well as raiding the Golgari for materials and taking high-ranked prisoners.
Volume 5: Enemy A(n)t the Gates
The Golgari are enraged by the Colony's attack, and petition the Abyssal Legion to join them in exterminating the Colony. Granin sends his two other Triad members to continue supervising and guiding Anthony's growth as much as they can, though he himself stays with his people.
The Colony makes preparations, spreading additional nests throughout the first two strata and conquering the underground city of Rylleh to disable the Legion's portal gates there. However, their attempts to petition for peace are fruitless; Commander Titus attacks them from the lower tunnels, with the armour of his Legionaries proving to be Nigh-Invulnerable to the ants' weapons, and besieges their nest. Nonetheless, they are able to stall the Legion for some time, with heavy hitters like Anthony's gravity bombs killing some of the Legionaries while the others are tired by the ants' constant counterattacks, and Morrelia, who has joined the Legion but feels conflicted, chooses to let herself be captured by the ants so that they have leverage to make Commander Titus (a One-Man Army) stay off the field. The One Tree — another reincarnator — also sends reinforcements to stall the Legion, succeeding in holding them back until a fresh dungeon wave begins and the Legionaries are needed elsewhere. Titus is frustrated, but chooses to withdraw, securing Morrelia's release.
At the same time, the Golgari assault from the higher tunnels. They attempt to use Granin's life as a bargaining chip, but are foiled by a mysterious and powerful individual, "Grey", whom the Colony encountered in the second stratum. "Grey" declares that he has applied to register the ants as a new civilised race, thus placing them under his protection, and arranges Granin's release in exchange for Grey choosing not to massacre the Golgari soldiers. The Golgari also attempt a sneak attack, with James turning traitor and helping them to invade the brood chambers, but Sarah helps the Colony to fight the incursion off, and Anthony swears revenge on James for the dead brood.
Unpublished
In the aftermath, as the Colony busies itself with handling the wave, Anthony evolves to tier six, under the guidance of Granin and his triad, becoming a Mature Colony Paragon. However, this pushes his mana requirements further, and he begins preparations to enter the third strata, a realm of ash and fire and demons, as well as tackling the strange beasts that arise during the wave, allowing both Tiny and Crinis to evolve to tier six as well.
Exploring the third strata reveals that the demons are vicious and violent, but do form cities, attached to vast spires of apparently indestructible rock holding up the world above. Anthony has a peaceful but tense encounter with the first city lord he meets, then spends a few days exploring the plains between cities and the tunnels underneath. However, the Colony then invades the city, Roklu, in force, and Anthony helps to kill the city lord — just in time for another city lord, Brixin, to arrive for a formal declaration of war. As the ants now control the city, Brixin issues her declaration to them instead, but the ants land enough forces to hold Roklu, and take the aggressing city of Orpule, winning the war. Brixin is frustrated, but she accepts employment by the Colony as the manager of any demon cities they conquer, allowing her to feed her desire for conquest and expansion.
Exploring the strata further, the ants encounter more Ka'armodo, who are sheltering James the earthworm, and refuse to let Anthony hunt him. The One Tree then intervenes, requesting the Colony's assistance in fighting off a species of termites that the Ka'armodo have bred to kill her creatures on the fourth strata. Anthony is unsure about splitting their forces, but agrees to the Tree's request, and joins an army of ten thousand elite ants, who travel to the fourth strata through a portal and set about slaughtering termites and constructing fortifications around the Tree. The Legion also learns about the conflict, and is furious at the deliberate creation of a monster species, cutting off all support and diplomatic ties to the Ka'armodo in retaliation.
Upon the discovery of tier eight demons in the third strata, Anthony attempts to return and help out. However, he is hindered from doing so by "the Call", a compulsion to go deeper in the Dungeon, which Granin tells him is a sign that the Ancients have taken an interest in him. Unable to remain for long on the third strata, he returns to the fourth and invades the termites with just Sarah and his pets, gambling that the Ka'armodo will be so focused on killing his elite forces that they'll leave themselves vulnerable to the Colony elsewhere. Rassan'tep of the Red Truth sees through the trap, but wants Anthony to succeed, and allows his fellow ka'armodo to fall for it, allowing the Colony to devastate the termite forces and recapture large swathes of territory. Anthony then leads the ant armies in a massive assault on the termite mountain, which he destroys with a high-level condensed lava bomb spell — giving him enough experience to evolve to tier 7.
At tier 7, Anthony's core advances to the "Mythic" rank, giving him dramatically different evolutionary options. Granin's triad is flabbergasted at the option to evolve into a "Larval Deity", but Anthony dislikes the prospect of spending the next evolutionary tier as a helpless grub. He chooses instead to keep to his original course with the "Perfect Paragon" evolution, increasing the empowerment that he receives from the Colony, and greatly increasing his size (his main body becomes approximately 15 metres long). The voice of "Gandalf" also informs him that the Dungeon cycle is peaking, and side snippets reveal that the Ancients are waking up. With Anthony's new strength, he is able to join the Colony in fending off an uprising of high-tier demons, caused by the awakening of Arconidem (who is tied to them, somewhat like Anthony's link to the Colony).
